An African American rushed down the hallway lined with lockers as students chatted around him. Tucker Foley, T.F. for Too Fine as he would say, still holds onto his ever present PDA and was currently adjusting his red hat with his free hand. The usual long sleeved yellow shirt is replaced for a short sleeved one with a long sleeved white undershirt. Both shirts are oversized and thick. The army green pants he has on are larger and bulkier due to his growth spurt, ghost hunting and the new additions of technology. And by new additions, it refers to the large amounts of ghost hunting weapons, stashed into the many pockets. The brown boots look similar to his previous pair. He turned when he reached the end of the hallway, heading straight for his locker.
A black haired boy wearing a plain black mask was leaning against his destination. 'Is that Danny?' He thought when he realised that the creepy goth dude, dressed from head to toe in black, blocking his locker was his best friend. His hair was messier than usual and the turquoise eyed lad smiled knowingly. Danny Fenton had his hands shoved into the front pocket of his baggy black hoodie. It hid all his muscles and scars obtained from ghost hunting. Same goes for Tucker, despite having a smaller collection compared to Danny, it was still a danger hazard when helping out the town s ghostly hero. The new jeans were darker than his previous one and a small key chain is hooked onto the belt hoop. The white thermos with blue linings was one of Tucker's first ghost hunting equipment, although it is not an original. Upgraded from the Fenton Thermos, it is modified to not detect Phantom's ectoplasmic signature. All members of Team Phantom own one with their own colour code. And at high demand, their thermos contains a hidden button that can capture the halfa but he doesn't need to know that. Lastly, his old red sneakers were swapped for black combat boots with navy blue soles.
"Dude, why are you all over the news? And, what's with the mask?"
"Huh? Oh, hey Tuck. I didn't hear you coming." The words were muffled by the mask that obstructs half of Danny's face.
"Of course you didn't. You were too busy daydreaming about your crush."
"I wasn't daydreaming about Sam!"
Uh huh," giving him a deadpanned expression, he reached into his locker after shooing his friend aside.
"I- I mean, crush! Wait, not that Sam's my crush. I mean she is. But, you don't need to know that. I mean, I'm not thinking about my crush- Daydreaming, I'm not daydreaming! I'm just gonna stop now..."
Tucker paused for a few seconds, staring at the red faced halfa in front of him. "Did you just..."
"No?" Danny squeaked, voice going up an octave and blush creeping to his ears and neck.
The bespectacled boy finally burst out laughing, causing the other to frown. "Man, I should have recorded that- Oh, wait, I did! HAHAHA am I a genius or what?"
"You did, WHAT?! Give it, Tucker!"
"No! Don't touch my precious!"
The students around them paused and looked at the commotion, only to get back to their own stuff when they realised it's just the loser and the techno geek being themselves. The techno geek ran away with a fuming Fenton chasing after him. Both of them were acting like kids but no one could care. It's a usual sight to see them running around school anyway.
Tucker grinned, basking in his victory as the pair made their way back to their class that they ran by. He was able to send the voice recording to Valerie before Danny had gotten hold of his PDA. The boy beside him, on the other hand, looked like everything in the world was against him.
"Don't worry, dude. We won't send it to Sam- Haha I mean, your crush. Wait, Sam, your crush- OW! Haha- woah, you're freezing!" Tucker exclaimed, rubbing his arm where Danny had punched him.
"Half dead with ice powers?" His answer was more of a question then a statement, with him giving a tiny smile and a shrug as he replied.
Tucker glanced at best friend, knowing he was hiding something. Said best friend adjusted the pair of black leather fingerless gloves he had on nervously. Stuffing his hands back into his hoodie's pocket out of habit, he looking at Tucker seriously, "if you're worried about me losing control over my ice powers, let me tell you Tuck, I'm still able to control them." He stopped talking for a while as they passed a group of A-Listers, only continuing after ensuring that they were a safe distance away, "I think I've gotten even better..." a pause as he considered his words, "and they might still be developing...?"
"But you're still able to control them, right?" Tucker clarified again, looking over at him to catch him nodding before he went back to fiddling with his PDA. After tapping away for a full minute, a small latch opened at the top. The handheld device scanned the halfa, giving a short beep when the results were out. The owner of said device gasped, eyes widening at the screen as he read what was written on it. "Dude! When was the last time you checked?"
Danny looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "How was I supposed to check if you are the one with all the tech?"
"You could have asked Val- never mind that. You have got to see this." Tucker showed Danny his PDA and pointed at a few graphs that seemed random to his best friend. "When we left, you were about here, see the little red dot? But now, it's shooting off the charts! With your ectoplasmic energy increasing that much and that fast, you could be-"
"I'm fine, Tuck. Super healing, remember?" Danny laughed, but it sounded slightly strangled. Just like he does whenever he's hiding something or telling a lie; but never had he been the one at the receiving end of his lifelong friend. Tucker only seen and heard it being directed to everyone else that are not in on their shared secret.
"Yeah, right. Come on, man. What happened when we weren't here?" Danny sighed, knowing it was impossible to lie to the friend that he considers a brother, and vice versa. Rubbing his neck, he dropped his arm to his side. It dangled while the other was still in the pocket.
"Well, eh heh, ghost puberty? I don't actually know. I was thinking of finding Clockwork for answers since... Never mind, I'll explain when Sam gets back tonight- but!" Danny exclaimed when he saw that Tucker was about to cut in, "I can control my powers perfectly without changing forms."
"Oh, that's why you're all over the news," Tucker fiddled with his PDA for a while, mentally reminding himself to research on ghost puberty. He handed the PDA to his friend, asking if he checked the Phan-page. Danny shook his head, replying with why should I, then continued by reading the news out loud.
"'Disappearing act from Amity's very own Ghost Boy'..." Danny's eyes scanned the news, mouth moving as he read the article. Tucker kept his eyes on his PDA, not trusting his friend after the recently obtained blackmail material, "Woah, are they really going to send the GIW after me? They can't do anything until they got hold of Skulker's machine. 'Gone since Disasteriod', yeah that was kinda my break given by the ghosts. 'Where have you gone, Invisobill'?! They're still using that name?!" A hand ran through his always messy dark hair as they entered the class, Tucker snickered while Danny complained about his most hated label. Students, who were already seated, are already catching up and gossiping about the latest news. Tucker got his PDA back from Danny and immediately started to fiddle around with it.
"Come on Danny, cheer up! So how's your winter break? Other than defeating ghosts without transforming and us leaving Amity. Miss us?" Tucker brought his PDA away from his face, waggling his eyebrows before adding, "Or have you been thinking of Sam- oh your crush, so much that- OUCH HEY!" Tucker laughed as he adjusted his glasses which were almost knocked off his face. Curtsey of Danny.
"Can we get back to what we were talking about instead?" Danny glared at the African American, but the blush on his face made it hard to take him seriously. He looked away when he realised his burning face was not going away anytime soon. Both boys plopped down onto their chairs, an empty set was left beside Danny's right and another on Tucker's left. Tucker noticed the time and started to type away on his PDA. And as though he was sharing a secret, he leaned his head towards the clueless boy.
"Soooo..." he dragged the 'o' as he kept his tone causal, too casual for Danny, "when are ya gonna ask her out?"
"Tucker!"
Snickering, Tucker raised his hands up in surrender before shifting around in his chair. "By the way, happy belated birthday, dude. Sorry we can't celebrate it together like we always do. But, I got you something!"
"You shouldn't have, Tuck. Really- whoa!" Danny eyed the picture of a telescope in Tucker's room. Tucker smirked, knowing that Danny still loves astronomy.
"You don't want it? Alright, I'll just pull it apart and make it into something else. Or sell it since it will be too painful to pull apart. A few months of my blood, sweat and tears spent in making this one of a kind-"
"You made that?! Oh, man. I owe you, Tuck. This is the best present you gave me-"
"Hey! Others were nice too!"
"Haha, okay, okay, but this tops them all! Thanks, dude."
"Nah, don't mention it. By the way, did you get anything else for your birthday?" Tucker took back his PDA as Danny replied.
"Yeah, you'll see it later."
Tucker rose an eyebrow, wondering what the other present could be that made the halfa seemed so secretive. Shrugging to himself, he redirected their conversation back to holiday activities. But just as Danny was about to comment on his dad's choice of holiday activity, Dash Baxter and Paulina Sanchez entered with the rest of the A-Listers trailing in behind them. Both boys sighed.
"Oh boy... it s them!" Tucker sighed and slumped into his chair.
"Tell me about it." Danny grumbled and rested his head on a fist, drumming his fingers with the other hand as they waited for their teacher to enter. Dash and Paulina separated from the group and walked over to the two "losers". The rest of the A-Listers had headed for the tables by the windows. The boys of Team Phantom internally sighed, already knowing what they were up to.
"Hey, Fenturd! What's with the mask? Finally hiding your loser face?" When Dash and Paulina had walked over to their table, almost the whole class had started whispering and staring. All of them knew that Danny was Dash's favourite punching bag, but they thought that something might change this year. Just like how Danny has changed in appearance.
Danny rolled his eyes at the threat. He turned his head to Tucker and carried on with their conversation. Dash looked shocked, eyes widening for a spilt second before he regained his composure. He gritted his teeth and stood straighter, "Not answering me, Fentoenail? Better watch where you step, I'll be wailing on you soon."
Danny ignored the comment made by the star quarterback and laid his arm down on the table. He continued by resting his chin on it, ignoring Dash completely.
Dash growled at the action. Slamming a fist onto the table, he snarled, "HEY FENTOAD! I'M TALKING TO YOU!"
"What do you want me to say, Dash?" Danny murmured into his arm, knowing that all they could hear from him was gibberish. "Can't you just leave us alone? It's the first day."
"What did you say, loser? Too puny without your girlfriend to speak up for you?"
"Yeah, like, where is the goth freak anyway? Ditched you for a goth boy? I knew that freak was a slut. I bet she slept with every creep at a dark spooky club-"
SLAM!
Paulina got cut off as soon as Danny finally gave them a response. Although they were hoping to get one out of him, this wasn't what they wanted.
Tucker's eyes hardened but he knew not to get in Danny's way when someone insults them, especially Sam, this way. Despite being clueless of the goth's advances, he will go protective boyfriend mode whenever their gothic friend was insulted. Dash and Paulina gasped and took a step back while everyone else held their breath, leaning back from shock.
Parkermundane: Haha im gonna have to leave you hanging again. I feel so evil ! (So sorry!) Thanks for reviewing again, really means a lot to me :
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