The Beginning of Phantom: Chapter 2

"If this isn't the stupidest thing my parents have ever believed would work," I told my friends as we walked to the theater. "then I don't know what is!" I kicked a pebble in front of me as I stared at the ground, pondering on what I had witnessed an hour ago.

"Man, it sounds intense, Danny," Sam said nudging my arm jokingly. "It also sounds like something fun to check out later tonight!"

Oh god.

"I don't know, Sam. It sounds kinda lame," Tucker retorted, playing some game on his PDA. "I mean, who cares about goin' to some other dimension..." he suddenly looked up. "MY GOD, THAT SOUNDS TOTALLY FUN!!"

Lord, please kill me!

"I knew you'd give in, Tucker!" they looked at me.

I SAID KILL ME!!!

"No. Guys, no, I'm not going anywhere near that thing again!" I didn't care if my curiosity was peaked...or what could possibly be in there...okay, maybe I wanted to check it out a little...

"Danny? Uh-oh, the 'face' is back." Sam's voice came from the distance.

"Wha-" I murmured.

"Oh geez, Danny, really?!" she didn't seam too happy about repeating herself. "You have the 'face'...you know, you get it when you're conflicted about something."

"HA!!" Tucker exclaimed. "You wanna check it out as much as we do!"

"What?!" I shot a steaming stare at him. "I do not! I just-"

"Admit it, dude!"

I bit my lip as we rounded the corner. I did want to check it out...a lot. But I didn't know how to tell them.

I looked up and saw we got to the theater. "Oh look we're here!" I said getting into line to get us tickets. They seemed kind of annoyed about me suddenly changing the subject.

Do I really want to? I thought to myself as we walked into the cool, dark theater...



Later, while Sam got her stuff for the night, Tuck and I sat outside on the front stoop and talked and acted as total idiot teenage boys...I know predictable.

"Dude, how long is Sam gonna take?" Tucker complained taking out his cell.

"Chill, Tuck. It's only..." I peeked over his shoulder. "9:04."

"You only know 'cause you looked at my cell first!" he punched my arm jokingly.

I hit him back and it was an all out doofis war 'til Sam came out. She smiled down at us dorks as we realized she was there and let go of each other, still laughing hysterically.

"Oh man...that...was tiring..." I said between breaths.

"So," Sam nudged me. "Are we gonna check out that awesome portal or what?"

"I'm still not sure..."

"Well, I'm giving you 'til your parents are asleep to decide. After that, I'll drag you if I have to."

"Fine." I face-palmed myself. "We'll take a look," Sam and Tuck smiled so much I thought they would have stretched out their faces. "but only after my parents go to bed!"

"YES!!!" They high-fived and began pulling me faster towards my house.

Lord, I asked you...PLEASE!!



"Hey mom!" I greeted my mother as I walked in the kitchen to get some stuff to keep us up 'til my mom goes to bed. I found out my dad had already done so around seven something to cry over the stupid portal and ended up falling asleep. Well, one down...one to go...thanks a lot god! "I'm just gonna get some stuff for Tuck, Sam and I."

"Okay sweetie," she yawned. "I think I'm heading to bed soon."

"'Kay, well, see ya in the morning then," I nearly dropped a bag of chips. "love you."

"Love you too, Danny."

Once I got to my room, Sam had already pulled up a page on the internet with a video paused at the very beginning.

"Wait, how'd you get into my computer? How'd you get my password?!" I said, glaring at Sam.

"It's PaulinaFenton," she said flatly. "Seriously, Danny, it's not that hard to figure out."

I gotta change that, I thought. Eh. I'll do it eventually...

We watched the video Sam had been wanting to show us...and man, was it AWESOME!! So apparently, this girl dressed (badly) as a guy, made a video of a bunch of stuff she's seen guys do! Oh god I was dying by the time the video ended! It was just too good!

"Oh man! This girl is AWESOME!!" Tucker exclaimed putting his hand on his head.

"I know right?!" Sam clicked another video by the same girl. "You're gonna love the next two videos then!"

"YEEESSSS!!!" I said with a deranged smile on my face.

We goofed off for another hour or so before Tuck had to go use the bathroom...but it was the moment he came back that scared me...

"She's not in the kitchen!" he half-whispered.

"Awesome!" Sam said getting up and pausing a video we had started.

"Yay..." I limply fist pumped the air.



Sam and Tucker stood in pure amazement, just as I had a few hours ago. Accept, they were smiling and looking around at the lab like a five-year-old in a candy shop: with the floors splattered with green goo, and the counters were covered with broken beakers and more green goo.

"Are you sure you guys wanna go in there?" I asked pointing at the gaping hole that was the portal.

"Oh," Sam paused for a minute. "We aren't..."

I stared wide-eyed at them. Oh crap...

"You are, Danny," she closed her eyes and smirked innocently.

"WHAT?!"

"Oh come on, Danny. Aren't you at least a little curious?"

I paused...and I thought for a moment...

"Ya know, you're right," I finally said. They looked at me like I was crazy. "Who knows what kind of super awesome things could exist on the other side of that portal!"

Sam smiled as I grabbed that white and black jump suit again. Then she pulled out her camera and took a picture of me by some control panel.

"What was that?"

"For my scrapbook!" she said spontaneously.

I shook my head to focus on my task ahead and put on the jump suit. Sam looked at me puzzled for a moment.

"Wait a minute," she walked up to me and pulled the sticker of my dad's face off my chest. "you can't go walking around with that on you're chest!"

"Okay, here goes nothing..."

I walked into the portal. The floor is almost completely covered with wires, and I nearly tripped. Luckily I caught myself on the wall...but then it dawned on me...my hand landed on the green button...with the word on bellow it

CRAP!!!