

Chapter Two

The New Girl

"Ms. Manson are you alright?" Maddie Fenton asked, jerking from her sleep. The rest of the family stood behind her, dazed. It was nearly four o'clock in the morning, and they had all been awakened to booming knocks on their front door and repeated rings on the loud doorbell.

Sam's grandmother stood outside the door, still in her nightgown, shivering in the freezing morning.

"Come in, we'll get you warm," Maddie offered, taking the old woman by the hand and leading her to the couch. "Jack would you get some blankets?"

Rushing up the stairs, he listened and went to get the blankets.

"Ms. Manson, what's wrong?"

"It's Samantha. I went to check on her and she wasn't in her room. Have you seen her Daniel?"

Danny usually hated it when people used his real name, but it wasn't important. Danny went pale. Sam was missing. It had only been a couple of hours ago when he had said goodbye to her at her house. She had insisted they leave her alone because she was tired, and so Tucker and he had gone home.

He shook his head, unable to speak. His best friend. What if some ghost had gotten to her? What if they were torturing her right now?

He felt a hand on his shoulder and nearly fell off the couch arm. Jazz stood behind him, looking encouraging.

"I called the police and they're out looking for her, but they haven't found anyone yet. Her parents are in Paris and I doubt she went there. I thought maybe she'd come over to Daniel's. She's so secretive...."

Danny fought the urge to rush outside and start screaming her name. Jazz was looking at his arm oddly. It had totally disappeared. He grimaced and shoved it quickly underneath the couch pillow. When he looked back, Jazz had turned away.

"I- I think I'm going to go to my room," Danny stammered. Jack returned with the blankets and passed one out to Sam's grandmother.

"Danny- alright, sweetie, you may go," his mother replied, reluctantly.

He rushed upstairs. Angrily, he ran in his room and went ghost boy. Fading past the house, he searched the whole night through for his friend.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jazz watched her brother storm up the stairs. He looked so lost, so desperate. She knew what he was going to do. He was going to turn himself into his half ghost self and then go looking all over for Sam.

She hated seeing him like this..... Maybe she could find a way to help.

"Ms. Manson, why don't you stay here for tonight, Jack and I will go and look for Samantha," Maddie said.

"Jazz will stay here, won't you?" Jack said.

Jazz had no choice but to say yes. She wanted to help Danny, to comfort her young, troubled brother, but her chance was lost now.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Danny, it's time for school, Tucker's here. Are you alright sweetie?" his mother called from outside his bedroom door.

He sat on the edge of his bed, head in hand. He had been searching all night. All he had wound up with was exhaustion and body pain.

"Daniel?"

"I'm coming mom," he said. He pulled on his backpack and walked out, ignoring his mother's worried expression.

"Hey, Danny," Tucker greeted him warily.

"Hey, any word?" he asked.

"No." They spent the walk to school in silence. Danny wouldn't care if a ghost attacked right now. He wanted his friend back. They reached the school in chaos.

"What's going on here?" Tucker asked.

"I don't know," Danny replied miserably.

Boys whistled and girls gossiped the whole way in. Danny kept hearing words like "new", "pretty," "popular," and "girl." He didn't have anything to do with the popular crowd as Dash Baxter constantly reminded him, so he didn't care.

Danny spent the day in a whirlwind. He was so tired, but wouldn't go to sleep. All he could think about was Sam. He put his books in his locker, daydreaming.

Her laugh...her smile....her wicked sense of humor....

"Hey, Danny, did you get the Bio homework, people talked to me the whole day, so I missed it," a girl said.

He pulled his head out of his locker, recognizing the voice. A violet eyed girl stood leaning above him, smiling. She had on white tennis shoes, blue jeans with flowered patterns, a pink shirt with a red heart in the middle, big silver hoop earrings, and her black hair was pulled into a short bun with a few strands curled around her face....her familiar face.

"Hello, Danny? Is there something on my face?" she said.

Danny blinked and then gasped.

"Dude what's up?" Tucker said, coming up behind him. He too suddenly noticed the new girl.

"Sam?!?" Tucker gasped, clutching himself.

"What? What the heck is your problem?" Sam asked, her hands on her hips.

Danny stood there in shock. This couldn't be his best friend. The girl who could really care less about anything else but environmental and animal problems, vegetables, and ghosts?

Danny's ghost sense kicked in suddenly. He would have to make up later, and he regretted it. Sam was found...but different.

Tucker didn't see anything, but Sam looked at him weird again.

"Where have you been?" Tucker asked.

"Oh, I was just driving around for a while," she replied. "I snuck into the mall and got myself a new look." She never took her eyes off of Danny.

Danny backed away, shivering. Something was wrong. This wasn't Sam.

"Hey Tucker, Sam, I'll m-meet you later okay?" He ran off in the other direction.

"What's his problem?" Sam asked.

"Hello? Everybody's been searching for you for like....all night," Tucker said.

"Oh really, I didn't notice. Where'd Danny go?"

"I don't know."

"Well, let's go find out then."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They don't even miss you do they, lady? The boy backed up like he wasn't even interested anymore. There's something different about him. What is he?
Get out, please. I'll never tell you.

Then I guess I'll find out....

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Danny ran inside the boys' bathroom, breathing hard. That wasn't Sam. Whoever it was, he didn't know. She must have been attacked by a ghost.

The light that went inside of her.....the one the knight had sent. It must have really been a memory blaster. But how did she know his name..?

It explained everything. Danny had to get the sword away from her. He had to sneak in later today. But then again he wanted to watch her.

His ghost sense kicked on again and he heard voices coming from outside. Sam and Tucker were walking down the hall talking.

"Shouldn't we be looking for Danny?" Tucker asked.

"That's what we're doing, but I was just wondering."

"Well, you know, Danny and all of his ghost troubles, of course he's a little strange once in a while. We've known that since he told us remember?"

"I wonder what really happened that day..." she said.

Danny remembered all too well.

-----

"Hey, Danny, how was school today?" Maddie Fenton asked him when he walked down the stairs leading to the lab. She and Jack were placing an octagon shaped doorway on the wall.

"Fine. What are you guys doing exactly?" he had asked.

Of course Jack answered excitedly first. "This is our latest invention. It a doorway that leads into the ghost zone. Ghosts can come in, ghosts can come out. But this will be the greatest invention ever. It will prove that there are real ghosts."

"Right," Danny muttered under his breath. His parents were totally obsessed with this new ghost stuff. Danny was a little too old to believe in ghosts, but he still thought it was cool occasionally.

"What do you think Danny?" Maddie asked, positively beaming.

"It's cool," Danny said with mock interest.

"You can be the first witness to try it out," Jack said.

"I can be what?"

"Oh, come on, it won't hurt you," Maddie said.

"Just stand right there so you don't get hit by the beams," Jack joked.

"He's kidding Danny," Maddie assured her nervous son.

Jack pulled up an extension cord and plug.
"Ready?" He asked Maddie. Danny closed his eyes and Jack plugged it in.

Nothing happened.

Maddie tried it again. Pulled it out and then plugged it back in.

"Another experiment failed. Come on Jack, let's go work on the calculations again," Maddie said, depressed. Taking a crying Jack by the hand, she led him upstairs, leaving the machine plugged in.

Danny stood still relieved that it hadn't blown up. Curiously, while his parents were upstairs, he walked towards the entrance of the new experiment.

"Well no wonder it didn't work, this part has to be plugged in," Danny said to himself. His dad had probably forgotten about it.

The plug was lying there on the floor and Danny picked it up and reached for the outlet. "Hey, Mom! Dad! I found the pro-"He plugged it in.

The lights around him shut off abruptly.

"Uh-oh...."he said, backing off. He tripped on the cord and leaned on the wall for support. "Oops." He laid his hand on the wall and accidentally pushed a green button.

Lightning and electricity flashes danced around him and his last vision was the green button with the word "On" written on it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Well, all I know is that is was an accident and he just somehow became half ghost. Ghost powers are cool, but I'd prefer to be good if I get them again. I will be like a ghost sidekick for Danny. He's had more practice than I have," Tucker said.

"You two are ghosts?"

"No, I was once. Remember the wishing ghost Desiree? But Danny's the one with ghost powers, remember?" Tucker said.

"Really?"

"Man that ghost really hit you hard with something, huh?" Tucker said.

"What? Oh, yeah," her voice faded off as they walked farther down the hall.

He opened the door and walked out into the middle of the hall. He'd heard enough evidence that he was right. Making sure there was nobody around, he changed into his ghost form and flew out of the school and to Sam's house.