Just saying, it's my birthday, I finally got a cover for this, and there's gonna be a cliffy in here. Loving the amount of new interested people this story has taken on. Sorry if this has trouble updating for at least till the end of the school year, I have to do a lot of extra reading to make up my English grade. Other than that, I really hope you enjoy my birthday special, and have a lovely day.

PS Just so I don't get sued, I own the Shadowrule on the cover photo, but I ain't claiming ties to Danny. Hope you enjoy my little mental image of Kira.

*Beep beep, beep beep!* No, no, NO! Why did the alarm clock have to be so… alarmy? I smacked my hand down on the buzzing annoyance at my side, but was jolted awake when a pile of metal and plastic crumbled under my hand. Whoops. Maybe staying out all night wasn't the smartest of all ideas on a school night.

"Kira, get up! Today's amazing!" Jazz chanted, apparently coming from thin air to rip away my blankets.

"Why's today so special?" I grumbled, shoving my face into my pillow.

"Because it's your special day. How did you forget your own birthday?"

"Because it's not important."

"What! Kira you're turning (whispers) 16. That's one of the monumental ones. But, as far as our parents know, you're turning 15, so whatever, but today's supposed to be awesome for you!"

"Jazz, birthdays really haven't ever been that special for me."

"Why not?"

"Namely? Never been real good on the family and friends thing, my best friend, my cousin, and I all shared the same birthday, and we just never really celebrated it back home," I said, sitting up finally.

"Wait, you mean you've never had a party?" she asked in shock.

"No."

"No cake?"

"None."

"No ice cream?"

"None."

"No presents?"

"Nope," I said, deliberately over popping the 'p'.

She just stood there staring at me a moment like that was the craziest thing anyone had ever told her. Apparently birthdays were some big deal to Jazz, because she acted like she could have Young Blood sightings any moment. To break the awkward tension, I said, "You guys are throwing me a party, aren't you." I didn't really rise to a question, but it didn't show irritation, just meh.

"Do you even have to ask? Well I guess there's a first time for everything. Come on," she said, grabbing my arm and dragging me out of bed.

"Jazz, I'm not even dressed yet!" I called as she pulled me out of the room.

She stopped in her tracks and looked back at me. I was still wearing a blue tank-top and black pajama pants I'd worn to bed, and I felt exposed and ridiculous, giving her a perturbed look. "Hehe, right," she said awkwardly before letting go of my arm.

I let out a half annoyed sigh and walked back into the room, closing the door sharply behind me. Quickly changing into a black tank top and dark blue jeans (I know, just flip-flopping colours), thinking the whole time about the situation. Why would people care so much about something as boring as a birthday? I mean, the only one I found important was fourteen because I was old enough to get a permit, and sixteen would be kind of cool, except in this dimension I lied saying I was fourteen to match Danny's age. So that's a mile-marker date down the drain. Well, the good news is in the next dimension I could get a license, same as Danny if he could lie about his age. When was Danny's birthday anyway?

I opened the door and sure enough, Jazz was waiting for me right outside. "Alright, what do you want me for?" I asked tiredly.

"Come on," she insisted, latching onto my hand and dragging my lazy hide down the stairs.

My eyes widened as we round the corner into the kitchen. Danny, Danielle, Jack, and Maddie were standing in there with a big banner that said "Happy B-Day Kira" and a cake and presents in all shades of blue, red, and black. I couldn't help but smile at the display as the group started singing a chorus of Happy Birthday. Maybe making a big deal about it was awesome.

When they were done and standing eagerly, Maddie walked up to me with the black frosted cake covered in candles and said, "Make a wish hon."

I wish I could go home, I thought as I blew out the candles and they all stood and cheered. A few moments later, they all took seats around the table and I went to join them.

"Sorry we have to do this before you go to school. Jack and I have to go to a meeting with some government people today about renewing our ecto-equipment licensing. So Danny, who's your little friend?" Maddie said.

"Uh-" he stammered, obviously not having thought of an answer beforehand.

"Actually," I assisted, "I'm surprised you haven't met her. Danny sent of his picture to a website that's supposed to match you up with your double. Danielle happened to be the girl it sent back."

"That's great hon, as long as she likes my cooking," Maddie said with a smile.

"Oh, I like everything Danny does," Dani said with a grin.

Everyone in the room laughed, but only us kids knew why it was really funny. "Would you like to open your presents before or after we eat cake?" Maddie suddenly asked.

"After if you don't mind, I'm starving," I said with a smile. Cake for breakfast was awesome!

Jack was quick to serve me a piece with a little flower drawn on it in icing. I ate it quickly and took another piece after everyone else had theirs. Because come on, I'm a teenager, I eat everything ten times over.

By the time I finished my second piece, the rest of the family was looking eagerly at my presents, anticipating me opening them (accept for Dani, she was munching as much cake as I was). "Here Kira, open this one first, it's from me," Jazz said, shoving a medium-sized black box into my hands.

I slowly opened the box to reveal a picture frame with the family photo Jazz helped me draw a few months ago. It was decorated with little letters across the top that said, "Family, the motivation that makes it count."

"That's awesome Jazz, thanks," I said, leaning towards her and giving her a hug across our seats.

"Mine next," Dani said, jumping from her seat to hand me a little navi blue box.

When I opened it and lifted it up, the Danny, Dani, and I busted up with laughter. It was a silver necklace with a cursive "Dani #3" on it. Jack, Maddie, and Jazz clearly had no idea what was going on, but they were laughing too, figuring they were just picking on me for being the only not-Danny.

I clipped it around my neck and picked up the present from Danny. He wrapped it with red and black striped paper and a bow. I opened it up to find a whole box of comic books. I quickly caught myself fan-girl squealing and silenced myself. Danny seemed pretty amused but he played it cool, saying, "Sometimes I think you're boyish, and then you go do that to guy things."

I held back a laugh, but Dani didn't. Then Jack jumped up and handed me a box from him and Maddie. I opened it to find a really sweat looking metal cuff with a criss-crossing symbol on it. "Now Kira, that's your very own ghost ray. We thought we should make you one after you were attacked by those terrible creatures at the mall," Maddie said.

"You heard about that huh? Well, how does it work?"

"Put it on and stretch down your arm, keeping your hand flat," Jack instructed.

I put it on my wrist and did as he said. The criss-cross pattern split apart and a little ghost gun came out the top while a small pressure plate came out and rested on the palm of my hand. "Cool."

"All you have to do to shoot it is press that button on your palm," Jack said.

"But don't do it in the house," Maddie corrected, shooting her husband a glare.

"And how do I make it retract?" I asked, still intrigued by it.

"You see that little button on the top?" Maddie asked.

Locating it, I pressed it and the gun curled up back into the pattern. "That is so cool," I said in amazement. And useful. If I had to deal with Vlad locking me out of ghost form or something, I could just blast his face.

There were a few more presents. Most of them were books or clothes. Jazz got me some book on psychology. Apparently Lancer had made some word of it. Mark one more thing Jazz and I had in common.

"As fun as this is, you kids better get going before you're late for school," Maddie said.

Jazz and Danny let out an exasperated, "Aw!" before standing up and grabbing their bags. I stood up soon after and Dani followed, not wanting to look awkward with the fact that she didn't go to school.

When we were out the door, Dani said, "So where am I gonna hang for the day?"

"You know, why don't you try going to school. It might do you some good," I said, giving her a look of motherly concern I'd picked up from Maddie.

"Yeah, what am I going to say? 'Hi, I'm a clone without a birth certificate and I really want to learn today.'" She said in a smartass tone.

"Could pull the unregistered orphan act like I did," I suggested.

"But that takes time, and time I don't want to waste when I don't even want to go to school."

"Hey, if you go to school, you could get a job some day, and then you wouldn't have to steal apples to get food."

"That was one time!"

"I know, one time too many. But anyways, you could come to school with us and pull some invisible pranks on Dash and Star," I said, relenting to my childish nature.

"Seriously. Dash has been on my case all week. I think he failed an English test or something," Danny said.

"And I just can't stand that evil witch of a girl Star, so we both have problems," I said as I got into Jazz's car.

"You know, causing some havoc does sound like fun," Dani said, jumping into the car.

"Just don't get too out of control," Danny said, climbing in after her.

"You guys really shouldn't be using your ghost powers like that," Jazz said, getting in the driver's seat. God I wanted to be in the driver's seat. Mark another thing to the list of what this dimension's made me give up.

"Come on Jazz, who's gonna care?" Danny asked carelessly. Obviously not him. "Besides, those two could use getting put in their place every once in a while."

"Agreed," I added. "And you know what?"

"What?" Danny asked.

"Race ya," I said, ducking under the seats and going ghost before phasing out of the back of the car and flying dead straight towards the school.

A few seconds later, Danny was right on my tail, but I had a nearly endless store of energy to use, so there was no way he could catch me. "Gonna have to try better than that ghost boy," I taunted, staying just two feet in front of him.

"This isn't fare, you've got the pre-destined cheater powers," Danny complained as he continued to lag behind me just out of reach.

"Just fly faster Danny boy, you could use the exercise," I called back, laughing as I sped up even more.

He tried desperately to try to keep up, but I had him beat by a landslide. Landing in an alley right near the school, I changed back into my human form and waited a moment for Danny to land next to me. "You are such a cheater," he complained.

"Aw, you're just made I can kick your butt now. Take it Dani rode with your sister."

"Yeah, she hasn't been using her powers as much lately. It's weird," Danny said, still in ghost form.

"You know, there's actually something wrong with her that you should know about."

"What?" he asked with concern.

"You know how the other clones destabilized?"

"Yeah, but she stayed solid."

"She stayed solid longer. I saw her… melting. She really needs something to stabilize her and fast. I saw your dad working on some kind of spray that's supposed to weaken ghosts, but it's been doing the opposite. Get her some of that sometime today and she'll be fine. It doesn't fit with the timeline, but if we disappear before she get's fixed, she's screwed."

"How do you know that'll help?"

"How do I know everything Danny? It's all part of the storyline but the pieces are all out of order. Trust me, now change back, we need to get to class before we're late," I said and turned to walk out of the alley.

When I looked down the alley, I froze. Standing in front of me with a look of shock and excitement was Paulina. My life was thrown into a terrible teetering scale with one sentence:

"Kira, you're the ghost girl?"