-glances at calendar- Darn it...it's not June 9th yet! Curses! –falls over- Soon enough...bwhahaha. –cough-

Um. Yes. Well, here FINALLY, is the next chapter. Woot! Forgive me if anyone's too horribly OOC...this is the first time I've really actually attempted to write Jack or Maddie, so...yeah. –sweatdrops- I'm more of a fluffernutter than anything. :P

Speaking of which—Terrasina, don't worry, soon enough there will be fluff beyond your wildest dreams! It is, after all, my specialty. ;D Lately, I can't write ANYTHING without it being a little bit fluffy. They really need to add 'fluff' as a genre on this site.

Okay enough of that! Presenting...

Chapter Six

Well, he sure knew how to put those glowing green eyes to use: Spandex Boy stared at me for a full thirty seconds before his jaw hit the floor.

"You..." Spandex Boy's mouth was hanging open, and he was as white as, well...a ghost. "You can see me?"

"Obviously," I sighed. I've had this conversation with ghosts many times before—that is, with the ones that didn't want to disembody me on sight. "What exactly are you doing here, might I ask?"

A pause. "Well—" he hesitantly began, but at that moment, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Sam!" Crud. It was Jazz—who, of course, thought I had been in the bathroom this time. Great—now she probably thought I had constipation or something.

"Sam!" she called again. "Are you okay in there?"

Without another word to Spandex Boy, I ran right past him and towards the bathroom, acting as if I was coming out of it, just as Jazz made her way to the top.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, pretending to wipe my hands on my skirt. "So, how about that dinner," I added, before she could ask anymore questions. I glanced over my shoulder as we walked towards the dining room, only to notice that Spandex Boy was gone.

I inwardly sighed. Here we go...

--

"So Sam," Maddie said brightly once we'd all been served and made small talk. I had to admit, she could put together a mean salad—even I couldn't have done any better. "Jazz tells me you've moved here from Dimmsdale. That's clear across the state, isn't it?"

"Yes," I answered, taking a bite of lettuce, watching with a bit of fascination—yet more disgust--as Jack managed to shove two hot dogs, bun, relish, ketchup and all, into his mouth. "Uh, actually, this makes it my first full day here. We got into town yesterday evening."

"How do you like Amity Park so far?"

"It's..." I paused. Considering it had barely been twenty-four hours and I had run into three ghosts, all of which were unlike any I had ever dealt with before, I had to say, Amity Park was creeping me out a bit.

Though the fact that I was seeing ghosts in the first place was not something I wanted to mention to a 'professional' ghost hunter.

"It's alright," I finally answered. "I mean, school was basically torture and Jazz was the only sane person I talked to all day, but I'm sure it'll get better." Yeah, unless I ran into Spandex Boy again, although judging from the way he fled when he had a chance, the last thing on his mind was beating me to a pulp. Good thing.

"Oh, I'm sure it'll get better for you," Jazz sympathized. "My freshman year wasn't too great, so I kept myself going by studying, and it totally paid off. Maybe you should try it out."

"Maybe," I shrugged. My grades, with or without studying, were decent enough to pretty much guarantee I'd pass through the portals of Casper High with flying colors—especially considering what a snore the teachers were. But, of course, they meant nothing.

Helping ghosts, whether I wanted to or not, would always come first. I mean, I couldn't exactly ignore them—it was like this inner voice was screaming at me to help them, getting them off this human plane so I could finally chill without some spooky being dragging me away. I could've easily ignored Spandex Boy and the Box Ghost, but did I? Noooo. It was those darn morals.

"Oh, cheer up dear," Maddie suddenly said, snapping me out of my train of thought. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Though I must say, you do seem very sure of yourself for a freshman. That alone will make it easier for you to deal with those everyday things."

Everyday things? Like what, giant meat monsters?

"Well, I guess you could say I got that from my best friend back in Dimmsdale," I smiled. "Tucker was the scaredy-cat of the two of us, and he was always getting into more trouble than I wanted to deal with, so I've had to save him from certain disaster many times. That in turn probably made me a little overconfident."

Of course, the 'trouble' Tucker had gotten into involved angry, killer ghosts that wanted to rip all humans' heads off, but nobody at this table needed to know that.

"Ah, so you're no damsel in distress," Maddie smiled back. "I'm the same way. Isn't that right Jack?" Jack didn't answer since he was busy squeezing about half a bottle of ketchup onto yet another hot dog. Maddie looked back at me and winked.

I hid a smile. "So, it's just you three living here?" I blurted out.

In a split second, everyone's face—even Jack's—froze, and then faltered a bit. Jack and Maddie looked at each other worriedly, while Jazz was busy staring at the table like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

I cursed myself for blurting out something like that, but more so for the fact that I just realized—the kid in all their family pictures? Yeah, he was probably dead.

Ghosts. Oh, goody.

It was Jazz who finally cleared her throat and broke the silence. "Yeah...just me, Mom, and Dad," she said carefully, now looking at me instead of that oh-so-interesting table.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, a twisting feeling settling in the pit of my stomach. "It's just that, uh, I was looking at the pictures on your walls and saw a boy in some of them...and, well, I hope I'm not being rude or anything, but I was just wondering who he was."

To my surprise, Jack suddenly stood up, knocking over his glass of water in the process, and thundered down the stairs, muttering something under his breath. The three of us left at the table, watched with wide eyes until he disappeared from view and the door to whatever room he was in closed with a slam.

Maddie heaved a sigh. "I should go talk to him..." she trailed off, not quite looking at me or Jazz, but instead stared at the floor as she too went down the stairs.

I blinked and looked at Jazz. "Uh...bad question, I'm guessing?"

"I don't see why they still insist on being ghost hunters!" was the answer that flew out of her mouth. "It's just...how can they live with themselves? Ghosts aren't real, and nothing is going to bring him back!"

"..."

Jazz heaved in a deep breath at my very confused stare. "I'm sorry...well, it is about that boy in the picture..."

"You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want," I interrupted, even though I was dying to know. Ah, well. I'd find out somehow.

"No...I'll tell you." She took another deep breath, not quite looking at me. "The boy in the picture...he was...is...my little brother, Danny. He...he died last month."

"Oh..." I trailed off, a feeling of foreboding settling in my stomach. I ignored it. "May I ask how?"

Jazz's hands were shaking, but she clasped them together, trying to hide it. "He...he got into one of my parent's inventions. They were trying to create some kind of 'ghost zone'...or something. It's completely ridiculous, but they still insist there's some kind of ghost world out there."

Yeah, there is. It's called the human plane.

"Anyway, it didn't quite work, so Mom and Dad just quit working on it...but I guess Danny felt bad that it wasn't working, because it seems like he went inside, trying to activate the stupid thing." Tears were threatening to fall from her eyes, and I squirmed. I have no patience for crying people, but this story about Danny had piqued my curiosity.

"And?" I prompted.

"And the next thing I knew, we found him lying there...right outside the portal's doors. They were jammed shut, and there was this weird green smoke coming from Danny's body. And it was just so weird...he had been wearing one of Dad's old jumpsuits, and the colors were inverted...not to mention his hair was white."

My eyes widened. "Oh, that's..."

"I just hate the fact that Mom and Dad still insist on their stupid ghost hunting!" Jazz suddenly screeched, causing me to jump about a foot in the air. "Their stupid invention is what killed one of their own children! Why can't they understand that he's not coming back?" True to sudden mood swings, she burst into tears and buried her face in her hands, shaking violently.

"Um..." I got up and slowly patted her back. Despite my experience in dealing with spirits, I had practically none with humans. Tucker, really, was the only human I dealt with on a regular basis, sometimes he was so weird he didn't deserve the title of 'human'. Plus, I had only just met Jazz, and I had no idea what to say to comfort her without sounding like a total wacko.

'Of course, that's never stopped you before,' I thought, sighing to myself. "Look, Jazz...I'm really sorry that I brought the subject up."

She removed her hands from her face. She had stopped crying, but her eyes were really red and puffy. "Oh, don't be," choked. "You didn't know...and if we're going to be friends, then you were going to find out sometime."

I did a slight double-take at her words, though I didn't know why. "Yeah, I guess...anyway, uh...I'm going to get going, okay? You look like you need to be alone for awhile..."

"Oh, don't be silly." She put on an extremely fake smile. "I can drive you home. Really, it's no big deal."

"I don't think you're in much of a condition to drive." I gave her a half-smile before patting her shoulder again. "I'll find my way back okay. You just get some rest, okay? Thank your mom for the salad for me."

"Sure," she sighed, and then gave me a real smile, though it was small. "Thanks, Sam. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Same here," I said, getting my backpack and letting myself out. I wasn't worried about getting home in the least—I had other business to attend to.

I walked a little bit away from FentonWorks, checking to make sure nobody was nearby. When the coast was clear, I looked up at the home, crossing my arms.

"Danny, wherever you are, you can come out now."

I tapped my foot and waited. I was glad I had figured out the ghost's name, since I didn't think he'd appreciate being called 'Spandex Boy', even though my suspicions had been confirmed and he was, indeed, wearing spandex.

"Danny?"

A few seconds later, that jumpsuit-clad ghost with the brilliant glowing green eyes materialized in front of me, looking slightly confused. His eyes widened at the sight of me. "Oh, it's you."

"Yeah..." I cocked my head. "So I'm right? The name's Danny?"

He hummed in agreement, still staring at me.

I raised an eyebrow. "Take a picture, it'll last longer."

"What? Oh, I, uh..." he stuttered, suddenly find the ground he was floating above veeery interesting. "I'm just, um, surprised that you can see me. Not even Mom and Dad have been able to."

"Well, I just happen to be special. Lucky me. Now tell me, why are you still here?"

"Huh?"

I rolled my eyes. I usually wasn't this forward with ghosts, especially with ones I had just met, but it was obvious Danny wasn't out to destroy me...yet. Actually, judging from what I had seen so far, he was out to get other ghosts, which still didn't make sense, but whatever.

"I asked if you still knew why you were here," I repeated, starting to walk. Where I was going, I had no idea, but it was better than standing around.

"Why I'm..." Danny paused. "You mean this isn't it?"

"Duh," I replied, sensing I was about to lose my patience. "What, you think you're supposed to float around, haunting your family for the rest of your...uh, afterlife?"

"Well..." he trailed off. "I don't know."

"So let's recap," I said. "Your parents are ghost hunters, even though as far as I know, nobody but me can see them. You were killed trying to active some kinda zone thingy—"

"The Fenton Portal."

"I'm sorry?"

"That's the name of it. The Fenton Portal," he verified rather sadly, his hair hanging in front of his face.

I stared at him. "Okay, the Fenton Portal, and...you fill in the blanks."

He heaved a sigh. "Apparently, my parents are trying to figure out exactly how I died, while trying to locate me...my ghost...or at least my mom is, anyway."

I gave a half smile, thinking of how...well, incompetent Jack seemed to be.

"My sister Jazz thinks they should give up their research entirely, but I know that's not going to happen," he grimaced. "They've been studying ghosts ever since their college days."

"Wow," I said, genuinely impressed. And here I was, having this little ability, and all I wanted was for all the ghosts to skip merrily away from me.

"Yeah," he shrugged. "It's just...I hate seeing how upset they get when they can't figure it out. And to think, I've only been dead a month. It's only going to get worse."

"You're handling it a lot better than most spirits do," I said nonchalantly. "Most of them want to rip my guts out the minute I bring it to their attention that they're dead." My eyes suddenly widened at my own words. Oh great, now I had put the idea in Danny's head!

I glanced over at him, only to notice that he was now staring at me with a weird look on his face. "Really?" he asked, sounding confused. "Why would they do that?"

I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. "Because...because they're dead and I'm not."

"Well that's stupid," he muttered, looking away from me.

I could not have been anymore shocked than if I had suddenly appeared in front of my house out of nowhere—and looking up, I realized that my feet had led me home, somehow. I shook my head, trying to drive any crazy thoughts out of my head. "Uh, well, I'm home now..." I said, starting to climb up the steps to the front door. "You can go back or...whatever."

"Nice place," he nodded, looking the house up and down. "You don't seem like the type of person who's rich."

I rolled my eyes. "My point exactly. I'd rather people like me instead of my money, you know?"

He shrugged again, like it was a completely ridiculous idea—c'mon, who wouldn't want to be popular?—and then waved.

"Later, Danny," I said.

"You can count on it," was his reply as he shot off, flying into the night sky.

I fumbled with the front door, my hands shaking a little. Why did it sound like he was sealing my fate when he said that?

--

Kekeke. The start of mucho MADNESS. –evil grin- This should be interesting...veeery interesting...poor Danny. Let's all give him hugs—especially the awesome people who reviewed the last chapter: shadow929, dPhantoMfreak, Ohka Breynekai, divinedragon7, WWMTgirl, Star-In-The-Sky-25, luv2bamom, lostmoonchild, Terrasina Dragonwagon, conan98002, dArkliTe-sPirit, SilverstarsEbonyskies, passing4insane, strange organized chaos, Sweeteen19, Black January, and Sasia. You guys rule! My sockage is totally rocked! –grins like an idiot- Hopefully you'll all review again!