I know I said that I'd do a longer chapter next time – but quick update! Yay! I was too excited about my performance earlier. We did really well, considering we only had two rehearsals. People who had more did worse. I dropped a line, my partner froze, and I forgot to throw my book at a certain point, but we recovered really quickly. Fingers crossed and hoping my cousin gets a good grade!
Anyway, you probably notice that the title doesn't start with an "E" or a "C" this time. Does this mean some changes? ;D I might switch letters that I use now or go back to my first two and only do different letter when something important happens. (If that made no sense to you, just ignore it.)
Just so everyone is aware, I had to do a rush edit on this, so any mistakes might be fixed later if I decide to go back and edit.
Summary: Samantha Manson, or Sam, has many things to deal with; her parent's disappointment, she knows all of the police force by name and face (and not because she wants to), moving to a new city, her grandmother's slowly dying, her Necromancy is getting stronger, she has no instructor to teach her, and she's not exactly the most popular girl in school. As she learns about this new city, she learns of its mysterious secrets and as to why so many haunts happen there. While trying to find out how to help this city, she finding that she slowly crushing on a kind of cute geeky boy whose parents hunt supernatural things. AU. She eyed the yellow tape, daring it to keep her from the school grounds. After a moment, she decided to ignore the forbidding warning of the black DO NOT CROSS letters.
Disclaimer: I do not hold any legal rights to Danny Phantom or to any of the characters you are going to read about. This story, however, is my own original idea, with a nod to Meg Cabbot's Mediator series and Kelly Armstrong's Darkest Powers trilogy for inspiring me somewhat.
Do Not Cross
Chapter 7
Trepidation
"What are you?" I rasped.
It smiled. "Whatever scares you."
Kim Harrison, Dead Witch Walking
The book with her grandmother's handwriting lay heavily on the plush, red carpeting. It sat open for the three of them to read. Sam gnawed at her lip nervously.
"Sam," it read, "there is much to tell you and very little time to say it all. I wish that I had more time for confirmation, but the urgency in I am writing this is greater than any could want. Firstly, you must understand that I have kept much from you. Not because I wanted to but to protect you. You are in danger, Samantha. Keep your friends close for now they are in danger as well.
"Secondly, your dark-haired friend – Daniel – is a Soothsayer. All of the information you three will need to know is in this book. I hope it come of great use for you.
"Thirdly, use your guidebook. Memorize everything in there. It could save your life someday. If the Reapers ever find you, burn it. You must do this, Samantha. If they were to find it... I would not like to see what they would do to you.
"And lastly, run. If you ever see a Reaper, run. They will not hesitate to kill you. They have no mercy to Necromancers of your power or lineage.
"Keep safe, my pet. Love, Ida."
Sam's brows were furrowed as she read the words. To anyone else, these writings would seem like those of a madwoman. To anyone else, the words had no meaning. To anyone else, the meanings behind those words were obsolete. But Samantha Manson was not just anyone – those words were written specifically for her and her alone. She shared them, though, to Danny and Tucker. It gave her great comfort to know that they would stay by her side.
She had felt it the first day she met them. They shared a unique bond that only three friends who had known one another a long time could have. But she hadn't known them for that long just a short time. Perhaps it was the soul mate principle her grandmother spoke about once.
"When two people meet," her grandmother had said one dreary afternoon when they lived in Chicago, "and they have an undeniable connection, they are soul mates. Soul mates are not romantic in the least although it is not unheard of. That idea was created by humans, silly creatures.
"Everyone has more than one soul mate. They come into our lives when we need them most, to help or to hurt us. It all depends on the actions each individual makes. Friends may become enemies and enemies may become friends. You can see who is slipping into a for and who may become a friend.
"Samantha, your soul mates are out there in the world. They are waiting for you. You will change their lives simply by being with them."
She remembered questioning the old woman on that statement, and her response came tiredly.
"It is written in the stars."
Samantha had never thought much on that conversation until now. She never believed it either. But is it possibly...? Could they be...? Maybe.
"So, all of our answers are in this book." Tucker said, fingering the yellowed pages. His brow crinkled. "I thought all of the Soothsayers died out."
Sam turned pages, stopping at a family tree that was scrawled in. ("Well, that's incredibly convenient." Tucker said, earning a punch from Sam.) It was neat and very long, going on for several pages. As time seemed to pass, each line of Soothsayers ended as member died in gruesome ways. She ignored most of those until only one line of survivors were left, which eventually split back into two. And there and the end was a very familiar name: Daniel Fenton. She showed it to the boys.
"Freaky." Danny said.
"You're, like, the last living heir of all of the Soothsayers in the world!" Tucker exclaimed.
"Jazz is in there, too, see?" Danny pointed to his sister's name.
"But she doesn't have any powers." Sam said. "And there's another name. Vladimir Masters. Know him?"
"The name sounds familiar." Danny said. "But I can't place a face. I'll ask my dad, maybe he knows him."
"I wonder if he has any powers." Tucker hummed. "Maybe he could train you."
Sam shook her head.
"There are two types." she said, flipping back through the book. She stopped at a page and nodded. "A Soothsayer can generally see into the future. That's the normal, standard type. And then there's Danny's type with weird, freaky powers."
"Ghost-like powers." Tucker muttered. They looked at him confused. "Think about it. Intangibility, flight, invisibility. That's standard ghost."
"Plus the ability to control objects, like he Box Ghost did." Danny added.
"I wonder if you can control anything."
"Like what, ghost fighting equipment?"
"No." Sam said, "Although, I'd like raid the basement. Do you think your parents would mind?"
"Probably not." Danny said. "In fact, they might get excited that I'm finally taking an interest in their job."
"I still think it's weird that your parents work for the government."
"And our world is normal?"
"Good point."
The three teens spent the rest of their summer reading Soothsayers over the Centuries and Sam's guidebook. And whenever they could, they visited Sam's grandmother, who had yet to wake from her coma.
The doctors weren't quite sure why that was, and none could think of a way to explain it to the Goth girl – who frightened them a little. The nurses were kind, though, and generally left the teens to be alone with the old woman after the first couple of visits. The three meant no harm to her and just wanted to see her awaken peacefully.
But summer vacation came to an end, as it always does, and school started. It was a hot day but it was dry, thankfully. Sam did not think that she could sit in a muggy room on the first day of school. The sticky, warmth would only make her anxious and want to leave – a normal feeling for anyone attending a new school or just school in general. She was thankful that she had already made some friends.
They decided to walk to school that morning – mostly because Jazz refused to drive them. There was a boy that she was undoubtedly trying to impress and bringing your younger brother and his friends to school just shouted "loser." (At least, that's what Danny told them Jazz said. Sam had her doubts that the redhead used those words, but Danny persisted.)
"Such a beautiful morning." Tucker signed, stretching. "Too bad it's wasted. Think of what we could do. Swimming, hiking, biking... Oh! We could go for a jog."
"That's exercise. You don't like exercise." Danny said. Tucker shrugged.
"Still, it feels wrong to waste this day in a classroom."
"Well, we have P.E. first, so that'll be exciting." Sam said.
"But it's the first day of school." Tucker interjected. "We never do anything the first week."
"Well that's no fun."
"Here's to hoping we don't die."
They entered the school grounds and Sam looked about. There were people everywhere, talking amongst one another and laughing. She had never had the opportunity to do that in school – not for a long time, at least. She'd always been shoved out of a circle of friends once they realized she couldn't really hang out with them on a regular basis. Fighting ghosts was a full-time job, and it certainly wasn't an easy one. Perhaps now that she had Danny and Tucker by her side, she could seem more normal…
The two boys led her indoors, where the hallways were crowded with students anxious to tell others about their summers. A few students were making their way to their classes, waving farewell to someone every now and again.
The gymnasium was slowly filling up. There were only three teachers, sitting near different sections in front of the open bleachers. Large cardboard signs with the teachers' names hung from the backs of their chairs. Sam could read each clearly from the door: Tetslaff, Michaels, and Schneewiess.
Sam, Danny, and Tucker headed towards Mr. Michaels, whose sign was decorated with dinosaur and Barbie stickers, as well as colorful swirls of crayon and markers and glitter glue. They sat down near the front, not wanting to climb past some of the rougher teens in their class. They had five more minutes until the bell would ring, so they decided to compare schedules, to see if they could meet up in between and during classes.
"On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, you two have some time to talk between second and third period, while I have to jet from the third floor to the first floor." Tucker said. "We'll see each other again in math. Thank you, Sam, for taking an independent study course. You make the rest of us seem like idiots."
"I'm good at math," Sam said with a shrug.
"Then we have homeroom and lunch together. And the final two periods, you two spend together."
"Doesn't sound that difficult to remember." Danny said.
"Danny, you forget where you left your clean underwear. How do you think you'll remember what class you have?"
"Program it into your phone." Sam said. "On most calendars now, you can select what days you have something going on and at what times. It's easy. I did that yesterday. See, I even have what room number I'm supposed to be in."
"Good idea." Danny said. "I'll do it in class. We're not doing anything anyway."
"What are our Tuesdays and Thursdays like this semester?"
"You two spend first period together and I am alone. Again." Tucker said. "Then you split up for an hour and we all join back here. You two go off again and we meet back up for homeroom. Lunch happens, blah, blah, blah. We stick together sixth period and then we go our separate ways for seventh."
The bell rung and their teacher drew their attention.
"Okay, class, I'm going to call for attendance. When you hear your name, say 'here.'" Mr. Michaels said. One by one, students answered to their names, with the occasional 'present' or 'what' from someone for laughs. Their teacher ignored it. "Good, everyone except Leonard is here. Now, this gym class is individual sports. We will go bowling –"
"Yes!" Tucker and a few others hissed.
"– but that's later in the semester. We'll be going to the Amity Bowling Alley. It's $25 total for the entire month and there'll be a permission form for your parents to sign. Later this week, I'll be asking for lock combinations and assigning you lockers. Who doesn't have a lock that was assigned by this district?"
Only Sam raised her hand.
"We'll order one for you." Mr. Michaels said, nodding. "When I assign you a locker, you'll be able to go put your things in it. That'll be on Friday, so remember your locks and your gym suits. You guys know the rules and how we discipline you, so I won't go over that. For my sophomores, you'll notice that these gym classes are mixed with the juniors and the seniors. Your freshmen year was not like that, correct?"
He received a couple of replies.
"We feel that you're old enough and responsible enough to handle being around the 'big kids.' And I'm assuming most of you haven't taken Driver's Ed. yet. Most of you will either take it next semester or first semester next year. Good luck with that." He glanced at the clock. "You have forty-five minutes left of class. You may walk around but stay in the gym."
A few students got up with their friends and meandered to another class, once their teacher was done talking. Danny, Sam, and Tucker stayed in their spot.
"Miss Manson, correct?" Mr. Michaels asked, sitting down in his chair. The sign on the back swaying a little at the movement
"Er, yes." she answered.
"You have a gym suit, correct?"
"Yeah. I got one during registration."
"Good. If you ever need to rent one for whatever reason, Ms. Tetslaff has some spares in her office – they're washed every day – and it's fifty cents per top and bottom. You rent it from her and show your school I.D. and she'll hand you a suit. Keep a pair of running shoes in your locker, boots scuff up the floor too much."
"Okay." Sam said, looking down at her biker boots and then back up to him.
"How are you enjoying Amity so far?" he asked, his stern face relaxing.
"It's good."
"Danny and Tucker are good kids, if a bit lazy."
"Hey!" the boys chorused, frowning.
"You two barely passed the president's physical fitness test."
"Ah, but we passed." Tucker reminded him.
"You had help."
"Excuses, excuses." Danny said.
"So, how've you boys been?"
"Pretty good. Great, now that we have a new member to the posse." Tucker said, nodding towards Sam.
"'Posse?' Oh heck no, we are not a posse. A group, sure. A trio, even better. But a posse? No way, Foley." Sam said, adding a teasing glare.
"You keep them in line, Miss Manson." Mr. Michaels said. "It'll do the boys some good."
"We are right here, you know." Danny said.
"I know. I'm just choosing to ignore you."
"Who decorated your sign?" Sam asked after a beat.
"My daughter, Lily." Mr. Michaels answered. "She's very creative. She prefers dinosaurs to Barbie but her mom still tries."
"I liked dinosaurs more than Barbie's and I turned out okay."
"Right." Tucker said, stretching the 'i.'
"Watch it, Foley. I know where you sleep at night."
"No you don't."
"I can get Danny or Jazz to tell me."
"Dude, would you ever betray me like that?"
"She's scary," Danny said with a shrug. "Plus she's stronger than we are. I'd rather not have a broken arm, thank you."
"Traitor."
Mr. Michaels and Sam chuckled. This was going to be a great way to start out the morning.
The rest of the day passed along swimmingly.
Sam found that she liked each of her teachers, and they in turn liked her. Lunch came and went, and she spent quite a bit of it eating her salad – from the salad bar, a rarity at a lot of schools – and reading her guidebook. She chose to read about Reapers that day.
"Reapers," the book said, "are the only beings to ever truly strike any sort of fear in the hearts of Necromancers. They are not easily found and are rarely seen by anyone other than a Necromancer; however a few choose to be educators to the populace.
"Traditionally, they would wear white and other fair colors on their persons. They appear human but they are far from being so. Many are older, mostly men, and emanate a golden glow not unlike a witch's.
"Death, himself, leads them. He gifted them with the ability to give or take life as they see fit…"
With only two periods left in the day before the trio headed back to the Manson Mansion, Sam relaxed and enjoyed her final hours in the school.
Her and Danny's Intro. to Shakespeare class was held in the auditorium, as was the film studies class and the theater class – both of which already passed.
She made a mental note that the Valerie girl was in this class, too. They apparently shared a similar schedule. They practically had every other hour together. Not that Sam particularly minded; Valerie had apologized to Sam earlier that morning in their Algebra class. They both were in the independent course.
"But this doesn't mean we're friends." Valerie told her. Sam agreed. They shook hands and decided that the two of them were on neutral ground. They really had nothing against one another, other than their cliques being in two different groups. Besides, Valerie had taken the initiative and spoken about the two of them getting off on the wrong foot. Who wants to spend a whole semester sitting next to someone they detest?
Anyway, Valerie joined Sam and Danny in the seats while they waited for their teacher to arrive. Mr. Hubbert was a kindly faced man and greeted each student he had with a handshake before moving up onto the stage and taking off his button-up shirt to reveal a T-shirt with "Get thee to a nunnery!" on it. This earned a good couple of chuckles from his students.
"Good afternoon to you all." he said, waving has hands dramatically over his head. "I hope your summer was pleasant and merry."
"Merry, good sir!" someone called out. "Merry!"
It turned out to be one of the kids in the theater geeks. He received a couple of laughs from his peers.
"And didst thou have a summer romance?" the teacher asked, waggling his eyes.
"Alas," the student cried, "no maid who is as fair as the summer days caught mine eye and drove me to the madness that Orlando and Romeo fell."
"What tragedy!" another student said. "Cousin, speak! Say more about the summer with no beloved."
"Okay, okay, guys." the teacher laughed. "Settle down. We got a little carried away. Now, who's not here?"
"I'm not!" the theater geek said.
"What tragedy!" he friend replied.
"Let me do roll call." Mr. Hubbert said. He started calling out names. It was only when Danny's name was called did Sam tune back in.
"Fenton, Daniel…"
"Here."
"Fenton, Jasmine…"
"Here!"
Danny and Sam twisted around to see the redhead perched on her seat near the theater geeks. She wagged her fingers at them.
"This is going to be a long semester." Danny mumbled, sinking into his chair.
When they were finally released, Danny and Sam, followed by Valerie and Jazz, headed to the second story for their last class of the day. The redhead waved goodbye and headed up to the highest floor, where she would be ending her school day.
"You should have seen your face." Sam laughed as they walked to their room.
"Shut up. You would look like that, too, if you found out your sister was in the same class as you." Danny grumbled.
"Ah, but therein lies the problem, I don't have a sister. How about you, Valerie? Do you have any siblings?"
"No, I'm an only child. It's just me and my dad." Valerie said.
"You guys know what I mean." Danny said, rolling his eyes.
"Still, the class seems fun. It's sort of relaxing." Sam said.
"It's also easy to pass. It's the reason half of the It crowd is in it." Valerie said.
"I've been meaning to ask you, did you ditch them for us or something? Why weren't you sitting with them."
"They kicked me out." Valerie said. "My dad lost his job recently. Somebody broke into the lab and caused this mess that he couldn't fix. He got fired over it. We can't pay for most of our things anymore. I had to get rid of my cellphone yesterday... If you don't have money, you're out of the It crowd."
"Well, you're more than welcome to join us." Danny said.
"Uh, guys?" Sam asked. "Why's Journalism in the library?"
"It's how Lancer teaches the class." Danny said. "And it's the only spot available to us."
"We'll be using the computers in here to do our work because yearbook takes over the main computer lab during this time." Valerie explained. "Besides, if we need to do a quick check for a fact from a book or something, we're right here. How'd you two get in to the paper?"
"Photography." Danny said.
"Recommendation from the New York City Police Force." Sam said. "Don't ask. It's better if you don't know all of the details."
Sam had helped the officers fill out the forms more than once, making up fine details that she remembered from the spot she'd broke into, burned down, trashed or whatever. She'd had to call Donald Clark during her meeting with the counselor to get the recommendation, and he'd been all too happy to help, hearing that she was trying to get involved with school activities. She had promised to call him back to tell him how things were going, but a lot had happened since then. She swore to herself to do it tonight, while she did her homework.
Danny and Valerie led her to a room near the back of the library's second story and walked right in. Sam followed them in and saw her teacher for the first time. Perhaps she's ate something bad at lunch or perhaps the influence her lunchtime reading still hung over her head, but the man was glowing. And he was wearing fair colors. Only one species in the entire world can pull of that look.
Reaper.
The word flashed through her mind. What had her grandmother told her when she saw a Reaper? Run.
And she did.
What's this? Lancer is a Reaper?! Curiousness…
So, I'm back to cliffhangers. Fun.
I had to make a map of Casper High just so I would know where everything was. So, not only do I have a working schedule for Sam, Danny, Tucker, Valerie, Jazz, Paulina, Dash, Kwan, and Star but I have a list of every teacher working in the school, what the teach, and where. Call me a little obsessed at the moment, but I honestly had to. I couldn't think of an easier way but to see things visually. I might eventually post the map on my deviantArt but for the moment, it's for my own personal use.
So, Valerie's father was fired before Danny ever got involved. I'm not sure why I wrote it like that, I just did. Go with it. When I was editing, I noticed I put in there that Valerie doesn't really want to be friends with them and Sam agreed, but since that period they've bonded a little and found that they like being around one another. Plus, this chapter is told from Sam's POV, so she really didn't know about Val's situation until later (which I added in when editing).
Mr. Michaels is inspired by a Gym teacher I had back in high school. He was pretty relaxed and funny. He never made me play softball, so I liked him for that. Mr. Hubbert is inspired by my current Shakespeare teacher. He's super quirky and a lot of fun. A lot of the teachers in the school are reminiscent of those I have and had in the past. Except Lancer, who's actually going to be a lot more badass in this than in the show. Let's face it, the man was pretty awesome – he knows a lot of book titles! (And he's more than likely read all of them.)
In case anyone's wondering, they started school on a Wednesday.
I don't know if I'll have something ready for Monday but I'll try to put out something for you guys. I really will. I hadn't really expected to post this chapter today but I was too amped up from the performance that I just had to, like I said earlier.
Anyway, I have to go play with my puppy before bedtime. I'm hoping to make her so tired my dad won't have to walk her tonight.
Well, thank you to all of you beautiful readers. There are so many of you out there, really there are. I promise that I will continue to write this for you, so that you will have something to read should you ever be bored in school.
Lots of love, iOc.