Author's note: Here's the first surprise for you all. :b Snake eyes! I kind of had a feeling this would get the most votes, but I was worried about writing it. I think I pulled it off, but I guess I should let you guys decide that, huh?

Undressed

The Snake

+ intuitive, alluring, resolute, persuasive, spontaneous, expressive
- jealous, clingy, intolerant, resentful, suffocating, scheming

...

"All right, dude. Be straight. Who do you like?"

Danny took a gulp of his soda to delay answering Tucker's question. The two boys were having lunch together at the Amity Park mall. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean!" said Tucker, slightly irritated. "Come on, Sam isn't here now, so you can tell me." He raised a brow and smiled. "I'll tell you who I like!"

"I already know who you like," said Danny with a smirk. "Every pretty girl you meet."

Tucker narrowed his eyes. "You never let up on me for that."

"Nope." Danny's smirk widened.

"Okay, but seriously, you've got so many girls crushing on you," said Tucker.

"Oh, yeah, right." Danny held out a hand. "Just look at 'em all lined up just for me!"

"Clueless," muttered Tucker.

Danny popped a fry into his mouth.

"So, you're really not going to tell me?" asked Tucker.

Danny sighed. "Look, there is one girl in particular, but—"

A chorus of screams caused the two boys to look up. A large ghost resembling a snake was terrorizing the shoppers in the mall.

Danny stood. "Awesome. This is exactly how I want to spend my Saturday." He ran off to find an isolated place to transform.

"Don't think you're off the hook! I expect an answer when you get back!" Tucker yelled after him.

Behind a large potted plant, no one paid any attention as Danny transformed. He then flew out and hurled a blast of ectoplasmic energy at the ghostly serpent. The ghost shrieked and turned its full attention to the half-ghost, its fangs bared and dripping with spectral venom.

"Okay, I've got a joke for you," said Danny. "You'll love this."

The snake flattened its body, its large eyes never leaving him.

"What kind of snake keep its car the cleanest?" asked Danny with a boyish grin.

The snake flicked its tongue.

"A windshield viper!" Danny chuckled. "Get it? 'Cause you're a—"

With an angry hiss, the snake lunged at Danny. Danny quickly moved out of the way. "Hey, come on! It was just a joke. No need to throw a hissy fit." Danny sniggered. "Get it? 'Cause you're a—"

The snake ghost whipped its tail into Danny hard, knocking him across the mall. Danny willed himself to turn intangible in order to cause the least amount of damage, but the pain from being so powerfully hit broke his concentration and forced him to regain tangibility. His head slammed into a wall, causing his vision to black out for just a moment.

He thought he heard a girl scream. As his vision returned, stars dancing and blinking before him, he could definitely see a girl standing above him.

A girl with unkempt green hair.

A girl with glowing blue-tinged skin.

No, there was something else that caught his attention even more…

"What are you doing here?" the girl asked with a scowl, her red eyes burning into him.

Danny rubbed the back of his aching head. Surely, this wasn't happening. This was a hallucination induced by a hard blow to the head. There was no way Kitty was standing above him in a dressing room wearing the skimpiest lingerie he had ever seen.

Kitty walked toward him. Danny instinctively put his arms up in defense.

"Please. If I was going to attack you, I'd've done it by now." Kitty crossed her arms as she looked down at him with a sneer.

Danny kept his eyes averted, blocked Kitty from his view with his arms. He couldn't look at her, couldn't bring himself to see her again even though he kind of sort of really wanted to.

"Danny, it's fine. You can look."

The way she used his name, his first name, in such a familiar manner was odd but strangely intoxicating to Danny. In something of a trance, he lowered his arms and took in Kitty's slender pear-shaped figure. She was wearing nothing but a red thong and a red bra with cups that just barely covered the seductive curve of her breasts. She held out a hand to him, slightly bent over in such a way that he could see her practically spilling out of her scanty covering.

Kitty rolled her eyes and laughed, her hand still out to him. "You gonna stay down there all day?"

With a deep blush, Danny took Kitty's hand and allowed her to pull him to his feet. "I'm really sorry. I swear that I didn't crash here on purpose."

Kitty shrugged. "Hey, whatever. I was your first girlfriend, remember? I don't mind hanging with you like this." She turned around to grab a pair of leather pants that had been hanging on a hook. Danny stumbled backwards a bit at the sight of the two bouncy globes separated only by a thin g-string. She turned her head and stuck her tongue out. "Ha, made ya look, didn't I?"

Danny looked away in embarrassment. Why was Kitty insisting on toying with him like this?

"But, you know, you should probably get out of here," said Kitty suddenly.

Danny looked at the door. He could hear screams from the ghost attack happening just outside. "Right…because there's a ghost snake out there." He looked back at Kitty. "That's actually the reason I'm here, honest. It threw me in here."

Kitty laughed. "Well, yeah, okay, take care of that, but there's a bigger reason you should leave."

Danny gave Kitty a quizzical look.

"You don't want Johnny to catch you in here with me, do you?"

Danny's eye twitched. "Johnny's here, too?"

"Of course! He's doing his own shopping." Kitty held up the ensemble she had brought in, the leather pants and loose-fitting tank top. "Pretty rockin', right? Do you think he'll like it? Maybe I should model it for you first."

Danny shook his head. "No, no, you're right. I really should get going before—"

At that moment, Kitty's greasy-haired biker boyfriend phased into the room. "Doll, we should get outta here. There's a crazy snake ghost which means that Phantom jerk is probably gonna—" He froze when he saw Danny, then clenched his fists. "Speak of the devil?" He grabbed Danny by the front of his jumpsuit. "Creepin' on my girl, punk? Come here to check her out?"

"No, I would never…" Danny took hold of Johnny's fist and tried to pry it from his jumpsuit.

"Are you sayin' my girl isn't good enough for you to check out?" Johnny snarled and jerked Danny closer to him. "You callin' her ugly?"

"Not at all! She's very—" Danny stopped himself.

"Yeah, you better not finish that sentence."

Danny rolled his eyes, annoyed with this Catch-22 Johnny was putting him in. "Look, I didn't come here to check her out, okay? It was an accident. I'm well aware that she's your girl."

"Yeah, that's right. My girl, mine only to see." Johnny raised a glowing fist and pulled it back behind his head. "And now, I'm gonna permanently erase her image from your memory."

Danny gritted his teeth. He could take on Johnny, no problem. He summoned his own ectoplasmic energy.

Kitty forcibly pulled Johnny off of Danny. "Johnny, leave him alone. He didn't mean anything by it."

Johnny glared at Kitty. "So, what? You're okay with him seein' you like this?"

Kitty put her hands on her waist and popped out a hip. "Hey, when you look this good, you gotta flaunt it, own it. I really don't care who sees me because what can I say? I'm hot." She winked at the half-ghost. "Isn't that right, Danny?"

Danny swallowed but did not reply as he took in the sight of her nearly naked body again.

"What? You actually like this attention?" Johnny turned on Kitty. "You showcasin' yourself to other guys behind my back? Guys like him?"

Kitty gave him a sassy grin. "Come on. It's not like he hasn't seen more than this already. Remember how me and him were dating for a minute?"

Johnny's normally ghastly complexion turned purple. "What?!" he shrieked.

Kitty scoffed and flicked a wrist at him. "I'm just kidding." She crossed her arms. "Anyway, you're the one always hitting on other girls. I bet that's what you've been doing while you were off on your own in this mall."

The two lovers continued to quarrel, bickering about each other's faults, defending against verbal attacks. Danny took the opportunity to quietly phase out of the dressing room. On the other side of the door, he sighed in relief. "Maybe I should just stay single forever."

The snake ghost was still loose, slithering and smacking its tail against walls and kiosks, striking at screaming shoppers. Danny flew straight into the snake's line of vision. The snake hissed and instantly lunged at him.

"All right. I can work with this," said Danny, easily dodging. He flew in front of a mall fountain, and when the snake snapped toward him, Danny immediately took off, causing the snake to smash into the fountain's centerpiece and fall into an unconscious daze.

"Always a classic," said Danny with a laugh.

The centerpiece of the fountain cracked and collapsed into the water around it. Danny winced at the loud crashing sound.

"Hey, the ghost kid just broke the fountain!" someone cried.

"And practically destroyed the mall!" shouted someone else.

Danny huffed. "Typical. I always get blamed."

"Danny!" Nearby, Tucker threw a Thermos to Danny. Danny caught it and sucked the snake ghost into its confines. He then changed back and reunited with Tucker.

"Dude, who was in that changing room you crashed into?" asked Tucker pointedly.

Danny blinked. "What?"

"Don't play dumb. I saw you." Tucker raised a brow in amusement. "You were in there way too long to not have seen someone."

Danny reddened. "Well…yeah, I did see someone—"

"A girl?"

"Well, yes, but…"

Tucker clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Will you tell me if I guess?"

Danny shrugged. "Sure. But you'll never guess."

"Sam?"

"No."

"Valerie?"

"No."

"Ember?"

"What? Ember? Why would you guess her?" Danny's voice rose slightly which Tucker took as a hint.

"Ooh, I'm getting warm, aren't I?" Tucker thought a little more. "Kitty?"

Danny sighed in exasperation.

"Ah, so it was Kitty!" Tucker laughed. "I can see why you were in there so long, then."

Danny pursed his lips and shook his head.

"Lay it on me, bro. What was she wearing? How'd she look?" Tucker grinned at him with wide eyes.

"She looked the same as always except nearly nude," said Danny under his breath. He began to walk away.

Tucker ran after him. "What? You gotta give me more than that!"

"Honestly, Tucker, you could probably get her to show you herself." Danny motioned his head in the direction of the fitting room where he was sure Kitty and Johnny were still arguing.

Tucker looked in the direction. "Really?" he asked eagerly.

"Yup." Danny patted his back. "I mean, if you're prepared to die for it. Johnny almost killed me."

Conflicted, Tucker looked from the store to Danny. "Is it something worth dying for?"

Danny thought back on Kitty's sensuous curves just barely covered by red strings and bits of fabric.

Tucker studied Danny: unblinking, a goofy smile on his face. "That's a yes, isn't it?"

Danny snapped back to attention. "I really don't think you could handle it."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" demanded Tucker.

Danny only laughed and didn't answer.

(Kitty comes across as a bit of a skank to me...sorry if no one else agrees with my interpretation. Does anyone actually really like Kitty or ship her with Danny? Am I going to get no reviews for this one? :b )

(Who do you want to read about next Friday? The Sheep, the Horse, the Rabbit, the Monkey, the Boar, the Rat, the Rooster, or the Ox? Do include your preference if you choose to review. ^^)