One thing that Danny had always appreciated is that she never had to tell her friends her best-kept secret.

Tucker was first, having been friends with her since they were really young. Before she was even aware of how she felt about herself. She was curious about the games the girls would play and would even join in once or twice before noticing the strange looks the other boys gave her and starting to keep her distance. Tucker gave her odd looks, too, but the incident was forgotten fairly quickly.

However, as they grew older and Danny started to discover what exactly was so different about her compared to the other boys their age, she found himself paying closer attention to the girls' activities than what would've been considered subtle or respectful. More than once, she'd been declared a pervert for staring too long, and got in trouble once for trying to look into the girls' bathroom.

By then, she'd already ruined any chance she had at being considered normal because, while her actions would've been perverted but acceptable in high school, in elementary and early middle school boys just weren't that interested in girls at that age. She was the wierd kid. And Tucker, being a better friend than most would've been, stayed by her. He even developed his own early reputation for being a womanizer ("Tucker Foley - that's TF, as in Too Fine!") in order to throw the attention on Danny a little off-center.

By seventh grade, they were both near the bottom rung of the social ladder. Danny had always hated that she'd dragged Tucker down with her, but the boy simply laughed and said he was having too much fun to stop even if Danny's odd habits began the downward spiral.

"And you don't have to worry about me hitting on you anytime soon," Tucker said almost as an afterthought. "You're like my best friend ever - it'd be a little awkward even if you were my type."

At that almost-simple statement, Danny had frozen in her tracks, stuttering over her words. Tucker looked back at her almost confused, save for the resolved look on his face. He knew exactly what he was saying. "What? That's what it is, isn't it? You don't look at those girls 'cause they look pretty, you wanna see what they do. It's pretty obvious. To me," he added quickly, noticing Danny's rapidly paling face. "It's obvious to me. I've known you pretty much our entire lives, girl. You can trust me."

And it was either that final confirmation of trust or the fact that he'd called her girl that triggered Danny into giving her best friend the biggest hug she'd ever given. The hug she'd gotten back was just as strong and didn't that just make her day even better.

Later that evening, Danny had gotten permission from her parents to sleep over at Tucker's house and together they went looking for information. All Tucker had to do was search girl in a boy's body and they got the term they were looking for. Transgender. They spent hours looking at article after article, nearly each one fitting her situation exactly. Some were like her, a girl in a boy's body, and others were the opposite, a boy trapped in a girl's body. Danny privately thought that her situation was worse, since tomboyish girls were more accepted than prissy boys, but said nothing aloud. One thing stuck out to her, though.

"I can't tell Mom and Dad," she said, and Tucker turned to look at her. "You know them. Always obsessed about ghosts. Anything unusual has to be a ghost's fault. Heck, the fudge goes missing, and Dad instantly breaks out the ectoguns, nevermind that he ate it all the night before. Bad enough they have a mildly perverted son, but a son who believes he's a girl? Who knows what they'd do..."

Tucker looked at her intently for a bit. "You really think they'll be that bad?"

"I know they will. I won't tell them."

Silence, a sigh, and then: "Alright. We won't tell 'em. It'll be our secret, then. Right?"

Danny looked back over to Tucker, who still sat looking back but with a smile on his face. Slowly, Danny smiled back and nodded. "Yeah. It'll be our secret."

When a new family along with half a dozen moving trucks came to Amity Park the summer before eighth grade, it was barely worth noticing to most people.

Danny was not most people.

"Would you stop staring at her?" Tucker whispered the third time he'd caught her at it, snapping Danny out of her thoughts. "It's creepy. You're not gonna stalk her, are you?"

"No!" Danny said, slightly appalled. Even as she spoke, she turned her eyes back to the girl bustling back and forth from the moving truck to the house. "I'm just... interested. She's someone new, she's not like the other girls around here."

Tucker frowned. "Why, because she wears black? It's probably just a thing she does, it's nothing special."

"It's not because she wears black!" Not just, anyway. "Just look at her, Tuck!"

"I'm looking, Danny. What am I looking at?"

"She's helping the movers with their stuff! Where the heck are her parents, shouldn't they be helping?" Sure enough, the girl's parents were nowhere to be found, while she did the same amount of work as the heavily-muscled, grown men. Danny was sure the looks of vague admiration on the men's faces matched hers.

Tucker's frown deepened as he processed the information. "Huh. So, you're interested because she's... different?"

"Yes! She's not just new, she's novel. No one will know what to make of her. It'll be great."

"Geez, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that you had a crush on her," Tucker said, teasing.

"Tucker."

"Yeah, I know. But still, this obsession's a little strange, Danny. And doesn't the novelty of something, or someone, wear off eventually?"

Danny only grinned. "Something tells me she'll last, Tuck." She looked back up to see the girl look up at them at lock eyes with hers. Danny waved a bit, earning her a calculating look before she slowly turned away and walked back into the house. Danny's grin didn't falter. "I can feel it."

"Have you been following me?"

Tucker squawked at the sudden interruption, nearly choking on his Nasty burger in the process. Danny jumped a little, looking up to see the new girl standing beside their table, hands on her hips and looking mildly annoyed. The look was molded with mild disgust as Tucker coughed up bits of meat as he cleared his windpipe. Danny absently handed him a napkin as she answered.

"I have been, a little. Tucker's more following me than you though, so you don't have to worry about him. Much." She blatantly ignored Tucker's panicked look as the girl's annoyed look turned into a glare.

"Why?"

"Because you're different," Danny said plainly, and the lack of disdain in her voice obviously surprised the girl. "I know you are. You aren't the type of girl who would sit back and let men do all the work. You're not the type to wear clothes that match everyone else. And you're not the type to do anything other than defend yourself when you believe you're being threatened. In other words, you're not Amity's type."

Danny grinned widely. "And that's why I like you."

Tucker spluttered again. So did the girl, for a second. "Like me?"

"Yeah. Not in a like-like way, but a 'I want to be your friend' kind of way. What do you think?"

The girl calmed down considerably when she learned that she didn't have a boy she didn't know in love with her, but she stared at Danny for a long time. After about ten seconds, Tucker squirmed uncomfortably. After thirty, so did Danny.

And after a minute, the girl held out her hand. "Sam Manson."

Danny smiled again, taking it. "Danny Fenton, and this is Tucker Foley." Tucker looked her up and down, and after a moment of hard thought, simply waved his hello. Danny looked at him astonished.

"What?" said the boy, looking back at her. "I'm not gonna hit on her. She'd be more likely to kill me than date me. No." He didn't seem to appreciate it much when Danny nearly fell out of her seat laughing at him, but he looked mollified when Sam simply shrugged and nodded in a well-it's-true kind of way, making Danny only laugh harder.

Things were cemented between the three of them on Danny's birthday, just before school started. Most of the gifts weren't very promising. Her mom had gotten her a watch, since 'she'd noticed he didn't have one and timing is everything.' Jazz had gotten her a miniature telescope, which by itself was pretty cool, except it was engraved with her name. Her full name. Topped off with a comment about 'knowing how much her little brother loved the stars,' the thoughtfulness of the gift was dampened.

Dad had gotten her a football. She didn't say a word about it.

After she'd gotten away from the house, she went to Tucker's to celebrate in a way that would cheer her up a bit. She opened the box he'd given her to find a long silver necklace with a bright blue stone hanging from it. She looked up at him, and Tucker shuffled his feet a bit.

"I wasn't sure what to get you," he muttered to the wall, "since this is the first birthday you've had since we figured it out, and I didn't want something too girly 'cause you don't really like the make up and stuff, so I got this. T-the chain's long enough to hide under your shirt and the stone matches your eyes, so I thought, 'why not-'"

Tucker abruptly cut off when Danny hugged him really hard, mumbling her thanks rapidly into his shoulder. They only broke apart when Mrs. Foley had called up that Sam had arrived, and Danny quickly wiped her face and hid the necklace in her pocket before Sam opened the door.

"Hey, Danny," she said, coming over to hug her. Danny hugged her back, trying to blink her eyes enough so that they wouldn't look reddened in that I-spent-a-good-bit-of-my-birthday-crying sort of way.

If Sam noticed, she didn't say anything. She simply held out a small, unwrapped black box for her to take. Danny did so warily, unwilling to hurt Sam's feelings but equally unwilling to open another male-themed present. "Happy Birthday, Danny," she said, and that sealed it. She would do her best to put on a brave face and not let on about any disappointment. Danny drew in a silent breath, as though diving into a pool, and opened the box to reveal-

...A comb. A small, silver and blue decorative comb lightly engraved with vines and butterflies. A feminine comb.

Danny stared at it for a very long moment, knowing that Tucker was doing the same. After several beats of silence, Danny looked up with glassy eyes to see Sam smiling at her.

"One of my cousins is FTM," she said, shrugging as though it was no big deal. It almost wasn't. "I know what to look for. It was obvious."

Danny blinked at the words, recalling when Tucker had said nearly the exact same thing months ago, and burst into laughter. She gripped the comb tightly, carefully, and pulled the necklace out of her pocket just so that she could hold them both.

She couldn't tell when the tears started again, but she was still smiling. She cried and smiled harder when she felt Sam hug her again, and when she felt Tucker put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

And when Tucker suggested they all go to the park, she eagerly agreed along with Sam.

It was the best birthday ever.

A small tidbit that I'd just thought of today. I think I got what I wanted across pretty well. Like before, if anyone with experience with this could offer tips, I'd appreciate it. Please review, and tell me what you think!