Okay, thank you everyone for commenting. And thanks to my new beta reader, I'm able to get this up quickly. :D Happiness! Feel loved. Very loved.

Oh, and as a minor note and warning, Danny is slightly out of character here for a reason.


The halls stood mostly empty as Sam waved one last goodbye to Danny and then continued on to her locker, looking around to make sure no one was near.

With a satisfied smirk, she turned the knob that opened her locker, and took off one strap of her backpack, letting it hang to her side and out of the way as she reached inside the metal compartment, looking for a particular book for one of her classes later that day. She thought that she'd be able to feel if anyone got into her now open backpack, and that her journal remained safe... She was wrong.

She didn't see the Latino girl she'd missed in the lunchroom tip-toe up to her locker behind the door Sam held open, nor did she see or feel a hand reach in to grab the notebook whose small size set it apart from the other books residing in her black leather bookbag. As a matter of fact, she was completely oblivious to all of this until a voice behind her began speak.

"Dear Diary..."

Sam hadn't imagined any two words could make her that sick that fast. She felt the color drain from her face, and the butterflies she'd felt in her stomach all day quickly turned into whirling tornadoes. For a few moments she froze with wide eyes before turning and yelling the girl's name.

"PAULINA!"

She watched in horror as Paulina's good friend, a blond-haired girl named Star, ran up to the other girl and rested her hands on her knees, peering into the all too familiar, black and silver notebook.

"Today," Paulina continued, "we tested Danny's skills again. He's getting really good at most of them, although he still has problems with duplication."

"Duplication?" Star laughed. "He can't even add two and two?"

"And what kind of skills?" Paulina mocked.

Star just laughed shrilly. "That loser? No way I want to know!" She gave Paulina a high five as Sam felt her face go red, half from embarrassment and worry, and half from pure anger.

Before she knew what she was doing, she'd lunged forward, ready to tear the diary out of the other girl's hands if she had to. "GIVE IT BACK!" she screeched, panic now driving her without thinking. She couldn't see anything but her little black notebook...which is why she didn't duck the hand that grabbed her arm, stopping her progress abruptly.

"I think I want to hear this," Dash Baxter grinned, as she looked up, confused and bordering on desperate. She shouldn't have done this at all, she realized that now. They were Danny's secrets, not hers. She didn't have the right to take the chance with them.

"NO!" she said, trying unsuccessfully to keep the desperation out of her voice. Several kids who had just wandered into the hall noticed the struggle, and walked over curiously.

"His parents came up with some new gadget too," Paulina continued, her grin broadening, "and set it off while we were there. Sometimes I wonder if they even know the meaning of the word 'safety'. We barely made it out of there before the whole thing exploded in ectoplasmic energy. I'm surprised his parents weren't seriously hurt."

"Please!" Sam yelled, fighting tears. Was she going to be the downfall of Danny Phantom? After everything they'd been through, and all the times he'd saved the town, let alone his two best friends' lives, she couldn't bear the thought. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"

More than one person noticed her out-of-character screeching and struggling, yet no one offered a hand. Star and Paulina ignored her as the latter read on. "Of course, Danny was the closest next to them. The stupid idiot. He could have gotten himself killed! He grabbed our (Tuck's and mine) arms when he dove out of there, and literally flew up the stairs."

"Wait," Star interrupted. "Flew?" The small crowd that now surrounded them started to laugh.

"You think that your boyfriend can fly?" Paulina's malicious grin suddenly opened, and she joined the laughing crowd. Sam's face only burned hotter.

"Hey, Fenton!" Dash yelled. "If you can hear this, your girlfriend's been telling us how you're some kind of stupid wannabe superhero!"

Somewhere inside Sam, something snapped, and her desperation reached its limit. The adrenaline pumping through her body finally drove her enough to thrust forward, despite Dash's arm–causing him to jump back in surprise–and wrench the notebook out of the other girl's hands.

"All of you think you're so amazing," she hissed, her eyes flaring with anger. "You stupid, poser idiots who couldn't see anything in front of their own noses! None of you would be intelligent enough to recognize it if he were! You stupid, pathetic–" She was about to start in on a string of four-letter-words, when a new voice interrupted her.

"What's goin' on?" She turned to see an African-American girl with expensive-looking clothing push her way into the center of the steadily growing circle of highly amused students.

Paulina, who had recovered from her laughing fit when Sam had taken her journal back, shrugged and turned her back to walk out of the crowd, which melted before her like Moses parting the Red Sea.

"Miss Goth has just been telling us how 'super' her 'best friend' is," she said with a smirk as her friends followed her down the hall.

Her leaving seemed to give all the students permission to make their own exit as well, many still laughing at Sam's humiliation.

"You know," Valerie's voice had a mocking tone to it as she also turned to walk away, ready to leave Sam clutching her notebook for dear life in the middle of the hallway, "at least I don't have to pretend he's something he's not to like him."

If Sam had thought that she couldn't be pushed any further, she had been horribly mistaken. Her mouth seemed to move of its own accord as she ran over and grabbed the other's shirt, pulling the long-haired girl around to face her with a dangerous glare burning in her violet eyes.

"You hypocrite!" she growled. "How dare you criticize me on their word knowing very well what they're capable of! You can't even do anything or come to any true conclusion on your own! You have to rely on other people to supply you, and you do their dirty work! You'd take down anyone! No matter who or what they really are, for personal vengeance! Always shooting, and never questioning! Just like every other pathetic ghost-hunter. You of all people have the least amount of room to talk."

"How–?" Valerie's eyes grew wide, but Sam cut her off again, letting the other girl's shirt go, and stepping away like she'd suddenly turned into something disgusting.

"That's how I know that if you really knew him, you'd hate him too. You've already told us as much."

"I what?" Valerie went to grab Sam's arm when the Goth girl stopped suddenly, having come face to face with none other than Danny Fenton.

Looking back, Valerie couldn't remember anyone ever emanating a more hurt or dangerous aura than he did at that very moment. Realizing what was about to happen, she decided to make herself scarce and confront Sam about her confusing words later. She remained silent as she slipped around the corner, but was unable to hide a smirk. From the looks of it, Danny would be free for her to ask out whenever she wanted to in the near future.

The thought stopped her in her tracks. Who was she to be so happy about breaking up a friendship? Who did she think she was? She, who had been scorned by her so-called friends when things got a little harder in her life. With a sigh, she looked over her shoulder at the corner before moving on.

"Good luck," she whispered, not really knowing who she was saying it to, just knowing that they'd need it.

Meanwhile, Sam simply stood across from Danny, her mouth hanging open, and her eyes wide with fear and shock.

"Sam..." Danny shut his eyes, his normally light voice barely a whisper. "How could you?"

"Danny...I-I...Paulina took my journal and–"

He shook his head and stepped forward, cutting her off. "'None of you would be intelligent enough to recognize it if he were?'" His mouth set into a thin line and he locked eyes with her, trying, with little success, to control his temper. "That's how I know you'd hate him. You've already told us as much?' Cryptic, but it sounds an awful lot like a confession to me."

Sam was about to snap back, when she realized any anger that had driven her before had left her body hollow and empty when she'd seen the hurt in his eyes...the hurt she'd caused with her own careless words.

"Valerie's not an idiot, and she's gonna put two and two together eventually...especially now that you've given her more variables to add." He turned his back on her, with fists clenched at his side, shaking with fury. Vaguely, Sam remembered wondering when Danny had started to use such heightened language, but pushed the thought to the back of her mind almost as soon as she recognized it, slightly distracted with damage control.

"Danny–" she started again, stepping forward, but his words stopped her again.

"Sam," he growled, glancing over his shoulder with burning green eyes, "leave me alone." And with that, he walked away.

"But...Danny! Wait!" She stretched her arm out to touch him, but it fell right through his arm, as if it weren't there. "Danny, please!" she managed to get out, just before he disappeared around the corner.

The last time she called his name, Danny stopped out of her view, and took a deep breath, obviously struggling to maintain control. He clenched his eyes shut, counting to ten, before opening them and continuing down the hall. Neither of them could notice how his eyes suddenly faded from green to a deep red as he left her more alone than ever in the large, once again almost empty hallway, hugging her notebook close to her.

After a few minutes of staring after him in shock, tears came very suddenly to her eyes. Turning, she slammed her locker shut, grabbed her backpack and rushed out of the front doors of the school.