Decided to start working on chapter 9, trying to move this along because the good stuff doesn't happen until later in the fic. This is probably going to be a long chapter, and the large sections in italics are flashbacks, and there is a graphic part coming up. Be forewarned, you will shit bricks. Read and review! Tell your friends! :D
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, this is a fan-based story not intended for profit (just reviews), please don't sue me.
…
Chapter 9: Happy Birthday
…
In the days that followed, everyone busied themselves with their normal activities. Danny, Sam and Tucker visited the arcade a few times; Henry said she wanted to stay home and practice for the talent show and work on her piles of homework. She seemed to be withdrawing from her friends and they weren't sure why, but hopefully it really was just that she was so busy now.
One morning, Danny walked down the sidewalk to meet Henry to walk her to school, but she wasn't there. That's odd, he thought to himself, she's usually really excited to go to school.
Uncle Rege's truck wasn't out front; he'd gone to work so he wasn't really a variable. Is Henry sick? Or worse, was she hurt? The raven-haired teen briefly thought.
Danny decided to check it out for himself. He trudged up the long staircase to the old 'dirt shed'—when Henry had heard them call it the dirt shed, she had laughed and said, "More like the 'derp' shed." The teen boy knew he could just use his ghost powers to walk through the front door and go up to her room, but he decided against it and instead would use Henry's preferred entrance: climb the tree to the attic window.
He had never really done it before, but figured if she could do it, then he could. Even though the tree was old, it was stable enough to hold at least her weight, so why not his? Danny sighed and grabbed the lowest branch and began to haul himself up the tree, which actually turned out to be a bit harder than he thought, several branches he tried to step on were a bit too flimsy. Eventually he made it up and saw Henry through her window. She was sitting on her bed cross-legged, writing on notebook paper with a very serious look on her face. What is she writing? Danny thought as he tapped on her window to get her attention.
The redhead jumped slightly, looked at the window and saw him. She waved in excitement and leaned over to open it for him, "I didn't know you could climb my tree, that was a pleasant surprise," she said with a big grin.
The teen boy scratched his head with a slightly embarrassed smile, "Yeah, I almost couldn't, this tree is a lot weaker than I thought."
She cocked her head to the side and laughed, "Well, you do weigh a bit more than me, I'm kinda on the small side from malnourishment."
Danny flinched at the thought, but decided to change the subject, "What are you writing?"
"Oh," she looked down at the papers she had in her lap, "I'm just updating my will," she said casually.
The raven-haired teen's eyes widened, "Wait, your what?"
"Updating my will," she said with a serious face, "I update it every year or so or when something special happens. Mostly because my family is prone to dying in early years."
He was still shocked; why would she be doing that? Of all things, why now? Again, he decided to change the subject, knowing how easily she could be distracted, "So, uh, are you ready to go to yet school?"
Her eye's shot open in surprise, "Is it really time for school already? Oh no! I'm gonna be late!" she quickly gathered up her papers and put them in a drawer on the side of her bed and grabbed her neatly packed backpack.
Like a monkey, she jumped out the window and swung quickly down each branch, leaving Danny clinging to the flimsy branch he was perched on. The tree shook slightly from her dramatic swings and settled when she stepped to the ground.
"Hurry up slow poke!" Henry called up to her friend.
Danny laughed and dropped down each branch awkwardly, eventually landing on his butt on the ground with a grunt.
The scruffy teen grabbed his sleeve and dragged him down the steps and to the sidewalk, "Onward!" she shouted in her usual manner.
…
Banners were strung up and down the halls reading 'Happy Birthday Paulina!' Apparently it was her seventeenth birthday and everyone wanted to celebrate it. Or rather she and all the other cheerleaders were making everyone celebrate it. Danny and Tucker were indifferent on the matter, but both Henry and Sam were borderline irate.
"Why should we celebrate her birthday of all people?" Sam rolled her eyes.
"What has that twat done to deserve a birthday celebrated by the whole school?" Henry threw her hands up, "Other than being one of the richest people in school, what has she accomplished? Wealth shouldn't determine one's popularity status."
Sam held up her hand for a high-five, "Exactly! You get it."
The scruffy teen returned her high-five, but continued to rant, "I mean, why even celebrate birthdays? It's just the same as any other day, same as Valentines' Day, St. Patrick's Day, Labor Day, Christmas, etc etc etc!"
"I get the Christmas part," Danny rolled his eyes, "but it's fun to celebrate some other holidays."
"But do we seriously need a specific date to show love and happiness and joy and fun? Why can't it just take place any time of the year? Holidays are so commercialized we forget what truly matters."
"But they are still fun to celebrate," Tucker shrugged.
"Granted, I like Halloween because it's fun to dress up but others are a bit meaningless," she growled and shoved her hands in her hoodie pocket, "birthdays are useless. We've been dying since the day we were born, and we don't need a day to celebrate that."
Danny raised an eyebrow, "Does this have to do with your will you were writing this morning?"
"No," Henry snapped.
"Wait, you were writing your will?" Tucker pointed at her.
She was getting more and more frustrated, "Is there seriously something wrong with being prepared for when you die?"
The trio was pretty shocked at what she was saying, her mood had started to become very dark lately and they were still trying to figure out why.
Danny decided to make a suggestion, "Is today your birthday?"
That really set her off; she spun around to face her friends, red in the face with anger, "No! It is not my birthday and I am not going to tell you when it is because I do not want to celebrate my birthday! So please drop it!"
And right about then fell the awkward silence as they parted for their classes.
…
Henry sat through Computer Technology in silence, doing her work and not saying anything more. She was getting used to using a computer despite never having used one, she tended to pick up on things fairly quickly.
Next was gym, and the coach decided playing the classic game of dodge ball would be a 'fun' idea. The trio of friends growled in frustration at hearing that, but Henry seemed to get really excited about it.
"Come on guys," she grinned, showing the gap in her teeth, "think of it as dodging traffic."
"That's still not very reassuring," Tucker groaned.
"Well, hitting a few key people in the face sounds like a good stress reliever," Sam looked up.
"Exactly!" the redhead shouted as she skipped into the large indoor gymnasium.
Teams were picked at random by the coach herself, Sam and Henry ended up on one team with several other kids that was dubbed Team A, while Danny and Tucker ended up on Team B, somehow along with Dash, oh joy. Balls were lined up in a row in the center of the room, both teams on opposite sides of the room, ready to rush forward, grab a ball and beat the hell out of each other.
The rules? Simple: get a ball, throw it at someone on the opposite team, if it hits him or her, then they're out. If they catch it, then the person who threw it is out. If you have a ball in your hands, you can use it to deflect an incoming ball. There was a white line painted around the perimeter of the floor, if anyone steps over that line, they're out.
"The winning team is the last person left standing," the coach announced, "ready, set," she blew her whistle.
All hell broke loose, shouting and yelling, balls flying every which way. It was so hard to even concentrate on a single incoming ball, as there were so many in play. Mikey was the first one out, he was unable to dodge or defend himself properly. One by one, players on each team were hit and ejected from the game.
Danny and Tucker had gotten out a while ago, they sat on the sideline, watching and cheering for Henry and Sam, despite being on the opposite team. There were only a handful of players left on each side, Dash of course being one of them. He decided now was a good time for payback, just had to wait for an opening. Henry ran passed along a wall attempting to catch a ball that was heading out of bounds, her guard was dropped as her attention was focused on grabbing said ball.
With a loud growl, Dash wound the ball back and threw it as hard as his well-tuned quarterback skills would allow. Everything seemed to slow down and echo, similar to the feeling in their initial fight. The ball smacked the smaller teen square in the side of her face. The force was enough to knock her off her feet and slam the other side of her face hard against the wall, hard enough to echo throughout the entire gymnasium. She squealed sharply and collapsed in a heap on the floor.
"HENRY!" her three friends shouted and rushed forward.
The coach blew her whistle, "Time out!"
Everything was spinning as Henry lay on the floor, then it went dark.
…
"Higher Grandpa! Higher!" the little redhead shouted in her tire swing.
An old man laughed as he pushed his little grandchild in her precious swing. He didn't appear to be very old, he was fairly well in shape and energetic despite being fifty-two. Grandpa knew exactly how to make the swing spin and turn to make it more fun than it already was. The young child giggled and squealed in excitement with each push and spin.
It was mid-fall, leaves had started falling from the big, beautiful weeping willow tree, creating a scene like gold and yellow and orange snow in the setting sun. A breeze blew lightly to cool the air of the day, though it was already fairly cool. The sun was fading and the clouds above were clear and white and blue, there was no pollution in the air where they lived; it was a very nice, quiet, quaint household.
An elderly woman stood on the porch, smiling and wiping her hands with a dishtowel, she reached a small metal rod up to a metal triangle and rang it to get the pair's attention, "Dinner is ready, come inside Johnny, Henrietta!"
The child skid her feet along the ground to a stop, "Ok Grandma!" and she ran with a slight stumble toward the house and up the porch steps.
"Go wash you're hands please," Grandma gently swatted her bottom with the rod, not enough to hurt her, but just to get the point across.
"Ouch!" she piped, even though it didn't hurt, "Yes Grandma."
"You too, honey," she shook the rod at the older man.
He held up his hands defensively, "I know, I know, I'm heading there."
Henrietta was standing on her tippy toes to reach the high kitchen sink. Even though she was eight, she was still on the small side—just under four feet—but hopefully she'd have a growth spurt and gain a normal height. She lathered up the old soap bar to create a thick layer of bubbles to make sure she was extra clean.
Grandpa came up behind her and reached around either side of her to snag the bar of soap from her hands, "Leave some for me, babe."
"But I've been playing in the dirt all day. See?" she held up her hands to reveal all the dirt under her nails.
"Wow, those are dirty, better scrub harder," he said as he tickled her lightly.
The child giggled and tried to get away, but was wrapped up in a soapy hug. The old man held her hands and helped her gently pry the grime from under her nails; Grandma always thoroughly checked over dirty hands before they could sit down to dinner.
Tonight was meatloaf night, one of Henry's favorite foods, especially the way Grandma made it. She rolled shredded carrots, diced onions, minced garlic, and small sliced mushrooms into the ground beef, cooked in a casserole dish with steak sauce and the meat drippings for flavor; she sure knew how to make a meatloaf. It was easy to overeat such a delicious meal, and they stuffed themselves until they thought their seams would burst. Normally Grandma wouldn't allow them to eat so much, but it was a special time; tomorrow was Henry's ninth birthday.
That night, Henry said her usual prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."
She repeated this every night, as Grandma would always tell her 'Even angels deserve to die', then would turn around and call her a little angel; not necessarily something you tell a child. Grandpa tucked her into bed and read her the 'Velveteen Rabbit', one of her favorite stories. Even though she was growing up, she still loved to hear Grandpa read to her, it was very comforting. When the book was finished, he set it down on the nightstand by her bed and kissed her forehead.
"Remember," he said softly with a smile, "tomorrow is your birthday, and we're throwing a big party for you, and the whole family will be coming, so don't sleep in too long."
She squirmed in excitement and settled down into her covers, "I promise I'll be awake bright and early Grandpa."
He smiled again, wound up an old music box and opened it to play 'Music of the 'Night' to lull her to sleep, "Good night baby, see you in the morning."
"Good night Grandpa," she said with a yawn, "I love you."
"I love you too baby," he said as he got up off her bed and left her to drift into dreamland.
…
The sun peeked in through the tiny window, penetrating through eyelids to wake the still sleeping birthday girl. She stirred then slowly opened her eyes, growling at the sun in irritation. Then she remembered what today was! Henry threw the covers off and stumbled out of her room and tripped down the stairs to the kitchen, still in her nightgown; she never was very good at navigating stairs.
Breakfast was cooking on the stove—bacon and eggs—and party decorations were partially set up. But where were Grandma and Grandpa? It was strange, but they have occasionally played hide-and-seek in the mornings if she overslept, just to scare her into thinking they'd left her, as morbid as it sounded. So, it was time to go find her Grandparents, but where to look first …
The little redhead heard a slight thumping in the hallway closet; someone must be hiding in there. With a small giggle, she tiptoed to the door to surprise whoever might have been hiding in there.
She put her little hand on the doorknob, waited, then turned it quickly and threw open the door, "I found y—" then she stopped with a horrified look on her face.
A stool rolled slowly out from closet floor, from the coat rod, the old man hung from a rope around his neck, his neck obviously broken, still swinging slightly as if it had happened only a few minutes ago. At first, Henry wasn't sure if what she was seeing was true, then she reached forward to touch the denim jeans he wore and shook him slightly. No, it was real!
"G-grandpa?" she squeaked, then grabbed both his legs and shook them, as if to try to wake him up, "Grandpa! GRANDPA!"
The rope shook free and the old man's body slumped forward on top of her, trapping her beneath the weight. She shrieked and fought to lift the body off her. After she worked her way free, she crawled backward staring at her Grandpa's lifeless body, his dead eyes fixed on her. Tears of fear and shock streamed down her face as she beheld the scene before her. Grandpa was … dead?
"Grandma!" the Henry called as she somehow managed to pull her feet beneath her to stand, then ran to find her Grandma.
She searched the entire downstairs, called for the old lady, but didn't find her, so she had to be upstairs. Henry stumbled up the stairs to look for Grandma, searching each room. When she reached the bathroom, her heart nearly stopped.
Grandma lay slumped on the floor, a straight razor in one hand. The front of her dress and the floor was soaked in blood, something written sloppily on the wall in her blood, 'Out of the depths, I cry to you, Oh Lord', her eyes open and cold. The little redhead couldn't believe what she was seeing, was this real or a dream?
"Grandma!" she shouted, grabbing the old woman by the shoulders, shaking her roughly, "Grandma! Wake up, Grandma! WAKE UP!" There was n response.
Upon finally realizing what had happened, Henry stood up and backed away, her hands, feet, and front covered in blood from her feeble attempt to wake the dead body. She backed against the hallway wall opposite the bathroom, and ran down the stairs, screaming in fear. She ran for the front door, but tripped one more time over her Grandpa's body, crawling to her feet and continued running toward said door, leaving bloody footprints in her wake.
…
No one showed up for a few more hours; they still thought there was a birthday party, and didn't expect to find what they did. Aunt Barbara was the first to arrive, what she saw was absolutely horrifying. Poor Henry sat on her tire swing, clinging tightly to the rope, covered in blood, with tear soaked, blank eyes. Barbara couldn't get her to speak when she asked what happened, but she went inside and found for herself what happened. She instantly called the police, then the other relatives that were on their way to inform them of what had happened.
The police were baffled to say the least. It was obviously a double suicide case, however the fact that they were in the middle of preparations for the day, let alone a birthday party seemed too suspicious. No one could think of a reason as to why they would have killed themselves, though Aunt Shelly said it was probably that they were momentarily possessed, or at least believed they were possessed by evil spirits, hence Grandma's writing on the wall.
It was several weeks before they could even get Henrietta to speak.
…
Everything finally started to become light and blurry as she regained consciousness. There were several faces staring down at her, she couldn't tell who they were, though three faces seemed to stand out more than the others.
"Henry?" a male voice echoed, "Are you ok?"
She recognized it, but it took her a moment to piece the voice with a name and face. Danny was his name, that's what she remembered. The other two recognizable faces? Their names were … Sam and Tucker, right? Another voice and face appeared, a gruff yet feminine voice.
"Kid? Wake up," she said, though it sounded more demanding, "Are you injured? Does it hurt anywhere?"
She was finally snapped back to her senses; she was in gym class with her friends, these were her classmates, this was her teacher, and she'd just been ... hit in the face with a ball? The scruffy teen sat up slowly with a painful grunt, rubbing a lump forming on her head. What had that been? Was it really…?
"Kid, are you hurt?" the gym teacher repeated, almost impatiently.
Henry checked herself over, feeling her mouth to make sure the rest of her teeth were still intact, "No, I'm ok."
The teacher sighed and stood up, "All right class, nothing to see here, move along," she shooed them out of the way.
Upon realizing what exactly she had dreamed, tears formed in wide blue eyes and she buried her face in her hands and began to sob.
Danny placed a hand on her shoulder, "Henry, are—"
She viciously pushed him away; he landed with a loud thud on his rear. Henry jumped up and pushed passed the crowd of students, knocking several over out of her way, and ran to the girl's locker room. The coach called after her to come back to class, but she ignored her and kept running, not looking back. She really didn't want to be there right now, and she didn't care if she got in trouble for it.
…
Henry didn't come to lunch after class, nor to her Biology class, which unfortunately attendance was counted as part of their grade; there goes her 100% class score. After school, they walked home with a sense of gloom. It was Friday, so their weekend was starting, but that thought didn't seem to lighten the mood.
"So what do you think happened to Henry?" Sam asked, an obvious tone of concern in her voice.
"Maybe she just went home for the day," Tucker suggested, "you saw how upset she was."
"I know," Danny said as he thought about when she pushed him, "I've never seen her do anything like that, something is definitely wrong."
"Well, maybe we should just pop over to her house really quick and see if she's ok," Sam shrugged.
"Yeah, good idea," Tucker agreed.
They walked a bit further in relative silence, before something caught Sam's eye.
"There she is!" she pointed.
It was the park they had all hung out in the first time. Henry sat on top of the tire swing in the tree, her head bowed and her hands loosely gripping the rope, her backpack propped up against the base of the roots. The swing swayed slowly as she hummed a song to herself; she didn't even notice her friends running down the sidewalk and across the grass.
"Henry!" they all called in unison to get her attention.
Her head snapped up and she turned to face them, her face still slightly red and puffy from crying, "Oh hi guys!" she said with a big grin.
They skid to a stop in front of her, panting lightly, "Where have you been?" Danny asked winded.
"Oh," she laughed sheepishly, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you guys, I just wanted to swing in the tire swing before they tore down the park to make room for condos," she tilted her head in the direction of a sign that read that demolition would start tomorrow, seeing as how it had been almost completely destroyed during their first encounter with the zombie ghost.
Sam looked down at her, "Why did you leave school? We were really worried about you."
A brief serious look touched her face, but was quickly covered by another wide grin, "I didn't feel like being at school anymore, so I decided to go home."
"You can't really do that," Tucker raised an eyebrow.
"Why not? If I'm not feeling well then I should be home."
Danny folded his arms, "Well, if that's the case, then why are you out here instead of home like you said you should be?"
"Tire swings are like a relic nowadays, I had to say good bye to it," the scruffy teen spoke quietly, soothingly stroking the rope.
There was another awkward silence, the only sound being the wind in the branches. With a heavy sigh, Henry jumped down to the ground and patted the tire swing gently.
She picked up her backpack and swung it over her shoulder, grinning to show her missing tooth, "Ok, let's go home."
Danny smiled and laughed, "Ok, let's go."
"By the way," Tucker piped in, "you missed a pretty interesting Biology lecture."
"Aw man! Really?" she pouted, "Can we go over it this weekend?"
"Why don't we do something 'fun' for the weekend?" Sam suggested.
Henry groaned, "Fine, so what do you wanna do?"
Danny raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure you're ok?" her behavior was little off.
"Oh, I always feel better after a good cry. Now that I got that out of my system, I feel great!" the scruffy teen skipped toward the sidewalk.
She chattered happily all the way home as if nothing had happened, her three friends were slightly concerned, but decided to let it go since she seemed fine. They walked her up the narrow steps of her yard to her porch, she opened the door, stepped inside and turned to them.
"So, will you guys call my house phone tomorrow and let me know what we decide to do? You have it right?" she smiled.
"Sure thing," Tucker gave her thumbs up.
"Ok, I'll talk to you guys then," and shut the door.
…
Danny lay in bed that night, wide-awake despite being tired. He just couldn't get the thought out of his mind, Why was Henry so upset today? He'd never seen her like that before, and ranting about birthdays, what was so bad about birthdays? She seemed so sorely offended when had he just asked if it was her birthday. He thought for a long time, then remembered one of the first things she'd ever told them: her Grandparents committed suicide on her birthday. Obviously she wouldn't want to celebrate such awful event.
Well, he wanted to do something to make her feel better, but what? The raven-haired teen thought for a while longer about what to do, then the light bulb above his head switched on. He jumped out of bed and threw on some shoes; he had to be quick about it and hoped it wasn't already too late. Still in his pajamas, he turned invisible and flew off into the night.
…
Henry had fallen into a light, fitful sleep. Just one more hour or so and the day would be over, and she could get back to her relatively normal life. Hopefully whatever she and her friends decided to do this weekend would help make her memories go away. She was telling the truth earlier, after a good cry she always felt better. Granted, she did feel a lot better, but she still wanted to forget about the whole day.
A light tapping on her window woke her from her light sleep; she rolled over to see a figure in the tree outside her window. After rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she realized it was Danny, who was waving happily. Somehow he'd either managed to climb the tree properly or he flew up there, either way, what was he doing outside her window after eleven at night? And in his pajamas?
Henry yawned and opened her window, everything still blurry from just waking up, "Danny? What are you doing out here?"
"Shh!" he shushed her quietly, "I've got a surprise for you, come downstairs."
She nodded with another yawn, closed her window, and absent-mindedly went downstairs. At first she thought she was just dreaming or sleep walking, but when she opened her front door and the cool night air blew against her face and bare shoulders, she was wide awake. The scruffy teen blinked several times in the dim light of the stars and moon.
Henry looked up and saw Danny standing in front of her, still smiling, "What are you doing here?" she repeated, rubbing her eyes again, mostly to make sure she was actually awake.
"I have a surprise for you," he repeated in return, "close your eyes."
She raised a sleepy eyebrow, "Are you serious?" the smile on his face made it clear he was being genuine, so she sighed and closed her eyes.
Danny waved a hand in front of her face to make sure she wasn't looking, then gently grabbed her hands and led her slowly down the porch and around the to the back of the house. Henry scooted her feet along the cool dirt and grass slowly, trying not to trip over an exposed rock or anything that may have been hazardous for bare feet. The teen boy let go of her hands and stepped behind her to guide her; he could hardly contain his own excitement.
"Danny? Where are we going?" she said nervously.
"Don't open your eyes yet," he warned as he continued to guide her.
She growled as they kept walking; she just wanted to go to bed and forget about the day, what was Danny up to? The air was pretty chilly for a thin tank top and pajama pants, considering she was already always cold. Then Danny stopped her in the backyard, "Ok, are you ready?"
Henry wasn't sure if she really was, but answered, "I'm ready."
"All right," he let her go and took a couple steps back, "open your eyes."
She did as she was told; her eyes fluttered open and struggled to focus, then she gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.
"Surprise!" he threw his arms above his head, "Happy Birthday!"
It shown so beautifully in the moonlight, hanging from her tree in the backyard was the precious tire swing from the park. The redhead squealed in excitement and bounced back and forth between her two feet. She rushed forward and leapt up onto the swing, the momentum causing it to swing wildly. Danny had taken great care to tie it to the thickest and strongest branch on the flimsy tree, though that was all relative. The tree swayed beneath the weight of the small teen girl, but held sturdy.
Danny looked on in satisfaction, he had hoped she would be excited about it and that it would lift her spirit. He didn't like seeing her upset, so he was glad that he could make her happy. Henry giggled and laughed as she continued to swing; she knew she should be quieter, but she was just too happy to care at the moment.
"Oh Danny!" she looked back at him as she spun the tire in circles, "This is the best birthday present I've ever gotten! Thank you so much!"
He laughed and blushed, guess he was right about it being her birthday, "You're welcome, so how old are you now?"
"Seventeen," she seemed to forget that she didn't want to tell her friends it was her birthday.
Something rubbed up against his leg, causing him to jump. Danny looked down and saw Cheshire rubbing up against his legs; the cat looked up at him and meowed affectionately.
Henry laughed as she looked at them upside down, "Looks like Cheshire says 'thank you' too."
The raven-haired teen reached down to stroke the soft fur, Cheshire reached a paw up and grabbed his hand and gingerly licked his fingertips, purring loudly. He chuckled and looked back up at Henry, who had just started humming to herself again, still blissfully swinging. Danny liked seeing her so happy and carefree, then a thought crossed his mind that he knew would make her even happier and he blushed. He stood back up, strode toward her and caught either side of the tire and spun it so she was facing him.
Henry stopped humming when she saw the seriousness in his face. They both just stared at each other for what seemed like a long time. Finally, Danny decided to make the first move, he leaned forward slowly and planted a gentle kiss on her lips. At first Henry wasn't sure if this was really happening, when she realized it was really happening and not a dream, she froze.
Danny pulled away and looked her in the eyes, the pale light of the night sky barely showing his bright blush, "Henrietta Cooper, will you be my girlfriend?"
She gasped and blushed, still afraid this was a dream, and she didn't want to let it go. Henry leaned forward off the swing, forcing Danny to catch her, and wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a delighted kiss in return. It was a sweet, romantic moment, in a sweet, romantic setting.
The scruffy teen pulled away to look up into his eyes, "But I thought I was supposed to be the one to ask you out."
Danny laughed lightly, "Looks like I beat you to it," he rubbed his forehead against hers, "So?"
Henry closed her eyes and smiled, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, "Of course I'll be your girlfriend," she brought her hands down to hug his middle and buried her face against his shirt to hide her tears of joy, "This really is the happiest birthday I've ever had."
…
End Chapter 9
…
FINALLY! Took you freaking long enough Danny! Didn't think he'd ever ask her out at this rate! Well, it has been just a bit over a month and a half since they first met, it would seem a bit too cliché for them to get together without first getting to know each other. –shrugs- And from now on, assume that every time Henry grins, the gap of her missing tooth is showing, I think it makes for a cuter picture, lol. Read and Review! Tell your friends!
**In case anyone is still lost in the timeline, it is now the second week of September.
