NOTICE: Sorry this is a bit of a boring chapter with no real action, but I have to build up the story somehow :) Enjoy! Feel free to comment thoughts or recommendations too! I'd love to hear what you think about the story thus far :)

Chapter 4

"Wanna go to the Nasty Burger after school?" Tucker asked Danny and Sam as they waited for Mr. Lancer to start his English lecture.

"You just ate," Sam pointed out.

"I'm gonna be hungry again in 2 hours!"

Danny chuckled. With all the stress of ghost fighting, he had forgotten how carefree his friends used to be. Now that they had no recollection of what their previous after school activities used to be, they seemed happier and more full of life. Danny never really noticed if they got tired of all the ghost fighting, maybe it was just him who was fed up with it. The responsibility of protecting the town was heavy on his shoulders, but he never stopped to think how Sam and Tucker felt about it. All he knew was that his ghost fighting constantly put his best friends in danger, and he was scared that one day he would fail them. He would never forgive himself if they got hurt because of his alter ego and knowing his secret.

So far it seemed that the Gauntlet's memory erase had worked like a charm. There was only one uncertainty remaining - were all the memories of Danny Phantom replaced by fake ones or were there just holes in Sam and Tucker's memories? If there were just holes in their memories, Danny figured it would only be a matter of time before they started connecting the dots to fill in the blanks. He would have to confront Clockwork about it before too long.

Speaking of Clockwork, Danny's mind wondered back to the medallion he had safely tucked beneath his shirt collar. What does he mean by "it can stop time in the human world"? Hopefully there wouldn't come a time where Danny would be forced to use it...

"Danny!"

"Aish!" Danny blurted, abruptly broken from his train of thought.

"You in, or what?" Tucker was asking him.

"In? In for wha- Oh yeah! Sure!" He suddenly remembered and agreed to go to the popular teenage hangout after school. He hadn't been to the Nasty Burger since forever ago. Come to think of it, he hadn't done anything fun or relaxing in quite some time. He had always been so preoccupied with either patrolling for ghosts or sending them back to the Ghost Zone. This should be fun, he thought. And he was looking forward to just getting to spend some non-combat time with his best friends.

...

The last bell rang to signal the end of class and the end of the day. Danny had a separate last period than Tucker and Sam, so he walked to back to his locker alone. He seemed to have a little extra bounce in his step, as he was actually excited to go do normal teenage things. He made it back to the lockers before the other two, so he just decided to wait in the front of the school.

"There you are!" Sam called as she emerged from the flood of people exiting the school.

"We thought you bailed, dude," Tucker said as he walked up beside Danny, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder.

"Wouldn't miss it." Danny nudged him back, underestimating his strength and nearly knocking Tucker sideways into the bushes. He quickly caught him and stabilized his friend's posture before shyly rubbing the back of his head awkwardly while mumbling an apology.

"Sheesh, man, you been working out lately?"

Danny just chuckled, "Something like that."

Soon the trio of friends were off on their way to the Nasty Burger in downtown Amity Park. As they walked, they each took turns talking about their weekends and their Monday of school. Sam said she just spent the weekend at the local library binge reading a new supernatural romance from her favorite author, and Tucker, no surprise, checked in for a couple of late nights at the video arcade.

"Yeah, man, I tried hitting you up, but your phone was off every time I called."

"Uh yeah, silly me, I lost my phone and couldn't find it because it died. Turns out I left it in my parent's lab and forgot I left it down there," Danny answered off the top of his head. It certainly wasn't the first time he had to formulate a lie on the spot, he had had plenty of practice with his folks, but he felt odd lying to his best friends.

"Did your folks create some new ghost weapon or something?" Sam asked, slightly intrigued.

"Uh yeah, but some of the wiring was faulty, so my mom just worked on it solo over the weekend."

"So what did you do all weekend?" Tucker asked, not satisfied with his answer.

"I, uh, wasn't feeling too good, so I pretty much just stayed in bed."

Sam and Tucker didn't seem to buy his story, especially since he stuttered, but they didn't question him any further, much to Danny's relief. It wasn't a total lie, he did stay in his room pretty much the entirety of the weekend, but he wasn't physically ailing. His mental state of mind on the other hand, needed some attention. But it seemed this after school outing was doing the trick.

As the three best friends waited for their orders of burgers and milkshakes to be fulfilled, they gossiped about the latest comics and movies set to come out. Danny was pretty content with the conversation despite not being up to date with the latest movie releases or comic issues. He was amazed at how much he was missing out on while always ghost fighting, but he quickly pushed that thought aside as to refrain from putting a damper on his bright mood. He joined in where he could, but also didn't mind just listening to Sam and Tucker as they argued whether the new take on the Deadpool movie was better than Suicide Squad.

After their food arrived, the conversation trailed off a bit as everyone was busy stuffing their faces. Danny and Sam burst into a volley of chuckles as Tucker obliviously gave himself a whipped cream mustache from his chocolate milkshake.

"What?" Tucker just stared at them. A fleck of cream went flying as he spoke. Sam stole one of Danny's fries and held it horizontally across her upper lip, simulating a mustache like Tucker's. Licking his lips to clear away the sugary goodness, he joined in the laughter.

"Damn, I should've gotten a picture!" Sam joked. "No you certainly should not have," Tucker rebutted. The group giggled some more before returning to their food.

After regaining his composure, Danny brought his burger up to take a bite, but when he opened his mouth, an icy blue wisp of frosty breath escaped his lips...