The halls of Casper High, lit by the dim school lighting, was buzzing with the voices of students excited that it was their lunch break, and for the fact that they didn't have to learn anything at that moment.
Danny Fenton slowly and cautiously opened his locker, making sure none of the messiness was going to topple out on him when it was fully opened. When he was finally assured that the pile of overdue schoolwork and notes that were tossed in and forgotten about was stable, he opened it up and took a small paper bag off the top shelf that was specially reserved for his lunch.
He slammed his locker shut before anything could fall out, and carried his lunch into the cafeteria, where most of the students were already chatting away with their mouths full at their "clique's" table.
There were the nerds, the geeks, the band geeks, the losers, three tables for the "normal" students, the A-list, then there were four tables for the loners. That's where he usually sat, getting a table to himself, and eating his bag lunch in peace, but today his usual empty table just didn't seem as inviting. There was nothing different about it, and he didn't have any plans to sit anywhere else, but the table just seemed to be saying "Don't sit here."
He looked around at the other tables. Everyone seemed to be in their rightful place except him. His eyes rested on Sam and Tucker sitting at the "loser" table. They were the only ones there, but they were talking and laughing happily just like they used to before...
Danny's thoughts trailed off there. After the accident that gave Danny his ghost powers, Sam and Tucker started prying into his life.
They didn't know he had gotten ghost powers from it, but he started running off and acting strangely afterwards. They became too persistent, and eventually, he stopped answering their calls, saying he had stuff to do after school, and they saw less and less of each other till they just stopped seeing each other at all. Danny regretted it for a while, having to separate from them like that, but he knew they would have the same reaction as the rest of the world would. Fear. And he didn't want them to be afraid of him. In the two years since then, he had made some friends in the Ghost Zone.
They were just normal teenagers, only they were dead... Anyway, back to the matter at hand, Danny didn't know what to do. He looked at Sam and Tucker's table then his. Theirs, his... He looked back and forth until he finally made up his mind. He didn't know what invisible force made him do this, but he headed toward Sam and Tucker's table. The "loser" table.
He approached nervously, wondering if they would even let him sit there. He stood there by the table, making Sam and Tucker look up. Almost immediately, their expressions became one of surprise.
There was an awkward silence for a moment while Danny was trying to figure out what to say. He hadn't talked to them in over a year, and now he was here, about to sit at their table like he did every day before the accident. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all...
But he didn't leave yet. "Erm..." He started, finally breaking the silence. "Mind if I sit here?"
His question seemed to snap Sam, who was sitting closest, out of her shock and she immediately elbowed Tucker in the arm so he would scoot over. She scooted with him so that the end of the table where Danny was standing was available for him to sit on.
Danny smiled when Tucker rubbed his arm where Sam's elbow has surely left a bruise. "Thanks." He sat down, setting his bag lunch out in front of him.
Sam smiled back, obviously happy to have Danny back sitting with them again. "So...Why the change of heart?" She asked. Though she was happy to have him there, she was still curious as to why he was there. Tucker was staring at him too, but with more of a 'Are my eyes deceiving me?' look.
Danny reached into his lunch bag and pulled out a slightly soggy sandwich with cheese and sad looking lettuce hanging out the sides. "I honestly have no idea." He said before biting off a corner of his sandwich.
Sam kept her eyes on Danny, ignoring her salad. "And should we be expecting you every day?"
Danny swallowed his bite before talking, to prevent accidentally spitting the food out in mid sentence. "I don't know that either..." He answered.
Sam finally turned and stabbed her lettuce, not managing to get much on her spork, but she chewed on it anyway.
"Ok, but if you're going to be our friend again..." Tucker spoke up for the first time since he sat down.
Danny inwardly groaned. He knew this was going to end in a "You have t be completely honest with us." Or some such nonsense.
Which was why he was surprised to hear: "Then you're buying at the Nasty Burger after school today."
He smiled at that. "Deal."