By Any Means
Disclaimers: Danny Phantom does not belong to me. Neither does the box ghost… (oh gawd, say it aint so!!)
AN/ To alleviate any future confusion, since this story is dealing with the passage of time, I will offer a small tip. The events of the first chapter occur at least thirty or so years prior to the events of the second chapter. So about in the mid 1970s or so. This half of the story takes place in the year 2010.
Jazz's Birth— 1967
Danny's Birth— 1969
Jack's Death— 1975
Sam & Tuck's Current Time— 2010
Did I mention I love the box ghost?
Song quote this time is "A Modern Myth" by 30 Seconds to Mars.
Last Time on BAM:
A vengeful spirit attacks Jack Fenton in his own home.
Quote: "See you in hell."
Chapter Two: The Ghost "Loser" Club
Did we create a modern myth
Did we imagine half of it?
-30 Seconds to Mars
Sam could have told her best friend exactly what was going to happen during their investigation of the old Vanderclute Manor. They'd do the thermal and the EMF sweeps, (though how on earth Tucker managed to come up with such expensive Fenton merchandise, heaven only knew). He'd attempt a séance. Do some pointless white noise incoherently filled EVPs and video tape every inch of the place. In the end, they'd only jump at the house settling and the occasional stray animal. And their hours of footage would only reveal some orbs that she and Tucker would bicker over pointlessly until they both agreed on it either being dust or bugs.
Yes. She could have saved Tucker and herself the trouble. But she also knew there was no dissuading her paranormal obsessive friend. I told you so, never seemed to keep them from going on another investigation. She didn't even believe in ghosts. But to amuse Tucker, she tagged along on his self appointed missions of first contact.
After all she had no idea that it would evolve into an after school program. Being the founder's best friend made her instant second in command. That brought the Casper High's Paranormal and Ghost Hunting Society up to two members, Tucker and herself.
At least she had something to put on her future college applications under extracurricular activities. That was if she survived freshman year. Being the only goth and having an active part in one of the most ridiculed after school clubs in Casper High's history, called for a lot of bullying. Sometimes by a blonde haired brute named Dash Baxter, whom Sam was far from being afraid of. And mostly, if not all, by the leading high school beauty knockout, Paulina.
Most people rooted for her when she stood up against Dash's torments. But her defiant attitude against their class' leading lady, seeming to earn her more scorn than high fives. Most girls admired Paulina. And most boys were hopelessly in love with her. To stand up to her was like spitting in the face of England's queen.
Unfortunately, Sam frequently did it. Paulina just rubbed her the wrong way. At least she could always take comfort in the fact that Tucker would never abandon her.
Sam followed sluggishly behind that of her energetic companion on their walk to Amity Park's only public school. She was only half listening as he blabbed on about a combination of new ghost findings, Jasmine Fenton's latest book release on the paranormal titled Ghost Envy (which Tucker exclaimed was simply genius!!), and of course whatever new gadget he had managed to order from the internet. Sam was startled out of her stupor when Tucker suddenly thrust his PDA in Sam's face.
"62 percent complete!" said Tucker excitedly.
"Huh, what?"
Tucker frowned but chose not to address his friend's inattentiveness. "Our Ghost Hunting Society's website. I started working on it last night."
"Website?" Sam yawned. "Really, Tucker? We're the only members."
"Yes, but this website is sure to draw in more members! Look," He pulled up his pullover to show her the dark t-shirt he wore underneath with the words "Casper High's Leading Ghost Hunting Expert!" hovering just above a cartoonish graphic of a ghost.
Sam rose one eyebrow in response. Tucker grinned and pulled out another shirt from his bag, "See. I made one for you too. If we wear these, by the end of the day I promise we'll have a new member!"
"Tucker," Sam sighed staring sympathetically down at the t-shirt she was handed. "I don-"
"You have no excuse not to wear it," interceded her dark skinned friend. "I made them in black especially so you wouldn't be able make an excuse. Come on, Sam. Would it kill you to help me out this once?"
Sam sighed again before reluctantly slipping the tee overtop her tank top. "Honestly, Tucker. When am I not helping you out?"
Tucker just grinned, "That's what makes you such a great buddy, buddy!"
Sam couldn't help but smile back. Her best friend since elementary school, Tucker Foley was the only person she could manage being infuriated and amused with all at once. She couldn't even remember a time where he wasn't at her side. If she had a sibling, Sam was certain they would be nothing like Tucker. Which would probably be for the best. She probably wouldn't get along very well with any sibling of hers. Especially since she was such an odd ball coming out of her prim and perfect millionaire parents. But she'd like it if Tucker could have been her little brother.
"So are we still on for tonight?"
"Tonight?" Sam looked nervously at the steel gray morning sky. "It looks like it's going to rain."
"So? Maybe it will thunderstorm… That would create an even better atmosphere, don't you think?"
"But if it rains it might get your equipment wet…"
"And by equipment, Foley, she means your pen-"
"Back off, Baxter," snapped Sam at the brutish football star that had just come up alongside them. "Or I'll knock your teeth in."
"Oooh," cooed Dash, still matching stride with the goth and techno geek. "It's a pleasant surprise to see you out during the daylight hours, Manson. What, no longer drinking people's blood?"
"Nope. On a diet."
"Bet my neck looks mighty tasty huh?"
"Dash, ignoring the fact that your question was entirely creepy, your blood probably has the same consistency of sulfuric acid… that or piss. Neither would taste very good, if you catch my drift."
Seeing that the argument was falling out of his favor, the football jock wisely decided to cut his losses and change topics. He spotted their t-shirts and offered a widening grin,
"Still in that Ghost "Loser" Club then? Catch any ghosties lately?"
Tucker, who was never good dealing with Dash's bullying, paled. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to defend himself very well against a teenager three times his size, Sam stepped in again for her friend.
"Leave Tucker alone, Dash. What we do with our free time is none of your business."
As soon as she said it, Sam instantly regretted it. Dash's grin grew ever wider. He stopped walking and cuffed his hands over his mouth to sing a shrilly rendition of "Foley and Manson sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"
Sam stopped as well, trying to avoid meeting Tucker's eye. The poor guy looked like he was blushing scarlet from the tips of his copper colored hair to his toes. Sam really felt for her friend. No one really deserved to be as bullied as Sam often got him.
"Shut up, Dash."
"Make me," retorted Dash.
"What's going on?"
Sam shuddered at the sound of the Hispanic valley girl accent. How anyone who sounded as annoying as that could be princess of Casper High, was beyond the goth.
Sam caught a whiff of Paulina's fruity hairspray before she even came in Sam's line of sight, throwing herself on Dash's arm. Although she and Dash were often together, it could never official be said if they were dating or not. Despite her tendency to cling to the jock, she was never unwilling to go on a date with someone more popular/handsome at the drop of a hat.
At Paulina's entrance there seemed to be a sudden crowd forming around the four of them in the school courtyard. Sam cast a glance at the outside wall clock, regretting not having managed to survive the last few minutes before school without running into these two.
Paulina sent Sam a skeptical look, "Oh. I thought I smelt something."
"Right back at you," muttered Sam under her breath.
"Was batgirl bothering you again, Dashy?" cooed the Hispanic pop princess.
"No, no," said Dash. He really seemed completely ignorant to her clinging, or perhaps just entirely used to it. Their closeness made Sam herself feel that much more uncomfortable. She made a mental note to never cling to any of her future boyfriends… at least in public.
"We were just talking about their little ghost club. I was thinking about joining."
Tucker visibly paled. Sam took her friend by the shoulder to steady him. Obviously this wasn't what he meant by getting a new member.
"You're not welcome, Dash."
"What? Afraid that I'll cut in on your quality time with Foley?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Dash," laughed Paulina. "Samantha doesn't date the living. Don't you know? That's why she's in the ghostie loser's club. Cause the only chance she has at getting laid is in hell!"
It was too bad, really. Sam had been hoping to get through this day without incident. But ever since her parents cheerfully chimed her wake up call this morning, her fist had been itching to connect against flesh. Unfortunately for Paulina, she had just become the straw the broke the camel's back.
Sam drew back and socked her one right between the eyes.
Paulina screeched and fell back onto the damp grass, clutching at her bleeding face. Dash stood helplessly, not sure if he was supposed to deck one on Sam back or help out the fallen princess. It was much harder on him when he was dealing with women.
Sam unclenched and clenched her fist, ignoring the pain in her stinging knuckles. It hurt, but man did it feel good.
"You little bitch!" Paulina shrieked clawing her way back to her feet, blood pouring from her nose. "I'll tear your damn eyes out!"
But before she could even take a swipe at the goth, she was suddenly collided into from behind- sending her sprawling across the grass again. The three still standing individuals looked on in bewilderment when someone from the crowd decided to suddenly and recklessly cut through. Nonsensical as it was, they had accidentally managed to save Sam from entering a potentially fatal catfight. After all, Paulina's nails were something to be feared.
The interceder was a young boy hardly older than Sam herself was. He wore a rather dull assortment of colors- red and white shirt and blue jeans. But his eyes. His eyes were an astonishing blue from underneath an unkempt mess of dark hair. Sam thought for sure she had seen him around before, but his name escaped her at the moment.
He met her questioning stare unflinchingly. Something passed between them, something that Sam herself wasn't yet aware of. A spark? The sense that something was starting? Was that ridiculous?
And then it was over. Dash had the boy by the collar- finally something he could actually wail on. The boy squeezed his eyes shut, just before someone caught Dash's wrist.
"Roots of Western Tradition! Just what is going on here?" barked the bald English teacher, Mr. Lancer.
It seemed that for a change both Paulina and Dash's tongues were caught in their mouths. Sam took the opportunity to replay the favor to he rescuer.
"It was an accident, sir," explained Sam coolly. "He accidentally knocked into Paulina. He was just trying to apologize to them."
"Ah yes," said the boy, quickly catching on. "I didn't mean to hurt you, Paulina! I'm really sorry!"
"Is this true?" inquired Mr. Lancer on the remaining two.
Paulina, knowing that fessing up to fighting would only get her in just as much trouble, decided to play along. Dash nodded only after seeing Paulina's verdict.
"Alright," said Mr. Lancer. "Then I suppose it would be safe for you to put Mr. Grafton down, Mr. Baxter. Unless of course you would like to spend your time after school with me?"
Dash immediately compiled, dropping the boy back on his feet. The boy gave himself a quick brush off, not daring to look either Dash or Paulina in the eye.
"Well, what are you all standing around here for? Don't you all have class to be attending? Ten minutes, hup hup," shooed Mr. Lancer, dispelling the curious crowd of onlookers. "And miss, I'll escort you to the clinic so you can get your injury checked out."
The students all filed their way back into the school building, Mr. Lancer and Dash leading a weary Paulina to the clinic, leaving Tucker and Sam behind with their mysterious rescuer.
"Thank you," said Sam with a smile, offering out her hand to shake his. "My name's Sam."
The boy looked at her hand and then back to her face, unimpressed. "Whatever. I know who you are."
Then without a backwards glance, he slung his backpack back over his shoulder and followed the rest of the students back into school. Sam watched him leave, a furious blush forming on her cheeks.
"What a jerk!"
"Don't take it personally, Sam. Riley does that to everyone," Tucker said. Now that the commotion was over, he seemed to have regained sensation in his tongue. "He's not a real talkative guy. Actually I think that's the first time I heard him speak… aside from role call."
"That doesn't make him any less of a jerk," said Sam crossing her arms in clear disapproval.
"Well yeah, I guess. But I have to say, that was pretty cool. He must like you Sam."
"Like me?"
"Yeah. To coming charging out of the crowd like that. He pushed Paulina pretty hard too. I've never seen him do anything like that before. Usually he avoids… things like that."
"Most people avoid things like that…" She paused, what Tucker had revealed starting to sink in. "Wait. You mean he didn't accidentally knock into her?"
"What? No. I saw him, Sam. He pushed her. He looked rather pissed too," Tucker let a sneaky grin slip across his lips. "He's cute, right? Want me to hook you up with him?"
"Ugh. No, Tucker. What's your sudden urge to be matchmaker anyway? What happened to chasing ghosts?"
"I just want you to be happy, Sam. And who's to say I can't have a side job?" He smiled again before heading for the school doors himself. "Suit yourself. But I think the two of you would really hit it off. Both sullen and miserable. Maybe you could exchange morbid apocalyptic poetry?"
"That's not funny, Tucker," said Sam following suit. But she couldn't help the little thought from emerging in the back of her mind. Despite how much she wanted to avoid it and how it made her blush, Sam could not deny the fact she had indeed found Riley Grafton attractive.
Surprisingly, Sam had gotten through half the school day without any further scenes. It didn't get out that she had punched Paulina in the face, despite everyone having seen her do so. Rather instead the whispers were focused around the mysterious Riley Grafton and how he seemed to have taken a liking to that creepy Mason girl. Sam didn't know whether to feel relieved or irritated.
Paulina went home. Apparently the damage to her nose, although insubstantial, caused too much trauma for her poor little mind, (emphasis on little). Once again, Riley was blamed for Paulina's state of health… even if it were an accident. Sam caught Dash cracking his knuckles in the hallway- talking about how he was planning to corner Grafton as soon as he could to exact Paulina's revenge on his face.
Sam had thought about stopping to say something. After all, she was the one who punched Paulina- not Riley. But the memory of Riley's cold eyes on her extended hand, made her keep walking. Why should she care if he were taking punches for her? It wasn't like she asked him to.
She kept reminding herself she didn't care all the way till lunch. Unfortunately years of overlooking him, came back to haunt her. It figured that now when she didn't want to see him, she practically zeroed in on his location at the back of the cafeteria.
He sat by himself eating from a paper sack lunch consisting of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, grape juice box, and bag of mini pretzels. Riley ate quietly and quickly as if afraid someone might take the food away at any moment, occasionally flipping through what looked to be a small collection of comic books. Sam caught herself watching him once or twice, in frustration. She blamed it on the fact that she was hungry and had forgotten either a bag lunch or money to purchase food. To distract herself from the mysterious Mr. Grafton, she focused on drumming a tattoo into the table top.
"It's kinda sad that he sits alone over there all the time," Tucker's voice shook Sam once again from her thoughts. "I heard that he transfers between schools every two to three years. He must be pretty miserable moving that much."
Tucker laid down a meat-free lunch for his best friend before digging in to his own carnivorous meal. Sam found quite suddenly that she really wasn't as hungry as she had originally thought. She poked her fork as the plastic like iceburg lettuce before trailing her eyes back to where Riley sat, finishing the last bites of his sandwich.
"We should invite him to eat with us," said Tucker suddenly.
Sam barely had the time to protest before Tucker stood up. He and his tray of meat went smartly over to the raven haired boy. Feeling that it was a bad idea, Sam listlessly followed- only just remembering to bring her untouched salad with her.
"Hello," said Tucker cheerfully.
Riley looked up, rather startled to see that the African American boy had been speaking to him.
"May we sit here?" Tucker continued sitting down before Riley could say anything against it. Sam grudgingly took a seat at his side, not bothering to look at Riley's bewildered expression.
"I wanted to thank you for what you did for Sam and I this morning. That was pretty cool, standing up to Paulina like that. I don't think I'd ever seen a guy do it before," said Tucker smoothly.
Riley blinked his wide blue eyes at the two of them in turn, before crumbling up his empty paper sack. "Uh, right," He said after a pause. "You're welcome, I guess."
He eyed their matching shirts skeptically for a moment before asking, "Ghost experts?"
"It's our club," explained Tucker proudly. "Casper High's very own Paranormal and Ghost Hunting Society. Sam and I are the founders."
"More like Tucker's the founder. And I was dragged along," said Sam somewhat spitefully before stabbing into her lettuce with a plastic spork.
"Right," agreed Tucker. "Sam's just a real great friend who accompanies me even though she doesn't believe in ghosts."
Riley sent Sam a curious look, "How can you not believe in ghosts?"
Sam felt her insides churn. Oh no. He's another Tucker!
"I know, right!" exclaimed Tucker, estatic that someone else shared his views on the paranormal. "Would you like to join our club?"
"So do you like fight ghosts and stuff?"
Tucker was given pause. "Um. Fight? No," He shared a look of incredibility with Sam before turning back to the task at hand. "We video tape them. You know… to document proof of their existence."
"Oh," said Riley, disappointment clearly evident on his face.
Sam noticed the collection of super hero comic books at the hook of his elbow. Spiderman, Fantastic Four, and Teen Titans.
"You like super heroes?" asked Sam pointedly.
A visible blush burned at Riley's cheeks. He quickly shoved the comics back into his book bag, only offering explanation through a mumble, "Yeah… a little. Sometimes when I'm bored."
Probably only to change the subject, Riley eagerly turned his attention back to Tucker, "So do you go to haunted places?"
"Uh, oh yeah. Mostly in Amity Park though. You know, several years ago Amity Park used to be the ghost capital of the world. It was the most haunted place in the United States!"
Riley smiled wryly, "Yeah. I had heard that."
His response sounded almost sarcastic to Sam. She couldn't tell if it were because he was skeptical or if he found the information "no duh" ish. The latter didn't make sense to Sam, so she figured Riley was more of a skeptic than he let on.
"We're going on an investigation tonight even. You know the old Vanderclute place? We're going to set up camp there tonight and see if we can catch anything."
Riley seemed to mentally debate about this tidbit of information for a few minutes before finally meeting Tucker's eye. "Can I come along?"
"Oh course you can!" exclaimed Tucker, pulling yet another black teeshirt out of his backpack and tossing it his way. "Welcome to the team!"
Riley looked down at the soft teeshirt in his hands and smiled. It was astonishing, that smile. It seemed rare. As if he hadn't quite used it in a long time. Sam felt herself, with certain astonishment, wanting to keep the smile on the boy's face just a little bit longer.
"Thanks, Tucker," Riley said pressing the shirt tight to his chest. "Thanks a lot."
To Be Continued…
Please Read and Review!
If you guys don't know who Riley is, shame on you. I shouldn't need to say it.
This may feel a bit slow moving at first. But just stay tuned. I promise you shant be disappointed. After all, the Casper High Ghost Hunters are about to run into their first ghost!
Watch Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International on the Scifi channel to see how the real professionals do it. It's a real fascinating show, whether you believe in ghosts or not (since they go into places trying to disprove hauntings). Or check out their website- google TAPS or Trans Atlantic Paranormal Society. There really is lots of cool history to learn from these haunted places as well (which is my favorite part… Oosh' equals history geek).
PREVIEW CLIP FOR NEXT CHAPTER!
"Aaaaanyway," continued Tucker. "My dad saw ghosts on a regular basis back then. He was even really good friends with one of the famous Fenton Ghost Hunters. David. He was our age, you know."
"I thought his name was Derek."
"I'm pretty sure it was David," said Tucker indignantly. "David Fenton. He was best ghost hunter ever! And only a freshman! Him and Valerie Gray... they were real superheroes. I reckon between the two of them, they might have rounded up more than four hundred different ghosts, sometimes more than once!"
"What happened to him?" asked Riley.
Tucker smiled, knowing that Riley would be interested in one of his own admired idols. But the question did bring a bit of sobriety to his voice as he continued, "He died."
"Fighting a ghost?"
"No, although that would have been awesome," Tucker frowned at the two's disapproving faces. "Apart from the whole dying thing, of course. Actually, I don't really know how he died. I just know it made my dad pretty upset. He doesn't like to talk about it. The most I can tell is that it was... unexpected."
"Most death is, Tucker," retorted Sam coldly.
"I mean... Geez, you know!" He flailed his arms out about himself as if their flapping would shed anymore light into what he was explaining. "It came out of nowhere. Once he was here," He clapped his hands together causing both Sam and Riley to flinch. "And then next he gone. Just like that. Instantaneous."
END CLIP!!
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