"You're just missing one syllable," Amorpho gasped, exasperated. "Do you really have that much trouble saying my name?"

"Yeah," Danny said. Amorpho was hard to say. He could say it, but "Morpho-Man" was better.

Tucker threw his fist up in the air. "Yeah, Morpho-Man!!" He yelled. "Sounds like a superhero."

If Amorpho had a mouth he would smile. Superhero, huh? That gave him a good feeling.

"Ahahahaha, Morpho-Man!! HA, that's genius, Danny! Oh, boy," Ember cackled from across the table.

Good feeling gone.

Danny, Tucker, Ember, Amorpho, and Wulf were all currently sitting at Danny's table at his house. They had decided, once Wulf joined them, they would just go to Danny's house since Clockwork didn't have a table in his lair as of now. Plus, Ember thought it was hilarious that they were gonna go hang out at a ghost hunter's house.

Once they all arrived via Wolf's portal, they decided to play Uno. Or at least, they were playing Uno, until Tucker won, and Ember was so mad that she lost she threw the cards all over the place. Now they were just raiding Danny's parents' fridge, chatting, laughing, and occasionally throwing cards at each other.

Danny was beyond happy that all of his friends and family came to his house to play around and generally have a good time. They were eating all kinds of food Danny had never been able to reach on his own (hence his skinniness). The older ghosts were fawning over the cute-dorable boys, and everyone was making jokes and having fun...Danny had dreamed of this since he had noticed Jazz's friends over once or twice.

Clockwork had teleported in at some point, but in a frenzy everyone started pelting him with cards until he had to make a speedy escape, crazed laughter following behind him.

After that, Danny had started calling Amorpho "Morpho-Man" because for some reason he had trouble saying Amorpho. Danny was glad that it caught on with Ember and Tucker, 'cause he thought it was pretty funny. Apparently Ember did too, the way she was guffawing like that.

Across from Danny, Tucker glanced at his watch. "Oh dang," he said. "I gotta go."

"You have a watch?" Danny gawked at Tucker's wrist, where a shiny black watch lay. "Cool."

"What--but--you have a pocketwatch! It's always around your neck. Did you forget it was there?" Tucker spluttered, gesturing wildly to Danny's silver pocketwatch gleaming in the light. It was the only elegant thing Danny owned.

"Oh yeah," Danny said, giggling. "I got that for my birthday." He remembered distinctly the happy feeling that had arose in his chest that night, when he noticed the silver watch on his bedstand. It had been a birthday present from his new family. The start of something truly great.

"D'ya want me to walk you home? We don't live that far away from each other," Danny suggested, feeling sad that Tucker had to go home already but wanting to be polite.

Tucker smiled. "Yeah," he said, grabbing Danny's arm and leading him to the door. "We can play some more on the way to my house."

Danny waved to his family as he let go of Tucker's hand and started to walk next to him instead. "Bye Babypop," Ember waved back. "We'll be here when ya get ba--hey!!" She snarled as Wulf threw a card at her and it landed directly in her fiery blue hair, causing the card to burn up instantly. "I'll get you for that, dipstick!!" She yelled and threw her lemonade in Wulf's face, leaving a stunned, dripping Wulf and a certain shapeshifting ghost laughing so hard he fell over.

Danny chuckled, lowering his hand. He truly loved them. Even Amorpho, whom he had just met. He took one last glance inside and slipped out the door with a giggling Tucker in tow.

£-£

"Ha! You're it again!" Danny yelled as he slapped Tucker on the back, almost tripping over a root hidden in the grass. He and Tucker had taken to playing tag on the way to Tucker's house and they were so late that the streetlights were staring to turn on. In the back of his mind, Danny thought idly that Tucker might get in trouble for coming home late, but he wasn't sure since Danny could usually just get home whenever he wanted and his parents didn't so much as bat an eye in his direction. Plus, Tucker didn't seem like he cared, so neither did Danny.

"Dang!" Tucker yelled from a couple feet away, coming to a stop. "How're you so fast?"

Danny shrugged, a teasing expression painted on his face. "I dunno," He snickered. "Maybe you're just too slow."

And with that, Tucker shrieked in indignation and started chasing Danny around the street, both boys laughing hysterically. Suddenly, Danny stopped, making Tucker smash into him from behind. "Wha-" Tucker started, but Danny hushed him.

"Shh," He hissed. "D'ya hear that?" Danny could've sworn he had heard sobbing coming from their right, near one of the houses. It sounded like a little girl's cries, almost muffled completely by the sounds of chirping crickets and wind rustling through the grass.

They both waited, until--there it was again--the eerie sound weaved through the maze of house that made up their neighborhood. "Hey, I hear it," Tucker breathed, eyes widening. "Someone's crying."

"Yeah, we should look for her, she could be in trouble," Danny said, an indescribable urge to protect sweeping over him.

"I dunno," Tucker said uneasily. "We don't know this person, and its getting kinda late..."

"Well, you're already gonna get in trouble when you get home, so we might as well."

"I guess you're right...oh man..."

And with that the two boys stared creeping towards the noise, grass crunching noisily under their feet and small flying bugs leaping desperately out of their way, wings illuminated by the streetlamps above. They eventually approached a small, hunched-over figure sitting in the grassy alleyway between two houses.

The figure let out a few sniffles before raising an arm to wipe her probably snotty nose. Danny took another step forward, and the figure's head snapped towards them. "Who're you?!" She yelled, sounding indignant and embarrassed. She stood up quickly and glared at them, wiping her face furiously. Danny recognized her as a girl that was in his grade, but in a different class. He had seen her in the hallway and at recess a few times. She had long black hair with bangs that were swept over one eye. The visible eye was colored purple. She always wore black and was teased a lot, just like Danny and Tucker. He didn't think she had any friends.

"I said, who are you?!" She repeated, looking impossibly angrier.

"I-I'm Danny, and this is Tucker," Danny stuttered. He couldn't help feeling a little scared of this girl, with how she was glaring at them like that. She looked murderous; if looks could kill, Danny and Tucker would be a puddle of melted human by now. "H-h-h-hi," Tucker choked out, looking much more scared than Danny.

The girl stared at them for a moment, still scowling.

"...Whatever," she said, suddenly looking defeated, angry expression dropping off her face as quick as it had come. "It doesn't matter who you are. You're boys, and you're just like the rest of 'em, probably." And with that she sat back down in the grass and just stared ahead, looking like she was fully expecting them to leave. Tucker started to try to pull Danny away, but Danny shrugged him off.

"Why were you crying?"

Sam's eyes widened and her head shot up, looking at Danny with a surprised expression. "I-I wasn't crying!" She yelped, face reddening.

"Yeah you were, what's wrong?" Danny asked, concern written all over his small face. The girl looked at him suspiciously, face still a little pink. "...why do you care?" She asked. Danny fidgeted. "Uhm, I dunno..." He replied, feeling awkward. The girl started glaring again. "You're just messin' with me, aren't y-"

"Hey, don't you usually wear mostly dark colors? What's with the pink frilly stuff?" Tucker blurted out suddenly from behind Danny, interrupting her.

The girl looked down at her indeed frilly and pink dress. It looked torn at the edges, like she had tried to rip it up. The depressed look overtook her features once again. "That's the problem," She mumbled. "I hate pink. But my parents say that I shouldn't wear all that black, because 'It's not ladylike'." Danny was confused at this. Black wasn't ladylike? How? Ember dressed kinda similar to Sam and she was a lady...or at least Danny was pretty sure she was, anyway. He guessed it was true that all the other girls at his school wore pink and yellow and colors like that, but he didn't see how girls couldn't wear black...in fact..."Why do girls need to be 'ladylike?'" He wondered out loud. "I know, right?!" the girl yelled, skimming over Danny's completely sincere question.

"That's what I thought too, so everyday before school I would change out of those horrible pink dresses and into my own clothes, and--so they wouldn't notice--I would walk to school 10 minutes early. I didn't mind, as long as I could wear what I wanted." Danny and Tucker nodded, agreeing. She smirked, effectively pleased. "But then," She continued, a dark tone working its way into her mouth, "My parents found out, and they were really mad. I was just trying to be different! I don't wanna be like everyone else at school, I want to be me! But they don't want me to be me...so now I'm grounded, and they're gonna make sure that I wear what THEY want me to wear to school. Everyday. Its going to be horrible..." She lamented, looking as if she was trying not to cry again.

"Hmm," Danny said, thinking. "I know! I have some black shirts in my closet. I don't wear them, so I can bring them to school for you to wear!" the girl's eyes widened, hope filling them. "Really?" She asked. "You would do that? But--" "I have shorts!" Tucker put in, surprising both of them. "I-I mean," he said, looking embarrassed. "I can bring those to school to school too, so you have a whole outfit. You won't have to wear those dresses that you hate that way." He adjusted his glasses. "We can all come to school early from now on, and give you outfits to change into before anyone else gets there," He finished.

The girl gaped at them, before a huge smile split her face. "Wow...really? You guys would really do that?? Thank--thank you so much!! I can tell we're gonna be real good friends!" She laughed joyously and started to run back home. "I'll see ya tomorrow!" She shouted but before she could disappear around the corner, Danny (who was still recovering from her sudden personality change) yelled back at her.

"Wait! What's your name?!"

She turned around, still smiling. "It's Samantha, but you better call me Sam, or you're dead!" And then she was gone, leaving two boys shuddering in fear behind her.

"She was scary," Tucker said.

Danny nodded, smiling.

"Scary, but cool."

____________________________________

Hi again! I hope I wrote Sam okay.

The next chapter is coming out soon, because I was actually going to continue writing this one but felt as if that was a good place to cut it off.

I will be forever scared of the caps lock button.

Again, sorry of there's any typos...

conflict in the next chapter--gasp!--I think its about time we had some more of that.

If you enjoyed reading, please vote! It really helps me keep my drive for writing this up. ((:

I do not own Danny Phantom, the chapter art, etc.