Mossmask: Okay, DP is new territory for me. I've been trying to write in this fandom for weeks now but it just felt so awkard and I couldn't do it. Then last night, while I was eating dinner, sudden inspiration struck and I stared wrting like a woman possessed. I somehow went from being completely incapable of writing anything to... turning out this. Ah well. It was fun. And I'm exciting to finally be officially in this fandom!

Ah, also. This is pretty AU. It's not too far out compared to some of the AUs that I've seen in this fandom, and others, (they can get pretty whack-tastic. ._.), and for the most part conforms to canon. But there are a few prett big differences. As long as everyone's alright with that. =3

~Cya on the other side

Summary: Sam is new in Amity Park. She makes her first friends in Danny and Tucker on her first day at a new school, and learns very quickly that ghosts are an everyday occurence here in Amity Park. Soon after her arrival in town, however, there's a new ghost on the scene, who seems to different from all the others. Sam gets suspicious and starts trying to figure out the mystery behind Danny Phantom. But what happens when she figures out the secret... before Danny does?

The Goth and the Ghost

Danny Phantom fanfiction
by The Cinderninja

Chapter 1: New Goth in Town

Sam sighed quietly, violet eyes gazing outside the car window at the unfamiliar landscape that was passing by beyond the tinted glass. Dark purple fingernails tapped against the leather car door, just beneath the window. Frowning, she abruptly leaned back into her leather seat and closed her eyes. The sun had set just over an hour ago, and since they were driving through the country in "the middle of nowhere", there was nothing much to look at outside.

She could feel her fathers eyes on her as she pretended to sleep, but didn't acknowledge him. She was still angry at her parents, but especially her father. It was his fault she had to deal with this whole stupid move. She had to leave her whole life behind, just because of him getting some stupid job offer. She had friends back in New York. And she'd only had three days notice to say goodbye. She came home from school one day to find half of her stuff packed into boxes and her parents waiting for her at the table in the living room.

"Wait... what's going on here? Guys? Why's all my stuff packed away?"

"Oh, Sammy. I'm glad you're home. We're not going to have time to go through all of your stuff, so your going to have to pack yourself. We got started earlier today. You're going to have to be ready to leave by Friday." Her mother spoke without looking up from the paper she was reading. Her father didn't even acknowledge her.

"Pack? Leave? Why? Where are we going?" She demanded, growing angry. She hated it when her parents did this to her. Made big decisions without asking her. Talking to her. Without even telling her.

Her father looked up from the book he was reading,his eyes meeting her own for the first time. "I got a new job offer. It's a few states over. We're leaving on Friday. We should be settled in over the weekend. It's a small town called Amity Park. We've already settled things at the school there and you'll be starting on Monday, so you won't be missing any school." He explained calmly, before going back to reading.

Sam felt her heart skip a few beats. "...What? We're leaving the state and nobody bothered to tell me?"

"We're telling you now. Your father and I didn't even know until yesterday evening."

Clenching her fists, Sam suddenly spun around and grabbed her thick black jacket from where she had thrown it by the front door, and pulled it on over her purple corset. Without looking back, she shouted "I'm going out!" before storming out the front door. She took care to slam it behind her.

Twenty minutes later found her sitting cross legged on the reception desk at a small animal shelter tucked in between a second hand clothing store and an old fish and chips shop. She was staring at her clenched fists laying in her lap, otherwise unsure of what to do. She was too distracted by her own thoughts to notice as another girl came up behind her until she felt the hand on her shoulder, and jumped, startled.

"Sam? What're you doing here?" Jesse Cole, one of Sam's oldest friends. The two had met in third grade, fought until fifth, and then suddenly become inseparable by seventh. The two of them had started volunteering at the animal shelter together the summer before they started high school.

"I'm moving." She answered simply, still staring at her hands. "My parents didn't even tell me. But now my stuff's been packed away and we're just leaving. They didn't give me any time to... say goodbye to people."

"Ouch, that's harsh... It can't be that bad though, can it? Where are you moving to? Rochester? Albany?"

Sam shook her head, ignoring the black strands of hair that fell over her face. "Jesse, they're moving out of state. And I'm leaving in three days."

"...Oh." Her friend answered quietly.

"Yeah... I know." She muttered. "I think I might just stay. They probably wouldn't even notice. I could stay with you, right?" Looking up at Jesse for the first time, Sam grinned weakly.

"Sam..." Jesse smiled back, light brown hair falling just over her shoulders. She couldn't tell if her friend was joking or not. "My parents would kill us both. And you know yours would too."

Both girls laughed quietly, in that way people laugh when they know that nothing's really funny but want to convince themselves that there's nothing wrong. The slightly younger girl suddenly straightened up, and glanced over at her long-time best friend.

"Oh, Jesse, here... I've got something for you." She said, reaching inside her jacket and pulling out a plain white envelope. She handed it over and her friend took it knowingly. "My donation for this week... because I don't know if I'll have the chance to give it to you later."

Jesse nodded, pocketing the envelope. "I'll give this to Carrie when I see her..." Carrie was the woman who ran the animal shelter where both girls spent most of their time when they were off school. Sam had been in the habit, for a few months now, of giving Jesse her donation each week. Jesse would tell Carrie that it was from an 'anonymous donor', and that was that.

Sam had ended up spending that night at Jesse's house. She couldn't bring herself to go back to her own house yet and face her parents, and empty room. But especially her parents. She was still too angry with them for putting her through this. That turned out to be the last real "friend time" the two had together. Jesse's mom drove the two girls to the high school the next morning. They were sitting in class when Jesse was called down to the office near the end of the day. She called Sam later to explain. There was a family emergency – her grandmother was in the hospital, in critical condition. Her mother and her would be leaving town immediately. They had to watch the house for her, and make sure that all of her belongings were in order, or something like that.

Sam went straight home after school. Her parents didn't comment on her not coming home the night before. She went up to her room and packed in silence. She then sat on her bed and stared up at her ceiling, not wanting to see how hollow her room looked now.

Eventually, Sam managed to actually drift off into a real sleep, despite the vibrations the car continuously sent through her, knocking her head into the door a few times. She didn't wake up until a good few hours later, when her father opened her car door and shook her shoulder.

She opened one eye but didn't move. "What?" She growled, glaring up at him.

"We're here, Sam. Your bed is setup. You can go sleep inside the house now while we finish setting the furniture up. Remember, you have school in the morning."

"... Whatever." Sam muttered, unbuckling her seatbelt and shoving her father aside, pausing to stare up at their new house. "Great." She muttered sarcastically. It was even bigger then the one they'd had in New York, and far... tackier. That was all Sam could pin it as at the moment. Although, it was actually a fairly old house, and it actually looked pseudo-Gothic, if you squinted. She supposed it could look good, with some work.

That in mind, she skulked into the house and eventually found her way to her own room. Her bed was made, with light pink bedsheets and a lavender comforter. She hesitated for a second, before shrugging. She was too exhausted to care right now. She'd fix it in the morning. She didn't bother looking through the boxes for her pyjamas, and kicked off her boots. She pulled of her sweater, corset and skirt, and crawled into bed. She was asleep almost instantly.

"There's going to be a new student in our class, starting today. This is Samantha Manson."

"It's Sam." She muttered darkly, staring out at the class before her. It all seemed average. There were jocks fooling off in the back of the room, a few nerds near the front actually taking notes. A worryingly large number of those annoying things she had come to know as 'valley girls'. Gossiping, ignoring the teacher, gossiping, reading magazines, and gossiping. Average. There was one girl sitting completely on her own in the back of the room reading a book and avoiding everyone else, and two boys who looked even more average then everyone else.

So average that they couldn't even get their own classification. Not average jocks, not average nerds, not average geeks, not average loners, not average anything. Just average boys. She shuddered at the complete lack of individuality in this classroom. At least in New York, there had been plenty 'individuality'. Even if sometimes it was a little on the weird side, even by her standards.

"Samantha, I believe there's an empty seat next to Daniel."

One of the average boys waved. Sam groaned.

"Hi!" He grinned as Sam took her seat. "I'm Danny."

"...Sam." Sam offered back, after deciding against making a sarcastic remark. Just because she was mad at her parents, she shouldn't be a jerk to everyone she met at school. Give the average boys a chance. She scolded herself. She returned his grin reluctantly, then turned to face the front of the class as the teacher started speaking again.

By the time lunch finally came, Sam was tired and hungry and sick of her new school. Nothing interesting had happened, most of the teachers were jerks, and the work was boring. True, most of the teachers were jerks at her old school, and schoolwork was always boring, but her opinions were tainted with that I-already-hate-it bias that makes everything seem worse.

She had stuffed her backpack and her sweater into her new locker once she found it, and was now carrying her lunchbag down the hallway to the cafeteria. She started packing her own lunches years ago. Cafeteria food was disturbing, and her parents kept packing her gross things because they refused to acknowledge recyclo-vegetarian as a real thing.

She was passing by the girls restroom when she paused, listening to the snippets of conversation floating out the open door.

"Have you met that creepy new girl yet?"

"Eew, that Sam girl? Yeah. She's spooky."

"I know. I have to sit next to her in Math. She-" both girls cut off abruptly as Sam stormed in, glaring at them, and turned around to face the mirror. The Latino pulled out a tube of lip gloss and the blond, who'd been talking when Sam came in, pretended to start adjusting a flower in her hair.

"Hey, I'm not deaf, you know! And I'm not-" Sam stopped talking herself when the lights suddenly flickered off. "...What?" She wondered when they came back on. Before she could keep talking though, the lights flickered again, before suddenly all popping off at once with a shower of sparks. The stall door at the end of the room was flung open with a bang as it slammed against the wall.

The two other girls exchanged a look before staring at Sam. "How are you doing that?" the blond asked.

"She's crazy! Come on Star, let's get out of here!"

"Wait, it's not-" Sam stared after them, but the other girls had already left. She hesitated, staring into he shadows at the far end of the bathroom, and back at the bathroom door. Pulling her lunchbag up to her chest, she cautiously took a few more steps forward into the darkness.

"Hello...?" She called. "Is anyone back here?" She had to hold her hands out in front of her to keep from walking into anything, because she was so far into the shadows now that she couldn't even see a foot in front of her face. She grabbed onto the corner of the stall and poked her head inside, squinting.

She couldn't see anything in the dark, and was finally starting to back away as her 'freak out' instinct kicked it, a little late. As she turned around to run back to the door, she felt some sort of hand close around her ankle. She let out a surprised yelp as it pulled her over and she banged her elbows on the floor, but quickly shut her mouth and glared into the dark. She thought she could see a pair of glowing green eyes, but it was hard to see clearly.

She kicked off with her other foot and ran for the door as soon as her ankle was free. "Watch it, creep!" She shouted back to the 'empty' bathroom as she shoved the door open.

"Uh... sorry?" Danny stood directly in front of her, looking startled. His friend, Tucker, as Sam had learned earlier, stood a few feet behind him.

"Danny? What are you doing here?" She wondered, closing the door behind her and eyeing it suspiciously.

"Um... well, Paulina and Star said that some sort of ghost attacked you..." He trailed off. That wasn't exactly the truth. It had gone more along the lines of Paulina and Star running into the lunchroom and shouting about how the creepy Goth chick had summoned some sort of ghost in the bathroom when they were trying to do their makeup.

"Did they." She muttered darkly. Danny flinched.

"I, um... just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"And that there was really a ghost." Tucker added. "The usually just make up reasons to call his parents, because it always ends badly. We usually get the rest of the day off school!" He added, grinning.

"Wait... what do Danny's parents have to do with this?" She asked, staring at the two of them blankly.

"Well... my... uh-"

"His parents are professional ghost hunters." Tucker cut in enthusiastically, looking pleased. Danny looked mortified, and it only got worse when Sam burst out laughing. He buried his face in his hands groaning.

Sam paused and looked up. "...Oh. You're serious."

Danny nodded slowly. "So, I guess it was nothing?" He muttered hopefully.

"...What?"

"In the bathroom." Danny added, pointing over her shoulder. "That was just Paulina and Star lying about you and trying to embarrass me, right?" he sounded hopeful.

"Well, actually..." Sam frowned. "It was pretty weird. All the lights went out, and some shadow grabbed me. But... I dunno if it was ghost weird. It could have just been some kids trying to play a prank, couldn't it?"

Danny actually looked surprised, and frowned. "No, that... sounds like ghosts." He admitted, sounding defeated. He pushed the door open a crack and peered into the blackness. He couldn't make anything out anyway and it seriously gave him the creeps, so he shut the door again. "I, uh... I guess we should call my parents." He groaned.

It wasn't until after they showed up that Sam finally understood why Danny was so reluctant to have them come to the school. She couldn't decide whose were worse, hers or his. "Ugh, parents." She shuddered. Tucker was right, the rest of the school ended up getting sent home. Everyone, that is, but Sam, Paulina, and Star. Danny's parents had weird equipment set up all over the hallway, focusing on and inside of the girls bathroom.

Danny and Tucker had fled the scene as soon as his parents had first shown up. Sam had been pretty bitter about being ditched at first, but admittedly, she'd probably have done the same. Besides, they'd barely known each other for a day, it was hardly as if they should have a sense of loyalty yet. They were barely considered friends. That, and the fact that his parents were probably scarier than the actual ghost.

"Okay kids, we want you to tell us exactly what happened." Jack Fenton said, interrogating the three girls on the ghost attack while Maddie tended to the equipment. Sam groaned.

"Well, we were like, in the bathroom minding our own business, when this creepy girl comes in, and just starts yelling at us. Then all the lights went off and she like, summoned this ghost with her weird witch magic!" Paulina surmised, waving her hands to emphasize her point.

"Yeah, it was like, totally creepy! She walked in and all the lights blew up! I mean, I though she was trying to kill us or something!" Star added.

"It was soo scary!" Paulina whined.

Sam rolled her eyes. Jack looked dead serious, and started mumbling something about 'witch magic', before turning to Sam. "So, how did you summon the ghost?" He asked, the suddenness and loudness of the question making her jump and almost knocking her over.

"I didn't summon the stupid ghost!" She growled, annoyed. "I walked in and the lights all broke, and these two ran away." She said, jerking her thumb at the other two girls. They glared back at her. "The one stall door opened, so I walked back there to see if there was anyone there. Then someone grabbed my ankle. I kicked them off and left." Jack was staring at her intently. "It was probably just some kid playing a prank." She added, clearly creeped out by him. She decided it was probably best not to mention the glowing green eyes, especially since she wasn't even sure if she'd actually seen them.

He looked like he was about to say something more when Maddie returned, cutting him off. "Jack, honey, can you go find out if the school has any cameras in the stalls?" Sam blinked. Did she seriously just ask that? In any case, Jack nodded enthusiastically and ran off.

Sam looked up at Maddie, frowning. "Uh, I already told him everything. Can I please just leave now?" For the first time, Paulina and Star agreed with her.

"Of course not, girls!" Maddie answered cheerfully. "You still need to go through decontamination!"

Two hours later found a soaking wet, freezing cold, miserable Sam walking home. She was, however, still smiling vindictively to herself. This may or ma not have been due to the fact that she knew Paulina and Star would be in the exact same situation as herself right now.

Finally finding her way back to the new house, she looked up at it, getting her first real look in daylight. Sighing, she shook her head. "It could have been worse. A lot worse." she decided. Walking up the front steps, the opened the front door and tossed her jacket aside. A quick look around told her her parents were nowhere to be seen, and she climbed the stairs up to her bedroom.

Dropping her spider-shaped backpack by her bedroom door, she decided to start unpacking some of her clothes. Two days was enough, and she didn't want to be stuck in the same outfit for three days in a row – especially now that it was soaking wet. Half an hour later, she was dried off and changed into a black and purple tanktop, a new skirt, and new purple stockings, and all of her clothes had been unpacked and put away. She was finally able to remake her bed with her black sheets. She also had deep violet pillow covers with black and silver spiderweb patters across them.

Stepping back and grinning at her work – it was finally starting to feel a bit like her bedroom now – she decided to sit down and pull her schoolwork out. Sitting on her bed with her books spread out around her, she couldn't help but smile to herself. Something eventful had definitely happened at school today, Danny had turned out to be not-so-average-after-all, and glancing down at the book she was assigned in English, The Madwoman in the Attic, she had to admit that even the schoolwork might not be so boring. Gothic and feminist. Although she had already read the book, that was over a year ago. She would like having the chance to reread it.

Maybe this move wouldn't be so bad after all.

Mossmask: Well, okay. To be honest, this looked a lot better in OpenOffice with Times New Roman 10.5 font. It just looks so clean and tidy there. As soon as I posted this I started feeling nervous again. Ugh. I'm apparently having confidence issues withmy first foray into a new fandom, so constructive critisizm is greatly appreciated... As well as positive feedback...! xD

~Dash Out!