Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

Everything was perfect. I had it all planned out, from where I stood to what I said. Nothing was being left to chance for this. Today was the day I was going to ask Sam Manson to homecoming.

Maybe saying that was a little misleading. Danny Phantom was asking her, not Danny Fenton. I figured his popularity and Sam's tendency to favor the supernatural would give him more of an edge than asking her as Fenton. The ghostly strength I always felt as Phantom also made me feel braver, more confident. Of course the boost to my confidence only played a very minor role in my decision. I was in no way depending on it as my sole support in asking her. Yeah, I didn't really believe myself either.

To be fair, I have a right to be a little nervous. I mean if things didn't go well, there would be hell to pay. This had the possibility of destroying any friendship I had with her. We had been inseparable since fifth grade. Along with Tucker we were the three amigos. This made my decision to ask her all the harder when faced with the realization that I wouldn't be able to face her if she said no. The all knowing Tuck promised this wouldn't happen, but I still had my doubts.

"You're worrying too much," he said, meeting me at my house. He pulled out his PDA and held it up for me to see. "Statistics show that those that smile and try to appear more confident usually end up feeling so during depressing or stressful situations."

"Most statistics are also made up," I replied, giving him an annoyed look. He's been trying to ease my nerves for the past week, back when I came up with this whole idea, and it hadn't helped once.

Tucker only shrugged at that. "The point is you need to calm down. Have you told Jazz yet?"

I glanced back at my house, making sure she wasn't around. "No, not really." It's not like she didn't have a right to know; it's just that I don't want to add her nagging to my growing list of stress at the moment. "Anyway," I said, trying to change the topic. "How are you and Valerie doing?"

"I'm trying to think of a good gift for our one year anniversary." He furiously tapped at his PDA. "At first I thought I should give her some spare ghost hunting equipment."

I scowled at this. Of course I didn't mind him dating the girl who hunted my ghost half regularly, being the nice guy that I am, I just wish he'd stop helping her with said ghost hunting. He never meant to; mostly it would just be a slip up here and there giving away vital information, like my parents being ghost hunters for instance.

"But then," Tucker continued, almost like he read my mind," I thought of something less violent. Maybe a necklace or something?"

"Sounds expensive." Would I have to do this for Sam if she became my girlfriend? I'd need to get a job to afford all of this. I'm not even sure how Tucker paid for it. Maybe he hacked into a bank or something. It's not like he didn't know how. I shook the thought from my brain. It'd make more sense if he just asked his father for the cash.

"That's because it is," Tuck muttered. "Let's stop talking about my relationship and head to school on time for once. That is, unless you want to be late four straight times this week."

"Hey I can't control when ghosts decide to appear, and someone has to stop them!"

Tucker started talking about some new topic on our way to school. Don't ask me what it was about; I accidentally zones off. Knowing him though, it was probably something about a new line of PDA's being made.

Casper High was abuzz with new activity for the coming dance. Everyone was excited, from the cheerleaders and football players, all the way to the band geeks and nerds. Even the small group of goth kids who usually hung out in the back of the school and out of crowds seemed happier than usual.

"This reminds me of spirit week," I said.

"You mean when we had to deal with Spectra?" Tucker laughed at that. "Those were good times man."

"Do you think she's gonna make another appearance?" I asked. This would be an opportune time for her to show up, though it's not like she really needed a reason to try to escape the Ghost Zone.

"Nah, I closed the portal for today. Don't want to ruin the special occasion, right? Besides, I'm sure the ghosts won't try anything. They probably want you two getting together as much as I do. At least then she'd make a better hostage or bait for their plans."

"Tuck," I began, trying to keep down my annoyance, "please shut up."

After going through the plan once more, I turned invisible and flew into a nearby alley near the school where a bundle of roses was waiting for me. Everything was set; now Sam just had to show up.

As if on cue she walked up to the school. At least I thought it was her, it was hard to see when she looked so...different. Instead of her normal gothic clothing, she picked something more colorful, preppy, and definitely not her, almost like her mother was forcing her to wear it. She looked pretty, I wouldn't deny that, but she also looked like she was either really depressed or really desperate for attention. Neither seemed like the Sam I knew. The scowl transfixed onto her face wasn't helping things either. Just seeing her almost made me want to pull the breaks on this whole operation until further notice. The only problem was there was little chance I was going to be able to work up the nerve to ask her again anytime soon. This at least warrants a call to Tucker, right?

"What the heck did you do?" I all but yelled at the technogeek when he answered. "I know you had something to do with this!"

"Oh, are you talking about Sam's new clothes," the boy let out a nervous chuckle. "Funny thing actually. See, she wanted to get the attention of a certain boy, and I may have convinced her to wear that. You gotta admit, it's catching a few heads."

He was right, I sighed. Beyond the hustle and bustle of the school, she was catching the eyes of a few guys. Not most of them, and definitely not the jocks. They only showed a moment of surprise before going about their merry way and ignoring her. Still, the heads that did turn only aggravated me further. "Tuck, I'm going to kill you for this."

"Well what did you expect me to do?!" He asked desperately. "She wanted my help and I had to give it to her!"

I pinched the bridge of my nose. This was already getting out of control and I haven't even started anything yet. "Just keep her distracted so I can make my entrance."

"Okay." He said." Also, if it makes you feel any better, the person's attention she wants is yours."

I hung up the phone before i said something I would regret later. In a weird way this situation may have helped me. Now some of the queasy-ness of my stomach was replaced by aggravation at Tucker. Instead of a desire to forget this whole thing, I felt a desire to talk to Sam and help her out of this mess. Most likely it was just my hero complex acting up again.

With this new feeling I grabbed the roses and entered the doors of Casper High, trying to keep up a confident facade with everyone staring at me, mouths agape. At least twice I had to check to make sure I was still Phantom during my slow, nerve-racking trek up to Sam. Fortunately I didn't falter as I stood next to her under everyone's intense gaze.

"Sam Manson," I greeted, giving my best grin and holding out the bouquet for her to see. "would you like to go to homecoming with me, Danny Phantom?"

There were a few awed expressions and disgusted looks from the crowd of students. I didn't really care. My only attention was on Sam. Her wide violet eyes were trying to grasp for a response, which I hoped was yes. Apparently her eyes weren't what I should've been looking at. Before I even realized what happened, an intense pain erupted in my gut, and I couldn't help falling to the floor, coughing and sputtering the whole time.

"You asshole!" She screamed, causing the entire hallway to fall into a stunned silence. "You come waltzing in here, embarrassing me in front of the entire school, just to ask me to homecoming?! I really should punch you!"

I wanted to reply that she already did if the pain in my gut was any indication, and that she kind of already attracted a lot of attention with her change in attire, but I held my tongue. In hindsight, I should've remembered that Sam was never one for the spotlight. Changing outfits was embarrassing enough for her and I just made things worse. She also hated being put on the spot. That was already three strikes again me.

"So is that I no?" I asked, doing my best to prevent myself from coughing anymore. Man the pain was killing me.

Sam glared at me before letting out a long, drawn out, definitely overdramatic, sigh. "Even though you made a jerk of yourself, I guess I will still go to the dance with you." She knelt down and picked up the roses, giving them a sniff. "That is, if you buy me better flowers than some dumb roses."

"But everyone likes roses!" I argued.

"No," she said simply. "Roses are too bright, too red. Next time go for some asters. They're purple; you know, more my style."

I thought about it for a moment. She was right like always, but couldn't the same be said for her outfit. Once again I knew better than to open my mouth. There's no use stretching my luck when sue already said yes.

By now the hallway was completely filled with kids, half of them I didn't even recognize, all staring at me with a mixture of confusion and admiration.

"Um," I stuttered out. My face growing hot as I rubbed the back of my neck with a shaky smile plastered on my face. "I'll just be going then."

I felt a little better knowing that Sam's face was just as red as mine, but it was all ruined when she broke out into a fit of laughter at my discomfort. She probably would've started pointing at me and and attempted to say something to embarrass me more if I hadn't turned invisible right there and flew out of the school.

A couple minutes later I came back as my normal Fenton self. Fortunately the hallway went back to its usual routine after the incident with Phantom, and no one paid me any mind. Well except for the pitying looks sent to me by just about everyone I walked past.

"What's with them?" I asked Tucker as I stopped at his locker.

The technogeek had a Cheshire grin on his face, though he tried to hide it by turning away from me and grabbing something from his locker. "Oh, you'll love this," he said. "After you left, everybody started talking. Now they think something bad happened between you and Sam for her to accept Phantom's request. There's also some claims that Phantom got his ass handed to him by a goth."

"It was one punch!"

"Whatever, now everyone thinks you're the broken hearted third wheel, trying for Sam's affections."

I could only shake my head. "That's just so wrong" I grumbled. "Are you coming to first period with me?"

"No," he kept his creepy smile up. "I figure I'd just skip. You know, give the two lovebirds some privacy."

Oh I wanted to punch him, I really did. He probably knew it too because he all but bolted from his locker as soon as he finished whatever, he was doing when I got there I owed him one for helping me with this anyway. I guess we're even now.

Sam was waiting for me at my first period room when I entered. Apparently I wasn't the only one to change their appearance. She was back in her normal dark colored clothing, most likely having burned what she was wearing earlier. I shouldn't be surprised since she could get just about anything delivered to her in seconds thanks to her parent's wealth. "Hey," she said, smirking. "You'll never guess what just happened to me."

"You changed your clothes," I feigned ignorance. "You look better as a Goth. I heard you were trying to get a certain boy to notice you too."

She lightly punched me in the arm. "Well obviously it worked because the famous Danny Phantom asked me out."

"Yeah," I laid back in my chair and closed my eyes. "It must feel awesome being asked out by a superhero." With each word I noticed the nervousness in my gut getting weaker and weaker.

More people were entering the room now, giving us a wide girth as they walked to their seats, almost like they expected us to break out into an argument at any second.

"Well he is handsome, funny, charming, and recently has been putting on a decent chunk of muscle,"

I didn't have to open my eyes to know she was smirking at me. I also didn't have to open them to know my face was turning noticeably scarlet.

"Also have you seen his glowing green eyes? Ah, they're so beautiful."

"Okay I get it," I grumbled. She was just doing this to embarrass me, wasn't she?

The students in the classroom seemed to take another step away from us. They were definitely anticipating a fight.

"Personally I think it was nice of him to come all the way to our school just to ask you to a dance in front of the whole school." I spoke. "Kind of like what's going on now."

Sam seemed to understand what I was insinuating as she glanced at the entire class. No one even bothered to hide the fact that they were watching us.

"Oh," was all that came out of her mouth. She leaned in closer to me. "By the way, you better not pick me up looking like Phantom. That would raise too many questions with my family that I would rather not answer."

"But your family hates me."

"I guess you'll just have to deal."

Just when Mr. Lancer finally walked into the room to teach his lesson, a blue puff of smoke came out of my mouth. My ghost sense. So I ghost was able to escape the Ghost Zone without using the Fenton Portal after all. It wasn't too surprising. They always seemed to find a way to escape, if only to make my life miserable. Still I needed to get out of here. That's when I remembered everyone in the room. Hey, they wanted a show, right?

"Well fine then!" I shouted, doing my best to sound angry. "Go to homecoming with Phantom for all I care! He's only a putrid pile of ectoplasmic goo!" a shiver went up my spine. I sounded a little too much like my parents there.

Sam lightly laughed at that, making it all the harder to fake my anger.

"Don't come crying to me when he breaks your heart in the end!" With that I ran out of the room, noticing everyone's wide eyes as I left. It must have looked pretty convincing then.

The last thing I saw was Sam shaking her head before muttering, "Dork," and turning her attention to her notes.

So you're all probably wondering why I wrote this, right? Well the main reason was because I wanted to experiment with writing in first person point of view. I'm not entirely sure how it turned out, so your reviews will really help.

The reason I'm writing this story specifically though is because there are a few tropes that I have grown to despise in a fair amount of romance stories. One of them I won't be covering. Hellbreaker's story Big Mistake already handles it better than I ever could. For this chapter I decided to use the trope of Sam changing her entire style in order to "pretty" herself and grab Danny's attention. I feel like that goes against one of the main messages Danny Phantom had and is also very unrealistic in that she's usually able to attract the attention of every guy in the school and make Danny jealous. I'm sorry but that could never realistically happen. Anyway, thanks to Sorenalice for beta-ing this chapter.