DGG: Hello, all. I'm back. Thanks for reading and reviewing the last chapter. Here's chapter two!
"Quit?" all the breath left the black-haired teen. "You mean you just want us to give up?"
"No, Sam, it's not like that…" began Jazz.
The four teens were currently standing outside the Fenton household.
"Danny's our best friend! He's your brother! How can you guys even begin to suggest that he's not in the Ghost Zone?" her shock was slowly being replaced by anger.
"Remember what the mayor said?" Valerie spoke up. "Every day that we come back without him only increases the chances that he's not even there. We can't keep searching for him forever, Sam. He wouldn't want that."
"How would you know what he wants?" she snapped at the once-popular girl. "You only came into this picture recently! The rest of us have known Danny all our lives! Who are you to say what he would want!"
"Sam, I may not have been friends with him, but I've gone to school with all of you since kindergarten. Our school's not that big. I may not have really spoken to any of you, but I definitely saw you all hang out together every day. You were all extremely close. I just feel that he wouldn't want you guys wasting…"
"We're not wasting anything! We're looking for Danny!" Sam interrupted her.
"Sam, chill out," Tuck stepped in between the two females. "Listen. We all knew when we started this that there was a chance that Danny may not be a ghost."
"Well, he was already half ghost! Why wouldn't he just become a full-fledged one?"
"Sam, this isn't an easy decision for any of us," Jazz frowned. "He's my brother. I don't want to quit looking, but…"
"Then don't!" barked the Goth. "If you don't want to quit searching, then don't!"
"Sam, please listen to us!" the male cried. "Valerie's right. We can't just keep searching for Danny for the rest of our lives. I mean, Sam, the Ghost Zone is ever-growing. We can only go so far in before we have to come back. We probably haven't even made it half-way through. It's just too big to search it all."
"Then we'll stay in there longer. We can camp out in the Specter Speeder! We know how to navigate through the Ghost Zone. We can do this!" the Goth cried frantically.
"Sam, listen to yourself!" exclaimed Valerie. "I know I have the least experience with traveling into the Ghost Zone, but from the year I've spent going through it with the three of you to help you search for Danny, I've seen that it's extremely vast and ever-changing. I really don't think that we can find him, Sam."
"Then you're not trying hard enough!" the Goth stamped her foot.
"Sam, calm down," the red-head held her hands up in front of her. "Don't let your feelings for Danny cloud your judgment. We're not giving up. We just can't keep doing this right now."
"It's only been a year! One year! We can't quit now!" she argued.
"Sam, it's not 'quitting'. It's…"
"Giving up on your best friend?" Sam finished haughtily for the male.
"Sam, that's not fair," he frowned, his shoulders slumping.
"What's not fair is the fact that you're giving up the fact that Danny's still in there somewhere! I know he's out there! I can feel it!" the Goth placed a hand over her heart.
"And maybe he is, but there's still no telling where he might be," Valerie shook her head.
Sam immediately glared daggers at her while rounding on her yet again.
"This was all your idea, wasn't it? You helped us with one little fight, and now you think you know us? You think you know Danny? You were one of the people who chased him out of the town in the first place! You're partially the reason he's dead!"
"Sam!" Jazz gawked.
"I know what I did. It's not like I or the rest of the town meant for this to happen," Valerie attempted to speak evenly. "But all we're saying is that we can't keep up the search. If we obsess over it, then we really will just waste our lives away on this one thing. I know he's your friend. I know the loss is great, but there's just a limit to how much we can do. Tuck's right. We can only go so far. We just can't search the entire ghostly realm. And if he is out there, then there's a chance that he's attempting to find his way back to us anyway."
"Listen, Valerie! I don't need your long, thought-out explanations," Sam snapped while pointing her finger at her. "I don't care if you think you have this all figured out. The truth is that you are not a part of this gang! You don't understand any of us, and I'd appreciate it if you would just shove off and leave his real friends to find him."
"Sam, this isn't all Valerie's idea," Tuck stepped in to head off the catfight that was about to ensue.
The Goth blinked her eyes at her oldest friend.
"You guys can't be serious. You can't honestly be siding with her!"
"Sam, you have to understand," Jazz began. "We don't want to stop searching. None of us do. We all want Danny to still be here, but he was young enough that he probably didn't have any unfinished business. He was only fourteen. We can't keep searching when we've found absolutely no clues or leads that suggest he's in there. I'm sorry, Sam."
"And how do your parents feel about this, Jazz? Do they agree with this?"
"We haven't told them yet…"
"And do you honestly believe that they'll just be okay with this decision?"
"No, I don't," Jazz placed her hands on her hips. "They're just as heartbroken as the rest of us, Sam. But even they're having doubts about Danny being a ghost now. It has been a year."
"Yeah! And the Ghost Zone is huge!" Sam countered.
"Exactly! That's why we can't search it all!"
"But we should at least try!"
"We did try, Sam!" the red-head cried in exasperation. "And there's nothing saying that we won't go back there, but until that day comes then we have to call it quits. We all miss him, Sam. This is hard for everyone, not just you."
"I can't believe this," Sam glowered at each of them. "You're throwing away our friendship with Danny at the request of some outsider all because she says it's been a year?"
"Hey! I'm not the bad guy here!" Valerie shouted while motioning to herself.
"You may as well be. You always treated us like crud!"
"That was before!"
"You know what? I don't care. Get out of my way!" cried Sam as she shoved past the teens on the steps of the Fenton home.
"Where are you going?" asked Tuck.
"Into the Ghost Zone. I'm not giving up on Danny."
"Are you crazy?" the techno-geek grabbed onto Sam's arm. "You can't go in there alone."
"Then come with me!"
"Sam, I'm sorry…" the boy frowned while shaking his head.
The Goth ripped her arm out of the male's hands.
"Fine. Then consider this over," she turned and stormed off toward her own home.
"What do you mean?" Tuck called after her, but she remained silent. "Sam! Sam, wait!"
The Goth teen sat in her room on her bed. She had taken to staying in her room most of the time ever since her fight with her friends. It still ran through her mind like it had just happened even though it happened roughly two weeks ago.
She sighed. How could they? How could they just call off the search? Danny was their friend – their best friend! She placed her head in her hands as she thought about Valerie. This was her doing! She had been helping them search for Danny ever since his death last year, and Sam really wasn't that keen on letting the other girl join their group in the first place.
Ever since Valerie joined the picture she attempted to be the unsung leader of the group, and Sam had challenged her status every step of the way. If Valerie said one thing, Sam tried to overrule it. It's not that the Goth didn't trust the town's new ghost hunter. It was just that she didn't like "the new kid" weaseling her way to the top of the food chain so quickly. Why should Valerie get a say in anything they do? It should be Tucker, Jazz, and herself making most of the decisions, not Valerie. Yet to the Goth it seemed that Tuck and Jazz seemed all-too-eager to let Valerie take over.
Sam sighed as she pulled her knees up to her chest, then rested her chin on her kneecaps. She knew she was just being silly. Valerie couldn't be doing it on purpose, could she? Why would she? Sam was stubborn, and her temper had gotten the better of her, but with all this time to herself she'd had some time to think. She would never agree with stopping the search. Never. But they may have had a point. If Danny wasn't out there, and they kept searching for the rest of their lives, then finding him would become their unfinished business. But even with their reasoning behind their actions, she still couldn't shake the feeling that Danny was still out there.
That feeling had been nagging at her for over a year now. She just knew he was out there somewhere, and no matter what anyone else said she just knew differently. She'd actually begun thinking that maybe she was acting a little crazy. After all, she did have a crush on him. Maybe she was just thinking with her heart and ignoring logic. Then again maybe she had good reason to think with her heart.
A year went by and everyone was starting to believe that Danny really wasn't a ghost. The mayor thought it. Valerie thought it. Her friends now thought it. Yet she still couldn't shake the feeling that he was still out there somewhere. She wanted to forgive her friends. She wanted to talk to them again, but the thought of them trusting Valerie's word over hers was what kept her riveted to her bed.
She knew Danny was in the Ghost Zone. She knew he wanted to be found. And last night only reaffirmed those feelings. Last night he told her so…
DGG: Please review!