Tucker splashed some water on his face and looked into the mirror. He squinted to bring his blurry vision into focus. A back-up pair of his glasses were balanced on the edge of his sink, the other having been lost in the night's activities.

"Man, I feel like my parents look when they get up in the morning!" He groaned and splashed some more water on his face. "No wonder the first thing they do in the morning is put on a pot of coffee. I could use some about now."

Danny, toothbrush in his mouth, grunted in agreement. He spat and rinsed. "Wait, you drink coffee?" Danny asked.

"My parents won't let me. Says it will stunt my growth or something. Honestly, I think my growth is already stunted. I need something to wake me up."

"I know what you mean, I couldn't sleep after we got back."

"Are you kidding? You were snoring within five minutes. I was the one who couldn't sleep!" Tucker protested. He soaked his washcloth in cold water and buried his face in it. Through it he continued. "I can't believe I let T'Keisha talk me into..."

"Shhh, here comes Dash."

"Get moving, you two," the counselor snarled. "We've got a big day ahead of us and I want each and every one of us at our best." He snapped a towel in Tucker's direction, though being careful to miss.

Danny and Tucker quickly finished dressing.

They left the cabin and couldn't see Sam anywhere waiting for them. She was usually the first one out but then she was an annoyingly cheerful morning person. That always confused Danny. Weren't Goth's supposed to be night people, and surly ones at that?

They waited a couple minutes in case she was late, then headed down to the dinning hall by themselves.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs, cream of wheat, applesauce and a couple slices of Texas Toast. They grabbed cartons of milk from the cooler and looked for a place to eat.

They had barely found an empty table and sat down when Sid and Sam from their cabin sat down beside them. Larry, a small kid who usually hung around Sid joined them as well.

"Man, last night was awesome," Sid said, slapping Danny on the back. "Sorry you missed most of the fun down on the beach."

"That's what I get for running in the dark," Danny answered, 'Tripped and sprained my ankle."

"You going to be OK for the Olympics today?" the other Sam asked.

"Oh, yeah, I feel fine. My foot doesn't hurt me at all."

"Righteous, dude!"

"Man," Sid was saying around a mouthful of crew of wheat, "I thought we were going to catch them in fragrance indelirious."

"In what?" the other Sam asked.

"He means inflagrante delicto," said the real Sam as she set her tray down next to Danny, elbowing Sid aside to make room for her. "It's Latin for "caught in the act" and no, you did not want to."

"But it would have been cool."

"No, it would have been mortifying." Sam insisted.

"Why does everyone talk like I'm not here?" Tucker wondered.

"We know you're here, Tuck," Danny said. "At least I do."

"My grandfather caught some people in the act, once." Larry, the kid sitting next to Sid spoke up. He looked around nervously for approval before continuing. "When my grandfather retired he bought a little farm out in the country. It had an old orchard in it. So he started fixing up the orchard, selling the apples and making cider. He made really great cider. It was almost like drinking applesauce..."

"Eww" The other Sam apparently wasn't much of a fan of applesauce.

"Anyway one day he went to spray the trees for insects when he saw this big hairy butt in the grass. He shouted at them. They fled, I guess. He didn't actually tell me the story, I heard the adults talking about one night when they thought I was in another room."

"He should have sprayed them with the insecticide." Sid suggested.

"Are you nuts?" Larry said heatedly. "That stuff was awful. He wouldn't let me within a hundred yards of the orchard when he was spraying. And he wore a raincoat, and rain hat. big rubber gloves, boots, goggles and a respirator. He said the stuff washes away after a month but..." he shrugged his head. "I always made sure to really wash the apples before eating them."

"That was sure no apple orchard last night," the other Sam said. "Is this, like, what you do all the time?" he asked Danny. "Man, what a night. We were, like, whaling on that ghost with board and sticks and stuff! It was so awesome!"

"You were getting thrown around like a bunch of rag dolls," the ream Sam tried to remind them.

"That was nothing," the other Sam replied. "I've taken hard hits during football practice."

"On your head," the girl mentioned under her breath.

"I really want to thank you guys again for helping us last night," Danny hastily spoke up, just in case anyone had besides himself had heard Sam. "I don't think we could have rescued Tuck and T'Keisha without your help. But you know, we can't let the counselors catch on that any of us were outside after curfew. So we gotta keep this under our hats, if you know what I mean."

"Gotcha, Dude," Sid said loudly.

"Keep it down," Danny whispered.

"So how come you guys didn't wait for me?" Sam asked.

"We did, for several minutes. When you didn't show we figured you had already come down here."

"I would have waited for you guys!" Sam accused, then paused. "We were spending a lot of time talking to T'Keisha, she's still pretty shaken about last night."

"How is she?" Tucker asked, concern in his voice

"She would be better if you hadn't talked into doing something to totally stupid..."

"I didn't," Tucker insisted. "It was her idea!"

"No it wasn't..."

"Later." Danny warned, he nodded towards an approaching group of girls. Aetheria, Abigail on either of a very pale T'Keisha were heading for their table. They sat down across from Danny and Tucker. The other Sam moved around to make room for them.

In a soft mumble T'Keisha thanked them for saving her last night. She wouldn't look at Tucker.

In the awkward silence Danny looked down at his plate, looking for something to do until someone decided to speak, but he found that he had already cleaned his plate. He checked his carton of milk. It, too, was empty. With a sigh his pushed the tray with his plates forward and leaned his elbows on the table. His mother would have had something to say about that display of bad manners if she had been there. But she wasn't, one of the small pleasures of camp. Uncomfortable, he realized that everyone was waiting for him to say something.

He could see T'Keisha picking at her food but not really eating. With a sinking realization Danny knew what he had to do. Just as his sister expected him to talk to Scar, because he was the ghost guy, so he would have to be the one to explain it all to Tucker's friend.

"Guys, I've got to talk to T'Keisha, OK? Alone. Could you give me some room? I'll talk to you all a group later."

Sid and the other Sam and their friend Larry quickly got up and moved to another table. Aetheria leaned over and whispered something to the black girl before she moved away as well.

When Sam didn't move Danny turned to her and added. "You, too, Sam."

"Danny, you're in way over your head. You need my help."

"This is going to be hard enough without you hovering over my shoulder."

"I do not hover."

"Sam, please. If I blow this you can say you told me so later."

Reluctantly the Goth girl got up and moved a few tables over where Aetheria was holding court with Sid and the other Sam.

"That goes for you, too, Tucker."

"I'm staying. I've got an interest here. I want to know exactly what it is you're talking T'Keisha."

"Tucker, I can't talk freely with Sam around and I can't talk freely with you around. I'll talk to you later, but, please, give me a few minutes with T'Keisha, alone."

"I'm just trying to protect my interests..."

"You what?" T'Keisha snapped.

"Tucker. Go. Trust me. It will be all right."

Danny's friend got up and stalked off to the tray return window, dropped off his plate and continued out of the dinning hall. Danny sighed. Talking to Tucker might be harder than talking to his girlfriend.

He put a smile on his face and looked up. T'Keisha was scowling. "Look," she said, "If you plan to tell me that you've known Foley all his life and that he's your best friend and that you know he would never do anything wrong, blah, blah, blah, I'm not listening. He nearly got me killed last night with his lies and he doesn't have the manhood to admit it."

"Well, I am Tucker's friend and I have known him since kindergarten, and he wouldn't knowingly ever put you in danger, but that's not why I'm here." Danny reached into his pants and pulled out his wallet. He fished around for a moment then brought out a small photo. "These are my parents," he explained. handing the photo to T'Keisha.

The beads on her cornrows rustled softly as she bent over the picture. After a moment she looked up. "Do they always wear jumpsuits?"

Danny slapped his head in disgust, "why does every - freaking - body ask that?"

"Well, it is kind of weird."

"Never mind. I should be used to it by now." Danny fished in another compartment of his wallet and pulled out a business card. "This is who they are." He explained, handing the card to her.

"FentonWorks, LLC" T'Keisha read off the card. "Spectral Investigations, Spectral Dispossession and Defenses. 'We send ghosts packin'.'" She looked at Danny and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't get it."

"OK. I don't usually go around saying this but ...my folks are probably the pre-eminent authorities on ghosts."

"And" T'Keisha continued to look puzzled.

"And you don't grow up surrounded by the pre-eminent experts on ghosts without picking up a few things about ghosts." Actually Danny had made a pretty good job of ignoring his folks profession for the first fourteen years of his life. It wasn't until walking down the tunnel of the Ghost Portal on a dare from Sam, and being there when the trans-dimensional field initiated, tearing him to pieces and fusing every molecule of his body with ectoplasm, turning him into Danny Phantom, that he had become interested in ghost research, and even then, only as a matter of self-preservation. Most of what Danny know about ghosts stemmed from being one. Not that he could explain that to T'Keisha, or Abigail or his parents, or anyone who thought that ghosts were naturally evil.

"So?"

"There are a lot of things ghosts can do, some of which are pretty ...ah, bad." This wasn't going well, Danny thought. Maybe he should have let Sam stay.

"One of the things they can do is possess people. It's called 'overshadowing' and when they're 'overshadowing' people, the victim for the most part isn't even aware that they have been possessed. The ghost can get them to agree to do the most outrageous things and they won't remember doing it.

"Also, and this is kind of new to me, this ghost seems able to get people to forget about it. It's been here for fifty years, we think, causing who knows how much havoc and nobody every remembers it. That's why on the first day here Abigail insisted that there were no ghosts here. It had somehow selected erased all memory of its existence from people's minds. Or at least the people that matter, like the Guys in White, because some people still sort of remember it."

"And this is why Tucker didn't really do what I know he did?" T'Keisha accused.

"Yes." That admission only upset the girl even more. She was gathering up her things to leave when Danny hastily added. "No wait, please, hear me out."

With a sigh, T'Keisha sat back down.

"Think about it for a moment. Can you recall word for word what Tucker said, or is it all kind of hazy?"

"He did kind of talk about sneaking out."

" 'Kind of' -- that doesn't sound like a very firm memory does it? Do you remember what time he said to go, or where you were going?"

"I know it was his idea!"

"And you had no interest in making out with him?"

T'Keisha was slow to reply, "I guess we both kinda wanted to do that. You don't know how hard is it to find someone who the same interested as me. Who isn't put off because I like to mess to computers and stuff."

"I know how hard it has been for Tucker to find anyone who likes him for himself. I've seen him hung up over a lot of girl who would never talk to him but I have never seen him so ...committed since he's met you. I'm kind of jealous that he's found someone he feels so strongly about. I'd like to find someone like that."

"What about you and Sam?"

"We just friends."

T'Keisha looked at him closely, disbelievingly. "Ok, if Tucker likes me that much, why did he talk me into going out to Make-Out Point? Or are you saying that it was my idea and the "ghost" has some how made me forget it?"

"Neither. That's the thing. Tucker swears up and down that it wasn't his idea and you swear it wasn't your idea. It's possible it was neither of you's idea.. Maybe you both were thinking real hard about it but I don't think either of you had the nerve to actually suggest it. I think this ghost could sense what both of you were thinking and put it into your heads that you had agreed to do this, when neither of had ever spoken about it. I'm not sure just what is going on but it seems like this ghost was looking for two kids in lust, to do, I don't know what, but probably to increase it's power because that's what most ghosts seem to do."

"It was going to kill us?"

"I think so."

"So all your friends last night saved my life?"

"Yeah."

"But why?"

"Save you -- no, the ghost. Abigail has a theory and my sister..."

"That's her in the picture?" "T'Keisha pointed to only other person in the picture not in a jumpsuit besides Danny.

"Yeah. Jazz's has dug up a lot of information about what we think is the origins of this ghost and they kind of fit together..."

"So if I wasn't in love with Tucker it would have been someone else, like Sharona and Gary or Aetheria and that guy?"

"I don't think Aetheria is in love with anybody. I think she just likes making-out. Who's Sharona and Gary?"

"She's the blonde in Sumac, about your height, wears her hair real short?

"Doesn't ring a bell. But what you're saying is right, if it hadn't been you and Tucker it would have been someone else."

"Would you have gone to rescue them?"

"If I had known about it. But I don't know if anyone else had friends that would have noticed that they'd snuck out or would try to find them."

"So if it hadn't been Tucker and me, if it had been someone else, they would probably be dead by now."

Danny felt troubled by that. He couldn't look at the girl across from him as he answered, "Yeah, probably. I hadn't really thought about that." But he knew she was right, the only reason the ghost had been thwarted last night was because he was Tucker's friend and had sensed that his friend was in trouble.

"Abigail says this is some kind of poltergeist, that's a ghost that drawn to awakening sexual urges in kids. Usually it manifests itself through a series of pranks. There seems to be a lot more to this ghost than that. I mean it explains a lot about last night but not everything.

"Now my sister did some internet searches for me. Fifty years ago tonight a camper here named Ben Green died. Some think he was murdered others say he committed suicide. I -- we discovered an abandoned cabin the day before yesterday when we were camping up on the ridge. When I walked into the cabin I had a vision of someone hanging from a rope so I think he committed suicide there in that cabin. But the thing is someone cut off his head and dump is body into the lake..."

"Ewww. I don't think I can ever go swimming there again."

"Well, it was fifty years ago... Anyway: death's like that are every traumatic and stuff like that are what forms ghosts. It's like a ball of energy that's got all knotted up in itself and came unravel. Dumping it's body in the lake formed a nexus, a kind of anchor, that the ghost constantly returns to."

"So I was on the lake because the ghost was trying to take me to that spot in the lake where it's body had been dumped?"

"That's what I'm guessing."

"So what happened to my clothes. Why was I naked?"

"It used your clothes as a lure to get us to move away from the lake but I'm not sure if it did that because it knew it needed to make a false trail or whether it needed you naked and the clothes are just available."

"You don't think...we did it, do you?" T'Keisha asked, paling at the thought.

"I don't know. I honestly don't. If you can't remember, I'm sure Tucker can't either. If a bear farts in the woods and there's nobody there..."

"This isn't some fart joke, Danny. Getting, you know...that's serious."

"I'm sorry. I don't know. I mean... I don't know what to say. You could talk to the Nurse..."

"She'd tell the Head Ranger and certainly my momma." T'Keisha buried her head in her hands. "What am I going to do?"

"I don't know. I wish I did. Look, Aetheria seems like she's been through all this before...I mean about making out and stuff. Maybe she can help you?

"That's the girl with all the piercings?"

"Right."

"Oh, Lord, I do not want to end up a teenage mother. I promised myself that that would not happen to me."

"Maybe nothing happen."

"But what if it did?"

"Then go to the Nurse."

"What if they don't believe me. What if it gets Tucker in trouble."

"If it means that much to you, the six of us will go with us to the Head Ranger and telling her about last night. And the night Butterfly went crazy -- that was the ghost, too. Abigail can get her father -- he's a Guy in White -- to come out and inspect the camp. Ghosts gets extremely powerful around the anniversary of their death -- which is today -- so I don't it can hide itself from a government scan. You'll see the doctor and they'll take care of what ever happens."

"But you 'll all be in trouble."

"To make you feel better I would do this. I know Sam would, too. And Tucker. Aetheria likes to be in trouble. Abigail we'd have to do some talking to because she doesn't want to bring in her father, but I'm sure we can bring her around. I'm not sure about Sid and Sam, the other Sam. But it doesn't matter because we've already go so many people willing to confirm what happened last night."

"You do that for me?"

"Yes."

"I don't know. I don't want to be a bother..."

"At least talk to Aetheria before you make up your mind."

The girl silently nodded her head.

"I guess I'd better go have a talk with Tucker and the other now. Want to come along?"

She shook her head. "I've got a lot to think about."

Danny picked up his tray and stood up to leave.

"Oh, Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did that kid kill himself, if that's what he did?"

"I can't imagine why anyone would any to do something like that. There's some reports that he was being picked on but I get picked on at school all the time and I've never thought about killing me."

"Do you think he was upset because some girl rejected him?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I get picked on, too, for being a geek, picked on a lot, actually, but last night it was like the ghost was picking on the ...(she blushed) ... horniest ... kids in camp."

"You might have something there," Danny admitted. "I'll E-Mail my sister and see if she can pick up anything on that angle." He turned to go.

"Danny? What about today?"

"Today?"

"Will the ghost be back?"

"We'll just have to be ready if it does."

Danny left the dinning hall and found the other sitting under a weeping willow tree near the entrance. He went up to Aetheria first and whispered in her ear. The punk girl got up and went to talk to T'Keisha.

Sam had been sitting next to Aetheria. As her friend went back into the dinning hall she turned to Danny and asked, "How did it go?"

"I feel like I need a cold shower." then walked over to Tucker to start the whole conversation all over again.