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Description
Lesson 3

I can't believe I'm up before six on a Saturday. Paulina thought grumpily as she stifled a yawn behind her hand. Clearly, staying up the night before to talk on the phone with Star until midnight had not been one of her best ideas, given that Mrs. Fenton told her to come to Fentonworks at five thirty to start their first lesson (Meaning she actually had to wake up around four, to make sure she had time to take care of her hair, makeup, outfit, and various other morning activities). If what Mrs. Fenton said was true, she was going to be with the ghost hunters all day, which was rather unfortunate since she had to cancel a shopping trip with her fellow cheerleaders to the mall for these stupid lessons. Paulina scowled at the sidewalk before another yawn tore past her lips. Hopefully, she wouldn't nod off when Mrs. Fenton was trying to teach her all this ghost hunting nonsense. She wanted to keep on the woman's good side, after all. At least until she learned enough to get Phantom to notice her instead of the Red Hunter…

Sighing irritably, the aqua-eyed girl banished these thoughts as Fentonworks came into view, steeling herself for… whatever it was she was supposed to do today. How were these lessons supposed to go, anyways? Paulina puzzled as she knocked on the front door. After shifting around awkwardly from one foot to the other for a minute or so, Paulina knocked again, louder this time. Irritated, the Latina gave an impatient huff at the wait, which quickly dissolved into another yawn. God she hated mornings…

Paulina was mid-yawn when the Fenton's door finally opened up, greeting the girl with a sight that banished all thoughts of sleepiness to the other ends of the earth, taking her ability to breathe with it.

Oh. My. God.

Standing in front of Paulina was Danny Fenton, unsurprising enough considering that she was at his house. Apparently, he wasn't any better with mornings then she was, since his hair was even messier then usual and his eyes had a sort of glazed 'I-Just-Got-Out-Of-Bed' look in them, but this too was of no consequence to the pretty cheerleader. The thing that made Paulina feel like she had just been kicked by her Uncle Ricardo's mule was the fact that the blue-eyed boy had answered the door wearing a pair of old denim jeans.

As in JUST a pair of old denim jeans. No socks, no shoes and no shirt to cover the deliciously muscular chest Paulina would have never suspected in a million years that a loser like Danny Fenton could ever possess.

"Ms Dublin, I already told you I'd talk to my parents about keeping the noise down and despite what you might think, I can't promise you much more then that." Danny said groggily, not looking up at Paulina from the newspaper he had in his hands, which seemed to detail some sort of ghost attack if what little of it Paulina could see was right. "But if you really want my advice, I suggest you invest your money in a nice pair of earplugs." Coming out of her shock, Paulina quickly realized that she had forgotten to close her mouth after her last yawn, and promptly did so.

"Danny?" the girl ventured, half suspecting that this was just some sort of alien creature wearing the youngest Fenton's face. Danny seemed to be taken aback to hear a voice other then the Ms Dublin he thought he was talking to, finally looking up to see his visitor's face. The boy's eyes immediately widened when he recognized his classmate, his newspaper dropping out of his hands to scatter all over the floor, which neither surprised teens took any heed of.

"Paulina?!" Danny sputtered out, clearly much more awake now. "What are-?!

"Danny? Did you get the door, sweetie? If it's that Dublin woman again, tell her that we have very important experiments going on right now, and we'll make as much noise as necessary to- Oh!" coming around the corner, Maddie brightened at the sight of the Hispanic girl standing at her door. "Paulina! Right on time, I was just getting everything set up for you!"

"You know Paulina?" Danny asked his mom, looking even more confused.

"Of course, sweetie!" Maddie chirped happily, "She's my new ghost hunting student!"

"…WHAT?!" Danny sputtered, looking at his mother like she had just confessed her undying love for Bigfoot. "A ghost hunter? Paulina?!" For some reason, the social butterfly couldn't help but feel a little insulted at Danny's surprise, valid as it was. Couldn't he at least pretend this wasn't something that she'd normally never do, if only to make her feel a little less awkward?

"I'm ready to start whenever you are, Mrs. Fenton!" Paulina said sweetly as she brushed past her classmate, who seemed to be trying to figure out whether or not what he was seeing was some kind of weird dream.

"That's the spirit, Paulina!" Maddie beamed in approval. "Danny, make sure that your father doesn't start fiddling around with the Fenton Ghost Glider, will you dear? The wiring is still a little touchy, and I don't want him to hurt himself again. Our insurance already sent us a letter about how they won't cover accidental electrocutions any more…"

"Uh… Yeah… Sure…" Danny replied slowly, apparently still trying to wrap his mind around the idea of Paulina hunting ghosts rather then stalking them. Appraising her son, Maddie gave a heavy sigh of frustration, shaking her head in a long-suffering kind of way.

"Sweetie, how many times do I have to tell you to put a shirt on before you answer the front door?" Maddie asked in amused annoyance.

"What?" Danny said, looking down at his chest and belatedly remembering his state of undress. Turning the exact same shade of red as Paulina's favorite nail polish color (Chick Flick Cherry) Danny immediately turned on his heels and ran up the stairs, tripping over the German Shepard puppy on his way and stumbling rather ungracefully over a laundry basket sitting innocently on the second floor landing before making it to his room, if the loud slamming noise that Paulina and Maddie heard following this spectacular show of clumsiness was anything to go by. As soon as the sound faded away, Maddie broke down laughing, flashing her guest an apologetic smile.

"Sorry about that. Danny has a vendetta against getting dressed properly on the days he doesn't have school. I can only hope this little incident will cure him of that…"

Speak for yourself. Paulina thought, remembering the yummy show she had been treated to. Hey, just because she was totally devoted to Phantom didn't mean she couldn't enjoy a little eye candy now and then, weird as it was to think of Danny Fenton as eye candy in any context.

"Now then, I guess we should get started, right dear?" Maddie asked, smiling eagerly at the cheerleader. I've got some things set up downstairs, and I really think you're gonna like what I have planned!"

"Of course, Mrs. Fenton!" Paulina said, following the woman down the stairs to emerge in the Fenton's lab.

The girl couldn't help but falter at the sight of a ghost hunter's work space up close, feeling a little overwhelmed at all the technology, very little of which she actually recognized. Wherever there was supposed to be countertop was completely covered with beakers, test tubes, Bunsen Burners and research papers, and several spots on the walls and ceiling were covered with suspicious scorch marks, like someone had taken a blowtorch to it. What really caught Paulina's attention though, was the swirling vortex tucked against the back wall of the lab, which glowed with a light that was clearly paranormal.

"Whoa…" Paulina breathed, eyes wide as she studied the portal.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Maddie said, clearly pleased with Paulina's awe. "That's the only working man-made portal into the Ghost Zone, sweetie. Took me and Jack over twenty years to make it…"

"This goes into the Ghost Zone?" Paulina asked, trying to peer past the green swirl to see the world on the other side. "What's it like over there?"

"No clue." Maddie answered. "We use it to send ghosts back, dear. Trying to go inside would be far too dangerous, especially since we have no idea what the atmosphere in a paranormal world would do to mortals. Ghosts don't needs to breathe like humans do, after all. If there's no oxygen in the Ghost Zone, that could lead to a very messy and painful death. Besides, the inhabitants over there aren't exactly the best hosts, I imagine."

"I suppose…" Paulina agreed reluctantly, drawing away from the portal with one last longing look. If the portal really lead to the world where ghosts lived, then that meant Danny Phantom probably lived somewhere in that realm as well, right?

"The Fenton Portal is a little advanced for a beginner, anyways." Maddie continued, motioning for Paulina to sit in one of the chairs she had set up. "But don't worry! I have plenty of fun things for you to start off with! I figured we would begin with the basics! Now, as I'm sure you already know, a ghost can be formed one of three ways; from a restless spirit that refuses to pass on after it's death, a memory or idea that develops it's own consciousness due to the intense emotions attached to it or natural objects coming into contact with supernatural substances. In 1922, one of the early greats of modern ghost hunting by the name of Howard Rowe studied a house that was haunted with no lest then sixty three ghosts, and documented all three known occurring ghost formations among them…" Paulina flinched as the older brunette continued to ramble on happily, oblivious to her student's growing feeling of dread.

The things I do for love. The girl moaned mentally, sinking further into her seat. Something told her she was going to be here for a long time…

---

Six painfully torturous hours later, Maddie finally stopped rambling about ghost hunting and cheerfully suggested that the two of them take a break for lunch. Paulina couldn't get upstairs and into the kitchen fast enough as far as she was concerned. After sitting through the entire history of ghost hunting, a lecture on the chemical makeup of a ghost and a longwinded speech about what ectoplasm was and how ghost powers worked, the cheerleader was bored to the point of tears.

Danny Phantom better appreciate all of this… Paulina thought sourly to herself as Maddie bustled around the kitchen making their lunch. She had never had to go so far out of her depth to impress a boy before, after all. Usually, the guys just took one look at her and started falling all over themselves to be her boyfriend. But maybe that was why she liked Phantom so much, he was different then all the stupid, boring guys she dated in the past.

"Here you go, Paulina!" Maddie chirped happily, setting a plate of grilled cheese sandwiches cut in the shape of ghosts in front of the girl. "Dig in! You're going to need the strength for the experiments!"

"Experiments?" Paulina repeated as she delicately picked up one of the sandwiches and took a hesitant bite.

"That's right! I want to you see for yourself how certain chemicals react with ectoplasm, so you can learn what will weaken a ghost, and what will just make them stronger."

More boring science stuff. Oh joy. Paulina thought, making a face. Maddie was busy humming happily to herself as she cooked up more grilled cheese, oblivious to Paulina's agitation. After swallowing the bite she had just taken, the cheerleader spoke up again.

"Um, Mrs. Fenton? Not that all this science and history stuff you're teaching me isn't completely fascinating, but I was just wondering when I was going to learn real ghost hunting stuff. Like how to use an ectogun, things like that."

"Eager to get out in the field, huh?" Mrs. Fenton translated, chucking warmly. "I understand that you want to help being those filthy rogues to justice, but first we have to make sure you understand ghosts before you start hunting them. 'Know thy enemy,' after all." Smiling at the girl, Maddie wryly added. "Besides, what kind of irresponsible git would just hand an untrained teenager an ectogun and say 'Have at it?'"

Miles away in Wisconsin, Vlad Masters was suddenly struck with the strange feeling that someone was talking about him behind his back. After considering it for a moment, the billionaire shrugged the feeling off and went back to working on the next array of ghost hunting equipment he was going to send to Valerie.

"Anyways, getting back to the experiments we're going to be working on, we should probably talk about that outfit you're wearing."

"What about my outfit?" Paulina asked, defensive. She thought that her new black and silver tunic top and faded black denim Capri pants looked quite good on her, after all…

"Well, it's just that the experiments can get a little messy sometimes. Do you think you'd be more comfortable wearing one of our spare hazmats or something?"

"Wait, you mean one of the orange hazmats?" Paulina asked, cringing. "No way. I don't think so." Orange was one of her absolute worst colors. She wore it when the pirate ghosts kidnapped her parents because that was an emergency, but that was most definitely a one time thing.

"Are you sure, sweetie? The experiments can get pretty messy, and I'd hate for you to ruin your outfit… What don't you check and see if Jazz left anything that might fit on you? She took most of her clothes with her when she left for college, but she did leave some things behind in case she has to suddenly come home, although why she would feel that kind of precaution is necessary is beyond me…"

"Well… I suppose I could take a look…" Paulina said hesitantly as she polished off her sandwich. From what she could remember, the elder Fenton sibling's clothes were rather… simple for her tastes, but it was probably better then getting her own outfit dirty, and definitely preferable to the hideous hazmats.

"Great!" Maddie beamed, setting another plate of grilled ghosts in front of the girl. "You can go take care of that now. Jazz's old room is right up the stairs and the second door on the right. I'm gonna check on Jack's progress on the Boo-Blaster real quick, then I'll go right back to the lab. Take these up to Danny on you way up there, will you dear? He tends to forget to eat when he's busy with whatever it is he does in his room all day." Before Paulina could form a coherent protest, Maddie was gone, leaving the teen dumbfounded in her wake.

…You have got to be kidding me. Paulina thought, disgruntled at being reduced to Danny Fenton's delivery girl. Sighing, the dark-haired girl stood and snatched up the plate and stalked up the stairs, reminding her bruising ego that all of this was for Danny Phantom. Reaching the top of the stairs, Paulina quickly deduced which door belong to her classmate from the soothing sounds of Dumpty Humpty at a decibel that could have warred with a small airplane's engine that were blaring through the door. Without bothering to knock, Paulina immediately used her free hand to open the blue-eyed boy's bedroom door, where she was immediately greeted with the side of her classmate pacing his carpet, apparently too distracted with his phone call to notice his unannounced guest.

"-Right, right! Near the Food Court? Try and distract him as long as possible, I'll be there in ten minutes, Tuck!" snapping his phone shut, Danny whirled around with a serious look on his face, which froze into a rather comical expression at the sight of the pretty aqua-eyed girl. "Paulina?!" He squeaked out, straightening up nervously. "What are you doing here?"

"Learning from your mom, remember?" Paulina reminded the boy coolly, studying him curiously. The black haired teen was fully dressed now (Something Paulina couldn't help but feel a tiny bit disappointed about) in his usual baggy clothes, which did wonders at hiding all the delicious muscles he'd formed with the Queen Bee of Casper High none the wiser. "Your mom asked me to bring these up for you." Paulina explained, motioning towards the plate she way holding.

"Oh!" Danny said, taking the plate from her. "Uh, thanks. And um, sorry… about this morning, I mean." Paulina watched in bemusement as Danny shuffled awkwardly from one foot to the other as he said this. Seeing the boy's face turn the same shade of red that it had at the front door was almost worth the humiliation of having to deliver his food…

"Forget it." Paulina said dismissively, glancing curiously down at his phone. "What was that phone call just now about? Some kind of sale down at the mall or something?"

"Huh?" Danny said, before he followed Paulina's line of sight and saw the cell phone still in his hand. Finally remembering the conversation he'd just had with his best friend, Danny Fenton's eyes widened dramatically and a look of horror passed his face before it was quickly covered by a rather forced smile. "Uh, yeah! A sale! That's it!" Striding forward, Danny quickly snatched a Fenton Thermos (one of the many things Maddie had gone into detail with about during her speech to Paulina downstairs) from his bedside table, before somehow pushing Paulina out into the hall without her ever registering that it happened. "Sorry Paulina, I'd love to stay and chat, but Sam and Tucker are waiting for me! Later!" Paulina blinked in shock for a moment as the door was slammed in her face, reeling as her mind tried to catch up with what had just happened.

Had she just been dissed by Danny Fenton?!

Shock quickly faded into rage and Paulina immediately started forward, throwing the door open again to tell Danny off for his rudeness-

-Only to find herself staring dumbly around an empty room.

...Okay, now this is just weird. Paulina thought, confusion clear on her face. Unless he had climbed out the window, there was no way she could have missed Danny leaving, since she had been standing right in front of his door. Hesitantly, she started forward and peeked out the window, half expecting to see her classmate lying in the bushes below his window. The Fenton's hedges were Danny-free though, and there was no sign of the teen anywhere on the streets. Baffled, Paulina pulled her head back in before shrugging the incident off as yet another weird 'Fenton Moment' the boy was so famous for and leaving the boy's room without a second glance.

Which meant she never saw the distinctive silhouette of Danny Phantom in the distance out Danny's window, flying off in the direction of Amity's mall.

---

Eight hours later, a tired, sore and disgruntled Paulina came storming through her front door, a scowl on her face that promised murder to anyone who so much as blinked at her the wrong way. Unfortunately for her, Diego was currently the only one home, and he didn't seem all that frightened by his younger cousin if the hysterical laugher he had burst into at the sight of her was anything to go by.

"Paulina…" He finally managed through his laugher. "Are you covered in slime?!"

"Shut. Up." Paulina hissed back, her face beet red in a combination of anger and embarrassment.

After scouring Jazz Fenton's closet for close to an hour trying to find something she wouldn't mind being caught dead in, Paulina had gone back down into the lab to Maddie Fenton to start the experiments the older woman had been so giddy about. Unfortunately, she wasn't paying as close attention to the sensitive chemicals that she was working with as she should have been, with resulted in an explosion of pungent sticky green goo that wound up coating the lab, Maddie, and most importantly, Paulina herself.

Thankfully, Maddie had mistaken Paulina's mortification at being covered in ectoplasmic goo as the girl being upset over messing up the experiment, and sent the girl home for the day with a bottle of Fenton Anti-Ecto Shampoo and a cheerful "Don't worry, sweetie, simple mistakes happen all the time, you'll get better!"

Needless to say, Paulina was not exactly thrilled at having to walk home covered in what looked like some sort of radioactive waste. She could only hope that none of the people who'd seen her on the streets had actually recognized her.

Rolling her eyes as Diego continued laughing, Paulina huffed and started upstairs for a nice, long shower and sleep. She had only gotten to the second landing when her cousin called up to her, making her freeze.

"Oh, by the way! Your friends from school called while you were out! I guess they got caught up in a ghost attack at the mall or something. But don't worry, Danny Phantom flew in and rescued them. Guess one of your friends even got close enough to plant one on him, since it's all over the six o'clock news…"

Downstairs, Diego grinned and the loud shriek and bilingual cursing that his cousin was currently spewing out, chuckling to himself rather wickedly.

Cuz, you have no idea how transparent you really are…

Description
Lesson 3

I can't believe I'm up before six on a Saturday. Paulina thought grumpily as she stifled a yawn behind her hand. Clearly, staying up the night before to talk on the phone with Star until midnight had not been one of her best ideas, given that Mrs. Fenton told her to come to Fentonworks at five thirty to start their first lesson (Meaning she actually had to wake up around four, to make sure she had time to take care of her hair, makeup, outfit, and various other morning activities). If what Mrs. Fenton said was true, she was going to be with the ghost hunters all day, which was rather unfortunate since she had to cancel a shopping trip with her fellow cheerleaders to the mall for these stupid lessons. Paulina scowled at the sidewalk before another yawn tore past her lips. Hopefully, she wouldn't nod off when Mrs. Fenton was trying to teach her all this ghost hunting nonsense. She wanted to keep on the woman's good side, after all. At least until she learned enough to get Phantom to notice her instead of the Red Hunter…

Sighing irritably, the aqua-eyed girl banished these thoughts as Fentonworks came into view, steeling herself for… whatever it was she was supposed to do today. How were these lessons supposed to go, anyways? Paulina puzzled as she knocked on the front door. After shifting around awkwardly from one foot to the other for a minute or so, Paulina knocked again, louder this time. Irritated, the Latina gave an impatient huff at the wait, which quickly dissolved into another yawn. God she hated mornings…

Paulina was mid-yawn when the Fenton's door finally opened up, greeting the girl with a sight that banished all thoughts of sleepiness to the other ends of the earth, taking her ability to breathe with it.

Oh. My. God.

Standing in front of Paulina was Danny Fenton, unsurprising enough considering that she was at his house. Apparently, he wasn't any better with mornings then she was, since his hair was even messier then usual and his eyes had a sort of glazed 'I-Just-Got-Out-Of-Bed' look in them, but this too was of no consequence to the pretty cheerleader. The thing that made Paulina feel like she had just been kicked by her Uncle Ricardo's mule was the fact that the blue-eyed boy had answered the door wearing a pair of old denim jeans.

As in JUST a pair of old denim jeans. No socks, no shoes and no shirt to cover the deliciously muscular chest Paulina would have never suspected in a million years that a loser like Danny Fenton could ever possess.

"Ms Dublin, I already told you I'd talk to my parents about keeping the noise down and despite what you might think, I can't promise you much more then that." Danny said groggily, not looking up at Paulina from the newspaper he had in his hands, which seemed to detail some sort of ghost attack if what little of it Paulina could see was right. "But if you really want my advice, I suggest you invest your money in a nice pair of earplugs." Coming out of her shock, Paulina quickly realized that she had forgotten to close her mouth after her last yawn, and promptly did so.

"Danny?" the girl ventured, half suspecting that this was just some sort of alien creature wearing the youngest Fenton's face. Danny seemed to be taken aback to hear a voice other then the Ms Dublin he thought he was talking to, finally looking up to see his visitor's face. The boy's eyes immediately widened when he recognized his classmate, his newspaper dropping out of his hands to scatter all over the floor, which neither surprised teens took any heed of.

"Paulina?!" Danny sputtered out, clearly much more awake now. "What are-?!

"Danny? Did you get the door, sweetie? If it's that Dublin woman again, tell her that we have very important experiments going on right now, and we'll make as much noise as necessary to- Oh!" coming around the corner, Maddie brightened at the sight of the Hispanic girl standing at her door. "Paulina! Right on time, I was just getting everything set up for you!"

"You know Paulina?" Danny asked his mom, looking even more confused.

"Of course, sweetie!" Maddie chirped happily, "She's my new ghost hunting student!"

"…WHAT?!" Danny sputtered, looking at his mother like she had just confessed her undying love for Bigfoot. "A ghost hunter? Paulina?!" For some reason, the social butterfly couldn't help but feel a little insulted at Danny's surprise, valid as it was. Couldn't he at least pretend this wasn't something that she'd normally never do, if only to make her feel a little less awkward?

"I'm ready to start whenever you are, Mrs. Fenton!" Paulina said sweetly as she brushed past her classmate, who seemed to be trying to figure out whether or not what he was seeing was some kind of weird dream.

"That's the spirit, Paulina!" Maddie beamed in approval. "Danny, make sure that your father doesn't start fiddling around with the Fenton Ghost Glider, will you dear? The wiring is still a little touchy, and I don't want him to hurt himself again. Our insurance already sent us a letter about how they won't cover accidental electrocutions any more…"

"Uh… Yeah… Sure…" Danny replied slowly, apparently still trying to wrap his mind around the idea of Paulina hunting ghosts rather then stalking them. Appraising her son, Maddie gave a heavy sigh of frustration, shaking her head in a long-suffering kind of way.

"Sweetie, how many times do I have to tell you to put a shirt on before you answer the front door?" Maddie asked in amused annoyance.

"What?" Danny said, looking down at his chest and belatedly remembering his state of undress. Turning the exact same shade of red as Paulina's favorite nail polish color (Chick Flick Cherry) Danny immediately turned on his heels and ran up the stairs, tripping over the German Shepard puppy on his way and stumbling rather ungracefully over a laundry basket sitting innocently on the second floor landing before making it to his room, if the loud slamming noise that Paulina and Maddie heard following this spectacular show of clumsiness was anything to go by. As soon as the sound faded away, Maddie broke down laughing, flashing her guest an apologetic smile.

"Sorry about that. Danny has a vendetta against getting dressed properly on the days he doesn't have school. I can only hope this little incident will cure him of that…"

Speak for yourself. Paulina thought, remembering the yummy show she had been treated to. Hey, just because she was totally devoted to Phantom didn't mean she couldn't enjoy a little eye candy now and then, weird as it was to think of Danny Fenton as eye candy in any context.

"Now then, I guess we should get started, right dear?" Maddie asked, smiling eagerly at the cheerleader. I've got some things set up downstairs, and I really think you're gonna like what I have planned!"

"Of course, Mrs. Fenton!" Paulina said, following the woman down the stairs to emerge in the Fenton's lab.

The girl couldn't help but falter at the sight of a ghost hunter's work space up close, feeling a little overwhelmed at all the technology, very little of which she actually recognized. Wherever there was supposed to be countertop was completely covered with beakers, test tubes, Bunsen Burners and research papers, and several spots on the walls and ceiling were covered with suspicious scorch marks, like someone had taken a blowtorch to it. What really caught Paulina's attention though, was the swirling vortex tucked against the back wall of the lab, which glowed with a light that was clearly paranormal.

"Whoa…" Paulina breathed, eyes wide as she studied the portal.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Maddie said, clearly pleased with Paulina's awe. "That's the only working man-made portal into the Ghost Zone, sweetie. Took me and Jack over twenty years to make it…"

"This goes into the Ghost Zone?" Paulina asked, trying to peer past the green swirl to see the world on the other side. "What's it like over there?"

"No clue." Maddie answered. "We use it to send ghosts back, dear. Trying to go inside would be far too dangerous, especially since we have no idea what the atmosphere in a paranormal world would do to mortals. Ghosts don't needs to breathe like humans do, after all. If there's no oxygen in the Ghost Zone, that could lead to a very messy and painful death. Besides, the inhabitants over there aren't exactly the best hosts, I imagine."

"I suppose…" Paulina agreed reluctantly, drawing away from the portal with one last longing look. If the portal really lead to the world where ghosts lived, then that meant Danny Phantom probably lived somewhere in that realm as well, right?

"The Fenton Portal is a little advanced for a beginner, anyways." Maddie continued, motioning for Paulina to sit in one of the chairs she had set up. "But don't worry! I have plenty of fun things for you to start off with! I figured we would begin with the basics! Now, as I'm sure you already know, a ghost can be formed one of three ways; from a restless spirit that refuses to pass on after it's death, a memory or idea that develops it's own consciousness due to the intense emotions attached to it or natural objects coming into contact with supernatural substances. In 1922, one of the early greats of modern ghost hunting by the name of Howard Rowe studied a house that was haunted with no lest then sixty three ghosts, and documented all three known occurring ghost formations among them…" Paulina flinched as the older brunette continued to ramble on happily, oblivious to her student's growing feeling of dread.

The things I do for love. The girl moaned mentally, sinking further into her seat. Something told her she was going to be here for a long time…

---

Six painfully torturous hours later, Maddie finally stopped rambling about ghost hunting and cheerfully suggested that the two of them take a break for lunch. Paulina couldn't get upstairs and into the kitchen fast enough as far as she was concerned. After sitting through the entire history of ghost hunting, a lecture on the chemical makeup of a ghost and a longwinded speech about what ectoplasm was and how ghost powers worked, the cheerleader was bored to the point of tears.

Danny Phantom better appreciate all of this… Paulina thought sourly to herself as Maddie bustled around the kitchen making their lunch. She had never had to go so far out of her depth to impress a boy before, after all. Usually, the guys just took one look at her and started falling all over themselves to be her boyfriend. But maybe that was why she liked Phantom so much, he was different then all the stupid, boring guys she dated in the past.

"Here you go, Paulina!" Maddie chirped happily, setting a plate of grilled cheese sandwiches cut in the shape of ghosts in front of the girl. "Dig in! You're going to need the strength for the experiments!"

"Experiments?" Paulina repeated as she delicately picked up one of the sandwiches and took a hesitant bite.

"That's right! I want to you see for yourself how certain chemicals react with ectoplasm, so you can learn what will weaken a ghost, and what will just make them stronger."

More boring science stuff. Oh joy. Paulina thought, making a face. Maddie was busy humming happily to herself as she cooked up more grilled cheese, oblivious to Paulina's agitation. After swallowing the bite she had just taken, the cheerleader spoke up again.

"Um, Mrs. Fenton? Not that all this science and history stuff you're teaching me isn't completely fascinating, but I was just wondering when I was going to learn real ghost hunting stuff. Like how to use an ectogun, things like that."

"Eager to get out in the field, huh?" Mrs. Fenton translated, chucking warmly. "I understand that you want to help being those filthy rogues to justice, but first we have to make sure you understand ghosts before you start hunting them. 'Know thy enemy,' after all." Smiling at the girl, Maddie wryly added. "Besides, what kind of irresponsible git would just hand an untrained teenager an ectogun and say 'Have at it?'"

Miles away in Wisconsin, Vlad Masters was suddenly struck with the strange feeling that someone was talking about him behind his back. After considering it for a moment, the billionaire shrugged the feeling off and went back to working on the next array of ghost hunting equipment he was going to send to Valerie.

"Anyways, getting back to the experiments we're going to be working on, we should probably talk about that outfit you're wearing."

"What about my outfit?" Paulina asked, defensive. She thought that her new black and silver tunic top and faded black denim Capri pants looked quite good on her, after all…

"Well, it's just that the experiments can get a little messy sometimes. Do you think you'd be more comfortable wearing one of our spare hazmats or something?"

"Wait, you mean one of the orange hazmats?" Paulina asked, cringing. "No way. I don't think so." Orange was one of her absolute worst colors. She wore it when the pirate ghosts kidnapped her parents because that was an emergency, but that was most definitely a one time thing.

"Are you sure, sweetie? The experiments can get pretty messy, and I'd hate for you to ruin your outfit… What don't you check and see if Jazz left anything that might fit on you? She took most of her clothes with her when she left for college, but she did leave some things behind in case she has to suddenly come home, although why she would feel that kind of precaution is necessary is beyond me…"

"Well… I suppose I could take a look…" Paulina said hesitantly as she polished off her sandwich. From what she could remember, the elder Fenton sibling's clothes were rather… simple for her tastes, but it was probably better then getting her own outfit dirty, and definitely preferable to the hideous hazmats.

"Great!" Maddie beamed, setting another plate of grilled ghosts in front of the girl. "You can go take care of that now. Jazz's old room is right up the stairs and the second door on the right. I'm gonna check on Jack's progress on the Boo-Blaster real quick, then I'll go right back to the lab. Take these up to Danny on you way up there, will you dear? He tends to forget to eat when he's busy with whatever it is he does in his room all day." Before Paulina could form a coherent protest, Maddie was gone, leaving the teen dumbfounded in her wake.

…You have got to be kidding me. Paulina thought, disgruntled at being reduced to Danny Fenton's delivery girl. Sighing, the dark-haired girl stood and snatched up the plate and stalked up the stairs, reminding her bruising ego that all of this was for Danny Phantom. Reaching the top of the stairs, Paulina quickly deduced which door belong to her classmate from the soothing sounds of Dumpty Humpty at a decibel that could have warred with a small airplane's engine that were blaring through the door. Without bothering to knock, Paulina immediately used her free hand to open the blue-eyed boy's bedroom door, where she was immediately greeted with the side of her classmate pacing his carpet, apparently too distracted with his phone call to notice his unannounced guest.

"-Right, right! Near the Food Court? Try and distract him as long as possible, I'll be there in ten minutes, Tuck!" snapping his phone shut, Danny whirled around with a serious look on his face, which froze into a rather comical expression at the sight of the pretty aqua-eyed girl. "Paulina?!" He squeaked out, straightening up nervously. "What are you doing here?"

"Learning from your mom, remember?" Paulina reminded the boy coolly, studying him curiously. The black haired teen was fully dressed now (Something Paulina couldn't help but feel a tiny bit disappointed about) in his usual baggy clothes, which did wonders at hiding all the delicious muscles he'd formed with the Queen Bee of Casper High none the wiser. "Your mom asked me to bring these up for you." Paulina explained, motioning towards the plate she way holding.

"Oh!" Danny said, taking the plate from her. "Uh, thanks. And um, sorry… about this morning, I mean." Paulina watched in bemusement as Danny shuffled awkwardly from one foot to the other as he said this. Seeing the boy's face turn the same shade of red that it had at the front door was almost worth the humiliation of having to deliver his food…

"Forget it." Paulina said dismissively, glancing curiously down at his phone. "What was that phone call just now about? Some kind of sale down at the mall or something?"

"Huh?" Danny said, before he followed Paulina's line of sight and saw the cell phone still in his hand. Finally remembering the conversation he'd just had with his best friend, Danny Fenton's eyes widened dramatically and a look of horror passed his face before it was quickly covered by a rather forced smile. "Uh, yeah! A sale! That's it!" Striding forward, Danny quickly snatched a Fenton Thermos (one of the many things Maddie had gone into detail with about during her speech to Paulina downstairs) from his bedside table, before somehow pushing Paulina out into the hall without her ever registering that it happened. "Sorry Paulina, I'd love to stay and chat, but Sam and Tucker are waiting for me! Later!" Paulina blinked in shock for a moment as the door was slammed in her face, reeling as her mind tried to catch up with what had just happened.

Had she just been dissed by Danny Fenton?!

Shock quickly faded into rage and Paulina immediately started forward, throwing the door open again to tell Danny off for his rudeness-

-Only to find herself staring dumbly around an empty room.

...Okay, now this is just weird. Paulina thought, confusion clear on her face. Unless he had climbed out the window, there was no way she could have missed Danny leaving, since she had been standing right in front of his door. Hesitantly, she started forward and peeked out the window, half expecting to see her classmate lying in the bushes below his window. The Fenton's hedges were Danny-free though, and there was no sign of the teen anywhere on the streets. Baffled, Paulina pulled her head back in before shrugging the incident off as yet another weird 'Fenton Moment' the boy was so famous for and leaving the boy's room without a second glance.

Which meant she never saw the distinctive silhouette of Danny Phantom in the distance out Danny's window, flying off in the direction of Amity's mall.

---

Eight hours later, a tired, sore and disgruntled Paulina came storming through her front door, a scowl on her face that promised murder to anyone who so much as blinked at her the wrong way. Unfortunately for her, Diego was currently the only one home, and he didn't seem all that frightened by his younger cousin if the hysterical laugher he had burst into at the sight of her was anything to go by.

"Paulina…" He finally managed through his laugher. "Are you covered in slime?!"

"Shut. Up." Paulina hissed back, her face beet red in a combination of anger and embarrassment.

After scouring Jazz Fenton's closet for close to an hour trying to find something she wouldn't mind being caught dead in, Paulina had gone back down into the lab to Maddie Fenton to start the experiments the older woman had been so giddy about. Unfortunately, she wasn't paying as close attention to the sensitive chemicals that she was working with as she should have been, with resulted in an explosion of pungent sticky green goo that wound up coating the lab, Maddie, and most importantly, Paulina herself.

Thankfully, Maddie had mistaken Paulina's mortification at being covered in ectoplasmic goo as the girl being upset over messing up the experiment, and sent the girl home for the day with a bottle of Fenton Anti-Ecto Shampoo and a cheerful "Don't worry, sweetie, simple mistakes happen all the time, you'll get better!"

Needless to say, Paulina was not exactly thrilled at having to walk home covered in what looked like some sort of radioactive waste. She could only hope that none of the people who'd seen her on the streets had actually recognized her.

Rolling her eyes as Diego continued laughing, Paulina huffed and started upstairs for a nice, long shower and sleep. She had only gotten to the second landing when her cousin called up to her, making her freeze.

"Oh, by the way! Your friends from school called while you were out! I guess they got caught up in a ghost attack at the mall or something. But don't worry, Danny Phantom flew in and rescued them. Guess one of your friends even got close enough to plant one on him, since it's all over the six o'clock news…"

Downstairs, Diego grinned and the loud shriek and bilingual cursing that his cousin was currently spewing out, chuckling to himself rather wickedly.

Cuz, you have no idea how transparent you really are…