Wow I am so sorry. I don't even have an excuse-yesterday I even thought to myself, "I'm so excited to post today!" and then I completely forgot. Assuming this might happen again, I will also apologize in advance for missing the next Wednesday but am renewing my promise that I won't leave you hanging! This story will be updated weekly until it ends.

In the last chapter Sam was finally given that promotion at her newspaper, but when she took Dani out to celebrate it was revealed that Dani isn't literate. With Sam feeling more energetic about life she decides then and there to teach Dani, which brings them closer together in their care and friendship for one another.

Chapter 6: Fieldtrip

Lunarville Art Museum

September 25th

11:00 am

Dani could hardly contain her excitement as she entered their town's art museum that Monday morning. She'd seen many of the world's art throughout her travels but she'd never learned much about them—their histories, their artists, their messages to the community. That's what this fieldtrip was for though. Sam was going to teach her about art just like she'd been teaching about all the other subjects she needed to learn during her homeschooling. Now that Sam had more free time thanks to her promotion, fieldtrips were going to become a weekly treat!

Sam couldn't help but chuckle as Dani eagerly ran ahead to find the first piece she wanted to study, because Sam had given her an assignment too. Dani would need to create a collage from other pictures, drawings, and photos that would describe her five favorite artworks since her ability to read and write were still coming along. Sam would teach her about the histories and artists, because she had taken as many art courses as she could during her childhood and college years. Art was Sam's favorite pastime—she loved to doodle and sketch having never grown out of it after high school.

Not only was Dani a fantastic student who enjoyed learning, but Sam had become a much better teacher throughout the month. She took an online course and joined a community blog that gave advice, offered extra resources, and overall helped each member with questions and insecurities about homeschooling responsibilities. Sam loved to teach Dani and they had fun together, but she was still glad she had switched from a teaching major to journalism during college. She didn't think she could take more than one student at a time—especially with as lively and energized as Dani always seemed to be.

"Sam, what's your favorite piece?" Dani asked as she skeptically gazed upon a painting that depicted nothing but a yellow dot off-centered. This was art?

Sam smiled at Dani's animated facial expressions before sharing, "My favorite is from a little known female artist and isn't here, but I do like this other painting. It's a Monet." She began to walk that way so that she could show Dani, the younger girl following closely behind.

"Who's Monet again?" Dani asked, smiling sheepishly considering she had probably asked this question more than a few times within the past few days. She couldn't wait until she could start writing down notes. It would make studying and remembering a lot more easy for her.

Sam opened her mouth to explain again but froze when they heard a scream from across the hall. "Ghost! Run for your life! It's a GHOST!" Sharing a glance at one another the duo bolted for the room even as most people ran out of it. Sam couldn't help but worry momentarily about being out of practice since she hadn't fought ghosts in years, but she did her best to ignore it as their eyes fell upon the ghoul and the chaos in the room.

Every painting seemed to be covered in a dark, glowing substance with some having pop-outs and others dripping down the wall. The ghost floated in the middle of the mess hunched over his hands. He was glowing green with a red circular beret floating above his bald head. He wore a black and white striped shirt with long sleeves. He wore no bottoms favoring instead his ghostly tail. He didn't notice the two girls though as he was intently focused on his sculpture forming between his finger tips that seemed to be made of…mud?

"This is TRUE art!" the ghost shouted with an obviously fake French accent to the nearly empty room as his mud blob began to form…a taller mud blob. Dani knew art could be many things but she doubted that this could qualify as a masterpiece.

Morphing into her Phantom form Dani took to the air with an eyebrow raised. "Um, hi? Who are you and what are you doing here?" She hadn't needed to fight any ghosts for a long while but she couldn't say she wasn't excited at the prospect of fighting again. The adrenaline rush always felt energizing and she loved putting her ghost powers to good use.

Suddenly aware of his audience the ghost straightened up with one hand holding his mud piece resembling somewhat of a flower and the other poised behind his back. "Ah, bonjour! I am Phillipe and I am here to share my art with the world. They will soon bow before my magnificence!" he boasted with a sly smirk.

"Magnificence? You've covered the truly magnificent with your dirt!" Sam couldn't help but accuse as her gaze was frozen over the Monet. That glowing ghost mud better not damage any of the paintings or so help her she was going to break out of her ghost hunting hiatus with a bang.

"It's not dirt! It's mud," the ghost sneered, eyes glowing a vicious red.

Before anything else happened Dani spoke up to redirect the ghost's attention onto her. She doubted Sam had any weapons on her. "Listen buddy, dirt or mud it doesn't matter because it doesn't belong here—just like you!" With that she let lose a surprise ecto-blast from her extended hand. She managed to land a few hits before Phillipe formed a barrier from his growing piles of mud. Briefly she wondered how he had become so attached to mud that it turned into his obsession before turning her focus back into battle strategies and spontaneous plans of action.

Angered by the girls who did not appreciate his artistic genius, Phillipe fired a few blasts of ectoplasmic-charged mud their way, disappointed when he missed both his marks. "It is you that does not belong here if you cannot understand the beauty that mud has to offer! Au revoir ma petite fille!"

The fighting continued but Sam could do nothing but watch helplessly as Dani and Phillipe shared witty banter and exchanged heated blows. She didn't know how long Dani could keep this up and she didn't like not being able to help. Even early on when she had first started fighting ghosts without a clue, she at least had the responsibility of carrying and handling the Fenton Thermos.

"Hey Phillipe," Dani said as she discretely tried to catch her breath. She was out of shape and running out of ideas. She didn't have anything on her to contain the ghost and she cursed herself for being caught unprepared. "Didn't your Mom ever teach you to clean up after you've made a mess?"

Enraged Phillipe charged at the young halfa, phasing the two into the air and outside of the building where he had more supplies from the earth beneath them. Sam panicked as she ran outside to catch up, but what could she do? She glanced at where she knew her car was parked and prayed she had left a Fenton Blaster or Wrist Ray in it from long ago. What she found was even better.

"Is that all you got dirt bag?" Dani taunted as she flipped through the air, avoiding rising masses of mud and land as Phillipe possessed it to fight her. She advanced on him, striking him with an upper cut to the chin before he could dodge.

"Actually I've got plenty of dirt bags juste pour toi," Phillipe answered as spheres of mud soared after her, catching her left side and causing her to fly into one of the raised beds of Earth. Her body thumped against it before sliding down towards the ground.

"Dani!" Sam yelled as she wove her way between the maze of dirt columns. She reached Dani just before Phillipe could descend upon her. "Back off ghost, or else!"

"Or else what?" Phillipe asked. "I've never seen a less potent threat human."

"O ya?" Sam cocked her head to the left as she pulled a silver pen from behind her right ear. The ghost laughed as she reasoned, "Well, now you see me…" she raised the pen to aim at him and fired a small, narrow, but surprisingly powerful beam of green light. "…and now you don't. Eat Fenton Portable Portal Phillipe!" And with a click of the pen the threat was gone, sucked into the portal opening directly before him. Sam held onto Dani as Phillipe screeched from the pull of the ectoplasm, unable to fly away before forcibly being returned to the Ghost Zone.

After Sam was sure they had defeated the ghost, she redirected her gaze to Dani upon her soft groan. No one was risking a peek yet so she encouraged Dani to change back as she hustled the two out from the open. After strapping Dani into the back seat of her car so she could lay down, she buckled herself into the driver's seat but didn't dare start the engine. Instead she glanced out her windows, searching the air for a familiar silhouette that never came. She took a deep breath before driving away, nerves briefly settled as she left the scene of attack without any more ghostly run-ins.

Carrying Dani up to their room, Sam took care to make sure no one saw them. She didn't need any curious neighbors prying into their lives, thanks. Upon reaching their home Sam quickly unlocked the front door and set Dani gently on her bed before hustling back to lock the door and then peek out her windows in paranoia. But could you blame her? Sam hadn't been part of a ghost fight in years, and almost always where a ghost was Danny Phantom was not too far behind.

Glancing back at the young halfa on her bed Sam smirked. Dani Phantom was there today, and she had done well for being caught unprepared. Brushing her bangs back, Sam kneeled down to reach beneath her bed for her first aid kit. It was as large as ever and completely refilled, just in case of emergency. She began with a wet wash cloth though, seeing as Phillipe, the ghost of mud left behind some of his "artwork" all over Dani's face. Once the younger girl was dirt free Sam tended to her minor cuts and scrapes. No bones had been broken and no bumps were found on her head so Sam felt more comfortable with letting Dani sleep. She removed the halfa's shoes before tucking her into Sam's bed and leaving her for a short nap.

The next half hour found Sam pacing their apartment in thought. Why had the ghost attacked their small city? Even though Lunarville was only a short distance from Amity Park, most spirits did not venture outside Amity's boundary line unless they had a specific destination or person they were haunting. And even those ghosts were normally benevolent towards the general public. Sam feared this may become a normal event in her life now that she had another halfa with her, which meant she would need to dig up her old ghost hunting equipment and find an alternate way to release ghosts back into the Zone. Assuming her old thermos still worked, it would be criminal of her to keep the ghosts locked away inside for long periods of time. The Portal Pen wouldn't last forever, as it was battery operated, and she didn't want to be caught with a dead pen and no alternative.

Now wasn't the time for her to go searching through the boxes from her past though. She was still frazzled and her nerves still running high from the fight. She hadn't realized how much she'd missed fighting ghosts until now. She also hadn't thought about the missing lesson she should have been teaching Dani along with her educational homeschooling: training her ghost powers. Sam supposed she would have to find a place to take Dani and recreate some of the exercises she had put Danny through in order to keep her in shape, and thus safer. She didn't want Dani to get seriously hurt because they tended to ignore her ghost half.

With that thought circling around her mind, Sam went to check in on Dani to find the young halfa tossing and turning. With a frown Sam went to her side to calm her down by running her fingers through her hair. This is something she used to do with Danny after his more physical fights and she found it worked for his clone just as well as it did with him. But Dani's hair was much too tangled for Sam to innocently weave her fingers through the long, dark locks so she went in search of Dani's hairbrush. Upon entering the halfa's room Sam fondly smiled at the mess of clothes covering the floor—something that Danny used to do all the time with his laundry.

After a brief search Sam found the brush in one of Dani's drawers in her vanity table. However, it was what laid beneath the brush that Sam found herself reaching for: a large envelope with Dani's full name written in a scrawl she did not recognize. She immediately flipped it over to open but stopped herself last minute. This was obviously something private and Sam had no right to go snooping into something so personal without Dani's permission. Still, as her gaze hardened over its surface, Sam couldn't help but bring it along as she reached for the brush and returned to her room. She would have to ask Dani about it because it was clear from the weight that it included papers, and lots of them, but Dani couldn't read. That meant, more than likely, that Dani didn't know what exactly was in the folder either.

What could possibly be in it? Sam wondered momentarily if they were photos, but she quickly shook the thought away as she began to brush through Dani's knotted hair upon returning to the girl. Almost all the photos Dani had acquired over her lifetime had been hung up on the wall behind her bed in place of an enlarged headboard. Even the ones with Danny in it, though she knew he was still a touchy subject for the young girl (and not to mention herself). Perhaps she had stolen some of Vlad's research and notes on his cloning project? But that wasn't Vlad's handwriting on the envelope…

No matter, she would just ask Dani about it when she woke up. Whatever it was must be important for Dani to have kept with her, and it must also be personal since she kept it a secret. Sam considered Dani her best friend but even friends kept secrets from one another if the secret itself was frightening to the owner.