True to her word Dani dropped by to play with Cujo at least once a week, but only when she could be certain that she wouldn't run into anyone besides Danny. This left Jazz frustrated because it meant her plan was unlikely to pan out unless she could keep Dani from leaving. Her only option was to call in the special forces.

...

Jazz leaned heavily on the arms of her chair, her fingers steepled and her eyes focused on her phone. The shadows of her room were stretched to their limit but she had no desire to turn on the light. She knew the minute she got up to do so her phone would go off.

Had there been a traditional clock in the room Jazz imagined the ticking would have become unbearable by now, but since none was present she could only wait in silence.

The phone vibrated once. A single light began to flicker slowly.

Jazz snatched the device and flicked her finger across the screen. Two words appeared.

She's here.

Jazz started typing a response when the phone vibrated again.

I suggest plan C.

Jazz deleted the message she had started and typed a new one.

J: Thanks, S. I'll begin phase 1.

S: I thought we agreed to call them steps?

J: I wanted to call them stages but you said this wasn't a play, and you wanted to call them steps but I thought that didn't allow for flexibility if anything doesn't go as planned so we agreed on phases.

S: Fine just start already.

Jazz sighed and scrolled back so she could open the string of texts from Danny.

Jazz: Hey, Danny, one of the students I'm tutoring had a last minute emergency and needs help with a project. Since Mom and Dad won't be back until late they had asked me to put the cookies away when they cooled but they're still warm and I have to leave now. When you get home could you put them away for me? Thank you.

Also, mom says we can eat them but to leave enough for dad. So like 12.

Oh and Cujo's in the yard so he doesn't try and eat the cookies.

Jazz waited a minute before getting a single word response agreeing to her request.

Grabbing her bag Jazz headed out the door. She drove her car a few blocks away before parking so it would look like she wasn't home. She then waited for the text from Sam confirming they had arrived. Luckily it didn't take long. Jazz guessed they had hurried back so the cookies would still be warm when they devoured them. After that, it was up to Sam.

…

Tucker let out a satisfied belch as he leaned back in his chair. Sam grimaced with disgust.

"How could you eat that many cookies?"

"Hey, Jazz said we only had to leave twelve for Danny's dad, that meant the other four dozen were free game."

"That doesn't mean you had to eat half of them."

Tucker shrugged.

"So now what?" Danny interrupted.

"I don't know about you guys," Dani replied, "but I am way too stuffed to move."

Sam perked up, "Hey Danny, you still have that old PlayBox 180 right?"

"Yeah, why?"

Grinning Sam pulled a thin plastic box from her backpack. The cover was worn but depicted several characters in space suits shooting lasers at an undead alien.

Both Danny and Tucker shot up, their eyes wide.

"Is that what I think it is?" Tucker gasped.

"You bet it is," Sam smirked proudly. "And it's the uncensored version. Meaning there's more blood, more gruesome deaths and more soul-wrenching screams than what they allowed in the states."

Even Dani was interested now. "So we're going to play it, right?"

No one bothered to answer because they were all darting up the stair to set up the PlayBox in Danny's room.

Sam stayed back just long enough to send a text.

Phase 2 has begun.

…

Jazz sent several pictures of delicious, fresh, steaming pizza to her father's phone. It wasn't long before she got a text from her mom asking what toppings she wanted. Jazz let her know that Danny had his friends over, including a new one and they might want to get a few extra pies.

Jazz then texted Sam that phase 3 was in progress and waited about twenty minutes before heading home herself.

The noise from the game was so loud that Jazz could hear it from the street, which meant that neither Danny nor Dani would be able to hear when anyone got home. Just to be sure Jazz waited in the living room, and as soon as the front door opened she leaped to her feet.

"Dad, let me help you with that," Jazz grabbed the top two boxes. "I think we have paper plates on the top shelf. Could you get them down, I haven't been able to find the step bench so I can't reach them." Jazz smiled sweetly to hide the fact that she had tucked the step bench into a closet upstairs to make sure that her Dad would have no choice but to help get the plates.

"Of course Jazzypants," Jack smiled happily. He was speaking just a bit louder than usual to be heard over the noise.

Maddie put her purse on the counter and frowned up the stairs, "I guess I better let them know dinner is here. I doubt they'd hear me over...whatever that is if I tried to yell."

While Jack reached for the plates Jazz shot a quick text to Sam.

Phase 4 heading your way.

…

Sam had to ignore her phone both times it buzzed. It would have been too risky to check it now that they were playing the game. But she and Jazz has planned for this. She knew the first buzz meant the Fenton parents had fallen for the pizza bait and the second meant they had entered the house and (if the plan worked) Mrs. Fenton was about to knock on Danny's door.

Sam had her character switch to the loudest and most destructive weapon in her arsenal and proceeded to unload it on the massive horde of undead aliens that were swarming their base. Between the roar of the weapon, the screams of the aliens and her own yells of excitement none of them noticed when Maddie did knock, or even when she opened the door.

Triumphant music sounded as words declaring they had successfully defended the base flashed across the screen. They cheered.

"That looks pretty violent, should you kids be playing that?" Maddie asked with concern.

Even Sam jumped at her sudden appearance.

"M-mom!" Danny gasped. "I thought you wouldn't be home for hours."

Maddie folded her arms. "Well, your dad had a sudden craving for pizza so we cut our patrol short."

"Oh, that's great," Danny said, forcing his voice to sound sincere. "We haven't had dinner together in a while."

"That is, true," Maddie nodded. "I think we should certainly do it more often. Now…" She smiled and clapped her hands. "I see you have a new friend, why don't you introduce her."

"Uh," Danny glanced at Dani, taking note of her forced smile as she tried not to panic. "This is Dani, with an 'i', we uh, we got to know each other while talking about space stuff."

"Well, it is nice to meet you, Dani, I hope you'll join us for Dinner, we're having pizza."

Dani suddenly perked up. "I like Pizza!"

"Oh good," Maddie smiled. "Why don't you kids wash up and meet us downstairs."

Everyone sighed as she left the room.

After a moment of silence, Tucker reached over to turn off the game. "That actually went pretty well."

"No kidding," Dani agreed. "I was certain our first meeting would include more ecto-blasts."

Danny shrugged, "hey, the nights still young. Maybe they'll try and shoot you after dinner."

Sam scoffed, "and I thought I was the dark one."

…

By the time they made it downstair Jazz and Jack had spread the pizza boxes across the counter and pulled spare chairs around the table so everyone could fit. Jack glanced at Danny and his friends and paused when his eyes fell on the smaller dark hair girl with familiar blue eyes.

"Maddie?"

"Yes, dear."

"We only have two kids, right?"

"Yes, of course, Jack, this is Dani, with an "i" she's a friend of Danny's."

Jack nodded. "Well nice to meet you girl Dani. Now tell me…" Jack leaned down with a very serious look on his face. Dani pulled back slightly, her eyes wide. "How do you feel about ghosts?"

"Dad!" Jazz scolded. "Enough with the ghost talk, let's just enjoy the pizza."

Jack sighed, "fine, fine." He then cheered up. "We can talk about ghosts after dinner."

Jazz groaned but let it go.

Everyone quickly grabbed plates and slices and somehow squeezed all seven of them around the kitchen table.

About five minutes in Cujo started howling at the door.

"I'll let him in," Dani offered, jumping up from her seat and hurrying to let the ghost pup inside.

Both Jack and Maddie suddenly look worried but before they could stop her Dani had opened the door and Cujo had bound inside and was yipping happily around her legs. She bent down to pet him and laughed as he licked pizza sauce off her hands.

Both Jack and Maddie stared in surprise.

"He likes you," Maddie finally commented.

"Uh, yeah," Dani shrugged. "We've met a few time."

"You know," Jazz chimed in. "Dani would make a great pet sitter if we ever need one. I mean how many people do we know who could be trusted to look after a ghost dog."

"I don't know," Maddie hesitated. "He's still a ghost."

"Why don't you have her over a few time to train with him then," Jazz suggested. "That way you know for sure that he'll listen to her."

Jack looked thoughtful. "It would be nice to know there was someone who could check on him if we ever had to leave him home alone. It's not like we can board him at the kennel."

"I can do it," Dani said excitedly.

"Well, I suppose we could try," Maddie finally agreed.

Jazz smiled and exchanged a smug look with Sam. Phase 5 was complete, but they had a ways to go before they could call the plan a success.

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last update. I was doing some DannyMay art on tumbler, but I also got writer's block trying to figure out what Jazz would have planned. It will be a few more chapters before the rest of her plan plays out, but until then you can look forward to more short stories.

Real life is getting pretty busy so I think you can expect a new update about every other week. I hope you enjoy them.