Chapter II ─ Back to School Embarrassment
Danny Fenton, Samantha Manson, and Tucker Foley were all seated on a brick wall near the entrance to Casper High. They had just finished comparing their class schedules for the new year. Tucker and Danny shared one class, Tucker and Sam shared two classes, and Danny and Sam shared three classes. The whole trio had third period Spanish together.
"Well," Tucker announced, "this is much better than last year's schedule."
"Tell me about it," sighed Danny.
"Well, Tuck and I had one class, you and I had one class, and you and Tuck had none," Sam answered cheekily, knowing that Danny was being sarcastic.
"And there were no classes with all three of us," added Tucker.
Last year had definitely not been fun, but junior year promised to be much better.
Danny sighed, then narrowed his eyes when his breath turned out to be a visible blue.
"Ghost senses tingling?" asked Tucker.
"Yeah, cover for me," Danny replied as he hopped behind the wall and into some bushes.
Tucker and Sam heard his enthusiastic cry of "I'm going ghost!" This, paired with a bright flash of white light coming from the foliage denoted the arrival of Danny Phantom, ghost-boy.
Danny flew out of the shrubbery and up towards the sky, apparently chasing another ghost who had been hiding in the area.
"Look, there goes Inviso-Bill!" cried Paulina, the most shallow and most adored girl of the grade. She then watched sadly, as Danny flew into the distance without her.
The in-crowd giggled briefly, then went back to discussing the latest haircuts, deciding whether Paulina's new shirt was too tight or not, and weighing the pros and cons of wearing high-heels.
"If I were Danny, I'd totally use the ghost thing to score a date with Paulina, or at least to get a date for my friend," sighed Tucker as he shoved his schedule into his bag.
"Sorry, can't say that I'd do that," Sam rolled her eyes.
"Why not?"
"Um, Tuck, in case you haven't noticed, I'm a girl. I don't like Paulina. And even if I were Danny, I still wouldn't."
"Why not? She's totally hot."
Sam raised her eyebrows and glanced in Paulina's direction. Sure, she had the hair, the face, the looks, the preppiness, but she certainly was missing something. "She has no thoughts of her own. If Seventeen, or Abercrombie and Fitch, or whatever those people worship told them that clothes weren't cool, they'd all come to school naked."
Sam watched as Tucker's eyes glazed over. Okay, so maybe it was her fault he was getting mental images of the entire in-crowd totally nude.
"Tuck, Tuck? Are you there?"
Tucker shook his head and snapped out of his fantasy. "Yeah, what?"
"You just missed my speech," Sam reminded him.
"No, it was about girls with no free will coming to school without clothes."
"Close enough."
The bell rang for class, and the entire school began to march towards first period, full of the excitement of their first day back at school, or the dread of the incoming freshmen.
Tucker and Sam stood up from the wall and started to cram themselves through the traffic jam at the school's entrance while maintaining their conversation.
"So," Tucker continued, "You don't like the popular girls because they're all trend-followers with no sense of uniqueness or minds of their own?"
Sam was impressed. He'd summarized her feelings up pretty well. "Yeah, they need to be more individualistic, like me."
It was now Tucker's turn to roll his eyes, "Yep, you're unique all right."
A giant sophomore got between Sam and Tucker's conversation. Separating the two of them until they finally got out of the crowd.
"So," Tucker said slyly when the pair got back together, "you're saying that if you were Danny, you'd like somebody less like Paulina and more like you."
"Exactly," Sam grinned, nodding her head decisively. It took her a moment to realize what she'd just agreed to. "Tucker!"
Tucker laughed as she sullenly crossed her arms over her chest. "Admit it, I totally got you there!"
"You know I didn't mean it like that!"
"Yeah, right."
Sam shook her head and turned into the next hallway on their right. "Hey, where're you going?" Tucker shouted after her.
"Class," Sam shouted over her shoulder as she kept walking. She didn't wait for Tucker's answer before she started thinking to herself. Sometimes, Tucker just annoyed her. He sometimes got up in her face and wouldn't just leave her be. Especially about Danny. Well, actually, the whole world was obsessed with her and Danny. Ever since Freshman year, and maybe even before that, people had been pairing them up as a couple. Sam didn't get it. She spent almost the same amount of time with him as she did with Tucker, why weren't they bugging her about him?
Next thing she knew, Sam was right in front of her first period classroom. She stopped thinking about her and Danny and started debating about where to sit. Should she place herself in the front or the back? On the side or in the middle? Near people she already knew, or by strangers she just might have a chance with?
After a quick moment of puzzling, Sam selected a seat in the second row, towards the center. The second row was usually her choice. It wasn't as nerdy of a move as the first row, but it still gave the teacher the impression that she was a good student. It was also usually available, as most students were either way up front or hiding in the back.
Sam took her seat and looked around. This was her English classroom for the next year. Her teacher wasn't in the room yet, but the students were all around her discussing the events of their summers. It was times like these when she wished she had more than just Danny and Tucker.
Sam reached into her backpack and pulled out a pencil, trying to do something to occupy the time before class started. Within the next thirty seconds, the teacher came into the classroom. Sam dropped her purple mechanical pencil. What was Lancer doing here again?
Mr. Lancer had been Sam, Tucker, and Danny's freshman English teacher. She thought they had gotten rid of him when they graduated into the tenth grade, apparently not. 'He must've changed classrooms and started teaching eleventh grade English.'
The bell rang and class started. Sam noticed with a tinge of remorse that there was absolutely nobody seated on either side of her. She briefly glanced around the classroom. Every other seat was taken. Nobody wanted to sit with the Goth girl. They were all afraid that they would catch cooties or something.
"Alright, now that we've gotten our cue from the bell, we shall begin: Anderson, Sarah?" Mr. Lancer called, beginning roll.
"Here," came a shy voice from the back.
"Baxter, Dash?"
Sam cringed. She already knew that Dash was definitely not the most amiable person in the room right now.
"Yeah?" Dashes voice was coming from the back left corner. 'Figures that he'd sit there.'
"Ah, I remember you from your freshman year, Mr. Baxter," said Mr. Lancer with a knowing look before he moved on, "Brown, Christopher?"
"Friends call me Chris," said Chris, a blonde boy in the third row.
"Dawson, Joseph?"
"Joey," was all Joey said in return.
"DeWard, Malarie?"
"Present." A couple people in the back snickered after Malarie raised her hand in the front row; she was clearly a goodie-good.
"Thank you Ms. DeWard."
"Eaton, Peggy?"
Nobody answered. "Well, I suppose she's not here," Mr. Lancer mumbled as he marked off his roll sheet.
"Ah, here's another someone who enjoyed my class two years ago: Fenton, Danny?"
Sam had completely forgotten that she shared her first class of the day with Danny, which was weird considering that she'd been talking and thinking about him non-stop since he left. Danny was still out fighting that ghost. She had to come up with some sort of cover…"He's in the bathroom!" she shouted.
"No I'm not," came Danny's voice from her right.
Sam slowly turned her head to look over towards him. Her face turned a soft crimson when she realized that he was seated right there, and that the rest of the class was laughing at her, including Danny.
"Ms. Manson, do you need to visit the nurse this morning?" asked Mr. Lancer with concern.
Sam just sunk into her seat, becoming a puddle of embarrassment as the class went into a laughing fit at her expense. They had all needed something to take their minds off the pressure of their first day, and that release became Sam.
"No, she's okay," Danny answered for her.
Mr. Lancer shrugged and continued calling roll whilst the rest of the room slowly settled down.
Time passed uneventfully as Mr. Lancer completed roll call and started passing out syllabuses to his students. Every year, teachers would hand students packets of paper describing pointless things like rules, schedules, and grading systems. Parents were to sign these papers, students were to keep them, and the packets were destined to collect dust as they were never looked at again. It was a complete waste of nature's precious trees.
In the middle of Mr. Lancers description of the syllabus, Sam felt a crumpled up paper bounce off her shoulder. She knew it was a note from Danny, so she leant down to scoop it up. Danny was watching her closely as she did so, but then he immediately looked away with a small blush. Sam had the most terrible feeling about what caused him to turn his head so quickly, and sure enough, when she looked down, her shirt had completely gaped open, giving a clear path to stuff she certainly didn't show the world. 'Crap.'
Sam released a high-pitched "eep", grabbed the note, and returned to her upright position in an instant. She could feel the blood rushing up to her face, and it certainly didn't help when Mr. Lancer said, "Samantha, that's the second outburst in less than a whole period, are you sure you're alright?"
If it were ever possible for a person to die of humiliation, Sam would have certainly been six feet under. The class burst out into a second round of laughter that even Mr. Lancer joined this time. Sam grimaced and looked over to see if Danny was laughing. That definitely would have killed her. Fortunately for her health, Danny was not laughing. His face was just as red as she expected hers to be, and he was sitting very still, entranced with the pencil he was flicking at in his hand, staring at it and trying to ignore everything else.
This told Sam all she needed to know. Danny had seen. Sam covered her face in her hands and shook her head. Before the class finished cackling at her, Sam discreetly glanced down her own shirt to check what Danny saw. She had been wearing her white bra. Sam groaned, but nobody could hear it over their laughter.
She couldn't decide whether the white bra was a bad thing, or a good thing. It definitely gave off a virgin-y impression, but Danny already knew that. It was also somewhat dorky, particularly under a black shirt. Then again, Sam could've been wearing a black bra, which against her shirt would've been much more difficult to tell if it was even there. Even worse would've been if she had worn one of the lacier ones her mom had bought her. 'That would've been terrible.'
Sam pulled her hands off her face and reached for her note, just for something to do with her hands. The class had stopped giggling by now, but Danny was still avoiding eye contact with her.
Sam shakily opened the note, hoping it was something worth all this trouble. There on the torn sheet of notebook paper was the incredibly eloquent sentiment: "Sorry about that".
Sam clicked her tongue; he hadn't even bothered with a period. All that drama for one lame apology?
The Goth ked up her pencil and began her reply to his message. As she was writing, she felt another note hit her, this time on the wrist. Luckily, it stayed on her desk, keeping her from having to bend over a second time.
She opened this note before she finished writing. It read: "Sorry about that too."
Sam put the note down and continued writing her own, when she passed it back, it said: "Next time you should tell me when you sneak into the room like that so I don't have to cover for you…and about the other thing…I'm sure it wasn't your fault…"
She had no idea what to say to a guy when he accidentally sees down your shirt. She hoped what she had written was appropriate. Sam didn't want to sound like she didn't care who saw her bra, but she also wanted to make sure she didn't come across as being too freaked out, even though she was.
Sam pretended to listen to Mr. Lancer's lecture on "Rules and Consequences: The Importance of Discipline", but when Danny's note came back to her, her attention switched to it instead.
"Yeah, um…I came into the room invisible while I hope nobody else was looking. Um…can we just…forget about the other thing? And can we especially not tell Tuck about it?" said the note.
Sam wrote her quick response and passed the paper once more to Danny. He accepted it, read it, and looked relieved that Sam had written that she'd already forgotten about it.
When the bell finally rang for second period, Sam and Danny walked out together. It was a little awkward, but they managed to converse all the same.
"So, who'd have thunk that we'd have Lancer again?" Danny laughed.
Sam smiled appreciatively, "You know, when I saw him walk into the room, my first thought was of that TV show, 'Boy Meets World', where Mr. Pheeny pretty much follows the main characters as they grow up."
"Yeah, thank god I don't live next door to Mr. Lancer."
Sam laughed. "What class did you say you had next?" she asked.
"Chemistry, you?"
"Oh, I took that class last year. I'm headed for History. Tuck's going to be in that class."
Danny slowed down and looked Sam straight in the eyes, "Please don't tell him about…" he was interrupted.
"Don't worry. I'm more embarrassed than you."
"Okay, because I totally don't want him to have more ammunition to fire about us being a couple."
Sam remembered her conversation before first period and smiled sorrowfully as she told Danny, "I don't think if I became a nun he'd stop bugging us."
"Can Jewish girls become nuns?"
Sam laughed. "No, I don't think so."
"Oh, well that's good, because you'd make a terrible nun," Danny teased.
"Hey!"
Just then, a set of three, quick rings over the P.A. system told them that they had a minute to get to class. Danny grinned and said, "See ya!" before running off towards the science hall.
"Why on earth did you start walking in this direction?" she shouted. The science hall was in a different direction than history.
"I had to make sure you wouldn't tell Tuck!"
Sam grinned to herself. Danny was such a dork. 'An awfully cute dork,' she thought, before silently correcting herself: 'Cute in a friendly way, not a romantic way.'
"Hey Sam, what's up?" Tucker asked as Sam took a seat next to him in the third row of her second class of the day.
"Nothing much, you?"
"I just had an interesting first period. Do you have Mr. Thomas?"
Sam checked her schedule, "Yeah, I have him fifth period, and I think Danny's in that class too."
Tucker nodded, "Remember how boring math was last year?"
Sam groaned, "Yes."
"Well, Mr. Thomas' class is the opposite, it's great!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, how was your first period?"
The bell rang, indicating the start of class, but the teacher hadn't moved from her desk, so the students kept talking.
Sam shrugged, "Embarrassing."
"What happened?"
"Danny snuck in and I made a fool of myself when I made up a stupid cover, and he was already there."
Tucker laughed, "Aw, poor you," he said with little concern. "Did he say anything about the ghost? Who was it?"
Sam thought for a moment before telling Tucker, "I don't know, there was no time for him to tell me about the ghost."
Tucker nodded and looked like he was about to say something, but the teacher stood up and everyone in the classroom hushed.
"Hello students, I am Mrs. McDonaldson." A couple students bravely snickered at her name.
"I will teach American History, and you will learn it."
Tucker leaned over to Sam's desk whispering, "I heard she's tough."
"There will be no whispering, note passing, or talking during my lectures." Mrs. McDonaldson glared directly at Tucker as she said that.
'Looks like this is going to be another one of those boring classes,' thought Sam.
After Mrs. McDonaldson's class came break. Danny, Sam, and Tucker all met up outside of their lockers to talk.
"So, is Mrs. McDonaldson as terrible as everyone says?" asked Danny.
"Yeah," Sam replied, "She always talks to us like she's yelling."
"That sucks for you. I don't have her."
"Are you serious?" Tucker stepped forward to check Danny's schedule.
"Yeah, I've got Mr. Crow instead."
"He must be new," said Sam, "I've never heard of him."
"Hey Tuck, did you notice who your English teacher was on your schedule?" asked Danny.
"No…" Tucker reached into his book bag for the paper, "Oh man, why is Lancer teaching us again?"
"I don't know, but I've got even more news too," Danny announced, leaning in towards the group. As he did, Sam caught a whiff of his hair. It smelled nice, like soap. She liked it.
"What's the news about?" Tuck inquired.
"The ghost I fought this morning, he flew away."
"You mean, you didn't catch him?" Sam asked.
"Yes and no. I didn't catch him, but it was weird. You know how most ghosts fight back when you confront them? This one just flew away." Danny looked confused as he recalled the events of that morning, "I tried to get close enough to him to use the Fenton Thermos, but his top speed was just about the same as mine, so I could never really catch up when he had the head start."
"That's really weird," Tucker pointed out.
"Did he say anything?" Sam questioned.
"He just said that he was here to have fun. It was really weird."
Tucker and Sam glanced at each other. This other ghost was definitely going to be interesting.
Author Time:
Ah, I had wanted to include more about their first day back at school, and possibly even get to the part where they got home, but I didn't want to write too much. I suppose I'll end this chapter here. Tell me if you'd like me to write longer chapters. I can do more if you people want.
Thanks for reading!