Author's notes: this chapter takes place several months after the last one. It also takes place after 'Phantom Planet' but for plot reasons, I'm ignoring the whole 'Tucker becoming mayor' thing.

Tucker got back to Amity Park from Antarctica after participating in saving the world from the disasteroid. He had called Star after Danny had revealed his secret to the world. They both felt it would be better to talk about it in person and set up a time for Tucker to explain everything.

After his flight landed, he made his to Star's house once more and went to her room. "So," Star began, "your friend Danny Fenton is actually Danny Phantom."

"That's right," Tucker said. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you Star, but this was a very big deal. Danny trusted me in ways I can't even begin to describe and I didn't want to prove him wrong in placing his trust."

"First off, you'll be glad to know that I'm not mad," Star said. "Considering the nature of our relationship, I can't really be mad at you for being able to keep a secret. Besides, I'm too surprised to be mad."

"About Danny?" Tucker asked.

"No, about you," Star clarified. "You could have easily told a girl, particularly Paulina, about being friends with Danny Phantom to get on her good side, but you didn't. Why?"

"Danny put a lot of trust in me about the whole superhero thing," Tucker began. "I didn't feel like spilling his secret as a way to impress a girl that might not even work."

"You know," Star said. "I've always wondered why you've stayed friends with him and Manson when you've complained to me about how they sometimes treat you as much as you have. All you've said about it is that it's complicated and that you've had plenty of good times with them to balance out the bad. Does Danny's double life have something to do with that?"

"Yeah," Tucker answered. "Danny's been doing his best to protect the city from ghosts and he's taken quite a bit of shit for trying to do the right thing. And the only people he's had in his corner through all that is Sam and I. And later, his sister but that's another story. Considering the importance of his work and his own hardships, I couldn't just give up on him because he can be occasionally self centered."

Star was very impressed with Tucker's capacity for loyalty. As for Tucker, he had been dreading that Star would break up with him for not telling her about Danny and was immensely relieved that she was not angry. The two of them hugged each other.

"There's one last thing I want to talk about, Tucker," Star said.

"What's that?" Tucker asked.

"I want to come out about us," Star said. They broke apart from their hug.

"I was thinking about that too," Tucker said. "In case you didn't break up with me, that is. I'm best friends with the guy who just saved the planet: if that's not enough to lessen the consequences from our being together then nothing will, so this is the best time to stop the secrecy."

"Exactly," Star said enthusiastically. "But there is more to it than that. I'm tired of having to insult you behind your back to Paulina to keep up appearances with her. I'm tired of not being able to be seen in public with you. I'm tired of acting like I'm ashamed of you when nothing could be further from the truth."

"Besides," Star continued, "even with Danny's reputation helping us, things might go better than we think. Like when you finally told your parents about us."

Tucker remembered how well that went. He introduced them to Star and they didn't care that she wasn't black (or at least they were polite enough to keep their complaints to themselves). His dad had thought that their secrecy was due to race issues, but Tucker's mom recalled some of her own teenage years and explained how dating outside one's class can have consequences. Everything worked out.

"Plus," Star continued once again, "you can finally call out Fenton and Manson about how they've sometimes abused your friendship and taken you for granted."

"Oh yeah," Tucker said with a wide grin. "That's going to be fun."

Star cracked a grin of her own. She was happy that Tucker was finally going to speak his mind to his friends. She was also looking forward to doing the same with Paulina.

"This Danny thing is still going to take some getting used to," Star said. "I mean, he and Valerie dated for a while and she….."

"Wait, you know about Valerie's ghost hunting?" Tucker asked.

"YOU know about Valerie's ghost hunting!" Star exclaimed.

Oh f^k, Tucker thought.

…

Many awkward minutes later, Tucker and Star had cleared up the Valerie mess. He invited Danny and Sam to his house saying that he had some things to explain. They went to his room and were surprised to see Star there.

"What's she doing here?" Sam asked.

"That's part of why I asked you here," Tucker began. "Star and I have been seeing each other since Valentine's Day."

Danny blinked a few times in bewilderment as Tucker and Star held hands. "That was over six months ago," he said.

"That's right," Tucker said. There was an awkward silence among the group for a while.

"But….. how…. what," Danny stammered out, too shocked to form proper sentences.

"My sentiments exactly," Sam said.

Tucker and Star then gave a brief explanation of how they got together and why they've stayed together despite having to keep their relationship a secret for so long. When they were done with the story, Tucker explained that Star only found out about Danny's double life at the same time as everyone else.

"There's one last thing I want to say," Tucker said. "You two have not always been the best of friends to me: making me feel like a third wheel, leaving me hanging in bad situations, poking fun at my love of technology. For now, let's focus on the third wheel thing: I was able to keep a secret girlfriend from you two for over half a year because of how little interest you had in my life."

Aw crap, Danny thought to himself as he realized that Tucker was absolutely right about how he was treated.

Sam was feeling even worse about this current development. Like Tucker, she occasionally got sidelined by Danny's priorities so she knew how he felt. Unlike Danny, she didn't have overwhelming responsibility or getting into battles with vicious ghost as excuses.

"I know what you do is important, Danny," Tucker said. "But you can get so caught up in it sometimes that it turns you into a real smeghead sometimes."

"A what?"

"You'd get that if you followed my recommendation to watch Red Dwarf."

"I'm a little busy to watch old British sci-fi shows, Tucker," Danny said in an attempt to defend himself, realizing that not following Tucker's recommendation was another example of ignoring him.

As Tucker and Danny continued to talk, Sam noticed that Star was smiling because of their exchange. Sam nodded her head to indicate to Star that she wanted to talk to her. They stepped a couple feet away from the boys so they could talk.

"You're okay with Tucker using you to take Danny down a notch?" Sam asked.

"I am," Star replied. "Tucker's vented to me about you two a couple times so I'm glad to see him finally standing up for himself. Besides, I'm going to use my relationship with him to show Paulina how she can be a superficial, self-absorbed egomaniac, so it all evens out."

"You're all right Blondie," Sam said with a smile, amused that she and Star had a similar opinion of the popular Latina.

"I'm glad to hear that," Star said. "Because in the likely event that Paulina kicks me out of the A-list for daring to defy her, I'm going to be in the market for some new friends. Although we're going to have to lay down some ground rules for not imposing each other's lifestyle on the other, ms. 'changed the school's lunch menu to force vegetarianism on everybody'."

Sam's eyes and mouth widened in shock. She was planning to defend her environmentalist views but decided not for a few reasons. Primarily, she was hoping to start making it up to Tucker for her own treatment of him by making nice with his girlfriend. Also, after thinking of Star as Paulina's vapid follower for so long, she was impressed with her display of backbone. Lastly, Star's suggestion of mutual non-interference was a very fair compromise.

Danny and Tucker finished their chat. Danny said he was sorry for not being the best friend he could be and vowed he would do better. He also said that Tucker could harass him into keeping his word if things came to that.

Danny also told Tucker about how he and Sam had just decided to be more than friends. He asked Tucker for any girlfriend advice he might have. Tucker smiled at Danny's admission of Tucker having more experience with girls and shared some tidbits wisdom he'd gained from his time with Star.

…

A few days later, word had spread about Tucker and Star. Much to the couple's surprise, nobody raised a big deal about it. Nobody would say it out loud, but the school thought that Star was just cozying up to Danny Phantom's best friend as part of her nature as a social climber.

After cheerleading practice one day, Paulina and Star were alone in the girl's locker room. "Star," Paulina began. "I just want to say how proud I am of you."

"For what?" Star asked.

"I've been trying to get Danny to be my boyfriend, but he keeps turning me down because he's apparently going out with weird goth girl," Paulina paused for a moment as her face contorted into an angry grimace. She took a deep breath and calmed herself.

"But that's another thing," she continued. "It wouldn't have occurred to me to get to him through Foley. It's probably not the most dignified of methods, but you've made more progress than me so who am I to judge." Paulina placed her hand on Star's shoulder. "I've taught you well."

"Tucker and I have been seeing each other in secret over six months," Star blurted out as she took Paulina's hand off her shoulder. She would have better articulated the dropping of that bombshell, but she was too pissed for that upon learning that Paulina saw their master/crony relationship as something more akin to teacher/student.

"What?" Paulina said with eyes widened in shock.

"You heard me," Star said with an angry glare. "I actually like Tucker. And now that you know this, you're going to kick me out of the A-list for going against standards."

"Okay Star….." Paulina began.

"I'm not done yet," Star interrupted. "You only think of me as your satellite. Over half this school worships the ground you walk on and even though I'm your right hand girl I don't get any of that admiration. You've never made any attempt to more evenly distribute your influence and I've never asked you to because you'd kick me out of the A-list for having an opinion of my own. You have been a very shitty friend!" Star yelled as she raised her middle finger at Paulina.

"Is that really necessary?" Paulina asked.

"F#^k yeah it's necessary," Star answered. "This has been building up for a long time and it feels it great to say it to your face."

"I meant flipping me off," Paulina clarified.

"Oh," Star said in a tone that indicated surprise. She looked at her hand and saw that she still had her middle finger raised. She lowered it and faced Paulina. "Yes, yes it was."

"Okay," Paulina said as she put her hand on her forehead and thought about what she was going to say. "I can see why you feel the way you do but I have always thought of us as friends."

"You mean the kind of friends where one friend has all the power over the other one?" Star asked indignantly.

"Yeah, like that," Paulina said nervously because she realized that that was how things worked between them. "I'll work on that and see what I can do about giving you some of my influence. Just know that I am sorry about making you feel like that."

"I'm sorry too," Star said as went up to Paulina and hugged her. "I've come to resent you so much that it never occurred to me that you'd do anything but act like the egomaniacal bitch I've come to think of you as."

"It's all right Star," Paulina said as she returned the hug. She was willing to overlook the phrasing of Star's sucky-ass apology because she had made her so very pissed off and felt bad about that now.

As they were hugging, Star thought about how she was originally willing to cut ties with Paulina. With Danny's status and her relationship with Tucker no longer a secret, she didn't have to depend on Paulina for her status and social life. She was very pleasantly surprised to see that Paulina was more reasonable than she gave her credit for.

They broke apart from their hug. ""I don't have to get to know Fo….. uh, I mean Tucker, do I?" Paulina asked.

"Relax," Star began, "I'll give you two a wide birth from each other."

Thank god, Paulina thought. Sure, she was willingly to make things cool with Star but she had her limits.

"How did you two even get together?" she asked.

Star smiled as she began tell Paulina the story.