Stuck
x
"This is going from mean to cruel." Tucker frowned, "He's been in there for like four hours already."
Sam shrugged, chewing her lunch nonchalantly. Tucker reminded himself never to invoke her wrath. Danny had made that mistake over the weekend and look what had happened to him.
"Maybe he should have thought of that before completely blowing me off on Saturday." Sam griped, poking a bit at her salad, "I'm teaching him a lesson of life and girls. Besides, I'll let him out soon enough. He can't miss Lancer's class again anyways."
"You do know he's only half ghost right?" Tucker asked, lowering his voice. He had been valiantly attempting to be a good best friend and talk Sam into letting him out for the past hour, "Who knows what being shoved inside there will do to him."
"Jazz did it before. Multiple times. He was fine."
"Yeah but she let him out right away. Not four hours later."
Genuine worry flashed across Sam's face at the thought. Maybe Tucker was right.
"Fine." She relented, turning around to get her bag from where it was sitting on the cafeteria floor. She blinked, seeing it was already unzipped. "Uh... Tucker?"
"What?" Tucker put down his hamburger.
"He's not in here..."
"You lost him?!" Tucker sputtered, spitting out the large bite he had been chewing.
"No!" Sam immediately defended, although her face was pale. She rooted around in her bag for a long moment, dumping its contents onto the table. "Maybe... I don't know... I didn't lose him!"
x
Danny was unsure just how long he had been stuck in here. It had felt like an entire age had passed. He could see and hear nothing. It was always disconcerting to be crammed into such a tiny space. It wasn't that he was claustrophobic, it was that his ghostly form was forced to dissipate into a pile of floating ectoplasm. No limbs. Just soul and energy. Danny prayed that once Sam let him out he'd still remember how to grow back his legs.
Really. How long was Sam going to keep this up? He hadn't thought she had been this mad. He must have really, actually, hurt her feelings. He had definitely learned his lesson. There had been nothing else to do in here but ponder how much of an ass he'd been lately. The first thing he was going to do after she let him out was apologize. No more skipping horror night. He'd even eat all her cardboard food and not complain. He'd even pretend to enjoy it.
Man, was this what it felt like to be whipped?
Danny was pondering this question when light flooded his senses and there was the click and soft whine of the Thermos powering up - preparing to shoot him back into the world. Finally. Thank god.
Danny felt his energy get scooped up and propelled towards freedom. He tumbled for a second, feeling his body regenerate into his normal ghostly form- legs, arms, and all. He blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the light of the room.
He was disoriented for a good minute. The night sky outside told him he had been in the thermos for a whole day. Lancer was going to kill him for skipping class again. Not that it had been his fault this time. Although, Sam would argue that it had been.
As his vision spun facts started to trickle into his rattled brain. Facts that didn't make any sense. Like the pink silk bedspread he was sitting on. Or the posters of Danny Phantom hanging on the walls. The soft glow of a scented candle; the voluptuous beat of a latin American love song.
Most importantly, the soft warmth and weight of a slender girl sitting on his lap, pinning him against the headboard of the bed.
"Does this mean I get three wishes, Ghost Boy?"
Danny stared dumbly up at her - cinnamon, smoky eyes, cute accent and all as Paulina Sanchez's luscious lips descended upon his.
Danny knew that he should be enthralled by this latest development, but all he could manage to think was: Fuck, he was fucking fucked. When Sam found out about this she was going to shove him right back in that thermos and dump it in the ocean for good.