A/N: Sorry this took me awhile... But I think it'll be worth it. This chapter's even longer than the last one! In fact, every chapter is a little longer than the one before it, isn't that funny?

Oh, BTW everybody... If you've seen the newest DP movie, School's Out Ghoul's Out, I'd like to know what you thought of it. You can either PM me, or you can come discuss it on my forum. In my opinion, the movie was awesome, but the ending was a bit disappointing...

Enjoy the chapter! (Or else... LOL) :) (:

Twenty-two freshmen sat in Science during third period, highly anticipating the sound of the bell that would release them to lunch. The teacher had long since stopped attempting to capture their attention, and was now sitting at her desk, correcting papers.

Tick… tick… tick… The seconds slowly passed by. Some students were tapping their fingers on their desks impatiently. Others were turning around and whispering to fellow classmates. Many were simply staring up at the clock, as the second hand kept ticking. And one… was sleeping. (A/N: Gee, I wonder who that is?)

Five seconds to go…

Four seconds…

Three seconds…

Two seconds…

One second…

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng!

Most teens jumped up from their desks and sprinted out of the room. "Most" meaning everyone except for a certain trio…

"Danny, wake up, it's lunch time," Sam said bleakly as she walked away and through the door. Tucker was surprised that she even bothered trying to talk to Danny after what he (accidentally) did to her.

"Danny? Hello! Time for lunch!" Tucker said loudly, also attempting to arise his sleeping friend, seeing as Sam's attempt hadn't worked.

"Huh? What?" the halfa mumbled groggily. Raising his head off the desk, he blinked a couple times, yawned, and got out of his seat. "What's it time for?"

"Lunch! You know, the time of the school day where you don't have to listen to teachers?"

"Right, right…" Danny replied distantly, nodding. "Let's go." He gathered his books and followed his techno-geek of a friend out of the room.

At Lunch…

Tucker, Sam, and Danny sat at their usual table in the cafeteria. It had just begun to rain lightly; they couldn't sit outside. The trio had just left the lunch line and all had a tray in front of them. Sam's was nothing but veggies. Tucker's consisted of naught besides meat. Danny's had a healthy balance of the two. It was pretty vital for Danny to eat well whenever he did eat; many times at school he didn't get the chance because of ghosts.

While Tucker and Sam were sneaking disgusted looks at each other's choice of food (as was commonplace), Danny began eating. It wasn't long before he was interrupted, however.

Dash and Kwan were walking towards Danny, grins plastered onto their faces. The halfa prepared himself for the verbal thrashing that preceded the physical abuse. But the dim-witted jocks just walked by, slamming Danny's own lunch into his face as they went, and then laughed.

"Gee, I wonder if this'll influence the number of hit-and-run accidents he causes ten years from now…" Danny said, turning small parts of his body intangible in sequence to get the food off him.

Tucker, having also noticed this odd occurrence, commented as well. "Looks like Dash has adopted a new style of bullying."

Sam was silent. Danny glanced at her, his eyes filled to the brim with concern. The Goth girl kept her eyes on her food as she slowly ate. Danny felt bad for most likely being the cause of this change of behavior. In fact, Danny felt worse than bad; he almost felt as if he was watching her dying… He would need to talk to her, and find out what Tucker had said she had to tell him.

"Danny!" called a feminine voice suddenly. The aforementioned teen peeled his eyes away from Sam and looked up at the sound of his name to see a certain ghost hunter striding towards him.

"Oh, hey Val," he replied, considerably happier than he had just been. Her presence made him feel a lot better. However, he had forgotten what Tucker had warned him about. If he had turned to look at Sam right then, he would have seen a tear or two fall from her face to the tray. "What's up?"

Tucker, unlike the halfa, did switch his gaze to Sam. And the sadness he saw in her angered him slightly. He opened his mouth to say something, but Valerie beat him to it.

"Actually… I have something to tell you, Danny," the green-eyed girl said. "Come with me. We need to talk in private."

"Uh… Okay." Valerie grabbed his hand and led him past all the tables in the cafeteria and through a door. They ended up at the end of a hallway that was currently vacant.

"Listen Danny. Last night, I – "

Suddenly, Danny felt rather cold, and knew his ghost sense was about to go off. He panicked; Valerie wasn't stupid. She'd get suspicious if she saw blue mist coming from his mouth. So, he improvised.

"Achoo!" He bent over and pretended to sneeze. Before he returned his gaze to Valerie, he glanced left and right, trying to find the ghost that had triggered his ghost sense.

"Bless you," Valerie said, fortunately with no unease in her voice.

"Thanks. Now, what were you saying?" Danny replied, giving her his attention. Well, most of it, anyway. He still kept his peripheral vision peeled for anything out of the norm.

"Okay… I was just thinking about the ghost boy last night," she began. "And that's when I noticed that he's not like other ghosts."

"Uh… Really?" the halfa questioned, now slightly nervous. This did not bode well… "What did you notice?"

"Well… Don't you find it weird that he always has to go somewhere? I mean, after he does whatever he's there for, he leaves."

"I'm sure he has other things to deal with… Wouldn't you think so?" Danny was getting more worried by the second.

"And then there's the fact that, however much I hate him, he hasn't purposely caused anyone serious injury yet, except for ghosts," Valerie said with conflict evident in her voice.

Danny, however, was calming down now. It seemed that Valerie was only debating whether "Invisobill" was good or evil. He focused less on what Valerie was saying, and listened for the sounds of utter chaos that would indicate the presence of a ghost.

Not receiving a response from Danny, the ghost hunter pressed on. "But I know why. I did some research last night, and I found out that the ghost boy isn't like other ghosts for a reason."

"And what might that be?" the halfa replied, still not paying attention completely.

"Call me crazy, but… I found out that the ghost boy is only half ghost."

That sure captured Danny's interest. His muscles stiffened, his face paled considerably, and his eyes became wide with shock. "…What do you suppose his other half is?" he asked, his voice quivering tensely.

"It's obviously human. That's why his ghost form is humanoid, instead of being some weird animal or something." Valerie was so concentrated on figuring this out that she didn't notice her friend's sickly look and odd antics.

"Oh man…" Danny croaked apprehensively.

"I know; it's horrific – Oh my gosh, Danny, you look terrible! What's wrong?" she exclaimed, finally perceiving his appearance.

"I… uh… Well, I… er… I had to… um… walk to school today… and… uh…" The halfa searched his brain for the rest of his excuse, but he couldn't focus. He couldn't take his mind off of what Valerie had just said. She knew that his ghostly alter ego was also human! It would be only a matter of time before she found out who that human half was… He knew that Valerie would search diligently and determinedly. Danny was doomed.

"You weren't attacked by a ghost again, were you?" Valerie asked, with anger building up in her tone.

"Well… uh… actually…" Suddenly, a brilliant plan formed in Danny's head, despite the panic that garbled his thoughts. "Yeah, yeah I was. He didn't hurt me, though; he just gave me a scare. I think he said his name was the Box Ghost…"

"Oh, that creep?" Valerie said without thinking. "I mean – I've never heard of him. So you're okay, then?" She still didn't know that Danny knew she was a ghost hunter, so she was secretive about her knowledge of ghosts. And even though she corrected herself, Danny could easily see the wrathful look in her eyes, and knew that he had achieved his goal – the Box Ghost wouldn't bother him for quite awhile.

"Yeah, I'm fine," the halfa lied through his teeth. In truth, he was far from "fine". But if he let Valerie know that – well, it was like the deal with his ghost sense: Valerie was by no means an idiot. She was suspicious of dang near everything.

"Alright then… Back to the ghost kid." Danny cursed mentally. He'd rather not get involved with her suspicions. Why did she have to confide in him of all people? "I think – " she began. Just then, Danny was saved by the bell. Well, actually, it was more like, Danny was saved by the screams of other teens and loud crashes coming from the cafeteria. Danny and Valerie glanced at each other, then ran towards the screams.

The two freshmen burst into lunchroom to face a horde of people trying to get out of the room. They were both knocked down by the panicking group and struggled to get up before they became road kill. Danny, though he was concerned about Valerie, could not assist her with his ghost powers in the current circumstances. It was too risky. Trusting that she was tough enough to get along by herself, Danny became intangible and fell into the room below him. It happened to be an abandoned janitor's closet, a safe place to go ghost (which he did).

The halfa flew up through the ceiling and into the lunchroom to find… Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, as far as he could tell. Everyone who had previously been there had left, including whatever had scared them out of their wits. Danny slowly floated down onto the ground and started looking around for any evidence to show who had been there.

His efforts finally paid off. When he got to the table he had been sitting at, he realized that it was crooked and scratched up. To add to this ominous scene were a piece of folded paper and a bit of black cloth. Danny opened the paper to find a rather inauspicious note scrawled on it:

Danny Phantom –

I found your weakness.

Signed,

No One in Particular

A/N: 0o0o0o0o... An ominous note and a piece of cloth...What's happening now? If you think Danny's life is going to get seriously screwed up, then you're right! Oh, I feel so evil for what I'm going to do to Danny... Muahahahahaha... Review please!