Chapter 4: Peek-a-boo, I see you!
"Where is she? Where is she?" Tucker said in a high-pitched voice, hiding his face with his hands, as he played peek-a-boo. He flipped open his hands to reveal his face with a surprised expression, "There she is!"
Danny snickered. Tucker looked at him and said, "Aw, lay off it, dude. If you had a baby sister, you'd do it too."
"Possibly, but, guess what? I don't!" Danny said, grinning.
Tucker punched him in the arm, "Go give the hard time to some ghost, not your best friend."
Sally, Tucker's sister stared at her brother a moment before her face began to wind up for a full-blown scream. Tucker looked panicked for a brief moment before he turned his attention back to her, causing her to calm back down and laugh.
"Wow, Tuck, only a year old and she knows all the tricks a girl knows to get a guy to do what she wants," Danny said.
"Tell me about it," Tucker said, making another silly face. The phone rang and Tucker jumped up to answer it, "Keep her entertained, Danny."
"What! Why me?" Danny exclaimed.
"You do not want to hear her wail!"
Danny turned his attention to Sally. Her face was red and looked ready to explode. Panicked, he looked around frantically. He looked at her and did the first thing he could think of, he turned his eyes to a glowing green. She stopped like a car hitting a brick wall and stared at him with wide eyes. Danny started to play peek-a-boo with her, like Tucker did earlier, but with a twist. One moment, he would have his eyes blue and then he would switch them to green.
"I ought to suggest to my parents that you baby sit from now on," Tucker said, suddenly, startling Danny.
"Why? I don't need girl trouble any more than once a night."
Tucker snickered, "So you had some earlier. Was it Sam or Valerie?"
Danny glared at Tucker (which Sally found very amusing, judging by her laughter), "No, I met another new ghost. That'd be the third one in the past couple of days."
Tucker looked interested, "Was she cute?"
Danny gave Tucker a weird look. "Um, ew. And, no, she wasn't." Danny thought about the encounter for a moment, "She seemed kind of fan-girlish. Really likes Ghostwriter. I almost feel bad for him." Danny teased, "I know you have a hard time getting dates but you don't have to resort to pursuing the dead."
Tucker shuttered, "You win. Uh, ew. I can't stand thinking about it since you put it that way."
"You set yourself up for that one." Standing up, Danny said, "Well, I've got to go now. I still have homework to finish and with the way this week has been going, there is going to be at least one more ghost attack before bed and two after bedtime."
"And I'm not going to baby sit," Danny preempted Tucker's question. "See you later, Sally," he said, making a funny face.
Danny ran home and discovered that his prediction was accurate, one ghost before bed and two after he should be in bed.
Friday approached with the typical speed of something that a person looks forward to with excitement. In other words, Friday seemed to come very slowly. So slowly, that time seemed to run a second back for every two seconds it went forward. Classes seemed to take twice as long and the ghost attacks more frequent. The bright moments of his days were when he was around his friends and the few times he saw Valerie between classes and at lunch.
When he walked out of the school after detention on Friday, he threw up his arms and yelled, "Freedom!" dropping his books in the process but not caring at all.
He ran down the street and to a secluded spot where he transformed and flew home at top speed, a wide grin stretching from ear to ear.
He nearly ran Jazz over as he ran through the door. Instead, he ran through her. "Danny!" she screeched, "Don't do that again!" Her voice dropped down to where he could only hear her as she hissed, "What if it had been mom or dad?"
Danny winced, "Sorry, Jazz. It was reflex. And I get tired of running into people all the time at school and then I have to avoid ghosts when I fight."
"Just try to be more careful in the future." She walked out the door but before she closed it, she added, "Have fun on your date tonight. It's nice to see you doing normal things."
Blinking, he asked, "How'd you know I'm going on a date?"
She gave him a condescending smile, "Your behavior. I'll see you later, Danny."
Danny shook his head and turned around- smack into his father's large form. "Hey, Danny!" his father boomed, "Hope you have fun tonight! Who knows, maybe she'll the be one for you like Maddie was for me."
Danny blushed, "Daaaaad." Where did he come from? I didn't hear him at all. "It's only a first date. Why is everyone making such a big deal of it?"
"Because we can," he mother chimed in happily. She grabbed he son's arm and dragged him up the stairs, "We need to pick out the perfect clothing for you."
With much difficulty, Danny managed to escape his parents help (the sheer variety of jumpsuits was frightening) and head out to the theater half an hour early. However, his plan to arrive early did not escape any complications.
So, at six o'clock exactly, Danny ran up to the front of the movie theater. He almost had not made it on time. "Stupid ghosts always show up at the worst possible time," he muttered to himself. He looked around for Valerie but she was not there yet. Of course, she was chasing the same ghost, so she ought to be showing up right about… now.
"Hey, Danny!" Valerie yelled as she ran up to him. "Sorry I 'm a little late."
He held up a hand, "Not a problem, I just got here a minute ago." Which is the complete and honest truth. Then he really looked at Valerie. Wow. Tucker and Sam were right, this is a date. Girls dress up for dates. "Wow, you look great!" he said.
Valerie smiled at him, "Thanks, though this is an old thing."
"So, you ready to watch monster alien zombies cause death and destruction on an unsuspecting planet?" he asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
"Oh, yeah!"
(Insert zombie impression) Braiiiiiiinnnnnnnssssssss….uh, I mean, constructive criticismmmmmmmmmm.
I made up Tucker's baby sister. We know almost nothing about his family, so I decided he'd have a sister.
Many thanks to Ryo Hoshi for beta reading the chapter.