Umm...hello all. I'm posting this new chapter and...

Danny: Woah! ZAGRH8R! You look EXHAUSTED

Me: Yeah, don't get much sleep during school days.

Sam: Please tell me you're going to bed soon. For your own good.

Me: Yeah, just lemme advertise my deviantart website. Zagrh8r(dot)deviantart(dot)com. And now the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: Me no own DP. Now I give you the next chapter. (falls asleep on the floor)

Like Mom and Apple Pie

"Um, Danny?" Tucker asked as he and his two friends walked down the halls of school. "Since when do you wear black shirts with weird looking faces on it?"

"Oh this?" Danny asked as a gestured at the Happy Noodle Boy shirt he was wearing. "I got it from this girl who runs that new store, All About the Shadows."

"That still didn't answer my question." Tucker noticed.

"My other shirts were dirty." Danny answered "Besides, what's wrong with a little variety now and then?"

"It's probably Sam's influence," Tucker guessed "No offense, Sam."

"None taken." Sam quickly answered, while absorbed in her own thoughts and looking intently at her combat boots.

"I'm starting to think that you are a couple." Tucker added. Danny and Sam jerked up at this.

"We're not a couple!" Danny yelped while rapidly waving his hands with his arms extended forward.

"We're just really good friends!" Sam cut in, just as flustered as Danny.

"You even finish each other's sentences!" Tucker pointed out. "And you both said that you were having a 'fake-out make-out', in the exact same words too!"

"We're not a couple!" Sam and Danny exclaimed. Just then, Dash came in from around a corner, and decided to catch up with his usual amount of gibe and jeer.

"Aw, look at the two lovebirds!" Dash mocked as he saw Danny and Sam protesting. "You're absolutely perfect for each other! Danny's lame-o parents chase weird and stupid things, and Sam is a weird and stupid thing!"

"Says the man with the D- average and the pink and purple teddy bears." Sam cut in.

"And how'd you know about my parents?" Danny posed.

"Valerie was muttering something about your parents being ghost hunters." Dash answered. Just then, a look of realization crossed his face; he turned around to face a girl in the hallway, and yelled, "Thanks for the tip!"

"Shut it!" the girl shouted back.

"Ya know, Valerie's just as obsessed over weird and stupid things as Dorky Fenton's parents." Dash realized, as an especially cruel smirk lined his face. "Valerie and Sam might make a better couple than Danny and Sam!"

"I'm straight, you son of a—" Sam shouted.

"C'mon Sammy," Dash egged on "Let's see some lesbo action!" When Dash said that, Danny could feel anger welling up in his veins, boiling his blood, flooding his nervous system. How dare he do that to his friends? They did nothing to Dash...except be viewed as uncool in his eyes, but that wasn't even a misdemeanor! Danny wanted to give Dash a piece of his mind. Of course, he wouldn't use his ghost powers on him; he learned his lesson from Poindexter.

"Would you just shut up!?" Danny bellowed, pointing a finger angrily at Dash "Better yet, why don't you do the world a favor and get a life because it's completely obvious that you don't have one! Especially if you can't do anything better with your goddamned time than pester me and my friends!" Dash's face flushed with anger, his teeth were clenched and grinding down on themselves, his periwinkle eyes bulged out, and he was breathing so heavily, that smoke could come out of his nostrils. Dash tried to restrain himself while muttering "Relax...relax...remember to ten...think of pleasant things..." I'm sad to say that, for Dash, beating the living crap out of Danny qualified as a "pleasant thing"

"The hell with therapy!" Dash howled as he held Danny up by his collar and prepared the poor boy for the beating of his life.

It was lunchtime at the school, where the trash is as abundant as the decent food is scarce. Actually, that depends on which lunch lady you got your food from. There was once this lunch lady named Minerva who served delicious food, refreshing drinks and desserts baked and iced to perfection, but she died in a freak celery accident. She could still be seen haunting the school grounds today, to make sure the lunch menu isn't changed. Valerie Gray, a young and energetic ghost hunter, would have noticed the lunch lady prowling the cafeteria lines, if she wasn't so absorbed in her latest package.

Ever since she was forced to move into a grungy city called Elmerton, due to an accident involving a ghost boy and a green dog, she had been receiving packages from a Wisconsin dweller named Vlad. According to the note in his first package, he had sent her ghost-hunting items because he was concerned about her recent ghost troubles. Most of the times, they contained new ghost hunting equipment and a little note from her mysterious benefactor. However, this package was quite different from the previous ones.

Since when does he include a letter with his packages? Valerie thought as she eyed an envelope attached to her latest delivery. She carefully opened the envelope, ripped open the seal, and read the letter contained inside.

Dear Valerie,

I can see that you have quite a future in the ghost-hunting career. My sources say that you aren't exactly the best fighter, and you have some trouble handling the technology provided for you, but you have quite a lot of enthusiasm and spirit, pun unintended. I would train you to become a better ghost-hunter, but unfortunately the circumstances won't allow me to do that.

Now, I got together with some of my sources the other day and we discussed the matter about what seems to be your ghost-hunting career. Some of my associates feel that if you should be paid for your work, but others feel that since you fight ghosts voluntarily, paying you would be unnecessary. As for me, I'm pretty much in the gray area (Get it? 'Gray' area? Valerie 'Gray'? Ha ha ha ha...I'll stop joking now) so I need your vote on the matter. Of course, you're probably going to say "Yes" or "Hell yeah! Of course I'd like to be paid!" but what would I know? I barely know you. Best of luck in your newfound ghost-hunting career.

Sincerely,

Vlad

P.S. I heard that there's a ghost in your area that feeds on the emotions of teenagers. My sources say that the same ghost usually likes to prey on mall-going teenagers, so I advise you to be extremely careful the next time you go to the Amity Park Mall.

"Hey Sam!" Danny said from inside his locker, "Could you hurry it up? It's pretty cramped in here."

"I'm going as quickly as I can!" Sam replied as she fiddled with the lock on Danny's locker. She finally got it open and Danny fell out of his confinement and onto Sam. Following him were a science textbook, a math textbook, a lunch bag, a binder, and several pencils. As Sam struggled to get out of the flotsam and jetsam, she noticed that Danny was covered with bruises and abrasions and had a black eye.

"Woah! Dash really did a number on you!" Sam gasped.

"Mmhmm." Danny mumbled in assent as he winced in pain.

"I'm kind of surprised you finally stood up to Dash," Sam remarked "I always though you were to scared to do something like that."

"Same here." Danny remarked. "But for some reason when Dash started insulting you, I seemed devoid of fear or nervousness. I felt perfectly capable of standing up to him. Unfortunately, it was a pretty bittersweet victory because even though I had no fear, I didn't have any courage either."

"Wow, that was poetic." Sam said in approval.

"Plus I got all these injuries from the fight too." Danny answered, rubbing his arm. Sam looked at the black and blue boy, and sighed melancholically.

"Wanna hang out at the mall?" Sam asked, hoping the offer would take Danny's mind off of his newly acquired bruises.

"Sure." Danny replied. The two looked at each other with mixed feelings of concern. Danny looked at Sam because he was curious about these arguments she was having with her parents. Sam looked at Danny because of his injuries, and his sudden poetic nature.

Finally! I got another chapter up! Now to finally thank the reviewers.

Firehedgehog: It's the first book in A Series of Unfortunate Events. You get a Yugi (Yu-Gi-Oh) plushie.

WormmonABC: Eh, I'm okay. I finished a project for Social Studies and I finally get to post this chapter. You get a Hikaru (Hikaru no Go) plushie. And Malorie is freaky.

Random Reviewer: Thanks! And I will! You get a Goku (Dragon Ball Z) plushie.

Jacks Ghost Gal: Oh, sorry about your half naked teacher! And thanks for the review! You get a Luffy (One Piece) plushie.

Cheerin4danny: They're short because I like the whole cliffhanger angle. And I'd post this fic on your fic site if I knew the URL. You get a Yoh (Shaman King) plushie.

Ghostly Hamburger: Happy Noodle Boy's a comic made by Jhonen Vasquez. It's stupid and funny, but mainly stupid. In fact, here's some Happy Noodle Boy Comics so you can learn more about him.

Khrystiana: It's okay! Computers can be evil sometimes. You get a Naruto (Naruto) plushie.

The Cheryl One: Maybe you do have it. Hmmm...And you get another Happy Noodle Boy shirt (this time with Mentos!)

Cyertoy00: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead of you! And you'll know more about the thing later! You get a Beelzebub (Sandland) plushie.

Divagurl227: I will! You get a Yusuke (Yu Yu Hakusho) plushie.

Please, for the love of meat, REVIEW!!! And be sure to look for the special thing in chapter 3!