Of Ghost Boys and Willow Trees Chapter 1, a danny phantom fanfic

Author's Notes: Hi and welcome to my first foray into the world of writing Danny Phantom fanfiction. If you catch any major mistakes, please let me know. It's been a long time since I've seen an episode of DP, so my knowledge is a little bit rusty!

A long dotted line of sorts in the middle of a chapter indicates a POV change, which I've also labeled to help make things clearer.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or anything else you recognize.

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Sam's POV.

"Leave me alone!" I yelled as I slammed the door—my door—shut. I threw myself on the bed and pulled the jet black comforter over my head. At least it was familiar; a partial antidote to the disease that was this new place. I'd have cried if I weren't so mad, but my blood was boiling in my veins and I wanted to scream until my throat was raw. I hated my new room, hated my new house, hated my new town, hated my parents, hated everything.

Less than a week ago I had been home in Virginia, in a town full of people like me. Sure, being Goth had been a bit uncommon there, but not so much that I was the only one, and a good portion of the population were ultra-recyclo-vegetarians, like me. Here, in Amity Park, it seemed that bright colors and meat were all the rage. We'd gone on a driving tour a month ago while house hunting and I'll admit I'd been a little bit impressed at first. The town had a scary-movie look to it, with weeping willows everywhere and a fog-enshrouded lake at the local park. But as the tour continued, I quickly realized that I hadn't seen one animal shelter, vegetarian restaurant, or recycling bin anywhere. I had seen a lot of barbeque joints and random litter though, and all of the teenagers I saw were dressed in either football or cheerleading uniforms. The rest of the tour was downhill from there—the more I saw of the town, the less interested in moving I became. My parents didn't care about my opinion though; we were moving no matter what. My dad had a new job offer, one where he'd make even more money than he already did, and that was that. We packed up our stuff and landed in the middle of my worst nightmare. I missed my friends and I didn't want to 'make new ones' like my dad had suggested. I just wanted to go home.

I knew whining like a spoiled brat and exiling myself to my room wasn't going to change anything, but it was all I could do. I couldn't bear to give in to my parents and do what they wanted—it wasn't in my nature. They'd always wanted me to be their pretty little girl in pink, but I wasn't interested in playing that role. I have always stayed true to myself, and moving here wasn't going to change anything. So I'd made up my mind: I wasn't going to cooperate. I was going to ignore my parents, stay in my room, and mind my own business. I wasn't going to go to a new school, wasn't going to talk to our new neighbors, wasn't going to do anything other than sit in my room in protest. I'd stay in there until I turned eighteen if I had to, and then I would move out and back home to Virginia.

After a few minutes, my anger subsided a bit and I realized that I was bored already, but there wasn't anything I could do. Our internet connection wasn't hooked up yet, and I couldn't text my friends because they were in school. I snatched a random book off my bookshelf and began reading, not really absorbing any of it. It was going to be a long day.

Meanwhile, across town (Danny's POV)…

"Take that! And that! Ha-ha, gotcha!" Tucker laughed as he rapidly mashed buttons on his handheld game system.

"What are you playing?" I asked, taking a bite of my cheeseburger. It was lunchtime at Casper High, and I was bored out of my mind.

"Monsters vs. Dinosaurs Universe Battle VI Gold Edition!" he blurted, not taking his eyes off the game.

"Oh," I replied, shrugging. I hadn't even played Battle IV yet. I picked at my fries for a few minutes before I tried again. "So, have you started your history report yet?"

"Um—uh… Wha…" Tucker stammered, fingers flying. He was my best friend, but sometimes he could really get on my nerves. He loved his technology more than anything else, and right now he was lost to the real world. I gave up and tuned into the loud conversation coming from two tables over; the popular crowd.

"So, have you heard about the new family that moved in?" I heard Paulina ask.

"No," Kwan replied.

"Yeah, well they moved into my neighborhood and they're really weird," Paulina continued. "My mom dragged me over there to meet them yesterday, and they weren't very friendly. They said they have a daughter, but I never saw her. They kept yelling for her to come down and say hello, but she never showed up."

"That is, like totally weird!" Star chimed in.

"As if this town needs another freak show," Paulina replied, casting a glance toward our table. I quickly looked away and began picking at my food again.

So there was a new family in Amity Park? It had been a long time since anyone new had moved here. I wondered if they really did have a daughter and if she would be coming to school anytime soon.

"Hey Tuck..." I began, but was cut off by the loud buzzing of the bell. Lunch was over. Tucker shut off his video game and heaved his backpack over one shoulder.

"See you after school, Danny," he said, before heading out of the cafeteria. We didn't have any classes together in the afternoon. I dumped by tray in the garbage can and hurried to my next class.

The rest of the day passed quickly, and so did rumors about the new family that had moved in. By the time the dismissal bell had rung, I had heard everything from 'they're perfectly normal people who moved here from Australia' to 'they're famous movie stars whose teen daughter is pregnant and they moved here to keep it a secret'. Even some of the teachers got in on the gossiping. Thankfully, Mr. Lancer helped calm the rumor mill down when he said the girl would be coming to class the next day. I couldn't imagine what the truth would turn out to be, but I knew I'd find out soon…

The following week (still Danny's POV)…

…or not. Last week had passed quickly, and the new girl still hadn't shown up. The rumors, however, had grown; now the family was made up of super-secret spies who had moved here as part of the Witness Protection Program, and the daughter was expecting triplets.

On Friday, I couldn't take it anymore. As we were walking toward my house after school, I brought it up to Tucker.

"Hey, do you want to go try to meet the new family everyone's been talking about?" I asked him.

"Why?" he asked.

"I don't know. Haven't you heard all the rumors? I just wonder what's really going on," I replied.

"Since when do you care about rumors?" Tuck asked.

"I don't know… What if they're up to something ghost-related?" I asked, hoping to hook him.

"Has your ghost-sense been going off or something?" he asked.

"No, but…" I stammered. Really, I had no logical reason to be so interested in this new family. I just couldn't help but wonder what they were like, or if they even existed at all. Maybe they were just a figment of Paulina's imagination. "I guess I just want to see what they're like. So do you want to go?"

"I don't know. I still have to do my history report, and I'd really like to finish Monsters vs. Dinosaurs Universe Battle VI Gold Edition today," Tuck said.

"Okay, okay. Fine, let's just go to my house," I gave in. We continued walking in silence.

Tucker hung out for about an hour before he decided to go home. He said I was being boring, but really I was just preoccupied with making plans. I'd made up my mind; as soon as it was dark, I was going to go ghost and fly around until I found the new family's house. I had a pretty good idea of where it was—according to Paulina, it was three houses down from hers on the left. I'd just take a quick look to satisfy my curiosity and get out. No harm done.

Please review and let me know what you think! Thanks. Future chapters should be longer. By the way, does anyone know what an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian actually is? I'm a vegetarian and I like recycling, so does that make me one? :) Anyway, the next chapter should be up soon!