A/N: I hope you this story is getting you to chuckle a little! Thanks for the reviews!! And hope you had a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!Now, without more ado, here is Chapter 3. Enjoy, and you know the "not owning any characters' thing"!
Rumor Has It—Chapter 3—More Traps
Sam and Tucker looked at each other and knew that the jig was up. As the light from the hallway flooded in, they instinctively shifted side-by-side, as if they were shielding Danny, which, of course, they weren't. And as they moved forward, shoulder-to-shoulder, they tried--unsuccessfully—to act as nonchalantly as possible, which, of course, was impossible given that they were in a closet for no apparent reason.
Suddenly, the two jumped at the sound of Danny's irritated voice, which was directed at the students who just busted in. "Do you mind? Can't a bunch of geeks have some privacy?"
"In a janitor's closet?" Tucker blurted out.
Sam hid her jab to Tucker's ribs just as Danny moved around his friends and sauntered out of the closet. Sam and Tucker quickly followed him and ignored the disappointed groans of the other students.
In no time, all the gawking bodies disappeared and Danny, Sam and Tucker headed to their lockers.
In the meantime, Paulina and Starr were right on the trio's heels, and rushed toward their nearby lockers. Paulina hurriedly whispered to her friend the only quick plan that she would ever be capable of coming up with— a simple one. Paulina quickly opened her locker wide enough for anyone who passed it to see that it was plastered with pictures of Danny Phantom. As she searched for what she wanted, she glanced toward the lockers nearby and when she saw Danny was still at his locker, she uttered to Starr, "We'll get him! You'll see! Just follow my lead!"
Starr, all ready getting tired about the rumor, whined, "How do you know if we're right, anyway?" Then pointing to one of Paulina's Danny Phantom pictures, she added, "He's not cool enough to be that cool!"
Paulina answered with a voice laden with irritation, "We both heard it--well, sort of! Anyway, we have to be sure! Now, don't forget on what to do!" She then closed her locker and looked to Starr. Each nodded in acknowledgement, knowing what their silent cue would be in their next plan.
The two popular girls walked up to the three friends. Pauline moved closer to Danny while Starr repeated her rehearsed snuggle up to Tucker. Tucker, of course, was obviously pleased, again.
And—again--both of the girls ignored Sam.
"Yoo-hoo, Danny!" Paulina sweetly cooed to Danny, her voice taking an 'I'm-still--in-the-know' tone to it. She again snuggled closer to him and purred, "That was very clever of you to be in the closet and fighting that yucky ghost outside. How did you do that?"
This time, Sam purposely interrupted the vixen, her voice laden with indignation. "Your make-up is on way too thick! Nobody can do that!"
Tucker blurted out, "Actually, Vlad…" But before he could continue, Sam's glare stopped him cold, and quickly covering up his mistake, he uttered, "Actually, I'm GLAD no one can! It sure would complicate things!"
But Paulina ignored them both and continued to speak to Danny in that sickeningly sweet voice of hers, "I'm sorry. I didn't hear you, Danny. What did you say?"
Danny--being Danny—started to come under Paulina's 'spell' a little and uttered, "You mean if I had a 'double me', you wouldn't mind?"
Paulina smiled and moved even closer to him.
Sam, writhing in fury and jealousy, glared at him.
But after Danny finally caught a glimpse of Sam and was riveted by her angry look, the teenage boy snapped out of it and stammered, "I-I mean, I don't know what I mean! I'm just me and me alone!"
Paulina frowned at this response at first, then smiled again, undaunted. "OK, for now, Danny! But I'll be watching you!"
Again falling under her 'spell', Danny murmured, "You will?"
Paulina purred in triumph and began to walk away, signaling to Starr, who immediately shoved Tucker away and rejoined her friend.
Sam rushed up to Danny and grabbing him at the shoulders, shook him, "Are you nuts? What's wrong with you, Danny? Do you know what this means if we let your secret all out?"
"That I'll finally be getting more than fifteen minutes of fame?"
Sam scowled and sarcastically answered, "Urgh! That's right, Danny! And think of what will happen with that kind of fame!"
Danny looked at her and calmly replied, "Actually, I've been thinking about it and maybe it wouldn't be so bad to finally get the recognition I deserve."
Sam and Tucker both stared at him in shock.
Tucker stammered, "You don't mean that, do you?"
Danny turned to his friends and answered, "And why not? Maybe this 'secret identity' thing has been overdone. It sure has complicated my life way too much!"
Sam, slightly taken aback, uttered what had been on her mind and what she had been reading too much of lately, "And you think that telling everyone who you are will simplify everything? Being a celebrity isn't all it's cracked up to be, you know."
"How would you know that?" Tucker asked, puzzled at her comment.
She chuckled nervously and said, "Well, uh, sometimes I read those types of silly blather magazines when I'm at the dentist or doctor's office, and, uh, my grandmother has a few…Uh, doesn't everyone?"
They all looked at each other. Danny looked at her in confusion and Tucker was too embarrassed to concede her point. So, of course, they all said nothing.
But then Danny replied, "Well, I don't know then. Let me think about it."
Just then, the bell rung and they headed to their next class.
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Finally, the bell rang for classes to change. Danny, Sam and Tucker headed to their lockers.
Both Sam and Tucker were aching to press Danny for his decision about his secret. But they were hesitant as well. What if his answer was not what they really wanted to hear? So they both kept mum about it. Instead, they chattered about just about anything else.
Then, right as Danny was opening his locker, Dash came out of nowhere and shoved him right into it. And slammed the door shut.
"Let me out!" Danny screamed. But of course his yell was muffled.
Sneering, Dash yelled back, "No way, twinkie!!! If you want to get out, you'll have to do it as the Ghost Kid. And since I don't believe that you are him, then you'll just have to be stuck in there for a while. And you deserve every stuffy minute in there for stealing my girl from me!" He replaced the lock on the locker and leaned against it.
"Leave him alone, jocko!" Sam said, pushing hard with all her might to get right between the locker and the jocko. She succeeded and now she was in front of the locker, taking a very threatening stance.
Tucker stood close by, shaking with fear, but uttered, "Yeah, Dash! We have to get to class!"
"Correction, techno-geek! You have to get to class. The nerd in there stays put until I prove he's not the ghost kid!" He stepped forward, but Sam defied him, her hands tightly fisted at her side. Dash jolted a little at the determination in her face.
Just then, Paulina and Starr came upon the scene. Sam saw them, and shoving Dash away again, ran up to Paulina and demanded, "Call off your guard dog, Paulina!! This is not funny! He's locked Danny in his locker and he's going to get Danny in trouble for being late to his next class!"
But Paulina smiled wickedly and with a very catty tone in her voice said, "All Danny has to do is melt out of there and then he won't be late!"
"Phase out," Tucker accidentally blurted out and then realizing his mistake, said more loudly, "I mean, faint out… Danny's going to faint out in that locker unless he gets some air soon! Please let him go!!"
Seeing that Dash, Paulina and Starr weren't going to give in and desperate to get Danny out, Sam went back to the locker and pushed Dash so hard with her whole body that he actually fell out of the way. Then she quickly unlocked the lock, opened the door and screamed, not expecting to see Danny Phantom! "No!" she yelled and violently slammed the door shut--again.
"Let us see!" Dash, Paulina, and Starr all yelled, thinking that Paulina's plan worked and that Danny Fenton wasn't in there.
"No! Don't open it! He must not have had enough oxygen. I think he's dead!" Sam screamed, bringing her hands up to her face in dread.
The popular kids stopped in their tracks in disbelief. But then, Dash said, "No way!" and before Sam could react, the resident athlete jerked open the locker and Danny Fenton fell out right at the jock's feet. And he didn't move. And his whole body was blue.
Dash, Paulina and Starr all screamed at that and ran away just as Danny brought in a deep breath.
"Are you all right, dude?" Tucker anxiously asked, helping his friend up.
"Yeah, nice save, there, Sam….OW!! What was that for?" he protested, rubbing his now hurting arm. She had given him a good wallop on it.
"You were going to phase out of there, weren't you? Why?" she demanded.
"No, I wasn't, sorta, maybe. But I didn't in the end!! I don't know why I did it! Maybe I wanted to…but I guess I was hoping to sneak out and get to class before….." And he suddenly shut up when he realized that doing that wouldn't have helped the situation at all. He really was confused about what he should do about it all.
"Sorry, Sam," he began, but then she said, "We'll talk about it later. We really don't have any more time! We better hurry. The bell is about to ring!"
All three friends made a mad dash to their next class and the bell rang just as they had stepped into class.
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Later that day, during lunch period, Danny, Sam and Tucker headed to their lockers again.
Both Sam and Tucker were even more worried--and their imaginations were going wild--because Danny still hadn't said anything about what he was going to do about the rumor. But, he almost blew it earlier, and now they weren't sure what all that would mean in the end. Again, they were afraid to say anymore, so they yakked a whole lot about still other totally unimportant things.
Finally, they got to their lockers. No one else was near them or in the hall.
Suddenly, a ghost appeared nearby Starr's locker, just a couple of lockers down from where they were.
Sam and Tucker gasped but Danny had his back to it and didn't even react at all.
"What?" he asked, seeing their chagrined faces.
"There's a ghost!" Tucker said under his breath.
"There's a ghost?" Danny repeated, frowning with confusion. "There can't be! My ghost sense didn't go off!"
Without changing her expression, Sam signaled with her eyes for Danny to turn around and look.
And when Danny did, the ghost wailed.
But then Danny reflexively gasped with a loud and obviously frightened shriek, "Ohmigosh! A ghost! Let's get out of here!" And he immediately started to run away.
Utterly surprised by his reaction, Sam and Tucker chased after him. But when they turned the corner, they ran right into him.
"Danny! What's going on?" Sam demanded. "Why didn't you 'go ghost' and get that ghost?"
"Shh!" he commanded, pulling both of his friends behind him so that they were all hidden by the corner. He slowly edged to the corner and barely peeked around it.
Starr, Paulina, Dash and Qwan were all huddled around Starr's locker and they were arguing. And Danny frowned in irritation of what he saw in the background.
"Just wait a second more! He'll be here!" Paulina insisted.
"But he looked like a scared rabbit! He's not the ghost boy!" Dash countered.
"And there's no sign that the ghost boy is here either!" Starr whined.
"Maybe he's shy and went to change in private?" Qwan offered.
The others frowned in annoyance at him, and he shrugged.
"No, he'll be back and this time we'll get him!!" Paulina insisted.
"But that won't prove a thing if the ghost kid comes and there's no Fenton!" Dash objected. "I'm telling you, Paulina, that rumor can't be right!"
"And I'm telling you to get lost if you don't prove it's right!" She hissed back, "Now, go get ready again!"
Dash stomped just out of sight to another part of the hall.
Danny was still not sure what he felt about it all, but he knew he reacted like he did because it had been second nature for so long. But then glancing behind the group, he saw something else in the background happen; and getting more irritated with their trap, made a quick decision.
"OK, guys," he informed Sam and Tucker. And just as he began to walk around the corner again, he added, "Just follow my lead!"
They looked at each other, totally confused by his remark and behavior, but didn't question him, and followed him.
"I'm telling you that I don't want to go near my locker as long as that ghost is there!" Danny purposely yelled very loudly, talking to Sam and Tucker. He stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he got near enough to just see his locker. But he had stopped so quickly that Sam rammed right into him. But then he suddenly grasped her hands and placed them on top of his shoulders, leaned back, and made it look as if she was the one pushing him toward his locker, which, by the way, she wasn't.
"B-but we still have to get our…uhm, books?!" Sam stammered just as loudly, all the while being both pulled and pushed by Danny. She was trying hard to get his drift but thought best not to resist his lead. So then she began to actually push him toward his locker, and he feigned resisting her.
"Look, they're coming back!" Paulina hurriedly whispered to her clique. "Get back to where you were before!"
All the conspirators disappeared just as Danny, Sam and Tucker were nearing their lockers again.
"Yeah, and besides, maybe…er… Danny Phantom already got rid of it?" Tucker squeamishly said, looking nervously around and not having a real explanation as to why the ghost they had seen earlier was now gone.
Danny shuddered and nervously scanned the area where the ghost had been.
"D-do you think it's gone?" he stammered loudly just as they came to their lockers. But then he uttered under his breath so that only his friends could hear, "Open you lockers!"
Sam and Tucker did as they were told and Danny opened his own.
"Now, start taking your stuff—all your stuff--out!" he quietly commanded.
They did, and all of the trio's arms were rapidly getting very full of all kinds of known and totally unknown stuff that somehow grew in high school lockers.
"OK, now just wait for my signal," he quickly whispered. He turned around and scanned the area nervously again.
Just then, the exact same ghost appeared and wailed.
Danny screamed very loudly again, threw up all the stuff in his arms and fell to the ground.
Sam and Tucker—startled by his unexpected yell--threw all their stuff up in the air too. And all that combined junk fell right on top of Danny and covered him up.
Sam gasped and began to reach down to pull the stuff off her friend when Tucker, who finally understood Danny's plan, crouched next to her and uttered, "Wait a sec, Sam!"
Just then, Danny Phantom emerged from the ceiling and yelled loudly, "Just where is that ghost, citizens?"
"Over there!" Sam and Tucker yelled back, pointing to the ghost.
Danny quickly blasted the locker and then darted away, just as Paulina and her crew dashed toward the pile of junk that was still at Sam and Tucker's feet.
Sam and Tucker kept staring where the ghost had been, but quickly noticed the popular kids who were now all converging upon the pile of stuff at the foot of their three lockers. Sam yelled, "Hey! Get away from our stuff!"
The clique, of course, ignored her and then Paulina sighed in disappointment as Danny groaned underneath the pile.
"Ohh, my head," he moaned and then finally seeing Paulina, he said, "Paulina! You saved me from that ghost!"
She threw the book she had pulled away from him back at him and this time he yelled in real pain.
"You can't fool me, Danny!" Paulina insisted. "You just wait and see!"
And she quickly stomped away and her friends followed quickly behind her.
Finally, Sam and Tucker helped Danny up out of the pile of stuff and they hurriedly began to cram it all back in, not paying particular attention to which lockers they put them in.
"OK, dude, what was that all about?" Tucker finally managed to blurt out. "Does this mean you've decided to keep your secret?"
"No! I, mean, I don't know! It's just that those jerks were being plain mean about this all and I wanted to get back at them!"
"But I thought it was a real ghost!" Sam remarked, glancing back at the projection of the still visible ghost, with the still smoldering locker behind it.
"It sure did look real, but since my ghost sense didn't go off, I just knew it had to be a fake!" Danny said with a smile. "Man, they're sure going out of their way trying to trip us up!"
"Well, then, I am impressed!" Sam said with a wry smirk.
"That I figured out that it was a fake ghost and still came up with that quick plan to fool them about me and Danny Phantom?" Danny asked with a smug smile.
"No, that Paulina and all her cronies somehow were actually able to figure out how to turn on that projector!"
And all three laughed, but not in total relief. Sam and Tucker were still worried, and Danny began to debate with himself more seriously about what exactly he wanted to do about that rumor.