Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman does. I do own Kris and friends.

"Toothbrush, change of clothes, pajamas…" I named each item as I shoved them into a sky blue duffle bag, and then crossed them off my mental list.

Cal sat on my bed, watching as I ran about the room frantically grabbing and stuffing. "Gosh, Kris, you're only leaving over night. Do you really have to take so much?" He teased.

"Not now, Cal! Help me figure out what I'm forgetting!" I shouted back at him while rummaging through my closet.

The phone rang then. For a moment I could hear my mother talking to the caller, then came the sound of her foots steps on the stairs, and she appeared in my bedroom doorway looking slightly annoyed.

"Guess who." She said, holding the phone out to me.

I took the phone from her and positioned is between my shoulder and the side of my head while continuing my search through the closet. "What now?"

"When are you getting here? How much longer?" Lexi screamed, nearly destroying my left eardrum for the twelfth time that afternoon.

I sighed. "Five minutes less than the last time you called, Lexi. Just chill okay! I'm almost ready."

"People will start showing up in like, three hours! I need you here now!" She wined.

I pushed a box on the top shelf in my closet out of the way. "Ah! Found my flashlight." I announced. "Kay, listen Lexi. I've just got to shove everything else in my bag and I'll be right over. Kay? Bye." I turned off the phone before she could answer.

Have you figured out what's going on yet? It's Friday, around four o'clock, a week after the dance, and Lexi is about to have a nervous breakdown. She's called me nearly every five minutes since I got home from school.

"Okay." I sighed as I pulled the duffle bag zipper closed. "That's everything… I hope."

"Don't worry. If you forget anything, just call me and I'll run it over." Mom assured me.

"Thanks, Mom. I'm sure I'll be okay, though." I walked out my door and down the stairs. My mom followed, but as I reached the bottom step I realized my brother hadn't left the room yet. "Cal! Get out of my room, and don't you dare go near my journal while I'm gone!"

He ran out immediately, putting on an adorably innocent expression. "I wasn't gonna!" Cal insisted, but the mischievous look in his eyes said differently.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes, smirking at my little brother as he ran down the steps to join Mom and I in the foyer. After adjusting the duffle bag's strap on my shoulder and lifting the navy blue, bundled-up sleeping bag I'd brought up from the storage room, I turned my attention to my mother.

"You sure you can handle things while I'm gone?" I asked, using a fake concerned tone.

She rolled her eyes and smiled. "Yes, mother. I'm sure." Mom said sarcastically, but a moment later her face softened. "Don't worry Kris. Everything will be fine. You should go, have a great time, you need the vacation."

What did she mean by that?

Before I could I ask her that very question, the phone rang. I grabbed the receiver from my mother's hand, pressed the 'Talk' button, and quickly said, "I'm coming Lexi!" Then I turned the phone off again, returned it to Mom's hand, and headed for the door.

"Do you want a ride to her house?" Mom asked, following me out.

"Nah." I answered, tying the sleeping bag to the rack behind my bike's seat. "I'll just take my bike. Thanks though." We exchanged a tight embrace, and then I swung my right leg to the other side of the bicycle. She backed away, watching as I buckled my helmet and readjusted the way my bag hung off my shoulders. "Love ya, Mom. See you tomorrow."

"I love you, too, Kris. Have fun!" She called as I pushed off and rode down the street.

Lexi doesn't live too far away from my own house. She's farther than Ben and Teresa, who both live just around the corner, but still within biking distance (walking distance, if I'm feeling energetic). Actually, her house is about a block away from the park.

Which means I had to ride past the park in order to get there. A chill ran up my spine as I pedaled down the road that ran right next to the forest half of the place. It used to seem so peaceful, happy, and welcoming. Now when I looked through the trees, all I could see was darkness, and had the feeling I was being watched. The moment I was past the woods every muscle in my body relaxed, and I realized I'd been holding my breath the whole time.

My recovery was cut short, however, as I pulled to a stop in front of Lexi's house and was almost literally dragged up the porch steps and through the door. All the while half hearing Lexi rant about how late I was, how much work there was to get done, and how much time we had left.

"Help me move this stuff back further!" She commanded, referring to the sofa and chairs in her family room. We shoved all three pieces of furniture a few feet back, creating more room between them and the big screen T.V.

"So, where's Teresa?" I asked, falling back onto the couch to rest for a minute.

Lexi replied with, "I have to go call her again!" Then she took off up the stairs to find the phone. Two minutes later she stormed back down, and announced, "She hung up on me! Can you believe her?"

I decided it best not to answer that.

As soon as Teresa arrived, we began to set things up. We covered the family room coffee table in bowls of popcorn and candy, a few liters of soda, a couple of board games, and several DVDs. Lexi brought out her entire collection of nail polishes, any hair accessory imaginable, and about eleven bottles of hair spray. Teresa and I watched with mild amusement as Lexi set each item on and around an end table.

We had it all ready in half an hour, but Lexi spent the remaining two hours fussing over every little detail and rearranging everything. The moment the doorbell rang, however, she forgot about the fact that the popcorn bowl didn't match her pajamas, and rushed up to the door in excitement.

Twenty minutes later about twelve more girls, all around the ages of fourteen or fifteen, occupied the family room. From the looks of it, Lexi hadn't actually invited as many girls as she said she would.

"Kay. I think that's everyone." Lexi decided, slowly glancing over the room at each person.

"Who else did you invite?" Star, a blonde freshman cheerleader, asked as she picked through Lexi's nail polishes.

"Chelsea Keller said she probably couldn't make it. And when I asked Brittany if she wanted to come, she didn't really act all that interested. I don't know if we'd want her here anyway." Lexi replied.

I noticed she had conveniently forgotten to invite Paulina and Valerie. Lexi may be the sort who craves popularity, but she also prefers to be the center of attention when it comes to things like this. If she had invited the two most popular girls in school, simply to get 'in' with them, Paulina would have taken over and done what ever she wanted, and Lexi knew this. Actually, Lexi would rather gain total popularity by herself instead of taking what little she'd get through a 'friendship' with two other girls.

Anyway, back to the party. We started off with some movies and games, you know, the regular stuff. Actually the first couple of hours were rather uneventful. We watched movies, ate pizza, talked about boys, did each others hair, had a pillow fight, talked about more boys, played truth or dare, listened to music, and talked about boys again. By the time eleven o'clock rolled around, we were out of things to do and on too much of a sugar high to even start thinking about sleep.

"We could talk about boys." One of the girls suggested as she hung upside down on the couch.

"No." Star protested after coating another girl's hair in spray. "We're all sick of hearing about your boyfriend, Jenny."

Several others mumbled agreements.

I glanced at the cards in my hand. "Got any three's?" I asked Hannah, a brunette sitting across from me in the small circle of girls.

"Go fish." She said with a slow, obviously bored tone. With a sigh, I reached out for the pile of cards in the center of our circle.

"Oh! Oh! I know!" Someone shouted suddenly. Eagerly, everyone turned their attention to a tall, black haired gal standing at the front of the room. She smirked, waving a pink flashlight at us all. "Let's play flashlight tag!"

Several girls stood up and began chattering excitedly, digging out their own flashlights. "Wait." Lexi called. "We can't, not in here anyways. The house isn't big enough, and if we break anything, my mom will kill me."

"So let's go out to the park." Said the girl who first suggested the game; I believe her name is Camryn. "It's just around the block. The forest would be perfect!"

You've probably got an idea of what went through my head in that moment. I froze, eyes wide, cards dropping from my hands. My heart was pounding, I'm sure my face lost some color. Mentally, I was hoping everyone would realize that this was a bad idea.

"That's a great idea!"

Next thing I know, I'm clutching my flashlight while Teresa drags me out the door, down the sidewalk, around the corner, and across the street with everyone else. Of course, no one happened to notice my odd behavior.

The air was cool, the sky was cloudless, stars twinkled nicely, and a full moon cast its soft white glow everywhere not lighted by a streetlight. Everywhere except the forest, which seemed to practically overflow with eerie darkness. A fact everyone but myself seemed oblivious to.

Rules were set, someone was chosen to be 'it', and everyone ran off into the trees. Before she could take off and leave me alone, I grabbed Teresa by the arm and whispered, "Do you think this is such a good idea? I mean, we have no clue what could be in there!"

"What's the matter, Kris? Afraid of the dark?" She teased. When she realized I was serious, however, she said, "There's nothing to worry about. It's not like we're out in the middle of nowhere! We'll be fine. Now, let's get in there and hide before Lauren comes out and tags us!" Then she took me by the wrist, and pulled me along into the trees.

I tried desperately to stay close to Teresa and anyone else around, but after the first couple minutes of paranoia and being scared out of my wits, I found myself alone in the middle of the small woods.

"Come on, Kris." I whispered to myself while creeping cautiously through the trees. "Everything will be fine. There's nothing to be afraid of. You can't let your wild imagination ruin the night. Just take a deep breath…" I inhaled, closed my eyes, held my breath for a brief moment, then exhaled and relaxed.

Something rustled behind me, interrupting my attempt at regaining some sanity. Instantly all the fears and worries leapt back into my mind as I turned and backed away from the large bush that had undoubtedly made the noise. My heart pounded, my mind raced, my breathing stopped, my hands were shaking uncontrollably. The bush rustled again. I tried to turn and run, but my legs were slow to respond. One more rustle, louder this time, and then… a bright light filled my vision, drowning the rest of the world in pure black.

"Gotcha! You're it, Kris!"

The colorful spots dancing across my vision prevented me from identifying whoever had just 'tagged' me, but as I realized what had happened I couldn't help but feel absolutely ridiculous.

"That's it." I scolded myself, my voice filled with determination. My fingers tightened their grip on the flashlight I'd dug out of my closet earlier, flicking the little switch to the 'on' position. "Let's have some fun."

And I did. For about fifteen wonderful minutes, I chased, tagged, ran, giggled, and hid. Eventually I came across Lexi, who was sneaking around quietly. I hopped out at her from behind a tree. "Boo!"

She jumped, saw that it was just me, and glared, but smirked at the same time. "Very funny, Kris. Listen, I think we should head back to my place. My parents won't be too happy if they wake up to check on us, and find we've all left without letting them know."

I nodded. "Okay. Let's go round everyone up." My flashlight flicked back to life as I pushed the switch again. "You wanna split up, or should we search… together… Lexi? Are you okay?"

Lexi was backed up against a tree, seemingly frozen in that spot. Her eyes were bulging; her face had lost some color. With a shaking hand she pointed just past me, and squeaked, "Behind you!"

I put my hands on my hips, and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, uh-huh, sure. You're not going to get me that easi…"

My sentence was interrupted by an echoing growl coming from just behind me. Startled, I spun around quickly to find the origins of the sound. I found myself staring into two large, bright red, glowing eyes that I recognized immediately. They were the same horrifying eyes of the green blob-like creature I'd seen several weeks earlier.

I screamed, Lexi screamed, the thing snarled. It crouched, no doubt preparing to pounce on me. After seeing it this second time I noticed the thick tufts of lime green fur, fangs as long as my finger protruding from its bottom lip, and short arms equipped with three claws on each stubby hand. All though, I didn't notice these things right then as I was too busy screaming and stumbling backwards as fast as I could manage.

And I tripped. Life can be very cruel at times. I'm positive it let that tree root grow out of the ground in that exact spot for the soul purpose of making me fall at that very moment. My eyes shut as I fell backwards to the ground and didn't bother to continue my retreat, figuring the thing would be on top of me in half a second. I opened my eyes again; it jumped at me, and was knocked in the side by an unidentified black and white streak.

I just sat there, propped up on my back, staring at where it had been only two seconds earlier. If it weren't for Lexi's screeching shouts, I'd have stayed there for an hour or more.

"OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH!" She shouted several times, so quickly it was almost impossible to understand what she was saying. After repeating that phrase about fifty times more, she finally moved on to screaming something else. "What was that thing? What did it want? Did you see that? We gotta get out of here! Are you okay, Kris?" She went on and on.

I blinked slowly, stood, took my ranting friend by the arm, and walked quickly in a random direction, hoping I was headed for the nearest forest end. We came across six other girls on our way out, and after noticing Lexi's episode they followed without more than a questioning look.

Soon we emerged from the trees, and found the other seven girls resting on and around a picnic table. Teresa was among them, and the moment she laid eyes on Lexi (who was still raving like crazy and almost in tears, and who I still held by the arm) she rushed to our side.

"What? What happened? What's wrong?" She asked quickly, extremely concerned.

I let Lexi's arm go, and grabbed Teresa in a big hug. She helped support me as I'd hoped she would, I was too shocked to continue standing on my own. Lexi must've had the same problem, she collapsed to her knees, panting heavily but finally silent. The rest of the girls crowded around us, asking questions that we ignored.

Just when I thought it was all over, someone shouted, "Oh my gosh! What is that?" Everyone looked at the girl who'd shouted first, then turned in the direction she was pointing.

I hadn't really wanted to look, but did anyway, directing my eyes to a place in the air several yards above the forest. As I'd suspected, there was the mystery beast, hovering in mid air. It was looking into the trees below it, as if searching for something it'd lost. Five seconds later another black and white streak rammed it from behind, knocking the creature back down into the trees. The other thing paused in the air for a millisecond, and then dove down after the green blob thing.

"Let's get out of here." Teresa said firmly, helping Lexi off the ground and pulling our dazed selves in the direction of Lexi's house. Everyone else followed without protest. As we rounded the corner I took one last glance back at the trees, just in time to see a blue-white flash of light.

Once we were back inside, Lexi and a few of the more paranoid girls proceeded to lock all doors and windows. The noise they made woke Mr. and Mrs. Burks, who insisted rather forcefully that we all get to bed immediately, after Lexi went on another rant fest to them both. Gratefully I unrolled my sleeping bag and zipped it up around me. I was asleep almost instantly.

The high, cheery, and fairly annoying voice belonging to Lexi's mother woke us the next morning. "Rise and shine sleeping beauties! It's nine a.m. Everyone feeling better today?"

Everybody answered with exhausted or grumpy groans and growls. Several girls, including myself, pulled blankets or pillows over our heads to block out the light and sounds of morning. I was far from ready to face the day.

Mrs. Burks, however, is very persistent. She ushered everyone up for some breakfast (which was probably the highlight of the morning), then sent all twelve zombie-like girls back to their homes to be dealt with by their own parents. Teresa and I stayed behind to help Lexi clean up.

We swept, vacuumed, scrubbed, sprayed, organized, and pushed the family room furniture back to their rightful positions. Teresa, being the clean freak and perfectionist that she is, worked hard and quickly. Lexi and I, on the other hand, were unfocused and still recovering from the night before. In fact, the moment Lexi's mom left the room, that very incident was finally brought up in conversation.

"What do you think that was?" Lexi said quietly, knowing her mother would not be pleased to hear about the 'monster in the park' from her daughter again.

"What do I think what was?" Teresa asked, though I'm sure she knew what Lexi was talking about.

"You know… the thing… last night."

"Oh. That."

I remained silent, content with simply listening to them while I swept away the remains of a dumped popcorn bowl.

"I don't know what it was." Teresa continued. "I didn't see much of it. You were closer, weren't you? What exactly happened?"

"Kris and I were just standing there and it started to attack us!" Lexi answered, tying a black garbage bag. Lexi tends to exaggerate a bit when she's excited.

Teresa is well aware of that fact. She raised an eyebrow, and asked with a hint of doubtfulness "It attacked you?"

"Well… almost. It nearly jumped on Kris, but that other thing knocked it away."

They went on for a while, just going over what happened again. Nothing really important was discussed until Lexi asked, "How long do you think it's been there? In the park?"

"I dunno. Couldn't have been too long, right? Someone would have noticed it before."

"I did." I spoke finally. "And Cal did. And some lady last week, I think."

My friends were silent for a moment or so. "You'd seen it before last night?" Lexi asked.

I nodded. "Several weeks ago. Cal saw it a few days before me. Or, at least, I'm pretty sure he saw the same thing."

Another pause, then Teresa asked, "Why didn't you say something before?"

I shrugged, stacking a bunch of dirty dishes into neat piles. "Would you have believed me?"

"Yes." Teresa said.

"No." Lexi answered at the same time.

A third silence, this one even longer than the other two. After a minute more of quiet working, Teresa looked at me again. "What do you think it was?"

"Nothing good." I replied with another shrug, and then carried the dishes up the stairs and to the kitchen, not wanting to go on talking about it any longer.

xxxxx

"Kris? Is something wrong?" My mother asked the moment I stepped in the door, her motherly instincts instantly detecting I wasn't myself.

"Everything's fine, Mom. I just stayed up real late last night, and I need some rest. That's all." I lied. I absolutely hate keeping stuff like this from her, but I still hadn't gotten around to filling her in on what happened at the dance. There's no way she'd understand the park incident.

She hugged me and gave me a small kiss on the forehead. "Okay then. Go take a nap. I'll call you down for lunch."

"Thanks Mom." I forced a smile and headed for my room.

Crashing on the bed without even bothering to pull back the sheets, I shut my eyes and tried to drown out the world. It's what was going on inside my head that was the problem, however, as I soon discovered it impossible to shove aside all these thoughts and questions I had about what had happened.

Or more importantly, what was happening. First that meat monster attacks the school, or started to though I'm not sure what stopped it. Then the dragon also attacks the school, and quite possibly the mall. That green creature has apparently been lurking in the forest for nearly two months or more. All three of them had that faint, yet extremely eerie glow (I didn't see the dragon personally, but Teresa and Brad made it quite clear that the beast was definitely glowing). All three had attacked something in some way, even if damage was so small that myself and my friends seemed to be the only ones noticing it.

Then there was that other thing at the park that night, the black and white thing that I assume was fighting with the green monster. I was too dazed to pay much attention to it then, but thinking back on it again I could recall more detail.

It had been humanoid, I think, and possibly male. Dressed in black and white, with matching white hair, also glowing. As quickly as I'd seen it… er, him… he was gone again, so that's all I had. Well, that and the fact that he was fighting the creature, and had saved me (whether the rescue was intentional or not).

It was all so overwhelming and hard to understand, that I couldn't manage to even doze a bit. I needed to get it all off my chest, to talk with someone. I was just considering if I should go speak with my mother, when there was a couple light knocks on my door.

The door opened without my reply. "Kris?" A ten-year-old voice said quietly. "When you're done sleeping, will you take me to the park?"

A weak smile spread across my face as I sat up to see my younger brother. "Cal, we need to talk."

Author's Note: Yay! I updated on time! Actually, I was gone all day Saturday and thought I wouldn't make it. Then I got home real late and finished the story despite the fact that I was falling asleep at my keyboard. Next chapter might be a while, I'm afraid. NaNo starts very soon, andI've not got chapter four planned as well as I should. So I appologize in advance if it doesn't show up until December. At least you've been warned.

Now, to my reviewers:

Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet- Ack! I went back to watch the episode again. I totally missed the 'Dance Tomorrow' sign behind Tucker at the beginning. Thanks for pointing that out. I've added a little note to the beginning of chapter two. I've got to pay more attention :( Thanks so much.

Sukira-chan- Thank you! I'm not exactly making a chapter for each episode. Some of the episodes have nothing to do with the rest of the town, after all. (Like Bitter Reunions, or Maternal Instinct.) Thank you for reviewing!

Wow. A whole two people. Come on, ya'll. I know you're out there. You have no idea how much a simple comment can do for me. Please review!

Anyway, see you next time. Whenever that may be.