The living room of Fenton Works was quiet as Sam whistled innocently, hypocrisy in itself as she was under the spotlight, courtesy of Danny and Tucker. The boys stared intently as they awaited answers.
Well, as his friend, the ghost boy minded his business with an ice pack and some ibuprofen while fiddling with his PDA, having enough of the goth girl for a while.
"Sam," Danny dragged the girl's name for a while. He would repeat the girl's name, hoping to at least annoy her attention over to him. "Sam? Sam? Saaaaam?" he would go on like this, till...
"What?!" Sam snapped back, going back to ignoring the boys just as swiftly.
"Sam, you can't ignore us forever. So, why don't you explain what you mean about being replaced?"
"And by being, we mean will be," Tucker added. The stares from his friends did nothing to deter his moody answer, rubbing his black eye with ice as his good one glared back. While he did realize this would happen, this kind of treatment was undeserved. Just because Danny had chosen a goth girl for his girlfriend did not entitle him to feel almost ready to check into a hospital.
A shiver danced in Tucker's spine at the thought of staying at the accused facility again.
Sam sighed, fidgeting in her seat as she searched for a way out. Her ghostly friend had his eyes burning slowly if she tried to peer away from eye contact. Being in the spotlight caused a small sweat to break out.
"Listen, Danny—"
"Don't try to escape again, Sam. After hearing you gave Tucker...all this—" Danny gestured to all of his friend's faces. "—then you're on trial until proven innocent...which we both know you're not," he said, adding that last part after a beat.
"But Danny, you don't understand?" Sam's hands had moved from their spot beside her as they clawed upward defensively. "You try being pulled away on your own for some vacation you never wanted and then saw what you wanted to be taken away by another goth girl."
Typically, this would be the part where Sam would deflect the topic, but actually, under Danny's harsh gaze and the guillotine-like expression on Tucker, she cracked under pressure. Squeaking while her hands covered her mouth, the girl stared back with fear. She never spoke this part of her mind, not even when threatened.
Sam's heart raced as her face turned into a tomato, staring into the icy blue eyes of Danny. A loud gulp was heard as the coming seconds felt like hours.
"Sam," Danny started, breaking the tension. "Why would I replace my best friend? So I can have a girlfriend and a best friend at the same time."
And now a record could be heard scratching to a stop as the goth girl dropped her body.
"Just because Gwen's a goth doesn't mean anything. Honestly, I admit, she really rocks the look, and is hot, but it's more how we connected during the date...even if things started bad."
Sam blinked, something Tucker shared with her as the two stared at the ghost boy. The former glanced at her outfit, a black tank top with a black and green plaid skirt and combat boots, wondering what Gwen looked like if she was, in Danny's words, rocking the goth look.
Her heart sank partially into her stomach as her pride cracked.
The next day seemed tense as Danny stepped outside. His mind ventured to Sam and how heartbroken she was. Nothing had done so before, except when he went to face a ghost king and his armies, but that was out of concern for her best friend.
Danny walked down the street, looking around for any rogue or annoying ghosts that wanted to surprise him, when he got a text from Sam telling him to meet at the Skulk N' Lurk.
The message was not odd in itself, but what did surprise him was the absence of Tucker, who was nowhere to be seen.
"Sam, where's Tucker?" Danny asked, looking around.
"He's not here," Sam replied with a blunt tone lined with confusion. Then, she looked perplexed and asked, "Why would he be here?"
"Because we always hang out together."
"Oh, yeah..." Sam hissed through her teeth. "I'm gonna be honest. I figured some time away from me after everything would be the best idea right now."
The ghost boy nodded. It was only a day since they last talked, and after the goth's overreaction, it was obvious the boy could use the time to himself.
Danny could help Sam find an appropriate apology gift along the lines of some new tech. The techno-geek was not a fan of smart phones, but plenty of gadgets and machinery were perfect for giving, like a robot chef.
"Too bad the Skulk N' Lurk doesn't sell those," Danny muttered.
"Sell what?" Sam blinked with a raised brow.
"Nothing. So what did you want me for?"
Sam blushed, glancing in the other direction as her emotions were collected. She did not text her friend to only hang out with him in hopes of accommodating her heart's egging of her jealousy. Scratch that; she was not jealous in any shape or form. How could she? Even though she had known the boy all these years and had been fighting off ghosts with him, that should mean something, right?
She shook her head, and the goth girl took a deep breath, gesturing to the Skulk an' Lurk.
"Sam, are you okay, okay?" Danny leaned back with cringed hands. "Do you need some time to...I dunno, de-toxify-relax or something?"
"This is doing that," Sam remarked. That was the partial truth as half her mind argued and echoed otherwise. Europe was fantastic, but her parents' mindset made it boring. She couldn't even get a chance to see the landmarks, like the Eiffel Tower.
"Come on," She said, grabbing the ghost boy's wrist.
"Sam, you know I don't really come to these kinds of places. I-I know you like them, but I've never been the kind of guy who tries to rebel against society by buying overpriced jewelry," Danny said while dragged through the shop.
The Skulk n' Lurk offered wide varieties of finger armor, black shirts, and death metal bands, all playing from the speakers.
To many citizens, particularly Sam's parents, it was the spawning pit of all things dark and morbid, corrupting the youth of Amity Park. But Danny saw it as what it truly was, a chain of stores making a buck off the idea of edgy from teens who did not know better.
Sam had an idea, but she did not care enough to protest.
"True, but—well..."Sam's eyes darted around. "if you're gonna date a goth, y-you should look the part," she added on the fly. Her words rated bittersweet as she kept a smirk on her face.
Keep your cool. These words echoed in Sam's mind as she rummaged through the racks and crates of the store. She needed to find something special. Something that would say, "I like you more than a friend."
While Danny was dating Gwen, Sam wanted this to be brief. And while stealing him away sounded shallow, she hoped a confession from her end would make things easier. Maybe Danny would not just dump Gwen once he heard Sam confess, but if the ghost boy knew of the goth girl's feelings, he might look twice.
It seemed as if the ghost boy was dating Gwen because he liked goths. Maybe all that was needed was a push from her end.
After all, Danny is clueless.
"How about this?" Sam pulled out a pair of finger armor adorned with broken hearts. At the base, a curved blade stuck out with the words I'm not broken with you engraved on them.
The girl smiled as she put one on her and Danny's fingers, bringing the edges together. A small heart was formed as she gazed into his eyes.
Danny held his hand up, grimacing and taking off the jewelry.
"I don't think this is for me," he said, handing it back. "I'm more of a...actually, I'm not goth."
Sam blinked. Her heart felt like two pendulum axes swung into it, digging deep. On one side, the pain came from her attempted gesture not working, but anything more obvious and she would have gagged. The other ax came from her nonconformist pride, giving her friend something to join her ranks like a consumer model.
The girl slapped her head, unable to properly register and handle her emotions. She wanted to say something, but Ember had arrived. The ghostly diva looked around the ware with the attention of the store on her.
Ember's eyes met Danny's for a moment, and the ghost boy looked for an excuse as he disappeared, much to the diva's smug joy as she struck a power chord.
The Skulk N' Lurk was a mess, an improvement in most cases, but it's gloomy decore was nothing to Sam's heart as she stood in the wreckage.
With only a few days till the start of school, Danny, Sam, and Tucker decided to break out of their routine of casual teenage indoor Sumer laziness to have some real fun: a carnival at the pier.
Danny seemed anxious to be here, shaking with each step as he kept a close proximity to his best friends. Then, taking a deep breath, the shivering diminished.
He tried hard not to think about the last time he went to a carnival and whom he saw there. At worst, there could be a repeat, knowing his luck.
"She's not here. She's far away at that school and nowhere near Amity Park," Danny chanted quietly.
Tucker was worried about his mental state, while Sam had her gaze in front of her. How ironic for a goth to accidentally be in the dark.
"Okay, Okay, the other day was a bust, but there's no way anyone could be this clueless," Sam remarked.
"Sam, who are you talking to?" Tucker asked.
Sam looked around, noticing it was only her, Danny, and Tucker now eating pretzels. The goth girl looked around and noticed none of them were talking. A shiver ran up her spine as she hugged herself.
"No idea." Sam hunched down, almost hugging herself. "Why did I even say that?"
The moment seemed something more akin to a cartoon, but that idea was pushed aside as she saw Tucker dancing with his hands between his legs, probably having too much soda again.
She watched the boy run to the bathroom, then realized this was the perfect time to make her move.
"So...wanna go on a ride while we wait?" Sam began.
Danny, who seemed anxious, flinched, almost choking on the remains of his salty snack before phasing it out of his throat.
"Uh...what?" Danny asked, pounding his chest.
"I said we should go on a ride while we wait for Tucker," Sam said.
"We could g-go on the Ferris wheel or the merry-go-round or..." Sam gulped as she pointed to one last ride. Her pride cracked, threatening to slice her open as she tried to say the last few words. But try as she might, there was no way to be so upfront. To speak of her feelings, her honest feelings, was akin to pushing the Hoover Dam, hoping it would move.
"T-The tunnel of love," Danny let out as he suddenly paled.
"Yeah, well, I suppose—" Sam stopped as she noticed the paled expression on her friend's face. "Danny, are you okay, okay?"
He was pale now, shaking like a jackhammer as he hugged himself.
"Uh...Danny...are you okay, okay?" Sam asked, attempting to touch to ghost boy.
"Please don't touch me. I-I don't wanna be touch, right now," Danny said, looking spooked as he stepped back. This behavior was new to the goth girl, who was mentally demanding answers from the universe.
"What's wrong? It's like yours afraid of the tunnel of love or something," Sam said, while the ghost boy just turned white. It didn't take long for the girl to p it two and two together as her finger pontes between the ghost boy and ride.
"Wait, what? Since when? And how?" Sam asked, while the ghost boy was almost having a panic attack.
"Can we talk about this later?" Danny asked, walking away from the ride.
Tucker returned as he saw his snowy white friend shivering. He dropped the paper towel as he ran to the scene, fearing the worst.
"What happened?" Tucker asked.
"I don't know. I suggested we take a ride while we waited for you, and suddenly Danny's shaking when he sees the Tunnel of Love," Sam said, but Tucker sighed.
"Okay, Okay. Long story short, we went to a carnival while you were gone. Unfortunately, the dating service crashed, so we figured a break was needed, and that's when we saw one of Danny's dates—" Tucker started to explain but turned to see Danny's gaze frozen in him. "You know what? Let's explain the rest when Danny calms down."
"Pardon me for asking, but...was this girl—"
"It was not Gwen." Tucker cut in before his goth friend could jump to conclusions. "It was another girl, and you're gonna have to wait before I say her name."
The trio calmed down on a bench. Sam offered to pay for some meals, not wanting to have accidentally brought her ghostly friend down the nightmare of memory lane. What kind of girl would cause this effect? She thought, now curious if the dating service.
"So, would you go on these rides with Gwen?" Sam asked, seeing how Danny calmed down. The question left a sour aftertaste as she tried to get answers/make her friend feel better.
"I don't think Gwen would be up these rides, much less the Tunnel of Love," Danny replied, finishing his hotdog in one hand as the other went to his phone. Scrolling through his photos, the ghost boy brought up a picture of Gwen.
"That's Gwen?" Sam asked, studying the photo. Emotions sank as the goths were cross-examined.
Gwen was more colorful, to an extent, with her mix of green, black, teal, and pale bone to Sam's black and purple. Despite both girls wearing a choker and combat boots accompanying stockings with bared belly buttons, the former had a more rebellious look more akin to real goths. It must have been the pasty skin.
"Huh...I gotta say, she's kinda hot with the goth look," Tucker said.
"She's got this look about her." Danny held the photo to his face. "I dunno. It's like there's this mystery in her that I wanna know more of or something cheesy like that. You know what I mean?"
"Eh. Kinda." Tucker twisted his hand back and forth. "I mean, with Velma, we just clicked. Then, after one date, everything became clear, and I thought, " I wanna date this girl, no questions asked."
"I know. Who knew those cheesy romance films had something there." Danny leaned down. "What do you think, Sam?... Sam?"
Sam was quiet, getting up as she walked away.
"Sam, are you okay?" Danny asked.
"You know what...I need some time to...process everything." Sam did not look at her friends as she left.
The goth girl decided it best to go home. Her heart was broken by what she saw with Danny and Gwen. Her friends were worried that her feelings were hurt beyond recognition but knew she just needed space.
"We should head back. I don't wanna have fun here if we can't do it together," Danny said.
"Yeah, we should go," Tucker replied.
The two boys finished their snacks as they threw away the waste. Then, finally, they caught up with their goth friend, who was silent as they explained their reasons.
The ghost boy transformed as he flew them home, the goth girl gripping his arm tight.
Tucker was partially worried that Sam would beat him up again after seeing the picture that Danny showed them of Gwen. But her grin silence was scarier for reasons beyond physical violence.
However, Sam is far from the earth, thinking of ways in the future to win Danny's heart. She would not lose to a girl more goth than her.
Once again, I want to thank BeConFuzzyWriter and FlowerPrincess11 for helping me with this chapter. Next time we focus on Gwen.
I will be working on a new Danny Phantom and Totally Spies fic pretty soon