AUTHOR'S NOTE: E-Dantes enjoyed reading The Accident (of here on FF it's The Day Things Changed) story, and thought that it would be a neat idea if I tried writing a short story about what happened between the Ghost Portal Accident, and the first episode Mystery Meat.

Because this story takes place within an entire month, it's slightly longer than the other shorties I've written. Instead of two parts or even one, there are three.

Basically, I figured I would write about how Danny felt in the VERY beginning about having his ghost powers. I tried putting myself in his shoes: personally, I'd be freaked out. And after a few days of waking up and falling THROUGH my bed, I'd probably start to get ticked off too.

Anyway, Enjoy!

Knock, knock, knock!

"Danny, get up!"

Sunrays squeezed into the room from between the drapes. Dust particles danced visibly where the light reached them. Model space shuttles and NASA machinery hung from the ceiling, swinging gently from side to side. Sometimes, a wing slid within reach of the sun, and the light bounced off the shiny metal, casting a bright glare over the bed.

Knock, knock, knock!

"Danny, what the heck are you doing in there?"

The bundle of blankets on the bed shifted and groaned tiredly. A foot stuck out here and an arm stuck out there. A few strands of black hair poked out from the top, right over the pillow.

"DANNY!"

The covers groaned again until two hands reached for the pillow and placed it over the teenager's head. "Go awaaaayyy," he moaned in response of the upset voice behind the door.

"What are you doing in there?"

"I'm sleeping. What else?"

"Get up then!"

Danny groaned louder. "Jazz, it's Saturday morning, for Pete's sake!" he snapped, finally sticking his head out from the cover—his eyes remained closed, however. "I'm not going to school today, so LET ME SLEEP!"

"Mom wants you up! We're going to visit Great Aunt Veronica today, remember?"

The fourteen-year-old stuck his head back under the sheets. "Say hi to her for me, will you?" he groaned. "Now buzz off. I wanna catch some more Zs before I—!"

The alarm clock by his bed suddenly began leaping around while ringing madly. Danny felt his heart leap in fright as he jumped up and shouted in complete surprise. He sat up straight in bed and stuck his head up.

That was not the only surprise he received that morning: Danny's newfound abilities, the ghost powers he received from his accident in the lab a week earlier, kicked in: and this time, it was his gift of intangibility that started Danny's morning off.

He felt his entire body lose some of its weight, and with another cry, Danny fell right through the bed and landed on the floor beneath it.

He fell flat against the carpet and groaned in frustration before attempting to raise himself. A painful pinch wrapped around his right ankle, causing the teenager to yelp before looking in the foot's direction; to Danny's dismay, he had become solid once more… but only after his foot had slid into the floor.

"What?" he exclaimed in horror.

A knock came over the door again. "Danny? What's going on in there?" Jazz called out, sounding a little concerned now.

Danny raised his head quickly, resulting in it smacking against the bottom of his bed. He groaned loudly before opening an eye and staring worriedly at the door. "I-I'm fine!" he called back nervously.

There was a pause behind the door. "Are you sure?" his sister wondered. "You sound like you got hurt."

"Everything's just fine, Jazz! Now buzz off!"

"But—!"

"I said, BUZZ OFF!"

The sixteen-year-old behind the door groaned loudly and stomped off down the hallway. "You are SO irritating sometimes!" she snapped.

Danny listened to her storm off. Once she had gone down the stairs, the fourteen-year-old sighed loudly and turned to look at his foot. "Come on, not now, please," he begged in despair, while wrapping his hands around his ankle. "Please don't do this, this morning, please!"

Another knock came over his bedroom door. Danny gasped quickly and looked up, careful not to hit his head again.

"Danny, Jazz says you're refusing to get up," came his mother's voice. "We're going to visit my aunt, remember?"

Oh, great; not Mom, Danny thought. He pulled at his ankle. If I don't get my foot out of the floor, she's going to wonder how the heck it ended up there! How will I explain to her that her stupid portal gave me ghost powers? She'd use me as a lab rat!

Maddie rapped against the door again. "Danny, are you listening to me?" she repeated. "It's already ten o'clock. I want you to get up and get ready to leave in an hour. Is that clear?"

Danny tugged at his ankle. "Come on, come on," he whimpered.

He heard his mother groan on the other side. "Daniel Fenton, get out of that bed this instant!" she shouted impatiently.

"Euuuh, yeah, Mom!" Danny replied nervously, looking up quickly. To his dismay, he bonked his head against the bottom of his bed again, resulting in him having to groan painfully once more.

And this time, his mother questioned it. "Danny, are you alright in there?" she asked.

Danny tugged on his foot some more after gingerly rubbing his head. "I'm fine, Mom!" he replied.

"Then what was that yell for?"

"Nothing in particular! Just woke up on the wrong side of the bed!"

There was a pause before the next sound Danny heard was one he was hoping not to hear:

The doorknob turning.

"I'm coming in to check on you," Maddie announced.

Danny widened his eyes. "No, Mom, don't!" he shouted out. He tapped his fingers against his chin and thought the only—and the worst—excuse he could think of at the moment: "I'm, uh… I'm changing! You can't come in!" He went back to pulling on his foot.

His mother stopped turning the door. "Danny, I've seen you in your boxers before," she said with a tiny giggle.

Oh, come off it, Mom! Danny thought. "Uuuhh, I'm not in my boxers, Mom! Stay out!" Danny could only imagine how badly Tucker would be laughing at this point.

"I gave birth to you; I've seen you naked more than once."

Gross! Why is it that moms always find some disgusting loophole? Danny looked at his foot again. "Come on, there's no stopping her now," he chanted nervously behind his teeth. "Get ooouuut…"

The doorknob began turning again. Danny looked at the door and watched as it began to slowly open. He looked at his foot again. "Come on, come oooooonnnnn," he whimpered.

The door continued to open, and just as Maddie began sticking her head in, Danny felt his foot lose its weight and slip back out of the floor. It glowed dimly in blue before transforming back to normal.

The fourteen-year-old sighed loudly of relief before inching out from under the bed.

Maddie peered into the room and looked about. "Danny?" she called out. "Danny, where are you?"

"Right here." Danny poked his head up over the side of the bed and smiled wryly at his mother. "Okay, now you saw me," he said. "Can you get out now?"

Maddie frowned in confusion. "What in the world are you doing on the floor?" she wondered.

"Hiding my nakedness from my mother."

"But—!"

"MOM!" Danny exclaimed loudly. "GET OUT!"

Maddie recoiled in bewilderment before covering her mouth and giggling. "Okay, okay," she said before slipping out of sight. She closed the door softly behind her.

Danny sighed again and got to his feet. Sitting on the side of his bed, he placed his head in his hands and groaned before passing his fingers through his matted hair. "I'm never gonna survive through anything with these stupid powers," he groaned. "With a family as nosy as mine, someone will eventually find out."

He stood up and removed his pyjama shirt. After tossing it to the floor, Danny walked up to the mirror in the corner of his room and stared at himself.

Jet black hair, like his father; blue eyes—though a shade or two lighter—like his mother; peachy skin and a bit of a natural blush, like his sister. Thin, slender, muscle-less body… just like himself.

Danny let his shoulders droop. On the outside, he looked just like he had for the past fourteen years: a Fenton. Daniel Fenton. Youngest and only son of Jack and Madeline Fenton, Amity Park's first—and only—ghost hunters.

A geek. A dork. A kid who was scared out of his wits of ghosts.

Danny tightened his lips and stared down at his hands. He thought about what had happened the week before; he thought about passing through a portal and coming back out with a piece of the other side buried in his soul—a piece that would be stuck with him for the rest of his life.

Ghosts, ghosts, ghosts. He thought about being half ghost for the rest of his life.

Danny was so deeply buried in his thoughts that he did not notice the bright halo of light that surrounded his waist and intersected his body. After a moment, he realized that his hands were now covered in white gloves, his body was dressed in a tight, black jumpsuit, his feet were standing in white boots, and he was currently haloed in a pale, white light.

Danny sighed and turned his hands over. "Just one button," he muttered. "One big, red, stupid button stood between me…" He raised his head and stared at his face. "… and this."

Gone was the black hair inherited from his father; gone were the blue eyes that he had received from his mother; gone was the natural blush that he and Jazz shared. Instead, he had a head covered in snow white hair, eyes that glowed like sparkling green emeralds, and a peachy skin, if not slightly darker than before, with a lack of color in his cheeks. And although his body retained its slender form, his arms, legs and even chest had become sturdier, as though a new layer of muscles now covered them.

A complete stranger. A stranger Danny was forced to get acquainted with.

He stared sadly at his reflection. "It's bad enough my parents hunt ghosts down," he said. "It's even worse that I'm still scared spineless of ghosts… But then I just had to be brave, I just had to step into that stupid portal…" He looked at his hands again. "And now, I'm not only a prize to be won by both of my folks… But I've become something I'm afraid of."

He looked up at himself again. He crossed his arms and sighed loudly. "Whoever said going through puberty would be a pain obviously isn't half ghost," he muttered while hugging his waist.

Danny's cell phone began to vibrate, all the while singing Rebirth from Skillet. The teenager turned around and stared at his lampstand before walking over to it and picking up the phone. He flipped it open and held it up to his ear. "Hello?" he announced as optimistically as he could.

"Dude, are you online?" his best friend's voice asked.

Danny rolled his eyes with a weak grin. Only Tucker would be on the computer playing video games at that time of the day. "Actually, I'm just rolling out of bed," he announced, transforming back to normal. "Hold on; I'm gonna put you on speaker." He placed his phone down, hooked it up to a device next to his radio and pressed a button on the machine. "Okay, you're on."

"So that stereo thing I goofed up one night actually works with your cell?" Tucker snickered.

"Sometimes. It still has a few kinks in it. Like I can't hang up until I unplug the phone."

"Hehe, my bad… Anyway, you busy today? There's this new competition on Doomed going on and I was kind of looking into pairing up with someone… say, mah best friend?"

While Tucker spoke, Danny gathered the clothes he needed and began changing. He slipped off his pants. "Sorry, Tuck, my family's going to visit my great aunt in the city. I'm gonna have to skip this game, Bro."

"Bummer. Oh well, at least I tried."

"Why not ask Sam?"

"Sam? Danny, she's a girl! Girls don't play online games, dude! Besides; even if she did, she'd be telling me what to do, and I don't like getting bossed around by a girl online… especially if she already does it in real life."

Danny chuckled as he stuck his head through his shirt collar.

Tucker remained silent for a moment. While he was, Danny could hear sounds from his best friend's computer on the other end—another thing Tucker was good at was multitasking. "So…" the boy began, "How's the uh… morning schedule coming along?"

"Don't ask," Danny grunted as he tossed his pyjamas under his pillow and began making his bed.

"Dude, it's been a week or something since then, and you're still not used to them?"

"Tucker, have you ever tried pulling your foot out from the floor while your mom was attempting to enter the room?" Danny snapped.

Tucker whistled. "No, and I'm guessing that's what happened to you this morning, right?" he said, almost muttering the words.

"One day, I'm living a normal life," Danny continued, ignoring Tucker's words. "A normal, freshman life—!"

"Your life with a jerk like Dash in it was normal?"

"—Now, I'm walking around with these flippin' ghost powers, all the while living under the roof of a pair of ghost HUNTERS!" Finishing with his bed, Danny sat down on the mattress and sighed depressingly. "I feel like I'm walking on unstable grounds, Tucker. If my parents find out about this, not only will I be grounded for having even thought of entering that portal, but they'll strap me down to the lab table and experiment on me!"

"I thought your dad just wanted to destroy ghosts… molecule by molecule?" Tucker wondered.

Danny frowned in irritation and laid his head back in the pillow. "Thank you for pointing that out, Tucker," he said incredibly sarcastically.

"Dude, you're thinking way too much about this whole half-ghost thing. I mean, your parents will love you no matter what. They won't experiment on you."

"You don't know that."

"Well—!"

"My parents are crazy enough to suspect the mayor of Amity Park to be a ghost. They'd even trap him and drag him back here. Trust me. They did that with the mailman. That's why we have to walk to the post office now."

Tucker sighed. "Okay, you know what you need?" he said.

"What; a banana split with whip cream and a cherry on top?"

"That sounds delicious… I mean, no. You need to find some way to get used to having the powers you've got now. I mean, you've got the transformation thing downpat now, right?"

Danny scratched his head. "I guess so," he replied. "All I've got to do is think about changing or think about ghosts and I—!"

A bright flash filled the room and the light halo intersected Danny's body again. He yelped in surprise and covered his face before looking at himself and groaning.

"You just did it again, didn't you?" Tucker guessed flatly.

"Dude, I need to stop thinking of ghosts so often!" Danny complained while crossing his arms behind his head. "I've never thought about them this much before, it's messing with my brain! If I don't find some way to control it, I'm going to Go Ghost in front of my parents!"

"Okay, now you're freaking way too much."

"What should I do then; jump off a cliff?"

"Okay, you really need to calm down, Dude. Probably half of the reason you keep doing weird stuff before realizing it is because you're always freaking out." He paused, seeming to wait and see if Danny would remain silent, and then cleared his throat. "Here's what I propose, Danny; since we've got no school on Monday, come over to my place. My folks are gonna be out visiting my uncle, who lives on a ranch about three hours drive from here; they're only coming back on Tuesday afternoon. I'll give Sam a ring. Come over for… let's make it ten thirty, okay?"

"Ten thirty in the morning?" Danny echoed in disbelief. "Dude, that's way too early on my watch."

"If I throw in a pickle milkshake, you in?"

"… Alright."

"I figured that all you need is to get acquainted with your ghost powers. So, come over to my house, and Sam and I will try helping you practice. I mean, we obviously can't show you how to use them, but we can still try to figure them out. And while you're visiting your aunt, I'll do some more research on ghosts and see what I can find that's helpful. There's got to be at least one dinky myth or legend about someone being a type of hybrid—!"

"Hywhat?" Danny said in confusion.

Tucker sighed. "Hybrid. Something that's half of one thing, and half of another. Like you. A ghost Hybrid."

"Dude, that makes me sound like I'm some kind of cross between a horse and a poodle."

"Wow, you seriously need to read more sci-fi, Danny."

A knock came over the bedroom door. Danny looked up quickly.

"Danny-Boy, your mother says to come have a bite to eat before we leave," his father's booming voice chanted.

"Oh crud," Danny muttered, realizing that he was still in ghost form. He transformed back to normal and sat down. "Coming, Dad," he called back. Once his father's footsteps faded away, he looked at his cellphone. "I've gotta go, Tuck," he said. "Before Dad decides to barge in on me like Mom did."

"After this week, I think I'm glad my dad is an accountant," Tucker said thoughtfully.

Danny smiled at this.

"But your parents are a lot more eccentric. I like things that are weird."

"Is that why I'm your best friend?" Danny wondered while getting to his feet.

"Bingo. But don't tell that to Sam. She'll take it the wrong way and ask me to apologize."

Danny laughed and pulled a red hoodie over his body.

"So… I'll see you on Monday?"

"You got it, Bro."

"Goodie. Later days, Danny."

"Bye."

Danny waited for Tucker to hang up before unplugging his phone and ending the call from his end. He stared at the cell phone for a moment before looking at the calendar on the wall nearby.

Monday… that'll make it exactly two weeks since I got my powers…