IMPORTANT! READ THIS! I am putting this story on hold until the end of May/beginning of June and will be working on my study-story, Unraveled (felt it was unfair to not tell you and make you go look for this info on my profile). But don't worry, this story will be completed somehow, and I really want to finish it before the next school year. However, it's the time to start studying for APs, and history is not my best subject.

Good luck in midterms to high school students and whatever tests college kids have! Middle schoolers, enjoy your childhood while it lasts…

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

Chapter 11: The Weekend

Sam's eyes snapped open when she felt sunlight reach her face and her mouth curled into a scowl.

"Good morning, Sammy-kins!" Mrs. Manson gushed. "Rise and shine!"

"It's bright and early, the best part of the day!" a cheerful Mr. Manson added unhelpfully.

Sam groaned in reply and rolled over under her dark covers, using them to block out the light. Ugh. Morning people who can't live and let live.

"Come on, Sammy!" her mother exclaimed in a preppy voice that made Sam want to smack her. It had been talking at her for fourteen years and Sam would be grateful when she didn't have to wake up to it anymore. "We're going shopping today and then we need to go see Dr. Deplominsky."

This made Sam groan even louder. Dr. Deplominsky was a nutrition expert, and her parents insisted on taking her to see him once every month; they were probably hoping that he would find something "wrong" with her and then they would accuse her ultra-recyclo-vegetarian habits and make her eat (here she shuddered) a cow.

"We have a lot to do today!" her mother beamed on. You may, Sam thought. But I don't. I didn't plan anything yesterd- Sam sat bolt upright, a furious red hue coloring her cheeks when last afternoon/evenings' events caught up to her.

"I knew this would get you up!" Mrs. Manson exclaimed, holding up a flower, frilly pink dress. "Well, let's see you try it on! Hurry now!"

Sam fake-smiled at her. "Okay, mom, but out!"

Her mother hesitated. "Well…okay, Sammy." She let herself be pushed out the door to where her husband was waiting. "Call us when you're ready."

"I will!" Sam shut the door behind them and then glared daggers at her phone. "They had better be home," she muttered as she dialed Danny's number.

She waited…and waited…and waited…and no one answered. He was probably still sleeping. Well, if I got up, he has to get up. Sam dialed his home phone, preparing to ask one of the other Fentons, like Jazz, who was always up by seven, to get Danny.

Hello. I'm sorry I, Jack Fenton can't come to the phone right now; I'm probably busy catching some slimy, filthy ghost!

JACK!

But anyway, just leave your name and number and some fudge, unless you're a ghost, then I'll rip you apart molecule by molecule!

Sam practically punched the 'end' button.

"Sammy? Are you done yet?"

"Not yet!" she called back.

"You've never taken this long to put on a dress before!" her mother protested.

"I'm making sure my make-up matches!" she called back, hoping her mother wouldn't notice the pent-up anger in her voice. "I look downright awful right now!"

"You have half an hour," her mother said after a small pause. Sam smirked. She was probably thinking that she was changing her make-up at the moment. Oh no, it was the dress that would have to change…

But first she was going to call Tucker and get the story out of him. The phone rang once, twice, then suddenly the receiver sputtered and Sam heard of few crashes. She frowned. What was going on there?

"I've got it!" Another crash. "Darn, it's getting away! After it!" came the unmistakable voice of Mr. Fenton.

"Jack, dear, I really think that we can let that one go and focus on the other TWO HUNDRED GHOST RATS SWARMING AROUND US!" That had to be Mrs. Fenton.

There were a few more shrill screams, several more crashes, and many "I'll tear you apart molecule by molecule, ghosts!" from Jack.

"TUCKER!" Sam roared down the line. Someone scrambled on the other end.

"Sam?" Tucker asked.

"Tucker, what's going on there?" Sam asked, her anger with him and Danny momentarily forgotten.

"Oh, hi Sam. My house is overrun with ghost-rats-"

"GHOST!"

"-and I took Danny up on his offer of getting his parents. That was a mistake. A really big mistake."

"Who just screeched?" Sam asked, her frown deepening.

There was a short pause. "That was my mom. Mr. Fenton just toppled over one of her vases and-NO!"

"You don't have to scream at me Tucker!" Sam snapped at him, before realizing it wasn't directed at her.

"You can't have my PDA! Not my baby! NOOOOOOO!"

"It's ghost infested! See!"

Something broke and Sam heard a wordless shriek.

She quickly ended that connection as well.

"Samantha? What was that noise?" her father asked from just outside her door.

"I tripped and hit my toe!" she shouted back at him. "But everything's okay! Just let me finish!"

"Okay, honey." He walked away again and the moment he was out of earshot, Sam covered her face with her dark, gothic pillow and screamed into it.

She couldn't talk to her friends right now.

Her friends were lying to her.

And her parents wanted her to wear frill pink monstrosities.

This called for extreme measures. Savoring every moment of it, Sam carefully took the eye-hurting hot pink dress with its disgusting ruffles and laid it on her floor, taking out the black spray-paint can she kept in her nightstand's drawer, and aimed.

Linebreak

Sam reveled in the scream her mother let out when she walked into the living room ten minutes later and the soundless gasps of her father as they took in her outfit.

The dress was almost completely pitch black. The ruffles had been cut off and there were dark purple spider patterns along their previous positions. The neckline had been changed from a collar to a sharp V, and the hem had been torn out so that the dress reached the floor.

"It turned out great, mom, thanks!" Sam said brightly. "I think I'll wear it for the next dinner social, I love it so much!"

Sam was sure that her mother was going to explode.

"SAMANTHA ANNABELLE MANSON YOU ARE GOING TO TAKE THAT RAG OFF RIGHT NOW AND I WILL PERSONALLY DRESS YOU INTO A MUCH MORE ACCEPTABLE OUTFIT! WE ARE GOING TO THE MALL TO REPLACE THE DRESS YOU JUST RUINED!"

"Ruined? No, I think it looks great," Sam said, observing herself critically. "I could do yours for you, too, if you want," she offered with a smile.

And that's how she found herself at the Amity Park Mall not thirty minutes later wearing a neat, frilly, preppy, boring pink dress.

Linebreak

Danny shivered underneath his covers; why did it have to be so cold in his room? He pulled the covers up and curled up under them, trying to make his feet warm again. It didn't do anything; in fact, he felt even colder than before.

Rolling over, he discovered that moving made it even worse because now he was in the colder part of the bed. He tossed and turned, but finally decided he wasn't going to get any sleep.

This decision was helped along by the sound of his parents battling a battalion of ghost-rats in the lab that was two levels beneath his bedroom. Why didn't they soundproof it? he moaned mentally.

With a groan, he climbed out of his bed and pulled on his usual T-shirt and jeans, glancing at the clock.

Ewww. Eight. An awfully early time to wake up on the weekend. Ask any teenager.

Yawning, he stumbled out of his room and walked downstairs, consciously making an effort to stay tangible so he wouldn't trip, and rubbed his eyes as he pulled out his cereal.

"Hi, Mom. Hi Dad," he greeted the two ghost hunters.

His dad brightened immediately. "Danny-boy! Thanks for getting us yesterday! We finally have some ghosts to test!" And with that, he rushed back down the stairs with the crate full of snarling ghost-rats.

"Good morning, honey," his mom greeted him. "Sleep okay?"

Danny raised his eyebrows at her empty hands. "Is that all you caught?" he asked, nodding his head towards the basement where his dad was.

"These are devilishly tricky blighters!" his dad exclaimed. "But we caught them!"

Mrs. Fenton chose not to make a comment.

Danny's cell phone rang and Mrs. Fenton snickered quietly when he fell out of his chair. Actually, he fell through his chair, but he wasn't going to tell her that as he scrambled back up, blushing.

"Hello?"

"Danny! We have some things to talk about." Oh boy. Tucker did not sound happy.

"Where?"

"Mall arcade?"

"I'll be there. Give me twenty minutes."

"Dude, you're still not up? You're parents left our house half an hour ago; didn't they wake you?"

"Sort of. They just got here, and yes, I'm up. I've been up."

"It's a miracle!"

"Shut it," Danny said humorously. "See you there."

"Yeah, bye."

"I'm going to meet up with Tucker at the mall," Danny explained to his parents as he shoved his cereal down his throat.

"Okay. We'll be here for the rest of the day. Have fun, honey!" his mom called after him.

"And call us if you see any ghosts!" his dad added as he rooted around in the refrigerator and pulled out some fudge.

"Bye!" Danny hurried out, closing the door on the scene and shivering one last time before heading to the arcade.

Linebreak

"Way to tell me before, Danny!"

"Look, I'm sorry, dude, but I thought you knew!"

"Your parents totally wrecked the house! All I can say is that at least I'm not the one in trouble for doing it; I don't think my parents are going to let your dad within a ten foot radius of the yard anymore."

"At least it's not both my parents they're mad at," Danny reasoned. "Then they probably wouldn't let me within a ten foot radius either."

The duo had played at the arcade until they ran out of quarters (which took all of about an hour) and were now eating ice cream as they wandered around, just hanging out the way they had so many times before.

The only difference was that Tucker was harping at Danny about his parents' ghost hunting techniques, something they would never have even thought of before Danny's accident with the portal.

"You were more help than both of them put together, and you've only been doing this for a week!" Tucker continued ranting.

"Doing what?" Danny asked, confused.

"Ghost hunting!"

Danny choked. "What? I haven't!"

Tucker shot him a skeptical glance. "What do you call catching ghosts?"

"Something that I haven't been very successful at."

"Your parents were even less," Tucker told him as they walked into a bookstore. "Seriously, they were way better at house-demolishing."

"Look, I said I was sorry!" Danny protested.

"Sorry won't get my baby back!" Tucker yelled.

"Your what?"

"My PDA!"

Danny blinked. "You do realize you just called it your baby, right?"

Tucker ignored him. "Good thing I backed up all the info onto this one." Tucker pulled out a piece of technology from his pocket – another PDA.

"Then why are you so upset?" Danny wondered.

"Because your dad crushed it!"

"But you have another one!" Danny argued back as they turned into one of the aisles.

"It's not the same!" Tucker wailed.

"Why no-" Danny's thoughts came to an abrupt halt when he had to focus on keeping himself from turning invisible in surprise or intangible from the embarrassment (which would have been worse) of walking straight into a person as they turned around another corner.

A person wearing a pink dress. And a permanent scowl.

"Sam?" Tucker gasped.

The outrageously-dressed Goth grabbed her friends and towed them to the back of the book store.

"What's going on?" Danny asked as they were dragged unmercifully.

Wordlessly, Sam pointed towards the front windows.

"SAM!" Mrs. Manson called. She held up another pink dress, this time with more frills and ruffles than the one Sam was in now. "At least try it on! You might like it!"

Sam shuddered and the trio hid in the back around a shelf until her parents had walked past.

"What are you guys doing here?" Sam asked, more hostility leaking into her voice than she meant to show.

The boys exchanged glances. "Oh, just hangin'," Tucker said.

"Yep," Danny agreed. "Chilling." He suddenly shivered again as an actual chill swept through his body and his breath fogged up in front of him, showing up like a blue mist.

Sam turned back to him after checking to make sure her parents weren't coming back and put her hands on her hips, opening her mouth to say something when Tucker, who had seen the mist, quickly spoke before her.

"Sorry about this morning."

"What?" Sam asked, frowning in confusion.

"What?" Danny parroted.

"Sam called this morning," Tucker explained to Danny. "Anyway," he began as he turned to Sam. "That, if you couldn't guess, was Danny's parents turning my house into a dump heap."

"I said I was sorry!" Danny cried, giving another violent shiver. "What else do you want?"

"You said it was infested with ghost-rats?" Sam remembered, her eyes narrowing a little as she focused all her attention on Tucker.

"And get this," Tucker continued. "In the process, they only managed to catch a tenth of the actual ghosts that showed up."

Sam looked at him. "Ghosts?"

Tucker blinked. "Yeah. Why?"

"You believe in ghosts now?" Sam had a hard glint in her eyes. How far were they going to go with these lies? Sure, the Fentons had been in their house apparently exterminating ghosts, but they had a bad tendency of seeing ghosts everywhere, especially Mr. Fenton. Everyone who was sane knew ghosts didn't exist.

The blue mist appeared out of Danny's mouth again, but Sam was too mad to notice.

Tucker and Danny exchanged worried glances. "A horde of ghost rats with a giant king showed up at Tucker's house yesterday while we were there," Danny said. "We barely managed to escape and I called my parents."

Sam raised her eyebrows, her skepticism still in place. "And how did you escape?" she asked.

"Ummmm…uhhh…lots of running?" Danny suggested. It was true. It just wasn't the whole truth.

Sam allowed her usual Goth mask to fall in place, something she usually didn't do with her friends, but this was getting out of hand and she did not want them to see the pain their lies were causing her. "So you suddenly believe in ghosts and managed to outrun them?"

"Yes?" Danny more asked than said. He cringed as Sam took a deep breath, backing away as another chill racked his body – this one fiercer than before –

"RAAWWRRR!" Sam blinked. That couldn't have come out of her mouth.

"AAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!"

The people in the store screamed and ran for the exit while Danny and Tucker stared up at something behind Sam.

Sam turned around and found herself face-to-face with an octopus-like creature that had red eyes and a mouth. It was also floating.

"Run!" Danny shrieked, grabbing his friends and literally dragging them to the front of the store and into the milling crowd, not stopping until he had reached a fairly deserted hallway in one of the mall's corners. Sam gasped at his surprisingly powerful grip and the three stared behind them at the people running around while the ghost laughed high above them.

"What is that?" Sam breathed.

"A ghost," Danny replied almost immediately as they watched.

Sam walked in front of them, blocking their exit, and saw their eyes widen. The so-called ghost could wait. This needed to be resolved now.

"No more stalling," she said with her award-winning scowl. "Explain what's gotten into you two now."

"Gotten into us?" Danny laughed nervously, making her eyes narrow further, and he gulped.

"What's with the secrecy?" she demanded. "You guys weren't playing Doomed last afternoon."

Open mouths were her answer, crushing whatever hope she had that they hadn't been lying to her.

"What were you doing?" she nearly growled.

"The ghost-rats really did happen," Tucker said. "That was why we couldn't get on. Then Danny's parents came and-ugh." He shuddered. "Their purification techniques…don't ever ask."

"And what's your excuse?" she practically snarled at Danny.

He swallowed nervously. What to tell her… what do I do? he thought desperately. He was an awful liar, he knew that, but he was not about to tell Sam the truth. What if she thought he was a freak? What if she broke their friendship? What was he going to say?

"Well…about a week ago, my parents finished the Fenton Ghost Portal," he said slowly. Tucker looked at him, surprised and a little alarmed, but Danny ignored him. "It's made me a nervous wreck. They took weeks to build it, and then it didn't work, but I fixed it, and-"

"You fixed it?" Sam asked, surprised.

Danny nodded and elaborated a little at the look she was giving him. "I hated seeing them so down like that, so I…uh…fixed it and now there are ghosts popping in and out of my basement all the time!" It was pretty good, he thought. It would hold. It was true.

Sam sighed and dropped her arms. "And why didn't you tell me about this?"

The two boys exchanged glances again. "Ummm…because?" Danny asked.

Tucker sighed. "Sam, it's just weird. You weren't with us when most of the ghost action was happening, and we knew you'd be skeptical about the ghosts, so…yeah."

I definitely owe him one, Danny thought while shooting a grateful glance at Tucker.

"I believe you," Sam reassured them. Danny raised an eyebrow and Sam colored. "Alright, yes, after seeing the ghost, but I was willing to give it a try and be proven wrong before. Because that's what friends do. They tell each other things and they support each other. They trust each other." She watched carefully for any effects from her last sentence.

Both boys fidgeted under her stare. I can't trust you with this, Danny thought. Don't make me, please don't make me!

He suddenly shivered again, and this time, Sam noticed. "Are you okay?" she asked, worry coloring her tones.

"What? No, I'm fine, I just need to get a … sweater or something." He shivered again.

"I'll get you home," Tucker offered. "Good luck dealing with your parents," he told Sam as they walked away.

"Thanks," Sam said, her mask softening a bit. So they hadn't really been hiding something; they just hadn't gotten around to telling her about what was going on, and she had to admit that since she had been devoting all her time to convincing the cafeteria to modify their menu for a short while, it had been hard for anyone to talk to her really. She was just glad she hadn't missed out on anything serious.

Linebreak

Danny shivered again. "You okay, man?" Tucker asked when they had rounded a corner away from Sam.

"I've been shivering like this all day," Danny stuttered. "I don't know why, either."

"Maybe-" Tucker's suggestion was cut off when a voice suddenly shouted, "BEWARE! FOR I AM THE BOX GHOST!"

Danny smacked his face while Tucker stared at where they had come from; where the voice was coming from right now.

"Cover me," Danny hissed as he dashed behind a pillar and checked to make sure no one could see him. "I'm goin' ghost!" he cried, immediately feeling the rings form around him and turn him into his Phantom form. He walked back out and grabbed Tucker, who shivered at his icy touch, but didn't flinch away from it. "Sam's back there!"

Linebreak

Sam, unlike most people, didn't scream at the sight of the blue, over-all wearing man floating in front of her.

Correction: ghost floating in front of her.

He just didn't seem scary, not after all the horror books she had read and movies she had seen.

Now, when the boxes around her suddenly levitated, that was a whole different story. It suddenly occurred to her that maybe you couldn't judge a ghost's harm ability by their looks. Not that she usually based assumptions off of looks, but there was a good chance that if you saw someone with a fat, short, stubby figure and someone with a lean, slender one plus combat boots and fighting knowledge, the second guy would be able to easily walk away from the first one. You wouldn't exactly expect the first guy to levitate a bunch of boxes and throw them at you with his mind.

Sam tried to dodge the boxes, already knowing there was no chance, but before she could move, she felt something frigid touch her shoulder and then a tingly, empty feeling spread through her. Right before she watched a box fly through her blue shape.

With a startled cry, she jerked away from the touch and looked up into the glowing green eyes of a floating teenager with snow-white hair.

"Watch out!" he cried, and immediately grabbed her and flew up above the boxes before setting her down next to someone else – Tucker – and flying back towards the boxes.

Sam looked around, hardly taking notice of the ghosts anymore, just searching. "Where's Danny?" she shouted to Tucker.

Shoot. What do I tell her? Tucker panicked. On impulse, he shrugged at her.

Big mistake.

"I thought you were taking him home!" she screamed at him.

"I-ah-um…" Tucker trailed off miserably before turning to the fight.

Sam followed his gaze and her eyes became glued to the scene.

The teenage ghost was mostly trying to dodge the boxes, doing his best to fly towards the box-controlling ghost, as it yelled a rather pathetic speech at its opponent.

"I AM THE BOX GHOST! FEAR ME AND MY CARDBOARD VENGEANCE OF DOOM AND DESTRUCTION! I WILL TAKE OVER THE WORLD AND NO ONE WILL STOP ME!" Insert not-very-good evil laugh.

Sam gasped as a box flew right at the teenager, about to hit him in the stomach, when suddenly, a hole opened up inside him and the box flew through it. The teenager froze, but Sam couldn't see his face anymore; he was floating between her and Tucker and the cough*Box Ghost*cough.

Another box went flying towards him, but this time the teenager was quick enough to dodge it – in an unnatural way in which his body became a boneless curve, his legs melding into a black, semi-translucent tail.

"Stop it!" the teenager yelled at the Box Ghost as he dodged a torrent of boxes, twisting into the strangest shapes imaginable. Danny gasped with surprise when his top half separated from his lower and allowed five boxes to charge through before reconnecting. This was creepy. Melting into a formless blob? Disturbing in every way, shape, and form, especially for the person feeling himself turn into a puddle.

"FEAR ME AND TREMBLE!" it shouted back. "FOR NO ONE CAN HOPE TO DEFEAT ME, THE BOX GHOST! I WILL NEVER STOP! NEVER!" And with one last well-aimed box and a final attempt to laugh, the ghost disappeared.

Danny, despite his excellent dodgeball skills, got nailed in the head with the box as he tried to fly around it and fell none too gently onto the concrete below him, deaf to Sam and Tucker's gasps. Panting, he dizzily struggled to his hands and knees, trying to focus on making his head stop spinning, unaware that a bright ring of light was forming around his middle. As the rings made him human again, Danny stood up and clutched his head before finally turning to face his two friends, his eyes widening as he realized what he had just done.

For about ten minutes, nobody moved. Unfortunately, it couldn't last any longer.

Sam walked up to him and, planting herself firmly and directly in front of him, looked Danny right in the eye. And before he could so much as blink, her hand whipped out and gave him a nice pink mark on the cheek.

He stared at her in disbelief as she stomped away, her back straight and her combat boots making solid thuds on the ground, the epitome of fuming female fury. Slowly, Danny's gaze met Tucker's just as astonished one.

That was unexpected.

Linebreak

Danny played with his food at the dinner table, not really in the mood to eat, not after what had happened that afternoon. He didn't understand it. Sam hadn't said a word, just slapped him and walked off. He had expected to be chewed out, screamed at, punched once or twice, maybe even kicked. But Sam had just given him barely a bruise and left.

She doesn't want anything to do with me, he realized. He blinked back some tears. She doesn't accept me. Stupid, Fenton! You just had to be careless, and it lost you one of your best friends!

"Danny?" Jazz peered at her little brother worriedly. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," he answered shortly. "Just not hungry."

"Well in that case," their dad began, his eyes lighting up, "I can show you my new invention!"

Danny barely paid any heed to his words, to miserable to even be alarmed. Jazz just rolled her eyes. "A soup thermos?"

That made Danny look up and, low and behold, his dad had whipped out a silvery-white thermos with green accents and a few buttons.

"A Fenton Thermos!" Jack announced proudly, waving it around. "It's supposed to trap ghosts!" His expression turned crestfallen. "But, since it doesn't work yet, it's just a thermos." He brightened up immediately. "A thermos with the word 'Fenton' on it!"

Jazz face-palmed. "Dad," she said slowly, as if she were talking to a slow child. "There. Are. No. Such. Things. As. Ghosts!"

"Of course there are, Jazzy-pants!" Jack exclaimed happily, and proceeded to blather on about ghosts while his wife nodded, smiling, and his daughter argued with him heatedly.

Danny put his head on the table. It was going to be a long, miserable night.

I promise I will post again by June!

'Til then