Danny and Tucker walked down the pavement together. They were talking to each other furtively, though they weren't discussing their normal topic of ghosts.
"You really think she did this?" Danny's brows were furrowed, and he was clutching an object tightly against his chest. Perhaps to hide it from passersby, perhaps so that it didn't blow away in the fall winds that had already moved into the town of Amity Park.
"Duh, who else could afford trained owls?" Tucker stated matter-of-factly. For an eleven-year-old he was pretty logical. Though that probably had something to do with his interest in technology. The younger understood his friend's reasoning, but there was a nagging feeling at the back of his skull that said otherwise. He tried to ignore it.
When the pair finally reached Sam's house, Tucker stepped up first. Mrs. Manson practically hated Danny, and if she answered the door he didn't want to be in front. The looks she gave him always made him think she was gonna cast a spell on him or something. Tucker knocked and stood there on the doorstep. He fiddled with an identical package in his own small hands.
"I'm coming!" Danny breathed a sigh of relief at Sam's shout and stepped up to stand beside Tucker. The door flew open and a disgruntled, yet excited, goth stood behind it. Sam was still wearing her pajamas, but it looked like she hadn't slept at all. The noon sun hit her face in just a way that the bugs under the pre-teen's eyes were visible. What had she been up to?
"Danny? Tuck? What's up?" Danny was about to mention the letters but Tucker cut him off.
"Owls are, according to the one that pecked at my window at like 7 am." The techno-geek huffed, crossing his arms. Sam looked confused, so Danny clarified.
"Did you send us these letters, Sam?" Danny held out a yellowing envelope and Sam stared at it.
"Wait, she has one too! It was you!" Tucker pointed at Sam accusatively and the halfa spotted another letter in her hand. That seemed to snap Sam out of her reverie.
"Wait, did you both get one?" A large grin split the goth's face and she snatched the letters out of their hands. Her eyes scanned the papers and her lights only lit up more.
"Rude." Tucker mumbled. He wiped at his eye as well, probably clearing the crust. It was only noon on a summer day, not to mention that he'd been woken up by an owl.
Sam suddenly stepped forward and wrapped Danny and Tucker in an awkward hug.
"C'mon!" She shouted and yanked them inside. The confused boys exchanged a look but followed Sam to her room.
The trio all settled in Sam's room, with a promise of an explanation from the goth.
Sam perched herself on her desk chair, Tucker plopped down on her unmade bed, and Danny chose to sit on her purple beanbag.
"I can't believe it." Sam said to herself, still grinning. It was kinda creepy for someone who was usually pretty gloomy.
"Chill, Sam. You're starting to freak me out." The girl only stuck her tongue out at Tucker.
"So what's going on?" Danny asked and yanked a blanket from Tucker's grip. It looked like he was planning on falling asleep in Sam's bed. All of the fire from before was gone, now that he'd had his chance to confront the perpetrator who he thought had stolen his sleep from him.
"Turns out you two aren't muggles." Sam was grinning knowingly. Tucker gave up his fight for the blanket to respond, and Danny pulled it from his grasp victoriously.
"I feel like I've been insulted, what's a muggle?" Sam seemed to be having the best time of her life. She pulled her legs up onto her chair to sit criss-cross.
"Don't leave us hanging." Danny added.
"Okay, fine." Sam sighed.
"Ok, this might sound a bit cliche, but Tucker;" She gestured to the bespectacled geek.
"Danny," She motioned to the halfa.
"You're wizards."
Danny immediately stood up and went over to Sam, putting a hand on her forehead.
"She doesn't have a fever." Sam smacked his hand away.
"I'm not delirious." She sent Danny a glare. The halfa raised an eyebrow, but returned to his purple beanbag.
"Have you eaten any weird plants lately?" Tucker asked, looking up from the PDA that had appeared in his hands. His Dad used to use it for work, but recently got a cell phone and gave his PDA to Tucker.
"No, I haven't." Sam held up the weathered envelopes she hadn't given back.
"These are acceptance letters from a school that teaches magic in the UK. It's a boarding school, thank goodness". She saw the doubting looks still aimed her way and the goth sighed deeply. The excitement from receiving her letter earlier that day was starting to wear off.
Even though she knew it was almost guaranteed she'd get in, there had been doubts. Much to most people's chagrin, muggle-borns were priority for acceptance. Mostly because they didn't know they needed to apply in the first place. While those who were privy to the wizarding world could go somewhere else, muggles were unaware.
Learning magic was one of the few things that Sam and her parents agreed on. Even if her mom was salty because she was a squib. Sam smiled as she remembered the time she changed the color of the the pink-and-white skirt (which her Mom was trying to get her to wear) to black-and-green. On accident, of course. But that was the skirt Sam now wore almost every day.
"Just look at your letters." Sam threw the respective envelopes back to their owners.