Chapter 21: Cirth

The next day, Danny, Sam, and Tucker chatted over the computer and they kept asking Sam questions about France.

The boys could see that Sam really didn't want to go, but her parents were making her and it's not like she had any other choice. They were always so pushy. They wanted her to come out of France like the sweet little debutant daughter they had always wanted. But Sam made it very clear to her friends Danny and Tucker that she was not going to let that happen. She was not even considering it.

As time dragged on, Tucker bugged her about it. And Danny wanted to know what France was like. "It's all for show." Sam told them. Being a goth, she despised the cheerful and hopeful atmosphere that France created in everybody else's minds. "And Jackie sent me a letter yesterday. I suppose you'll want to read it…"

The three of them were at Sam's house when she showed it to them.

"Salut Sam! C'est votre cousin de France Jackie! Comment est l'Amérique? Je ne peux pas attendre pour vous de venir et de passer cinq mois avec moi! Vous allez aimer l'école et nous allons avoir un grand temps! Vous êtes mère et son père ont été à me raconter toutes sortes de choses que vous aimez faire. Et je l'ai habillé votre chambre en conséquence. Ça va être une belle surprise et vous allez l'aimer. Je vais vous voir bientôt! "

"I don't understand a word of it!" Tucker exclaimed.

"It's in French, Tuck." Danny said.

"Give it here. I'll give you a rough translation. But before I read this, let me warn you that my cousin Jackie is 58 inches of pure evil.

"Hi Sam! It's your cousin Jackie from France! How is America? I can't wait for you to come over and spend five months with me! You're going to love the school and we're going to have a great time! You're mother and father have been telling me all sorts of things you like to do. And I've dressed your room accordingly. It's going to be a wonderful surprise and you're going to love it. I'll see you soon!"

"Sounds like you're going to have a nice time." Danny said.

"Send us a postcard!" Tucker joked.

"There's gotta be some way to get out of it." Sam said.

"Calm down, Sam. Christmas is in a few weeks." Tucker reminded her.

"Yeah, Christmas." Danny said regretfully. In his whole life, he had only gotten two Christmases where the outcome was somewhat pleasant. Danny shuddered as he recalled in the past Christmases when his parents would argue about Santa.

Luckily, that had all been resolved last year when Danny's parents finally agreed that there was no such thing as Santa clause because it was completely impossible for one person to travel around the globe granting people's Christmas wishes.

For the next few days, Danny was glum. He'd always found some excuse to be upset around Christmas time. Danny was sorta the class Grinch and everyone knew it.

Danny wished that this Christmas was like last year—sophomore year. Danny had spent the holidays with Tucker and his family and they went snowboarding and had lots of fun. Danny put his head down and was daydreaming all throughout class until he finally fell asleep.

"Mr. Fenton, will you please," Mr. Lancer approached Danny's desk and hit the desk with a book, sending a sudden and thunderous crackle of sound through Danny's ear, "WAKE UP!"

Danny's head shot back up and every kid in the class stared at him. Danny didn't know what to do, so he pretended like nothing happened.

After school, Danny stood outside and he looked at his entire world covered in snow. While the other teenagers had snowball fights, Danny had ghost fights. He thought of that as he flew home. For his sake and for his friends' sake, he should at least make an effort to enjoy Christmas this year. He owed them that much.

"I am the box ghost! Fear me!" The box ghost appeared out of nowhere.

Danny sighed and easily scared away the box ghost without having to use up any real energy. Danny walked the rest of the way home in his human form.

"Hey, son!" Jack greeted Danny.

"Welcome home!" Maddie said to Danny.

"Danny, we're going to decorate the tree now. Want to come?" Danielle asked.

Danny looked at their smiling faces. Originally, Danny was going to go take a nap upstairs. "Oh, allright." Danny said happily.

The family had a few laughs and even took a few photos. And then they had some cookies that Maddie baked earlier in the day. The four of them sat around the table as a family. Danny had a smile on his face and he realized that it was foolish and selfish of him to want to change his reality. Although what's done is done, Danny had learned his lesson and would not make a wish like that again. Danny liked his life just the way it was, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

Outside, a pair of red eyes were spying on Danny. It was a great man and he was middle-aged. He smiled evilly. "Thank goodness for today! It's the worst day in young Danny Fenton's life and I've finally figured out how to crush his spirit once and for all. Once my plan succeeds, he'll never know Christmas as a happy time again!" And then he cackled evilly.

"Vlad, be quiet. We can't risk the Fentons seeing that we've been spying on them!"

"Cirth, I told you never to call me Vlad! You will call me "father." Vlad said scolding.

Cirth made a grunt of agreement. "When do I get to scare Danny Phantom?" Cirth asked.

"I don't know. But I think that the simple reaction of seeing his identical clone would freak him out more than you can imagine."

Cirth chuckled evilly.

"Ah, it's moments like these when I'm actually thankful for the time I spent in my secret lair. It gave me time to make you—my perfect clone. You see that girl over there? She's a clone just like you. Only she's an imperfection—a mistake. After you and I are done destroying Danny Phantom, we're going to capture her and melt her down to ectoplasmic goo and study the remains."

Vlad and Cirth laughed evilly as they flew back to Vlad's secret underground lab (whose whereabouts are unknown).

Some people in the streets could swear they heard the soft muffling laughter of the evil halfa and his little Danny Phantom clone. Poor innocent people. They didn't even know what kind of monstrous creature was making that sound…it was a creature with the capability to destroy Christmas forever.

Somewhere deep in a green ghostly world a young boy about twelve stood with glaring eyes in front of a grand ghost woman. The boy's arms were crossed and he eyed the woman suspiciously. She was tall her long white hair waved around like frosting. Her silver cheeks sparkled and her green eyes glowed. She was rather young, too, but had a gentle spirit.

"Well?" the boy asked the woman impatiently.

"I think you have something of mine." She replied kindly.

"As soon as I get the Staff of Time, Christmas will be no more." The boy said proudly.

"Cirth, do you really want to destroy Christmas for good?"

"It's what my father told me to do." He said angrily.

"You don't have to listen to him. Think about everyone else in the world for a change. Look around you: the treaty does only good for man and ghost alike, as well as all of the other species out there. It's the one day of the year that people put aside their enmity and be merry. Without it, there would be chaos in quantities unimaginable."

"Without it, my father would have the home field advantage. Nobody expects anyone to declare war on Christmas day."

"War, Cirth?"

"My father wants to declare war on the entire Ghost Zone. He knows he can defeat its leaders."

The woman sighed. "I'm a peaceful ghost, which means I couldn't stop you if I wanted to. But allow me to warn you that somebody will."

"Who? The twelve ghosts of Christmas? They can't stop me! Or my father!"

"You'll see. There are those who walk and fly among us who chose to not be as…boastful with our powers. I prefer to think of them as...humble. And they know how to celebrate Christmas—and keep it."

"Can I go now?" Cirth asked impatiently. The ghost woman nodded and Cirth left the Christmas realm.

It was winter time in Amity Park, Colorado. The air was bitterly cold, but there were snowflakes all over the windswept streets. Carols arose from every house whether they were sung or being played on the radio.

"Fa la la la la, la la la la!" Tucker sang out of tune as he and his friends Danny, Sam and Garth enjoyed a festive day at the mall.

"Merry Christmas!" Sam said to people she passed. "Have a kickin' kwanza!"

Danny couldn't help but feel down but he didn't want to ruin things for his friends. Even Garth let a few "Happy holidays" slip from his mouth today.

"Oh cheer up Danny." Tucker said. "Even if you don't feel all Christmassy yet, you will once your family comes to your home."

"They do that every year and it only makes me feel worse." Danny confessed. "I'm only looking forward to seeing one person: Jazz."

"I miss Jazz." Sam said. "How has she been?"

"Oh you know Jazz—all smart and studious. I'll bet she's valedictorian or something."

Just then Dash and Star crossed paths with Danny, Sam, Tucker and Garth.

Sam just gave them an irritated look when they wouldn't move out of her way. "What, aren't you going to wish me a happy New Year or something, goth girl?" Dash asked.

Sam growled in a low tone.

"Remember Dash, you're supposed to be nicer to the losers around the holidays." Star said in a cheerful voice. Sam frowned.

"Merry Christmas, Sam!" Star gave Sam a squeezing hug.

"Uh! Crushing. Goth. Indifference." Sam hated being hugged.

Dash and Star waved them goodbye.

They walked on past a few more stores and then Tucker froze in his footsteps and Danny tried to learn why.

"I've got it!" Tucker announced. "Danny, I know how to make your Christmas hilarious." Tucker pointed at the sign in front of a makeup store. It said "Testers Wanted."

"I'm definitely not going to do that." Danny said.

"No, not you!" Tucker turned to Sam. "But I know who is."

Danny and Garth began to laugh.

"What? No. No! No way! Never! Uhuh!" Sam protested.

"Do you want Danny to be cranky forever? I don't think so. He could use a few laughs to get him in the holiday spirit." Tucker took Sam by the arm and practically pulled her into the makeup store.

They approached the counter and Paulina was there. "Can I help you?" she asked the four friends.

"You would work here." Sam frowned.

"We'd actually like to give you a makeup tester." Tucker said.

"Where?" Paulina looked around.

Sam growled.

"She's right here." Danny helped Tucker push Sam over to the makeup testing chair.

Paulina laughed loudly. "Oh you were serious?" She realized that this was not a joke.

Tucker, Danny and Garth watched Paulina first wash away all of Sam's gothic makeup. Garth hadn't ever seen her without makeup on before.

Next, Paulina applied several different shades of blush and some brown eyeliner and yellow eye shadow. And the finishing touch was blue lipstick. Then she smiled proudly and handed Sam a handle mirror. Sam was mad. One of her cheeks was brownish-yellow and the other was rosy red.

"It's all that old makeup in the back of the store that we never use, so we didn't know what it looks like. But now thanks to our tester," Paulina took several pictures of Sam's face with a camera. "We do."

Danny, Tucker and Garth cackled with amusement. Sam looked like an angry clown! This might have been the first time Danny really had a laugh all season.

"Thanks man, I needed a pick-me-up." Danny gave Tucker a bro-hug.

Sam got up and demanded that Paulina clean the makeup off.

"Sorry. I'm not obliged to do that." Paulina said in an uppity tone. "But have a Merry Christmas." She waved them out of the makeup store.

Sam was very miffed. She made the boys wait while she took her time in the bathroom and washed off most of the makeup. Only a slight shadow remained on her face.

Garth laughed every time he looked at her, and he was sure passersby laughed too.

"Ugh, let's just get home, okay." Sam tried to hide her face by subtly hanging it down and putting her hand over part of it. "I'm glad you're feeling better, Danny, but I really hate this."

Tucker and Danny laughed again. "We know." They said in unison.

Later in the day as Sam walked home, she ran into a thin blonde boy with piercing brown eyes. She was rounding the corner to get to the street with her home on it when she ran into him and his backpack spilled its contents all over the sidewalk.

"I'm sorry about that." Sam said. She still looked away from him because she was wearing that makeup on her face.

"Oh it's fine." The blond boy said humorlessly. "Nice makeup." He said when he got a good look at her face.

He started to walk away but then Sam asked him, "Don't you go to my school?"

He turned around and hesitated, surprised that she would ask such a question to a stranger. "What school?"

"Casper High."

"Yeah, yeah, I go there. I'm a junior."

"Me too."

"I'm Wenn."

"Sam."

Wenn turned around and walked away with just that—an attitude as cold as the breeze around him.

As Sam walked home, she couldn't stop thinking about him. There was just something very peculiar about his attitude and the way that she looked at him. She just couldn't put her finger on it and it drove her crazy. But by then she was home.

"Hi Sam." It was her grandmother who opened the door.

"Oh hi grandma!" Sam exclaimed in pleasant surprise. "I didn't know you were coming over today."

"Oh pish-posh, Samantha. I've missed you so much." She gave her granddaughter a hug. Sam came into the house and took her black coat off. "So how are things going with you and that nice young man with the black hair and baby blue eyes?"

Sam's cheek reddened and she looked at her grandmother nervously. "Um…we kinda broke up."

"Oh what a shame! I thought you two young lovebirds really had it made…"

"We did." Sam said rashly. "But apparently he didn't like things that way." Sam had only a slight hint of bitterness in her voice. "We're still best friends though. Tucker liked it better that way too."

"But you still care about that boy."

"What?" Sam didn't want to admit it, but she knew she couldn't hide it from her grandmother because she knew her all too well.

"Danny. You still have feelings for him."

"He'll never know; he's always been clueless. And besides, he likes Valerie now."

"Ah, the unhappy poor girl."

"And she never stopped wanting him either."

"Don't worry," Sam's grandmother put her hand on Sam's shoulder, "You'll get your chance to fulfill the desires of your heart."

Sam only smiled. She went upstairs to her bedroom and put on a black wool sweater. Her room was a little chilly, and she liked it that way. She curled up on the couch in her bedroom and continued with the story she was writing. Ever since Cecelia had inspired her to write again, Sam had been writing all the more. She hadn't touched her story notebook in years and she felt somewhat glad to be writing again. She remembered how it used to be her way of fueling her emotions—happy and sad—onto paper and out of her mind. Her last story had ended with the demise of a character similar to Paulina—snooty and irritating. But this character only had Paulina's bad attributes because Sam refused to believe anything good can come from Paulina.

There came a knock at Sam's bedroom door.