Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!
Sam and Valerie ran into the kitchen and sat at the round chrome table, where Maddie had just placed a tray of steaming hot chocolate-chip cookies.
"Be careful," she warned. "These are still kind of hot, so you may want to wait a couple of minutes." Just then, Jazz came back downstairs. She'd obviously smelled the cookies from her room, and she came into the kitchen and sat at the table across from the two younger girls. She glared at them for a second, then turned her attention back to her book. They all sat silently for a couple of minutes, then Jazz experimentally reached out for a cookie. Upon feeling that they weren't too hot to handle, she took one and bit into it happily. Valerie and Sam noticed this, and each took a cookie of their own.
"Mmm, these are delicious!" Valerie exclaimed.
"Yeah, thank you, Mrs. Fenton!" Sam added. Maddie chuckled.
"You're very welcome, girls." They heard someone coming down the stairs, and Sam and Valerie turned in their seats to see who it was; Jazz had her nose back in her book.
A little boy about their age came into the kitchen. He had messy black hair and big blue eyes. He was wearing jean shorts and a white t-shirt that had a red silhouette of a rocket ship on the chest. He stared at Sam and Valerie, fear clearly apparent in his crystal-blue eyes, and kept his gaze on them as he sidled through the kitchen. Once he reached Maddie, he ran up to her and hugged her leg tightly. Maddie chuckled and lifted him into her arms.
"Don't be afraid, Danny. These my students, the ones I was talking about before." She turned her attention to the girls. "Sam, Valerie, this is my son, Danny. He's going to start kindergarten in a couple of weeks, just like you." She set Danny down in the chair next to Sam, and walked back over to the stove.
"Are you gonna hurt me?" he asked quietly.
"What? Why would we want to do that?" Valerie asked.
"'Cuz Mommy says you're the best out of all the people in her karate class."
"So? That doesn't mean we'd want to hurt you," Sam asserted.
"Really?" Both girls nodded. Danny's face cracked into a broad grin and his eyes sparkled. He took a cookie and ate it, and then immediately reached for a second one.
"We gotta eat these quickly, before-" but he was interrupted by the entire room shaking.
"What's going on?" Valerie asked nervously.
"I told ya," Danny said as the small earthquake intensified. All of a sudden, an orange blur ran up the stairs and rushed through the kitchen. It zoomed past the table, and when it had passed, the plate was devoid of cookies. The blur suddenly came to a halt and materialized into Jack, whose mouth was full.
"Mmm…" he moaned. "Chocolate chip…"
"Jack, those cookies were for the kids!" Maddie chastised as the doorbell rang. She sighed.
"I'll get it," she said as she left the kitchen. Sam and Valerie giggled at Jack's antics, while Jazz and Danny just groaned. They heard Maddie open the door, talk to someone, and close the door.
"Danny, Tucker's here!"
"YAY!" Danny exclaimed as he hopped down from his seat and ran to the front door. When he returned, he was walking with a dark-skinned boy wearing green cargo shorts, a yellow T-shirt, thick glasses, and a red beret. He was also carrying a red backpack. Danny had apparently given him the other cookie he'd taken, as he was now munching on it.
"Sam, Valerie, this is my friend, Tucker," Danny said. "Tucker, these are Sam and Valerie. They're in my mommy's karate class."
"'kay," Tucker said. "Hey, guess what I brought?"
"I dunno. What?"
"Guess!" Danny sighed.
"All right…a Gameboy?"
"Better!" Tucker exclaimed as he took off the backpack and held it out in front of him. "A Nintendo!" He withdrew the Nintendo 64 out of his backpack and held it up.
"Awesome! Can we play it?"
"Duh! I've only got one game, though. Super Smash bros."
"Cool! I'll ask my mommy if she'll plug it in." He left the room, Tucker not far behind. Sam and Valerie pushed away from the table and hopped off their chairs, and followed them. When the girls reached the living room, Maddie was bent over the TV and plugging the N64 into it. She stood up and rubbed her hands together.
"All done," she said. "Now, I really have to work on dinner, so…" she went back into the kitchen, and Tucker turned the N64 on.
"Can we play?" Valerie asked. Tucker snorted.
"Girls don't play video games," he scoffed.
"Oh yeah?" Sam asked menacingly.
"Yeah," Tucker asserted.
"I'll bet you we can beat you at this game. And if we win, you have to admit that girls are better at video games than boys."
"And when we win, you have to say that boys are better at video games than girls," Tucker shot back.
"Fine." Sam and Valerie each plugged in a controller, and the four kids sat down to play.
"I'll be Fox, 'cuz he explores outer space and I wanna be an astronaut when I grow up," Danny said.
"I'll be Samus, 'cuz I really like her outfit," Valerie said.
"I'll be Pikachu, 'cuz…wait a second, Samus is a girl?" Tucker asked incredulously.
"Duh, didn't you know that?" Sam asked as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I'll be Link, 'cuz he's really cool." They set up the game so that there were two teams, boys vs. girls, selected a board, and the game began.
"HA! Now, what were you saying?" Sam asked as she and Valerie danced triumphantly. Tucker mumbled something incoherent.
"What was that?" Valerie asked.
"Girls are better at video games than boys," Tucker muttered.
"Louder!" Both girls chorused.
"GIRLS ARE BETTER AT VIDEO GAMES THAN BOYS!" Tucker shouted. "Happy?" Sam and Valerie glanced at each other.
"Yep," they said in unison.
"Girls that are good at Nintendo…" Danny mused. "You've gotta be the coolest girls on the planet!" Sam and Valerie both blushed. Just then the doorbell rang, and Jazz bounded down the stairs.
"I'll get it!" She shrieked as she approached the door. She opened it to reveal a tall dark-skinned man wearing a dress shirt, slacks, and a red necktie.
"Hello," he said. "My name is Damon Grey, Valerie's dad. I was told by the karate studio that she'd be here. Is this the right place?"
"DADDY!" Valerie shouted as she ran up to her father and gave him a big hug.
"Hey, Val," Damon replied as he returned the hug with a slight chuckle. Maddie popped her head out of the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about, and caught sight of Damon.
"Oh, you're Valerie's father!" She exclaimed. Damon nodded in response. "Well, I was just about to tell everyone that dinner's ready. Why don't you join us? We've got more than enough."
"We don't want to be a burden…"
"It's not a burden! Seriously! I had prepared enough to accommodate Sam and Valerie in case they had to stay for dinner; we'll definitely be able to feed one more person. Besides, the more the merrier!" Damon thought about it for a second.
"Please, daddy?" Valerie pleaded. Damon smiled down at her.
"Okay. We'd be honored to stay for dinner."
"YES!" Valerie exclaimed as she punched the air exultantly. Damon removed his shoes as he, Valerie, Sam, Tucker, Danny, Jazz, and Jack entered the kitchen for dinner.
To those of you who've played Super Smash Bros., does Samus' costume remind you at all of Valerie's ghost hunting gear?
And to those of you who are wondering why Danny started out really shy and suddenly became really open, I agree with you. That was kind of a fast change. I'd wanted to make it a little more gradual, but I couldn't really get it to fit in with the rest of the chapter. Let's just say that he came out of his shell when Tucker arrived because they're already good friends.