The Techno Geek

Dude did you expect a different title? What did you think I would call my disclosure about Danny? The Best Friend? That's Sam. The Confidant? That's Sam too. I thought about calling myself, The Shadow, but that really sounded too ghostly. I'm not at all ghostly, that's Danny. The After Thought sounded a little too self pitying along with The Ignored. I am a techno geek and since I don't consider that a bad title, that's what I'm calling this thing.

My name, if you hadn't guessed already, is Tucker Foley. I am a third of what I like to call Team Phantom. No, I didn't make that up, but I still like to use it. It makes me feel like I'm a part of something, when in reality I'm just a tag along. A tag, you know like one of those extra pieces of skin, like a mole, just waiting to be frozen off. Wow I sound bitter. I'm not bitter really, just realistic.

Jazz says that I'm worth a lot more than I think, especially to Danny and Sam, but there are days when I just feel so useless. Dude, I put a lot of effort into being useful though, and I know I've done my part on many occasions. I get in the way from time to time too, but on the whole, I think I'm a good, helpful guy.

I love my friends. They are like my whole life. I'd give up my right arm if it meant saving one of their lives. I'd even give up all my tech gadgets for them, and that's saying a lot, my PDAs are my babies, but Danny and Sam are my best friends, my family. The truth is, if it hadn't been for the accident which gave Danny his totally cool ghost powers, our friendship probably would have faded.

Have I told you how awesome his ghost powers are? It's hard to suppress my jealousy sometimes. Danny is loved and admired, for his ghost half at least, he has girls swooning over him, well his ghost half at least. He's awesome. But, as I was saying, if not for the accident we all, meaning Danny, Sam and I would have drifted our own separate ways once we hit high school. I'd be hanging out with the other techno geeks, Sam I'm sure would have immersed herself in the Goth scene and Danny…I don't even want to think about what would have happened to him.

The accident did happen though, and as surely as it gave Danny ghost powers, it also bound us together so tight I don't think we could escape if we wanted to…not that we want to. I sometimes wonder if the accident had an affect on Sam and I too, if it didn't bind our three spirits together so that we became inseparable. Sometimes we just feel like we're one being. It's freaky. I'm the three of three. Ha Star Trek. Cool. You know the Borg? Ah, forget it.

Sam and I have been friends since we were in diapers. We first met when my father was working for Mr. Manson, Sam's father. She and I have been thick as thieves ever since. I know things about Sam that I don't think she even knows. She's as good as my sister, and just as annoying sometimes. She's the one who wanted to start hanging around with Danny in the first place. Why? Because she has a crush on him, duh! She has since kindergarten I think. Of course it doesn't do any good to tease her about it, unless I want an atomic wedgie or worse, she's too afraid of losing Danny, too afraid of rejection.

We've really had a wild ride the last few years. I've seen and experienced things I've never dreamed of. Dude! I've even been a Pharaoh! Granted, there are always consequences to these cool adventures and our lives have been on the line more than once, but it's always fun and we're a team. It's cool. Like being in a movie or something, except again, the consequences are real. When the curtain falls there is clean up to be done, and it's usually Sam and I doing that. When the hero falls…he really falls, the blood is all real people. It's no game.

So yeah, I started out as Sam's friend, not Danny's. Funny huh? But now Danny is as much of a brother to me as Sam is a sister. Don't hold all this against me, but I love them so much it scares me sometimes. I want to see them happy, possibly together, but if that's not to be, as long as we all stick together, it's all good.

Anyway, it was your typical Saturday. We were heading to the Nasty Burger for a bite to eat and so Danny could drool over Valerie, though he doesn't know we know that, he's just transparent sometimes. Ha ha! I made a joke. Get it? Danny, transparent? He can like go invisible! We can see right through him! I know, it's lame, but funny too.

Things were looking good. The day was made for just relaxing, hanging out, having fun. I was defiantly enjoying teasing Sam and I could tell she was getting ready to kill me, which is fun because she never really hurts me, and stirring up her emotions is good. Sam doesn't allow herself to feel too much about anything except Danny and me, so I have to take advantage of what I can.

Danny really is a cool guy. He has a really good heart, but mentally he takes after his father just a little too much. I don't think he'll ever be as big as his father. I mean look at Danny he's a string bean. Skinny and small. Jack Fenton is a bear, no not a bear he is a refrigerator with an emergency ham inside! Jack Fenton has always been big. I think he was born the size he is, he just sprang from his mother this full grown hulking man. Danny takes after his mother, at least physically. Though man I'd almost kill to have his looks. Blue eyes, black hair, it's a really striking combination. I am happy with myself though, I can see in the mirror, I'm not like hideous, I just haven't grown into my features yet.

Mentally Danny has a few screws loose sometimes. It's like there are certain connections that don't quite make it all the way to his brain. It's not like he's stupid or anything, he's really, really smart in all actuality, it's just that he is so clueless. I think the problem is that he is so very smart that his brain is just too busy to get that darned clue. I really look up to Danny. He's my hero in more ways than one. I just wish that I could be as much of a super person as he is.

You see, not many people would be able to take on and actually succeed at the task Danny has appointed himself with. He could have just ignored his ghost powers. He could let Amity Park get devoured by ghosts. Instead he's worked hard to put back each and every ghost who escapes from the Ghost Zone. He's dealt with people's hatred of his ghost half and their fear of him. He's put up with a lot of garbage with patience and grace. I mean there is no way the average kid, on getting ghost powers like Danny, could do what Danny does. Heck I know that if I were to have the power, not only would I abuse them, I would have been obliterated by Skulker in two point three seconds.

No, Danny is special. He's got talent, brains and ghost powers. If what Danny on his bad days calls a curse, could have happened to anyone, it's good that it happened to Danny. It's like fate or destiny or something. Like, someone out there knew that Danny could rise to the challenge. I look back at who Danny used to be and who he is now and it's like he was crying out for a purpose. There is no one, absolutely no one who would have made a better hero than Danny. Like I said, it's destiny.

A few days ago, Sam came to me in tears because of Danny. Don't look at me like that. Sam cries, she just doesn't let anyone see her pain. She comes off as such a stable, well put together person. But really she's repressed and terribly hard on herself. I can't talk too much about Sam, her confidences in me are few and far between and I can't risk losing those moments. It's not my intention to betray her, but I know what she's going to be like when she has her say. She's going to brush everything off like it's nothing. It's not nothing. She can come off really witchy sometimes, but she's anything but.

Sam is the deepest person I know. She has a huge heart and it bleeds. Man she would so kill me if she knew I was telling people how kind hearted she is. She's a perfectionist and an idealist and as a result comes off pretty cold sometimes, but I caught her crying over one of my chicken sandwiches once and totally lost my appetite as she told me what happened to the poor chicken sitting on the wheat bun, with a little mayo and tomato. Her heart is full of love for everything and everyone, but she can't risk. so she comes off cold and unemotional, but she is human I promise. I still ate my chicken sandwich by the way.

Okay, I have to change the subject now because well, I could dissect Sam's inner turmoil for like twenty pages and still not make you understand who and what she is. I can't make you love her either. It's enough that Danny and I do. I just wish Danny loved her a little more than he does. I'm not looking forward to putting together the pieces when he finally breaks her heart.

Anyway, there we were on our way to the Nasty Burger when Danny's ghost sense went off. Team Phantom immediately sprung into action. The next thing you know Valerie appeared and began attacking Danny. Man you should have heard the nasty words Sam began grumbling when she saw Val.

Oh man don't get me started on Valerie, wait you already have. Man, Valerie is so cool. She's perfect. She's beautiful. I've like totally been crushing on her for the longest time. Yeah I know she and Danny tried to date. I don't own Val. I have no say in who she does and doesn't date and I'm not about to go guilt tripping Danny because he's not aware of my feelings. I was pretty sure things wouldn't last for Valerie and Danny anyway, so I was pretty relaxed about the whole issue. I can't say the same for Sam, but like I said, I'm done discussing her.

The biggest reason I knew things wouldn't work out for Danny and Valerie is because she hates, loathes, despises, with a passion, his ghost side. Danny is Danny, whether or not he's Phantom or Fenton, he's still Danny. He could fool himself that it would work for a little while, but he is who he is and she is who she is and that's that. Okay yeah that doesn't make much sense to you, but it's perfectly clear to me. Even if Valerie did accept Danny's ghost side, they are both the same sides of a magnet, they repel each other. You can hold them together with a little effort, but it's just not going to stick.

Valerie is the kind of girl I want. She's smart, beautiful, graceful, perfect…I've been through this list already haven't I? Yeah well I like her, sue me. I'm not going to feel bad about it either. It's like what Sam's Grandma says, "The heart wants what the heart wants." Of course it's going to take some cataclysmic event for Valerie to even see me as anything but the techno geek who hangs out with that "cutie" Danny Fenton. Man, I shouldn't have said that.

Sam and I watched helplessly as the ghost Danny was fighting threw him around like a rag doll, and we couldn't do anything to help, otherwise Valerie would see us, and how in the world would we begin to explain Team Phantom without letting her know just who Phantom is?

We both watched with our mouths hanging open as Danny caught the ghost in the thermos then boom, Valerie blasted him with a missile. I think Sam and I gasped at the same time as we saw her repeated barrage him with hits. Sam started running first. I don't know what she thought she was going to be able to do, distract Valerie probably, but it was too late. Danny changed back to his human self in mid-air. I can still hear Sam crying his name. She reached him the moment he hit the ground and threw herself over him in an effort to protect him from Valerie.

I have to admit, it looked bad, really bad. I arrived on the scene almost the same time as Valerie. She looked angry and I was terrified that she would try to finish the job, and didn't care who stood in her way. I told her to get away and leave Danny alone as Sam cried. She looked at me, then at Danny, back at me and then she ran. Sam yelled for me to call nine one one and I'll be darned if I had a hard time getting my cell phone out of my pocket. I told the operator that my best friend had just fallen from a tree, I had to think fast, that's the best I could come up with, and he was hurt really bad and we needed an ambulance, then I called Jazz and told her where we were and to hurry.

Sam was laying with her head on Danny's chest, listening to his heart beat. It was still beating she told me as I sat at Danny's head and looked into his face. He was bleeding everywhere. His nose, his mouth, his ears, and from the scratches along his arms. His clothes were shredded and there as a puddle of blood pooling around his back.

Jazz seemed to appear out of thin air and fell to her knees beside Danny. She couldn't get Sam to move. Sam was scared that if she moved, if she couldn't hear his heart beating, that it would stop, besides, what could Jazz do for him? Could she stop the bleeding? Could she heal him? No! So Sam yelled for Jazz to leave her alone.

Jazz met my eyes and I immediately wanted to hug her. I've never seen anyone look so frightened and hurt in all my life. She told me she needed to call her parents. I don't know why but I handed her my cell phone. She had one of her own, but for some reason I felt mine was better.

Before Jazz was even on the phone with her parents, the ambulance arrived. I managed to get Sam, who by now was blood soaked away, from Danny so they could work on him. They barraged us with hundreds of questions. We stuck to our story. He fell from the tree. Jazz was able to answer anything else, it's good she was there, because I had to hold on to Sam. Man, that girl is strong! They slid a board beneath Danny's broken body, loaded him onto a stretcher and that was it. I had to hold Sam back, she didn't want to leave him, but there was no way there were going to let her go with him.

Poor blood soaked Sam turned back to the place where Danny lay and looked at pools of blood. She was still crying as she lay down in where Danny had been and curled up, becoming even more of a mess.

I have to admit, that's the moment my brain glazed over. It was Jazz who still managed to keep her wits about her. She picked Sam up and shook her. She said that Danny was still alive and needed us to be strong and that we needed to get to the hospital and laying in the dirt wasn't going to help anything.

I have to admit. I'm finding it hard to think. It's like I'm drugged or something. I don't know. It's just shock I think. If Danny doesn't make it….well someone better be there to hold on to Sam, because I'm not going to be able to do it, in fact, I think I'll need someone to hold on to me too.

I keep hoping, as we run toward the hospital, and I really hate hospitals, that I'll wake up and find that all of this is a really bad dream. I've been through enough bad dream scenarios to know better though. This is really happening. I wonder if Valerie is okay.

Review please. It's not easy getting into Tucker's mind you know.

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