Spheres

By: Garnet Sky

Disclaimer: I don't know Danny Phantom.

Lunchtime Drama

"You changed the menu again?" Danny asked warily. At least this time, the school board had thought it through and decided to dish out sliced tomatoes on french bread slathered with basil pesto and covered with melted cheese only on Tuesdays. It was lukewarm at best. He sighed. One day of the week Sam insisted he be vegetarian. This, apparently, was the day.

"Just for today," Sam said. "I went to the Lunch Lady and asked this time. She had no objections if it was for only one day. There is a meat alternative on the soup bar." She gestured at the soups which were labeled chicken tortilla and minestrone.

"Good," Danny told her. "I'm a little tired of cleaning up the food fights that messes like this get us into."

"You do start an awful lot of them," Valerie teased, sliding into a chair. "Mind if I sit?"

"No," Tucker told her. "Go ahead."

"Where were you half the morning?" Sam asked her.

"Doctor's appointment," she said, noting Tucker turning a bit green. "Routine check-up. Daddy's resigned to me being a ghost hunter, so he insists on it."

"Uh-huh," Danny said, not taking his eyes off the A-listers table where Kelly was living it up with the cheerleaders. His eyes flashed green when Dash and Kwan flirted with her. Star whispered something to her; she giggled.

"Yo, Earth to Fenton. Did you know Sam is a ghost?" Valerie said, waving a hand in front of his face.

"Yeah," he replied, not really paying attention. "Her name is Fallu of the Octarine Triad."

"Huh?"

"Trust me," Tucker told her, "it's a very long story and you don't want to know."

"Okay," Valerie said, shaking her head. "So who is the new girl?"

"She's a ghost too," Danny said. "Kelly Blaire from Ireland."

"Okay, Houston, we officially have a space cadet in the cafeteria," Sam joked, purple eyes dancing.

The rest of the table cracked up when Danny turned back to the conversation and asked what was so funny.

"Why do you wear so much green?" Paulina asked.

Kelly said, "I'm from Ireland; green is our national color."

"So what brought you to Amity Park?" Star asked. "You're more fun to listen to than those losers over there."

Kelly shook her head. "Who are they?."

"A couple of nerds," Paulina sneered. "Not in the same class as us. Or Danny Phantom."

"Anyone know where I can find my brother?," came the confused voice of the Rulemaker.

Kelly gulped. "Rulemaker, you cannot come here. The Lord of Light and Darkness will be displeased."

"Where is my brother, your Prince?" came the demand.

"Right here," came the Lord of Light and Darkness' icy tone. "I thought I made myself clear, Rulemaker. Casper High is off-limits to all ghosts; including the Nine." Danny Phantom stood there, green eyes blazing in anger, arms folded.

"Danny Phantom!" squealed Paulina, from the back wall of the cafeteria where she huddled with the other students. "Kelly, that's the ghost boy I was trying to tell you about."

"Uh, hi, Paulina," Phantom said, turning around to meet her gaze. She squealed something that sound like "he knows my name" before turning his attention back to the Rulemaker.

"Rulemaker, as one of the Nine, why do you insist on making my life a disaster? You wrote that stupid rule book; you straighten it out," his eyes flickered slightly to Kelly, who dashed to the other side of the cafeteria with the other A-listers.

Kelly listened to the other A-listers explain everything they knew about Danny Phantom, while keeping one eye on the Lord of Light and Darkness' conversation with the Rulemaker. Somehow she had to get him aside to tell him about Lilac.

"He is cute," she told Star. "I concur on that."

"Did you just call me a dog?" Paulina asked, stopping in mid-rant about all the ways that Danny Phantom had proven his undying love to her.

"No, Paulina," Kelly told her. "I meant that I agree with you."

Star sighed. "Where's a stupid teacher when you need one? Ghosts are yakking it up in the cafeteria and no one is around. Someone should at least call the Fentons."

Valerie ran up to them. "Has anyone seen Danny?"

"No," Kwan told her. "He must have run out with everyone else when that weird ghost appeared. Hey, where'd Phantom go?"

"No idea and don't care," Valerie said. "Good riddance, I say."

"Let's go to the mall after school," Paulina suggested. "Black and green were so last year. Pink is the new hot color this year."

"Joy," Star muttered. "Here we go again."

Kelly hid a smile. She missed having fun with friends.