Author's Note: A big thanks goes out to Lunnaei, who has graciously agreed to beta test along with DragonDancer5150. You guys are both the best!

Suds
Danny

Ever notice how when you really dread something, it gets so built up in your mind that when it actually does happen, it turns out nothing like you thought it would? My biggest fear in life was someone finding out my secret—other than Sam and Tucker, that is. I was already seen as a freak just because of who my parents were and the house we lived in. The last thing I needed was to add "half ghost" to the label. But when it actually happened, when someone did find out the truth about me, not only was it not the end of the world, it ended up being totally awesome. Because the person who found out was Paulina—she'd seen me revert back to human after fighting a ghost at Floody Waters water park—and not only did she not think I was a freak, she said I was hot. Me! Hot!

The next thing I knew, she was announcing to the whole school that we were dating. Finally, I was getting my karmic reward for all the good I'd been doing ever since getting my powers. The hottest girl in the school liked me, and we were dating. The cherry on top of my Karma Sundae was that dating Paulina was an instant ticket to being on the "A-List," with all the benefits that hanging out with the most popular kids in school entailed. Life was sweet.

Until it all went to hell.

Turns out, the girl I thought was Paulina wasn't her at all. She was being overshadowed by a ghost named Kitty, who was using me to try to get her ghost boyfriend, Johnny, jealous.

When, exactly, did my life become a soap opera?

Not only that, but I found out about half a second before I was finally going to get to kiss Paulina, too. How's that for bad timing? Although, in retrospect, I was really kinda glad. The thought of kissing Paulina when she had no control, no say in the matter at all, was about as sick and nauseating as anything I could imagine.

Furious with Kitty, I brought her back to my parents' lab to get the story. Apparently, she'd gotten mad at Johnny for scoping out other girls when he brought her to the Human World. She took off, ending up at Floody Waters while we were there, which is where she got the idea to go after me to make Johnny jealous.

"I remembered how much Johnny couldn't stand you, so you were the perfect person to make him jealous," she told me. "I was gonna overshadow your friend. The spooky chick in black? You like her, don't you?"

My tongue suddenly felt three sizes too big for my mouth. "Sam? I-I... well... uh..." Why was I stammering like that? How hard is it to just say no? One little syllable, and I couldn't make it come out of my mouth. I mean, not that I don't like Sam. She is my best friend. But not in the way Kitty was implying. Right?

And then I realized Kitty was just diverting my attention from the real issue, which was her overshadowing Paulina. I glared at her, but she just arched Paulina's eyebrow at me before going on to explain how Paulina and Sam had had a confrontation in the bathroom—something I remembered Sam mentioning when I'd first told her and Tucker that Paulina had seen me change from ghost to human—and that Sam had stomped off before Kitty could overshadow her, which is how she ended up taking over Paulina instead.

A part of me was relieved. The thought of Sam being overshadowed and used like that, or of Kitty making her come onto me just to get Johnny jealous... It was too close to Ember's spell in reverse for comfort. But my relief was short-lived when I remembered that even if Sam had escaped that kind of horrific invasion, Paulina hadn't.

Not that Kitty seemed to think it was a big deal. "I ended up in this body. Go fig! But the good news is, you like her too. Johnny's furious, I'm pretty, you're popular. Everybody wins!"

"Except Paulina." The whole thing made me want to strangle her. She'd been overshadowing Paulina ever since Floody Waters, which was, like, almost a week ago. An entire week controlling someone else. Yeah, I'd overshadowed people before, but never for more than a few minutes, and certainly not for days at a time. What would that do to Paulina? Would there be any long-term effects? Would Paulina remember any of this, or would she have this huge, week-long, gaping hole in her memory?

Unfortunately, there wasn't much I could do about it. While I'd forced ghosts out of people they were overshadowing before, it was never someone who they'd been occupying for so long. From my own experience, I had this vague idea that the longer you stayed in someone's head, the more bonded to their body you became, and I was afraid that just ripping the ghost out of Paulina would hurt her in some way, doing more harm than good. The only way to make sure Paulina would be safe would be to convince Kitty to let her go willingly. I hardened my glare. "You realize you're going to have to stop this, right?"

She flashed me Paulina's best smile. "Maybe..." And then the smile turned to something more sinister. "Or maybe Paulina might slip up and tell the whole town that Danny Fenton is the Ghost Boy."

So... she wasn't going to go on her own, and now I not only had to worry about hurting Paulina if I tried to force her out, I also had to worry about her blowing my secret.

Welcome to Screwed. Population: me.

It was Sam who came up with the solution—once I was able to disentangle myself from Kitty-as-Paulina long enough to tell her and Tuck the story, that is. I got Johnny to stage a fight with me, one where he lost. Badly. Kitty was so upset, she released Paulina to protect Johnny from me. Worked like a charm. Paulina seemed none the worse for wear, thank God. And she didn't remember the past week, including my secret.

Of course, it also meant she couldn't remember liking me, and that was the end of our "relationship." Although she did seem to remember liking the other me.

So, to sum things up: Danny Fenton likes Paulina, who likes Danny Phantom, who is Danny Fenton, but she can't ever know that because I'm so not going through that whole fear-of-being-blackmailed thing ever again. How's that for a karmic reward? Now, if I could only find a girl who liked both halves of me, someone I could trust completely with my secret, then I wouldn't have to worry about stuff like this happening.

Yeah, right. Like I'd ever meet a girl like that. I'm just not that lucky in love.