Ectoplasmic Secrets

Trio

Summary: Samantha Manson, eighth grader and loner, finds out maybe she doesn't have to be as alone in this world as she'd thought.

A warm August breeze blew softly across a wide field behind the place commonly known as Iron Oak Elementary, one of Amity Park's better public schools. It was recess time for all the 8th graders, which meant a large variety of things were taking place, however, one girl particular chose to sit alone on the very far side of the field, beneath an old oak tree. Munching on some sunflower seeds, she observed everything going on in her sight.

In the east were the basketball and volleyball courts where, much to Sam's disgust, she saw Paulina with all her preppy little friends playing a game of volleyball. She watched them for about a minute until she heard Paulina scream about her hair being messed up, and…que eye roll and groan of annoyance and disgust, she thought bitterly. Moving on to observe the game of basketball, Sam spotted a kid from her class, Wesley, right? Or don't people call him Wes? Whatever, I don't really care. She watched as he threw a pretty good shot from the three point line and was soon after congratulated by his teammates.

She was distracted by a loud yell and she turned to see the school's biggest jerkface running to retrieve a rogue football that had flown off the wrong way due to a crappy pass. On his way, he accidentally (but was it truly an accident?), bumped into another kid with darker skin and a red beret. The two weren't that far from her so Sam heard the kid yell for Dash to watch it. Ouch. That was a bad move.

Just as Sam had mentally predicted, Dash didn't take well to retaliation. "Why don't you watch it, nerd!" Dash yelled back angrily, turning around and taking a step closer to the kid so they were just two feet from each other. "Yeah, man, when you realize the world doesn't revolve around you." the kid shot back. Oh shit, Sam thought, is that guy suicidal or something? The hell is he doing? I mean it's great that someone's finally standing up to Dash, but shouldn't one's own safety come first in the mind of a teenage boy?

Dash was red with rage as he moved to either grab or shove the kid down when another surprisingly brave soul cut in, stepping between the two. "Dash stop it. J-just leave him alone, he didn't do anything to you."

What is this? Two people standing up to Dash Bastard in one day? Sam kept watching safely from the cover of the old oak tree as Dash made his move and gripped the collar of the other kid's shirt. "And the little geek comes to the rescue... Well now who's gonna save you Fenturd?"

Sam winced a bit as Dash punched the kid, causing him to stumble to the ground. Dash turned away and was joined by his friend, Kwan, but as the two were leaving he taunted one last time, "Why don't you run home crying to your freaky parents now, huh Fenturd?!" Sam sneered in their direction as Kwan laughed along with Dash as they returned to the football game. That son of a bitch.

She saw as the first kid helped his friend up, "C'mon dude, let's go get an ice pack for that." Sam realized it was probably a good time to see if that guy was ok, after all, Dash's punches can be pretty brutal. Mikey learned that last year when he ended up with a concussion. He's lucky Dash wasn't actually real upset with him, otherwise it might've ended in more than just one hit. She looked at the two walking slowly in the direction of the nurse's office and was about to run after them when the bell rang. Making a quick mental decision, Sam closed her bag of sunflower seeds and headed back to her homeroom class…

Standing in the school nurse's office Tucker tapped his foot anxiously on the tile floor. He hated any office that screamed "MEDICAL" with syringes and the smell of sick people, which was rather ironic, seeing as his own mother was a doctor at the local hospital. However, this time he was there for Danny, his best friend since they could crawl.

The nurse handed Danny an ice pack just as another student, a girl Tucker never remembered meeting before, walked in and crept invisibly along the side of the room. "What happened?" the nurse asked. Danny hesitated a moment, "…uuuhhh I ju- I just tripped and…and kind of ran into…um…a light post." Tucker had to suppress a snicker at how horrible his friend was at lying.

Somehow, the nurse accepted Danny's drawn out, stuttering mess of an explanation and moved on to ask the other girl that had come in what she needed. Tucker looked as she rubbed near the bridge of her nose, "I've got a terrible headache, could I maybe have a Tylenol?" The nurse nodded in understanding. "Of course. Let me see here…" she rummaged through one the drawer before closing it and getting up, "I'll be right back." The nurse left the room and Tucker watched as the girl sat down, put her earbuds in, and turned up the volume loud enough for him to hear six feet away. He quirked an eyebrow and just starred for a while. When she finally noticed the weird long, weird look Tucker was giving her, she turned down the volume, "What?"

"Didn't you just say you had a huge headache? Last I checked, blasting music in your ears doesn't cure a headache." Tucker said, "Not that I'm against blasting music in your ears..."

Sam shrugged, "I lied. Actually, just thought I'd check up on Dash's latest victim." In the background Danny groaned, "Augh…you saw that?"

Sam smirked, "Mhmm. Why'd you lie?" Danny's expression remained blank so Sam continued, "To the nurse. Why'd you lie?"

There was a beat of silence and Danny opened his mouth to respond right when the nurse came back into the room. Sam motioned for him to wait as the lady gave her a Tylenol. "Well, we should probably be getting back to class now, thanks!" she said as she left the little office followed soon after by the two boys. The three of them started walking down the hall and as soon as they passed a trash can, Sam threw the pill away.

She refused to let either of them get away without an answer to her previous question, so she pursued it again. "It's kinda pointless to report Dash." The guy's friend joined in, "Yeah, no matter how many times its happened, or how severe it gets, Dash just always wriggles out of any detention."

This, of course, wasn't all that new of information to Sam, "Real spoiled jack ass, isn't he? Probably just been using his upper class status to get everything his way his whole life." With a second thought she added, "Just like most rich people do."

Tucker seized the moment to add his two cents, "Hey, not everyone who's loaded is a spoiled brat." And he should know, his mother is a doctor and a surgeon when needed. Tucker didn't think he turned out to bad. Although to be honest he supposed they weren't exactly in the most comfortable financial situation, student loans can be a bitch after all. But hell, Danny's parents are inventors for the frickin GIW and none of them act rich.

Sam laughed at Tucker's comment and added somewhat mysteriously, "Oh trust me, I know." The trio reached the end of the hall and Sam went to take a left turn. "Where're you going? Our classes are this way." Danny asked, pointing down the hall to the right with one hand, the other hand still holding the ice pack to the side of his face. "Not if you wanna take the long way to class…" she smirked a little as the two shrugged and followed her to the left.

Sam pulled out her phone for a second to change the song that had been playing through her earbuds when Tucker caught sight of the screen over her shoulder. He gasped loudly, "NO WAY!" he nearly shrieked excitedly before moving to examine the device in Sam's hand from every angle he could. "What...?" she asked in a low, unimpressed tone.

"He's either geeking out over the fact that you, like us, listen to Dumpty Humpty. Or, more likely, he's totally infatuated by your phone." Danny explained.

"You have the latest model of the Pear 4?! How'd you get it?! I preordered and it hasn't come yet!" Tucker was nearly hysterical at this point, not daring to take his eyes off the beautiful piece of technology.

Sam, however, paid no attention and instead focused on something else, "Wait, hold up, you guys like Dumpty Humpty?!"

"They're our favorite band." Danny said, "Well, Tuck claims he like Daft Punk more but that's only because of that one song they have." Sam laughed, "So, he's like a total techno geek?" Danny answered after seeing his friend was still too caught up in the phone that Sam had at this point just handed to him, "Yup. He won the Amity Park computer hacking competition when he was ten."

Tucker, hearing this, looked up and added, "You're damn right I did."

For the following minutes the three of them continued wandering through the halls, talking about whatever could possibly present itself as relevant.

Eventually they turned one more corner and the trio found they'd unfortunately already made it back to the 8th grade classrooms. Time really does fly when you're having fun. Sam laughed slightly, "I'm going to be perfectly honest here, I don't know either of your names."

"Well then, allow me to introduce myself, I am Tucker Foley, or TF as in Too Fine. And this fellow geek right here is Danny Fenton, the single person with the most bizarre family you will ever find here in Amity Park." Danny rolled his eyes slightly at his friend. "And you, goth girl? Are you really a goth though? You seem like you smile too much to actually be goth. Just saying."

"Sam. Sam Manson. Call me Samantha and I'll give you a black eye worse than Dash's. I'm a goth only in the sense that I wear black all the time and can be hella edgy when I feel like it."

The other two laughed and were just about to go their separate ways, having missed at least twenty minutes of class at this point. "Are you sure you're eye's ok?" Danny shifted the ice pack, "Ye-yeah, thanks. You know, you didn't have to…" Sam smiled a little, "Well I'm sorta glad I did…" there was a bit of an awkward silence when none of them knew what to say.

"So…I'll see you guys tomorrow then?" Sam asked. Danny gave a slightly lopsided smile, "Definitely."

When she was at home later that evening Sam thought about the day's events. Those two…they seemed…genuine. She didn't think there was anyone left like that…

6th grade had been the worst year of her life. That's when people changed. That is when everyone went from being cool with most everyone else in the grade, to forming their little cliques and social groups. That's when everyone's peers' worth suddenly became determined by social class.

And THAT is when people who used to be good friends with you, END UP DITCHING YOU! Sam was fuming and her hands clenched into fists. A few tears threatened to drip from her eyes, but she fought hard against them. "I'm talking to you, Paulina." She took a shaky breath, "You used to be so cool to hang out with…what happened to you…to fall so low?"

Rage coursed through her and she suddenly found herself chucking her pencil across her dark room. It hit the wall with a clang as Sam's anger fled her, replaced by a wave of sadness. She willed herself to not let a single tear fall. That's all in the past now, she thought to herself, it's time to just move on. Paulina's not worth my tears.

Sam took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. She hated it when she got herself all worked up like this over nothing. She climbed up onto her bed, leaving her homework abandoned on the floor. The TV flickered to life and she saw the channel was still on the GEBS (Ghost Emergency Broadcasting System) where they were currently rerunning an interview from a few weeks ago with two ectologists.

"So, Mr and Mrs Fenton, do you have anything to add on the recent rise in actvi…"

Sam got lost in her thoughts for a moment, something…I'm missing something…why is this so familiar suddenly…?

"Of course, as a parent myself I definitely understand the concerns they have for their children. We will not deny that ghosts have been a rising threat for years and we will not deny that they can be dangerous- very dangerous. However, we are working to protect the public. As you probably know, it is now legal here in Amity Park to carry a small ecto weapon. We're also working on getting schools here to offer a half semester class to all students so they'll be more educated on these threats and know how to protect themselves if they ever need to."

"Alright, we're going to go to a quick break here, but stick around! Because when we come back we'll be asking the Fentons how ordinary people like you and I can learn how to use an ectogun so that we can all be a little safer from the supernatural."

As the commercials came on Sam sat and thought for a moment. When it finally hit her she felt like an idiot for not having pieced it together earlier at school.

"Fenton, huh. Well I guess that makes some sense."

As she sat and continued to watch the rest of the interview Sam pondered what it must be like to live in a family of world renown ghost hunters.

A/N: Stay tuned, I'm going to be posting multiple chapters over the next few days to get caught up, since most of these early chapters are coming right from the old Ectoplasmic Secrets. I am editing them before reposting them here, so that's the only slight hold up.

Thank you for reading! Feel free to drop a review if you have some time! :)