Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

Wishing Star

Sam Manson was not the type of girl that made a habit of wishing on stars. She had never picked the petals off of a flower to try to determine whether or not a boy loved her. And while fairy tales were sometimes fun to listen to, she had stopped believing in them years ago.

Contrary to popular belief, Sam Manson was not a pessimist; she was a realist. Sure, she loved anything dark and gloomy, but she was not an overly cynical person. That being said, she certainly wasn't ridiculously optimistic, either. She was practical and prided herself on being the voice of reason when those with overactive imaginations lost themselves in all kinds of outlandish thoughts and fanciful wonderings.

Her friends needed that. When Tucker sought after a girl way out of his league, it was up to her to convince him to give up without crushing his ego. After all, he would be falling in love with a different girl the very next week. When Danny's anxiety chased away his rationality, she felt it her responsibility to calm him, to soothe his troubled mind. And he would be pacified and soon forget what had made him worry his stomach into knots when she would inevitably be proven right. Her friends relied on her for this. She had to both lift up and knock down, show them kindness while pointing out the error in their ways, and give them both a shoulder to lean on and a few sharp words when necessary.

Sam was a realist. This is the role she had chosen for herself because she had fallen into it so naturally. So why was a strong-willed, level-headed girl such as herself gazing at a lone star in the night sky sighing and swaying like a lovesick fool?

'It's a moment of weakness,' she tried in a vain attempt to comfort herself, 'it'll pass soon enough.' She was leaning against the open windowsill, elbows on the bottom pane, chin in her hands, and she wanted to walk away. She prayed for the strength to turn around and return to her ordinary state of mind, her sanctuary, a comfortable place that held any wandering thoughts in check. But reason had fled and logic was fast asleep now.

The lone star caught her attention again and she remembered a rhyme she used to recite as a little girl. She glanced behind her just to make absolutely certain no one was there before she finally decided to indulge herself and let the words swirling around in her head push past her lips. "Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight..." at the beginning her words dripped with sarcasm and she nearly sneered at herself for what she was doing, but as she continued, her voice grew more earnest, "I wish I may, I wish I might…" by the end of the familiar rhyme her words rang with a sincerity few people knew she was capable of, "have this wish I wish tonight." By this time her eyes were closed and her lips moved in a silent plea, a desperate wish that wriggled free from the dark recesses of her heart and climbed up her throat so desperately she could barely keep from speaking it aloud.

After a moment she reopened her eyes to a night just as quiet as before. She let out a long sigh, a mixture of disappointment and relief. It was just her, alone, leaning against her windowsill overlooking the deserted street in the deep twilight. She stood there for several more minutes just watching the sky darken. After a while, her own soft laughter broke the silence. "I'm no better than Paulina or any of those other airheads that believe wishing on stars will make all their dreams come true…" she mumbled with a wry smile.

She was just about to turn from her window when a bright green flash caught her eye. After watching for a moment she could just make out Danny's faintly glowing outline in the darkness along with the shorter, stockier frame of the Box Ghost. Her grin morphed into a genuine smile and she watched in amusement as Danny whined and argued and tried to coax the Box Ghost back into the Ghost Zone. She was chuckling softly as she finally turned from the window and sat on her bed. She embraced all the bittersweet emotions that so often surfaced whenever she caught sight of her ghostly best friend and this time, she didn't push them away.

She was suddenly exhausted after being hit with the full force of many of the emotions she usually kept bottled up, so she let the soft breeze lull her into a dreamlike state. Right before she drifted off to sleep she cracked open her eyes, turned back to her open window with a small smile, and murmured, "I guess wishing on stars isn't so bad after all."

The lone star only burned brighter.

Danny leaned against a tree in the park after capturing the Box Ghost for the fourth time that week. His face was clouded over in indecision and he was so lost in his own world that he didn't notice he had begun muttering to himself.

"…not tired yet…too early to go home…"

"Maybe I could just pop in real quick, I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

He looked up at the sky and a bright star twinkled its approval. He took it as a sign and smiled at the star as if it had been waiting to give him the answer all along. Then he looked down at himself and frowned. There were a few small scrapes and bruises, but nothing looking even remotely life-threatening.

"I don't even have a good excuse for bothering her," he scowled at the ground. "Fought ghosts all day and not one measly gash to show for it."

He glanced back at the star and it winked encouragingly. Slowly, the smile slid back onto his face. "It's not that late and she did say to stop by whenever." In his distraction he failed to notice that the star was laughing joyously overhead.

Danny was surprised to see her window already open when he arrived and it almost caused him to lose his nerve. But he shook his head, took a moment to steel himself, and peeked inside. Sam was in bed sound asleep. She had forgotten to turn off her lamp and it dimly illuminated her face and the soft smile that rested there. He drifted closer and watched her for a moment with a smile of his own drawing up the corners of his mouth. He didn't dare disturb her while she looked so peaceful, so he simply switched off her lamp and gave her one last lingering glance before drifting out of her window, just as silently as he had come.

He let the friendly star guide his way home and wondered what she might be dreaming about. For a few minutes, he entertained the idea that he was the reason she smiled in her sleep and was so caught up in his thoughts that he almost missed his house. He smiled sadly to himself, remembering what Sam had said about what an overactive imagination he had. He supposed she was right after all. But just before he went to bed, he looked back out his window at the star that had been so helpful to him tonight and made one last request…

The star smiled down on the two young people, each dreaming of the other, knowing that they held the power to make their own wishes come true and someday, they would.

Author's Notes:

Hey y'all! Thanks so much for reading my story! This is the first fan fiction I've ever posted (in fact, I think this is the first piece of writing I've ever posted period) and I'm so excited! I actually wrote this over a year ago and kept making excuses not to post it. I wanted it to be perfect, but if I wanted perfection, I'd be editing this forever. I finally decided to post it in honor of the end of Phanniemay.

Since this is my first fan fiction, reviews would be super helpful to me, so please, please, please review! Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated as I think it could really help me improve as a writer. I also have a question that I hope some of you will answer in the reviews: do you think Danny and Sam acted too ooc in this fic? I'm especially curious about whether or not y'all think Sam is more of a realist or a pessimist. I really want to do justice to these characters I've grown to love and want to know if I should change how they act to better suit their personalities in future stories.

Again, I'm so excited to be posting this after so long, and I hope to post more stories here in the future. Thank you again for reading!