Danny avoided the bus to school in the morning. Instead he asked Jazz to drive him.
She spent the car ride talking about their sibling bond and how she had been worried about the way he'd been "emotionally distant" since the accident.
He managed to apologize without rolling his eyes.
They beat the bus to school and he quickly grabbed what he needed from his locker and high tailed it to first period.
Danny got there before Tucker and Da- Sidney.
He chose a seat in the back corner and propped up his textbook, effectively hiding until class started.
When he put it down Tucker spotted him and they made eye contact. Tucker raised an eyebrow and Danny shrugged.
Dash- Sidney stood up just as the teacher was about to speak.
"There you are!" Sidney said, walking to the back of the classroom.
He smiled at the girl who was sitting next to Danny.
"Can you trade with me?" Sidney said.
The girl stood with a huff and stomped over to the seat Sidney had vacated, avoiding eye contact and glaring at her shoes.
"Wait-" Danny said.
Sidney sat. "I've always been lacking apple butter, but I'd try and write a ballad for you if you asked me too."
Danny opened his mouth. Then he closed it.
The teacher cleared her throat. "If you're quite finished Mr. Baxter."
"Sorry ma'am!" Sidney said. "I think your class is… uh… stimulating!"
"Then let me get on with it, would you?"
"Yes'm!"
oOo
When class ended Sidney grabbed Danny's backpack and his books.
"A boyfriend should carry these right?" He said with a grin.
"Uh, but we're both…" Danny started. Then he sighed. "Well, whatever."
He glanced at Tucker, who looked gobsmacked. "Boyfriend?!"
"Uh-"
"Yessir!" Sidney through an arm around Danny's shoulders. "We're boyfriends now!"
Everyone in the classroom was staring at them now. Students who were halfway out the door came back in to listen.
"Congratulations?" Tucker said.
He looked at Sidney. He looked at Danny.
Danny wished he could see his own face, in that moment. Whatever Tucker saw was apparently hilarious.
Tucker laughed so hard, he started crying. He doubled over and slapped a desk.
"C-congratulations bro!" Tucker said. "You've seduced Dash Baxter."
"Shut up!" Danny shrugged off Dash's arm- and it was still Dash's arm- and rushed out of the classroom.
Sidney and Tucker followed.
"You done goofed," Tucker said, still chuckling.
"I did?" Sidney said. "Wait, Danny-"
"I'll see you later!" Danny said.
He rushed to his next class.
Sidney followed with his backpack and books. "Wait! Your stuff!"
And Tucker laughed all the harder.
oOo
Tucker cornered him in the library during lunch period.
"H-how did you know-"
"Where else would you hide?" Tucker said. "The roof?"
Danny pouted. "They locked the door to the stairwell…"
Tucker nodded and sat down beside him.
They were sitting in the biography section of the library. Everyone's least favorite, Danny had figured.
"So either you're an evil genius," Tucker said. "Or you royally fucked up."
"An evil genius?"
"Yeah," Tucker said. "What better way to humiliate Dash than to publically date him while he's gone? Then you could publically dump him when he gets back and anything he might try to say would just be seen as him trying to save face."
"Uh…"
"Or…?"
Danny drew his knees up against his chest. "I royally fucked up," he said.
"Thought so." Tucker ruffled his hair. "Oh what are we gonna do with you?"
"Tuck?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm bisexual."
Tucker removed his hand from Danny's head.
Danny stared at his knees.
"Is that a new thing? Or just something that never came up?" Tucker said.
Danny looked up.
Tucker looked at him. Not with confusion or annoyance. Just…
He waggled his brows. "You make out with anyone without telling me?"
"Huh?"
"You look at porn without sharing?"
"Sh-sharing?!"
"I've never looked at gay porn." Tucker solemnly took off his red beret and clutched it to his chest. "But for my best friend I'd sit through at least twenty minutes of research-"
"Tucker!" Danny snatched the beret from him and shoved it towards his mouth.
His friend started to laugh, but covered his own mouth with a hand and swallowed it down.
Danny kept the beret in his hand and realized this was the first time he'd seen Tucker without it.
Tucker had a little afro going on, scraggly and solid at the same time.
"Sorry, sorry," Tucker said. "Okay serious time. I'm glad you told me."
"Er, thanks," Danny said.
"No for real. Sorry for teasing you."
Danny didn't know what to say to that. So he put the beret over his own head, pulling it down so that it covered his eyes.
"That's a great look," Tucker said.
"Shut up."
There was a moment of blessed silence. Or sort of silence. All Danny could hear was turning pages and shuffling feet.
"So… you like Dash?"
Danny shoved the beret up, freeing his eyes to glare at Tucker.
"I mean his face!" Tucker corrected.
"Fine, I like his stupid face. It's a handsome face," Danny said.
Tucker grinned. "What about my-"
Danny threw the beret at him.
"Not your type. Got it." Tucker re-adjusted the hat so that it was neatly on his head again.
"What about Sa-"
"Can we not do this?"
Tucker held up his hands in surrender, still grinning like this was the best joke he'd ever heard.
"Actually I want to ask you something," Danny said.
"Go for it."
"Before the accident..." Danny glanced around them, suddenly paranoid about an invisible eavesdropper.
But Phantom was in the mirror. Probably.
He tried again. "Did Phantom. I mean, did I…"
Tucker leaned forward. "The suspense is killing me…"
"Ugh, I just want to know if he kissed anyone," Danny said. "Er, if I did…"
"While he was you?" Tucker said. "Nah, he pinned after Paulina for years and hardly said two words to her. He's a never been kissed virgin. And so are you? Unless-"
"So am I," Danny quickly said.
So Phantom's first kiss had happened… while he was Phantom.
That was a relief, for some reason.
"He kissed Sam," Danny blurted.
Tucker's eyes widened. "Phantom did?!"
"Yeah."
"When?!"
"I'm not sure," Danny said. "But Sam told me they did."
"I knew it!" Tucker said. "You guys were fighting over her."
"Uh-"
"So this is your rebound?"
Danny stood. "It's not too late to eat, is it?"
"Aw c'mon," Tucker remained sitting, reaching up to tug at his arm. "Why are you guys always leaving me out of the drama?"
"Because it's just a joke to you!"
Tucker let go of his arm.
"Nevermind," Danny said. "I'll… I'm glad I told you. But-"
"I get it," Tucker said. "It's whatever."
"I'm sorry-"
"No, you're right," Tucker said. "I'm just in the audience."
He grinned all the wider, looking up at Danny from the floor. "I'm just a side character, laughing it up."
"Tucker-"
"Have fun with Sidney," Tucker said. "Good luck explaining it to Sam. And everyone else."
And he pulled out his phone, hunching over the screen in a way that closed the door on the conversation.