Danny Phantom - The Next Chapter

Halfa

‘So I was thinking we could do another road trip this summer,’ Tucker announced excitedly, pushing aside Sam and Danny’s lunches to unfold a massive spreadsheet onto the table in front of them.

‘Hello to you too,’ Sam grumbled, righting her bottle that had fallen with Tucker’s arrival.

‘Dude, what is all this?’ Danny demanded, gesturing to the spreadsheet which seemed to be an incomprehensible assortment of times, dates, and locations.

‘The itinerary!’ Tucker declared, his pushing out his chest in pride. ‘I spent all last lesson working on it.’

‘Didn’t you just have Computer Sciences?’ Sam asked mildly, ‘Don’t tell me this was a project?’

‘Nah, I’ve already finished my project for that class,’ Tucker brushed aside her comment. ‘Besides, this is more important! Last time was great going all cross-country!’

‘Did you forget the part where our families were kidnapped and we had to find some mystical crystals to stop Freakshow killing them?’ Danny asked.

‘Not to mention all those crystals almost killing a whole bunch of people,’ Sam added with a shudder, no doubt recalling the way her Nevada concert had been turned into a three year old’s stuffed teddy fever dream.

‘But now we don't have to worry about that,’ Tucker declared, ‘This time, there’ll be no parents, no ghosts – excluding Danny – and four weeks of the latest, tech to hit the market!’

Danny frowned down at the spreadsheet, realising what each of the locations were.

‘You just want to go to all the summer sales for all the latest tech!’ Danny accused him.

‘Well there’s some things in there for you guys too!’

He pointed to the very bottom of the spreadsheet where, written in tiny letters read, Whatever Danny and Sam want to do. Gothy space stuff?

‘Wow. So considerate,’ Sam muttered, shoving the spreadsheet off of her food and resuming her lunch.

‘What are you dorks talking about?’ Valerie asked as she approached with her tray of food.

‘Tucker’s dragging us on a four-week long tech bender,’ Danny replied.

‘I wouldn’t call it that!’ Tucker protested.

Valerie carefully set her tray down around the spreadsheet and examined it closer. ‘We’ve only just gotten back from winter break and your planning your summer vacation?’

‘Optimisation is key for success! If we can get all the fine details hashed out now, come summer we’ll be all set.’

‘Well you’re going to have to optimise a little better,’ Sam said, ‘Looks like I’ve got a few clashes with some of the thousand or so tech events you’ve got.’

Tucker gave a long-suffering sigh and rolled the spreadsheet back up and shoving it into his bag. ‘Oh alright. Let me know some of the things you want to do and I’ll see if I can fit it into the schedule.’

Danny snickered as Sam rolled her eyes.

‘Valerie, you want to come?’ Tucker asked, suddenly perking up again.

‘A four-week tech roadshow?’ she asked, ‘Pass.’

‘Aww, come on! Think of all the upgrades we could get for your suit!’

That seemed to give Valerie pause as she considered.

‘You guys have been working on that suit a lot lately,’ Sam commented drily and the two quickly leaned away from each other, their faces darkening considerably.