Cool Tones

SUMMARY: Just because Paulina can transform into a super-powered ghost girl doesn’t mean she wants to waste her valuable time protecting the city. Too bad a certain ghost-hating loser is blackmailing her into fighting ghosts anyway in exchange for keeping quiet about her secret.

Written for the Danny Phantom AU Zine: Reality Trip, released December 18, 2022. Spot illustrations by marzfartz.

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“I can’t help but notice,” said Valerie in a lofty voice, “that you were talking to that Fenton kid again.” 

Paulina had too much self-control to flinch. Valerie was sitting across the table, one eyebrow raised in a challenge. In the pause before Paulina answered, Valerie lifted her smoothie and took a long, deliberate sip. All the other girls turned their eyes from Valerie to Paulina. 

Valerie had always been way too observant, which was fantastic when it came to gleaning secrets about their classmates. When the secrets belonged to Paulina? Decidedly less fantastic, thank you. 

But there was a reason Paulina was at the top of the A-Listers pecking order: she excelled at twisting the truth to her advantage. With an emphatic roll of the eyes, Paulina snatched a fry from Star’s plate, and said, “Ew, I know. I can’t get him to go away—” 

“You can make anyone go away,” commented Valerie.

“—because it’s for that stupid chemistry lab. You girls are so lucky you aren’t taking chemistry this semester, it’s such a bore.” 

“And you got paired up with Fenton? Oh, Paulina!” said Star, right on cue. Her voice was positively dripping with sympathy. 

It was so easy. All the girls at the table were now giving Paulina their condolences as if she’d been court-ordered to, like, pick up garbage on the highway or something. Even Valerie had dropped her sly look in order to complain about assigned partner projects. All Paulina had to do now was lean back and enjoy the fruits of her (admittedly minimal) efforts—except, of course, that she hadn’t risen to the top by relaxing ever. 

“If you want to hear something worth getting excited about,” Paulina said when the conversation hit a lull, “Guess who just got tickets to the Ember concert on Friday…!” 

#

Of course, the chemistry lab excuse would only last for so long. (Everyone knew the best way to handle a project with unwanted partners was to split the work and continue to ignore each other as much as possible.) Which meant Paulina was not pleased when Danny Fenton showed up beside her locker right before the last class of the day. 

Her hand tightened on the locker door. Deliberately not looking at him, she hissed, “I thought I told you not to talk to me at school.” 

“I’d rather not talk to you anywhere,” said Danny sourly. “There’s been a ghost sighting in High Park.” 

“And let me guess, it can’t wait until after last period?” 

When Danny didn’t answer, Paulina risked a glance in his direction. He was clutching a modified gameboy and giving her his most dead-eyed stare. Ironic, that. 

Paulina slammed her locker shut. “Fine. But only if you promise to stop talking to me at school. Everyone can see us.” 

“I thought you already promised to help with the ghosts if I didn’t say anything about you know what.”

This was true. It was also extremely unhelpful to acknowledge at the moment. “Next time you approach me in the halls, Fenton? I’m coming up with a nasty rumour about you to explain why.” And she took off towards the girls’ bathroom without a backward glance. 

Unfortunately, thanks to her enhanced hearing, she could still hear Danny get in the last word: “Oh no. Whatever shall I do.” 

#

She lingered by the mirror, touching up her makeup as other girls passed through the bathroom in the minutes before last period. Paulina did not actually mind missing the class—anything to skip out on one of Mr. Lancer’s long-winded lectures on, like, Shakespearean allegories or whatever they were supposed to be studying right now. She just hated being at the beck and call of a loser like Danny Fenton, who was a prime example of the type of kid she’d never have associated with if not for… circumstances. 

The bathroom was nearly empty when the bell for class finally rang. Paulina shot a dirty look at the last girl to come out of a stall, who was so frightened she barely washed her hands before fleeing the room. 

Coast clear. But Paulina still hesitated. She took her time tucking her makeup back into her purse, and checked that her hair wasn’t slipping out of her clips even though it wasn’t going to matter. And then her phone buzzed, and she flipped it open to find a text from Danny.

c ghst?

With a heavy sigh, Paulina shoved her phone back into her pocket without answering. She took another deep breath to center herself, and one more because she just couldn’t help delaying. And then, between one heartbeat and the next, she transformed. 

It was like plunging into a bath of ice water. A wave of shivering energy washed over her, changing her—killing her. As always, the transformation from living to dead was hidden by a blinding white light; when it faded, Paulina looked at the ghost in the mirror and sighed. 

Her tasteful makeup had inverted into blues and greens. Her gleaming skin had taken on a corpse-like sheen. Her sleek brown hair was now a gravity-defying white mess. 

And gone were her cute pink blouse and new jean skirt. Now, Paulina sported the inverse of the outfit she’d worn on that fateful day of her accident. The matching coral blouse and pants were now a garish minty green, and the letterman jacket that she’d borrowed from Dash had gone a dark teal. It looked as though she supported an entirely different school. 

Not that there was anything she could do about it. Paulina had tried changing outfits while in her inverted form. She’d tried shedding the jacket, swapping her boots for shoes—the only changes that stuck around until the next time she transformed was tucking her pants into her boots, and pulling out the stitching of Dash’s inverted name from the jacket’s sleeve. 

She glared at the ghost in the mirror, and the ghost glared back. Rising from the floor, Paulina bemoaned, “I look so bad in cool tones.” 

#

There was no sign of the ghost when Paulina reached High Park. She knew better than to hope Danny’s ghost scanner was malfunctioning; that thing had an annoying habit of accurately picking up every ghost within a fifty mile radius. Danny showed her how it worked once, after she’d made the mistake of underplaying the device’s cleverness. It turned out the original version his parents built had been a lot less clever before Danny figured out how to filter out her own ecto-signature as well as low-powered harmless blob ghosts. Paulina had made a point of asking if she was supposed to be impressed. 

All of which was to say that if Danny had given her the location of a ghost, he was not going to be wrong. Still, there weren’t any people screaming in abject terror or running nonsensically in the typical post-attack manner. She saw some health nuts doing yoga, a few dogs and their owners in the off-leash area, and a cluster of middle-aged women near the fountain doing… Paulina couldn’t quite tell what they were doing. Probably exchanging fitness tips or complaining about lazy husbands or something. 

Invisible to the humans below, she swooped down closer to their group for a better view. The women were talking over one another, their voices rising into the high pitches Paulina would expect from teen girls rather than, like, moms. A much younger woman stood in the center of their cluster, notable for two reasons: her hair was dyed a gorgeous shade of rose-gold, and she seemed to be the focus of all the attention. Unable to see the woman’s face, Paulina descended further. 

Brain freeze hit like a brick, blanking Paulina’s thoughts. She gasped out in pain, releasing a puff of frozen mist. 

Dang. Someone down below had set off her ghost-detection power. 

Paulina lifted a hand to her temple, waiting for the after-effects of the brain freeze to fade. None of the women looked like a ghost, which meant it was probably hiding invisible on the fringes of the group. 

And then the woman in the center of the crowd, the one all the others were fangirling over, lifted her head to look directly at Paulina. 

No—Paulina was still invisible. The woman couldn’t be looking at her, must instead be looking at a cloud or a plane or—

The woman winked. 

Incredulous, Paulina stared back. The woman seemed familiar, now that Paulina could see her whole face, except the remaining ache of the brain freeze made it hard to parse through old memories to figure out who she could be. Someone Paulina knew? A friend of her mom’s? Someone from TV? 

The woman said something in a low voice to the crowd, resulting in a high-pitched squeal that nearly blew out Paulina’s eardrums. She winced. Old people were so embarrassing. Unwilling to dive into the middle of that crowd, Paulina could only watch as the central woman stoked the fervor of her fans until their arms were practically flailing. And then, suddenly, the woman was gone. None of the others seemed to realize the object of their excitement had vanished; they just continued to writhe together with an unbecomingly youthful ecstasy. 

Paulina had witnessed enough. That woman had seen through her invisibility and then disappeared herself. Paulina was pretty sure that meant exactly one thing: 

She’d found the ghost. 

…And then lost it. 

#

“You said there was an attack,” Paulina said, coming up from behind to scare Danny on his way home from school. 

He stiffened, hand dropping to his utility belt. Paulina was mildly amused. Apparently, the belt held a number of anti-ghost weapons developed by his parents, but Danny had once admitted that most of these devices had yet to be field-tested. If she had been a real ghost, a dangerous ghost, there was maybe a twenty percent chance that Danny would manage to scare the thing away rather than hurt himself. 

“Well?” she prompted. “What do you have to say for yourself?” 

“I said there was a ghost sighting. Did you take care of it?” 

Paulina tucked her hands into her jacket. “It wasn’t even doing anything.” She pursed her lips, thought for a moment, and amended, “Not anything dangerous. Just like… hyping people up. It was so cringe. I’m not gonna fight a ghost as boring as that.” 

“You have to. That’s the deal.” He lifted his head to scowl at her. “And can you not talk to me when you’re in ghost form? What if someone sees? I’m supposed to shoot ghosts on sight, not fraternize.” 

Paulina ignored this request. It wasn’t like she was going to transform into her human side and risk being recognized talking to Danny on the street, which would be monumentally worse than being seen at school together. “Fenton,” she said patiently, “That ghost was a loser, and she wasn’t even doing anything bad. I’m not going to waste my time on her.” 

A chill washed over her, the last words emerging from Paulina’s mouth in a cloud.

“A loser, huh?” said a voice overhead. 

Paulina looked up. From Danny’s pocket, his ghost scanner let off a belated ding.

#

In hindsight, it was obvious. 

The woman had been familiar. She’d been surrounded by fans. Her hair had been rose-gold… a colour Paulina was fairly sure would invert into a brilliant turquoise. 

Who was notable for her fans and turquoise hair? None other than famous pop star Ember McClain, who was at this moment floating several feet above them. 

“She’s a ghost,” said Paulina, as if Danny somehow could not deduce this on his own. 

Famous pop star Ember McClain pointed out, “So are you.” 

Contrary to expectations, Danny was not fumbling with his utility belt. He was staring slack-jawed at Ember, though Paulina did not know whether he was frightened or star-struck. 

Paulina, on the other hand, was well versed in presenting a coolly disinterested exterior in even the most emotionally compromising situations. She crossed her arms and rose in the air to face the pop star ghost head on. “You looked different in the park.” 

Ember had the audacity to smirk. “Just a little trick of mine. Don’t worry about it.” 

“What even was that? Hyping up moms? Gross.” 

Ember simply lifted an eyebrow. “Where do you think teen girls get the money to go to my shows? Their parents, obviously. And if their moms are also fans of mine, then they are so much more likely to buy their daughters all the tickets they want.” 

From the sidewalk below, Danny cried, “Using ghost powers to manipulate emotions? You can’t just do that!” 

“Who’s the sidekick?” 

Danny spluttered indignantly. Equally alarmed, Paulina made a face. “No one! Not a sidekick, ew. Why would you even—?” 

“Thank god,” said Ember. “I thought you were too cool to be hanging out with some human. Listen, I’m planning to head over to the mall to sell some more tickets, if you catch my drift. You coming with?” 

Continue discussing ghosts with loser Fenton, or hang out at the mall with Paulina’s favourite pop star? 

It wasn’t even a choice. 

#

“Here’s the thing,” explained Ember as they flew to the mall. “I know your secret.” 

Paulina was so caught off-guard that she nearly flew into a billboard. Turning intangible at the last minute, she sailed through the sign—all the while hoping desperately that the move came across as completely intentional. Indignantly, she declared, “I don’t know what you mean.” 

“The half-human thing? It’s pretty obvious, girl.” 

Was there any point in denying the truth? Paulina thought again of Ember’s different appearance in the park. She’d never seen a ghost pretending to be human before—not that accurately, anyway. “You’re like me, aren’t you?” 

“And you’ve got brains behind those good looks. What happened? Get bitten by a radioactive ghost?” 

This was Ember McClain, pop idol and the only other half-ghost Paulina had met. But popular girls never got anywhere by sharing all their secrets. So even though the truth involved a malfunctioning ghost portal funded by her dad’s investment company, Paulina simply shrugged and said, “Something like that.” 

Ember smiled knowingly. “You don’t trust me? That’s fine. But tell me: that boy back there, you know who he is, right? Who his parents are?” 

“It’s not like I want to talk to him.” 

“Good. Don’t trust him, either. You never know when a ghost hunter’s gonna pretend to be an ally only to turn around and stab you in the back.” 

A chill crept down Paulina’s spine. “Right. I mean, I figured… but thanks.” 

“But—” And Ember paused significantly. “That doesn’t mean you should go it alone. Find someone you do trust. It makes a real difference knowing there’s someone who has your back. Just like my bandmates have mine.” 

#

That night, after wishing her parents a good night and retreating to her room, Paulina transformed again. She stood in front of the mirror for a long time, examining the mint-green clothes, the gravity-defying white hair, the inverted colours of what had originally been very tasteful makeup. 

“Blue lipstick is so tacky,” she sighed, wiping it off on her arm even though she knew it would be back and fresh as ever the next time she went ghost. 

She ran a hand through her hair, remembering Ember’s brilliant turquoise locks. The blue shades looked absolutely incredible on her. Somehow, the pop star had made the ghostly colours work for her, leading to an utterly unique stage presence. 

Maybe that was how Paulina needed to approach it. Embrace the cool tones, absolutely own her look. And use her position as head of the school hierarchy to convince everyone else that Amity Park’s mysterious ghost girl had a rocking fashion sense. 

Too bad changing public opinion was more difficult than it looked. Paulina could do it, sure, but it would be easier with backup. 

Maybe Ember was right. Maybe it really was time to pick her own sidekicks. 

#

“This is incredibly important and I need to swear you both to secrecy,” began Paulina once she had sequestered herself, Valerie, and Star in the girls’ bathroom. It was between classes, but Valerie had dutifully planted her back against the door so that no one could barge in and interrupt. 

“Oh, absolutely,” agreed Star at once. 

Valerie, as predicted, was harder to convince. She folded her arms, leaning back hard as someone attempted to push the door open. “And what’s in it for me?” 

“Come on, Val. I just said this was important!” 

Another couple of seconds ticked by before Valerie inclined her head. “Okay, fine. What’s up?” 

There followed a pregnant pause. For all that Paulina had made up her mind, for all that she’d mentally rehearsed this conversation a thousand times in her head the night before while failing to fall asleep, she suddenly did not know if she could do it. 

But both Valerie and Star were staring at her expectantly. And she knew that, if there was anyone in this school that she could trust, it was her two best friends. Paulina took a breath.

“I need you both to help me convince absolutely everyone that blue lipstick is like—” She could not quite hold back her grimace, “—cool.” 

Valerie stared. “What.” 

“Really?” squeaked Star. 

It occurred to Paulina then that she could just leave it here, never actually provide an explanation for her outlandish request. Except—

Well, except that it was lonely being a superhero without sidekicks.

Paulina lifted her chin. “And in exchange, I’ll let you both hang out with me while I’m like, saving the day or whatever.” And to illustrate her meaning, Paulina closed her eyes and woke the cold little core in her chest. 

The transformation washed over her like an ice bath. There followed absolute silence, punctuated only by a brief thudding of the door as some girl’s attempt to enter the bathroom was thwarted by Valerie. 

Paulina opened her eyes, steeled for rejection and disgust. Instead, the other girls were gaping in a most gratifying manner. 

“Paulina,” cried Star, “We don’t need to convince anyone anything. You already look so rad!” 

Valerie, on the other hand, was studying Paulina with speculation. “I guess we can help you out. But only on one condition.” 

Here it comes, thought Paulina, resigned. She should have known Valerie would demand something for her silence. 

Valerie’s eyes gleamed. “We’d better get some really cool gadgets.”