Chapter Twenty-Five: Who Gets to Give Phantom a Valentine?

Wes felt completely comfortable saying that Valentine's Day was his least favorite holiday in the world. Sure, his parent's wedding anniversary was on Valentine's Day, but other than that, he had no other reason to respect the horrible holiday. After all, it was a medley of several of the things that Wes hated in general.

The entire concept that if you were in a relationship, you had to be spectacularly romantic and over the top was just toxic. Hell, the Fenton's laboratory was less toxic than that, and that was saying something. Even though he'd never really had a real girlfriend, Wes thought it was bullshit that you were expected to ultimately express your love on one day, rather than loving your partner all year long like a Goddamn decent human being. Not to mention that Valentine's Day wasn't even a real holiday, it was just an annual commercialistic event for Hallmark, chocolate companies, and florists.

And the worst part about Valentine's Day? The girls. Starting around February 10th, all that a majority of the Sophomore girls would discuss was their Valentine's Day plans or lack thereof... or worse. It wasn't a well kept secret that pretty much half of the school's populous had a crush on Danny Phantom, and it seemed like every desperate Phan had a plan to capture their 'hero's' heart for the special holiday.

So when Wes found a crumpled flier advertising a protest for the holiday, he almost felt obligated to attend. He had nothing else to do, besides expose Danny, and he detested Valentine's Day enough that he felt like it would be somewhat fun. So on February 13th, the day before, Wes found himself outside Casper High about ten minutes until 4pm, the time of the protest. Aside from a few stragglers, Wes found that he was the only person there for the protest. At 4:03, he was just about to say "screw it" and leave, until Sam Manson ran up with about three picket signs with poorly drawn caricatures demoting Valentine's Day.

Sam took in the lack of the protesting crowd and groaned, apparently ignoring Wes's presence. She groaned and let the signs fall to her side, "Nobody showed up. Again."

He should've known. Who else would have such a passionate hate for the holiday of love that they would plan an organized protest outside the school? It practically had Sam Manson written all over it. As the black-clad girl angrily kicked the grass, Wes debated whether he should say anything or if he should just leave. Unfortunately, his mouth didn't conform with his sensibility and ended up speaking, "I – uh, showed up for the Valentine's hate thing."

Sam stopped her mini-rampage on the innocent grass, and looked at Wes like he'd grown a third head. "You?" she laughed. "You showed up?"

Wes defensively crossed his arms, "I do other things than stalk your boyfriend."

Sam snorted, "Are you sure about that? And besides, what do you have against Valentine's Day? Are you that upset you don't have a date with Star?"

"Are you so upset about Valentine's Day because you've been friend-zoned?" Wes combated.

"Touche," Sam nodded. "But I detest this stupid fucking holiday because it imposes people the sense of what truly matters in relationships by brainwashing society into believing that we need material things from our partners to express romance. It's the holiday of 'romance', but it's more like Hallmark's yearly paycheck."

Wes nodded. He knew that Sam was an activist but he thought he only cared about topics that applied to her interests, like veganism or something. "I agree."

"Well, even if you do, it doesn't matter at this point. There can't be a protest with two people, especially if that second person's you. You're the definition of not credible."

"Hey, I – wait, yeah, I see your point," he admitted. His attempts to reveal Danny had not done him any favors when it came to plausibility.

She snickered. "Serves you right."

A flush of irritation overcame him. "For trying to show our school the truth?" Wes crossed his arms defensively.

"For getting involved in something that's none of your business," she said.

"When Danny's the person fighting for all of us, it kind of makes it everyone's business," he retorted.

"Did everyone ever blame Spider-Man for keeping a secret identity?" Sam asked rhetorically.

"Uh... yes?" Wes had never really been big on Spider-Man; he was more of a DC Comics guy.

"It was usually the bad guys, but I think you're more like Jameson," Sam said swiftly, slinging her three picket signs back over her shoulder and storming away from the school, her combat boots audibly hitting the pavement in a fading rhythm.

Leaving Wes visibly confused, he went home to stubbornly look up Spider-Man characters on the Internet.

Valentine's Day came and the amount of PDA in the halls was cringe-worthy. At that point, even the teachers had given up trying to regulate the amount of public make-outs. The effort just wasn't worth it.

Pretty much every girl was coaxing her boyfriend to pamper her with frivolous gifts and ridiculous amounts of attention. Weirdly, the one girl who was usually the most excited about Valentine's Day, the one girl who was showered in endless love letters and chocolates, was publicly moping inconsolably. No one had to ask why Paulina was so depressed, which only made the general population even more determined to rope her back into the Valentine's Day mood. But no matter how many bouquets she was handed, no matter how many serenades she heard, Paulina was still upset.

All because she couldn't get Phantom as her Valentine's Day date.

Finally, she snapped at poor Ricky Marsh in front of the entire hallway when he tried to give her a CD of her favorite Spanish love-songs.

"Why do you people keep trying to make me happy?" she cried. "I'm not feeling Valentine's Day this year, and every year from now on! These things won't make me happy, only he will make me happy! He's not even around for me to give him my valentine! It's not right! He should be coming to me..."

Following her outburst, Paulina stormed down the hallway and ducked into the girls bathroom. Only Star ran after her, spouting empty reassurances at her friend.

Wes could understand why Danny was avoiding Paulina as Phantom. Sure, Paulina was pretty, and the Queen of Casper High, but she was extremely high-maintenance. Not to mention, that it was reasonably sensible to avoid the girl who idolized one half of Danny and bullied the other. That would be a pretty explosive, one-sided relationship. And keeping Paulina close to Phantom would put Danny at a major disadvantage. And then there was the fact that Danny was head-over-heels in love with Sam.

About an hour after Paulina's big rant, Wes found himself sitting next to Star in math class, and listening as she broke down to Valerie.

"I – I can't do it, Val. I don't know how to make Pauli happy. All she wants is Phantom, but getting to Phantom is impossible."

"Mmm hmm," Valerie agreed absently, not failing to see the irony.

"He's the hero of the city, though! How can he be everywhere, yet nowhere?"

"He's a ghost," Valerie replied, looking ahead of Star at Danny, who was also listening uncomfortably. "He's probably just invisible somewhere."

"Exactly! Anyway, I really just want to get to him so I can give him Pauli's valentine for him, that way I can tell her and she can be happy. She pretty much threw it at me in the bathroom earlier."

Wes spoke without thinking. If Star wanted Paulina to be happy, that meant Star was happy, and since Wes was in love with Star, he wanted Star to be happy. That, and Star would remember him for what he did for her!

"I can give Paulina's valentine to Phantom and you can tell her you did it!" Wes blurted out.

Star, Valerie, and Danny all turned to look at him at the same time. Star looked skeptical, Valerie looked baffled, and Danny looked... almost offended?

"How would you know where to find Phantom, Wes?" Star raised an eyebrow.

Wes could've easily told her the truth, that Phantom was Danny, like would've usually said. But he actually wanted Star to believe him, and saying what he usually would say would not get her to trust him. So he came up with a quick half-truth.

"I regularly stalk him so I know his usual routine and the best places to find him," he said nervously, praying that neither Danny or Valerie would poke holes in his explanation. But, they did anyway.

Valerie narrowed her eyes, "Oh, do you? I'm sure anyone with ghost-locating equipment could find him-"

"Whoa, Val! I hadn't thought of that!" Star said, surprised.

"But that stuff is expensive," Wes said. "And you'd have to talk to the Fentons, and that'll take a few hours at the least. I can get it to Phantom by the end of the school day-"

"Can you?" Danny finally interrupted. He laughed a little bit and looked at Star. "I wouldn't listen to him, Star. He thinks I'm Phantom, remember?"

Valerie snorted, "Yeah, he just needs an excuse to give Danny a valentine."

A few other students who'd been listening laughed at Valerie's statement and Danny jokingly tried smacking Valerie. She shoved him back, harder.

"I – I can actually get it to Phantom, though," Wes tried to salvage his argument. He really wanted to help Star out, even if it meant dealing with Danny later.

"There isn't much evidence on your side," Star brushed him off. "I'll probably just take Val's advice. I can't believe I hadn't thought of ghost-tracking stuff yet. Pauli will be thrilled!"

The bell rang. No one spent any time lingering around, especially today, when they could be having fun in some shady closet with their partner. Danny, Valerie, and Wes, however, were the last ones out of the room.

"Thanks Val for that suggestion," Danny said, groaning. "She's totally going to be chasing me around later, now."

Wes was trailing behind them and they paid little attention to their usual one-man audience. "Well, I had to say something," she glared back at Wes.

Wait... Did she know? Like actually know, know that Danny was Phantom and that Wes wasn't Phantom? Since when? How? And how had Wes missed that!

"You could've just let Wes give the valentine to me, though," Danny said. "I mean, arguably I'm opposed but it is the easiest option, in hindsight."

Valerie grinned smugly, "I don't want him-" she looked at Wes, "-you, to have the satisfaction."

"Yeah," Danny complained, "but now Star is going to be tracking me. With my luck, I'll have to deal with her talking to my parents too. Ugh. Sometimes Dad gets too excited when he sells inventions."

Wes couldn't hold his curiosity in anymore. "I'm sorry, what? Valerie, when did you realize that he's Phantom? Didn't you think I was Phantom? I'm so confused. Danny, I thought you were hiding it from her, what convinced her anyway?"

Valerie sighed, finally allowing Wes to join the conversation. "I've known for like two months, dude. I thought you realized when I stopped bothering you all the time about ghost hunting."

Wes had been so busy with trying to expose Danny, homework, and learning about Vlad that he never noticed that she'd stopped talking to him about patrols and things.

"So you finally know I'm right?" Wes asked, the words coming out faster than intended.

"Yeah," Danny said, "but I'm the one who told her, so don't act like it's a victory or anything before you get too excited."

They were in the hallway now, and Danny and Valerie sped up just enough to where Wes got blocked by one of the brutes on the football team, causing him to be cut out of the conversation, again. Wes sighed in defeat, still processing the fact that Valerie had known for two months and Wes hadn't even noticed! What else had he missed?

He walked to his locker, ignoring the explicit lip-locking fools around him, and opened it. And to his surprise, there was something there. A... valentine? Someone actually gave him one of those cheesy valentines? It had to be a joke. Even if it wasn't, Wes saw it as an empty gesture. He still held his disregard for Valentine's Day and everything it stood for close to him.

He opened it and nearly face-palmed. It was a joke. Why wouldn't it be? And of course, it had to be from him. He'd probably thrown it in Wes's locker that morning, before Paulina started screaming.

Blood blossoms are red, not all ghosts say boo, you're not totally crazy, I believe you too. - With completely unromantic regards, Danny Fenton/Phantom (P.S. this card is made of ectoplasm and will melt if you try to show it to anyone)

Wes had no doubts that the card was made of ectoplasm. He accidentally sniffed the paper and it carried that distinct, otherworldly stench of rotten meat and battery acid. And when he held it in the darkness of his locker, the paper had a faint green sheen to it. He didn't know how the paper would know when Wes tried to show it to someone, but it was probably some freaky supernatural sentient paper that could respond to it's surroundings. He'd seen the Fenton hotdogs do it, so it was probable that paper could come to life too. Great, just great.

It was just like Danny to give him a literal written confession that he couldn't even show anybody.

"DANNY!" he screamed. He knew that jerk could hear him all the way down the hall. He was probably laughing with Valerie about it now.

A girl nearby told him to shut-up and stop ruining her Valentine's Day mood with his annoying screaming.

He really did hate this wretched holiday and the bullshit it brought with it.

So... I haven't updated in so long because I was unhappy where this story had gone in some parts, which eventually lead to me going back to older chapters and doing some editing. I did some major and minor edits, but no one really needs to reread or anything. I deleted the chapter where Wes goes on a date with Star/Amorpho and moved it my Deleted Scenes book and rewrote the chapter where Danny gets Shadow to haunt Wes, making it where Johnny set Shadow onto Wes because he wants to help Danny out. I know it's a little unprofessional to go back and change things while this is a WIP, but I feel like it was necessary for this story to reach it's fullest potential. Especially since I feel like I've improved in ability after writing nearly every day for Phanniemay earlier this year.

Anyway, now I'm a Sophomore, and I can't promise consistent updates, but now that I've edited this story to where I'm satisfied, I'll probably try to write some more for it. Hopefully! As usual, thanks for reading and have a good August!