Danny tapped his pencil on his notebook impatiently, looking at the clock above the classroom door and willing the hands to move faster. "It's only going to slow down if you watch it like that," Sam said, not even looking up from her own doodles.
"I'm just not thrilled by math," Danny said, tapping more furiously. Sam snatched his pencil away, putting it on her chair and sitting on it.
"Do not," She said, going back to her notebook.
"It's just never going to end," Danny sighed melodramatically and slumped on their table.
The bell rang out over them and Danny couldn't get his things together fast enough. Sam shoved her books into her bag and hurried after him.
"What is your hurry?" Sam asked. "I know Algebra isn't exactly exciting, but it's not running away worthy."
"If you really want to know," Danny said, slowing down so Sam could catch up to him. "I'm avoiding the-," Danny was cut off when he bumped into a very small, curly haired freshman who then promptly fell onto her butt.
"Hi, Danny," She said with a big grin on her face, despite being knocked to the ground by a giant. Sam noticed she had on a neon green shirt with the Danny Phantom logo on it. When more a few more girls came up behind the first, all wearing similar shirts, Sam realized what Danny had been trying to avoid: the Phan Club.
"Shit, sorry, Tammy," Danny said, reaching down to help the small girl up.
"It's okay," Tammy assured as Danny pulled her to her feet.
A round of excited "Hi, Dannys" erupted from the Phan Club. Danny sighed, giving a small, defeated wave.
"So is he going to come today?" One of the other girls asked, excitedly.
"He doesn't really have a schedule," Danny said, shifting his backpack higher. "He kind of just shows up when there's ghosts to fight."
"Well, can you ask him to come to a meeting sometime, the next time you see him?" Tammy asked. Danny sighed again.
"Sure, I'll try."
The girls squealed loudly before running off. Danny rubbed his hand over his face as Sam looked up at him with a bemused smirk.
"What was that about?" Sam asked.
"They watch Danny Phantom's every move," Danny explained. "They figured he only shows up when I'm around, so he and I must be friends."
"People are idiots," Sam said, rolling her eyes as they continued down the hall. "You have the same features, the same ridiculous height, and the same Goddamn name. You'd think they'd figure it out by now."
"Danny's a common name," Danny shrugged. "And maybe they think that I wouldn't be dumb enough to use my own name as my superhero name."
"You sure showed them," Sam said, earning her an elbow nudge. She laughed and shoved him back. "Why don't you take one of the Phangirls to the Halloween dance?"
"Because they are practically infants," Danny said. "And most of them are obsessive weirdoes. Nice, but very obsessive."
"Where are you drawing the line?" Sam asked. "Because Daisy is a sophomore, so that's like, basically a junior."
Danny rolled his eyes, knowing what conversation they were going to have. "Again?" He asked.
"She's nice, you'd like her!" Sam defended. But the truth was, she wanted Danny to date Daisy because she knew Danny wouldn't like her. At least not in a romantic way. She was nice, but a bit too much like Jazz. But even the part of Sam that was trying to push Danny away wanted to keep him close by. She knew it was wrong, but she wasn't quite ready for him to date someone he really liked.
"She's not my type," Danny said, failing to add that his type was vegetarian Goth girls.
"She's cute and smart," Sam said, fully realizing how weird it was for her to be pushing the guy she liked to date another girl. "And I'm not saying you have to marry her, just take her to the stupid dance."
"Fuck, will it get you off my back?" Danny said, his voice edged with annoyance. Sam looked taken aback for a moment, but she flipped to her defense mode, crossing her arms and glaring at him.
"How about you not yell at me?"
"How about you let me make my own damn decisions?" Danny gritted through his teeth before storming off, leaving Sam slightly stunned with a few passing students looking at both of them, trying to figure out what the two had been fighting about.
He hadn't meant to make a scene in the hallway like that, but he had been getting not so subtle hints from Sam about asking out Daisy for the past two weeks. If she didn't want to be with him, the least she could do was let him grieve their non-relationship. Things between them had been mostly normal. Partly because they both pretended like nothing had ever happened. It was fairly easy, seeing as no one besides Tucker knew about them. Even when they were alone, they avoided any mention of their now voided arrangement. Danny didn't enjoy the not having sex part or the still not being with Sam part, but he didn't want to risk pushing the discussion anymore with Sam, so he kept quiet. Until just then, at least.
He mumbled furiously to himself as he got changed for gym in the locker room. It was the only class he didn't have with either Sam or Tucker, as Sam opted for last period gym so she could just go straight home and shower afterwards and Tucker had claimed an internal injury to get out of it completely. On most days, he was disappointed about not having anyone to get through class with, but today, he was happy he could be alone, at least for an hour.
"You okay there?" Danny looked down at the voice. The freckly brunette appeared almost like out of nowhere. Danny only got more annoyed.
"Did Sam tell you to talk to me?" He snapped at Daisy. Daisy raised an eyebrow at him.
"No?" She said. "You looked pissed off, which I now see that you are. I thought I'd ask."
He shook his head, now embarrassed that he'd yelled at a random girl for basically no reason. "Sorry, yeah, I'm just not in a great mood."
"Really?" She asked sarcastically. "I, for one, am absolutely tickled to be in this sweaty gym in these totally flattering nylon shorts."
Danny snorted out a surprised laugh. He'd never actually talked to Daisy, but he assumed that because her sister was such a shallow asshole who served as Paulina's handmaiden, Daisy would be much the same.
"I think they highlight my pasty legs perfectly, actually," Danny joked.
"Care to walk with me?" She asked.
"I've got a lot of talking to myself to do," Danny said. "But I suppose I can move that until later."
Lunch
Sam tried to be mad at Danny for snapping at her, but even she knew he had every right to be annoyed. She finally resolved to just leave him alone about Star's sister for a while. In truth, she was even starting to get a little bummed out about talking up another girl to the guy she wanted to be with, even if she denied it.
But apparently Danny had finally chosen to take her advice, as he was laughing with the sophomore as he walked to their table.
Sam had seen Daisy around school, but had never talked to her. She was about her height, maybe a bit taller. Besides her eyes, she looked nothing like Star, with tan skin and coppery brown hair that she almost always wore under a dark green beanie. She was thin and had perfect teeth, looking much like a model for a teen clothing store.
"Do you know Sam and Tucker?" Danny asked Daisy as they sat down, Danny next to Tucker and letting Daisy take a seat next to Sam.
"Oh, yeah, you're in my art class, right?" Daisy asked Sam.
"Yeah, I think so," Sam said, still getting her grip on the situation.
"You painted that midnight scene, with all the killer mermaids?" She asked. "I loved that. I almost took it to hang up in my room, I swear."
"Uhm, thanks," Sam said.
"Isn't your sister going to be a little mad about you ruining her rep by sitting with the geeks?" Tucker asked sarcastically.
"She thinks I ruin her rep by existing," Daisy laughed. "She suggested that I go to a different school."
"Maybe you should have taken her advice," Sam said. She caught herself and added, "Because Casper sucks."
"True, but I mean, where else gets terrorized by ghosts on the regular?"
"Are you saying you like the ghosts?" Danny asked.
"I do when they get me out of geometry," Daisy shrugged. "Speaking of which, I have a makeup test to do." She got up from the table, giving the trio her dazzling smile. "It was nice talking to you guys."
Tucker watched Sam as the brunette left their table. He could see her jaw tensed and knew she was trying her hardest to hide what she was feeling. Danny seemed oblivious, though.
"I guess you were right, Sam," He said, still looking at Daisy as she walked back into the school.
"I usually am," Sam said with a forced smile. Tucker thought her emotions were painted on her face as clearly as her lavender lipstick, but still didn't notice. "Are you going to ask her to the Halloween dance, then?"
"Do you think I should?" Both Tucker and Sam wanted to shout "NO" but Sam didn't want Danny to figure out that her whole push-Daisy-on-him plan was just a cover and Tucker didn't want to get clocked in the head with a combat boot.
"Totally," Sam said, nodding.
"Alright," Danny said, getting up from the table.
"Wait, right now?" Tucker asked. "You just started talking to her."
"The dance is this Saturday and I'll probably be slapped with ghost fighting all week. It's now or never."
"Get going, then," Sam said, encouragingly. As soon as Danny ran off to catch up with Daisy, Tucker turned a glare on his Goth friend.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Tucker asked.
"What?" Sam asked, feigning ignorance. "I wanted him to ask her, now he's asking her."
"Why are you doing this to yourself?" He asked, throwing his hands up. "You felt like shit when he dated Valerie and Paulina, so why would you push him to another girl?"
"That was Kitty possessing Paulina," Sam corrected, looking down at the table.
"Because that's the point right now," Tucker said, almost yelling.
"I think I'm going to be sick," Sam said suddenly, still studying the wooden picnic table.
"Okay, that's a little dramatic," Tucker said with an eye roll.
"No, I think I'm actually going to be sick," She said, her hand going over her mouth. She got up and tan from the table, before she could spill the cereal she'd had for breakfast.
Tucker was going to follow her, but he realized there wasn't much he could do from the outside of the girls bathroom besides get labeled a creep by the female student body. He stayed by his sandwich instead, shaking his head. "Fucking idiots," He said to his bread.
-0-
Danny caught up to Daisy in the hallway. He even had a moment to pause and think about what he was doing. Daisy was nice enough, and pretty, but she wasn't Sam. He definitely was not over Sam, but she seemed set in her ending the arrangement. And maybe, he hoped, it'd make her a little jealous to see him dating someone else.
"Hey, Daisy," Danny said, stepping up beside Daisy.
"Didn't I just see you?" Daisy asked with a smirk.
"Yeah, I just wanted to ask you something," Danny said. He wasn't necessarily nervous about asking her, he had just never been great at talking to girls that weren't Sam. Daisy nodded, hinting for him to go on. "You know about the dance on Saturday?"
"You mean that dance?" Daisy said, pointing to the sign next to them on the wall that advertised in big letters: "GET YOUR TICKETS NOW FOR THE CASPER HIGH HALLOWEEN BASH".
"Uh, yeah," Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck. "That one. Are you going?"
"I was thinking about going with some friends, but I've got nothing planned."
"So would you maybe want to go with me?" Danny asked. "As my, you know, date."
Daisy blushed, but smiled. "I'd like that."
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