(Nasty Burger)

"Another half-ghost? How is that possible!" Tucker frantically typed numbers into his PDA before Sam swatted it.

"Cut it out, Tucker. We don't need what the odds are. We're pretty sure it's slim." She turned to Danny, who was sitting with a serious expression on his face.

"Ok, ok, no numbers. But I mean, think about it! Beside the fact that it's highly unlikely that another half-ghost would even exist, what are the odds that she'd show up here?" Tucker, who obviously wasn't letting the situation affect his appetite, took a bite of his burger.

"The odds are good, if I'm the only half-ghost in this town and half the ghost zone knows my address, much less where the portal is." Danny nudged his fries, not hungry. The ghost was bugging him, not to mention Hayden's disappearance earlier. He had convinced the others to go to Nasty Burger not only to discuss the other halfa, but in hopes she'd show up. Not that he'd let Tucker or Sam know that.

Ok, maybe just Sam. She was scary.

"Do you guys always come here after school?"

He looked up at find Hayden standing on the other side of Sam, smiling sarcastically. To his surprise, Sam answered her in an equally kidding tone.

"Only if we want to hang out without overly dramatic parental units." Sam smiled and folded her arms. "So, what are you doing here, Hayden?"

Tucker moved over to allow Hayden to sit down. She did, and sighed. "Same thing. My…. The people I live with are really weird. They scare people I know." She laughed and slid her backpack off her shoulder.

Tucker snatched his PDA back from Sam and gave Hayden a side wards glance as he poked the screen with his stylus. "What, do they pull out the baby pictures or something?"

"No, they think ghosts exist." She sighed and leaned her head on her hand. "They hunt them, with all kinds of equipment. It's very disturbing." She noticed everyone's incredulous gaze and began turning red. "You guys probably think I'm a freak, right?"

"No! I mean, my parents are like that too." Danny smiled at her from across the table.

"Really? I didn't think anybody else did."

Sam shook her head. "No, Danny's parents are totally obsessed with it. Of course, you would have probably found that out anyway."

"Let me guess: everybody knows about your parents, they call you a freak for it, and laugh at your dad?" Hayden sat up straight and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, that's about it. How'd you know?" He took a couple of bites out his burger, now that his hunger had seemingly returned.

"I….um….that's how it was where I used to live." She reached over and stole some of Danny's fries. He made a face before continuing to attack the burger. "Yeah, everybody made fun of me too. Until I, you know, kicked their butt."

"Sounds like you had loads of fun in your old town." Danny finished off the burger finally and propped his head up with his hand. "Where are you from anyway?"

Hayden blinked for a minute, apparently unsure of how to respond. She shrugged nonchalantly and waved her hand. "Oh, here and there. I've lived all over the place. I was living with a friend for a while, and then with my uncle. Then, I came here." She stole another fry and smiled.

"What about your parents?" Danny grabbed another fry and smiled.

"Oh. My parents." She looked down at her lap for a minute before answering him. Her expression became melancholy and distant.

"They died when I was little." She straightened up and smiled cynically. "Well, that was a conversation stopper….So, I--…"

She stopped talking and zoned out, staring at the Nasty Burger sign for a moment. It seemed she was seeing something, or maybe listening to something that nobody else could here. Danny watched her, both freaked and concerned.

"I've got to go." She stood up abruptly, banging the table with her knee in her rush to get up. Snatching her bag, she started to leave. Danny reached out and grabbed her wrist, causing her to jerk.

"Hayden, what's up? Something wrong?" Despite just meeting her the day before, he was worried about the girl for some reason. She was really weird, not to mention paranoid and jumpy.

'Sounds like me…'

She pulled away from him and turned to look at them once last time. She looked afraid, and a little distraught.

"I'm sorry guys, I've got to go. I'm sorry Danny." She took off running without another word, leaving Danny standing there with his arm still stretched out as though he had her wrist in his hand. He flopped back down on the bench, confused.

"Why does she keep doing that!" He turned to Tucker, as though he had the answer. "She did that earlier. No explanation, just 'sorry' and 'bye'. It's really weird."

He folded his arms on the table and laid his head on top of them. Not only were ghosts everywhere nowadays, but the cute new girl was acting like being around him for more than 5 minutes was fatal. Life sucked.

"Hey, look at this." Tucker's voice made him wearily raise his head. In the other boy's hand was a blue CD case.

"It's Hayden's." Sam grabbed it out of his hand and examined it. "It must have fallen out of her bag when she grabbed it." She flipped it open and began rifling through it. "It's one of the ones that can hold over a 100 discs. She's got a lot of music."

Danny groaned as his ghost sense went off again. "Somebody, shoot me." Pushing himself off the bench, he jogged lazily behind a nearby dumpster and transformed. Thankfully, the ghost was one of the nameless green blobs and it was quickly disposed of.

He made it back to the table just as Sam and Tucker stood up. "Ok, now what are we doing?"

"Tucker hacked into the school's files and pulled up Hayden's address. He wants to return the CD case to her." Sam rolled her eyes and glared at Tucker.

"Hey, it might be really important to her and can't wait until Monday. Besides, you know you want to go." He put his PDA in his pocket and smiled sardonically at Sam. She just rolled her eyes and began walking down the sidewalk.

"Fine. But can we please just get this over with? Danny needs some serious sleep."

"Oh sure, use me as an excuse." He grabbed his backpack and followed the others.


Author's Note: And they're off! Who knows what lies ahead in Hayden's house. (Dead bodies?A mad scientists lab? Teletubbies!) Please, R&R.