Hey, peeps! Thanks to mysterygal for the first review! Yeah, I really liked the speech with Paulina. I went to school with people like her. shudders

anyway, not much going on this chapter. The next chapter will have more action, I promise.

On with the show!

Chapter Four-Surprises

The rest of the day passed without incident. Danny didn't have to fight any ghosts and Alex didn't have to comment about her speech in the cafeteria. It seemed as if the world had come to a complete, albeit temporary, standstill.

When the final bell rang and everyone headed out to their cars, Danny, Sam, and Tucker lingered behind, trying to convince Alex to join them.

"Come on, Alex. It'll be fun. Besides, it's tradition for us." Tucker and Danny were taking turns pleading to a reluctant Alex.

"I don't know, you guys. I wouldn't want to intrude and I still haven't unpacked all my stuff yet…" Alex trailed off, hoping that her new friends would get the hint.

Finally, Sam stepped in. "Listen, Alex. After what you said at lunch today, I think you deserve to be treated. That took guts and I admire what you did. How about this? We'll go over to my house, go bowling, maybe watch a movie, and just talk?"

Alex sighed, defeated. Bowling was her one weakness. She just couldn't get enough. "All right, but I need to let my parents know. Why don't you follow me to my house and I can tell them and drop my stuff off?"

Danny nodded and they headed towards their vehicles. When Danny got to his car, he stared longingly at the masterpiece parked next to it.

As Tucker approached the car, he whistled. "That is one beautiful machine. Who would drive a 1966 Candy Apple Ford Mustang to school? They must be out of their minds."

When Alex walked up to the car and opened the door, both boys just stared at her. Alex just smiled and said, "What?"

Danny was the one to say something. "You…you drive this car? How…Why?"

Alex smiled and patted the top of her car. "Yep, this is my baby. Well, one of my babies anyway. Mom won't let me drive the other one until I give it a bath."

Tucker just continued to stare, alternating between the car and Alex.

Alex cocked her head and looked at Tucker. "Ummm…Tucker? Are you okay?"

Tucker shook his head to clear it and smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine. Well, we better get going, right?" With that, Tucker opened the rear passenger door to Danny's car and climbed in.

The other three teens followed suit and soon they were headed towards Alex's house. They drove for awhile until they were almost out of town. Suddenly, Alex tuned down a narrow, winding road and continued until the group came to a gigantic hill. Alex pulled off to the side of the road a ways and got out of her car. Danny pulled up behind her and rolled down his window as she approached.

"What's up?"

Alex was suddenly very nervous. "Well, I…uh…just…don't freak out when you see my house okay? There's a reason we're out this far."

The three teens in Danny's car shared a glance. All three nodded and Alex went back to her car.

As the cars crested the hill, the trio let out an involuntary gasp. Before them lay the biggest house any of them had ever seen. It far surpassed both The Manson Mansion and Vlad's, well, castle.

The entire valley behind the hill seemed to be nothing but one big house. It sprawled over several acres and had not only the house itself, but also a small orchard, animal pens, and one large open field.

The two cars pulled up to an electric fence. Alex leaned out of her car and motioned for Danny to do the same. "You'll need to enter the code to get through the gate. It's 4251 and you have to enter it three times."

Danny nodded his understanding and turned to Sam. "4251, three times." Sam nodded. It was usually her job to remember stuff like that since Danny was notoriously bad at remembering anything.

After Alex had pulled through the gate, Danny pulled up the gate and punched in the code. He even got it right the first time. The gate opened to admit him and the miniature convoy continued on its way to the gargantuan estate.

Alex turned into a circular drive and Danny followed suit, not knowing quite what to expect.

The teens stopped their cars in front of an enormous set of doors. Arranged haphazardly along the driveway were various vehicles of many different makes and models. Close to the teens cars was a green 2003 Buick LeSabre. Beyond that was a silver 1997 McLaren F1.

Danny and Tucker let their eyes roam over the menagerie of vehicles both old and new. Alex and Sam just rolled their eyes at each other. Alex wound her way through the vehicles before she stopped next to an extremely muddy Chevy Trailblazer. It was dirty enough that you couldn't make out the model or even the color.

Alex patted the driver's side mirror lovingly. "This is my other baby. He's the one I use when I go off-roading, if you couldn't tell."

All the teens laughed at that. Alex gave the car a final pat and headed towards the house. Danny, Tucker, and Sam followed in a stunned silence.

Alex opened the door and motioned the group to come in. They slipped inside and stopped dead. The inside of the house was even more astonishing than the outside.

Every wall was lined with picture and assorted memorabilia from around the world.

Alex saw the three friends staring at the walls. She shook her head and pulled them away. "Come on, guys. You didn't come here to stare at the walls. Do you want anything to drink or eat?"

That got Tucker's attention. He got a big smile on his face and nodded vigorously. Danny and Sam just rolled their eyes.

Alex led the way through the large house until they reached the very grand kitchen. It was a professional chef's dream come true. Everywhere you turned were shining chrome appliances and sleek marble countertops. Off to one side was a beautiful mahogany table with a dozen chairs around it. On the table was a plate of cookies with a note.

Alex picked up the note and motioned for her new friends to help themselves. Danny picked one up and nibbled on it experimentally. Finding that it was pretty good, he finished it and picked up two more. Tucker took this as a good sign and snagged about half a dozen.

Sam looked disgusted and Alex merely sighed. Alex opened the note. After she scanned it, she had to work to hold back a laugh. Sam raised an eyebrow at her. Alex merely handed the note to her.

Sam read it once. She couldn't believe it so she read it again just to be sure. When she gave Alex a questioning, the blond merely nodded and her smile grew even wider. The girls started to laugh silently as they watched the boys continue to devour the cookies. Soon, it got to be where the two girls were laughing so hard that they were almost rolling on the floor and crying.

Danny and Tucker stopped their siege of the cookies to look at the two girls who were now holding their stomachs and trying to stop laughing. Alex was the first to catch her breath. She stood up, wiped the tears from her eyes, and bent down to help Sam up.

"Okay, you two. What's so funny?" Danny took another bite of the cookie he was holding.

"That." Alex pointed to the cookie in his hand.

"What about it?" Tucker questioned. He still held several of the delicious morsels in his hands, even though he was now giving them an unusual look.

"Well, every year, on the first day of school, my mom bakes cookies. A couple of years ago, she started changing the recipe to try and get us to eat healthier. Now she sometimes switches between her regular recipe and," she paused for effect, "and her soy recipe."

For a moment, neither boy said anything. Tucker finally spoke up. "And these are?"

Alex grinned and Sam snickered. "These just happen to be my mom's soy cookies."

Danny had been about to take a bite but stopped when he heard that. He lowered his arm but left his mouth open. 'No way. These can't be soy cookies. They're too good.' This thought ran rampant through his brain. He looked at the cookie in his hand. It was then that he remembered Tucker was standing next to him. He turned to his best friend but what he found shocked him.

Tucker had stopped eating for a moment. He looked at the seemingly innocent cookies in his hands and then he glanced at Alex. She gave him a small smile. He thought to himself, 'I must be out of my mind,' and continued eating.

Both Danny and Sam were shocked into silence. Here was their best friend, the boy they had known almost all of their lives, the boy who wouldn't touch soy or tofu to save his life, eating soy cookies as if they were going out of style.

Tucker finished eating and swallowed. He knew he needed something to drink so he raised his hand to his mouth in the shape of a glass.

Alex got the hint. She walked to a cupboard, grabbed a glass and went to the fridge. She pulled out a container of milk and poured some.

Tucker gave her a suspicious glance and the girl chuckled. "Don't worry. It's not soy milk. Nobody in my family can drink it straight."

Tucker nodded his thanks and gulped down half the glass on his first swallow.

Alex looked pointedly at Sam and Danny, both of whom were still staring openmouthed at their friend. "You two want something to drink or are you just gonna stand there all day?"

The two teens closed their mouths. Sam asked for a bottle of water and Danny requested a glass of milk. Alex filled both orders and pulled out a bottle of orange juice for herself.

Just then, there was a resounding crash, a muffled explosion, and a subsequent curse. Alex raced from the room, the three friends following closely.

Alex stopped in front of a large steel door. She started to punch in a code when the door slid open and a man tumbled out in a cloud of smoke.

Alex stepped back to allow the man some room to breathe. He began to cough and waved his hand in front of him, trying to clear the smoke.

"Dad! Are you okay? What happened?"

The man straightened up and looked around. He had short blonde hair that seemed to be in a constant state of disarray. Alex seemed to have inherited the man's brilliant green eyes and tall, skinny build. He saw his daughter looking concerned and replied. "Well, I was trying to improve on some of my older inventions but I dropped the Catcher." He was going to say more when he caught sight of the three teens standing behind his daughter.

"Princess, why didn't you tell me you had friends over? Why don't you introduce me?"

"Dad, this is Tucker Foley, Danny Fenton, and Sam Manson." The teens nodded as their names were mentioned and Alex's dad returned the nod. "After my, ahem, 'meeting' with Paulina at lunch, we got to be great pals. Guys, this is Patrick Stokes: world-renowned Demon Hunter, part-time inventor, college psychology teacher, and the best dad I could ask for." Alex blushed at the last bit as her dad laughed.

"You flatter me, honey. It was nice to meet you all. Now, I need to get back in there and clean up the mess." He turned to go when Alex remembered why she had come home.

"Oh, Dad, before you go, I just wanted to let you know that Sam invited me to hang out with her and Danny and Tucker tonight."

"Okay, sweetheart. Just be home before curfew and take your cell phone."

"Alright, Dad. See ya later."

Alex's dad disappeared behind the door and the teen turned to her friends.

"Come on. Let's get out of here."

Well, what did you think? Review, people! I know you're reading it!