A/N: M'kay, this is to replace the chapter of "Ghosthunting" that is not entirely finished and that I don't have enough time to type up. Most sincere apologies and ice cream cones to all "Ghosthunting" reviewers and any of the oneshot reviewers too! (By the way, I have seen this musical on Broadway, but I don't have access to a script and I don't remember all the lines and things, so I'm improvising, using the newest version of the movie. Sorry in advance for that!) I don't have the movie at this time either (tear) but I remember it better.

Description: When Mr. Lancer organizes a school play, everyone tries out, but no one expects the lead roles to go to who they do! DxS. Please R&R!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, because I am not Butch Hartman. I don't own the ALW version of "Phantom of the Opera" either, just borrowing from Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Dedication: This is dedicated to anyone who has ever tried out for/been in a school play. Kudos to you all!

The Phantom of Casper High

"Auditions for the musical The Phantom of the Opera will be held after school today in the auditorium." Said the voice over the Casper high intercom, finishing the morning announcements. "Have a nice day!"

"Oh!" squealed Paulina. "I love Phantom of the Opera! Maybe I should try out for Christine?"

"Definitely!" cried her 'friend', Star. "You'll have no competition at all!"

Sitting three tables behind them were Sam, Danny and Tucker. A few moments after Star's last sentence, Tucker groaned and banged his head on the hard surface, for no apparent reason.

"What's with you?" Danny asked, coming out of his Paulina-induced trance to look at his friend. In answer, Tucker pointed at Sam. She was sitting up straight, with her chin pulled in and a stubborn glint in her amethyst eyes. "Oh."

"Really?" Sam said loudly. "She'll have no competition? Because, I was thinking of trying out for Christine too."

"Well that makes it even less of a competition." Paulina replied, nastily. "You have no chance against me!"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Sam said in mock anxiety. "I forgot; you choked in the last school musical, didn't you?" The grin slid from Paulina's face and she glared at the goth girl angrily. "Yeah, I definitely have no chance against you!"

"That was eighth grade!" she snapped. "And I didn't choke; I just got a sore throat while I was onstage. They didn't give me 100-percentpure, bottled spring water like I asked!"

"Poor baby." Simpered Sam, unconvincingly. "See ya at auditions." The bell rang and there was a mad dash for the door. Danny, Sam and Tucker were the last ones out, so they hurried to their lockers, not wanting to be late to Mr. Lancer's English class. When they reached their lockers, Tucker turned to face Sam.

"I can't believe that you're going to audition against Paulina!" he exclaimed, jiggling the lock, trying to get his locker open. "You know Lancer's gonna pick her." Sam raised an eyebrow and he tried to rectify his statement. "Not that she's better than you, she just more…" He stopped for a moment, distracted by his lock, which wouldn't open for him.

"Tuck, quit while you're behind." Danny said sagely. He spun Tucker's lock and the locker sprang open. Tucker looked at him for a second, and then switched out his books. "But I'm surprised you're auditioning too. I thought you hated to do that stuff." They started down the hall to Lancer's classroom.

"Well," she answered, putting her arms around Danny and Tucker's shoulders. "I'm not auditioning alone."

The last bell of the day rang, long and loud and students poured out the front doors, eager for freedom. Others, however, stayed behind to go to the auditions. Not all of them were staying to try out; word of Sam challenging Paulina for the leading role had spread around the school and lots of them just wanted to see it.

Danny and Tucker followed Sam dutifully to the auditorium and took seats near the back. More students came in, chatting about weekend plans and other things. It wasn't until three o'clock that everyone took seats and fell silent. Mr. Lancer appeared on the stage with a packet of scripts.

"Welcome to auditions for the hit Broadway musical, The Phantom of the Opera!" he said. "I wish you all the best of luck, so let's get started!" He passed out scripts to everyone, sending out the rather significant group of onlookers and took to the stage once more.

"I'm going to call your name and you come up and read from the script." He continued. "After everyone has done that, we'll move onto singing."

"Singing?" Danny hissed. "We have to sing?"

"It is a musical." Sam pointed out. "Now, shhh!"

"We're going to start with boys, on page 2 as the auctioneer." Instructed Lancer. "Dash Baxter, you're up first." He took a seat in the front row as Dash climbed up onto the stage.

"Auctioneer raps gavel here we have an item discovered in the vaults of the theater a music box in the shape of a barrel monkey dressed in per-si-an robes" he took a great breath of air and started again. "Still in working ord--"

"That's enough, Dash!" Lancer cut him off. In the back of the auditorium, Sam, Danny and Tucker were trying hard to contain their laughter.

"Did he say the stage directions?" chuckled Tucker. Sam nodded, but seemed unwilling to open her mouth, for fear of bursting into a laughing fit.

"Per-si-an?" She whispered, finally gaining control of herself as Dash took his seat. They fell silent as the next few boys went, all doing better than Dash. Then it was Danny's turn.

"Danny Fenton!" Lancer said. Danny went up to the stage nervously and Sam flashed him a thumbs-up from the back of the room. Suddenly, he wanted to do perfect, for some, unexplainable reason.

"Here we have an item discovered in the vaults of the theater, a music box, in the shape of a barrel monkey." Danny said, calming down as he continued. He checked the script. "Still in working order, ladies and gentlemen."

"Very good, Mr. Fenton, take your seat." Lancer said, scribbling something on his notepad. He looked down at the list of names again and Danny rushed back to his seat. Sam grinned and gave him a high-five.

"Tucker Foley?" Lancer read off, trying to keep the apprehension out of his voice. Tucker probably had the worst singing voice of everyone there, including himself. Tucker enthusiastically hurried up and read through the lines quickly. After Tucker was Kwan and then a few more boys; upperclassmen. Then it was onto the girls.

"Girls, page 13, read Christine. Paulina, you're up first." Paulina walked up to the stage and gave Lancer a smile. She opened the book to the page and read.

"When I was little girl, my father used to speak of an angel, an Angel of Music. And at night, when I went to bed, he was always there." She read flawlessly. Star clapped as Paulina sat back down and the others took their turns. Sam read well, but not as well as Paulina had, receiving an "I told you so." From Tucker, who, in turn, received a sharp pinch in the arm from her.

"Now." Lancer said, clearly more enthusiastic about this part. "Onto the singing." Several people shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. "Buys will sing from "Music of the Night' and girls will sing from 'Think of Me'."

Dash took the stage and sang with such off-key horror, that it could only be compared to Tucker's singing. Everyone plugged their ears and waited until he had finished before feeling truly safe from his awful voice.

"Danny Fenton." Lancer read, silently praying Danny could sing better than Dash. Hesitantly, and with some persistence from Sam, Danny got to the stage. This was much more nerve-wracking than reading lines, for him. He checked the script and sang along with piano surprisingly well. Dash muttered something about cheating as Danny sang, not entirely certain why he was getting the looks he was getting.

In the back row, Sam and Tucker were sitting, watching him, with their mouths hanging open. Tucker looked over at Sam, who was still staring at Danny in a sort of delighted shock.

"Did you know he could sing that well?" he asked, already knowing her answer, but wanting to here it anyway. She shook her head.

"I didn't think he could sing at all, he was the only person, besides me,who didn't try out for any school musicals until this year." She whispered in a dazed voice.

"Excellent job, Mr. Fenton!"' Lancer said enthusiastically. He started scribbling furiously on his notepad and Danny took the opportunity and speed walked back to his seat, breaking into a run half way there. He sank into his seat to avoid curious looks, but turned to discover he was receiving them even from his best friends.

"Next up, Tucker Foley!" Called Lancer. Tucker climbed onto the stage and sang, as horribly as was expected and went back to his seats. The rest of the auditions were uneventful, besides Paulina's cracking on the high notes in "Think of Me" and only Sam, out of all the girls, hitting every one.

"Thank you for coming to auditions and the cast list will be posted on the bulletin board in the entrance hall in the morning."

Danny, Sam and Tucker hurried to school the next morning and, luckily, didn't run into any ghost mishaps on the way. Paulina and Star were already there, pouring over the cast list. Paulina started off, giving Sam a nasty look as they past. The three exchanged glances and ran over to the board. Sam got there first and read it out loud to the two boys.

"Danny, you got the Phantom!" she exclaimed.

"Is that good or bad?" he asked. She rolled her eyes.

"That's good, you're the main character."

"I am!" he yelped, alarmed. She gave him a look.

"Do you even know the story?" Both Danny and Tucker shook their heads stupidly. "I'll tell you later." She scanned the list for Tucker's name.

"Tuck, you're the auctioneer, you don't have to sing." She read further down the list and laughed. "Ha! Paulina didn't get Christine, she's Carlotta."

"Who did get Christine?" asked Danny. Sam looked for the character name.

"I did." She said, sounding worried for some odd reason.

"That's good, though, right?" Tucker asked. "I thought you wanted to be Christine."

"Well, I…" she stopped. She was being stupid. They didn't know the play. Danny didn't know what happened at the end--Lancer probably wouldn't even insist it be real.

"I have to find Mr. Lancer!" she said, running off. Danny and Tucker watched her go, nonplussed.

"Mr. Lancer!" she called, spotting him at the end of the hall. "Mr. Lancer!"

"What is it Miss Manson?" he asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost!" Sam shook her head stupidly, waving away the comment.

"I wanted to ask you a question about--the script." She started.

"Ah yes!" he replied. "We'll start rehearsals this afternoon. We're going to do an authentic version of the musical, exactly as it would be done on Broadway." He walked off, humming to himself and left Sam standing in the middle of the hall, her heart dropping to her shoes. Danny didn't know she was supposed to kiss him in the play, although, if she admitted it to herself, she wanted to kiss Danny.

"You did not just think that Sam Manson!" she scolded herself out loud. "Stop it!"

"Stop what?" asked Danny, appearing around the corner with Tucker. "Talking to yourself again?" he teased. She managed a weak smile and walked down the hall behind them, thankful that they didn't run into Dash or Paulina on the way to class.

Sam spent the whole day worrying about how Danny was going to react to this and praying that no one commented it about it during classes. She was relieved when Lancer came over the intercom five minutes before the last bell to announce that musical practice had been canceled due to some unknown sources wreaking havoc in the auditorium.

Sam grinned, despite herself when Danny leaned forward from behind her a whispered an apologetic "Sorry." in her ear. She knew full well that he had spent their lunch period fighting ghosts, apparently destroying the auditorium in the process.

When the bell rang, minutes later, Sam jumped from her seat and dashed out the door, with a hasty goodbye to her two friends. She ran almost all the way home and slammed the door behind her, thankful, for once, that her parents didn't arrive home until late afternoon or early evening.

Sam sank slowly to the floor and put her forehead on her knees. What was she going to do? She needed advice, someone who knew Danny and who knew her and who she knew would keep a secret. She needed someone who could give her a good, logical and reasonable way of solving this problem. She needed…

"Jazz." Sam whispered into the phone. She was actually glad that Jazz had picked up; it would've taken some explaining if Danny picked up and wanted to know why she was calling Jazz. "I need your help."

"Sam?" asked the older girl sounding surprised. "Do you want to talk to Danny?"

"Shhh! No!" Sam said. "I need to talk to you."

"Well, okay, I'm always open to listen."

"But you have to promise not to tell Danny about this." There was a pause.

"Why not?" Sam could picture Jazz frowning at the other end of the phone.

"Because." Sam answered, putting emphasis on the word. "It's about Danny."

"Fine." Sighed Jazz, "Just as long as it's not serious."

"Well, Danny and Tucker and I tried out for the school musical." Sam said slowly.

"You did?" Jazz asked. "I didn't know that. Did you guys get parts?" Sam nodded and then realized that Jazz couldn't see her.

"Yeah." She stopped. She wasn't normally like this; she always was blunt and almost never beat around the bush. What was wrong with her?

"Well?" said the other. "What parts?"

"I got Christine." Sam answered.

"And Danny got…?"

"The Phantom." She muttered. Jazz still heard her and let out an audible gasp.

"No way!" She marveled. Then she paused again, as if a thought had occurred to her. "Are you going to tell him? Sam sighed.

"How?" she demanded, frustrated. "How do you tell your best friend, 'gee, we have to kiss at the end of the play.'?"

"Just like that." Jazz immediately responded. "Unless there's something more to it?"

"Well, there is…" Sam took a deep breath. "I think--I want to." Jazz murmured something under her breath that sounded oddly like "Finally!"

"Okay, here's what you do…"

Sam walked slowly to the auditorium after school the next day, taking her time and hoping that Jazz's plan would work. By some strange stroke of luck, no one had mentioned the kissing scene to Danny. Yet.

She slipped in the door quietly and sat next to Danny and Tucker near the back, trying not to draw attention to her late entrance. Tucker pinched her hard and she winced and turned to see him wearing a smug grin. Uh-oh.

"I read the script." He whispered in a singsong voice.

"You didn't tell him, did you?" she hissed, worried. He shook his head.

"That's your job, isn't it?" She smiled weakly and turned to the front to give Lancer her full attention.

"Okay people!" he started. "We're going to do a run through of the last scene just to see where you are, as suggested by my stage manager." He gestured to Jazz who had volunteered for the job to help Sam out. There was a flurry of activity as everyone hastened to get their scripts out. "So I need Raoul, the Phantom and Christine on stage, please. Starting at the top of the page."

"Danny." Sam whispered as they moved to the stage. "I have to tell you something." He glanced over at her, an odd expression on his face.

"Does it have anything to do with the musical?" he asked shrewdly. She nodded. He sighed. "I already know."

"You do?" Sam said, taken off guard. "Someone told you?"

"No, Jazz made me go see the movie with her months ago." He confessed. "I made her pretend not to know anything about it when she was on the phone with you yesterday--I was on the other line."

"Oh." she said, feeling stupid. "Then why'd you act like you didn't know the story?"

"The same reason you didn't tell me the story." He countered. "I didn't know what you thought."

"Miss Manson!" said Lancer, clearly frustrated. "Please sing your line!"

"What? Oh!" she checked the script. "'Please Raoul, it's useless.'?" There was now no time to talk, since they both had a line every few seconds so they continued reading, but giving each other looks out of the corner of their eyes. Tucker was barely containing his amusement at this little charade. Then, they were there--'the point of no return'.

"Pitiful creature of darkness." Sam wavered, trying to finish the line. "What kind of life have you known? God give me courage to show you, you are not alone." She stepped into Danny and pressed her lips to his. But it wasn't a platonic stage kiss, nor was it a "fakeout makeout" that they had shared twice. This was entirely real, she realized as he kissed her back. She didn't care that people were watching, or that Jazz and Dannyhad tricked her, or even that Lancer was calling cut. All she cared about was Danny. And that was enough.