Remember ispacey's Grey Ghost week from like a year ago? Yeah, here's my contribution to the College AU day, even though, again, it's not so much shipping as character interaction.

Ghosts may or may not be real in this universe.

Prend

March 20, 2016

n; a mended crack

"Ugh," Tucker groaned, dropping his oversized paperback onto the rickety wooden table and following it headfirst. "I hate Lit."

Danny looked up from his makeshift study corner on the couch. "That's what you get for putting off your gen eds until junior year," he pointed out with a grin.

"Yeah, yeah," Tucker mumbled from his book. "You think you're so smart…"

Danny snorted. "Right," he drawled. "You've known Jazz forever. When I barely pulled out a B minus in Great Books, I'm not going to try to call myself smart. I'm just saying that if you'd taken it freshman year like I did…" He pulled the cap of an orange highlighter off in his mouth long enough to make a quick note and then snap it closed again, "… it would be over by now. And you could be worrying about bigger stuff. Like Physics," he said, making a face. "Physics and Calculus. Can't believe we have assignments before normal classes even start," he grumbled.

"Hey, man," Tucker said, coming out of his book again. "I'd rather take that than read Crime and Punishment. It like… is the punishment."

"And your crime's… what?" Danny asked amusedly as he turned the page of his textbook.

"My criminal good looks," Tucker shot back immediately, turning around in his chair to grin at Danny from across the room.

Danny snorted. "Yeah, right. More like it's your punishment for coming to this school in the first place."

"Yeah," Tucker said slowly, tapping his fingers on the back of his chair. "And why is that again?"

Danny looked up to glare at his friend.

"Tucker grinned right back at him. "Hey, Sam came too. Not like it's a total bust," he said. "Besides, there are new girls on campus every semester. One of these days, my luck will turn," he decided, stretching his arms up toward the ceiling before crossing them behind his head.

Danny laughed. "Dude, you only wish."

"Hey!" Tucker protested, but before he could get any further into one of his well rehearsed rantings, Danny interrupted him with a glance to the clock.

"Hey, where is Sam anyway?" he asked, frowning, "I only agreed to study until she got back…"

Tucker clicked a button on his PDA, pulling up the home screen with the atomically accurate time, and made a face. "Man, she's late!" he exclaimed. "If I find out she was doing this on purpose, I'm going to…" he growled under his breath as he picked up the PDA and hit her speed dial key.

"She's not answering," he said, ending the call and pulling the device away to redial. "Ugh, come on," he said, jabbing at the buttons.

Tucker jumped when he heard the beginning of the familiar ringtone coming from behind them, and they both turned toward the front door just in time to see Sam barge through.

"Sam!" Tucker gasped, pulling the phone away and stuffing it into one of the many pockets of his cargo pants as he stood up.

"Where have you been?" Danny groused, finally closing his textbook and pushing up from the couch, but stopping short once he got a better look at Sam. "And… uh…" he trailed off.

"… what is that?" Tucker asked in alarm.

Sam appeared to be wrestling with an armful of green… something… in her hands, but the big smile on her face made it look like she wasn't actually in any danger.

She rearranged the thing again and Danny and Tucker were surprised to see a face and nose and floppy ears emerge from underneath the crook of one arm. It wasn't until it gave a short yip that they realized what they were looking at.

"Is that…?" Danny began.

"That… that can't be a dog," Tucker said, stepping around his chair to warily move forward a couple steps. "It's… it's green," he said.

"I know," she gushed, reaching down to grab him again when he tried to escape from her hold once more. "Stupid owners thought it was okay to use toxic dye on the poor guy and it'll take months to wear off. But isn't he absolutely adorable?"

"Uh, okay," Tucker allowed slowly, "but…"

"But why do you have him?"

She stared between them like they were complete idiots.

"Oh no," Tucker denied. "Oh no, oh no, oh no. Tell me you did not…" he broke off, pulling his hands down his face as he turned around in a circle. "You totally stole him, didn't you?" Didn't you?" he pressed.

"I did not steal him," she protested, huffing indignantly. Tucker started to calm down until she corrected him. "I rescued him."

"You have got to stop doing this!" Tucker said. "We're all gonna get in so much trouble when they find out-"

Sam's eyes narrowed and she shoved out her hands. Suddenly, Tucker was holding an armful of scraggly, bony, excited puppy licking his face.

It took all of about five seconds to start laughing, "Stop, stop it!" as the dog slobbered all over his chin. Then he was petting the puppy behind the ears.

"And that takes care of that," Sam said to Danny with a smirk.

"No, seriously though, Sam," Danny said. "You didn't just pick him up out of someone's yard, did you?"

"Nah," he waved his fears away. "I mean, I did last week when he was wrapped up in his chain and nothing but skin and bone," she said, eyes glinting hard. "But I took him to the shelter in town, got animal cruelty involved, paid for the vet and everything. Told them I'd take the little guy if no one stepped up to adopt him by today. And," she crossed her arms and watched Tucker wrestling the puppy for kisses. "They called this afternoon and said he was all mine."

"You… do remember that we're not allowed to have pets in the campus housing, right?" Danny asked hesitantly, wondering if it was too late to go back to the shelter and explain the situation.

But Sam didn't seem worried at all. "So?" she asked.

"…so?" Danny repeated incredulously. "So now you're trying to sneak a puppy in and out of the building several times a day and think no one will notice?"

"Sure," she shrugged. "Why not?"

"Why not?" he asked dumbly. "Um, well how about the fact that he's a dog and he'll bark?"

The puppy yapped again and Danny pointed over with both hands as it proved his point. "See?" And you'll have to take him out all the time and geez, Sam, you can't have a dog."

"Oh, why not, Danny?" Tucker asked before returning his attention to the squiggling puppy in his arms, cooing, "Who's a good boy? Oh yeah that's right, you're a good boy."

"Aw, Tucker, come on, just a minute ago you were on my side of this!" Danny exclaimed in dismay.'

"Yeah," Tucker admitted. "But look at how cute he is!" he crooned, flopping back the dog's ears to cradle its face. "Does this cute boy have a name?" he asked Sam without taking his eyes away from the puppy in his hands.

"It's Cujo," Sam said.

"Cujo?" Danny asked incredulously. "Like the Stephen King dog of the underworld Cujo?"

"That's the one," she said.

"Cujo!" Tucker took up the name immediately. "Who's a good boy, Cujo, who's a- whoa!" he broke off as Cujo shot out of his arms, bowling him over as he started running around the room, barking as he romped between pieces of furniture in their small sitting room.

Tucker rolled over to get his bearings and started chasing after the runaway dog, who started curiously exploring the room. The sniffing was fine, but then he found the leg of a chair and started chomping down on it with his sharp teeth.

"Hey!" Danny protested. "No, Cujo! Bad dog, no biting!" He tried to shoo him away from the college owned furniture but then Cujo whimpered and squirmed underneath the couch, his big brown eyes shining in the shadows.

Danny started feeling bad until Cujo realized that he was right next to the foot of the couch and he could start gnawing on that, too.

"Gah! No," he said. "Stop destroying the furniture!"

He turned back for some assistance. "Sam, Tucker, come on, help me with this! I don't have money to pay fines for your stupid dog…"

"Cujo's not stupid," Sam retorted sharply. "He's just been mistreated and probably badly trained."

"Well then you gotta get on this training thing so that he doesn't wreck our room!" Danny shot back.

"Fine," Sam huffed before she knelt down. "Get out of the way," she said, swapping at his legs until he stepped aside.

She clapped her hands against the shag carpet. "Come on, Cujo, come on, boy. That's it," she coaxed, "Who's a good boy?"

Cujo started wagging his tail and continued happily making woodchips out of the college's furniture.

"Sam," Danny groaned. "It's not working."

"Maybe if we open the door, he'll want to go outside," Tucker suggested.

Danny and Sam both turned around at the same time, shouting, "No!" with outstretched arms, but it was too late and Tucker had already flung the door open. They swung back to see where Cujo was, but a green blur was already speeding past them into freedom, barreling down the steps and sidewalk as they scrambled to the door.

"Great going, Tuck," Sam said.

Tucker threw up his hands defensively. "Hey, how was I supposed to know your dog would run off faster than a speeding bullet?"

"Ugh," Danny smacked one hand against he door frame and pushed off to follow.

It wasn't hard to see the small green shape as it crossed the street and started passing all of the small campus owned houses toward the dorms.

"Cujo!" he yelled, attracting the attention of everyone walking across the outskirts of campus.

Which, given that normal classes wouldn't start until the next day and the weather had turned beautiful after a morning of rain, was a lot of people. Some of them laughed at the parade, others turning at the noise just in time to get bowled over by the energetic dog who seemed to enjoy running between the legs of every cluster of people in front of him in order to make good on his escape.

"Cujo, come back here!" Danny shouted, but he realized that the dog either didn't know his new name yet, or really didn't care.

He tried to put on a burst of speed, but there was a reason he hadn't joined the track team. And this dog could really go. Danny swore as Cujo turned the corner and tried to correct his course in time to make the curve himself.

He came out of the blind turn with just enough time to realize that there was no way to avoid a collision with the dark skinned girl in front of him.

Cujo hadn't, either, apparently, because she was kneeling on the sidewalk, reaching after the scattered belongings of a now-soggy cardboard box that had been overturned on the pavement. A trail of clothes dragged through the mud after the runaway dog…

Danny tried to pull up, but as he desperately pin wheeled, arms flailing, he realized there was nowhere to go. It was just a choice of running into the girl or running over her stuff.

"Incoming!" he yelled, all but falling past her.

He winced as his foot came down hard on something that crunched beneath his foot. "Sorry!" he gasped, but the damage was already done. He tried to correct his course anyway, throwing out his next step onto the grass instead, but his foot caught in one of the brightly colored pieces of clothing and it slipped on the slick rain-soaked grass, sending him sprawling face first into the mud beside the curb.

The wind was knocked out of him with an "oomph," and he was unable to breathe for a few moments as he collected himself.

Groaning, he eventually pushed himself up only to see Cujo just a few feet away, happily playing a one sided tug of war with one of the girl's yellow shirts. He'd already chewed through a section of it, but whipped it around his head even more enthusiastically as Danny edged closer.

It was clear that the dog thought he was coming over to play, and that was fine by Danny as long as it kept Cujo in one place long enough for him to grab.

Cujo went down on his front paws, waving his tail and growling, tearing at the fabric with an awful ripping sound as Danny caught hold of it. Inch by inch, he cautiously pulled himself closer until he was in arms reach.

Then he pounced, heedless of the extra mud he splattered all over himself with the move.

"Gotcha!" Danny exclaimed as he all but tackled the puppy, gathering Cujo up in his arms even as he protested and squirmed and yapped to be let down.

"No," he panted, "Bad dog," he said as he wrapped the bottom of his mud streaked shirt around Cujo to keep him in place and made his way back to the girl.

She was kneeling in the middle of a swatch of broken glass and Danny winced as he saw some of it cutting into the knees unprotected by her skirt.

"Hey," he said," walking up and crouching down beside her, not paying any attention to the whimpering of the dog in his arms. "I am so sorry, are you okay?"

She grabbed broken shards of what might have been a vase of some kind and tossed them into the box on top of a picture frame whose glass had been shattered, tearing the edges of the photograph beneath. An upturned jewelry box was next, followed by handfuls of loose earrings and necklace chains that had scattered all the way across the sidewalk.

"It's fine," she ground out from between clenched teeth, refusing to make eye contact with him as she picked up a toothbrush and, grimacing, threw it into the box as well.

"Here," he offered lamely as he wrestled the remains of her shirt away from Cujo and held it out to her.

She stared at him for a moment, then snatched it out of his grip without a word.

Danny hesitated then, clearly seeing that it wasn't alright at all, but Cujo was twisting in his arms, stuck a muddy paw across his mouth as he twisted away from it in disgust. Cujo was impatient to be let down and Danny knew he wouldn't be able to help her around a handful of hyperactive puppy bent on destruction.

He flinched as a bony foot and claw dug into his stomach. "I'm sorry, I'll go put the dog away and then I'll be right back and I'll- I'll help you get this stuff together," he promised.

She didn't respond to him, but grabbed a sopping wet notebook out of the oily puddle at the curb and viciously shook it out.

"Sorry," he said one last time before popping up and hurrying back to their house.

It was a much less hectic journey back, and much slower, since he couldn't run full out while holding Cujo.

Classmates he didn't recognize but had seen him coming now cheered his triumphant return with wayward dog in hand.

When he finally made it back to the house, Sam and Tucker were waiting for him on the sidewalk with raised eyebrows.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" Tucker asked and Danny responded by shoving Cujo at him, taking perverse pleasure in how much mud transferred.

"There," he said. "I caught him. Now you two get to wash him."

"Hey!" Tucker protested.

"You let him out," Danny said, shoving a finger in his direction. "And he's your dog, not ours," he said, rounding on Sam. "And he completely destroyed some poor girl's stuff when she was tying to move in. So if you'll excuse me," he said, pushing past them into the house, "I'm gonna change and go help her pick up the mess."

Sam and Tucker gaped after him, but he disappeared into his room and peeled off his muddy clothes. He reemerged from his bedroom with a fresh pair of jeans and a black t-shirt to find Sam testing the water temperature in the bathroom while Tucker was discovering just how slippery a mud covered dog could be.

Danny didn't bother saying goodbye, but started walking down the street for the third time in an hour. He appreciated not having to take it quickly this time, but when he eventually turned the final corner, he pulled up short because the block was empty. He didn't see the girl or her boxes anywhere.

After a moment of surprise, he walked forward and looked around to assure himself he'd come to the right place.

The sidewalk was covered in bits of broken glass and the strip of green grass just beyond it still had muddy ruts from where he'd finally wrestled Cujo into submission. This was the right place, all right, but the girl was gone.

He slowly scanned the block, but wasn't surprised not to catch sight of her frizzy hair or bright orange shirt.

Sighing, Danny looked at the row of buildings behind him and decided to make his way to the door of the house practically buried between the massive dorms.

A blonde cheerleader answered his knock.

"Hey," he began.

"Um, who are you?" she asked, fiddling with the floral pin in her hair. "I don't know you, do I?"

"Pretty sure I'd remember," he managed to say before she was talking again.

"Ugh," she sighed, "You're, like, probably here for Paulina, aren't you?"

"No," Danny said, before realizing that he didn't know that for sure. "I mean," he corrected quickly. "I'm not sure. Maybe?"

She stopped and stared at him. "Maybe?" she parroted in disbelief. "You must not be here for Paulina," she decided after a long moment of Danny hovering awkwardly in the doorway. She made a face in his general direction and then started closing the door, but Danny edged his shoulder in sideways just in time to prevent her from shutting him out.

"Wait, wait!" he cried, peering through the crack in the door. "I'm looking for a girl who just moved in?" he tried, hoping she might be able to point him in the right direction. "I accidentally knocked her over and ruined her stuff and got her covered in mud? Like right outside, and just in the last half hour, but when I came back she was gone… is she living here? Have you seen her?"

The blonde blinked at him but shook her head, a vague expression of disgust crossing her face. "No," she said pointedly. "No girls who get covered in mud would live here. Sorry, but you better try one of the dorms."

Danny smiled tightly and extricated himself from the doorway. The door shut behind him as soon as he turned away and he tried not to be too disappointed as he turned to look at the dorms flanking the Greek house.

The one on the corner to his left was an all-girl's dorm, so he decided to try that one before the co-ed on the right.

But the last few hours of official move-in day and ice breaking activities was so hectic that he was bustled out of the hallway and none of the RAs had time to answer his questions with more than a passing, "I don't know, man, try again later in the week, okay?"

Danny grimaced and scuffed his feet on the sidewalk on his way out, partly relieved by the fact that he wouldn't have to have a second encounter with the girl while she was still furious at him, but he knew that he'd see her on campus again eventually, and he didn't want this to drag out forever.

Besides, he never liked admitting defeat. But it didn't seem like there was much else that he could do just then without even a name to go on, and she had obviously picked up all of her stuff okay, so he took a deep breath and looked toward campus, wondering what to do next.

He knew he didn't want to go back to the house yet, because he'd had enough of dog craziness for one day and he didn't need to be around for the bath and stink of wet dog and the chaos that would inevitably erupt in their bathroom until the whole ordeal was over.

Thankfully, it was still pleasant out, and there were a lot of people milling around the outskirts of campus, still in the happy limbo before they'd gone to classes and gotten their syllabi for the year. Unless, of course, they were one of the lucky few upperclassmen like him who were stuck in the overachieving Biological Science or honors programs.

Strolling past the last two blocks of student housing, Danny stopped to say hi to the few people he recognized, until he found himself just across the street from the sports center on the edge of campus proper.

He realized that he still needed to talk to the baseball coach about renewing his part time job— glamorously wiping up sweat in the weight room after the football team had practiced— but hey, it was a job, and it got him free admission to all of the sports events on campus.

Danny went in, waving past the sign-in desk, and made his way to the hall of coaches' offices. Unsurprisingly, the door to Noce's office was locked and the lights were off, but since he was already there, Danny turned around and decided to go downstairs in case the guy was pulling a late night in the Rec Center.

A quick glance to the weight room told him that it was empty except for Dash and a few of his cronies from the football team—all of them star players on scholarship who all but lived in the sports complex and loved making Danny's life miserable.

He ducked out of the room as quickly as he could, hoping that they hadn't noticed him in the mirror. Weights crashed to the floor but when they kept dropping, he figured that they weren't going to come after him and he quietly crept down the hall, passing the racquetball courts and deciding with furtive peeks through the tiny windows that the coach wasn't in any of them.

He turned down the last hallway with the pool on his left and open exercise rooms with the wrestling team's ring and open mats on his right.

And stopped dead when he recognized the lone figure in the corner ring, punching the living daylights out of the red punching bag hooked up to the chain.

Danny stared with wide eyes at the girl he'd been looking for all evening, and decided that now he'd found her, he really didn't want to actually take a meeting any further than him standing in the doorway while she was oblivious to his presence.

He tried to make his escape but whatever luck had saved him from the footballers ran out for him here; her head swiveled at the movement and her eyes narrowed as she recognized who he was.

Sweat dripped down from her curly hair and she stayed in her fighting stance, breathing hard.

Danny threw his hands up as if surrendering, but didn't dare walk away. That didn't honestly seem like an option at this point and he was scared that if he turned his back on her and tried to leave now, she'd tear him to pieces.

Swallowing heavily, he shifted in place.

Finally, he offered a tentative, "Hey," still not sure that she wouldn't start swinging at him instead of the official college supplied punching bag. But he had been trying to find her and now he had, so he steeled himself to continue on and do what he came to do.

"I'm really sorry about earlier," he said.

She looked ready to punch him.

"If… there's anything I can do to help you clean up or anything or… or if I need to pay for anything…?" he added, sincerely hoping that she wouldn't feel the need to take him up on clearing out his near non-existent funds. But he also knew that some of her things had been completely destroyed and it wasn't fair to leave her in the lurch like that.

After she stared him down for another long moment, she grunted, "Don't bother."

"But it was my fault that it all got…" Danny stammered.

"And there's nothing you can do to fix that," she said, eyes hardening as she turned back toward the punching bag and reached out a hand to steady it for another round.

He flinched. "I'm sorry. Was… there anything really special?" he asked.

"Just everything I owned," she spat, emphasizing the declaration with a sharp jab that sent chalk dust flying from the wraps around her hands.

Danny stared in horror. "I'm…"

"Including the only stuff I still have from my mom," she continued as if he hadn't started speaking. "And if she knew I lost it all because of a stupid. dog," she punched violently and he cringed further back into himself. "She'd come back and…"

After a few more seconds, her flurry of blows stopped and she stood back, heaving, and rounded on Danny again.

"Do you believe in ghosts?" she asked.

He stared at her, blinking, then threw back his head and laughed.

Her eyes narrowed to daggers. "You think I'm being funny?" she asked, taking a couple steps toward him.

"No, no, I'm sorry," he said, wiping his eyes. "It's just… you wouldn't ask me if you knew. Sorry," he said, trying to pull himself together. "Um, my parents," he tried by way of explanation. "They're… paranormal scientists slash investigators. They uh…" he laughed self consciously at her blank stare. "They… hunt ghosts. Or try to. For a living."

They stared at each other for a long minute.

Danny grinned awkwardly. "Yeah, so anyway. Um, Danny Fenton. Nice to meet you," he said, stepping forward and holding out a hand. "Wish it had been under better circumstances."

She eyed it warily, then looked back up at him, searching his face for something.

Eventually she reached out and shook his hand.

"Valerie Grey," she said.

Danny grinned.