A/N: I'm glad to see that some of you are already connecting with the characters. Thank you, all of you, for reviewing!
I see that some of you have questions for me...for your rewards, I will answer a few...
No, Jazz is not dead...it was a nightmare...he woke up in his room, remember? And his ghost sense didn't go off when he saw his sister in the hallway. Got it?
As for my answer to the death of a certain character, I will only ask that you continue reading to find out. (Evil laugh...)
This chapter is kind of a break from the evil, dark side that I've been currently building into...I know this is frustrating for all you action fans out there, but I assure you...it's necessary for the plot.
I need to stop talking...seriously...Chapter 3, coming at you!
Chapter 3 - Someone Who Cares
Jazz walked into Danny's room, glad that he was allowing her entrance. As she entered, she noticed the roping sheets and the piles and piles of papers strewn throughout the room.
That must have been some nightmare he had. Probably worse than she thought.
She kept it in mind as Danny gestured her over to his side. She sat down next to him on his bed, while he buried his face in his hands, trying to hide his falling tears.
He should have known better. As she looked closely at him, she noticed an escapee tear trailing off the corner of his eye. It was worse than she had thought.
The seconds ticked by once again, unbroken. Neither was making a move or any opening statement.
The night wind rattled against the windowpane of Danny's room, and the moonlight gave the now darkened room a very faint illumination.
Jazz finally broke the silence. "Danny, I'm worried about you."
"Huh?" he asked, his hands still covering his eyes. "What are you talking about?"
Jazz reached over and yanked his hands away. "I'm talking about this!" She acknowledged the small salty puddles in his hands.
Danny knew that he was caught red-handed. "All right, all right...but seriously...did you have to do that?"
"I'm just trying to make a point here!" she said, her voice suddenly changing. "Danny, I know that you think I'm pushy...and that I have been even more overprotective ever since I found about your secret..."
"Amen," Danny thought.
"...but I've noticed a change in you over the past week. A BIGGER change. On Thanksgivings, you're usually gorging on turkey until your stomach bursts. But this year, I saw that you could barely finish a drumstick! You're shutting yourself in your room all the time, and you're not letting anybody talking to you! Even Sam and Tucker are asking me to talk to you! Furthermore, and this comes as a BIG surprise to me...you're actually starting to do your homework on time! This isn't you!"
What was wrong with doing his homework? More of an improvement, really! He wanted greatly to counter the criticism...
"Danny, I remember our last encounter with Spectra, but she's not here...so I'm sure you're not suffering from her power...this is the actual thing...you're depressed about something..."
Slow stress started building in his mind, believing that letting her in was a bad idea...
"Unlike Mom and Dad, who are always blabbering on about ghosts, I've actually been noticing this whole thing myself..."
The stress started pouring out...Danny couldn't take it anymore.
"ALL RIGHT!" he softly shouted, standing up from his seat and looking out the fogged window. "ALL RIGHT! I know I haven't been acting myself. I...I'm just under...a lot of pressure..."
"Pressure?" asked Jazz. "Pressure from what?"
"There's more things I've got to do..." he said. "My ghost hunting life is starting to get more, well, involved..."
"How so?" she asked, standing up. "You can tell me."
Danny turned in her direction. "I...I..." He clutched his head as he tried to say the words.
"No...I...I...can't say it..."
Jazz walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder. It was a warm benefactor to combat the surrounding cold. As he looked up at her, she was smiling at him.
"Remember what else I told you?" she said gently. "Mom and Dad don't have to know everything. That's why I don't say anything about your secret. And that's because it's yours. If there's anyone you can talk to about a problem, and Mom and Dad are out of the picture...it can be me. Trust me, you can talk to me about anything."
Slowly, Danny felt himself return the smile. His other half of his mind under stress from earlier seemed to melt away into its formation.
This wasn't the Jazz he saw in his dream...this was the caring, older sister that was always there for him...
And she was right, too...she was the same one who swore to never reveal his secret...
Danny, taking a deep breath, finally spoke. "All right, Jazz."
"A breakthrough!" she thought excitedly. "OK, what's wrong, Danny?"
"I'd rather sit down first," he said.
Seating themselves comfortably in their earlier seats on the bed, Danny began talking. Eagerness began to swell in Jazz's mind.
"I...think...I'm starting to gain a new power..."
"A new power?" asked Jazz. "But that's great, Danny! It can help you more with your fights! How is that so stressful?"
Danny's head remained focused on the ground, however. "Because...it's not a ghost power...it's more of the power premonition, really..."
"A premonition?"
"...in my dreams." he stated, not moving.
"Doesn't that help you?" she asked. "You can be one step ahead in all your fights..."
"I already told you...it's not a ghost power! I'm starting to have dreams...and they don't look...well...happy...I've been having really strange dreams lately...and the one that I just woke from...it was a nightmare."
Jazz frowned. "Haven't we been over this already, Danny? I told you...dreams can't-"
"JAZZ!" said Danny, his voice rising again. "This isn't easy to explain!"
"What isn't?" she asked nonchalantly.
It wasn't the correct form of voice. Danny got up from his seat for the second time, in an even greater rage of fury. He wasn't sure whether or not to be angry at the statement, or Jazz herself.
"In my dream, the one I just had, you were in it!"
"I was in it? What was I doing? Trying to help you?"
"No!" he said. "You were dead! You were trying to kill me!"
Jazz's expression changed from a frowning scorn to an astonished look of fear.
Her voice was just an inch above a whisper. "Dead?" she asked.
"Yes! Dead! Things were so much different...so...dark..."
The horrific memories of his dream came back to haunt him, as he remembered his own wounds...the bright green flash...the endless hands trying to force him into the inner recesses of the Ghost Zone...
The familiar pressure pushing down on him again, Danny gave into it...
...not being able to think of any other way to fight the pressure, he gave in.
He started to cry again...
Jazz looked at her shaken brother, with a shocked expression on her face. He had dreamt her dead...and she was trying to kill him...
And from the way he was curled up on the floor, she could sense that she might have succeeded...
Whatever problem she thought it was in the beginning, she never expected it to be of this magnitude.
Danny continued talking, through soft sobs. "And...you sent me into the Ghost Zone...I couldn't find a way out..."
She closed her eyes and felt her head rock down towards the floor. She tried to come up with some way that she could help her brother.
But it didn't look like there was a thing she could talk about that could be used from her books.
She would just have to use her own sense of knowledge. The knowledge of knowing what she knew about her brother...what he wanted to hear.
Jazz knelt down beside him, on the cold floor. She extended her hand out at him, gently grasping his left arm.
"Danny, look at me."
His head slowly rose, exposing the face he was afraid to show from earlier. But before he knew it, she hugged him, and looked directly at him, though his face remained staring at the ground.
"I'm your sister," she said, "...whether or not any your dreams seem to be real. I am always here to protect you, nothing will change that. No matter what happens, you hear me? No matter what happens. As long as you do your share of protecting the city, I will always be here helping you...living, or dead."
"But...what if -"
"What if nothing, Danny! Even if I do become a ghost, I swear it will not be to harm you in any way. I'll continue watching you, but as a guardian...not as someone bent on rage..."
Danny looked back at his sister. He wiped away more tears as she continued.
"It's called a bond, Danny...something that nothing can break...I promise this to you...no harm will come that directly involves me...I swear...though a dream seems real, just remember, it's only a dream...just a dream..."
As Danny wiped away more tears, a faint smile appeared across his face. Jazz could sense there was a bit of courage shining somewhere in that smile.
Meanwhile, the strong wind rattling the windowpane suddenly subsided, leaving the room in silence. The moonlight seemed give a greater illumination to the room as Danny finally took in the words from his sister, and returned the hug from before.
"Thank you, Jazz," he said, weakly.
"I'm your sister," said Jazz. "I'm supposed to do that."
"Heh..." he said, breaking away from the hug. "It's nice to know I'll have at least one normal family member around the holidays..."
The holidays...Jazz felt it was as good a time as any to ask. "So...Danny..." she said, with a slight smile on her face. "December's coming up. Did you get anything for me yet?"
Danny suddenly stopped, and looked around in panic. He had forgotten all about it...he remembered the stores were already crowded when it was the start of December...Christmas was taken quite seriously around these parts...
And even more serious at home...he didn't have a present for anyone yet...he'd better start buying...
"Danny..." Jazz said, her voice playfully changing into a mock firming voice. "You did get me something...right? I already have yours..."
Smiling, but at the same time, desperately trying to find a way out, Danny looked around the room, for any excuse.
Finally spotting the clock, it showed the the time of 4:00. Knowing that being late was one of Jazz's pet peeves, he tried to use that.
"Oh, man, look at the time!" he said. "We have school in five hours!"
"Huh?" she asked, looking at the clock. "Oh, geez! You're right!"
She stood up and went out the room in a hurry. Danny internally breathed a sigh of relief. Though she had promised not to hurt him, he knew he was dead meat if he had forgotten all about a present, whether or not he had ghost powers...
So he was safe, for now. His perspiration quickly died away.
But before she left, she turned and said, "Danny, remember what I said."
"I will. Oh, and Jazz?"
"What?"
"Thanks..."
Smiling again, she said, "No problem."
She left his room, turning in the hallway towards her own room.
Danny crossed over to his bed and started smoothing out the sheets. As he slept for the rest of the night, he hoped he didn't have any more of those dreams...
He had a vision where he could see Tucker playfully punching him because he had forgotten all about Christmas, but other than that, nothing nerve-wracking...
000000000000000000000000000000
8:30 AM, the same morning...
"Danny!" called Maddie Fenton from the kitchen. "Breakfast!"
Quickly getting out of the shower and dressing in his usual attire, Danny slid downstairs via the bannister.
A steaming pile of pancakes stood before him at the table. Taking a heaping helping, he poured syrup all over the stack and made quick work of it.
"Well," said Jack. "Someone's hungry today. It's a good thing I'm not eating like you."
Danny looked at his father's plate. It was piled with a stack about three times as high as his own.
"I wouldn't be too sure of that," thought Danny, attempting to suppress a laugh. Looking across the table, he could see his sister and mother also trying to hold back a giggle.
"Well, it's good to see that everyone's getting into the Christmas spirit," said Jack, completely oblivious to the situation. "So, Danny, any presents you've bought yet, perhaps...(he winked)...for your old man?"
Danny nearly choked while downing a glass of orange juice.
"I...uh...I..."
The doorbell rang, followed by a big knock at the door.
He felt a sigh of relief...he was saved...again!
"I'll get it!" he said, running as fast as he could to the door, leaving his father on the ropes.
Opening the door, he saw the familiar faces of his best friends, Tucker Foley and Sam Manson.
It looked like they were getting into the season, too. Instead of the usual long-sleeved yellow shirt, Tucker was wearing a red shirt that had a picture of a decorated Christmas tree on it. And even Sam...instead of the usual black band she wore around her neck, it was a necklace that had a little Christmas tree charm on it, complete with matching earrings.
"Well," said Tucker, pointing to his outfit, "what do you think?"
"What do I think?" asked Danny. "I think that you both are taking this a little far...it's still only November!"
And with his family in the same fashion, he felt surrounded.
"You can't be too early, when the holidays are involved," said Sam. "Besides, its the thirtieth of November...meaning that there's only one more day!"
"Well," repeated Tucker. "What do you think about my outfit?"
"It looks nice," said Danny quickly. Turning to Sam, he said, "And that new stuff you've got on...you look nice, as well."
Sam blushed. "Thanks..." she said.
Danny also felt himself blush faintly...it seemed that he and Sam were getting a lot closer lately...
"Augh..." he thought, snapping out of it. "I can't think of that now!"
Picking up his backpack at the door, Danny yelled back, "Goodbye! See you later!"
His parents and sister waved back at him as he closed the door. Running down the steps, he caught up with his friends, who were already walking down the street towards Casper High.
It was pretty much a normal Friday morning, except for the fact that people were already putting up Christmas lights. Though he just had that talk with his sister, for some reason, he didn't feel very much in the Christmas spirit...
"So how are you feeling today, Danny?" asked Tucker.
"I feel a lot better from yesterday," said Danny. "But seriously, guys...what the heck is the big idea, telling Jazz all about it?"
"You wouldn't talk to us!" said Sam. "We didn't have any other choice!"
"Well, I guess you're right," said Danny. "Especially about this dream I had last night."
"A dream?" asked Sam. "What dream?"
Taking a deep breath, Danny told them about his nightmarish visions from before.
"Wow, Danny," said Tucker as he finished. He had a serious expression of concern on his face. "I didn't know they were that bad...and Jazz was dead?"
"And from the Ghost Zone, trying to get you?" asked Sam, who had a shocked expression on her face. "Geez, and I thought I had dark dreams..."
"Yes," said Danny, with his head down. "But guys, seriously...I don't want to talk about it anymore...it was just too painful, both in my head and in my dream..."
"Yeah, I know how you feel, man," said Tucker, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "I know how it is, feeling as if someone could kill me at any moment of the day..."
"TUCKER!" said Sam. "Don't say that!"
"Oh, sorry..." Tucker said, backing off.
"Look, Danny," said Sam. "I know things have been getting a little dark around here, but seriously, I can assure that nothing bad can happen to you right now, all right? These are only dreams, not premonitions, or whatever you think they are."
It was basically the same words that Jazz had said to him before, but still, it was nice to have someone that cared about him. Danny smiled at her.
"It's Christmas!" said Tucker, coming back. "You should feel happy about all of this! Happy that we're about to get a vacation!"
"Tucker," said Danny. "For the last time, it's still only November."
"Oh yeah, forgot about that."
They laughed about it as they reached the school with about ten minutes to spare.
As the trio reached the steps, they could hear running footsteps behind them.
"...Danny..." said a faint voice, out of breath. "Wait up!"
All three teens turned around. In the distance, they could see someone that looked like she were running to catch up with them for a while.
"Hello, Valerie," said Danny, waving at her.
"Morning, Fenton," said Valerie, smiling back at him. Turning to Sam and Tucker, she waved and simply said "Hi."
They responded with the same type of simple greeting.
"Nice Christmas gear," she said, hopefully, trying to get them to respond with something else.
"Thanks," both of them said quickly.
"So what's up?" she asked, acknowledging only Danny. "Anything new?"
"Nah, nothing special. Last night, though, I was finally able to get that algebra problem that everyone was having trouble with." he said. He looked back at Sam and Tucker, seeing if they had a response.
They only glared back at her.
In fact, they made it clear that they didn't want her anywhere near Danny.
He knew the reason...and it was other than the fact that they knew that she was a ghost hunter set out to get him. In the past, when she was rich, Valerie was mean to them. But now that she was friendly with only him, they felt as if she was barging in on them.
And just because she was poor didn't give them any excuse to cut her any slack.
If only he could make them see that underneath all that ghost hunting...she wasn't that bad a person...
"They're still against me, huh?" whispered Valerie to Danny.
"Just give it time," he whispered back, glaring back at his best friends.
His voice raising in volume, he said, "C'mon guys, we're all going to be late!"
All four teens walked into Casper High together, just as the five-minute bell rang.
They were walking through the hallway. That familiar sense of being surrounded by early celebrators came again to smack Danny in the face. Fake holly, garlands, and red ribbon decorated the whole hallway.
And the more frightening decoration to Danny...
Mistletoe...hanging over every single door frame...
His algebra class was only a few steps away...and as he got closer, he could see Paulina stationed directly underneath the door frame.
There was no surprise...nearly every single guy tried stopping underneath the door frame next to her...and she pushed them all out of the way.
"Get lost, loser!" said Paulina, pushing away another hopeful candidate. Looking up the hallway, she could see Danny walking up with his friends.
Her voice suudenly changed. "Oh, yoo-hoo, Danny!" she said. "Come here!"
Danny's heart stopped. Did she actually want him...under there?
Leaving behind a shocked Sam, Tucker, and Valerie, Danny ran up as fast as he could.
But before he could get under the door frame, she held him back.
"I'm not under here for you...I just wanted to know if the ghost boy was going to be here today, since he seems to show up wherever you do!"
Danny's shoulders dropped, realizing the truth.
And behind him, Sam and Valerie were acting like they were trying to suppress themselves from throwing up. Danny wanted to laugh, but realized that Paulina was still in front of him.
"I don't know, Paulina," he said. "He only shows up whenever trouble is here."
"Yeah," said Valerie in her head. "Half the time, he's part of it!"
"Well," said Paulina. "If you see him, will you tell him that I'm here (her eyes narrowed) waiting for him?"
"We'll see..." said Danny, sighing.
"Good," Paulina said. "I'll be looking forward to it." She left the doorway and took her seat in class.
While she walked away, Danny sighed after her, still miffed that she liked his Phantom half over his Fenton half...
"Danny Phantom," said Valerie, turning to Tucker. "That dumb ghost kid, she likes him?"
"Y-yes..." said Tucker, trying to keep Danny's secret under wraps. "I-I don't know why, either..."
As Valerie talked with Tucker, Sam took the chance to silently voice her opinions out of earshot.
"Seriously, Danny, what do you see in her?"
"Paulina? Well, other than the fact of her 'flawless skin,' she..."
"I'm not talking about Paulina!" Her head jerked in the direction of Valerie. "I'm talking about her!"
"Val? She's not that bad once you get to know her..."
"She's also one of your enemies! I can't believe you're still letting her this close!"
"And I still can't believe that you're not trying to get to know her!" he responded. "C'mon, Sam, you and Tucker just said it yourselves...it's the Christmas season coming soon, and if you two are going to act like a pair of Scrooges-"
"But Danny, I don't know about this..."
"Just try...c'mon...will you at least have one conversation with her?"
"What if -"
"One conversation..." said Danny, looking straight at her.
Sam looked at him with all the resentment she had towards Valerie, but as she looked at her best friend, she felt helplessly outnumbered, although it was only one person. Defeated, Sam's head went down, her earrings dangling as she looked at her feet.
Sighing, she said, "...OK...one conversation...I'll talk with her..."
Those words seemed to leave a bad taste in her mouth.
"Thank you, Sam," said Danny, smiling.
Sam tried to return the smile, but only sighed, as they walked into first period algebra. Tucker and Valerie, both with free periods, were left behind in the hallway.
"See you in an hour," they said, staring back at Danny and Sam. Then they continued talking about Danny's alter ego.
"Bye," said Sam, feeling trapped, as the bell rang for first period.
Sure, she made a promise to Danny. But for some reason, she felt as if she was going to horribly regret it in some way.
But she had four periods to think about it...who knew? Maybe it could work...
But then again...maybe it wouldn't.
Sorry, people...have to end it there...please continue the reviews, though...Chapter 4 (and personal thank-yous) coming ASAP.