Hello, and welcome to my newest story! I recently came up with the idea and wanted to see how it would play out, so here's the result!

Disclaimer: I do not own any aspect of the Danny Phantom series.

Samantha Manson tapped her foot in time with the piano notes. When the moment came, she belted out the opening line of the song.

"Perfect!" the piano teacher, also her accompanist, praised her. "You are coming along beautifully, Sam."

"Thank you, Mr. Michaels," she answered, grinning and blushing slightly.

Sam practiced the song until she got it just right, and then the lesson ended. She had been taking voice lessons for years. As the heiress to the person who invented twirling cellophane around toothpicks, she was often spoiled as a child, much to her chagrin. However, she did enjoy the voice lessons.

But most people who met her wouldn't believe that, not even her two best friends, Danny Fenton and Tucker Foley. She could just picture them doubling over in laughter if she admitted it, which is why she never bothered to tell them. At first, on the days of her lessons, she always had an excuse for not meeting up with them, such as being dragged to the mall by her mom, or having to care for her grandmother. But now Danny and Tucker were adjusted to just not seeing her at certain times during the week, with the belief that she was actually spending quality time with her parents.

Sam practiced her scales in private before going upstairs to her room to start on her homework. She had to find two stories in the Amity Park Gazette, the local newspaper, and summarize them for her current events presentation the next day in her Government class. As she glazed over the first few pages of the main section, a little blurb caught her eye.

That's it! she thought. That's how I'll catch Danny's attention, and show him that I'm not just the Goth girl anymore! I'll let him see my girly side, and then maybe he will finally see me as a young woman, and not just one of the guys!

Normally Sam didn't particularly care about what others thought of her. But when it came to Danny, that all changed, for a very important reason- she had a crush on him.

But Danny- or The Clueless One, as she and Tucker often called him- had no idea. He only saw Sam as a friend, and was too busy pursuing other girls to pay particular attention to her beyond a purely platonic level.

Sam finished her homework before clipping the little paragraph that had grabbed her attention, reading it over and over again. She went back downstairs, lifting the lid of the piano bench and removing several pages of sheet music. She sorted through them, separating them by the songs she felt best emphasized her strengths versus her weaknesses. Finally settling on three potential songs, she took the music for them upstairs, putting the rest away. Once back in her room, she went to her huge walk-in closet to pick out an outfit to wear for the audition.

Yes, that's right, an audition. The information she found happened to be an ad for a weekly show of local origination called The Amity Park Variety Hour. The show had been running for several years, but up until recently had only allowed proven talent to appear. But there was an open casting call set for that weekend, and although Sam normally didn't like to show off, she resolved to do something for herself for once, to prove to everyone that she could sing. Even if she didn't make the show, at least she could say she tried.

Because of the songs she'd picked out, Sam decided to go for a simple black dress. It was a sleeveless wrap design that hit just below her knees, with small ruffles along the leg hem and neckline. It was about the most girly thing she'd ever owned, aside from the dresses and skirts her parents made her wear as part of being an heiress. If it was left up to her, she would wear a black tank, a plaid miniskirt, and black combat boots to everything, which all went back to generally not caring about other people's impressions of her.

Sam put the dress on a hook glued to the inside of the closet door, then left the closet and her room to go back downstairs and start her dinner. Her parents were on a business trip and wouldn't be back until the next day. After she finished eating, she spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening watching TV, talking to Danny and Tucker, and straightening up her room.

Sam finally settled into bed around 11:00, quickly falling asleep. She was flooded with dreams of becoming a singing star, only to have Danny beg her not to leave town for a tour, because he wanted to spend every waking moment with her. Little did she know...

"Hey, Sam!" Danny called to her the next morning from across the front lawn of Casper High. She strolled over to meet up with him and Tucker, a smile on her face.

"What are you, hiding a secret or something?" Tucker asked, noticing her expression.

For answer, Sam just handed him the newspaper clipping.

"So what's this for?" Danny asked, reading it over Tucker's shoulder.

"It's to give you guys a heads-up on my plans for tomorrow."

Danny and Tucker looked at each other and burst out laughing, just as she had expected. The last time they'd laughed like that at her expense was when they found out she'd entered a beauty pageant. And what happened? Danny, the judge, ended up naming her the winner. But this fact seemed to slip their minds, as they attempted to talk, only to point at her and laugh harder.

"You're going to audition for a TV show?" Tucker finally stammered, clutching his side, which ached from his laughter.

"Uh, yeah."

"You've got to be kidding," Danny murmured through his chuckles.

"Yeah, whatever, Mr. I-laughed-at-my-best-friend-for-entering-a-pageant-then-picked-her-as-the-winner," Sam retorted.

"Yeah, but that was different."

"How?"

"It just was, okay?" Danny insisted, as he and Tucker finally regained their composure.

"Look, you two. You can laugh all you want to, but I'm going to do this. And I'm going to make it. You'll see."

As Tucker and Danny started laughing again, Sam walked off in a huff. I'll show them, she thought.

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