When lunchtime rolled around, Danny half-expected Tucker to go around pestering—excuse him, seducing—girls to ask him out to the dance, but the way things were lately, Tucker was distracted. One of the first things he said to Danny when they sat down at the same outdoor table with Sam was, "I guess your parents fixed things?"

"They didn't find much to fix," Danny answered, "I put the Lunch Lady in the Portal. Where she was supposed to go. I'm pretty sure that's how she got here in the first place." It made sense the more he thought about it. A ghost portal. A ghost attack. Where else?

"You really went back there?" Sam asked.

Danny looked at her, "Yeah...I mean...it was kind of surreal, sort of, but..."

An awkward beat passed between them.

"Hey, I think Paulina's eyeballing us." Tucker said suddenly.

"You mean you think she's eyeballing you." Sam retorted.

Awkwardness avoided.

Danny saw a flicker of real annoyance in Tucker's eyes but the technological whiz's tone didn't convey it, "Well, no one can blame her." Danny hadn't seen Tucker fiddle with his handheld gadgets in a few days. That was a bad sign where Tucker was concerned. At least he was poking at girls for fun again—that was like him.

In curiosity Danny did actually glance back to where Tucker's eyes had been drawn, and indeed saw Paulina Sanchez sitting on the grass, leaning against a tree looking over some schoolwork. She was impeccably dressed as always, the clothing fitting her form well. Danny, an optimistic person except for when he knew for a fact it was hopeless, didn't think about it more than that. He'd overheard some of the stories told about her and didn't want to fool himself. She was a nice enough person unless you got on her bad side, but wasn't everyone like that? Sam seemed to have a personal vendetta against popular girls, as if they were all secretly devils in disguise; Danny didn't understand it, but he tried not to get in the line of fire when it came to girl-versus-girl issues. Sam had her views and Danny had his, simple as that. They were still friends. It wasn't like Sam herself wasn't pretty. It's was just that: they were friends. He didn't want to ruin that companionship by asking her out and finding they might not click.

"I think you're seeing things, Tuck'." Danny said.

"I wear glasses, I know what I saw."

Danny snorted, "Right..."

Danny watched Tucker's face as his eyebrows went higher and higher and his eyes wider until...there was a light tap on his shoulder.

He turned around.

"Hi, Danny." Greeted Paulina. Her clear teal eyes pierced him.

Danny floundered, "Hi!" He stood up clumsily. Then realized he didn't have to stand up. Great.

She had a Hispanic accent and a melodic lilt, "I wanted to ask, how are you?"

"Me? I-I'm fine," he stuttered, "We've never really talked before," he babbled, "It's nice to meet you."

"I'd say the same," an edge of Paulina's mouth quirked up and whew, did a crooked smile look good on her.

Danny felt something odd around his waist but didn't think about it, he was preoccupied.

He realized with a jolt that she was quickly growing unimpressed. What could she possibly want with him, in the first place?

"Uh, is there something you wanna talk—"

His pants fell down around his ankles.

His head jerked down to gawk at himself. He was wearing red boxers. Everything went completely silent. Then guffawing laughter which sounded suspiciously like Dash Baxter's voice erupted from the other end of the outdoor commons. Others soon followed.

With horror Danny pulled up his trousers. He wasn't wearing a belt. The only explanation.

He jumped when Paulina laughed, as well. However, her next words were oddly placating, "A gentleman usually tips his hat, but I give you points for originality."

Slowly, as Danny was forced to pull his pants ridiculously close to his torso, he tried to smile back.

Footsteps approached and Danny looked to his side to find Sam standing there, "Kudos, Danny, you just set an all-time speed record for drowning in the shallow end of the gene pool."

Paulina looked at her, then at Danny, "Oh, no, you did not just call me shallow, did you?"

Sam smirked in that way she never failed to, "If you mean, I could step in a puddle of you and not get my feet wet, then, yeah."

"'Shallow,' I am not shallow!"

Oh man.

Danny was mortified.

To his astonishment, Sam grabbed his arm and tugged him away from Paulina. He stumbled after her, the bell was ringing, he hadn't even finished his lunch, and—aargh!

"Why did you do that?"

Sam scoffed, "Save you from the scorn of a—"

"Sam, no," Danny interrupted, "You didn't do anything like that! She wasn't laughing at me! Didn't you hear her? She was talking to me! And you insulted her!"

Whatever she was going to say, he could see the words die in her throat.

"What is it with you and other girls, anyway?"

He marched away and didn't look back to see her face.

He was going back indoors. It was time for classes to resume anyhow. A chance to make friends with Paulina Sanchez and it was ruined.


A period later Tuck' found Danny in the hallways.

"That sucked for you, dude." Tucker said. Surprisingly he didn't mention Sam.

Rummaging through his locker, Danny scowled, "You don't need to tell me."

"At least now I know the quickest way to a woman's heart...clean boxers."

"Shut up, man."

"Danny!"

Danny turned on his heel.

Paulina. Again. Tucker, sensing his cue, left.

He blinked, "Oh, hi." He said as friendly as he thought was appropriate. She actually wanted to be anywhere near him? Here she was, meandering over.

"Hey." she grinned. Actually grinned, teeth and all. Clean white rows, "I just wanted to—"

"Hey!"

The word was so obviously directed at the two of them, they both looked in its direction. Dash Baxter was coming to them.

"Is this asshole bothering you?"

Danny shook his head. What?

Paulina's lips were ajar for a moment before they closed and a certain expression set in her face, "No. You're name's Dash, right? Well, could you please dash away?"

Danny was shocked. Then, he choked on a laugh.

Dash was stricken. Actually, honest-to-god stricken. He glared at Danny before retreating.

"Anyway," Paulina continued, "Before that rudeness." She was so flippant. "I wanted to ask you out to the dance."

Danny's world crumbled around him. In a good way. A very, very cool way. He never thought of anything like this.

"Sure! Of course! I'd love to." He burst.

"Great! Well, here's my address, you can pick me up at six thirty." She handed him a slip of paper with her handwriting on it.

"I-I will." He promised.

At that second something fell out of his backpack, which had been unevenly placed in his locker.

The dragon necklace.

Something about it, its shimmering, glamorous aura, drew their attention to it immediately.

"What is that?"

Danny searched for something to say, "It's...it's yours, if you want it!"

Oh hell. Why did he say that?

She looked up at him, "Really?"

"Yeah! It's totally all yours."

She grabbed his hand and squeezed, "Thank you so much! This earns you brownie points, you know that, right?" She picked up the necklace carefully. He knew why. It was heavy.

She winked at him and left down the hall. It was only then he realized people were openly staring.


"With Paulina?"

"Yep."

"With Paulina?"

"How many times are you gonna repeat yourself, Tucker?"

Tucker was experiencing all kinds of disbelief, "Well, at least I got a date."

Danny made a huh sound, "With who?"

"Valerie Gray. You know her?"

"Seen her around. Good for you, dude."

"Yeah, but...how are you not freaking out more?"

"She's a nice person. I'm not gonna make a fool out of myself."

"Oh, I getcha. Gotta play it cool."

Danny chuckled, "Sure."

Where was Sam? It was P.E. but she was nowhere to be found. Weird. She loved P.E.

Maybe something came up. Who knew.

He didn't hurt her feelings, did he?

Baxter didn't bother them that class. Good. Danny didn't want to deal with him.


Danny got home without trouble.

"Hey, Mom, Dad, I have something to tell you." He called out in case they would hear. His mother emerged from the kitchen.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"There's a school dance tomorrow. I have a date." He handed her the address Paulina gave him. "Should I walk there or do you wanna drive us?"

"Oh, my!" Her face brightened, "Of course we'll drive you."

"Awesome." He nodded.

"Though it is strange they're doing that dance." Maddie said.

"I know, right?" Danny agreed.

"I'm happy for you, sweetheart."

"Thanks, Mom. Also, I wanted to ask, can I go to the mall with Tuck' later?"

"I don't see why not."


Paulina practically pranced through Amity Park Mall. She loved shopping. Her daddy gave her enough money to buy the most complimenting things she could possibly want. It wasn't like they were short on cash, no, her dad had a fantastic job. What was more, she wasn't dateless for the dance. The Fenton boy was cute and all, but she could have done better. That didn't matter, though. She had goals with that boy in mind. She entered a certain store she liked to peruse and almost at once caught sight of something she couldn't bear not to purchase. It was called a fleecy tee; she called it fabulous. There didn't seem to be many left...

"Excuse me," she asked an employee, "Do you have anymore of these in a size small?"

The perky blonde girl frowned sympathetically, "Oh, no, we've run out of those, I'm so sorry."

Paulina was aghast. Her heart was set on this one! It wasn't often that happened.

"When will you have them?"

The lady thought about it honestly, "Sixteen weeks. Again, very sorry. I can help you find something else."

Paulina was so sharply disappointed that something strange began to occur. "Sixteen weeks?!" Her voice, already high, reached an unholy pitch and she began to glow unnaturally. The tee in her hand tore in half from the force with which she grasped it. The otherworldly piece of jewelry around her neck shone.