WoM- Contrary to popular belief, I am in fact still alive. Busy as hell and exhausted, but alive nonetheless. And what's more, I'm absolutely astounded by the fans of this fic. Almost 1000 reviews! 'dizzy with giddiness' I really don't know what to say except THANK YOU!
Big, BIG BIIIIIIIG thanks to my new beta for this fic moonymonster. She couldn't look over this chapter just yet, but don't worry, we'll work something out! Another big thanks to SamuraiSirius for her awesome fanart over on Deviantart! 'huggles both of them,' In all honesty, that was what drove me to finish this chapter instead of working on FCA as planned! 'laughs sheepishly'
Oh, and for any additional questions and comments about this story and all of my others (Including Doctrine of Danny, Frights Cameras Action and Moments of Clarity) I've made a forum-type thingy so I can make quick comments about stories and answer questions in a way that won't have me hunting through my email for half an hour. It also has little bio samplers for my coming stories, so feel free to check those out too! I'd like some feedback about them to know if they're gonna bomb before I post.
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"I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid."
-Terry Bradshaw
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Sports Day
'I can't believe Mrs. Harrison gave us so much homework!' I fumed silently to myself, scowling darkly as I made my way back to the Dorms. 'Man, can this week get any worse?'
Sighing, I rubbed my temples to try and keep my headache at bay even though it was already too late for that. Every day that whole week I'd come back home to the oh-so 'pleasant' surprise of Megan and Danny practicing their lines (And JUST their lines, thank god.) Meaning I had to sit there and try and do my homework as my former friend openly flirted with my roommate and I couldn't do a thing about it.
'And then there's Phantom…' I said thoughtfully to myself, slowing my steps. I hadn't seen the ghost kid since the fair, and honestly I was more then a little worried about him. He hadn't been hurt by the ghost hunter, had he?
"Dude, this is stupid."
I blinked at the familiar voice, turning to the bushes it was coming from as another familiar voice shushed the first angrily.
"Quiet, Tuck!" The second voice hissed, "Do you want her to hear you?" I rolled my eyes in amusement, parting the bushes slightly to see the two boys crouching behind them with their backs to me, both of them peeking around the foliage at something on the path opposite the one I was walking.
"Having fun, guys?" I asked playfully, grinning when the two jumped and screamed.
"Jeeze, Sam!" Tucker said angrily, "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"Quiet!" Danny hissed again, "Do you want-?"
"Danny!"
I blinked before biting back a laugh at the wince that chased across my roommates face as he turned to greet the enthusiastic yell from the overly peppy girl beaming at him obliviously.
"Ah, hey Megan," Danny said with a pained smile, making me grin widely. I resisted dancing around in triumph, though. Barely.
"I've been looking for you, Danny!" Megan said sweetly. "I wanted to practice our lines some more!" Danny's flinch became more pronounced at that, making me grin wider.
'Looks like I don't have anything to worry about after all…' I thought gleefully, stepping forward to come to Danny's rescue when it was obvious that Tucker (Who was still scared from the last time he'd gotten on Megan's bad side) wasn't going to do anything.
"Actually, Meg," I said, feigning sympathy, "Danny has to talk to Lancer right now. Something about his math grade…" Tucker snickered slightly as Danny made a face at the mention of his Academic Achilles' Heel.
"Great…" Danny muttered sarcastically. Megan scowled at me darkly before she turned a pout to Danny.
"But Dan-ny!" She whined, latching herself to his arm. "We're supposed to practice our lines for the play!"
"Sorry, Megan," Danny said, trying to shake his arm loose, "I'd better go. Besides, we've been practicing together all week. You should practice a little with Nate, too, you've got more lines with him, anyways." Megan scowled for a second before forcing a smile for Danny.
"Guess you're right!" She said sweetly, letting him go at last.
"Don't worry, Megan," I said with a smug smile, "I'm sure he'll do just fine without you breathing down his neck for ten minutes."
"Who asked you?" Megan snapped back, glowering at me before turning to give Danny a bright smile and a little wave, "Bye Danny, call me when you're done, okay?" Glancing at me and Tucker, the girl added (In a much colder tone) "See ya, losers," before she turned with a sweep of her shoulder length black hair and walked towards the exit of the campus.
Naturally, I was absolutely heartbroken to see her go…
"Uugh!" I snorted in disgust, "What a little snob!"
"Isn't snob being a little nice about it, Sam?" Tucker joked lightly.
"Who cares?" Danny sighed, "She's gone now, that's what's important."
"True enough," I grinned, "You know you seriously owe me for getting rid of her, right Danny?" Danny blinked before flashing me the smile I was starting to fall in love with.
"Sounds fair, Sam," He chuckled, "What do you want in return?"
"Go back to your girlfriend," I answered immediately, proud at how I managed to keep a blush off my cheeks as I watched Danny's face turn a fire engine red. "If you two get back to dating, maybe Megan will back down for good and I can finally get some peace and quiet. Besides, you still like her, right?" Was it healthy for a guy's face to turn that red?
I glared at Tucker when he snorted loudly, 'accidentally' digging my elbow into his gut. Jeeze, didn't the guy understand the concept of a secret?
"W-well- I- uh…" Danny coughed loudly. "H-Hey, isn't that Liz over there?" I glared as Danny as he scurried past me in a panic. There was no way I was gonna let him off that easy! Scowling, I started after my roommate, reaching out to grab his wrist.
"Oh no you-!" I stopped when my hand closed on air. "Huh?"
While I was standing around wondering what the hell had just happened (And probably looking like a total idiot to boot) Danny took off and disappeared around a corner. Frowning, I turned to give Tucker a confused look.
"What just happened?" I asked him in a bewildered tone. He flinched before laughing nervously, taking a few steps backwards to put some distance between us.
"Well, you know Danny," Tucker responded flippantly. "Whenever he gets weirded out, he runs and ducks for cover." I glared.
"That's NOT what I was talking about, Tucker!" I snapped shortly. "My hand went right through Danny's wrist, I saw it! Now what-?"
"Mr. Manson…" I flinched as I felt Mr. Lancer's hand fall firmly on my shoulder, craning around to look up at his placid expression. "I've been looking for you."
"I didn't do it," Was my automatic response. "I don't even know what I didn't do,"
"Relax, Mr. Manson," Mr. Lancer sighed, "You're not in trouble-" (Here he muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'at least not yet…') "-I just wanted to speak to you about Sports Day,"
"Sports Day?" I repeated blankly.
"Yes, It's an even we hold once a month here at Casper. A sort of ceremony for both Wendy and Casper students where the children are released from all academic classes for the day and spend the time in various physical activities, from team sports to swimming to track and field," Mr. Lancer explained in a preachy tone. "However, given your… ahem… rare physical condition, I feel it's best if you refrain from participating in any of the activities we offer on Sports Day." I blinked dumbly at Mr. Lancer shifted around, looking oddly uncomfortable.
'What the heck did Matt tell this guy I have…?'
"At any rate, since it would be unfair to ask you to do extra academic work, I've come to ask if you mind spending the day in your dormitory, perhaps catching up on some of your other classes? My last check showed your grade in Accounting is dropping…"
'Duh,' I thought, rolling my eyes. Accounting was THE most boring class a girl-disguised-as-a-guy could ask for.
"That's fine with me, Mr. Lancer." I replied, a little annoyed he'd interrupted me over something so stupid.
"Excellent." Mr. Lancer said, letting me go, "You may feel free to join your friends for lunch at the usual time, of course, but other then that I'd prefer if you concentrated on your studies,"
'In other words, keep outta the way,' I translated in my head at The Headmaster walked away. Jeeze, why did everyone go out of their way to make everything sound nice instead of being blunt about it?
"Now then…" I said, turning back to Tucker…
…Only to find him already long gone.
I scowled darkly at the spot the tech geek had been standing in, my irritation growing before I sighed heavily and trudged reluctantly back to my dorm, even though I was still confused outta my mind.
Just what the heck was wrong with this school?
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'Okay, I'm ready to kill myself right now.'
Growling in frustration, I threw my pencil across the room, bouncing it off the wall to roll harmlessly to the floor as I glared at the Accounting assignment that was currently offending me.
God, now I sound like my mother…
Looking longingly out the window, I watched as some kids I didn't know played tag football, all of them looking like they were having a blast. I put my hand against the cool glass as a guy wrapped his arms around the girl who was cradling the football, making her laugh loudly as the kids around them hooted and cheered.
A sudden vision of Danny holding me that way flashed in my mind and I blushed vividly, before steeling my resolve and heading into my room.
'I'm not gonna just sit here and do math problems when everyone else is having fun!' I said in my head as I made a quick change from Samuel to Samantha. Besides, I really, reeeeeeally wanted to talk to Danny again as a girl. He'd come in late again last night and got up earlier then me in the morning (How the kid thought he could function on half an hour of sleep I didn't know.) so I hadn't even had a chance to corner him as Samuel.
Of course, as Samantha I wouldn't be able to ask him about how he could literally slip right through my fingers, but I could bring up another question that was almost as important to me; Our status as a potential couple.
'Everything else can follow,' I told myself firmly. He could tell me what was going on with his life, I could tell him about the Sam/Sam thing, and everything would work out okay.
I hope.
After pulling on my favorite combat boots, I headed out of the dorm and to the main campus, passing the kids I'd seen playing and heading deeper into the mass of students to find my roommate.
Which was probably gonna take a while, given the size of Casper's campus and how many students were mulling about…
"Hey, isn't that the one kid Vlad Masters adopted over there at the staff dueling arena?" I blinked as two giggling girls rushed past me, chattering on excitedly about how totally cool it had to be to gain all the money practically overnight.
'…Or not,'
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After spending a good five minutes fighting my way to the front of the crowd (All the while grateful that few people had the gall to mess with a chick wearing combat boots, no matter how small and skinny she actually was.) I finally got to a place where I could see the two people in the arena the two blondes had been heading in.
And I stopped dead in my tracks.
Danny was in the grassy area designated for staff fighting, alright, along with seven other guys. Five of them were Varsity football players (all grinning menacingly down upon the three smaller kids in front of them,) One was that Mikey kid in my accounting class (who looked like he didn't have a clue what he was doing and kept swinging the staff like it was a baseball bat,) and the last was Nick. (who wasn't really all that much better.)
Nick and Mikey both looked pretty uncomfortably with their current situation, and as such both seemed to be quite content with keeping Danny (Who looked a little preoccupied, and honestly almost downright bored) in the front. I gasped loudly when two of the football players moved in to knock Danny's head off, opening my mouth to yell for him to watch out…
…And forgetting to close it again after watching Danny take down both guys at once with some fancy wrist flick maneuver, his expression never changing even as the two boys moaned in pain in the grass in front of him.
'…Whoa…' I thought, stunned. I never realized Danny could move like that…
Getting over their over shock, the over three football players growled in anger and advanced on the boy to avenge their fallen teammates. Danny dodged their blows easily, without even glancing at them and dug one end of his staff into the biggest guy's stomach, making him drop to his knees in pain.
Then, before the other two players had a chance to react, Danny swung this staff out at one to knock him into the other so that both fell to the ground, hitting one that was attempting to get up on the head.
"Dude!" Nate said, blinking at Danny in awe as Mikey just gaped. "That was… Dude!" I bit back a laugh as I glanced around me at all the stunned faces, feeling a little smug for reasons I didn't fully understand.
Grinning widely I started to clap, the only sound in the stunned silence that followed Danny's display of butt-kicking. The sound drew Danny's attention, and surprise flickered across his face at the sight of me as everyone else started to clap and cheer vigorously.
"Sam?" He said uncertainly as he approached me.
"Last time I checked," I responded flippantly, earning a sheepish grin and a light blush. "What's the matter, forget about me or something?"
"No!" Danny said, his eyes going wide, "Actually, I… ah… well, I kinda wanted to talk to you…" I raised an eyebrow as my roommate shifted from foot to foot, waiting for him to go on. "See, I was talking to my sister yesterday…" My eyes widened and my stomach dropped to my combat boots at the word 'sister.'
'Jazz.'
What had she told him this time? Did she finally convince him to just give up on me? Did she tell him I was actually his roommate? Or maybe she found another girl out there for him to date instead…
"Man, Danny!" Nate laughed as he came up to us, laughing. "Remind me not to get on your bad side! Hey, who's the babe?" My eyes narrowed at that and my face flushed as I scowled at my… well, technically Samuel's friend.
"Call me Babe again, pal," I growled in warning, "and I swear I'll shove that staff so far up your-!"
"Sam…" Danny warned, sounding like he was trying not to laugh, "Ah, Nate this is Sam, the girl I was telling you about." Wait, he was telling people about me now? What was he saying? "Sam, this is Nate. Don't worry, he's harmless. He just lacks any sort of internal dialog whatsoever," Didn't I know it…
"Nice to meet you, Sam," Nate said, holding out his hand attentively as if wary of me biting it off.
"Likewise," I sighed, shaking the offered hand, "…I think." Danny chuckled a little at that as Nate made a face.
"So, Sam," Nate said, grinning at me, "By any chance would you have a cute older sister who interested in a charming, handsome, talented art student who loves kids, long walks on the beach and-!"
"Hey, Nate?" Danny cut in, sounding faintly annoyed, "Isn't that Lita over there? By the rock wall? Away from here?"
"Yeah, but why would I-?" Nate cut himself off mid sentence, a look of dawning on his face. "Oooh…!" He said with a grin, "You want me to pull a Houdini, huh?"
"Yeah, that'd be nice," Danny sighed in irritation as I coughed out a laugh.
"Alright, I can take a hint," Nate grinned between us, "You lovebirds have fun now, ya hear?" And, before either of us could say anything, Nate ducked away in the crowd.
'LOVEBIRDS?' I thought, feeling my face fill with color. Danny coughed nervously.
"Ah, sorry about him," he said, blushing slightly, "He's… well…" I laughed as my roommate made a face, obviously searching for a word to describe Nate.
"It's cool." I laughed. Danny grinned at me, then glanced around.
"Um, think we can talk somewhere a little more private?" He asked me, looking nervous again. My stomach started acting up again here as I tried to look as casual as possible, shrugging and following my roommate to a less crowded area.
"So?" I asked, leaning against a wall and crossing my arms, "What did you want to tell me?" Please, please, PLEASE don't let it be what I think it is…!
"Well… you see…" Danny fidgeted a little and sighed, "Sam, I kinda-!"
That's when the first scream rang out.
"GHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOST!" Someone wailed out as everyone started stampeding away in the same direction.
"You have GOT to be-!" Danny started angrily before he realized I was standing there. "Ah, I mean…" laughing nervously, the kid backed away, "Could you excuse me for a second?" And, before could stop him, Danny was gone. I sighed in frustration and glared after him, hating this new ghost more then anyone else on the planet at that moment.
'You know…' I thought sullenly, 'I'm starting to think these guys time these things…' Before I could contemplate this any further, though, (To say nothing of hauling after Danny to demand some answers.) somebody grabbed me by the arm and forced me to turn and look at them.
And unfortunately, it was a somebody I really, really didn't want to see.
"Paulina?" I said, raising an eyebrow as the Hispanic girl scowled at me.
"I don't know who you think you are," She snapped, but stay away from Phantom! He's mine, and no little Goth tramp is gonna take him from me!" I blinked before my eyes narrowed in anger.
'WHAT DID SHE JUST-?'
"For your information, Paulina," I snapped back, "Phantom's perfectly capable of making his own decisions! Besides, we're just friends." The last part was added as more of an afterthought then anything else, since I really wasn't sure what I thought of either Danny or Phantom.
And to make it worse, two girls who I despised more then anyone else on the planet were chasing after both of them.
"Make sure you keep it that way if you know what's good for you, chica!" Paulina sneered, pushing me and making me lose my balance and fall to the ground, "Otherwise you just might find yourself in a nasty accident!" And, before I could respond, the girl twirled around with a sweep of her long black hair and started away, leaving me to glare after her.
'And to think, I almost forgot how much I hate her,' I thought snidely, sighing heavily. It was probably too late to try and catch up with Danny now, thanks to Miss Conceited, so now all I could do was-
"May I offer you some assistance?" I jumped a little at the offer, made in a smoothed, cultured voice and looked up, startled since I hadn't heard anyone coming. I gasped involuntarily when I met the eyes of the man who had decided to stop and help me.
Vlad Masters.
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IMPORTANT AUTHOR NOTE
Originally, I'd planned to end this story on a lighter note, but something serious has been brought to my attention recently, and I want to make everyone aware of it because I do not UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES want to hear about this happening again.
Apparently, there's a person out there who has been STEALING one of the stories I've created, posting it on another site and claiming that it is thier own. I want everyone who reads this to know that this kind of behavior is beyond unacceptable, and I won't tolerate it from anybody. I work hard to make my storyies, and everything about them from the plots to the characters and everything in between becaomes a very big part of me.
I post my stories because I want other people to read them and help me become a better writer, as that is what I want to get into as a profession. Knowing that someone out there is taking credit for something I've done brings me this close to dropping off of fanfiction altogether.
I won't tell you the name of the person or what site they are on, since I'm trying to keep this as discreet as possible, but if you see anybody out there with one of my stories under any name other then my own, please e-mail me, r alert me to it in any way you can. That was, after all, probably the only thing that stopped me for calling a hault to all my stories; The act that a concerned reader was the one who told me about this crime. Had I found it on my own, I would've taken all my stories off and stuck it out with writing a book of my own instead.
With that note, I thank all of my LOYAL readers, whom I still cherish dearly, and hope that this incident does not repeat itself.
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Thanks to;
memoirs of a faded memory, Anomaly25, Spiffy McFloogan, A reader, Redwind, YumiwithUlrichalways, divinedragon7, Fey Phantom, Star-In-The-Sky-25, ghostgirl327, blissfulInsomniac, Petitio Principii, starrobin4eva, Samantha-Girl Scout, midnightgoth9, rbzodiac612, chaotic pink chocobo, SummersSixEcho, xXQuicksilverXx, BlackShadow875, The Sole Survivor, conan98002, ALyssa, fish n chips n vinegar, Jessie, Fade B., Liselle129, Moss Royal, Snea, Hakkyou Kuusou, epobbp, CarmenElizabeth, Fanficaholic, Sam-n-Danny1, Soccerdiva, MiaHime, lolopixie, Light Dragon SunsSong, Ohka Breynekai, giggleaid, Anime master Inu, Zuzanny, Angelicxox, Seeker Carter, Mystic Dragon, Lumias, animeobsessed3191, Sweetnevermore, I Brake For Ghosts, Danny-Phantom-101-Fan, Crazy Billie Joe Loving Freak, heka, Miracle Lily, Kitty00240, Shimegami-chan, Tetsukon, eternal.CHA0S, Jimmy the Gothic Egg, Anime Chick009, WickedWitchofWest , kate, SevenStar, DangerousandDemonicDevil, Hanyou-01, GPZ, past&pending, Miss Selarne,EclipseKlutz, angelgirl, xXcrazyidiotXx, ..., KelcitaoOo, Lynne102, ellen marie hirni, dpluver14, AngelGirl2, Rachel, Baka Hanyou Rahvin, OceanShadow, ellen, Lateraina Wolf,SamuraiSirius, SAD, Three wishes., wishing4rain, Aquagirl15, sk8terDude, rainblackroses14,The White Rose, Gyte-san, FentonGreenMenace, Kirstyn.T, Alyra
