My days - this update took so long. Sorry guys - school stuff's getting pretty hectic, plus I couldn't really think of anything good to write until the last few days. But thanks for being patient - I'll try to update quicker next time!
I don't own 'Danny Phantom' - Butch Hartman does.
I don't own the lyrics to 'Fearless' either - Pink Floyd do.
Danny glanced at the doorway again. He didn't like to think he was nervous, but truthfully speaking, he was. His mind was a blank slate and couldn't think of anything to say, blindly confiding in the hope that something would come together.
Tucker watched his friend pace back and forth and said, "Looks like somebody's nervous." His sly grin showed that he knew what Danny didn't want him to know.
"Will you knock that off, Tuck?" Danny retorted, irritated that he had figured it out already. He and Sam both knew Tucker couldn't keep a secret to save his life. "Sam and I are –"
"Just friends," Tucker finished for him, "yeah, I know, you've told me that, like, fifty times already. It's the same line you keep feeding me, buddy." Danny opened his mouth to refute his statement, and then closed it again. Resigned, he cast his gaze over towards the doors. "Why do you look so scared?" Tucker asked him, "It's obvious she likes you."
You say the hill's too steep to climb, climbing
You say you'd like to see me try, climbing
You pick the place and I'll choose the time
"Yeah, I know," Danny said uneasily, "but…"
"So? This isn't like some blind date you're meeting for the first time. Sam's your best friend, man. How long have we three known each other? You guys know each other so well, you just…" Tucker gesticulated, trying to find the right word. "You just click, you know, two pieces to the same puzzle. What's there to worry about?"
"I don't know," Danny muttered, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "It's weird…I've been kinda waiting for this for a week, and now it's here, I don't know what to say –"
Just then, he was cut off and knocked forward as Sam ambushed him from behind. As he felt and saw Sam's arms around his neck, he said, "Easy! I'm happy to see you, too!" He glanced over his shoulder and saw her face again, and just felt happy to see her.
"Hey," Sam said, ruffling his hair, "glad to see you survived with your parents for a week. A mighty feat by all means." Danny laughed. Sam's barb-wire wit definitely hadn't dulled.
"Hey, Sam," Tucker waved ostentatiously, pretending to distract them from each other. "How was Anaheim?"
"Oh, jeez," Sam buried her face in her hands. "Noisy, polluted, generally unpleasant. What about you? You fare any better in…where did you go again?"
"Trust me, you don't even wanna know," Tucker assured her. "Another insignificant little village in some other insignificant stretch of countryside – boring to the point of stultifying. If I hadn't had my PDA, I might have actually gone nuts."
Sam raised an eyebrow and folded her arms. "Who'd have thought it might actually save your life one day."
"So," Danny asked, "what do you guys wanna do?"
"Well, I haven't eaten since yesterday," Sam replied. "Wanna get something to eat?"
"Sounds good to me," Tucker said, leading the way. "I'm starving."
And I'll climb the hill in my own way
Just wait a while for the right day
And as I rise above the tree-line and the clouds
I look down hearing the sound
Of the things you've said today.
All of a sudden, Danny yelled as something hard struck the back of his skull. The stinging pain was almost enough to make his eyes water, and he put his hand protectively over his injury.
"Danny!" Sam said in surprise as she and Tucker hurried back over to him. "Are you OK?"
"Yeah," Danny answered, "I'm fine." He took away his hand to see a light patch of blood on the tip of his finger. Whatever had hit him, it had done it hard enough to break the skin.
A tiny flash of light caught Sam's attention, and she looked at the floor to see a coin spinning on its side until it came to rest. She picked it up. It wasn't a nickel, or even a dime – it was a full size quarter, and someone had hurled it at Danny's head. "Who the hell did that?" she asked, showing Danny and Tucker the coin before answering, "As if I didn't know." The three of them turned round to face Dash Baxter, arms folded, malevolent smirk planted firmly on his face.
"Heads up!" he called over to them before adding, "Oops! Too late." A ripple of approval emanated from the crowd of sycophants and yes-men surrounding him.
Oh, great, Danny thought, just great. Dash, Kwan, Paulina, all the old favourites, back together for one day only. Why today, of all the days…
"Whoa, Dash, you could've taken an eye out with that!" Kwan joked.
A look of horror crossed Dash's face. "Hey, you're right…" he began, before adding, "Guess I'll have to aim better next time!" The crowd laughed again, but Sam had had enough.
"Why do you keep picking on him?" she rounded on Dash, "What the hell's he ever done to you?"
Kwan held his hands up for self-protection, stepping back a couple of paces as if Sam were pointing a gun at him. "Someone's on the defensive, huh?" he joked. Dash gave him a high five.
"C'mon, guys," Tucker recommended, starting to walk off, "It's not worth hanging around here."
"Yeah, good idea, Foley," Dash jeered, "better to keep that mouth of hers under control."
"Or what?" Sam asked defiantly, "Before I corrupt your fragile, eggshell mind?"
"Yeah, before we start eating dirt and end up like you." The jock's answer brought out another collective laugh from his group of followers.
Fearless the idiot faced the crowd, smiling
"Hey," Danny interjected, diverting Dash's attention away from his friends. "She's an individual. It doesn't make her a freak."
"Aw, listen to that," Dash said with a voice so full of derision it made Danny's skin crawl, "Fenton standing up for his little girlfriend. I knew it, boys –" He pointed at Danny. " – the geeks are in love!" Laughing so hard he was almost in tears, Kwan clutched his belly as the rest of the entourage joined Dash in mocking Danny.
Smiling thinly, Danny put his hands in his pockets. "You're a funny guy, Dash," he said with quiet sarcasm. "I gotta admit, they don't tell 'em quite like you do."
Merciless the magistrate turns round, frowning
Dash's smile faded at the sound of his words, and the rest of the group gradually fell silent one by one. "I don't think I like your tone of voice, Fenton," he said, softly, but menacingly.
Oh, my God, Danny thought frantically, what have I done? He didn't know where he'd acquired this new self-confidence, but he hoped like hell it would disappear, and quickly – he didn't like where this was going.
Dash slowly advanced on him like a wolf preparing for the kill. "Care to add anything?" he dared him.
"Look, if you've got a problem with me, that's fine. I can live with that," Danny replied, his voice never rising and his stance never faltering. "Just leave Sam and Tucker out of this, all right? They haven't done anything wrong."
Dash appeared to consider this for a brief moment before compromising, "All right, I will," before lunging for Danny's throat and grabbing him by his T-shirt. He expected the loser to struggle, maybe even plead for mercy, but he was slightly taken aback to witness nothing happen. Even if Danny was feeling scared at that moment, his indifferent stare didn't betray that for a minute. Fenton never acted like this – and it was as weird to Sam and Tucker as it was to him. Nevertheless, he sneered at Danny, unwilling to let the freak's new attitude undermine his own sense of superiority.
And who's the fool who wears the crown
No doubt in your own way
And every day is the right day
Danny stared blankly at Dash's hateful grin, strangely unperturbed by the football jock's fist resting below his jawbone or the encirclement of Dash's entourage lapping up every minute of this event.
"What's the matter, Fenton?" Dash jeered, "not going to fight back?"
"Are you crazy?" Danny answered calmly, "Me, skin and bones, fight you, star quarterback? I'll kill myself –" He was cut off as Kwan came up behind and twisted his arm round behind his back, and he grimaced as it sent discomfort rushing through his system.
Dash laughed in his face and hissed, "That'll teach you to keep your mouth shut, then, won't it, freak?"
"Hey! You there!" someone barked from down the hallway. Dash looked up to see a mall security guard striding purposefully up to them. The man was quite large, not exactly obese, but stocky, and his beard and piercing eyes gave him the appearance of a druid. "Put him down, now!" he said. "Go on! Get outta here!"
Kwan let go of Danny's arm and Dash gave him a sudden and forceful push in the ribs, winding him and making him fall backwards. As the guard waved his hands and moved the group along, Paulina surveyed him as he tried to get his breath back. "Pathetic," she said, and then followed the rest.
Look who's talking, Danny thought as he got slowly to his feet. He felt a little bit dizzy, scarcely believing what had just happened. Had he really said what he'd said just then? The guard gave him a quick glance and then sauntered off on the rest of his duty.
And as you rise above the fear-lines in his brow
You look down and hear the sound of the faces in the crowd.
"Danny!" Sam called as he dusted himself off, "Are you OK?"
"Yeah, what were you doing, man?" Tucker asked incredulously, "You crazy or something?"
There was a short laugh from Danny. "I don't know," he said, "possibly."
Sam looked into his eyes. Their steely glaze had softened now, returning to their former placid, blue colour. She rubbed his arm. "You didn't need to stand up for us," she said. Better that three people shared the grief between them than one taking it for the team, she thought.
"Yeah," Danny answered, "but I did. It's no big deal, really." Sam gave him a reassuring smile, and he did the same. "So…how about that 'getting something to eat'?"
Later, with the incident firmly behind them, the three of them were walking back towards the exit. Danny was feeling a little more relaxed than he did earlier. Maybe because his friends were back, he didn't have as much time to immerse himself in his own thoughts. He'd been doing that a lot lately; drifting off, staring blankly into space until someone brought him back to planet Earth. Maybe it was because –
"Danny!" someone called from behind him. He turned around to find Mike walking towards him with her boyfriend.
"Hey, Mike!" he replied as Mike ran up and hugged him affectionately. "How are you?"
"I'm good, dude," she said, "can't complain!" Her eyes lit up when she saw that Sam and Tucker were back. "All right, guys?" she asked them, hugging Sam and then cuffing Tucker playfully on the chin. "Good vacations?"
"Oh, yeah," Sam answered drolly, "as if Anaheim could have been anything but enjoyable."
"Mine doesn't even bear talking about," Tucker said, rolling his eyes at the tedious memories.
"Wow," Mike's boyfriend said sarcastically, "I bet Danny was sorry to stay home." Tim was exceptionally tall for his age, almost six foot, and cut a very looming presence, but he was too mild-mannered to pose any sort of threat. Mike called him "the gentle giant", which suited his personality perfectly.
Mike elbowed him. "Anyway," she continued, "I'm having a little get-together on Friday. You guys fancy coming?"
Danny looked at his friends for confirmation. Tucker said, "Yeah, all right," and Sam appeared to suggest the same thing.
"Sure," Danny answered, "anything in particular?"
"I dunno," Mike shrugged, "summer vacation thing, really."
"Summer solstice and stuff," Tim added, before dropping his voice and adding, "Mike's parents are really druids. From Stonehenge."
Mike batted his hand again jokingly, causing a wide grin to spread across the tall lad's face. "It's at my house, 8-12, though you can probably stay the night if you want," she said, looking directly at Danny and Sam.
"Sure," Danny said, trying to steer the conversation away from him and Sam before Tucker got started again, "sounds great."
"Cool," Mike said, "see you there!" With that, she grabbed Tim's hand and said, "Let's go, you," before leading him off.
"Catch you guys later!" Tim called over his shoulder. The three of them waved, and Mike and Tim waved back before disappearing round the corner.
"Party on Friday, huh?" Tucker goaded, eyebrow raised.
"Tucker!" Danny warned him.
"Maybe a chance to get to…first base?" Tucker said furtively, pushing his luck as far as he could.
"Tucker, shut up!" Sam and Danny said in perfect tandem. Feigning surprise at their outburst, Tucker grinned and headed off towards the arcade, proud in the knowledge that his hypothesis had just been proven again. Danny and Sam followed behind, unaware that both of them were thinking the same thing.
Maybe, they both wondered, just maybe.