Um... don't kill me? My computer was somehow wiped clean of all Microsoft files and this story was lost. I forgot how the story was going, so I edited the first two chapters to make them fit to my new plan! Very minor changes, you probably won't even notice if you re-read them.

Disclaimer—If I owned Danny Phantom, I would be long dead from all the angry fans stoning me for letting Nick cancel it...

Love my beta-reader; Nom de Plume.

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Chapter 2

It had been a day since Sam had last talked to Danny. He's been avoiding talking to her since their… predicament. She didn't understand why;, more awkward things had happened between the two before, and nothing really seemed to change between them. Why now?

Questions buzzed through her head as she closed her locker. Jazz was standing behind the door, so when it closed Sam jumped back a foot or two.

"Gosh, Jazz! You scared me half to death!" Sam exclaimed.

"Sorry, but you seemed to be spacey." Jazz paused "Why are you being spacey?"

"I don't know...It's just... never mind, it's nothing really important." She shrugged and started to walk away.

"If it's about Danny, I've been noticing it too," Jazz said, trying to stop her.

It seemed to work, because as soon as she said Danny's name, Sam stopped in her tracks and turned towards her, one eyebrow raised.

So I'm not crazy...

"What about Danny?" she questioned, trying to sound innocent.

"Sam, don't play dumb with me; you know what I'm talking about. Is there something I need to know? As a concerned older sister, I mean."

Sam sighed "Jazz, don't worry." She paused, choosing her words carefully. "There's nothing I know that you don't know of already."

"So, you don't know either?"

"Not a clue," she said, leaning back on the lockers with a sigh.

"And I thought I was out of the loop."

"There's a loop?"

"Sam..."

"Look, I just. I don''t know." She put her head back and dropped her shoulders. "He's just... he seems more distant since what happened Wednesday, and—" Sam would have mentally slapped herself if Jazz hadn't cut her off.

"What happened Wednesday?" Jazz, asked.

"Nothing important, but—"

"Well, Sam, apparently it is important if that's when he started acting strange," she reasoned. "What is it?"

She hesitated. Was this something she wanted to tell Jazz? I mean, she could jump to some random conclusions that made no sense or something, and it could end up being the total opposite of what the problem actually was. Still, though, it might not hurt to tell her. Even if it seemed like the hardest thing to say to Sam at this point. "Jazz... I—"

BBBBBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGG

Saved by the bell! Wow... Never thought I'd say that. Well, think that.

"I'll talk to you later, Jazz," Sam said as she ran towards her first period classroom.

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It had taken all day, but she finally did it. Just minutes after the bell rang, her arms crossed over her chest, Sam stared at the uneasy looking Danny before her.

"Look, Danny, I know there's something going on here. Now tell! Come 'on! I'm your best friend, you know you can trust me," Sam told him, throwing her hand up to emphasize her point.

"Sam, it's..." He paused, thinking. "It's nothing, really," Danny told her, looking everywhere around her but her eyes.

"Danny, if it's nothing, then why are you acting so... weird?"

"Weird? Who's acting weird?" he asked, now looking nervous. "Speaking of weird, what with the weather? I mean, it was raining one day, and now it all sun—"

"Danny, stop changing the topic. Just, please tell me what's going on?"

He looked to be considering answering her, opening and closing his mouth. "I have to go," he told her, walking off, doing a double-take of her as he passed by.

She turned around and watched him walk off, getting an exasperated look on her face as she did so. I guess he decided against it...

What was wrong with him? And why was he being so fidgety around her? It didn't make any sense.

The last time I saw him acting like this, he was convinced he was crazy and seeing ghosts that weren't there... He's being so paranoid; I wonder what's causing it.

"Urg! Why does everything have to be confusing in my life?" she asked, putting her fisted hands in her hair. She sighed. "If it were something really, really important, he'd tell me, right?"

If it were a ghost problem, they'd all know about it. They'd see him fighting it, or he'd be tired whenever she saw him. Danny could handle pretty much any ghost that was fighting him, and if he knew he couldn't do something alone, they'd find a way to help him. But, he wasn't tired like he would be if it was ghost trouble, so that couldn't be it.

The sky turned to overcast as Sam started to walk home and continued to think. It would be a while before she got her answer.

Danny always told Sam and Tucker everything, so why would it be different now? Even if it was something huge that she didn't want them to know about, one of them always got it out of him...

"Tucker." She stopped walking.

If she didn't know, that meant Tucker must know, right? What would Danny tell Tucker that he couldn't tell me..?

She cupped her chin in her hand, thinking. I got nothing... Must be guy stuff...

Sam shrugged and continued walking. If not knowing was still bothering her tomorrow, she'd ask Tucker.

But, still, she worried for her friend. What if he was having problems at home? No. Jazz would have mentioned it to Sam when they conversed today. There was always that little possibility, though, that it would've slipped her mind... No. There were never any problems with the Fentons... besides the whole Santa thing, and that was just strange. But that wouldn't explain why he was being so distant.

He wasn't depressed; Sam would have been able to tell. But there was something else on his mind. The way he kept avoiding talking, changing the subject, breaking mid-sentence to think. There was definiely something he was thinking hard about. He even did a double-take of her.

But why?

Feeling suddenly cold, she wrapped her arms around herself before she walked up her front steps, through the door, and up to her room, without looking to see if anyone was home.

Closing her bedroom door, she threw her backpack by her bed, and kicked her shoes off as she walked towards her computer desk, turning it on as she sat down.

Why was Danny acting this way around her? Maybe… if it was a guy thing, he'd be acting the same way around Valerie? She was their friend too, after all.

She tried to think back to see if Danny had interacted with Valerie over the past few days.. He had, she remembered.

Val caught him in the hall to talk to him... She paused, trying to remember further. 'He had a look of relief when he saw it was her...and not me, I guess... but he still broke off his conversation with her pretty fast.'

She typed in her password. She would be automatically sent to her inbox when the desktop loaded fully.

So it has to be a guy thing. She went back to her previous thoughts If he's this way around me, Valerie, even Jazz, it has to be, right?

She sighed and sunk into her computer chair as she sighed in frustration.

"You need to not think about this right now," she told herself. "Now, let's see what our crazy people need help with today." She laughed at that.

More people seemed to be asking her for advice. Her first person must've spread around that she helped or something. Because now she was getting questions left and right.. Just that morning, before school, she'd got four. She smiled to herself.

She was doing a way better job than Paullina could have!

Take THAT, Miss. I-can-do-anything-in-the-universe-and-get-praise-for-it!

There were six new messages. I guess I'm not the only one who goes off homework assignments in computers…

Within ten minutes she read every one of them and sent it back to their owners. But just as she was about to sign off, she received another.

She read the person's username to herself and automatically knew who it was from..

GHOSTH8R

Since last year, I've had this... problem with someone. A grudge, if you will. But as of late, I seem to just be after them out of habit, not really because I want to. I don't think I could just drop it, because I still feel that they have issues, but I don't feel like I'm the one to keep after him.

Her jaw dropped. This was too perfect! She could just tell her to quit it, and Danny would be free of the huntress forever. But just telling her to stop was too blunt and might make her suspicious.

Bright light broke her concentration as her curtains flew open to reveal the shinning sun where overcast had just been. She got up from her chair and closed the window and drapes before returning to computer to reply to Valerie's message.

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