Author's Note: I own nothing.

11 New Friendships

The next day found Dani no less stressed. She avoided her parents and Vince at school and when Sam suggested that they head to the closing day for Floody Waters, the local water park she jumped on the opportunity. Even though it meant donning a swimsuit for the first time since her accident. She frowned at herself in the bathroom mirror. She'd pulled her hair up into a ponytail, not wanting to risk a braid. Her hair always rebraided itself when she turned into Phantom, she'd been avoiding that hairstyle like the plague. She shook her head as Tanya stepped up behind her.

"Come on, you look great let's get out there! It's too nice a day not to have some fun." Dani rolled her eyes at her friend glancing back in the mirror. The suit was new, a one piece that went from a bright almost electric green to black. Since the accident she'd developed quite a bit of muscle, this would also be one of the first times she'd be without the gloves she'd been wearing practically religiously since the accident to hide the scar on her hand. She sighed but was pushed away from the mirror by Paulina who sneered at her.

"Quit hogging the mirror nerd!" She demanded and Dani rolled her eyes slamming open the door to the bathroom and stalking off to where Tanya and Sam were waiting. The water park was nice, even if the looks Dash and Kwan kept sending here were odd. She shook her head slightly as she took her place in line. Tanya shook her head at the jocks flipping them off behind Dani's back. They had lost any chance at her a while ago and Tanya wasn't about to let them try again. Sam glared daggers at anyone who looked at Dani too long, so it was probably a very good thing that no one was looking at Dani. Because despite it being November it was still unseasonably warm so the blue mist escaping her mouth would have been seen as quite odd. She slipped off and vanished behind a doorway, in a moment Phantom swooped over the crowd looking for the ghost, only for a shadow to slam into her. She recognized it too. It was the shadow belonging to Johnny 13, a ghost who had previously tried to use Jazz to reconstitute his girlfriend. The fight with the shadow didn't last long after she dove into the pool with it wrapped around her. It dissolved into the water and for good measure Dani flushed the pool since it had been evacuated anyway.

"Enjoy the sewer! If you see last week's meatloaf say hi!" Dani said laughing. A cursory glance around had her confident that no one was watching so she transformed back into herself, hopping the fence around the attraction to join the mass of panicking people in the park. Only to come nose to nose with Paulina who's eyes were twinkling.

"Dani, you're the ghost girl!" Dani felt like she'd left her heart in the pool with the dissolving Shadow. She didn't think she just ran, slipping right through Paulina, though it felt odd, almost harder than it should have been with only one person there, and ran. Booking it across the park at nearly inhuman speeds Dani barely registered the news team talking about the ghost girl. She didn't even care that she was getting the blame for the panic flooding the park. Dani's panic went unnoticed, as she skidded up to Tanya and Sam, diving behind her taller friends. Sam frowned. Dani looked so pale she might as well have been in ghost form.

"Paulina saw. She knows." Her voice was trembling. Sam's eyes hardened as Tanya quickly checked Dani over for injuries. Johnny's shadow hadn't managed much damage but her eyes were starting to glow with her anxiety and the tips of her fingers were beginning to fade from existence. Paulina practically skipped across the pavement. Sam stepped in front of the girls, Tanya angling between Dani and the threat as well. Dani was starting to hyperventilate.

"Dani! Sam! Whatever your name is! Wait up!" Sam scowled at Paulina, taking a step forward to physically block Paulina from Dani.

"You shallow bi…" Sam started but Paulina raised an eyebrow.

"Pump the hate breaks, tall dark and spooky! Dani why'd you run off? I wanted to say, thank you." Dani stopped breathing, blinking at Paulina from around Sam and Tanya. Tanya would be worried but she wasn't entirely sure Dani strictly needed to breathe anymore. Sam spoke.

"What? You hate us!" He stated it flat out, never one to mince words.

"But Dani still saved me, hell the town a few times." Paulina stated and Dani blinked again, had she stopped doing that too? Tanya put a hand on her shoulder seeming to startle her back into normal human human function. "So I wanted to say thank you! And hey maybe we could hang out more." With that Paulina turned to go. Sam stepped forward catching her by the arm, stepping close enough to his into her ear.

"If any word of this gets out, if you even think about hurting Dani, they will never find your body." He hissed lowly, so Tanya and Dani wouldn't hear him. Paulina turned to him, pulling her arm from his grip with a slightly unnerving smile.

"I like you." She said still with that grin on her face she turned away and sauntered off. She turned and waved at Dani as she left. Tanya had gotten her breathing again which was a plus but there were tears building in her eyes as they hurried out of the park and off to Tanya's house. It was closest and her parents were still at work. Tanya borrowed Dani's phone and called her parents, her mother picked up.

"Hey Mrs. Fenton!"

"Tanya, is everything ok? We saw the news about the water park is Dani hurt!" Well she was currently hovering about a foot off the covers huddled in the fetal position worried to death that Paulina was going to blab her secret.

"She's fine, we actually ended up leaving before any of that went down. We were too tired from the park. Actually she's in the shower, but we were wondering if she could crash at my place tonight! My parents are cool with it and we can study for the test on Thursday."

"Oh, well I'm glad you kids got out before any of that happened. Sure Dani can stay at your place tonight. Jack and I are gonna be going over that water park with a fine toothed comb anyway for any sign of that menace of a ghost kid." Tanya was so glad she hadn't put Mrs. Fenton on speaker.

"Great! We'll get her safe to school tomorrow. Talk to you later." Tanya hung up before Mrs. Fenton could request to talk to Dani. "You're cool to stay here tonight." There was a standing invitation in the Foley household for both Sam and Dani, though Dani used it more often these days. Tanya's parents, like most of the town, weren't overly fond of Dani's parents and often worried about their obsession with ghosts effecting their daughters. Jazz also had a standing invitation though she rarely if ever used it. Tanya had never been more grateful to her parents as she joined Sam in the effort to calm Dani back to the point where gravity held some sway over her.