After finally forcing down my breakfast slow enough that I didn't cough it all up, Danny told his parents that we would be at Sam's and then he dragged me out the door, me trying not to fall.
"You couldn't even let me go get my headphones and mp3 player?" I complained to him, to which he smirked and pulled me along faster. Now we were running, me have to sprint to not have my arm dislocated at the elbow and shoulder. We got to Sam's house soon enough, both of us now winded. I suspected that I was much more winded than he was.
Sam's house was more like a mansion, an old-style Gothic building. He knocked on the door and Sam's mother let us in not-too-happily. Apparently, she didn't like Danny and she didn't like the clothing I wore. Sam greeted us happily, though, as happily as she could manage anyway. The goth girl didn't normally show emotions like happy around her parents, I soon learned.
Tucker came over soon after, and we sat around being loud to annoy Sam's parents until we were finally all kicked out and told to go to the park. The park was pretty cool, not many people being there and Amity Park had a warm breeze going. Everything was completely fine until Johnny showed up yet again, but I wasn't prepared for it. He'd already come once this month, and I didn't expect another time until next month. I was chasing Sam around because she'd stolen my phone from me, and I was utterly failing to catch her when my ghost sense went off.
I froze and looked behind myself, yelping and rolling to one side as Johnny tried to grab me.
"Hey!" I shouted, well, I made what passed as a shout for me. "You've already kidnapped me once this month, you're not supposed to come back until next month!"
"Sorry, kid," he smirked, making me think he wasn't sorry at all, "but Kitty wants to ruin your hair again."
"Then tell her that she has to wait until next month." My eyes widened as Johnny came at me again, and I dodged to one side again and ran, climbing right up a tree and settling down on one of the higher branches. I had a poker face, my friends looked utterly disbelieving, and Johnny was racing straight for the tree. I expected him to go through it or something, but instead he went up it. Shrieking, I started branch-hopping higher and higher.
"Not fair!" I told Johnny. "But then, neither is this!" Praying I had fast enough reflexes to roll on impact, I jumped right out of the tree from 25 feet up. Johnny had not expected that, though I was pretty sure he thought I just fell and was attempting to do something else like jump up higher or go down the tree or something.
The moment I hit the ground, I felt my right wrist break. Nonetheless, I rolled to keep myself from breaking anything else.
"Just go home, Johnny!" I shouted up to the dumbfounded ghost, crackling with electricity slightly. Danny was looking at me with pure confusion, though I saw concern in his eyes as well. The ghost tried to argue, but I lifted up one hand. I didn't care that my friends were around, I would and could and should have shot him with an ecto-ray. Johnny 13 gave me one last look, a look of pure horror at having to face Kitty empty-handed, and he was gone.
***line break***
Sam fretted over my broken wrist, though I kept trying to reassure her that I would be fine. Though I didn't tell her, I'd already started to heal. I contemplated showing them that I was half-ghost, but who knew what they would do then? They could turn me over to Danny's parents, they could try to kill me themselves... All of the "what-if" scenarios played in my head, and I had to force myself not to think about them.
Not until I had proof of any of them happening.
"And you're saying he never shows up twice in one month?" Tucker asked, giving me an oh-really look.
"Never," I confirmed. "Well, sometimes, but not usually in the fall. Kitty doesn't like to mess with my hair in the fall too much because of all the static energy."
"Is that why your hair is always so messy?" Danny chuckled, and I glared at him until he stopped.
"Yes, that just so happens to be the reason that my hair is always like this." I smirked coldly at him. "And it'll be your problem too if you don't stop asking questions."
***line break***
Being at my house all alone, for the first time I could ever remember, made me feel lonely.
I'd always liked being alone. Being alone had always been a comfort to me, the shy little introvert I was. So why didn't I want to be alone now? I felt almost vulnerable now that my friends weren't with me... My ghost sense went off again that day, and I transformed into Shadow to look around. The electrical surge of energy that came through me reminded me that I really shouldn't keep large amounts of energy stored up for so long. I exited my house after finding no ghosts inside, and my ghost sense went off again. I spun around and saw glowing green eyes and white hair watching me, a look of surprise on the ghost's face.
"Phantom?" I squeaked, falling down onto the roof.
"Uh, hey." He sounded just as surprised as I was, and he held out one white gloved hand to me. I hesitantly took it and let him pull me up, hovering just a few centimeters off the roof. "Shadow, right?"
"Uh, y-yes," I whispered, flinching when he frowned.
"Why are you so afraid of me?" he asked, and I could see suspicion on his face. Oh no oh no oh no.
"I-I've never b-been good a-around others," I murmured, not meeting his gaze. My black hair was swept up by the wind, revealing my empty eye socket. I quickly ducked my head down, hiding the burn marks and the missing eye. When the wind died down, I slowly peeked up. I flinched again when I saw his expression of horror.
"Rose?" Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. He knew my human form's name. He knew that I was Rose. Or at least suspected. But how did he know my human form's name?
He took my silence as an answer and dragged me down into my house, and then he took a deep breath. He held onto my shoulders, making sure that I didn't escape, and two twin rings of white formed around his waist. The rings spread in opposite directions and suddenly I wasn't looking into the green eyes of Danny Phantom. I was looking into the blue eyes of Danny Fenton.
Trembling, I felt my own purple rings form and transform me back into Rose. Danny was a halfa. He was like me. I didn't have to hide anything form him, and that meant I didn't have to hide anything from Sam and Tucker either. I had the feeling they knew about Danny's secret.
"Rose." His voice took on a serious tone, and I flinched yet again. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Your parents are ghost hunters," I mumbled. "All the what-if scenarios in the world flashed through my head every time I thought about telling you." Now that I knew his secret, I could make the connection between Fenton and Phantom easily, without speculation. They sounded the same, had the same hairstyle, same body type, and this morning I'd seen that Danny had a ghost sense. "Do your parents know that you're a halfa?"
"No. Like you said, they're ghost hunters." I saw a small smile crack on his face. "You do realize that I'll be telling Sam and Tucker? And Jazz too?"
"Jazz?" Confusion etched itself onto my face. Jazz knew about Danny's secret? "I'm not surprised about Sam and Tucker, but... Jazz?"
"She knows my secret and she'll keep yours safe, too," Danny assured me. I nodded in relief and glanced away from him. My house seemed less... frightening in the dark now that Danny was here.
"I saw you use your ghost sense this morning," I told Danny. "I was going to ask you about it, but I knew you'd counter with your own questions..."
"Well," Danny said lightheartedly, "now we know why our ghost senses keep going off around each other." I couldn't help but crack a smile. Danny asked me about my "core", but I told him I didn't know what that was.
"It's what gives you your powers," he told me. "I have an ice core, and I can summon ice to use at my disposal."
"I can sort of control electricity," I mused. I released a shock of electricity again and his hand on my shoulder jerked back. "I just sort of release shocks every once in a while, and if I concentrate I can hold the energy and then release it all at once in a big explosion of electricity."
"Sounds like an electric core," Danny confirmed. "Remind me never to go swimming with you until you can control the shocks." I grinned and nudged Danny.
"Oh, come on. Don't you have faith in me not to electrocute you?"
"Nope."
I rolled my eyes and watched him transform, the process taking only a few seconds. I waved goodbye to Danny, my mind aware that I would have to tell Sam and Tucker that I was a halfa tomorrow morning at school. I had no doubts that Danny would tell Jazz as soon as he got home. Sighing in relief that now I didn't have to hide my powers from my friends, I curled up on my bed, set my alarm just in case I ended up sleeping deeply, I let my mind wander until I was out like a light. Literally.