Forty-six

Casper High School cafeteria
Amity Park

Tucker gaped at Danny and Sam across the lunch table from him, astonished. "So everything's cool with your folks? They're not gonna call the Guys in White on Danny?"

Sam sat across the table from him, her arms crossed, and an expression of disgust on her face. "Nope." Her voice was flat and lifeless.

"And they're gonna let you keep seeing each other?" Valerie, sitting next to Tucker, sounded as amazed as he felt. "Even though Danny's a you-know-what?"

"Yep." Danny's tone was as dull as Sam's as he sat with his elbows propped up on the table next to his untouched lunch, his chin resting in his hands, and his teeth clenched in annoyance. Although he was next to Sam, there was a good two feet between the two of them.

"And they're gonna let you keep fighting ghosts?" This was even more inconceivable to Tucker than the fact that they were going to be allowed to see each other. His own parents had been quite alarmed when they'd told them the truth, not so much about Danny being half ghost, but about the looming threat of Vlad gathering up a ghost army and what he might do to Amity Park in general, and to Tucker in particular.

"Yep," Sam replied in the same monotone.

Tucker exchanged glances with Valerie. What's with them? "Then why aren't you guys celebrating? This is huge! No more sneaking around, no more worrying about what her parents will do if they find out. So how come you guys are acting like you just came from a funeral?"

Sam drummed her fingers on her arms. "There were a few… conditions."

Valerie raised her eyebrow. "Conditions?"

"Yeah. Like for one, I'm still grounded."

"So?" Tucker shrugged. "You've been grounded before."

"Yeah, but not like this."

Tucker cocked his head, confused. "Like what?"

Danny sat up straight, his disgruntled expression not changing. He reached towards Sam, placing a single index finger on her shoulder. Immediately, his body stiffened and he let out a yelp of pain as some sort of electrical shock zapped him. It stopped as soon as he jerked his finger away from Sam.

Tucker's eyes widened. "What the—?"

Sam lifted the hem of her uncharacteristically long shirt just enough to reveal a white and green belt beneath. Now Tucker's jaw dropped open. "Is that a—?"

"Yep." Sam dropped her shirt. "It's a Specter Deflector."

Tucker was speechless a moment, and then he started to chuckle. "Your parents are making you wear that?"

"For two weeks."

Tucker met Val's eye again, neither one of them able to contain their laughter. "Man. They really are using the Specter Deflector as a chastity belt!"

He simultaneously got a kick on his shin under the table from Sam, and a hole burned through the top of his beret by way of a furtive ghost ray from Danny. "Hey!" He took the beret off and patted the singed hair beneath with one hand while leaning down to rub his bruised shin with the other. For the first time all day, both Danny's and Sam's sour expressions lightened, and Tucker scowled at Sam. "I thought you didn't condone Danny using his ghost powers to get back at people."

"I'm willing to make exceptions in certain cases."

Tucker mumbled in complaint as he put his ruined hat back on his head while Valerie schooled her features to try to stop laughing. She looked at Sam. "Why don't you just take it off when your parents aren't around?"

"They locked it."

"Oh, that shouldn't be a problem. I'm sure I've got something in my suit—"

Sam shook her head, pointing behind her as Mr. Lancer approached. "Hello, Mr. Fenton. Ms. Manson. Everything still in order?"

Sam looked like she was going to chew through her own lip. "Yes, Mr. Lancer," she ground out, lifting the hem of her shirt once more.

Lancer leaned just enough so that he could see the Specter Deflector, then nodded in approval. "Very good. Carry on, then." And he walked away.

Tucker gaped at them. "They got Lancer involved?"

"He checks on me, like, every half hour."

Valerie blinked. "What about your parents, Danny? Couldn't they say something—?"

"Who do you think gave the Mansons the Specter Deflector in the first place?" Danny let his chin drop back down into his hands, disgusted. "Not only that, my parents installed a Ghost Shield in Sam's house yesterday. Her parents keep it on twenty-four/seven. I won't be able to go over there at all while she's grounded, and after that's over, I'll only be able to come over in human form. Through the front door."

Tucker rolled his eyes. "Yeah, welcome to the world of the mere mortals."

"Don't get too smug. Your house is next," Danny warned.

"Yeah, but I don't think my parents have quite the same worries about you as hers do." Tucker flashed them a wicked grin.

Danny pointed a threatening finger. "You want more holes in that beret?"

"No. And you owe me a new one, by the way."

"Whatever."

Tucker leaned forward. "Oh, lighten up. At least you two still get to see each other, and thanks to yours truly, Casper High and the rest of the world now think 'SamPhan' was a complete fraud." He smiled, proud of his work.

"Yeah, that's true." Danny looked at Sam. "And even if I can't get, like, within two feet of you, at least I don't have to pretend I'm not speaking to you. That was the worst."

She nodded. "Yeah, it was."

"So all's well that ends well," Tucker said.

"Not quite." Valerie's tone was dark. "There's still Vlad."

"Yeah, there's still Vlad." Danny, however, sounded a little more hopeful than Val. "But we don't have to worry about him quite yet. It's gonna take a while for him to recover from the Ghostly Wail/snow people one-two punch, and then he's gonna have to start recruiting for his ghost army. Once he does that, he'll tip his hand, and we'll get him."

"You think it'll be that easy?"

"No," he admitted. "But we'll take it like we take everything else… together." Then he smiled at each of them, putting his hand out in the middle of the table.

Valerie nodded, adding her hand on top of his. "True. We are the best team of ghost fighters this side of Sleepy Hollow."

"You got that right," Tucker said, adding his own hand.

"Kicking ghost butt and taking names," Sam agreed, placing her hand on top of the pile. But her arm brushed against Danny's, and he jumped, shocked once more. Sam quickly removed her hand, giving him a sheepish look. "Uh… I'll just add my hand metaphorically for now."

"Yeah." Danny shook out his own hand. "That'd probably be a good idea."

-THE END-