Sleepover

Chapter 7: Enlisting Help

A/N: Meh… I'm not a fan of this chapter… it's not the best but it serves its purpose. 76 reviews… wow I love you guys.

For once Sam was anxious to get home to see her mom. "Mom!" Sam called as she entered the house.

"Up here Samikins!" she called from her room.

Sam ran upstairs and saw her mom sitting on the bed with Maddie looking at pictures of Jazz during the beauty contest. "I'll do it." Sam said.

Mrs. Manson beamed at her. "I knew you would come around!"

"But on my terms!" Sam added. "No pink frilly dresses and I get to pick what I want to wear and what music to come out to and my speeches and everything. I'm winning this as my individual Goth self! No cloths from magazines or anything!" Mrs. Manson opened her mouth to say something when Sam spoke up again. "And I'm not doing this because I want to or because you threatened my music! I'm doing it to prove to Paulina that I can win her cutesy dumb contest as a Goth and that she doesn't own the world."

Mrs. Manson frowned. "But… then what do I do?" she asked.

"I'll think of something." Sam smiled.

"You sure about this?" Danny asked for the millionth time as Tucker, Danny, and she drove through the Ghost zone in the Specter Speeder.

"Of course I am!" Sam grinned. "Besides, it's not like we're going to let her out without being supervised, and I can't get creativity points for my outfits if I buy something from a store!"

Danny sighed heavily and stopped the Specter Speeder. "Okay. She should be around here somewhere."

Tucker looked around boredly. "Why'd you have to take me with you guys?" he asked.

"You didn't have to come if you didn't want to." Sam said.

Tucker shrugged. "You guys ahead out and look for her." He pulled out his PDA. "I can entertain myself in here."

Sam looked at Danny. "Does it scare you how much time he spends on that PDA too?" she asked.

Danny laughed and grabbed Sam's hand, fazing both of them out of the Specter Speeder. "Any idea how we'll get her out here?" he asked.

Sam smiled and pulled out an electric guitar. Where she was keeping, Danny had to wonder. "Oh no!" Sam said loudly, obvious acting something she rehearsed. "What am I to do? I have this awesome cherry red electric guitar and hatred towards humanity but I don't know what to do with it!"

Suddenly a green smoke filled the air. When it cleared, Ember stood on an amplifier, guitar in hand, playing her theme song then stopped in mid cord. "Oh…" she sighed. "It's you."

Danny crossed his arms. "Nice to see you to." he said and then paused. "Actually it's not."

Sam elbowed him. "Okay Ember I need your help."

"Aweeee…" Ember cooed. "How sweet, you need couples therapy!" she said sarcastically. "Go to Spectra, she'll help you there. I'm not one for charity work," she growled.

"Oh, so you're not one for getting out of the Ghost Zone ether." Sam said turning around. "Okay, I guess I'll have to humiliate Paulina on my own…" She began, about to take a step towards to Specter Speeder.

"Wait!" Ember said. "Who are you humiliating?" Then she paused. "Just out of curiosity, it's not like I care."

Sam smiled to herself, and then turned around with her normal I-don't-care look. "This girl named Paulina. Here, let me explain…" she said and started to explain the Ms. Teen situation she was in.

Ember glared at her when she was done. "Ms. Teen contest!" she spat. "That stupid Barbie Clone contest! I hate it!" she growled. Sam had never heard Ember so mad before, not even when Tucker had ruined her concert with his singing.

Sam sighed. "So that's a no?" she asked, defeated.

"Are you nuts?" Ember growled. "I didn't say no, but I didn't exactly name my working terms."

Sam smiled. "So you'll do it?"

"On a few conditions." Ember said. "I'm in charge, and I get a week heads start in the human world after the contest is over, and-" she grinned. "You have to promise me you'll grind that stupid Paulina girl into dust."

Sam grinned. "I already have my prep grinder in the trunk!" she said.

Danny spoke up for the first time since Sam and Ember began negotiating. "Wait, I have a problem." he said. "Your head start. I'll give you two days and nothing more."

"Five." Ember said.

"3." Danny said.

"Five." Ember growled.

"3!" Danny snapped. He wasn't to keen on letting Ember out of the Ghost zone for that long.

"Fine! How about four?" Sam suggested.

"DEAL!" Danny and Ember said at the same time before ether one could suggest a shorter or longer time.

"Great!" Sam grinned. "Ember, you are now my contest manager!" she held out her hand and Ember shook it.

"You're just lucky I hate that stupid contest." Ember growled. "It's about time for a Goth to win."

Danny held out a metal necklace and bracelet. "Put this on." he told her.

"Why?" Ember asked immediately.

"The rules have changed. All contest managers have to wear them or else they can't help. It shows the judges who is working with whom." Danny lied. He wasn't about to tell Ember what they were really for.

Ember eyed them then looked at Sam. "It's true." Sam said, catching onto Danny's plan. She knew perfectly well what those inventions were.

After a moment of debating with herself, Ember took the necklace and Bracelet and put them on. She tensed, bracing herself for anything to shock her or knock her out but nothing happened.

"See? Their harmless." Danny said. Unless I press a certain button… he added in his head.

Ember scowled at them. "So? Let's go already!"

The next day at lunch Danny was having problems. "I still don't trust Ember." he said. "It's not like her to agree to help us without a catch."

"Mhmm…" Sam said, not really paying attention to him. She was reading through a pamphlet of the contest.

"I mean, what's she planning?" he asked. "There's got to be something about this contest that can help her take over the world or something."

"Yeap…" Sam said, re-reading a paragraph in the pamphlet. "Hey, what do you think my talent is?" she asked, looking up at him.

Danny sighed. "You weren't listening to a word I just said were you?"

Tucker spoke up from between them. He was currently researching unique things contestants had done in the past to get high ratings by the judge on his PDA. "Oh man…" he said. "I think I figured out why Ember agreed to help us…" He showed them the screen he was looking at.

Sam gasped as she saw the caption. "No wonder why she hates the contest so much…" she said.

Danny was speechless.

Sam re-read the headlines of the article that was on the screen again. "I think we know how Ember died now…"

Danny was focused on the screen. In big bold letters it said;

FIRST GOTH IN MS. TEEN CONTEST DIES IN STAGE ACCIDENT

Under was a Picture of Ember, looking up in horror at a strip of landing that had broken off the stage and was falling down towards her.

The pictures caption wrote;

Ember McLain just before her death

Danny finally spoke. "We'll have to keep an eye on her. After the contest killed her… she may want to kill the contest."