The first week of school was always the worst, Sam thought to herself as she crossed her arms and scowled at the board from the back of the classroom.

Seeing as she really didn't have any friends she always tended to one of the first people in the room. Well her and the eager to learn nerds at the front of the room. She didn't really mind that though, it always gave her prim back seat choices. For this class she decided to take the middle back seat, it shook things up a bit for her and she was hoping it'd confuse the heck out of this 7th science grade teacher.

Sam smirked in spite of herself and relaxed in her uncomfortable school chair.

Without her noticing the room had started to fill up and two boys had taken the two seats next to her. For a moment they fought over the prim window seat.

"Aw come on Danny you got the window in math, cut a guys a break would ya?" the darker skinned boy complained with his hands firmly on the chairs back.

The other boy, Danny apparently, held the gaze of the other for a moment and then broke out into a wide grin. "Oh well when you put it like that! Here," he spread his arms wide putting the desk on display, then he dropped his voice into a mockingly bad British accent, "Take it good sir! You have earned it!" then he bowed out and took the seat right next to Sam.

Sam rolled her eyes, "Boys." She muttered under her breath. But she realized that they were kind of funny, and a much better source for holding her attention than the teacher droning on at the front of the room about the school policies. Like that haven't heard them in every other class, please.

She turned her attention back to the boys and their animated conversation.

"So my parents are finally letting me go out to the Nasty Buger alone!" Danny paused and rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "err, well I mean as long as I go with somebody. Like you Tuck!"

"That's awesome man! But how'd you convince 'em?" 'Tuck' said leaning his arm on his desktop as he turned in his chair to better face Danny.

So much for even using the window seat, Sam rolled her eyes again. He made such a fuss and he's not even using it?

She was starting to get annoyed with their 'normal teen' conversation and was about to tune them out again to find something else better to do when Danny answer brought her attention to full focus.

"I bet them that if they couldn't prove the place was haunted I could go." At this point Danny's back was to her, which she was glad for as it hid her eavesdropping better.

Haunted? Wait a minute... Danny... that name started to sound familiar. That wasn't Danny Fenton was it? The weird kid with the ghost crazed parents? She had always wondered what he was like. But he seemed too normal to be that kid!

The boys reached behind her chair and did a quick fist bump, "Way to go man! You should use their ghost hunting against them more often!"

Danny let out a nervous laugh and rubbed his neck again, "Oh I couldn't do that. It'd be mean. And I think they'd figure me out after like, the third time. I'm not really that great of a liar, you know that Tucker."

Whoa! It really was the ghost kid!

Before she could do anything with this new found knowledge the teacher's voice broke through.

"Fenton! Foley! Do I need to separate you too already?"

Already? Sam thought it odd that the teacher seemed to know them so well on the first day.

"No sir," Danny mumbled quietly.

Sir? Did he just call Ms. Catalyst a sir? Oh no.

Suddenly Danny realized his mistake and his head shot up to attention, "Ma'am! I'm mean Ma'am! I-I I am so sorry." He looked down again trying his best to hide his shame, and the small flush of embarrassment that was creeping across his checks.

Ms. Catalyst glared intently all the way to the back of the room and offhandedly added, "It seems the young Fenton would benefit greatly from Intro to Health Science class this year." Then she turned back to the board and wrote the assignment for the day.

If Danny was blushing in embarrassment before, it was nothing to how bright his face got with that comment.

And just like expected, the other kids in class couldn't help but burst out laughing at his expense.

Ooh that had to suck. She was really glad that wasn't her right now. She was usually alright with getting a bit of negative attention from authority figures, but never had she suffered class wide ridicule. She had proudly got herself the type of reputation that stopped that sort of thing.

The teacher then started explaining how she wanted them to do a quick in class project. They would each break up into partners and then get a packet on one of the subjects that they would be covering that year.

Of course the students started to complain. Why did they have to do work on things they haven't learned yet? They kept complaining and, just as Sam knew she would, the teacher added onto the assignment.

They not only had to fill out the packets, but now, they had to present what they knew to the class. Luckily they were at least allowed to use their books.

The class quickly broke up into groups and, again she knew, she would be partner-less. She was perfectly fine with this of course, whenever she was forced to have a partner they just slowed her down and she still had to do all the work anyway.

So she sat quietly in her seat and awaited her packet. She really hoped it would be something easy, like planet cells or something. She knew all about planets, having your own garden and parents willing and able to buy you anything you wanted for a "nice healthy hobby" worked out quite well for her. She had just ordered a Venus flytrap, and it should be arriving any day now! Now if only she could find more information on those weird blood blossoms she read about once. Sure she only read about them once, in a really, really old book, but they sounded really cool!

The teacher started to go around the room and passing out the work packets when she came onto Sam. "Flying solo?" the teacher asked brow arched in disapproval.

Sam smirked at her look and nodded, "I like it better that way." Then she took a daring look in the eyes of her perceived opponent, "Is that a problem," she let it hang for a moment then added the final touch, "Sir?" Sam couldn't help the mischievous smirk that spread from ear to ear.

She heard a few kids near her giggle and was pretty sure the loudest snorts of repressed laughter was coming from Danny and Tucker. And when Sam snuck a glace it was mostly Tucker. But Danny was giving her a grateful and confused smile.

Before Sam could stop herself, the thought of how cute Danny was with a confused grin crossed her mind, so she quickly looked back to the very annoyed teacher.

"Well it seems you seem to be suffering the same vision problems as Fenton here. Maybe working together would help clear that up for you two!" She turned her venomous gaze towards the unsuspecting Danny.

His eyes were wide with surprise when he tried to protest, "But I'm working with Tucker! We already started on the packet."

"Well you'll just have to start again with Ms. Mason then won't you?" The teacher spat as she slammed the packet on Sam's desk and stormed up to the front of the room and back to her desk.

Danny sat in his desk a bit shellshock until threw her eraser at him. "Hey! Can we get this over with already?" she hissed to him.

He shook himself out of his daze and pulled the eraser out of his shaggy hair. "Oh, umm, sure." He carefully picked himself and his desk up off the floor and crab walked his way over to hers. "So what did we get?" he asked nicely enough.

Sam finally dropped her gaze to the packet and read the header. "Astronomy." She pushed the paper back to Danny as she reached under her desk for her textbook. "Ugh, what is that again. I know I've heard it some-"

But Danny was quick to answer, "Space!"

Sam pulled herself and her book up to examine Danny, did he just go nuts or something? Why was he so excited about this?

Almost as if answering her thoughts Danny continued as he flipped open the packet and started reading the page as if it was the best thing he'd ever seen, "Aw Man this is gonna be so easy!"

And before she could question further Danny started filling in the answers!

"Whoa there Louis Armstrong, we need to make sure those answers are even right! I can't have you fill in just anything! I haven't even read it yet." Sam protested.

Danny stopped what he was writing so abruptly and had such a strange look on his face she was starting to think she offended him somehow.

"It's Neil." He said simply then went back to his writing. "But if you want to double check it, it's fine with me. No need to shout -" he paused then let out another nervous laugh with a rub of the back of his neck. "I guess I didn't quite catch your name earlier, I'm Danny by the way, You?"

"What?" Was all Sam could manage.

Danny jerked his head back and gave her a confused look, "That's a weird name."

"Wha-? NO! It's Sam! I meant to ask what you meant by that 'it's Neil' thing." She clarified.

"Oooh!" Danny said with understanding, "You were calling me Louis Armstrong and I'm assuming that it was a 'first man on the moon' reference." He paused for a moment so she nodded as encouragement to continue. "Well it's Neil, you said the wrong Armstrong. It's ok though, lots of people get them confused." He smiled kindly and handed over the completed packet.

She took it and then started to check it over with what was in the book, by the looks of it he wasn't bluffing about knowing his stuff. Every answer was right. She was also pretty surprised at how nice his handwriting was. Most guys writing she saw could hardly even be called chicken scratch, but Danny's... well it was kind of girly. So much cursive! He must of really believed his 4th grade teacher when they said we'd be using cursive all the time.

"Umm you alright? Those are right aren't they?" Danny asked seemingly less sure of himself.

She snapped out of her awe and nodded. "Yeah as far as I can tell we're gonna ace this..." and then she had a wicked smile slowly sprout across her face.

She could see Danny was starting to get a little worried about that look, she was sure he must have heard she could be a bit spooky, she was well aware of those rumors and frankly didn't care.

Although she decided to turn to her mischievous smile softened into more of a sly grin. "Ms. Catalyst is going to be pissed!"

They both shared that laugh as loudly as they pleased. They laughed even harder when the teacher made them present first.

Her face was priceless, and it bought the best friendship they ever could have hoped for.