Hello everyone, sorry this is so late, everything just got away from me. I'm back though, and things are happening again. Thank you all so much for reviewing and I hope you have a nice day.

"Danny." I rolled away from the noise and pulled my blankets over my head, groaning. "Danny." The source of the noise poked my side. Who is that? Jazz? Probably."Danny."Her prodding grew more insistent, but I curled myself into a tangle of sheets and blankets. "Danny, you have five seconds before I get a bucket." My eyes snapped open and I sat straight up.

"Jazz, don't you dare!"

"I thought that would get you up." She chuckled. I slid out of the mess of covers and glared at her.

"Why am I up at-" I glanced over to the clock, "8 am on a Saturday?" Jazz's face, which had, until this point, been smiling and sunny, turned into a 'are you stupid?' expression.

"Danny, do you know what day it is?"

"No, what's that-"

"For god's sake, Danny it is April 3rd, it is your birthday." Jazz laughed and shook her head. "Do you need help finding your shirt too, or can I go?" she said sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, Jazz. Get out before I strip."
"Gross." She made a face and walked out, shutting the door carefully behind her.

I forgot that it was my birthday. I mean yeah, things have been weird, especially with the whole suddenly-being-half-ghost-and-hunting/eating-other-ghosts thing, and school, which has been a nightmare to put up with, especially when my ghost powers first started coming in, but it hasn't been so bad that I would have a good excuse to forget my own birthday. Although, when I occasionally fall through floors or float through ceilings, I suppose that's enough to make someone forget about trivial things like birthdays. Even if it's my own.

I slid on some clothes and left my room, falling intangibly through the floor and dropping into the kitchen, where Dad was cooking some hopefully edible waffles. "Hey Dad."
He jumped and nearly tipped the bowl of batter onto the floor. He gave me a quick glare before he turned back to his cooking. "You're getting good at that, but could you maybe make a little bit of noise?"
"And miss out on giving your heart the workout it needs? Not a chance." I smirked and sat down at the table, flicking through newspaper pages boredly.

"Thanks." Dad muttered. "Your uncle O is coming over today. He called and said he'd be over sometime around noon."

"Really? Awesome! He wanted to see the model rocket I designed. He said he might suggest the design to his boss if it's good."

Uncle O is a good guy. He's not actually my uncle, but he's close enough to be. He's technically my godfather I guess, but I never really get to see him. Just on holidays and whatever if he's not busy. He works for an aerospace company down in Florida and is kinda the reason I love space so much.

"Danny, about uncle O…" Dad trailed off and looked down. "He's not- you know he's not your uncle, right?"

"Yeah, I've known that since forever." I narrowed my eyes and stared suspiciously at Dad. He wrung his hands and shifted from foot to foot. Highly suspicious.

"He doesn't actually work for any space company or anything. He's- he's government. He works for the GiW."

"GiW? The GiW? The people who-" My voice broke and I felt my heart fall to my feet.

"Yeah, he was the agent who took care of you while you were in the artificial womb. Made sure you were getting enough oxygen and food, growing properly. He decided he would keep an eye on you after we got custody of you. We kept in contact and he became your uncle. He still works for the GiW, so you'll have to be very careful around him."

"How long is he staying?" I tried to control the shaking in my voice and gulped. I really do not want to go work for the GiW or be enslaved or experimented upon or hunt other ghosts and actually hunt them and ugh- no.

"His flight out is later on Monday. He'll stay in the guest room, so you'll have to eat all your ectoplasm right now so he doesn't find it. And make sure he doesn't see your fangs or claws." Dad walked over to the fridge and swung the door open, pulling out a gallon jug of a delicious smelling sludge and setting it on the table. "Don't even bother with a cup. Let's see if you can chug it."

I pushed all my thoughts of O to the back of my head and unscrewed the top of the ectoplasm. "How much do you want to bet?" I asked with a smirk.

He squinted with thought and smiled. "If you can chug all of that in five minutes I'll do all your chores for the week. If you can't, you do mine for the week."

"Deal." I raised the jug to my lips, relishing in the smell that curled into me, sour but sweet, with the aftertaste of electricity.

I felt the ectoplasm trickle down my throat, like swallowing an ice cube. Taking gulp after gulp, barely pausing to breathe through my nose between drinks.

"Danny!" The sudden shout nearly made me choke. "How many times have I told you not to drink out of the bottle, you'll make us all sick!"
"Maddie, it's his ectoplasm, he's chugging it, shh!" Dad flapped a hand at Mom in a vague gesture that said 'calm down'.

"What've you bet on?"

"Chores."
"Obviously." Mom rolled her eyes and made her way to the waffle maker, turning it over and digging out the nearly blackened waffle and flopping it on a plate. "Happy birthday, Danny."

I tried to say thanks, but it came out as a jumbled mumble between gulps. She laughed and poured more batter in the waffle maker. "Once you finish your ectoplasm you can call Sam and Tucker. O will be here in a little while, so you may as well hang out with them while we wait for the party to start."
I once again tried to speak, but settled with nodding instead. "It's been three minutes, Danny." I gulped down the ectoplasm more urgently, having to take longer breaths between swallows.

"Four minutes."

I took a final swig of the ectoplasm and dropped the empty jug on the table, gasping for air and burping.

"Four minutes and forty-nine seconds." Dad sighed sadly. "Guess I'm going to do all your chores for a week."

"That's right you are." I grinned victoriously and washed out the jug, sucking on my tongue to get the last of the taste out. "I'm gonna go talk to Sam and Tuck. Call me down when breakfast's ready."

I floated up through the ceiling and landed on my bed, grabbing my phone and texting an invite to both Sam and Tucker.

I set my phone down and flopped back on my bed, my mind drifting back to uncle O. What would even happen to me if he found out? Would he keep quiet? Probably not, he would get a raise for bringing me in, most likely.

But then what would happen to me? Would I just be locked up, or would I be used for my original purpose? A weapon against ghosts. I'm really not all that cool with being a weapon, to be honest.

What if they put me away and experimented on me? And not the near painless ones that Mom and Dad do, like blood tests and samples and stuff, but actual surgeries where they find out how I tick and whatever.

I supposedly have a ghost form that will be much more interesting than my human one because of a few 'additions'. Really scary additions that I do not want to see or use or have anything to do with, but guess not because I'm feeling this thing build up in my chest and it feels like it's just going to explode out of me, so I have that to look forward to.

Maybe O will keep my secret, just kinda ignore everything and pretend that it didn't happen because, you know, I'm his godson and he's basically the one that's supposed to take care of me if Mom and Dad die horribly, and take care of my religious well being I guess?

I sigh and glance over at my clock. It's not even nine yet and Sam and Tucker probably won't even be here until 10. I hoist myself out of bed and lumber back down stairs. Breakfast should be ready soon.

Sam and Tucker arrived only ten minutes before O did, and he showed up an hour early, which honestly I should've expected.

We ate pizza and gorged ourselves on cake. Jazz choked and Tucker made himself a moustache out of frosting. O nearly fell off of his chair laughing when Sam gave Tucker a hat made of cake, which was interesting to see.

Sam and Tucker were dragged home by their parents at around 6, leaving me, O, Mom, Dad, and Jazz.

I have a whole weekend with O to look forward to now.

Don't get me wrong, I love the guy, but the fact that he'll probably turn me in to the government so he can get a promotion is not something that I'm really all that cool with. Before all of this I would've asked him to stay longer. He was one of my favorite people in the world. But now he apparently only stuck around to watch me and make sure I didn't turn into a ghost or whatever, which he kinda totally missed the mark on. Plus, I can't eat ectoplasm with him around, and that can only go well for so long before I actually lose it and hunt something down.

I put the new model rocket O had given me on my desk and went back downstairs, where O was sitting peacefully and watching TV with Mom and Jazz.

I plopped myself down next to Jazz, as far away from O as I could sit without being completely obvious and dove into the numb world of television.