The class seemed to drag on before Alexandria raised her hand and headed for the bathroom. Almost as soon as she left the opened windows of the classroom slammed shut; Danny's breath turned blue once more and he too went to the "bathroom." Balling his hands into fists, his hair turned white and his eyes turned green as he turned into the one and only Danny Phantom. As he spotted a ghostly figure fly from the classroom, he thought of the possible threats they could have that he hadn't come up against. He fazed infront of her and almost fell down (if ghosts really can fall...). The young woman wore a long dress that was obviously from the Victorian Era, her red hair in a high bun/braid;her large green eyes had widened at the sight of him, though her composure was a bit better than his. "I should have realized that you were Danny Phantom. Fenton, Phantom, the similarity is quite recognizable to anyone who had a mind at all." Her accent had grown and yet Danny still couldn't believe it.
"Dria? You're hlaf ghost!" he cried as he stood up. With a laugh she shook her head.
"No, Daniel, I'm not half ghost! I'm a regular ghost,"she answered. He scratched his head, still not quite understanding. 'Hold on a second...If she's the reason for my ghost breath..then...' "You wouldn't happen to be the one who shut the windows, are you?" With a curtsy she nodded.
"Yes, it was. Not all ghosts are evil Daniel. I just like attention,"she smirked. Before he could say anything she fazed into the ground with a small wave.
When Danny got back to class, Dria was sitting behind her desk and taking notes, listening intently as the others talked about how weird it was that the windows had shut. As he sat down, Tucker leaned over. "So, who was it this time? Box Ghost, Lunch Lady?" Danny shook his head.\par \tab "Actually...it was her,"her answered as he pointed to the new goth.
"Who, Dria? Danny, she's just like us...Okay, she's just like me. Nothing more. How can a ghost be sitting in our classroom with us?"Sam asked.
"I don't know but she is! We should talk to her during lunch," he said.
"Mr. Fenton, Miss Manson, is there a reason why you're talking?" The two quickly shook their heads and slowly turned their attention back to Mr. Lancer. They had started a new unit about the 1800s and the events that happened during the years between 1800 and 1900, along with most of the literature that was written then. "When did Napolean come to power?" Mr. Lancer asked. Immediately Alexandria's hand shot up. "Yes, Miss Tary?"
"When was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland written and by who?" Alexandria's hand was the first (and only) to shoot up. "Yes?"
"1865 and by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson." Dria had been born in the 1800s and was somewhat of an expert on the subjects including it.
"Okay Miss Tary, here's a tricky one. Who created the first moving picture and during which year?" The children snickered a bit before Dria cracked her knuckles.
"Auguste and Louis Lumiere are "credited" with showing the world's first public screening on a device called a cinmetograph on December 28,1895," she said with confidence. Mr. Lancer tried to hold his shock before calmly stating, "My, my we seem to have a genius on the 1800s in our class. Do you read a lot?"
"You could say that..."
As soon as lunch came. Alexandria was faced with a problem: she had nowhere to sit. She saw Sam walking towards her. "Hey Dria. I know that since you're new and all that y ou really don't have a place to sit. Wanna sit with me, Tucker and Danny?"she asked.
"That would be cool,"she said, beginning to follow her. As she sat down beside Sam, Dria saw what she was eating. "Why are you eating grass?"she asked with an eyebrow raised.
"I'm an ultra-recyclo vegetarian. I don't eat meat. Hurting animals for food is wrong. I'm the one who banned frog desections,"Sam explained proudly.\par "So...why are you goth? Goths are about the three D's: death, darkness and destruction...If you don't eat meat and don't like...mutilating already dead frogs, what's the point of being goth. Why don't you just be punk?" Dria asked, taking a "bite" out of her peanut-butter and jelly sandwhich. (Can never go wrong with it!)
"Well...I'm my own kind of goth," Sam answered. With a nod, Dria smirked.
"Oh, you're one of those trend-setters, huh? Righteous." As the two continued to talk Danny's ghostbreath was growing. He had told Tucker what he had tried to tell Sam and, to his relief, Tucker believed him. Before they entered the grils' conversation the Lunchlady seemed to be quite angry at somebody. "Where's the MEAT!" she screamed, finding only ultra-recylco vegetarian food; Mr. Lancer had sat aside a week of the school year to have the unusual food be served in the cafeteria. As the ghost threw most of the food around the room and the children cleared out Danny hid under the table, formed into Danny Phantom and fazed through the table. But before he could say anything, Dria looked at him and said," I can handle her." She began to make her way towards the other ghost, returning to her victorian clothes. "Opal? Why are you here?"she asked in a quiet voice. The Lunchlady stopped suddenly, saw the "younger" ghost and immediately hugged her.
"My dear Dria! Why are you in this dreadful school? It's always messing up my menus," the Lunchlady said.
"Well, I can't really eat it anyway and it's a nice school. Just wait until I'm done here and then you can go on and keep haunting it. But for now just go home please. Thank you,"Dria said with a genuine smile. The other ghost nodded before fazing away. Turning back to Danny, Sam and Tucker she smiled at their schocked faces. "What? I have a lot of friends...as well as secrets. But, let's just get to class. We're late." Returning to her 'human' form she walked past them and to her next class.\par \par "I told you!" Danny cried as him and his friends walked home from school. \par \tab "I hate to admit it, but you were right. Well, at least she helped today," Sam said. As the three entered the Fenton's household they heard something unusual: Mr. and Mrs. Fenton laughing...with Jazz. Yet a very familiar voice filled their ears. "You see Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, if you all talked about your days and shared a few jokes you and your daughter could become closer." Dria sat on the couch with a large smile on her face;she had changed from her gothic attire to a long peasent skit and a matching white tank top;her long hair hung towards her back and a small kitten sat in her lap. She turned and smiled at the three before waving a bit. "Hey guys. I just wanted to introduce myself to all of your parents. Sam, your folks are so nice! And Tucker, your parents know everything about technology! And Danny, your whole family is intriguing! I mean, your sister's a genius as well as your parents. And their hobby is so interesting! I mean, ghost hunting is so cool! Well, it's been nice talking with you but I think we should go study. There's a test in two weeks. Nice meeting you all,"she said, standing up and shaking all their hands before slowly following up the other three. As soon as Danny's bedroom door was closed Dria returned to her 'ghost' look. "I love meeting new people..." Before she could say anything Danny, Sam and Tucker pushed her down on the bed and began interrigating her. "What's your real name?"
" Lady Alexandria Sophie Braun."
"Umm..what's with the 'lady'?"
"I was a duchess."
"Of what?"
"An old 'kingdom' once called Warick."
"How old are you?"
"Two hundred."
"How old were you when you died?"
"When I was murdered you mean. I was about...16. But I like posing as a 14-year-old."
"Wait...you were murdered? By who and why?"
"By my adviser and aparently because I didn't deserve to be duchess and he poisoned my food." It got quiet all of a sudden before Sam spoke up.
"Wow...I'm really sorry about that,"she said sympathetically.
"It's alright. You should have seen what I did to him." With a smirk she got up and began to look around the room at the posters, computer, Cds. "I wonder all the time what it would have been like if we had music like you did and if you had music like we did..." Spinning around she looked at each of them. "I want to show you all what the ghost zone is really like. A part of ghosts you would never see without my help..."
