Chapter 14

Actually, the question was a Can not a Will. Technically, she can help Danny. But Jazz didn't ask if she will. So that point might get her out. Tricky but yeah, it could work. If she wanted to broadcast to both of their families that she and their son were not really the best of friends, she could do that. In fact, she felt that they were entitled to know they were not even close to being friends.

So technically, Danny was not in any way her responsibility or her concern.

Danny cleared his throat. "Actually, Jazz, we're partners."

Partners.

SHIT. How could she forget that? How the hell did she forget? What is wrong with her?! They were partners for that stupid English project! As if her life could get any worse.

"Really? That's great!" Pamela piped in.

"Have you started on the project?"Maddie inquired.

Sam opened her mouth to answer but Danny beat her to it.

"Uh, mom, no." He had the gut to look ashamed as he glanced down on his plate.

"Why?"Even Jack felt the need to participate.

Why? Because he dragged me out of the cafeteria that day and I tried to ask what was going on but he didn't give me any damn clue. Which really kind of pissed me off and scared the shit out of me and I tried to ditch him but only ended up in slamming onto him, the other him. And that was when shit after shit happened. Danny turned out to be the town's ghost superhero, he had plenty of enemies, his life was kind of in danger, yeah and some red-clad chick was hunting ghosts. We ended up in detention, Ember happened. Danny fell insanely, uh in 'love' with me. We (sort of) teamed up against Ember, there was a lot of fighting and some, uh kissing and now I really don't know where I stand. Oh and by the way, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, did I mention your son is a ghost?

Sam sighed. The mental summation of the recent events made her exhausted.

"Why not interview your own parents?" Sam glanced at her father looking at Danny expectantly.

In her attempt to recap this week, she had drifted away from the matter at hand.

She gathered that they were still talking about the interview. She had just missed the part where Danny reasoned his way out of the inevitable why. And now their parents appeared concerned and felt the need for parental guidance in order to pull off their project.

"Because it requires us to interview a married couple with three kids."

Her answer ensued silence.

Until Jazz spoke.

"Then you could interview both set of parents."

All eyes turned to look at the young woman.

"The project requires you to interview a married couple with three adolescent kids. Our parents are both married. My mom and dad have two teenagers," She turned to Sam."You're an adolescent, you're parents are married. Then that makes three adolescents and married couples. Well, you could bypass the a couple. They wouldn't know about that anyway."

"That is the most ridiculous thing I've heard from you. Considering it's you." Danny shook his head, as if the mere fact of his sister suggesting a twist on their project was impossible.

Sam mentally agreed with Danny. That would not work. There were forms to fill out, transcriptions of the interview, heck, maybe Lancer would even ask for documentation photos or audio recordings.

"I think it's a smart and practical suggestion." Countered her father.

Wow, Daddy sure was making an impression. And maybe even making friends. Or at least trying to.

It surprised Sam to see her parents in action, meaning they were actually participating in a conversation which as far as Sam knows, didn't involve gaining more money and influence.

Or maybe it did. Was there some kind of notated amendment before she came? Like help the kids pass High school and we will feed each other's bank accounts?

"That's impossible." Sam found herself saying.

For a moment, Jazz looked offended. Sam guessed not too many people dared to correct her or even disagree with her. But she didn't care.

Sam pressed her elbows on the table. "Lancer," She suddenly thought of correcting herself and addressing him as Mr. Lancer but changed her mind and continued. "Will do a background check on the interviewees. He will ask for photos and audio records, heck, maybe even a video footage."

"Then take some pictures, get a recorder, set up a camera." Her father ordered with a tone simply translated to 'Then do everything, go screw the project! I don't give a damn!'

"But-"

"Take some pictures. In fact, you should take them now to show how tight our family is. Family Dinners on Sunday, sharing stories and discussing solutions for problems, from daily teen complaints, to helping with school projects and forming an unbreakable bond."

"That sounds exactly like something you would ask a columnist to write about you."

"Sam." Her mother reprimanded.

Oh, look, mommy was quick to sense the trouble she was beginning to stir.

"What's next, mom? Oh, asking how much Mr. Lancer is getting from being a high school teacher? And what would he think for an early non-holiday bonus for a tiny weenie favor, say, giving your daughter a B plus for the non-sense project?"

The horror on her mother's face told Sam she just said something that could ruin the whole family's reputation. Which was something she didn't give a shit about.

"If I'm bribing, I'd go for an A. Always aim for the gold, right?" Danny interrupted, defusing the tension.

Her father chuckled. "That was I was going to say, smart move, young man."

The fuck? Why was her dad getting along with Danny? Was it some kind of punishment to her? A sick version of 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'?

Jeremy should change his motto along the lines of 'The enemy of my daughter is my prodigy'.

Both of them should be sent to hell.

Sam scoffed. It was the only thing she could do. She would've liked to swear but she couldn't even grasp the right words.

"You know, Sam." Danny slowly lifted his eyes to look at her. Really look at her, for the first time this whole evening.

Their eyes met. His blue eyes, if possible, turned a deeper, bluer shade, piercing right through her. And just like that, flashes of that night echoed in her mind.

"Don't make me regret this."

He wrapped his arms around her waist and replied, "You won't."

Their lips. Their lips met. A jolt of electricity and she melted. The anticipation, the hunger, and the kiss. Soft, sweet, urgent. Claiming, dare even say, possessing.

As if seeing the same things all over again, Danny quickly dropped his gaze to his food. He straightened on his seat and took a deep breath. When he lifted his eyes on Sam again, he wore that devil-may-care look. "Sometimes, you've got to take what's in front of you. Instead of always searching for something better. Why look for other options when you've already got the best catch?"

Is Danny referring to himself or something?

Sam chose the latter. He was, as always, not making much sense. So she ignored whatever subtext he was hinting at and went back to fighting their insane suggestions.

"We can't tamper the interview!"

"We're going to alter it."

"It's cheating!"

"No, it's improvising."

"Why not just do it the right way?"

"BO-ring!" Danny made his lips popped in enunciating the 'B' causing Sam to think about his lips, again.

"Oh come on!" Sam had the urge to really stand and leave the table but she pushed it down, along with the urges of interrogating Danny, Kicking Danny's ass, kissing Danny… Wait, what?

He shrugged his shoulders. "I thought you were a Goth."

"Well, you two seem very acquainted." One of their parents noted, Sam didn't stop for a second to find out who. She knew Danny was baiting her but she wouldn't let him insult her personality.

"I am a Goth."

"Why are you so afraid to deviate? Mix things. Do something reckless. Creative!" He threw his arms up.

"I am not reckless."

Danny obviously wasn't the believing type. He looked at her incredulously, like he was counting off Sam's acts of alleged recklessness mentally.

"Going on a date with a guy you hate? Intercepting concerts? Talking to guys you barely knew on said concert? Really, Sam?"

Well, now he just listed them off verbally. And for God's sake, Danny was talking as if she didn't do anything right. As if she didn't know any better. As if she did those to not help him. Sam seethed in anger.

"A date?" Pamela's tone rose.

"Concert?" Jeremy echoed.

Sam opened her moth to answer then closed it again when she realized there were no words to this. Danny might have just perfectly ruined everything.

"Daniel." That was Maddie, conveying a hundred emotions in one single word, enough to cease whatever twisted plan Danny was forming in his evil little mind.

Danny looked at her parents with a soothing but solemn expression. "Don't worry, Mr. and Mrs. Manson, Nothing bad happened."

Sam raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. "We clearly have different definitions of bad."

"Do we?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Did anything bad happen, sweetie?" Her mother looked at her expectantly. Sam could now see the maternal instincts of the woman kicking in. Danny's statement and tone was almost palpable but her mother weighed Sam's opinion more.

But of course she didn't want their thoughts to go that way. Parents' general definition of bad usually consisted of traumatic events such as date rape or gang rape. Just all worst case scenarios of rape, really.

Sam sighed. She had to straighten this. "Nothing extreme, mom. Just a little uh, problem with" She swallowed, could she do it? Could she really say his name, right here, in front of him and his family, and her family? "Uhm, Danny." There, she did it.

"Now, I think we have different definitions of extreme and problem."

God, was this guy never going to back down even just for a freaking second?

Sam clenched her teeth. "I am not reckless. I am not stupid. It was your fault."

Danny gave a dry laugh."My fault?" He leaned toward the table and whispered. "You were the damsel in distress.

"Really? That didn't seem like it. I wasn't the one desperate enough to… need some company." She finished lamely. She almost said something about the spell. About Ember.

Danny stood and slammed his hands on the table and leaned over. "I wasn't."

Sam rose as well, leaning close to Danny. "I don't think that's what happened in the bushes."

"Bushes?" Jeremy exclaimed. "

"What happened in the bushes?" Pamela's high-pitched voice cracked in panic. Clearly, she didn't like the idea of bushes.

The tension between Danny and Sam crackled. Damn, they forgot the fact that they were not alone. It was too easy to get lost in each other's presence, lost in the intensity of each other's eyes.

"Samantha?" Great. Her mom used that combination. The full name plus condescending tone power pack.

"Daniel, care to elaborate this thing with the bushes." And now, not only her mother resolved to that, Maddie did too. Could things get any worse?

Danny fixed Sam another look which she couldn't decipher. He narrowed his eyes at her and pressed his mouth in a grim line before he turned to their audience. He straightened and gave that annoying, to-hell-with-it shrug. "Nothing extreme." He flashed Sam a smirk, knowing that using her earlier words against her would irritate her more. He turned back to their folks and took a pregnant pause. "You know, just rolling in the bushes."

Everybody who was seated emitted a sound that was between a choke and a gurgle, their eyes wide and their faces red.

Great. Just fucking great. So much for straightening things and steering the folks' minds away from that destructive lascivious path.

"That explains it." Jack beamed.

Sam wished the ground would swallow her alive.

Thanks to the readers and the people who reviewed the last chapter: beautifullove521, MarkTheTinyGiraffe, ivyheart21, Oblitus Angeli, sammansonreplica.

I wish you all an awesome summer.

~Too enigmatic