So yeah, I couldn't resist even a week. Enjoy.

Interlude

If Paulina had been paying attention, she would have seen everyone from her highschool, Mr. Lancer and the Fentons make a range of signs and gestures telling her to stop. If she hadn't been so focused on Danny and Sam, with her heartbeat roaring with fury behind her ears, she would have heard Dash crearly say "Paulie, cut it!"

If she hadn't been that much drunk,she would have seen that this was a terrible idea.

"Ghost boy-," she flinched at Fright Knight, who glared at her. "Your Majesty," she tried to do a courtesy, but couldn't execute that well while drunk and in heels so high. "I'm afraid I bring you bad news."

Phantom grabbed her elbow when she swayed a bit. "And what could those be?"

Sam gave him a look. Danny shrugged, really wanting to see where this was going.

"I don't know what that two-timing bitch," she glared at Sam, who glared back, "has been telling you, but she's using you."

"Is that so?" Paulina couldn't understand why this seemed so funny to her hero. "Using me? For what?"

"She's cheating on her boyfriend," the ex-highschooler brought out her phone, a photo ready on the screen. It was a picture of the outcasts of the school, sans Tucker (who graduated early), cuddling and kissing under a tree. It was a photo someone managed to sneak of the two, it was really grainy and from a distance, but you could clearly see who those two were. "She is using you to make him jealous."

She expected the surprised face Phantom made, but she didn't expect for him to start laughing like she had told him a funny joke.

"That's a new one," Sam said when Danny couldn't talk, occupied with full body laughter. He leaned on her shoulder, looking for support. "Am I using you, my King?"

That broke him further into the hysterics under the worried glance of the humans. A few ghosts turned to see what was going on, but shrugged and let them be. Their king was weird, they already knew that.

"Miss Sanchez-" Mr. Lancer tried to reason before things went south.

"Paulina, stop-" Dash grabbed her hand.

"No! How can you not freak about this? Manson has been seducing the ghost boy all this time!" She broke free from her ex-boyfriend's grasp. "That freak doesn't know Phantom like we do. Like I do," the A-lister growled at him.

"Oh, dear," someone said from the crowd of humans.

"Oh, that's right!" Kwan jumped as he came to the realization. "Then are you both…?"

"Dating? Yeah," Sam put one arm around Danny's shoulders, her high boots giving her the extra height to not make the gesture too awkward.

Paulina made a noise between a scream and a sob. "Leave Phantom alone! You already have your other loser!" Danny choked and the giggles came back.

"Sam, stop confusing her." He managed to say.

"Nah, let me have my fun," his girlfriend kissed his cheek before so many people. Sam despised PDA, but she wanted to make a point.

"How could you!?" Paulina's body was trembling. "You can't have him!"

Sam arched an eyebrow. "Is that a challenge?"

With a record scratch, the ghosts gasped and turned to look at the confrontation. The music even stopped, the light coming from magical green-ish torches around the place dimming. Murmurs of "challenge" or "King's mate" or "stupid humans" echoed in the silent walls.

"Yes!" the girl screeched. When even the whispers quieted she knew she had made a mistake.

"Very well."

"Sam, don't," Danny tried to stop her, suddenly very serious. He looked up at Paulina but his voice was for all the humans. "Challenges are treated seriously around here. Sam, don't accept this," he looked down at the loud thunk! of her morningstar when the young woman dropped it.

"She started it."

"Samantha," there was a low growl in his voice, long pointed ears folded back and sharp teeth exposed, but his girlfriend was used to his bullshit. Without breaking eye contact with him, she opened her mouth.

"I accept the challenge."

The torches came back to full glow at her words, illuminating the shocked faces of Paulina, Dash and . Jazz threw her hands to the air, seemingly giving up about this and went to find the table with drinks, knowing her work here had ended and as usual the Phantom Trio had decided to derail the situation from the careful plan they made.

It was easy. Plan a party, offer free food and alcohol, be open about being Phantom and Fenton, let people get their own conclusions, have fun. Not scare the town half to death and accept challenges to the dead from drunk teenagers!

Meanwhile, people watched nervously as Sam stepped up to Paulina with a smirk on her face. Being so close made obvious the differences between the two girls. While they were the same age and same height, that's where the similarities stopped.

The young girl knew she said something she shouldn't have by now, but the full weight of it hit her as Sam crossed her arms and looked at her like she was an insect under her boot. Since when was the girl so… big? She still looked quite lean, but Paulina could see the muscle lines under the skin. When did she train into those arms and strong legs? From up close her armor looked heavy and the abandoned weapon at her back wasn't exactly a prop from a comic convention.

Her presence was heavy, commanding, as if until that moment she had been half-assing the bodyguard role. What Paulina saw before her was not the goth girl from high school she bullied. It was someone else entirely. When did… thishappen? What did she miss?

I'm going to die, a fleeting thought crossed her mind. Everyone's eyes were on her when she took a step back.

"How can you get out of a challenge?" she heard someone ask.

Surprisingly, Maddie Fenton answered with a sigh. "Ghost challenges are to the death."

"Ghost can die?" another person murmured, but was shushed immediately.

"B-But you are not a ghost," she tried to reason, her mind rid of any haziness from the alcohol.

"I date one. I think I can live by their rules," Sam uncrossed her arms, not giving any more explanations; but her eyes glinted with mirth, like there was an inside joke somewhere. "So? How is it going to be, Princess?"

Before anyone could say anything else, Danny walked between the two, putting one hand on Sam's shoulder guard.

"Paulina, you can surrender. By ghost laws it would annule the challenge." But it would mark you down as a coward, he decided to leave out. What she didn't know didn't hurt her. "Do you surrender?"

The girl nodded.

"Actual words, please."

"I-I surrender," Paulina blinked and then the party went back to being loud, the music resuming like nothing happened, and the ghosts that stopped to see a fight losing interest and turning back to doing their thing.

"Danny! I was having fun!" The warrior girl punched the King in the shoulder with a loud metal sound. The Sam they knew was back.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Enough fun for you. Let's go."

Just like that, The King and the human disappeared in the masses of ghosts, not looking back at Paulina, who looked like about to die on the spot.

"What… Did that just happen?" Was I going to die? Was Sam going to kill me?

At her side, Dash sighed.

"Paulie," he guided her back to the group of humans, which now had decided to find a Fenton who could answer their questions. "That was Fenton."

"What!?"

"Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom. Manson and Foley already knew."

"No." She shook her head. "You are lying."

"Oh sister, you wish." Wes materialized at her other side, somehow with a cup filled with punch in one hand. Paulina jumped. He took a loud sip. "I told you so."

"Shut up, Wes."

The redhead chuckled and made a gesture with his head at the impromptu dance floor, where the king and the human were making conversation with other ghosts friends. Their hands were entangled.

"Good luck getting your prince charming, Paulina." He smirked, sipping his drink once more and turned to look at the food table, as if looking for something. "Gotta go, I need to investigate something."

"But, aren't you done?" Dash asked, tilting his head. "The wimp- I mean... ugh, Danny revealed himself to us."

"That's where you are wrong, Baxter. They are still hiding something, and I will find out."

"What more could they be hiding?" Paulina couldn't peel her eyes from Danny and Sam. She still couldn't believe it, but the more the idea turned in her head, the more it made sense. Especially when Phantom was goofing and laughing with Manson so easily. This was not the Ghost Boy she fell in love with, the same as he wasn't the Fenton boy she rejected all high school. The stranger was somewhere in between.

"That they are banging?" Kwan's voice made her jump.

"Ugh, Kwan, please. Just don't." Dash elbowed his friend, who apparently had all his questions answered and decided to join them.

Paulina shivered. Manson sleeping with Phantom was not something she wanted to know. Ever. But Kwan kept on.

"What? They must be, right? It's been what, a year?"

"Gross."

"And Foley left them alone for the last year so maybe they grossed him out with their freaky ghost sex life or something."

Wes's eyes went big and he choked with his drink.

"You okay, bro?"

The redhead coughed the punch out of his lungs, but his wide eyes darted around the room, searching to see who could be listening in their conversation. "Yeah, I'm fine."

They don't know. All these fuckers don't know Manson and Fenton are with Foley too. He looked at Paulina, whose eyes followed the pair on the dancefloor, her skin green, like she was about to throw up. Oh boy. Maybe it was best not to say anything. Maybe it was best if he left that small revelation alone.

He could let a little bit of chaos brew, as a treat.