Portals

Gone

If Danny signed another autograph, his hand would fall off. At least, that's what it felt like. There always seemed to be a crowd of people gathered around his front door. They were there when he walked to school in the mornings. They were there when he came home in the afternoons. Last weekend he had accidentally left his bedroom window open and had come home to find a teenage girl he didn't recognize rooting through his laundry hamper.

Crazy fangirls.

If Tucker hadn't been rich from his mayor gig, they would have set up shop in the town square charging a quarter per signature. They would make enough to buy their way into every new fad for the next ten years. And hopefully, a replacement hand.

Thank goodness he could turn invisible. Flying helped, too. He stopped over the group's heads, going visible for just a moment with his ghost tail whipping in agitation.

"Would you people just leave me alone?" he bellowed, hair flopping in the wind.

The only response from the crowd was a few excited mutters. Like one being they swung around and raised their black boxes. Danny winced as he was blinded by a few dozen camera flashes. He turned invisible again and fled, listening to the clicks of shutters that he left in his wake.

Of course, there was no relief at school either. He had barely changed back when the problems started again.

"Hi, Danny, my ghost boy," Paulina crooned, latching onto his arm. He tried to shove her off, but it was no use. When she got like this she was worse than an ectopus.

"Hands off my boyfriend, Paulina." A pale hand smacked down on the queen bee's shoulder. Danny saw a flash of blue, but he didn't need to see the glass ring to know it was Sam.

Pauline's cheeks went pink. She whipped away, muttering very audibly: "Ugly Goth girl."

"That ugly Goth girl saves your life almost more than I do!" he snapped, before flushing pink at what he just said. "Sam, I didn't mean that, I-"

She cut him off with a quick peck. "I get it, Danny."

He ran his fingers through her hair. "You put a purple streak in."

"Oh, what, this?" She twirled it between two fingers. "I meant to have it done white, but the hairdresser ran out of dye."

"Like mine?"

"Yep." She kissed him again. "Now let's go find Tucker."

Danny frowned. "Doesn't he have, like, mayor stuff to do?"

Sam grinned. "Not if there's ghosts involved."

Danny's eyes brightened. "Ghosts? Where?"

She shrugged. "Dunno. But Tucker says he needs to talk to us right away."

Danny blinked. "What? We'll miss class. I don't think Mr. Lancer'll appreciate that."

"Nope." She shoved a note in his face, Tucker's elaborate signature at the bottom. "Pardoned by the mayor- I think that's a pretty good excuse."

"Agreed." They locked hands and raced out of the building towards Town Hall.

***

Tucker was pacing anxiously in his office, coattails flaring. "This is not good. Not good at all."

Danny and Sam barged through the double doors of the office, sending them crashing against the walls. Sam folded her arms and stared at Tucker expectantly while Danny folded over, trying to catch his breath. "Is there a ghost here? My ghost sense went off in the hall. And what's so important?"