Danny was a little nervous. Not a LOT, though. It was his first day of first grade. He knew how the school worked. He wasn't afraid his mommy would leave and never come back for him. Oh, no. It was something much different.

"Tucker's going to a different school this year," his mommy had told him. "But you can play with your other friends, and you can ask Tucker to come to your house after school, sweetie, okay?"

But that's what Danny was worried about. He didn't HAVE any other friends. He'd always been with Tucker.

Okay, forget what I said earlier. He was REALLY nervous.

Danny walked inside his classroom. He was one of the first there. He recognized a boy that had been in another class the year before, with blonde hair. He was playing with trucks, and didn't notice Danny. But the only other child did. She stared at Danny, not glaring, but not smiling either. Almost like she was bored.

Danny stared back, curiously. She was new. He liked her hair; in fact, he thought it was really pretty. It was black and shiny, and it fell just below her shoulders. It wasn't held up in any way. She was pale, with a black dress covered in pink polka dots, and a pink sash around her waist. From looking at her, you would guess she was a life-size doll.

But what Danny found himself looking at was her eyes. He struggled a little to recall the colors the year before, and he remembered. The girl's eyes were purple.

Danny's interest was piqued. Who was this girl?

It was then he saw the Play-Doh, and he ran to it, forgetting about the girl (for the moment). Another boy named Mikey, who had been there the year before, was already there. He'd walked in during Danny and the doll- like girl's silent exchange.

Danny's new teacher was Mr. Paperman. At first he had scared most of the kids (except, Danny of course. Jack Fenton was bigger than this guy) – Mr. Paperman was REALLY tall, but then he showed them how nice he was.

Mr. Paperman told everyone to sit in a circle. When they did – and had remembered the difference between a circle and a square – he told them that when he said their name, they were going to stand up and say three good things about themselves.

The first kid was the blonde boy that had been playing with the trucks. Danny noticed that he was a little bigger than the rest of them. "I'm Dash Baxter," he said, grinning widely. "I'm 7 years old."

A group of "Oooo"'s went around the room and Danny felt his gaze drawn toward the new girl again. Her face was expressionless.

"My favorite part of school is recess," Dash continued, "and my favorite color is red." He sat down.

Danny piped up, remembering something he'd learned last year. "Isn't red the color of blood?" he asked. "Hey, I have red on my shirt! Look!" he said excitedly, pointing to his sleeve.

Mr. Paperman smiled at him. "Very good." Danny looked at Dash, and was startled to see him glaring at Danny, who quickly looked away. What did he do?

Next was Mikey Cappa. Apparently, he was allergic to milk and peanuts, wanted to take pictures when he grew up, and was in love with Reese Witherspoon, a famous person Danny had never heard of. Last time Danny had checked, Reese's had chocolate and peanut butter in it. But wasn't Mikey allergic to peanuts? Confused, Danny started to raise his hand.

Which was when Mr. Paperman read "Daniel Fenton" off his sheet, so he put his hand down and stood up instead, forgetting about Mikey's mistake. He smiled shakily.

"My name's Danny," he told Mr. Paperman, who smiled and wrote something on his paper.

Danny looked at the girl again, and saw that she wasn't even looking at him. She glared at Dash, but when Danny turned to look at him, he grinned toothily at Danny. The girl shook her head, as if in disbelief. Danny thought of what he decided he'd say while he had waited for his turn. "Um…My favorite…erm, colors are blue and black," Danny told his classmates. Black hadn't been one of his favorite colors until he'd met the girl, but it was now. Gaining confidence, he announced proudly, "I have an older sister named Jaz, and she's in the third grade." His class was hanging on his every word – except the girl. "And," Danny continued, "My parents are ghost hunters." He grinned at everyone's open-mouthed reaction. Even Mr. Paperman raised his eyebrows. He shouldn't have problems making friends NOW…except for Dash, who was glaring at Danny again.

And the girl still hadn't shown another sign of emotion. If Danny hadn't seen her mad earlier, he would've guessed she never showed any feeling at all. He wondered if anyone had managed to impress her.

Wait, "impress"? What does that word even mean?

Next was a boy named Michael. Danny thought his nose looked a little….oh, he didn't know. Different, definitely. Then Angelina. She said she wanted to adopt kids when she got older, 'because her parents told her about the homeless little boys and girls in Africa. After that came a girl named Alicia, and a skinny blonde girl named Keira. Next came Jennifer, who had brown hair pulled into ponytails on either side of her head.

"Samantha Manson," read Mr. Paperman.

Everyone looked around. No one had stood up.

"Samantha?"

The girl got to her feet slowly. "My name is Sam," she said quietly. Although her voice wasn't very loud at all, the room was completely silent, so everyone heard her.

Mr. Paperman looked slightly surprised. "Sam is a boy's name."

Sam smiled. No, it wasn't a smile – a smirk is what it was. "Then teaching is a woman's job."

Their teacher's laugh was sop uproarious a few kids actually jumped.

As Mr. Paperman finished chuckling, Sam gave a real smile.

"Sam it is," Mr. Paperman agreed, writing once again on his sheet.

After introducing a few more kids, everyone had gone to recess. Danny went to play on the swings. Back and forth. Bend your knees when you go back, he reminded himself. Having an older sister definitely had its benefits.

Sometime during the short period he'd been swinging, Sam had appeared next to him a couple of feet away. When he noticed she was there, Danny stopped.

"Hi!" he exclaimed brightly.

Sam blinked slowly.

Danny wouldn't give up. He'd get past this indifferent mask one way or another. "Do you wanna swing with me?"

Her delicate eyebrows raised, Sam gave a hesitant shrug and sat in the swing next to his, but made no other movement. She watched him.

She doesn't know how to swing! he realized. But he knew that if he asked her if she needed help, she'd leave.

Danny didn't want that.

So he began swinging, showing her how to do it, exaggerating the leg movement. Sure enough, Sam caught the pattern, and soon their movements were in synch with each other. She grinned at him, and he grinned back.

Just like that, they were friends.

Just a little thing on how Danny and Sam meet.
In my opinion, Sam would have to have spent a lot of time with Tucker and Danny to learn that it's okay to feel something other than uber happy, as her parents no doubt will have taught her. So, in the first grade, she's a bit shy. I'll probably have other little drabbles like this [which is why it's not on "complete", with Danny and Tucker and Sam [Tucker will be in other ones young, and no ghosts. [Danny Phantom was the first ghost Jack and Maddie saw, remember?
So yeah. Character development and so forth, when I get REALLY blocked up. Updates whenever. xP Enjoy!
Also, see if you can catch a pattern with the other kids names, besides Mikey, Dash, and Mr. Paperman, who was a favorite teacher of mine.