Phantom Pregnancy ch. 2

Needless to say, I didn't feel like sleeping. That's a lie; I want to sleep, but I cant, not even if my afterlife depended on it.  I roll on my stomach and whip off the covers, hoping like the tired kid I was that it was a miracle cure for insomnia. Nope. At least the Guys In White hadn't been an issue. Not that they ever posed a major threat, but they hadn't even merited the title pain in the ass. It was a routine check or something, another futile search for the ghost boy they were convinced my parents kept in the attic. Well, they were half right. School hadn't even been that bad today, with Dash and the rest of the football team off on some tournament, and Lancer going as 'moral support', which was an easy excuse to slack off work and dealing with kids who fell asleep in your class.  So what was it? I'd like to blame it on the lack of ghosts that'd shown up, but I had been willing enough to sleep earlier when the topic came up. So I was left with the only possibility I didn't want to face, the one thing that plagued me, awake or asleep; Sam.
I dropped my face into the pillow. Disappointed it had warmed with the time I had been laying on it, I turned it over and inspected a thread that had unwound from its binding of seams. What my parents said bugged me, and not just because it involved sex with my best friend. There was relief in the fact my parents were on the totally wrong track, not so good that they had noticed in the first place. Jazz probably brought it up, or at least I hoped so. My parents were never the most observative people in the world, if they were beginning to notice my absences; everyone else was already four steps ahead and putting pieces together. For now, I could pass that off as paranoia and ignore it. What really bugged me was the whole idea of… I felt a blush taint my face. I mean, Sam was my friend…. officially. We had been since second grade. I admit that I probably want to be more than bffs, I also know I hate hormones.  Just because Sam was a girl didn't mean I had to think of her any differently than Tucker; I'd known them both since second grade, they were equally good friends, and they'd both proven their loyalty as people more then enough times. So why….
I rotated the pillow again. If there was anything I hated as much as people asking me questions I didn't know, it was when I asked me questions I didn't know. What I hated more was asking questions I already knew the answer to and when I didn't feel like answering. . Hormones had a role, but they also made me like Paulina, and if id learned anything in high school, it's that Sam wasn't Paulina.  Sam was an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian goth who would stage a protest against insect sprays to protect cockroaches. Sam was a girl would give up everything her money could buy her for her own identity. Sam was a friend who risked her life to help her half ghost best friend from getting in trouble.  Sam was…Sam. And I liked it that way. Heck, even if Tucker had been a chick, which is a seriously disturbing thought, he'd be another platonic friend. another sister, he wouldn't be Sam. No one would ever be Sam.
I was way too tired, and a glance at the clock told me I should be; a vivid neon warning of the approaching day to come. Before I'd completely lost all dignity to my fatigue and the sickening cheesiness it caused, I fell asleep. Or tried to.

The world was dark and quiet, a breeze that carried no sound and captured the last leaf of a dead maple.
"Hello?"
No answer.
I pushed on, trying to figure out where I was. It wasn't the ghost zone, but it had the same eerie feel, and a sense of lost familiarity. My feet made no noise on the pavement, no wind, no anything.  The sudden intrusion of a lonely squeak made me stop dead, and I traced its origin to a rusted chain attached to an almost illegible parchment, worn with age and lack of maintenance.  AMITY PARK
My blood turned to ice. Amity Park? This was my home? I forced myself to take in details; deserted barren, shambled houses, scattered remains of glass… it was ground zero.  Now panic had seized my, forcing the air trapped within my throat to come out rushed and strangled. What happened? Out of the corner of my vision, I spotted a lone scrap of paper stationary among the ruble. A newspaper, how cliché. I strained my eyes, but they couldn't make much out except for scribbles that once indicated letters and outling important events. The only evidence I had that I wasn't lost in illusion, the physical manifestation that proved any truth to the destruction of my town, was useless. I growled and thre it down.
"Stupid paper.."
The wind picked up again, and shifted it towards a heap of debris.
Now I was faced with nothing, I had no idea what happened or what to do about it.

"Dude, you look terrible!" Tucker looked at me, immediately choking on his juice when I had trudged into the cafeteria that afternoon.
"Gee, Thanks Tuck. I needed the ego boost." I slumped down on a chair that's legs buckled from one too many fat kids, the back of it burnt clean through from a lighter. Yay to education budgets.
"No sleep, huh?"
Too preoccupied with my head buried between my arms and the table that smelled supisiously like yesterday's 'meatloaf' I gave him a thumbs up.
"Whats with him?"
No need to look up to know Sam was there, and too lazy to make anther gesture, I let Tucker answer for me.
"He was up all night…thinking of you."
Bad plan. My head shot up. Tucker somehow found pleasure in my confusion, and lately, he had been bathing himself in it.  At least, he had in the last week.
"No I wasn't! It was-" The cafeteria had trained is eyes on me, forks poised halfway between mouths and lunch. I realized too late I had been yelling, and standing up.  I sat back down sheepishly, my hands covering my face having nothing to do with tiredness. Sam nodded it understanding of my lost words, concern gracing her features.
"Danny, are you okay?"
No darkness to hide my red face now.
"Yeah, just fine." I grumbled.
Sam cleared her throat. "I've got a new lead."
A ghost? I wasn't sure whether wheather I was relieved or concerned. It meant the awkward conversation had turned, and it meant the fighting dry spell tension had broken, but I was reluctant on how to take it.
"Oh yeah?"
Sam nodded. "Yup. Some guys were talking about staking out the power plant tonight. Something about a really pretty ghost haunting there."

I racked my brain. "Ember?"
She shook her head and lowered her voice. "I doubt it, she only shows up when she has a plan, and she would've shown up by now. She likes the attention."
I snorted. "That's true, but we haven't seen her since she was backing up Youngblood. The brat."
Tucker chimed in."Brat or not, she's totally hot, dude."
I rolled my eyes "I was talking about Youngblood."
"So are we gonna check it out?"
"Of course we are!"
Tucker piped up. "What about those kids that want to stake out the place? We need them out of there before we can do anything."
I smiled. "Leave that to me."

The power plant had been abandoned for over 20 years because of a nuclear meltdown that totaled half of the building. No one was hurt, but some of the kids buzzed about a troubled haunting there. It never made sense why we even had ghost stories, since attacks were pretty much a daily thing, so I didn't read into any accounts. None of the ghosts id fought even mentioned their life I forgot they had even lived. When we reached the wasteland of what Sam called 'the industrial smog  resulting from urbanizatio', a creepy déjà-vu nagged at the back of my mind.
"There they are." Sam pointed to a couple of lumps huddled around a crude fire based at the foot of the plant. Why anybody wanted to spend a night in a crappy old building waiting for sometjong that would freak them out for the rest of their lives was beyond me. Why anyone normal would anyway.
Sam and Tucker nodded at me and I became intangable.
"J-josh, this is worth it, right? " A tremble shook one of the boys, the scrawnier of the two, who looked like he would pass out if it weren't for his inflated ego.
"Don't be a baby. She's totally hot!" This time, the dumber of the two spoke up. An idiot and a  pansy, what an interesting ghost hunting team.
"She's not gonna kill us is she?"
"Pft, don't be stupid, ghosts cant kill you."
"That's what you think." I smiled,, reappearing in front of them. The first one paused, dropped his flahlight and ran out screaming. Josh, however, stayed.
"Inviso-bill right?"
I glared. "No Danny Phantom. How do you even get that mixed up?"
Josh shrugged, shifting his hands through his pockets aimlessly.
An ugly smirk formed on his mouth. "You're here for the ghost, right?"
How stupid was this guy? "Duh, I kinda protect the town from them."
His face fell . "Are you kidding me?"
"Can we speed this up? I'm busy"
I watched as an expression of confusion slowly dawned. "You mean-?"
He chocked.
"What are you gawking at?"
Josh looked at me with a look of pure horror. "G-ghosts don't get laid?"
I blinked., completely dumbfounded. "What?"
Josh collected himself. "I thought you were coming down here to get some booty, you being a ghost and all. I heard she was really hot and…"
The shock was replaced by quick annoyance. "Get out."
Josh turned and bolted without so much as a nod.
Footsteps closed in behind me.
"Danny what took so long?" Sam raised an eyebrow, hand resting on her hip.
"Don't even ask." I groaned.
"Awe come on, it cant be that bad."
"Just some guy asking if ghosts could get laid."
Tucker and Sam were quiet, before Tucker had the guts to speak up.
"Can they?"
I coughed on air. "T-t I don't know Tuck! Its not like I ask!"
"Well, do you think-"
"Can we just drop it? This is stupid."
I led the way, sheiding  my face from my friends.
"So where do we start?" Sam ventured, glancing around.
An orb of light enveloped a silouette  that materialized out of nowhere. Nothing I hadn't seen before.
"We start here!" I lunged at the figure, a blast of energy forming in my hand.
"Mr. Phantom, don't be so rude." A chiiling tone sliced the air, and my body became suspended.
"H-Hey! Let me go!"
The face became clear, dispersing light revealing bright blue eyes and the kind of smile that belonged on a mother.
"Mr. Phantom, I apologize but youre trying to afflict me with injurty."
"Affl-..? Whatever, and don't call that! That's my dad's name! ..If my dad were a ghost."
She smiled. "Danny then."
The hold on my body was released, and I had to catch myself from falling.
"So, what do you want?"