A/N: Hey hey hey I'm back!
If you're not majorly concerned with the timeline before the story, don't read the following three paragraphs, but if you are the slightest bit confused about the timeline before the story and/or want a glimpse into how my mind sometimes works, read on.
I just realized I have flubbed slightly with the timeline. The canon timeline annoys me greatly, but I was trying to work with it. Canon leads us to believe Danny should be a junior in school after the summer breaks in Reality Trip and Claw of the Wild. I set this story as three months after Phantom Planet, but I also, without realizing it, set it to where Jazz was just moving off to college and Danny and everyone was just going back to school (where they would have had to have been seniors, based on canon timeline because that would have made three summers that had gone by).
However, there's only one episode between Claw of the Wild and Phantom Planet, so it wouldn't make sense for an entire year to have passed. (In other words, in my timeline, they had their summer break during CofW, went back to school for their junior year, where nothing happened, except for Dani showing back up, until the very end of the year when the disateroid struck. They then had summer break and went back to school for their senior, and the story picks up a few weeks after that.) But the way I've written so far, I make it out to seem like they are only juniors.
That mess doesn't seem logical, so I propose ignoring the events of CofW. That way, the trio will be legitimately be juniors, my time references won't need to be changed, there wouldn't have been an entire year of no activity, and Jazz starting college would make sense.
In other words, Danny, Sam, and Tucker are juniors, not seniors, and nothing from the story has changed.
Thanks to all my reviewers! I got the most reviews for the last chapter that I've had since chapter one. You guys are great!
Disclaimer: I don't own To Kill a Mockingbird, although I believe it to be an amazing book!
Last Call: Star
The next day at school, Star slammed her locker shut after third period. She leaned against the cold metal. English was next...how she hated English. At least the class was more bearable since her best friend sat right next to her. Speaking of which...
"Valerie, there you are. I was beginning to think you'd abandoned me."
Valerie was breathing heavily, but she plastered on a smile. "Would I ever abandon my friend?" Star raised a delicate eyebrow. Val sighed, defeated. "Well, would I ever abandon my friend two days in a row?"
"That's better!" Star laughed. Valerie opened her locker and began emptying her book bag. "Seriously, Val, where do you disappear to all the time?" Star noticed how Valerie's shoulders tightened and her face twisted up for a second before she answered.
"Nowhere."
Star shrugged. "Whatev—it's not my problem." She allowed a moment of silence to pass. "But what is my problem is Paulina."
Valerie smirked. "Lemmie guess. She—"
"—is saying she already bought her prom dress," both Star and Valerie said at the same time. Star's eyes popped. "Who told you?"
"Lucky guess." Valerie closed her locker door, but the two girls didn't make any move toward class. They still had a few minutes left before being subjected to Lancer's lecture on To Kill a Mockingbird.
Star sighed. "And she wants me to pick mine out soon. She says if I don't, then her image will be ruined. I'm not exactly sure how that works, but I suppose it makes sense in her mind."
Valerie smiled softly. "I don't understand why you still hang out with them. I mean, you still stick around with me, and it's been two years since they kicked me out. And all you do is complain about them—especially Paulina."
Star flipped her hair off her shoulder and sent a meaningful look at Valerie. "My reputation is everything to me, Val. I can't afford to lose it."
Valerie looked as if she wanted to counter the girl's statement, but Star was sure the look on her face would stop anything Valerie wanted to say.
"Um...so why is Paulina buying her dress so earlier anyway?" Star rolled her eyes.
"You won't like the answer."
"What? Why?"
Star was about to answer, but the former loser trio was just walking by to her left, and Star figured out a better way to answer her friend. "That's why." She pointed at Fenton. Valerie whipped her head around to see what her friend was pointing at. Star took in the group of friends. They were just...walking. Danny was holding Sam's hand, and Sam was slapping Tucker—for something he probably deserved. They all looked normal...like they always had, but now the world knew that the most normal teen at Casper High was actually a butt-kicking, world-saving, totally cute, paranormal ghost. And somehow, all those things combined seemed to make for a very non-normal teenager.
Danny rolled his eyes at his friends and shot a glance in her and Valerie's direction, but he quickly turned his head back straight, probably after realizing that Valerie was looking at him. Star knew her friend didn't like Fenton for some reason, and she knew those two were carefully avoiding each other whenever possible.
Valerie quickly turned back to her friend and mumbled menacingly. "She wants himto take her to prom, doesn't she?"
"Well, of course. What else has she wanted for the last two years of high school?" Valerie growled and started walking the same direction as Danny and his friends, toward Lancer's class. Star hurried to catch up with her. "I don't get it, Val. For the longest time, you had the hugest crush on that loser Fenton...back when nobody cared anything about him. But as soon as he tells the world he's Danny Phantom, you hate him. Every other girl in the school would go gaga over him if he ever dumped Sam, but not you. Why is that?"
Valerie threw a death glare over her shoulder at the blonde. Star held up her hands. "Or...don't tell me. Whichever's fine, really."
The two girls walked into Lancer's class and found their seats in the middle of the room. As soon as they were settled in, Lancer stood up and began droning on about the book that Star was pretty sure she had lost last week. She propped her elbow on her desk and planted her chin in her hand.
She thought back over the conversation she'd had with Valerie—about why she still stuck around with Paulina, even though she was clearly better friends with Valerie. Star didn't think she would ever admit the complete truth to anyone. Sure, she had told Valerie that her popularity was all she had, but there was only one reason Star knew that.
She had lost her popularity before.
The horrible event had happened back in ninth grade, when Paulina had, for some unknown reason, started dating Danny Fenton. (For the longest time, she swore that she had no memory of dating the loser; however, after Fenton had gone public, she suddenly seemed to "remember" dating him and didn't seem to mind telling everyone about it.)*
During that time, Star had fallen to the way-side and had been reduced to spending her time with Tucker Foley. She cringed and looked over at the boy in the back corner of the room. He was sitting a position similar to hers, with a bored look on his face. Star immediately turned back to stare absentmindedly at the front board. She knew one thing for sure: her reputation really was all she had, and she never wanted to lose it again, even for only a few days.
Thinking about reputations made her think back to the phone call she'd gotten yesterday afternoon. She was still slightly shocked by it. Really, helping Danielle establish a better reputation throughout the school had not been such a big deal for Star, but she had really made an impact on the younger girl. Star sat back in her desk, thinking about the good feeling she'd had after hearing Dani tell her how grateful she was for Star sticking up for her.
Star sort of wanted to make someone else feel good like that, but she also remembered Dani saying how she wanted Star to know something that she would have never known had Dani not told her. That meant that she could apologize for something or tell someone a deep, dark secret. Star grimaced. Did she have the guts to call someone up and tell them something that no one else knew?
Her answer came quickly: yes, she could. Dani had had the guts to call her, and she would have the guts to call someone else. The real question was who would she call?
She definitely wouldn't call Paulina. The reason for making this phone call was to make someone feel better or to clear the water or something...not to make them mad, which would be the only thing accomplished by her calling Paulina.
So her mind jumped to the next obvious choice: Valerie. But there was nothing too terribly important she needed to talk to Valerie about. They shared almost everything. So she thought about her boyfriend, Kwan, but they shared everything as well. She wasn't exceptionally close to anyone else in the popular crowd; they were just the people she hung out with, so she never really felt the need to spill her heart to them.
Okay, if she weren't going to call anyone she was at least a little close to, who was she going to call?
Her mind began working in overtime. She was trying to think of anyone...anything.
By the time the bell rang for lunch, she had her answer. For last few months, she'd started to feel sorry for something she'd done a long time ago. Now, it was time for redemption.
"See you guys later!" he called out as the bell rang. His friends walked in one direction as he walked in the other. He was done with school for the day—just like he was everyday at this time. Signing up for co-op his junior year was sort of a must. He needed the time to devote to his career. He couldn't sit through an entire day of school and show up to work after three o'clock everyday—that would never work. But his parents were adamant about him not quitting school, and he agreed with them. The mayor quitting school would probably look bad.
He pulled out his PDA to check what he had to do this afternoon, but before he pulled his agenda up, his phone rang. He slid the PDA back into his pocket pulled his cell phone out of his other pocket. He didn't recognized the number, but he answered anyway.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Tucker, it's Star." Tucker raised an eyebrow. Why was Star calling him? They weren't friends, and he couldn't remember ever having a civil conversation with the girl, even when they "dated" for those few days back freshmen year.
"What's up?" He needed to get this conversation over with fast. He was already sliding into his car, and he always liked scanning his to-do list before he got to the office each day.
"Well, um, remember way back freshmen year when Paulina dated Danny for like, a couple days?" Star asked hesitantly.
Tucker's hand froze while holding the key in the ignition. Why was she bringing this up?
"Um, yeah. What about it?"
Star sighed. "Well, all last year, I sorta started feeling kinda bad about the way I'd treated you those few days. I really shouldn't have been so mean to you. I mean, at the time, I thought acting snobby toward you was the best thing, since you still stuck around anyway, but I've grown up since then, and I wanted to say sorry for treating you like dirt."
Tucker sat back in his car, the key still in the ignition and the car still not running. Had Star just apologized for being a jerk to him? Tucker never really thought much about what she'd done; two years had passed since that event, and Tucker remembered getting so fed up with her that he had decided he didn't like her anymore anyway. But hearing her apologize meant a lot to Tucker and said a ton for how much Star had grown over the years of high school.
Tucker smiled. "Thanks, Star, that means a lot." He figured he should edit his thoughts and leave out the part about how fed up he had been with her. After all, she was apologizing—no need to bring up the memories for her again.
"Good, I'm glad it does. I was sort of worried you wouldn't wanna hear me out." Star paused. "Listen, to be honest, I didn't just randomly decide to call and tell you this. Someone called me and told me something that got me thinking about who I'd call if I only had five minutes to live, and I knew you'd never know how sorry I really was unless I told you."
"Wow...thanks, Star. As surprising as it was to get you're call, I'm glad I answered."
Star laughed. "Good, again. Well, I'll let you go; Paulina's probably waiting for me at lunch."
"Bye, Star."
*This statement means that Paulina is flaunting the fact that she has dated Danny. It does not mean that Paulina actually remembers dating Danny, knowing his secret, or being overshadowed by Kitty.
A/N: No fun back story this time...too bad...I love making those up. But I suppose sticking to canon sometimes is a good thing.
Sorry for the wait. \'(^_^) / I kept meaning to write this, but kept getting distracted or getting too tired to write, and once I did sit down to write, I had to deal with the lovely time warp I created, which involved looking over a couple episodes online—the troubles of being precise!
Okay, I'm not gonna spoil anything, but I am SUPER excited for the next chapter! *runs around in circles and laughs* Anyway, I'm done with the Val drama for awhile. I've laid it on thick for the last couple of chapters and I don't want anyone to get sick of/fed up with it. I also don't want to get too repetitive, which is a huge concern—I mean, really, how many times does it take for Val to see/talk about Danny and get mad until it gets old? -_-
Anywho, thanks for taking your precious time to read! Think you can take one more second to review? Love you all!
