I do not own Danny Phantom. That would be awesome though...

"WAIT! Waitwaitwaitwait…!" Danny screamed as the army of pageant contestants bore down on him. He had just returned from rescuing Sam from Prince Aragon after the ghost's attempt to abduct and marry her. Now, all the girls from the beauty pageant he was supposed to judge looked ready to murder him for supposedly choosing his friend and then disappearing. Looking at all the beautiful girls about to rip him to shreds…

Well, he would rather face the dragon again.

Danny gulped, thinking quickly. "Y-you don't understand! I never actually picked the winner…?"

"You didn't?" Paulina blinked. All the girls froze in their high heels. Their attitudes took an immediate 180 as they all gave the judge their prettiest smiles or come-hither looks. Danny breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the mob of ladies calm down. Paulina leaned in closer to him, her voice now sweet and alluring. "I knew you'd come to your senses."

"I have. About a lot of things. And that's why as judge, I hereby decree that our Happy Princess shall be… " Danny looked through the girls, all amazing in their own right. Each one deserving to win. But he knew he had to pick one, especially if he wanted to keep from being turned into a full ghost. He walked over to the bouquet of flowers and what appeared to be a backup crown for the winner. Hopefully this one wasn't evil too. Turning back toward the contestants, Danny took a deep breath and named the girl who he honestly considered the most deserving.

"...Star Strong."

There was a brief look of surprise over everyone's faces, however most of the girls quickly accepted Danny's choice and began to clap. The crowd of spectators also cheered for the blonde as Danny handed her the flowers. Star was tearing up with joy as Danny placed the tiara on her head (luckily not transporting her to the Ghost Zone) and everyone applauded for the newly crowned Princess.

Well… almost everyone.

"WHAT?!" Sam and Paulina shouted together, not even registering that they were on the same page for once. The Latina girl stomped up to Danny, murder once again in her eyes. She grabbed him by the collar and with surprising strength lifted him up on his toes.

"Just what do you think you are doing?!" the reigning queen of Casper High growled at the boy. "Everyone knows you worship the ground I walk on! This whole stupid pageant was just supposed to be a formality before I got my crown! So why are you giving it to some second rate satellite instead of me?!"

"Second rate…?"Star gasped, both in shock and anger.

"Easy Paulina. You don't want to make a scene, do you?" Danny chuckled nervously. He looked to his friends for assistance, but Tucker knew better than to challenge Paulina's word, and Sam looked just furious as the cheerleader.

"You made the scene when you picked some other loser over me. Now talk!"

"Loser…?!" Star shouted, her shock replaced with fury.

Danny gulped. This was going to escalate quickly if he didn't do something. Paulina obviously wasn't going to back down until she had an answer, even if it was in front of everyone. So he sighed and grabbed Paulina's wrists gently, but firmly.

"You really want to know?" Danny asked seriously. "Paulina, you are hot. There is no one on this planet that could argue that fact. But Star is that and so much more!"

Paulina was still glaring, but she slowly released Danny, who released her in turn when Paulina let go of his shirt.

"Star's one of the smartest girls in school," Danny continued. "She's talented. She's tough. You saw her twirling for the talent portion. Do you remember how she used those skills when we fought the ghost pirates to save our parents? She was incredible!"

Paulina was quickly losing her anger. She had always been so self absorbed, she never really thought about the girl she spent so much time with. She turned toward the blonde she had always treated as her bestie, while always considering inferior to herself. Star was blushing as Danny told about all the reasons he had chosen her. But he still wasn't done.

"She's athletic, graceful, driven, talkative, playful, caring, gentle, clever… Sure she has a bit of an attitude, but she treats everyone the same, no matter what their status is. It wouldn't really be fair to ask me to pick one reason why she should win from all the amazing things about her! All in one insanely beautiful package. Yes Paulina, you are hot. But Star…?" Danny gestured to the girl he had named a princess, now certain of his decision. Her hand was covering her mouth to try and hide her trembling lips as Danny continued to praise her. His electric blue eyes met Star's tear filled ocean blue orbs and he smiled softly at her. "…Star is everything."

There was a long moment of silence as the two stared at each other, briefly forgetting where they were or even what they were even doing there. For a moment nothing existed but the two of them. Then Tucker let out a loud "Whoop!" and the crowd started cheering again. The spell was broken and Star shook her head, realizing she had just been crowned the pageant winner. She looked around at all the smiling faces, noticing even Paulina was clapping and giving an accepting grin. She looked over at Danny one more time before turning to face the audience. She stepped forward to the edge of the stage, and with a bright smile gave a curtsy befitting a princess.

"I can't believe you chose that shallow twit! And here I thought you actually learned something," Sam growled at Danny for the sixth time in a half hour. After the closing ceremony, the three of them had gone into the school building so Danny could grab some stuff from his locker. Sam had done nothing but complain about Danny's decision since he had joined them. Danny was trying to tune her out, partially because no matter how many times she said it he didn't understand what she was angry about.

The other reason was because he had expected to go back to being invisible to all the other girls when the contest was over. Either that or getting mauled by spiteful runner-ups. Much to his surprise, the girls were still being just as kind and attentive as before. Honestly, it felt even better because the girls actually seemed sincere about their advances, rather than just sucking up to him because he was the judge. One particularly cute girl named Mia had actually given Danny her number. For some reason, all that attention just seemed to make Sam even angrier. She had only gotten louder since and the halfa was just about at his limit.

Danny sighed angrily as he shut his locker forcefully. "First off, I did learn something. I am fully accepting of girls as more than objects to be ogled or used by guys who lack the brain cells to give them the respect they deserve. Second, Star is not a twit! She's one of the smartest girls in our year. For crying out loud, she did two semesters worth of math homework in less than two hours!"

"So this about the bribes…" Sam crossed her arms condescendingly. Danny groaned and leaned against the lockers. Tucker decided to take this one for his buddy.

"He didn't keep them," the techie said. Sam's eyes widened at that but Tucker just shook his head. "You know Danny doesn't cheat. Ever since the thing with Dan he won't even consider it, no matter how easy it would be for him. He just didn't tell Star because he didn't want to upset her. Or worse, lose the chance of getting her to flirt with him! Or me!"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Riiiight. And I'm sure that had nothing to do with your choice."

"It really didn't," Danny shrugged. "All the girls flirted with us. Even Paulina. Sorry if I was enjoying the attention for once. The only girl who didn't was you, and obviously I wasn't going to pick you as the winner."

"Excuse me?! And why is that if you are so enlightened?!" Sam practically shrieked.

Now it was Danny's turn to roll his eyes. "Oh come on Sam. You said it yourself that the only reason you signed up was to make a statement. Well you got to make it. This contest meant nothing to you. If I had picked you as the winner, everyone would have known it was rigged from the beginning. And worse than that, it would have been spitting in the face of every girl that actually did want to be there and tried their best. Where is the equality in that?"

The dark haired girl groaned. She hated to admit it, but Danny had an excellent point with that one."That doesn't explain why you picked someone like Star."

"Really? Cause I think I did a pretty good job of explaining that to Paulina," the halfa scoffed.

"Oh, right! 'Star is everything…' GAG!" the goth stuck her finger down her throat.

"Alright, that does it!" Danny shouted pushing off the locker and glaring at his friend. "I don't know what your problem is with Star! Is it because she's pretty? Is it because she's popular? Or is it just because she doesn't think like you? Don't tell me it's because she has an attitude, because you seem to have that exact same problem! She's not like the other A-listers. She does all her own schoolwork, and she gets straight A's. She's tough enough to take down multiple pirate ghosts with ease. And she still hangs out with Valerie, even though she isn't one of the popular kids anymore! Even if she's mean, at least she is mean to everyone equally. So what is your problem?!"

"Clueless…"

The three friends turned to see the newly crowned Princess Star standing in the hall. Danny had no idea why, but he felt his heart jump in his chest when he saw her standing there alone in her dress.

Star looked between the three with mild annoyance. "I need to speak with Fenton in private. So if you two wouldn't mind getting out of here…"

Sam glowered at the blonde, angrily clenching her fists. Before she could retort, Danny spoke up.

"Sure thing. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow," the halfa replied. Sam turned back toward Danny with a look of betrayal on her face, but the stern glare from Danny told her how he was still really annoyed with her, and she was not winning this fight. She reluctantly turned away and gave one last furious glare at Star before storming down the hall, a loud slam indicating Sam had probably punched a locker.

"Heh, I'll talk to you later Danny," Tucker waved before nervously following his female friend.

Star watched and waited until she saw them leave before turning back to Danny with a glare. "You know this doesn't mean anything, right? You are still just a loser."

Danny felt his heart sink for a moment before remembering that he really had no expectations from her. He let out a breath before shrugging. "Of course. I wasn't expecting you to suddenly come kiss me silly and confess your love for me just because I thought you deserved that crown."

Thinking of the crown made Danny turn back to look in his locker. He checked one of the pockets of his backpack to insure that the Amulet he had snatched from Aragon earlier was still inside. It was thankfully. Noticing the blonde girl was still behind him, the halfa pretended to gather more items from his locker.

"So how much of that did you hear?" he asked without turning around.

"Enough to know I wasted my time doing all your math homework," Star grumbled. Danny chuckled nervously, but didn't turn around. Despite her annoyance at her wasted work, a question came to the front of her mind. "Who's Dan?"

Danny visibly flinched. His mind replayed the conversation quickly, making sure the three hadn't accidentally let his secret slip. When he was sure that they hadn't mentioned anything about ghosts, he turned back to look at Star with a serious expression on his face that made the girl shiver, though she wasn't sure why.

"He was just a guy that helped me realize that there is no such thing as a victimless crime. You never know how your choices might influence the future, so you should always try to make the best choice you can," Danny said, his voice sounding heavier than Star had ever heard it. Danny took a lot of crap, more than probably anyone she knew, but Star could never think of a single time he sounded sad before tonight.

"Is that what you did tonight? Make the best choice…?" Star said, her voice sounding far softer than she had intended. Danny smiled back at her and Star actually took a step back.

"The very best. Believe me Star, no one up there deserved it more than you," the young hero smiled before blushing. "I'm sorry about Sam by the way. I don't know what her problem is."

Star raised an eyebrow at that. She marched up to Danny and got right in his face making his blush deepen.

"You really don't get why she is ticked, do you…?" the girl said incredulously. Danny nodded his head, admitting he was stumped. He looked so nervous. So embarrassed. So… cute.

Star couldn't keep the mask up anymore. She giggled, her own face turning red before she darted her head forward and gave Danny a solid kiss on the cheek. Danny's eyes went wide and he froze on the spot as if he had just been hit by one of Frostbite's ice blasts. The second her lips pulled away, Danny dropped down hard on his butt. His mouth just hung open, too stunned to speak as the blonde smiled down at him.

"Well, well. Looks like I managed to kiss you silly after all…" the pageant winner said smugly. "Just don't expect anything on the lips before our third date."

"D-d-date…?" the teen hero gasped in astonishment. "But… but I thought I was still just a loser?"

"You are," Star shrugged. "But you're a very sweet loser. You said it yourself, I'm the same mean jerk with everyone. Titles don't really matter to me. If they did, would I have gone out with Kwan or your friend Foley when they weren't in the popular clique?"

Danny couldn't believe what he was hearing. Sure he had thought about that, but he never thought someone like Star would be asking him out! No, she was basically telling him they were already together.

"A-aren't you afraid people are going to talk? I mean, I was the judge. And you-" Danny was silenced by Star putting a finger to his lips. The halfa was not too proud to admit he was getting a spectacular view as she bent over him while he was still on the floor.

Star smiled sweetly, a light blush crossing her face. "If they do, I'll tell them the truth. That I had never even thought about you as a boyfriend before tonight. But after everything you said up there on that stage in front of the entire town? Well, why do you think your popularity with the girls is still going, huh? You really showed yourself in a new light Fenton."

"You're serious…?" Danny whispered, still disbelieving.

"Mmhmm…" she nodded as she stood back up to her full height.

"So, a movie…? Maybe Sunday night…?" Danny asked hopefully.

"Pick me up at 5:30. I'll even buy the popcorn," Star grinned before turning and walking away. Danny swore there was more of a sway to her hips than normal as she moved gracefully down the hall. Danny couldn't remove the goofy smile from his face as he watched her go. But not before she turned back and gave him one last playful smirk.

"Oh, and if you call Mia, I'll break your neck. See ya Danny…"

Just a quick one shot to get my feet wet. Hope you enjoy and tell me what you think!