Chapter 3: We all suffer from little horrors

Danny flew quickly until he was twenty feet behind the ghost. He slowed and looked at the ghost, trying to figure out who it was (assuming he had met the ghost before). Abruptly, the ghost stopped and turned to face Danny while giving him a cheeky grin and waving.

Danny made a face. The ghost was a rather plain looking girl-ghost. She wore a long ruffled skirt to her calves and a blouse- that were severely out of date. Over one shoulder was a bag that looked like it was holding many books. "Hey," she said, "I'm going to borrow this for a while. The Box Ghost owes my boyfriend some boxes."

"Really…," Danny said.

"Well, he's not my boyfriend yet but he will be so happy when I bring him Boxie," she babbled, doing a rather good impression of an airhead.

Danny interrupted her before she could continue doing a good impression of a babbling brook, "Look, that thermos belongs to me. I'll let The Box Ghost go back into the Ghost Zone tonight and you can take him from there."

She cocked her head, giving him a puzzled look. The she straightened out with a silly smile. "I can't do that because you offended him, too." She tried to clap her hands together in excitement, fumbling the thermos. She tucked it under her arm so she could use both her hands, "In fact, he'd be even happier if I brought you in, too!"

Danny floated there a moment while he watched her fumble with the thermos. She took the cap off and pointed it at him. Nothing happened. Danny pinched the bridge of his nose to hold off an approaching headache. As she fumbled with the thermos, Danny asked, "Who are you and who isn't your boyfriend."

She stopped paused in her attempts to figure the thermos out and said, "I'm sorry. I'm Bookworm! And I'm going to meet my soon-to-be boyfriend Ghostwriter! Actually, I'm going to go visit him at his home. With any luck, he'll be back at his home now and writing again." She gave Danny an excited look, "Did you know he's my favorite author of all time?"

Danny dropped about three feet from surprise. He floated back up to the same level as Bookworm. "You want to have Ghostwriter as your boyfriend? And how is he getting out now?" Danny moved around in confusion, "For such a little thing like handling a 'real world' item, I got a lot more time than that!"

She made a dismissive motion, "Pfft! Walker just doesn't like you. There's a law in his books that allows him to give longer sentences to ghosts he doesn't like."

Danny shook off his surprise (and secretly vowed to find some way to really irritate Walker in the future). "I think I'm going to take the thermos back now," he said flatly, flying closer to her.

"Stay away," she yelled, pulling a few pencils from her bag at him, forcing him to duck. As he got closer, she took the bag off her shoulder, charged it with energy, and swung it at him. Danny dodged the swinging bag.

"Ah ha!" she said triumphantly, as she hit a button and the thermos started to glow. Danny, almost shot off in a different direction but stopped cold as he watched Bookworm suck herself into the thermos. He swooped down and caught the thermos and lid before they hit the ground.

"Sheesh, you'd think she would know better than to look right into it. That's like saying 'today can't get any worse' which it almost always can," Danny said, shaking his head as he flew back to his house.

Quickly, he entered his room and changed back. He held his breath as he waited for the thundering steps that usually followed the presence of any ghost in his room. He let out his breath, "Whoo, I guess they haven't gotten the Ghost Finder fixed yet. With any luck it will take them a while." With distaste, he turned his attention to his backpack. Reluctantly, he pulled out that day's homework and began to work his way slowly through it.

An unusual silence settled in around the house. Danny shifted uneasily. Standing, he went downstairs and discovered a note on the kitchen table. "Danny," it read, "Your father, Jazz and I have gone out shopping. We won't be back before dinner. Help yourself to the hot dogs in the refrigerator door. Love, Mom."

Danny suppressed a shutter at the thought of the hot dogs. "I thought we got rid of those a long time ago," he muttered. Then he noticed a P.S. at the bottom of the note. "P.S. Those are new hot dogs. I heated them up for you."

This time, Danny did not hold back on the shuttering. He listened for a moment and realized that he could hear movement in the refrigerator. "No thanks, Mom, I think I'll have something that does try to eat me back."

He walked over to the phone and called Tucker. "Hey, Tucker."

"Hey, Danny. What's up?" Tucker asked.

"You want to go out to the Nasty Burger for supper? My family is out and I'm too afraid to look in the refrigerator after the note my mom left."

Tucker laughed, "Sure, dude. Just let me see if it is okay with my parents." Danny waited a Tucker talked to his parents. He eyed the refrigerator warily when he heard movement in it.

"Ya still there?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah."

"My parents said it's cool, especially since I told them your mom tried to make you supper. So, it's okay so long as I get back right away. I have to watch my baby sister for a little while."

Danny let out a sigh of relief. "I'll see you there in ten minutes."

Meanwhile, in the Ghost Zone, Ghostwriter was peeking warily around the corner of his house. Looking left, right, up and down, he gave a sigh of relief. "Good, she isn't here. Yet. Better do what I can before she shows up again."

Posted: 1-27-06

I drew a picture of Bookworm. gasp! www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 28260705/ Paste into the address bar and remove the spaces. It currently isan uncolored picture but I'm coloring it right now. In Paint. It'll go up when I'm happy with it.

Edit 1-28-06: Color version found at www. deviantart .com/ deviation/ 28275587/

Should I change the title to The Life and Times of Danny Fenton?