Nerd With The Notebook

He was following her again.

Dani bit back a frustrated groan when she saw him dive behind a bush in an attempt to hide himself. This was the eighth time he managed to track her down in two days. He was getting faster at finding her, too. It only took him twenty minutes to get back on her trail this time.

Maybe I should just leave. Dani mused to herself. That idea didn't sit very well with her though. Not with a dangerous ghost on the loose. She might not have been a superhero like her cousin, but Dani wasn't heartless enough to abandon innocent people in order to save herself from exposure.

Besides, annoying as the weirdo stalking her was, he hadn't done anything to threaten or harass her so far. He clearly saw her transform to fight the ghost that had been trying to kill him, but it didn't appear that he had told the cops about their encounter. Or worse, the media. Dani had managed to keep her existence a secret from the general public for close to six years now, and she was aiming for lucky number seven. So far there hadn't been anything more concrete than vague rumors about a female half-ghost, which was exactly how Dani liked it.

Still, being followed made her nervous, even if she could probably take the guy down with one hand tied behind her back. Obviously her disappearing trick wasn't enough to get her point across, so maybe it was time to face her little problem with a little more force.

Casually as could be, Dani turned off of the sidewalk and headed into an alleyway to her right. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her shadow pick up speed, knowing all too well what would happen next. Dani was faster though, going invisible long before the boy turned the corner to follow her. Unlike the last few times though, Dani didn't slip away unseen to find a quiet place to become visible again. Instead she waited silently as the boy unknowingly passed her to make his way deeper into the alley.

"Great." He sighed grumpily, running a hand through curly brown hair as he studied the wall in front of him, oblivious to Dani taking solid form behind him. "Just great. Now I have to try to track her down again before dinner..."

The boy was obviously not expecting to find his prey standing right behind him when he turned back around, but Dani found it hard to feel sorry for him as she sent him sprawling on his back with an expertly executed leg sweep. Quick as a cobra, Dani pounced on the taller teen, planting a knee into his chest and slapping a hand over his mouth to muffle his surprised scream as her other hand came up to grip his throat, not hard enough to cut off his breathing, but enough that he felt the pressure of her hand on his windpipe.

"I'll give you points for persistence, but you must be thick as a brick wall if you haven't figured out by now that I don't want you following me." Dani told him conversationally. She began to move her knee off of his chest, when she felt something hard and flat hidden underneath his vest. Frowning suspiciously, Dani removed her hand from her stalker's mouth to investigate.

"Look, I think there's been a misunderstanding here." The boy said, a hint of nervousness in his tone as he watched Dani carefully, "I just wanted to thank you for- H-HEY!" Dani ignored the boy's startled yelp as she stuck her hand down his vest, digging until she found the object she had felt earlier. Pulling it out, Dani's eyes narrowed at the sight of a leather bound journal with a symbol of a pine tree embossed on the front and a roman numeral II beneath it. As the boy beneath her went deathly still, Dani thumbed the journal open to the page that had been bookmarked with a pen, scowling at what she found.

"Really?" Dani said, flipping the book around to show the page to the boy beneath her, which was titled Anomaly #382- The Ghost Girl.

"…Okay, so I know this looks pretty bad-"

"Stalking usually does."

"-but I swear I'm not gonna try and hurt you or anything. I just wanted to study you."

"Two things. Number One; you couldn't hurt me even if you tried. And Number Two; if you want something to study, then go to a library because I'm nobody's lab rat."

"Okay okay, so maybe following you around watching you wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I had no idea there were other half ghosts besides Danny Phantom and Vlad Masters, and I never thought I'd get the chance to meet one in person, and I guess I just got a little carried away and-"

"How'd you keep tracking me down, anyways?" Dani asked, part of her irritation ebbing away in favor of honest confusion at that. She wasn't used to people sticking to her so persistently other than Vlad, and something told her that the boy beneath her didn't have a disposable income and ghost powers in order to make himself such a pain.

"I have an app on my phone that finds cold spots." The boy admitted sheepishly. "And a guy I know made me a bunch of detector things that I can put at any point within a ten mile radius. They react when someone with a body temperature under 90° passes by and I get a text with the location."

Clever. Dani knew her body temperature was only about 62° or something, which was unusually warm for a ghost and in the range of stone cold dead for the average human. She also knew that this wasn't information most people were privy to, and only a very select group of people would think to track a ghost that way.

"You're a ghost hunter." Dani realized, studying the boy a little closer. He didn't look the type, but those who were passionate about the paranormal were usually pretty eccentric. Danny's parents were a good example of that.

"I prefer the term Paranormal Investigator, actually." The boy confessed. "It's a little more accurate, since I don't really hunt anything unless it tries to kill me first. I prefer to just observe and record, really."

"Hence the 'studying?'" Dani questioned, motioning to the journal once more with a raised eyebrow.

"Unlocking the secrets of the supernatural is my lifelong passion." The boy admitted, glancing anxiously from Dani to the notebook. "Can I have that back now? I keep all my notes in there, and I really don't want to lose them."

"That's funny, because I really don't want a weirdo following me around writing creepy stuff about me in his journal." Dani responded flatly. "I have half a mind to destroy this thing, you know. Danny might be fine living in a media circus, but I happen to like having a private life and no dweeby stalker is gonna spoil that for me." Dani emphasized her point by making her hand glow green with ectoplasmic energy, earning a panicked flinch from the boy.

"I guess it does sound pretty bad when you put it that way." He said anxiously. "But I swear my research is just for the sake of personal curiosity! I wasn't going to publish anything to the public!" Dani rolled her eyes at that. Like she was really going to buy that load of crap. "I haven't even really found that much out yet! Read it, you'll see for yourself! Besides, if you're really worried about the press, then I have a video that's going to be a bigger problem for you than anything in that journal." Dani felt her heart stutter to a stop at that.

Oh, Butter Biscuits.

"What. Video?" Dani asked, her tone low and dangerous as her grip on the boy's throat tightened in a silent threat.

"I caught some footage of you the other night, when you were fighting that ghost." The boy said cautiously. "It has you transforming and everything. I only have one copy, and just me and my sister know about it. I've had it for two days now and I haven't shown it to anyone else, but if you destroy my journal I swear I'll send it straight to the news station."

"And how do I know you still won't do that after I give you your stupid book back, huh?" Dani asked skeptically. "How do I even know it exists, and you're not just making all this up?"

"I'll show it to you." The boy promised. "Give me back the journal, and I'll show you the video and you can erase it or whatever. I really don't care about the video, all I want are my notes." Dani frowned suspiciously at that, weighing her options. If he really had video evidence of her transformation (and with her luck, he probably did), that would be a lot more damaging then his stupid diary. But the idea of the weirdo writing about her still didn't sit very well with her.

Considering her choices carefully, Dani released her hold on the boy and stood up, waiting impatiently as he hesitated for a moment before doing the same.

"There's a diner just around the corner." Dani said, motioning to the mouth of the alleyway with her free hand. "We'll grab a bite there and I'll make sure you're not writing anything weird about me. Then I'll decide if you get this back or not." Dani debated on telling him that he'd be paying for her food, as retribution for his stalking, but figured it'd be more fun to surprise him with the bill after eating. He deserved it anyways, if he really thought he could blackmail her like this.

"Deal." The boy said, looking visibly relieved. "I'll erase the video right after I get my journal back." So he had it on him, then? Dani filed that fact away in case the boy tried anything funny. Turning, Dani led the way back to the main streets, the boy quickly falling into step beside her. "I'm Dipper, by the way. Dipper Pines. And you are…?"

"You're worst nightmare, if you blow my secret." Dani replied sweetly.

"I doubt that." The boy (Seriously? Dipper? Weird name for a weird boy, she guessed) chuckled with a grin. "Most of my nightmares involve triangles in top hats, not superhuman mystery girls." It took Dani a second to process that, and she couldn't help but shoot him a confused look once it sank in. Dipper didn't seem to notice though, too busy texting someone on his phone. Shaking her head, Dani forced back a smile as she turned her attention back to the path before her.

If nothing else, this would probably end up being one of the most interesting lunch dates she ever had.