Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Hey… uh, Fox? *Taps on Fox's shoulder as she stares at her Switch* Can you take a break from that?

DarkFoxKit: From what?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': From staring at that game you're looking forward to. We've got stuff we gotta do.

DarkFoxKit: But it'll be out soon! I want it, I want it, I want it! I've been following it since I heard about it a year ago! I can't even pre-order it due to certain circumstances, it's so aggravating!

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Well staring at it won't really do much besides take your attention away from what we should be doing.

DarkFoxKit: *Continues to stare at the screen* Whatever it is, it can wait.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Andy, do you want to help me with WAP's AN and Reviews then?

Andy: *Has a cookie in his mouth* Hmmm?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Sighs* Sometimes I wonder how we get anything done in this castle…

Andy: *Chews and swallows the cookie* Well… there's footage of you talking to Kit, how about we just use that for the AN?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': At this point I'll take it.

Andy: *Chuckles* Kit has a way of obsessing over things, it's best to let her get it out of her system when she gets like this.

DarkFoxKit: I do not!

Chapter 117: A Confession

Danny was hurrying back to the observatory after leaving the opera house.

I was concerned for Andy, especially after what happened when we tried to overshadow that Guy in White agent. His weird, half core thing released some kind of cold energy that threw us back. But it seemed to have a much worse effect on Andy. I didn't even know he had an open wound until I took him to Juliette in hopes that she could help him. I really hope Andy will be okay, but I also needed to make sure Sam and Elliot were okay too, since they were caught up in the Guys in White's assault. I still couldn't believe they were firing missiles and deadly lasers at a kid just because he happened to look a little bit like my ghost form.

I shook my head as I saw the observatory. I hoped that Sam and Elliot were somewhere close by if they weren't still there. After looking around for a few seconds, I spotted Sam and Elliot on the observatory's back deck, looking out at the city. I saw they were talking to each other, but unlike when I had seen them in the past, they were keeping a bit of space between them.

Seeing how they were fine, I was tempted to just go back to the opera house. But I knew I should at least talk to them, let them know I, and Andy, were okay. Though Andy was still a bit iffy. I turned myself invisible and flew down to the observatory. Since the Guys in White pretty much attacked this place, there weren't a lot of people here. So it was easy for me to just go behind a wall and transform back to my human form.

Once I was human, I walked out from my hiding place, and quickly approached Sam and Elliot. "Sam! Elliot! Are you two alright?"

"Yeah, we are." Sam answered first after turning to look at me. "A bit shaken up though. To think that we'd be attacked like that out of the blue. Those guys were crazy to think that Elliot was Danny Phantom just because he had white hair."

I realized Sam was likely saying it like that to pretend she had no prior knowledge of the Guys in White, or had been ghost hunting, to Elliot.

"Yeah, that was really crazy." I frowned.

"I'm really sorry you two had to go through that too," Elliot sighed, sounding more annoyed than shaken up, which surprised me. "I should apologize. I knew about Danny Phantom before coming to the suburbs, so I suppose I shouldn't have dyed my hair white, or worn clothing similar in color to Danny Phantom. Still, I would've thought full grown adults, trained to hunt ghosts, would be able to tell the difference between a human and a ghost."

"Maybe they had a deadline to-" Sam started to say before Elliot's phone started ringing.

Elliot pulled out his phone and looked at it. "Oh, I gotta take this. Excuse me."

Elliot walked away from us, leaving just Sam and I there as he picked up his phone and started talking to someone.

"So how are you?" Sam asked quietly. "And how is Andy? You both look like you took quite the beating in that fight."

"We were handling it fine, for the most part," I replied back just as quietly. "We were out of sync though, and I think that might've cost us. Andy may have had a plan earlier, and I probably ruined it when I showed up. I noticed the look on his face when I announced my presence to the agents. Then they tried to contain him. Andy managed to get out, but then the agents… did something to themselves. Apparently, they've turned themselves into hybrids. Something that's human and ghost."

"Like you and Andy?" Sam blinked.

"Similar, but no…" I frowned. "Um… we're halfas, we can be human and we can be ghost, but we're not both at the same time, even if we could use some ghost powers in our human forms. Hybrids, according to Juliette, are both human and ghosts at the same time. It's a bit… complicated, and something we'll discuss in more detail later with Tucker and Jazz too."

"Oh man…" Sam muttered, looking a bit disturbed. "This is one of the few times I wonder what kind of world we've gotten ourselves trapped into because of the accident. We've had tons of ghosts come after us, humans obsessed with ghosts, and so many threats to destroy or take over the world…" Sam chuckled. "At this rate I'll start developing grey hairs in my 30s or 40s."

"I like to think you'd stay pretty fit due to this life even in your 80s, and you'd still look hot." I smiled.

"I mean I know I'm gonna be fit, but if the stress levels stay this high I may croak before my 80s," Sam retorted before blinking. "Wait… what was that last part?"

I blushed when she asked me that question. "Um… I uh…"

Elliot suddenly turned to us, having hung up the cellphone he was talking on. "I hope I'm not interrupting something."

Sam and I quickly put our attention on Elliot.

"No- uh… who called you?" I asked, trying to avoid an awkward conversation.

"That was my parents back in Amity Park City," Elliot said with a frown. "Apparently my dad got into a bit of an accident a little bit ago and was taken to the hospital. This day is just… going so very well for me, isn't it?"

Sam gasped. "Oh no! Is he alright?"

Elliot frowned even more before glancing away. "He's pretty banged up, he was caught in the middle of a large pileup. From what I've been told, he isn't fully on life support but he is in a coma right now. My mom was asking me to come back to the city so I can be there for my dad and I'm definitely going to be going… but I don't know when I'll come back here."

Sam frowned. "I see… I don't know what to say, but… you should go be with your family. They need you."

Elliot gave Sam a bit of a sad smile. "Sam, these past few weeks have been amazing. I sincerely enjoyed my time with you. You're a great, strong girl, and if I could stay here longer, I would've asked you to be my girlfriend. But I suppose it just wasn't meant to be. It would be possible, but difficult to maintain a relationship once I go back to the city. And… I honestly think there's someone here in the suburbs that would be better for you than trying to maintain a long distance relationship with me. And yes, I know I'll be only a half hour to an hour away, but that's still long enough to be long distance."

Although this was pretty sad and tragic, a part of me couldn't help but flutter with hope. I wanted to slap myself for feeling that way, because Elliot's dad was in the hospital in a coma, and Elliot had to leave. Sam wanted to be with him, so I shouldn't be happy about this at all.

"I've had fun too, Elliot." Sam gave him a sad smile. "And thank you for showing me a wonderful time these past few weeks. I hope everything will turn out alright, for you and your dad. And… maybe call me some time?"

Elliot smiled. "I'll try my best to call. And if I can't call, I'll at least text or send you an email. But for now… I'm going to use the most cliche romance line I can think of… I won't say goodbye, I'll just say… see ya later."

"Yeah… see you later, Elliot," Sam replied, giving a small smile at the cliche.

"And Danny… when you next see Andy, thank him for me. He really helped me get away from those crazy agents," Elliot said to me. "I know we had a… rocky relationship, but I was glad to have met you anyways."

"Oh… yeah… um… I'll be sure to give Andy your message. And… if you do come back, I hope to get to know you better," I answered back, feeling awkward.

"I'll look forward to that then." Elliot chuckled before looking at Sam once again, then back at me.

Elliot then leaned in close to me and whispered in my ear. "Treat her well, Danny. She's amazing."

I felt like my face was going to overheat when Elliot said those words and the implications they held. Did he know? All this time, did he know!?

I couldn't say anything as Elliot walked away, heading onto the stairs that lead to the ground floor of the observatory.

"I guess it's just my luck, that the one boy who liked me romantically had to leave…" Sam sighed, looking over the edge at Amity Park. "Maybe I'm not meant to have a romantic partner."

I frowned as I turned to Sam. "Don't say that, Sam. Just because guys don't come flocking to you, like they do to people like Paulina, doesn't mean you're meant to stay single. There are plenty of reasons a guy would like you. I mean you're smart, pretty, know when to take action, and you're pretty much the voice of reason in our group."

"You're just saying that to try and make me feel better…" Sam sighed.

"Well I am trying to make you feel better, but I'm not just saying that, Sam," I replied with as much sincerity I could muster in my voice. "You've always been there to help me out since we met, and even after the accident. You kept me sane and grounded until I could figure out how to use these powers. Tucker helped too, of course, but he doesn't always have… the purest ideas on how to use my ghost powers. It was also you who suggested that you and Tucker would train yourselves on how to use Mom and Dad's ghost hunting equipment to help me out with the ghost fights. I never would've been able to take them all on my own, especially since Andy wasn't a halfa yet, nor did he even know I was half ghost at the time. You're not only smart and pretty, but you're brave and strong too. Heck, you're at the top of gym class, even surpassing the likes of Dash himself. So I've meant every word I said, Sam. You truly are an amazing person."

"Still doesn't change the fact that-" Sam started before cutting herself off and shaking her head. "Nevermind…"

I frowned. "What were you going to say?"

Sam sighed a little more. "It still doesn't change the fact that Elliot was the first boy in my entire life who has shown any interest in me besides being my friend. There's tons of boys in Amity Park, but none of them have ever felt the way about me that Elliot did… and at this rate, nobody ever will."

I felt awkward and worried now. I was still trying to figure out my own feelings for Sam, and perhaps Andy and Tucker had a point about me telling Sam my feelings. But I was worried if I did that now, she would just think I was doing it to help her feel better, and wonder as to whether or not I actually meant what I said about liking her as more than just a friend. But at the same time, I also realized that waiting could also put me in a situation like what Elliot almost did. I sometimes like to pretend that nobody would ever be interested in Sam romantically so I wouldn't have to worry about someone taking her away or changing our group dynamic.

But as I've learned since the accident, nothing lasts forever. Eventually, there will be someone who would take Sam as a girlfriend, and I would have nobody to blame but myself for never telling her. But I still don't know if what I feel for her is real love or if it's just a high school crush that would eventually fade away over time… I don't want to get her hopes up over something that may not last forever.

But I still knew I needed to say something. Then an idea hit me. "Sam… I… this might not be the best time to tell you this, but… after watching how you and Elliot were getting close as a couple in these past few weeks, I couldn't help but realize… my own feelings."

Sam looked at me curiously. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not entirely sure, in fact, I'm still trying to figure it out myself," I admitted. "But I do know that I at least… want to be closer to you than what we are now. I'd… I'd like a chance to… if you'll allow it… to go on a date with you, maybe? Uh… maybe… figure out if we might be… you know… right, for each other?"

"What would you like a chance to do…?" Sam blinked, making me realize I had probably mumbled the last part to the point where Sam couldn't hear it.

Darn it, Fenton! Get a grip! This could be your last chance to at least go on a date with Sam! I mentally shouted at myself before I took a deep breath and took the plunge. "Sam, would you like to go on a date with me?"

Sam stood there for what felt like hours, but was only a few moments, blink as she processed what I had asked. During those few tense seconds, I was inwardly panicking, wondering if I should've waited after all, and that asking her now was a bad idea. But I kept myself from saying or doing anything, and just waited for an answer. A small smile started to appear in the corner of her mouth before she forced it back down into a straight face.

"I'll… You'll need to give me some time to consider it, Danny," Sam stated. "I want to be able to think about this with a clear head, especially after what just happened with Elliot. Though, just so you don't freak out, like Andy sometimes does, what I'm saying isn't a 'no'."

I gave a small sigh, and nodded. "Yeah, I guess I did spring this onto you pretty suddenly. But… I knew if I didn't do it now, I may never do it. I just… had to at least try. At least now you know that I… want our relationship to be more than just friends. But I won't push you, Sam. If you rather stay friends, that's okay too."

Sam looked at me with one of the most genuine smiles I'd ever seen her give. "Like I said, Danny, give me some time to think about it and it's definitely not a 'no'. I will say though… I'm happy you opened up to me like this."

I knew my cheeks were red when I felt how hot they were. "It… did take some pushing from Andy, Tucker, and a few others… but yeah, I'm… I'm glad I told you too."

Then I gave Sam a smile of my own. "Would you like a ride home or would you prefer to walk? I want to get back to my brother soon, make sure he's okay. I'll tell you more about the hybrids and the Guys in White tomorrow after school."

"I think I'd like to walk home," Sam answered. "Though I'd love to have some company. From what I hear, there are these crazy psychos in suits in the area attacking innocent kids~"

I blinked for a moment before realizing what she was talking about, and snickered myself. "Then a pretty yet feisty young girl like you shouldn't be walking home alone in the dark~"

"Is that an offer to escort me home?~" Sam teasingly asked.

"As long as I don't have to talk to your parents, sure." I smiled. "We also don't want to give them the wrong idea."

Sam frowned a tiny bit. "Yeah… definitely gonna want to avoid them."

"But until we get to your house, want to enjoy a nice stroll with me?" I chuckled.

Sam smiled. "I can't think of a better way to spend my night."

It was a good night. I was still worried for Andy, of course, but I had a feeling he would be fine. And I wanted to spend as much time as possible with Sam before we would reach her house. Jeremy and Pamela Manson had a track record of smothering Sam, and I know they didn't really approve of me or Andy much, especially due to their perspective of our parents. But I hoped to one day show that Fentons weren't bad people, just really passionate and eccentric at times. Otherwise it was going to be more than a headache to deal with them if Sam and I do start dating and they find out.

Two Days Later, back with Andy

When Danny had told me that he confessed to Sam, I was very proud of him. It was just too bad that Sam needed some time before she would go on any real dates with Danny due to Elliot leaving. But I was hopeful, and lately I noticed how Sam and Danny would look at each other. They were still sheepish when someone saw them hinting that they liked each other, but at least it was less hesitant, and they weren't always trying to deny it now.

After the agents had left, things were getting back to our version of normal. We were free to use our ghost forms in Amity Park again, with the biggest threat being our parents trying to catch us, but they were easy to evade most of the time. Valerie didn't seem all that interested in going after us anymore, most likely because of me. While I didn't know exactly where she stood with Danny Phantom, she did have a relatively positive relationship with Andy Phantom, so she was most likely avoiding both of us in our ghost forms because she didn't want to hurt Andy Phantom's brother, even though she still couldn't stand Danny Phantom.

Though Valerie seemed a bit stressed lately in school. Thinking back on it, I hadn't seen her around as much as the Red Huntress either.

Mr. Lancer assigned us group projects at the start of the week. Danny got paired with Tucker and Sam, while I got paired with Dash and Valerie. It wasn't luck though, Mr. Lancer allowed us to choose who we wanted to work with. Dash decided to work with me and Valerie instead of with one of the nerds to do the project for him like the other jocks were doing. Dash really had changed since we became friends back in freshman year. He had become more confident in doing his own work, and less violent towards others. In fact, Dash seemed to have become a more positive influence in school lately, since I couldn't help but notice the bullying had gone down a lot since Dash stopped throwing kids into lockers, or punching them for little to no reason. Not to mention Tucker, being the school body president, or co-president since he was still working with Valerie, had also been helpful in cleaning up the school and bringing in new types of technology and new ways for us to learn.

But, of course, some teachers prefer the old fashion way of learning. Mr. Lancer was about half and half on that, since he did try to use computers before on students, back when Ember came to town. But he usually preferred the good old fashion pen and paper.

One other thing that Tucker and Valerie had accomplished was to help improve the moods of the teachers, as the two of them had found ways to reduce costs on unnecessary items and give the teachers much needed raises. According to Tucker, the school was spending thousands of dollars a year on school supplies that no student ever really used as they normally brought in their own supplies.

Going back to the group project, we were assigned to choose a book from the school's library and do research on it. Then with that research and the topic inside the book, we had to create a presentation. The presentation could be done on posterboard to make things easier, but we were graded on how much effort we put into the project. The more creative it was, the higher the grade. We were allowed to have some help from our parents if we felt like we would be unable to do the project ourselves, but we weren't allowed to use our parents to do the project for us. Additionally, Mr. Lancer did drop a few hints that the presentation didn't have to take place within the confines of the classroom and we could potentially use any room in the school. Dash, Valerie, and I quickly deduced that Mr. Lancer had been hinting at acting out our presentation in the auditorium for the most points possible.

I was sitting at a circular table with Dash and Valerie in the school library after class, since we decided to try to discuss what we were going to do for the project as early as possible since the three of us were usually busy. Dash with his football and basketball practices, Valerie with her job at the Nasty Burger, and her secret ghost fighting career, and my ghost hunting and training, which I had no plans of telling anyone. I did warn them that after school I did have an activity recently that ate up a lot of my free time.

"So does the book have to be one of those Shakespeare books Mr. Lancer likes so much? I can hardly read those," Dash grumbled.

"Mr. Lancer didn't say the books had to be old English. Though I don't think he would allow books like Star Wars or Doctor Who either, we'd probably have to pick a book that's educational," I informed.

"But we're likely to get bonus points if we chose one of the books Mr. Lancer likes," Valerie pointed out. "And even more points if we act it out instead of just doing a standard presentation. Mr. Lancer does like the theater and plays."

"And, not bagging on our intelligence, but the three of us do need to pull our grades up…" I frowned.

While Danny and I had been doing better in school lately all of our ghost fighting did a number on our grades. We would need a ton of extra credit to pull them back up. We barely passed freshman year to make it into sophomore. I didn't need to make straight A's like Danny was planning to do, but I wanted to have at least decent grades. It had been pretty hard for Valerie to catch up since the ghost dog destroyed the Axion Labs incident. As for Dash, since he stopped using nerds to do his work for him, he had been having trouble at the beginning, and he also would like to pull up his grades.

"Then how about we try the most famous book then? Romeo and Juliet," Dash suggested. "I at least know the premise of that story."

"Wouldn't everyone else try that one too?" I asked.

"Not necessarily, at least not to the extent we might go to," Valerie answered. "Think of some of the other groups, they likely won't want to do any acting and will just want to do a standard posterboard project."

"So we're going to go all out on this? Use Romeo and Juliet, and then act it out?" I inquired. "That's going to take a lot of work, not to mention with only three of us, we wouldn't be able to pull off the play that well. We'd have to memorize a lot of lines, and play as multiple characters."

"Mr. Lancer did say we could get help, didn't he?" Dash questioned.

"Who would help us with a school project play?" I questioned. "Besides our parents."

"We could possibly ask Tucker for help with setting up some electronics for us," Valerie suggested. "He might get some extra credit if he helps our group while also still doing his own project."

"Yeah, someone like Foley would definitely be helpful," Dash agreed. "What do you think, Andy?"

I frowned a little. While I did say we needed to pull our grades up as much as possible, I didn't really want to have to put on a play. I was hoping to just put some kind of model of a city together and get a decent grade from that. A full on play would require not only a lot of time and effort, but we would also need cooperation from people. Not to mention I usually didn't like having to get up and act in front of a bunch of people.

I remembered when I was in kindergarten, our teacher had a play for us. It wasn't super long since we were just little kids. Danny and I played as the 'twin fairies of the forest', and when it was my turn to 'bless' someone, I ended up tripping and falling on top of them. Perhaps one of my most embarrassing moments of my life.

"I… could try asking him," I finally said. "But don't expect a yes."

"Sure, I don't mind," Tucker answered.

"Uh… you're absolutely sure? I mean it could take time away from your own project after all," I pointed out.

"You're asking me for help with technology," Tucker countered. "That won't take much time or effort. If you plan to act out your project in the auditorium, I can just use the lighting system there."

"Okay… well, thanks then, Tucker, I'll let Dash and Valerie know you're fine with helping out," I said, trying not to sigh.

"You don't seem too happy about it though," Danny pointed out.

"No, no, I'm ecstatic." I grinned.

"Uh-huh… you're not still traumatized by what happened with the whole fairy forest thing, are you?" Danny asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We don't speak of the fairy forest play," I hissed.

"It was pretty… memorable," Sam remarked.

"I think my parents still have the recording," Tucker chuckled.

"I said we don't speak of it!" I groaned.

I began walking out of the classroom Danny, Sam, and Tucker were using to discuss their project, when I nearly bumped into Anna, who was carrying a lot of books.

"Whoa! Sorry about that, almost bumped into you," I quickly apologized when I managed to avoid bumping into the girl, as well as keeping her from dropping her books.

"It's fine," Anna chuckled as she turned around to look at me.

"Uh… wow, that's a lot of books. You do know we only need to do one book for the project, right?" I questioned. "Or are those for different assignments?"

"A couple of them are," Anna answered. "Though most of them are things I just want to read."

I guess I should've expected as much. Anna's a pretty big bookworm from what I know of her. I wonder if Vlad even lets her and Ella watch TV or if he makes them only read books for entertainment. Vlad strikes me as a very strict kind of parent. I wondered to myself. What kind of parent would Vlad even make actually? "Do you need any help?"

"Nah, I'm good," Anna chuckled. "Like I said to the others who have offered me help, I've carried more books than this before without any difficulty."

"Oh, well, okay then," I said. "If you can handle it, then I'll get going."

I walked past Anna, though I still couldn't help but feel a little suspicious of her because of her relation with Vlad, I did try to keep myself open minded and give Anna the benefit of doubt.

When I got back to the school library, and sat down with Dash and Valerie, they both looked at me.

"Well? What did he say?" Valerie asked.

"Tucker says he can do it," I answered.

"Awesome!" Dash said loudly with a grin, before getting shushed by a bunch of the other people in the library. "So while you were gone, Valerie and I came up with a perfectly fair way to divvy up the tasks."

"What's that?" I asked.

Dash reached under the table and pulled out a hat. "Valerie and I wrote down a few roles within the project that will need to be taken and had the librarian put them in the hat and mix them up. We each get to reach in and take one of the notes with the roles and that will be our role in the project."

I blinked. "By random chance?"

"That's the idea," Valerie answered. "So… who wants to go first?"

"I will," Dash said as he reached into the hat and pulled out a folded up piece of paper. He then unfolded it and read what was on the note. "Huh… props and stage crew? Dang, I was hoping to get 'actor'."

"I'd say it's not so bad for you, considering your bodybuilder-like body," Valerie chuckled. "Now I'll go ahead and pull something out next."

Valerie reached into the hat herself and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She unfolded the paper to read what was on it. "Aww… I got a pretty boring one. I'm the narrator."

"Yeah, narrators are so boring, aren't they?" I remarked with a joking tone.

"Looks like it's your turn to pick a role, Andy," Valerie stated as she moved the hat towards me.

I reached into the hat, feeling around for the pieces of paper. There were surprisingly quite a few left. I picked up one of the folded papers and unfolded it. "Actor."

Wait… actor!? No, no, no, no! I'm not an actor! I mentally screamed.

"Well, that settles it then," Valerie said. "We have our roles."

"B-but, but…" I quickly came up with an idea on how to argue. "Wait, I can't be the only actor on stage, there's too many characters to play!"

I got shushed, but I ignored them.

"We'll just have to get some help," Dash responded.

"We could talk to Mr. Lancer about letting another group help out with background roles, but I can almost guarantee he won't let one of the other groups be a main character," Valerie stated. "So in order to fill out the main roles, we'd have to get help from outside our class or even outside of school."

"So our parents," I deadpanned. "For anyone else we don't know, we'd likely have to pay them."

"I'm sure we can figure something out. And we're not limited to just our parents, there are others in school we could ask, they're not in the same class as we are," Dash chuckled. "I know quite a few people who would be more than happy to help."

"We'll definitely need to figure out who will play Romeo and Juliet though," Valerie muttered. "Andy, since you're a part of our group, you'll have to be either Romeo or Juliet."

I felt my left eye twitching a little.

"Hmm… maybe you should find the actor or actress who would be the other main character, since you'll have to kiss them," Valerie remarked.

"Are you serious? We could just edit out the kissing, or just do air kisses," I quickly said. "I've never even had a girlfriend, so I have like zero experience with kisses!"

"You just lean in and place your lips against someone else's lips and then lean away after you're done," Valerie informed. "It's not rocket science."

"It would still be extremely awkward," I groaned. "Are you sure we can't trade our roles? I could be the narrator instead while you get Juliet… or Romeo if you prefer."

"No, Andy, we got our roles through chance," Valerie answered. "No trading jobs. Besides, as an actor you have a lot less work to do. I have to read pretty much everything that isn't dialogue. Dash probably got the easiest role since he has the strength and speed to be a great stage crew."

I looked at Dash, he had said he wanted to be an actor earlier. "Hey Dash… you know, if you want to be an actor, you could still be one. I don't mind taking care of the props."

"Really?" Dash smiled, but then both of us got the death glare from Valerie.

I had faced several creepy, skelly, scary, and ugly looking ghosts in the past year or so, but they all paled in comparison to Valerie's death glare.

"Andy… you are not trading jobs," Valerie firmly said. "If you try again, I'll be assigning you the role of Juliet just to make it even worse on you. And no trading with the other people who are going to be helping out. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am…" I answered, though with reluctance.

Dash gave me a sheepish and apologetic smile. I proceed to lower my head on the table, allowing my forehead to smack it. I seriously hate my luck.

I was walking to the opera house, though mostly out of habit. I was complaining to Danny, who was walking beside me.

"'Find an actor or actress who could play as Juliet' she says. 'You'll be kissing them' she says. She's asking for the impossible, Danny! What person is going to want to be a part of a project school play and kiss me? Me! One of the biggest losers in school!" I complained. "If it was you, you'd have Sam at least!"

"I mean…" Danny scratched his chin a bit, thinking. "If it can't be Valerie because she's the narrator… then why not try asking the person with the actual name of the role? I mean sure, she has an extra te at the end of her name, but it's still her name."

We were walking into the opera house as I answered. "Oh sure, I would just walk up to Juliette, who's a 1400 year old spirit by the way, and ask her if she would play the role of Juliet and kiss me while we're at it. That would go over so well!"

"Role of Juliet? As in Romeo and Juliet?" Juliette questioned as she floated down from above us.

I felt frozen when Juliette suddenly floated down in front of us and asked that question. She likely heard my sarcastic answer to Danny, and now I felt mortified. "Err… yes, but please forget what I just said. It really doesn't concern you…"

"Oh?" Juliette raised a brow. "You weren't serious about asking me?"

"Well no, I mean… it's just for a school project, and if you do take the offer, you'd have to play as Juliet, and I'm playing as Romeo," I answered. "Just uh… forget about it."

"I understand, if you'd rather find someone else that's fine," Juliette chuckled. "The idea did sound interesting, especially as I've met Shakespeare."

"You met Shakespeare?" I asked, surprised. "I-I mean I knew you were alive 1400 years ago, but still, I didn't expect you to have met him."

"Oh no, I met him as a ghost," Juliette clarified. "Shakespeare lived around 400 years ago."

"Did you meet him when he was alive?" Danny asked curiously. "Or was he a ghost when you met him?"

"Considering I hadn't left the Ghost Zone until recently, most definitely the latter," Juliette chuckled in response.

"Oh… huh… so Shakespeare is somewhere in the Ghost Zone? I would've thought he'd be in another afterlife." Danny then smiled. "That means I could meet him one day, cool!"

I shook my head. "Getting back on topic… are you serious about taking the offer to play the role of Juliet in the play, Juliette?"

Writing out Juliette's name with Juliet made it easy to tell the difference, but saying the names out loud could get confusing without context.

"I would definitely be willing to take the offer if you would allow me," Juliette answered. "And if you're worried about a kiss, it's just a stage kiss and not a romantic one."

"I… I know… but you don't know how brutal high school can be." I sighed. "If you so much as look at the opposite sex, you're labelled as liking that person. A kiss on stage would equal a romantic kiss to a bunch of stupid teenagers."

"Andy's right, I got teased a lot about liking Sam… even though it turned out to be true… and there was this one girl who doesn't go to our school anymore, who had health class. She had to practice CPR, and she was constantly asked when the wedding was going to take place afterwards," Danny agreed.

"Except I am not a high schooler who attends your school," Juliette pointed out. "Additionally… I'm over 1400 years old, what high schoolers say won't really affect me all that much. But…"

Juliette turned to look at me, a look of hesitation. "If you feel that you will be treated poorly after doing this, perhaps you should just suggest a different form of the project to your group. You don't have to do a play. Or you could do another play."

I considered what Juliette said. She was often the voice of reason, and she did have a point. I could try to talk to Dash and Valerie about changing the project. But, for some reason, I didn't really want to change it. I actually liked the idea that Juliette would play as Juliet in the play. I couldn't really explain why. But it was also because Dash and Valerie seemed pretty excited about this, and Valerie would not be happy if I tried to change the project now. Especially since Valerie seemed to be a bit more stressed lately about something.

"I guess I just don't like the idea of getting on stage and acting," I admitted. "And I didn't think anyone would actually want to take the role of Juliet once they knew they'd have to kiss me. But if you're offering, then I wouldn't say no. I'm already at the bottom of the barrel in school anyways, so the students making fun of me for kissing someone who doesn't even go to our school wouldn't make much of a difference to me."

"Who knows, perhaps kissing me in my human illusionary disguise will make you more popular in school," Juliette chuckled.

"I don't need to be popular, staying at the bottom is actually preferable. Makes it easy to slip away from people if I need to fight off some ghost," I chuckled back.

"Besides, I've been popular before. It's not all it's cracked up to be," Danny added.

"But moving up the list would allow you to blend in better, wouldn't it?" Juliette raised a brow. "Being bottom of the barrel is just as noticeable as being at the top of the popularity ladder, it's just you're noticed for different things."

"I guess… I mean it doesn't really matter," I shrugged. "The point is that you taking the role of Juliet is very much appreciated. Dash is going to find other people to fill in for the other characters in the play. I just needed to find my Juliet."

"Well, I… admittedly already pretty much have all of Shakespeare's works, including some of his apparent lost works, memorized," Juliette informed. "So now you just need to work on learning the lines of Romeo."

"Do you have photographic memory too?" Danny blinked. "I sure could use that in a lot of my tests. Would make studying a lot less tedious."

"No, she's just… in your terms, a geek," Scarlet spoke up as she floated down from the ceiling, she had humor in her eyes.

"No, I am not, Scarlet." Juliette rolled her eyes. "I do have a photographic-like memory, but it's not actually photographic. I don't see the information like I am looking at a photograph, but instantly recall information I have learned in the past."

"Again, would be very useful if we had that…" Danny grumbled.

I had to agree with Danny, having a really good memory would be very helpful.

"It's a bit overrated though," Juliette informed. "Because you can, at a certain point, have it so you've seen enough of something where you can start picking out possibilities of what's going to happen. For instance, I have read so many books that I unfortunately now have the ability to predict, with fairly decent accuracy, how the plot will go. There are very few times where I find myself reading a 'plot twist' that I didn't expect."

"I guess when you've been around for 1400 years, the world can seem pretty boring if you have perfect memory," I noted.

"So, Juliette, you want to have fun with this play to show off your knowledge and acting skills?" Scarlet asked. "It's been a while since you interacted with humans since the summer vacation, and there's going to be a lot more people than just the Fentons."

"I do wish to participate in this activity, yes," Juliette answered. "And I do not mind if there are more people or less. This is just a class project that Andy is doing, and not a proper school play. It might not even be the full Romeo and Juliet play that we are doing, as this has to be done for a class. Unless Andy's teacher, Mr. Lancer, allows Andy and his group to skip some classes or do their presentation afterschool, it'll have to be done within the time period of a class."

"In that case, I'll be watching from the shadows to make sure nothing goes wrong," Scarlet stated. "Don't worry, you won't even know I'm there."

"You don't need to be there, Scarlet. In fact it would be best if you were keeping an eye on Amity Park," Juliette responded. "If anything goes wrong, I literally have someone watching from my shadow to help."

Scarlet looked like she was about to argue when Danny spoke up. "Oh, Scarlet, I needed to ask you if I could borrow some things for props in my own project."

"What is it that you need?" Scarlet asked, looking all too happy to help Danny with something.

I couldn't help but notice that Scarlet seemed to really enjoy training us lately, and also helping us with other things if we needed it, even if she sometimes went overboard. I began to wonder what we were to her these days.

I heard my cell phone ringing in my pocket. I picked up my cell phone to see the caller ID was Valerie, and I answered the phone. "Yeah? … Yeah, I managed to find someone to take the Juliet role… Yes it was that hard, because it was really embarrassing! … You want to use what? … Oh, no, no, no need to waste money, I think I have something like that at home. I'll bring it to you later then."

I hung up and looked up. "Danny, I'm going to head home. I need to look for something to use for a prop."

"Okie doke," Danny chuckled. "If you don't mind, bro, I'm gonna stay here and train with Scarlet for a bit as well as make my request to her. So see you later and stay out of trouble."

"Same goes for you, bro," I replied before I transformed into my ghost form. Since the Guys in White are gone for now, it'll be faster if I just flew home. "I'll also come by and pick you up later, Juliette, you'll need to meet Dash and Valerie before we can work on the project together."

"I'll be ready and waiting," Juliette acknowledged.

I gave Juliette a nod before I turned intangible and flew out of the opera house, heading towards Fenton Works. There was sudden static in my head, like a vision was trying to show itself, but was having trouble. I stopped for a moment, rubbing my head. The static came up a few more times before it stopped. What was that…?

I frowned to myself as I tried to get the vision to come back, but all I was getting was blank. I shook my head. Maybe I'll ask Clockwork about it later. It doesn't seem to have done anything to me. Or maybe I'm just losing my ability to see into the future, that seems the most likely option.

I was a bit sad at the idea that I could lose the ability to see into the future, but I wasn't devastated about it. And if it wasn't an immediate danger, I could wait until a better time to ask Clockwork about it. For now, I decided to put it to the back of my mind and head for home.

GhostHex: DarkFoxKit: It can be seen as Andy getting treated for poison, since the ice that was creeping up inside him was slowly freezing him to death, like how slow acting poison slowly kills someone to death.

Dp-Marvel94: DarkFoxKit: The agents are the type of people who seem to be obsessed with destroying or capturing ghosts to experiment on. They were very callous in the show, and didn't seem to care about public safety. They were willing to use missiles and drop bombs on a crowd of people just to get at Danny Phantom. It was rather horrid to watch, even if it was just a cartoon.

So that gave us the idea to make the agents one of those extremist groups who are willing to do anything to hurt ghosts, including turning themselves into a ghost without technically dying. Which created interesting antagonists. Instead of making the agents halfas, we decided to go for something different yet similar, something far more sinister and unnatural, making them the true abominations of human and ghost. We went with calling them hybrids since it was the easiest name to call them, and it fits as well. And yeah, Andy almost froze to death, thankfully Juliette was able to save him. Danny wasn't affected due to his own reasons, which if you've seen the cartoon you should be able to guess.

ArashiNokitsune: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': I hope you mean that we handled the Guys in White well and not badly by making them competent but also extreme… Honestly I've always liked the idea that as stupid as they're made out to be in the cartoon, they actually have some level of competence as they are a US Shadow Organization with trained military personnel.

DarkFoxKit: Considering how callous the GIW were in the show, willing to drop missiles and bombs on a crowd of people just to get at Danny, or in Elliot's case, get someone who they thought was Danny Phantom instead of, oh I don't know, facts checking it first? Yeah, they truly embody the worst kinds of people.

Mana16: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': The purity of ectoplasm and different types of ectoplasm has been something that's been bumping around in my head for quite some time like one of those old screensavers. I finally got to use it here and hope to go more in depth into the future, but figured that the use of a pure form would have this sort of effect. The reason I thought of it was thinking about how ectoplasm fills the Ghost Zone like air does for our world, and how air isn't just pure oxygen. So my mind started going down the route of 'ghosts don't consume pure ectoplasm' and that led to this. There will definitely be more ectoplasm lore in the future.

DarkFoxKit: Andy and Danny, while technically hybrids as well, are called halfas due to not truly existing as human and ghost at the same time. I'll let Onyx explain it.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': The idea behind 'hybrid' is that the Guys in White turned themselves into a state that is both alive and human simultaneously, a collision of two beings blended into one. With Danny and Andy, they have two halves, their ghost half and their human half, which they can change between at will. That… huh, that technically means each time they go from ghost to human, they're resurrecting themselves in a sense.

DarkFoxKit: Though you're not wrong in saying that ectoplasm affected the boys at a molecular level, that's just the science behind it that explains how they're both alive, yet dead, at the same time. As for the Ember thing, it was pretty on the nose that she's a fire ghost, but we feel there's more to it than that. Considering Ember actually rarely uses her fire element, and her primary attack is with sound via her guitar.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Sound that she can control to cause different effects from hypnosis to outright damage. There's likely many more abilities with that control of sound that we haven't shown. Who knows, maybe Ember could go full Reflekta~

DarkFoxKit: Unless they watched a certain show, nobody's gonna get that reference, Onyx. ^^'

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': That's fine by me! That's mainly for us~ Or perhaps it's a spoiler for Season 3 or 4~

DarkFoxKit: *Rolls her eyes* Frostbite was Danny's doctor in the show, or at least took Danny to a doctor when Danny came into his domain while almost completely frozen and injured. Though I would say Frostbite would make a better doctor for Danny than for Andy for reasons we'll reveal later on.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Even still, he isn't a doctor. He's the leader of his domain and only has knowledge on certain things. There are actual ghost doctors out there that we may use and abuse in the future~ There are ideas we've tested out in regards to Ghost Zone doctors, hospitals, illnesses, and more! Honestly I can't wait to use some of those ideas here!~

DarkFoxKit: Calm down, Onyx, before you accidentally breathe some excited fire on me.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Pouts* I have complete control over my fire, thank you. Unlike some dragons, I don't lose control due to strong emotions.

Andy: *Is looking at his smoked bacon* Yeah, you're totally good at keeping your fire in check.

DarkFoxKit: AHEM… anyways, the part where the ghost ice was trying to freeze Andy may have been slightly inspired by the Frozen movie.