A/N: Here you go, guys! The beginning of the second arc of this story! Yay! So, at one point Sam mentions that it's 68 degrees out. That's in Fahrenheit, and in Celsius, that'd be about 20. Which were I live is the peeerfect temperature. Hah, sorry if I confuse some of you. I'm not good with Fahrenheit...

anyway! On with the story!

Danny snorted, wincing as harsh cola flew out of his nose and burned the sensitive skin inside. He blushed deeply as he reached over and grabbed a towel to mop up his face and desk. "You did?" he asked in shock, looking at Sam who was also in the video conversation.

Samantha 'Sam' Manson looked just as shocked as Danny. Their friend Tucker had been at college for almost two months, and he had just broken the news to the two of them that he had gotten a girlfriend.

Tucker frowned at them, crossing his arms and feigning hurt. "How is that so hard to believe?" Tucker's voice asked through the speakers.

"Because you're 'Foley Charm' as you call it, isn't exactly… charming." Sam replied bluntly.

"What did you say to get a girl to actually listen to you?" Danny asked.

"I just used the ol' Foley Charm that Sam just put down." Tucker said with a glare at Sam's section of the screen, "Told her my name was Tucker Foley- that's T.F. for Too Fine. She started to laugh. Laugh! She said that I was too funny for my own good. Then we started talking, and I asked her out for supper… and well, yeah. I suddenly find myself with a girlfriend."

Danny shook his head with a smile. "Tucker, you're one surprise after another." He stated, running his hand through his hair.

"Hey man- you didn't expect me to just sit around and twiddle my thumbs while you and Sam hit it up, do you?"

Danny's jaw dropped and as Sam blushed a bright red. "There's nothing going on with us!" Sam defended herself.

"Oh come ON!" Tucker threw his hands up into the air. "All summer you guys were shooting love struck glances at each other. I'm surprised you two never did anything about it. You both must be clueless."

"Shove it Tuck." Sam warned, "Or else you're in for a world of pain when you come for a visit."

Tucker held up his hands in submission. "Okay, okay, I'll cool it." He relented, and then muttered "For now. I have to go anyway." He added louder, "I'm taking my girlfriend to the local sub joint."

"Alright, Tucker." Sam said, cracking her knuckles and giving him a threatening look. "Be nice to her, you don't want to scare off the only girl who likes you likes you, do you?"

Tucker rolled his eyes before waving and closing his side of the conversation, leaving Danny and Sam in an uncomfortable silence. "So um…" Danny began, rubbing the back of his neck. "…About what Tucker said…"

Sam scoffed, her face starting to blush up again. "Yeah, he's just full of hot air, Danny, don't listen to him."

Danny's heart sank, but he smiled at Sam anyway, "Yeah, you're right. It's late." Danny noted, "I'll see you tomorrow?"

Sam smiled and waved goodbye. "See you tomorrow."

Danny lowered the laptop's screen and let it close, sending it into hibernation. "…Just hot air…"

Danny dragged himself off of his computer and into his bed, his heart and mind heavy. When he was close to his bed, he shivered with a sudden chill. "Stupid fall temperatures…" Danny muttered to himself, going over to his window to close it, seeing that it was already closed. Danny huffed and pulled a comforter out of his closet to throw on his bed.

Danny cocooned himself in his blankets; small shivers making his body quake every so often even under all of the blankets.

Though Danny didn't see it, outside of his window a pair of red eyes appeared for a moment before closing and vanishing into the night.

Danny tossed on a windbreaker jacket the next morning, with a piece of bread stuffed into his mouth. He tried yelling at his mom that he was off to school through the bread in his mouth, but was unsuccessful.

Taking it out, he yelled down the basement stares, "I'm off, mom!"

"Have a great day sweetums!" Maddies voice rose from the basement.

Danny took one last look down the stairs and shuddered. He knew what was down there.

Danny hadn't been raised in the Fenton house. He had spent his first eighteen years being raised and trained in a building hidden in the forest on the edge of town- the Amity Park Research Facility.

Danny had been injected with a formula his father had made. One that was supposed to fill it's victim with ghost like energy and powers. His parent's bosses had decided to test it on Orphan Danny. They injected it into him, and then gave him to Jack and Madeline Fenton.

At the age of eighteen, Danny's powers had finally began to manifest, and he was forced into harsh training sessions, causing him, at some points, to lose consciousness.

Samantha Manson, the daughter of one of his father's bosses, had introduced him to Tucker Foley, and together, the three of them had escaped from the awful place, only for Danny to have to return to save his parent's lives.

When he had gone back, he had found that Vlad Masters, his father's main boss and beneficiary of the whole project, had injected himself with the same serum that Danny had in him, thus gaining the same, if not more, of the powers that Danny had been slowly learning to control.

Danny was able to capture Vlad in an invention his parents had dubbed the Fenton Thermos, which was now securely locked up in their lab.

Danny shuddered again as he thought of his parents lab- an exact duplicate of their lab at the facility, if not a little larger. Danny had always hated going there, and going down into his basement was no exception. He had only been down there once since moving into the Fenton Works building, and swore he'd never go back.

Danny turned and ran out of the house, scared he was going to be late for class. It was a big lab experiment today, and he couldn't miss it.

"Hey, doofus!" Sam stood outside Danny's house, as usual waiting for him. "What took you so long, man? I've been waiting for ten minutes!"

Danny smiled sheepishly and ducked his head a little. "Sorry." He apologized as they quickly walked down the street. "I had a hard time deciding what jacket I should bring."

"Jacket?" Sam echoed, looking at him, and then at herself. She was dressed how she was always dressed. Her hair was up in a partial pony tail, her almost sleeveless black shirt with the purple dot on the chest, and her skirt covering black leggings, with leather boots to wrap it all up.

"Dude, you don't need a jacket today, it's like, 68 degrees out here man!"

Danny zipped up the windbreaker that was covering his red and white t-shirt, and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I'm cold, okay?" he asked sarcastically. "It started up last night. I think I'm getting a cold or something."

Sam rolled her eyes. "You boys are such wimps." She said, smiling at her friend as they walked up the stairs to the college. "Complaining about the littlest things."

"Hey!" Danny protested, "We do not!"

"There he goes again!" Sam said, raising her arms in the air while rolling her eyes, "Complaining!" she stopped walking in front of the locker the two of them shared and entered the combination. "So," she started, changing the conversation, "What are you up to in class today?"

"I've got a really big lab today." Danny said, throwing in his bag and taking out the books he would need for his first class. "If I don't pass this, I flunk the class- no matter what I got on the previous labs, or future ones."

"Like a midterm, then." Sam said, checking herself out in the small mirror magnetized to the inside of the locker door and making sure her make-up was just so. It wouldn't do to have her make up smudged everywhere; she was a Goth for crying out loud.

She noticed Danny roll his eyes behind her at her obsessive make up fixing. "Yeah, I think that's what she called it." He said, folding his arms over his chest. "Apparently we're going to be partnered up. Guy to girl, at least that's what she said."

He was watching Sam's reaction carefully, and when her hand jerked just the slightest as she was reapplying her mascara he smirked. "Jealous?"

"No!" Sam quickly said, turning to face him. "Why would I be? It's not like we're an item or anything, despite what Tucker thinks."

Danny let out a laugh and Sam found herself wanting to bury her face in his chest and tell him how she really felt, but she didn't.

Danny shook his head all the while smiling at Sam. "I'll see you at break," Danny said with a wave as he ran off to class. The two of them had made their schedules up so that they shared most of their breaks.

Danny jogged into the class, almost getting in late. The teacher, Ms. Ardelle turned to him. "Mr. Fenton, so nice of you to join us." She said almost sarcastically. "Now hurry up, you don't want to keep your lab partner waiting." The teacher pointed to a station where there was a young woman sitting alone, her back was to Danny, and she was chatting with the pair behind her.

Danny walked over to her, "Uh, hi. My name's Danny."

The girl turned and smiled to him, she was dark-skinned, but lighter than Tucker was, and her green eyes sparkled with kindness. "I know, we've been in the same class for almost three months." She laughed, and her laughter reminded Danny of his mother- it was gentile and kind. "But since you and I have never worked with each other, introductions are nice." She smiled at him, holding out a hand.

"I'm Valerie. Valerie Gray."

Danny smiled and shook her hand, "Pleased to meet you. Now, what's the lab?"

Valerie looked down at their station, "Looks like we're using salicylic acid and acetic anhydride."

"Oh! To do what?" Danny asked, pulling on his lap coat and putting on a pair of goggles.

"It appears like we're making aspirin." Valerie said, bringing out her notebook. "I've premeasured out the ingredients… how about you add them together, and I'll take notes on the reactions and times?"

"Sure," Danny said, taking the beakers and setting up. "Sorry you had to do that on your own. I didn't mean to be late."

"Don't worry about it, Danny." Valerie said, scribbling out the initial preparatory work notes.

Danny smiled at her, "Ready, Val?" he asked, holding up the acid.

"Ready- go ahead." She peeked over the edge of her notebook to watch Danny set up the experiment.

Danny carefully poured the two chemicals together, doing it slowly so that Val could take down notes. After simmering for a few moments the reaction calmed down and seemed to harden into a solid mass.

Ms. Ardelle wandered over, looking down at the lab through her glasses and nodded, "Well done you two." She said, wandering off to look over other lab stations. Val finished her notes and handed them to Danny to copy down.

Once Danny had finished writing down Val's notes, most of the class had finished their experiments. There was one mishap where the chemicals generated so much heat the beaker broke.

Class was over soon after that, the teacher staying behind with the team whose experiment had broken. Danny and Val walked out together, "So what class do you have next?" Danny asked shyly, putting his hand behind his neck.

"Oh, I'm on break for the next two hours." Val said, clutching her lab books to her chest.

"Really? Oh, well, I have the next hour off… I'm meeting a friend outside under the oak tree- you want to come with?"

Valerie watched Danny out of the corner of her eye as they walked to Danny's locker. While he was putting his stuff in it, she tossed her books in her back pack. "I think that'd be fun." Val smiled, "But I have a test in my next class and I really should go to the library and study."

Danny couldn't help the disappointed look that adorned his face. "Oh, alright. Well… I'll see you next time?"

Val nodded and gave Danny a hug. "Yep, next time." She winked at him before wandering off.

Danny stared after her for a few seconds before shaking his head. He was very confused. He picked up what he would need for his next class, before closing the locker and making his way over to his meeting place with Sam.

Sam was sitting there waiting for him, reading a book on the supernatural. She'd been doing that a lot lately. Danny plopped down next to her, zipping up his windbreaker against the cold he felt. Sam grunted a greeting, flipping the page she was reading.

Danny sat crossed legged, looking up at the branches of the trees, and through that, the sky above which was starting to clog up with clouds. He couldn't stop thinking about Valerie.

"Well?"

Danny blinked and looked at Sam, she had one of her eye brows raised in question as she watched him. He realised that she had just asked him a question, and he'd been too lost in thought over Valerie to notice. "S-sorry. What did you say?"

"I said, how did your lab go?"

"Oh. It went fine." Danny picked at the grass near his feet, avoiding her gaze.

"Just fine?" Sam asked, putting her book mark in her book and looking at him full on.

"Yeah. Valerie and I made some aspirin, and the teacher seemed to like it. I don't know. Just … fine, I guess. It didn't go wrong."

"Valerie? Who is Valerie?"

Danny looked at her. "She was my lab partner," he explained, "Why? Jealous?"

Sam rolled her eyes, popping open her book again and burying her nose in it. "No. Just curious." She lied.

Danny watched her for a moment after she started to ignore him before shrugging. "Sam, if you're worried I'm going to stop talking to you, you should know that'll never happen."

"Ugh what is your problem Danny?" Sam asked, slamming the book shut. "I don't care what you do. You want to hang out with Valerie, you hang out with Valerie, there's not much I can do to stop you."

Danny blinked at her, his eyes opening wide. "Woah, calm down Sam." Danny said, shrinking away from her. "I'm sorry."

"You are such a doofus." Sam said quietly, looking at the grass and picking up an acorn. "Go do what you want." She pretended to be immersed in her acorn as Danny sat silently beside her.

After the silence dragged on for what seemed like forever, Sam finally broke it. "…why aren't you going anywhere?" Sam whispered, Danny thought could hear unshed tears clinging to her voice. He swallowed quietly and didn't answer.

"Danny-." Sam began then looked up at him. All traces of her emotional state were now gone as she watched him. "Seriously, dude, why are you still here? Your class is starting."

Danny yelped and got up. "I'll see you later, Sam!" he shouted running off into the building. She smiled after him, but it faded fast. She was worried about this Valerie character. She'd have to talk to Tucker about it later.

A/N: Alright, so there it is. XD' I might update again on Monday if I'm feeling generous. :P Else you'll have to wait for next Friday.