PhantomAL: Eh, well, I dunno if it matters so much if you got calling me a guy or a girl right. According to friends, winning a burping contest isn't exactly very feminine, especially a contest against a bunch of Boy Scouts…hey, I was BORED!

fanwiththeshortattentionspan: Wow what a name! Love it, and of course we're eventually going to find out what's up with Sam.

Plooshes: No way am I making things that easy, what would be the point if I did?

The Halfa Wannabe: Went and read your fic, t'was awesome! I suggest the rest of you go read 'Emergency of the Heart' and give Mr. Halfa Wannabe some more reviews!

cakreut12: Yes, Danny can be a bad boy when he wants…;)

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scubagurl, Starfire Star

We sat in total and utter silence for maybe about ten minutes. Hey, he had given me all day, meaning I didn't just get five seconds before he skipped off to class where there was Paulina and plenty of other girls. The wind was cutting through my cape as I bit my lip to keep from shivering; I think the end result was that I was vibrating slightly. The cars rumbled on below as we sat up there, the world continuing as it always had, oblivious to a boy and girl on a roof when they should have been in school.

I focused on Danny's expression; that was hard. He kept catching me staring by looking around at me. I would jump in surprise and then stare out on the horizon before going right back to his face, which, by the way, was a complete enigma, a complex maze of an expression that neither revealed anything nor appeared to be hiding anything. My spirits sank. He could just think it was that time of the month, or that I'd been to another poetry slam and had left more eccentric than I was when I'd walked in. There was, within the moment, astounding complexity of a changing relationship (whether that was for better of for worse was yet to be seen) and the amazing simplicity of best friends (where it mattered not that I was a girl and he was a boy, only that we'd known each other long enough to nearly set our clocks by the other).

I was pressing my fingers against my temples, which had been pounding so much lately I was wondering if I had a chronic issue, when Danny decidedly broke the silence.

"Well…" he let the word drift. Then, starting off a topic we could very well discuss, he ploughed bluntly into the next sentence, "So, did you hear about Tuck's latest and greatest conquest?"

"No." I said, thankful for a chance to escape my writhing and wriggling thoughts; I let a small chuckle to encourage him. Dan launched into a long story involving a long series of rejection letters from a dating web page where Tucker had signed up in hopes of finding a girl that wouldn't immediately turn him down on first sight, the rejections themselves (all one hundred and three of them) and consoling a sobbing Tucker over the phone until one in the morning. By the end both of us were laughing brightly, the mood lifted. Then Danny just had to ask.

"So what's up Sammie?" he asked, boyishly adorable grin affixed to his face; I shall admit to this rumor now before it festers most unpleasantly into facts. Yes, I, Samantha Manson hereby admit to thinking Daniel Fenton's smile was boyishly adorable. Deal with it people. (A/N: ((cough))Sound familiar PhantomAL?((cough)))

So, now, I really had to answer. And not just the 'I don't know' that frustrated him so much. I needed a substantial answer, which today really mean substantial lie delivered with a dead straight face. I summoned up all of my creativity. Think, Sam, think! Hm…struggling with school? No. Tired of being an assistant ghost hunter? Oh that would go over well with him, after all, he got no choice. Trouble at home? But no one was ever home at my house, I almost lived with the Foleys and Fentons; in truth, there was extra underwear, a shirt, a bra and pants of mine stowed in Danny's room. In the closet, of course, where no one in their right mind would go to begin with. To open the thing most of the time was suicide by avalanche. But I'm getting off the point.

Trouble at school? Now I was being redundant as precious seconds slid by. Then I just blurted out what seemed so easy in the first place, god, I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier!

"I'm just stressed out between no parentals around, school and keeping up with you two. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it!" I lied right through my teeth in a cheery voice as I used my blended lies. And I felt guilty too. But I couldn't admit to anyone then that I was jealous over the attention he paid to other girls over me. It wouldn't make sense. Even though everyone made the couple cracks and tried to push us together, we'd always pushed the other away, in that sense at least; after all, we'd never spent more than a week apart from each other. So what would happen if we dated? Not that I was saying that we were dating or anything. No, not at all, right?

Danny leaned further over the air vent, stretching so that his back curled around it, making those little noises you do when you're enjoying a simple pleasure, like stretching out your back. My eyes flicked over the space on the opened jacket that exposed only a touch of shirt, said shirt having ridden up revealing a muscled belly that most wouldn't expected to see on a fourteen-almost-fifteen-year-old. I burned red to the tips of my ears when I realized what I was doing, cold no longer. Dan would never know what was up; he just smiled easily at me when he was sitting normally again. Which only made me flame further. Lord, he was cute.

I just said that out loud, didn't I?

Good.

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After the rooftop Danny had flown us down to a park for a walk to waste some time until the school let out, in which case we could catch Tuck and some lunch. Neither of us had any money on us. I hadn't been planning on needing it, and Danny was going to rely on some cash that Tucker owed him for food. There was a wild snowball fight, made all the more interesting by the fact that my opponent really did have the power to go invisible on me. Any passerby would have thought that I was playing with myself, throwing snow at empty air in a frenzy.

Following the fight, which ended behind a restaurant because we were both so tortured by the smell of the food. I wouldn't let Danny steal anything to eat, even though he wanted to badly. If we went to my house and he snuck in intangible, how would I explain the section of the fridge I would have the chef clear out on his account. Danny would want something with meat. Me ordering such an item would create quite a stir in the household. Anyway, following the fight, it really was a walk through the streets on Amity. A nice one to, where we meandered all over, remembering things, silly little things; like I met Danny right there, under that pine tree, after my dad's dog had chased him up a tree when he was a mere scrawny six and I was a rebellious almost six. It was that day that I learned that he was three months older than me.

I would have put my hand in his if I hadn't kept reminded myself that this wasn't a date, wasn't a date, wasn't a date. We were in the vicinity of the school in time to hear the final bell ring at one fifty on the dot. I knew that Tucker has synchronized his PDA with the school clocks, meaning he was always out first. No matter how much the cramming machines had done for his intellect, he still hated school.

Dan dove into the crowd and retrieved our nerdy little friend, who was still looking shell shocked from the night before when they returned to me. When we relayed the tale of our day, it seemed Tucker was fight back laughter of all things. I do believe I heard him mutter, "Date." under his breath. We followed the crowds to Nasty Burger, talking and acting like it was normal day. I soared; things were mended.

But they weren't

We where standing in line for munchies when Danny went to attend the court of Queen Paulina; just walked off, he left like that! Went to be another foolish, drooling, love sick suitor who had a snow ball's chance in hell for a date. I clenched my fists and ground my teeth, sending a death glare to the pretty girl, who, in tune with the vapid beauty she was, didn't notice. Tucker did, however, as he took a step back and told me later that I'd been growling.

Ok! There you are! Reviews please and thank you! Now I'm going to finish listening to my Phantom of the Opera sound track. Danny ain't the only Phantom that rocks my socks. Plus Erik has an excellent singing voice if questionable looks, he'd look a little better without the mask, don't you think? ((laughs)) ok, reviews!

Laters – Dru