#Danny is eighteen and in his senior year

[littlemissadams]

Babs sees it first and is torn between horror and hilarity. She keeps it from Bruce as long as she can, but definitely sends it to the other batkids.

Damian is absolutely scandalized, that's his father you're talking about you backwater miscreant!

Everyone else considers it comedy gold. And when daddybat does find out, they all make sure to mock him endlessly.

Dash: Phantom, give the people what they want! Phantom: Er, what exactly do you guys want? Dash: Take off your shirt! Paulina: Yes, take it off!! Kawn: And flex! Flex when you take it off! Whooooo! Phantom: I can't take this off; it's my skin. A-listers: What Phantom: Yeah, when you die, the clothes you're wearing become a part of you. That's why ghosts are always wearing the same thing. Dash: B-but Batman's outfit change! The Fentons say he's a ghost! Phantom: Yeah, but Batman is older than San Marino. He's powerful enough he can change his shape. I'm only a couple hundred years old. I barely passed my Guarding Spirit test three years ago. It's why your freshmen year was so hectic. I had no idea what I was doing. Dash: Are you saying that you and every guarding ghost of Gotham have always been giving the people what we wanted?!? Phantom: Wait- Dash standing on a table: MY PEOPLE, WE HAVE SEEN BATMAN NAKED! Amity Park youth: *Cheering* Phantom: oh, Ancients. Batman is going to kill me.

[underforeversgrace]

Welcome to Intro to Ghosts - 3

Title: Welcome to Intro to Ghosts

Words: 3254

Chapter 3 of ?

Story summary: Sure, turning sixteen was supposed to be a big year regardless, but this was a little beyond what Danny had expected when he'd both been told he was now king and then asked to be a teacher for the Intro to Ghosts class while also being a junior in high school. Now he has to juggle a secret identity, being a superhero, doing centuries worth of old paperwork Pariah didn't do, his own schoolwork, AND his students/classmates schoolwork! This'll be fun. Or catastrophic. Hopefully fun.

@redactedgoose

AO3

Tumblr Chapter One

Tucker and Sam walked in together, Sam glaring at Tucker before both shot him sly grins and settled at the desks closest to his. Danny bit back a grin. It was kind of fun - the three of them knowing a secret no one else knew. Sure, technically they had the whole Phantom thing between them, but this was a lighthearted, funny secret that wasn’t meant to stay secret long.

Valerie walked in and immediately settled into the desk closest to the door, a confused glance at Danny since that was his go to seat in most classes.

Dash, Paulina, and Starr walked in together, chatting loudly, as the tardy bell rang, settling into some of the remaining seats in the center. Danny mentally counted off the eighteen expected people were there, grateful none had been late. He really wanted everyone here so he could screw with them.

Once the bell rang and still no teacher appeared, the class began to mutter, glancing out the open door in confusion, one of the maybe a junior, maybe a senior grumbling that of course Casper couldn’t get a new teacher and would forget to cancel.

Danny allowed the muttering for a minute or so before he sighed way too loudly, exaggeratingly getting up from his seat and going to close the door.

“The hell you doing, Fenturd?” Dash asked, more confused than insulting, though.

The halfa said nothing, closing the door and shoving his hands in his pockets as he leisurely walked to the whiteboard, leaning against the concrete wall on the edge. He scanned his eyes over the room, forcing down the smile and/or laugh trying to break through his bored demeanor. He could hear Sam and Tucker’s hearts racing with the effort of restrained laughter (ghost hearing, amirite?) and studiously avoided looking at that side of the room.

“Seriously, Fenton, what the fuck?” Paulina asked.

At that, Danny grinned. “Language, Miss Sanchez,” he reprimanded. Annoyance and irritation flitted across her face.

Paulina was opening her mouth to talk again when Valerie interrupted. “Oh there is no way in hell. You?”

“Sam, I owe you five bucks.” Danny said, still not looking at his friends. Of course, they had made no bet of who would figure it out since this entire thing was impulsive, but he loved his friends as they played along.

“Told you!” Sam called.

“Man, I really thought Dash would get it first,” Tucker lamented.

Danny finally let himself look at his friends. They both were biting their lips, slightly vibrating with restrained laughter, cheeks red. At the eye contact, all of them promptly lost it.

Sam laughed so hard she snorted while tears fell from her eyes, Tucker was wheezing as his laughter became more important than air, Danny once again bending over with hands on knees, laughing while his body shook.

“There is no fucking way.” He heard Valerie insist. He wanted to get onto her for her language as well but just the thought doubled in on his laughter, his ribs aching.

“What?” Several of the students asked, either bewildered or irritated. The irritated ones knew Danny. The bewildered ones didn’t.

“You are not our teacher!” Valerie said adamantly.

Various sounds of confusion, humor, and annoyance swept through the room.

Danny struggled to catch his breath in an effort to stop laughing. It took several strangled breaths, but he managed, straightening up. “I mean, honestly, who else would teach this class?”

Valerie opened her mouth to answer but faltered. She was clearly going through every ghost hunter she knew of and eliminating them as options. Danny nodded. “And that’s why Ishiyama and Lancer asked me.” He grinned. “I have all the knowledge of most ghost hunters and I’m not as biased as all of the other options.”

Danny saw Sam dip her head as though hiding giggles, but he could hear the tap of her fingers against her phone. Damn, she did hide her phone from the teachers well. If he didn’t have elevated senses, even he wouldn’t have noticed, and he could read her like a book.

He took a moment to bask in the glory of the A-Listers’ worried faces as they realized he held power now. Not only that, but honestly, how stupid would it be to routinely fight a teacher?

Unfortunately, he did have a job to do beyond being a little shit. Danny straightened up, calling on some of Phantom’s confidence as he did so. He plucked the binder from the seat he’d abandoned.

“Okay, okay, time to get serious.” He began, leaning against the wall again. “Welcome to Intro to Ghosts. This elective will be about, obviously, ghosts. We will cover culture, history, the general science of ectoplasm, and psychology of a ghost.”

Valerie snorted. “Ghosts don’t have any of those things.”

“What did you expect to be taught in this class, then, Val?” Sam shot back.

“Ghost hunting! Duh!”

“There will be no discussion of ghost hunting in this class. I will not tolerate talks of violence against anyone, human or ghost, just like the other teachers wouldn’t. If you joined this class to learn to hurt something or someone, I’m sure you can get with Mr. Lancer about transferring to a separate elective.” Danny said, far more sternly than he’d meant. He sounded more like confident Phantom than timid Fenton. Students who knew him (sans Sam and Tuck) looked at him, wide-eyed with dropped jaws. Danny kept his gaze evenly fixed on Valerie, watching her reactions. It really was so much easier to read her emotions when she didn’t have her suit’s hood on.

“Thought you were a Fenton.” She glared.

“Also not a bigot. Just because they’re on the opposite side, the ‘wrong’ side, of the line between the living and dead doesn’t mean they aren’t worth anything.”

Discomfort flashed momentarily across her face, but she just crossed her arms and leaned into her chair.

Taking her silence as defeat, Danny continued. “The binders in front of you are what we have for class textbooks. I tried to put everything in there, but some things may be missing. If you notice a topic I’m going over isn’t there, let me know and I’ll get something made.”

“Whoa, wait,” Dash said. “You put this together? Since when do you write textbooks?”

Danny was, to be perfectly honest, surprised Dash was the one to connect those dots. “Yes. I put them together. Between my parents’ studies and the portal literally beneath my bed, the info wasn’t exactly difficult to find.”

A scoff of disbelief from a male senior Danny didn’t know. “You want us to believe you went into the Ghost Zone?”

“Infinite Realms,” Danny corrected. “And yes. I did.”

“How?” Mikey asked.

“So the rumors are, like, true?” Star interjected. “You and your sister help Phantom behind your parents’ backs?”

“We sometimes do as well,” Tucker piped up, sending flirtatious grins to the handful of girls who looked at him in amazement.

“Yes.” Danny answered.

“Oh, mi amor! He kept you safe, didn’t he? My wonderful ghost boy?” Paulina said, a dreamy look in her eyes.

Her obsession with Phantom was slightly disturbing, even to him since his crush on her had faded. Oh, ew. Technically she also had a crush on her teacher. Somehow, that felt even more uncomfortable than a living girl chasing a dead boy.

“Yes, Phantom got me through the Realms and I was able to interview some of his allies.” Not technically a lie. He was Phantom when he flew.

Paulina opened her mouth to say something so Danny interrupted. “Now, some of you I do not know. I won’t make us do any of those lame games we’ve all been doing all day. So I’ll introduce myself, to those of you who somehow managed to survive fifteen minutes in Amity Park without meeting my parents, and then go around the room. ‘Kay?”

Nods and a couple of ‘sure’s and ‘okay’s went around the room.

“Alright, then. Hi, I’m Danny Fenton. I am a junior here. My parents are expert ghost hunters, though they tend to lack in some of the research aspects. I expect all of you to keep an open mind with what you learn here, be willing to accept changes in perspectives. Also, call me Danny. Being a teacher is weird enough already,” that got a couple of laughs, “so I’d rather not go by Mr. Fenton. Especially since that’s normally my dad and most people know to run far away when he appears.” More chuckles. “But do only call me Danny. Not Daniel, not Dan. And certainly no…creative nicknames. Then I will insist you to call me Mr. Fenton.”

“Cuz he’s petty,” mumbled Sam softly, where only Tucker immediately beside her and Danny could hear.

“Speaking of creative nicknames,” Danny glared at Dash. “You can call me Mr. Fenton. The rule applies retroactively.”

Flat out laughter filled the class as Dash blushed in embarrassment.

Okay, maybe that was a little mean.

His introduction done, he selected the person in the first row of the first column, telling them to give him their preferred name and pronouns, then continue down the line.

Sam smiled at him proudly. The pronoun thing had been her idea. Acceptance begins in the classroom or whatever.

As the first person introduced himself, Danny realized his anxiety had faded. He had stood in front of a room full of people, some who had bullied him before, others older who were strangers. His voice had never shook, his knees had never felt weak, he had never doubted himself.

Confidence while in his human skin felt odd, like many things today. But it didn’t feel bad.

Danny paid attention, listened and greeted all the students as they introduced themselves, even the ones he knew, his bullies.

There were three juniors he didn’t know besides the one who was absent - Karl, Leon, and Rosemary, but she asked him to just call her Rose.

The eight present seniors greeted him as well - Jill, Ethan, Chris, Claire, Ashley, Luis, Mia, Zoe, Miranda.

The introductions took up most of the remaining time, the final bell only minutes away when they finished.

“One more thing,” Danny said, the students had already began chattering to each other. He went to his desk, withdrawing permission slips from one of the drawers. He walked as he talked, placing slips on desks. “These are permission slips I need you to get with your parents about. The school board has allowed guest speakers and you may come in contact with ectoplasm, though both will have protective measures.”

“Both?” Someone - Leon - asked. “Why would protective measures be needed with guest speakers?”

“Do you know how to read?” Another new person - Claire - teased. Her voice was playful and Leon merely rolled his eyes, so Danny assumed this was friendly banter and did not interfere.

While Claire spoke, telling Leon to read the slip in front of his face, Danny got to Valerie’s seat. “Meet me after class,” he said to her, low enough no one else heard over the chatter. He did not place one of the pieces of paper in front of her.

Somehow, Claire and Leon had not actually managed to answer the question in their bickering, so Danny did.

“For the ectoplasm, it is as safe to handle as many chemicals you’ve run across in your science classes by now, so general lab safety will be needed. As far as the guests, they will likely not be human.” Valerie made a noise somewhere between outrage and shock behind him. “To be safe, the ghosts will be within a shield they can’t pass through. Phantom or other ghost hunters may be present as well - Phantom said he may be able to get me in contact with the Red Huntress as well -, though only ghosts thoroughly vetted by Phantom and that I have met will come, so it is more for peace of mind than actual need. Similarly, however, the ghosts will be in a protective shield that humans and ectoblasts cannot get through.”

“Oh, that’s just ridiculous! Why would they need that?” Valerie huffed.

It was Sam who answered, glaring daggers at Valerie.

“You mean other than the numerous hunters here who shout their intentions to capture and dissect them on a daily basis?”

Danny elaborated. “To be honest, their afterlives are at severe risk, coming here. But these ghosts are not ones with bad intentions, they just want peace. The portal bridged the metaphysical gap between us and them. But peace isn’t as easy as punching holes in dimensions.”

Doubtful irritation burned on Valerie’s face, but she again fell silent. “Anyway, try to get these slips signed this week, I already have something I want to do. Anyone who is uncomfortable with these things, or who’s parents don’t sign the slip for, will be given alternate assignments.”

Many of the students exchanged unsure glances. They had been expecting a joke of a class, someone like Jack blabbing nonsense and throwing easy assignments that would be forgotten half the time.

Finally done handing out permission slips, Danny crossed his arms over his chest, making eye contact with all of the students one at a time, his face set seriously. “Don’t get me wrong, I intend for this class to be interesting and as fun as school can possibly be. But I also want people to learn and to do my part in bringing a peace my parents don’t believe is possible. So I will be taking this class seriously. If you do the same, this will be an easy A. But only if you do the same.” He uncrossed his arms, letting his face and body relax. “And now you all can screw around until the end of the class.”

Danny grabbed up the other binder from the empty desk, dropping both of them on his desk. The class fell into chatter. He was about to head over to Sam and Tucker when Valerie cornered him. He slunk into his chair and she loomed over him.

“You wanted to talk to me, Mr. Fenton?” Valerie said.

“After the bell, yes.”

“Ugh, why not now?”

Danny gave a shit eating grin. “Because I’m a teacher and I said so.”

“I hate you. You know that, right?”

“You love me, shut up.”

Valerie rolled her eyes as the final bell rang.

The students filed out, Sam stopping by his desk and eyeing Val warily. “You sure, Danny?”

“Positive. Meet me at my locker?”

“Be there in ten minutes or I will bodily drag you out of that seat.” Sam threatened lovingly as she left, meeting up with Tucker at the door.

“I feel like there’s something against threatening teachers in the school rules.” Valerie mused.

“Pretty sure there’s also something about students not also being teachers.” Danny answered.

“Probably both of those are in the same book that say ghosts aren’t real,” Val joked. He laughed, still chuckling when she turned serious. “Anyway. Why did you want to talk to me? And not give me a permission slip?”

“You’re familiar with the Red Huntress, right?”

“Uh, duh. Who in Amity Park isn’t familiar with the only competent human ghost hunter in the city?”

“I’m obligated to at least pretend to be offended on my parents’ behalf.” He said, overexaggeratingly glaring at her before falling back into a grin. “Did you know, though, that her helmet does absolutely nothing to disguise her voice?”

Valerie was nearly as good at lying as he was when she answered. “Huh, didn’t know that.”

“Well, I bring that up in the hopes that she remembers to stay quiet whenever she’s supervising the class. The Huntress will be the preferred watcher when we have ghostly speakers. Valerie Gray, who’s father is quite uncomfortable with ghosts after everything that happened at Axiom, will refuse to sign the slip she definitely got today, so she will be doing alternate assignments.”

Valerie’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know what I have to do with the Huntress.”

“Other than being her, with ghost infused tech bonded to you at a cellular level?”

Instincts developed after years of avoiding her at this point kicked in as she threw a punch at his face, him sliding out of the chair.

“Did that stupid ghost tell you? Are you going to out me?”

Danny, from his place on the floor, held up his hands placatingly. “First of all - no, I’m not going to out you. You weren’t wrong about being the best human hunter. Second of all - no, Sam pegged you in five seconds that time you caught us, uh… embracing in the park.”

“You have got to be fucking with me right now, Danny.” Realization dawned on her face. “That’s how Phantom knew to pull my mask off in front of my father during the whole thing with the Ghost King. You told him?” Danny didn’t miss the hurt in her voice.

Danny sighed, unwilling to lie more than he had to. “I was already helping Phantom when I learned your secret and it was before we became friends. So, yes, that’s how he knows, too.”

Valerie said nothing, looking slightly like the rug had been tugged from under her feet. Danny imagined he’d look the same way, learning someone had both known and kept his secret for years.

Come to think of it, that was probably the exact face he and/or Dan had made that one time he did find out Jazz knew.

“So, you wanna do it? Or should I call up Phantom?” Danny asked, gently standing up out of her reach and grabbing the permission slip sat on his desk.

Valerie growled, grabbing the slip from him and shredding it into pieces with her hands. “Huntress will be there.”

“I know I can’t tell you no weapons, but - no shooting any ghost that is not openly hostile. This includes Phantom, he may be here sometimes too.” Danny reminded. Some of the guests he wanted to bring - like Frostbite - tended to forget Danny kept his two lives secret from each other and may need the visual reminder of there being two of him in order to remember. “And by openly hostile we are going to use my definition, not your definition of them existing being proof of hostility. Capiche?”

“I can’t believe you are both a teacher and taking it seriously, Danny.” Valerie said, rolling her eyes. “But fine.”

Danny smiled, relieved, as Valerie finally took a step back, no longer cornering him into his own seat. “Oh, but just to be safe, get with Tucker about your suit. He can install a voice modulator and a way to darken the face screen in your visor, to double cover that no one else figures it out.”

“Tucker’s good with tech, but that good? Seriously?”

“Seriously. He should be in jail for several centuries with all the governmental hacking alone that he’s done.” Danny said, shrugging.

“All the what hacking?!”

Danny laughed then tapped on a pretend watch on his bare wrist. “Gotta get to Sam before she comes and bodily drags me out of here. Any other questions?”

“If anyone gets hurt because of your ghosts, I’m shooting you.”

“Not like that’s new…” Danny muttered.

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing! Nothing. Just, uh, sounds fair!”

Valerie rolled her eyes but didn’t press further. “See you tomorrow, then, teach.” She said, leaving the room. Danny took a deep breath and sat back down in his chair.

[brooklynnyork]

STATS.

Character Name: Scotty Nathaniel Sanchez

Age: forty - eight years young

Birthday: July 31st, 1974

Gender & Pronouns: Male & He/Him

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Hometown: Brooklyn, New York

Length of Time in Castleport: eleven years

Occupation: Police Sargent (Homicide Unit)

Faceclaim: Danny Pino

tw: alcoholism, drug addiction, teen pregnancy, spousal death, car crash, child death ----

Scotty Nathaniel Sanchez was born on July 31st back in 1974, to two young teens. Peter and Gina Sanchez had met and fallen in love during their freshman year of high school. However, they had fallen within the wrong crowd and became addicted to both drugs and alcohol. During their Junior year of high school, both at their lowest point, Gina had surprised Peter by telling him she was pregnant with their first and only child. 

It was Gina’s choice to go along with the pregnancy, she didn’t want to become a mother but the young woman decided that maybe it was time to get a fresh start. In the beginning of her pregnancy, Gina and Peter were doing really well. The two stopped hanging out with the wrong people, and started to get their lives together. Being only eighteen, it was tough to take on the kind of responsibility they were going too take on,  but the two were doing it. Peter found a job as a mechanic, working on cars while getting his grades back up, while Gina found a job as full time nanny to a wonderful family.

The two had been doing really good, they were getting their life back on track to provide a happy, healthy and loving home for their first child. Sure Gina and Peter were terrified to become parents, but they were going to pull through. On that hot summer’s evening, that’s when the young couple had welcomed their first and only child. Together Peter and Gina had brought Scotty Nathaniel Sanchez into this World.  He was their perfect little thing, and the moment Scotty was placed in Gina’s arms, that was her snap back into reality. That was the moment Peter and Gina realized that loving alcohol and drugs wasn’t worth it. So they both gave it up for good. 

It was for the better that Peter and Gina gave up their old ways, in all honesty it had helped Scotty in the long run. He ended up having a good childhood, they worked hard and cherished him. They took care of him and provided him a happy and loving home. Growing up, Scotty got good grades in school and from an early age he knew what he wanted to do in life. He enjoyed sports, and was on the basketball and baseball team.  The young kid was an active student and was always on honor roll. He enjoyed being on the Yearbook Committee during his freshman year of high school, and even ran for class president. To say he was pretty much the golden boy of his grade was an understatment. Sure popularity was nice but it didn’t mean anything to him, his grades did however so he worked hard. He worked hard and had gotten accepted into Columbia University in New York City during his junior year. Senior year is where he had excelled the most. After graduating, it was that summer where he moved into his own apartment in New York to study at Columbia that changed his life for the better. 

It was at Columbia University where his life began. At least, that’s what he thought. His life didn’t begin until he had met Alyssa Conway.  She was tall, light skinned and beautiful, just his type and Scotty fell in love with her. He fell head over heels the moment they met. The two dated for a few years, but then Scotty had finally got up the courage to ask her to marry him after they graduated. She had graduated from Columbia with a degree in English, while he ended up graduating from the Police Academy and becoming a Detective. 

She of course said yes, but you know the saying. First comes love, then comes marriage and—-, Scotty and Alyssa had welcomed Violet Grace Sanchez. The first eleven months of Violet’s life was perfect. A little right after her first birthday however, Alyssa was driving both her and Violet home from their Doctors appointment when a semi truck had hit her car and the two sadly passed on impact. It had destroyed Scotty, absolutely devastated him. Loosing not only the love of his life, but his daughter as well. Both Alyssa and Violet gone.

Scotty became cynical, hot-headed and a bit of a workaholic. Cracking case after case. Working hours on end. It wasn’t until his main boss had told him to maybe get out of the city, go somewhere new. So he found Castleport, North Carolina and had decided to take the old Sargent’s spot. Scotty has been in Castleport for eleven years and has been enjoying the peace and quiet of town. 

[five-rivers]

prompt : Danny’s 18th birthday he suddenly realizes that he’s not aging.

Senior yearbooks were delivered in August, just a month before Danny was due to start college as a freshman. On his birthday, in fact. Other schools got their yearbooks in before graduation, but Casper High was just special like that.

It was weird. What Danny once would have thought with frustration was now accompanied by rueful nostalgia.

He flipped slowly through the pages, giggling a little at the picture of Dash covered in ghost slime, then at the picture of Lancer covered in ghost slime, then at the final picture of the entire class covered in ghost slime.

That had certainly been a day.

A smile still played around his lips as he browsed the freshman pages. He didn't know anyone from that class well, but looking at their faces as they were presented with the robotic frog cadavers was funny.

Sam's legacy at the school, he supposed. Better than his legacy of several Danny-shaped holes in the walls. Good thing they didn't know he was Phantom, or else they might have tried to make him pay for them along with his last library fines.

Then, he got to the senior class pages.

Like anyone, he was most interested in finding his own. Every year, the yearbook did a special picture page for the seniors. It had each student's senior class picture, of course, their freshman picture, and their baby picture.

Danny found his, and suddenly his smile was like a brittle mask over his face.

His freshman picture and his senior picture weren't quite identical. He'd been wearing different clothes, for one, and for another senior Danny was better rested and more muscular, but...

If the pictures had been of someone else, he wouldn't have thought they were taken four years apart. He might have thought the pictures were of brothers. Twins with different lifestyles.

But they weren't of someone else. They were of him. They were his pictures. He should have looked older.

He didn't. Danny looked fourteen in both pictures.

He looked fourteen now.

The snap as he slammed the yearbook closed snapped him out of his panic. He took a deep breath.

Fourteen. Fourteen, the age he was when he'd walked into the portal and...

Died.

The age his life should have ended at.

If he'd stopped aging... There was nothing to say it wouldn't start up again, was there? Ultimately, aging was wear and tear on a body. Maybe he'd just stopped growing. But if he had stopped aging... at fourteen...

Maybe fourteen would be the age his life ended at anyway. Even if he was technically eighteen. He should have looked eighteen, too.

He closed his eyes. This wouldn't go unnoticed for long. Sam and Tucker would have gotten their yearbooks, too, and they'd be coming over today.

They'd know. Sooner or later. He could try to hide it, but...

No. He was eighteen. He was a mature adult. He was past this. Past trying to keep secrets that would inevitably come out from his friend.

He fumbled for his phone.

[dcxdpdabbles]

Danny is an amateur photographer who came to Gotham with Jazz after she got accepted into Gotham University. They claim it's to settle their nerves on her being alone in a dangerous city, they claim it's to help her pay the bills and they even claim Danny getting a Gotham Academy scholarship will look great on college applications but in all honesty it was to get away from Amity Park and his parents.

It's not that Danny hates his parents. He's just tired of being less of a priority than ghost-hunting. He is also tired of defending a city that doesn't value all the risks he takes. Valerie, who still treats him as the lesser of two evils, was more then capable and willing to handle the ghost danger.

The only thing holding him back was Sam and Tucker, but his best friends sat him down and tearfully told him that Danny needed to pick what was best for his mental health. If leaving with Jazz provided that for him, they would support him even if Danny would not be there for their Junior and Senior years.

Jazz has always been his rock. He knows he has no right to still cling to her when she finally been able to leave home. Yet he found himself actually shaking in terror of her leaving.

Thankfully, she felt the same way. Unwilling to leave him in the Fenton household alone she, even considered doing college online to stay around him. That was until The Gotham University acceptance letter arrived along with the full Wayne Scholarship. The only requirement was that she had to be on campus for her classes physically, and thus she took him, having her parents sign over guardianship as soon as she turned eighteen.

Danny loved his new school. Sure the other kids didn't bother to befriended him but they didn't actively bully him like the A-listers. Jazz had even encourage him to take the photogray elective- something to keep him busy but safe- and he found himself being good at something. He enjoyed it.

His grades were all straight As- no more ghosts to disrupt his sleeping and studying schedule- his photos were rising in popularity on his blog, and most of all, Jazz was happy.

He didn't want to ruin this new life with anything silly like crime fighting.

That's why the first picture of Red Robin was a total accident. He had been attempting to take a photo of Wayne Tower- the highest building and the most Aesthetically Gothic- by claiming to the next door building and laying flat on his back.

He wanted to get the Bat symbol in the background for Sam only to be shocked to spot a figure crouching down on the edge of the building.

He zooms in and finds Red Robin crouching down with his staff extended and the wind blowing his cape. His head is turned to the side, overlooking the city, with a serious expression that Danny can't help but want to capture.

He snaps the photo just as Red Robin spots what he's looking for, flipping over the edge and grappling across the city. Danny watches him go with a fluttering heart. He posts the photo and over night he gains ten thousand new followers.

After that, it's like Gotham is pushing him to be in the right spot at the right time. Danny tended to wander around Gotham at night. Mostly, it was to clear his head and always stay invisible so he never ran into trouble. It's safe to say he could defend himself just fine as the Ghost King, too.

Whenever he happened to cross Red Robin, his photos always came out looking gorgeous, as if the man had no bad angles, regardless of when Danny took the picture. It wasn't like he went out looking for the vigilante; in fact, he happened to come across the others just as often but none of them looked as good as Red Robin.

Especially Nightwing, that man's photos always looked like the worst and most hilarious time to pause a video. Danny's favorite was the one he took just as the blue wearing vigilante did a mid twist- coming out as like a flying rag doll.

No matter the angel Nightwing just looked terrible in photos.

Danny posted those, too, along with the ones of Robin, Spoiler, Signal, Batman, and Black Bat. Some were great, like the one of Robin drop-kicking a punk who was swining a pipe around, and others were like Nightwing.

He has gotten one of Batman hunched over like a goblin and titled it "I am the BackPain."

But Red Robin? Danny has yet to capture a meme-worthy photo and instead has ended up with files and files of the man looking like a male model.

Danny makes it his life goal to get one terrible picture of Red Robin

(Unknown to Danny, his blog is highly protected by Tucker and Technus so no one can ID him. Not the criminals, not the civilians and not the Bats. Bruce is losing his mind that someone has been following them around taking photos like Tim once did but posting them online.

Tim is just super flattered his fan has never posted a bad photo compared to his despairing siblings.

But the question remains: Who is Phantom and what is his goal with these photos?)

Concept: The Gotham Citizen app has a forum for posting candid photos of vigilantes and there’s an ongoing phenomenon where photos of Tim are impossibly gorgeous no matter the angle and photos of Dick (one of the most beautiful people in the entire world) look like when you take high-speed photos of Olympic athletes mid-sport

[cutelittlestar]

Steal My Girl || Peter Parker x Reader {Smut!}

Summary: While on a trip, Peter plans to confess his feelings to you but everything is ruined by a boy who also has his eyes on you. Once Peter finally unveils the truth, things get steamy... 

Word Count: 5.7k

Warning(s): fem!reader, fluff, slight angst, SMUT, language, MATURE CONTENT, 18+ (you & Peter are 18)

A/N: lordtt.....plz forgive me, for I have sinned. This has been secretly written in my notebook for quite some time, and I was always too scared to post it online. Now, I say fuck it. As always, I love you all and I hope you enjoy!!!😘💕❤️ 

For those of you who may be wondering about my other series, Maniac and Lone Wolf, it may be a while bc of college and work (being an adult SUCKS). But, I promise I’ll try and upload the chapters whenever I can! 

*gif is not mine!

Once again, Midtown’s decathlon team was given another opportunity to travel to a different state for a tournament, where they would compete with other high schools for the national title. Peter was extremely excited because this was your first trip with the team, and he wanted you to have an unforgettable experience; that’s why Peter created a meticulous yet worthy plan that would help him accomplish his goal. His plan consisted of various things, such as taking you to popular locations, exploring the city late at night -despite curfew- and doing spontaneous activities he knew you would love. Most importantly, Peter made this plan in hopes that he could confess his feelings for you. He’s had a crush on you since freshman year, but he was always terrified to tell you the truth. Now that senior year was almost over, the pain of withholding his raw emotions was too unbearable to handle. It’s now or never, Peter thought to himself, and for a while, Peter believed his plan was going to work. 

But, he was wrong. 

Peter’s plan began to crumble the minute that Daniel Miller entered the picture. Daniel was everything that Peter wasn’t - he was perfect, a star-athlete, tall,  and he had an impeccable character that made him lovable. Every girl had a huge crush on him, and they had every right to find him appealing. In the beginning, Peter didn’t really seem to care about Daniel, but now that Daniel was purposefully sabotaging Peter’s plan, Peter was beyond angry. Anytime that Peter was with you, you were whisked away by Daniel for various idiotic reasons. 

The first time Daniel took you away, he lied and asked if you could switch seats with Flash because he was ‘severely’ allergic to peanut butter crackers. You, of course, offered to change seats, completely unaware that Daniel was luring you towards him. Peter felt his blood boil; he clearly remembers seeing Daniel eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup a couple of days before. The second time Daniel took you away, you were sitting next to Peter in the dining hall at the hotel before Daniel ‘accidentally’ spilled hot coffee all over his body; once again, you fell for his trap, and you offered to help him, despite Daniel being eighteen years old. The third time Daniel took you away, you were watching a movie with Peter; Daniel somehow convinced you that he needed your help and asked if you could quiz him for the upcoming competition, to which you agreed. Every single time that Daniel succeeded, he would give Peter a relish sneer, mentally gloating that he had successfully stolen you away. 

Although Peter absolutely hated Daniel with every fiber of his soul, It’s not like Peter was going to force you to stop talking to Daniel - that would be a dick move - but if Peter had the chance to throw Daniel off a building, he would happily do it in a heartbeat. However, as you were spending more time with Daniel instead of Peter, Peter’s hope was gradually disappearing. 

Now, Peter morosely sat in his hotel room alone, imagining Daniel constantly flirting with you the whole afternoon and evening. By making up a quick lie and telling Mr. Harrington that he had a stomach ache, Peter was able to sulk in his room while the rest of the group was exploring tourist areas in the city before the big competition. Peter had come to believe that Daniel had won and decided there was no point of trying to win you back; there was no way that you would ever love him, Peter thought to himself, not when Daniel is still around.

Meanwhile, as Peter was sadly believing that Daniel was now professing his love for you, you were sitting on your bed, your room right in front of Peter’s door, completely unaware that Peter stayed behind as well. You, too, lied and said that you were feeling sick, but in reality, you wanted some time away from Daniel. He was becoming extremely annoying, but you didn’t have the heart to tell him the truth. While you assumed that you were going to have some peace and quiet, that dream was utterly destroyed. As usual, Flash opened his big mouth and told Daniel that you were in your hotel room, so now, you were sitting inches away from Daniel as a movie was playing in the background. You pretended to listen to the movie, but you constantly thought about Peter, wondering how he was doing. You felt horrible for leaving Peter alone so many times, and you wanted to apologize but you never had the chance to. 

“You okay, Y/N?” Daniel confronted, noticing how your eyes were not watching the screen. You rapidly blinked, turning to look at Daniel before giving him a half-hearted smile. 

“‘M fine, just thinking about Peter,” you honestly confessed, hoping that Daniel would further question you, wondering why you were so worried about Peter. Instead, he said the exact opposite. 

“Meh, don’t worry about Parker right now. It’s just you and me, pretty girl.” You let out a frustrated sigh, to which Daniel didn’t pick up, and you mentally rolled your eyes, hating how Daniel always changed the topic whenever you would bring up Peter. If you knew that Daniel had this fuckboy persona, you never would’ve given him the time of day. You remained quiet and glued your eyes to the screen, hoping that Daniel wouldn’t notice your disinterest in the horrible movie he picked out. You faked a laugh as something ‘hilarious’ showed up on the screen, but then you felt your phone vibrate on the nightstand. You leaned towards the furniture, detaching your phone from the charger and unlocking your phone. MJ sent you a text; you assumed she sent you a photo of where they were at, but when you read the message, a frown settled on your face. 

Peter is in his room right now, very upset. Do you think you could check up on him? 

Without needing any more information, you turned off your phone and jumped out of the bed. You turned to look at Daniel, who paused the movie, and you gave him an apologetic look, hoping that he would understand what you were about to tell him. 

“I’m sorry, Danny, but I just got a text from MJ. Peter is upset and I have to make sure he’s okay.” 

“What?” Daniel responded in an annoying tone, hating that Peter, once again, was ruining his plans. “Are you serious right now? We’re watching a movie, you can’t just leave me here.” 

You glared at Daniel, deeply despising the way he spoke to you, but you bit your lip, not wanting to argue back and forth. You slipped on your shoes and proceeded to ignore Daniel’s snarky attitude. 

‘Daniel, I don’t get why you’re so mad. I’m checking up on one of my closest friends, what’s your fucking deal?” you snapped at him, causing Daniel to lean back in shock. 

“My deal?” Daniel angrily repeated. “My deal is that you’re paying too much attention to him. We’re having a great time together, I just hate that Peter is getting in the way of that.” 

You rolled your eyes, unable to believe that Daniel actually thought you were having a great time. The boy merely spoke about himself and nothing else, and you found him extremely boring. You let out a laugh, to which he didn’t like, but you didn’t give a fuck anymore. “Danny,” you started, “don’t try to control what I do. I’m leaving and that’s final.” 

You angrily grabbed your phone, ignoring his protests and pleads, but just as you were about to open the door, the idiot had the nerve to open his mouth once again. 

“Whatever, go run to Peter. But, I promise you this, he can’t show you a good time like how I can.” 

You remained still, feeling your blood boil due to his vulgar comment. You were trying your hardest not to chuck your phone at his face, but instead, you turned around and gave him a smirk.

“I doubt that, Danny. From what I heard, you barely have four inches,” you retorted before opening the door and slamming it shut. 

You mumbled curse words under your breath, wishing you could’ve smacked Daniel across the face, but Peter was your top priority. In a quick second, you were now standing in front of Peter’s door, and you anxiously knocked on it. Peter was pulled out of his thoughts once he heard someone knocking, and he got up off of his bed and walked towards the door, opening it halfway. To say the least, Peter was surprised to see you standing right in front of him, and he wondered why you were back so early. Judging by your irritated face, Peter knew something was on your mind and you wanted to get it off of your chest, so he moved to the side and fully opened the door. You walked inside, continuing to spew out profanities, but then you closed your mouth, remembering why you were here.

“Peter, is something bothering you? MJ told me you were upset,” you said, causing Peter to stiffen. Peter hoped that MJ didn’t tell you the real reason he was upset, but he remained quiet, wanting you to continue speaking. You walked towards the bed and plopped down, patting the empty spot next to you, signaling Peter to sit down. Peter obeyed, and you instantly leaned into him, laying your head on his shoulder. 

“You can tell me anything, Peter. I’ll listen,” you remarked, hoping that Peter would tell you the truth. You hated seeing him sad, and you were willing to do anything to make him happy. Peter let out a big breath, slowly working up the courage to say what’s been on his chest for the past four years. You lifted your head, shifting your body so that you were now fully facing him. You watched as a shaky Peter was fidgeting with his fingers. 

“You want me to be completely honest?” Peter timidly whispered, deciding that now was finally the time to say he’s had a crush on you since the moment he laid eyes on you. You nodded your head, eager to know the cause of his sorrows.

“Yes, of course, Pete,” you replied, getting anxious by the second as Peter was stalling time. Peter bit his lower lip, not knowing how to perfectly form his emotions into words, but when he opened his mouth, everything came spewing out. 

“I’ve been in love with you since the day I saw you, and I made this very tedious plan to confess my feelings for you while we were on this trip - but then fucking Daniel ruined everything - and that’s the reason why I’ve been so moody. I was going to take you to various places in the city - and I even bought you a bracelet with our initials on it - but now that I’m saying it out loud, that’s kinda creepy and I’m sorry, and I’m rapidly speaking so I can run away from the inevitable - which is you turning me down because you don’t feel the same way.” Peter heavily panted as he finished his rant, but there was a long moment of silence as you stared at Peter with wide eyes. 

“No fucking way,” you breathed out, unable to register what Peter was saying. All of this time, you thought that Peter didn’t like you, but when he finally admitted his feelings, you were completely taken aback. Holy fuck, you thought to yourself, Peter loves me. Peter loves me.  

“I know, I know-,” Peter sorrowfully replied, rubbing his forehead, hurt that you were ridiculing him because of the way he felt about you. “It’s hilarious that a guy like me thinks that he can get with a girl like you. Hahaha, but it hurts, Y/N, I have feelings an-”

“Peter,” you interrupted him, moving closer until you were inches away from his face. Peter closed his mouth, feeling his heart rapidly beat in his chest as he began to cherish every feature on your face; his heart felt like it was going to explode due to the lack of distance, but you didn’t seem to mind. In fact, you loved the effect you were having on Peter. You delicately placed your hands on his chest, and you discreetly remained calm, despite you being able to feel how strong his chest was.

“I love you, too” you heartedly declared, anxiously smiling as you waited for Peter to respond. You watched the corner of his lips curve upwards, and you lovingly stared into Peter’s eyes, noticing the crinkles around his eyes become more prominent when he grinned, and you absolutely adored it. He was like a ray of sunshine, his smile was more than his mouth; it was his voice and his words, and it was utterly beautiful. 

His eyes briefly widened, but then they became soft as he now watched your cheeks turn pink like a spring tulip. 

“Are you like, serious? You’re not messing with me right now?” Peter managed to say, unable to accept that the girl of his dreams just told him she liked him. You let out a slight chuckle, running your hands up until they peacefully rested on Peter’s neck; you slowly leaned your forehead against his, deeply staring into his eyes.

“I’m a hundred percent serious, Peter. I love you so fucking much.” You drew Peter towards you as much as you could, and in the first second, he inhaled your enticing scent. It smelled pleasant, light, and refreshing - there was a slight hint of fruitiness, but it wasn’t overbearing nor masking your natural scent. The next second, your lips are on Peter’s, and he openly invites you into his arms. For such a long time, Peter kisses you with such delicately and tenderness, and you didn’t want to pull away. This felt right, and you knew that Peter felt the same way. Peter was your perfect guy, and you were going to make sure he knew that every single day of his life until the day he dies. 

Peter departs his lips from yours, despite you moaning for more, and he takes a moment to lovingly stares into your eyes, gingerly holding your face in his hands. Your eyes sparkled with delight, and if Peter could, he would freeze this moment forever, never wanting to move forward. Although Peter’s plans didn’t go the way he wanted it to, the outcome was, nonetheless, just as beautiful as he imagined it. 

“Kiss me again, Peter,” you quietly demanded. 

Peter leans into your touch, finding your lips once again - but then something inside of you changes. The soft tender kiss turned into a vicious, needy make-out session. The sweet, timid, and friendly girl Peter used to know was completely gone and was now replaced with a rough and aroused one. You gradually climbed onto Peter’s lap as you hungrily kissed him, and you feel a patch of wetness drip onto your underwear as your tongues fight for dominance. Peter is so enticed on kissing you that he fails to notice one of your hands firmly grasping his cock through his pants. The sudden touch causes Peter to ripple out a low groan, and you smile into the kiss, content that you were able to make Peter wither from just a single touch. 

You repeat the same noise at a higher pitch as Peter roughly rubs your ass, disconnecting his lips before attacking your neck. You throw your head back in utter bliss, granting Peter more access, and you feel a bruise form as Peter continues to suck on a particular spot. While one hand is stroking Peter’s enormous cock, the other hand snakes its way under his shirt; another moan comes out of Peter’s mouth, and you loved hearing it. 

In a blink of an eye, Peter’s shirt is on the ground, and yours follows as well. You push him down against the bed, and you seductively crawl towards him until you’re straddling his waist. 

Your lips reconnect once more, and Peter’s fingers manage to unclasp your bra, which he recklessly tosses to the ground. “Peter,” you moaned in delight as his hands raked over your exposed chest, firmly gripping your breasts. Just as Peter is about to place his lips on your sensitive bud, a loud banging on the door prevents him from doing so. You let out a gasp, frightened at the sound, but then you hear the voice yell. 

“Open up, Parker!” Daniel angrily announced, continuing to slam his fist on the door. “I know Y/N is in there! We need to talk.” You and Peter stare at each other, not knowing what to do, but then you vividly remembered Daniel’s words. I promise you this, he can’t show you a good time like how I can. A smirk grows on your face as you think of an elaborate and mischievous plan. Oh, you were going to prove him wrong. As Daniel kept screaming, demanding you to come out of the room, Peter became exasperated, completely annoyed that Daniel was ruining your intimate moment. Finally, Peter lets out an irritated groan, but just as he’s about to move you to the side so he can answer the door, you place your hands on his chest. 

“Don’t move, I have an idea,” you say with a sly smug, but before Peter can ask you what your plan was, you let out a loud, compelling, and pornographic moan.

“Oh, God! Peter!” you yelled in pure ecstasy, grabbing your breasts in the process to keep you riled up. “Don’t stop! Keep going, baby.” The banging immediately stops, and you mentally give yourself a pat on the back, knowing that on the other side of the door, Daniel was extremely jealous, embarrassed, and frustrated. Peter’s eyes widen in shock at your reaction, but he’s ultimately aroused once more, loving how you wanted Daniel to know that he was fulfilling your sexual desires. 

Peter disregards Daniel’s presence and attaches his lips on your nipple, causing you to loudly sigh in bliss as Peter sucks on it. The fake moans you were forming were now real, and you held Peter’s head in your chest as his finger roughly rubbed the other nipple.��

“Fuck-” you loudly whined, unintentionally rubbing yourself on Peter’s crotch. A hefty groan comes out of Peter, and he detaches his lips from your breasts, easily lifting you up with one hand while the other begins to undo his pants. You mirror his actions, doing the same to your pants, tossing your bottoms and underwear to the floor. Peter wiggled out of his pants and boxers, his cocks twitching and springing up as your exposed core slowly rubbed itself on his shaft. You can already see the pre-cum forming at the head, and you eagerly lick your lips, wanting to wrap your mouth around his member. 

Suddenly, Peter grabs you by the waist and flips you over so that he’s on top. As you expect him to unleash all of his strength onto you, Peter delicately kisses you, as if he’s afraid he’ll break you. While his touches send shivers down your spine, melting your heart, you’re impatient, wanting more. You softly push him away, and for a moment, Peter thinks he’s done something wrong. 

“What is it? Did I do something wrong?” Peter anxiously asked, scanning your face to see if he could detect what was bothering you. You bit your lip in anticipation, petrified that if you said what was on your mind, it would ruin the mood. A million reasons swirled around his mind and he feared that he’s gone too far; he assumed you didn’t feel comfortable anymore to continue your sexual activities. What Peter failed to realize was that you didn’t regret anything. “Tell me, baby,” Peter reassured you, placing light kisses on your face and neck. You cave into his touch, and you feel your muscles relax.  

“I want you,” you started off, raking your fingers across his chest. “But, I need rough sex, Peter,” you needily whimpered, biting your lip in the process, causing Peter to lean back, his eyes widening. “Please, fuck me as hard as you can. I want Daniel to know how good you’re fucking me.”

You intently stare at Peter’s face, scared that he was going to say no, but then you notice his pupils dilate, his eyes darkening as he listened to your words. The mere mention of Daniel’s name caused Peter to shake from rage, but then something switched inside of Peter, and a huge grin spread across his face. 

“Damn Y/N,” Peter replies, biting his lower lip. A small moan escapes Peter’s mouth as he realizes what you’re asking of him, and he absolutely loves it; Peter feels his cock twitch from excitement as he repeated your words over and over again in his mind, and it drove him insane. Peter couldn’t believe it; here he was, thinking you were going to be an innocent girl, but oh no - he was wrong, and boy did he love it. Peter bit his lip in hunger, his eyes taking in your body once more. The thought of mercilessly pounding into you without anything stopping him caused more pre-cum to leak out of his cock, and Peter was more than prepared to grant you what so deeply desired.

“As you wish, darling.” Peter peppered kisses against the nape of your neck and before you know it, Peter firmly grabs you by the neck. You let out a soft gasp at his sudden change of behavior, but then a whimper escapes out of you as Peter crashes his lips onto yours, and you allow him to take full control. 

“Fuck Peter.” You moan as you buck your hips up, needing him to be inside of you. You were becoming impatient, but Peter darkly chuckled as he brought his face close to yours.

“Oh no baby,” he scolds, a smirk forming on his face. “I’ll be inside you when I want to. You understand?” You feel as if you’re about to cry out in pain and pleasure, but you’re willing to do anything for Peter. You frantically nod your head, hoping it will satisfy Peter. 

Peter’s grip got tighter, unhappy that you didn’t verbally respond. “You better speak right now or I swear, I’ll tease you until you’re a crying mess.” 

“Yes, Peter. I understand, baby,” you affirmed as Peter hummed in satisfaction. Peter slowly released the tight grip he had before rummaging through the nightstand. Peter pulls out a condom but before you even have time to ask him where he got it, he tears it open with his mouth and puts on the safety. Without any warning or hesitation, Peter roughly turns you around, your chest pressed down against the bed. You immediately understand what he wants, and you quickly get on all fours, laying your head on the pillow and perking your ass up, giving Peter a complete view of your core. Peter groans at the sight as you flirtatiously wiggle your bare ass in front of him, and he leans back to admire the view for a short moment. 

“Look at you,” he seductively whispered, causing you to become even more aroused as his words drip out of his mouth like sweet honey. “All ready for me, such a good girl.” 

Suddenly, Peter slams into you, and you let out the loudest noise you’ve ever made, finally satisfied that he was inside you. However, Peter doesn’t move, allowing you to adjust to his large size, but you cry out in frustration, wanting him to pound into you mercilessly. You attempt to move, but Peter roughly grabs your hips, refraining you. Peter lets out a heavy exhalation, absolutely melting into you as he felt your pretty folds swallow him up. It was majestic. 

“Shit,” Peter mutters, “You’re so tight, Y/N.” Peter slowly begins to move, but in an instant, his pace starts to accelerate. Peter pounds into your cunt; it was ruthless, exhilarating, and animalistic, and you rolled your eyes in utter pleasure, your mouth hanging open.

You’re a writhing mess, spelling out incoherent words as Peter tightly held onto your waist and slammed into you. You knew there was going to be bruises due to his death grip, but the feeling of his cock sliding in and out of you made you totally forget. The slight pain was gone as pleasure overstimulated your body, and you arched your back in response, repeating Peter’s name. You clamped onto the sheets for dear life, your head laying on the pillows, your sounds being muffled. The sound of skin slapping echoed around the room, and Peter gasps and curses, becoming a panting mess as he doesn’t intend on stopping anytime soon.

Peter grabs a handful of your hair, forcing your head off the pillow, and your moans become louder. “That’s right,” Peter reassured, releasing your hair and moving his hand towards your neck. “Scream for me, baby. Let him know who’s fucking you this good.”

“Ah, Peter! Faster, please! Ohh fuck Peter, shit!“ you scream, holding onto his arm for support. 

“Can Daniel fuck you like this?” Peter asked, digging his knees deeper into the bed and moving his hips at a faster rate. Peter’s cock was stretching you out, and you were loving every minute of it. 

“No! Peter -Shit!- only you can! Only you can make me feel like this.” You cry out in pleasure, your hair sticking to your sweaty back and chest. Peter groans in satisfaction, your words encouraging him to move faster.

“Exactly, you’re fucking mine - all mine.” Your walls contract around him at his words, and Peter feels a familiar feeling growing in the pit of his stomach. He detaches himself from you, pulling out for a brief moment before forcing you to lay on your back. Peter’s hand gingerly returns to your waist, savoring this moment. Both of you heavily pant as you stare into each other’s eyes, and Peter leans in, passionately kissing you.

“Shit Peter!” you squeal in shock as you feel his cock enter you without hesitation, your nails clutching onto his contracting muscles. 

“Whose pussy is this?” Peter grunted, fully slamming his cock into your pussy. A high pitch scream comes out of your mouth but you’re unable to form coherent words, completely discombobulated. Peter’s cock perfectly fills you up, and you desperately stare into his eyes, digging your sharp nails in his back. “I said,” Peter angrily repeated, tightly squeezing your neck. “Whose pussy is this?” 

“Yours,” you mewl as you began to feel a knot form in your stomach. 

“That’s right, baby,” Peter asserted, sweat trickling down his face, chest, and back. You closed your eyes, completely aroused by Peter’s rough side, and Peter couldn’t help but trace over your body. He admired the way your breasts bounced as he pounded into you, the way your face contorted in total ecstasy, and the way your hair was a mess - a mess that he made from fucking you so good. 

“I’m so close, baby -Fuck I’m s-so close-“ You feel the knot get stronger. Peter continues to thrust into you, watching as your eyes roll to the back of your head. Peter’s fingers find its way to your clit, rapidly rubbing circles, and you let out a whine. 

“Come for me, darling. Come all over my cock,” Peter coaxed you, his words sending you over the edge. Your hands grip onto his arms for dear life as you let out a throat-ripping moan, your body shaking in the process. Peter comes right after you, his hands resting beside your head, firmly clutching onto the sheets as he, too, let out a groan. Peter’s body collapses onto yours, and your fingers find its way to the curls at the back of his head, burying themselves in his smooth hair. For a while, the room goes silent, and all you can hear are the heavy pants coming out of your mouths. Peter is still inside you, but you don’t mind at all. Peter’s body slowly rises and falls as he comes down from his high, and his hands cradle your face; Peter leaves a sloppy yet passionate kiss, and once again, you melt into his arms. 

You whimper as you feel Peter’s member pull out, and you watch as Peter wobbly stands up to throw away the condom. You intently stare at his chest as he walks back to you, and you notice the fresh scratch marks you left. You feel your cheeks turn red, but Peter gives you a soft smile, mentally telling you that it was fine. Finally, Peter gets back into bed and pulls the covers over your bodies. Your turn to lay on his side, lovingly gazing into his eyes. 

“Wow,” was all you managed to say, “That was fucking amazing.” Peter lets out a chuckle, becoming flustered as you continued to praise him. 

“Do you think Daniel heard?” you wondered, softly rubbing Peter’s chest. 

“I think the whole floor heard,” Peter truthfully responded, scratching the back of his head. You lightly laugh at his comment, your eyes glistening with joy, before pressing a tender kiss on Peter’s lips. Good, you thought to yourself, now everyone knows how great Peter is at sex. 

“Are you okay?” Peter asked. “Did I hurt you?” Your heart melted in your chest as you realized how worried Peter was. You shook your head, easing him. “I’m fine, Peter.” However, the dryness of your throat made it hard for you to speak, and Peter knew that you needed something to drink. 

“Let’s get you something to drink, there’s a vending machine right out the door,” Peter offered, to which you accepted. You were desperately craving water, but you also fancied a small snack to munch on. Peter and you got out of bed -despite how sore your bodies were - and you instinctively bent down and grabbed your underwear and Peter’s shirt. Peter felt an enormous grin grow on his face as he watched you, and you returned the smile when you felt his eyes on you. 

You walked towards the door with nothing but his shirt and underwear whereas Peter was only wearing his boxer shorts; just as you opened the door and stepped out of the room, with Peter right behind you, your eyes landed on Daniel, who, as well, opened your hotel door the exact moment you did. Daniel tightly clutched his book bag, but as he turned around to head down the hallway, his eyes found yours. He deeply stared, noticing how your makeup was smeared, your hair was tangled, and Peter’s chest was covered with scratches and bruises. 

You broke eye-contact, your face expressionless, as you turned to the left, heading towards the vending machine that was feet away from where you stood. 

Peter bitterly glared down Daniel, but then Peter mirrored your movements, leaning against the machine. Peter took notice of how Daniel was glued to the floor, and Peter flared his nostrils, disliking how Daniel continued to gawk at you. 

Yet, Peter didn’t mind that you were only wearing his t-shirt in the middle of the hallway. He knew Daniel had a perfect view of your ass, which was barely covered by the thin fabric, but Peter didn’t care because he knew that the moment you entered his hotel room, he was going to relentlessly fuck you again until you couldn’t walk anymore. As you were still deciding what snack to choose from, Peter slightly turned his head to the side, a smug expression cemented on his face as he watched Daniel awkwardly stand in front of your door. Daniel’s face was bright red, most likely due to his rage of knowing what you and Peter were doing, but Peter remained unbothered, rejoicing that he was able to rile up Daniel with so much ease. 

Peter sent a coy wink to Daniel as he wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you into his arms and placing sloppy kisses on your exposed neck while still holding eye-contact with Daniel. You leaned your head back, exposing more skin for Peter, knowing fully well of what he was trying to do. However, you didn’t object at all. A pool of your wetness started to drip onto your underwear, and you softly let out a discreet moan as Peter’s hand tightly clutched your ass. You loved how Peter was gloating to Daniel, reveling in the fact that you were Peter’s and only his. Your lips curved upwards as you heard Daniel let out a huff of frustration, mumbling incoherent words as he stormed down the hallway.  

Once Daniel was gone, you wrapped your arms around Peter’s neck, your fingers delicately playing with the strands of his hair as a giggle escaped from your lips. You placed a soft kiss on his lips before pulling away.

“You’re such an ass,” you joked, shaking your head as you divert your attention back to the vending machine. Peter shrugged his shoulders, not caring that Daniel was probably going to cry in his room, knowing you slipped away from his fingers. “Asshole deserves it,” Peter blankly declared. You bit your lip in frustration, your eyes glancing at the snacks before Peter rested his head on your shoulder, wrapping his arms around your waist once again.

“C’mon baby,” Peter seductively whispered. His hands discreetly snuck underneath your shirt and his fingers started to play your nipples, slowing pitching them in the process. You let out a soft gasp, shocked that Peter had the courage to do this in the hallway, but then you felt yourself become aroused, ready to start round two. “We still have a few hours before everyone comes back,” Peter murmured, biting your earlobe in the process.

You let out a big sigh. “Screw it,” you said, quickly forgetting about the snack and grabbing Peter’s hand. Peter bit his lip, a devious smirk forming on his lips as you dragged him back to the room, eager to continue your previous activity. 

Despite Peter’s plan not going accordingly, he was’t complaining. To say the least, Peter was fully satisfied, especially after the several rounds he had with you. 

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

Do you know any sterek fics where derek cheats on kate or Jennifer with stiles? Thanks xxxx

I sure do.

How exactly do I run from this (crazy sensation) by extranuts

(2/? I 1,836 I Teen)

Stiles first set eyes on Derek when he was eighteen, and fresh out of Beacon Hills. He’s riding on the high of graduation, lacrosse wins, very, very good results, and actually getting accepted into the university he’d wanted.

After that, Stiles is completely screwed (figuratively at first, because everything else seems to melt away when Derek is around, and then afterwards very literally indeed).

AU, in which Derek Hale is a married man, and Stiles falls very hard, very easy. Everyone is a self-centered, grade-A arse for a bit, and then things go to shit, and this story takes off from there.

The Affair by Orion2650

(3/3 I 2,479 I Explicit)

Stiles and Derek have been having an affair for seventeen months, two weeks, four days, eight hours, and thirty-three minutes—but who's counting.

Finding Time to Lose with you is Water in a Dust Bowl by Adelune

(1/1 I 2,661 I Mature)

Stiles shouldn’t have seen this coming but in the recess of his mind he could admit that there was the smallest inkling that they would crash into each other eventually. Like a collision; powerful, solid and breathtakingly fast.

Find U Again by Polairism

(2/2 I 12,678 I Mature)

Mieczyslaw “Stiles” Stilinski, a boy who's always felt a little out of place and yearned for a relationship like the ones his friends were in. Believing he won't find anyone to be with, Stiles figures he'll be alone forever. But he finds a relationship with a man named Derek, who he met on a dating app. Everything is great until Derek informs him about the secret he's been hiding from Stiles.

Don't Cry Baby. by orphan_account

(7/? I 24,518 I Mature)

Stiles is 24, an established author and single parent to his two and a half month old daughter. He's at the peak of his career and with a new book to finish, changes, revelations and a baby to juggle, that irritating question in the back of his mind is getting harder to ignore.

Derek works in PR. He hates his job and his colleagues and his relationship is rapidly falling apart. He needs some time to himself; he isn't ready for commitment or complete selflessness and with his life slowly grinding to a standstill as he approaches 27, he needs some time alone to clear his head.

Five tickets to Norway, One delayed flight, Two not so complete strangers, One baby, Two almost paternity tests and a whole lot of questions weren't what either of them had bargained for.

Why Can't I Breathe? by dragonryder94

(12/12 I 24,576 I Mature)

All human AU. Danny and Stiles are together. Derek and Kate are together. Neither of their relationships are happy. Somehow, in the mess of their lives they find each other.

Tainted Love by readtolive

(11/11 I 34,157 I Explicit)

The entire pack knew by now that Derek was back in Beacon Hills with a wife in tow. Stiles had to listen to four separate rants from different pack members, namely Erica, Scott, Isaac and Lydia, how they fully expected him not to lose his grip and to remain calm and composed. Stiles wanted that so much himself and he really thought he could maybe manage it. He was glad that they perhaps failed to realize that the main source of his agitation didn’t stem from seeing Derek after so long, but from the fact he was married now. It was something he never even offered to Stiles. It was something Stiles thought Derek would never do. He wasn’t wrong, as it turned out. He just didn’t want to do it with Stiles.

Imagine Me & You by refuse_to_sink

(10/10 I 54,185 I Explicit)

AU In which Peter, Laura and Kate are all alive. Derek and Kate are getting married, Stiles works at the floral shop arranging the flowers for the wedding. Everything is not as it seems.

With Just the Door Ajar by mirrorkill

(!/1 I 61,672 I Explicit)

So there's a bunch of reasons why Stiles has been away from Beacon Hills: most noticeably being the time he accused his English teacher Jennifer Blake of being the evil Darach who spent two years sacrificing twelve of Beacon Hill's best.

But Stiles can't stay away forever from the town that killed both his parents. When he gets a job offer he can't refuse, it's time for him to grow up and apologize for his mistakes. Which just lands him an invitation to Beacon Hills' wedding of the century. Jennifer's wedding. To the werewolf Stiles had a thing with in senior year. To the werewolf Stiles might not exactly be 100% over.

Still, he's a grown up now and he can handle this thing without causing any trouble. Having sex with the groom repeatedly doesn't count as trouble… does it?

Never Break the Chain by OntheMeander

(10/10 I 78,999 I Explicit)

Nine years ago Stiles left Beacon Hills and planned to never come back. All that was left for him there was a broken heart and a threat over his head that would take away everything else.

Life is unstable though and now he has to come back to this hell hole to bury a fallen brother.

He has changed though, grown up and matured. He can handle this little weeklong visit; go to the funeral, spend time with his dad, check up on any potential work in the area, avoid Derek, the pack and... Derek's wife?

Whatever, he will handle this with all the grace he has learned in the last decade than disappear into the night. He hopes.

[rhymingtree]

I'm so sorry this took so long 😭😭 but I've decided to procrastinate on all my other responsibilities and now here I am 🙃

Ollie flashbacks are starting to drive me insane. Can't spend too long in a psychopath's brain without being driven into insanity yourself

Also I have so many snacks rn so I'm wondering if I'll be crying with a mouthful of sandwich later on in the course of the chapter

Setbacks that included an entire sect of weapons dealers being picked off one by one.

Courtesy of Ghost, our dear Lady Disdain herself.

How Gonzalez saw everything before it happened and planned for it; he could only be blindsided if (F/N) was in harm’s way. How (F/N) would jump into a fight without a second thought and she wasn’t used to losing.

He could literally be blindsided so easily if you plan it right

but also fuck yeah Danny. Green flag guy.

The fact that Daniel Gonzalez is a fictional man hurts me to my core every day.

“Your mission?” “Исправляем свою ошибку.”

I know the Soldier was probably told to say that, but I can hear Bucky's signature sass. Like him saying 'you fucked up and now I have to clean up your messes. You are so fucking annoying. Redheaded asshole.'

Ok my bias showed back there but still

Zac and Belov were practically slumped over a pair of computers that looked as though they were at least two decades old.

They're working on their Excel spreadsheets

Shadows danced in your peripheral, their ghostly voices whispered in your ear. They begged and pleaded and screamed for mercy. Their faces stretched into horrified cries. Their bodies marred and mangled by fire and riddled with oozing bullet wounds.

How the hell can anyone find their way back to being sane after all this...

“You slept for over eighteen hours,” he said, pulling back with a low scoff, “How the hell did you manage to wake up cranky?” “I’m talented.”

Me to myself after one week of classes.

But no honestly how am I so drained after just ONE week back it makes no sense

How is she springing into work mode so quickly SHE ALMOST DIED FUCKIN' TAKE A BREAK

GIRL DONT YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO HAMILTON WHEN HE DIDNT TAKE A BREAK

INFIDELITYYY

YOU DON'T SAY NO

well

she already didn't say no to Novak...

Ghost is genuinely insane. You know how I know?

She refused to take the nap offer

what kind of person says no to a nap??? In this economy??? Take the damn nap

— “Danny?” you cried, your lungs closing in on themselves as you struggled to breathe, “Mi amor? I’m scared. Stay with me, please?” —

Darke I'm gonna fuckin kill you

WHY DO I ALWAYS FALL INTO THESE WITHOUT ANTICIPATING THE FUCKING FLASHBACKS

this'll be the death of me

— He smiled softly, pulling you against him and resting his chin on your head, “I love you.” —

DARKE

Had he misread Walsh from the beginning? Had they been marked for death from the moment he walked aboard their plane?

So many what-ifs of what their lives would be had it not been for Walsh

What if there were more of him? What if more Hydra agents were littered among Aftermath’s ranks?

And background checks would be practically useless, because if Walsh had fooled them, anyone could

demon-green... jesus these descriptions are fuckin awesome

Also I don't think reading about people with these kinds of stress levels are helping me with my stress levels

I am double stressed. No triple. No... just a very alarming amount of stressed.

“I’ve seen her worse. I’ve seen her better.”

That is now code for: she literally almost died but is still refusing to take naps like a petulant toddler.

He was never going to see his friend again.

I'm going to die in a puddle of my own tears by the end of this aren't I

my poor sandwich is gonna be so salty if I use tears as condiments

I keep forgetting that Wraith's reveal was still so recent timeline wise... god reading all this all over again is gonna hurt once it's all completed

Which reminds me I've been thinking about it and I genuinely thought this fic would be finished by the time I graduated my senior year of high school

I'm in my senior year and it's not even close.

I might get a master's degree and still be typing out live reactions to new chapters while procrastinating a thesis.

Sounds like fun, can't wait for it.

“I do. She tried to kill Dugan. Cavanaugh hit her over the head with a chair. I damn near pissed myself. It was great.”

Oh, the good old days

 A small smile twitched to the corners of her lips as she looked down at him with the same sparkling eyes he fell in love with all those years ago.

Fuck you they're so fucking sweet I'm gonna cry

“Damn you,” he chuckled, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her into his lap. Imara set her chin atop his head, holding him close as the smile on his face fell.

I need fanart of this. I will pay with my internal organs to be able to put this image on my wall as a poster.

OOOOH A CONTAINMENT UNIT

OOOOOOOOOOH THE PLOTLINE THICKENS TO AN IMPOSSIBLE LEVEL

HOW MUCH THICKER COULD THIS FUCKING GET

I'm trying to remember where Peter is right now without checking the last chapter

great gods above, another stressed out plotline to wind down my stressed soul

sooner or later I'll be needing a pacemaker

PETER WITH A GRAND ENTRANCE

Zac is no longer Big Brother. Zac is now Guy in Chair

“Good.” He nodded, turning from him slowly before adding, “You don’t get to leave the city ever again.”

Cut to Peter a few years after this, wreaking havoc in fucking LONDON with Mysterio HAHSHAHA

oh, poor Ghost and poor, poor Jack...

Hell, maybe they’d take over the mansion in Medellín and run the safehouse there.

So romantic... so ambitious... what if someone blew that up too

“Don’t worry about it,” Jack said, glancing down at the kid with a wink, “I can handle Ghost.”

Yeah, you say that now

“That didn’t sound like a ‘no’ to me.”

Gotta admire how stubborn the kid is anyhow

But he’d be damned if he didn’t find her again.

There are tears

On the bun

of my fucking sandwich

😭😭😭 Zac's got beef with the fifteen year old now too

oh no

fuck it he's here now too... oh shiiit oh SHIIIIT

Reading this is doing serious damage to my life expectance. This amount of tension is taking a decade off me at most

JACK WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING

JACK BENNET-DUGAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING

“Have we met before?” the man asked, his head cocking to the side. “Yeah,” Jack growled, “I enjoyed breaking your face in Medellín.” Wraith paused, seemingly taken aback for a moment before Jack’s words sunk in. “Copycat,” he hummed, “Come to finish the job?” “With pleasure.”

See I knwo this is supposed to be thrilling

but mostly my heart is just lurching out of my ribcage

“You shoulda kept the mask. I can see fear in your eyes. Panic,” Wraith paused with a chuckle, the sound twisted and wicked, “I like it.”

Oh wow... didn't know he was into that sorta thing but I guess it isn't surprising 😏

Right. Left. Uppercut. Kick.

It's almost as if those moves are in their blood. In her blood.

WHY'D HE BRING A GUN TO A WEAPONS DEAL TURNED AMBUSH

STRESSED

ON THE VERGE OF CARDIAC ARREST

SANDWICH ABANDONED

goddamn fuckin Peter and Jack angst

I did not sign up for this

My Little Soldier Girl —

I'm about to throw a tearsoaked sandwich to the wall in a fit of unbridled rage

ew she slept 18 hours without taking her contacts off

how likely is it for a near-death supersoldier to get eye infection

not that that's at the top of her priority list but still

Maybe it was Danny’s guiding hand making sure they were safe.

Now I'm genuinely curious about these guys' spirituality

The only confirmed person with a belief system is Boone who's pagan. As far as I know Ghost and most of Alpha One and Two are agnostic atheists, but with that I feel like she still has a spiritual belief system that centers mostly on Danny's everlasting presence in her life

I don't know how much this'll affect her post-Westview though. It's gonna be a lot more tough for her after that

“Jack is blowing up city blocks. Just like (F/N).” “Must be a super soldier thing,” Zac muttered, not daring to turn toward you as you leveled a glare at him.

Well, it runs in the blood

You were going to have to send Ollie a message.

Cool what's his email address

Or would you rather go for Jack the Ripper-esque letters written in blood with someone's severed ear in the envelope?

MELINA AND NATASHAAAA MY TWO BEST GIRLS

😀 WELL THIS IS GOING WELL

“So, Walsh knows you’re moving them for him?” This stopped Melina in her tracks. She frowned, glancing up at her in confusion, “Who?” “Walsh,” she repeated herself, watching as the woman’s face never changed, “Ghost.”

SO VERY WELL

YELENA ALMOST SLIPPED

god I am stressed

Where the hell is that sandwich

Captain Lady oh mygoooooood Yelenaaaa

“You? Pft. No. He is the stupid archer and you’re my sister. You’re the coolest.”

nice save babes.

OH MY WHAT

(F/N).

THE WAY I ALMOST BOUNCED OFF THE FUCKING WALL

GOD IT MUST BE SO FUCKING TENSE HOW SCARED HE MUST BE

Ghostie's probably lying through her teeth

she probably hates tea

but I love tea so now Ghost does too 😀

I think I just shat my heart out with genuine shock at that reveal

I love how May didn't question the almost ghoulish looking woman coming to talk about the ✨internship✨

like even i would slam the door in her face if I saw her. She's scary. May's got some balls.

I was holding my breath the entire fucking time

Maybe, if Wraith knew who he was, it was high time he figured out who Wraith was.

Well it's high time I scream at someone to put the pieces together again. This'll be fun.

I love it when all of Alpha Two gangs up on ghost and starts scolding her like she's a child and they knew she broke something in the living room

With so much shit going on in the East Coast with Wraith and Ghost and all that, I find myself almost grateful to be so far away from the US

but then again far away also means the fucking philippines so we'll keep it at almost grateful

“Funny,” he said with a deadpan, “We don’t usually leave fingerprints.”

No you just leave a fuck ton of collateral damage, which is leagues away from little smudgy fingerprints, you fuckin' psychopath

EVERYONE IS STRESSED OUT WOOHOOO THIS IS FUN

Peter is the highlight of the chapter, of course. He almost always is. I'm so curious how the homecoming fight will play out.. and how his relationship with Ghost and Jack will go in the next movies of his storyline. The banter is fun. The angst hurts. I'm all in for it.

Now I need to finish that goddamn sandwich.

CHAPTER 97: GENESIS OF A FIRESTORM

To all my live reactors,

Please, please, please, hide your reactions under a Read More cut. I don’t want any spoilers floating around. 

&

To all my Anonymous Avengers, 

If you want to react in my asks, feel free. However, I won’t be answering any of them until at least Wednesday if they contain spoilers. 

Thank you,

Darke

┍━━━━━━━━ ★ ━━━━━━━━┑

Every other memory had come so clearly. When he pulled the trigger in Odessa and Inessa. When he trained soldiers and Widows in Siberia.

He could remember the cold in the chamber. The frost bursting and burning through his veins in the darkness.

But there was also heat.

Heat and sand and sun.

It was numbed heat and a blurred face and whispers of a voice that cracked and rasped.

He knew her once.

She knew him too.

They’d made him forget her.

It was too dangerous to remember.

So they made him forget.

They erased her.

But he’d be damned if he didn’t find her again.

┕━━━━━━━━ ★ ━━━━━━━━┙

CHAPTER 97: GENESIS OF A FIRESTORM

✪ Bᴀᴛᴛʟᴇ Sᴄᴀʀʀᴇᴅ : Aғᴛᴇʀᴍᴀᴛʜ

♜♠ Tʜᴇ Sᴏʟᴅɪᴇʀ & Tʜᴇ Sᴘʏ

⧗ Tʜᴇ Rᴇᴅ Rᴏᴏᴍ

☞ Bᴀᴛᴛʟᴇ Sᴄᴀʀʀᴇᴅ: Oʀɪɢɪɴs

»Jᴏɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀʀᴋᴇ sɪᴅᴇ Tᴀɢʟɪsᴛ

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[kinglazrus]

Love Me, Don’t Hug Me

Phic phight 2020

Submitted by @sailor-toni: Danny hates being touched. Paulina loves to show her affections. How will the two of them make this relationship work.

Summary: When it comes to Danny Fenton, Paulina is sure about three things: he's almost always injured, he's pretty damn mysterious for a loser, and he has this annoying habit of getting stuck in Paulina's mind. Oh, and she just might, maybe, possibly have a crush on him.

Edit: I’ve been informed this phic is too powerful for tumblr and keeps crashing the app. Here are the links to [FFN] and [AO3]

Word count: 23499

Paulina was used to boys she barely knew coming up to her and asking her out. At first, she enjoyed the attention. Constantly being told how pretty she was, getting gifts, and trinkets, and praises showered upon her. Everyone said she must have liked it, so she did.

Sometimes, it really was nice, when the boys were sincere. She teased them, and smiled at them, and led them along like lost puppies. They made her feel good.

The other boys didn't. Every day, the came to her. At lunch, at the mall, on her way home from school. They pulled her out of conversations, took her away from her friends, distracted her from whatever she actually cared about. She got everything from arrogant smirks to smarmy grins, masks of undeserved bravado. She didn't give them an inch, saying no every time.

But they were persistent. They pestered and prodded, pestering her with pick-up lines and pet names, as if all they had to do was say pretty one more time and she would finally change her mind. She still said no, and their sweet words would turn bitter.

"Fine, bitch," they would hiss, their adoring gazes turning to seething glares.

Paulina saw no difference between either stare. Whether it was full of love or hate, any unwanted gaze made her skin crawl. She knew, unabashedly, that she was pretty. Being pretty made her feel good. But their stares made her feel ugly.

Most boys gave up after the second no. Most.

Paulina stared resolutely ahead as the senior leaned against the table, chin in his hand, giving her a flirtatious grin. Usually, only boys in her grade or the next grade up asked her out. Having a senior's attention made her feel strange. Flattered, but also uncomfortable. The fact that he wouldn't take the hint set her on edge.

"Come on, babe, just give me a chance," he said, sliding onto the bench next to her.

Paulina shuffled down, closer to Star.

"Just say yes to the guy and he'll leave." Dash didn't even look up. He and Kwan were too busy flicking a piece of pizza crust back and forth, trying to break through each other's defence.

Contrary to Dash, Kwan's eyes lifted every few seconds in a nervous glance before dipping back down. Every time he looked up, Paulina thought he was going to say something. Every time he didn't, she felt like crying, or hitting him. She wasn't sure which.

"I'm sorry, I don't like older guys," Paulina said. She refused to let her voice shake, and hated that she needed to steady it at all. This should have been no different from any other boy she had to brush off this year, but he just wouldn't give up.

"Oh, yeah? You don't really know until you try."

Dash's words echoed in Paulina's head. Maybe he was right. If she said yes, the senior would go away. How bad could one date be? He was eighteen. He should know how to treat a girl. He was practically an adult, which meant he must be right. Right?

The senior's hand slid off the table, inching toward Paulina's thigh.

Before he could touch her, Star slipped an arm around Paulina's waist and pulled her back. Leaning too far over, the senior fell forward with a yelp, palm smacking against the floor as he tried to catch himself. A scruffy shoe immediately came down on his fingers.

Paulina blinked at the familiar red sneaker. Looking up, she found Fenton, scrawny, limp Fenton, standing on the senior's hand with a pissed off expression that looked so foreign on his face, but somehow fit it so well.

"Hey, that's not cool. She said no," Danny said. The senior jerked, trying to pull his hand out from under Danny's foot, but Danny didn't budge.

"What the hell. Get off me, man," the senior said. "This ain't your problem."

"You're making it my problem," Danny said. At the same time, Paulina shouted, "It is his problem!"

Both boys glanced at her, equally confused. Danny looked bewildered, like he hadn't expected to be addressed at all. The senior's eyes jumped between Paulina and Danny, uncertainty and then understanding filling his gaze.

"I can't go out with you because I have a date with Danny." Paulina grabbed Danny's hand and yanked him close, dragging him off the senior's hand. Danny stiffened, but Paulina ignored it in favour of making sweet eyes at him. "Isn't that right?"

"Uh... yes?" Danny said. Paulina nodded at him. "Yeah! Yeah. It's not cool to steal someone else's girl." He grimaced at his own words, shooting Paulina an apologetic glance.

She shrugged. She didn't like it when guys talked about girls like they owned them, but she would forgive Danny for this one slight.

"Okay, geez. You didn't have to make such a big deal about it." The senior stood, rubbing his sore fingers, and left without much fuss after that. Although he did shoot Paulina one last predatory look.

Paulina did her best to brush it off. The thought of his eyes on her made her feel gross. As soon as she got home, she was going to take a long shower. Remembering she still had Danny's wrist in her hand, she let go, wincing at the fading imprints her fingers left behind. She hadn't realized she grabbed him that hard.

"Sit down, Fenton," Star said.

Danny started. That startled look, like he didn't expect anyone to talk to him, crossed his face again. "What?"

"Sit. Down." Taking her arm from Paulina's waist, Star lightly smacked Danny's back and motioned to the now empty space on the bench.

Paulina frowned at Star, raising her eyebrows in a silent question. Star ignored her, giving Danny another insistent slap. He glanced over his shoulder, back toward his friends, shrugged helplessly, and sat down.

"Why am I still here?" he asked.

"Because that creep didn't leave the cafeteria." Star jerked her chin towards the senior, who was taking his seat a few tables down from them. "If you leave, he might figure out Paulie was lying, and come back. This is a one-time deal, got it?"

Danny nodded. "Got it."

"You okay, Paulie?"

Self-conscious, Paulina wrapped her arms around her exposed midriff. After a moment, she nodded, squeezing Star's hand. "Yeah, I'm okay. It's not like it's a first time that's happened." She waved dismissively.

"Paulina..." Kwan wrung his hands, worrying his lip. "I'm sorry. That guy, Keith, he's a friend of my brother's. And I've known him since I was little, you know? He's not a bad guy. But I should have said something."

Paulina's anger toward him waned. "Yeah, I get it. It's still not okay, though."

Dash scoffed and leaned forward. "You guys are being stupid. You should have just said yes. Probably broke his heart or something."

Danny sneered, rising to meet Dash in the middle of the table. "You know that from experience?"

"Shut up, Fenton."

"Exactly how many times did you ask my sister out even though she kept saying no?" Danny started counting off on his fingers. "Let's see, the football game, homecoming, the winter formal, yesterday."

Dash grabbed Danny's shirt and got up in his face. "What do you care, dweeb?"

"I care because you're creeping on my sister." Danny's hand hovered over Dash's wrist.

"Let it go, Dash," Paulina snapped, smacking the boys' hands. "You look like idiots."

Dash glared at her, but listened, dropping Danny's collar and sitting back with a huff. In an instant, Danny seemed to lose whatever boldness made him stand up to Dash, and he laughed nervously. Fixing his collar, he leaned back.

Paulina gave him an appraising look. They had gone to school together for years, but he never stood out to her. When they hit high school, he gave her the same heart-eyed stare all the boys did, like she was a pretty thing to be won. She intended to write him off after that. She never meant to pay attention to him, for any reason. But when he asked her to homecoming, and she saw how jealous that made Sam, Paulina couldn’t resist.

She was so tired of Sam being such a hypocrite, acting like she was so good all the time, as if she never did anything wrong. In Paulina's opinion, Sam needed to get over herself. And she deserved every bit of riling up Paulina could give her.

Homecoming night itself didn't have a strong place in Paulina's mind, most of it passing in a hazy blur. Still, something happened that night, something that changed Danny. He stopped looking at her like a trophy. He didn't stop staring at her completely, but there a new layer to his gaze after that. A sort of understanding, like he was the first person—outside Paulina's friends—to realize there was more to her than a pretty face.

He should have faded to the back of her mind. Don’t get Paulina wrong, he maybe have been better than the creeps that dogged after her, but he was still a loser. And yet, in spite of herself, she sometimes found herself staring back when Danny wasn't looking, although she never understood why.

"You know, you're alright, Fenton," Paulina said, surprising herself with her sincerity.

Danny gaped at her, mouth dropping open, eyes widening. The innocent surprise was kind of cute.

"Thanks, I guess?" he said.

"You're welcome." Paulina turned to her lunch, cafeteria pizza that had long since gone cold, and ate in peace.

—

Paulina was sore all over. Cheerleading practice had ended an hour ago, but every Tuesday she stayed on the field a little longer and got some extra exercise. Doing lunges, push-ups, and laps around the field, she liked to keep her arms and legs strong. Cheerleading required a lot of strength and control, and she had to stay in shape.

Some weeks, Star joined her, but that day she had to go home right after practice, leaving Paulina on her own. She may have gone overboard, hanging around almost half an hour longer than usual. It was easy to get lost in thought while she exercised.

Gathering her backpack from the bleachers, she wondered if she should change before going home. She definitely needed a shower. But, checking the time on her phone, she knew the gym, and therefore the changerooms, would be locked up by now. Resigned to walking home in her uniform, she headed toward the front of the school.

Just as she reached the sidewalk, the front doors burst open. Danny came trudging out, backpack dangling in his hand, sweater tied around his waist.

Paulina watched him. Two hours was a long time to hang around after school. He must have had double detention, a punishment often reserved for students who skipped class. Paulina hesitated for a moment before jogging over.

"Danny!" she called, waving.

Danny spun toward her. He made that adorable startled face again, this time with a soft blush creeping across his cheeks as he noticed her skirt and crop top. His eyes snapped up to her face and stayed there.

"Hey, Paulina. What's up?" He lifted a hand to scratch his chin, drawing Paulina's attention to a dark bruise blooming across his jaw. It hadn't been there yesterday at lunch, or even that morning when she saw him in English. Three thin scratches stretched over the bruise, cutting across his chin. She wondered what caused them.

Danny's nail caught on one of the scabs and he winced, quickly lowering his hand, tucking it into his pocket. He always seemed to be injured in some little way. A bruise here, a scratch there. Paulina remembered him limping down the hall on more than one occasion. An uncomfortable curiosity settled in her gut, a sort of sick fascination. She wanted to know what was hurting him so much.

"Uh, Paulina?" Danny reached out.

Paulina, startled, jerked away. Her cheeks burned as she realized she had been gawking at him. She quickly asked, "Are you doing anything right now?"

"No," he answered slowly, giving her a wary look. "Why?"

"I owe you a burger, for yesterday. I never actually thanked you for helping me."

"You want to thank me?" Danny frowned.

Paulina pursed her lips in annoyance. Was it really so hard to believe? Sure, she wasn't always the nicest to him, but she didn't actively antagonize him either.

Danny squinted at her, leaning forward. "Is that you, Kitty?"

Paulina bristled. "What did you just call me!"

"Sorry!" Danny scrambled back, hands raised in defence. "I didn't mean– I wasn't– there's just this ghost that likes to mess with me, okay? And she may have... overshadowed you... once..."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"It doesn't matter. Burgers?"

Paulina thought it did matter, very much, but she was willing to put it aside for now. Giving Danny a stern look, letting him know she wouldn't soon forget what he had said, she waved for him to come along and headed toward the Nasty Burger.

Silence followed them. Danny trailed a couple paces behind her, head down, so quiet that she had to glance back every few steps to make sure he was still following. The air between them felt fragile, as if whatever peace they had attained in this moment would shatter under the weight of a whisper.

Paulina, used to Star's constant chatter, detested the feeling. The next time she glanced over her shoulder, she fixed Danny with an exasperated stare. "You know, you don't have to walk behind me." She slowed her pace.

Danny's cheeks flushed again. Scurrying forward, he fell into step beside her, lengthening his stride to match Paulina's longer gait. He opened his mouth a few times, but ultimately didn't say anything, resigning himself to staring at the sidewalk.

It was obvious neither of them enjoyed the lack of conversation, feeling too awkward without it, but neither one was willing to say the first word. Paulina found a stubborn urge rising within her. If they were going to play this game, then she was determined to win. They sent each other calculating glances, measuring each other up. Paulina searched for a sign of the boy that had come to her rescue yesterday. A confident twist in his lips, a glint in his eye, anything hidden behind the nervous façade. She found nothing.

A skittering noise interrupted her thoughts. Looking down, she saw a pebble leaping down the sidewalk ahead of them. It rolled to a stop in the middle of Danny's path. When they neared it, he kicked it, sending it jumping forward again. On the third kick, it hit a crack in the sidewalk and skipped across the concrete, stopping in front of Paulina.

Before she could think about it, she hopped forward and knocked the pebble back toward Danny. He looked up, surprised, and smiled at her. Tentative, he kicked the pebble back.

Paulina didn't mind the silence so much after that. Their little game persisted—both games—all the way to the Nasty Burger as they passed the pebble back and forth, neither one uttering a word. Paulina found herself grinning as Danny booted the pebble, forcing her to sprint after it or else let it tumble off the edge of the sidewalk.

Catching it just in time, she kicked it as hard as she could. The pebble careened off the sidewalk, pinged off the metal pole of the Nasty Burger sign, and disappeared into the unkempt grass.

"Oh," Danny said, sounding as disappointed as Paulina felt.

"Yeah." Paulina searched the grass for a moment, desperately hoping to find the pebble. For a moment, she had been filled with a childish sort of joy, the same delight she felt as a little girl playing in mud puddles with her cousins. Nowadays, she preferred to stay clean and pretty, but there was something intoxicating about the untamed glee one could only get from simple games, like punting a pebble down a sidewalk.

Thinking of games, Paulina quickly backtracked. "I win." She turned a victorious grin toward Danny.

"What? No! You lost the rock. That means you lose," Danny said.

"I got the best kick; I think that means I win. But I wasn't talking about that. You spoke first."

Danny stared at her, eyes narrowing, then blowing wide as he realized what she meant. "No fair! I didn't realize that was a game, that means you can't win," he insisted.

"Oh, sure you didn't." Paulina tossed her hair over her shoulder and airily said, "You're just a sore loser." She sauntered toward Nasty Burger's front doors.

"No way. I'm actually very good at losing, you've seen me in gym class," Danny said. He jogged ahead, overtaking her, and held the door open. "Besides, I think losing the rock makes you the loser."

"Best kick!" Paulina sing-songed, ignoring Danny's excuses. He grumbled all the way up to the counter, but didn't try to defend himself again.

Ignoring the leer of the acne-riddled teen behind the counter, who had asked Paulina out on no less than four separate occasions, she nudged Danny's arm. "What do you want? I'm paying."

"You really don't need to," Danny said, already reaching for his wallet.

Paulina rounded on Danny. "Listen, Fenton. I don't like owing people. You helped me out, now let me say thanks."

Danny peered down at his wallet, eyeing the crumpled three dollars stuffed inside, and sighed. "Okay, fine. I'll just have a Meaty Melt and a Coke."

As Paulina went up to order, Danny hovered at her shoulder. She didn't pay much attention to him, too focused on ignoring the cashier's stares, but halfway through the exchange she caught Danny glaring over her shoulder. The cashier wilted and kept his eyes down after that.

"I hope you're not expecting another burger for that," Paulina said while they searched for a table.

Danny, balancing their tray on one hand, holding his soda in the other, blinked at her. "What? Why would I?"

"Huh." Paulina squinted at him. "You really don't expect anything, do you?"

"No? I actually didn't think you'd notice." His hand holding the soda jerked upward, his drink splashing against the lid.

Paulina burst out laughing as Danny flinched in surprise. "Did you­– did you forget you were holding that?" she asked between giggles. Recognizing Danny's nervous habit, she assumed he had been going to rub his neck. He settled for taking a long sip of his soda instead, his face as red as his shoes.

They chose a table with a view of the road, better shaded than the booths overlooking the parking lot, which were bathed in sunlight. Danny set the tray down in front of Paulina, taking his burger for himself, leaving her sliders and fries.

Neither of them said anything for a few minutes as they started eating, things quickly turning awkward again. It was as if they suddenly remembered who they were and who they were with. Paulina and Danny, popular and loser. Their kind didn't interact much unless rude words were involved. Which was, frankly, stupid. Paulina frowned at that enlightening thought.

Determined not to let the silence persist, Paulina paused after finished her first slider and asked, "What class did you skip today?"

"What makes you think I skipped?" Danny asked.

"Double detention."

"Falluca gives double detention for anything."

"Falluca had a sub today." Paulina's lips curled into a devious grin. "I guess that tells me what class you skipped."

Danny's cheeks coloured. He seriously needed to stop doing that; it was too cute when he blushed.

"I can't believe you skipped science to get in a fight," she said casually. Picking at her fries, she carefully watched Danny's reaction. His shoulders tensed and his soda cup crinkled in his hand. He wouldn't meet her gaze, instead ducking his head and self-consciously rubbing his chin against his shoulder, as if he could wipe away the bruise.

He laughed. "Pretty bad luck, right?"

"Bad luck that you've gotten in at least one fight every week since the start of the year?" Paulina's eyebrow arched.

"What makes you say that?"

"Please, I'm not blind." I also watch you as much as you watch me, she added silently. Paulina hesitated, wondering if she should push on. That same sickly fascination from before reared its head and she couldn't help but ask, "Who hurt you?"

Danny stiffened. He met Paulina's stare, eyes wide, and stuttered, "I'm not­– not one's... Look, it isn't–" He broke off and practically lunged for his soda. Staring out the window, he took a long drink, cheeks caving in, until nothing but air came up his straw. His eyes darted about, thoughts flickering across his face faster than Paulina could interpret them. He kept sucking up air until his face turned red and he let the straw go with a gasp.

Watching him crush the cup, Paulina thought he looked seconds away from bolting. She could feel his leg bouncing under the table. Taking pity on him, she reached out and grabbed his hand. Danny flinched back violently, slamming back against his seat, cradling the hand she touched against his chest. Their eyes met and, for a long, uncomfortable moment, they stared at each other in shock.

"Thanks for the burger," Danny said.

Paulina, too stunned to stop him, could only gape as Danny slid out of his seat, slapped his three dollars down on the table—which barely covered half his food—and bolted.

—

The next day at school, Paulina shoved Danny's three dollars into his locker door, tucking it behind his cheap lock. She hopped the bills didn't fall out before Danny found them. Or, worse, she hoped no one else saw the money and stole it. The easy solution would be to give him the money directly, but she thought that was a bad idea.

Paulina felt guilty. It was such a strange and foreign emotion, oozing through her. She didn't like it. Never before had she felt guilty for something, at least not this kind of guilt. Feeling bad for stealing her cousin's favourite doll when they were eight years old wasn't the same thing. She only felt bad then because she got caught.

Now, though, she wished she could pluck her words from Danny's memory. The stricken look he had given her after she touched his hand seized her heart. He looked at her like she had betrayed his trust, which was ridiculous because she was Paulina and he was Danny. There wasn't any trust between them to break. Besides, wouldn't anyone have done what Paulina did? It was only natural to ask after things you were curious about.

Except, of course, when those things pertained to someone you know being hurt by someone they knew on a daily basis. Paulina had done a lot of thinking over the last twelve hours and came to that conclusion. If Danny just liked getting in fights, surely more people would know about it? Some girls were into that kind of tough delinquent type. Contrary to Danny's sweeter nature, he did fit the mold quite well in certain ways. Messy hair, sharp eyes, always sporting a bruise and rough knuckles.

Paulina faltered, pressing her hand against Danny's locker door. Rough knuckles? They did look kind of bloody sometimes. Self-defence, maybe. Unless Paulina's original assumption was right and he did get in fights, and just didn't tell people about them.

The mental image of Danny being in some secret fight club made Paulina giggle. Danny was just a wisp. A gentle breeze could knock him over. Then again, the senior hadn't been able to make Danny budge. And when he stared Dash down, telling him off for hitting on his sister, he hadn't been fazed.

Paulina's amused smile fell into a frown. Apparently, Danny was a bigger mystery than she had first thought.

Someone tapped Paulina's shoulder. "Hey. You better not be messing with Danny's locker."

Scowling, she turned to glare at Sam Manson. "Excuse me?"

"Don't play dumb, although I know you love to. What are you doing to Danny's locker?" Sam asked.

"You should work on being less hostile, maybe more people will ask you out that way," Paulina said, enjoying the way Sam bristled. Using her long nails, Paulina pinched the edges of the bills she had stuffed into the door and pulled them out. "Here." She held them out to Sam. "I was giving Danny his money back. It fell out of his wallet at the Nasty Burger last night."

Sam didn't move.

"Oh, just take them already." Paulina grabbed Sam's hand, shoving the bills into her palm.

"You were with Danny last night?" Sam asked. Her tone, wary and belligerent all at once, gave Paulina pause.

"You didn't know," she said with dawning realization. Her smile returned, this time with a devilish twist, elated at this golden opportunity. "Danny and I went on a date yesterday."

Sam narrowed her eyes, fist curling around Danny's money. Paulina could hear her gritting her teeth. "You really expect me to believe that?"

"You think I care? Just don't forget to give him his money." Paulina left Sam with a teasing wave, savouring the enraged expression she got in response.

—

Danny knew all of Sam's tells when it came to anger. She stomped and shouted when she was frustrated. Ranted when she was fuelled by righteous indignation. Got in your face when irrationally pissed off. But when she was mad, truly, rightfully mad about something beyond her control, she turned cold.

As soon as Lancer gave the word that today's history class would be a work period, Sam rose from her desk, near the front of the room thanks to alphabetical order, and strode toward Danny and Tucker seated at the back. Her expression was subdued. Danny and Tucker shared a worried glance as she approached.

"Uh, what's up?" Danny asked when she stopped by their desks. He flinched away when Sam shoved something in his face. Staring cross-eyed at her fist, he frown at the dollar bills she held.

"Paulina said you dropped these last night," Sam said.

Danny's frown twitched. "She did?" Danny plucked the bills out of Sam's hand. "But I didn't drop them. I was paying her back."

Smoothing the bills out on the corner of his desk, he inspected them, searching for any telltale sign they were his three dollars. After staring at the money for a fully ten seconds he realized how ridiculous that was. They were just dollar bills. Unless he somehow had the serial numbers for his money memorized, there was no way he could tell them apart. A second after that, he realized how even more ridiculous it was for him to check in the first place. It didn't matter if they were the same bills, what mattered was that Paulina had evidently decided to give them back.

"Anything you want to tell us about last night?" Sam said, leaning back against Tucker's desk and crossing her arms.

Danny tucked the money into his pocket before answering. "Not really? Paulina thanked me for helping her out at lunch. Sorry again that I kind of ditched you guys."

"Nah, man, you're good. You were being all heroic." Tucker's grin carried a knowing glint that Danny didn't think belonged there, because whatever Tucker thought he knew, he was definitely wrong. "I bet you could get a date out of that."

"No," Danny said.

"Yes," Sam hissed.

"What?"

"You were on a date with Paulina last night."

"You went on a date with Paulina?" Tucker's shout drew their classmates' eyes.

Stretching over the aisle, Danny slapped his hands against Tucker's mouth. "Dude, chill! I didn't go on a date with Paulina."

"That's not what she said," Sam interrupted. She pulled Danny and Tucker apart, and glared at their nearby classmates, who were still staring. "Don't you all have better stuff to do?"

"Excellent statement, Ms. Manson," Lancer droned from the front of the room. Sitting behind his desk, he gave Sam a stern look over the top of his book. "I'm sure I told all of you to use this time and work on your social movement essays. That includes you, Ms. Manson."

"Sorry, Mr. Lancer," Sam said, barely sounding sorry at all. She pointed at Danny, silently letting him know they would continue this conversation later, and returned to her seat to do her work. Around them, their classmates did the same. At least, they pretended to. Danny could hear them whispering.

"Okay, but really. Did you go on a date with Paulina? A real one? No ghosts?" Tucker asked.

Danny dropped his forehead to his desk with a thunk, wrapping his arms over his head, and groaned. "It wasn't a date."

—

Five hours later and three classrooms over, Paulina turned to Dash and said, "Yeah, it was totally a date." The art teacher shot her a dirty look for talking, but didn't make a move to stop her. Paulina rolled her eyes and tapped her pencil against her sketchbook.

"I bet he got Manson to do some voodoo shit with you to make it happen," Dash said. He hadn't even opened his sketchbook yet. Instead of starting their newest project, he was more determined to bug Paulina about the rumors he heard over lunch hour.

Apparently, Manson couldn't keep her mouth shut and had spilled the lie Paulina fed her. The rumour didn't bother her so much. Paulina was used to people whispering things about her; that happened when you were popular. She was content to brush it all off, until Dash started getting on her case.

"No voodoo. I asked him out," she said. Her plan, once she first heard the rumour, was to ignore it until it went away. Eventually people would come to their senses and realized there was no way someone as pretty and popular as her would ever go out with Danny, no matter how cute he was. Once they did, they would move on to other more interesting bits of gossip.

But then Dash opened his stupid mouth. "A loser like Fenton?" he had said. "Knew it was a lie the moment I heard it. You're one of us. We wouldn't let you go out with him. You wouldn’t let us down like that."

Who was Dash to say who Paulina could and couldn't date? That venomous jab, and every arrogant, poison word he'd spoken since made Paulina seethe. Dash wasn't better than her. He would hit on anything that moved. He hit on her sometimes, and he definitely wasn't one of the sweet, endearing boys Paulina liked to string along.

As soon as she heard those haughty, conceited words spilling out of Dash's mouth, Paulina was determined to let Dash down so far that he'd be six feet underground. Screw Dash Baxter, and screw anyone who tried to tell Paulina what she could and couldn't do.

Dash wrinkled his nose. "Ew. Why would you go out with him again?"

"Maybe I enjoyed myself at the dance, you don't know," Paulina said flippantly. Granted, not even she knew if she enjoyed herself, but chances were Dash wouldn't know either.

"Dance? What? I'm not talking about the dance."

Paulina only gave herself a second to be confused. She blinked at Dash, furrowing her brow, then shook her head and started inspecting her fingernails, the perfect image of disinterest. "Whatever. I'm done with this conversation."

She turned back to her drawing. So far, all she had was a vague skeleton of a figure, featureless and unidentifiable, but she knew exactly who it was. It annoyed her how much Danny lingered in her thoughts when she didn't want him to.

Thinking about Danny dragged Dash's offhand comment back to the forefront of her mind. She had no evidence, but she couldn't shake the idea that what he said was related to that Kitty ghost, something Paulina had completely forgot to ask Danny about last night.

She tried to push that aside for now and focus on her art, but her hand shook too much. She flipped to a fresh page and pressed her pencil down, hard, drawing a thick dark line. Over and over she wounded the page with ugly black scars until she finally managed to draw one without trembling. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes.

Danny owed her an explanation.

—

As soon as the bell rang, Paulina was out of her seat. She walked briskly, hurrying down the hall, stuffing her sketchbook into her backpack along the way. Danny's locker was her destination, in the hopes that she could catch him before he left school. She didn't know if he was one of those students who kept everything in his backpack or routinely stopped between classes to switch out his books. She hoped he was the former.

He wasn't there when she arrived, so she leaned against the locker next to his, arms crossed. If he didn't show up, it wouldn't matter that much. They had English first period tomorrow, and she could always talk to him then, but she preferred to have this conversation sooner rather than later.

Five minutes passed, long enough for the first round of buses to leave the school, and Danny didn't show up. Paulina felt jilted, which wasn't fair to Danny, because he didn't know she wanted to talk to him, but that didn't stop her from feeling it. Getting stood up sucked, whether it was intentional or not.

Paulina closed her eyes and grumbled under her breath. It looked like the conversation would have to wait until tomorrow. She pushed off Danny's locker, turning in the direction of her own, and opened her eyes. Danny stood right behind her. Paulina shrieked. She leapt back, heart racing, and glared at him. "Who does that?!"

"Uh, sorry." Danny scratched the back of his neck. "I was looking for you, but I thought you left already since you weren't by your locker."

Paulina huffed. "Well, it's about time you got here. Next time, don't make me wait so long?"

"Next time?" Danny shook his head. "Whatever, that's, I'll worry about that later. Listen–"

Paulina raised a hand to cut him off. "No, you listen. I don't wait around for people, okay?"

"Paulina–"

"I could have left whenever I wanted."

"If you just–"

"But I'm not letting you off that easy because–"

"We need to talk," they said at the same time. They stilled, staring at each other. Slowly, Danny's face turned red, but it wasn't the innocent blush Paulina found so endearing. His cheeks puffed and mirth danced in his eyes. He slapped a hand over his mouth, muffled giggles slipping between his fingers.

"Stop laughing," Paulina said.

Danny shook his head.

"It's not funny!" Paulina stomped her foot.

Danny lost it. Peals of laughter echoed down the slowly emptying hall. The sound was pure and unrestrained, a sweet laugh. Paulina refused to let herself be dragged into it, but she couldn't help the smile that came to her face.

"I mean, okay. It wasn't that funny. But you throwing a tantrum? That's hilarious," Danny said.

"I did not!" Paulina gasped, offended

"Sorry for laughing," Danny said, but he was still grinning. "But you're a lot nicer to be around when you're like that."

"When I'm throwing a tantrum? Which I wasn't."

"No, when you act your age," he explained.

Paulina thought that was rich coming from someone who liked to play juvenile pranks. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Danny sighed, shaking his head as if it was such a damn shame Paulina wouldn't stoop to his level of childish antics. "Paulina, we're fourteen. You shouldn't be acting like you're already in college or something. Being in high school doesn't mean being grown up. I know you probably think it's stupid, but once you get older, and you actually have to deal with... with all kinds of stuff. Bad stuff. You'll wish you hadn't grown up so fast."

Paulina didn't like the way Danny's voice grew quite. His eyes were distant, looking through her like she was nothing but a pane of glass, seeing something that was far beyond her comprehension. Her gaze fell to his chin and the ugly bruise painting his skin. Unable to help herself, she reached out, brushing her fingers along the thin scratches, wondering if they would scar.

Danny's hand shot up, catching her wrist in a crushing grip. Light returned to his eyes as he broke out of his reverie. A flicker of emotion, too fast for Paulina to decipher, flashed across his face when he saw his hand closed around her wrist. He hastily let her go, shuffling back a few steps, and averted his eyes.

"Sorry. I don't like being touched like that. Unexpectedly, I mean. Or at all, really." Danny rubbed his cheek. To Paulina, it looked like he was wiping away the feel of her hand on his skin. He continued, "We really do need to talk."

Remembering why she went looking for Danny in the first place, Paulina nodded. "Yeah, we do. You need to tell me about Kitty."

"Whoa, wait. First, you need to tell me why everyone thinks we went on a date," Danny said.

"No way, I asked first."

"Okay, fair. But I bet you want your answer a lot more than I want mine." Danny's cheerful tone had returned, an impish grin replacing his disappointed frown.

Paulina's eyebrow twitched. How could someone turn from jubilant to pensive to infuriatingly annoying in such a short span of time? It looked exhausting. Simply being around him was exhausting. Paulina's face was warm and her heart hadn't stopped pounding. She felt like she had just finished her post-cheerleading exercises.

No, that couldn't be right. Paulina felt refreshed and energized after working out. She liked that feeling. She didn't like this. Right?

"Does this mean I win?" Danny's words ragged her out of her thoughts.

"No! You don't get your answer until I get mine!" They were at a stalemate, but Paulina had complete confidence in her stubborn nature. She always got what she wanted. Danny, grin set, eyebrow arched, looked ready to fight her on this. Until he shivered. His hand flew to his mouth and his eyes widened.

"Okay, fine, but not here. I'll text you where to meet me," he said.

"Why not here?" Paulina glanced over her shoulder down the hall. It was empty now. She had probably missed her bus, but her house was only a forty minute walk away. More importantly, it meant they were alone. "You don't even have my nu–"

Paulina cut off mid-sentence when she looked forward again. Danny was already gone.

—

Danny's stitches itched. Flexing his fingers, he resisted the urge to scratch his arm. It was just a small cut on the inside of his elbow. Jazz fixed him up in six stitches. In a few days, she would take them out, leaving his arm good as new. Or almost as good. Too bad for Danny, accelerated healing did not equal regeneration and he would probably have a scar.

Damn Box Ghost. That fact hurt Danny more than the injury did, even if his stitches pulled and stung every time he bent his arm. He had no idea how the Box Ghost managed to get his grubby little hands on a box cutter, but it was a hell of a lot more effective than cardboard. Hopefully, Boxy wouldn't go bragging to every ghost in the Zone about his "victory" over Danny. Danny could heal his body a lot faster than he could heal his pride.

His phone, resting on the café table, buzzed. Checking the notification, he saw it was just a reminder about the health quiz tomorrow. Which he had completely forgotten about.

"Damn it." Danny dropped his head onto the table, making the cups and plate shake. The iced coffee he had bought for Paulina sloshed over the rim of the glass, splashing onto the table. It wasn't so iced now, more watered down. Paulina was supposed to meet him twenty minutes ago.

Lifting his head, he sipped despondently at his milkshake, gnawing on the straw. Maybe this was a bad idea. Paulina didn't need to know about Kitty, and she definitely didn't need to waste her time hanging around Danny.

He touched his cheek, thinking about how soft Paulina's fingers had been on his bruise. The unwanted touch had his skin crawling at the time. Even now, just the thought of it made him uncomfortable, but that wasn't Paulina's fault. When nearly everyone who touched you ended up hurting you, you started to hate physical contact all together. Even Sam and Tucker, who Danny trusted and loved, could set him on edge if he didn't see the contact coming.

A sharp knock on the window beside him drew his attention. His straw fell out of his mouth when he saw Paulina. She had braided her hair loosely over her shoulder and donned an unbuttoned shirt over her crop top. Instead of her regular flats, she wore scuffed sneakers. The most striking difference, however, was her lack of makeup. Even in gym class, when everyone was sweating from exertion, he had never seen Paulina in anything but pristine makeup.

She had freckles. Not the modest smattering across her nose and cheeks like Danny had, but all over. A galaxy of dots painting constellations across her face. She had a mole, too. A small brown spot on her lip. Danny hadn't realized you could have moles on your lips. If it weren't so dark, he might have thought it was another freckle.

Paulina waved. Danny waved back. His eyes trailed after her as she entered the café, the bell over the door jingling quietly. She took her seat across from him, sinking into the plush chair, the exact reason why Danny had chosen this cafe.

"Is this for me?" Paulina asked, pointing to the iced coffee.

Danny stopped staring at her long enough to nod. "And this." He pushed the small dessert plate in the middle of the table toward her. An apple fritter dusted in powdered sugar sat on it. The few crumbs scattered beside it were the only sign of the second fritter, which Danny had consumed in a nervous fit once Paulina was five minutes late.

"What for?" she asked.

"Paying you back for the burger." Danny grinned. "You can't give this back to me. And if you don't eat it, then I guess it's just wasted."

Paulina's eyes narrowed. "Not bad, Fenton. Not bad." She took a bite of the fritter and surveyed the café.

It was an out of the way place, tucked behind a bookshop, and had to be entered around the back. Danny first found the place last month when he saved the owners, a retired couple, from one of Technus' schemes. It was small, cozy, had big armchairs and soft lighting, and served the best pastries in Amity Park.

"It took my dad a while to find this place, even with the address," Paulina said.

"Oh, your dad?" Danny remembered her dad. Big, burly, intimidating. He wasn't as tall as Danny's dad but, with arms as thick as his, was nothing to scoff at. Danny glanced around, half-expecting the man to leap out from one of the tables.

"He went to the bookstore," Paulina said.

"Good to know. Hey, I hope you don't mind me asking, but why the change in appearance?" He gestured vaguely toward his face.

Paulina finished her fritter, dusting the sugar off her fingers, and played with her braid. "You think I wear makeup all the time?"

"No, but I've just never seen you without it."

"So what?"

"So, you, uh, I've just never seen you without any." Danny stared down at his milkshake, feeling his cheeks heat up. "I like your freckles."

Paulina didn't answer. Worried he'd made her mad, he glanced up. Danny's eyes widened when he found her blushing. Paulina got a lot of compliments from a lot of boys and she always reacted with a coy smile, unless the guy was bothering her. He'd never seen her blush.

"Just tell me about Kitty," she said, clutching her iced coffee.

Danny decided to just get it over with. "She overshadowed you during spring break, but I didn't know she was overshadowing you and I thought she was just you, and so did everyone else, and we kind of dated for a few weeks, until I realized you weren't yourself and I stopped Kitty and you didn't remember anything the next day, but you seemed fine and you went on without saying anything, so I didn't mention it."

He sucked in a deep, wheezing breath and downed the rest of his milkshake in one gulp, licking whipped cream off his upper lip after he set the glass down.

Paulina stared at him, frozen.

"Ah, wait, did I say I stopped her? I meant Danny Phantom did. Yeah. The ghost boy. Not me," Danny said.

Paulina still didn't respond. She looked... Danny didn't know how she looked. Confused? Upset? Mad? She didn't say anything, didn't even blink. The seconds dragged on and Danny's worry grew.

"Paulina?" She didn't answer. Danny grabbed his hair. "I can't believe I broke Paulina Sanchez."

Paulina started. "You didn't break me!" She reached out, poised to slap his hands, but stopped at the last second. Her hand hovered for a moment, then went back to holding her drink. "We dated—for a couple weeks—and I have no memory of it."

"It was almost three weeks, actually," Danny said.

"That's not helping!"

"Right! Sorry!"

Paulina hunched over, curling an arm over her head, her eyes wide. Her parted lips moved slightly. Danny wondered if she was mouthing along with the thoughts running through her head. If so, it was oddly cute. If not... still cute.

"I think," she said after a long silence. "I think I sort of remember. Those weeks didn't disappear, but I can barely remember anything with you from them."

"Ghosts can do that when they overshadow you for a long time. Usually, the memories will just be gone, or sort of hazy. But if they stay in one person long enough, they can manipulate what you remember," Danny explained. Kitty had assured him Paulina would only lose her memories of Danny. It was oddly considerate of her, but he chose not to question it.

"You didn't tell me."

Deciding honesty was best, Danny nodded. "No, I didn't."

"What is wrong with you!" Paulina slammed her hands on the table, rattling the dishes.

Danny recoiled. "I didn't think–"

"No, you didn't! A ghost... a ghost possessed me. For three weeks. You were the only one who knew, and you didn't tell me?" Tears glistened in Paulina's eyes. Her lips curled. The soft, sweet blush from before was long gone, replaced by a face red with anger.

"They call it overshadowing," Danny corrected. He didn't know what else to say.

"I don't care what it's called! She violated me, and you didn't think I had a right to know? She could have done anything to me!" Paulina hugged herself, going pale. Shaking her head, she stood up. "I can't be around you right now."

Danny reached out, but there was nothing he could do to stop her as she stormed out of the café. He sank low in his seat, but it was nowhere near as low as he felt.

"You really screwed up, Fenton," Danny whispered.

—

Paulina avoided Danny for the rest of the week. The rumour about her and Danny dating died out without too much fuss. Dash texted Paulina a smug grin and a self-satisfied "Knew you wouldn't do it!" and everything went back to the way it was supposed to be. She hung out with her friends, went to cheerleading practice, did her homework. On the weekend, she and Star went to an old film screening at the theatre.

This was her life, as it had always been, back to normal. So why did it feel like she was missing something?

Paulina went for a walk in the park, just before sunset. Tomorrow was Monday. It had been a lot easier to ignore Danny over the weekend, when they weren't forced into the same room for classes. But it still felt hard.

She picked her way across the wet grass, drops of water clinging to her sneakers. It had stopped raining over an our ago, but the grey sky and chill air remained. Finding a bench by the duck pond, she sat down, crossing her legs on the damp wood. Her dad didn't like her being out alone so close to dark, but she needed to think somewhere no one would disturb her.

Paulina had never had a crush before. In middle school, whenever any of the other girls asked if she had one, she always pointed to whichever boy showed the least interest in her, even though she felt nothing special around them. But Danny made her feel giddy. He pulled out a childish side of her that she hadn’t realized she missed. She wanted to spend time with him, play more immature  games with him, hold his hand. If that wasn't a crush, she didn't know what was.

But he had to go and ruin it by keeping something so personal from her.

"Boys are stupid," Paulina declared to the open air.

A sudden chill came over her and an echoing voice spoke. "Do dead boys count? Because I like to think I'm pretty smart."

Paulina managed not to shout in surprise, but she did flinch as Danny Phantom appeared in front of her.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," he said. He floated on his stomach, chin propped on his hand, hovering a respectful distance away. "I saw you sitting alone and thought I'd let you know it's almost night. Ghosts get more active right around now. It'd be safer for you to head home."

Paulina pursed her lips. Danny had said Phantom helped free her from Kitty's clutches. "Why didn't you tell me I had been possessed?"

"It's called overshadowing, actually," Phantom said.

"Ugh, you Dannys are all alike." Standing up, she marched away.

Phantom rushed to catch up with her, flying around to block her path. "Hey, no, wait. I'm sorry. Let me fly you home."

Paulina lifted her chin and looked away. "No, thank you." She walked around him and started for the park entrance.

"Okay, that's fair. But at least let me fly with you? It really is dangerous."

Paulina stopped. Glancing back at Phantom, she gave him a critical look. Something about the way he said that was familiar, but she couldn't figure out what.

"Please?" he said.

"Fine." She kept walking, watching Phantom out of the corner of her eye. He floated a couple feet away, knees bent as if he was kneeling, and easily keeping pace. It was bizarre to watch, like a poorly edited video where a frozen character got dragged across the screen in lieu of actual movement.

"I'm sorry," Phantom said.

Paulina's eyes jumped forward, her shoulders stiffening as she tried to act casual. "For what?"

"The Kitty thing. Fenton's sorry, too. He talked to me about it."

"Did he now?"

"Yeah. It was... it was my idea not to tell you. Getting overshadowed isn't fun. And you were right, it is a violation. It's taking over someone's body. Taking control of them. It's not right. I only do it if I absolutely have to."

"But you still do it."

"Yeah..." Phantom at least had the mind to look ashamed of that fact. When they reached the street, he drifted closer. Paulina considered stepping away, putting that distance between them again, but he looked sincere, and she wanted to hear what he had to say. She nodded, motioning for him to continue.

"I just thought you would be happier not knowing. Kitty didn't do anything bad with you. Actually, she kind of had your personality down. No one else noticed there was something wrong."

That didn't make Paulina feel better.

"It was a dumb decision, and both Fenton and I were idiots for going along with it." Phantom's grin turned wry. "I guess you were right. Boys are stupid."

Paulina huffed, standing a little straighter. "Of course I was."

"Fenton wants to talk to you."

"Then he can tell me that himself." Paulina paused. "Wait." Reaching out, she touched Phantom's shoulder to stop him.

Phantom swerved away from her hand, turning upside-down to get out of reach. His eyes widened, a green blush rising in his cheeks. "Um. Instincts. From fighting and stuff. Sorry."

"It's fine," she said, taking her hand back. "Be honest with me. Did Danny put you up to this?"

"Uh..." Phantom laughed weakly. "Which one's better?"

Paulina didn't bother answering that question.

"He asked me to talk to you, yeah." Phantom rubbed the back of his neck. "He wanted to give you your space, and he thought you might appreciate me talking to you more. You know, because of your crush."

"What makes you think I have a crush on you?"

Phantom drifted in front of her, legs and arms crossed, hair hanging down. "You don't?"

Paulina could see why Phantom, or anyone, would think that. She had never bothered hiding her infatuation before. But, long ago, she realized that what she felt was admiration, not love.

"You're cute, for a dead boy," she said.

"I'm gonna be honest; I can't decide if I should be offended or not," Phantom said. His grin was strikingly familiar.

Paulina stared at him, contemplative, and smirked when Phantom rubbed the back of his neck. "It it's any consolation, I just realized you remind me a lot of the boy I like."

Phantom finally flipped back around, feet touching the ground, and leaned forward. "Really?"

"Yeah. Who knows, if you were still alive, you might have had a chance."

Phantom laughed. The echo in his voice made it deeper than Danny's, but it had the same charm. It was the kind of laugh that warmed the air and begged anyone within earshot to join in. Paulina indulged herself with a few soft giggles.

"Thanks for breaking my heart," Phantom said.

"Any time."

—

Monday morning, Danny arrived at school twenty minutes earlier than usual, which meant there were only ten minutes before the bell. He planted himself by the door and waited there, lurking in the shadow of the entryway.

"You look like a creep," Tucker said. He had his nose to his phone and hadn't looked up the whole time Danny had been there.

"Shut up, you don't know that," Danny said.

"No." Sam, seated on the cement wall, leaned forward and flicked Danny's bangs. "But I do. Stop being so edgy."

"I'm not being edgy! I'm waiting for a girl!"

"Okay, Mr. Brooding."

"I'm not," Danny said, brooding.

Paulina hadn't arrived at school yet. As soon as Danny got there, he flew all throughout the halls, invisible, searching for her. Anxious he might miss her, he refused to move from his spot by the door until either the bell rang, or Paulina showed up, whichever came first. He really hoped Paulina came first. If the bell rang before she arrived, if he missed his chance to talk to her now, all his confidence would wither away.

"You're being ridiculous," Sam said.

"You don't know what I'm thinking," Danny said.

"Your face is so easy to read."

"Why do you care, anyway?" Danny spun around and glared at her. "You hate Paulina, right? You looked pretty damn mad at me when you only thought we went out."

"Danny–"

"I don't want to hear it, Sam. Just go inside. I can wait on my own." Turning his back on her, he crossed his arms and went back to watching the sidewalk.

Sam clenched her jaw. "Fine," she ground out, hopping off the wall. Shoving past Danny, she headed inside.

"Dude. That was kind of harsh," Tucker said.

Danny pressed his lips together, refusing to budge. Sam didn't have any business getting annoyed at him for liking a Paulina. He could like whoever he wanted. If Sam didn't agree, that was her problem.

"Good luck, man. I hope it goes well." Tucker clapped Danny on the shoulder, exaggerating the gesture so there was lots of warning before he made contact.

"Thanks," Danny muttered. Once Tucker disappeared through the doors, Danny moved to the top step, sitting down with his arms draped over his knees. None of his peers spared him a single glance as they headed inside. For once, it was oddly calming, settling his nerves. No one would be around to see him make a fool of himself in front of the prettiest girl in school. Again.

Hopefully, this time, his pants will at least stay on.

Two minutes before the bell, Paulina finally appeared. A navy car pulled up to the curb outside the school, Paulina climbing out of the passenger door with her pink backpack over her shoulders. Danny stood and waved as the car pulled away, catching her eye. Paulina's steps faltered, and she didn't smile or wave back, but she kept walking forward, only stopping once she was on the step below him.

"I'm sorry," Danny said.

"I know." Paulina shuffled her feet, grip tightening around the straps of her backpack. "Phantom talked to me."

Danny bit his lip, trying to fight back the heat rising in his cheeks as he remembered yesterday's conversation. Learning that Paulina liked him was the last thing he expected to get out of that talk. At least he believed she liked him. Maybe he misunderstood. In fact, he probably did. Why would Paulina like him of all people? Fenton had nothing on Phantom. That was his main goal in human form, to differentiate himself from his ghost half as much as possible.

Oh, god, this was a horrible idea. He should just go inside and forget about his crush.

"The bell is gonna go in, like, less than a minute. Is there a reason you're making me stand out here?" Paulina asked. Thankfully, she sounded more amused than annoyed, but she had a point. Danny didn’t want to be late on the first day he got to school on time in months.

"Will you go out with me?" he asked. "Or at least on a date. I mean, everybody already thought we dated, so I might as well get one date out of it."

A second later, he realized how bad that sounded and rushed to correct himself. "I mean! That's not why I want to go out with you! I was trying to be funny. Sorry, that was stupid. I really like you, Paulina. You're pretty, and you're a lot smarter than people think, and I really like being around you."

He couldn't bear to look up, choosing instead to stare down at his sneakers while wringing his hands. Paulina's smaller, smoother hand edged into his vision. She didn't touch him—something he was thankful for—but flicked her finger up, silently asking him to raise his head. He did.

Paulina smiled, bittersweet, and said, "No."

Danny's heart cracked.

"I like you, Danny, but I don't really know you. It's not bad, it just means I'm not ready to date you right now," Paulina said.

"That hasn't stopped you from going out with guys before." Danny regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth.

Paulina's eyes widened, her lips falling open. She ground her teeth, face screwing up as she leaned away from him. For a moment, he thought she was going to hit him, but she did something much worse than that. Paulina burst into tears.

"I take it back. I hate you, Danny!" she shouted, shoving him aside. Danny stumbled into the concrete rail as she stormed past him. It was just like last time, but so much worse. Why did he keep screwing things up?

Danny shook his head, pushing off the wall. This time, he wouldn’t just let her go.

"Paulina, wait!" Lurching forward, he grabbed her wrist just as she opened the door, pulling her back before she could go through. The sharp call of the warning bell rang out, but it was soon silenced as the door swung shut, leaving Danny and Paulina in silence.

"I'm sorry. That was stupid. I don't know why I said it," Danny said. He squeezed her hand. "Please don't go."

Paulina's gaze dipped to their clasped hands. Could she see the growing panic in Danny's eyes? Already, a crawling sensation was spreading up his hand. He wanted to let go. He needed to let go. But he refused to do it until he knew Paulina would hear him out.

"Why should I listen to you?" she asked.

"Because I'm an idiot. I really don't know why I said that. Well, maybe I do." Danny let her hand go. When she didn't immediately leave, he kept going. " It just... it took a lot of guts for me to ask you out, and of course that doesn’t mean you have to say yes. But you said it yourself; you like me too. Isn't the whole point of dating to get to know the person?"

"How many dates do you think I've been on?"

"Uh..." Thrown by the questioned, Danny floundered, trying to come up with a number. "At least ten."

Paulina's eyes narrowed. "Let me guess, one for homecoming, the others for when I was possessed? Or overshadowed, whatever it's called."

"Yeah."

"Well, that's nine more dates then I ever remember being on." Paulina crossed her arms, glaring down at Danny. Now that they were on even footing, she was taller than him by an inch. "It looks like you don't know me that well either. You judged me because of how much I'm flirted with. I don't want to date someone who would do something like that without hearing my side of things first. No matter how much I like them."

Ashamed, Danny lowered his head. Paulina was right. He took what he saw and made a snap judgement about her without even asking her about it. He thought he was better than that, better than those guys who trailed after her. But he wasn't. He was just bad in a different way.

"You're right," he said quietly, hugging himself. "I'm sorry. That wasn't fair. Do you at least... could we hang out as friends, then?"

Finally, she graced him with a genuine smile.

—

Danny slunk into history class three minutes after the bell, shooting Lancer a weak grin. All he got was a head shake and a resigned smile in return, which meant Lancer was in a good mood that day. Taking his seat, Danny stuffed his backpack under his seat and settled in as Lancer started talking about the essays they drafted last week.

"So," Tucker whispered. "How'd it go?"

Danny sank down in his seat, leaning toward Tucker without looking too obvious, and whispered back, "It went okay, I think. I kind of made her cry, but then I made it better?"

"Dude. That's not how to ask out a girl."

"Shut up, I know! She didn’t say yes, anyway."

"Oh. Bummer."

Lancer started down the aisles, handing everyone's essay drafts back, which they had submitted for editing. Danny and Tucker fell silent as he passed by. Lancer handed Danny his essay while smiling approvingly. Danny's eyes widened. He glanced down at his paper, excitement filling him, and had to hold back a cry of victory when he saw his tentative grade. A solid B! If he played this right, he could get his first A in months. Today may have had a rocky start, but it was turning out pretty good.

Lancer finished handing out the essays and went to stand at the front of the classroom. He clapped his hands together. "Please get together into groups for peer editing. Your final drafts are due in three days, so use your time wisely."

Desks screeched as everyone started moving, shoving their seats together to sit by their friends. Tucker, without getting out of his desk, shuffled toward Danny, turning so they were perpendicular. Sam, coming up from the front of the classroom, took the newly vacated desk in front of Danny and turned it around to face his. Slapping her essay down on the table, she dropped into the seat, crossing her arms and legs, and glared at Danny. He glared right back.

"We're gonna hang out as friends first," Danny said to Tucker.

Tucker grinned. "Less of a bummer."

"Not worried I'll get mad if you talk about her in front of me?" Sam asked, her voice cold.

"You can do whatever you want, Sam," Danny said.

Sam's eyes hardened. "Stop being so difficult, Danny! I'm just trying to keep you from getting hurt. You've seen how Paulina is. She likes to toy with people, then toss them away. I told you what she said at homecoming. She was just using you to get back at me."

"Oh, come on, grow up. This isn’t about you. This has nothing to do with you. I like her, she likes me. Just let me be happy, will you?" Danny raised his hand, rising out of his seat. "Mr. Lancer, I'm going to the bathroom."

Without waiting for an answer, he left the room. Ducking into the closest bathroom, he transformed and shot out of the school. There had to be a ghost wreaking havoc somewhere for him to vent his frustration on. Maybe, if he was lucky, he could get the Box Ghost back for injuring him last week. Just as Danny thought, the cut ended up scarring. Thankfully, the one on his face hadn't, healing with barely a trace a few days after he got it.

Danny circled the school thinking. Immediately rushing out of the room had been a little hasty, but he wanted one moment where Sam didn't rag on him for liking Paulina. If Sam was going to act like that any time he mentioned Paulina, he couldn't be around her right now.

The ridiculousness of the situation made him laugh bitterly. He never thought he would fight with Sam about a girl.

—

Sam and Tucker sat in strained silence after Danny left. Tucker, rightfully assuming Danny wouldn't come back any time soon, grabbed Danny's essay and backpack, pulling them over to his desk.

"So..." Tucker said.

Sam snatched up her own essay, busying herself by flipping through it. "I don't want to hear it."

"Are you jealous?"

"Did you not hear anything I said?" Sam asked without looking up.

Tucker rested his chin on his hand, staring at Sam. All three of them had known each other for a long time, although Tucker and Danny had been friends longer. Over the years, they'd had their spats, but that was usually just Tucker and Sam, who had a lot of conflicting opinions. Even then, they limited themselves to heated but still friendly debates. They had never really been mad at each other.

Tucker didn't think their friendship would end over something like this, but he also didn't like that they were fighting. He wanted to supported Danny, and he wanted to understand Sam, too.

"Yeah, I heard you," Tucker nodded, "and I don't actually think you're jealous."

Sam finally put her essay down. "Then why even ask?"

"To see your reaction." Tucker met Sam's glare with a bright smile. "I think whatever your problem is with Paulina, it's got nothing to do with Danny. And it's got nothing to do with principles. You're not the kind of person who would hate other girls just because they like to feel pretty. Especially not with how much you care about your own appearance."

Sam huffed but didn't argue.

"I also think that you and Paulina should work things out. Not for Danny, but for yourself."

Sam pressed her lips together in a firm line, eying Tucker blankly. After a brief pause, she shook her head and sighed. "It truly is a sad day when you're the most mature out of the three of us."

"Wow, rude."

"I'm not making any promises. I've got a right to be mad at Paulina for what she's done. But... I'll think about it. For me, not anybody else."

"That's all I ask. Now give me your essay, we're supposed to be doing group work. Danny can suffer for skipping class when he didn't need to. I'll look at his tonight."

Sam rolled her eyes. Passing her essay over, she grabbed Tucker's, then snatched Danny's off Tucker's desk. "Please. If you touch his essay, I bet his grade will go down."

"I take back all of the advice I just gave you. You don't deserve it. Give it back," Tucker said, holding his hand out and beckoning.

"Too late, I've been thoroughly advised."

"Rude."

—

Paulina prided herself in have a clean record. She got good grades, participated in school activities, and, for the most part, respected the teachers that actually deserved it. But she still ended up in detention with Wednesday afternoon. Paulina found herself alone with Danny in the library after school. Technically, there was a teacher watching over them, but Tetslaff had disappeared into the librarian's office some time ago and hadn't re-emerged. She was certainly the best teacher to get for detention.

Paulina used the chair beside her as a footrest and had her sketchbook balanced on her knees while she worked on her art project. Danny, sitting across from her, hunched over an essay. He sported a black eye and a cut lip, his hair more mussed than usual. The hoodie he wore was too long for him, but still slim.

"Is that your sister's sweater?" Paulina asked. The burgundy fabric paired with teal hoodie strings looked like something Jazz would wear.

Danny's cheeks coloured and he looked up. "Yeah. I borrowed it from her locker this morning."

Paulina giggled.

"Hey, does this count as us hanging out?" he asked, gesturing to the library at large. "I mean, it's detention, but..."

"I don't see why not."

"Cool." Danny lowered his voice, leaned forward, and gruffly asked. "What are you in for?"

"Indecent exposure. My shoulders are criminally offensive." Paulina tugged on the collar of her gym shirt, showing the spaghetti straps of her tank top underneath. "Did you get caught fighting behind the school or something?"

Danny laughed, throwing his head back. "Haven't you heard? I'm a truant, a nonattender. Ishiyama actually used those words."

"Everybody already knows that."

"First of all, ouch. Second of all, yeah. But I skipped English on Monday and I was late for school yesterday and today. Ishiyama's finally threatening me with suspension," Danny said. Essay forgotten, he folded his arms on the table and rested his cheek on the crook of his elbow. "Jazz convinced her not to go through with it, though. Something about how making me miss school won't fix my problem with missing school."

Paulina snorted. Danny burst out laughing, making her squawk with embarrassment. She clapped a hand over her mouth. "You didn't hear that!"

Danny smirked at her. "Pretty sure I did."

"No you didn't!"

"Nah, I think I did. Don't worry, it's cute."

"I swear, if you tell anyone that I snort laughed, I am going to end you, Fenton."

"You wouldn't dare. You like me too much."

"No talking!" Tetslaff's shout cut off their banter. She leaned out of the librarian's office, shooting them a stern glare, and made a zipping motion over her lips. She pointed at her eyes, pointed at them, then disappeared back through the door.

Paulina and Danny glanced at each other. The moment their eyes met, they broke down into muffled laughter, pressing their faces into their arms to try and stay quiet.

"What do you think she's doing in there?" Danny whispered.

"Push-ups. Or squats," Paulina said. "I've seen her doing them in her own office during gym class."

"I think she's got thicker arms than my dad. I'm honestly impressed. Good for her."

The sincerity in Danny's tone made Pauline smile. She always admired strong women. Even if she didn't like Tetslaff sometimes, it was hard not to be impressed by her physique. Buff and burly wasn't Paulina's thing, but anyone who could pull it off had her respect.

They spend the next few minutes working diligently on their homework. Paulina was nearly done with her sketch. If she finished today, she could submit it to her teacher for critique tomorrow. Hopefully getting feedback wouldn't take too long. She wanted to star painting it right away, already deciding to use watercolours.

Tapping her chin with her pencil, she looked away from her sketchbook and watched Danny. His black eye looked like it hurt. Red around his eye, fading to a dark, almost black purple. It was swollen, but not shut. Just enough that it looked like he was squinting.

Paulina hummed. She had a hard time picturing Danny completely free of injuries. Going back to her sketch, she made a slight adjustment.

"What are you drawing?" Danny asked. He pulled himself halfway onto the table, trying to see the sketchbook.

"Hey, no peeking before it's done!" Paulina said, holding the book to her chest.

"So you were gonna show me?"

Paulina bit her lip. "Maybe."

"Can I see it now?"

She glanced down at her sketch, then up at Danny, and down again. After a few seconds of internal debating—which was more for show than anything—she dropped her sketchbook on the table and pushed it across. Danny grabbed it and eagerly took in the drawing. Paulina wanted to hide her face as his eyes widened and his mouth fell open.

The project was to draw the future. Paulina knew Dash was going for some sci-fi world with tall, gleaming buildings and flying cars. Star chose an apocalyptic wasteland. Kwan, ever the optimist, wanted to draw a full, green world. They were great ideas, but the project had no set restrictions, so Paulina went a different route.

She drew Danny. At least, how she pictured Danny after high school, after college, when he was grown up. In space, wearing a sleek astronaut suit. She gave him a stronger chin and jawline, to age him, but kept the wondrous grin that radiated innocent delight.

Danny stared at the sketch for a long time, his smile stretching into the same grin, before passing it back. "It's really good."

Paulina, too embarrassed, to speak, nodded in thanks. She hoped he didn't notice the black eye she had added to the drawing moments prior. Eager to move the conversation along, she asked, "What are you working on?"

"History essay. It's due tomorrow, but Lancer let us hand in drafts first, so I'm just editing it now." Danny lifted his essay, showing off the red pen marks all over the page.

"Huh. He's been doing that a lot more," Paulina said. She couldn't pinpoint when it started, but Lancer let students submit drafts in almost all his courses now.

"Yeah. Would have been nice if he did that from the start, but I got lucky. I was really close to failing history before he started doing this. It's pretty great."

"You know what really helps you pass your classes? Stop skipping them and actually do your homework," Paulina deadpanned. She could never hand in an unfinished assignment, much less skip class. How Danny did it without breaking down in a nervous fit, she had no idea.

Danny offered her a strained smile. "Ha, if only." He held her gaze for a few seconds before letting his eyes fall. Ducking his head, he folded his hands over his face. He probably meant to appear occupied with his essay, but his shaky breaths ruined the façade.

Paulina frowned. Stretching across the table, she tapped his hand, a light touch to grab his attention. Danny raised his head slightly and peered at her from behind his intertwined fingers. It was hard to meet his eyes. Something pitiful lurked in his gaze, a shadow of resignation dragging him down. It startled Paulina with its frailty.

A week ago, she never would have imagined finding such a self-deprecating glint in Danny's eyes. Despite how much she watched him, she really didn't know a lot about him, not until he sent that senior, Keith, running. But even after that, she couldn't picture it. She had seen Danny angry, embarrassed, happy, nervous. Not once had it crossed her mind that Danny could be brought so low by such powerful self-doubt.

Even now, seeing it for herself, it felt so off. Like it didn't belong in his eyes, because it didn't. Danny was supposed to be the nervous, smiling boy kicking rocks down the sidewalk.

"Danny... why do you skip school so much?" she asked.

He tensed, nails digging into the back of his hands, and glanced away.

"Is it related to you getting hurt all the time?" Paulina wanted to reach out and touch his cheek, just below the bruise, but held herself back. She didn't want to make Danny uncomfortable.

"Maybe," he whispered. Leaning back, he pulled the hood of Jazz's sweater up, tugging on the strings. As the they tightened, the hood's opening cinched together, squishing Danny's hair flat. "It's not that I don't want to tell you," he continued. "It's just... personal. And I can guarantee it's not anything you think it is."

"Can you?"

"Pinky swear." Danny stretched out, extending his pinky toward her.

Paulina wasn't satisfied, but she'd take. "Pinky swear." Meeting Danny in the middle of the table, she hooked her pinky around his and they shook on it.

—

You | yesterday 4:04 pm hey

Delete This Number | yesterday 6:22 pm ... you still have my number?

You | yesterday 6:22 pm i've been meaning to delete it it took you two hours to say that

Delete This Number | yesterday 6:26 pm Sure. You've been meaning to for almost two years. And some of us aren't attached to our phones.

You | yesterday 6:27 pm that's hilarious coming from you

Delete This Number | yesterday 6:31 pm It's Thursday. Cheerleading practice, duh.

You | yesterday 6:31 pm because i'm gonna remember that

Delete This Number | yesterday 6:31 pm Whatever. What do you want?

You | yesterday 6:57 pm we need to talk

Delete This Number | yesterday 6:58 pm Now who's taking forever?

You | yesterday 6:58 pm shut up i've got better stuff to do but constantly being mad at you is exhausting

Delete This Number | yesterday 6:58 pm Oh, no. Poor you.

You | yesterday 6:59 pm you know what this was a stupid idea whatever i don't care

Delete This Number | yesterday 7:09 pm I'll meet you before school tomorrow.

Sam scowled at her messages, wondering if this really was a good idea. She had spent the rest of Wednesday and most of Thursday considering Tucker's words. In all that time, she couldn't think of a solid argument against his advice. She hated it. But she wasn't stubborn enough to ignore it regardless, so as soon as she got home on Thursday, she gave in and messaged Paulina.

Sam wanted to work it out through text, so they wouldn't have to talk in person. Of course Paulina, being Paulina, had to make it an awkward, horrible, definitely-going-to-go-wrong face-to-face conversation.

"'Before school.' When before school? You couldn't say a damn time?" Sam muttered. She wasn't stupid enough to think the conversation would be short and sweet, but pacing in front of the school a full hour before the first bell made her feel like an idiot. It wouldn't surprise her if Paulina didn't even show. She should have just stayed home.

"This is stupid," she said.

"And yet you're still here."

Sam—who was not startled, merely mildly surprised—whirled around, instinctively raising her arms in defence.

Paulina gave Sam's bony fists an unimpressed stare. "Oh, please."

"I could take you."

"You're not worth the time." Paulina made a show of checking her nails, humming in disinterest. "If all you wanted was to threaten me, then I'll be going now." She turned toward the school, walking up the sidewalk.

Sam squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her fists. Before she could lose her nerve, she shouted, "Why did you stand me up?"

The sound of Paulina's footsteps stopped. Opening one eye to peek out, Sam saw Paulina frozen a few steps away from her. She was curled inward, fingers clenched around the fabric of her skirt. She took a deep breath, shoulders rising. As she let it out, she straightened up, raising her head and pushing her shoulders back, hands relaxing at her sides. By the time Paulina turned around to face Sam, she was perfectly composed.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Paulina said.

Sam gritted her teeth. Taking a step forward, she jabbed at Paulina. "You. Stood. Me. Up. In middle school."

"Sorry, not ringing any bells," Paulina said flippantly.

"The summer Danny and Tucker went to that stupid boys camp." Sam made a dismissive gesture.

"Nope."

"Damn it, Paulina! I'm trying to have a real conversation with you here! I'm tired. I'm tired of hating you. And I am so, so tired of being heartbroken when I don't even like you anymore!" Sam scrubbed her eyes. Stupid body crying without her permission. The last thing she wanted to do in front of Paulina now was cry. "I don't even know why I'm trying."

"Why are you always like this?" Paulina shouted. Her voice was thick and watery. Looking up, Sam saw she was crying, too. Fat tears rolled down her cheeks, smudging her makeup. "Why couldn't you just pretend it never happened?"

"Because I liked you!"

Paulina marched forward and grabbed Sam's wrist. "You want me to say it? Fine! I tricked you. I mislead you. I got pretty and loved and suddenly I was obligated to love everybody back. But you were supposed to be different!"

Sam ripped her hand out of Paulina's grip. "I was different!"

"Why? Because you were a girl? Newsflash, you weren't the only girl who liked me."

"Oh, poor miss popular. Thirteen years old and already boys and girls were throwing themselves at your feet. What a sad, woeful existence for you, huh?"

Paulina screamed wordlessly. Her hands shook. She turned, stomping up the path, then pivoted and came right back. "You know that's not what it was like. I told you. I told you so much."

"You told me you liked me!"

"And I lied!" Paulina bellowed.

They stood almost nose to nose, shoulders heaving, red-faced as they panted. Sam was suddenly very annoyed that Paulina had screamed first. Right now, screaming was all she wanted to do, but doing it second felt cheap.

"You, Paulina Sanchez, are a bitch," Sam spat.

"And you're pathetic."

Sam's gaze jumped all over Paulina's face, taking in her streaked mascara, her blush that was thoroughly ruined, her smudged eyeshadow. Sam probably didn't look much different, in that moment.

"I liked you. I really liked you. And you made me think you liked me, too." Sam's voice fell, going quiet at the end. She couldn't stand seeing Paulina's face. Paulina wasn't allowed to look heartbroken, not after what she did.

"That whole summer, you made me feel special." Sam struggled to keep her voice steady. "And it's so stupid, right? We were thirteen. We're barely older than that now. All of this will probably seem so stupid when we're older. Hell, it already does, considering the kind of stuff I've been through. But that doesn't stop it from hurting."

"You never told Danny or Tucker." The fight had gone out of Paulina's voice.

"No, I didn't. I didn't want to be another Sanchez reject." Sam spat the words bitterly. "But it didn't matter if they knew or not. You and I, we knew." She hugged herself. Being exposed like this was her worst nightmare. She wanted to go back to being the strong, loud, and proud Manson girl she always was. Not this heartbroken shell of someone she used to be. "Do you remember what we were supposed to do?"

Paulina worried her lip and said nothing.

"The beach. I liked it best at night, when the sand was cold and the ocean was back, and you told me you wanted to see it. I had to beg my mom to let me go out on my own so late. I waited for you for three hours." It had been the coldest, loneliest three hours in Sam's life at that point. By now, that top spot belonged to the hours waiting for Danny as he fought Pariah Dark. It made being stood up seem so trivial, but that didn't make it hurt any less.

Sam squeezed her phone. "Do you remember what your text said?"

Paulina's gaze dropped to the sidewalk. That was all the answer Sam needed.

"You said you were tired." Sam laughed. It sounded bitter and fragile, even to her ears. "You said you were tired of me following you around everywhere, and you said you didn't have time for a friend like me."

"Oh."

"Which brings me back to my original question. Why did you do it?"

Shame poured from Paulina, but it didn't fill Sam with the righteous vindication she always thought it would. It just made her sad. They could have been friends. If Paulina had just been honest with her from the start, Sam would have understood. Instead, they wasted two years hating each other, leaving their old wounds to fester and spoil, letting foolish mistakes ruin what could have been a great bond.

"I don't know," Paulina said.

"That's not a real answer."

"Like hell it isn't! I don't know, okay? I don't know why I did it. I wasn't sure how I felt about boys, I didn't even know I was allowed to like girls, and it was just too much. You were too much." Paulina toyed with her fingers, intertwining them and twisting them, an unusual display of nerves. "You were so certain about yourself, and I wasn't certain about anything. I just couldn't handle it, and the only solution I saw was to pretend it all never happened and move on."

"I want to call you a coward," Sam said. Paulina didn't protest, which was telling enough. It would be easy. Four simple words: you are a coward. But she couldn't do it. "You were a kid. And I was a kid. And we're still kids. I can't... I can't be mad at you for that. It still hurts, but I get it."

"You sound a lot like Danny, you know."

"Really?" Sam tipped her chin up. "How so?"

"He said something like that. Well, not really. But he said I was acting too grown up when I shouldn't be." Paulina wiped her face with the heel of her palm. It did nothing to improve her appearance, only smudging her makeup more.

"It's so annoying when he's right, isn't it?" Sam smiled.

Paulina smiled back. She laughed and nodded, the last few tears falling from her eyes. Hearing her laugh, Sam felt a weight lift off her. A great aching burden she had been carrying for two years suddenly disappeared, beaten back by that simple sound. She didn't like Paulina anymore, not like that, but Sam had always missed her.

She checked the time on her phone. "The first bus should get here in a couple minutes. Come on, you're a mess, and I've got some face wipes in my locker."

"Not like you look any better," Paulina pointed out.

"Maybe not. But I feel better," Sam said.

"Yeah. So do I."

They walked up the sidewalk, a yawning space between them, but it would close in time. Sam could feel it.

—

Paulina had only been to the Manson household a handful of times during the summer she and Sam almost dated. It was just as grand as she remembered. The Mansons were rich and extravagant and they liked to show it. Sam's understated style made it so easy to forget she came from money. Lots and lots of money.

"And she has a bowling alley!" Tucker said. For the past ten minutes, he had been regaling Paulina with the wonders of the house.

They sat in the plush armchairs of the Manson's basement theatre, the blank TV ahead of them. Sam and Danny were upstairs waiting for the pizza to arrive, leaving them alone. Paulina wasn't sure how she felt about that. Out of the trio of close-knit friends, Tucker was the only one she had never spent any one-on-one time with. He reminded her of Dash in too many ways, hitting on any girl within his sight.

Really, it was only the one similarity, but for Paulina, it was bad enough that she didn't like Tucker all that much. At least he had the brains to stop pursuing a girl the moment she said no. And, it seemed, he no longer had any interest in her.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few secret passages in this place. It's just that big," Tucker said.

"There are," Paulina said.

"Really?" Tucker leapt up, bracing himself on the armrest, bouncing on his knees as he grinned at her. "Wait." His smile fell and his eyes narrowed. "How would you know?"

"Sam and I had a forbidden romance in middle school that ended up breaking her heart and ruining our potential friendship forever," Paulina said.

Tucker's eyes widened. He burst out laughing. "That's a good one!"

"Isn't it?" Paulina smiled.

"But really. You guys are square or whatever?" Tucker asked. "I was really surprised when Sam suggested we all hang out."

Paulina's first instinct was to snap that it wasn't any of his business. She resisted the urge, just barely, and instead said, "We're getting there."

It was shockingly easy to stop hating Sam, although maybe that shouldn't have been surprising. The only reason she hated Sam in the first place was because Sam hated her. And Sam didn't hate her anymore, never had. It was the strangest, most liberating feeling. She couldn't believe it had been that easy. Sort of easy. The crying hadn't been fun.

"Cool." Tucker's expression turned serious "Danny's my best friend, you know. He really likes you. If you do something that hurts him, and I mean really hurts him, I can mess you up."

"You have a D in gym class."

"But I've got an A in hacking."

"That's not a class."

"Stop ruining my threat! I'm trying to be intimidating, damn it!"

"I know, and I don't want to hurt Danny. But you should remember that sometimes people can hurt each other without meaning to. The only thing you can do then is make up or move on," Paulina said.

Tucker groaned. "Ugh, you're too mature, stop it."

Perhaps Tucker wasn't as bad as Paulina thought he was.

Loud, clunking steps echoed down the stairs. Sam emerged through the door, her heavy boots pounding on the carpet, holding four plates and four cups. Danny trailed after her, carrying three pizzas boxes in one hand and two large bottles of soda under his other arm.

"Pizza!" Danny announced, hoisting the boxes over his head.

"Do you need help with that?" Paulina asked, eyeing how he balanced the pizzas on the tips of his fingers.

"Nah, I'm good," he said. He set down the pizzas and soda on a nearby table without any hassle. "So, scale of ten, how intimidating was Tucker?"

Paulina glanced at Tucker, who was making an aggressive silencing motion toward Danny. "Oh my god. You totally told them both to go upstairs so you could give me the best friend talk, didn't you?"

"Dude! How could you betray me like that?" Tucker said.

Danny's grin held no remorse. "First, I opened my mouth. And then I said words. Scale of ten?"

"If ten's the best?" Paulina hummed as she thought about her answer. "I'm gonna say three."

"Oh, come on, it was a five at least," Tucker said.

"Hey, I gave you an extra two for the hacking thing. That's at least a valid threat."

"It was gonna be one?"

Paulina ignored Tucker's lamenting wail. Getting up, she joined Danny at the table, helping him set out the pizza boxes, flipping up the lid of each one. Meat lovers, ham and pineapple, and a veggie pizza with no cheese.

"What's with this one?" Paulina asked, pointing to the last pizza.

"It's vegan," Danny explained. "For Sam. Every Saturday we order our favourite pizzas and watch bad movies."

"And who's favourite is the pineapple?"

"I think you know."

"Gross."

"It's an underrated topping! Try it, maybe you'll like it." Danny grabbed a slice and held it out.

"Ew, no thank you," Paulina said.

"Come on." Danny leaned forward, slowly bringing the slice closer to her face.

Paulina laughed, shaking her head. "No, Danny, stop!"

"Hey, lovebirds!" Sam shouted.

"We're not– oh wait. Ha. Wrong person" Danny grinned sheepishly while everyone chuckled at his expense. "Yeah, Sam?"

"Help me with the chairs?"

"Sure." Danny stuffed the pizza slice in his mouth, leaving half of it dangling out as he jogged over to the chairs.

Hovering by the tables, she marvelled at Danny, wondering why on Earth she liked him in the first place. The pizza slices in his mouth slapped against his chin, grease dripping down the crust as he bounced around Sam and Tucker. It wasn't the most attractive image, but Paulina smiled at it anyway.

Danny, making slow progress, bumped the armchairs along with his hip, putting in the absolute minimal amount of effort.

"Danny, can you hurry up?" Sam huffed, hand on her hip.

Danny flopped onto the chair he had been pushing, legs draped over the armrest. "How about no?"

Sam reached out, fingers poised to flick Danny in the forehead. But, to Paulina's surprise, all she did was flick Danny's fringe. Danny responded by swatting in the general vicinity of her hand, missing by miles.

Paulina cocked her head and watched closer.

Tucker leaned over the back of the armchair, feet in the air, balancing on his gut. He wiggled his fingers over Danny, the universal threat for an impending tickle, but in the end, he just plucked at Danny's shirt in a mildly annoying manner.

"Okay, okay, I'll do it!" Danny rolled off the armchair, landing on his hands with his face inches from the floor. He popped right back to his feet and started pushing the chair again, this time with exaggerated effort. He huffed and puffed, and made his arms tremble as his feet slipped on the carpet.

Sam and Tucker stood back and rolled their eyes.

"Wouldn't it go faster if we all helped?" Paulina asked.

Danny didn't respond, too busy pushing the second armchair closer to the first one, but Sam and Tucker shared a look. A thousand words passed between them in that second, at least that's what it looked like to Paulina. Their mouth's twitched, shoulders lifted, eyebrows quirked. Small, silent gestures that meant to little to Paulina but so much to them.

"The armchairs have built in speakers and a bunch of other stuff. It makes them really heavy," Tucker explained.

"Isn't that more of a reason for us to help?" Paulina asked.

"Uh..."

"Danny's really particular about where we put the chairs. He likes the setup to be just right. Right, Tuck?" Sam said, turning a sickly sweet smile on him.

Tucker nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Yeah. Danny knows exactly where to put the chairs for optimal viewing."

Paulina didn't believe it for a second, but she let it drop anyway. Once Danny finished with the chairs, he dragged a couch that had been leaning against the back wall forward. He lined it up beside the chairs then jumped over the back, landing in the middle. Finally, he finished devouring the pizza slice he held in his mouth. Quite a few of the pineapples had fallen off by that point, littering the floor.

Danny bounced in his seat. "Okay, let's go!"

"Pizza and soda," Sam said as she walked toward Paulina.

Danny scrambled up from the couch and bounded over. "Right."

Everyone grabbed their pizza—Paulina took a slice of each—and their soda and got settled in. Sam and Tucker took the armchairs while Danny and Paulina sat on the couch, close but not quite touching.

"Okay, let's go," Danny said with a grin.

"Yeah, let's go," Tucker echoed.

"This is gonna be so bad."

"So bad."

"I can't believe they made a live-action adaptation for Doomed."

"I'm going to die."

"Come on, Sam, press play!"

"Yeah, Sam. Come on!"

"Maybe if you shut up, I will!" Sam pounced on Tucker, lunging across the space between the two chairs, and shoved him over. Snatching up a pillow from the floor, she tossed it back over her shoulder, hitting Danny in the face. Paulina ducked as the pillow hit him and flipped away, soaring over her head and landing with a soft whump.

Sam was already back in her seat and reaching for the remote by the time Paulina rose up. Paulina scrutinized the small gap between the couch and Sam's armchair, and the more sizeable distance between Sam and Tucker's chairs.

"Huh," she said.

"What?" Danny asked, glancing her way.

"Nothing, it's just..." Paulina trailed off, gaze drifting to the pillow on the floor. "It's nothing. I hope this movie is as bad as you say it is."

Danny beamed. "I hope it's worse."

The opening credits hadn't even finished before Tucker went to grab more pizza. On his way back, he snuck up on Sam, slapping his hands over her eyes. She squawked and smacked his chest in response. The next time Tucker got up, to refill his soda minutes after he'd refilled his plate, he snuck up on Danny. Although Paulina could hardly call it sneaking.

"Danny," Tucker whispered ominously from behind them. He struck the couch right beside Danny's ear, although Danny didn't even flinch, and draped himself over the back.

"Hey, hey, hey. Danny. Hey, Danny," Tucker said.

Danny rolled his eyes and looked over.

Tucker brought his arm around, swinging it wide and slow, and poked Danny in the cheek. "Boop." He grinned like an idiot. Heaving himself off the couch, he quickly scampered back to his seat and went back to watching the movie.

Paulina, on the other hand, watched Danny. He rubbed his cheek where Tucker had touched him, a soft smile on his face. Her eyes dipped to the space between them on the couch, mere centimeters. When his bumped his knee against hers, her eyes snapped back up to his face.

"You sure it's nothing?" Danny asked.

Paulina blanked. It took her a moment to remember what he was referring to, but when she did, she smiled reassuringly. "Yeah, it really is."

Danny shrugged. "Okay." He turned his attention back to the movie.

Paulina tried to do the same, but for the first half, she found herself observing Danny and his friends more. Sam and Tucker were playful and physical with each other, hitting shoulders, poking and prodding, invading each other's personal space at every whim. How they interacted with Danny was completely different. There was hardly any contact, at least not skin to skin. They would throw pillows at him, ruffle his hair, and pluck at his clothes, but not much beyond that.

If they did touch him, they telegraphed their movements to be as visible as possible, as if they were warning him. Paulina, a physically affectionate person herself, silently took note of all this as the evening wore on.

—

Sunday afternoon, the sun beat down from a cloudy sky, a cool breeze raising goosebumps along Paulina's arms. It was her favourite kind of day, when the clouds were light and wispy, casting meagre shadows that made the heat bearable. She loved to paint in her backyard on days like this. She loved it even more when her friends joined her.

"So, are you dating him or not?" Kwan asked.

Sprawled out on his stomach, he picked a dandelion from the pile before him, weaving it into the crown he was making.

Paulina took a moment to finish her brush stroke, adding the famed Fenton Works insignia to the front of Danny's spacesuit in her drawing. "Not yet," she answered.

"Oh, okay."

Star, laying down beside Kwan, rolled onto her back and rested her head on Paulina's thigh. "I can't believe Tucker got to do the best friend speech first. He stole my thunder."

"Trust me, he didn't steal anyone's thunder," Paulina said.

Dash yawned. "I just don't get why you're wasting your time with him." He flicked through the book he was supposed to be reading for English, scanning the page but hardly taking in a single word.

Paulina dropped her watercolour brush into her jar of water and glared at Dash. "Because I like him. He's nice, and funny, and cute. And you need to stop being such an ass to him all the time."

"What? I'm not an ass!" Dash dropped his book. It landed facedown, pages folding against the grass.

Star made a disgruntled noise in the back of her throat. Reaching out, she grabbed the book and smoothed the pages out. "You're totally an ass."

"Am not!"

"When was the last time you went a day without punching someone?"

"Shut up, that doesn't make me an ass!"

"It does," Star and Paulina chorused.

Dash grumbled under his breath. "Whatever. I don't care. You're the one who's wasting your time."

Paulina paused, giving Dash a considering look. They had been friends for a long time, just as long as Danny, Sam, and Tucker had been. Hanging out with Danny and his friends yesterday, Paulina realized something. Her friendship with Dash was severely lacking. Nowadays, they bickered more than they got along. Suddenly, Paulina understood the frustration Sam showed during their argument. She, too, was tired. Tired of Dash being, well, Dash.

"Maybe I am," she said. Kwan and Star gave her matching looks of surprise. "But if I'm wasting my time with anyone, it's you, Dash."

"Hey, whoa, wait. What?" Dash's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"

Paulina put her painting aside, gently setting it down on the wooden deck behind her, next to her watercolour set. "I think it's really obvious what I'm talking about." She crossed her legs, resting her hands on her knees. "You're mean, Dash."

Dash sputtered. "So what? So are you."

"Yeah, you're right. But I don't want to be anymore."

"So you'd rather be a loser instead of popular?"

"Oh, come on. Are you really this dense, Dash?" Star interjected. She sat up, scooting closer to Paulina. "You think people like you? Sure, you're good at football, and so is Kwan. And Paulina and I are pretty. But no one actually likes us, because all we do is hurt the people who don't like us."

"I'm not ready for this kind of introspection," Kwan whispered.

Dash's face scrunched in confusion. "That doesn't even make sense. If we hurt the people who don't like us, then everyone has to like us. Or else we'll hurt them."

"Kwan," Paulina said.

"Please don't," he said.

"Do you really enjoy bullying people?"

Kwan pursed his lips. He focused on his dandelion crown, touching up a few flowers. Everyone watched him expectantly. After nearly a minute, he caved. "Okay fine, I don't."

Dash had the gall to look shocked, gaping at Kwan in disbelief.

"You're my best friend, Dash, and I didn't want you to stop being my best friend. I didn't want you to be mean either. It's not fun. I mean, sometimes I can get caught up in it, and it sort of feels like fun in the moment, but afterward I just feel awful." Kwan pushed himself up, toying with the crown in his lap. "I wanted to tell you. But I thought you might make fun of me."

"Kwan, I wouldn't–"

"You kicked me out when Paulina dated Danny before."

Dash fell silent.

And Paulina... she hadn't known that. She tried to think back to that week, but the only thing that came to mind were vague recollections of her classes. That memory must have been tied up in her time with Danny, and Kitty removed it. Paulina felt sick.

"That wasn't­– I didn't–" Dash floundered. He couldn't defend himself. Nothing he could say to that would turn him into the good guy. "You can't talk to me like I'm the only one who's ever hurt someone! You're not better than me."

"No, we're not," Star said. "But I think..." She looked to Paulina, then Kwan, who both nodded. "We want to be. And we'll leave you behind if we have to."

Paulina would never be more grateful for Star's bluntness. Her bubbly personality and cheerful voice made her hard to argue against. If Paulina had said those things, Dash would rail and brawl against her, but as it stood, he could only stare at Star, at a loss for words.

Star grabbed Kwan's dandelion crown from his hands and stood. She dropped the crown on Kwan's head, breaking him out of his daze. Blinking, he looked up at her, and rose to join her. As they headed inside, Paulina quickly packed up her watercolours, washing her brush and slipping it back into its plastic sleeve, screwing the cap on her jar of water. Careful not to touch the wet painting, she picked up her notebook.

"It's your choice, Dash." She went inside without looking back.

—

Despite everything Danny had been through since becoming a halfa, the strangest week of his life by far was the week Dash did not touch him. No slaps on the back of the head. No body slams in the middle of the hallway. No punches, no kicks, no being stuffed into the closest open locker. Monday to Friday, Dash didn't even look at Danny. It was incredibly disorienting.

"Maybe he's sick," Danny said at lunch.

"No. He doesn't style his hair when he's sick, because it takes too much effort," Star said.

That was another thing that made this week strange. Paulina, Kwan, and Star had joined Danny and his friends for lunch every day. Up until that point, Danny and Paulina hadn't hung out much at school, and they definitely hadn't hung out with all their friends together.

"How do you even know that?" Tucker asked.

Star grinned. "I know everything."

"Dash also complains nonstop about his hair not looking good because he's too tired to style it when he's sick," Kwan said.

"You're no fun, Kwan."

"I try."

"Try harder," Sam said.

Danny grinned at the banter. Of course he did, he loved banter. But more than that, he liked seeing everyone get along. Thinking it made him feel like a grade-schooler who wanted everyone to be friends, but no one could fault him for that. He did want it. At least, he wanted his and Paulina's friends to be friends, and there was nothing wrong with that. Star and Kwan were pretty cool when they weren't being mean.

A heavy finger prodded Danny's shoulder. He arched away from the touch, grimacing, and twisted to face the source. Dash stood behind him, shuffling from foot to foot, hand outstretched.

Danny waited for the impending beating, because surely that's why Dash was there, but nothing happened. After a long, uncomfortable moment, he hesitantly said, "Hi?"

"Hey," Dash's eyes jumped from person to person as he took in everyone seated at the table. Nervously licking his lips, he glanced away, then back at Danny. "I'm not gonna wail on your or anything anymore. Don't expect me to say sorry, though."

"Um." Danny sent Paulina a questioning stare. She looked right back, smiling innocently. Which meant this whole apology-not-apology reeked of her meddling. Not that Danny was going to complain. "Okay. Fine."

"Good." Dash shuffled his feet again. "Can I..." he trailed off.

On the other side of the table, Star and Kwan scooted apart, making room for him. Dash's shoulders slumped in relief. He hurried around the table, taking the open seat across from Danny. The next minute was spent in silence. Awkward, delicate silence.

Kwan nudged Dash, who quietly hissed "What?" under his breath. Kwan jerked his chin toward Danny. Dash shook his head. Star jabbed him in the side and pointed to Paulina, then Danny. It took all of Danny's will not to laugh at Dash's expense.

"Fine." Dash groaned. "Fenton."

"Yes, Dash?" Danny smiled pleasantly.

"You guys should. Come to the game. Tonight. Or whatever," Dash said haltingly.

Danny choked back a laugh.

"Hey, I'm trying to be sincere here!"

"I know. I know, sorry, it's just." He slapped a hand over his mouth, unable to contain his giggles. "I can't believe you're shy."

"Shut up!"

—

Paulina had gone to plenty of football games. She had to, being a cheerleader and all. All night, she and the other girls stood on the sidelines, cheering the boys on, pumping up the crowd. She loved it. However, tonight was the first time she would rather be up in the stands. With Star cheerleading next to her, and Kwan and Dash out on the field, she never had any friends looking down on the game. They were all right in the action with her. But this time, Danny and his friends were here.

They had never bothered to come to games before. She understood that it didn't interest them that much, but now that they were here, she wanted to be with them. She wanted to make sure they enjoyed it as much as she always did.

Excitement fizzled through the air. Classmates and family buzzing with energy, ready to show their spirit. Drinking it all in was one of the best feelings in the world. She wanted Danny to feel the same spark.

Paulina stood on her toes, peering into the stands, trying to find Danny. There were a lot of people at the game tonight, but he said he'd be easy to find. Once, twice, three times she scanned the seats and couldn't find him.

"He's here," Star said, placing a reassuring hand on Paulina's shoulder.

"I don't see him."

Star leaned around Paulina. Her face lit up. "I do," she said. Pushing Paulina's shoulder, she turned her around.

Danny, Tucker, and Sam stood in the shadows just beyond the floodlights. Tucker had an arm around Danny's shoulder. It was the most physical contact Paulina had seen between them over these past few weeks. Sam stood opposite the boys, gesturing wildly, face red. Her hair was falling out of her ponytail, dirt smudged her cheeks, and there was a tear in her sweater.

"Damn, she looks mad," Star said.

"Yeah." Paulina frowned.

Danny threw his arm out, pointing in the general direction of the cheerleaders. Despite being so far away, she could hear his raised voice. It wasn't clear enough to make out the words, but it was loud. The argument came to an end when Sam shook her head, jabbed Danny's shoulder hard enough to make him stumble, and stomped toward the bleachers.

On her way up the steps, Sam looked down and caught Paulina's eye. Paulina didn't bother hiding that she'd been watching. To her surprise, Sam didn't turn her anger toward Paulina. She just sighed and rolled her eyes, shrugging her shoulder in a what can you do gesture.

Paulina raised an eyebrow, tilting her head toward the boys, who still stood in the shadows.

Sam mouthed, "Being idiots."

Paulina couldn't help but laugh. She waved Sam on, turning her focus back to Danny and Tucker. In the time she looked away, Tucker had taken his arm from Danny's shoulder and stepped back. He said a few quiet words, grinned, then followed Sam.

Danny searched the throng of cheerleaders, easily spotting Paulina, and started over.

Paulina's smile quickly fell when she noticed him favouring his right leg. She ran toward him, meeting him halfway. "Danny, what happened?"

"Ah, it's nothing, really," he said, rubbing his leg. "Got caught in a ghost attack on the way here. Sorry we're late."

"Danny, that's not nothing! That could be serious. You're limping."

"Jammed my leg on something. It hurts now, but it'll be fine later."

"You needed Tucker to help you with a jammed leg?" Paulina asked.

"Uh. Yes?"

"Honestly." Paulina shook her head. "I'm glad you're here. But if you do anything stupid, or if I find out you're more hurt than you say you are, I'm gonna drag you back home myself, got it?"

Danny saluted her. "Got it! Have fun cheering. Good luck." Leaning forward, he kissed her on the cheek before she could react. He scampered up the bleachers, crowing with delight. "See you at half-time!"

Paulina touched her cheek, watching him.

"Do you think he knows he just stole your first kiss?" Star asked.

"It was just a cheek kiss, it doesn't count," Paulina said.

"Spoken like someone who hasn't had her first kiss." Star patted her shoulder and walked away.

Paulina trailed after her, calling out protests as they made their way onto the field for their opening cheer. It didn't count. Not as a whole kiss, at least. Half of one. A third. One quarter!

—

As the whistle went for half-time, Paulina hopped to her feet, waving her pom-poms in the air, screaming and cheering. Casper High was winning, eighteen to six. The team was having a good game so far. She high-fived the players as they came off the field, telling each of them "Great work!" When Kwan and Dash approached, she jumped up to give each of them a hug.

Paulina peered over her shoulder, surveying the bleachers. Danny had been sitting near the top of the bleachers last she saw, but he wasn't there now. "You guys are doing great," she said to Kwan and Dash. Turning back, she found them looking at her in amusement. "What?"

"Hurry up and find your boyfriend," Dash said.

"We're not dating yet. I was very particular about that," Paulina said. "But yes. I will go find him." Her friends giggled. She flipped them off as she walked away, skipping toward the bleacher steps. Chances were, Danny had gone to the bathroom and would be right back. She could stand out of the way until then. She only had to wait a minute before a hand closed around her wrist.

"Danny, did you–" Before she could finish turning, she was yanked back. She cried out. A hand slapped over her mouth, silencing her. Something cold touched her neck, sending shivers up her spine. She struggled and kicked as she was pulled behind the bleachers.

"Hey, stop. Don't scream, okay? I just want to talk. Okay? That's it. Just a talk." Paulina recognized the voice. The hands touching her disappeared and she was shoved forward into the chain-link fence. She spun around, pressing her back against the fence, fingers curling around the metal, and stared at Keith. He held a beer bottle loosely in one hand. His face was flushed, eyes glazed, and he swayed in place.

"I've just got one question. Just one, that's it. That's all I want." He took a step forward and stumbled. Paulina flinched away from him as he careened into the fence. "Hold on, wait. Don't go. 'M sorry."

Grabbing Paulina's shoulder, he pulled her back, bracing his other arm above her head so he had her caged in.

"You said... you said you were goin' out with that scrawny kid, right? Short guy, messy hair." He stuck his hand out, trying to mime Danny's height. He went half a foot too short. "That little dude. Little guy. Tiny guy. Kinda freakishly strong though."

"What about him?" Paulina asked.

"I heard some funny things. Very funny. Very... interesting. I heard you're not dating him."

"Don't believe everything you hear." She pushed off the fence, determined to slip around him, but Keith grabbed her shoulder and shoved her back again.

"See, but the thing is, I didn't just hear it from anybody. I heard it from you. Just now."

Paulina swallowed nervously but refused to be cowed. "So what?"

"I'm just kinda heartbroken, you know? I can't believe you'd lie to me. I think you owe me a chance, don't you?" He hunched over her, rank breath warming her face. Paulina tried to turn away from him, but he grabbed her chin and forced her head up. "Just one," he whispered.

A cry of rage snatched Keith's attention away from Paulina. A small body slammed into him, ripping him away. Wind whipped past Paulina's face, throwing hair in her eyes. She scrambled to brush it aside, staring wide-eyed at Danny crouching over Keith.

"Get the hell away from her you fucking creep!" He grabbed Keith's collar, lifting him, and slammed him down into the ground.

Keith coughed and groaned. "Dude, what the hell. It was a damn kiss."

Danny was nearly half Keith's size, and he was definitely half his weight. He had thin arms, messy clothes, bags under his eyes, and youthful fat in his cheeks. But he loomed over Keith, fists curled in Keith's shirt, feet planted on either side of his waist. Danny snarled, animalistic. A strange inhuman rumbling filled the air, one Paulina didn't hear so much as she felt it in her bones. It filled her head and pressed against her skull.

Fear struck Paulina's heart. Not fear of Danny, but fear for Keith and what Danny was going to do to him. A rather vocal part of her cried out that Keith deserved it, and he absolutely would. But Danny didn't deserve whatever hell there would be to pay once all was said and done.

"Danny, let's just go," Paulina pleaded. The rumbling stopped. It made her head feel empty and disoriented, as if the whole world had suddenly gone quiet, even though she could still hear. the revelry beyond the bleachers.

Danny turned his head, inspecting her over his shoulder. "Are you okay?" Opening his fists, he dropped Keith back to the ground, abandoning him in favour of Paulina. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No." Paulina shook her head. "I'm fine." Mostly. A little shaken up. She just wanted to get out of there.

Behind them, Keith groaned. "What the hell." He rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself onto his hands and knees. Head lolling, he searched the ground, locating his beer bottle, which had gone flying from his hand when Danny tackled him. It was smashed, shards of glass littering the grass, beer turning the dirt to mud. "Hey, you." Keith's voice was oddly calm, but his eyes were still dazed, a jarring combination. His gaze settled on Danny. "I'm gonna kill you."

"Run!" Danny shouted. He grabbed Paulina's hand and charged forward. Keith's arm shot out into their path. With the narrow space between the fence and bleachers, there was no way they could dodge around him without ducking into the maze of beams supporting the benches overhead. But Danny didn't stop. And Paulina didn't try to stop him. She trusted him.

"Close your eyes!" Danny called.

She did. A cool sensation washed over her, just for a moment. Unlike the cold beer bottle against her neck, which unsettled her, this feeling calmed her. Liked the chilled arms of a gentle ghost were wrapped around her. It was gone all to soon, accompanied by Danny's shout that she could open her eyes. When she did, they were clear of the bleachers and heading straight for the school.

Eyes widening in surprise, she glanced over her shoulder. Keith was behind them, swerving across the grass as he gave chase. His steps were uneven, but they were also much longer, and he was quickly gaining on them.

Turning back around, she noticed Danny was taking them toward the front doors.

"No, they're locked!" Paulina shouted, tugging Danny back. He faltered, and she took the lead instead, pulling him along the side of the building. "The gym doors!"

Danny squeezed her hand to show he heard.

"Get back here!" Keith bellowed, right behind them now. Reaching out, he grabbed Paulina's long hair.

She screamed in surprise and pain as her head snapped back and she was yanked to a stop.

"Shit, sorry," Keith mumbled. Before he could say anything else, Danny leapt at him, fist cocked, and punched him in the face. Keith went down hard, crying out and clutching his nose.

Danny shook out his fist, rubbing Keith's blood on his blue shorts, and took Paulina's hand again, helping her to her feet. They charged at the gym doors, throwing them open.

"Girls' locker room," Paulina whispered as loudly as she dared. She didn't think Keith would give chase any time soon, but she didn't want to risk it.

"But that's, that's the girl's locker room!" Danny protested.

"And I'm a girl and I'm saying it's fine!" Paulina shoved him toward the entrance, pushing him down the narrow hall until the changeroom opened up on their right. They finally stopped, panting and leaning against each other.

Paulina panted, clutching a stitch in her side. She ran often, but fleeing from a drunk, rabid senior wasn't quite the same as jogging around the football field for a light warmup. Beside her, Danny grimaced and kneaded his right thigh with his knuckles. Paulina opened her mouth to ask about it, then stopped when she realized something important. With Danny's shoulder pressed against hers, this was the most they had ever touched. She tensed, but said nothing, not wanting to break the moment.

To her disappointment, Danny broke it for her. He stepped away, putting some distance between them, and sat down on the closest bench, fingers digging into his thigh as he gripped it tight.

"Let me just check if we're alone," Paulina said.

Danny nodded.

She walked deeper into the room, peering down the rows. A few lockers were open, and some of her fellow cheerleaders' things littered the benches, but there were no girls inside. Stopping at the last row, by her own locker, she softly called out, "It's clear."

"'Kay. Give me a second."

Paulina raised her eyes brows but didn't question it. Danny wasn't as active as her, so he probably had a worse cramp. Although, now that Paulina thought about it, he hadn't seemed too winded. Rather, he had focused more on his leg. Now worried, she started forward, but Danny chose that moment to come around the corner.

He looked bad. Face pale, a sheen of sweat on his forehead, eyes turned down. He braced himself against the side of the lockers and hobbled forward, his limp far more pronounced than before.

Red spots stood out starkly against the pale colour of his shorts. Paulina thought it was Keith's blood for a moment, until she noticed the red streak on his other leg, in line with Danny's knuckles. That was Keith's blood. The rest wasn't. Paulina's breath caught in her throat.

Danny's head jerked up. He froze when he saw her staring. "Oh. You aren't. Sitting down."

"No, I'm not."

"Huh." Danny stood up straighter and took a step forward. The moment he put too much weight on his injured leg, he crumpled to the floor, hunching over.

"Danny!" Paulina darted forward, reaching out to him.

Danny's hand shot out, stopping her. "Don't touch me!" His fingers twitched. Grabbing his hand, he rubbed his palm and looked away. "Sorry. That was rude. It's just... it was too much. Give me a moment."

Lifting himself off the floor, he folded his good leg underneath him and stretched the other out. He gritted his teeth in pain.

Paulina hovered. She wanted to help, but anything she could think of meant touching him. With her limited options, she decided to give Danny his requested moment, sitting down opposite him. Extending her own legs, she bumped her shoes against his, touching without touching.

Danny shot her a weak, thankful grin and tapped her back.

Guilt curled in her gut. She should have sent him home the second she learned he was injured. No doubt that's what Sam was trying to do at the start of the game. But Sam let Danny stay, and she wasn't the kind of person to back down when it really mattered. Tucker hadn't looked worried, either. Did Danny hide how injured he was from them? It seemed to unlike him.

Her thoughts must have been written across her face, because Danny cracked a grin and said, "Note to self: don't run when you have a bad leg."

"Note to self: don't let Danny be an idiot and abstain from medical assistance," Paulina countered.

"Touché. Would you believe me if I said I really am fine? Or I will be. I would have been if it weren't for all the running. Give me a week and I'll be right back to normal."

"Danny, there's blood on your clothes. Not only do I not believe you, but I should probably be calling an ambulance or something." But she didn't reach for her phone. She didn't move to get up. Despite her words, she did believe him. It made no sense. But for the past three weeks, she had seen Danny sporting fresh bruises and cuts that all disappeared in days. For the past year, she had seen him beaten down and battered, and he always bounced back.

"I can't stop you. Literally." Danny tapped his finger against his injured leg. "But I hope you'll trust me."

Paulina rolled her eyes. Crawling forward, she moved to sit beside him, careful to keep some space between them. "Don't be stupid, of course I trust you. I probably shouldn't, but I do."

"It's my wonderful charm. You just can't help it."

"I highly doubt that's it."

"Okay, ouch. That hurts so much worse than my leg."

Paulina flicked Danny's hair. "You're tougher than that." Bringing one leg up, she rested her chin on her knee and grinned. "That was some tackle. It's going to be much harder to convince me you don't waste your time fighting behind the school."

"Well–" Danny scratched his cheek nervously "–not behind the school."

Paulina's eyebrows shot up. "What?"

"You know that secret I wasn't telling you? I kind of fight ghosts," Danny said. He curled his fingers in his pant legs, knuckles going white. "So, yeah. That's what it is."

Paulina had to wait for her brain to catch up to her ears. Danny fought ghosts. Danny fought ghosts. Danny fought. "You really are a Fenton."

"Huh?" Danny reared away, giving her the most comical look, lips pursed, eyebrows furrowed, nose scrunched.

She laughed, throwing her head back. Remembering a second later they were trying to be quiet, she pressed her mouth against her knee, cheeks puffing out. It took a minute to gather herself together, getting enough breath so she could speak without bursting into a fresh round of giggles. "You wouldn't be much of a Fenton if you didn't fight ghosts. I bet your parents are proud."

"Yeah, about that. They don't know, so you can't tell them."

"You haven't told them?"

"Have you seen my parents? They can be a bit overbearing." Paulina opened her mouth to retort, but Danny raised a finger, silencing her. He continued, "Trust me. I know you've seen them around town and everything—they're kind of hard to miss—but you haven't seen how they are when you're really face-to-face."

"I don't know if I like the sound of that," Paulina said.

"They're not bad. And they mean well. But they're really into the whole 'family ghost hunting' thing. I bet they have a matching jumpsuit stored away for me somewhere." Danny's voice strained at the end. A nervous laugh followed the statement, and Paulina was struck with the realization that Danny was a terrible liar. She was about to call him on it when Danny kept going.

"There's a little more to it. Not the parent thing, the fighting ghosts. I don't think I'm ready to tell you that yet, but I didn't want to lie, either. I hope that's okay." Danny ran a hand through his hair, looking up at Paulina with worried eyes.

"Of course it's fine," Paulina said.

He must have been more anxious than Paulina thought, because the moment she spoke, he slumped, relief washing over him. The crease in his brow smoothed out and the slight frown on his lips disappeared.

"You don't have any equipment," Paulina said, switching topics. "How do you fight?"

The grin Danny gave her was the smuggest thing she had ever seen. "I fistfight them."

Paulina gaped. "You do not!"

"I do! I swear! What, you don't think these fists–" he raised his hands into a boxing pose and jabbed the air "–could take out a full-grown ghost?"

"I don't think they could take out a butterfly."

"What about a butterfly ghost?"

"Now that's just sad."

Danny sniggered. Pain still lingered in his eyes, giving them a glassy sheen, but the colour had returned to his cheeks. His smile was wide and infectious.

Paulina knew there was a secret hidden behind that grin, but she didn't mind as much anymore. The meagre time they had spent together over the last three weeks was hardly enough to know each other deeply. But, sitting there together, long after half-time had ended, Paulina decided she didn't need to know every little thing about him.

She knew she liked him, and he liked her. That was enough for now.

—

Danny's weekend plans were simple. Wake up in bed. Stay there. Running from Keith on Friday had torn the hasty stitches Sam patched his thigh with after Skulker's attack. He knew going to the game when he needed to rest was a dumb idea, but he wanted to see Paulina cheer. Besides, none of them could have predicted Keith cornering Paulina behind the bleachers. Danny had completely forgotten about the guy after their first encounter. He wouldn't forget him again any time soon.

Thinking about last night had him gritting his teeth. Finding Paulina had been pure luck. His ghost sense had gone off before the end of the second quarter and he had to check for threats. Thankfully, it was just a couple mindless animal ghosts, but finding them took so long that the quarter was over by the time he got back. He saw Paulina and Keith when he was flying back to Sam and Tucker.

Danny rubbed his thigh. Skulker managed to cut him deep. The wound throbbed and ached, and he itched to scratch at his bandages. It would be a good few days before he could walk without a limp.

Not for the first time, Danny's stomach rumbled. He only woke up a few hours ago and hadn't bothered to go down for breakfast, or lunch. Yesterday, Jazz had been home to bring him snacks throughout the day, but today she was out with friends. It was a tossup between filling his stomach or resting his leg, and he chose to rest.

Until his phone went off with a text notification.

Stretching out of bed, Danny reached for his phone, quickly unlocking it and checking his messages. He had one from Paulina.

Parrot Potassium | today 2:33 pm If you're okay, meet me at NB at four. Let me know!

"That's just not fair," Danny muttered. He and Paulina had plans Monday after school, but he could hardly pass up the opportunity to spend more time with her. Sitting up slowly, he grimaced at the twinge in his leg. It was bearable but still unpleasant. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. Slowly, he took a few steps across his room. His leg trembled if he put too much weight on it, but short, quick steps were okay.

Turning back to his phone, he sent Paulina a quick message.

You | today 2:35 pm I'll see you there

—

When Danny arrived at the Nasty Burger, he found Paulina waiting for him with their food already in front of her. She had claimed the same booth they sat in during their first visit. The food was the same, too. He slid onto the bench opposite her, tapping his foot against hers under the table.

She tapped back.

"Look what I found outside." Danny dug into his pocket and pulled out a pebble, dropping it onto the table.

Paulina snorted. "I'm pretty sure that's just a random rock."

"Nah, it's clearly ours. Look, it has my eyes." Danny flicked the pebble toward her.

Paulina scrambled to catch it but missed. It tumbled over the edge of the table and landed in her lap. "I wasn't ready," she protested, tossing the pebble back to Danny.

He caught it against his chest. "Sounds like someone's a sore loser."

"I can't believe you'd say that to a girl."

"I'm an equal opportunity taunter." Danny returned the pebble to his and grabbed his soda, taking a drink. "So, what's the occasion?"

"Occasion?"

"Yeah. We were gonna see each other tomorrow anyway."

Paulina pouted. "I needed a reason?"

"Ah, no, I mean. You– um... you're joking, aren't you?" Danny wilted as Paulina's pout morphed into a satisfied smirk.

"Only by half. I actually didn't think you'd come. How's your leg?"

"A lot better today."

Drumming her fingers on the table, Paulina raised an eyebrow. "Liar." She stole Danny's soda out of his hand and sipped it. "Next time, don't strain yourself for me. And I mean it. That doesn't just mean if you're injured, either. If you're tired, if you have homework, if you're just having a bad day." She folded her hands, brushing her thumb over her knuckles.

Danny curled his fingers, digging his nails into his palms. He knew exactly what she was thinking about. It was so frustrating, hating being touched. His family was rather physical with their affection and he used to be the same, but ever since the accident, ever since he started fighting, he just couldn't stand it. One year was all it took to break the boy who loved to hug his friends and family. He had a feeling it would take much longer to fix.

"Hey," Paulina said softly.

Danny blinked, snapping out of his thoughts, and met her eyes.

"You know it's okay, right?"

"It's stupid," Danny said.

"No, it's not."

"You don't even know why I'm like this.

"Do I have to?"

Danny opened his mouth, then closed it. He thought about their interacts over the past week, ever since movie night at Sam's house. As Danny's hate for contact grew, Sam and Tucker's behaviour around him changed. Both were slow processes that happened at the same time. Sam and Tucker learned about his aversion to touch at the same pace as him. They had time to adjust to it. Paulina didn't. But she had made accommodations for him anyway. Just like that, without knowing the reason, without asking for it, she changed. For him.

Under the table, Paulina knocked her foot against his. "Okay?"

"Yeah." Danny smiled.

"Good. Because there are no pity parties allowed at the Nasty Burger. This is a horrible place to have a part of any kind. Have you seen how greasy everything is?" Paulina took her phone from her pocket and started swiping through it. "And I wanted to show you this. You can see the real thing on Monday, because I have to hand it in, but I couldn't wait."

She slid her phone across the table.

Danny picked it up, taking in the picture on the screen. It was her painting of him, completed. "Hey, you changed it." He couldn't remember exactly what the original sketch looked like, but he was certain he wasn't fighting anyone in the first one. In the drawing, he held his fists up, ready to punch or defend. Across from him floated a strange green creature with too many limbs to be human.

"I had to redo it all yesterday, since I had already started painting it. But I really wanted to add that in," Paulina said.

"Am I fighting a ghost or an alien?"

"An alien ghost."

"Cool." Danny took in the rest of the painting. The watercolours were beautiful, galaxies swirling behind him and the ghost alien. Much to his amusement, Paulina had added Jazz's hoodie over his spacesuit.

"I didn't know sweaters were suitable for the vacuum of space," he said.

"It's the fashion of the future. Burgundy is very in, especially in space," Paulina explain.

Danny's grin stretched wider.

The spacesuit itself resembled a Fenton jumpsuit, at least what little he could see of it did, and his helmet was sleek, with a wide visor. Danny thought he could stare at it forever. Paulina, however, had other plans, and soon snatched her phone back.

Danny made a noise of disappointment, reaching out after her.

"I'll text you the picture," she said.

"Good." Danny paused. "You know, you could have done that from the beginning."

"Maybe, but I wanted to see your face when you saw it." Paulina, eyes on her phone, missed Danny's brilliant smile. He was okay with that, taking a moment to watch her. She didn't have much makeup on today, her freckles on full display. She had forgone her usual purple eyeshadow and move lipstick for more natural tones.

Danny didn't know much about makeup, but he thought Paulina looked beautiful no matter what. In his pocket, his phone buzzed.

"Sent!" Paulina said. She looked up and caught him staring. "What? What is it?"

Danny gave her a lopsided grin. "You're pretty."

Paulina turned crimson. "Shut up, I know."

"Good."

"Eat your burger! It's gonna go cold. And don't even think about paying my back this time."

Danny took a massive bite out of the burger, so big his cheeks puffed out as he chewed, and gave Paulina a tight-lipped smile. After swallowing, he asked, "What if I want to pay you back?"

"You can't." Paulina shook her head. "That's not how dates work."

Danny, on his way in for his second bite, froze. He stared at Paulina, who took another long swig of his soda and smiled back. A glob of sauce fell out of the bottom of his burger and landed on his jeans.

"Damn it." Danny hissed, putting his burger aside, and grabbed a napkin, patting at the stain. As he dabbed, he looked back up. "If this is a date," he smiled widely when he said date, "then shouldn't the guy be paying?"

"We can take turns." Paulina passed Danny her own napkins.

He took them, mumbling a quick thanks, and finished wiping up the stain. Crumpling the napkins, he put them aside and turned all his focus on Paulina. "What about the... thing. You know, the secret I'm still hiding?"

"You don't have to tell me, not if you don't want to. Not right now. You were right before. We're not grown up. Maybe we'll keep dating all through high school. Maybe we'll break up in a month. We don't know." Paulina's words didn't fill Danny with confidence, but he didn't interrupt. "We're barely high schoolers and we like each other. That means we're allowed to have fun. It also means we don't have to tell each other absolutely everything."

"I want to," Danny said in a rush. "I really want to." He meant it. Paulina knowing his secret wouldn't be bad. It would probably be great, actually. But not now."

"Not yet," Paulina said, finishing Danny's thought for him.

He nodded.

Swinging her legs onto her bench, Paulina twisted to lean her back against the window. She rested her elbow on the table, chin balanced on her knuckles, and met his stare. For the first time, Paulina really did look her age, wrapped in a comfortable sweater, smiling like nothing else mattered but right now. Danny wanted to stay in that moment forever.

"We're kids," Paulina said. "We've got all the time in the world."

[wastefulreverie]

what is a home but a place to stay?

For Phic Phight 2020!

Word Count: 1933

Honestly, with all that happened his Senior year of High School college seemed like a pipe dream. Danny never expected to make it this far, especially given how he'd trashed his GPA the first three years of school. For the half-life of him, he couldn't understand why APU took pity on him but after a week or so of deliberation, he decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. After all, his family was thrilled! That, and he wouldn't be alone—Valerie was joining him. While Sam and Tucker both were accepted into state universities he was just grateful that he had one friend on campus.

The weekend before classes started, Danny packed up a bag of essentials and set out to move into his dorm. He figured he'd get Mom and Dad to help him move the rest of his belongings into his room later since campus was only twenty minutes from his house. They were busy with a Ghost Conference this weekend and there wasn't any rush, after all.

However, when he arrived on campus and inquired with Student Housing Management… things got a bit more complicated.

Apparently, he'd never selected a room on the university website and due to an understaffed department, he was never 'officially' assigned a room. Now, all the rooms were booked—meaning he could rent an off-campus apartment or move back in with his parents and commute for a semester.

Fuck that.

He'd lived at FentonWorks for eighteen years and while he loved his parents dearly he could not fathom living there for another five months. As a half-ghost living with aggressive ghost-hunters, the past four years had been something out of a horror movie. Sure, they didn't know that he was a halfa but that didn't mean that he enjoyed their long spiels about vivisecting his other half. He definitely didn't enjoy fighting reanimated food whenever he wanted a soda from the fridge. Not to mention, he'd gotten stuck behind ghost shields and targeted by the house's ecto-security system more times than he could count.

He could not go back there. He also didn't have a stable job to pay for an apartment since ghost hunting occupied most of his downtime.

That left one last option… take a refund on the housing payment and find some place on campus to haunt until he could figure out a more permanent solution. After all, he was a ghost! It really wouldn't be that hard!

The first week or so of school, Danny found refuge in an old computer lab. From what he'd heard, it'd been shut down for the past seven or eight years after APU won some grant and got all new computers for a brand new 'technology space'. There wasn't really a good place to sleep there, though, so after a few days of floating in his sleep Danny sought a new place to stay.

That led him toward the dorms.

Supposedly, all the rooms were booked but from what he could tell a few students had already moved out of their dorms in favor of joining fraternities. He half-wondered if he should go back to Student Housing Management and ask for one of those rooms, but that would mean he'd have to ask his parents to pay for housing again and now that he thought about it, that was just a waste of money. Financially speaking, this haunting thing actually wasn't a bad idea!

So, Danny moved into an empty room. Although, the dorm itself wasn't empty, so that made it difficult to stay hidden from the other occupants. He'd almost been caught a few times just by making too much noise, but any time anyone came close to discovering him he tapped into invisibility. One of the boys in his dorm, Jeremiah, was convinced that his 'empty' room was haunted and tried to warn the others. Danny thought it was hilarious and decided to up the stakes.

That night, he left his room in ghost form and flew down to the cafeteria for a late-night snack. By morning, half of the Freshmen were talking about the 'shadow ghost' haunting the dorms.

"Hey, Fenton," his new friend—Frieda—said. "You're from Amity, right? Do you think that it's actually a ghost? I mean, I've heard all about the attacks and stuff but… I thought at least campus would be safe!"

"Oh, the ghost is totally real. We used to get them all the time at my High School and my parents were ghost hunters. Though, I doubt we're in any danger. Since he hasn't done anything yet it's probably not a malevolent ghost."

"Yeah right," a guy in their Biology class argued. "I was there last night! When it came into the cafeteria the temperature dropped like ten degrees! It was like… it was like it sucked all the air out of my lungs! It's totally out to kill us all!"

"Whoa, you were there?" Frieda gasped. "What did it look like?"

"Okay, so you know those dark shadow things from the movies? It was like pitch black… except it was somehow bright at the same time. I don't know how to describe it but it scared the hell out of all of us."

Danny had to bite his tongue to keep himself from laughing. "So it didn't look like a person?"

"No, bro. It was nightmare fuel."

He nodded. "That's rough, buddy."

After the rest of the school caught on, Danny spent more time as Phantom outside of class. He didn't try to scare people, he just figured that it would probably be easier to move around campus as a ghost than Fenton since technically he wasn't supposed to live in the dorms. It was an alibi! And it wasn't like everyone was afraid of him—quite a few Casper High graduates recognized him and started spreading the word that their new campus spook was one of the 'good ghosts'. Before long, he'd been coaxed into making a few friends as Phantom rather than Fenton.

He was looking for a new room to crash in one night when a guy with green-hair waved him down. "Hey, ghost! What's up?"

Danny turned around and debated whether he should float down to the floor or not before deciding to stay in the air. "Oh, uh. I'm just hanging around, I guess."

"Do you know what Smash is?"

He tilted his head to the side. "Like the video game?"

"Yeah! Wow, a ghost knows what Smash is… Anyway, do you want to play with my friends and I?"

He was a bit taken aback that this guy was asking the local campus cryptid to hang out with him and his friends, but it wasn't the weirdest thing that had happened to him. Danny didn't really have a real reason to decline. Well, he had some history reading to knock out but he could always do it later. Besides, he hadn't played video games since Tucker had moved away.

"Sure. Why not?"

He soon learned that the green-hair guy's name was Alex. Alex introduced him to his boyfriend Rashon and their friends Marian and Kaori. Apparently, they'd all been dying to meet him for weeks which Danny found it hard to believe. Even though they were eager to meet him, Rashon and Marian were a bit on edge though. He couldn't really fault them for that considering that he was, well, dead.

That still didn't stop Marian from crushing him in Smash, though.

They played for about two hours before Danny decided to call it a night. He made a half-assed excuse that he was due to haunt the library since he couldn't really explain that he was tired. That would only lead to more questions why a ghost needed sleep and the last thing he needed was to give himself away. He promised that he'd stop by for another game night sometime and resumed his search for a new place to sleep since his last room had been rented out again. It happened more than he liked to admit but that was fine with him.

Two months into the semester, Valerie confronted him. He'd hung out with her a few times as Fenton, but once she got wind of a black-and-white ghost haunting the dorms she decided to take means into her own hands. They had a truce now but he couldn't blame her for being curious why Phantom was haunting her school. She probably thought he was there for her since he'd stopped haunting Casper High altogether. That alone would give anyone paranoia.

"Why are you at APU?" she set her ecto-gun on him. They were alone in the corridor and she was dressed in her civilian attire. "Are you following me, Phantom!"

"What, a guy can't pursue higher education?"

"Stop it with the sarcasm and answer me! I know we have a truce, but I have boundaries."

He sighed and lowered himself to the floor. "Look, you don't have to worry about me stalking you or anything. I'm not here for you, I'm here for a change in scenery, alright? A guy can only take so many years of haunting a High School."

"So you 'coincidentally' moved to college the same time I did? Yeah, right." She lowered her gun and placed her hands on her hips. "Give me a break and tell me why you're really doing this."

He sighed. "You know that I became a ghost four years ago. The reason ghosts attacked Casper so much was because I was listening in on classes there. I want an education, just like you. After I went through all the grade levels, I decided I want to know more—so now I hang around here. I mean, yeah I fly into town to fight ghosts whenever they pose a threat but I stay on campus as much as I can."

"And what about when you finish your education, huh? What then? When does this end, Phantom?"

He shrugged. "Haven't gotten there yet."

"You're insufferable." She ran a hand over her hair. "If I sense you anywhere near my room or my classes, I promise that I am shooting you into the next decade, spook."

And with that, she spun around and left him alone.

Damn.

He couldn't believe that actually worked. Then again, Valerie was elbow-deep in her courses and had better things to do than threaten Phantom all day.

Before he knew it, his first semester was over. He'd cultivated five months of experiences that he'd treasure for a lifetime, made new friends, and grappled with his coursework to the best of his ability. He hated to admit it, but he'd grown sick of not having a long-term place to stay. Maybe Dani was able to make it work but he hated the stress of having to find a new room every few days or weeks. The whole 'campus cryptid' gig was fun and he'd probably keep it up to a lesser extent but Danny needed stability. He'd hardly passed any of his classes due to poor study habits and having to drop everything at a moment's notice to go fight ghosts back in the city!

Fortunately, now that he had friends he could choose a roommate he knew he'd get along with. One of his friends' roommate had just dropped out so that made it easy to move in with him.

As he finally finished unpacking a room that was truly his, Danny sighed in relief. It had been fun haunting the campus, but it was a lot less trouble when he had his own bed.

Written for @enigmaris's Phic Phight prompt: "Due to an unfortunate housing mix-up, Danny arrives at his first year of college only to find that he was never assigned a room! Rather than be stuffed into a too small dorm with five other guys, Danny decides to take the refund for his housing and find a place on campus to haunt until he can find his own apartment. Write a story about the new campus ghost everyone keeps spotting."

[jacyevans]

Happy Laura Hale Appreciation Week - Tales from the “She Stood Tall” verse

So. This happened.

I've wanted to write the stories of how Laura invited each person into the pack since I wrote "A to B," the finale the She Stood Tall verse, back in 2018. I could never figure out how to get the words on the page.

I should have known better than to plan - the original 7 fics were born of unexpected inspiration and wacky, random happenstance. Of course, these stories would be, too.

Some of these chapters will be posted as @laurahale-appreciation goes on. The rest will be posted sometime next week. Todays theme is “Laura Didn’t Die.”

I hope you enjoy returning to this verse as much as I do. And with that, I give you:

Tales from the Verse - Or: Eight times Laura Hale offers someone the bite. Or: How Laura Hale rebuilds her pack and re-learns what it means to call Beacon Hills home

This Chapter - Scott - feat. Laura Hale, Scott McCall, Stiles Stilinski, and Derek Hale; Rated T.

[NOTE: You do not need to be familiar with the rest of the verse to read this fic, but it would definitely add to the experience. TL;DR, Laura survives both Peter and the Argents and reestablishes the Hale pack with Derek in Beacon Hills.] (Read on AO3)

Laura asks Scott about the Bite after a lacrosse game his senior year of high school.

He’s filling in for someone on the field, lungs burning from lack of oxygen. She can hear him panting from all the way up in the stands. During a time-out, he rushes to the bench, grabbing the inhaler Stiles has been holding in his hands and taking a long, slow puff. Coach tugs him to the side, asks if he’s okay to keep playing. Scott narrows his eyes, nods, tosses Stiles the inhaler, and rushes back onto the field.

They win the game 10 - 9, but Scott walks with his head down as he approaches Laura’s car and climbs into the back seat.

“You were awesome out there tonight,” Stiles says; he isn’t just pacifying Scott. He smells of disappointment that he was once again left on the bench, but warm elation for his friend.

“Yeah,” Scott mutters, buckling his seatbelt. He leans back in his seat and slouches down.

“Dude, I’m serious--”

“Seatbelt, Stiles,” Laura says, cutting him off. Stiles makes a face. He yanks the seatbelt across his chest, struggling to find the correct clip. Scott takes the buckle from his hand without complaint, strapping Stiles in with a click.

“Thanks, bro.” He grins. “Come on! Smile! You made the first goal! You kicked ass out there, man.”

“And Coach almost pulled me off the field right after when I stumbled onto the sideline because I couldn’t breathe,” Scott snaps. Stiles frowns, but he nudges Scott in the arm, pressing their shoulders together before he turns to pester Derek instead.

She pulls up in front of the Stilinski house. Stiles unbuckles his seatbelt and opens the door.

“Hey, Scott, hang back a minute,” she says, catching his eye in the rearview mirror. Scott frowns and exchanges a puzzled look with Stiles.

“Don’t look at me. I got nothin.’ Ack!” He yelps as Derek grasps onto the collar of his jersey, dragging him into the house. Stiles bitches about handsy werewolves who need obedience training as the door shuts.

Scott reeks of teenage angst - a particular smell she could only describe as teenage sweat mixed with anxiety turned up to eleven. Beneath that is bitter resentment, no doubt at what he perceives as his own failure.

She turns around in her seat so she can see his face. She and Derek discussed this weeks ago; she wanted to make sure they were on the same page. “I wanted to ask you something. Have you ever considered taking the Bite?”

Scott’s head snaps up, eyes wide. “You mean like - becoming a werewolf?”

“No, I mean that hickey on your neck the size of Mount Doom.”

Scott slaps a hand to the left side of his neck, grimacing when he hits the bruise. Go Allison.

Laura grins. “Yes, becoming a werewolf.”

“I don’t know. Haven’t really thought about it.” His frown deepens. “Is this about how shitty I played tonight?”

“You scored a goal,” she says, re-emphasizing Stiles’ earlier reassurance.

“Danny scored two,” he grumbles.

Laura rolls her eyes. “And that’s still one more than most of the other players on your team. There was nothing shitty about anything you did on that field.”

“You don’t know what it's like.” Scott stares down at his lap. His hand clenches at the bottom of his jersey. “You’ve never had to worry about getting a paper cut, nevermind barely being able to breathe some days just from walking down the stairs.”

Every so often, one of the humans will throw that in their face, that as werewolves, they don’t know what it's like to suffer from physical illness, usually while they’re whining about a stuffy nose or the flu. Most of the time, she ignores the comment.

Every so often - like when Scott couldn’t find his inhaler fast enough and started wheezing on the couch, or when the sheriff got into a car accident on his way home from work and broke his wrist in three places - the reminder stings. “I know that, Scott. That still doesn’t negate anything you did tonight.”

“I guess,” Scott mutters. He clears his throat, a cautious hope twisting around the edges of his scent. “So, if I become a werewolf - no more asthma, right?”

“I’m not saying it’ll be easy,” Laura says gently. “Your lungs will work just fine - better than fine, even. You’ll be able to run a mile in ten minutes without breaking a sweat.” His eyes light up. She shakes her head. “But the first few months are… painfully difficult for a new wolf. You’ll have to adapt to enhanced senses and heightened emotions. Your body is going to move in ways you aren’t used to. You’ll probably wolf out if someone so much as breathes too hard in your direction, and that’s nothing compared to how aggressive you’ll feel on the first few full moons until you find your anchor and learn control.”

“You know, you’re doing a horrible job of selling me on this,” Scott says, and when he gives her a small smile, she rolls her eyes.

“Listen wiseass,” she says, grin widening when he huffs a laugh, “I’m just making sure you have all of the information so you can make an informed decision.”

He bites his lip. “Do I have to decide tonight?”

She barks a laugh. “Hell no. I’m not biting you until you’re at least eighteen, so you have plenty of time to think about it.” She shifts in her seat, leaning her elbow on the headrest. “I just wanted you to know you have the option, if you want it.”

His smile is genuine this time. “Thanks.” Laura reaches back to ruffle his hair. He ducks her hand, opening the door.

Laura follows him out of the car. She waits until he slings his bag on his shoulder and shuts the door to add, “Oh, I also need to talk to your mother first.”

“Oh, come on!”

[stardewhqs]

WELCOME TO GLORY VALLEY, NEW NEIGHBORS !! you will have 48 hours to finalize your papers & turn it into the registry - that is, you will have until february 21st at 11AM PST to turn in your character account(s) and make an introduction post for your muse(s). hen we receive that, you will be offered a link to our ooc discord. finally, make sure to follow everyone on the blogroll, keep track of the tags to use, and have fun !!!

under the cut you’ll find every accepted application for our first round ! from here on out, we’ll be on a rolling acceptance basis, meaning that once the admin is online and there’s an app in the box, we’ll accept it.

[ OLIVIA COOKE , NON-BINARY , SHE/THEY ] it’s nice to see you [ DELILAH FOWLER ] ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit [ CONFRONTATIONAL ], i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really [ COURAGEOUS ], especially when you get called a [ BLACK SHEEP ]. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a [ BARISTA ] at just [ TWENTY FIVE] years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about [ LYING ABOUT STAYING SOBER ]. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ JUNE , SHE/THEY, 21+ , GMT ]

[ JENNA COLEMAN , CISFEMALE , SHE/HER ] it’s nice to see you [ BEATRICE ‘BEA’ RICHARDSON ] ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit [ PUGNACIOUS ], i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really [ PERCEPTIVE ], especially when you get called a [ WISEACRE ]. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a [ FLORIST ] at just [ THIRTY TWO ] years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about [ SHE HAD A DRUNKEN ONE NIGHT STAND AND IS WORRIED THAT HER YOUNGEST CHILD ISNT HER HUSBANDS ]. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ JADE, SHE/HER , 21+ , GMT ]

[ ALEJANDRO SPEITZER , CISMALE , HE/HIM ] it’s nice to see you [ DUARTE ALCARAZ ] ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit [ ALOOF ], i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really [ STOIC ], especially when you get called a [ LOST SOUL ]. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a [ HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ] at just [ 28 ] years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about [ HIS ILLEGAL ARMS DEALING BUSINESS THAT HAS BEEN LAUNDERING MONEY ]. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ CAM , THEY/SHE , 18+ , EST ]

[ LEE MINHO, CIS MALE , HE/HIM ] it’s nice to see you [ JIMMY KIM ] ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit [ PESSIMISTIC ], i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really [ WARMHEARTED ], especially when you get called a [ PROCRASTINATOR ]. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a [ HIGH SCHOOL GYM TEACHER / SUBSTITUTE ] at just [ TWENTY-EIGHT ] years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about [ JIMMY ACCEPTED MONEY TO ‘ADJUST’ A HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR’S GRADE ]. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ EMILY , SHE/HER , 21+ , PST ]

[ ELIZABETH OLSEN , CIS FEMALE , SHE/HER ] it’s nice to see you MERIDIAN CARLYLE ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit MORDACIOUS , i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really VENTURESOME , especially when you get called a TEMPEST. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a BARISTA AT HONEYBREWS at just THIRTY-TWO years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about how HER PRONE TO INVASIVENESS NATURE COST HER HER MARRIAGE . but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ GREMLIN , SHE/HER , 25 , CST ]

[ NINA DOBREV, CIS FEMALE , SHE/HER ] it’s nice to see you [ CASSANDRA & OWENS ] ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit [ INSECURE ], i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really [ KINDHEARTED ], especially when you get called a [ SACCHARINE ]. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a [ BAKER ] at just [ TWENTY-SEVEN ] years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about [ BEING THE FAMILY DISAPPOINTMENT, RAN AWAY FROM HOME FIVE YEARS AGO BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T WANT TO RUN HER MOTHER’S FASHION BUSINESS, USED ALL OF HER SAVINGS TO BE IN THE BAKING CAREER INSTEAD ]. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ MOONY , SHE/HER , 21+ , SHE/HER ]

[ ANA DE ARMAS , CIS FEMALE , SHE/HER ] it’s nice to see you [ CATALINA MORALES ] ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit [ SELF-DESTRUCTIVE ], i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really [ HOSPITABLE ], especially when you get called a [ WILTING FLOWER ]. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as an [ EVENT PLANNER ] at just [ THIRTY ] years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about [ RUNNING AWAY FROM HOME AT THE AGE OF EIGHTEEN AFTER HAVING A SECRET ABORTION THAT HER MOM DISAPPROVED OF ]. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ ANDI , SHE/HER , 21+ , PST ]

[ CHRIS EVANS , CIS MALE , HE/HIM ] it’s nice to see you [ DANIEL LINWOOD ] ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit [ EGOCENTRIC ], i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really [ SUPPORTIVE ], especially when you get called a [ BACHELOR ]. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a [ CHEF AT AQUA PALMS ] at just [ THIRTY-EIGHT ] years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about [ THE LETTER HE JUST GOT FROM AN EIGHT YEAR OLD CLAIMING DANNY’S THE DAD ]. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ RACHELLE, SHE/HER , 21+ , PST ]

[ KIM TAEHYUNG , CIS MAN , HE/HIM ] it’s nice to see you [ DAEJUNG MOON ] ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit [ IMPULSIVE ], i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really [ PASSIONATE ], especially when you get called a [ TORTURED SOUL ]. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a [ MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHER ] at just [ TWENTY FIVE ] years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about [ HOW YOU HELPED YOUR FRIEND GET THE DRUGS HE ENDED UP OVERDOSING WITH ]. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ CAM , SHE/HER , 25 , CST ]

[ CHOI YEONJUN , CIS MAN , HE/HIM ] it’s nice to see you MICHAEL “MIKE” PARK ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit GUMPY, i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really CARE-FREE, especially when you get called a HALCYON. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a TATTOO ARTIST at just TWENTY-TWO years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about YOUR LITTLE SISTER WHO IS ACTUALLY YOUR DAUGHTER THAT YOU ACCIDENTALLY HAD WITH YOUR EX GIRLFRIEND WHEN YOU WERE EIGHTEEN. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ TALLY , SHE/HER , 25 , GMT+4 ]

[ LEE HYUNJAE , MALE  , HE/HIM ] it’s nice to see you CALUM YA ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit CHILDISH, i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really EASY-GOING, especially when you get called a HALCYON. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a GUITARIST at just TWENTY-TWO years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about HOW HIS FATHER RESENTS HIM AND IS ASHAMED OF HIM FOR NOT JOINING THE ARMY AND KEEPING UP THE FAMILY MALE TRADITION. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ BON , THEY/HE , 23 , EST ]

[ DOVE CAMERON , CISFEMALE , SHE/HER ] it’s nice to see you CLEMENTINE GEORGE ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit STUBBORN, i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really ARTISTIC , especially when you get called a  AESTHETE . so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER at just 25 years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about [ HER ONLYFANS ACCOUNT]. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ MINNOW , SHE/HER , 21+ , CST]

[ CHARLES MELTON , MALE , HE/HIM ] it’s nice to see you [ CLYDE SHAW ] ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit [ WITHDRAWN ], i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really [ LOYAL], especially when you get called a [ THE DESPONDENT ]. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a [ LANDSCAPER ] at just [ TWENTY NINE ] years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about [ AFTER AN ACCIDENT AT WAR HE WAS THE ONLY SURVIVOR, HE SUFFERED MAJOR INJURIES BUT WHEN HE GOT BACK HE FOUND OUT THAT THE MEDIA PICKED UP HIS STORY AND PEOPLE THINK THE MISSION HE SURVIVED SHOULD HAVE BEEN A SURE THING. BUT INSTEAD HE WAS THE ONLY ONE TO WALK AWAY. HE’S HIDING IN GLORY VALLEY ]. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ DUCKIE , SHE/HER , 21+ , EST ]

[ BILL SKARSGARD , CIS MALE , HE/HIM ] it’s nice to see you [ HOWARD FINE ] ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit [ CRITICAL ], i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really [ DECISIVE ], especially when you get called a [ ORPHIC ]. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a [ HARBOURMASTER ] at just [ TWENTY-NINE ] years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about [ THE SWINDLING INCIDENT AT THE HABOUR ]. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ RIA, SHE/HER , 21+ , GMT+8 ]

[ HENRY ZAGA , CIS MAN , HE/HIM ] it’s nice to see you LUCAS “LUKE” SANTOS ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit CONCEITED, i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really SOCIABLE, especially when you get called a GOLDEN BOY. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a COLLEGE STUDENT / TRUST FUND BRAT at just 24 years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about WHEN HE SAW SOMEONE HAVING AN ASTHMA ATTACK BUT DIDN’T HELP BECAUSE HE THOUGHT THEY WERE FAKING IT; THEY ENDED UP DYING SHORTLY AFTER. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ AMANDA , SHE/HER , 18+ , EST ]

[ PETER CAPALDI, MALE, HE/HIM ] it’s nice to see you [ OLIVER MASTERS] ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit [WITHDRAWN], i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really [HELPFUL], especially when you get called a [TRUSTWORTHY FELLOW]. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a [PEDIATRITIAN/FAMILY DOCTOR] at just [57] years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about [ HE HAD A TWENTY YEAR AFFAIR IN HIS 30’s-50’s THAT RECENTLY ENDED THREE YEARS AGO]. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ KELSEA , SHE/HER , 21+ , MOUNTAIN ]

[ JAKE MCDORMAN , CIS MALE , HE HIM HIS ] it’s nice to see you TREVOR EVANS  ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit STUBBORNLY, i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really LOYAL, especially when you get called a THE YOUNG AT HEART. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a ETSY SHOP OWNER at just THIRTY-ONE years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about HE USED TO BE A RENOWNED DOCTOR. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ LANDON , HE HIM HIS, 21+ , EST]

[ BRADLEY JAMES , CIS  MALE , HE/HIM ] it’s nice to see you [ LEANDER & WHITLOCK ] ! the last time i saw you, it was at the last town meeting, and you were acting a bit [ APATHETIC ], i have to say. but i’ve also seen you around being really [ SUAVE ], especially when you get called a [ THE JERK WITH A HEART OF GOLD ]. so i totally get it – everyone has their bad days ! how’s it been, by the way, working as a [ MUSICIAN ] at just [ TWENTY-EIGHT ] years old ? i hope it’s been good – you were so excited to start there ! hopefully they didn’t ask about [ BREAKING OFF FROM HIS FAMILY AND FAMILY MONEY TO MAKE A LIFE OF HIS OWN ]. but i promise i’ll keep that between us. [ MOONY , SHE/HER , 25+ , EST ]

[ecto-american]

October Nights

Ectober fanfiction || On AO3

Summary: Danny may have died, but he is certainly not gone. And he refuses to be forgotten.

Day 1: Fangs & Shatter

Nobody expected Sam to handle the situation well. It was so sudden, and she felt like she was lying when she said that she had expected something to have eventually happened. That it was only a matter of time. But honestly? Sam never really thought about it. Danny was always so strong and powerful. So honorable and brave. He was the hero, and heroes always saved the day, no matter the cost.

She should have been prepared for the reality that Danny may be seriously hurt from ghost hunting. She really, really should have. But she didn’t. It was a concept so foreign to the barely eighteen year old Casper High senior. And the worst had happened, leaving her heart shattered.

Danny died, and he had died brutally.

From what could be gathered, he had died horrifically at the hands of an unknown ghost, and he died alone. Slowly in a dirty ditch during a harsh stormy night, just outside of Elmerton, only discovered by a passing motorcyclist. He was already dead when he was found. 

Sam was never clued in to the extent of his injuries, but the funeral had been closed casket. When she requested to see him, one more time, she was quietly told that it was best that she did not. Leaving the last vision of him a touching one, where he told her he loved her and kissed her good night. 

She replaced the scene over and over again in her mind as she stared at the window. The last place she saw him. The way he’d lean on her windowsill, as if his weightless ghost half needed the support. His dorky smile, the freckles that were slowly fading as summer was ending. Eyes that always stared so lovingly at her, as they were that night as he had confessed to her once more his desire to get married to her after college. Something she always confessed back. 

Sam could think of nothing better than to be married to her absolute best friend, despite them only being an official couple for a month. Six years of a crush, four years of light flirting, fake out make outs, of them being shy and unsure. Such a slow progression had lead to the official spark, and now she couldn’t, she wouldn’t, imagine a life without him. They talked about that future together. Going to the same college right there in Amity Park with Tucker. Potential wedding plans. How they wanted to go follow Dumpty Humpty on tour. Their playful arguments over getting a cat or a dog. The amount of children they’d have, and their names. Moving in together. How Danny was going to finally manage to get her parents to like him. How much his parents loved and accepted her into the family already. That dream vacation to London they planned to take once in college. Truly having a life together as their young love blossomed into a long, happy life together. All of those plans and memories that were supposed to be made were shattered into millions of what ifs. 

Warm tears were wiped away by shaking hands. She rolled over to face her wall, forcing herself to sit up. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t keep doing this. Get up. Sam had to get up. Maybe get something to eat. Attempt homework. Watch a movie. Her hair stuck up, and it felt greasy. A nice hot bath would likely make her feel tons better. As she rolled her shoulders, she felt them pop. She needed to get up.

She slowly leaned forward, feeling her feet hit the floor as they wobbly supported her weight. The goth purposefully ignored the blank spaces on the wall, dust exposing where picture frames were once hung up. She dragged herself to the bathroom, standing in the doorway. Her hand was so heavy. Too heavy. The palm of her hand slapped the wall and slowly slid to try and flip on a light. It burned the second it flickered on, and she couldn’t help but just stare at the bathroom.

What was she doing? Sam couldn’t figure it out. The bathroom felt foggy despite no water. A bath sounded less and less appealing. Her knees buckled. She turned the light off, and she began to slump back to her bed.

Sam froze with a soft, surprised gasp as she unintentionally locked eyes with something at her window. Something that had not been there before, masked by shadows and her curtain but she saw what she needed to see. Dark red eyes were staring intently at her with a blank expression plastered on light blue skin. Familiar whitehair, a familiar white and black jumpsuit. His entire form was painted in a light glowing green with buckets worth of a dark brownish-red. Ectoplasm and blood. While those eyes seemed to be from him, Sam wasn’t sure. He looked familiar, and she knew who he was. But at the same time, she had no clue who. 

The form finally had some kind of expression. He flashed a toothy smile, letting sharp fangs shine in the faint light of her nightstand lamp. His eyes even seemed to sparkle too, but it was far from the warmth that she had experienced before. This one was...almost haunting. It was trying to be charming, but failing miserably. She shivered, but yet she still found herself stepping forward.

“Danny?” she whispered. The form immediately jerked back a foot. “No, Danny,” she breathed as she began to quickly walk to him. With every step she took to him, he moved backwards a step. “DANNY!” 

Sam got to the window, immediately slamming the doors open, but by then, the form was gone. Cold wind nipped harshly at her skin as she scanned the skies for him. Any sign of a black and white figure zooming as she had witnessed many times before, flying gracefully and with the faint sound of cheerful laughing.

The night was empty and silent. 

[reed-benjamin]

(( — bill skarsgard. eighteen. male. he/him. )) why is BENJAMIN REED leaving the police station? i know the SENIOR was SECRET ADMIRER of bailey murphy and the last time they saw her, HE HAS SENT A LETTER ASKING HER TO MEET HIM . and if that doesn’t scream guilty, maybe the fact that bailey knew HE’S ADDICTED TO DEPRESSION PILLS does.

Full name: Benjamin Daniel Reed

Nicknames: Ben, Benjie, Dan, Danny...

Gender: Male

Pronouns: He/him

Age: Eighteen

Extracurriculars: American sign language, debate team, photography club, swimming

tw: addiction

Bio: Born and raised on a farm in White Lake, Benjamin is one of three children of Elizabeth and Charles. He lived for five years with his mother, five happy and lovely years. Ben remembers that his mother was very affectionate at first with all three of them, but suddenly his mother became increasingly distant from her children. Each cry was the reason for a shout, which soon began an argument with Charles.

Shortly after, when their youngest turned a year old, he remembers waking up to see his father sitting on the couch, one hand over his eyes as he cried and in the other hand a piece of paper, which he later found to be a letter from his mother in which she wrote about leaving her family for a new job and a new life, without specifying the location, clearly not wanting to be found.

After Elizabeth left them, his father was a mess. Thankfully his grandparents helped Charles with the kids and to handle this situation. Benjamin and her siblings were tenderly raised by their grandparents while their dad turned into a workaholic, to keep his mind busy and away from Elizabeth. 

Benjamin constantly hid his feelings from his family, especially from his younger siblings, always feeling like he needed to be strong in front of them. But, when he was alone, he allowed himself to feel everything, which was still really painful, even when he says it is not and he is over it. Once, he met a guy at school who said he had exactly what he needed to feel numb. That was when his depression pills addiction started.

[justanultrastressedwriter]

Aw Hell No - Ch I

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TW: Homophobia (slurs), Violence, Swearing. Let me know if I should tag anything else

“Uh, DJ! Can’t you believe it?” the bouncy redhead squealed to her tall, curly-haired best friend with excitement.

“Can’t believe what? That you could somehow reach super supersonic levels this early in the morning?” the guy standing next to her muttered, frowning down at his best friend.

“Don’t be a dick, Daniel. Can’t you at least pretend to be excited? It’s the first day of our senior year! This is the home stretch, baby!” the short imp said, with an excited grin on her face.

“Charlotte Elizabeth Thomas. It's barely even 8 am, I’ve only had one cup coffee because you, for some ungodly reason, wanted to get to school ridiculously early, you have been shrieking in my ear for the last half hour, and I have the first period with the teacher who hates me the most because he’s the most bigoted person on the face of the Earth. What the hell do I have to be excited about?” Daniel James frowned at her, glaring. He was nowhere near being a morning person like his best friend was. Daniel could barely function before 9 am without numerous cups of coffee.

“Well, Mr. Grumpy Gills, for starters you have little old me. I’m taking the time out of my busy life to grace you with my perfect existence. My mere presence should make you ecstatic, you utter peasant.” she said cheekily, tilting her head to the side and raising her chin arrogantly. Daniel couldn’t help but crack a smile at her.

“Charlie, I have no fucking idea how I have managed to be your best friend. Your massive ego should be your best friend instead of me, you annoying little twerp.” Daniel teased.

“But, I’m your annoying little twerp and you can’t help but love me,” Charlie said with a reckless grin and a quirked eyebrow.

Daniel was about to respond with one of his famous witty one-liners when his thoughts were interrupted by a strong force against his back, shoving his face into the cool metal of the lockers he had been leaning on. He knew that at least one bruise would appear there the next day.

“Happy first day of school, faggot.” a voice hissed from behind him. He could hear the sneer and disdain in the person’s voice, which helped him recognize the voice. It made his muscles tense as he turned to face the biggest prick in the entire school.

Connor Smith; the popular jock that had been tormenting Daniel since they were in preschool. It had started back then with small childish antics: the breaking of crayons and toys, blaming Daniel for everything - which made all of their teachers peg him as a troublemaker and hate him, despite being one of the quietest and most polite kids in school - and a long list of other things that didn’t really matter in the long run.

Ever since Daniel had been forced out of the closet in their freshman year, though, Connor Smith and the entire school had gotten worse. Connor had inspired the football team on numerous occasions to jump Daniel in the school parking lot after school or to tie him to the goalposts naked, they all constantly shoved Daniel in the halls and into lockers, made him spill his lunch all over himself, broke into his locker to ruin his textbooks or his schoolwork and notes, but those were just things the sport teams did. The entire school would simply trip him or call him cute pet names, ‘useless queer’, ‘faggot’, or Daniel’s favorite ‘dirty little cocksucker’.

Of course, no one ever did anything about Daniel’s predicament. The best people would turn the other cheek to everything going on. Daniel’s mom had gone to the school boards countless times, even a few teachers had gone to the administrations on his behalf, but nothing happened. Either it was because “they were just boys being boys”, “that there wasn’t enough evidence”, or that Daniel brought this upon himself either by not sticking up for himself but Daniel knew what they really meant.

“Hey, Meathead! Leave him alone! He’s done nothing to you!” Charlie yelled, getting as fiery as her red hair and glaring up at the jock. Standing at 5’3”, Charlie yelling at Connor, who stood at a whopping 6' 3”, looked like David challenging Goliath. It could have been considered comical by an outside party.

Connor smirked as if he were amused, but then his favorite lackey spoke up, with a lustrous look. “You wanna dance, Red? I can make sure you have a great time. I can think of so many ways to make you scream.”

Charlie’s cheeks turned red at the implications and she began to struggle for words. Daniel felt a fire of anger ignite up within his chest. He knew exactly how uncomfortable his best friend was about anything sexual. She hadn’t even kissed anyone for fucks’ sake. So Daniel came to her rescue, standing up to his full height to look the jerk in the eyes and shield his best friend from the pair of Neanderthals. “Leave her alone, Tyler. She has nothing to do with this, you know that. Your problem is with me.”

Tyler Roberts. Daniel’s second-biggest tormentor and Connor’s best friend/lackey. He was also known for being the biggest man-whore around having slept his way through at least half of the town.

“Or what, fag?” Tyler said, his voice filled with scorn and disgust, making Daniel flinch at the word.

“Or we’ll take our problem to the cops, jackass,” Daniel said, glaring at the other boy. “You are eighteen, right? How does jail sound to you? And if not, oh well. I’ll just settle for getting you kicked off the football team. That will lead you to have a problem with the rest of the football team and Coach Jamison- aren’t y’all expected to go to the playoffs this year? I don’t think the team will make it without their starting lineman, huh? Not to mention all of the colleges that are willing to offer you sports scholarships. The rest of the world is pretty damn liberal these days, I don’t think they’ll take too kindly to you being charged with a hate crime against a poor innocent gay kid, now would they? But by all means, if you want to risk it all by beating me to a pulp - then bring it on, asshole. I’ve been through worse and I’ve got nothing to lose.”

Daniel raised his arms out to his sides in a challenge. He’d rather get his ass kicked a dozen times over than watch those goons touch his best friend again. He watched as the larger Neanderthal’s brain worked through the concept that actions do have consequences.

Apparently, Connor’s brain worked a lot quicker than his counterpart, because he clasped a hand onto Tyler’s shoulder as if to calm him.

“Danny-boy’s right, man. There’s too much at stake for us.” Connor turned back to Daniel with a glare, “We’re not finished here, faggot.”

As the two jocks walked away, Daniel and Charlie shared a look and a sigh of relief, “You okay, Char?”

“I should be asking you the same thing, sweetie. They barely even looked at me.” Charlie said, looking at her best friend with concern.

Daniel shrugged, rubbing his forehead. “I’m just so tired of this shit, Charlie. These giant jackasses thinking that I’m dirt just because I’m gay. It’s so fucking stupid. But, I mean, are they right? Am I less than they are because I’m a faggot?”

Standing at 5 foot ten, with curly black hair that was constantly hanging in his light grey eyes framed by the pair of round glasses that rested on his freckle covered nose, Daniel James was gay.

After coming out to his two best friends at the time Charlie and one of their former friends Grace, he was forced out of the closet. Grace had panicked after hearing the news and she told her parents who then told the entire town and because they lived in a small-ass town in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere of the deep South. That made Daniel a social pariah.

Charlie pulled her best friend into a tight hug, “Oh, honey, no. You are not less than them. If anything, you’re so much more. You don’t have to put other people down to make yourself feel big. All of these ignorantly homophobic assholes are piles of shit compared to you.”

Daniel felt himself be slightly comforted by his friend’s words, but he couldn’t stop the negative thoughts and self-disgust running through his head. The bell for the first period rang, causing the two to pull apart. Daniel grimaced, knowing what that bell meant. For the next fifty minutes, he would be at the will and mercy of the most bigoted teacher on the small campus. “Wish me luck.”

“Oh, yeah. You’ve got P.E. with Coach Jamison, huh? Hell, yeah. I wish you all the luck in the world. You’re gonna need it.” Charlie said with a playful grin.

“Don’t remind me,” Daniel said, rolling his eyes and walking towards the boy’s locker room to change into the required gym uniform. Hopefully, if he got there early enough, Daniel could change in peace and hurry into the gym to get this torture over with.

Daniel found the locker to be empty and he quickly changed out of his flannel and T-shirt, then entered the gymnasium where Coach Jamison glared at him as if Daniel was a piece of dirt on his shoe. It made Daniel’s throat clench.

Daniel hung his head in shame and waited patiently for everyone else to show up in silence. Daniel only looked up after the door opened and he could feel someone’s eyes on him and what he saw made beads of sweat appear on his brow and his throat clench. It was Connor Smith, wearing a grin that sent chills down Daniel’s spine. He thought, ‘This class just somehow got even worse. Fuck me.’

[capybergara]

In the song Summer Nights from Grease (1973), Sandy sings “he was sweet, just turned eighteen”. Now as we all know someone can be in their senior year and be 18 years old, however that person would have to turn 18 in September, and from the rest of the lyrics we can assume Danny turned 18 at the start of the summer, hence he should have graduated that year and be going to college. Not only has he been held back a year at some stage in his life but Sandy wasn’t nearly that surprised when she saw him at the school. In this essay I will...