-falls over- I WAS DISTRACTED! By, uh...a lot of stuff. D: Blarg. Um, yes, finally a new chapter of this...hopefully y'all enjoy it, since I have no clue when the next one is going to be. I'm heading into madness in the next few months. Ugh. x.x RAWR. Um, yes. Chapter. xD Do I smell...PLOT?

And besides the fact...someone needs to poke my Danny Phantom muse and wake it up hardcore. It likes to sleep a lot lately. -.-

Chapter Nine

"C'mon class, how many times must I tell you that learning is hip?"

Groan.

"Sense and Sensibility! I shouldn't have to do this problem myself! Nine is equal to the power of the denominator and take some cheese puffs and salami and mix it into a giant tub of cream cheese and blahblahblahblahblah..."

Okay, so that wasn't really what Mr. Lancer was saying, but hey, it was difficult to concentrate first thing in the morning, especially on math. I had to be careful not to fall asleep though; Lancer was not only my math teacher, but also taught my English and astronomy classes. It didn't help that he always had his eye on me on account of nearly laughing myself into a coma the first time I saw who my first period teacher was—he just had to be the guy Jack, Maddie, and Jazz were chasing the day I moved here. I was almost tempted to ask him why he was wearing a mask in the first place, but thought better of it when I saw the Stern Teacher Glare of Doom.

Though I had to admit, in the short time I'd been in this school, I could already tell that Mr. Lancer was one of the better teachers. I'd seen him coaching kids in whatever subjects after school, giving them a chance of learning the material better, and letting other students take on some extra credit if he felt that was what they needed. You don't see many teachers anywhere doing that kind of thing nowadays.

Still, good teacher or not, it didn't stop his lectures from being totally perfect for naptime...

"Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey."

My head snapped up from the desk and I let out a strange yell that sounded kind of like 'wark!' Lancer, who had been talking, stopped and raised a humorless eyebrow at me.

"Miss Manson, is there something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?"

Danny suddenly appeared, floating above Mr. Lancer's desk with the biggest smirk ever on his face. I refrained from glaring and just shook my head. "No...there isn't."

"Then I suggest you not nap in my class and pay attention." With another firm look at me, he turned back to the board and went on babbling about whatever he was teaching. Math? Yeah. Something like that, although since when has math had so many letters?

Danny floated towards me, sitting cross-legged in the air next to me and peered over my shoulder. He raised an eyebrow and made a 'tsk tsk' noise, shaking his head. "C'mon Sam, you can't rely on Jazz to do your homework forever, as smart as she is. She always told me that she was going to leave and be a brain surgeon."

I sighed and rolled my eyes, picking up my pen and writing a reply since talking to thin air would probably look just a tad suspicious. 'It's first period! And I've always been fighting to stay awake in this class—why are you just mentioning it NOW? Plus, I always thought Jazz said she was going to be a psychologist.'

He read the note, shrugging. "I dunno. You seemed like you needed a wake up call." I noticed that he tactfully ignored my comment about Jazz.

'Bite me.'

"Aw, c'mon Sam, we're the good guys! No need to be so grouchy!"

'I'm a Goth. I'm supposed to be scowling all the time, remember?'

"Touchy, touchy."

I heaved another sigh. 'Is there anything in particular you're here for, or are you just making sure I don't fall asleep and drool all over my notes?'

He laughed at that. "Actually, I think I may have found out something...just...get Jazz to take you down to the basement after school, okay?"

I raised my eyebrows and blinked, my face a big question mark. Either he didn't see or just ignored it, because he suddenly went intangible and flew through the roof of the classroom to who-knows-where.

I groaned, whacking my forehead on my notebook. And here Grandma had told me all those years ago that my life would be 'interesting' with all of these ghostly encounters. Ha! It was just turning out to be one big chore. Now I was having ghosts order me around, of all things!

Could life get any weirder?

--

"So, how was your day?" Jazz asked as we got into her car once school let out. It was the exact same way we started our conversations every single afternoon—though I had to admit, it was certainly a way to get the ball rolling. Jazz had a way of finding ways to ramble on from just about anything I said. It got annoying at times, but I knew she meant well.

"It was alright," I shrugged in reply, buckling my seat belt. "Lancer actually eased up on the homework today."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, and it's really weird considering I almost fell asleep in his class this morning." I smiled, almost smirking. "Luckily Da—"

Jazz gave me an odd look as she started the drive back to FentonWorks. "Luckily what?"

'Stupid!' I thought. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid!' I had just about been to say that Danny had woken me up, but I couldn't very well say that, now could I? Uggh, it was getting more and more difficult not to have Tucker around twenty-four seven so I could babble on about ghosts. I didn't think Jazz would appreciate that, since her parents probably do that more than I ever will in my whole lifetime.

"Luckily...uh, I wasn't the only one who fell asleep. Lancer noticed the other kid first," I lied smoothly. "I woke up in time."

"Well, that's good," Jazz answered, a note of disbelief in her voice. Darn her for being a future psychologist! However, she seemed to accept my answer, so I just went along with that.

"Yeah." Hmm, now I had a real challenge—how on earth was I going to get Jazz to take me down to the basement? Well, according to Jack and Maddie, it was their 'lab', but what kind of loons converted their basement into a lab?

...Wait, never mind.

My so-called 'challenge' turned out not be one when Jazz pulled into the driveway, killing the engine. She told me to go on ahead inside since she had a lot of books and papers and whatnot to gather up. I obliged, turning to the front door and opened it, letting myself in.

An alarm immediately rang out and some kind of weapon appeared out of nowhere, coating me in sticky green goop. I frowned, holding my arms out as what I assumed to be plasma dripped off of me.

"Code red!" Jack called from somewhere, running towards me with a fishing pole—excuse me, the Fenton Fisher—poised ready to attack, if you really can attack with a fishing pole. His face grew confused, then disappointed as he realized I wasn't a ghost.

"False alarm, Maddie! It's just Jazz's spooky-ooky bat friend!"

"'Spooky-ooky'?" I muttered to myself, wondering if I should even move while I was coated in this stuff. However, Maddie immediately came into the room, smiling at me gently.

"Sorry about that, dear," she apologized for Jack. "Can't be too careful. Though it is a bit odd the alarms keep going off around you..."

"Yeah..." I laughed nervously. "Weird."

"Anyway, follow me down to the lab and we'll get you cleaned up. I'd rather not what you're, uh, coated in go to waste."

"...Sure," I replied, still wondering as to how the Fentons even got plasma in the first place, but I put that thought aside as Maddie led me downstairs to the lab. Mission accomplished.

To my utter surprise, it was actually very nice and well-equipped for a 'homemade' lab, so to speak. There were books, papers, computers, test tubes, and science-y stuff covering just about every surface. Taking up one wall was some kind of giant circular object closed off with big steal doors. Some weird-looking device was embedded into the wall next to it.

A funny feeling began to churn its way through my stomach. That thing seemed a bit...familiar, somehow...

"Maddie!" Jack's voice suddenly boomed through the house just as Maddie was walking towards me with a towel and a bunch of empty beakers. One slipped through her hands and shattered on the floor, scattering miniscule pieces of glass everywhere.

"Darn that man," she muttered. She turned to look at me as she headed up the stairs. "I'm going to go see what's up, so just hang out down here for a minute, okay?"

"Sure." As soon as she was gone, I crossed my arms as best I could without smearing plasma everywhere. "Y'know, you could have just phased through the roof or something. You didn't have to go through the front door."

Danny materialized near the entrance to the lab, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, but I heard Mom brought you down here, so I decided to set off the alarm when Jazz walked in the door. She's probably busy analyzing them or something, so we have a little while—I want to show you something."

"Show me what?"

Instead of answering me right away, he floated towards the big steel doors in the wall I had noticed earlier, suddenly looking grim. In fact, he was looking so remorse that I had an inkling as to what was behind those doors, but decided to find out for sure.

"What's that?" I asked.

He sighed and crossed his arms. "The—the ghost portal Mom and Dad built."

Bingo. "You mean...?"

"Yeah. This is where I...died." He whispered the word, as though it was forbidden that a ghost should say it. Then again, he was still pretty new at the whole nobody-can-see-me thing. "But anyway, before I...you know...it was just a big empty space of nothing. I managed to phase inside of it a few days ago and actually found out that Mom and Dad were onto something."

"What?"

Danny grabbed my upper arm, not caring about the green goop I was coated in, and led me over towards the device against the wall I had noticed earlier. A closer look revealed that there was some kind of keypad, as well as various knobs and doodads.

"The code's eight-three-one-four, and then you push that button there," he gestured.

"Eh?" Man, I had such a way with words today.

"To open the portal."

I jumped, looking at those big steel door and back at Danny, back and forth, back and forth. "Open it? Are you insane?" Dumb question. I was the insane for having a ghost as a sidekick.

"Just trust me, okay?"

I glanced at him over my shoulder and nearly fell over at the determination and sincerity in those blazing green orbs. Trusting a ghost had never been on my agenda, but for some reason...trusting him just seemed to be totally natural. I couldn't explain it; only that my stomach gave a slight lurch as I answered. "Y-Yeah. Okay."

He smiled, and I swear whatever was jumping in my gut was out and about the moment he did. I barely had time to think about it, however, as I entered the code and pushed the button Danny had pointed at.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. I was prepared to give him a hard glare when the floor suddenly rumbled beneath my feet, shuddering even more as the doors opened to reveal—well, I'm not really sure what.

It appeared to be a huge, swirling green mass of...something. Whatever was in there was obscured by green fog, although if I listened close enough, I could hear faint strains of voices.

"What is this?" I asked in awe, stepping right in front of the device. I was tempted to walk right in, but something stopped me.

"This is the Fenton Portal," he answered. Well duh. I knew that. I was more mesmerized at the green world in front of us.

He gave a half-smile that didn't reach his eyes. "My parents were actually onto something here—I think when I, uh...went in here, it activated this." He gestured out into the emerald beyond.

"And what exactly would this be?"

"Sam, those weird ghosts we've been seeing—I think they're coming from here. This place is the Ghost Zone, and from what I've discovered in the little bit of exploring I've done, there are some really dangerous ghosts out there—and they're going to be heading this way."

--

-gasp- Is that PLOT I smell? Finally. xD

I'm extremely sleepy at the moment, so no reviewer replies this time around--but I will say this: You guys are AWESOME! Srsly. xD I'm awed at the positive response I've been getting for this fic. You all rock. Rockage my sockage, YES, yes you do.

Brownies if you review! And my brownies are awesome, like you. Hey, I'm a poet...