A Fresh Start

C-Clang! A pair of candles landed unceremoniously in the trash, quickly followed by several photos. Three more thuds later and the Danny Phantom action figures joined them. The finishing touches included the dumping of a photo album, a diary, and a couple of handwritten notes decorated with heart stickers.

Paulina dusted her hands off in satisfaction. And that was that! She smiled, turning around and walking back down the deserted hall to her locker, which was open and empty apart from one textbook still leaning on the right hand wall. She stood still for a moment, staring inside. A slight frown almost graced her features before she shrugged like nothing bothered her and closed the door.

It was getting late, school had been out for over an hour and almost everyone else had gone home. The girl glanced up at the clock on the wall as she headed towards the exit. Oh good, she thought to herself, there's still enough time to go to the mall and pick up some new decorations. Her head filled with her favourite colour - pink - and ideas forming about how she would be incorporating it into her new locker design, Paulina left the school briskly.

It had been a month since Danny Phantom had saved the world from the Disasteroid, and everyone now knew that the hero was the Amity Park high school student (and Paulina's classmate), Danny Fenton. And while at first Paulina had been ecstatic to learn that her "beloved" Ghost Boy was someone she interacted with often enough, it soon became painfully obvious that his crush on her was long since over. He was now dating his creepy goth friend.

Paulina believed that all the guys in the world existed to fall in love with her. So, it was a bit frustrating that her flirtation towards Danny after the Disasteroid Incident did not get the reaction she expected from him. Sure, he'd smile at her, but it was in a distant way, as if he was just trying to be nice and respect her, but didn't want to get any closer to her than that. And when she saw him come to school holding hands with his pessimistic female friend, she realized the dark girl had her claws on Danny's heart. The final confirmation was that one lunch she accidentally caught a glimpse of them kissing behind the tree in the school yard.

Paulina briefly considered trying to dress "goth" herself to get the boy's attention, but she also believed that jealousy was beneath her. That and she really hated the lack of colour (everything black was an absolute no-no for fashion in her opinion). She immediately decided against lowering herself to such demeaning tactics. After watching him win a few more ghost fights (either in person around school, or on the news), and the disgusting way he and his girlfriend acted around each other - laughing, blushing, not taking their eyes off one another - a little switch flipped inside Paulina's mind. Enough was enough. She wasn't going to go and throw herself at someone who clearly wasn't interested in her. So what if he was a hero? So what if he was unique? Paulina was still the most popular girl at their school (even if Danny's popularity now trumped hers), and she still deserved to be admired for who she was. She was special and adorable. Any guy who couldn't see that was completely not worth it.

Paulina's pace quickened a little as she unconsciously added a light bounce to each of her steps. It was still a nice day, even though the sun was starting to get low on the horizon, and the teen knew it could only get better. Shopping was one of her favourite activities of all time, and there was nothing that could ruin her good mood thinking about it. In fact, it suddenly occurred to her how free she felt. She was liberated from the ghost that had been haunting her heart.

Maybe some part of her was in denial. Maybe it was a blow to discover that the guy she'd been in love with wasn't who she was expecting him to be and that she was too late to claim him as her own. In any case, she demanded perfection of herself and any doubts she may have had were soon crushed by her positive outlook. This experience must have a good side to it. It was time for a fresh start and Paulina was happy to begin by redecorating her locker. She smiled as she entered the mall, the contents of the garbage can back at Casper High instantly forgotten.