A/N: The soundtrack to this chapter is "Put up a Fight" by My Awesome Compilation, again youtube has it. Once again, thank you to all reviewers, particularly Mystitat, I love constructive criticism! Also to: ShadowPrincess-Shekailaia, at-a-glance, AirGirl Phantom, LovelyxBunchaxCoconuts, Andrew Laplante, Dragon-Fire-Fairy, Allie Phantom, Teela32, BlankTH, Fantomgirl 1 on 1 and aryasaphira. Wow. O.o
I feel I ought to answer a particular question asked by Mystitat before I move onto this chapter. Yes, Alex did have some ghost powers as a child, seeing Sam for example. However doing things like seeing people at their funerals tends to creep people out, i.e. Jazz, plus Jazz's telling her not to do it would have likely discouraged use of said powers. Secondly, Danny is only half ghost and Sam wasn't at all, making Alex genetically only a quarter at most which wouldn't leave her much to work with.
Second, yes, Alex WAS zapped by the ghost portal however the actual opening of the portal was only about the same size as her head, hence only the front of her hair getting made white, and as she had green eyes anyway it's not too unusual. And the students did notice, they laughed. A lot, (poor alex.) As for Alex's position on ghosts, she accepts them, she's been around ghost obsessed people her whole life (coughJackcough) but she's equally a woman of science too, she believes in ghosts because she's seen them, but she won't believe in a halfa until she can prove it. Which she more or less has now. I hope this chapter and the following few will clear that up a bit more, I was going to go into more depth on Alex's personal views when she meets a certain other character but you'll have to wait to see that so I figured I should answer you now. -
On to the chapter!
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Alex sat on an uncomfortably hard chair outside Principal Lancer's office and stared at the vomit-green walls and tried not to listen to her father pleading her case. Her grandfather walked down the hallways and sat next to her. He'd obviously been working when they had called her father and had probably driven him here.
"What happened to your hair?" Jack asked pointed to Alex's fringe.
"Eh… accident. I think it just bleached it." Alex sighed blowing it out of her eyes.
"It could be worse." Jack pointed out.
"Yeah, I could have gone blind." Alex agreed.
"No! Ghost acne!" Jack exclaimed remembering Vlad.
"Yeah, I- wait what?" Alex said puzzled.
"Uh… nothing!" Jack said quickly, Alex gave him a weird look but decided not to push it.
"So, what's the charge kid?" he asked after a while.
"Suspension." Alex answered dully.
"Suspension isn't that bad." He said comfortingly.
"It's not the suspension that bothers me." Alex snapped.
"What then?" Jack asked surprised.
"They- they laughed at me grandpa, I was talking about ectoplasm and ghost and I even brought in a portal to the ghost zone to prove me right too. And you know what? It worked; the machine worked. Of course, it bleached my hair and blew a hole in the wall narrowly missing principal Lancer, but it WORKED." Alex sighed, Jack looked at her sympathetically, he knew how that felt.
"And, I showed my research, I built up and explained my theory, I was up all night designing and building it, my science was sound, I publicly conducted a successful experiment… and they still laughed." Alex sobbed.
At the moment Danny came out of the Principals office and turned to Alex.
"What the HELL is wrong with you! You blew a HOLE in the wall and nearly VAPORISED your principal! I-" Danny began angrily, tears streamed down Alex's face before she jumped up and ran off crying.
"Danny," Jack started with a sigh.
"No Dad, I don't want one of your lectures." Danny snapped.
"Tough, you're getting it." Danny snapped back.
"Alex is a bright girl, she had an amazing head for science and what happened today wasn't fair. Other kids who are good at sport or art get recognition when they do well but Alex goes up and has the guts to do so in front of everyone and shows her gift and her idea, which both you and I know she's right about, and they laugh at her. They humiliate her for being right." Jack said angrily.
"She KNOWS that no-one accepts it though she still goes up and does it anyway!" Danny said exasperatedly.
"She knows what she's doing is right, even if no one listens. It's the hope if changing things for the better, even if she only ever reaches one person that's worth it. Does that sound like anyone else to you Danny?" Jack asked pointedly.
"Sam." Danny muttered, Jack nodded.
"Heh, that ultra-recyclo-vegitarian thing, I don't think anyone ever listened." Danny smiled wistfully.
"But she still did it." Jack pointed out.
"I know. Alex is so like Sam in so many ways but, I do my best with Alex but it's so hard without Sam with me sometimes. I just don't know how to handle her sometimes." Danny sighed sadly.
"I know, but, just let Alex talk to you sometimes, just… ask and trust me she'll talk." Jack said honestly.
"I guess. When did you become so full of sage wisdom anyway?" Danny asked.
"Ah, one of the many joys of being a grandparent, it's a lot easier to see what's going on when they're not your kids." Jack grinned.
Danny arrived back home and set the bag full of food on the dining room table and headed upstairs. He pushed open the door to Alex's bedroom, she was lying face down on her bed with her face buried in her pillow.
"Hey Alex." Danny said softly as he sat down next to her.
"Go away." Came the muffled reply through the pillow.
"I'm sorry for what I said Alex, I know you didn't mean to do anything like blowing a hole in the wall." Danny conceded.
"You don't understand." Alex snapped rolling onto her side with her back facing Danny.
"Then tell me." Danny stated remembering his father's advice. Alex sat up and looked slightly surprised but she went on anyway.
"They laughed and humiliated me; AGAIN. And I'm right, my science was right." Alex sniffed.
"Listen, at your age, the world is really narrow to people and they think that normal is safe and best, that anyone who stands out is a freak. But you've got the guts to be different and to say what you know is true regardless of what they say. Your mother would be very proud of you, she always fought for what she believed in too." Danny smiled.
"And what about you then?" Alex asked.
"I wanted to be popular and normal but was resigned to be a nerd forever. Your mother was of stronger moral fibre than me I'm afraid. C'mon, I have brought you the burritos of apology, they're downstairs." Danny grinned.
"Do they some with the Nachos of forgiveness?" Alex asked following her father downstairs.
"Oh yes, but I have to warn you, they were out of humble pie." Danny said jokingly.
"That's okay." Alex laughed happily.
Alex mumbled in her sleep before rolling over, she frowned and blearily opened her eyes, it was at this point that she came face to face with a pair of glowing purple eyes and the most horrible pair of glittery glasses in the world.
"Hello dear!" The woman chimed. Alex screamed and jumped off of her bed fumbling on her night stand for her ghost gun, she fired, the shots went through the woman, who was on inspection very plump and glittery but with a very pissed off expression on her face.
"ARGH! TOOTH FAIRY!" Alex screamed firing more. "Why is this thing not working!" Alex screamed some more glaring at her gun.
"They don't call me the tooth FAIRY for no reason sweetie." The woman sighed.
"Ah. Not a ghost. Well that was painfully obvious. What the HELL do you want? I thought you'd done terrorising me years ago." Alex said still trembling a little and backed up against the wall.
"Ah yes, no one screamed quite like you did. Good times." The woman smiled.
"For you, you psycho. Jazz told me you were a figment of my imagination." Alex frowned.
"Well don't you think you're a bit old to be seeing me if I was?" The tooth fairy pointed out.
"So why the hell are you here? I don't have any more teeth to lose." Alex snapped.
"That could be arranged you know." The tooth fairy grinned maliciously, Alex closed her mouth tightly, she remembered what this woman was like with teeth.
"Ah, but no, it's not business this time. Word was that you'd got your sight back, so I just couldn't resist popping in to hear that delightful scream one more time." The tooth fairy sighed wistfully.
"Well, you came, I screamed, goodbye." Alex glared.
"Fine. Maybe I'll tell the monsters that there's a position under your bed open again." The tooth fairy shot back.
"Hey! Let's not be hasty now!" Alex said quickly.
"Well then, let's talk." Said the tooth fairy patting the spot on the bed beside her, Alex obediently sat down, the tooth fairy still smelt like bad perfume.
"I need you to do me a favour." She said with a smile of dazzlingly white teeth.
"What could you possibly need from me?" Alex asked warily.
"Oh nothing yet, you won't be any good to me until tomorrow, and even then you won't have any control for at LEAST a week. So I'll see you then." The tooth fairy nodded considering the matter closed.
"What do you mean tomorrow?" Alex demanded.
"Oh! I have to show you something, something my boyfriend got me!" The tooth fairy giggled holding up a bag.
"A bag of sand!" Alex demanded.
"Sleeping sand!" The tooth fairy giggled flicking it in her eyes, Alex blinked before keeling over backwards and snoring.
"Oh Sandman, I love you so." The tooth fairy smiled happily before flying out the window.
A/N: for anyone who doesn't remember the mention of the tooth fairy, go read chapter one again. -
