Big thanks to Nom de Plume for working as a wonderful beta-reader on this chapter.
Chapter Two
"What's with you today?" Star asked as she and Valerie walked toward the cafeteria for lunch. "You are, like, totally zoned out."
"I had an accident yesterday," Valerie answered quietly. "I'm still feeling a bit strange."
Star blinked at Valerie in bewilderment, then looked around for other listening ears. "You mean an accident with that stupid ghost hunting suit you insist on playing around with?" she asked as she wiggled her fingers. Valerie nodded her head. Star was a little shallow, and not too bright, but she was the only friend Valerie had who she could trust with such a secret—and even that trust was tenuous.
"Val," Star said, then paused. "I really wish you would give it up. Seriously, you're going to, like, get yourself killed in that thing one of these days."
Valerie shook her head and frowned. "You're probably going to get your wish," she whispered. "I think the suit is broken."
"I'm sorry," Star said sadly. "I mean, I'm glad, because I care about you, Val, and I don't want to see you hurt…but I'm sorry too."
"Thanks," Valerie replied as she smiled at her friend. Star patted her arm briefly then looked around the cafeteria.
"Yuck," she groaned. "Greasy, fattening Sloppy Joes again!" She sighed and shook her head as Valerie put her books at their table.
"I guess I have to go stand in the salad line with freaky Goth girl," Star moaned. "I feel like such a loser." Valerie chuckled as she looked toward Sam, standing in the lunch line. She paused, then looked toward the table the Goth girl always shared with her two best friends.
Valerie watched for a moment as Tucker leaned his elbow on the table and pointed down at what looked to be some kind of map. Danny was shaking his head in disagreement and Tucker was rolling his eyes in exasperation.
Valerie looked quickly at Sam—it seemed like she'd be in line for awhile. She smiled to herself and walked toward Danny.
"Hi," she said. Danny and Tucker looked up as she approached. They gave her a look of alarm then scrambled quickly to remove whatever it was they were studying from the table.
"H-hi," Danny said quickly as Tucker finished folding up the map.
"What are you boys up to?" Valerie asked warily, as she put one hand on her hip and raised her eyebrows.
"N-nothing really," Danny stuttered.
"Yeah," Tucker said as he laughed nervously. "Absolutely nothing. We were doing nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zip. Zero..."
Danny hit Tucker in the stomach. "Okay, you can shut it off now," he hissed.
"Squat and naught," Tucker finished.
Valerie crossed her arms over her chest as she gave Tucker a look of amusement. "You should try that in alphabetical order next time," she teased. Tucker furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"So," Danny said as he took a deep breath. "Did you need something?"
Valerie resisted the urge to completely swoon as she looked into Danny's sweet baby blue eyes. "No," she answered, then looked down shyly. "I just saw you over here, and I haven't talked to you in awhile, and…"
Suddenly, something strange happened, something so wholly and completely embarrassing, that Valerie felt like she was going to drop dead from embarrassment right there on the lunch room floor.
It was a burp or a hiccup or something. What ever it was, it wafted from her mouth in a big puff of bluish red mist. It must have smelled horrible, because it tasted completely rancid, kind of ectoplasmish—and she wasn't sure she knew how ectoplasm tasted, but it was nasty.
She put her hand up over her mouth in shock and looked at Danny and Tucker who were both looking back at her with wide startled eyes. Danny's mouth was open slightly. He blinked. Valerie felt her cheeks begin to burn fiercely.
"Excuse me," she said then bit her lip as she watched the two boys for any sign of disgust.
Danny looked at her fearfully for a moment, then pointed at the door, as he said, "I-I have to, um…you know, go. So, um, yeah!" He jumped from the table, and took off running out of the lunch room. Valerie, feeling mortified, turned her stunned gaze to Tucker, who quickly found an excuse for Danny's hasty departure—one his friend would later want to kill him for.
"He's got diarrhea," he said in a confiding tone, as he shook his head. "It's a shame. Weak stomach, you know?"
Valerie blinked at Tucker for a moment in complete shock, not knowing how to respond, then said, "Uh, well tell him I, um, have to go."
"Oh, you too," Tucker asked sympathetically
"No!" Valerie said defensively, feeling embarrassed that Tucker would even suspect something like that.
"Oh, okay," Tucker replied cheerfully, then waved as he watched her leave. Sam came walking up a second later. She put the food she was carrying down, and looked after Valerie, who was quickly making her way back to her own table.
Sam looked at Valerie a moment longer, then turned to Tucker. "What was that about?" she asked.
Tucker waggled his eyebrows at Sam. "She came over to say hi," he answered.
"Uh, okay," Sam said then looked around. "Where's Danny?"
"Ghost," Tucker said absently then looked at Sam and blinked. "Valerie's ghost detector isn't going off, but…."
"But?" Sam asked.
Tucker shook his head. "It must have been my imagination. I thought…I saw something like Danny's ghost sense, coming from Valerie."
Sam shook her head. "Yeah, you're definitely imagining things," she said, and was about to say something more when Danny burst into the lunch room, in ghost form naturally, chasing a large green blob of a ghost.
"Come back here and fight like a…a big formless thing!" Danny yelled as the people in the lunch room screamed and scattered.
"We need to write him some new lines," Tucker said as they watched him fly by. Sam snorted and shook her head.
Valerie was almost back at her table when the ghost kid flew into the lunch room. She looked up at him as he flew by and belched again. It was so disgusting. What was wrong with her?
"Well," she said in resignation, "guess that settles it. My suit is fried; even the ghost detector isn't working." She growled in frustration and disgust as she watched the ghost kid and the creature he was chasing crash into one of the food carts. She wished she could do something to stop them from trashing the cafeteria.
She looked around thoughtfully. Maybe the ghost detector was the only thing broken; maybe the suit would still work. She ran from the cafeteria and into the janitorial closet. She took a deep breath and tried to activate the suit.
Usually, her ghost hunting suit wrapped around her, this time it started as bluish rings at her waist. The rings separated, one moving down her body, the other up and over her head.
"What the heck is going on?" she gasped as she looked at her hands. She blinked in shock. There she was, in her ghost hunting suit, except the colors had changed to white and yellow, almost gold. It was as though the colors were inverted. Was it because the suit was broken?
Valerie was worried. Something just didn't seem right. She ran her hands along her mask—it seemed okay. She stepped back to lean against the wall, feeling stunned, and…fell right through it!
"What the….?" she squeaked, as she hit blue tile floor. She looked at the wall she had fallen through in shock. The smell of sweat and dirty socks filled her senses. She could hear water running and the echo of laughter, male laughter. She stood and turned around. She knew where she was instantly, even though she'd never been there before.
"Oh no!" she gasped to herself. "The boys' locker room!" She stood and ran, straight into the wall she'd just fallen through and ended up on her butt again.
"Oh man!" Valerie cried as she heard footsteps approaching. She closed her eyes tight, willing herself invisible. She opened one eye and watched a boy with only a towel around his waist walk by. She blinked in shock as he stood at his locker just a few feet away and…
And she was up on her feet running out the locker room in terror. She just had an eyeful of something she never wanted to see again. She shuddered and looked around frantically. She checked her suit then screamed in terror. Her body was missing!
What was going on? Had she scared herself out of her body? Had she died of shock right there on the boys' locker room floor? Being caught dead in the boys' locker room, for some reason, was so much more mortifying than being caught alive in it.
She ran back to the broom closet and took several deep breaths. "Okay, Val," she said to herself. "Get a grip. You're going to be fine. You're hallucinating." Yeah, that was it! She was hallucinating. She was probably still out cold in the alley because of her suit malfunction. Even though the thought made sense, she wasn't any less worried. She was terrified, and now she'd lost her body!
"Okay, Val," she said to herself. "Just breathe. Breathe. Think about your arms and legs reappearing. Think about your suit retracting. Think about being normal."
She saw an intense blue light flash though her eyelids, and she slowly opened her eyes. She looked at her arms, her everyday normal arms, and sighed in relief. She almost sagged against the wall again, but pulled herself up short. She didn't want a repeat of that nightmare. Everything was back to normal, or so it seemed.
"I need to talk to Mr. Masters," she said to herself. "He can probably fix this." She checked herself over one more time then walked out of the closet.
"Valerie!" Star screeched, as she ran toward her from down the hall. "Where were you? I was terrified. I thought a ghost got you or something."
Valerie laughed. "No ghost is going to be getting me!" she said in a matter of fact tone. "If anyone is going to be got, it's going to be the ghost, by me."
"Yeah, well," Star said as she looked Valerie over, "speaking of ghosts, the lunch room is totally trashed."
"Figures," Valerie growled. "Stupid ghosts."
"You know," Star said, flipping her hair over her shoulders, "we never had ghosts in middle school. High school has turned out to be really weird."
"You can say that again," Valerie agreed.
"Dude!" Tucker said as Danny transformed back into his human self and handed Tucker the thermos. "That was so cool! You should have seen the splat you made when that ghost threw you into the mashed potatoes!"
"Oh yeah," Danny replied dryly. "It was a real smash."
"Ha! Ha!" Tucker fake-laughed.
Sam only smiled as she shook her head. "That was sloppy, Danny."
"Sloppy Joes," Tucker laughed. Sam gave him an exasperated look and Danny rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, you're real funny, Tuck," he said, frowning at his two smiling friends…then they all burst into laughter.
They made their way out of the cafeteria, narrowly missing an angry Lancer looking for anyone on which to dole out punishment for the destruction of the cafeteria.
"Tuck," Danny said as he pulled his friend back by the elbow and let Sam walk ahead. "Did you notice that thing with Valerie earlier?"
"Yeah," Tuck answered. "I told her you had to run off because you have diarrhea."
"What?" Danny shrieked as Tucker burst out laughing.
"You should have seen the look of disgust on her face," Tucker continued. "Dude, it was classic!"
"You are so dead, Tuck," Danny growled.
Sam stopped and waited for them to catch up, then asked, "What are you two dorks fighting about?"
"Valerie," Tucker answered. Sam raised her eyebrows and Danny shook his head and gave Tucker and evil look.
"Valerie," Sam said thoughtfully. "Hmm, Valerie, Valerie. Is that the same Valerie who is trying to kill you?" Her eyes widened with emphasis.
"Yup, that's the one," Tucker answered.
Danny shook his head in exasperation. "No," he said. "Seriously, Tuck, did you notice something different about her today?"
"New stinky perfume, maybe?" Sam asked. Danny sent her an annoyed look and she smiled sweetly.
"Yeah, I noticed it," Tucker replied as he adjusted his glasses. "What do you think it was?"
"It looked like a ghost sense," Danny said. "Mine went off at the exact same time."
"Wait," Sam said. "Are you trying to say that Valerie is now half ghost or something? That she's developed a ghost sense?"
"I don't know," Danny answered. "It looked like a ghost sense to me."
"Well, that would be ironic," Sam said, then frowned at the worried look on Danny's face.
"Irony," Tucker said in an almost automated tone. "Characterized by often poignant difference or incongruity between what is expected and what actually is."
He paused. "Oh man, I thought that went away!" he complained.
"Guess not," Sam said in an emotionless tone.
Tucker frowned. "It's both your fault for leaving me attached to that machine for so long!" he growled half-angrily.
"Serves you right," Danny said indignantly.
"Be nice or I'll tell Sam you have diarrhea, too!" Tucker replied, then burst out laughing.
"Oh, you are going to get it," Danny threatened as Tucker took off in the opposite direction to his next class.
Sam shook her head as she watched the techno-geek go. "We've got to stop letting him eat sugar," she said. Danny smiled at Sam.
He put his arm around her. "But, Honey," he said in a high pitched voice, "don't you think our son is just hilarious?"
"Oh yeah," Sam said as she pulled away from Danny and looked away to hide the fact that she was blushing. "He's a riot, just like his dad." Danny smiled happily.
The minute school was out, Valerie headed toward the alley where her suit had malfunctioned. She was hoping she'd be able to find some sort of clue as to what happened to her.
She had discovered in Study Hall that she could make both her hands disappear at will, and thought maybe the malfunction had activated some new feature in her suit. She really couldn't wait to start testing it out.
Almost half-way to the alley, her cell phone rang. She sighed heavily, knowing it was her father calling.
"Valerie!" he said as she answered the phone. "You are grounded, remember? Get your butt home now, missy!"
"Okay, Daddy," she answered. "I'm on my way." She wished she could fly; if she wasn't worried about taking too much time to get home, she would have tested out her suit to see if her sled still worked.
She looked in the direction of the alley and sighed deeply. It was likely she wouldn't find anything there, so it wasn't worth getting into more trouble for. She started running home, intent on calling Mr. Masters once she got there. Even if he had no clue, he'd probably be able to figure out what happened, and maybe even fix it.
Valerie smiled as she ran home, confident that Mr. Masters could fix all her problems. Truly, she was thankful every single day that she had come to his attention, and that he was willing to help her in the fight against the ghosts of Amity Park.
She had a feeling that the new features on her suit would help her eliminate all the ghosts with no problem, especially that wretched ghost kid. She couldn't wait to master the suit's changes, and meet up with him again! This time, he was going down!
A/N – In case you wanted to know how I arrived at yellow (or gold), for Valerie's contrast color, I did a small bit of research and found that when you combine green light and red light you get yellow. Ha, funny, huh? No, seriously. So that's why I decided to give Valerie a gold ectoplasmic blast, plus it makes her unique.
And sorry these chapters have been short. Errol and Michie REALLY want me to write this story and won't let me work on Disclosures until I do something here, so I'm kinda being held hostage with this one.
And see you had both one sided DxV and a little tiny moment of DxS, because no DP story is complete without Sam blushing over Danny. -shrug-