Eleven-year old Tucker Foley raced down the street to his best friend Danny Fenton's house with a large smile on his face. He was eager to show him the newest piece of technology his parents had bought for him.
The Fenton Works sign gleamed in the daylight, no doubt Mr. and Mrs. Fenton were down in the basement doing more ghost research. Last time he was there Danny had told him that they were working on a ghost portal, to go into a place called the Ghost Zone.
Tucker scoffed. As if they'd actually succeed, everyone knows there's no such things as ghosts. Danny laughed along with him, sharing his friend's opinion on the matter.
Danny also told him that his parents were even working on jumpsuits for himself and Jazz, to use when they got older to hunt the very beings. Tucker laughed when Danny said he wouldn't be caught dead in one of those.
Tucker finally reached the porch steps, heaving deeply. He'd always preferred technology over athletics, or any kind of exercise in general.
Finally catching his breath, he rang the doorbell. Mrs. Fenton answered the door, pulling her jumpsuit hood back to peer at him with friendly violet eyes.
"Tucker! Come in, Danny's in his room!" She smiled. "I'll be in the lab with Jack, those ghosts won't stop us now!" She raised her fist in the air victoriously before bouncing away.
Tucker shook his head with a smile. He walked up the stairs and made the short trek into Danny's room.
"Hey, man," he greeted, walking inside. "You have to see what my parents got me!"
"And what my parents got me," his raven-haired friend frowned. He held out his hands, showcasing a gerbil. It was small, with light brown fur, and with big, depthless black eyes.
"I ask them over and over for a puppy, and they get me a gerbil." Danny shook his head. "Still," he brightened, using his index finger to pet it's head. "It's better than no pet at all."
"What's his name?" Tucker asked, momentarily forgetting about what originally brought him here.
"I named him Eddie. Wanna hold him?" Danny asked.
Tucker nodded, he'd never had a pet before, so the thought of holding an animal piqued his curiosity. If he tried petting a dog on the street they'd growl at him. He held out his hands, letting Danny carefully deposit Eddie into them.
"I'm gonna go call Sam, I'll be right back." Danny got off the bed, walking to the door. "Stupid parents not getting me a cell phone," Tucker heard him grumble under his breath.
"You're pretty cute," he smiled as Eddie began scratching his face with his tiny paws.
"Soft too," he commented as he rubbed his fur.
"You know what you need?" Tucker asked, not expecting an answer. "A treat!"
He looked around, finding some sort of bowl or bag for gerbil treats. Next to Eddie's cage, he spotted a small bowl of almonds.
"Aha!" Tucker grinned, putting Eddie down on the bed. "Now don't move, I'll be right back!"
He got off the bed, walking over to Eddie's cage. Peeking inside, he saw a small hut for to sleep in, a water bottle on the side of the cage, a food bowl, a clear tube to walk through, and a small wheel. Tucker wanted to see him on the wheel some time, knowing it'd probably be funny.
Picking up a few almonds from the bowl, he walked back to the bed and sat down.
crunch
Tucker's blood instantly ran cold. Horrified, he jumped up and looked down upon Eddie's unmoving form.
"E-Eddie?" Tucker squeaked. "Eddie?" He poked him with a finger on his back.
No response.
"Oh no," Tucker whispered fearfully. "Eddie? Come on, do something! Eat!" He tried getting him to eat an almond, to not avail.
"Oh please don't be dead," he pleaded. "Please don't be dead!" He poked his back a couple more times but it was no use.
Eddie was dead.
"Oh man, oh man!" His eyebrows were raised in a combination of worry and fear. "If Eddie's dead, then I'm dead!" Danny had wanted a pet since they were in preschool, and he killed the first one he had! Granted, it was an accident, but he doubted that an apology would fix his best friend's broken heart. How could he tell him that he accidentally sat on (and killed) his gerbil?!
Danny was a calm guy, he always had his emotions in check. But sometimes, that temper of his would escape him, and it was never good for whoever was on the receiving end of that anger.
Danny knew where Tucker lived, he knew all his deepest darkest secrets, like the time in second grade when he threw up in Sam's lunchbox. He had an arsenal of weapons just waiting for their triggers to be pulled.
"What I am gonna do?" Tucker panicked. "What am I gonna do?!"
He stopped as he heard footsteps coming up the steps, swearing that his heart stopped beating. He was only eleven, he didn't want to die yet! There was much more technology waiting to be in his hands, he didn't kiss a cheerleader yet!
The footsteps were coming closer. Tucker didn't think as he picked up Eddie's limp form, opened the door to his cage and laid him on the floor.
"Hey," Danny smiled, coming in the room. "Sam said she'd be here in about ten minutes...Tuck? Are you okay?"
"Uh, I'm fine! Great!" Tucker gave an unconvincing smile, looking anywhere but at Danny's eyes. What once were calm light blue eyes became piercing instruments used to look into his soul.
"Okay," Danny raised an eyebrow, suspicious. "Hey, where's Eddie?"
"I put him back in his cage, he was tired," Tucker replied quickly. He clenched his sweating hands into fists.
"Hm," Danny muttered as he looked inside the cage, eyeing Eddie's unmoving body. Tucker could feel the sweat rolling down his neck. "I guess he was tired from all the playing today." Danny finally decided, causing his best friend to give a mental sigh of relief.
"I'm sure he'll be up soon," he smiled, looking at Tucker. "Then we can put him in the ball my parents got me. He'll be rolling all over the room!" He chuckled.
"Um, about that," Tucker frowned, biting his lip. "I gotta go home."
"But you just got here," Danny protested. "And Sam's on her way! We were gonna watch-"
"My parents called, they need me back home, sorry!" With that Tucker grabbed his new PDA and ran quickly out of the room, down the stairs, and out the door.
"Oof! Tucker!" Sam bit out angrily, starting to get up from the ground. "Why were you running out of Danny's house like that? We were supposed to watch-"
"Can't! Gotta go home, sorry!" Tucker hurriedly answered, standing up and running down the street.
"Boys are so weird," Sam wrinkled her nose. "I still can't believe my two best friends are them."
A/N: I named Eddie after Timmy's gerbil from the one Fairly OddParents episode. As for the puppy Danny had always wanted, that came from the episode 'Fanning the Flames,' at the part when Sam was in a love-spell stricken Danny's room.