Disclaimer Refresher: I don't own "Danny Phantom". Period! End of quotation!

Impossible To Love And Be Wise

Chapter: It's About Life

It's simple, confusing, the truth is I'm winning but I'm losing

I'm pulling and pushing won't do me any good

It could…it should!

I'm honest to myself that the truth is I lied.

One of these days it all comes together,

One of those days that goes on forever.

Think I sound crazy? Maybe, whatever…

-Lillix

---

Sam was walking downtown. Where to? Nobody knew, not even her.

It hadn't been all lies. Most of it had been true, in fact, including the part about being a "drama queen." Sam freely admitted to being a drama queen.

The part that had been a lie had been the laughing.

Oh, and the "I didn't write the note" bit. That one was a lie. Sam had asked to 'borrow' her grandmother's handwriting – her grandmother hadn't written anything for a long time and Danny was unlikely to know it at all. Sam had dictated exactly what she wanted said. Part of the reason she'd made it short and bittersweet was because her grandma's hands weren't what they used to be.

The lie Sam was living was benevolent, right? She didn't want to ruin a good thing. Of course, she had already taken the risk by writing that ridiculous note in the first place. She had needed to do something about it, though – the feeling. If she didn't, she'd end up saying something non-anonymously or else just be miserable for a long time.

Well, come to think of it, Sam could have been as philosophical with herself about the whole thing as she'd been with Danny a few minutes ago.

So altogether, Sam admitted, she sure knew how to be a selfish little snake. She also planned to maintain this façade for some time, until the perfect moment – the perfect moment that would probably be years from now, well away from the awkward Casper High years. She sighed out loud.

Naturally, her little circle of friends had to still be together years from now! Even if they tried to separate, Sam, Tucker, and Danny's lives were too connected now not to be thrown back together sooner or later. Probably, Sam imagined wryly, by a ghost fight bringing Danny sheer across the country.

Still, unless they tried, the trio wouldn't even get that close to separating. They wouldn't let themselves.

As she pondered all this, partially with guilt and partially with hope, Sam arrived in front of the Nasty Burger. She considered going in but decided to just keep walking, even if she didn't know where to; she felt even less like talking to people than usual.

Upon seeing all the activity in town, Sam realized she wasn't very interested in staying here at all; she wheeled around and walked quickly all the way home, carefully avoiding the Fenton residence.

Unfortunately, Tucker and Danny were standing at Sam's own door when she got home.

"Hi, Sam! Where WERE you?" asked Danny, absolutely no hint in his voice that anything awkward had happened.

"Oh, just…walking." Sam forced a smile. She had only walked because she wanted to be alone with her thoughts. Then she came home to lock herself in her room, and the very object of her musings stood at her front door.

"Is there something wrong, Sam?" Tuck asked nervously.

"What? With me? Oh. No. I'm good. …Is there something wrong with you guys?"

"Eh, nah," said Tucker. "Just came to hang out, that's all."

"Let's go to the Nasty Burger for supper again," Danny suggested.

"Yeah, sure," answered Sam. "I don't feel like eating at home – not that I ever have, but still…"

And so with that, the three took off in the exact direction Sam didn't want to go.

---

By the end of the evening, though, everyone was feeling much, much better, Sam included. They had gone to the Nasty Burger (where Tucker gulped down as much meat as humanly possible) and ended up at the movie theater – no one really wanted to watch anything, but one of the horror movies looked really hokey, so they went to laugh at it.

It was about a monster who sat on plane wings and terrorized people (Danny was only slightly freaked at the coincidence). Eventually, all the passengers on this one particular plane had fallen out except this one guy, who was going around trying to take out the monster. At the end, the creature ended up falling off the plane over the Arctic ocean in the middle of a mysteriously-brewed super-storm, but you saw a furry, ragged form dragging itself up onto a glacier during the last scene, and thus the chances for a horrible sequel with the exact same plot – only on a boat - were opened up. The worst thing about the whole movie is that you had no idea who was flying the plane. Obviously, he/she/it never fell out because the plane kept flying, but the pilot didn't seem to know he was in the middle of a badly-scripted horror movie.

As could have been expected, Paulina just had to be in the theater. The trio – much to Sam's dismay – tried to sit near her, but she and her fan club moved. Danny and Tucker were offended. Sam was thrilled.

Paulina also had a habit of screeching at the supposed-to-be-startling parts of the movie. A man opened a door…slowly…slowly…CREEEAAK…and a mop fell suddenly on the floor from behind it. "AIEE!" came a voice in the theater.

Getting quickly bored with the movie, Danny, Sam, and Tucker started throwing snacks in the air to see how easily they could snatch the food from the air. In several instances, heads were banged together as they tried to catch the same piece of popcorn, food was stolen, crazed giggling ensued. Half an hour later, the gang had caused a veritable rain storm of popcorn, Sno Caps, Sour Patch Kids, and Gummi Bears – fortunately, their seats were fairly isolated, so they only got "shush!ed" once. Tucker was trying not to laugh out loud and failing miserably; Danny was snickering hard into his hand; Sam was grinning in her old mischievous way. Then she spotted the back of Paulina's head, several rows down and to the left.

"Psst," she said, and nudged Danny. He and Tucker turned to her, still looking slightly crazed with laughter.

Sam launched a piece of popcorn at Paulina's neatly done hair.

"Ouch!" yelled Paulina, whirling around and rubbing the back of her head. "Who did that?"

Sam had to put her head down on her arms on the seat in front of her to avoid betraying her laughter. Paulina gave the back row in general the hairy eyeball, but couldn't tell exactly who'd done it.

"She can't have been hurt by a kernel of popcorn," Sam giggle-whispered as she looked up. Danny was looking at her with a mixture of chiding and amusement. Tucker was eying them both, smirking.

"Sorry," said Sam, a little embarrassed. She didn't go red as a beet, though – she was having too much fun to get tense.

Danny answered Sam's apology by throwing a kernel of popcorn at the back of Dash's head. Teens will be teens.

---

That night as she curled up in her warm purple PJs beneath her warm, fluffy comforter in her darkly warm bed, Sam wished she had a big warm stuffed animal to hug contentedly. This had been the best night of her life for a while.

Everything was going fine – Danny and Tucker weren't acting weird, Danny wasn't such a fanboy of Paulina's that he couldn't come back to Earth for just a second, she was better than either Tucker or Danny at catching falling food in her mouth…

All in all, laughter really is the best medicine. Sam's glum mood from earlier was gone. She was ready to go on with her life and keep protecting her secret until the perfect moment, and everything was wonderful as far as her best friends were. Not even her parents opening the window to too much sun could ruin this!

---

As Sam tucked herself warmly in, Danny Fenton sat staring out the window, watching the sky and wondering.

Tonight had been all kinds of fun…and it hadn't been awkward. Tucker had suggested he lie low for a while, because things always get awkward when you accuse people of "being in love" with you, but Danny had been too eager for things to get normal again and had proposed spending the evening out.

Danny would never think of Sam the same way again, but on the other hand, he still did.

'Maybe,' he thought as he looked at the moon, 'I just thought I saw more to her than I usually do, and even though I was wrong, I can't stop now.'

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Yet another chapter…the next one will be the last, the one where the real fireworks happen. I promise they happen.