The Ghost of Christmas yet to Come

Chapter Three

Sam lazily sloshed number two pencil into the zillionth bubble on her AP biology final. She glanced at the book, what is the monomer of a Nucleic Acid? Feeling the need to smash her forehead into a brick wall, she again colored in the bubble C for Nucleotides.

'And done. Now I can sit here and sleep.'

Then before she knew it, the bell rang, awakening her from the trance of sleep. Wishing Danny was there (the reason being Fenton and Manson were quite a stretch in the doomed alphabetical order) she slugged her purple backpack over her shoulder and waited next to her locker for Danny to pick her up.

When she arrived, Sam spotted that Sadie Riggs girl again, "Hey." She said dryly, taking her Calculus book out of her locker and snapping it shut with a 'kink'.

Sadie looked up through her dark-rimmed glasses, "Oh, Hi, Sam. Tomorrow's my last day at Casper High, you know…" She said sadly, walking with Sam to her own locker.

"Oh…has Lauren told-?"

"No, she's going to his house tonight to tell him…It's so sad. She's been crying for weeks, trying to figure out how to tell him. I don't quite understand why she has to plan it all out, but it's not really my business. I've never been in love before."

"Sam!" Danny yelled from the end of senior hall, "Come on I'll, uh, take you home."

She smiled at Sadie, "Well, that would be me. I'll see you tomorrow, I guess."

"Yeah, see you."

Sam put her arm on Danny's shoulder once they were outside, "You want to go do something?"

"I've got to go home and change…I'm meeting Lauren in an hour."

"O-Oh. I see. Okay, I'll-"

"That doesn't mean that I can't fly you there." He said taking her hand and led her towards him, "Come on."

A giggle erupted from Sam - an event that didn't occur often. She leaned back and rested her head on Danny's shoulder. His lips met the top of her head. She turned up to return the favor when-

"Sam! Awaken!"

She opened one eye and stifled a scream, "Desiree!"

"What, who were you expecting; Skulker?"

"No…just not you."

Desiree crossed her arms over her chest, "You wished for this, dear. Remember?"

"No."

"'I wish I could understand that feeling, you know what attraction feels like…' Ring a Bell?"

"Oh yeah…" Sam yawned, "Let's get this over with…"

"Teenagers…" The wishing ghost sighed, "I am the ghost of Christmas present! Tonight, I will show you what you could have, and what you don't! Are you ready to disembark on the journey?"

"Do I have a choice?"

A green mist emerged from around their ankles (Well, Desiree has more of a tail); pulling them into the next room.

Danny's ghost sense went off. He glanced down at the crying girl in his arms and groaned. 'Not now…'

"What's wrong?" Lauren asked quietly staring at him.

"Nothing…" He muttered looking around the room, 'Go away…just don't…make this worse'

Sam threw a glance toward Desiree, "His ghost sense went off. Lauren doesn't know he's half ghost."

"They'll be fine. Unless someone else plans on breaking up this moment."

Sam looked away, "I hate seeing them together. Can we leave? It makes me want to throw up."

"Keep watching, you may like what you see next."

"Danny?" Lauren said quietly, "Danny, you know that I love you right?"

"Yes, where is this going?"

She sighed and continued, "I think that…with me moving. That we should break up."

"Why?"

"Because…I, just don't think that it'll all work out."

"Lauren, I trust you, I don't-"

"But I don't trust me. Look, Danny. You're the best boyfriend that I've ever had. But I can't see myself being with someone a thousand miles away. There's an all boys high school right across the street from mine…Danny, I'm a teenage girl with hormones. I just don't think that I could be with you and never see you."

Sam bawled her fists, "That skank! If you're not going to be faithful to him, you don't deserve him! Get the hell out of there!"

Danny nodded, "I see. Well, I suppose that's the end then."

Desiree ported them back to Sam's room, "Tomorrow you will meet another ghost. Good luck with your mission."

"What mission?" She asked, but Desiree had already left.

Danny phased through the wall between his and Sam's rooms and gently shook her awake.

"Muh, what?" She grumbled, sitting up angrily.

"What happened? There was a ghost, I sensed it."

"I, there wasn't-"

"Sam, don't lie. You're not very good at it. I know that there was a ghost in here."

She huffed, "You know what, Danny? I realize that you're stupid girlfriend just broke up with you, and you're kind of upset right now, but don't take it out on me!"

"What? How did you know that?"

"I-"

"You, you spied on us?" He said, his voice growing louder

"No, Danny! I didn't!"

Danny started to yell, "Then how else would you know!"

"She's been planning on dumping you for weeks!"

"That's a lie!"

Knock, knock, "What's going on in here?" Maddie asked opening the door forcefully.

"Nothing!" Danny yelled walking back to his own room.

Maddie closed the door and sat next to Sam, "What's wrong?"

"I, he…Lauren dumped him, and I knew for awhile she was going to do it, and he's jumping to conclusions, being a seventeen year old boy. I wasn't spying on him."

"How did you know?"

"I know Lauren's little sister, Sadie, and she told me that they were moving…And that she was going to break up with him, before the move, so that they wouldn't drag their relationship out across the state," Sam sighed and flopped back on her pillows. "I'm going back to sleep. G'night."

The next morning at breakfast wasn't a whole lot better. Neither was the walk to school, or the entering of the school for that matter. And for the rest of the day, the two spoke nothing to each other.

"Sam, Sam!" Sadie cried, "Wait up!"

Sam turned to face her freshman buddy, "Hey…look, and I'm having a bad day…"

"I know I just wanted to give you my screen name. It's SadieHawkinDancer. Just send me a line whenever you can…"

Sam put an arm around her, "I'll see you again, and don't worry. Just too bad I didn't meet you sooner."

"Yeah. Good luck…with Danny I mean. Hope you to get together!"

Yeah, me too.