Disclaimer/ Danny Phantom is not mine! I don't own it, sadly.
Chapter 1
Sam was officially sick of Paulina.
The sassy, shallow, and snobby Latina was even more impudent towards her for reasons that pointed nowhere other than jealousy. This was only evident because before Danny's secret was revealed and before he and Sam became a thing two years prior, she would more often than not pretend that she didn't exist, but afterwards, she started to pick at her every chance that she got.
She just ignored her for the most part, but she knew that her patience was running thin. Paulina made it a daily mission of hers to push or trip her in the hallway at school or steal her clothes during their shared gym class. The latter incident ceased once she stopped putting her clothes in her locker, but she was still highly irritated about having to move her belongings in the first place.
She was always a strong and tough individual, which is why she tried her best to not let the girl's foolish antics and desperate cries for attention get under her skin, but a person could only endure so much before something inside of them snapped. Still, she somehow managed to maintain her composure after each incident and walk away with her head held high.
Except that day.
She was having the roughest morning of her junior year. First, she overslept and was late to school because she forgot to set her alarm clock the night before, and because her parents and her grandmother were out that morning, nobody was around to wake her up. That, and she woke up with painful menstrual cramps.
Then, it started to rain on her way to school. She usually didn't mind rain, but having to rush to school in it and then having to enter the cold building of Casper High while dripping like a wet rat wasn't her favorite thing to do in the morning.
But Paulina harassing her as soon as she stepped into the building is what locked her in a bad mood. She was already feeling a bit insecure that day, so she wasn't in the mood to deal with the snickering, the insults, and the staring that she received from the Latina and her friends.
So, everything unfolded during Mr. Lancer's English class. He had been promoted to an upperclassmen Honors teacher during her sophomore year, which meant that she wasn't able to take his class until her current junior year. She shared the same class period with almost everyone from her Freshman year's class, save for Valerie, who had transferred schools during her sophomore year.
Mr. Lancer was standing near the front board of his classroom, explaining the assignment for the morning to his students. It was a group activity, which was something that Sam hated because she much preferred working solo. She should've liked working with Tucker and Danny, but Tucker was a bit of a pushover and Danny was always either distracted or asleep.
"After you and your group finish reading the passage, answer the six questions on the next page and turn it in on separate sheets of paper," Mr. Lancer instructed, casting a stern glance towards Dash. "Everybody must participate. One person is not allowed to do all of the work."
A few jocks groaned whilst a few nerds blew a short breath of relief. Sam paid them no attention and began doodling on the inside of her sketchbook, waiting for further instructions from Mr. Lancer. She was just in the middle of touching up on the Gothic Angel she had been working on when she felt something lightly hit her neck.
Curious, she glanced behind her, but Tucker and Danny were both oblivious and engaged in their own side conversation. She waited a few seconds to see if one of them would break character and start cracking up, but neither of them budged. Her eyes then panned around the room and towards the corner, where Paulina, Kwan, and Dash were snickering.
"Figures." She looked down and saw a small chunk of an eraser on the floor, which only made her roll her eyes and revert her attention to her drawing. She was certain that Paulina was the culprit because Dash and Kwan eased up on torturing her after Danny's secret was revealed. Sure, they were both still extremely childish, but Paulina definitely took the cake.
"Mr. Fenton, Mr. Foley, Miss Vidal, and Miss Chambers, you're all going to be partnered up for this assignment." Mr. Lancer took a seat at his desk and folded his arms across his chest. "Please, push your desks together. Silently, if you will."
"Score!" Tucker whispered to Danny, who merely smirked in response and stood up to move his desk. Tucker joined him, but not before casting a sympathetic glance towards Sam, who had turned around and furrowed her brows at him. "Don't feel left out, Sammy. This will all be over before you know it."
She offered him her signature eye roll as a response and spun back around in her seat. Mr. Lancer waited until the first group was settled down and working before he announced the second group. "Mr. Baxter, Miss Sanchez, Miss Snape, and Miss Manson. Second group."
Darn.
Sam clenched her eyelids shut and let a slow sigh trickle from her mouth. She wasn't in the mood to converse with anyone, especially not Paulina. Hopefully the girl would just keep to herself or address any other person in the group besides her, because she truly wasn't in the mood to bicker.
Seeing as how the other three members of her group were already seated together, she gathered her belongings and rose from her desk. Mr. Lancer didn't wait for her to switch seats, as he already started calling out the next group. She was just about to grab her backpack and cross the room when she felt something whack the side of her eye this time.
She didn't even have to look in Paulina's direction to know that she was the one who threw the eraser at her again. Her obnoxious snickering gave her away, but nonetheless, Sam pretended she was unbothered by the action and lifted up her backpack. Danny and Tucker seemed oblivious to what was happening, so she wasn't about to complain to them.
But as soon as she sat down at an empty desk and prepared to merge it with Dash's desk, Paulina flung another chunk of her eraser at her and started cracking up. Something about that titter struck a chord of anger within Sam, and as a result, she twisted her body towards Paulina to fully face her.
"What's the problem?" She spoke so calmly that she surprised herself. To anyone listening in, it would've just sounded like a regular conversation going on between them. Mr. Lancer was speaking over them, so nobody else was aware of the discussion besides Sam and her group.
Paulina flashed her a dark, burning glare in return and sized her up. "I don't know. You tell me. You're the one who came over here."
"Because unfortunately, we're partners for this assignment. I really hope all that hairspray you use didn't give you amnesia," Sam retorted. Paulina's mouth dropped and Dash snickered until she turned her powerful glare onto him.
"You have no right to talk to me like that, freak. Fenton saved the world. Not you." She then flicked her hair over her shoulder and sharpened her glare. "I don't owe you respect just because you're shacking up with him."
Sam puffed her lower lip out raised her shoulders slowly. "That's completely fine. Don't respect me, but don't disrespect me either. If you don't like me, leave me alone. You're always picking at me every chance that you get, which tells me you care about me enough to acknowledge me."
"Honey, I promise I don't care about you." Paulina's voice had risen a level, which captured some of her classmates attention. "Don't come over here and start something with me that you're not going to finish."
"I'm not starting anything with you. Just stop throwing eraser bits at me and I'll go back to ignoring you."
Paulina foolishly decided to challenge Sam by grabbing another pre-ripped chunk of her eraser and chucking it right in the center of her face. Her lips then slid into her signature devious smirk, which only further upset the girl in front of her. "What are you going to do about it, Goth?"
Sam could feel her heartbeat accelerating at that point as adrenaline surged through her body, but she shut her eyes and inhaled deeply to maintain her composure. "I'm not going to do anything, but you're going to stop."
"And what if I don't? You might be able to intimidate everyone else, but you definitely don't scare me." Paulina nonchalantly popped her gum and threw yet another eraser chunk at Sam, which officially pissed her off. She could feel her palms tingling, which surprised her because it was rare for her to get pissed off to the point where she wanted to strike someone.
Instead of swinging on the girl, which is what she truly wanted to do, she grabbed a handful of the eraser bits from the desk and sprinkled them on top of her head. That's when Paulina calmly, as to not cause too much of a scene, stood up from her seat and got right in her face.
Sam rolled her eyes and tilted her head to the left. "Look, I'm not trying to fight you, Paulina," she told the girl, "so just sit back down."
"I'm trying to fight you, though."
"Well, I'm not."
Paulina locked her wrists behind her back and roughly nudged Sam with her shoulder. "Well, I am." Sam stumbled back a bit, but rolled her eyes again and mumbled something under her breath. Paulina then brought her hands in front of her and harshly shoved Sam's shoulders. "I am."
And then it happened.
Sam lost her footing as a result of Paulina's push and nearly tumbled to the floor, but she managed to save herself by gripping onto Paulina's forearms. After she regained her balance, she just started swinging on her. All of her frustration from earlier mixed in with her irritation towards Paulina, which was all unleashed with each punch she threw.
Paulina blindly swung her fist outward and was only successful in hitting Sam twice before head-butting her towards the ground. She managed to climb on top of her for a hot second before Sam gained the upper ground and continued hammering her in her face.
"Ladies, break it up right now!"
Sure, Sam should've obeyed Mr. Lancer's frantic and stern order, but so much adrenaline was coursing through her veins that she just blocked him out. The distant, frantic cries and surprised gasps of her classmates were all obscured by the blood pounding in her ears.
She was just about to slam her fist into Paulina's face again when she felt a strong hand grasp hers and force it behind her back. Unbeknownst to them, security was called by Mr. Lancer before the fight broke out, and now there were two of them attempting to separate the girls.
Paulina had her arm curled around Sam's neck in a failed attempt at putting her in a headlock, so when one of the security guards tried to pull Sam up and away from her, he ended up accidentally dragging her along with them. She reached her hand upward and tangled her fingers in Sam's hair, tugging harshly on it as a last resort.
The second security guard swooped in and grabbed Paulina while screaming at them both to break it up. He noticed that the other security guard was trying to pry Paulina's fingers from Sam's hair, so he added, "Let go of her hair!" Thankfully, she obeyed and, finally, they were separated from each other.
"You're going to regret putting your hands on me, you stupid freaking— get off of me!" Paulina struggled against her security guard, who was still restraining her. She was thrashing around so violently that she was immediately hauled out of the classroom. The security guard holding onto Sam remained there for approximately thirty seconds before towing her out of the room as well.
