Aquarius

The Bell That Was Just Too Loud

You never know when you're gonna meet someone
And your whole wide world in a moment comes undone

- Daughtry

It didn't take long for the three teenagers in the far back left corner of the classroom to hit it off. Actually, from about the second they began interacting, Sam, Tucker, and Danny just didn't stop talking. It was like they couldn't, even if they wanted to.

Good thing they didn't want to.

The dull roar of students rolled throughout the classroom in waves and it was immediately evident that no one was about to shut up any time soon.

By the second half of class, it became very clear that Cooper wasn't even going to try to reel in her students. She knew, probably better than most teachers at Casper High, that her students weren't going to listen to her even if she brought out a megaphone and started screaming into it. At some point, she scrawled onto the board some nonsensical scribbles Sam automatically copied down in her notebook. It was some homework Sam could look up later. Something about planets. Something about space.

Something like that.

But for the moment, Sam was way too absorbed in her conversation with Tucker and Danny to care.

Sam was still trying to wrap her head around it. She was talking to an alien. She was holding an actual conversation with someone not from the planet Earth. Danny wasn't even from their solar system. She didn't know much about where he came from - the press and the government were very good at either warping or suppressing the truth behind Earth's very first extra-terrestrial visitors - but she had every intention to find out everything she possibly could.

Already, Danny was proving an armful of conspiracy theories Sam heard thrown about over the last ten years wrong. She'd only talked to him for a solid twenty minutes now, and he was beginning to shake everything she thought she knew about the aliens. Everything she was taught to believe since the crash.

And proving right everything she's seen.

Whether Sam wanted to admit it or not, paranoia had built up a barricade around many of the people she knew. Pastors and Bible-thumpers shouted left and right that these ghosts, these people, were demons sent from hell - some evil threat from above. Demons from the sky, that made a ton of sense.

Others thought the ghosts were no more people than they were a sign - a foreshadowing of the rapture and a symbol of destruction. Sam remembered in the early years of them being here, just a short time after the Great Crash and when all the chaos began to die down, people started quoting Revelations - sending messages and proclaiming that disasters of apocalyptic proportions were on the horizons.

The arrival of the ghosts would be humanity's downfall.

Of course, none of it happened. It was all a bunch of bull. Even when Sam was that young, she knew it, too.

That paranoia, though, morphed into a general belief that ghosts were these evil, scary beings. They spoke in tongues that caused migraines, they could do things mere humans could never so much as dream of. Their evolution was off the charts and their advanced, intricate biology put humanity's collective superiority complex to shame.

And here was Danny Fenton, son of the two leaders of the ghost race, holding a conversation with her. A pleasant one, of all things. He was a little overly shy, a little timid, and a little sheepish, but Sam could understand why. She understood his situation.

But Sam hadn't forgotten that guilty look he had on his face when she brought up her health - of all things - but she decided to let it slide... if only for the time being.

She could revisit that later.

Now, though, none of it mattered. What mattered right now was the genuine interest in Danny's stunning eyes as he listened to Tucker rattle off about the city's "most famous" eatery.

"I'm telling you," Tucker was saying, waving his arms about animatedly, "The Nasty Burger is the absolute bomb. Their burgers are practically the ninth wonder of the world!"

"Really?" Danny said, the expression on his face growing excited. "I'd love to go sometime - I've never had a burger before. But I've heard a lot about them."

Sam, who at this point was glaring at Tucker for giving that slaughterhouse so much praise, stopped short. She stared at Danny, surprised. Tucker's expression mirrored her own - but only slightly more exaggerated.

Actually, there was no "slightly" about it at all. His jaw had dropped far enough to catch flies and his eyes were about as big as dinner plates. It looked like someone had just told Tucker that he defended from royalty - that his ancestors were Pharaohs or something just as unbelievable.

"You... you what?" Tucker said, his voice nearly a whisper.

Danny shrugged, shooting the two an embarrassed smile. "Never had one before. S'not like they've got a decent menu in the Ghost Zone."

"That... that reeks," Tucker said, making a face. "That actually, officially, absolutely sucks."

"Glad I'm not the only one thinking it." Danny shrugged.

"What else have you been missing out on?!" Tucker suddenly exclaimed. He seemed to realize that if Danny hasn't had a burger before, then that could very well mean he's never had a variety of other human delicacies.

"What do you usually eat?" Sam asked before Danny could respond to Tucker's question. She wasn't as fired up about this issue as she could be - for all she knew, maybe the GIW were honoring the ghost's culture. Maybe the government respected them enough to allow them to make their own food - their own recipes, their own traditional dishes? Maybe the ghosts had natural, different dietary needs than humans? Wishful thinking, Sam knew, but as much as she hated the GIW, she always sought to see the best in everyone.

"You know," Danny said, addressing Sam first. "I'm not really sure. It's food - that's kind of the perspective everyone takes. It all kind of tastes the same. We get a lot of rice and beans, I think. There's other stuff, too." At this, Danny cringed. His fists clenched together, before his face wiped blank, growing pale as a sheet. He wasn't smiling anymore. "Not as great, but I'm not complaining."

Okay, never mind then. Now, Sam was fired up. She had a hair-trigger fight response - Sam's had it since she was a kid. She was a smartass at heart - a feminist, a born journalist and an avid vocal activist. So, naturally, when she heard what Danny was saying, when she saw Danny's grimace and sensed his disgust - she was livid.

"They're giving you prison food?" Sam nearly exploded, shocking both Danny and Tucker. "Rice and beans, stuff that tastes the same - that's prison food. Do you guys have a choice?"

"Um... no?" Danny's answer came out as a question. He was suddenly a little more uncomfortable than he was before. His gaze flickered between Sam and Tucker. "I haven't really thought much of it. I mean, they let us cook for ourselves, I guess. All the food's gotta come from somewhere, and usually it's not that exciting. I... I didn't think it was a big deal."

"It's a big deal, dude. A huge one," Tucker said. "I'm a foodie. If you can't tell, Ms. Save-the-Animals-by-Going-Vegan over here is too. Sooner or later dude, we're gonna have to educate you on all this."

"Do I get a choice?"

"No." Was Sam and Tucker's simultaneous response. Danny, to Sam's relief, cracked a smile. Good, she was halfway certain her and Tucker's... abrasiveness would scare him off. That was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Danny said, a genuine smile coming through. It wasn't a shy, half-smile. Not some awkward, nervous grin, not some smear of a grimace or a lopsided smirk. A smile. It was like the curtains had been pulled back and suddenly the room was alive with sunlight. Sam got the sense that this moment, this conversation, was somehow significant for him. For all three of them.

Has Danny ever had friends before?

Some part of her wanted to reject that notion. Most parts of her, actually. How could someone like him not have friends? Danny Fenton was - if Sam's gut proved right - pretty magnetic. She thought it was the eyes that did it, at first. They were about as hypnotic as the light in a moth trap. They drew people towards them. But now...

Well, Danny did have a nice smile. A straight row of shiny pearly-whites. Slightly sharpened canines, typical of any ghost. The faint impression of dimples on his cheeks. He had freckles, too, Sam noticed now that she was paying attention. There was a thin layer of them scattered across his nose and cheeks like stars in the sky.

Sam fought to keep the blush from washing over her face. No, you know what? Sam Manson was not attracted to this ghost. Absolutely not. She refused. Sure, he was good-looking - in a boyish, awkward kind of way - but Sam wasn't about to be attracted to him.

She wasn't.

At least, so she kept telling herself.

"Just because we haven't gone over this yet," Tucker started, "Classes for tomorrow, anyone?"

Sam flipped open her folder. "We have been over this, Tuck. But I've got Bio, Fine Art, gym, and free."

"Well yeah," Tucker said. "We've got astronomy, bio and english. How could I forget?"

"Because you weren't paying attention the first time," Sam chuckled. "Danny?" She prompted.

He quickly flipped open to his own schedule. "Uh... Biology, Economics, Astrophysics, Report. Guess we've got Bio together."

Tucker laughed. "That's gonna be a fun class. Astrophysics? Dude, I heard that class is tough."

"Shouldn't be too bad," Danny said, smirking. "I mean, I'm kind of into the whole 'space' thing. Always wanted to be an kosmonaŭ- astronaut. I can probably handle it - as long as they don't start bring up super bizarre theories like aliens or something. That's too weird of a concept for me. Too... out of this world."

Sam couldn't help it, then. She started laughing. Hard. She was wheezing, and she thought she was going to fall out of her chair.

Good God... he was funny, too. He was conversational - not at all what Sam expected. But she should have, though. Danny was a Fenton, after all. And that's what Fentons did.

Tucker was barking in laughter right along side her. "I can't believe you actually just said that," He choked out.

Danny just shrugged, chuckling lightly himself. "'It's not a good pun unless everyone in the room wants to kill you,'" He quoted, shaking his head. "Never thought I'd be learning about space on an alien planet. Go figure."

"C'est la vie," Sam says, her own laughter dying out at hearing Danny's words. Right. Sam spends so much time thinking of ghosts as the aliens that she didn't often visit the idea that they're on a planet almost completely foreign to them.

The reminder filed itself away at the back of her mind as ammo for the future. Sam knew she'd need it, eventually.

"I think that's Italian. No, French," Danny muttered to himself under his breath. It was so quiet, Sam struggled to hear it. She thought she knew what he said, though.

She was about to ask him to repeat that, just for good measure, when Tucker spoke up. Apparently, he was completely oblivious to Danny having said anything at all. "What's report? Never heard of it."

"It's for APGIP," Danny said. "bi-daily report period. Basically, it's just all the guards and the police and Lancer telling us how to act more human."

Act human? No, how about act like themselves?

"What does that mean?" Tucker demanded. He didn't sound offended - not in the least bit. His tone mirrored what Sam was feeling: genuine concern and borderline anger at the prospect of them being told to act human - as if they weren't good enough for society. As if you had to be human to fit in on Earth.

Newsflash, Sam wanted to scream, the planet doesn't belong to anyone.

Danny exhaled sharply. His face contorted slightly in irritation and he plastered a faux smile on his face. It was visibly forced - clearly, Danny hated the idea of a report period as much as Sam and Tucker. "Looking like humans and talking like humans isn't good enough for them, I guess."

Sam opened her mouth to say something else when the school bell suddenly tore through the air like a bullhorn in a waiting room. Sam winced, her hands reaching for her ears. Were school bells always that loud?

What she missed, however, was Danny's similar reaction and Tucker's baffled look at the two of them. The computer geek didn't say anything about it, though. He shrugged off the reactions of his friends. Newbies.

"That means school's over, right?" Danny asked. He had no idea that time could pass so quickly - it was already two forty-five?

"And we're free for the rest of the day." Tucker confirmed, stuffing his things into his bag and standing up. He began walking towards the classroom door.

"You're free for the rest of the day," Danny corrected, pointing a pen at Tucker from his spot. He and Sam grabbed their books and caught up with Tucker. "I, however, gotta report back at the Specter Speeder at two fifty-five. I should probably head there now, but I'll see you guys tomorrow?"

"Is that a trick question?" Tucker asked.

"We'll meet up with you tomorrow." Sam stated in her best matter-of-fact tone, raising an eyebrow at Tucker for his lack of clarity. That seemed to be the trend with ghosts in general: be concise and clear, and things wouldn't be misinterpreted.

Danny shot the two of them a grateful smile. "Well... thanks, guys. It was good to meet some..."

"Non-assholes?" Sam interjected as Danny trailed off.

"Non-assholes," Danny confirmed with a smirk. "Definitely not assholes."

A/N: And thus goes the trio's first complete conversation.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! To anyone and everyone who celebrates it. To everyone else, happy holidays!

Gotta do some more writing on this story, but I've been getting caught up with my other one called Heart of a Hero. Which, by the way, I would totally recommend if you're into Young Justice crossovers and angst. I'm also working on another fic called "The Doctor Said He Should Be Dead" which is a long title that I would normally shorten, but it rhymes. So it's staying. There's more info in my bio if you're interested.

I think that's about all I've got today.

Peace

Rookey