A/N: Boo-hoo, now it's the end!! (But y'all know I always complete my stories!) And now here's the Epilogue. Don't own nothin', ya'll!! Enjoy!
Rumor Has It—Epilogue
The following Monday, Danny, Sam and Tucker were walking down the hallway. Anyone around them didn't look particularly interested in even glancing at the trio as they headed toward their lockers. It was obvious that all the usual buzz they had been used to was now gone.
At least, all the buzz about them was gone. As they approached the teachers' lounge, which was near their lockers, the three friends could clearly hear Mr. Lancer, who was still fuming and ranting to his fellow teachers about what had happened at the dance and how infuriated Fanny Dempton had been. The trio couldn't help but hear the bluster as they opened their lockers.
"Oh, the shame of it all! I will never be able to enjoy 'Pot Roast Joy' the same way again!" Mr. Lancer bemoaned, cradling his head with both of his hands.
"Well, I never had the opportunity, so I'm not missing anything," Mr. Falluca casually said, again solidifying the admiration of all the other teachers in the room for his inadvertent bravery.
"How can you say that, Frank?" Mr. Lancer gasped, throwing his hands up in shock. "That's like saying 'ambrosia' was not fit for the gods just because you never had partaken of it!"
Mr. Falluca blinked at him. He could not believe what his cohort had just said. But, still unimpressed, the math teacher replied, "It's just that under the situation as it was, Ms. Dempton did not behave like the 'goddess' you claim her to be. It wasn't the kids—or our—fault that her food was ruined. All that unnecessary hyperventilating of hers! My arm's still sore from fanning her! And she should have understood that getting 'nasty burgers' as an emergency back-up snack did not warrant the hysterical swooning that she did. I did not appreciate having to pick her large frame up off the floor!" The math teacher emphasized the point by placing both of his hands on the back of his lower back and stretching the kinks out.
"Well, you did have help, Frank!" Mr. Lancer reminded him, also unconsciously stretching the kinks out of his back. "Besides, I totally understand her reaction. How could you expect her to be pleased with having such underling food in her presence?"
This time Mr. Falluca glared at his colleague. Nothing would convince him that Mr. Lancer's idol deserved any kind of compliment at all! "I don't know. And quite frankly, I don't care!"
Mr. Lancer gasped; and just before he stomped out of the teacher's lounge, uttered, "Well, I never!"
He threw the door open, barely missing Tucker who, with Danny and Sam, had resumed their walk toward their next class after finishing closing their lockers. Tucker had jerked away from the door so violently that he lost his beret and skewed his glasses.
"Will you please watch out where you're going, people?!" the teacher boomed as he stormed past them.
"Whew! That was too close for comfort!" Tucker sighed in relief, fixing his glasses. He reached down and after grabbing his beret, put it back on his head.
"And speaking of 'too close for comfort'!" Danny said, also breathing with relief. "I'm glad that my secret is safe! And I'm a 'nobody' again…until I see Dash again, that is, then I'm a 'target nobody'!" He laughed.
"You know it!" Sam agreed, giggling. But then getting more serious, she added, "But are you sure you want it this way? Being an unknown, I mean."
He answered, "Yes. I thought it long and hard and I want my privacy and my extracurricular activities, too!"
"And now you have a cool new power!" Tucker beamed.
"Yeah, I guess I should be thankful to Dash for helping me learn to duplicate myself."
Tucker, surprised at his friend's remark, replied, "Are you kidding? He could have killed you with that thing!"
Sam piped in. "That's for sure!! That jerk didn't do you any favors. And he helped keep that rumor going!'
"Well, even though you're both right, everything did turn out OK in spite of all that. And actually, he help me 'prove' that Danny Phantom and I are two 'different' people. And guess what? I'm getting so good at replicating that I'm now able to duplicate into three of me; and now I only have to think of just my stomach hurting, not both my stomach and my head hurting anymore!!" Danny replied in excitement.
His friends chuckled.
Then Sam said in relief, "Well, I'm just so glad that we could stop that rumor!" And then raising her arm as if she were taking an oath, she added, "And just so you know: I'm swearing off those dumb magazines! I can't believe I believed all that!! They're as addicting and dumb as all rumors!"
Tucker piped in, "Yeah, me, too! And only dumb people like Dash and Paulina would believe such things! Rumors are so incredibly silly and crazy. It's like saying that…."
Just then, Paulina and Starr walked by the three friends, pretending that they are uninterested in what the trio was saying. But just as they were passing the friends, they only heard Tucker add, "…Dash picks his teeth with his clipped toenails!"
But, of course, Paulina and Starr heard that, and looking at each other with surprised delight, were just as eager to spread this new buzz.
THE END
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this little dabble, and that you even had a good chuckle! And special thanks to: Angelus-alvus, DPCrazy, Nicktoons Squad, Pearl84, sciencefreak330, Majestic Moon, thunderstorm101, TexasDreamer01, contestshippininuyashagurl, crazyvi, ArmoredSoul, FlameFeatherPen, MoonRockBlink1772, Goldenfeather and Wishes for Wings. And in my sincere appreciation for your patience in waiting an extra week for the conclusion on RHI, I am posting the first chapter of my next sweet story called "Sleepover Nightmare" at the same time as this Epilogue. Don't want you to wait any more than you had to! Like RHI, I wrote SN before HOWE and I pushed them both aside so that I could post HOWE. And I still don't want to hurt their feelings any more!!! I think that "Sleepover Nightmare" is worth a look from y'all , even though it is a light, melt-in-your-mouth fluffy story. But I know it will be fun just the same!! Thank you so much again and hope to catch y'all later!! AND MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!! truephan