Chapter LXIII
"And, would you believe it, she had a fever!"
Danny and Tucker laughed at the end of the story. A very bemused Skulker sat at the Fenton's dinner table holding a teacup in his mechanical hand. The small cup looked like a fly in comparison.
"Is she still sick?" Tucker asked hopefully.
"Sadly, her health has returned. She claimed to need solace as her recovery completed, and I took advantage of the situation."
"So day one of Skulker's Week Off has been good so far?" Danny inquired.
Skulker gingerly held the teacup up to his mouth and too a sip of the liquid. "It has been very good, although I'm somewhat confused as to why Samantha has not arrived."
"You and me both," Danny said. "She hasn't picked up her cell phone all day and all I get is the answering machine when I try the landline."
"You haven't simply gone over to ensure everything is alright? With the abilities you possess, such a task would be effortless."
"I don't like to use my powers like that," Danny said sheepishly. His hand rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well then why not use your average human whelp abilities and ring the doorbell?"
Danny scowled. "Because, Ghost Zone's greatest cynic, Sam's parents are out of town. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but her grandmother went with them. So she's home by herself. If Tucker or I even step foot over there, we could get sued."
"He's not kidding," Tucker said, entering the conversation. "Sam's dad is crazy about her hanging out with us at all. Going over to her house when there's absolutely no parental supervision would be grounds for a restraining order. And that would be going easy on us."
Skulker rubbed the green flame that made up his goatee. "Well, her father said nothing about family visitation, did he now?"
Danny and Tucker shook their heads.
"Wonderful."
The ghost turned intangible and floated up through the roof. Danny and Tucker watched him go before returning to their lunch, which consisted of tea and homemade cookies.
Danny let out a chuckle. "Who'da thought Skulker would like this stuff?"
"Not me," Tucker said.
"Speaking of technological beings how's that jacket Technus made for me?"
"Oh, that thing's finished. I got all those electric shock generators out, but managed to keep the light-up function intact so those cool techno patterns will still glow."
"Awesome." Danny set the plate of cookies on the counter next to the pantry. The tea was placed in the refrigerator. "So, you find anything out about Technus with all the code he left you?"
Tucker smiled. "The next time he rolls around town, you won't have to be able to punch him to beat him senseless. I've got the solution for all Technus related problems."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah really. I spun off plenty of programs using his basic code he left in the jacket. I have firewalls to keep our stuff safe from him as well as viruses that can easily get into him and quickly bring him down."
"I'm starting to miss the guy," Danny said as he sat back down at the table. "But I'm starting to miss Sam more. You think she's ok?"
Tucker readjusted his beret on his head. "Dude, she's fine. Remember, its Sam you're talking about. What could possibly be happening right now that would be placing her in any danger whatsoever?"
"Hello?" Sam said groggily as she answered her cell phone.
"Hey there sleeping beauty, hope I didn't wake you up," replied the person on the other line.
Sam sat up in her bed. "Who's this?" she mumbled.
"It's Paulina, silly, who else?" came the all-too-happy response.
"Paulina?" Sam almost shouted. "What do you want?"
"Oh, nothing. So, what'cha doin?"
"Hanging up."
"Wait, wait, wait!" Paulina shouted.
Sam sighed and brought the phone back to her ear. "What? What do you want?"
"Got plans for tonight?" the Hispanic girl asked.
"Well, seeing as how tomorrow is our last day off before the school reopens, I was going to spend the day with Danny and Tucker, safely away from the brutality of conformity and high school popularity."
"Funny, because Dash tells me that Danny is going over to his place for an all night game bonanza or something like that," Paulina countered, ignoring Sam's verbal jest.
Sam's heart sank. "Well I'll just hang out with Tucker then."
"Tucker was invited too. And, since it's an all night thing, Dash's parents have a strict boys-only policy."
Sam sighed. Paulina was, most likely, right. Ever since Danny was indicted into the A-List crowd, he seemed to be drifting further and further away. "Ok, so I don't have any plans at all. Thanks for darkening my mood, now I'm going to sit here in despair until tomorrow."
"Or, you could come over to my house," the girl offered. "I'm having the girls over since most of them have nothing to do thanks to Dash's party. Interested?"
"Why would I want to hang out with you and your self centered, egotistical, megalomaniacal-"
"Hey, if you don't want to come, that's fine," Paulina said, interrupting Sam's rant. "I'm not asking you to show up wearing pink and talk about boys all night."
"But, ultimately, that's what you're all going to do, right? And I'll be forced to sit there and listen to everyone blather on about God-knows-what until three in the morning when you all pass out from oxygen deprivation."
There was a pause from Paulina's end. "I don't know why you're so mean to me," she said quietly.
"Because you're-"
"Because I'm what? Because I'm pretty? Because I just happen to hang out with the people everyone else thinks are cool? Because I'm a cheerleader? What? I want to know."
"You and everyone like you have done nothing but torment Danny, Tucker and me for as long as we could comprehend what torment was."
"Oh, right, yeah, name one thing I did to you ever."
It was Sam's turn to remain silent.
"Sure, we all make jokes, but don't sit there and tell me that you and your two boy toys don't do the same."
"Boy toys?"
"Forget it. Look, for what it's worth, I'm sorry for anything mean I've ever done directly to you in the past, ok? Besides, Tucker and Danny seem to have let bygones be bygones with Dash and his goons, why can't you?"
Sam rubbed her eyes with her free hand and looked out her window. Her eyelids snapped open and the form of her uncle hovered outside, his arms crossed impatiently.
"Yeah, ok, I do. Listen, I have to go," Sam said hurriedly. In her haste to get out of her bed, her feet became entangled in her sheets and she cried out as she fell to the ground with a thump. "Just, I don't know, text me directions or whatever."
"You'll be there?"
"Yes, yes, ok? I have to go now, bye!" Sam closed her phone, cutting off the Hispanic girl and tossed it onto her bed. She yanked the sheets off of her feet and scrambled over to the window.
"Uncle Kain!" Sam said gleefully as she opened the window.
Skulker looked at the frame with a raised eyebrow. It was obviously too small for him to simply fly through.
"Samantha," Skulker said as he fazed through the wall. He was quickly embraced by his niece and he awkwardly returned the gesture. "How have you been?"
"Well, I've been better. Some weird stuff has been going on lately."
"You're telling me," the mercenary said under his breath. "Care to explain why you weren't at your mate's residence this morning?"
"He is not my mate!" Sam said angrily. "How many times do I have to tell you that? Besides, I'm not supposed to hang out with them until my parents get back."
"It would've been nice to call your mate with this news before sending him into a panicked frenzy."
"He got that worried?" Sam asked. Correcting her uncle seemed to have slipped her mind.
"Well, maybe frenzy is too strong a word. But he was worried. He claims that you failed to return his cellular and standard telephone calls."
Sam walked back over to her bed and picked up her phone. A message reported that she had missed over twenty calls in the past half hour. All were either from Danny's cell phone or his house.
"That's so sweet- uh, I mean, that's so, err, like him. I just overslept. He just needs to realize that I can take care of myself."
"I have to sympathize with him on this one," Skulker replied with a grin. "You do an awful job taking care of just your hair."
Sam lifted her hands up to her head and felt around. "I just woke up!"
Skulker rolled his eyes. "No, not that, I'm speaking of the irrational repetition of, what's the word, dyeing?"
Sam gasped. "How did you know?"
Skulker chuckled. "The odds of you having black hair, whereas both your mother and father have blonde hair, are astronomical. Your grandmother had blonde hair before it became white. Hell, even I had blonde hair. Why do you cover yours?"
Sam bit her lower lip and looked at her mirror on the far side of the room. "Even before I met Danny and Tucker and everyone else I know I've always hated my hair. It looked so . . . different."
Skulker floated in front of his niece. "I thought you embraced individuality," he stated. "Am I incorrect?"
Sam walked closer to her mirror. "No, you're right. I do like that stuff; individuality, self expression, the whole nine yards-"
Skulker cringed. "You liked that movie?"
Sam rolled her eyes. "-but my hair was always just . . . I don't know, made me feel like one of them."
Skulker hovered behind Sam and gently rested his wide hands on her shoulders. "If I may provide a second opinion?" Sam nodded. "You should remove the falsified coloration. Your natural beauty is what makes you unique."
Sam gazed into her mirror, deep in thought. Skulker moved back and crossed his arms.
"You're right," she said at long last, turning to face her uncle. "I mean, you know, maybe just for today. But how am I supposed to-"
Skulker pressed his finger to Sam's forehead. Her body became intangible, but the hair dye that covered each strand fell and dissipated into thin air, having nothing to cling to. Her eyebrows received the same treatment. Skulker recalled his finger and Sam turned once again to look in the mirror. A smile crept onto her face as she saw herself, almost for the first time. Samantha Manson's reflection, with a full head of platinum blonde, almost silver, hair, stared right back at her.
"Wow . . . I haven't seen it like this in so long. Uncle Kain, what do you-" Sam looked around the room only to find Skulker had vanished. "Darn it. He's gone."
Sam looked down at her nightgown and sighed, realizing that she would have to change. She walked into her closet and looked around for something to wear. For some strange reason, though, nothing in her newly acquired gothic wardrobe appealed to her.
Hey, it's the new me! At least for today. I should think outside the box . . . more so than usual, Sam thought to herself.
Spying a normal pair of blue jeans, she snatched them off the hangar and threw them outside the expansive closet onto the floor. The young woman then searched for a suitable top to go with her pants. Again, none of the gloomy and occasionally skull-riddled T-shirts seemed to fit the mood. Sam growled as she dug deeper, making quite a mess of things. A black shirt with green sleeves flew past. A purple shirt with fishnet sleeves followed. A black belly shirt soared through the air-
-and was immediately grabbed up again. Sam looked at the article of clothing with curiosity. It was a most unusual idea, the one that was running through her mind, but her new look called for, well, a new look. The top landed on the pair of jeans outside the closet. Sam stood up, hit her head on a shelf and reached up to soothe the afflicted area, accidentally grabbing yet another article of clothing. Sam pulled it down from the shelf and grinned. It was a button-up version of the shirt that Danny so often wore. In fact, the shirt was Danny's. She had borrowed it from Danny during a particularly slimy ghost battle in which her original shirt had been coated in a most disgusting residue and failed to return it to him. The red collar and sleeve lining accented the red oval that was split by at the middle perfectly.
Within ten minutes, Sam's new outfit was draped over her body and she was admiring her new, if temporary, look in her mirror. Her hair was released from the green ponytail and hung loosely over her shoulders, which were covered by Danny's T-shirt. It was left unbuttoned, revealing her slender figure. The jeans hung around her hips and her black top showed off more of her midsection than even her grandmother would have found appropriate. Well, maybe not her grandma . . .
I wonder if Danny would like this, Sam mused as she examined herself in the mirror. She allowed herself to laugh at her own introspective question. Who am I kidding? I look like one of those ego-inflated peppy princesses. He'd be all over me in seconds.
"I just wish there was some way he could see me like this," she mumbled softly.
"Your heart's desire is my command," said an eerie, disembodied voice.
Sam heard what sounded like gunshots go off from her bathroom, instantly distracting her from the voice. The girl vaulted to the door and threw it open. Her jaw dropped as she saw the entire room covered in black liquid. The remains of her exploded hair dye bottles littered the floor.Sam cursed under her breath. The stuff was very, very expensive. It was one of the few brands in the world that made black hair dye that didn't look completely ridiculous and obvious when applied. But that wasn't the worst part. Sam was not as clueless as some people she knew and realization set in quickly that she had none of the substance left to re-dye her hair before Paulina's party.
"Oh crap."
"Oh crap," Danny said angrily as Tucker threw a plasma grenade from across Lockout. Danny walked right into it and exploded.
"Geometry's golden!" Tucker shouted from the room over. Danny grumbled and waited for his player to respond.
"Dude, you're getting your ass whooped on!" Kwan taunted.
"I know," Danny said irritably. "Tucker somehow figured out the geometric measurements of this game along with the trajectories of all the weapons."
"So there's no way to beat him?" Dash asked as he set a two liter bottle of soda on the table next to the television.
"One thing that Tucker can't do during a videogame is account for variables. You have to be the variable."
"Of course, sansei. I shall bring forth more Pepsi to appease your restless soul." Dash bowed and left the room.
Danny cheered as he sniped Tucker without using his scope.
"What's the matter?" Danny called out. "Your calculator run outta batteries?"
"Going blind in your old age? We're tied, fool!"
Danny frowned at the scoreboard, showing the scores at twenty four to twenty four. The next kill would win the game.
"I feel a comeback coming up!" Danny shouted as he picked up the shotgun.
"That's redundant! Or contradictory, I'm not sure which," Tucker replied as the sound of an energy sword activating reached Danny's ears.
"Doesn't matter what it is, 'cause I'm gonna win!"
"In your dreams!"
Danny's character rounded the corner and came face to face with Tucker's character. The sage SPARTAN, patterned with crimson markings reeled back at the sight of its steel-colored adversary.
Tucker lunged, but Danny ducked just in time. Tucker, not missing a beat, jumped on Danny's head and leapt backwards, throwing a fragmentation grenade at his opponent's feet. Danny tried to jump clear of the blast radius, but the device exploded, sending him up at an angle. Tucker lunged with his sword, but he missed and the two players found themselves hurtling to an early death. Both of them primed a plasma grenade and stuck the other right on the faceplate. Twin orbs of blue fire erupted from somewhere below the facility entrenched into the snowy mountainside. An ominous voice spoke up upon the two SPARTANs' demises.
"Game over."
The post-game carnage report declared that the two had tied for first place. Danny set his controller down and sighed. Wins, losses, ties; he took them all as they came.
"Well you two have sufficiently wasted about twenty minutes," Dash said as he came back in the room, followed by Tucker. "And the party doesn't start for another three hours. Any ideas until then?"
"You guys could take us on," Tucker offered.
Kwan laughed. "Yeah right! We'd be massacred!"
"So what's your bright idea?" Tucker retorted.
"I don't know . . . we could see if Paulina's online."
"You want Danny and me to watch while you two have cyber sex with Paulina?"
Dash laughed. "No, idiot, I have a web cam. It's like being in the same room as the person . . . but you're not."
"Well fire it up!" Danny said as he sprawled himself out on Dash's sofa. "I haven't seen her in a while."
"Oooh, looks like Fenton-ouski has a crush on Paulina!" Dash said in a mocking tone.
"Are you kidding? What would Paulina see in scrawny, geeky Danny Fenton?"
"Dude, don't be so hard on yourself. She's totally into you," Dash replied.
"You're so full of-"
"I'm dead serious. I'll ask her if you don't believe me."
"Go for it, dude," Danny said with a yawn.
"She's online," Kwan announced. "I'm getting the link established, hold on one second . . . there! Say hello to the guys, Paulina!"
The Hispanic girl sat at a chair on her computer. She smiled and waved at the camera that was mounted on top of her computer monitor.
"Hello boys," she said happily. "Who's all there?"
"It's me," Dash said, taking the seat where Kwan was, "Kwan and mister Foley. Who's all at your place?"
"Just me and Star," Paulina turned around, revealing Star in the background painting her nails. "Say hi to your boyfriend, sweetie!"
Star raised an eyebrow at her friend, but then saw Tucker waving at her from the computer screen. Her face reddened at the realization that he was watching her go about her self pampering activities.
"Hey Tuck," she said with a giggle. "Sorry you had to see me like this."
"Don't worry about it," Tucker replied. "And, might I add, that is a lovely shade you're applying." Tucker leaned closer to the screen. "Would that happen be Cherry Red #7?"
Star rolled her eyes and picked up the container that was on the table next to her. Her eyes widened in shock. "Yeah, it is! Omigosh, how'd you know that?"
"You'll find I'm full of surprises," Tucker said with a smirk.
Paulina swiveled her chair and took up the screen again. "So Tucker, where's Danny? I thought he'd be there with you guys."
"He's running late. He said he'd be here soon."
"Oh," the girl looked down at her desk.
"Why do you care?" Dash pressed. "You like him or something?"
Paulina grinned. "Well, he is cute, but he likes Sam, doesn't he?"
Tucker shoved Dash's chair out of the way and centered himself in front of the web cam. "He adores Sam. I mean, like, seriously, he pretty much worships the ground she walks on. Why do you think he started wearing all that black recently anyway? He's starting to lose control over his urges to just get Sam alone in a room and-"
"You're joking," Paulina said incredulously, cutting Tucker off from his detailed analysis.
"Absolutely not."
"Well," Paulina licked her lips slowly. "If he ever needs help taming the beast within, send him my way. I'm sure I could find . . . some way to soothe him."
"Alright, I have to go before I hurl all over my computer," Dash said loudly, elbowing Tucker out of the way. "We'll be on later." Dash shut down the computer, not bothering to exit out of the program.
"That was disturbing." Kwan said. "I hope that cleared things up for you, Fenton."
Danny was grinning from ear to ear. "Yup."
"Come on, dude," Tucker sighed. "She was obviously joking."
"I don't know, Tucker," Dash replied as he brought out more bags of chips before heading back into the kitchen once again. "She seemed pretty serious to me."
"Whatever the case may be, Danny likes Sam." Tucker turned with a smile to the teenager in question. "Isn't that right, Dan?"
"Dude, leave the Danny loves Sam stuff to Jazz, please?" Danny said with an exasperated sigh.
"Speaking of which," Dash chimed in as he reentered the room, "how's she doing?"
"Good. She's been counseling little kids for the past few days as part of her college thesis or something like that, but I think she has tonight off." Danny looked at the taller boy suspiciously. "Why do you ask?"
"What, I can't check up on my friends' families?"
"You never ask how my family's doing . . ." Kwan said sadly.
"I saw them yesterday, nitwit."
"Oh, right."
"Jazz is fine," Danny spoke up. His expression was stern. "She has been very busy recently, and is going to use her down time to work on some invention my parents are making."
"Jazz is into that ghost stuff?" Dash asked curiously.
"She's more in it for the psychological possibilities. She figures there have to be ways to communicate with ghosts and, if that's true, she thinks there are peaceful ways to get them to leave humans alone."
"That's pretty deep," Tucker said. "I never knew that was why she was so into the stuff."
"And now you do."
"I wish I could see her tonight," Dash said mostly to himself. Danny heard him and glared daggers in his direction. "Just, you know, to say hi or something."
Danny chuckled. "Yeah, or something."
"You're hearts desire is my command," spoke a mysterious and undeniably feminine voice.
"What the hell was that?" Kwan asked in a nervous tone. He looked around the room trying to find the source of the voice.
"I don't-" Danny was cut off mid-sentence as his cell phone began to ring in his pocket. He quickly withdrew the device and opened it. "Hello?"
"Danny? It's Jazz," replied his sister. "Listen, I just got invited to Paulina Sanchez' house for her party tonight. Are you going too?"
Danny laughed. "Jazz, that's a girl's only party."
"So, are you going?" Danny could practically hear the smile on Jazz's face.
"Oh, I'm roffling right now, you're just that funny," Danny said as he rolled his eyes. "I'll be at Dash's house for the night."
"Really?" Jazz asked, her tone now interested. "How's he doing?"
"He's right here, why don't you ask him yourself?"
"What? Oh, no, I couldn't! I mean, I was just-"
"Well that's ok; you'll get to talk to him later tonight anyway. Paulina's got a web cam in her room so everyone can talk to each other."
"That's, uh, great! Wonderful! I can't wait. Tell him that I said hi."
"Will do. Drive safe."
"Yeah, you too, bye!"
Danny closed his phone with a smile.
"Who was that?" Tucker asked as he started up a cooperative game with Kwan on Halo 2.
"Jazz, she's going to Paulina's party" Danny turned to Dash. "She's totally into you."
Dash's eyes widened. "How do you know?"
"Dude, nothing like that slips past me," Danny responded proudly. "I am . . ." he lowered his voice to a hush. "The Observant One."
"My ass," Tucker said as his character blasted an Elite in the face. "You're the clueless one, in case you've forgotten."
"Why am I the-"
"Guys," Dash said in sudden shock. "That voice!"
"The one in your head telling you to burn things?" Kwan asked with a grin. "I thought you got rid of it."
"No, stupid, the one that said your hearts desire is . . . something, I forget, but I think it was a genie!"
Tucker, Kwan and Danny traded glances before bursting out into laughter.
"A genie?" Kwan asked through strangled gasps for air. "Why a friggin genie, dude?"
"I wished that I could see Danny's sister, and suddenly she decides to go to Paulina's party! Coincidence much?"
"Or . . . too coincidental to be a coincidence?" Tucker replied with a similar expression.
"You guys are serious?" Kwan asked, looking between the two. His eyes settled on Danny, hoping that someone else had retained their sanity. "Genies aren't real!"
Danny's eyes widened as well. "No, genies don't exist. But ghosts do."
To Be Continued
A/N
Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious who the ghost for this chapter is. No, it isn't Skulker, he just popped in to say hi. He might be back, but I'm not sure yet. And there's still one, maybe two, ghosts left to come into play. I mean, the first one hasn't really jumped right into the action yet either, but you already know who it is.
About Sam wearing hair dye. If you think about it what are the odds of a girl, born into a family where both of the parents are blonde, having black hair? If you recall, Sam's parents weren't introduced until the end of the first season, and served primarily to give basis to why Sam hates conformity. Now, if both of them revealed that they had been wearing wigs the whole time, I'd be obliged to fix my mistake. But they don't. I've watched all of season three and they're still blondes. But hey, what's done is done. I made the change and I'm sticking to it.
So I hope this was ok for all you. Next chapter, Danny and Sam see each other over the internet and Danny makes a stunning observation about the young woman. You won't want to miss it!
Thanks to my reviewers, especially Skye-chan, Fulcon, leadfoot352, slyfoxx, Musicallity, Bloxham, Bitchy Princess, TDG3RD, MissMeliss4251, Twilight-Phantom66, artbug, Warrior of winds, Celestial Maiden Sukira and darkbunny92.
Autobots, transform and roll out!