"Are you positive Tuck knows where we are?" Danny picked at his meatloaf as he and Sam ate their lunch in the somewhat dark supply closet. "Yes! I told him in AIM, we eat lunch here." She reassured her friend. Danny sighed, taking an apple slice and shoving it in his mouth. "If he's not here in five minutes, I'm giving up hope."
Sam shrugged, taking a bite out of her salad. The two friends ate in silence for a while before something slipped under the closet door. The unexpected movement caused the both of them to jump. "What is it?" Danny asked, dropping his spork. Sam frowned and picked it up. "It's an envelope."
"Where's it from?"
"It says…. It's from Tucker!"
"What? Let me see." Danny took the envelope and read it under the dim, flickering light. "It is…" Sam gave him a quick glare. "I thought I already established that smart guy." She snatched the envelope back. Danny raised an eyebrow in surprise at her response. Sam noticed and laughed. "Don't be so serious dude. I'm only joking."
"Well, then what's the letter say?" Danny went back to eating his food. "Hold on…" Sam ripped the top half of the envelope and pulled out a small sheet of paper. "Umm… it says 'Sorry I couldn't make it today. I had stuff to attend to. I'll be sure to clear everything tomorrow! - Tucker.'"
"What a bummer." Danny sighed, putting a sporkful of meatloaf in his mouth. Sam nodded. "Told you popularity wasn't everything." The Goth leaned back on one of the trash cans. Danny gave her a look of confusion before realizing she wasn't talking about Tucker anymore. Danny sighed. Normally, he never liked to admit he was wrong, but this was an exception. "Yeah, you're right. I can't step one foot into this school without being bombarded with hormonal teen girls screaming and yelling at me to go out with them."
Sam chuckled. "Valerie and I are probably the only girls here that don't do that dumb stuff." Danny smiled and nodded, and then remembered. "Valerie!" He accidentally said out loud. Sam raised an eyebrow. "What about her?"
Danny bit his lip. He didn't want Sam to think he still had a thing for her. "Well, um I haven't talked to her in a while, and I forgot that I was gonna talk to her today…" He spoke nervously, his face flushing. Sam blinked as she tried to read his body language.
"Danny, you know you can see other people right?" She asked. Danny nodded and then shook his head, realizing what she was getting at. "No no! It's not like that!"
Sam wasn't buying it. "Sure, Jan," was all she said as she stood up, threw her trash away and helped Danny up. "I might not approve of her, but I'm gonna help you find Valerie and then you're gonna talk to her." She threw Danny's trash away and shoved him out the closet. "Make us invisible." She instructed and Danny followed.
The duo walked down the halls and into the cafeteria, invisible to all the students were in there. "Sam, this isn't what I had planned out..." Fenton gritted his teeth as he spoke. Sam rolled her eyes. "And what was that plan exactly? Just stare at her until she thinks you're a stalker and hates you forever?"
Danny pouted. "Alright that's it." He said, lifting up his friend as they phased through the school building until they got to the roof. "Listen Sam, I'm not into Valerie like that anymore!" The ghost kid said, placing Sam in front of him. "Then what's with the sweating and the blushing?" She asked, crossing her arms.
Danny bit his lip. "It's nothing, I swear! You know how she felt about Phantom, and now that she knows we're the same person… I just wanted to see if we were still enemies or not." The boy explained. Sam looked at him for a moment. "…Okay I believe you. But still you have to do something. And right now is the time to do it."
"You mean right now as in right now right now? "
"What else does right now mean?"
"Well I can wait 10 years and I could do it right then."
"But right then isn't right now."
"But then, I could say it's right now."
"Shut up and quit your stalling." Sam glared, poking him sharply in the chest. Danny lifted his arms in surrender. "Okay okay but I'll talk to her after lunch at her locker." Sam glared at him more, pressing her finger harder against him and then stopped. "Right after lunch. Got it?"
"Got it. But why do you care so much?" Danny lowered his arms and crossed them, giving Sam a hard look. "Because, you get too afraid and shy to do certain things that you need to do. Also I don't trust Valerie and if you don't know if she's your enemy or not your safety can be in jeopardy and your safety is important to me." The goth said in a serious tone. Danny's face softened. "Well then, thanks."
Sam smiled, giving her friend a hug. "Of course. Now, can we go back inside?" She asked. Danny blinked and then nodded "Oh, right, sorry." He picked up Sam again and phased back to the first floor, outside the cafeteria. "The bell's about to ring. Best of luck to ya." Sam said, jumping out of his arms. "I don't know if I can do it." The black haired boy admitted. "C'mon. You helped save the world. You can do this." The girl encouraged. "I'll see you later." She gave him a quick hug and left. Danny sighed and looked down. "It's now or never."
The bell rang.
"See you later Val." Star waved to her friend as she locked her locker and walked off to 4th period. "Bye girl!" Valerie waved back, taking her math text book out of her locker.
She took a long sigh. It had been a long day, and she has a math test next period. She has stressed out all night last night trying to study. but she still feared she might fail.
Suddenly a cough from behind her interrupted her thoughts. She jumped and immediately turned around, obviously startled.
Valerie looked up to see none other than Danny Fenton awkwardly standing before her. "H-hey." He gave her a small smile. Valerie's eyes widened. She didn't know what to say. Danny Fenton. Danny Phantom. What could she possible say to him?
"Uhh… Valerie?" Danny's smile faded as the girl before him just stared. Valerie quickly shook her head, snapping out of her daze. "Yeah?" She spoke, her voice very hoarse.
Danny bit his lip for a second and then cleared his throat. "Well I wanted to know if we could talk…?"
"Yeah sure, whatever." Valerie spoke fast, closing her locker and clutching tight onto her math book. She had to get out of there and fast. She didn't know what to say!
She desperately thought of something to tell him. She had to make up an excuse. "Oh would you look at that class is about to start." Valerie quickly turned tail and walked off. She glanced behind her and winced. She didn't want to be rude. But she still couldn't talk to him. What could she have said?
She continued to walk off, leaving a confused and somewhat hurt Danny behind.
"And she just said nothing?" Sam asked, lying down at the foot of Danny's bed. Sam had come over to Fenton Works to keep Danny company, since he didn't feel like going out that day. "Nothing! She just turned and walked away." Danny hugged his knees and groaned as he sat directly across from the goth girl.
"Well maybe she hasn't had enough time to think things over." Sam pointed out. "Well maybe she might not even take the time to do so." The ghost boy muttered. "Well I have an idea. You still have her AIM user, right?" Sam slid off the bed and walked over to the computer.
"Yeah," Danny lowered his knees. "You're not gonna message her, are you?"
"No, I'm not. You are." Sam turned on the computer and input the password, only for it to deny access. "It's not PaulinaFenton anymore? Wow I'm impressed." Sam smirked, turning around to face him. Danny just rolled his eyes and hopped off the bed. "Move over. "He said walking over the computer. Sam got up from the chair to let Danny sit and he quickly typed in the password.
"What is it this time?" Manson asked playfully. "PhantomHeroOfEarth" Danny whispered, embarrassed. "Well it's better than Paulina." Sam admitted, grabbing a stool from the corner. "Alright now open AIM." Sam told him setting to stool down next to Danny and taking a seat. "I know what I'm doing, Sam." Danny side glared. Sam stifled a laugh and nodded.
Once Danny opened up AIM, Sam took over the computer. She quickly typed in Valerie's username and sent a chat request. Danny raised an eyebrow. "How do you know her user?"
"You put us in a group chat together before. Duh."
"Oh right. I forgot."
"Well would you look at that, she accepted." Sam pointed at the screen. "Oh shit. What do I say?" Danny panicked. Sam placed her hands on his shoulders from behind. "Calm down and breathe. Just ask her how she's doing and ask her about what happened today." She spoke coolly.
Danny took a deep breath and nodded as he typed.
DFENTON: hey val
GHOSTH8R: oh hey…
"Ghost hater, huh?" Sam crossed her arms. "Oh please, it's been like that for a year." Danny explained. "Okay now what do I say."
Sam thought about it for a moment. "Okay I got it. Just say 'so about today' with three periods at the end."
DFENTON: so about today…
GHOSTH8R: oh, i'm srry about that
GHOSTH8R: look, if u wanna talk i can talk after school tomorrow in the gym
A smile grew on Danny's face as he replied.
DFENTON: sounds gr8. i'll see you then
"Congrats. Now what?" Sam stood up from the stool. "I don't know. We can watch TV I guess." Danny shrugged, putting his computer on sleep mode.
"Alright. Sounds good to me. Do you think it would be okay if I stayed for dinner?" Sam asked
"Yeah. We can go ask my mom. I think we're getting takeout tonight. And don't worry. We have salad in the fridge."
"Okay great, as long as salad is an option. I'm really tired of the gourmet food from my personal chef. They're horrible with ultra recyclo-vegetarian meals."
"Aren't all of those meals horrible anyways?"
"Danny…" Sam growled, shoving her friend out of his chair. She glared and then smiled. '"That's better." "That hurt!" Danny yelped, rubbing his elbow that hit the floor first. "You've been through much worse." Sam lended him a hand. Danny narrowed his eyes and took it. "So anyway, I noticed you weren't mauled by the wave today?" That goth girl hauled her friend up from the floor.
"That's because I've been going invisible all day long." Danny stood up straight and walked towards the door. "Why haven't you done that before?" Sam followed him and they both walked down the stairs. "It takes a lot of energy to do it for that long, but today I really needed to get stuff done. I had to."
"Smart choice." Sam plopped down on the couch once they got down stars. "But I'm assuming you're exhausted?" "You don't know the half of it. What should we watch today?" Danny sank down next to her. "I have a few ideas." Sam took the remote and surfed through the channels.
Danny sighed and kicked his feet up on the coffee table. This was the calmest and smoothest day he had had in a while.
He loved it.
This chapter was a bit hard for me to write. In all honesty, I was never really good at writing dialogue so if the conversations seem a bit off then that's why. Nonetheless I still hope you guys like the story so far. And I'm open to suggestions! Also, Valerie's username for the instant messenger in the episode Flirting with Disaster is actually Ghosth8r. Thanks for reading!