Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. It belongs to Butch Hartman.

Author's Note: The story below is a rewrite and a repost. I really didn't like the original, in which Sam was very out of character. I deleted the old one and I hope I did better this time.

This is loosely based on Taylor Swift's song "I'd Lie." Emphasis on loosely. In fact, I may go far enough to say it's only inspired by the song. Either way, it's not a songfic. At all.

It was a normal Friday afternoon. Danny and I were being driven home after school by Jazz. Normally we wouldn't be, but Tucker had begged her to after Danny refused to fly him. It was a Meatloaf Night, meaning Tucker wanted to be home as soon as possible. All because of a hunk of animal carcass. Bleh.

I was sitting in the back seat alone—Tucker had been dropped off already—while Jazz and Danny were in the two front seats. We weren't talking, and the silence seemed to be getting to Danny; he couldn't stop drumming his fingers on the dashboard or tapping his foot. After a while, he pulled a Dumpty Humpty CD out of his backpack and popped it in the car's console. Out of boredom, I decided to be a little competitive with myself and silently guessed which song he would choose. As I predicted, Danny chose Track 5, his favourite song as well as mine. It's quite surprising that our tastes in music are similar. Although we may think alike at times, our personalities are all our own.

"Danny, turn that off!" Jazz said.

He shook his head stubbornly. "No way. I'm not listening to anything you like. Remember what happened last time?"

"How was I supposed to know Ember was back and working with Youngblood to get rid of all the adults? The music was relaxing. Hardly something you would think was harmful."

Danny rolled his eyes. I noticed a light in them that always appears when he gets in a fight with Jazz. I'll never understand why he loves to argue with his sister. Must bring back memories or something. I wouldn't know, being an only child and all.

I could tell you a lot of things about Danny. How he's the half ghost Danny Phantom. That he's lost his memory before (thanks to me). I could tell you his favourite colour's green because it reminds him of his ghostly wail, and –when he's human– he has his father's eyes. I've only noticed the last one because of the look they both get when they're being protective.

In front of me, Danny and Jazz were still quarrelling. I found myself watching them, not really paying attention to what they were saying.

Danny abruptly twisted around in his seat, facing me. "What do you think Sam?" Seeing my blank look, he added, "Isn't Jazz's music boring?"

I shrugged and replied, "I guess. But anything other than rock usually annoys me. Especially pop music." I made a face, remembering my past experiences with a certain ghostly pop sensation.

He nodded and turned to Jazz. "See? Told you it's boring." Jazz just sighed in response, but she was smiling.

A few minutes later, we arrived at my house. "See you later, guys. Have a nice night," Jazz called as we got out of her car.

"See ya," Danny and I said in unison. Once we reached my front door, Danny turned and waved to his sibling. She waved back. I opened my door as Jazz drove off. Walking inside, I found that (not surprisingly) no one was home. Yes!

"You've never used chopsticks before?" I asked again. The concept was still one I was having difficulty grasping.

He sighed, annoyed. "Never! Why is that so difficult for you to understand?"

I raised an eyebrow. "And, you've never eaten Chinese food either?"

"Well, I have once. But I used a fork then. Can I please use one now?"

"No way! You've got to learn to appreciate the country and its food."

"I'd rather do that with a fork," he grumbled.

"In order to truly appreciate it, you have to use those." I pointed to his chopsticks, which lay next to his plate.

We'd ordered Chinese food instead of pizza. I had been in the mood for tofu and since it was my money we were spending, I got to choose what we ate. At least that's what I'd told Danny when he'd objected.

Now I was trying to convince Danny to stray away from the use silverware. I wasn't really succeeding. Time to up the anti.

"Fine. You have two options." I held up a finger. "One, you use the chopsticks. Two," I held up a second finger, "You don't eat at all."

He muttered incoherently for a moment, then picked them up. Not properly, mind you.

I began to eat my food, using my peripherals to watch Danny struggle with his utensils. His tongue was sticking out the corner of his mouth in concentration.

"I give up! How the heck do you use these things?"

I had to hand it to him. He'd tried for a whole thirty seconds. I rolled my eyes. "Like this." I raised my hand so he could see how I was holding mine. He tried in vain to copy what I was doing.

"It's not working!" His eyes started glowing a bright green.

"Danny, calm down. Don't blast the poor sticks with a ghost ray. They aren't doing anything wrong." He just let out a frustrated growl in response as he continued to try and make them work. I sighed. "Oh, for crying out loud, here!" I walked over to his side of the table. I reached out a hand and placed it over his, moving his fingers to the right positions. "There you go." I still hadn't removed my hand and we both blushed as we realized this.

"Uh..." I gently lifted my hand off of his awkwardly. Once back in my seat, I resumed eating, my eyes on the tabletop in front of me.

Suddenly, noodles flew across the table and landed on my head, then fell, coating my top and landing in my lap. I looked up. Danny had managed to fling food everywhere: on the table, on himself, on the wall behind him, on the table, on my plate, and on me. His face was so surprised, it was comical. I couldn't help myself. I burst out laughing. For a second, he just stared at me. Then he joined in.

It was one of those times that no matter how hard you try, you can't stop laughing. Whenever we'd manage to be quiet for a moment, we'd look at each other and crack-up again.

"Oh man," he said between chuckles. "You're covered in noodles! You look ridiculous!"

"Me?" I gasped out. "You should have seen the look on your face! It was hilarious!" We continued to laugh until our eyes watered.

I lay back in my chair, my sides aching. We were finally silent for about a minute, when Danny asked, "A little help here?" He was trying again to eat with chopsticks. I chuckled and went back to his side of the table. Resting my hand on his again, I guided his fingers in the right movements so that he could eat. Together, we lifted a piece of chicken off his plate and into his mouth.

"You got it now?"

"Yup!" he replied before stuffing his face with food. Shaking my head and smiling, I returned to my plate.

After cleaning up the mess Danny had made, I read a book that I had bought from Skulk and Lurk. I turned a page and heard the all-too-familiar sound of knocking on my window. I sat up and strolled lazily over to open my curtains, my eyes still on the book in my hands. Danny Phantom phased into my room, a Fenton Thermos in hand.

"Ugh," he groaned, smacking a palm to his face. "Box Ghost was annoying as usual. But at least he's easy to beat." As he was talking, he turned into Danny Fenton. I counted the colours in his eyes: green and blue. Both take part in making him look attractive in ghost and human form. I tried to push these thoughts away, but I was unsuccessful.

He sat down in a chair I'd brought up for him. "Anyways, how did you entertain yourself for the five minutes I was gone? Did you miss me?" he asked, his tone light, smile on his face.

"Yes, I was devastated," I answered sarcastically. "But while you were gone, I had a wild time." Widening my eyes in mock amazement, I said, "I... read... a book!"

"Ooo! Exciting," he said, his tone as sarcastic as mine.

I stuck my tongue out at him childishly. "It is. Not as much as ghost fighting, but it is. This is a really good book." I held it up for him to see. "There's this one shady character and I can't figure out if he's a villain or not. He seems to be in-between."

"In my opinion," he said, looking out at the moon, face turned upward. "You're either good or bad. End of story. There's no in-between."

"Come on, Danny. Life isn't like a fairy tale. It's usually unclear who the bad guy is. Not everything's black and white. Many things are grey."

He chuckled. "You sound like Jazz. She's told me the same thing before. But I can't help it. That's just how I see the world. Black and white." We sat without speaking, the empty silence weighing down on us.

He suddenly asked, "So what was the deal with Gregor anyways? I mean, you told me he was a phony. But I don't know much else."

My voice bitter, I said, "Turns out, he was faking being a Goth, having an accent, what books he liked... Pretty much everything. His name's not even Gregor; it's Elliot, and he's from Michigan, not Hungary." I scowled.

"I'm sorry." He sounded sincere.

"Ugh. Don't be. He isn't worth it. It's not like I was in love with him anyways." I grimaced. No chance. I had liked Gregor (Gregor, not Elliot) but, like I told him that night outside the mall, I had had some things to figure out. At the time, I hadn't been sure if dating him had been the right choice, given the fact that I loved Danny. But I thought, why not? Danny had dated other girls before, so why couldn't I? Apparently, the answer to that question was: Because my taste in guys is terrible. This is why love at first sight—also known as attraction—is never true love. You have to build a relationship all by yourself. Hormones will never give you a head start.

Danny's voice cut into my thoughts. "I know what you mean. Paulina was just a crush. And I only liked her for how she looked, which, looking back, is really shallow. Valerie... I'll admit, if she'd never shown any interest in me, I wouldn't have cared. Plus, the whole Technus-pushing-us-together-to-distract-me-as-he-tried-to-take-over-the-world thing kinda turns me off. Besides, who wants to be in love? It's too complicated."

"You don't ever want to fall in love?" I asked.

"I dunno. Maybe," he said, brows furrowed, eyes pensive.

I shrugged, though he didn't really see. Good for him. I know he loves me. That may sound vain, but I don't mean it like that. For example, I love Tucker. I'm not in love with Tucker, but I love him. He's like my brother. So if Danny only sees me as a sister, so be it. Even if it's forever. And if he ever falls in love with someone else, than I'll let him. If I truly love him, I'll let him live his life. I may not like it, but I'll let him.

"I mean," Danny continued, "It seems nice the way they portray it in movies and stuff. But it also hurts so much it almost kills. I only know this from the whole Ember incident." He flushed slightly.

I felt blood rush to my cheeks. "Uh, yeah about that. I really am sorry. I was just desperate to break her spell." I hung my head, the regret of having to do that intensifying as I remembered it.

"You're beautiful when you're wracked with guilt," he quoted, smirking. "Don't worry, I'm fine now. But as I was saying, if there was a way to love and not be hurt..." he trailed off, leaving his thought unfinished. But I understood what he meant anyways.

"Clueless," I muttered under my breath—he didn't hear me, which was good. He's completely oblivious to the fact that a relationship needs to be built. If it has a firm foundation, it'll be strong. If it has a weak one... well, that should go without saying. A firm foundation usually starts with people just being friends. This doesn't always work, but it usually does.

You'd think a light would go on. For about a year, Tucker's been throwing not-so-subtle clues at him, but Danny still remains clueless as ever. To my feelings. To what Tucker's blatantly obvious remarks are about. To basically anything that has to do with love. I can't complain though. His clueless-ness is one of the reasons I love him.

"So on the topic of love, I managed to finally learn a new song on my guitar. The acoustic version, of course," he said.

"Cool. Who wrote it?"

"Dumpty Humpty."

"Is it a love song?"

"Nope."

There was a pause as I tried to comprehend this. I failed in doing so. "So this is on the subject of love, how?"

He shrugged.

I rolled my eyes. His logic isn't all that... logical.

"Anyway, you wanna come over tomorrow and hear me play it? I'd get my guitar and play it now, but I don't want my parents to see Phantom tonight."

"That and you're too lazy." I smirked.

He chuckled. "Guilty as charged."

I laughed along with him. "Will Tucker be there to listen too?"

"Yup."

"You going to sing?"

"Nope. Can't. Not that I want to anyway."

Danny would never tell anyone, but he can play the guitar. He hasn't even told his parents because... well, they wouldn't really care. They're too engrossed in their work. Once Danny turned eight, his grandfather began teaching him. Danny inherited his grandfather's beloved guitar. It's the only reason Danny has one; he couldn't afford to buy it himself.

His grandfather died when Danny was ten. I remember that evening. Danny had invited Tucker and me over to his house and we hung out in his room. We ended up staying the night. The two of them had been really close, so Danny was devastated. We had comforted him through his tears.

From that day on, he's never let anybody else see him cry. (Not that he has cried much since then, only a couple times.) Can't say I blame him. I hate crying in front of people too.

"Sam?" My name jerked me out of my memories. Danny was standing a little ways away from me, waving a hand in front of my face.

"Yeah?" I replied, disoriented.

"Can we do something? I'm bored."

"Of course you are." I thought for a second. "Hey, I got this new video game the other day. Wanna try it out?"

I didn't have to ask twice. I barely finished my sentence before he said enthusiastically, "OK!" and phased us down to my media room.

"You are going down!" he cried.

"No, you're going down!" I retorted.

The room became quiet after that, other than the sounds from the TV.

My avatar on-screen eventually pummeled Danny's to death. "Hah! I won!"

"Best five out of seven!" He's never been one to give up easily.

"You're on!"

We'd been playing for an hour. This game was really addictive and I'd been winning every round since we'd started.

But right now, I watched in amazement as Danny beat me for the fist time ever. "Yes!" he cried. "Wait 'till I tell Tucker! I finally defeated Chaos!"

"We're not playing Doomed you know."

"Yeah, I know." He was grinning smugly. I wanted to make him stop. "But I still defeated you, the player behind Chaos."

"You were just lucky," I grumbled. "I bet you couldn't do it again."

"Oh yeah? What are you willing to risk?"

I contemplated this. "When I win, you have to haunt that lot of environmental nightmares you call the Gi-Normo 6000." I enjoyed watching him wince as I said this.

"And when I win, you have to... wear pink to school on Monday."

I glared at him. "Oh, you're going to pay for even saying that!" I readied my game controller. He just smiled as he did the same, not caring that my treat was not an empty one.

"Just one round," he said. I nodded and adjusted the settings.

Ten minutes later, I was still in shock. Danny was dancing around the room like a maniac, singing, "I won! I won!" over and over and over.

"H-how...?" I failed miserably at finishing my question.

"You have to wear pink!" he sang, making pink a two syllable word.

"I KNOW!" I yelled. He ignored my anger and continued to skip around, taunting me with his irritating song.

I couldn't believe it. I'd never lost in a video game before tonight. Especially against Danny and Tucker. So why did I have to lose when wearing pink was my consequence?

Danny went on gloating. "Monday is going to be awesome! I am so going to tell Tucker what he missed!" At this, I grabbed him by his shirt collar.

"Listen here, mister," I growled. "You are not going to tell Tucker about this." I wouldn't be able to take the double dose of humiliation, I added silently. "If you do, you will no longer be a half-ghost. You will be a full one. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" He nodded mutely, his eyes as large as dinner-plates. I released him, sat down again and crossed my arms, fuming.

Unfortunately he regained his voice after a while. Clearing his throat, he asked, "But how are we going to explain your sudden desire to wear... er, that colour?" Smart move, Fenton. I'm not in the mood to hear the p-word spoken.

"Just tell him I lost a bet. Do not tell him what it was."

"OK." He didn't speak for a moment. "Uh... So... Um..." He looked around the room, as if it would give him something to say. As he did this, his eyes fell on the clock. "Oh, crud!"

I glanced at him, raising an eyebrow, too ticked off at the moment to keep my voice level enough to question his outburst.

He sighed and said, "I have to go. I can't break curfew again. I'm already on thin ice because I haven't been doing my chores."

"When do you ever do your chores?" I asked, smirking despite my anger.

"Close to never. And that's kinda why I need to leave right now."

"OK. Bye," I said shortly. I hadn't fully forgiven him yet.

He smiled at me, eyes lighting up as he went ghost. How he could smile when a Goth girl had vowed to kill him was beyond me. "See you tomorrow."

I watched the two rings spread from his middle. His transformation complete, he stood there for a moment. It seems he wants to say something, but apparently he decides against it. He then flies away, turning intangible before he hits the wall.

Calm down, I told myself. Calm down. It's not good to lash out in anger...

Somehow, I doubted that.

Even though I kept trying to distract myself, I had visions of how to make Danny's life miserable for ruining mine. Oh, he was so going to pay for making me wear pink.

With that in mind, I yawned and headed off to bed.

I woke up reluctantly when my alarm went off. I hate waking up in the morning. It brings too many memories of my parents' smiling faces as they opened my curtains. I hit the snooze button and, sighing, lay back on my pillows. I really didn't want to get up and was tempted to let myself drift back asleep.

I sat in bed for a while, contemplating this, but then walked into my bathroom. I took a shower, brushed my teeth and got dressed. That done, I exited the bathroom and then my room. I headed down the stairs and went out the front door. Breathing in the fresh air, I silently prayed for a miracle: For Danny to forget about our bet.

As I was locking the door behind me, Tucker came up the sidewalk. "Hey, Sam," he called, eyes on his PDA.

I climbed down the front steps and walked over to him. "Hey, Tuck. You off to Danny's?"

He nodded, putting his electronic device in his pocket. "You two hang out last night?"

"Yeah," I said slowly, knowing what was coming next.

"Did you tell him anything?"

I sighed. "Tucker, we've been through this. I'm not going to tell him how I feel."

"But you and I both know that he likes you. Even if he hasn't fully realized it yet."

"It doesn't matter," I growled. "I'm not going to." He opened his mouth and I cut him off. "I'm not afraid of rejection. I just want to let life take its toll and let the pieces fall where they may."

"Fine," he said, giving up.

And with that, we headed off for our best friend's house.

Author's Note: So what did you think? Know how to tell me? By reviewing of course!