Links in the Chain
By Lacey52
.o.O.o.o.O.o.
A note: Well, here we go. It's starting to get a bit more intense just like in last chapter. Things are heating up, and hinting at future happenings…Hope you guys like the chapter!
OMG! Over a hundred reviews! Oh my gosh...or should that be ghost? Lol. Thank you all so very, very much! I love each and every one of you to peices, yes I do! Keep on reading and lots of love! Kudos and cookies to you all!
.o.O.o.o.O.o.
Chapter Eighteen: Unpleasant
.o.O.o.o.O.o.
First day of Junior year and it was already bad for Sam.
A jammed locker, a lost schedule, a rip in her skirt, and the luck of getting to sit between Paulina and Danny during third period. Joy. Then of course Sam thought to herself, 'Why, nothing else can happen. I'll be safe at lunch.'
Of course...something bad would happen, tas this was, and is, known as the infamous Murphy's law. She had spilt her water and so went to grab some napkins to clean it up. Simple enough right? Right...
Sam's foot found the small puddle of water she had created and she slipped. She had enough time to draw in a breath, and send a mental shout before her stomach was caught against a strong arm and her fall was arrested.
You don't mess with Mr. Murphy…
"That would've been a nasty fall," Danny's voice reached her addled mind from somewhere close to her left. Very close and it was…shaky sounding?
Tucker's mouth was hanging open, beloved roast beef sandwich half way to it. Part of the cafeteria was in a similar state of shock.
Whispers broke out seconds afterwards; 'Did you see that? He didn't even see her slip!'; 'He was facing the wrong way, how could he have known she was gonna' slip?'; 'She never even made a sound!'; 'How'd they do that?'.
Sam ignored the water on both the floor and the table and slid into the seat beside her best friend as he slid his arm from around her and turned back around to face the table and Tucker. The popular table was as stonily silent as their own.
Sam had always been the cooler head and Danny, she knew, really needed to snap out of whatever world he was currently residing in.
"Danny? Danny," she called, before trying to shake him a bit, "Danny!"
Danny's only response was to stand and collect his things, before swiftly and numbly heading to the door that led to the hall. His things, though, happened to include one Samantha Manson, who didn't really take to being dragged about. As soon as they were clear of the cafeteria, her heavy boots dug into the tiled floor, jerking Danny to a stop.
"And where do you think you're dragging me off to, 'cause I certainly didn't have any travel plans," Sam glared, wresting her wrist from his grip. It was easier than she thought, though, causing her to turn from him slightly at the movement.
"I'm going somewhere where we can talk, without all the stupid whispering and staring," Danny rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous habit he'd had since he, or Sam, could remember, "We can't start that again Sam. I'm not going through it and you sure as hell aren't either. We can't let other people see that we're connected again."
"Geeze Danny, calm down," Sam said lightly, "All your ghost fighting is making you paranoid. On the upside, it's made your reflexes a lot better, and kept my face from meeting Mr. Floor."
"You don't even realize it, do you?" Danny shook his head as stress began to take over and worried lines wrinkled his brow in a frown, "We've started to let the calling happen again. I felt it, you know. You called, I answered. It…it happened this summer in the park, too. And at the concert."
"Danny, don't be ridiculous," Sam eyed him as she scoffed, "even if someone really paid enough attention to what we did just now to be suspicious of anything, it only looked like really fast reflexes on your part and oddly good luck on mine. That's all."
The young man turned to lean his forehead against the cool metal lockers besides them, a headache starting to form, and only growing worse as he realized it wasn'ta normal one, but rather the after effect of Sam's mental shout, "So fast reflexes, right? That'll be good enough…the more I think about it, the worse it all seems…"
Sam gently pulled him away from the wall, "It'll be fine, it's not like we can't ignore people if the link starts to growing again. I mean, we've done it for how long now?"
"Sure Sam," Danny nodded as the bell rang, "let's just get to class. I'll see you later, okay?"
"Alright. Bye Danny," Sam called over her shoulder, as the two separated and she hurried to her history class. A flood of worry crashed over her as a draft of cold air ran across the tiny strip of bare back her shirt exposed.
The cold she felt, but the worry was from her best friend. Things were definitely getting more interesting. It would be best to not mention this to the halfa with as stressed as he was from the little display in the cafeteria.
.o.O.o.o.O.o.
"So you say he was freaking out in the hallway after he dragged you out?" Tucker questioned Sam as she ordered two strawberry shakes, "Why was he so weirded out anyways? And why are you ordering two shakes?"
"Strawberry is Danny's favorite," Sam shrugged, "and I like them too. I figured he would need something after being so strange today. Being strange can take it out of you, I should know."
"You're avoiding my other questions, Sam," Tucker prodded her arm gently, "You're better at it than Danny is and that's saying something."
Sam just laughed, "I know. It's just that, back at the beginning of fifth, when people figured out that we could 'call' each other, they started to pick and tease. Really, it had been bad since the start of that year, you know that."
Tucker nodded and she continued as they waited for their order number to be called, and waited on a certain halfa to show up from his after school detention, "The kids picked and teased and then started to get physical. As soon as they figured out that Danny would come when I needed him, and vice-versa, it all just got worse. The kids wanted to see how long it would take us to react, how long it would take us to call or to answer. It was a really messed up game…"
"So why do you think he was so stressed about it today? I mean, no offense I know it wasn't exactly pleasant, but fifth grade was a long time ago, Sam."
"I know that," Sam sat, mind wandering back over the last ten days or so before school started back, "Danny's been brooding about this I think. He's been acting a little on edge the last couple of days. I think this is just bringing up really bad memories that he shouldn't be thinking about. Danny's bad about dwelling on the past and mistakes and things like that."
"Yeah," Tucker decided to finally put in his two cents, "He has been kinda' worried about it. He's talked to me a couple of times already, but I thought he had worked it out and was feeling better. I guess he was just trying to hide how he really felt from us so we wouldn't worry as well."
"He really does have a hero-complex," Sam sighed in mock exasperation, "That boy…I swear if I wasn't part of 'Team Phantom' like our dork friend calls us, I'd do him in, dork friend or no. Tell me Tuck, do boys always assume that girls can't handle things, or is that a part of the hero-complex Danny has?"
"I plead the fifth on that one," Tucker held up his hands, "I am not getting into this for fear of retribution on behalf of women on your part and for fear of retribution for marring his image on Danny's part. I think, though, that Danny just wants to keep you safe and keep you from getting hurt again. He was kinda' shook up after that concert in July. You called him then didn't you?"
"It wasn't like I meant to, I just wanted out of that mosh pit. Right then, if it could be helped," Sam smirked, "What got me though was I just did it instinctually, like I used to do with Danny. It's almost like we've been doing it all along."
"You think the link is strengthening too?" Tucker shot her a look, before the cashier called out their ticket number, "I got it…"
Sam watched him walk up to pick up the tray that held the three drinks, two orders of fries, and a small apple salad. Tucker was a good guy, always trying to help, even if it was in his own idiotic way. Sometimes a genius, sometimes a jerk, always a friend. Sam wondered how it would be without him, and found that life would certainly be more boring and more stressful.
"Alright," he set the tray down, "Now I was nice and got the tray and straws and fork and everything. I even got napkins. Now you have to answer my questions. You're in my debt."
He was definitely a jerk genius, "Your logic makes no sense, but what do you want to know?"
"Do you think the link is strengthening?"
"Yes," she said and averted her eyes, "A bit. It's growing a lot faster than it had in the past too, though I think it's just because…well, it's hard to explain. I think it's just trying to catch back up to where it was."
"So," Tucker's brow furrowed in thought, "It's like the link is progressing rapidly because it's already achieved certain things once, and its easier to do so again?"
At Sam's blank stare, Tucker decided to put some metaphors into play, "It's like not riding a bike for a long time. The first time you ever ride a bike it takes a long time to get it all down. Then if you don't ride for a few years, you get rusty. You still know the basics, but you need practice, only it doesn't take as long to re-learn everything because you already know it, you just haven't used it."
"That makes a lot of sense actually," Sam smirked, "Nice choice by the way. A bike?"
"Hey, it was spur of the moment," Tucker shrugged and dug into the fries, "You try it next time."
"Try what?" Danny's voice startled both of them, "Ah! Strawberry shake!"
"Yes, of course you may have one," Sam drawled out dryly as Danny snatched the drink she had been working on and promptly drank a third of what was in the cup, "Let me just get another straw so I, too, can enjoy the drink, as I obviously haven't been drinking anything the last few minutes."
"What?" Danny lifted an eyebrow, "You want it back?"
'Yes,' Sam's brain calmly stated, 'that would be very nice, though in public I doubt I'd be able to stop blushing…'
"No," Sam's mouth blurted out, "that's just wrong, Danny."
"Aw, you know you want to Sam," Tucker joined in on the teasing, "I'm sure Danny wouldn't mind, I mean he suggested it after all. I'll even look away while you two get all smooch faced!"
"I never said anything about that!" Danny said as his face reddened, "I was just joking around, not being perverted. I never said anything about kissing her."
"Technically, it wasn't perverted…"
Danny and Tucker just stared at Sam. How she managed to keep a straight face, though, none of them knew, not even Sam herself.
"What? It isn't. A kiss isn't perverted, well…generally," Sam thought back on kissing Dash to break Ember's spell, 'Now that was perverted….no, not perverted, just plain gross!'
"So…" Tucker rolled his eyes, annoyed that he couldn't get a rise out of Sam, "how did you get detention the first day back to school?"
"Heh," Danny rubbed his neck, "funny thing really…"
.o.O.o.o.O.o.
Two shakes, a salad, lots of glaring, some laughing, and a Paulina related story later found Danny being glared down by an extremely miffed Sam. Tucker was trying to not hyperventilate from laughing so much.
"You're so stupid sometimes, I swear," Sam sent him another glare, "Why would she ask you to go to the girl's locker room to get something? Are you a girl?"
"No," Danny shifted uneasily. She had a point, why would Paulina have asked him to do that. She couldn't have known he would get in trouble, had she?
'No,' Danny thought to himself, 'She wouldn't do that. She's pretty and popular. She…well she's sometimes nice…when she wants something…aw crap…'
Hanging his head at his own line of thinking, Danny started to see what Sam was always harping on him about. Paulina only wanted something whenever she talked to him. She constantly teased him and stuck with her 'A-List'. This would all have to go into the little file titled 'For Later Consideration' in his mind. His head hurt just thinking about all the thinking he knew he would end up doing.
"Goth girl to halfa…come in 'ghost child'," Sam's hand waved in front of his face and he started, "Finally, you've come back from you're little Paulina inhabited fantasy world. You didn't even hear a single thing I said…"
"You don't have to sound so sad about it," Danny pointed out, "It's not like I'm going to marry her or anything. I just think she's good looking. It's a guy thing, it doesn't mean anything really."
"Right," Sam rolled her eyes, and then caused Tucker to burst out laughing with her next statement, "The word 'hormones' doesn't mean anything either, because teenage boys don't ever act on them. Especially idiotic halfa ones who can't seem to get their head out of the clouds even when they were previously worried about their friend all day. A friend who just so happened to be trying to make them feel better for the past few minutes, and then gets it shoved in her face that she isn't important enough to be listened to."
And Sam was up and out the door before the boys could really react to what she had said. She had never felt so satisfied to stick it to someone as she had just felt in that brief moment that she held their attention with her impassioned speech. Now though, she just felt bad for going off onDanny and sad that it was actually true.
"Sam!"
She turned at the sound of her name, finding the boy she had just yelled at running to catch up with her. She turned back around, not quite sure if she wanted to deal with it, but the extreme feelings from him settled in her chest and convinced her to hear him out.
Fear.
"Sam, please just listen for a second, I wasn't trying to ignore you."
Nervousness.
"I was actually thinking about all the things you've said about Paulina before."
Hope.
"I know you don't want to see me get hurt, I know that you care about me."
Worry.
"I know that we haven't been having the best of times lately, what with the link coming back."
Dejection.
"I haven't been a very good friend the past couple of days and I'm sorry about lunch."
Affection.
"I just got worried you know? I don't want anything to happen, and I've been thinking about what's happened before. I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to you."
"It's alright Danny," Sam slowly turned back to him, "I just get tired of being ignored or being treated like 'one of the boys' all the time."
"Um, would it help if I said you're hot?"
Sam couldn't help but laugh at his statement, which caused him to blush, which made him smirk nervously, which caused her to smile back and sport a blush of her own, "I guess a little. You don't have to try to make me feel better though."
"No, I can admit it," his blush grew. Obviously his admitting it was a bit unnerving for him, "You're really good looking. It's just an 'off limits' thing to say though because we're friends, ya' know?"
"Yeah," Sam smiled back at him, "Thanks though, it's nice to hear it every now and again."
"No problem…"
A cough.
A smirk.
A twinkle in their eyes.
And then…..
"Aw, are you two having another blushy moment?" Tucker's voice cut into the little world they had been forming like a hot knife into butter.
'More like a giant, black, gothic boot upyou butt moment!' Sam raged internally. Danny's thoughts were on the same page, only with slightly more colorful language than Sam…
Moment officially over, the trio went back to getting into a new after school schedule. Not that it differed too much from the after school schedule they'd followed for the past few years. The only difference was the slight increase in homework that they predicted.
So what if the day had started off horribly? This was a new year, a new chance, and a new start. Things would be changing this year if the three of them had anything to say about life. Only thing was, they weren't exactly in control of what would change.
Hello Mr. Murphy….