"Okay, Danny. Just, tell them about it. They'll understand. I mean, it's not like it's weird or anything like that. No, you just have to chug some ectoplasm every now and then so that you won't die. Yeah, totally normal."

Danny looked at himself in the mirror, noticing how his appearance had changed since the accident. He used to look full of energy and now there were dark circles under his eyes. The constant late night ghost hunting was affecting him more than he had originally thought. You'd think that being half ghost would maybe make it so he'd be slightly nocturnal, but luck was not something Danny had ever possessed.

Two weeks ago he had visited Vlad and while that had been surprisingly alright, ever since then he had reckoned that he should tell his friends about his…condition. They had been concerned about his recent incidents at school and Danny figured that it was time to come clean. Even if that meant telling them he was even weirder than he already was.

He didn't even know why he was nervous about telling them. They were his best friends, surely they'd just crack a joke or two and everything would be fine. Tucker would make a weird comment, Sam would tell him he was an idiot for not telling them sooner and then they would continue with their lives.

"It'll be fine," Danny said to himself and sat down on his bed. It were moments like this one when he wished his sister was here. Jazz always knew what to do. She was the voice of reason and a person Danny could rely on. Maybe he should call her and talk to her about what was happening to him. Although, she'd most likely freak out about the whole thing. So, perhaps that was a bad idea.

But if he thought she would freak out, then what would his friends say?

Danny could feel himself getting nervous again and took several deep breaths. It was going to be fine. They were his friends. They liked him no matter what, even if he needed to drink ectoplasm. They were going to be great about the whole thing. He shouldn't worry about it. God, why was he always worrying about stuff?

Just shut up, brain, you're not helping.

Normally Danny would walk up to his locker, take his books out, walk over to his friends and then walk to class with them.

But today was not a normal day. No, today was the day he was going to tell them.

So naturally, he walked up to his locker, took his books out and avoided his friends at all costs. At first he had been determined to finally tell him, but as soon as he had entered Casper High the nerves had set in and made Danny throw his plan out the window.

Why should he tell them about it when he could just avoid the whole issue? It wasn't like they needed to know. He was capable of hiding his cravings now that he knew for sure what to do. Sam and Tuck would be fine without knowing.

Problem was, whenever he saw them he felt the need to tell them. He hated keeping secrets. Kind of ironic because he had a secret identity, but that didn't change the fact that secrets sucked. Lying to his friends was something Danny despised. He was already feeling icky and the day had just started.

And so because he was avoiding his friends, he was currently walking around the school, acting normal if you didn't count the fact that he was invisible.

Sure, maybe he was being a bit of an idiot and perhaps unfair to his friends, but he couldn't handle the possible rejection. He couldn't handle the looks. He wanted to tell them, they deserved to know. However, he was a coward.

Danny saw Sam and Tucker standing in front of his locker and held his breath, intending to pass by unnoticed when he overheard their conversation.

"Where is he? He hasn't talked to us at all today." Sam sighed and crossed her arms. "Did we do something that upset him?"

Tucker shook his head.

"I don't think we did. Everything was fine on Friday."

"I didn't see or talk to him on Saturday or Sunday, did you?" she asked him and Tucker shrugged, adjusting his glasses.

"He told me he was busy doing stuff with his parents."

"Do you think…that he was just avoiding us? That would mean we did something wrong on Friday. I wonder-"

Danny walked away, not being able to stand listening to them any longer. Great, now he was feeling guilty, too. They thought they upset him! Of course they would think it was their fault. This wasn't right. He should tell them, but…

But what? So what if they reacted negatively at first? What if they thought it was weird or gross? They were still his friends. They had accepted his whole ghost thing, why wouldn't they accept this? Right now he was acting like a jerk.

It was time to man up.

With that in mind Danny waited for an opportunity to become visible again and then walked over to his friends.

"Uhm, hey…" he said awkwardly when they looked at him.

Tucker was the first to talk. "Danny, did we do something? You've been ignoring us all day long," he frowned.

Danny scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, actually, I need to talk to you two."

"About what?" Sam asked curiously. "It better explain why you've just ignored us."

"I know that was shitty and I'm sorry. I've been really nervous…still am, actually." Danny looked at the floor and took a deep breath. Other students were leaving the school, going home to their normal lives. He wished he could have that. A normal live with normal problems.

Well, here goes nothing.

"You remember back when I suddenly couldn't control my powers anymore?" He saw them nod and continued. "It was because my ghost half was starving. I had bad stomach cramps and couldn't keep any food down."

"Your ghost half was starving?" Tucker asked confused. "I didn't know that was even possible."

Danny nodded, "neither did I. I was feeling pretty awfu-"

"Why didn't you tell us about that?" Sam inquired. "We were worried about you and-"

"Can you just let me finish?" he sighed. "Look, I wasn't doing too well and yes, I probably should've told you two, but I thought I was just sick. I wasn't. I found out how to feed my ghost side though."

"So, what did you do?"

His best friends looked at him curiously, waiting for an answer. He hoped they wouldn't… He hoped they would be okay with it.

"Ectoplasm was the solution," Danny replied quietly. Although he had somewhat come to terms with it, he still wasn't entirely okay with it. It still seemed…wrong.

"Alright then. Ectoplasm. What did you do with it?" Sam asked confused and tilted her head.

"I drank it."

Silence.

Neither of the two said anything for a moment and instead looked at each other, digesting this new information. The more time passed the shittier Danny felt. Perhaps telling them had been a bad idea after all.

"You…drank it," Tucker said slowly and opened his mouth then closed it again, possibly searching for the right words.

"Aren't ghosts made out of ectoplasm?" Sam wondered, making Danny grimace.

"Yeah…"

"You're like a vampire then?" Tucker joked and stifled a laugh.

Danny glared at him. "This is not funny!" he hissed. Way to go, Tucker. Now he felt even more awful than he already did before.

"So you've got to drink ectoplasm when your body needs it?" Sam asked and he nodded.

"Yes. That's about the gist of it."

He heard her sigh and she rolled her eyes. "God, you're such an idiot."

Danny frowned and opened his mouth to reply, but she continued speaking before he could even start.

"You've seriously been avoiding us because of this?! First of all, you're a jerk. We've been worried we did something wrong!" she scolded him, hands on her hips. "Besides, it's not actually that big of a deal. So you sometimes have to drink ectoplasm. Who cares? This is really not that big of a deal. As long as you drink it soon enough nothing should happen, right?"

Sam was really making sense and also made Danny feel like the biggest idiot in all of Casper High. Well, maybe excluding Dash.

"I…guess you're right," he murmured and Tucker chuckled.

"She's right. You really are an idiot, man. What did you think we were going to do once you told us?" he shook his head and smiled.

Danny shrugged, "I dunno. I was scared…" he said quietly.

"We're your friends! We don't care about what crazy stuff you have to eat, even if it is really gross," Tucker assured him.

"Okay," Danny said and smiled softly. He felt a lot better now that his friends knew about his condition. They didn't say he was a freak or anything like that. After talking to them he realised he had been a big idiot. Of course they would still be his friends.

"Can we go back to being friends now and do what we always do or does anyone else have another huge confession or secret they want to share with the group?" Sam asked and looked at Danny fondly.

"Nope," Tucker replied. "I just want to get out of school now."

"Me too. I've had enough of this place for today," Danny agreed.

"Mum? Dad?"

Danny closed the front door behind him. When his parents didn't answer he concluded that they were in the lab again.

He quickly went up the stairs and to his room, a smile on his face. Today had been pretty great so far. School hadn't been too bad and Tucker and Sam didn't mind that he had to drink ectoplasm. Another thing he could stop worrying about.

Once he was in his room he dropped his rucksack and out of habit nearly sat down on the bed, but stopped when he noticed a brown package on it. It was roughly the size one of his school binders. It was for him, there was no doubt it. Who put it there though? It had to have been a ghost. Shit, what if this was a trap?

His smile vanished and Danny worried his lip and stared at the parcel. If this was a trap then opening it would be bad, very bad. But, what if it wasn't a trap? Then again, which ghost would ever give him a gift? He snorted, thinking of the box ghost. Now that would be hilarious.

The problem was that Danny was curious by nature.

Deciding to throw caution out the window he slowly opened the package, noticing a green glow emitting from inside of it. What was-

Now that was odd. There was a card with his name on it. Carefully he grabbed it, still slightly worried that this could indeed be a trap, and started to read.

Daniel,

Ever since you came to my mansion I have been thinking about our condition– your condition to be exact. You were very troubled and while I at first thought drinking ectoplasm was a very simple solution to your problem, I realised that maybe you would have more trouble with it than I have.

Sneaking ectoplasm out of your parents' lab would I imagine not be that difficult, but your parents do love to be down there I guess. Having to drink it more regularly than I do is also not…very ideal, judging from your first reaction.

And so I have decided to help you, like I promised. Ectoplasm is not that difficult to come by in the Ghost Zone. However, there are different kinds. They look the same, but they do have differences.

Concentrated ectoplasm is hard to come by, although you have had some experiences with it. The Ecto Filtrator in your Ghost Portal makes it. This process does take half a year though. You see, when consuming ectoplasm which is highly concentrated you can go longer without having to consume more, something which I suppose would be interesting to you.

Inside this package are two samples of concentrated ectoplasm I have specifically made for you. I hope that this will help you.

Vlad

Danny looked at the two vials which were about as big as the Ecto Filtrator. Vlad had actually…done this for him. He guessed sometimes the fruitloop wasn't so bad. He felt like he had to thank him, but there was no way he was going to visit him just to say thanks. Besides, no matter how nice this was, he still was the creepy guy who liked his mum.

He closed the package and put it under his bed, a small smile on his face. Today really wasn't such a bad day.