Author's Note: Wooo! Hey guys. So, I'm writing another one. Yep. I wonder how badly this could go...

Anyway, I've had this idea for a really, really long time, but never had time to actually work on it and write it down. (Ugh. School). So, I thought I'd just write it and finish it (hopefully) over the summer like I did with Trapped In School. This story is kind of weird, and I hope you like it regardless. Enjoy!

This is told from a third party's point of view - meaning, mine. No first person in this one! It's actually kind of a refreshing change since Trapped In School and Shipwrecked were written mostly in Sam's POV.

Full summary: After PP. Sam Manson's life is perfect - she and Danny are finally together, there's no more secrecy, and Danny Phantom is now a worldwide hero. But some part of her can't help wishing for life to slow down just a little. Paulina Sanchez's life is far from perfect. Every since stupid Danny Fenton revealed himself to being the town and now world hero Danny Phantom, her dreams of ever being with him were crushed, and her popularity had been overshadowed by his ever since. Sam and Paulina don't have much in common, that's for sure - except for that one wish they make at that one night, wishing they had each other's exceptional lives. And so they have wished it... So it shall be.

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman does (the lucky bastard) BUT I do own the idea of this plot. So, here we go!

Chapter 1

Samantha Manson woke up to sunshine hitting her eyes.

The first thought that crossed her mind was, How the hell did the sun get into my room?

She blinked, her eyes adjusting to the sudden light. Sam never woke up to the sun. Ever. The only time the sun was allowed in her room in the morning was when her obnoxious parents barged in and opened the curtains.

Her eyes focused on the figure lying next to her, and she remembered. She'd been too busy last night to remember to close the curtains.

Danny Fenton's onyx black hair was messy and flying in many places, hanging over his forehead. His expression wasn't twisted into a grimace of pain like it'd been last night, but a peaceful look was on his face as he slept.

Sam still forgets sometimes that Danny was all hers. Every since his secret got out and the entire town knew who Danny Phantom was and after he saved the entire world, the fact that she and Danny were now a couple was the thing that still surprised her most every time. Sure, the fangirls and the paparazzi were a mildly more shocking discovery every day – and an annoying one – but as she gazed at her boyfriend of 6 months now, all she could think of was his serene presence next to her on the bed.

She almost flew in the air in shock when, eyes still closed, Danny said, "Stop staring, Manson, it's creepy."

She relaxed into the mattress after her initial shock and chuckled. "Way to ruin the romance, Fenton."

He responded by wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her even closer to him, tilting his face down so that he could capture his lips in hers. Sam twisted away so that he ended up kissing her neck, turning her back to him. "No way, Danny, not with your morning breath."

"What morning breath?" Danny struggled to get her to face him again, and in the process he started tickling her. Sam laughed and fidgeted under his grip.

"Stop!" She laughed, bending her body forward to try and curl into a ball and get his hands off of her. "Danny, stop tickling me!"

"Not until I get my kiss," he said, kissing her hair, her neck, her cheeks, trying to get to her mouth. "Quit moving, Sam!"

Even though Danny's full concentration was only trying to get himself a good morning kiss and loosened his grip on her a bit and stopped tickling her, Sam was still laughing, enjoying how his lips felt on her skin.

"Sammy-kins?" she heard someone knock on her door, and the doorknob twisted. "Are you up?"

"Shit," Sam instinctively shot up, kicking Danny in the process, which sent his groaning ass from the bed and onto the floor in one swift movement. Danny landed onto her carpeted floor with a thud just as her mother entered her room.

Instead of the usual grin she always wore, her eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. "What was that ruckus?"

Sam cleared her throat so that her voice wouldn't come out sounding too high. "What ruckus?"

Sam's mom looked around the room cautiously. "I thought I heard a ruckus."

Sam paused, and then, inwardly smirking, said, "Can you describe the ruckus?"

Her mother didn't understand the reference, and instead shook her head, sitting down on the bed next to her. "Anyway. Good morning, sweetie."

"Um. Yeah. Good morning," Sam's attention was diverted from the woman on her bed to the invisible idiot trying to move across her room to get his things without making any sounds.

"Aren't you going to get ready for school?" her mom seemed nervous – fidgety, even, and Pamela Manson may have been a lot of things – elegant, pristine, annoyingly cheerful 24/7, obnoxious; but she was not fidgety.

"I was going to in a minute," Sam tried not to make it obvious as she watched Danny lift his discarded shirt from on the ground and turn it invisible with him. Even after all of this time, he still kept his clumsy nature, so he'd bumped into her dresser, the door to her closet, was going to knock over a bottle of her perfume yet saved it from that fate, and her floorboards creaked under his feet in the process.

"So, Sammykins," her mom cleared her throat, drawing Sam's attention back to her. "There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about."

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Sam said absent-mindedly.

"So, as we all know, you and Daniel have been getting very serious lately," Mrs. Manson was looking everywhere but at Sam, her hands on her lap, playing with a diamond bracelet around her wrist. "And, well, I was wondering if you had any questions or… concerns about you and Daniel." Mrs. Manson must've noticed the absent-minded look on Sam's face, though misinterpreted it to mean another thing completely. "I know it's awkward to talk about, but even though you might think you have some feelings for him, some feelings that you don't understand, you must never let a boy pressure you into doing some… things that you don't want to do."

Sam's head snapped to her mother immediately, her attention finally on her. "What?"

Sam could see that Danny had frozen too, as she saw the indent his feet made on her plush purple carpet. "Look, I just want to make sure that you understand that the decisions you make in that area with Daniel; these decisions could affect your life forever. Do… Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

Sam could only think: oh my God. My mom is trying to have the sex talk with me. Concerning Danny. While Danny was in the room.

"Sammy, sex is–"

"Oh, my God, mom," Sam could feel her cheeks heat up all the way down to her neck, and she got up from the bed. "Is there really nothing else you want to talk to me about at 6 am?"

"I just thought–" Sam's mom looked confused, especially more so when Sam grabbed her arm and helped her up and off the bed gently.

"You know what," Sam turned frantic, trying to get her mom out of her room as fast as possible. "We can talk about this later today. Or tomorrow. Or never. You know, whichever suits your schedule."

"But I–"

"Okay, thanks mom, love you, bye!" Sam slammed her bedroom door in her mother's flustered face. Sam took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her embarrassed heart down and to clear the splotches of red on her cheeks.

She turned to her room to find Danny visible again. "So, uh," Danny gestured to his shoes, which he had grabbed while she wasn't paying attention. "I guess I'll see you at school in a few."

Sam nodded. "Yeah. Sure."

They said nothing else, standing in their awkward silence, unable to swim around it or through it.

The thing is, even though Sam and Danny had been together for a really long time, they hadn't exactly gotten to the point in their relationship where they… let's say took it to the next level. They never actually talked about it, but there was always tension around the particular topic whenever one of their makeout sessions was taken a bit farther than usual. For some reason, they'd always pull back, afraid to cross into that new territory none of them knew about.

Well, Sam always drew back. Danny was a guy – he couldn't draw back even if he'd wanted to.

"So," Danny rubbed the back of his neck, as he always did whenever he was nervous. "Thanks for, um, for patching me up last night."

Sam recalled him knocking on her window late at night with bruises and cuts all over his chest and nearly winced. "Of course. Thanks for staying."

Danny nodded. After a few more moments of awkwardness, Danny gestured with his hand to her window. "I should go."

"Yeah. See you at school." Sam said, forcing a smile. Danny walked over to her and finally got his morning kiss, went ghost, then was out of her room in mere second. Sam groaned and banged her head against her door.

So much for romance.

Tucker was rambling about some mayor thing that went wrong that morning at school when he cut himself off and said, "Okay, what the hell is with you two?"

The trio was sitting in the cafeteria during lunch. Even though Tucker Foley was now the mayor of Amity Park, he still wanted to complete his high school education first. (I know. Everyone was shocked too).

"Nothing," Sam instantly said, getting up to throw out her tray as the boys followed. They started heading to their lockers as the bell rang, signaling the end of their lunch period. "So, are we still on for tonight?"

"Oh, crap," Danny grimaced. "I'm really sorry, Sam, but my parents want me to come to this press conference thing with them."

"Oh, right, I forgot about that," Sam vaguely remembered something about a press conference and raging adoring female fans. Okay, so maybe all she remembered was the crazy female fans.

"I'll make it up to you," he told her, and right then, his ghost sense went off. "Starting tomorrow." He kissed her on the cheek and went ghost in the middle of the hallway. "Later, guys."

As he took off through the ceilings, few students looked his way. It'd taken a few weeks for all of the student body of Casper High to finally accept the fact that loser Danny Fenton was hero Danny Phantom, and a few more weeks for them to get accustomed to the fact that he will have to fight ghosts on school hours as well as other hours of the day. All of the teachers gave him excuses about missing classes and neglecting a few assignments, which was a bonus Danny thoroughly enjoyed. However that did not mean that Sam wasn't kicking his butt when it came to doing his homework and studying for his exams.

Once they reached her locker, she turned to Tucker and said, "What about you, Tuck?"

"Oh, I can't either, Sam," Tucker gave her a sympathetic look. "I have a lot of things I need to do in City Hall. Being a mayor may have a lot of perks, but it's still a tough job that needs to be done."

Sam nodded, trying to hide her disappointment. "No, it's okay, I get it." The warning bell rang, and while Sam had AP Biology, Tucker had to go to English. "See you later, Tuck."

They both headed their separate ways to their separate classes, and the halls weren't crowded enough for Sam to stop thinking. Even though life had drastically changed since the Disasteroid, most of it to the better, Sam still felt nostalgic to the old days when it was only her, Danny's, Tucker's and Jazz's little secret. And yes, even though she and Danny weren't a couple back then, they still spent more time together than they did now. She knew Danny had promised her that however hectic his life turned out to be he'd still include her at every step of the way, and he still kept faithful to that promise, but at some days, she couldn't help but be doubtful. Disregarding all the paparazzi, press conferences, TV appearances, all of his adoring fans, the only thing that bothered Sam the most was time. Time was slipping through their fingers; the time they spend together, the time they don't, the time they were wasting…

Even though she convinces everyone otherwise, sometimes all Sam wants is to live a quiet, normal life. Obviously, she gave Danny grief when he'd decided he wanted the same thing a million years ago before the Disasteroid was about to hit Earth – how she didn't want to live life on the sidelines. But after a long time of being in the spotlight – or being buried behind the world hero Danny Phantom and the town mayor Tucker Foley and she, a mere shadow in the background – she was growing very tired of the craziness of everything.

She just wished everything would quiet down from this crescendo and settle into a barely audible hum like–

Sam was too lost in thought that she didn't see her until they crashed into each other. None of them were knocked to the ground, but Paulina Sanchez was furious enough from the impact to say, "Watch where you're going, Goth freak! Jesus."

Paulina shoved her shoulder as she strode away, off to her boring class with her boring friends to her now-boring life after her life had been overshadowed by Danny's and her popularity dimmed to just being 'that hot Latina girl'.

Sam shook her head and continued towards her class.

A boring life like Paulina's, she decided.

A/N: Eh, kind of boring first chapter, but all great things come to those who wait, right? Right? (Silence). Okay. No readers to this story yet to laugh at my poor lame jokes. Sorry.

So... Review and tell me what you think! Keep in mind that the actual story hasn't started yet, so stay tuned ;). Review! xx