Links in the Chain
By Lacey52
.o.O.o.o.O.o.
A note: AHEM In honor of the wonderfully funny DP holiday special I just watched instead of studying for my Anthropology final:
'IT RHYMED! IT RHYMED!' Lacey cried with a smile,
Then she settled down to write for a while.
Inspiration was great, nothing stood in her way,
'They'll have another chapter afore the end o' the day!'
The laughter and joy she got from the show,
Caused her to sit down, story ready to go!
Then she got hungry and decided to peel an orange,
Wait….NO! NOTHING RHYMES WITH ORANGE!
All I gotta' say is that poor Danny got a really bum wrap in this special! But it was definitely cute…not enough DxS of course, lol…
Well, here's the next chapter! I hope you guys all enjoy, and I dearly hope that I've kept the characters in character. It's so hard to not write them OOC sometimes…Hope you got to catch the holiday special that was on tonight, 'cause if you didn't you might not get the orange and rhyming jokes above… ;) :P
.o.O.o.o.O.o.
Chapter Nine: Contravention
.o.O.o.o.O.o.
'It's finally a day that's not threatening rain,' Sam though to herself, enjoying the warmth on her face, 'Too bad the boys couldn't tear themselves away from their precious games at the arcade to enjoy it.'
She had somehow managed, without any trouble at all really, to leave the two to their games and head towards home. Except she had gotten sidetracked with the beautiful day and fresh breeze and warm sunshine. Third week of June and the weather finally decided to play nice…
'Ugh,' she mocked herself in her mind, while sticking out her tongue and pulling a face that had many passer-bys confused, 'For a Goth I sure act happy sometimes. Next thing I know I'll be wearing pink and flirting with anything in pants…'
Chuckling to herself at the ridiculous mental image this brought and then flushing at the memory of doing it about a year ago to snap Danny and Tucker out of Desiree's alternate reality, the young woman rounded a corner in the park.
No one came to this part often, and so she and the two guys ventured here the most, just in case a ghost came seeking vengeance. Today however, it appeared that she was wrong in assuming she wasto be the only one to visit. Sitting rather forlornly under a tree and staring out across an open field of grass was Dash Baxter. Without his letter jacket and cronies hanging around him. Odd, no?
Curiosity quickly got the better of her and so she approached quietly, not trying to startle him, but not trying to hide herself either. When she came within three feet of him, his head tilted up to pin her with a gauging look.
"Um, you alright Dash?" Sam twisted her hands together as she watched the jock carefully.
"I'm fine," he turned his head from her, this and the tone of his voice indicating the end of their discussion. He should have realized this wouldn't help him in the least. When the girl got the notion someone should talk, then they would if it was the last thing she would do. If only he remembered more about her.
"Geeze," she moved closer and raised her eyebrow, a sarcastic quirk to her lips, "excuse me for worrying about your well being. You just look like…well, you just don't look like yourself is all, besides the whole not wearing the lettermen and lack of buddies."
"I said I was fine, Manson. I'm not 'not myself' and I don't need your concern."
"You know," Sam leaned against the tree he was sitting under, crossing her arms as she stared down at him, "you're a real egotistical jerk. Something's up, not that I really care what it is, but I don't like seeing people all forlorn looking. It's pitiful."
"Go away, Goth girl," he shifted his eyes to her, glaring at her proximity, "You're freakin' up my personal space."
Sam frowned, "You're pretty easy to read, Dash. You're upset and something is really eating at you. Don't act like such a jerk, you may think you're 'above' all of us little people at school, but not even you are 'all that'."
At the last bit Sam caught his eye and made the ever famous quote marks with her fingers while rolling her eyes. He sat up straighter against the tree, huffing to himself about her attitude.
"I am the best. I've been the best since Freshman year," he looked at her then, curiosity tugging on him to carry the conversation further, or rather let it evolve as it may.
"What? The best at the sports and the game of popularity?" a sardonic smile spread across the girl's purpled lips.
Dash just smirked, for once deciding to play back, "Yeah, and I've made it damn far on that and my looks and money. I have the teachers eating out of my hands."
"Touché, Baxter," Sam drawled dryly. She stood for a few more moments in stillness, before starting to toy with the hem of her shirt, picking at a loose thread. The thread grew, as did the silence, and before three minutes was out, Dash discovered he didn't like the casual way in which she was still hanging around him.
"Why are you still here? Trying to talk to me or what?"
The girl's reply, delivered with a shrug, was most infuriating, "Like I said, I don't like it when people get all depressed. It takes away from my 'Goth girl' prestige."
At her blinding smile, Dash shook his head, "For a Goth, you sure are happy sometimes. It's weird."
"The word 'weird' doesn't bother me anymore," she laughed back to him, "I've been around it way too long."
"You mean you are it. Face it, you're the definition of the word."
Sam snickered. That got Dash's attention fairly quickly. In fact, the young man was fairly certain that he had somehow given himself whiplash turning to look at her, "What? You actually enjoy being called weird?"
"No. It's just that 'weird' is Danny…and Tucker. Their pictures are actually glued into my dictionary beside the words 'weird' and 'strange' respectively."
Dash's eyebrows rose, "You're almost bad as me in the pranks department, Manson. Speaking of the losers, hadn't you better run along," Dash shooed her with his hands, "and meet up with them?"
Sam rolled her eyes and dropped gracefully down to sit next to him. She leaned back against the tree and made herself comfortable before choosing to answer, "I'm a big girl and they can survive without me by playing their games at the arcade. So…you gonna' break down and cry all over the place or you gonna' talk like a human being?"
"Neither," Dash snorted, "I don't want to talk to you about it, if you didn't notice."
"At least you admitted something was wrong. That's the first step."
"Are you ever going to leave?"
"When I feel like it."
"Why are you so concerned anyways? I've been nothing but a jerk to you. I don't like you or your friends. I stuff Fenton into lockers. Often. And I enjoy it."
"So?" Sam elegantly raised an eyebrow, plucking a piece of grass and holding it between her thumbs.
"What, 'So?' is all you can say? They not really your friends?" he watched her adjust the blade and her fingers just right….
Sam shook her head, "It's just…you're human too, I think. Everyone needs a person to talk to, and you don't look like you have anyone right now. You don't have to like me to talk it out."
With that Sam shrugged, puckered her lips, and blew across the grass blade captured between her thumbs. A shrill whistle erupted from her hands, and a smile formed on her face, preventing her from keeping up the sound. Dash watched her carefully, weighing his next words carefully.
"You…honestly don't care what other people think about you?"
"I care," Sam said as she dropped the blade of grass and plucked a second, "It's human nature, but most of the time the things people end up caring about are stupid. I care about my reputation, just not to the extreme that most people do. What others think hasn't really been an issue with me for a few years now."
This blade of grass was shredded, as was the next. Green stained her fingers as she smiled down at the mess growing in her lap. Pieces of blades of grass clung to her skirt.
"How do you do it?"
Dash's question caught her off guard. Brow furrowed, she quickly swept the decimated green bits from her, thinking hard on how to answer his question.
"Well," she paused for a second more to collect herself, "I just know that by the time we're grown, most ofwhat happens either won't matter or no one will remember it, and I rely on my friends…a lot."
Dash laughed at that, "You have good friends, even if they are a nerd and a loser. They stick with you. I have…I have a group and my team."
"And groups change and aren't always as cohesive of aconglomerate of people asfriends are," Sam's face lightened in understanding, "I think I know what's up…"
Dash rolled his eyes heavenwards, "Not that you care, right?"
"Hallelujah, someone finally learned! Congratulations, you get a cookie."
Dash once again watched the small girl beside him. Letting his eyes travel her body, he tilted his head to the side, considering her for the first time in a long while as something other than 'the Goth girl'. Sam caught his gaze then.
"You know," Dash started as he gave her the once-over for the third time, "if you lost the Goth look, you'd probably be accepted to the 'A-List.' You're pretty good lookin' Manson."
Sam was taken aback and slightly panicked. Dash did not compliment her. Dash didn't insinuate that she was on equal standing with him and his cronies. Dash did not look at her like that. Ever. It was wrong, and disconcerting and without really knowing what she was doing she closed her eyes for a half-second, searching for….something, but what she didn't know.
All she knew was that when she found it, she…tugged? No, it was more like nudged…or something. Almost a little like yelling. Suddenly her head hurt, but she felt much more at peace. Like she just knew she was alright, no matter what Dash was trying to pull. She just knew that something would happen to save her from this awkward situation. And that, whatever it was, was coming fast.
"Uh, while it's nice to hear, I don't want to hear that from you," Sam moved slightly away from the boy who was leaning closer to her then, "No offense, it's just creeping me out."
Dash chuckled, "Just think of it as payback for creeping me out through the whole 'talk' we just had."
"We didn't really talk much though," Sam steeled herself and looked back at him, "We more argued and bickered than anything else."
"Yeah, and for some reason you're still here," Dash had the nerve to wink at her, "No lady can resist a Baxter, not even the freaks…"
"For one thing," Danny's voice cut in right in front of them, "Sam isn't a freak, and another thing, it's more like she's waiting to meet up with me and Tucker, not hanging around you."
"So where's the techno-nerd, then?" Dash stood up, "Or did you just run ahead to meet your little girlfriend?"
"I just got a bad feeling," Danny looked like he was ready to spit, "like Sam might be being forced to listen to someone blabber on and on about themselves."
Sam stood up then, "Uh, funny thing Danny," she smiled sheepishly, "I was actually bothering him at first…"
"Say what?" Danny was tempted to do a very cartoon like double take.
"You two losers have fun with your little lover's spat," Dash strode away, hands tucked in his pockets, "I've got more important things to deal with."
Sam nervously met Danny's eyes then and noticed he had a very strange look on his face, like he was fighting to remember something. He finally gave up though, opting instead to raise an eyebrow at her, "Do I even want to know what that was about?"
"Uh, maybe not," Sam shrugged, moving a little closer to his side, "but let's just say that everyone has a bad day and needs someone to talk to."
"If you were having such a bad day you could have just talked to me," Danny's faced suddenly glazed over in slight worry, "or if you were mad at me there was always Tucker!"
"Not me Danny," she grabbed his hand to start him walking back towards the arcade and Tucker, "It was Dash that needed to talk, but let's go and find Tucker. Why did you leave the arcade anyways?"
"I dunno'," he shrugged as he let himself be tugged along by the lovely girl currently holding his hand, "I just had a sudden urge to go for a run…through the park. Guess we were just lucky, huh? You looked kinda' uncomfortable."
"Lucky, yes," Sam slowed down to walk by his side, "But you running? Never would have guessed it Danny Fenton."
"Maybe it's the alter-ego hero in me," Danny winked at her, eyes glowing a bright green, "Ya' know, urge to stay in shape to beat the bad guys and look good for the ladies."
"You don't have an alter-ego, Danny," Sam laughed as they crested the next hill, "You're you, one way or another."
"You so sure about that?" he grinned and winked saucily, wriggling his eyebrows in a suggestive manner, eyes still green, "Phantom sure seems to be more confident."
"No, that's just the psychological effect of having super powers combined with the belief already ingrained in every teenage boys' mind that they're invincible," she told him with a completely blank face, holding his green gaze for a total of five seconds before they both burst out laughing, "It's true though!"
"You've been talking to Jazz again haven't you?" Danny grinned as they finally caught sight of the arcade.
"Maybe," she grinned back, before noticing that Tucker was rapidly approaching and apparently on the look out for a ghost.
"Where's the ghost?"
"Uh, nowhere that I know of," Danny shrugged.
"You ran out of there like some monster was about to destroy the whole town and now I find you two…" but to Sam it sounded like Tucker stopped in his rant for some reason, "but oh well, right? Let's, uh, head over to Sam's and start the first official movie marathon of the summer!"
Danny watched him walk off ahead of them and Sam leaned over to him, "Is he acting weird or is it just me?"
"I dunno' Sam," Danny laughed and they started following their friend, "Tucker's just cool like that sometimes…"
For you see, Sam was the only one out of the loop right then. She didn't notice what Danny knew all along, and what Tucker had taken notice of. What Sam didn't know was that when Tucker saw, Danny had scowled and shook his head to tell him not to say anything. What Sam didn't know was that Danny was loving what was happening.
And it wouldn't be until they reached her house and the three went to the door to go inside that Sam would notice that she was still holding hands with a very pleased, and slightly sneaky feeling, Danny Fenton. Truth be told, she was rather pleased herself.