Set before Phantom Planet
Tuesday: one of the worst days of the week, especially for Danny Fenton. The acclaimed Casper High football team quarterback had weekly algebra quizzes every Tuesday. And it was no surprise that he hated math. Every Tuesday when he failed his quiz, he took out his frustration on his favorite "nerd".
Danny looked around the cafeteria uneasily. He hadn't seen Dash all morning, and he knew Dash did poorly on his quiz.
"Relax, man," Tucker said.
"I can't!" Danny exclaimed. "All year, Dash fails these quizzes, and tortures me because of it! Every Tuesday of this year, Tuck!"
"Maybe this Tuesday he won't," Tucker tried again, trying to calm his best friend down.
Danny didn't look any more at ease. He kept scanning the cafeteria, waiting, not even touching his food.
"Well I haven't seen him all morning," Sam tried. "Maybe he's not here?"
He seemed to calm down when she spoke. Danny let out a sigh, and smiled weakly at Sam. She smiled back and put her hand on his shoulder.
Two years had passed since Danny acquired his powers, and in those two years, he began to feel stronger about his friendship with Sam. He wasted his time chasing Paulina and Valarie, and he hated knowing that. Now all of his attention was focused on his best friend, who secretly had feelings for him too.
"Nah," Tucker interjected. "I saw him in gym. He looked pretty mad about something."
Danny's shoulder's stiffened, and he began to search the cafeteria again. His nerves were again getting the best of him. Sam rubbed her temples in frustration.
"You know, Tucker, maybe I should start calling you the clueless one," Sam frowned at him.
"Opps," Tucker smiled awkwardly, aware that he had just set Danny back to step one.
Without warning, Danny's ghost sense went off. He stood up, ready and waiting. Nothing happened. Sam and Tucker also scanned the scene, looking for the ghost. The cafeteria seemed normal: quiet and nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
"Something's not right…" Danny muttered, still searching. "I'm going to look, you guys stay here and yell if anything happens."
Tucker and Sam nodded as Danny stood up, and ran out into the school hall. He needed to find somewhere secluded to go ghost.
As he turned a corner, he was stopped by Paulina. She was giving him a seductive and evil look. He raised an eyebrow, confused, and tried to move around her. She only got in his way.
"What's the big hurry, Danny?" she asked in a strange tone.
"Paulina, I really don't have time," he sighed, annoyed.
"Not even for me?" She moved close to his face, and looked into his eyes.
Two years ago, Danny would have turned intangible from the butterflies in his stomach. He only stared at her, coldly.
"Come on," she smiled taking his hand leading him to the janitor's closet. "Let's have some fun!"
Danny pulled his hand out of hers and stopped. He glared at her, and turned his back to start to run away.
She grabbed his hand again, firmly. No one denies Paulina.
"Hey," she scorned him. "I said come in here with me."
Danny again took back his hand.
"No, Paulina," he growled. "I have more important things to do than play victim for you right now."
With that, he spun on his heels and made his way to the school gym.
Paulina stood in the middle of the hall, dumbfounded. She had never been turned down before, especially not by a nerd.
Dash peaked his head out of the closet to see a frustrated Paulina staring at Danny, running to the gym doors at the end of the hall.
"What happened?" Dash questioned. "Where's Fenton?"
Paulina ignored him.
"He turned me down," she hissed. "No one turns me down."
Dash looked at her and smiled. Maybe the original plan of "lure Danny into the closet and wail on him" wasn't as cruel as unleashing Paulina's wrath on him.
"What is that loser's problem?!" Paulina suddenly exploded, ripping Dash away from his evil plan.
"Calm down, we'll make Fenton sorry," Dash told her, pounding his fist in his hand. "He's gonna be sorry I failed my math quiz."
"NO!" she cried. "That's not important! Danny Fenton has chased after me for years, and now he's all about that Goth freak Sam Manson!"
Paulina's eyes flashed towards the gym doors, which Danny had just run through.
"He'll see…" she sprinted towards the gym doors.
Dash started after her, but concluded that it wasn't smart to get in her way. When Paulina wanted something, she didn't stop until she got it.
The gym doors burst open, and Paulina found an empty room. She looked all around, to see the locker room doors slowly closing.
'He's in there!' Paulina thought to herself and ran to the doors.
She slowly peaked her head in to see the locker room empty except for Danny towards the back.
"I'm gonna claw your eyes out with my perfectly manicured nails…" Paulina whispered to herself, slipping through the door quietly.
Suddenly, Danny raised his arms in the arm and Paulina jumped behind a locker, suspicious.
"GOING GHOST!" he said, transforming into his ghost half.
Paulina's jaw practically fell to the floor as nerdy, loser Danny Fenton turned into hot, incredible Danny Phantom. Paulina nearly slapped herself for not being able to see that Fenton was Phantom. She had been obsessed with him for almost two years, and she just found out the nerd she had turned down for years was him!
She hid behind the locker as Danny flew out of the door to continue his search for the mystery ghost.
Suddenly, the temperature of the locker room drastically fell. Paulina shivered and started to walk towards the door.
"Hello, child," a voice called to her.
She spun around to see Desiree, the wish granting ghost.
"Is there something you desire?" she asked the frozen teenage girl.
Paulina shook her head. She had seen Desiree before, she wasn't the scariest ghost out there.
"Get lost," Paulina snapped. "I have other stuff to worry about…"
Paulina turned her back to Desiree, who glared at her. She shook her head; she knew she needed to remain calm if she wanted the plan to go through.
"I see you are unhappy," Desiree whispered. "Just know that my offer stands if you decide you want anything. I will give it to you."
Paulina thought for a second, and walked out of the door to find Danny. Desiree smiled. Step one of the plan was complete.
Danny flew invisibly through the whole school, three times. He saw nothing out of the ordinary. So why did his ghost sense go off?
He sighed and changed back in a bathroom, running to his fifth period class that he was now late for.
He opened the door slowly and successfully slipped into his seat in between Sam and Tucker, without Mr. Lancer noticing.
"Anything?" whispered Sam.
"No," Danny admitted. "Nothing or no one."
"Weird," Tucker commented, turning his attention back down to his PDA hidden behind his textbook so Lancer couldn't see.
Paulina, who sat two seats ahead of them, finally noticed Danny's presence. She smiled evilly at him, until she saw he turn to Sam who was whispering something she could not hear from that distance.
"I'm glad you're safe," Sam said with a blush.
Danny smiled and blushed back.
Paulina nearly burst into laughter when she saw the only thing that stood between her and Danny Phantom was the loser Goth girl. Paulina was the head cheerleader. She controlled the school in the palm of her hand. Sam was on the total opposite side of the social scale: unpopular, and weird. Stealing Fenton from her would not be a challenge, despite his seeming lack of interest during the hallway incident.