Chapter 11: Sowing Dragon's Teeth
Danny put his bowl in the sink with a clang and rinsed it out, Jazz's foot tapping loudly in the background.
"Come on, Danny! We're going to be late!" she nagged.
"I still have to brush my teeth," he said, turning to his older sister.
"No time. Just chew a piece of gum or something," she said, already shrugging her coat on.
He laid a hand against his chest in mock surprise. "'Just chew a piece of gum'?! Who are you and what have you done with Jazz!"
She fixed him with a glare. "This is your fault we're running late. You refused to get out of bed, so now you should pay for it."
He had accidentally overslept due to a little late night ghost hunting. The Box Ghost had made yet another appearance in what was like the third time this week. Danny wondered how he got out of the Ghost Zone so fast.
"Technically, if I got a cavity, wouldn't it be Mom and Dad paying?" he quipped.
Jazz gave him a look that could curdle milk. Danny held up his hands. "Kidding! Forget I said anything."
Danielle felt in her pockets and drew out a piece of spearmint gum. "I gotcha, bro," she said, throwing him the stick of gum.
"How old it this exactly?" he asked eyeing the gum.
His twin shrugged. "Maybe a year."
Jazz groaned loudly from beside the front door, a not so subtle reminder that they should hurry it along.
"Alright, alright," he said. He quickly unwrapped the gum and crammed it into his mouth. As he shoved the wrapper in his pocket, he felt his wallet. "Wait a second," he said, taking it out. He opened it up and found that it was empty. He hissed a curse. "I forgot to ask Dad for ticket money. This is the last day they're selling tickets to the winter formal."
Jazz gave him a look of disbelief. "Are you serious? We don't have time for this!"
"Look, it'll only take a minute. Dad's down in the lab right now. I'll be right back," he said already heading for the basement door.
"I'm leaving without you if you're not back in exactly five minutes!" Jazz shouted after him.
Danny raced down the stairs, taking two steps at a time. He reached the bottom and said rather loudly, "Hey, Dad—"
His father quickly hushed him. "I'm ghost fishing," he explained, gesturing towards the fishing rod in his other hand and the glowing fishing line that was flung through the portal. "The line is coated with a special resin that ghosts can't break." He sunk back in his chair, refocusing on the portal in front of him. "Quiet now. Don't wanna spook 'em."
"Ah, I, um," he said, lowering his voice, "I need to borrow five dollars."
"What for?" Jack muttered, keeping his eyes firmly planted on the portal.
"I need money for a ticket to the Winter Formal. It's, um, the last day they're still selling them," he said.
"Hmm, alright, but you gotta clean the lab this Saturday to make up for it," Jack said.
"Deal," Danny replied almost automatically.
He handed Danny the fishing rod for a moment to pull out his wallet. He handed him a five dollar bill, but just as he was putting his wallet away, Jack tensed.
"That coffee goes through you like Sherman through Georgia," he muttered. He turned to Danny. "Can you watch the line for a second? I have to use the little ghost hunter's room."
Before Danny could protest, Jack leapt up from his seat and began heading up the stairs. Danny cursed under his breath and hoped Jazz was just bluffing when she said she would leave without him.
Danny glanced nervously between the portal and the basement stairs. His foot began tapping anxiously.
"Come on, Da—"
Suddenly, there was a tug on the line. His attention snapped to the portal. There was nothing there and the line was slack again.
He almost convinced himself that he imagined it until a shiver ran up his spine and foggy breath billowed from his lips. Before he could make a move towards the 'close' button, a large blue scaled hand emerged from the portal. The rest of the creature soon followed, and Danny's mouth fell open once he got a full scope of the thing.
It was huge. It's long swan like neck had to curl downward just so the monster's head didn't hit the ceiling. Quarter sized scales covered its reptilian body and gigantic bat wings neatly folded against its back. It was a dragon, an honest to God dragon, and it had his dad's fishing line in its mouth.
The ghost dragon spat out the line and let out a hissing growl. Danny was too afraid to move, but he knew just standing there in his human form was asking to get shredded to pieces. With a flash of light he changed.
The dragon's pupils contracted into slits. There was a raspy intake of an enormous breath before it let out a deafening roar. Danny felt it rattle his bones.
It drew in another huge breath, puffing out its chest. He knew on some level what it was about to do and flew up to avoid the blast of ethereal green fire.
Danny managed to miss the fire, but he stupidly forgot to go intangible and painfully smacked into the ceiling. Momentarily winded, he fell back to the ground, just catching himself before he also smacked into the floor.
The dragon ghost saw an opportunity and seized it. It lunged for Danny's prone form and grabbed him in its cavernous mouth. He screamed as he felt one of its teeth pierce his side, the dragon shook him like a rag doll. Danny reached out wildly for anything to hold on to. His fingers clamped around something, but that something quickly gave way.
The dragon suddenly let go of him, and he hit the ground with a thud. He rolled over, expecting to see the dragon baring down on him. Instead, it backed away, almost cowering. It let out another hissing growl before it began to shrink. Its features morphed and twisted before being replaced entirely with a feminine humanoid figure with green skin but normal looking blond hair braided down her back. She wore a pale blue dress that looked medieval in style.
She trembled on the ground on her hands and knees for a moment, collecting herself, before looking up with the most stricken expression Danny thought he had ever seen.
"All I wanted was to go to the ball," she whimpered, tears springing to her eyes, "but my horrid brother wouldn't let me!"
She sprang up. Danny tensed, expecting an attack, but instead she promptly flew back into the portal.
He sighed, letting his eyes close. He gave himself another moment before he forced himself to roll over on his hands and knees.
Danny lifted a hand to the spot on his back he felt had been pierced by the dragon's teeth, probing the injury with his fingers. It was cold and slick, but he could feel it closing—literally healing underneath his fingers. He removed his hand from the wound and brought it around to inspect the "blood." Instead of the rusty color it should have been, it was a bright lime green and it glowed slightly.
To his amazement and horror, the green blood began soaking into the skin on his hand. It was like some kind of wound on a video game character with an auto heal mechanism. There was a terrible amount of blood on the player character when they were injured, and then suddenly after a short amount of time the blood and gore just disappeared like it had never been in the first place. But that was—or should be—biologically impossible! He could handle Wolverine's heal factor, but this was ridiculous!
With a trembling hand, he felt of the wound again, and it was gone. The rip in his shirt and jacket was even gone.
Before he had time to have yet another existential crisis in the long line of many he had just this week, he heard the basement door open. He snapped out of his reverie and snatched up the backpack that had been flung off in the fight and threw whatever he still had clutched in his hand in the bag. He didn't even look at it as he shoved it in. He was more concerned with his father seeing him like he was in that moment.
He turned invisible and flew past his dad up to the basement door, just as Jack reached the bottom of the stairs. He briefly looked around the living room before turning back into his human form and walking out the front door, only to see that Jazz had, indeed left without him.
…
Danny shoved his books into his locker and roughly pulled out the ones he would need during his second period. He then roughly slammed the locker door closed. Just then Tucker came up behind him.
"Did Jazz really leave without you this morning?" he asked, trying and failing to keep from laughing.
"Yes," Danny said annoyedly, "but that wasn't even the worst part of my morning."
He looked over Tucker's shoulder, and spotted Danielle coming down the hall to her locker. He sent her a glare.
"I'm sorry," she cringed. "I was powerless against her."
"Yeah, sure," Danny grumbled, and stuffed his books into his bag.
"Did you have to walk?" she asked.
"No, Dad took me after about five minutes of me trying to explain why the lab was trashed."
Danielle raised an eyebrow. "What happened to the lab?"
"I'll tell you later."
"Why didn't you just, you know, fly?" Tucker asked lowering his voice.
"I was already tired from the thing that trashed the lab. I didn't want to pass out in class."
"Can you at least give us a little hint for what it was?" Danielle asked.
"Nope," he said popping the 'p'. "See you at lunch."
With that, he turned and headed for second period.
…
It was still brisk outside, but the sun was shining and many of the kids, the four teens included, wanted to enjoy the sun before it inevitably went behind the winter clouds again.
Sam sat down directly in front of him. The first words out of her mouth were: "So what happened this morning?"
Danielle and Tucker were right behind Sam. Danielle sat next to Sam and Tucker sat next to Danny.
"Jeez, Sam not a hello or anything?" Danielle said.
"Hey, Danny. So, what happened this morning?" she reiterated dryly.
"You mean the whole being betrayed by my family and getting left behind," Danny said and he took out his bag lunch (no way was he ever eating school lunches again) and began laying it out on the table, "or the other thing?"
Sam smirked slightly. "Danielle already told me about Jazz leaving without you. I want to hear about this 'other thing'."
Danny pulled open a cup of pudding. "You're not gonna believe me," he said, spooning a large glob of it into his mouth.
"What do you mean?"
He swallowed the lump of pudding. "I fought a dragon."
"What!?" Danielle and Tucker said almost in unison while Sam gave him an unimpressed look.
"No really," she said.
"Yeah, really. I fought a ghost dragon. It shot green fire at me, picked me up, and shook me like a chew toy, then turned into a lady."
"Okay, you're going to have to tell us the whole story, dude," Tucker said, eyes wide.
And he did, only leaving out the weird thing with his blood.
"Wow, crazy morning," Tucker said.
"Yeah, no shit," Danny muttered. "I honestly thought I'd never have to worry about fighting dragons in real life, but here I am."
Of course he probably never thought he'd have to fight ghosts in real life either...
"Yeah, yeah, that really sucks," Tucker said disinterestedly. Danny looked up at him with a raised eyebrow only to see he was watching a girl as she sat down at a table over from theirs.
He suddenly turned to Danny with a look of excitement in his eyes. "Back to more normal affairs, I'm gonna go ask Britney out."
"Actually, I think her name's Rachel," Danielle stated with a mildly annoyed look.
"Oh, yeah, I think you might be right," Tucker mused glancing back at the girl. "Thanks Danielle!"
Tucker shot up and went over to the girl's table. It wasn't even a minute later before he came back and sat down with a sour look on his face.
"Strike three?" Danny asked flatly.
"Try strike three thousand," Tucker grumbled.
"I don't know what the big deal about the dance is anyway," Sam said.
"You're not going?" Danielle asked. "I thought we were going to go as a group."
Sam bent over her salad and violently forked a tomato. "I didn't say I wasn't going," she said begrudgingly. "I might at well get some use out of the stupid dress my mom bought me."
Danny cringed. "Is it gonna be all fluffy and pink like everything else your mom tries to make you wear?"
Sam sighed. "No, she actually tried this time—probably just to incentivize me to go to the dance."
"Hey," Tucker suddenly said, grabbing Danny's shoulder. "I know you're down with the whole friend group thing, but have you thought about asking anyone out?"
"Uh, not really. Why?" Danny asked warily, not liking the odd glint in Tucker's eyes.
Tucker pointed to his right. Danny turned to see Paulina seated only a few tables away. She seemed to be alone, the rest of her group probably inside.
Paulina Sanchez was the queen bee of the school, and she was only a freshman like them. It didn't matter though. She was hands down the most popular and the most beautiful girl in Casper High, not to mention she was captain of the cheerleading squad.
"You know, she and Dash broke up last week and nobody's stepped up to take his place," Tucker said in a singsong voice.
"Yeah, because they're all probably too afraid of Dash," Danny said dryly.
Sam scoffed. "You know you're talking about a person, right? A lousy, self-obsessed person, but a person nonetheless. You're talking about her like she's some kind of reward or...title or something. Dash doesn't own her, and neither does anyone else."
"You see Danny, Dash doesn't own her," Tucker said. "Thanks, Sam."
She glared daggers at him, gripping her fork so tight Danny was sure it had molded into the shape of her hand.
Danielle wasn't amused either. "I'm pretty sure that wasn't the thing you were supposed to take out of that," she said.
"Like I'd have a chance with her, anyway."
"Why not? You're a half decent looking guy," Tucker said.
"She'd never even think to go out with me because I'm a nobody, plain and simple."
"Hey, does a nobody have super powers?" Tucker said looking smug. "I don't think so."
"I don't know why you'd want to go out with her anyway," Sam cut in. "She's a conceited snob." She angrily speared more of her salad on her fork and stuffed it in her mouth. "You deserve better, Danny."
"I'm going to have to agree with Sam on this one," Danielle added.
"What are you guys talking about?" Tucker said, looking between them with disbelief. "She's the most perfect girl in the school!"
Danielle and Sam rolled their eyes in tandem.
"Girls like her are a dime a dozen," Sam stressed.
Danny smirked. "Hey, Tucker, do you have any change on you?"
"Very funny," Sam deadpanned. "If you really wanna be dumped on by an airhead like her, go ahead, ask her out."
"Don't listen to her, Danny. Go on and ask Paulina out," Tucker said way too cheerfully.
"Yeah, I think I'll pass."
"Okay, then how about this? I dare you to go ask Paulina out," Tucker said, his grin widening to shit eating levels."
Danny threw his head back and groaned. "Dude!"
"That's dirty, Tucker. You know Danny can never resist a dare. It's his ultimate weakness!" Danielle said, smirking.
Danny shot her a glare. "No it's not!"
"But it kinda is. Remember that time I dared you to eat one of mom's samples she left in the fridge?"
Danny shuddered. "I was twelve. I was a different person then. I've learned."
"You know what, I'll sweeten the pot," Tucker said. "If she says no, I'll give you my pudding as a consolation prize."
Danny gave him a dubious look. "How about your pudding, and you let me copy your homework."
"Deal!"
Tucker stood from his seat. He lifted Danny up by his shoulders and practically threw him in Paulina's direction. "Go get her, tiger," Tucker said slyly.
Danny huffed and straightened his jacket. He made his way over to Paulina's table.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered under his breath. "I'm a freaking idiot!"
Before he could berate himself some more under his breath, he reached Paulina's table.
She noticed him and looked up with one sculpted brow raised in question.
He stammered nervously, "Uh, hi."
…
Sam watched with growing dismay as Danny made his way over to Paulina.
"Oh, dear brother, why are you like this?!" Danielle lamented. "You're like Ella Enchanted when it comes to dares!" She turned her gaze on Tucker. "Why did you do this? Do you want him to suffer?"
"I'm just trying to get him out of his comfort zone," he said with a stupid grin and a mischievous gleam in his eye.
"Sure you are," she said, glaring. "You couldn't get a date for yourself, so you had to make Danny share in your misery."
Sam shushed them.
Danny leaned against the table, trying way too hard to act smooth. His arm suddenly became intangible and phased through it, making him smack face first into the table. Sam winced and hoped no one saw his arm literally going through the table.
Danny straightened, looking slightly ruffled, but refusing to give up. Sam had to give him props for perseverance.
He seemed to pop the question and Paulina laughed. Sam glared. She expected nothing less from someone like her. And to think she had once been friends with that airhead, but that was a long time ago. People changed.
Just as it looked like Paulina was going to turn him down, Danny's powers acted up again and his pants phased off of his waist, falling down around his ankles.
Danielle dropped her face into her hands and groaned while Tucker gave a bark of laughter. A stony expression settled on Sam's face, and she stood and went to Danny's aid.
…
He yelped and quickly bent to pick up his pants.
Paulina snickered. "A gentleman usually tips his hat, but I'll give you points for originality," she said snidely.
Before he could even stutter out some kind of apology to Paulina, Sam was beside him.
"Kudos, Danny, you just set an all time record for drowning in the shallow end of the gene pool," she said taking him by the shoulder.
Paulina looked taken aback then bolted up from the table. "Oh, no, you did not just call me shallow," she said, sounding outraged.
"If by shallow you mean I think I could stand in a puddle of you and not get my feet wet then yeah," Sam shot back.
"I am not shallow!" Paulina protested, her voice becoming shrill.
Sam snorted. "Yeah, sure. If you say so. Come on, Danny," she said, before almost literally dragging him away.
…
Danny let out a long sigh, leaning his whole weight into the lockers.
When he entered the school the next morning, the first words spoken to him were in the form of a stupid underwear joke and said by some random joe he hardly knew. More annoyingly, it wasn't even witty. If people were going to insult him they could at least be creative.
"At least now I know the way to a woman's heart," Tucker said from a few lockers over, "Clean underwear." Danny had to resist the urge to throttle Tucker.
Danny huffed and pushed off the lockers. "I blew it yesterday. I'm never going to hear the end of the underwear jokes from you and everyone else, and it's all your fault!"
"My fault?" Tucker said, placing a hand over his heart dramatically. "I was just trying to be a bro and get you to talk to a girl."
Danny rolled his eyes. "Yeah right."
"Hey, Danny is it?" a feminine voice said from behind him.
Danny whipped around to see Paulina smiling sweetly at him.
"P-Paulina?" he stuttered. "Um, hi?"
"I wanted to talk to you, alone."
Danny turned to Tucker to see he was just a flabbergasted as he was. "Um, uh, yeah, see you in class, Danny," he said before leaving them.
She gave him a sweet smile. "I never got to tell you my answer yesterday."
"Oh, well, I totally understand if you don't want to go with me," Danny said cringing. "That was kind of a disaster." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
Paulina giggled. "It kinda was, but I—"
Danny was suddenly and violently, shoved into his locker, the door slamming close a second later.
"So, Paulina," Dash's nasally voice sounded from just outside the locker, "I really got to thinking, and I realized I'm really sorry for whatever it was you were mad at me about. Will you go to the dance with me?" Danny wanted to gag.
He turned invisible and intangible and phased out of the locker, but he hadn't realized just how close Dash was standing to it, and phased right into him. There was a brief moment of disorientation. He seemed to be a foot taller. Then it hit him, he was actually looking through Dash's eyes.
He cursed under his breath and he was startled to find it was in Dash's voice.
Paulina lifted an eyebrow. "What's wrong?" she asked, not sounding in the least bit concerned.
Danny regained his wits. Paulina thought she was still talking to Dash and thought that he was still talking to her. An evil plan suddenly formed in Danny's mind.
"You know what? I don't really care about you Paulina," Danny said through Dash's voice. "I just wanted to get back together, so I could go the dance with the most popular girl in school, 'cause that's all I care about: the status quo."
"You-you never really cared about me?" Paulina said, actually sounding hurt.
For a second, Danny felt bad for hurting Paulina's feelings, but then he remembered this was Dash. All that he said was probably true to an extent, so he ploughed forward.
"Nope, not one bit."
Danny then phased out of Dash and went back into his locker.
"Fine then!" Paulina shouted. "I hope you break your leg the next game! Get out of my sight!"
"Paulina—" Dash said, sounding startled.
"No! find someone else to go to the dance with because we're through—for good this time!"
Dash huffed and stormed off. A moment later, Danny fell forward out of his locker.
Paulina gave a watery laugh and dabbed under her eye. "We have got to stop meeting like this."
She held out a hand and helped him up.
"Heh, yeah," Danny said nervously and he bent and picked up his backpack. It had been overturned when Dash had shoved him in the locker.
As he picked it up, he heard the clank of metal hitting the floor. Before he even realized what it was, Paulina's eye's lit up and she let out a coo. She picked it up and held it out for him to see. It was a necklace with an ornate amulet hanging from it, the jewel in it looking to be an emerald.
"Did you get this for me?" she asked.
"I, uh, I…. Do you like it?" he stuttered.
"Like it? It's gorgeous!" she practically squealed.
"Uh, thats great!" he said timidly.
She put it around her neck, and even though it was somewhat gaudy in Danny's opinion, it looked beautiful on her.
"I think you just got a date to the dance this Friday," she said giving him a simpering look.
Danny sputtered, his cheeks flaming. When he was finally able to speak half coherent words he stuttered, "Y-you r-really mean it?"
"Of course silly. Now give me you're number so I can text you my address," she said, giving him one of her signature smiles.
Danny pulled out his phone and rattled off his number. Paulina then thanked him a walked off.
Danny made his way to his next class in a haze.
He sat down wordlessly in his desk beside Tucker's in Mrs. Morris's US history class. As Mrs. Morris got through he initial lecture and began handing out worksheets to the class, Tucker turned to him.
"How'd it go?" Tucker whispered.
"She said yes," Danny intoned.
"She did?!" Tucker whisper yelled.
Danny nodded. "I may have also done something really stupid."
"What?"
"There was a necklace in my backpack. I'm not sure how it got there, but…it didn't belong to me. I-it could have belonged to my mom or Jazz," Danny fretted.
"Don't worry about it, man. If it got Paulina to go out with you, then I'm sure it was worth it."
Danny didn't know if he believed that.
…
The four teens already had plans that afternoon to go to the mall, so Danny decided he'd wait until then to tell them about the incident with Dash and Paulina earlier. They had all seated around a table in the food court, all facing him, when he finally told them everything that had happened.
"Whoa, so you can just walk into people?" Danielle said, eyes sparkling with excitement.
"Yeah, pretty much," Danny said taking a sip of his soda.
"That is messed up on so many levels," Sam said, not looking up from her food. "Dash is a jerk, but for you to…manipulate him like that…."
"I-I don't know," Danny said looking down. The guilt from earlier resurfaced. "I was mad. He had just literally shoved me in my locker!"
"Yeah, and besides," Tucker added, "he deserved it! All that stuff Danny said was probably true anyway."
"You don't know that…." Sam grumbled.
"Hey, Danny," Tucker said, eyes glittering with an idea, "you think you could control a girl for like a minute—"
Danny gave his friend a flat look. "No, Tucker. You're just going to have to find a girl that will go out with you under her own free will."
"Good luck with that," Sam muttered. "Who'd be crazy enough to date him?"
"Hey, I'm desirable!" Tucker cried.
"The only person of the the feminine persuasion that has ever kissed you is your mother," Sam said scathingly.
"That's not true!"
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, a smirk twitching at the corner of her lips, "and your grandmother."
"That's not true either!" Tucker said his voice raising several octaves. "Danielle kissed me in first grade!"
"Danny dared me!" she blurted, pointing an accusatory finger at her twin. Her cheeks were bright red.
Danny held up his hands. "Hey, it's not my fault dares are your ultimate weakness."
"It's a dare. It doesn't count," Sam said smugly.
Whatever rebuttal Tucker had was suddenly cut off when screams erupted around them.
People began running to the exits, and it became clear why a second later. A giant reptilian head poked out of a department store. It was another dragon, but unlike the one before it, it was bright pink instead of blue and had delicate spiraled horns almost like an antelope's.
"What the hell?!" Danny shouted. "First, the one this morning and now this one?!"
"I think we're just going to have to worry about that later," Danielle said. "For now go punch that dragon!"
Danny gave her an exasperated look before jumping up to go find somewhere he could change.
A moment later, Danny flew to meet the dragon. He punched the creature in the face before it could realize he was coming. It went flying clear to the other side of the mall. When it regained its composure, it gave a defining roar and charged after Danny. Before he could get out of the way it caught him in a clawed hand.
Danny quickly phased out of it's grasp and dodged a few more swipes at him before the dragon finally got in a hit. Danny soared through the air straight into a hotdog joint in the food court. As he was picking himself up out of a spilled crate of cheep sausages, the dragon shot a stream of crimson fire at him. He bolted out of the way of the hellacious blaze and once again flew for the dragon.
"Want tee!" the dragon roared in a guttural tone, surprising Danny that it could actually talk.
"Tea?" Danny questioned.
Distracted for only a moment, the dragon seized the opportunity to spring on him. Danny grunted as he hit the ground and was nearly crushed underneath the dragon's huge paws.
"You know, tea's probably a good idea," he croaked out. "Coffee can make you a bit jittery. Better yet…"
He phased through the ground and came up behind the enormous reptile.
"Have some punch!" Danny quipped before decking the dragon.
The dragon quickly recovered and rounded on him. In the moment before it swatted him with one of it's huge clawed hands, he noticed something around its neck. On a much larger chain, sat a very familiar looking amulet.
Danny paused for too long and the dragon flicked him away like a bug. He reached the other wall, phasing through it before he hit it. He quickly flew back to meet the monster, returning the attack by slamming into its chest. They both collided with the opposite wall, making the entire mall tremble. The dragon's collar seemed to catch on something and it struggled to get away from Danny.
Danny, foolishly feeling like he had time to gloat and that he was out of the monster's reach, stood back—or rather floated back and inspected the dragon with a smug look and arms crossed. It was nearly at the same time that they both realized that Danny was still in the reach of the dragon's tail. Danny didn't react in time and was once again flung away. The momentum carried him all the way out into the parking lot.
As Danny regained his composure and flew to rejoin the ghost dragon in battle, the dragon tried to get lose from the sigh it was stuck on. With a chink of metal, the clasp on the collar gave out and fell from the dragon's neck.
Danny flew back into the mall, expecting to see the pink dragon baring down on him, but it was simply gone.
He found Tucker, Sam, and Danielle huddled in another department store, and they all left the mall trying to act as inconspicuous as they could.
They congregated around a buss stop to regroup. Danny sat down on the bench with a sigh. The world was slowly spinning, and he felt out of breath.
"You okay, Danny?" Danielle asked.
"Yeah, fine. Can you text Jazz to come pick us up?" he said in a reedy voice.
"Sure."
Jazz was there in minutes. She looked terrified. It was apparent she had already heard the news. They all piled into her car.
As she took off she asked, "Are you guys alright?"
They all answered 'yes' in hushed tones and small nods.
She took Sam and Tucker to their houses before heading back home.
They entered into the living room only to find their parents in various states excitement and worry. Before they noticed the three teens, Maddie paced around the living room and Jack watched the news with hyper focus.
The door closed behind them loudly, forcing the two parents to look up. Jack instantly rushed them and scooped them up in a bear hug. "I'm glad you two kids are safe!" he boomed, as he squeezed the life out of the twins.
"Jack, you're suffocating them," Maddie said with affection. Jack let them go and they both eagerly gulped in lungfuls of precious air. Maddie then turned her attention to the twins, a frown suddenly creasing her brow. "Did either of you see the ghost?"
Jazz groaned loudly. "This is serious! It could have been a terrorist attack for all we know!"
Maddie aimed a look at her eldest daughter. "A terrorist attack…with a pink dragon?"
Jazz's face settled into a thunderous scowl. "Even as ridiculous as it sounds, it still makes infinitely more sense than a dragon ghost!" She huffed and waved a hand. "Most likely it was just a stupid hoax gone awry, but someone could have gotten hurt."
"What, um, are they saying on the news?" Danny stuttered.
"Come see for yourself. It just came on!" Jack said, already ushering the kids to the seating area.
They were both manually plopped down onto the couch and practically forced to watch the program.
Danny and Danielle both felt immensely relieved when they found that most of the photos where blurred and rushed. Everyone had scrambled to get out of the mall so quick to get anything better. It didn't even look like anyone had captured a picture of Danny as he fought the dragon, except for a black and white steak in one messy cellphone picture.
"So did you two see it?" Jack asked excitedly, momentarily forgetting his worry that his children had been in peril in favor of new information on a ghost.
"Uh, not really," Danny said.
"Yeah, we just heard screaming and bolted out of there," Danielle added.
Maddie nodded approvingly. "As you should." She enveloped them in a hug and gave them each a kiss on the forehead. "I'm so proud of you two for being smart about something like this. People really could have gotten hurt."
"Yeah, it's kinda been a long day," Danny said, edging away from her. "I think I'll just head up to my room."
"Me to," Danielle chimed in.
They both escaped their parents only to be caught by Jazz. "Are you two really okay?" she asked looking genuinely concerned.
They both nodded. "Yeah, Jazz," Danielle said. "No need to worry."
She still looked nervous, but let them then go up to their rooms.
Danielle followed her brother into his room. Looking nervously between him and the door she said, "You don't want to talk about what happened at all?"
He plopped down onto his bed and gave a gusty sigh. "No, I'm exhausted, and I want to sleep. We can talk tomorrow."
Danielle pursed her lips. "Okay, if you say so," she said before leaving.
It was only a few minutes later that Danny fell asleep. He hadn't even bothered taking his clothes off before hand.
…
It wasn't until lunch the next day that they got a chance to talk.
"So what do you think it was?" Tucker asked.
"A ghost, obviously," Sam said.
"There's probably more to it than that," Danielle interjected. "Like what's with the sudden dragon influx? This isn't like some weird one off occurrence."
"Didn't you say the first one Wednesday morning turned into a girl?" Tucker asked.
"Yeah, it did," Danny said thoughtfully. "When I was fighting the pink dragon in the mall…I noticed something pretty weird."
Sam scoffed. "Other than you were fighting a giant pink dragon in the mall?"
Danny gave her an unamused look. "Yes, weirder than that. I thought I saw Paulina's amulet on it, like it was wearing it."
Sam seemed to sit up straighter. "Was the dragon in the lab wearing an amulet too?" she asked.
"You know, I didn't really notice what with there being a giant freaking dragon right in front of me!"
Sam glared. "Okay then," she ground out like she trying hard not to snap at him. "What exactly happened when you fought the dragon in the lab? How did you get it to stop attacking?" she asked.
"I didn't get it to stop attacking. It kinda just dropped me and then turned into the girl ghost," Danny said.
"Okay, but what happened before that?"
Danny stared off into space, trying to think back to the event. It had happened so fast, it was hard to piece together after the fact.
"Uh, well, it picked me up in its mouth and shook me like a chew toy. I kinda panicked and just reached out to grab onto anything and then…I caught something I think. Then it let go…."
"Lets go over what happened during the mall fight," Sam said. "What happened before you got flung into the parking lot?"
"I noticed the amulet then I got it caught on something—the amulet. The dragon flung me out of the mall, then when I flew back in, it was gone." Danny froze, a thought crossing his mind. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"
Sam looked thoughtful. "I don't know. I'll have to do some research, but I think I've read about something like this."
"Hold on," Tucker said, "you've read about amulets that turned people into dragons even before this? What kind of stuff do you look up in your free time?"
"Come on, Tucker. You've known me for almost three years now."
He shrugged. "Touché, I guess."
"Sam, the dance is tonight," Danny said. "What do I do? Should I ask for it back? I can't go on a date with a dragon."
Sam looked torn. "I-I don't know. If I remember the legend correctly, the amulet made the wearer turn into a dragon whenever they get angry. I'm not sure. I'll have to look it up again, but to be on the safe side, you might want to hold off on directly asking for it back, seeing as that might be a bit…upsetting."
…
Danny's head hit the top of his desk with a crack. "Damn it," he muttered into it's surface.
Sam had sent him the link to the obscure website she had found exploring the legend surrounding the amulet. It was, in fact, the one he had given to Paulina.
Supposedly the amulet belonged to the princess of a germanic kingdom that allegedly existed around the seventh century. According to the legend, the the kingdom quickly fell after the untimely assassination of the king, Dorothea's brother, and the princess herself.
The king and princess supposedly each possessed a magical amulet that allowed them to shape shift into dragons at will. But the artifacts came with a caveat. They made the wearer temperamental and could cause them to turn into their scaly counterpart when they were angered. On some accounts, the subjects of the royal family were so afraid of them that they had actually betrayed the siblings and brought in an assassin to kill them.
Finally, in 1853, a British team of archeologists uncovered an old germanic tomb. Some scholars believed it to belong to the two siblings, but the legendary amulets weren't on the corpses.
The writer of the article then jokingly added, "Perhaps the bond with the wearer and the magical relics were so strong that they followed the siblings into the afterlife."
Danny wanted to punch whoever the author was in the face.
The pictures of wooden reliefs and simple pantings of the princess on the site weren't identical to what Danny saw, but they were close enough. They weren't really needed at this point anyway. It was pretty clear that they were dealing with an honest to god magical amulet.
"Don't worry buddy," Tucker said through his line of the Skype chat. "At least you know it'll be a hot date."
Danny raised his head and sent the technogeek a glare.
"Look, we better all start getting ready for the dance," Sam said over her line. "Weather we like it or not, we're going to have to share the gymnasium with a dragon. We honestly cannot afford to upset her."
"She's a ticking time bomb," Danielle said. She stood from Danny's bed and walked over to stand beside him at his desk. "What the hell are we gonna do?"
"Not make her angry, that's what we're going to do," Sam answered.
Tucker let out a long breath and sat back in his desk chair. "Man, how do we keep getting into these situations?"
"You," Sam accused.
"Me?!"
"Yes, you! Three times in a row now, at least!" Tucker tried to cut in, but Sam continued. "There was the time down in the lab with the gun and the portal, then with the Lunch Lady, and now this!"
Tucker crossed his arms. "Alright I…may have had an off couple of weeks, but I'm not the cause of all our problems!"
"No that's Dan," Danny bitt out.
"Danny," his twin said with a warning look.
Sam let out a harsh gust of breath and shook her head. "You know what, I'm sorry. This isn't the time or the place. Lets just get through tonight." She then promptly ended her end of the Skype chat.
"I guess Sam's right. See you guys soon," Tucker said, before ending his line.
…
Danny raised an eyebrow. "You're going in that?" he asked.
Dannielle glanced down at herself. She wore a bulky cable knit sweater dress their aunt on their dad's side had sent her a year or two back. (Their family was just terrible at giving gifts to be quite honest.) Danny could smell the mothball scent clinging to it from where he stood almost a meter away.
She looked a little sheepish. "Yeah, I kind of forgot about my scar. I had to pull this thing out from storage 'cause it's the only long sleeved dress I have."
"Why not just wear a coat?" he asked.
"I can't just walk around with a bulky coat on the entire time! I'd look silly!" she said.
"Yes, and you look perfectly dignified right now," Danny teased. "Anyway, do you have the Fenton Ghost Fisher?"
Danielle patted her purse (that she rarely used). "Yep."
"Good. I really hope I don't have to use it tonight."
"You want it with you?" she asked, starting to reach in her bag.
"No, when I change I don't have a clue what'll happen to it, so it's just better if you keep it with you."
They both looked up as they heard the jangle of keys down the hall. "You two ready to go?" Jazz asked coming out of her bedroom in her normal street clothes.
"You're not going to the dance?" Danny asked.
"Nope," she said, popping the 'p.' "I'd much rather spend the evening with a good book rather than going to a dance with a bunch of hormone crazed teenagers."
Danny made a face. "But…aren't you a hormone crazed teenager, too?"
"Nah, I'm pretty sure Jazz was just born a 40 year old woman," Danielle quipped.
"Sometimes I feel like it," Jazz grumbled under her breath. "Alright, lets get moving. I don't have all night," she said ushering them towards the stairs.
Before they could get out the door, they were ambushed by their parents.
"You two look so cute!" Maddie cooed. "Stand together so I can take a picture." She held up a camera and readied it to take a photo.
"Mooom," Danny groaned. "This isn't a big deal! It's not like it's prom or homecoming or something!"
"Yeah, but you didn't have a date to homecoming," Jack interjected. Maddie shot him a glare.
"I know its just the winter formal," Maddie said, turning to the twins, "but I still want to get pictures of you."
They both sighed in unison and stepped closer together.
"Good, now smile!"
They put on fake smiles and the camera flashed.
"Okay, that's great," Maddie said looking at the picture on the display of the camera. "You should take pictures to and send them to me."
"We really want to see this lovely lady, Danny," Jack added with a grin.
Danny groaned dramatically and pushed out of the door.
…
Danny walked up the steps of Paulina's front entrance with a churning stomach. He glanced back at his sisters in the front seat. Danielle gave him a thumbs up and Jazz waved her hands for him to go on.
Danny swallowed thickly and turned back to the front door. "Look Paulina, that necklace I gave you was a Fenton family heirloom and I really need it back," he mumbled to himself under his breath. He let out a long sigh. "No that sounds stupid."
Drawing in a deep breath, he stopped procrastinating and rang the door bell once. Half a minute went by before a very large hispanic man answered the door. He looked at Danny with an disapproving expression.
"A-are you Paulina's father?" Danny asked shakily.
"Yes, and if you upset her we're going to have a talk," the man said, lowering his voice to a menacing growl.
"Is that Danny?" Paulina asked form somewhere in the house.
The man's expression changed instantly. "Yes, sweetheart!" he called over his shoulder.
His expression just as quickly changed back and he growled, "I know where you live."
"Papa, you're scaring him!" Paulina cried as she squeezed past him out the doorway. Danny noticed she was still wearing the amulet.
"I'm sorry sweetheart. I'm just watching out for you." He bent and kissed her forehead. "Have fun at the dance."
"I will, Papa," she said, smiling brightly. Finally, she turned to Danny. "Lets go," she said and they both headed towards Jazz's car.
As soon as they had gotten seated, Danielle twisted around in her seat and snapped a picture with her phone. "Smile!" she said after the fact.
"Hey, delete that! I wasn't ready!" Paulina cried almost immediately.
Danielle paused almost as if startled then said in a more reserved tone. "Okay, sorry." She went back and deleted it. "There."
Paulina huffed and ran a hand through her hair, piling it on one shoulder. Danny let out a breath he had been holding and shot Danielle a frown when Paulina wasn't looking.
"Okay, you can take a picture now," Paulina said.
"Smile," Danielle said, watching the screen of her phone. A moment later the flash went off.
"Alright, are you guys done?" Jazz said, sounding slightly annoyed.
"Yeah, we're good," Danny said.
His older sister restarted the car and they were off to the high school. Jazz pulled around to the back entrance closest to the gym where the dance was being held and let them out.
"Text me when you're ready to come home," she shouted out the car window after them.
"Will do!" Danielle threw over her shoulder.
The three of them entered the gym, greeted by the sight of cherubs floating about on the walls and strings of heart lights strung up around the room—Valentines themed because the holiday was that Sunday.
"I'm gonna go find Sam and Tucker," Danielle said before slipping into the crowd.
Without warning, Paulina pulled him to the dance floor, forcing a yelp out of him.
…
About twenty minutes in, they had moved off to the side and Paulina daintily drank some punch. He hadn't gotten the chance to talk to Tucker or Sam yet. Every time they came close, Paulina dragged him off to talk with her friends, or back onto the dance floor, or anywhere that wasn't in the immediate vicinity of Tucker, Sam, and Danielle.
He wanted to talk with them about getting the necklace back, but he was too scared to even get his phone out to discuss it over text. He was getting the nerve up just to ask her for it back.
Danny forced himself not to fidget as he said, "So, uh, about the necklace…."
"It's so beautiful," she said sweetly. "I haven't taken it off since you gave it to me."
"Yeah, w-well, I think I'm going to need it back," he stuttered out.
"What? Why?" she asked sharply, not a trace of her former sweetness left.
"Ah, well, you see…" He rubbed the back of his neck nervously and looked around the gym for inspiration. He spotted Sam. "…it wasn't really mine to give in the first place. I gave it to you by accident. It really belongs to Sam."
"Ssssam," she hissed the goth's name like a snake, and her pupils became slits.
"B-but don't worry!" he rushed to amend. "I-I'll get you something else!"
Paulina's hand clutched the plastic cup that it crumpled and cracked. It was a good thing she had already finished her punch.
"Punch!" Danny exclaimed. "Like some punch. I-I'll go get you some more punch."
He ran over to the rest of the group who were conveniently right by the snack table.
"Jeez, dude, have you been avoiding us or something?" Tucker asked.
"How are things going with you and Paulina?" Sam asked a second after Tucker.
"Not great. I asked for the amulet back. She didn't turn into a dragon, but she was obviously pissed."
"I thought we agreed not to ask for the amulet back," Danielle said.
"I have to get it back sometime! I figured the dance would be as good a place as any because everyone's having a great time and parting, right?" He ran a hand down his face. "Look, you guys are practically my brain, and I couldn't talk with you for the whole night. What do you expect?"
Sam sighed. "What did you say to her?"
He rubbed his neck nervously. "I might have said I gave it to her on accident, and I also might have said it was yours." Sam's mouth fell open.
"H-hey, I hadn't noticed until now, but I-I really like your dress, Sam," he babbled nervously. "It's very queen-of-the-dead chic! Like it so suits y—"
"Danny, that is the absolute worst thing you could have said!" she hissed. "Paulina hates my guts!"
"Why?! Why does everything have to be so convoluted!"
She let out a harsh breath. "Its not important right now. Just get back to her before she burns the school down."
Danny filled up a glass of punch and pushed through the crowd back to Paulina. She was talking to Valerie, another "A-Lister" like Paulina. She seemed to be happy and relaxed, but as soon as she spotted Danny over Valerie's shoulder her expression tightened.
"Uh, here's some punch," he said stepping up beside the other girl.
Valerie rejoined her date and left Danny and Paulina alone again.
"So, um, how's it going?" Danny asked awkwardly.
She flipped her hair and turned away from him. "I'm still mad at you."
"For the necklace thing, right," he mumbled under his breath. "Look, Paulina I'm really sorry but—"
Suddenly a chill ran down his spine, and he breathed out a puff of icy breath. "—I have to go to the bathroom."
"What?" she said startled.
"That punch goes through you like Sherman through Georgia—or something." His voice almost a squeak. "I'll be right back I promise!" He turned sharply and ran for the restroom.
As soon as he was sure there was no one in there with him, he transformed and flew out of the bathroom intangible and invisible. He looked over the dance and didn't see any other ghost so he flew outside of the gym. Playing a literal game of hot and cold, he followed the cold.
Just as he was about to turn a corner someone said behind him, "Young sir."
He nearly jumped out of his skin and whirled around. He was faced with the ghost he saw two days before, the ghost he now knew was a haughty ruler in her time and was known to be ill tempered.
His eyebrows shot up "You? Dorothea, right?"
"Yes, and I would like to apologize for my behavior the other day," she said, her red eyes downcast. "But that does not excuse your act of thievery." her meek look melted away, and she raised angry eyes to his.
"No, you don't understand," he said, holding up his hands. "I didn't mean to take your amulet."
"Oh, then give it back, and this incident shall be forgotten," she said.
"Um, that's a bit of a problem," he said, looking away. "I don't…have it."
"What do you mean?"
"I sort of…gave it away by accident."
Instead of getting mad like he expected, her face pinched with worry. "You must get it back! Do you know the kind of havoc a wearer inexperienced with its enchantments could cause!"
"I have a pretty good idea, yeah," he said rubbing the back of his neck.
"Not only that, my brother would be furious if he knew I lost my amulet! Please good sir, retrieve it for me!" she begged.
"Y-your brother?" Danny gulped.
"Yes! If he knew he might end my existence and would assuredly come to your realm to retrieve what belongs to our family!"
Danny ran a hand through his hair. "Okay, okay…I get your amulet back, but you need to promise me you'll never come back here."
She nodded. "Yes, good sir. I promise I will never set foot on the mortal plane ever again if you do this for me."
"Alright, just…go back to the portal and wait on the other end for me."
She nodded and flew off.
Danny flew back to the bathroom and changed back to his human form. He ran to rejoin Paulina but she wasn't where he left her.
…
"Paulina went to the bathroom. Me and Sam are going to talk to her."
Danielle hit send on the text and quickly hurried to catch up to Sam. She knew there was bad blood between the two girls, and she was there mostly to play mediator if anything went wrong.
Paulina was checking her already flawless makeup in the mirror when they walked in. With a slight frown she turned around.
Narrowing her eyes she asked, "What do you want?"
"We just wanted to talk," Danielle said. "Can't we all just be friends here?"
Paulina gave her a flat look, then turned her gaze onto Sam. "Been there, done that," she said, venom creeping into her tone.
Sam gave a short sigh. "I just want to sort something out. There was a huge mix up. The day before Danny gave you the necklace, he came to my house to show it to me to ask my opinion on it, thats all," Sam said, the lie rolling off her tongue easily. "He must have accidentally mixed up the one he bought for you with one of my necklaces. My grandma gave me that—"
"Save it honey," Paulina said holding up a hand. "There's no way I'm giving back this trinket from your boyfriend."
Sam gave a very unladylike snort. "My boyfriend? And they say pretty girls can't be funny. Danny is not my boyfriend. He's my best friend. Maybe…that's why I was so hard on you. I know we don't see eye to eye anymore, but that wasn't any reason for me to call you shallow."
Paulina clacked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "Bummer. The only reason I went out with him was to steal him from you—well, that and to make Dash jealous."
"Y-you what!?" Sam ground out.
"S-Sam," Danielle said nervously, laying a hand on her shoulder.
"But since you two aren't dating," Paulina said taking off the amulet, "here, you can have this thing back." She clasped the amulet around Sam's throat before she could even move.
Danielle's mouth literally fell open. Things were spiraling down hill so fast—and she sucked at mediating. That was Jazz's sort of thing and Danielle had obviously not picked up anything from her older sister.
"Sam, Sam, deep breaths," Danielle said, basically hanging off of Sam's arm at this point.
An inhuman growl came from Sam's throat, and her pupils became slits. "Shallow witch!" Sam spat, her voice reverberating demonically.
Danielle let go of her and backed away as she began to grow before her eyes.
…
Danny's phone vibrated with a text and he pulled it out to read the message. It was from Danielle.
"Paulina went to the bathroom. Me and Sam are going to talk to her."
He had a really bad feeling about that. He went to the girl's bathroom and quietly nocked. Almost as if in response, there was an ear splitting roar and the whole school shook.
There was a deafening pause then screams of terror erupted and many of the teens fled the gymnasium.
Danny began to push into the girl's restroom only to almost be bowled over as Danielle ran out.
"Danny! Sam—Paulina…t-they—" she said in-between pants.
"I think I get the gist. Go find Tucker and get somewhere safe. I'll take care of this," he said as he ran past her into the restroom.
There was a gigantic hole in the ceiling and a large silhouette was fast escaping through the night sky. Danny transformed and tore through the air towards them. He over took the pair. Right as he was winding up to kick the dragon in the center of its back, he realized the dragon he was facing was black and green, not pink like he had come to associate with Paulina's dragon form. He didn't have any time too pull back and the kick landed. The black dragon plummeted, smacking into the football field.
He flew down to meet it as it was just picking itself up. It opened bright purple eyes that glared when they landed on him.
"S-Sam?" he stammered. "I think you guys really need to bury the hatchet. It's gotten way out of control."
The dragon let out a hissing growl and bellowed, "Shallow girl!"
His eyes flicked to Paulina's limp form, clutched in one of Sam's claws. His stomach did flips. He silently prayed to the powers that be that she was okay. Even thought she despised her, Sam would hate herself for the rest of her life if she had really hurt Paulina. "Y-yeah, I get it," he said, his voice quaking, "but you really need to get over it and put Paulina down."
The dragon snarled and opened its mouth, showing off a purple tongue and gums before green fire shot towards Danny. Danny went intangible to avoid the flames. He shot forward, still intangible and grabbed Paulina out of Sam's clawed hand.
Danny dove under the earth and came up behind the bleachers. He took a moment to look Paulina over. He didn't see any blood, and she seemed to still be breathing. She must have passed out when she saw Sam transform. Danny still didn't know how that had happened, but those details could wait.
He almost let out a sigh of relief, but a deafening roar made his breath catch in his throat. He shot out from behind the bleachers only to be met with a clawed hand. It swatted him like a fly, sending him into the football field. He skidded until he met the opposite bleachers. What comes around goes around, he supposed.
He lifted himself up out of the torn earth. Just as Sam was about to pounce on him like a cat, he heard Danielle shout across the field, "Danny, catch!"
He looked up just in time to see the Fenton Ghost fisher flying towards him. He shot up to catch it.
He wasn't the only one that had heard Danielle, though. Sam turned her eyes on Danielle and Tucker standing by the goal post. She hissed and readied to jump at them, but Danny intercepted the dragon and sent her reeling with a punch.
"Take Tucker and meet me in the woods!" he shouted at them before turning back to Sam.
While Danielle took Tucker's hand in hers and dragged him towards the small wooded area behind the school, Danny flew up to meet Sam where she had landed. She pulled herself up before he could get another hit in and swiped at him. He dodged to the side.
Forming an idea he spooled out a bit of the line from the rod and made a loop with the hook. Unfortunately, while he was distracted, Sam swung around and swatted him with her tail.
He stopped just short of hitting the goal. Out of breath, he gloated, "Hah! You hit like a girl!"
As if some part of Sam was still in there, she roared and lunged. As she charged, he shot upwards out of her reach and looped the lasso around her neck. The dragon almost immediately realized something was wrong. It pulled at the line experimentally. Danny caught the reel and held it, stopping the dragon from spooling anymore out. Sam growled and pulled harder. Danny pulled back. She let out an outraged roar and suddenly shot into the air.
Danny hadn't expected the maneuver and was yanked along with her. He quickly regained his bearings and flew up beside her. Before she could react, he wound the line around the dragon's legs and then its wings, forcing them closed.
The dragon let out a startled sound, the only expression of emotion Danny had seen it display other that absolute rage, as it started to fall. It hit the ground with an enormous crash. He touched down beside it.
The dragon breathed labored breaths and looked at him with glazed half closed eyes.
"Sorry, Sam," he said as he reached for the amulet.
…
"Sorry Danny," Sam said. She sat down next to him in a pile of snow that was still left over from the last winter storm, not caring for the sake of her dress.
Police sirens wined in the distance, and red and blue light peaked through the barren trees. They'd have to get out of there pretty soon if they didn't want to be questioned by authorities.
"It's okay," Danny said. "At least we got the amulet back." He sighed and rubbed a place that was still sore. It felt like he tore something.
"You know since we're on the topic of apologizing, I'm sorry too," Tucker said, slightly breathless from the cold. "I pressured you into asking Paulina out."
"It's okay, Tuck. Nobody could have predicted that I'd have to fight either her or Sam as dragons."
"Jazz is probably on the on the verge of a mental breakdown," Danielle said. "She's sent me something like an essay's worth of text's."
Danny let out a sigh. "I know. I just need a moment."
"At least you didn't feint this time," Tucker pointed out.
Danny shot him a halfhearted glare.
"You know if we walk the rest of the way through the woods we'll end up in the back parking lot of the mall. Do you want me to tell Jazz to meet us there?" Danielle said.
"Yeah, fine," he said shakily.
He let out a gusty sigh. "Paulina's never gong to talk to me again."
"Out of everything that's happened, that's what you're worried about?" Sam asked with a frown.
"Well, I'm also worried if she's going to get home okay," he added.
Sam scoffed. "I'm sure her dad will come get her."
"Oh, yeah, and that's another thing I'm worried about," Danny said as he pulled himself to his feet. "Her dad might come after me. He apparently knows were we live."
They started to walk through the woods, snow crunching underfoot.
…
It was almost one in the morning. The twins padded down the stairs as quietly as they could.
After dealing with the Lunch Lady with out her, Danielle had chewed him out for not including her. He had tried to reason that it would have been dangerous for her to be there, but she would hear none of it. She was there when he had to put the ghosts back into the ghost zone forever after—unless she was already asleep. He didn't want to have his head bitten off for waking her, even if she would be angry later.
"So this ghost is okay?" Danielle asked quietly as they walked down into the basement. "Like, it's not going to attack on sight?"
"No, she seemed pretty cool actually, not like the other ghosts we've met," Danny answered.
They stepped down into the lab and Danny went to open the doors to the portal. They rolled open and a moment later the princess flew out.
"Do you have the amulet?" she asked, looking a little harried.
Danny pulled the necklace out of his pocket and held it out for her. The ghost's face instantly brightened. She took the amulet and slipped it around her neck.
"You have my sincerest thanks." She dipped into a curtsy. "And since you upheld your end of the deal, I shall uphold mine. You shall never see me in the mortal realm again," she said smiling.
She glanced to Danny's left. Her smile faltered. "Who is this?" she asked warily.
"Oh, she's just my sister," Danny said.
Danielle gave the ghost a small smile and waved.
"Ah, I see," Dorothea said. She bowed her head and gave Danielle a polite smile.
"I will take my leave then. Farewell." At that she flew back through the portal.
Danny shut the doors behind her and turned to his sister. "Come on, sis. It's like, way past our bed time."
Danielle yawned. "Bed times—those are for babies." Still she followed him upstairs and not long after each of them had settled into their beds, they were sound asleep.