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Star hummed to herself as she sat in a wide split on her bed, back straight and leaning forward with her forearms flat on the bed so she could hold open the book laying in front of her—hey, she was a cheerleader, she couldn’t be slacking on that stretching, even if this was leisure reading!
The book in question was a popular one that Paulina had given her for her birthday, which came out about six weeks prior. Paulina had read it and loved it, but the library had a waitlist, so instead of letting Star wait she decided to just buy it for her, as add-on birthday gift (the main gift, of course, wasn’t something so cheap; it was the bracelet currently adorning Star’s wrist, 18-karat solid gold small round links with inlaid yellow topaz gemstones—not only was that Star’s birthstone, but yellow was her favorite color).
Star had been unsure about the book at first, since supernatural romance usually wasn’t her thing (against all expectations, she was secretly more of a sci-fi girl), but vampires were kinda hot, so she’d given it a try—and was now obsessed. In fact, despite her birthday party only being a week prior, she was more than halfway done with the book, having spent her weekday evenings and a fair portion of Saturday reading it! She might even be able to finish before school on Monday.
Star paused partway through chapter 16 and tilted her head, a thought coming to her. In this scene, the vampire revealed to the human that he didn’t need to breathe, only faked it. The scene reminded her of a certain someone… Someone who coincidentally had fangs…
The thought had been loosely nagging Star all week as she noticed more and more similarities between that certain fanged boy at school and the main character’s vampire love interest in this book. Personality-wise there were obviously differences of course, but overall? The signs were there.
Moody and secretive? Check.
Only closely associating with a very small group of people? Check.
Mysterious absences and suddenly needing to leave during class? Check.
Eyes that change color? Check. (Although the reason seemed more emotional versus hunger-related.)
Uncanny feeling around him that people just couldn’t place? Check.
Cold skin? Check. (To the point it sometimes made the air around him cold!)
Never stays injured for long even when he should? Check.
Occasionally not breathing for much longer than humanly possible, as though he’d forgotten he should? Check.
Yes, it all fit. Plus, all the other mysteries and oddities surrounding the boy since the start of their freshman year made sense in that context, too: an indifference to cold temperatures, probably because he himself was cold-skinned; the weird shivering and nervousness, which must be due to hunger as he always fled from humans right after that happened; all those broken beakers were obviously him adjusting to vampire strength; if he were in denial and refused to drink blood at first, he’d lose weight so that’s why the pants would stop fitting and fall…
“Ohmygosh. Fenton is totally a vampire,” Star squealed aloud. It was just like the ‘Twilight’ story, right here in Amity Park! “Paulina is going to freak!”
“I’m telling you, he fits almost everything,” Star said matter-of-factly after explaining her theory to the other core A-list members (Paulina, Dash, and Kwan) while at lunch on Monday. “Like, the few things he doesn’t fit can just be chalked up to artistic liberty—like, his eyes glow sometimes in addition to changing color, so maybe the author decided it’d be cooler to have everything shine.”
“But don’t vampires have super strength and high durability?" Dash pointed out. “Like, there’s no way Fenton has that. I beat him up all the time!”
“Do you? Or does he let you?” Star challenged.
“Why would he let me?!”
“To keep his cover, duh.”
“Star has a point,” Kwan said. “Now that I think about it, we beat Fenton up pretty badly, but he’s always fine the next day, no bruises.”
“That must be why he hangs with those losers, too!” Paulina decided. “Think about it: if he were popular, too many people would have their eyes on him, and would figure it out!”
“But, we still figured it out despite that,” Star said smugly. Now, to get confirmation… “I’m going to confront him about it,” she decided. It was the only logical move.
“What! You can’t do that,” Kwan asserted.
“Of course I can,” Star said. “Bella does it in the book, and gets answers.”
“Yeah but that’s a book,” Dash pointed out. “Reality might be different.”
“Yeah! Maybe vampires in real life can’t hold back, or can’t survive on only animal blood like the book ones do,” Kwan said. “Fenton might totally eat you.”
“How do you know that much about the book?” Dash asked with suspicion.
“Um… My sister read it?” Kwan tried.
“You don’t have a sister.”
“Okay, fine, I was curious. It was good!”
“Hold up,” Paulina interjected. “If Fenton’s really a vampire, we need to make sure we keep it a secret,” she said. “Like, any rumors about it will need to stay rumors, capiche?”
“Why?” Dash wondered.
“Because, think about it—if there are ghost hunters, there’s gotta be vampire hunters, too! I bet there’s even a government branch for it.”
“Oooh, good point,” Star said. She hadn’t thought about that. “Yeah, we need to keep this top-level clearance!”
Star found Fenton as she began walking home from school after cheerleading practice that same day, walking in the same direction sans loser friends after presumably the detention he had gotten for being late to class again; he was across the street, looking lost in thought. The street was even empty, a small side street. Perfect.
“Hey! Fenton!” Star shouted, waving to him and jogging across the street.
Fenton turned, then looked confused. “Star?” he asked, then his eyes widened in panic and he yelled, “WATCH OUT!”
Star turned to see a car barreling towards her, clearly speeding. It blared its horn and its brakes screeched, but it was going too fast to stop in time. Star moved to jump out of the way, but instead stumbled onto her butt. Crap, this was it, she was going to—
BAM!
Star opened her eyes to find herself entirely unharmed. In front of her was Fenton, leaning over her. “Are you okay?” he asked.
Star’s eyes moved to behind Fenton. There was the car, a dent in it, and… Danny’s hand in the dent. The passenger seemed to be unconscious, the airbag activated.
“Holy shit, this is just like the scene in the book,” Star said breathlessly.
“What?” Danny asked, clearly confused, then turned to look at his hand. “Shit,” he said, pulling his hand away and looking around quickly before looking back at her. “You, er, didn’t—”
“Of course I saw that!” Star said. She wasn’t going to let him gaslight her! “Don’t worry, though; your secret’s safe with me. That’s actually why I wanted to talk to you!”
“Crap,” Danny said, looking around again, then jumped up, pulling Star with him by the arm, his icy grip sending chills down her spine. Star could hear some neighbors’ doors opening (hopefully they’d report the crash) as Danny practically dragged her into a nearby smaller alleyway, then through a side door; the building was an abandoned gutted one, only lit by the sunlight that shone through the slots of the boarded-up dusty windows, and that light hitting him made Danny’s pale skin look like there was a slight glow to it.
“Oooh, spooky,” Star said. “You gonna drink me or something?”
“What?” Danny asked, looking even more confused now as he finally let go of her forearm. “Um. So, you said you know my secret? Exactly how much do you know?”
“I know what you are,” Star said confidently.
“Ah,” Danny said, then asked nervously, “And that would be…?”
“You really want me to say it?”
“I mean, just to make sure we’re on the same page, you know.”
“Okay. Don’t laugh if I’m wrong,” Star said, recalling the reveal scene from the book.
“I’ll try not to,” Danny said, seeming earnest.
Star took a deep breath. “Vampire,” she breathed out, heart fluttering in her chest.
Danny paused at that. He looked surprised, for some reason. “Vampire? Huh. Could have sworn you were going to say ghost…”
“Pfft. I know the difference between a ghost and a vampire, Fenton,” Star said with an eye roll as she crossed her arms. “We live in Amity Park, the most haunted town in America. Everyone here knows ghosts have weird color skin and glow. You don’t. Ergo, vampire.” What, did he think she didn’t have eyes?
“Hm. Well, it’s just… not many humans actually believe vampires exist,” Fenton pointed out.
Star grinned. “Ohmygosh. You said ‘humans’! As though you’re not one! Because you aren’t! Ohmygosh, you’re a real, bonafide vampire! Paulina’s going to freak!”
“What? You can’t go around telling people I’m a vampire!” Fenton said, looking a little panicked.
“Um, the entire core A-list already figured it out, this was just confirmation,” Star informed him. “I bet we’re not the only ones who put the pieces together, either. Like, you don’t even bother to hide your fangs or color-changing eyes.”
Fenton frowned. “I can’t.”
“Oh, fangs don’t retract? Guess that’s a myth,” Star realized. Well, depended on the legend, really—the book’s vampires didn’t even have fangs. “You could wear contacts though.”
Fenton paused. “I… never thought about that,” he said, seeming a little embarrassed.
“Oh! What about other myths?” Star asked, recalling the scene in the book again.
Danny sighed. “Like what?”
“Like, do you sleep in a coffin? At home, that is?” Star knew he did sleep, unlike the book character, as he always complained about not getting enough and then fell asleep in class.
“Uh, no. That’s definitely a myth. I sleep in a bed. Or on my desk, I guess.”
“Are you nocturnal? Is that why you sleep at school so much?”
“No, just really bad sleep habits and nightmares—er. I didn’t mean to say that!” Fenton said, eyes widening in slight panic. “Please don’t tell anyone I have nightmares!”
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Star promised; honestly, she’d be surprised if he didn’t have such, given he had died. “You’ve gotta be a recent vampire, right? So clearly you must still have trauma related to your death, and however you were changed, which I assume was the summer before freshman year because you didn’t have fangs in 8th grade.” That meant he was just a few months over 1 year changed.
“Ah. Yeah, you got me. That… wasn’t a good time,” Fenton said with a slight shiver. “Please don’t ask for more details.”
“Okay. Back to the myths then,” Star decided, trying to recall what the book said, and really glad that Fenton seemed willing to answer—honestly, Star had expected more resistance. “So you won’t die in sunlight?”
Fenton laughed. “Definitely myth.”
“Stake to the heart kills you?”
Fenton paused at that, looking surprised, then nervous as he said, “Um. Honestly I don’t know…? You’re not going to try to…?”
“Oh! No, not at all,” Star said, blushing in embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to imply that! I’m just, you know, reviewing the mythology.”
“In that case, there’s something big you missed.”
“Is there…? Oh! You mean, immortality?”
Fenton paused at that too. “Um. I dunno about that either,” he said, brow scrunching in worry.
Star gasped. “You don’t know? How can you now know that?”
Danny shrugged, looking a little more upset. “I mean, I never really thought of it before. It’s only been a year and a few months, so it’s not like I can really tell yet or not… Plus I don’t really have anyone to ask, at least not who I’d trust to give straight answers… I guess I haven’t gotten taller, but that could just be a delayed growth spurt, right?”
“Has your hair grown? Boys with your length hair should get it cut every, what, six weeks for maintenance?” Star recalled, feeling a little pity towards Danny; it must be so confusing, not knowing something as major as if you’re immortal or not!
“How do you know that?” Fenton wondered.
“I have a little brother. So, has your hair changed?”
Fenton worried his lower lip a little with his fangs; it was kinda cute, Star couldn’t help but think. “...No,” he said after a while. “No, it… It hasn’t. I haven’t had a haircut since that summer… Dammit, Star. Why’d you have to make me realize that?”
“Guessing you don’t want to be?” Star concluded. That… made sense, she supposed. The book vampire was 17 forever, which was different than…
“Of course I don’t want to be! I died at 14, Star,” Fenton confirmed, voice full of frustration, attempting to subtly wipe away what seemed to be budding tears from his glowing eyes. “Who wants to be 14 forever?”
“That is a pretty sucky age to be stuck at,” Star agreed, a little unsure how to approach a vampire having an existential crisis about his immortality. The relationship articles in the teenage magazines she read never covered this sort of thing!
“And it puts a big timeline on how long I can hide without my parents getting suspicious…” Fenton groaned.
“Your parents don’t know?” Star asked, surprised at that. How did his parents not know that their son died and became a vampire?
“No, they weren’t there when… you know. And how exactly do you tell your parents you’re technically dead? Or, half-dead, I guess is more accurate.”
“Yup; mythology usually classifies vampires as half-dead,” Star informed Fenton. “And yeah, I guess that would be a tough conversation…” she trailed, then realized what he’d said. “Wait, have you been thinking of yourself as dead this whole time, Fenton?”
Fenton shifted a little awkwardly. “Eh, I kinda go between the two. I mean, I did die, you know? Sometimes it definitely feels like I am. But, I know it’s technically half-dead, since I got revived some. Or, partly-dead, or whatever. No clue if half is accurate or not, you know? Either way it’s something between life and death I guess…” Fenton trailed, looking contemplative. “Oh, and call me Danny, okay?”
“Sure thing, Danny,” Star agreed, feeling like that was a sign they were now friends. She was friends with a vampire! How many human girls were lucky enough to say that? “You tend to ramble when you’re nervous, huh?”
Danny winced. “You caught that, huh?”
“Yup! So… if your parents are human, and don’t know you’re a vampire… then…” Star thought of if they knew of anyone else with—oh! “Then it was the mayor, right? He’s got fangs, so he’s a vampire too, isn’t he? Ohmygosh, ‘Vlad’ is his first name! That is so definitely a vampire name.”
“Um. No, no he didn’t change me. I actually… don’t know who did. But it definitely wasn’t him,” Danny asserted.
“How can you not know?” Star wondered, and mentally noted that Danny did not deny Star’s claim that Vlad Masters was also a vampire.
“Because I was unconscious,” Danny explained. “I thought I was dying, and passed out… but then I woke up and… Well. I very quickly realized that I was no longer human.”
“So you were just left alone to figure out everything out on your own?” Star asked incredulously. That didn’t sound very responsible of whoever had saved Danny from permanent death! Maybe something happened to them?
Danny looked mildly uncomfortable as he shrugged and mumbled, “I was able to figure things out.”
Star had a feeling that this was not something Danny was willing to talk about much (understandably so; who would want to talk about their own death?), so she changed the subject. “So, back to myths then: …um. What are other vampire lore things?”
“Well, you seem to be forgetting the biggest one,” Danny said, sounding amused now.
“Oh right! Mirrors!” Star proclaimed. How could she have forgotten mirrors?
“Myth, but that’s not the one I meant…”
“Then wha—oh, I wasn’t gonna cover every single trait,” Star said. “I mean, some are obvious. Clearly you have fangs and color-changing eyes. We’ve all seen how fast you heal from things that would injure anyone else. Obviously I know about the strength thing, and you grabbed me before so I know you’re ice cold. Pretty sure most of the school has noticed you forget to breathe half the time—”
“What? I forget to breathe!?”
“Um, yes? Seriously, Danny, get with the program. Anyway, what else is there? Oh, heartbeat!”
“I have one,” Danny said, holding his wrist out. “It’s slow, but it’s there.” Star took Danny’s cold wrist in her hand and placed two fingers of her other hand over the pulse point; sure enough, there it was, but at maybe half the speed of a human’s. “There’s also one more thing I thought you’d ask about though.”
“What?” Star asked, letting go of Danny’s wrist.
“Blood. I’m pretty sure you have not seen me drink blood—er, you haven’t, have you? Because there are some ghosts that can shapeshift that have tried to cause trouble for me before, so if you have seen that—”
“Chillax, Fen—I mean, Danny. No, no one’s seen you do that,” Star assured Danny, feeling a little silly that she’d forgotten to ask about one of the biggest vampire traits. “But, I guess I’m curious—is it people, or animals? Or, like, blood banks or something?”
Danny took a moment to answer, as though debating to tell her or not, though finally said, “Animals.”
“Oooh, where do you hunt, and can I watch?” Star wondered, fascinated by the concept of a vampire hunting. Which, yeah, she could admit was probably a bit disturbing for a 15-year-old to be fascinated by.
“I don’t,” Danny said, looking wary. “Butchers exist.”
“Oh. That’s no fun,” Star said, slightly disappointed. “You sure that’s okay? You don’t ever want human blood?” Maybe if he wanted to try, she could…
Danny chuckled. “Why, you offering?” he joked, then looked surprised and horrified upon seeing her contemplative expression. “Oh shit, you are, aren’t you? No, no, Star, I am not drinking human blood, ever!”
“Okay, okay, I get it,” Star said with a small pout, then thought of something. “Hey, there’s one more myth we forgot: is the change just with a bite? Like if you did bite me and drink from me, would I—”
“No, otherwise Dash would be one,” Danny said, subtly reminding Star of the incident at the start of last year that Star had witnessed. Dash had surprised Danny by sneaking up on the boy from behind and then putting his hand over the boy’s mouth, or rather tried to but Danny had been about to talk and Dash’s hand instead ended up in Danny’s mouth; Danny had reacted by biting down. That was how Star and many others first noticed Danny had fangs; at first they assumed it was part of a Halloween thing, because it was that same week, but then they remained. The rumors had fluctuated between it being one of his parents’ experiments that did it, and that he got an extreme body mod despite being underage for that. Occasionally rumors of a vampiric nature arose as well, but quickly vanished—after all, until a couple months ago everyone assumed vampires burned in the sun, but they now knew that they didn’t always.
“So, you have to feed the person your blood to change them?” Star asked.
“No idea, and don’t particularly plan to find out. I do not want to intentionally create anyone else like me,” Danny asserted. “Anyway, are we done here? Because I do need to get home—also, please don’t tell anyone!”
“Except the A-list,” Star amended.
“No, you—oh, fine, whatever. But no one else!” Danny ordered, eyes glowing green—yup, definitely react to emotions, not hunger.
Star decided to have a little fun. “Well, I can try, but the rumors might have already started… Paulina and Kwan have had since lunch to spread them, and you know how they are…”
Danny looked distressed. “Seriously?! They really—”
“Okay, whoa, chillax, Danny,” Star said, holding her hands with palms facing him; she had not expected a vampire to have such volatile emotions! “I was joking, okay? We all agreed during lunch that we wouldn’t tell people, okay? We know when a secret is big enough that it needs to be kept, okay? We don’t want any hunters going after you.”
Danny took a few deep breaths, likely a residual method to calm down since Star knew he didn’t actually need the air. Then, he paused. “Wait, what ‘hunters’?”
“Vampire hunters,” Star clarified. “You know, if ghost hunters exist, surely vampire hunters do, too! So yeah, we’ll definitely keep your secret!” Then, she paused. “Can I tell people about Vlad, though? I feel like people really should know that their mayor is a vampire…”
Danny took a moment to think about that, then determined, “You do have a point… You know what, do what you want on that front; as long as I stay a secret, it’s all good.”
“Got it,” Star said with a firm nod. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep your secret.”
“Good, I—” Danny gasped, and Star could’ve sworn she could see his breath. Was it really that cold in here? “I gotta go now. I’ll, um, see you later.”
“Great! So—huh? Where did you go?” Star asked, mildly confused as she turned around in place to find Danny was nowhere to be seen. Well, vampires were naturally fast; he must have sped off.
As Star made her way back to the exit, she wondered if vampires had night vision or something, because she was tripping over everything! Why had the surroundings been a little brighter when Danny was there? Was it the eye glow? That wasn’t enough to brighten things, was it?
Finally, Star exited into the alleyway, and continued on her way home, humming happily to herself. Wait until her friends heard about this! Not only did she have proof that Danny was a vampire, but she even had befriended him! This was totally awesome.
“Wait, so you’re just playing along with the vampire thing?” Tucker asked, once Danny had finished explaining the situation to them the next day at lunch; they were seated in a picnic table outdoors despite the slight chill (well, for the humans; Danny wasn’t even wearing a jacket).
“Yup,” Danny told them. “If they think I’m a vampire, they won’t keep speculating and land on ghost.” Danny still was in slight disbelief about the entire situation, but it worked in his favor. Dash and Kwan had already stopped bullying Danny, so it seemed; Star must have already told them about the car, and they likely didn’t want to attack someone they knew could easily kill them (not that Danny would! Well, in this timeline).
“True,” Sam said. “But you’re sure this rumor won’t go around? They’ll keep it?”
Danny shrugged. “Who knows? Even if everyone thinks I’m a vampire though, it’s fine. It’s not like there are actual vampire hunters or anything, given vampires don’t exist.”
“But… What if they do?” Tucker asked worriedly.
Danny scoffed. “Seriously, Tuck?”
“Yes, seriously! Look, I’m just saying, people thought ghosts were a myth, then it turned out they weren’t. Is it really so far-fetched that other so-called supernatural creatures would exist too?”
Danny took a moment to consider that. “Well, we know Yeti exist…” A couple months prior they had met Frostbite in the Far Frozen. “And Wulf was kinda like a werewolf… And Desiree’s a djinn… I know they’re all ghosts, but… Maybe those are the legends?”
“So, legends of supernatural creatures just stem from ghosts,” Sam concluded.
“Wait. If legendary creatures are just ghosts, that implies vampires do exist! Ghost vampires! Wait. Oh no, that’s worse than regular vampires…” Tucker whined.
“Or… it’s just Danny,” Sam said with realization.
“What?” Danny and Tucker asked simultaneously.
Sam sighed. “Not all ghosts have fangs, guys. Most humanoid ones don’t. But… Well, maybe there’s a reason you fit so much of the lore, Danny.”
“You think… halfas were what created vampire myths,” Danny deduced.
“It does make sense,” Tucker said contemplatively. “You do fit all the visual things…”
“But I don’t drink blood or anything like that,” Danny pointed out. “Or burn in the sun.”
“Yeah, and Wulf doesn’t change back into a man, Desiree doesn’t give three wishes, and the Yeti don’t act like cavemen with bricks for brains,” Sam pointed out. “Myths aren’t necessarily totally accurate.”
“People do like getting inventive with story retellings,” Tucker said. “Like, that new book—which I totally have not read, for the record!—has the reason they need to hide in the sun be that their skin is so hard they shimmer in the light, not that they burn.”
“Yeah that’s the whole reason silver thwarts so many things,” Sam added. “Scary creatures were considered ‘unholy’, silver was considered one of the ‘purest’ metals, ergo something impure ought to fall to it. Pretty sure no one actually tried that out.”
“Hey, A-list incoming,” Tucker said, and Danny turned to see Paulina and Star heading their way.
The two sat down with the trio, and Star immediately announced, “For the record, it’s not us spreading the rumor.”
Danny froze. “Rumor? What rumor?” Did they know he was a ghost? Maybe the school should ‘learn’ that he was a ‘vampire’ after all.
“Some underclassmen have seen the fangs and think you’re a werewolf,” Paulina revealed. “Since you don’t melt or sparkle in the sun and all.”
Danny stared at her for a moment, processing that. “Well, I can assure you, I am definitely not a werewolf.”
“No, duh, you’re obs a vampire,” Star said. “But, some others have started to suggest vampire as a whole counter to the werewolf thing, claiming that the sun thing is a myth—which, yeah, it is, but they don’t actually know that! Yeah, so we wanted to make sure you knew that wasn’t us.”
“So people are debating whether I’m a werewolf or vampire,” Danny concluded. “Great.” Well, at least it was still better than ‘ghost’.
“Don’t worry; we’ll encourage the werewolf one,” Paulina said assuredly. “That way they don’t find out the truth.”
“Wait,” Star said. “If there’s ghost hunters and vampire hunters, what if there’s werewolf hunters too?”
“Oh no, you’re right,” Paulina said worriedly. “Hm… She frowned as she thought for a moment. “I got it! A lab experiment made him part-cat,” she decided. “I bet there aren’t hunters for that!”
“And vampires and cats both growl and hiss, so that’s perfect,” Star concluded.
Danny opened his mouth to respond ‘no way’, then closed it and considered that before deciding, “You know what, sure. I’m totally part-cat, good idea.”
“Puuurfect,” Paulina purred, smugly smiling.
Then, Paulina and Star abruptly left, the latter throwing Danny a wink and a smile with a small wave before following her friend.
“Did… Did Paulina just make a cat pun?” Tucker asked with slight disbelief.
“Yes, yes she did,” Sam confirmed, looking equally as stunned.
“So… ready to be part-cat?” Tucker asked Danny.
Danny grinned and responded, “Meeeeeeow!”
The three worked on eating their lunches for a while, and then suddenly a hand slammed on their table; all three teens jumped slightly as Vlad appeared beside their table, a newspaper under his hand.
“Um. Can we help you?” Tucker asked warily.
“What is the meaning of this?” Vlad demanded with a growl.
“Dude, you’re hand is covering the headline,” Tucker pointed out.
Vlad removed his hand to let them see. The front page of the Amity Park Packet was headlined ‘VAMPIRE MAYOR?’, with a photo of Vlad that showed his fangs.
“I have nothing to do with this,” Danny lied, somewhat impressed. It hadn’t even been 24 hours! Both Star and the press moved fast.
“Really?” Vlad questioned.
“Really,” Danny said. “Hey, look, it’s better than them thinking you’re a ghost.”
“Barely.”
“If it makes you feel better, out classmates are currently debating whether Danny’s a werewolf or a vampire,” Tucker chimed in.
“Yeah, it’s a thing,” Danny said flatly. “There’s some new supernatural romance book all the girls are reading. Bet that’s why they think you are, too.”
Vlad gave pause to that. “I see. Well, I suppose it will be easy enough to explain away the fangs as a folly of my college days… You, however…”
“We’re just gonna see how it plays out,” Danny said with a shrug. “Especially since denying I’m whatever they settle upon could lead them to then concluding I’m a ghost, since there’s no way I’ll convince them all I’m fully human at this point.”
Vlad looked mildly confused at that. “How can you be certain of that?”
“They’re teenagers raised on media about the supernatural world hiding in plain sight among them,” Sam pointed out. “Of course they’re all going to assume that he’s just trying to keep hiding his identity if he tries denying everything.”
“Yup. Best approach is partial misdirection,” Tucker agreed. “Let them correctly think he’s a supernatural creature, but make sure they believe he’s the wrong one.”
“Hmm. Perhaps you three are more clever than I’ve given you credit for,” Vlad complimented. “I shall leave you to that, then—best of luck. Now, if you excuse me, I have a PR meeting to attend…” He grabbed the newspaper, then turned and walked away, turning invisible as he did so.
“Tch. Dramatic fruitloop,” Danny muttered, then returned to his lunch, then paused, remembering he had something else to tell Sam and Tucker. “So, Star apparently noticed some things yesterday that I hadn’t thought of before… Is it true that I forget to breathe half the time?”
Tucker laughed. “Oh, yeah. You’re super bad at that.”
Danny took a moment to absorb that information. “I didn’t even realize I didn’t need to breathe in human form,” he then revealed, feeling a little disturbed by the fact that he somehow hadn’t noticed that. “I mean, I know Phantom form doesn’t need to…”
“Well, your powers and other traits bleed over, so it makes sense that this might too,” Sam reasoned.
“I guess,” Danny said awkwardly. “Not needing to breathe feels a bit too ghostly though…”
“Oh, and the intangibility and invisibility aren’t?” Sam said teasingly. “Relax, Danny. This isn’t new, you’ve been doing it for over a year. Just, I dunno, try to be more conscious about noticing when you forget.”
“Yeah, guess you’re right, Sam…” Danny trailed off, looking into the distance. The breathing wasn’t that big a deal, Sam was right about that; no, the big deal was…
“There’s something else on your mind,” Tucker said. “You said she noticed some things, implying it wasn’t just the breathing?”
“Yeah…” Danny took a deep (apparently unneeded; how did he seriously not notice that?) breath and told them, “She noticed I haven’t changed since the accident, and she’s right. I’m the same height, the same weight, my clothes all fit the same still…”
“Dude, it’s only been like a year and a few months,” Tucker pointed out. “Could just be a delayed growth spurt; with the heights of your other family members—”
“No, Tuck,” Danny cut him off. “It’s more than that. I haven’t even needed a haircut.”
“Oh,” Tucker said, looking surprised. “I guess that’s a little harder to explain…”
“But, wait,” Sam said. “Your dark future self was—”
“A merge between my dark part and Vlad’s,” Danny interjected, having already thought of that. “For all we know, the ages just averaged—plus, he was still able to look like my human form somehow, remember? My 14-year-old human form.”
“Point,” Sam conceded.
“Too bad there’s not a manual about how to be a halfa,” Tucker commented.
“Ugh, I should’ve asked Vlad about it just now,” Danny groaned. He would probably know for sure. Danny couldn’t just base it on Vlad’s looks, though; he was a billionaire with access to ways to easily hide a lack of aging, especially from mid-twenties to mid-forties. Fourteen forever was way harder to hide. “Although I dunno if he’d give me a straight answer…”
“Well, we can ask Clockwork next time we go there,” Sam suggested. “He’ll definitely know. For now, let’s finish our lunch—”
The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch and start of the 5-minute passing period.
“—let’s get to class,” Sam segued, “And work on selling the ‘part cat’ thing, okay?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Danny agreed. He did his best to shove the thoughts about possibly being immortal into the back of his mind as he stood up and headed back to the school building with Sam and Tucker, tossing the rest of his uneaten food in the trash on the way.
“Danny!” Star cheered as he entered the building; she rushed over to him. “We have a situation,” she whispered frantically.
“What is it?” Danny asked warily. Did people start theorizing he was a ghost?
“We tried to tell them you’re part-cat, and now… Now they all think you’re a vampire-werecat hybrid!”
“Oh,” Danny said, unsure what to think of that. A half-truth was still better than the full truth, especially as the half-truth in this case was only the ‘hybrid’ aspect—it just wasn’t the correct hybrid.
“Don’t worry; we’re going to do our best to keep them from learning the truth,” Star said determinedly, and ordered, “Just, make sure to act as cat-like as possible.” Before Danny had a chance to answer, Star turned and hurried off.
“Well, at least they still don’t think you’re a ghost,” Tucker pointed out.
“How the heck am I supposed to ‘act as cat-like as possible’?” Danny wondered.
“Eat mice?” Tucker suggested.
“Eww, no!”
“Just add meows to your repertoire of cat noises," Sam said.
“My what?”
“You already hiss and growl and bare your fangs at people a little too much to be normal,” Sam explained. “Just add meows to it.”
Danny had not realized he did that quite so frequently in human form. Well, he supposed meowing wasn’t that much more embarrassing than the growls and hisses…
By the end of the week, the whole school, including some of the teachers, fully believed that Danny Fenton had become a werecat via a rogue experiment—except for the A-list, who of course still thought he was a vampire, and those that knew Danny’s true species… Meaning, Danny now had four different personas to maintain: ghostly superhero, regular human, vampire, and werecat, all in an effort to hide his true halfa identity.
If the superhero gig didn’t work out, maybe Danny could make a decent living as an actor.