The next few days went by easily for Danny. He got up, ate a decent breakfast, went to the pool, swam a few hours, came home, had some lunch, worked on his bike, did a few other things, had dinner, and then went on patrol for a bit before going to bed and repeating the whole cycle the next day. It was a comforting cycle that allowed the week to just pass by.
Danny didn't speak to Dash much after that second day. The blond would wave when he saw Danny and he'd wave back politely. It felt weird to Danny to be seeing Dash so often now and not being a victim of any pranks or him trying to shove him. If was weird, but he was quickly starting to get used to it.
It was Sunday now, and the young half ghost had decided to be like most teens his age and sleep in that day. The pool was closed on Sunday mornings anyway and Danny knew that he had to give his body a rest sometimes to prevent over training himself. After waking up late and enjoying a bowl of cereal Danny decided to spend more time on finishing the engine of his bike. He had most of it together and would be ready to start building the bike part once he had what he wanted it to look like straight in his head.
"Uhg…!" Danny looked up at the clock that hung on the wall and groaned again letting his head fall to the work bench he was assembling things, "I don't know why this is so HARD…! I've been working all morning!"
Shoving back on the table he sighed and packed things up for now. It was about time for lunch and he still needed to pick up a few parts from the auto store. Grabbing his wallet he headed out. It was a nice enough day, a bit overcast and windy but Danny liked the weather like that. Wasn't too hot, but was far from cold so it made the day comfortable enough to walk in.
Once he reached the auto store, Danny spent a few minutes looking around at various parts and pieces of engines and car accessories. Spark plugs, fuel lines, motor oil, light bulbs, hydraulic pumps; this store had everything you'd need to fix up your car and getting it running again. Ever since he had taken up this little project of his a few months ago Danny had been in this store enough to familiarize himself with every nook and cranny so that he could get in and get out as fast as he needed to. Not to say that he wanted to leave too fast sometimes, the owner of the store was a nice enough man and had helped Danny order a few special parts. He was also very helpful in his advice on how to build an engine and sometimes Danny would ask him questions about which things were best.
"Ahh Danny-boy!"
'And speak of the devil,' Danny thought happily as he saw Mr. Allen walked over to him.
"Hey, sir. Those parts I ordered come in yet?"
"They came in just yesterday my boy, come on and have a look, make sure it's all what you wanted." The man was in his early 40s with some slight grey to his brown hair and was the same height as Danny. Though he looked like he was getting on in years, with a bit of a bulge showing around the middle, the man was still youthful and full of energy when Danny talked to him and he always seemed to have a smile on his slightly tanned face.
Mr. Allen walked behind the counter and pulled out a few boxes of parts that Danny had ordered and allowed the boy to look them over. After opening up the boxes and checking each part he decided that they were all good and set about paying for them.
"So how's the building going, Danny? You got the engine about built by now surely?"
"Yes, sir, I've got the engine pretty much built. Now just have to work on the ignition and get the other things started," He let out a groan and rubbed at his face, "It would be much further along if I could just get an idea on what I wanted it to look like. I have a basic frame in mind but I can't decide on how I want everything put together."
"Well, kid, don't fret too much on it. It'll come to ya. In fact here," Mr. Allen reached around to the magazine stand that stood next to the check out and put a magazine on motorcycles into Danny's bag, "On the house. Maybe you'll get an idea from that and next time you'll come in you'll be ready to look at some paint and fenders."
"Thanks, Mr. Allen," Danny smiled and waved goodbye to the man as he left out of the store and started to head to a pizza place down the street. The Nasty Burger was still a good enough place to eat and hang out, but without Sam and Tucker around it was just too lonely. He really didn't know how he was going to manage this next year without anyone around to hang out with.
"Ehh maybe being the school loner will be better than being the loser everyone made me out to be." Danny sighed to himself and didn't notice as a door opened up right in his face, sending him stumbling back holding his head where he'd been hit.
"Oh, damn-it I'm so sorry I didn't see you- Fenton?" Danny looked up and saw Dash was the one who had opened the door that hit him. What surprised him more, though, was that Dash was walking out of an art store that sold all sorts of craft materials, frames, paints, and the like.
"Dash?" Danny rubbed at his head and once he made sure he wasn't bleeding tried to straighten himself out to not look any more pathetic than he had before, "What are you doing here?"
"I uhh…," he looked around embarrassed trying to find an excuse for coming out of an arts store when Danny looked down and saw he had a bag of colored pencils, some high quality markers, and some inking pens.
"I just needed to pick up a few things is all. Nothing special."
"You're into drawing?" Danny stared at Dash in pure shock. He had known the guy for years but he had never seen any sort of signs of artistic ability or leanings.
"Maybe…," a dark flush came to Dash's cheeks and he looked mildly insulted by the way Danny had said that, "What's it to you? I can like drawing if I want to."
"No, no, of course you can," Danny held up his hands in defense and surrender, "It's just… You never seemed like the type to draw or anything."
"Yeah well I'd have never pegged you for a gear head either, but you're building yourself a bike, aren't you?"
"Point." The half ghost nodded in defeat as another awkward silence fell over the two of them.
"So where's Foley and Manson?" Danny looked up at Dash who wouldn't meet his eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"Nothin'…," Dash shrugged, "Just figured what with it being summer and all you three would be hanging out all the time like always. Come to think about it I haven't seen Manson around you guys in ages. You break up or something?"
Danny groaned at that, despite people thinking he and Sam were together there were never any real feelings between the two of them. They were friends and they were almost like siblings with how close they were and any romantic ideas between the two of them were non-existent.
"We were never together, but she did move to Florida a couple months ago. Her grandmother wasn't doing so well so they moved with her to a warmer place. As for Tucker, before you ask, he got an early acceptance to a college in California and moved there."
"So you're like… all alone now?" Dash's voice sounded unsure and almost had a gentle tone to it. Like Dash could understand what it felt like to be alone or that he didn't want to actually upset him by bringing up the subject of losing his two best friends.
"Yeah, well don't rub it in." Danny growled and looked up into Dash's eyes and saw that they looked almost apologetic at hearing the news.
"Sorry, but yeah my best friends left so I don't have anyone to really hang out with this summer. Just as well, that leaves me plenty of time to do other things I guess." Danny held up his bag of parts to show just what other things he was doing.
"Well yeah, but still…" Dash looked around and rubbed at the back of his head like he was embarrassed about something now, "Well… I don't have anyone to really hang out with either this summer. Kwan's off visiting relatives this month and Paulina…" Dash shrugged, "Well she's still my friend and all but we're not as close as you and Manson seemed to be, and she's off on a cruise around Jamaica, Greece, or… I dunno could be a cruise around Easter Island for all I know."
"So…?" Danny looked at the blond before him, unsure of what he thought Dash was going to say was what he was thinking or not.
"Well, I know we haven't exactly been friends or anything, but if you want to hang out and maybe do something, well… Ya know having someone around is more fun than being alone."
"Yeah, I guess…" Danny looked around and sighed. This was all feeling very strange and unusual for him and the fact that his former bully was standing here before him asking to hang out just to have some company sounded almost beyond crazy to him.
"Well…," Danny sighed after a moment of silence had passed between them, "I was about to head to that new pizza place just down the road here."
"You mean Chester's Pizzeria?"
"Yeah you been there?"
"No, but I've heard some good things about it. They true?"
Danny chuckled and started to walk down the road, "Oh trust me, Dash, this place is great. Come on I'll treat you to a slice."
"You don't have to do that." Dash quietly protested as he walked along behind the slightly shorter teen.
Danny didn't know why he had offered himself, perhaps being alone was finally taking its toll on him and he was considering the jock's offer for companionship. Still the fact he was seeking such a thing from Dash was an odd thought to admit. Maybe it was just the fact that they were both friendless for now that drew them together. Danny didn't know what he expected from this, though; when Kwan came back Dash would go back to hanging out with his old time friend leaving him alone again.
"You ok, Fenton?" Dash looked at him with a weird look as they reached their destination.
'And there it is,' Danny thought as they walked inside, 'We're just going to be acquaintances and once Kwan's back he'll go back to hanging out with him and I'll just go back to being by myself again.'
"It's nothing," Danny put on a casual smile and found a table for them to sit at. He picked up the menu and tried to keep his face neutral about things.
Dash sat down across from him at the table and picked up a menu to look things over, "So what's good here? I've never been here and I'm pretty simple in tastes, just pepperoni and mushrooms are my faves."
"Oh you can order any kind of toppings for your pizza, but they do a lot of really nice specialty pizzas. They have a buffalo pizza with match stick carrots, celery, blue cheese, hot sauce, and chicken and the dough is made with some pretty tasty seasonings. Their taco pizza is pretty good, has some guacamole on it, pepper jack cheese, yellow cheese, and nacho chips. They have like 100 different ingredients, over a dozen cheeses, several dough types all depending on what you like. They even make dessert pizzas with sweet dough."
Danny smiled as he talked about the food. This place really was great and he and his parents had started to make it a tradition to stop by for a pizza once a week and every time they tried something new. Dash on the other hand looked like he was having a hard time deciding on what exactly he wanted.
"Geeze… they have oysters, strawberries, spinach, ricotta… what's tripe?"
"Uhh… You don't want to know," Danny smirked.
"Well… how about you just order us something then, cause I gotta be honest I have no idea what I want from all these choices." Dash scratched his blond hair with a slightly overwhelmed look on his face.
"Fair enough," Danny flagged down a waitress and after they ordered their drinks Danny ordered them both a personal sized buffalo pizza. After their order was placed another familiar silence that made Danny feel so tense. It was like Danny was still that small little shrimpy guy he was a few years ago instead of the teenager on the cusp of manhood. Compared to Dash though and all his big buff muscles and good looks Danny still felt those minor insecurities build up again and it was hard to think of something to talk about.
"So… How's that bike coming along?" Dash sat in front of him fiddling with the straw of his soda when the woman brought their drink orders.
"Slowly. I have the engine and everything together but I can't come up with a good design so I'm stuck with just the basic structure."
"Huh, that's a shame…" Dash reached into his bag and pulled out a sketch pad and a pencil.
"What are you doing?" Danny tried to lean over to see what Dash was doing but couldn't get a clear view.
"Well you already know my little secret so I thought while we were waiting for our pizzas I'd practice some drawings. You talking about that bike of yours actually got me wanting to draw more cars and vehicles. Never really had a reason to, so thought I might get some practice in."
"You're really into drawing aren't you?" Danny still couldn't get that little tidbit out of his head when he had first heard it.
"Yeah… though I'm not really that great or anything, I sorta suck at whatever I draw but at least it looks partially decent." The way Dash's voice sounded was different from how Danny always had heard it. Looking up he saw an insecure teenager sitting across from him instead of the brash, loud, and confident jock that he had known for years. It was hard to imagine such a strong guy like Dash being so shy and insecure about something, but here he was trying to do something that he was already so certain wouldn't look good before he even finished it.
"Can I see?"
"What?" Dash looked up and Danny simply pointed at the sketch book he was holding.
"Can I see some of your sketches?" Danny was actually a little curious to see what kind of artistic ability Dash had. He never had any real artistic ability himself so he might not be the best judge of talent, but he knew what he liked and that was good enough for him.
"I guess…" Dash hugged his book to him before he handed it over to the raven haired teen, "But if you laugh I'll pound you, Fenton! No one besides Kwan even knows I do this sorta stuff so you best keep it under wraps!"
"I promise, Dash, I'm pretty good at keeping secrets so you don't have to worry about that." He took the book with a comforting smile and opened it up to the page he had been working on. On the page were fairly crude but impressive sketches of parts of a motorcycle from different angles.
Danny flipped through a few pages looking at each new drawing with a critical eye. Dash had actually drawn some pretty impressive bikes and he was impressed with some of the details he included. Sure they were rough and unfinished but they had a great deal of potential.
"Dash these are pretty good," Danny kept flipping through the book until he came to a page that was full of bats and he stopped and stared at the drawings of bat faces, wing structures, and profiles.
"Uhh… What's with the bats?" Danny looked up and a blush quickly fell over Dash's face as he reached over to yank the sketch book out of his hands.
"Nothing!" Dash shoved his book back into his bag and that only made Danny more curious but he wouldn't pry more, lest he get beat up again by his former bully.
"Well they were well drawn too. All of it was well drawn," Danny chuckled as an idea tickled his brain, "Heh, maybe I should show you my bike and maybe you can draw me up a design to work from."
The raven haired teen had said it as a joke, he had meant it as a joke, but apparently the joke was lost on Dash, "Sure I could likely come up with a design for you. Would be good practice anyway."
The blond shrugged like it was no big deal and Danny could only stare in amazement that he was willing to do that. It seemed surreal that Dash Baxter, the resident school all-star jock and bully would be willing to do him a favor. Then again the whole situation about hanging out with him was also strange to him.
Before Danny could question why he was acting like this, their pizzas were brought to them. Danny smiled at the plate before him and started to dig right into the hot cheesy goodness that it was. Normally most people wouldn't be able to handle the extreme temperatures of the oven fresh pizza, but with a bit of ice powers Danny could cool his food to a bearable temperature and eat it without burning himself.
If Dash noticed how he ate steaming hot pizza so fast he didn't mention it, but he separated his own pizza and blew on it before he took a bite. The jock commented on how good it was and Danny just smirked around his own slice. The pizza at this place was the best in town and Danny hoped they would get a lot more business in the future.
After finishing up their lunch, Danny paid for the meal like he said he would and the two left. Dash had said that he was interested in seeing this bike of Danny's so he lead him back to his place. It still felt weird to Danny that Dash Baxter was hanging out with the school loser, but somewhere deep down it was a good weird that he felt he could enjoy for the time it lasted.