(The next day at school)
"Oh geez." Sam groaned disgustedly as she surveyed the Valentine's Day decorations that cluttered the hallway. "When are we going to stop celebrating this commercialized holiday that was thought up by the candy and card companies to make money?"
Tucker shoved his backpack into his locker. "That was a mouthful. But to answer your question, I'm guessing as soon as girls like Paulina and Star get tired of buying the decorations." He pointed down the hall, where to the two girls in question were dressed in all pink (including their shoes) and happily gluing frilly hearts to each other's locker.
"That's disturbing, even to me." Danny shook his head and sighed.
"Oh my god! That's amazing!" Paulina's shriek of cuteness rang out in the hallway.
Danny craned his head around to see what the fuss was. Both Star and Paulina were crowded around the new girl, squealing incoherently and jumping for joy. Hayden herself was standing in front of her open locker, looking perplexedly at a giant Valentine's Day box of chocolates in her hand.
"Ok, even I have to say, that's a lot of chocolate." Sam peered around Danny, interested in spite of herself. "I wonder who gave them to her."
"Oh my god, who gave them to you!" Paulina grabbed Hayden's arm and proceeded to shake the poor girl senseless. Tucker laughed. "That's the first time I've seen you and Paulina have the same idea."
Up the hallway, Hayden pried Paulina off her arm and, blushing, shoved the box in her backpack. Slamming her locker, she stalked off down the hallway towards Danny and Lancer's class. As she grew near the three of them, the sounds of Paulina's pestering grew louder.
"Tell us, who gave them to you! Please, its sooo sweet!" Paulina giggled as the group of girls past them. Hayden caught Danny's eye for a moment, and he felt oddly giddy for some reason.
She quickly looked away and made her way to the trash can. "Look, its just some jerk I don't even know. OK? I'll tell you later. Look, isn't that Dash with a box of candy?" With Paulina distracted for a moment, Hayden quickly reached into her bag, ripped the tag off the box, and threw it in the trash as she passed. She managed to put on a straight face as Paulina faced her again.
"I don't see him." The girl pouted for a moment. Hayden thought quickly. "Um…….maybe he went in the classroom. Come on, we'll catch him." She grabbed Paulina's wrist and pulled her towards the classroom.
As the two of them disappeared into the classroom, Tucker started across the hall. "Tuck, what are you doing!"
"I want to see whose giving her candy! Especially a box that big…." He reached into the trash and fished out the card. Sam grimaced. "That's just sick, Tucker. You must really be depraved."
Tucker opened the card and blanched. After a long period of silence, he finally turned around to face them.
"You…….might want to look at this." Intrigued, they both rushed forward.
"What's the big deal, Tucker? Is it from a girl or something?" Sam snatched the card out of his hand and read it quickly. Then, after turning even paler than she already was, she handed it to Danny.
Happy V-day, Hay.
From: Danny F.
He looked up from the card to find the both of them staring at him accusingly. "What! I didn't give them to her! Come on, I don't even know her. It's probably some other guy with a similar name."
"Come on Danny, how many people could be in this school named Danny with the last initial 'F'? It's almost impossible." Sam folded her arms and glared at him.
"There is none." Tucker held up his PDA. "I checked it. Danny's the only person in this school with the initials 'D.F'. So that means--…"
"I DID NOT GIVE THEM TO HER!" He gritted his teeth in frustration. "Why won't you guys believe me? I didn't give her that candy; maybe she wrote the card or something."
"Yeah, blow your ego up Danny. That doesn't work, because if she had forged the card, she would have shown it to Paulina instead of throwing it away. Besides, this is your handwriting."
"Whatever. I don't have time for this. I did not give her that candy and I didn't write the card. You guys can think what you want; I'm going to class." He slung his backpack over his shoulder and stalked down the hall to Lancer's class. Tucker and Sam exchanged glances.
"Think we made him mad?"
"Oh yeah."
(Inside a janitor's closet at Casper High)
"Stupid Foley……Just had to dig that card out of trash. He's going to ruin everything."
The figure crouched inside the closet, the same one that had been outside the Nasty Burger, grumbled in frustration. "And the girl. She's not supposed to throw the card away anyway. Unless…….she wants Fenton to find out…." It shook its head. "No, she wouldn't. It would upset everything."
"But just to be sure, I'm going to fix her little attitude problem." Grinning evilly, it disappeared.
Danny flopped into his seat just as the bell rang. It wasn't until Lancer started calling roll did he realize he was sitting right behind Hayden. He sat up straighter and focused a glare right at the back of her head. After all, if it wasn't for her stupid candy box, Tucker and Sam wouldn't be convinced he was…doing whatever they thought he was doing. This fight was all her fault.
He was so wrapped up in glaring at the back of her head that he didn't notice Lancer calling his name for roll. Before the sound of his teacher's voice could register, Hayden had swiveled in her seat to face him.
"Are you going to answer him, Fenton?"
He snapped out of his self-induced trance to look her in the face. It was the first time she had spoken to him directly, and it caught him a little off guard. He could help but notice that her eye color was about the same as his when he went ghost, except for the whole glowing thing. He must have zoned out again, unfortunately.
"Fenton? Danny, hello!" She waved her hand in his face frantically.
"Huh, what?"
"Never mind, Mr. Fenton. We determined that your indeed here physically. Would you mind asking your mind to join us as well?" Lancer shot him a glare before turning his attention back to the roll book. Hayden prodded his arm.
"You might want to work on that whole 'zoning out' thing. Try not to be so preoccupied with glaring at me next time." She turned back around to face the front of the class, leaving Danny confused.
"Wait, how'd you know?" He blurted out, only to regret it. Great, how was he going to explain why he was glaring at her in the first place? Tell her Tuckerwent garbage diving forher cardin the trash?
Without turning around, Hayden answered him. "Please, your eyes were burning a hole in the back of my head, Danny. Just be more aware to Lancer next time, ok? I know he's long-winded, but it'll be over in an hour."
He couldn't help smiling at her description of Lancer. Even if she had forged that card, there was something about her that he wanted to like.
Plus, the way she said Fenton was cute.
Author's Note: Ok, could somebody please R&R this thing? I'm going nuts trying to figure out if people like this story or not. And please tell me if I'm staying in character or not. I'm trying really hard to make sure I make them sound like themselves.
