A/N: Let's torture somebody else for a change...:)
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.
81. Pen and Paper
This was not a good day, Tucker mused, as he walked the last few steps to school, early for once. He was getting stared at, people going as far as completely turning around when he passed them, going up the steps to the main entrance. Passing Mr Lancer, he cringed a little under the overweight teacher's scrutiny, but the man remained quiet. When he stepped inside, he heard the conversation behind him resume with a new buzz to it. Definitely not a good day.
The hallway was not very crowded, most students were still outside, trying to stay away from the academic atmosphere in the school as long as possible. He walked to his locker unchallenged, his normal happy face set in a hostile scowl, discouraging any sympathetic looks.
A sudden coldness beside him alerted him to the arrival of his closest friend, a friend who he could do very well without for once. He glared in the general direction of the origin of the coldness and the fact that Danny didn't become immediately visible told him the boy expected to be whacked on the head by him.
"Come out," he said to the cold air, "I know you're there."
"Promise you won't suck me into that thermos with Technus."
Tucker looked at the Fenton Thermos he was still holding, tempted for a moment. But he didn't know what the outcome would be if he put Danny in there with the technology obsessed ghost and decided he wasn't that cruel. For a very brief moment he wondered if, were he ever to become a ghost, he would be like Technus. But he very carefully didn't voice that thought.
"Alright. I promise I won't suck you into this thermos."
A sigh of relief sounded somewhere from Tucker's right and Danny Phantom shimmered into view, carefully looking up and down the hallway. Deciding an all clear, he let the two bright rings appear around his waist and transformed back into his less conspicuous form of a normal school boy. He studied Tucker.
"Heh. You look, ehm, stressed," Danny said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.
Tucker just growled at him, turned and with a fierce determination started turning the knob of his locker, muttering to himself when he didn't get the combination right the first time. And the second time. The hallway started to fill up with students, laughing, hurrying, slamming their lockers, brushing past Tucker as he was trying to turn the knob with jerky movements, growing increasingly annoyed with himself.
"Here, let me."
He hadn't heard her coming. Sam gently pushed him aside, opened his locker for him and then stepped back quickly, as if she didn't want to be in the way of his anger. Tucker saw her glance at Danny, her face questioning, but he didn't meet her eyes. She turned back to Tucker.
"Care to tell me what happened?"
Again, Tucker's anger flared and he stared daggers at Danny, who now started backing away. Then he looked back at Sam, who was waiting impatiently for an explanation. He knew what she saw, he had seen his reflection in the water of the fountain in the park. His hair was standing in all directions, as if he had been electrocuted, his face was covered with black smears, the left arm of his shirt was shredded and worst of all, his backpack was smoking.
"Mr Inviso Bill here," he said between clenched teeth, "Thought it would be a good idea to try out if he could mimic Technus's electromagnetic power ray. And. It. Worked."
Sam raised her eyebrows, incomprehension clearly on her face as she looked between her friends, one fuming, one flustering. Then it hit her.
"Oh no. He fried your PDA?"
"Yes," Tucker shouted, "And my laptop. And my phone. And my second PDA. And me!"
He dumped his backpack, full of now worthless electronics on the floor and winced at the blaring sound of the bell, signifying students to hurry up and get to class. Sam bend over, tentatively opened it and recoiled from the burning stench coming from it.
"Ew. Looks terrible."
"Terrible...! How am I gonna do my homework! How am I going to take notes in class! How am I gonna rewrite that essay that was on my computer, huh!"
Tucker was glaring at Danny, who shrunk a little with each shouted complaint and tried to keep Sam between him and his angry friend. She looked behind her and shot him an angry look. Then she turned back to Tucker, smiling.
"I'll help you with your essay," she said, "As for your other problems..."
She reached inside her own locker, rummaged a little between her books and two spare thermoses and grabbed something. Tucker's eyes bulged when he saw what it was.
"No way..." he said.
She smiled sweetly and held it in front of him. Tucker was shaking his head, holding his hands in front of him as if to ward off an unspeakable horror, refusing to consider the unthinkable.
"You'd better take it," she said, "Class starts in three, two, one..."
Tucker grabbed the pen and paper and ran.
