WoM- Been a while, huh? 'laughs sheepishly,' Sorry. I would've had this up yesterday, but my dad put the evil timer back up. 'grumbles' What he expects me to accomplish in an hour's time, I don't know. Anywho, big thanks to everyone who offered sympathy over the copycat thing! Also, I wanna thank all my reviewers out there, who have given me (to this point) 1080 reviews on SoS! 'faints from shock' And let's wrap this up with a BIG thanks to moonymonster for beta-ing all of my terrible grammar!
Danny: (after Danielle has appeared in his room, to Sam over the phone) Uh... I gotta go…
Sam: Of course you do!
Crush?
You'd think that with the ability to become invisible and walk through walls it'd be easy to avoid a stalker but noooo… I scowled slightly as I looked warily around the corner for the familiar flash of black hair that I knew would signal the return of the girl who sole reason for living seemed to be cutting circulation off in my arm until it went numb.
Don't get me wrong, Megan hadn't been mean to me or anything like that. It's just that the way she was acting was way, WAY too nice. Creepy nice.
But then she'd turn around a second later to insult Tucker or Sam, like she thought I wouldn't care or something. Well, Sam more then Tucker. She seemed to really have something against him for some reason…
"Danny?"
"GNAH!" Hissing loudly, I twisted around to glare at my best friend, who grinned back, happy to have sneaked up on me since it was normally pretty hard for him to do.
"Tucker!" I growled out, glancing around nervously. "Not so loud! She might hear you!"
"…She?" Tucker repeated, sounding amused. "Dude, you fight ghosts daily, and you're hiding from some creepy chick who's in love with you?"
"She's not in love with me," I snapped, annoyed, "And did you miss the 'creepy' part? I might be part ghost, Tuck, but I'm still human, and I do NOT need to put up with a stalker on top of everything else I've gotta deal with."
"True," Tucker agreed, grinning slightly, "I mean, there's Vlad, Valerie, Sam, Jazz, you parents…"
"Tucker," I sighed, giving him a pointed look.
"Shutting up."
Shaking my head, I turned back to the path, my eyes widening when I saw Meagan heading around a corner, her eyes scanning for something.
CRAP!
Grabbing Tucker's wrist, I dived into a nearby bush to use for cover, peaking warily around some of the leaves to keep an eye on Megan even as Tucker sighed heavily next to me, sounding a little annoyed.
"Dude, this is stupid," he said with a dry look.
"Shhh!" I hissed back, scowling at Tucker before turning back to watch as Megan drew closer. I waited until she started walking further away before adding, "Quiet, Tuck! Do you want her to hear you?"
I stiffened when Megan turned a little at that, head back closer… closer…
"Having fun, guys?"
"GHAAAH!" Tucker and I screamed as one, twirling around to look up at the grinning Sam.
"Jeeze, Sam!" Tucker said angrily, "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
Funny how he forgot that he did that to me, like, ten minutes ago…
"Quiet!" I repeated in a hushed tone, "Do you want—"
"Danny!"
Aw, hell… I cursed bitterly, trying to turn my wince into a smile as I turned to meet an all too familiar beaming face.
"Ah, hey, Megan," I said as nicely as I could. Apparently, I did at least a decent job at hiding my annoyance, since Megan didn't seem to notice as she kept chattering on like there was no tomorrow.
"I've been looking for you, Danny!" she chirped happily, edging closer to me. "I wanted to practice our lines some more!"
Of course she does… I thought dryly at that. She ALWAYS wanted to practice our lines. I already almost had the entire script memorized with all the practicing Megan was making me do, not to mention how much it was seriously cutting into my ghost hunting…
"Actually, Meg," Sam cut in, looking far too happy for the sympathetic tone he was using, "Danny has to talk to Lancer right now."
Really? I brightened at that. It had to be the first time I was glad to be sent to Lancer's office…
"Something about his math grade…"
…Or not.
"Great," I said bitterly, making a face at the thought of THAT class. I held such a strong hatred for the subject that if I had a choice between one Math lecture and Bertrand give me a root canal, I'd take the root canal ten times over.
"But Dan-ny!" Megan whined next to me, grabbing my arm yet again. I resisted the urge to tell her that it wasn't going to fall off my shoulder if she left it alone for five minutes. "We're supposed to practice our lines for the play!"
"Sorry, Megan," I sighed, trying to pull free without hurting her, "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." I thought I saw Megan scowl for a second, but the bright smile came back so quickly that I almost wondered if I'd imagined it.
"Guess you're right!" she said, letting my arm go at last.
"Don't worry, Megan," Sam chirped, giving the girl a dark grin, "I'm sure he'll do just fine without you breathing down his neck for ten minutes."
"Who asked you?" Megan demanded with a cold glare. I watched the exchange with an eyebrow raised.
Jeeze, what happened between these two to make them hate each other so much? I wondered as Megan turned back to me with her bright smile.
"Bye, Danny, call me when you're done, okay?" She turned to Sam and Tucker to added one last goodbye as a casual afterthought, "See ya, losers."
Sighing I watched the girl as she turned and walked off campus, wondering for a second if she knew that Nick's dorm was the opposite way…
"Uugh!" Sam scoffed as soon as Megan moved out of hearing distance, glaring at the girl. "What a little snob!"
"Isn't 'snob' being a little nice about it, Sam?" Tucker grinned wryly at my roomie.
"Who cares?" I asked, wanting very badly to just drop the subject already. "She's gone now, that's what's important."
"True enough." Sam agreed, grinning up at me. "You know you seriously owe me for getting rid of her, right Danny?"
…Huh?
It took a second for me to realize the whole Lancer thing had been made up, and I had to stop myself from hugging my roommate in gratitude. Not many people wanted to see two guys hugging on all boys campuses, after all…
"Sounds fair, Sam." I agreed instead. "What do you want in return?"
"Go back to your girlfriend," Sam answered bluntly.
…HUH? I felt my face heat up at that, not exactly expecting him to make THAT request. After all, other then the one time Sam had told me about, Sam had never even met Sam, so why would Sam care if I dated Sam or not?
…I've really gotta come up with a system for that name thing one of these days…
"If you two get back to dating, maybe Megan will back down for good and I can finally get some peace and quiet," Sam continued, ignoring my embarrassment. "Besides, you still like her, right?" I felt my face heat up even more at that, making Tucker snort with laugher. Sam glared at him for some reason and jabbed his elbow into his stomach as I tried to recover enough to say something.
"W-well- I- uh…" It would probably help if what I was saying actually made sense. My panic building, I decided to bail before Sam could stop me. "H-Hey, isn't that Liz over there?"
As soon as that lame excuse left my mouth, I dived in a random direction to get away. I flinched when I saw Sam follow me out of the corner of my eye, my panic building even more. I didn't want to talk about my feelings for Sam with anybody right now, not even my friends.
Crapcrapcrapcrap-!
"Oh no you—" Sam began, but stopped with an exclamation of surprise. I sighed in relief and picked up my pace.
I had no idea why he stopped, but honestly I couldn't say I cared all that much. All I wanted to do right then was get away from Sam so I wouldn't have to talk about things even I wasn't completely sure about. I relaxed when I finally got away from my roommate, leaning against a wall and running my hand through my hair.
Or at least, it would've run through if it was there…
CRAP! I thought angrily, making my arm tangible again. I berated myself darkly for losing control of my powers in public like that before stiffening, glancing back in the direction I'd come from with fear rising up in my stomach.
Had Sam seen my arm disappear? Was that why he stopped? If that was the reason, the most I could hope for was that Tucker could handle it.
In other words, I'm doomed. I thought glumly.
Surprisingly, the thought of being exposed to my roommate didn't scare me anymore, maybe because he'd made a point back there about my relationship with Sam... ah, Girl Sam. I did still like her, even if Jazz wasn't exactly thrilled about us being together.
But my sister's the only family I've got right now, I thought, and I don't want to lose her next. But I don't want to lose Sam, either…
Sighing, I closed my eyes to center my resolve as I went ghost, opening them again once the transformation was complete and taking to the air towards Wendy.
"Danny?"
I sighed heavily at the surprise my sister's tone carried, turning just in time to see her shocked look fade into sisterly concern.
"Uh, hey, Jazz…" I began, trying to figure out the best way to talk to my sister about this subject.
"What's wrong, Danny?" Jazz asked, dropping her purse into an empty chair as she walked over to me and pressed a hand against my forehead. "Were you hurt? You didn't get poisoned again, did you?
"No, Jazz," I sighed, pushing her hand away, "I'm fine… it's just… I kinda need to talk to you about something."
"What is it, Danny?" Jazz asked, sitting down and taking my hand in hers, giving me a worried look, "Whatever it is-!"
"It's about Sam." I broke in, cutting my sister off mid-sentence. Jazz fell silent then, her face slipping into the neutral expression she always wore when she knew she was going to have to fight with someone about something. "Look, Jazz, I know you don't like her…"
"I like her, Danny." Jazz said in a voice that was tired and defensive at the same time. "I think she's a great girl, and I like her a lot, but-!"
"But you just don't want me dating her." I finished, scowling at her. Jazz sighed in exasperation.
"Danny…"
"No Jazz." I snapped, glaring at her angrily. "I'm done with this, okay? I hate lying to her, I hate sneaking around… Why can't I just tell her?"
"It's not that simple, Danny." Jazz said carefully.
"When is it?" I countered. "Look, I don't care how complicated it is, I like her and she likes me. Nothing else is supposed to matter, right?"
"You know that it's not going to be that easy for you, Danny." Jazz said, starting to get angry. "Don't you think this is hard for me, too? You think I like knowing that you and Sam hate me just because I don't want you two hurting each other?"
"You don't have to protect us, Jazz!" I yelled back. "We're not little kids! I can take care of myself just fine, and Sam is one of the strongest girls I've ever met!"
"That's just it, Danny!" Jazz yelled angrily. "You two ARE still kids! And you're not thinking this through at all!" I scowled at my sister until her angry expression softened with a sigh. "Look… Danny… you and Sam are just fifteen. And there are things going on here that are more complicated then either of you understand."
"So fifteen's old enough to save the world, but I just can't make decisions for myself?" I snapped back angrily.
"I'm not saying that!" Jazz said, sounding irritated. "Don't put words in my mouth, Danny, and don't make me out to be the villain here!"
"Then tell me what's going on, Jazz!" I demanded angrily. "You know everything about my powers, about the ghosts, about my life, but then you turn around and keep secrets from me and expect me to just sit here and not get angry?"
"I'm not asking that, Danny!" Jazz yelled at me. "And I told you before It's not my secret to tell!"
"Then what am I supposed to do, huh?" I shouted back. "I can't go near her because she has some dark secret you're not telling me, but I can't leave her on her own because ghosts might attack her! I can't think about her because you guys tell me the relationship's gonna be too complicated for me, but I can't forget her! What am I supposed to do?"
My right arm from the shoulder down faded from view just as I finished my speech, making my sister jump in surprise. Scowling, I brought it back again, but Jazz continued to stare at it like she'd just noticed it existed.
"You're losing control of your powers…" she said softly, finally looking into my eyes, her own filled with curiosity. I sighed, falling into the chair.
"Yeah," I admitted. "I thought it was just because I was tired or something… but it's been happening a lot more recently, and only when I'm trying to figure out this whole Sam thing. I think it's the stress or something." Jazz bit her lip at that.
"You… you really like her, don't you?" Jazz said. "This is more then just a little crush, isn't it?" I just looked at my sister without saying anything, and Jazz closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "…Do what you have to do, Danny," She said at last, her tone hesitant, "I shouldn't try and control your life like this. I'm sorry."
And with that, Jazz stood and kissed me gently on the forehead before heading into her room. I stared after her in shock, not even remembering that I was supposed to be grossed out over the kiss thing as what just happened finally sank in and I grinned widely.
I'd just won Jazz over. Jazz and Tucker both agreed to let me, meaning I could tell Sam my secret now without either of them getting mad.
"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!"
Hey, Sam? Mind if I talk to you for a minute? It's kinda important. You know all those ghosts that are always attacking? Yeah, well I know this is kinda hard to believe, but I'm once of them. See, there was an accident in my parents lab a few years back and now I'm a half ghost and I'm trying to keep Amity safe from evil ghosts plotting to take over the world. Oh, and you know that guardian of mine, Vlad Masters? He's a half ghost too, and he's plotting to kill my dad, marry my mom and make me his apprentice so we can rule the world. I mused over this speech for a second before rejecting it with a sigh, defending myself from the oncoming staff with a trick Clockwork had taught me, never even glancing at the kids who were doing the attacking.
Man, who knew telling someone you had ghost powers could be so hard…?
It was the morning after my conversation with Jazz, and unfortunately that meant Sports Day. Thank god my assigned 'sport' turned out to be staff work. The staff was Clockwork's weapon of choice, so he'd taught me all about it when I went to visit him in the Ghost Zone to get away from Vlad. And considering that the Master of All Time had a little more experience then a bunch of grinning jocks, I felt pretty safe with the weapon.
Too bad Dash had been excused from Sports Day due to 'emotional trauma' at finding out he'd accidentally attacked his idol, Danny Phantom. (Irony never ends, huh?)
Okay, how's this one: Sam, I know you're not going to believe this, but I'm Danny Phantom. Yeah, the ghost kid of Amity Park. I had an accident a while back that gave me ghost powers, so now I'm trying to use them to help people from getting hurt by ghosts. Oh, and my arch rival is my guardian, by the way. He has ghost powers too, only he's evil and trying to get me to be evil too.
I dodged the staffs that were coming my way, knocking the wind out of one of them before twisting around and using the staff's momentum to take out the other two, knocking the first attacker on the head for good measure when he started to stand again.
Might as well face it. I thought glumly. I'm doomed. Everything considered, I'm lucky if she'll even give me time to apologize...
"Dude!" Nate exclaimed, drawing me out of my thoughts. "That was… dude!" I shrugged casually and adjusted my grip on the staff, not sure about what to say to that. I did have a pretty unfair advantage, after all…
Turned out I didn't have to say anything, though. Since someone started clapping right then, and when I turned around and saw who 'someone' was, my mind went totally blank for a second.
"Sam?" I blurted out, walking towards her. A look of amusement passed her face.
"Last time I checked." Sam answered airily, making me blush. Well, at least she didn't seem to be angry with me… "What's the matter, forget about me or something?"
"No!" I said hastily, not wanting her to think anything like that. At all. Ever. "Actually, I… ah… well, I kinda wanted to talk to you…" Damn I wish I'd had more time to prepare for this! "See, I was talking to my sister yesterday…" Sam had a funny look on her face when I said that, but I was too busy trying to figure out how to get my words out so I didn't sound like a complete loon to really think about the reason for that.
"Man, Danny!" Nate exclaimed loudly as he butted into the conversation. "Remind me not to get on your bad side! Hey, who's the babe?" I gave Nate a dirty look, but before I could say anything, Sam broke in with a dark warning.
"Call me 'babe' again, pal," she growled, her eyes flashing with threats, "and I swear I'll shove that staff so far up your—"
"Sam," I interrupted, trying to keep a straight face. Funniest part was, I could see that happening. "Ah, Nate, this is Sam, the girl I was telling you about." I wasn't sure if he remembered the detention thing or not, but I figured he did. Nate forgot very little about conversations dealing with girls. "Sam, this is Nate. Don't worry, he's harmless. He just lacks any sort of internal dialog whatsoever."
"Nice to meet you, Sam." Nate said, seeming a little cautious now. I couldn't tell if he was worried about ticking off me or Sam, though. Probably both, knowing Nate…
"Likewise..." Sam sighed, shaking the hand Nate offered her. "I think." I laughed, shaking my head. That's Sam for ya.
"So, Sam," Nate grinned, and I mentally groaned, already knowing what Nate was gonna say, "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?" I broke in before the guy could work himself up and more, "Isn't that Lita over there? By the rock wall? Away from here?" I waited for the hint to sink in.
"Yeah, but why would I-?" Then his face lit with comprehension. "Oooh…! You want me to pull a Houdini, huh?"
"Yeah, that'd be nice." I sighed heavily. Sam covered up a laugh with a cough as gracefully as she could, apparently finding the situation funny.
"All right, I can take a hint." Nate grinned between us, "You lovebirds have fun now, ya hear?" And before we could respond to that, Nate took off out of my reach.
LOVEBIRDS? I thought, coughing nervously. Great, Sam probably thought I was insane just for being friends with a guy like Nate…
"Ah, sorry about him." I said awkwardly, "He's… well…" I made a face, trying to think of a nice word that could describe Nate.
"It's cool." Sam laughed. I grinned at her, before glancing around at the crowd a little. Maybe this wasn't the best place for this conversation…
"Um, think we can talk somewhere a little more private?" I asked Sam, still trying to figure out exactly how I was going to tell Sam my deepest, darkest secret. Sam shrugged in response and followed me to a place where no one could hear her when she started to freak out over what I was going to tell her.
"So?" Sam pressed as she rested against a wall, "What did you want to tell me?"
What indeed…
"Well… you see…" I groaned in my head as all the different ways I could tell her about my powers jumbled forward, unsure of which one to go with. "Sam, I kinda--"
And that's when the screaming started.
"GHOST!" I heard Nathan cry out as everyone hauled off campus as fast as they could. I scowled angrily at the interruption.
"You have GOT to be-!" I started out loud before I remember Sam and cut myself off. That definitely wasn't the way I wanted her to find out, after all. "Ah, I mean…" I faked a laugh as I backed away from Sam, knowing that ghost problems came before my personal life. "Could you excuse me for a second?"
I didn't wait for an answer, instead taking off as fast as I could until I found an alleyway to go ghost in. After that I flew off in the direction everyone was running from.
"Vat's taking so long? Ve're on a scheduled here, remember?" I felt my irritation rise when I saw the ghosts everyone was making such a big deal about.
Of course... I thought sullenly, slowing to a stop. I crossed my arms and scowled at the three vultures in front of me, my dislike for them going up a notch.
"What are you idiots doing here?" I demanded shortly, irritated that they had interrupted my chance to talk to Sam.
"Vatch who you're calling an idiot, you snippy little upstart!" one of the vultures said, the one that I was pretty sure was the leader of the trio.
"Yeah, yeah…" I rolled my eyes. "So? What's Vlad up to now, huh?"
"Vouldn't you like to know!" A second vulture snapped. I glared at him, and he gulped audibly and hid behind the leader.
"What makes you think the boss vants anything?" the first vulture asked. I was about to respond when I noticed something in the third vulture's beak…
"Is that my skectbook?" I asked, stiffening a little. The vultures looked at each other.
"…Uhh… no?" The leader answered uncertainly. Growling out in fury, I called some of my energy to my fists as I started towards the birds, who backed away. "Hehehe…" The first vulture laughed nervously. "Vell, there's only one thing left to say… RETREAT!" And with that, the three took off squawking, feathers flying as they hauled bird-butt back to Wisconsin.
"GET BACK HERE YOU LOUSY CHICKENS!" I yelled, taking off after them.
Vlad was so gonna pay for this one…
WoM- 'Beaming innocently' Well, that's all for now! Stay tuned for my next update, kay?
Thanks to;
Me The Anon One, epobbp, SummersSixEcho, Light Dragon SunsSong, KelcitaoOo, Anomaly25, memoirs of a faded memory, divinedragon7, Firefury, YumiwithUlrichalways, Seeker Carter, fish n chips n vinegar, Petitio Principii, Redwind, Zuzanny, Fanficaholic, midnightgoth9, Samantha-Girl Scout, Fey Phantom, Moss Royal, Gmasangel, conan98002, The Sole Survivor, Liselle129, Hakkyou Kuusou, FlamesofAnubis, Lumias, animeobsessed3191, EvilPrincessMelphis, Anime master Inu, xXcrazyidiotXx, Snea, SquirrelGirl, Anime Chick009, Jimmy the Gothic Egg, Impatient Gal, AlyssaSS, Baka Hanyou Rahvin, katiesparks