Everything was not fine. Danny was fighting with his parents again, nothing new there, things were stressed between Sam and Tucker, again nothing new, and Andrew seemed to be distancing himself. Now, that wasn't new, either, he had done that the first couple of days. But a week later, Danny thought things were going well with his new friend! His mistake.

When they met back up again on Monday in English, Andrew was barely talking to him. To try to get him to talk, Danny had asked him what book he was reading, but all Andrew did was show him the cover. He slumped in his seat, reading in a monotone when Lancer called on him. He thought he saw Andrew glance over, but when he looked back, he was still absorbed in his book. He sighed, barely reacting when the bell rang. As Andrew packed up, Danny called to him in a small voice, not looking up to him, "Hey, Andrew?"

The older teen stopped and seemed to sigh, responding without even looking at him. "Yes?"

"Did I… Did I do something?" He gripped the pencil in his hands tightly.

Andrew finally turned to him with what looked like pity. "No, you didn't. Remember how you kept saying I have a secret? Well…" He trailed off, Danny looking up at him. "I do. I won't be telling you what it is anytime soon, if at all." Danny deflated again, eyes fixed on his desk, tensing at the hand on his shoulder. "But if I could, I might. But I just… can't… I- I'll see you in third period."

Danny's hands shook as he finally snapped the pencil he had been holding. He picked his stuff up quickly, and nearly ran out of the room. He holed himself up in one of the bathrooms, trying his best to not totally break. I knew it. It's all my fault. All because I destroyed his book on his first day. He hates me now. He's probably only been hanging out with me because he pitied me. Maybe he was trying to find the best way to break me. Why would anyone be friends with the screw up from the ghost-crazy family? Sam and Tucker are probably gonna leave, too. Then it'll just be me, Jazz will be too busy, Mom and Dad don't even care, it'll just be me by myself and I can't do it by myself I can't I can barely do it with them I can't do it without them and they're going to leave because they all hate me and-

The lock on the bathroom door popped open, and he slowly looked up, vision blurred. Tucker crouched down to his level. "Hey, man. It's alright. Things are all good, right now. You want any help?" Danny shook his head no, and Tucker stood, offering a hand to him. "Wanna go to class?" Another, more hesitant shake, and he gave him a small smile. "Okay, I deserved that one. No one really wants to go to class. Are you going to go to class?"

Danny sighed, taking Tucker's hand, using his friend to get up. "Might wanna clean yourself up a bit, first." Danny nodded, going to the sink and splashing his face, drying it off. He tried to give Tucker a smile, to which the geek smiled at. "Come on, I told Alberts it'd only be five minutes. After all, I need my programming bud. You're the only reason my programs don't all die."

Danny gave him a weak chuckle. "I'm your programming duck."

Tucker nodded with a shrug. "Well, that too. But I meant it doesn't feel right doin' it without you there."

Danny's grin became more genuine as Tucker slung an arm over his shoulders. "Thanks, Tuck."

"Anything for my brother."

As Danny sat down with his lunch, he saw Andrew walking between the tables with his food, and gave a small wave. When the teen walked on by without a second look at Danny, his smile disappeared. Tucker sighed, "Come on, man. Maybe he's just having a bad day. I know how Sam's like that, sometimes. When she's in a bad mood, so's everyone else."

She growled, "Yeah, and I'm about to be right now. I'll be right back."

They watched as she got up and stomped over to the wall Andrew had decided to sit against for lunch, chewing him out. Danny bit his lip. "This… this is bad. This is gonna end terribly."

Tucker shrugged, picking up a fry and examining it. "It can't be that bad."

The two looked on as Sam started dragging Andrew to their table by the collar of his coat and none too gently setting him down on the seat. "Now."

Andrew, looking rattled, cleared his throat, straightening his scarf and fiddling with the ends of it. "Well, um, yes, I… Now, you must realize it wasn't my intent-" He sighed, composing himself and pushing up his glasses. "I do sincerely apologize if I said something to offend you, earlier. It truly was a mistake on my part, and some of the phrasing truly could have been better. As you said, depending on the view point, things could be dangerous, but it's nothing you should worry about. It is in fact for that reason that I was trying to not get too close to any of you."

Sam rose an eyebrow. "Dude, really? We're best friends with the guy who puts himself in danger every day and hunts things that could make him as dead as they are, and you're worried about safety? You picked the wrong friend group."

"Now that that's all said and done, I will be-" He rose to leave, trying to turn only to be stopped by a hand gripping his jacket sleeve. He furrowed his brow at seeing Danny was the one holding on.

He gave the bookworm a hopeful smile. "It's too late. You're stuck with us. And no matter what you say, we're gonna be friends."

Tucker nodded. "It's true. I barely lasted a week."

"You were five."

"Still! You try saying no to the puppy dog eyes! Do it, I dare you!"

Andrew rolled his eyes and looked down at Danny, who was still doing his best to smile at the bookworm. Andrew paused, and sat back down with a sigh. "Fine. But just so you know, it's not because I want to. It's because I don't doubt that you would stick to me like… something sticky I can't think of at the moment, and because I'm sure if I refused, she would attempt to strangle me with my own scarf."

Danny's smile grew and he let out a laugh, "Maybe, I dunno, glue? Jeez, I thought you were a writer."

Andrew playfully glared. "I'm coming to terms with things, I am allowed to be inarticulate."

Danny nodded, "Yep. He's back to normal." Neither of his friends seemed to comment on the fact that he felt like he was back to normal, too. But that was okay. Maybe things weren't fine, but they were okay. He could at least count on that.