Breaking Tradition
By RupertLover09
Inspired by "Call it Karma" by Silverstein
A/N: This is my first Danny Phantom story. I wrote in on a whim, hoping that it would spark my muse. It's amazing what your mind comes up with when you listen to a song over and over again. What can I say? Two of my passions, one thing. I'm so content right now that I feel like I'm flying.
Dedications:
Morgan: You always know just the thing to say to cheer me up ("IF YOU SAY THAT AGAIN I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF" "why should you take shit from an ugly rat?" "The emo kid cries alone" "I was like -shrinks back in seat-starts up plan to hold you back-"). You're my best friend, the sister I always needed in my life. You're the kick-buttest person ever, and one day that butthole you think is cute will notice you. I just know it. Thanks for sticking by me.
Meli-face: What else can I say other than thank you? Thank you for the good times, the funny jokes, the hilarious times in Journalism when Mrs. What's-her-face was getting on my nerves ("Soupernoodle can't be straight like his dad! He has to be curvy like his mom!" "You know, I think I'm gonna write a book called How My Friends Drove Me to the Loony Bin in the Seventh Grade…"), the bad times like when my dad got fired and when I had to move. Thank you for sharing tears and laughter with me, for helping me with my guy problems, for all the clouds we made up that one day in science after the test and we were laughing so hard that Mrs. Close sort of glared at us and told us to be quiet and then asked us if we were even finished with our tests. For secrets, for jumping up and down and screaming just like the girly-girls do and for every other little thing that we've gone through together. You are my most bosom friend, the first person who ever really cared I think. I would do anything for you, even die; you do know that, right?
Blame it on the weatherBut I'm a mess
And this February darkness
Has me hating everyoneAnd I know I need your comfort
But this drama makes me sick
And the longer I lay here
I know it's harder to get up without you
Lose another day here
Lose another year here
I'm with you
"Call it Karma" by Silverstein
"Somebody's grumpy!" Tucker Foley's voice rang out when Sam Manson opened her door on the morning of February 14th, a look on her face of the deepest loathing possible. Behind him Danny Fenton snickered, a look of pure glee on his face when a misfired snowball hit an old man as he was opening his door to get his newspaper. Each boy was decked out in their winter clothes, Danny with a dark blue parka and black scarf, Tucker with a red jacket and matching beret that seemed to have earflaps.
Sam scowled. "What's there to be happy about? It's cold, we have school, it's snowing, and on top of it all it's Valentine's Day."
"What is it with you and Valentine's Day?" Tucker asked as Sam zipped up her black parka and shoved her gloves onto her hands, grabbing her backpack.
"Yeah." Danny chimed in, ignoring the old man's threats that the next time Danny threw a snowball he'd find one stuck somewhere that Sam highly doubted would be very comfortable as the three friends made their way down the street. "Why doncha tell us?"
"Because. It's a degradation of a traditional Pagan Christian holiday that was once used for people to celebrate love, not totally corrupt it with fat babies in diapers and mushy little candy hearts that really have no meaning."
Tucker smirked. "And you're just jealous that you have nobody to spend it with."
Sam laughed scornfully. "No I'm not."
"Come on, Sammy." Danny said teasingly, throwing his arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. "Girls everywhere would kill to spend Valentine's Day with two guys like me and Tuck."
"Yeah. And unfortunately for you, no one either of you know."
Tucker shuddered. "Ooh. Burn! That one really hit home!"
"My life is complete." Sam said, grinning sardonically. She sighed inwardly. It was their traditional Valentine's Day banter. Ever since they had grown out of cards and sweets and every other childish Valentine's Day tradition, they'd stuck with the same conversation every Valentine's Day morning. Sam was sick of tradition. She didn't want to spend the holiday with both Danny and Tucker anymore. She wanted Godiva chocolates and kisses, not hugs and movie nights. Sam really loved Godiva chocolates. They were her I-don't-feel-well, Danny-doesn't-like-me-that-way-so-I'm-going-to-wallow, comfort food. She had a stock of them hidden under her bed. She would never admit it, but she did. Sam didn't want Tucker at their traditional Valentine's Day movie night either. Despite her hard outer-shell, she was really a romantic at heart and she really wanted to watch a mushy chick flick without Tucker making fun of it the whole time.
Sam decided Tucker was immature when it came to Valentine's Day.
"SAM!" Her musings were annihilated in a second as Danny and Tucker tried to get her attention.
"What?" she snapped. The two boys motioned towards the school and then to Danny's arm that was still around her shoulders. She was breaking tradition. She inwardly gave a feral growl and shoved Danny's arm away, marching off towards the school, eager to get into class and forget about traditions for a while.
"Hi, Sammy-kins!" Her mom dressed up in a pink dress with red sequins glittering all over it greeted Sam at the door when the raven-haired girl walked in after school. Sam scowled as her mother swooped down on her, planting a kiss on each of her cheeks.
"Where are you going?" Sam had to admit she was being pretty nasty to everyone today. But it wasn't her fault; she wouldn't take the blame for Danny and Tucker's obsession over "tradition." She was getting tired of it, and by the looks of it so was Danny. At lunch, Tucker had blabbed on and on about how he thought they should add a new tradition onto their old one every year, and Danny had quietly asked if Tucker didn't think that they were too old for traditions they'd started in middle school. Sam had shot him a mildly triumphant smile and then gone back to her homework, but had noticed that Danny had grinned back.
"Your daddy and I are going to a party this evening." Her mother replied, pulling on her jacket. "We won't be home until really late. Are your little friends still coming over tonight?"
"Yes." Sam replied, waiting for the storm that would soon be blown about her. And then it came.
"You are still hanging around that Fenton boy?" Sam cringed at the anger in her mom's voice, biting back retaliation, knowing that the only way to win with her mom was to stay silent. "Samantha Joy Manson, how many times must your father and I tell you that he is nothing but a bad influence! Look at the family he comes from, child! Use your head! They're all complete lunatics! All that bullshit about fighting ghosts and other dimensions, they need to be put into a mental hospital!"
As her mom kept at it, Sam kept silent. The Fenton family was her favorite family in the world, her own lacking in what Sam would call "family values." The Fentons actually wanted to spend time with their children; Sam's parents left her alone for days, even weeks on end. Not that Sam cared about that. She was born independent, and that's how she'd die. The ring of the phone cut off Mrs. Manson's speech. Sam was the first to reach it. "Manson household, this is Sam."
"Jeez, Sam. Do you always answer the phone like that?"
Sam sighed and started heading up the stairs to her room. "Hey, Tuck. What's up?"
"What's wrong? You sound like your mom was just yelling at you for hanging around Danny again."
"That woman never fucking gives up." Sam said, kicking off her combat boots and turning on her music, flopping down on her king-sized bed as she did so.
"You must get it from her." Tucker said jovially on the other end of the line.
"Just shut the hell up and tell me why you called."
"Oh. Right. That. Well, I can't come tonight. I've got a hot date."
"With what? Your PDA?"
"No!" Tucker said, sounding insulted. "Valerie!"
"Valerie? You're going on a date with Valerie?" Sam screeched. "Tucker! She's your best friend's ex; you can't just go on a date with her! Danny's gonna kill you!"
"I know." Tucker said quickly. "Which was why I was kinda figuring that you could tell him that I'm sick or something."
"What!" Sam exploded. "No way, Tucker! I am not… Tucker? Tucker?" Sam hung up the phone with a growl. "Asshole."
Sam answered the door in her pajamas. She didn't care how Danny saw her. Quite frankly she was a little worried about how she was going to tell him that Tucker was out with Valerie without making him mad.
"Hi, Sam." The halfa said, shaking snow out of his hair.
"Tucker's out on a date with Valerie even though I told him you'd get mad, but he didn't listen to me, so please, please, please don't be mad at me!" Sam said all in one breath, her violet eyes wide with apology.
Danny looked at her, an eyebrow raised. "So?"
"So? What do you mean 'so'? He's out there with your ex-girlfriend!" Sam spluttered shoving a Godiva chocolate in her mouth from the box she was holding in her hand. "On Valentine's Day! Aren't you mad?"
"Quite honestly, I could care less what Tucker does in his spare time." Danny replied, shrugging off his coat. "Exactly how many of those have you eaten?" He nodded at the box of chocolate in Sam's hand.
"This is my third box." Sam mumbled meekly. She held them out as a sort of peace offering. "Want one?"
"No," Danny said, taking the box out of her hand. "And I think you've had enough for one night."
"You're shittin' me."
"You know, I've never really understood that phrase, but no, Jake, I'm not shitting you."
"Sam." Danny whispered his voice hoarse. "Sammy!"
"What?" Sam mumbled sleepily.
"My arm's asleep!"
Sam sat up, her eyes wide. "I fell asleep?"
Danny grinned painfully at her, trying to wake up his arm. "Kinda." Sam smiled sheepishly, handing him back his shirt that she'd been using as a pillow, forcing herself not to look at the finely toned muscles that defined his stomach. "You… uh, you want some more popcorn?" She asked, standing up and making her way over to the small snack area her parents had installed in the theater in the basement of their mansion, unaware that Danny had followed her.
"Sam." Danny said, placing a hand on her shoulder and turning her around. "What's wrong?"
Sam bit her lip, staring determinedly at her black fuzzy slipper covered feet. "I'm tired of traditions, Danny." She said quietly, digging up the courage to look up at him (since when was he so tall?) and noting that he hadn't bothered to put his shirt back on. "Every year it's the same thing. Every morning I come outside grumpy, you and Tucker make fun of me for it, and then we just do everything the same." She sighed. "I always fall asleep on your shoulder every year too. You know what I'm talking about?"
"Yeah, and I agree. But I guess since that's all any of us really get anymore, we just sorta go with it every year."
Sam looked away. "You don't get it do you?"
"What's there to get?"
Sam looked back at her slippers. "It's complicated."
"Try me." Danny said defiantly, a challenge sparking his baby blue eyes.
"I-I don't know what happened, or even how it happened… but I think that I-I fell in… love with you sometime over the past year or two." Sam was shaking as she said it. The words came tumbling out of her mouth quietly, barely audible over the sounds of the movie in the background. Danny stayed silent. "I-I know that's probably not what you were expecting to hear o-or probably something that you didn't even want to hear and I'm really sorry."
"What's there to feel sorry for?" He said finally. "I just wish you would've told me sooner. Because I… you… Uh…" He was nervously rubbing the back of his neck, a habit she noticed he'd picked up whenever he was embarrassed or nervous or stuck in the spotlight.
Sam crossed her arms over her chest. "What are you trying to say, Danny?"
"Don't you dare try to make me say it, Sammy."
"Fine, I won't," Sam said, shrugging as she walked back over to the couch and flopped down on it. Seconds later Danny was standing in front of her, his eyes tinged with green even though he hadn't morphed into his ghostly counterpart. "If you know what I'm gonna say, why do you wanna hear it so bad?"
"Because despite what you may think I actually like sentimentality."
Danny smirked, pulling her up from the couch. "I knew you were a softie."
"Are you making fun of me?"
"Never, Sammy."
"Never call me Sammy again, got it?" Sam demanded, her eyes flashing violently.
"Not even when nobody else is around?" He whined in response to her question, capturing her lips with his. Sam felt a shock go through her body in response to his touch and she finally let herself give in, knowing full well that she was going to have hell to pay in the morning or whenever it was that her mom and dad found out. Somehow, the knowledge that her parents would probably forbid her from seeing Danny only made her deepen the kiss before she broke away and replied to his question. "Maybe when nobody else is around. But only maybe." She grinned as she imagined her parents' reactions. "Mom and Dad are gonna murder me."