Chapter 3: Box Lunch

Hey, chapter three is here! Sorry it took so long, but I had writers block, and I took more time to make this chapter more thorough and better written. You know that little hint some of you were saying to improve my writing? Well, I finally used it! I do not own Danny Phantom, and I never will. Hope you enjoy this chapter, because I like it.

Danny walked quietly into the lunchroom like he would have any ordinary day of school. As per usual, the disgusting smell of cheap cafeteria food permeated Danny's nose, and he couldn't help but gag a little. The smell, sadly, was the only ordinary occurrence. Once everyone noticed that Danny was standing in the doorway, which didn't take long, the majority of the student body got up, pulled out note pads or t-shirts from who knows where, and surrounded Danny, either asking him questions or to sign something. Instead of filling the new hopes and dreams, he just sighed, knowing full well he was going to regret skipping lunch, went intangible, and walked over to the table where Sam, Tucker, and Valerie were sitting. He noticed that Valerie looked much better from the little fiasco that occurred early in the day. Danny returned to tangibility and sat down next to Sam.

"How's your day been going so far?" she asked.

"Odd," was Danny's only reply.

He knew she was trying to start a conversation to reduce any awkward tension that has developed, but Danny's nerves were just too frazzled to think of a complex or decent response to how his day had actually been going, which wasn't all that great.

"So," Tucker said mockingly. "What did Paulina want?"

Sam glared daggers at Tucker from across the table, which effectively made him cringe. She was obviously prepared to kick him in the shins with her combat boots, which really did hurt, if he mentioned anything else about Paulina. In response to Tucker's question, Danny grumbled and slammed his head on the table.

"Don't even get me started on that," he muttered.

Suddenly, the familiar chill went up Danny's back, and his ghost sense went off. Danny lifted his head, searching for the threat. When his eyes settled on the "threat", he just sighed and slouched. The Box Ghost had decided to come out of the Ghost Zone for the hundredth time that week, still trying to ineffectively terrorize the town since he had escaped the Ghost Zone at the beginning. Danny looked around at everyone, seeing what they were doing. No one was running away, not that the normally did when it was just the Box Ghost. Instead of the usual bored looks people would have, they were looking expectantly, and all at him. Danny sighed, forgetting that this would be expected from him. Everyone wanted to see him transform. He was glad it was just the Box Ghost. He wouldn't have to fulfill their silent requests. Instead, he looked at Tucker hoping desperately that he had the slightest idea of what he needed. Fortunately, Tucker seemed to understand exactly what Danny wanted at took off his backpack. As Tucker searched, Danny heard the Box Ghosts' threats involving cardboard and bubble wrap. Danny sighed and rolled his eyes at the lame threats. Tucker suddenly pulled out what he wanted, which was a Fenton Thermos. He threw it at Danny, who easily caught it. He opened the lid and pointed it at the ghost, who was demanding cardboard.

"I demand your finest cardboard- No, no, you can't trap me!" was his last cry before he was sucked into the Fenton Thermos, which Danny forcefully closed and muttered "Sucker" under his breath. It was really just suppose to be a comment to him, but apparently some other people heard and were chuckling forcefully. All of Danny's fans, or phans according to all the internet spam he had been receiving in his email about internet websites which he had not approved of, no matter what those stupid web sites said, sighed, expecting him to transform into Danny Phantom. He didn't really care that they were upset. Sooner or later, they would see their hero transform, and most likely, it would be the next day. Danny handed the thermos back to Tucker, who put it in his backpack, and they both sat down.

"That was fairly simple," Tucker commented.
"No kidding," Danny replied half-heartedly.

"Are you alright, Danny," Sam asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he lied, sounding slightly venomous.

"No, you're not," Sam replied.

"If you knew, then why did you bother to ask?" Danny retorted, obviously in a bad mood that hadn't been there a minute ago.

"Because I want to know what is wrong."

"It's the fame, ok? In under a week, the entire world went from completely ignoring or bullying Danny Fenton to thinking I was the coolest thing since Ember McClain, and I, I just don't want the fame."

"Danny," Sam said." You know pretty darn well that we'll be there for you, whether we're fighting ghosts, or fighting off crazed fans, and don't think for a second that we don't understand what you're going through. It may not be as major, but all three of us have to get use to being 'the best friends of Danny Phantom.'"

By the time Sam had finished her little monologue, she was gently holding Danny's hand. He hadn't really noticed it, and he looked down, not pulling away, but smiling slightly.

"Yeah man, she has a point," Tucker pitched in. "With me resigning from being the mayor, I'm going to need some street credit."

"You never had any 'street credit'," Valerie commented.

"Wait a minute, your resigning?" Danny asked.

"Dude, I'm fourteen. You honestly believe I want a life in politics? No way! I want a life as a teenager. I know I'm going to grow up, but, I'll grow up at my own time. And besides, I'm also worried that I might turn into Vlad and become corrupt with power or something."

They all laughed but Valerie, who looked down at her lunch, not looking like she really had an appetite any more. An awkward silence settled over the four of them.

"Sorry about the joke." Tucker started apologizing, "sort of forgot about well, you know, Vlad and stuff."

"It's alright, just sort of slipped out," Valerie said.

Tucker went on stuffing his face with his lunch as if nothing had happened. Danny still felt sort of bad about the joke, so he started looking around the cafeteria to clear his mind. It didn't help though, as people nearby and afar were watching his table with an unusual interest. Some of them looked like they had tape recorders, like they were trying to find out what the table was saying. Danny gave them his "angry eyes", which was pretty much just his eye's turning neon green. Although it wasn't much compared to his regular showcase of powers, it had the desired effect, and most of the people turned back to their tables, trying to start some conversations. Danny turned his attention somewhat back to his lunch table. The day had only been about half over, and he knew for a fact that this was most likely the worst day of life, including the time he had to eat Dash's disgusting underwear after he lost a bet during Halloween involving the haunted house the school decorated for no good reason.

Danny was pretty much used to his ghost half being disrupted about half of the time, but his human half had been left alone, other than the occasional bullying session from Dash and sometimes Kwan. Now that the sanctuary his human half was obliterated, he would have to find a new one, if he could.

"Danny, Danny?" Sam nearly yelled, poking Danny with her finger quite hard.

"Huh, what," Danny said, starting to notice Sam jabbing his arm, and pulled his arm away.

"Dude, you've been pretty spacey today," Tucker commented.

"Sorry guys, just the attention, and I was up pretty late last night."

He rubbed his face to add some effect. Everyone seemed to buy it. He assumed that they thought he had been up late fighting off some ghosts. Ha, he wished.

"So, what did I miss while busy daydreaming?"

Everyone shook their head at his very lame attempt at humor.

"Well," Tucker began, "Sam got on my case for all the meat that I'm eating, and then she noticed that you didn't really have a lunch, so she started poking you. By the way, you might have a bruise for a while."

Danny looked at his arm, and, sure enough there was a purple and blue splotch forming on his right forearm. He rubbed his arm where the bruise was forming and glared at Sam. It wasn't really a glare that would upset her, not that any glare really could, but it was obvious enough that he wasn't very happy with a bruise on his arm. She shrugged in response.

"It's your fault for spacing out for about the bazillionth time today."

The rest of lunch went by quicker than anyone would've expected. Tucker and Danny talked about the new "Doomed" game that had just come out. Sam and Valerie pitched in a couple of times. Apparently they knew more than the guys did. Tucker and Danny already had enough experience with Sam destroying them in "Doomed" to know that she had plenty of experience, but Valerie being a gamer probably as decent as Sam was unexpected news to the both of them. The conversation died after a few well played comments from Valerie about how she had actually kicked Danny and Tucker's butt a couple of times without them knowing. Danny noticed very quickly at the way Tucker was somewhat staring at Valerie, and he recognized it. They had both had the similar stare a couple of times before, not that he would admit it to anyone who asked him about it. Danny was chuckling a little bit at the new information. Tucker didn't notice, but Sam did, and when she asked what was going on, Danny pointed to Tucker and Valerie as nonchalantly as he possibly could, and Sam started chuckling a little bit, much quieter than Danny was. Valerie and Tucker started talking between themselves about "Doomed" and, oddly enough, about ghosts, not really noticing the forcefully quieted chuckles coming from Danny and Sam's direction.

When the bell rang, Valerie headed quickly to her class, which she explained, was at the other end of the building. Tucker, Danny, and Sam headed to gym. Danny was especially reluctant to go. He was extremely worried about three things.

1) Ms. Tetslaf would possibly make Danny take gym as Danny Phantom, which would just draw attention from fans and ghosts.

2) Tetslaf would force restrictions on Danny, which wasn't as easy as it use to be. His ghost half's strength and speed were very slowly starting to seep into his human half, which was something he had no control over.

3) Dash would confront him in either the locker room or in the gym itself. He hadn't been confronted by Dash all day, so this was probably the perfect moment in the jock's mind.

Two out of three of those things would happen Danny was sure of it. And, just has Danny expected, when he opened the door to the boy's locker room, five jocks stood at the first hallway into the locker room, letting in everyone else. The two jocks at the end, who's Danny didn't know the names of, or ever would, looked extremely worriedly at him. The two jocks closer to the one in middle, one of them being Kwan, looked at him as if he was just another bully victim. It wasn't exactly what he was expecting, and he wasn't really looking forward to what they were going to do. In the middle, Dash looked at him in a way Danny had never seen him. He looked completely confused, as if he was trying to figure out how in the world Danny Fenton could be Danny Phantom. His face quickly composed itself into the jock he was. It wasn't as aggressive as some of the other jocks, but it wasn't very friendly.

"Well, it's about time you showed up," Dash said.

Danny noticed Tucker come in and quickly gulp. Danny was not looking forward to what was coming, even if it wasn't negative. All five jocks took one step forward to Danny, and he started shaking.

"We're going to have a little chat," Dash said.

Danny was most definitely not looking forward to their little "chat". Not one minute of it.

There's chapter 3. Did I do better than my regular writing, was it the same as before? Let me know! Flamers, go write something I want to read. Really hope you enjoyed reading. I still want to get better, so tell me how! Keep writing on.