Cirque Berserk
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2
Knowing
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Tucker Foley stared at the scratch-free, bright, screen of his PDA with uncharacteristic dull eyes. Before, those eyes had been lit as if he had found out where the stash of Christmas presents were hidden. But now, after much thinking, he decided that being excited wasn't the best emotion to express.
After all, Sam didn't know a thing of what had happened between he and Danny that fateful day. For all she knew, she probably thought he was the one who dragged her out of the cold stream and laid her down beside him before passing out from exertion. In reality, that wasn't the way it happened.
Many things happened that night.
Danny had explained himself, which was probably why he wasn't as furious and hurt as he was suppose to be.
Because he knew the truth.
But he knew that knowing the truth while your best friend deluded herself into believing lies wasn't always the best thing in the world.
The words blinked back at him on the screen: Circus Gothica featuring The Goblin Brothers, The Duke Girls, Him and Her, and the one and only DANNY PHANTOM!
Now, all of Amity Park would not recognize him, he was sure of this. They never did acknowledge the alias 'Danny Phantom' during the time Danny was actually present. They had just resorted to calling him 'Inviso-Bill', which they still referred him as; though now that name hardly passed anyone's lips nowadays.
He had been gone for approximately five years, why should anyone ever remember him?
The town had over-flowed with ghosts just days after Danny's departure. And for a while it had been nearly impossible to even walk five steps outside your home without a ghoul appearing out of basically nowhere and scaring you witless. The number of ghosts that escaped from the Ghost Zone soon dwindled when Sam took control, along with a few other self-proclaimed Ghost Hunters.
She trained with Valerie as an official Ghost Hunter and took the place of Danny Phantom with some remorse —after all, Tucker was very much aware of the goth girls attraction towards the clumsy, raven haired (snow haired) boy (or halfa, to be technical).
She eventually surpassed Valerie in Ghost Hunting.
That happened one year after the initial training. And Tucker knew Sam pushed herself harder than any one could consider healthy. She would drag herself home, sweaty and injured, and collapse on her bed or even couch when she couldn't make the walk up the stairs. The next day, her wounds would most likely be infected and he would be there, sterilizing them, ignoring the anxious flip of his stomach when she didn't even bat an eye as he stitched her up.
Most of her wounds were gaping and raw.
He never asked her how she got them and she never told him – but he had the sneaking suspicion she trained with the more friendly ghouls to hone her skills. That in itself was a risk. Ghosts had no obligation to her health. If you happened to befriend one and ask them for a favor, rare would be the time they would fulfill it without an ulterior motive or without completely slinking out of the said deal after a measured span of time. They enjoyed human misery.
He often found himself wondering that – if she did ask a ghost to help her with her training – what had she offered in return?
The possibilities sometimes chilled him.
His cell phone vibrated in his pocket.
"Hello?"
"... Tuck?"
His eyes widened to the size of saucers.
"D-D—"
"Yeah, it's me, Tucker. Long time no talk? Ehehe..."
Things just got a whole lot more difficult, concluded Tucker, as he continued his strange conversation with the boy he hadn't seen in roughly five years.
"Um, guys?" Sam started blandly, before growling: "What the hell do you think you are doing!?"
She crossed her arms and scowled, staring expectantly towards Valerie and Star, who were both viciously fighting to grab a hold of what looked like a ticket to a movie but in the end just managing to stomp all over it and get it dirty.
"She, like, totally took my ticket!" complained Star, pointing accusingly at Valerie, who was dusting herself off with a deep frown marring her usually clear dark skin.
"You mean our ticket," she replied, annoyed. "That ticket can admit three people, Star, so it's for you, me and Sam here!"
"What ticket?" queried Sam, raising a brow, looking slightly interested. "And for what?" She couldn't deny that she feared for her mental health: she absolutely refused to be guilt-tripped into going to some girly, flashy and expensive show just to watch some sickly thin women pose in extravagant, overly-decorated and colorful, clothes.
She admitted some of the clothing lines they showed were... good.
But she would pick spikes over sequences, any day.
Valerie opened her mouth to answer when Star slapped a manicured hand over it, giggling madly. "Oh, my Gawd! You are so totally gonna love me after this, Samantha! And, no, it's not a fashion show if you're wondering!"
Sam was starting to feel a little excited—she didn't even correct Star for calling her by her full name. It wasn't everyday your two best girl friends planned something for you that you would actually enjoy. "Is it something dark? Scary? Haunted?" she prompted, her usually bored violet eyes lighting up like a child's.
Star grinned back at her, "It's even better than that!"
Now she felt extremely excited; she was even starting to have a hard time suppressing a grin. "Oh, what is it, what is it, what is it!" She stepped forward, straining to get a glance at the ticket. Perhaps that would clue her in to where they were going to take her. But Star snatched it from Valerie's hands and stuffed it into her back pocket, wagging a finger at Sam, who scowled back.
"Ah, ah, ah! Patience, patience, miss Manson," she imitated a certain college professor that had the habit of reprimanding Sam for every little thing she did. It was probably because of the way she dressed—though her work wasn't less than stellar.
She remembered screeching: "This is a strict violation of my freedom of expression!" when she was dragged out of the classroom by two security guards.
She had stood up to the teacher in a mature manner – by pointing at him and viciously growling that he had no right to deny her education just because she wore ripped biker gloves and a leather jacket matched along with a short, black skirt and some rather heavy looking steel-toed boots.
All in all, the professor had been scared out of his pants and immediately rung up security.
She still believed that she didn't look that intimidating.
Just... tough-looking.
Sam cleared her mind of that unfortunate event in her life. "Ha, ha, way to bring him up at a time like this," she mumbled, pushing her bright red bang away from her eye.
"Oh, pish posh!" Star grinned, "This will totally make up for everything Paulina and I have done to you and your dorky friends!" she chirped airily.
Valerie face-palmed herself.
Sam smiled wryly. "I sure hope so, Star."
It was quite odd how Star and Sam managed to become the friends they were. If you asked Sam, she would tell you it all started during their Junior year, when Paulina had gotten terribly envious of Star's boyfriend; the handsome new transfer student from Japan. She had frankly asked Star to give him up because he obviously didn't deserve her.
Star was offended to a very personal level when Paulina had said this. Or so she told Sam and Valerie shortly after finding her sobbing in the girls second-floor bathroom, who listened with disbelief but couldn't help but to think that Paulina would do just that. She was just that shallow, what could they say?
And, Sam added at that time, the new Japanese transfer student resembled Danny Phantom with his bleached white hair and dark forest green eyes.
She automatically hated him, you could say. If the menacing glares and awful attitude meant anything.
But the general point of Star's three hour long dramatic heartbreak and friend-break rant was: Paulina managed to seduce Kyohei, the aforementioned transfer student, into leaving her for the Latina. After all, Paulina was very beautiful – and a master manipulator, much to Sam's dismay.
A heartbroken Star was not a very pleasant Star, Sam took note that day, when she ditched her Gym class and found a very distraught Star sobbing helplessly inside the girls second floor bathroom. Of course, she couldn't just leave her there. She looked absolutely miserable so Sam, begrudgingly, took it upon herself to ask the dreaded question.
"Are you alright?"
"WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?" Pause. Rising sob."N-N-N-NO!"
That resulted in skipping out on her English and History classes to comfort a very distressed Star, who only seemed to cry harder when Paulina entered the bathroom in a flourish of silky smooth black hair and clear skin; smelling like male colon and with some lip-gloss smudged at the edge of her full lips.
Sam immediately deduced that Paulina had, once again, taken one of Star's boyfriend's. Or done something horrible to her. Again. It wasn't so hard to figure out; Paulina had the tendency of treating her close friends like absolute nothing.
She also saw Valerie strut in right after and give her a wide-eyed stare since she was holding Star against her chest and looking quite gloomy while at it. It was a comical sight, but the fact that Star had tears streaming down her face subdued the humorous situation.
She supposed that was when the whole "Paulina isn't your friend—she's a stupid bitch who uses you over and over again!" conversation had started. Sam blew off quite a lot of steam in that particular conversation. She ended up ditching all her classes that day, along with Valerie, just to rant out all the negative feelings she harbored for the foul girl.
It felt good to talk smack about the girl who literally had Danny wrapped around her finger at one time.
"Come on, girls," Valerie said, snapping Sam out of her reverie once more. She had a talent for dragging Sam out of her thoughts. "Lunch is over. Time to get this last class over and done with!" She stood up, smiling at Sam, who she noticed looked rather gloomy—the bad kind of gloomy, not the usual gloomy she was so accustomed to.
"I'll see you two later, I've got Psych right now." she called, waving halfheartedly as Star rambled on and on about the thing they were going to take her to. She just really, really hoped it would be something cool: like a dark festival or perhaps a—
No. She chastised herself just in time. No. Don't go there.
Circuses.
She absolutely loathed them.
And, no, it had nothing to do with a certain halfa runaway.
Meanwhile...
"She absolutely loves them!" Star said confidently, waving the admit 3 ticket in front of Valerie's face smugly. "This will totally be, like, mega pay back to what I did to her and her geek friend's during our high school days!"
"Circus Gothica?" Valerie echoed, "Sounds... like her kind of place." She imagined black balloons and creepy, scary-looking clowns roaming the area as if in search of fresh meat. She shivered at the thought – definitely her place.
"Yeah! And, oh my God, I totally hear that, like, the guy in charge is, like, totally hot hot hot!" she gushed, eyes twinkling as she delved deeper into her fantasy. "Sam needs a guy and who better than a creepy, hot, guy who runs an equally creepy circus? And he's, like, nineteen! Like us! Supposedly, they say that he's like a scientist or something but I still think he's a mad scientist, you know? Like in the cartoons—not that I watch any cartoons but—"
"Let me guess," Valerie cut off bluntly, "You want to hook them up."
"Yeah!" she said, amazed. "How did you know? Are you psychic? Why didn't you tell me, Val, I thought we were friends! Wait, if you're psychic then can you—"
Valerie shook her head and chuckled warmly, patting Star on the shoulder as she entered her class. "No, Star, I am not psychic. You're just really predictable."
"Aw—hey, that was mean, Val!"
Tucker flopped onto Sam's bed and laid on her multitude of pillows, glumly staring at her pitch black ceiling. Over the past few years, Sam had gotten darker than dark. She had completely and totally gone Goth, though he had no idea that how she acted when he was still around was actually pretty tame compared to how she acted now.
She looked like a drop out in every way, shape and form. She looked as if her parents had passed away in a gruesome, bloody, way at a young age. And she dressed as if she were to attend a funeral. It would surprise a person to see a small smile or even a grin on her face.
She would usually grumble about narrow-minded people when that happened.
And yet—he mused, torn between feeling happy for her and feeling sad—she was already attending college to study Medicine and Nursing, already haven taken a year in Administrative Business so she could slowly work her way up top Chief Nurse – as she had planned during her Senior year at Casper High.
All in all, Sam had it made. She was acing her classes and he had no doubt she would make a wonderful nurse (dark and broody but definitely good).
His eyes drifted to the black screen of the plasma TV that hung against the wall. He dwelled on the conversation he had had with a close friend not too long ago...
"I'm going back to Amity Park, Tuck. I finally did it. I defeated Vlad and Freakshow; I used my parents old invention—the Fenton Splitter to divide Vlad's alter ego."
"You mean..."
"Yeah, Vlad's now one hundred percent human. His ghost self is more obsessive and diabolical than his human counterpart that's for sure. But, his human self—he's getting better.... well, at least he doesn't hit on mom anymore."
"What about his ghost self? What did you do with him?"
"'Sent him back to the Ghost Zone and locked him up in his own realm. He won't be able to escape unless... someone let's him out. Which I doubt, considering everyone practically hates him. He's very...er, dominating?"
"That's putting it lightly, dude."
"Yeah, well, now I'm coming back and..."
"Sam."
".... S... Sam... she, uh, how is, um, is she, what I mean to say is—"
"She's cool, dude, she's cool. She's still goth and still an ultra-what-something—"
"Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian."
"Yeah, that."
"Yeah."
"You know, man, you're going to have to confront her some time. You can't avoid her anymore—you gotta clear this up for her! It really messed her up when you left without a word, you know? If it makes you feel any better, she'll be pissed off at me too. I mean, I kept it a secret for a whole five years! You owe me, by the way."
"No, no... this is my fault. I was the one who decided not to tell her—she'll think I don't trust her. In fact, she probably thinks I don't. She probably hates me, doesn't she? She does. I screwed up majorly—"
"NO WAY!"
"...?"
"Er, uh, I mean, no, she doesn't hate you. She's just... extensively angry at you to the point of hated."
"Heh, thanks Tuck. That makes me feel so much better."
"You are very welcome, my amigo."
"Er—hey, sorry, but I gotta go. We have to rehearse for the show and..."
"I got it, dude. Get here soon, ai'ight?"
"Right. Bye—yeah bye."
He heard a door swing open and voices slowly begin to drift into the room.
He sighed and opened his eyes, clicking the On button on the remote control and grabbing the controller for the game counsel in his hand. He sat up, faked focus on the plasma TV, and ignored the two girls that peeked inside.
"Still playing, Tuck?" came Sam's amused voice.
"Still playing, Sammy."
"Uh huh, don't call me that."
"Righty-o." he murmured, pressing random buttons, wishing they would just go away and leave him alone. Sam did but Valerie didn't. She watched as his fingers pressed at random and narrowed her eyes. She had seen Tucker seriously play video games before and he didn't just press random buttons. He usually pressed one single button or did combination or moved the stick a lot but he never played that fast.
He was very strategic when he played, which humored her whenever she watched him play.
She sat down on the bed, beside him. "What's wrong?"
"EH? What are you talking about, Val, nothings wrong!" He side-glanced her nervously, trying to get his mind into the game. "I'm just.. trying to pass this level. Argh. Hard."
She glanced at the screen and frowned. "Tucker you've been in here for about seven hours straight and you're only on level 4."
"...Your point being?"
She sighed and sat closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and mumbling: "What happened, Tuck?"
He sighed as his girlfriend of four years hugged him. She knew him all too well now and he somehow knew that was a bad thing.
"Danny called."
She looked up, shocked. "W-what?"
"Danny called and he's... coming back."
Her face lit up. "That's great! I can't wait to tell Sam—"
"Nononono!" Tucker said rapidly, shaking his head. "No. You can't. Not now."
"But, why?" she frowned, confused. "Didn't she have like a mega crush on him during high school or something?"
"Um, she still does," he revealed, shifting his eyes away from hers. "Well, it sorta exceeds a crush but you get what I'm saying, right Val?"
"Uh huh...so why can't I tell her?" She sat up straighter, anticipating a long conversation. "Tucker wouldn't she be happier if she knew he was coming back from California? That's why she's so... sad, right? Because he left her without saying good bye or something like that. I haven't asked because I didn't want to pry but that's what I heard..."
He shook his head slowly, adjusting his maroon beret. "It goes a bit deeper than that, Val."
"Well... what happened?" She dared herself to ask.
He glanced down at her, almost sadly. "It's not my place to tell you. But all you need to know is that Danny did something... that could be counted as betrayal, to Sam. But he only did it to save her life and, well—she sort of doesn't see it that way."
"... She doesn't even know, does she?" Valerie filled in bluntly. She decided, though she was immensely curious, not to ask what was so dangerous that her life was in danger. Sure, she had a small liking towards Danny when she was younger but now Tucker had filled that empty spot. And she was so sure Danny and Sam would get together... half the school even made bets that they would end up together before Senior year.
All bets were called off a few weeks after Danny had left.
It didn't take a genius to figure out Sam's despairing aura was for his departure. She hardly spoke after that incident. She hardly spoke now, but she had opened up; gradually. Now she was almost normal – with the exception of her depressed mood swings.
But those moods were scarce and far in between.
"Right. So, you won't tell her, right Val? Baby?"
"Quit calling me baby and we got a deal."
"Done!"
Valerie stood up, stretched, and hide a coy smile when Tucker followed her movements shamelessly. She sashayed out the door but not before peeking over her shoulder and saying: "Oh, and what are you doing this Saturday?"
Tucker furrowed a brow, snapping his head back up from the—glittery back pocket her girlfriend had! Yeah, her back pockets sure did sparkle... "Uh, nothing why?"
"'Cause me and Star are going to take Sam to Circus Gothica! You know, to cheer her up a little? She likes those types of things, right? Dark, gloomy, and overall creepy."
She was completely oblivious to the sudden paleness his dark face took.
"You're going... to the circus?" he choked, coughing to clear his suddenly constricted throat.
"Not just any circus, Tuck, a circus made especially for freaks and Goth's like Sam! She'll love it—I remember when we were fourteen and she was raving about it for days. I wasn't your favorite person back then but that was probably the loudest she had ever been since I've known her. She'll love it, I'm sure." She smiled and left with small wave, leaving the poor boy to his thoughts.
"Oh, man," he groaned, letting himself fall back on Sam's fluffy mattress. He grabbed one of her fuzzy spider pillows and put it over his face. "Why, oh, why must Val take Sam to the circus Danny practically owns?"
The only response he got was the clinking of the glasses, which were being distributed by one blissfully ignorant Sam.
A/N: I hope none of you get confused when I explain how Star and Sam became friends. If you are, then reread it XD I confused myself when I wrote it as well, so I don't blame you just please don't mention it in reviews. I'm quite aware that it makes little to no sense. Kinda.
Please review! It's the least you could all do, right? I'll try to update every week or so, though. I don't like demanding a specific sum of reviews before an update... its not in my place to command people to review. Besides, I like writing. It's to you if you want to comment on it, right?
Scarlett.