A/N Hey guys, sorry for the wait, but don't expect waits as long anymore because I now have a laptop and am able to type more often with it. I hope this is worth that wait, I'm not sure. It's pretty good, but I feel that it might be too sappy for some people, and maybe a few things out of character. Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Danny Phantom or any of its characters. The amazing genius known as Butch Hartman does, and he deserves all the credit, trust me! I do, however, own any OCs that happen to appear, so if you want to use them, ask me!

The Phantom Chronicles

Chapter 10: Hard Goodbyes

October 5th 2004

So here's the plan.

Tomorrow Sam's going to lie to her parents about going to live with her grandma in this town called Amity Park.

And although it won't be too hard because her parents have been trying to get her to move down there anyway, Sam is really nervous about it because she's never lied to her parents before.

See, she's not really going to live with her grandma, and the other part of the deal, that I'd be here, is also a lie, because I'm going with her.

We will, however, be going to this Amity Park place.

I really see no reason why she's so worried about it. They were the ones with the idea to begin with, so they should give in pretty easily, if nothing goes wrong.

And the fun doesn't stop there! To top it all off, I get to lie to my parents some more too.

I really want to explain the ghost thing to them, and although some part of me knows they'd understand, I just can't do it. I need to go this one alone.

Okay, Sam's in on it, but still, I'm alone on the inside.

So hopefully tonight, if everything goes well, I'll leave my parents a note telling them not to come looking and that I need some time away, and then we'll be off.

Sam says that Amity Park is a really nice city, and that's basically all I have to go by right now. And the fact that we're not actually going to be with her grandma—in fact, her grandma doesn't even know about all this—makes this even more a journey.

Believe it or not, we did some surfing around online and found this program a lot like foreign exchange, just not for foreigners. So it's all set and we've got this really nice family to stay with, or so the website says.

An adventure. That's what Sam thinks this is going to be, and I know she can't wait, but she's honestly in over her head this time.

This is more serious than she's taking it for, and I'm worried that if she doesn't get serious, we could both get hurt.

"So any luck?" Tiffany asked over the phone.

"Nope. That ghost is a lot tougher than the ones I usually hunt!" the other girl replied.

"I don't care! You've got to get him, and soon! He hasn't been at school for the past two days either, so I think he may be running!" Tiffany barked.

"School? I didn't know ghosts went to school," the huntress asked, puzzled.

"Errm…They don't! I was thinking of this other loser I hate!" Tiffany quickly covered. She knew telling the huntress would make the search easier, but Tiffany enjoyed seeing Danny's internal struggles with this, and half the fun was the search for Phantom! Telling the other girl what she knew would just ruin all the fun, after all. "I still think he's fleeing though, so this could get tougher than it already is," she sighed.

"Nah, I got a few ideas, not to mention a whole bunch of ghost trackers!" the other girl replied happily.

"Really? Do tell."

This was it, the moment of truth for Samantha. Time to just step up and do it. She gulped as she pushed open the door to her parents' study.

"Mom? Dad? You guys busy?" she asked shyly, stepping into the doorway.

The Mansons were, well, to put it bluntly, rich. Anybody off the street could run into one of them out and about and know it.

Mrs. Manson was blonde. It wasn't natural, and the size of her beauty shop bills could prove this. Sam was disgusted by this, for she felt dyeing was just a waste of time. Her mother was also usually seen with some sort of animal around her neck, and Sam, being a vegetarian by choice, despised this as well.

Her father, on the other hand, was more conservative. Although he owned a major corporation, he didn't spend nearly as much as his wife, except occasionally due to the country club.

Although they seemed so different, the Mansons did have one thing in common: They both loved and worried about their daughter, maybe a little too much sometimes.

"Well we were just looking over this month's bills, but we can stop. What do you need, honey?" her dad answered as Sam entered further, taking a seat on one of the several poofy chairs in the room.

"We need to talk," she began.

"Is this about that boy again?! You know we don't approve of people like…him," her mom interrupted.

"His dad works for me, and I agree. They do seem a little…off," Mr. Manson added.

"I swear! They were the ones that brought those stupid ghosts here in the first place! We were ghost free until they came along!" her mom continued. "Why did you even hire that man?"

"Ghost weapons were a good idea back then, you know," her dad kept going.

Sam, who was quickly finding herself pushed out of this conversation, decided to yell at her parents for probably the first time in her life.

"HELLO!"

"Oh, sorry, dear," her mom apologized.

"Sam, are you sure you're okay? You've never yelled at us before."

Her dad sounded concerned, and Sam loved him for that, but she knew what she had come to do and couldn't let anything else interrupt it.

"It's that boy! He's teaching you bad manners!" her mom concluded.

"No! It's not Danny. Can't we just talk like we used to?"

She was so sick of her parents riding on Danny that way, but there was really nothing she could do. Deep down, she missed the way they used to have civil, happy family talks, before her parents became snobs.

"Well then, honey, get to the point. We have bills to get back too," Mr. Manson explained.

'Typical. It's important and all they care about is bills again!' she found herself thinking.

And now it was time for another first in her life: lying to her parents. She gulped and began.

"It's about the ghosts," she began.

"Have they harmed you?" Mrs. Manson got up and stepped towards her daughter, looking closely.

"No, Mom, but I'm afraid they will. Danny seems to attract them" This part actually wasn't a lie, because he really did, but she didn't care because she was doing this for Danny.

"I told you he was no good," her mom mumbled, sitting back down.

"Whatever, Mom," Sam continued as she kept going, knowing if she stopped she probably couldn't start up again. "So I was wondering if I could take you up on that offer you made me a while back?"

"Which one, Sweetie?"

Her parents had been making her a lot of offers lately, most involving something in exchange for her dumping Danny and dating someone more "suitable."

"The one where I move to Amity Park with Grandma. I already called her and she's totally okay with it," Sam explained.

"Oh, that one. Well it depends. Why the sudden decision?" her father asked her curiously.

Sam gulped as she lied some more.

"Well I finally thought about it, and Danny just isn't working out, and Amity Park seems to have some pretty SUITABLE guys," she explained, putting extra emphasis on "suitable" to get her parents to say yes.

If someone had told Samantha Manson to lie to her parents about something this big three months ago, she would have laughed in their face. But now? She was finding it pretty easy, and fun.

"Oh, well, in that case, of course!" Her parents perked up.

'Yes!' Sam found herself thinking.

"Okay, well I called Grandma, and we're leaving tonight already!" she said happily.

"'We're'?" her dad asked, confused.

"Oh…umm, I meant we're meeting tomorrow and I'm leaving tonight!" Sam quickly bluffed.

"Well, do you need any spending money?" her mother began, reaching for her pocket with her wallet in it.

"No, you guys don't have to, honest," The truth was Samantha felt really awkward taking their money after lying to them that way.

"No, I insist, take it," her mom said, shoving three hundreds into her hands.

"Oh fine. Thanks, Mommy, I'll miss you!" She gave her mom one last hug.

"Come here, baby. We'll miss you so much! Promise to call, okay?" Her dad motioned her into a hug.

"I will, and thanks, you guys, more than you'll ever know!" she let go of her Dad and left the room.

"Finally, our baby is leaving the house. Now we can finally turn her room into that fourth bowling alley we always wanted," her mom said happily.

"Oh dear, don't think that way!" Mr. Manson scolded with a chuckle.

Danny had been pacing in front of his bed for the last 30-some minutes. He couldn't help it. No matter what he did, he just couldn't seem to get this whole situation out of his mind.

'I can't do this. Leaving my parents like this, it's not right! But if I stay? Well, I have no choice. I have to go! Or maybe I should tell them? No, that would put everyone in danger, and I don't want to put my parents through all that stress right now. So that's it. I'm going, right? No, I should stay. But Mom and Dad? I have to go! It's my only choice right now.'

He began to head towards the open window so he could go get Sam and they could get away from all this mess.

"Danny?"

Danny froze at his spot and turned around to see his older sister standing in the doorway.

"I know what you're going to say, Jazz, and I don't have time to listen to it!" Danny retorted as he sat down on his bed.

"Really? Well I'm going to say it anyway," she explained as she entered his room and sat down next to him.

"Danny, you know Mom and Dad would understand if you told them the truth," she started.

"Yeah, but, Jazz—" he interrupted.

"Hold on, I'm not done yet!" she added. "You haven't had any time to think about it, and I know that if you took the time to, you'd realize that running isn't always the answer to your problems," she finished with a sigh.

"Well, I have no choice, Jazz. I have to!" Danny told her boldly.

"And what about Mom and Dad?" Jazz asked.

"What about them?"

"You can't just leave them. They'd be crushed! And they could help!"

"No they can't! Look at me!"

Danny got up off his bed and closed his eyes as he quickly turned into his ghost self.

"I'm a freak!!"

"No you're not, Danny, and Mom and Dad wouldn't care anyway!" Jazz tried.

"Don't you see, Jazz? I didn't ask for this! I don't WANT it!!" Danny began pacing again.

"Well, like it or not, Danny, you're stuck with it, so you might as well make the most of it and let Mom and Dad know!"

"So what, they can run a bunch of stupid tests on me like they keep saying they are going to do!?"

"Oh come on, Danny. You know if they knew it was YOU they wouldn't do that. They're your parents and they need to know." Jazz sighed to the sobbing boy with his head in her lap.

"Jazz, I just don't think that telling them is really a good idea in the situation I've gotten myself stuck in!"

"That's just it, Danny. They'd help you get out of it. You know that, and that's why they deserve to know and you deserve to stay here. With us," Jazz told him calmly.

Danny slowly sat back down on the bed and put his face into her chest, tears in his eyes.

"No. I can't let them. I…" He paused and looked up at her.

"You what?" she asked, concern in her eyes.

"I love them too much. I can't risk them being hurt in all this! That's why I have no choice but to leave."

By now the tears were coming in heavy streams, but Jazz didn't mind one bit.

"Danny, you don't have to go!" Jazz protested as Danny got up again, knowing it would not work.

"Yes I do," he sighed, handing his sister a piece of paper.

"Just give Mom and Dad this. Tell them you found it in my room. I don't want them to know that you knew about this, any of this," he said, heading towards the window.

"Danny…"

"Jazz, give up. I'm leaving, okay?"

"No, it's just…"

"What?" he asked, stepping towards her.

"I love you, little brother," she said as Danny came in for one last hug.

"I love you too, and I'll be in touch, I promise, but I have to go. I'll miss you."

And that was the end of that, for Danny disappeared out the window, leaving Jazz alone in his empty room.

'I can't believe that in a few short hours I won't be having to worry about my parents anymore! Finally. No more "Samantha, put on something nice and let's go to the country club!" Gag….'

Sam was lying on her bed, her feet on her pillow as she leaned over the edge and looked at her carpet.

'All though I will miss them. The scent of Mom's cookies in the oven, the ones she used to bake before she and Dad became snobs. Or my dad's old jokes he used to tell me. Those were the good days. I wish it were still like that. Now all I ever get is the time of day from them!'

"I sure will miss this room, too," she said quietly, looking at that bright purple carpet she had picked out a few years back. For some reason she had always had a thing for purple, and black.

"Oh really? Are you thinking of bailing on me?"

Sam looked up just in time to see Danny appearing above her head.

"Danny! Don't scare me like that!" she shrieked.

"But it's so much fun!" Danny whined.

"Whatever. So are we leaving or not?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as Danny floated down and landed next to her on the bed.

"I don't know, Sam. I'm having second thoughts, I guess. Jazz really hit me hard before I left," he sighed. Now it was his turn to look down at the ground.

"Oh, Danny, don't worry about it. You made the right decision, right?"

"That's it, I don't know!" he complained, looking into her deep purple eyes. "It's easy for you. You don't really like your parents and they gave you permission. I love my parents and I can't stand to see them hurt in all this! Physically or emotionally." He let out a rather big sigh.

"There you go, Danny. This is the right choice," Sam concluded.

"Why?" he asked her, confused.

"Because it's keeping your parents safe, that's why."

"I guess so," he said, getting up. "So are you ready to go or not? We don't have all day!"

"That's my Danny!" she said happily. "Yeah, I'm ready to go. Let's do this!"

"Okay, this might freak you out, but you'll get used to it," Danny told her and then with no warning grabbed her waist with one hand and lifted her into the air before phasing them through the walls and out of her house.

It was 6:30, and it had been about an hour since Danny had left. Jazz was in her room, still thinking about how her brother had just up and left them. That was such a stupid idea! But the more she thought about it, he had a point. It was keeping them safe, but she really wished that he would have told their parents anyway. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

She sighed as she got off her bed and went downstairs to find her parents. Luckily they were in the living room watching TV, the familiar newscast about the Phantom Hunt appearing on the screen once again.

"I'm just saying, Jack, if we could track this ghost somehow, maybe we'd have a better chance of catching him," Maddie commented as Jazz entered the room.

"Maddie! You know I can find that ghost on my own!" Jack replied.

Jazz gulped, gripping Danny's note tightly in her hand.

"Mom? Dad?"

"Oh hi, Jazzypants! Want to watch the news? We were just discussing the Phantom case," Jack began.

"Not really, Dad. This is a little more important than that right now," Jazz answered.

"Jazz? Is everything alright? You look pale," Maddie asked in concern as she got up from her chair.

"No, it's Danny," she sighed.

"What about him?" Jack asked.

"He's gone," Jazz concluded.

"Gone?" Maddie sounded confused.

"I—gulp—found this in his room earlier," Jazz explained, handing her mom the slip of paper in her hands. Maddie slowly opened it.

Mom, Dad, and Jazz,

I'm sorry for everything I've caused but I just need some time alone. I'll be back someday, I promise, but for now, I'd rather you not come looking for me.

I love you

-Danny

A/N So was it too sappy for you guys? Please leave reviews because they help me improve and I want to improve!

Lisa