Hello, everyone, welcome to chapter five. Thank you to all my readers. And to my reviewers, your feedback is always much appreciated, so thanks.
I'm sure some of you are wondering why Sam and Danny kissed, so just keep in mind Kitty's role in the story, and you should figure it out. I'm also planning to explain the circumstances surrounding the kiss more in-depthin a later chapter, most likely the next one, so please be patient.
Disclaimer: I do not own the following: Danny Phantom or any of its characters; any of Musiq's songs or lyrics; James and the Giant Peach, any of its characters, or any of Roald Dahl's other works.
Danny awoke several times throughout the night, his worry for Sam keeping him from sleeping for long periods at a time. He finally got up around 4:30 and started to get dressed. He seriously pondered becoming his ghost self and going to visit Sam, but he feared being caught. Plus he didn't want to disrupt her sleep, as he knew she would need a lot of rest in the coming days.
Tucker got up when the alarm went off at 6:00 and found Danny downstairs at the kitchen table, staring out the window, a bowl of half-eaten, soggy cereal sitting in front of him. Getting his own breakfast, he sat next to Danny, who either didn't notice him or didn't acknowledge it. After a moment of silence, Tucker finally spoke.
"So, Danny, what's the plan? I'm assuming Sam is still supposed to be released today."
"I don't know, Tuck. For the first time in awhile, I really have no idea how to pursue this. Last time Kitty showed up in our world, she was overshadowing Paulina and making her flirt with me. Wait-Tucker, that's it! That's why Sam was acting so weird! Kitty must've been overshadowing her."
"That certainly explains why she was dressed like a popular girl, and why we saw Kitty phase through the wall into school. But if that's so, why didn't she trip your ghost sense when you were around Sam?"
"I don't know, Tuck. Maybe I didn't notice, but that seems illogical because surely I would've noticed the temperature drop, or seen my breath. She must have figured out a way to disguise her spectral energy. You know, now that I think about it, when she overshadowed Paulina, I couldn't sense her. It must be that when she overshadows someone, her ghost form is completely disguised by the human form. And she's had a lot more practice than I have- when I overshadow someone, my voice can still be heard, but she speaks in the voice of the human. No wonder I didn't pick up on her when she was posing as Paulina."
"Do you think she'll try to pose as Sam at the hospital?"
"She might, but if her behavior lately is any indication, she's too smart for that. With Jazz working as an orderly, I doubt she'd show up there and risk running into the person that she used as a pawn to get out of the Ghost Zone the first time. Although I wouldn't put it past her to overshadow Sam again once she gets out of the hospital, and, in that case, we'll just have to catch her in the act. Until then, we can't let her know that we've caught on to her. We have to turn her power of persuasion against her. And I know of just the way to do that."
"No way, Danny. We can't let Johnny out of the Ghost Zone."
"But we have to, Tuck. I don't want to do it either, but the only way to get to Kitty is to take advantage of her love/hate relationship with Johnny. Eventually she'll get sick of being jealous and decide to take him back."
"But didn't she say that he's dating Ember now?"
"Oh, please, Tucker. When it comes to love, the only being more fickle than a teenager is the ghost of one. Johnny and Ember will get bored with each other soon enough, and Johnny will go back to Kitty again, begging for forgiveness. And Kitty may be a master manipulator, but she's a sucker for Johnny's proclamations of love and commitment."
"Yeah, but how do we know Johnny will cooperate with us?"
"Don't worry, he will once he hears about what Kitty's been doing. And if not, I could always overshadow you and make you pretend to fall in love with her."
"Oh, no, that's where I draw the line. I'd like to be in charge of my own dating destiny, thank you."
"Yeah, I guess I wouldn't want to mess up your stellar relationship record or anything," Danny quipped, grinning.
"Hey, man, that was low," Tucker said, playfully punching his friend's arm.
During their lunch break, Danny and Tucker called the hospital, and the nurse told them that Sam had just been released. They thought about calling her at home, but weren't in the mood for being lectured by her parents for interrupting her "rest period."
When Danny turned on his cell phone after class, he discovered that he had a text message from Sam, begging him and Tucker to come visit before her parents drove her to insanity. The two headed straight to her house with a bundle of get-well cards from her teachers. Upon arrival, they were relieved when her grandmother answered the door, greeting them with a warm smile.
"She's in the entertainment room, watching some black-and-white horror movies," the family matriarch informed them. "And don't worry- the Uptight Ones just left for work," she added with a wink, referring to Sam's parents.
Danny and Tucker went down a long corridor to the huge indoor theater and found Sam sprawled across a couch, watching a vampire movie and snacking on popcorn. She heard them come in and paused the movie.
"It's about time you two got here," she said, offering them some popcorn. "What took you so long?"
"Mr. Lancer freaked when he read Tucker's term paper on James and the Giant Peach, and made the whole class stay behind and listen to his lecture on finding appropriate research topics and clearing them with him first."
"Hey, he said it was okay for me to research how literature portrays the psychological implications of an orphaned child taken in by other family members," Tucker defended himself. "He never said that I couldn't use an elementary-level book to back up my claims."
"Yeah, whatever guys," Sam said. "So what's with all the envelopes?"
"From the teachers," Tucker explained as he handed the stack of cards to her.
Sam set the cards aside and turned off the movie projector. Tucker and Danny sat on another couch and listened as she griped about the hospital and how her parents had been treating her, especially since she got released, wishing that the visiting hours applied to her at home as well. As she related what the doctor told her about her injury and all the things she'd disclosed when asked how it occurred, Danny and Tucker exchanged glances, wondering if they should tell her.
"Come on, guys, what are you hiding?" she inquired, noticing their faces.
Danny took a deep breath. "We think we know how you were injured, and why you were acting the way you did beforehand. Let me just start off by saying that you weren't crazy."
"You mean..." Sam's voice trailed off as she realized that what she'd observed before being knocked unconscious wasn't a figment of her imagination.
"Unfortunately yes. And it seems that in order to stop her, we'll have to get some... outside help."
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