Chapter 4: Hairspray

"Look on the bright side, now you don't have to go to the salon every day to maintain that white hair look because it's all natural. On the down side, I think this means something's wrong with your ghost side. " Tucker stated, while Danny frantically rummaged through the bathroom cabinets.

"I've gotta hide this!"

"Where's Sam?" asked Tucker.

"I don't want to worry her. When I saw her after I 'woke' up, she was crying about how she thought she would never see me again and I don't want to see her cry again. It was so unlike her."

"I cried too, ya know."

"Yeah, but that's different. Do you think dye would work?" There was so much stuff in these cabinets, Danny just pulled everything out.

"Dude seriously; does it look like I would know?" Tucker raised an eyebrow. Danny groaned and put a hand against his aching head. "You ok?" his friend asked.

"Yeah, it's just a headache," Sighing, he continued searching through all the containers. "Does your family have any black hair dye?" He held up a bottle. "I don't want to walk around with my mom's hair colour; might look suspicious."

"Let me see what I have. There's a bunch of things I grabbed from my parents' bathroom. Odds are at least one of them is bound to be useful," Tucker replied, sifting through his backpack. "...Lipstick, make-up, Reader's Digest... Ah, you're in luck!" He pulled out a box of black hair dye.

"Great. What do we do now?" Danny took the box and stared at it. Tucker shrugged.

"I don't know anything about this kind of stuff." A knock on the door startled them.

"Come on, Danny. You've been in there since forever. Other people need to use it." It was Jazz!

"Uh, uh, we'll be done soon!" Danny yelled.

"We? Who's there with you?" Slapping himself, he strained to think of a way to get rid of her. Luckily, Tucker came to the rescue, but he nearly gave Danny a heart attack in the process.

"Can you help? We had a little accident." Danny shot him a panicked look. Tucker gave him the "Relax, I've got it" look right back and he let Jazz into the bathroom. Danny squeezed his eyes shut and tried with all his might to be invisible.

"Oh my gosh, Danny! What happened to you?" Came his sister's concerned voice.

"Uh, um..." She was going to find out! The evidence was staring her in the face. How could she not know now that he was half-ghost?

"Why did you bleach your hair?" Once again, Tucker stepped in with one of his fantastic stories.

"In lab class we were working with bleach and some of it splashed onto Danny's hair." Danny pretended to be elsewhere. That was a lame story. They didn't even have lab class today.

"That much bleach?" Jazz didn't buy that excuse. She sighed. 'The things that I do for my brother...' She made up the rest of the story for them. "Let me guess, you thought it would be a great idea to bleach the rest of his hair and then dye it black?"

"Uh, yeah," Tucker blinked. "I'm mean, yeah, that's exactly it." Danny stared at Tucker. It worked? Tucker flashed him a confident "Told ya so" grin. "But we're guys. We don't know a thing about this girl stuff." Tucker handed over the box.

"Please don't tell Mom or Dad, Jazz. Please?" Danny begged. Jazz sighed again.

"Ok, but you owe me."

"There. Now go wash the excess off." Jazz peeled off the black stained gloves and tossed them in the garbage.

"Thanks Jazz," Danny said, stepping once again into the shower. He looked like himself again, and for a brief moment, Jazz felt relieved. She knew that something was happening to him. Only his ghost form had white hair. It probably would go away... but what if it didn't? What if it got worse? She had to look further into this.

The sound of running water stopped and Danny stepped out, a towel around his waist. Tucker and Jazz stared.

"How's it look, guys?"

"Wow," Tucker blurted out.

"What kind of bleach was that?" Jazz puzzled. Danny looked at the strands dangling in his face, then in the mirror. The dye had completely washed out. His hair was once again, snow white. He hung his head in defeat.

"You should tell Mom and Dad about this Danny. They may be able to help," Jazz offered.

"I can't. You know how they are. I really don't want to be a guinea pig and end up with possessed franken-hair. Please, there must be something you can do, Jazz. You're a genius!" Danny pleaded.

"I don't know..." Her little brother gave her the puppy-dog look. "...Ok. I can't believe you talked me into this."

"I will be your personal slave if you can solve this problem," Danny promised.

"Danny, why does your hair look stranger than mine?" Sam asked as she met him and Tucker at their usual spot by the lockers. Danny tried again to flatten his hair with no success. He reminded her of the time she had dressed up Tucker to be goth. That look did not fit with Danny at all.

"Just wanted to try something different!" he said quickly, his face plastered with a big smile. A couple of classmates walking by snickered and threw small things, like raisins and pennies, at him.

Tucker spoke, "Yeah, after all, there was a chemical spill in lab class yester-ack-" Danny tried signaling Tucker to stop talking, but when that didn't work, he went for a more direct approach; cutting him off by wrapping his arm around his friend's neck.

"Lab class, what are you talking about? We didn't have..." A thought occurred to her. "Danny. Tell me what's going on." Danny looked extremely guilty and let his friend go. Tucker rubbed his neck, looking sorry that he had spoke without thinking.

"I-I didn't want to worry you Sam," He picked at a small piece of his hair, just enough to show her the white underneath. "It happened yesterday after I was sent home. Jazz helped with the black hairspray. She thinks it was bleach. I don't know what's going on either but it's like my ghost self is taking over." Sam's face paled.

"Hey Danny," Danny stiffened at the sound of his sister's voice.

"Jazz!" he squeaked. He turned to face her, his back against the lockers like a frightened animal. "H-how long have you been there?" He began to sweat nervously.

"Chill, I wasn't eavesdropping. I just came by to check on you." Danny gave a sigh of relief which he hoped Jazz saw as exasperation.

"I'm fine. I don't need constant spying on, ok? I'm 14, not 4," he unwillingly groaned and put a hand to his head, grimacing. Jazz became concerned.

"I have some Tylenol-" she offered.

"No, I'm fine."

"Another headache? Man, are you sure you're okay?" Tucker asked. Danny shuffled his feet in response.

"Danny," Jazz came closer but when she touched her brother, he pulled away, almost violently.

"I said I'm fine, alright?" he yelled before storming off down the hall. Sam and Tucker went to catch up with him, but Jazz held them back.

"Guys, I'm seriously worried. Please keep an eye on him, and..." Jazz caught herself in mid-sentence. She had wanted to say, 'let me know if things get worse.', but didn't want to give even a hind that she knew about what was going on. Danny's ghost powers were his secret to tell her when he was ready. So instead she finished with, "...And look after him for me."

"Of course, Jazz. We're his friends," assured Sam.

"And friends don't let friends go without trying the latest installment of Doomed," added Tucker as he ran off after Danny, with the Goth trailing behind at a more leisurely pace.

Jazz hoped Danny would be okay. Her doubts nagged at her though and she couldn't stop thinking about what she had seen in that bathroom. Danny had seemed just as confused as she had been with his white hair. What had caused such a thing to happen? She knew of only one way she could help: by using her researching skills to figure out what was going on. Maybe the hair was an after-effect of being in that coma, or maybe it was a symptom of something worse. Jazz was determined to find out. She had already lost her brother once, she was not going to lose him again.

~phantom130 5 (September 2013)