A/N: Hey everyone. I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. Here's the sixth chapter.

Chapter 6 - Snow Fall in Amity Park

December 14th...two weeks later...

Awakening from another slumber, the half-ghost woke up on a Friday morning to realize that it was snowing outside.

For once, the forecasters were correct about one thing...it did snow last night. But unfortunately, it didn't snow as much as the forecasters predicted...only five inches had fallen so far.

The teen groaned. He had been counting on it to snow so much that the school would be closed.

"Ugh...five inches, they predicted thirty-five...those people are never right..." he thought.

Just like the rain that was predicted two weeks ago...it never happened.

But at least there were some things that were getting better. The whole bit about his incident in algebra class had finally dissipated after hearing it from Dash and Kwan for four days.

It disappeared after he had a run-in with the Box Ghost.

Up to his nonsense, as usual, the Box Ghost made his way onto the campus and started wreaking havoc in his destructive, yet usually comical, fashion.

But he did give Mr. Lancer a fright when he leapt out of the box that was used to store leftover chalk...

After the class ran for their lives, he went ghost and beat the hell out of him. It was basically a one-sided fight.

The students of the school congratulated him as he walked out, or rather, flew out of the room with the Box Ghost inside of the Fenton thermos.

There was only one small thing that went wrong. After everyone dispersed and he attempted to fly away, Paulina ran out of the crowd and attempted to push him underneath the mistletoe when no one was watching. Though he liked the idea that he was getting attention from the girl he liked, he still couldn't ignore the fact that he couldn't let his ghost half get all the attention on her.

Plus, Sam was coming up the walkway just as Paulina forced him under the mistletoe.

Panicking, Danny had to come up with an idea, quickly.

"Uhh..." he had said, "I can't possibly...uhh..." (an idea popped into his mind) "Close your eyes! You don't expect me to do this with your eyes open, do you?"

Paulina reluctantly agreed. "Ohh! How exciting! I can't wait!"

Closing her eyes, she puckered up.

Taking his chances, Danny turned intangible and slowly backed away from the door frame, leaving Paulina behind in her stance. He decided to wait for someone to show up and wonder what she was doing, basically for his own amusement.

And that person was Sam.

She walked up to Paulina, who was still waiting underneath the plant, her eyes still closed.

"Uhh...Paulina?" asked Sam, with a bemused look on her face. "What are you doing?"

"Huh?" said Paulina, snapping out of it. "Where is he?" A look of wonder formed across her face for a split second before it quickly rearranged back into a smile.

"What's going on?" aked Sam, still confused.

Paulina seemed strangely happier than ever when she said her next line.

"Oh, I get it! He's playing 'Hard to Get!'"

Sam's rolling eyes were the last thiing he saw before he laughed under his breath and flew out of the classroom and into the empty cafeteria, where changed back into his normal self.

As he waited for Sam to meet up with him for lunch, he got word from her that everyone was talking about how Danny Phantom was the one that saved the school from another ghost attack. No one was talking about his antics in algebra class anymore, but Paulina was still dreamily speaking about the ghost boy...

He felt a lot better, knowing that he was slowly making his way back up the social spectrum with no one making fun of him anymore.

Such was that moment, ten days ago, as the memory faded back into his mind...

But one memory still remained...the incident in the nurse's office.

He was going to through with it about talking to Valerie, but she never appeared during those two weeks. The cold weather was getting to her, and she was sick with pneumonia for two weeks.

And he had visited her several tims to see how she was...without telling anyone where he was going...

Today was her day to return to school, but the fact that he was her only visitor actually worked in reverse of what his friends and sister asked him to do.

Now she was closer to him.

If he showed up at school where Valerie could thank him about visiting her, he'd be in dangerous waters if Sam and Tucker were around.

He wondered, as he lay in his bed, how he was going to avoid Valerie.

"Perhaps I should pretend I'm sick?" he thought.

Actually, that was another bad idea. She could hear about his sickness, and then visit him. That would make things worse, with his sister around.

There was only one way. He'd have to try and avoid her.

It was a risky situation, but perhaps he could make up some story later, like it was mainly to avoid catching whatever was left of her cold...

"Danny! Breakfast!" yelled his mother from downstairs, cutting off his train of thought.

It looked like he was going to have to wait on this one. Jumping out of bed and hurriedly dressing in his trademark outfit, along with a thick jacket, he slid downstairs on the bannister again to enjoy another breakfast with his family.

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"Geez," said Tucker, as they walked away from the school after the final bell rang. "I'm so glad school's out right now. Combined with the weather, and Lancer's raving about frostbite in biology today, I didn't think I was going to make it!"

"Yeah," said Sam, agreeing. "I'm usually the dark one around here, but he's the one that always puts negativity into things."

"Probably because the faculty member who pulled out his name in the schoolwide Secret Santa doesn't want to do it," said Tucker.

"That might explain some things," said Sam. "Speaking of that Secret Santa stuff, who did you get?"

"I ended up with Dash Baxter," said Tucker. "Can you believe all the rotten luck?"

"You think you've got it bad?" asked Sam. "I've got Paulina! I can't think of anything worse than that!"

"Actually, I can think of several things that are worse," said Tucker.

"Oh, you!" she said.

"Ah, guys, don't worry about it," said Danny. "the main thing is, we're out, we've got a homework-free weekend ahead, and there's only one more week of school before we're out for Christmas vacation!"

Tucker and Sam looked at each other in surprise, and then smiled at him.

"Thanks, man," said Tucker, high-fiving him. "I needed to hear that."

"Yeah," said Sam. "Where did you, out of all people, get optimistic all of a sudden?"

"I don't know," he said. "I guess I might be getting over this dream thing...I haven't had one since the day I saw Spectra."

His friends smiled, finally knowing that their friend had finally returned to them.

"Well," said Tucker, "We have a free weekend. What do you guys want to do?"

As he was thinking about some random activity, Danny heard a female voice in the distance, accompanied by running footsteps.

He knew who it was almost immediately.

Thinking quickly, he said, "I have an idea!"

"What is it?" asked Tucker.

"It's called 'Race-to-the-internet-cafe-quickly-before-I-murder-you-guys-on-our-saved-game-on-Doom!'"

He sprinted off before they formed a meaning to the mess of words he just said.

"Oh, no, you don't!" said Tucker, running after him. "There's no way you're going to get a head start on that! Without our help, you wouldn't have even made it past level 12!"

"Then try and stop me!" said Danny, laughing, looking behind him, having gotten a head start on his friends.

"Get back here, you CHEATER!" yelled Tucker, playfully.

"Hey guys, wait up!" yelled Sam, trailing far behind. "I'm wearing snowboots, you know!"

"We're wearing them, too! It looks like you won't beat us today if you can't catch up with us!" said the African-American.

"HEY!" she yelled. "I can beat you guys anyday!"

"Then prove it!" yelled Tucker.

"I'll show you!" she yelled, gaining ground on him.

The three disappeared from sight before the fourth running person that started it all could even make a point of her own existence. With a stunned looked of amazement on her face, she just stopped, and rested, wondering why they left so quickly.

Valerie took the time to replay the day's events in her head.

It hadn't been a pleasant day. First off, no one acknowledged that she was even gone for two weeks. It was saying something like if she had disappeared off the face of the earth, no one would even notice. Next, Lancer gruffly told her that staying out in the cold too much caused her pneumonia, and told her in order to make up for her absences, she'd have to write a long essay on weather patterns, which was due next week on Monday. She only had three days.

On the previous night before she returned, she had some really strange dream about phantoms surrounding her while she was in ghost hunter mode...she wasn't able to fight any of them off, and they cornered her. They were about to attack, but she woke up before they could do so. All she could remember was the cold sweat pouring down her face.

And worse, speaking of cold, her friend, Danny Fenton, seemed to be giving her the cold shoulder all day...

Was something wrong?

Everything in the beginning seemed fine...but now she was experiencing emotional qualms about this sudden change in her friend.

Valerie wondered aloud. "It looked like he's been avoiding me all day...why isn't he talking to me right now? He seemed fine when he visited me all those times..."

Her mind answered her question. "Maybe Danny Phantom got to him and changed his mind about you..."

"Shut up!" she told herself. "Fenton's my friend! His family hunts ghosts! There's no way a ghost can do that to him!"

"Suit yourself...you're probably just fooling yourself, you know..."

"Shut up!" she said again. "I know Fenton...he's trustworthy...there's nothing to hide, especially if he's my best friend..."

"Whoever said he was your friend? It could be a pity-type friendship, you know..."

"SHUT UP!" she yelled out for a third time.

She couldn't believe this...her own mind...

Out of all things, why was her own mind disagreeing with her? She was actually arguing with herself! How could she be her own bully? Her own tormentor?

As she turned around, walking towards the direction of her own home, the events of her bitter day started raining down on her like a storm that never ceased.

"Perhaps this little situation will pass sometime soon..." she told herself, her head down, looking at the sidewalk, covered with white snow.

And she hoped it would be soon. She felt herself becoming lonelier every day.

Sighing, it looked like it was going to be the first ever Christmas that she was going to hate.

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One hour later...

"You are such a CHEATER!" yelled Sam as they emerged from the internet cafe. "I've never seen so much use of that cheat in my life!"

"Oh, come on, Sam!" said Danny. "You used to do that totem pole trick all the time! Especially when you helped me fight off Technus!"

"I didn't use it that much!" she said, shoving him playfully. "I only used it several times! Now as for using it during our fight with Technus, we had to! How else could we have gotten rid of him?"

A hilarious memory came back to mind as Danny remembered a fifty-foot Sam crush a helpless Technus to rubble and then toss him inside level zero...

"Yes, I guess you're right," said Danny. "Maybe I should use that whenever there's a greater need for it..."

"Now that's more like it!" said Sam, happy that she got through to him.

"But this still sucks, though! How did we lose all seven Silver Keys to the Apocalypse, again?" asked Tucker. "It was as if the same thing happened from before!"

"You mean from the point that we were about to win last time, only to get killed before we could even turn the key?" asked Sam.

"Exactly!" said Tucker. "Who's doing this?"

Just as those words escaped his lips, Mr. Lancer, in a brown trench coat and wearing sunglasses, slowly sneaked away from the trio before they could recognize him.

"Oh well," said Danny. "That can be for another day. Let's go do something else."

"How about going to the Nasty Burger?" suggested Danny. "All that online game playing has really worked up an appetite for me."

"Sure," said Sam. "You can count me in for that. Of course, I'll be having a salad, though..."

"Count me in, as well," said Tucker. "I'm starving. I didn't really want to eat the cafeteria food today...it looked kind of green."

"You can count me in, as well," said a mystery female voice.

Danny and friends turned.

"Jazz!" Danny exclaimed.

"Hey, Danny!" she said, waving from inside her car. "Need a ride?"

"Sure!" they all said, piling into the automobile.

Danny felt really good, as his sister drove them to the restaurant. His luck seemed to be getting better and better without those dreams.

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It was about 5:30 when they came out of the restaurant in greater spirits.

"Oh man," said Jazz, laughing. "I can't believe you did that!"

"Well," said Danny, his eyes watering. "I did do it. Now pay up."

Jazz opened up her purse and gave Danny a twenty-dollar bill.

"Geez," said Tucker. "Who knew that anyone could swallow fourty packets of Nasty Sauce without water? That stuff's freakin' HOT!"

"Better not let him take a hot shower tonight," said Sam, joking. "He might explode!"

"In fact," said Jazz, "I think you better get back home right now. You almost passed out on us after you ate that second-to-last sauce packet!"

"No, I'm fine," said Danny. "Just give me another bottle of water."

"Finished with your third one already?" asked Sam, handing over a fourth. "I'll bet there's a fire going down there in your stomach right now!"

Danny laughed as he literally inhaled the beverage.

"Listen, guys," said Tucker. "It's been fun, but I realized that I have some things to do right now, so I better get back home."

"Me too," said Sam, handing Danny a fifth bottle of water. "I've got another Goth Poetry Slam down at the bookstore. It starts in like fifteen minutes."

"Let us give you a ride," said Jazz. Knowing the town, she knew that the bookstore and Tucker's house were convienently less than four blocks from each other.

"Are you sure?" asked Tucker. "You already did us a favor, driving us down here."

"No, I'm perfectly fine with this," said Jazz. "I've got nothing to do right now."

"Well, thanks," they said, piling into the car.

"No problem," said Jazz, smiling.

And after Danny took another swig of water, they were off.

"I wonder what I'm going to get Dash for that Secret Santa thing," said Tucker, glumly. "Maybe I can get away with getting him a football or something...or I could give him a joke present, like coal. I can leave him a note, saying that he could smear it under his eyes or something for football games..."

"I don't think it will go over well," said Sam. "We're among the few people he dislikes, and he'll probably trace it back to us in no time."

"Oh man!" said Tucker, disappointed. "Well, I guess it's back to a boring present once again."

"Speaking of presents," said Sam. "I suppose I can get Paulina that sweater she's been crooning over..."

"The one that is causing a craze right now to everyone in Amity Park?" asked Danny quickly.

"You mean to everyone except me? Yeah, I might as well," said Sam. "She's always blabbering to her friends aloud about how she's a size small, so I decided right now that I should get it for her."

"Hmph...I guess," said Danny.

Sam then remembered another detail that was never mentioned. In fact, Danny never even brought it up.

"Danny?" she asked. "Who do you hav-"

"We're here!" said Jazz, interrupting.

Sam looked up. The bookstore was right in front. "No!" she thought. She wanted to finish her question.

Oh well. She had about two minutes before it started. And Tucker was already out of the car. She decided to save it for another day as she stepped out of the car.

"See you later!" said Danny, waving. "I'll call you guys so we can do some things this weekend."

"All right, dude," said Tucker. "See you later!"

"Yeah, bye," said Sam, slightly disappointed, but with a smile on her face.

"Bye!" said Jazz, driving off.

Danny took one last wave to his friends before they disappeared from sight.

As they were on their way back to the house, Danny was on his seventh bottle of water. Jazz decided to ask him a question.

"So, have you bought any presents yet?"

He thought that he might as well face the music. "No," he said.

"No!" said Jazz. "Oh, Danny, I hope you don't have last minute shopping plans again!"

"Well, at least you won't have to drive me there like last year," said Danny. "Now that I've got these powers, I'll just fly back and forth between areas. No one will have to know."

"I just hope you know what you're doing," said Jazz. "The last thing I need is to see on the news is a ghost kid flying over Amity Park holding a shopping bag full of merchandise."

"I'll fly invisible," said Danny. "Now that I've got some money, I can start tonight."

Jazz laughed. "Now I'm starting to think that the bet you just pulled has something to do with a lack of Christmas money."

"It's got nothing to do with that!" said Danny. "I meant that my allowance is coming up tonight, so I have some money there. I mean, maybe I can start with that Secret Santa thing or something..."

"Oh, I forgot about that," said Jazz. "Who do you have?"

"I don't want to say," said Danny.

"Oh, come on," said Jazz, slightly irritated. "Will you at least tell me if it's a boy or a girl?"

Danny thought that he might as well give her this clue.

"It's a girl," he said.

"Hmm," said Jazz. "Judging by the amount of time it took for you to say that, I'm guessing that it's someone that I know."

Danny suddenly stopped and stared.

Jazz continued. "And by the way you're suddenly staring at me after I said that, I'm right. But I wonder who it can be?"

Their house was coming up. He had never been so happy to see it.

After they stopped, Danny got outside before he could give his sister another clue with his behavior.

Walking up to the front door, he unlocked the front door and called out to see if his parents were around.

Two things caught his eye. One of them was a note next to the phone, from his parents.

Dear Danny and Jazz,

Your father and I are out Christmas shopping. We'll be out late, so you'll have to fend for yourselves. Dinner is in the freezer, use the oven or microwave to heat it up.

-Mom

The second thing was the phone itself. There was a message on the answering machine.

Pressing the button, Danny listened to the message.

Jazz, meanwhile, was still in the car, deep in thought. She'd stop at nothing to find out who Danny had to get a present for.

"Hmm...it's a girl, and it's someone I know...maybe it's Paulina? No, Sam's got Paulina...perhaps it's Star? Very unlikely...maybe it's one of his closer friends...but then that means it could be-"

"JAZZ! SHE'S HURT!" screamed Danny, suddenly bursting out of the door.

Her cognitive stance broken off, Jazz whirled her head in his direction.

She didn't hear what he said at first, so she thought he might need another bottle of water. But then she saw the expression worn on his face.

There was a look of panic on his face. He was out of breath, panting heavily.

Soon, the same panic started spreading across her own face. Someone was hurt...that could never be any good news.

"What's wrong? Who's hurt?" she asked.

"Message on the answering machine...there's been an attack! We have to go to the hospital!" Danny heaved out. "And we have to leave now!"

End of Chapter 6...

Yep, another cliffhanger! Once again, please review. I'll update ASAP.