"Danny?" his mother asks from the kitchen, "When is Sam coming over? I want to know what kind of salad she wants tonight." Danny cringed at Sam's name. For some reason his mother thought they were still friends. Even though it's been almost a year since she was at Fenton-residence. "Mom, Sam isn't coming for Christmas. We aren't friends anymore, she ditched me." "Oh nonsense Danny, of course you're friends. You should invite her!" his mom angrily responded. "You aren't dating Paulina anymore, so I'm sure she would love to come." "No mom, after Paulina and I broke up she didn't come back and she doesn't even talk to Tuck anymore. So stop blaming Paulina for everything!" Danny yelled as he walked out of the house to relieve his anger. He knew how stupid he had been dating Paulina. But that didn't mean his mom or everybody else should keep reminding him how he had been wrong and they had been right.
He changed his form from Fenton to Phantom and took off to the sky, letting the cold winter-air stream trough his hair. He sighed, thinking about this Christmas. It would be even worse than the years before. Not only did he break up the hottest girl in school over two months ago, which meant another dateless Christmas, but also it would be the first Christmas in years without Sam. Not to mention his parents, who were still arguing about the existence of Santa Claus. He started to fly faster, trying to forget all the negative thoughts. He had only a few hours left till Christmas Eve started and he needed to be happy again when dinner started, or at least be able to act a little joyful. He sighed again and started to release his anger and grief by shooting ectoplasm at the innocent clouds above him. He didn't really care about Paulina or his parents, but he missed Sam. It angered him that she left him and it saddened him that their friendship was over. He flew in circles above the city, thinking about what went with their, what he had to be, everlasting friendship.
Last year, at the start of junior year, things were starting to get worse between Sam and him. Sam started to walk away very sudden every time he talked about his injuries or the girls he liked. So when he caught on to this, he stopped talking about these subjects when she was around. At least as much as possible. When he was injured badly due to the many ghost-fights he had, Sam was still the one to patch him up. During these times both hardly spoke to each other. She would just focus on nursing him and he would try to hide the pain he was in. After she was done, she just packed her first aid supplies and returned to what she was doing before he had come to her for help. At first he was surprised by this reaction and still tried to make small talk, but when she just responded stiffly, he gave up and went home.
On the Mondays Sam would ask him and Tuck about the dates they had had that weekend. These dates were starting to be a lot more usual during junior year as they both had an increase in height and muscles. Especially Danny was popular with the girls and for some reason that bothered Sam. When Tucker would tell about his date, she was always honest when she didn't like the girl, but was also happy if he had a good time. Tucker soon realized that Sam's objections to his dates were earned, and cancelled his second dates every time Sam explained why she didn't see eye to eye with the girl he was dating. With Danny's dates however it was different. She didn't gave an honest opinion about them or advice, instead she reacted coldly and distant. Although Sam tried to hide it, Danny noticed Sam happy when the date had failed and grumpy or sad when he had planned a second date.
After New Year's Eve, Paulina suddenly took interest in Danny, the friendship between Sam and Danny was practically over. When Paulina came near, Sam was gone. Whenever Paulina wasn't around she asked Danny how he couldn't see how shallow she was or just didn't talk to him at all. Tucker told him after a week that he was okay with Paulina as long as Danny was happy, but he had no right to ditch his friends for her. Danny agreed and made time for just him, Tuck and Sam. But Sam never came anymore. Tucker told Danny that she also cancelled their plans, every time with the same excuse: she was too busy. So Tuck and Danny both hang out with Paulina and her friends, while Sam was even during lunch break nowhere to be found. One time Danny saw her in the library doing her homework. After he caught the ghost that threw him into the library, he asked her why she didn't join them. She had looked tired, no exhausted when she replied, telling him that she had homework to do and that she would see him later. But they almost never did. Even when fighting the stronger ghosts, she didn't respond to his calls anymore. She just disappeared out of their life.
Danny looked at his watch and saw that dinner would start in a half hour. He realized that the flight hadn't calmed him down. It had just made things worse. He cursed himself for letting his thoughts wander to Sam, something he had tried to avoid for months. Within ten minutes he landed in an alley near his house and transformed back to his human self. He walked to the front door and wiped away the tears that had started to fall. He opened the door and looks at the decorated living room where everybody was chatting joyful. He sighed; he would just have to deal with the worst Christmas of his live. Little did he know, it would soon be far worse.