Hello, and welcome to the third installment! Thank you to all my reviewers for your kind words.

A note regarding some concerns expressed in the reviews: If you dislike the whole Danny and Paulina thing, please refer back to the first chapter where Paulina comes up with her scheme. The romance between the two of them is necessary to the story because of that.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, nor any of its characters.

Enjoy!

Danny went up to his bedroom, lost in thought, as the smell of Paulina's perfume lingered on his clothing. As he sat on his bed, his cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey, man, what's up?"

"Oh, hey, Tuck. Having fun?"

"Trying to, but Sam's on a tirade. Something about you ditching us to go out with Paulina. She's pretty mad."

"Dude, what is her deal? She said it was no biggie if I go out with Paulina. You're cool with it though, right? I mean I understand if you're mad at me for canceling at the last minute."

"Don't worry about it, Danny. We can watch horror movies any old time. But you'd better talk to Sam, though. But first, how was your date?"

"Man, it was wonderful. And she invited me to a party tomorrow, and said I can bring along you and Sam."

"I'm up for it. But what about the protest tomorrow?"

"Uh, yeah, about that. I think I'm going to cut out early tomorrow. I mean isn't the thing supposed to last the whole weekend?"

"Yeah, but you told Sam you were on board for tomorrow. She's not going to be happy with you if you leave early, and, personally, I don't want to be around when you tell her."

"Well, let me think about it so I can figure out how to broach the subject with her. Will you tell her I'll call her in a few minutes?"

"Sure thing, Danny. Later."

"Bye, Tuck."

After taking a few minutes to collect his thoughts, Danny dialed Sam's cell phone number. It barely rang once before she picked it up. "Hey Danny."

"Hey Sam. Tucker said you were pretty mad at me."

"Yeah, well, I guess I just got kind of annoyed because we've been looking forward to this night. I mean, it's like our Friday night tradition. But, hey, I'm cool with it. Life goes on."

"Yeah, well, I have something to tell you. And before you get mad at me, just hear me out, okay?"

"Sure, Danny."

"Well, you see, Paulina sort of invited the three of us to a party tomorrow. And I really want to go, so I was kind of planning to leave the protest by 4 or 5 tomorrow. Either that, or to just wait until Sunday."

Sam felt anger welling up inside of her, but she kept her word to let Danny finish before saying anything.

"So, Sam, would you rather I go on the first day of the protest and leave early, or wait until Sunday and stay all day?"

"Whatever floats your boat, Danny. It's your life," Sam said through clenched teeth.

"Thanks, Sam. I knew you'd understand. Hey, so do you want to go to the party tomorrow? Tuck already told me he's coming."

"Danny, you know how I feel about parties. They are just another way for the 'in' crowd to say, 'Hey, look at me, I'm rich and stupid, and I'm going to destroy my house for the sake of trying to look cool because I'll never get anywhere in life.'"

"Oh, please, Sam, don't start-"

"Don't start what, Danny? The way I see it, you started it. You just had to ditch us and go out with Paulina, just because she suddenly feigns interest in you after treating you poorly for so long."

"Oh, you mean the way you faked being okay with me going out with her instead of watching movies with you and Tuck, the same thing we do every Friday? And how dare you say that she was faking interest? You weren't there. Quit trying to pretend like you know everything, Sam, because you don't. For one thing, you don't know anything about romantic relationships. All you care about is doing anything you can to make a statement and rebel against your parents."

Sam was so shocked and furious that she was rendered momentarily speechless. When she finally returned to her senses, she verbally fired right back at Danny.

"Well, Danny, you seem to think you're so smart. But you're just a jerk. And if this is your idea of supporting a friend, you can forget about coming to the protest, and about our friendship as well. You're so blinded by your hormones right now that you think Paulina actually likes you. But when you wake up and realize it's all a sham, don't bother calling me, because I won't be here. Have a nice life."

Enraged, Sam hung up on Danny and had to restrain herself from throwing the phone across the room. Tucker returned to the room with snacks just in time to see her collapse onto the couch, hot tears stinging her eyes and running down her cheeks.

"What's wrong, Sam?" he asked as the girl cried, her emotions getting the best of her.

"Danny... Danny... Danny and I had a fight, and... we're not... friends... anymore," Sam muttered between sobs.

As Sam continued to cry, Tucker just sat there, trying to comfort her. If only Danny knew, he thought. If only he knew how much she loves him.

Please review! A big advanced thank you!