After School


"What's up Danny? You've been grumpy since 3rd hour when Spectra showed up." Sam asked, pushing her deep purple-black hair back behind her ear. The trio was walking towards Danny's house, Tucker on the other side of Sam fiddling with his tablet while Sam had her phone playing music out loud.

"I accidentally sent the bitch to Jazz's college." He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, "I tried calling her during lunch but just kept getting her voicemail. I'm really worried and I feel like an ass."

"Danny, not everything is your fault. You didn't mean to send her." Sam put a hand on his arm with a comforting smile while Tucker grinned and added,

"Besides if anyone can handle Spectra it's your sister. If anything she'll probably have her and Bertrand at each others throats in minutes."

Danny chuckled and had to admit that was probably what happened. Jazz had a few anti-ghost tools with her as well anyways. His friends were right and so he relaxed as best he could while Sam turned up a song from Dumpty-Humpty.

"Mom, Dad, I'm home!" Danny called, opening his front door and stepping in with Sam and Tuck. There was a gurgling roar and Jack called out, "In the kitchen son!"

Peering through the trio blinked at Jack wielding a broom and beating a large glowing green jello mold back into the experiments fridge while Maddie was writing down her observations in a notebook.

The redhead smiled warmly, "How was school dear? Your father spilled some ectoplasmic energy we had into a jello cup."

"It was fine... uh need any help dad?" Danny raised an eyebrow.

"No no I think this is gonna take all afternoon so why don't you and your friends go out somewhere? GET BACK FOUL GELATINOUS SPOOK!" The jello squealed and hissed, globbing onto Jack's face.

Maddie handed the trio some money absently and hurried to help her husband, the teens slowly backing up when the Fenton anti-creep stick was hauled out and Jack's cries of pain followed them out the door.

"Welp... Nasty Burger?" Danny rubbed the back of his neck. Why was his family so weird?

"Sounds good to me." Sam snickered, slinging an arm around his shoulders.

The burger place was busy as ever with the afterschool crowd grabbing bites to eat. Danny got a chicken sandwich, Tucker his usual meat monstrosity, and Sam mixed it up with french fries topped with the meat free chili.

"I'll go grab the drinks, Danny how about you snatch our booth before it gets taken?" Sam offered, taking the empty cups they were handed while Tucker waited for their order at the counter.

"Sounds good. I want the lime cola this time." He smiled and wandered towards the bathroom area where their booth was.

He was surprised, however, seeing a familiar blonde girl sitting there already, books spread across the table while she nibbled on chicken nuggets and wrote in a notebook. Looking at the books he felt green at the gills at the sight of violent and gory police photographs mixed in with case files and plenty of legalese.

Dahlia sensed a figure beside her and looked up, smiling as always. "Hello Daniel. Something wrong?" She tilted her head, taking a sip from her soda.

"Ah... uh..." He swallowed, not feeling very hungry anymore, "You're in our booth..." He grimaced realizing how entitled and bratty that sounded. Shit it was like Dash and the A-Lister's "You can't sit with us" attitude.

"Oh? Well there's plenty of room for four if you'd like to join me. I'll have to put away my books." She hummed, putting a sticky note in the book farthest from her and closing it.

"Did you grab our seats Da... Oh hey Dolly." Sam approached, a questioning look on her face.

"Hello Samantha." She smiled putting away a few more books, Danny noticed she didn't close the most picture heavy ones first, "Just give me a second and I'll let you sit down. I assume Tucker will be joining?"

"Yeah." Sam slid into the opposite seat awkwardly, just to set down the drinks if anything.

Dolly made room and patted the seat next to her for Danny, "Well don't just stand there like a garden gnome." She giggled, eyes only locked onto his.

"Um... maybe I should go help Tucker with the trays..." He stepped back and waited for her to put all her books away.

His ears burned hearing Dolly talk with Sam, "Squeamish isn't he?" When Sam picked up one of the law books and asked what she was working on.

Danny grabbed the second tray while Tucker balanced his own and they returned to the booth. Tucker grinned and slid in next to Dolly, "Hey there~ Tucker Foley, your future boyfriend." He wiggled his eyebrows as she looked benignly at him.

"Well you'd have to fight my current boyfriend for my hand. I expect pistols at dawn tomorrow. I'll tell him right now so he can prepare. I do hope you have a weapon." She pulled out her phone, all the charms dangling from the wrist strap clinking together, and started texting. Tucker cried out and backpedaled, attempting to grab her phone from her hands. "NO NEED! NO NEED!"

Sam and Danny snickered, the halfa handing her her fries while he dug into his own.

"So you have a boyfriend?" Sam asked curiously.

"Correct. He's in college though so you wouldn't know him." She didn't expand much upon it, choosing to bite into a chicken nugget dipped in honey. The goth made a face, but busied herself with own food, an awkward silence washing over them.

Danny fidgeted, Dolly was staring at him while Sam and Tucker argued about something he wasn't paying attention to. She kept smiling creepily and his skin was starting to crawl.

"You know..." Her soft southern drawl cooed beneath the shouting match between them, "You have absolutely delicious looking eyes... like big blueberries." She giggled, licking a salt covered finger.

"Wh-What?" He squeaked and she gathered her things.

"Well I must be heading home now. Please let me out of the booth Tucker." She picked up her tray and Tucker got up so she could get out.

She looked straight at Danny, "See you at school if we don't meet sooner." It felt ominous to the halfa, the boy shivering but nodding to be polite.

"Danny!" His attention was immediately ripped towards Sam who had the familiar fires of social justice in her eyes, "Tell Tucker it'd be perfectly fine for the next Doomed game to have a girl protagonist!"

"What would it matter? It's first person!"

"I... what?" he stammered and Sam rolled her eyes. Perhaps he should have stayed home and worked on his... Ah shit... I have homework... Danny groaned and dropped his head onto the table.


A/N: Everything is not what it seems.