And this is the last chapter I wrote. Then I had a melt down and deleted most of this story. Heck I almost stopped writing completely.
Chapter Four
Sam waved and smiled at Valerie as the bus she was in drove away. Danny stood beside Sam waving as well, feeling a little bit put out.
"Is this all you and Val do together?" He asked.
Sam gave Danny an exasperated look. "No, usually we sit and have voodoo ceremonies cursing you ghostly self," she told him sarcastically as she walked away intent on finding poor Tucker, he had been lost early on in their run.
Danny had just managed to keep up, forced to use his ghost powers from time to time as the girls put in an effort to losing him. He said nothing as he walked beside her, he was feeling a bit rejected. A sullen look had replaced his more cheerful demeanor.
Both Danny and Sam stopped and stared as they found Tucker sitting on a bench talking to a girl. They both smiled and in tacit agreement they turned and walked away leaving Tucker to his flirting.
"Why are you mad at me?" Danny finally asked.
Sam sighed heavily. "Because you're acting ridiculous," she finally said as she stopped and looked at him. "I don't even want to argue about it anymore."
Danny frowned as he looked back over his shoulder at Tucker. "So wanna go to the movies or something? Just hang out?"
"Don't you have homework to finish?" Sam asked knowing Danny well enough that he hadn't even started.
"Help me?" Danny asked giving her a puppy dog expression.
"You should have all your homework done," Sam teased.
"When do I have time?" Danny asked. "Between camping and fighting ghosts…."
"You could have stayed home and worked on it instead of dragging poor Tuck out here to chase Val and I around the park."
Danny pointed back toward Tucker. "Don't call him poor Tuck. I think poor Tuck is pretty happy he was dragged out here."
Sam smiled wryly then looked at the hopeful expression on Danny's face. "Okay," she said. "But I'm warning you. I'm only helping you with your homework. I'm not going to do all the work."
"Ahh!" Danny said as he put his arm around Sam and hugged her to him as they walked. "That's a proper little sidekick!"
"Now you're working on getting yourself killed," Sam said in a fierce tone of voice, trying not to laugh. "You know Valerie hasn't asked me to do her homework for her."
"Yet!" Danny said as he held up one finger. His expression went quickly from amused to serious. "When that time comes Sam, I just want you to remember where your loyalties are, and just who told you so."
Sam swallowed hard mulling Danny's words over in her head. The hurt tone in his voice made her heart hurt. "It's not like I'm turning my back on you Danny," she said softly.
"Feels like it," Danny replied as he tried hard not to sound hurt. "After all you're there consorting with the enemy."
"Yeah, and you want to date the enemy," Sam teased trying not to sound bitter or angry. "So who is wrong here and who is right?" She stepped away from Danny, forcing him to drop his arm from her waist.
"But you see," Danny said as he followed Sam who was in the process of walking away. "We have two different principles here."
Sam shot Danny a dubious look then laughed. "Two different principles. How do you figure that?"
"Well," Danny said then cleared his throat. "If I date Valerie it's because I like her and she doesn't know that I'm Danny Phantom. Therefore, I'm really not putting anyone in danger by my association with her. The only person at risk is myself."
"And Valerie," Sam added.
"What?" Danny asked looking at her in surprise.
"Well you are kind of lying to her," Sam said as she smirked at Danny and his lousy reasoning skills.
"How am I lying?" Danny asked in outrage. "It's not like she's asked me if I have a secret identity and I said no."
Sam shook her head and smiled smugly. "A lie by omission is still a lie Danny. And if she finds out that you've been keeping this from her…then she'll be hurt."
"Then you're saying I should tell her?" Danny asked as he struggled to keep up with Sam's quickened pace.
Sam stopped walking and looked at Danny incredulously. "No!" she yelled. "I'm not saying that at all. What I'm saying is that I'm not abandoning you or simply in cahoots with the enemy. I'm just making friends. You know what those are Danny. Though I think you forget it most of the time."
"What?" Danny shrieked. "You're saying we're not friends?" Sam wanted to pull her hair in irritation. This conversation was getting out of hand. She sat at the nearest bench and looked up at the sky and started watching the clouds. Danny sat down beside her and watched her for a moment then tried to follow her vision.
"What are you looking at?" Danny finally asked.
Sam pointed up at the cloud nearly above them. "It looks like a demented clown," she said then pointed to another. "That one looks like a gargoyle." Danny relaxed a little and smiled as he looked up at the clouds.
"Looks more like a horse to me," Danny said.
"Fright Knight's horse," Sam corrected then pointed at another cloud. "And there's Plasmius. Danny's eyes widened for a moment and he tensed then realized the cloud did look a lot like the wretched Plasmius.
Sam looked at Danny's stricken face and laughed and bumped him with her shoulder. Danny smiled at her and bumped her shoulder back, beginning to feel relieved. The fear that he was about to lose his best friend in the world, was fading fast in the face of their easy friendship.
They sat for awhile, watching the clouds and picking shapes out them until Tucker approached, wearing a pleased and happy expression.
"Guess what guys," he said happily.
"You got a date!" Sam and Danny said in unison.
Tucker looked disappointed then smiled in glee. "Yes!" He cheered. Then sat down in the non-existent space between Danny and Sam, making them both scoot over to accommodate him.
"Well," Sam said as she looked at the TechnoGeek. "Shouldn't you be running home to get ready?"
"Run?" Tucker exclaimed. "I'm not running anymore today! No way."
Danny shivered and a blue mist burst from his mouth causing him to look at his two friends in desperation. Both Sam and Tucker sighed then ran after Danny as he jumped off the bench and dove into the bushes, then ran after him as he flew off.
"Ha!" Sam yelled at Tucker as he struggled to keep up. "So much for not running anymore today."
"Shut up Sam," Tucker huffed angrily.
Valerie stiffened in her Nasty Ned costume as her ghost sensor went off. She made herself relax. She was at work, there was no way she could leave. The Ghost Boy would beat her to it and get away, but what could she do?
Luckily, her father's new job at Axion labs was going so well that soon her job at the Nasty Burger would no longer be a necessity and she'd be able to focus a lot more of her attention on ghost hunting, much to her father's displeasure.
Valerie was excited. Now that she had Sam helping her fight ghosts, maybe things would go a lot smoother. The Ghost Hunter spent the rest of her shift imagining different battle scenarios which would allow her to finally get that damnable punk ghost kid. She knew that Sam was on the pro-Phantom team, but Valerie was certain that if she presented her new friend all her evidence, it would be easier to convince her new friend that the Phantom was something which needed to be eliminated.
Of course, the true test of their friendship would be Monday morning when they started back to school. The spring break had been nice and they got along well, but maybe they could only be friends when away from classed.
Valerie shook her head and decided to think positive. She would sit with them at lunch on Monday. A happy smile spread across her face, she would finally be part of a group again, and a pretty cool one at that. Plus she'd get to sit and flirt with Danny. How much better could things get?
"How much worse can things get?" Danny asked as he slammed his locker shut. Sam hadn't met him this morning to walk to school. Instead she'd met up with Valerie early so they could discuss the particulars of some stupid Social Studies presentation they had to give.
Tucker looked at Danny and shook his head. "I don't know what you're having such a cow about," he said. "You should be happy that Sam and Val are friends."
"Yeah," Danny said petulantly then caught sight of the girls, walking down the hall, deep in conversation. Sam caught sight of Danny and waved. Danny waved back then watched as Sam said something to Valerie who looked at Danny, both girls started laughing and Danny couldn't keep from suppressing the blush that rushed up to color his cheeks.
"See," Tucker said as he leaned against his locker and waited as Danny frantically shoved books in his. "There they are, and neither are ditching you."
"Yeah," Danny said trying to not feel so self-conscious as both girls stood and looked at him.
"Good morning Danny," Valerie said sweetly. Danny smiled shyly at her and Sam threw a book at him.
"You forgot this at my house," She said flatly then smiled at him with a mischievous look in her eyes. Danny knew he was in for it. Not only was Sam in one of her sarcastic, sadistic and funny moods, he knew he was going to be the target today. The look in her eyes laid down the challenge and he'd felt so rattled today he didn't know if he could take it.
"Come on Sam," He pleaded. "Pick on someone else. Pick on Tuck."
"Hey!" Tucker said in fear. "Leave me out of this. I've been the target enough times. I'm actually relieved to get out of it for once." Sam turned her gaze to Tucker for a moment and gave him a warning look.
Tucker laughed lightly then turned to Danny. "You're on your own today," he said then ran down the hall, leaving Danny with the two smirking girls. Valerie of course knew what put Sam in the strange mood she was in, but of course, she wouldn't say anything to Danny.
"I've got to get to class too," Valerie said. "I'll see you both at lunch." Both Danny and Sam waved.
"Okay Sammy," Danny said as he narrowed his eyes at the Goth girl. "What's with you?"
"Valerie gave me a present today," she answered as she leaned back against Tucker's locker.
"A present?" Danny asked. Sam flashed the bracelet on her wrist. He gave her a clueless look.
"It's from Vlad," Sam whispered as she looked around deviously.
"Vlad?" Danny exclaimed. "What do you mean it's from Vlad?"
Sam laughed and began walking away. Danny followed her. "Sam!" he growled.
Sam waited for a moment, her eyes filled with glee. "It's a ghost detector," she laughed then went into her class room.
"Oh crap," Danny said as he covered his face with his hand. "Life as he knew it was over and Sam was going to make his life hell."
And this is all I have awwww