A/N: I jinxed myself didn't I... saying I knew where I was going with this story. It totally ran away from me and it's refusing to go in the direction that I planned. Anyway, the good news is I got a new chapter out, the bad news is I have no idea what happens next. Or maybe that is good too, I can surprise myself. I do have bits and pieces written, I just have to puzzle them together in a way that it makes sense. If I ever make sense. Oh well, let's see where this goes...
Sorry about the rant.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.
Back in town
Tucker watched his friend approach him at her locker, looking unusually cheerful. He grinned. He knew why she was so happy all of a sudden, the same reason Paulina had been dancing in the hallways for the last couple of days. Danny Phantom was back. He had been spotted several times, fighting ghosts and sucking them into that thermos of his. It had been all over the news.
"Hello sunshine," he said to her.
Immediately she dropped her eyebrows into a scowl that matched her outfit better.
"Knock it off Tucker," she threatened.
He raised his hands and quickly made it out of there before she could decide to acquaint him with her boot again.
After school they headed to the Nasty Burger, as they always did on Friday afternoons. Sam waited patiently in the long line of students. They weren´t the only ones who had this habit. When it finally was her turn she stepped up to the cashier and stared at him. He stared right back, his mouth open. Then he regained his composure.
"H-Hi, may I take your order please?"
Sam blinked. "Aren´t you that drug dealer," she blurted out.
A look of anger crossed his face and he leaned forward.
"Are you trying to get me fired," he hissed.
Sam quickly shook her head and ordered. Then she walked over to their usual table and waited for Tucker to complete his order. She had a very good view on the cashier from where she sat and she studied him. He was wearing the usual Nasty Burger outfit but underneath it she could see a blue t-shirt. Sticking out under his long sleeved shirt he had something that looked suspiciously like spiked wristbands. His unruly black hair was a bit too long and kept falling in front of his eyes. He glanced in her direction and quickly looked away when he saw that she was looking at him. She blushed.
A loud crash ended her contemplations of the blue-eyed cashier. She stared at the large hole in the wall where a ghost in a metallic suit appeared.
"Where are you whelp! I heard you were back!" he yelled, looking around at the panicked crowd.
People were screaming and running for the door, pushing the chairs and tables away. Sam was pinned against the wall by one of them.
"Hrmmpf," she groaned and tried to push the table away but it was stuck.
From the corner of her eyes she saw a bright white flash and then she heard a voice saying, "Skulker! Man, have I missed you! I mean, have I missed kicking your but!"
At that, the robotic ghost was hit by a powerful ecto blast that threw him into the wall. Sam craned her neck to see who was talking, but she already knew. The restaurant was completely empty now except for Sam who was still sitting on the bench, trying to hide. The ghost boy drifted into view and the ghost called Skulker got up and threw a glowing green net at him, which he avoided easily.
"Really Skulker," Phantom said, "I gave you five months and this is what you come up with?" And then he saw Sam.
"Crap," he said and paid for his inattention by being hit by an ecto blast from Skulker.
He hit the counter in a loud crash and slid to the floor, dazed for a moment. Skulker approached him confidently, but if he thought he had him he was wrong. Phantom quickly went intangible, sank through the floor to come up behind the ghost. He extended both hands and blasted Skulker from behind. Now it was the ghost´s turn to fall on the floor, dazed. Phantom gave him no time to get up but sucked him into the thermos. Sam watched him as he stood there for a moment as if catching his breath and then he turned to her.
"Are you OK?," he asked as he quickly removed the pile of tables in front of her.
"Yeah," she said shakily.
He helped her out of her booth, looking at her with big, concerned, green eyes. And got blasted in the back. He yelped in pain and fell forward, right into her arms. While she tried to hold him up, Sam heard the all to familiar buzzing of a hover board.
"There you are, ghost boy," the Red Huntress shouted.
"Valerie," Phantom groaned and looked up at Sam. "Gotta go," he said and vanished.
"NO," Valerie shouted, "Get back here so I can shoot you, you..." She stared at Sam, shrieked in anger and left.
Sam just stood there, looking at the damage. There was a big hole in the wall in the back, a substantial part of the chairs and tables were damaged and the counter was broken where the ghost boy had hit. Sam winced. That must have hurt. Then she heard her name and turned to see who was calling her. The blue-eyed cashier approached her, wincing at every step he took. Sam raised her eyebrows.
"How do you know my name?" she asked him.
He blinked at her and started rubbing the back of his neck.
"Oh, eh, yes well I heard T.. your friend call you that, yeah," he said, "Are you OK?"
"I´m fine," Sam replied, "Are you? You seem... hurt."
He looked back at the kitchen. "I´m alright," he said, "I was hiding back there and some stuff fell on me. My name is Danny."
He extended his hand and she took it, looking at the name tag on his uniform. "Danny Fisher," it said. People started coming in again, now that the danger was gone. Tucker spotted Sam and quickly ran over.
"Sam! Are you..."
"Yes. I´m fine," she said, still staring at Danny, holding his hand.
Tucker stopped and looked at them. "Wow. Talk about love at first sight."
They both blushed and turned to glare at him. He was suddenly struck by the familiarity of that scene, a strong sense of ´deja vu´.
"Hey you, Fisher," they heard and Danny shrunk a little, "Go clean up this mess".
The manager approached them. "You had better get out," he said somewhat rudely to Sam and Tucker, "We´ll be closed for the day."
Danny turned to get a broom and bumped right into Dash, of all people.
"Hey, watch it loser," Dash yelled and then he recognized him. "Hey, wait a minute, it´s you! You´re that drug dealer!"
The manager, who had been walking towards the cash register stopped and turned.
"What?" he said, "He´s what?"
Dash smirked as Danny backed away. "We caught him outside the school a couple of days ago, selling drugs to kids."
Sam gasped at the blatant lie. "Now wait a minute," she started but the manager brushed her away.
"I don´t want any drug dealers as my employees. You´re fired!"
Danny just stood there and quickly looked at the floor, but Sam could have sworn his eyes flashed green for a moment. She saw him clench his fists and she remembered how he had hit Dash the other day. But he looked up again and his eyes were blue.
"Fine," he said, yanking off the Nasty Burger blouse without bothering to open the knots, revealing his blue t-shirt and indeed black, spiked wristbands. "Go clean up yourself then."
He walked to the door, threw it open and slammed it behind him.
Danny stood outside the Nasty Burger, fuming. He lost his job. Again.
"Why me," he said to nobody in particular.
The door opened behind him and he glanced back, to see Sam and Tucker exit the restaurant. They looked at him and he looked back. He never thought he could actually wish he could go to school again.
He was sitting in the study, staring out of the window as Mr Carter was trying to explain something."Daniel," he said, "Please pay attention."
Danny tore his eyes away from the trees outside and looked at his tutor blankly.
"I´m sorry Mr Carter, what was that," he said.
Mr Carter looked at him sternly. "I´ll have a word with your father," he said, frowning. "We´ve been over this exercise yesterday. You need to pay attention."
Danny scowled at him. "Look," he said, "He makes me sit here but he can´t make me do this stuff if I don´t want to."
The door of the study opened and Vlad Masters stepped inside. "Mr Carter," he said, "I think we are done for today. I´ll have a word with my son now."
Danny cringed.
Sam looked at the suddenly bleak expression on Danny´s face."Um," she said, "This is Tucker, my best friend. Tucker, this is Danny, he, eh..."
"I´m not a drug dealer," Danny said, his anger returning.
"I never said you were," Sam retorted, "Well, I did. I'm sorry. But if you were, you wouldn´t be working in this crappy place."
Danny laughed at that. "No I wouldn´t. And I wouldn´t be sleeping in... never mind." He caught himself. No reason to tell them that. Yet.
"Listen, eh," Sam continued, "Wanna hang out with us?"
Danny´s face lit up. "Sure. I haven´t got anything better to do now anyway." Yes you do you moron, he thought, you should be looking for a new job or you´ll have to steal again.
"Wait up, I have to get my coat," he said out loud and quickly went around the back to avoid the manager.
They went to the mall together and if they started out a bit awkward, they quickly adjusted to each other, joking about other people, running in and out stores, playing pranks on jocks and running away when they got caught. Danny was happy. He could forget his predicament for a while, pretend nothing was out of the ordinary.
"It´s funny," Sam said to Danny, "It seems like I´ve known you all my life."
Then she cringed, expecting a dorky reaction from Tucker, but he just looked pensive.
"Where do you live?" Tucker asked him as they were leaving the mall.
Danny made a vague gesture in the direction of his ´home´. "Down town".
"Where do you go to school?"
"Dropped out."
"Why?"
"Look, I don´t want to tell you alright. Just leave it."
Danny didn´t want to discuss it, knowing what would happen if he tried to explain. He looked at his watch and saw that it was almost six. It was getting darker outside. He would have to leave soon, he knew of some restaurants that were hiring people to wash dishes, they would be open now. If he got lucky he would get something to eat there too. But there was one last thing he had to ask his friends.
"Do you know the Fentons?"
To his disappointment Sam and Tucker shook their heads.
"We know of them of course," Sam said, "The ghost hunter. Mr Fenton sometimes comes when there is a ghost attack at the school. But I don't know who causes more damage, the ghost or him."
Danny was puzzled. "What about Mrs Fenton?" he asked.
Sam shrugged. "I don't know. I heard she was ill. We never see her. Why the questions?"
Danny had gone pale. "Um, what's wrong with her?" he tried to ask casually, but he couldn't keep the emotion from his voice.
Sam looked at him suspiciously. "Why do you want to know?" she asked and Danny jumped up.
"Look, just tell me alright, I just want to know. I... I used to know her and I want to know how she's doing."
"So why don't you ask them then," Tucker said to a frustrated Danny.
His eyes flashed green for a moment and he quickly looked away, balling his fists. Sam looked apprehensively at his suddenly aggressive stance.
"My mom told me," she said quickly, "She is in a nursing home. She is mentally ill. She kept searching for her son, but she doesn't have one."
Danny walked away a few paces. "Um, see you later," he said without turning around and took off, leaving Sam and Tucker to stare at his back.
Updates whenever inspiration hits me.