AN: Well, this chapter went in a bit of a different direction than I planned, ending up focusing more on Sam and Danny, and introducing Mr. Lancer and Dani! Obviously, the title refers to the three black haired characters featured in this chapter, Danny, Sam, and Dani (DP has a lot of characters with black hair, I think.) I like writing for Dani, her personality is pretty fun. But, our first main ghost should appear next chapter! There's a pretty blatant hint as to who it will be in this chapter, as if anyone had any doubts who the first one would be.

The Once and Future Phantom

Chapter Three: Raven Hair

"I can respect the fact that you two are currently in a relationship." Mr. Lancer began, pacing the room in front of the pair that had been caught skipping school. "And I can understand that you two would like to spend time with each other. However," He came to a stop, looking at the couple. "That doesn't mean that you should do it on school time."

Danny Fenton and Samantha Manson exchanged a look with each other, seeming to be a bit sheepish about being caught. But how were they supposed to know that Principal Ishiyama had truant officers staking out the movie theater today? Mr. Lancer, their homeroom teacher, did not look very pleased, to say the least.

"Not only did you two skip school today, you also went missing during the field trip yesterday afternoon." He told them, sounding rather cross. "Miss Manson, I know you have a history of skipping class, so I'm quite aware that you wouldn't listen to me even if I told you not to, but I would suggest that you stop dragging your boyfriend into your bad habits."

"Oh come on, Mr. Lancer." Sam spoke up. "It's not like we had any tests or important projects to do today." She told him. "We're not that stupid. What's wrong with missing out on school every once and awhile?"

"Because it's against the rules, Miss Manson." Mr. Lancer arched an eyebrow. "Whether or not you had anything due today doesn't matter- your education should be your top priority now." He glanced over towards her boyfriend, Daniel. "And you, Mister Fenton, would be better off not even contemplating skipping class. I don't really know what they were teaching you in your old school, but you're so far behind in your lessons you might as well be a freshman. You've already been held back once as it is."

Danny felt his face flush a bit at that. It wasn't his fault that stuff had changed during the one hundred years he hadn't been going to school. He was flunking his science course and not doing so hot on his math courses. The only classes he was actually passing at the moment were his literature and history classes, the former of which Mr. Lancer also taught, in addition to being the Vice Principal.

"Miss Manson, I've already called your parents and informed them that you will be staying after school today." The balding teacher glanced over towards the older student. "And you, Mister Fenton, I would appreciate it if you actually stayed put during detention this time. I don't know how you keep managing to sneak out, but it's getting rather old."

Sam groaned, knowing that she would be hearing it from her parents tonight. They had been more lenient on her last night, when they learned she had skipped the field trip- after all, they were her parent's labs. She knew, however, that once they found out she had skipped school to go on a date with Danny, they would be furious.

Her parents didn't really like him all that much, they had made no secret about that fact. They seemed to view him as a bad influence on their daughter's life, which was already being shoved in the wrong direction by her friendship with Phantom. They didn't want any more 'delinquent boys' in Sam's life, be they living or otherwise.

"I'll try my best, Mr. Lancer." Danny spoke up, grinning a little bit at him. The balding teacher groaned internally, knowing that they would be gone the first time he turned his back on them. Someday he would learn exactly how Danny seemed to be able to slip out without anyone noticing. If he didn't know any better, he could swear the boy was a ghost.

"Yes, well," Mr. Lancer arched an eyebrow, clearly skeptical. "I'm going to be keeping a close eye on you two." He cleared his throat. "In any case, I'm sure you know the routine by now. Take seats on opposite sides of the room."

The raven haired couple exchanged looks, before they separated, taking seats on the opposite ends of the classroom. They seemed to be the only ones who had ended up in detention today, amazingly enough. Oh, there had been a few other skippers, he was sure, but they hadn't been caught, and would be dealt with come tomorrow.

Mr. Lancer took a seat at his desk, watching the two carefully. If he had to pick out his oddest students, these two would probably be it. Although Samantha Manson was the only child of the Manson family, who owned Manson Inc, she seemed to have a strong dislike of modern day technology. She was rather- what was the word, 'old school'? Yes, he thought that was it. Her likes and interests dated back to things from when Mr. Lancer was a child, and even beyond then.

While it pleased him that she was far more interested in the old classics than the rest of his class was, he could do without her constant rebelling against authority. Though she was a Goth, and seemed to detest pink, he was pretty much certain that should wear the color if it were banned. Still, she wasn't exactly what he would call a problem student, not as he knew some of his colleagues viewed her as, since her grades were still very good. She was a very smart girl and had a very creative mind, two aspects Mr. Lancer thought would serve her well in her future.

As for her boyfriend, Daniel Fenton.

He was a bit of a different story. He had transferred to Casper High after moving from one of the worst cities in the state, notorious for it's high crime rates. Mr. Lancer had always been curious about why he had suddenly moved to Amity Park, alone, without any of his family, but he thought it might be best not to ask. There were perhaps some things better left unsaid, he thought, knowing that he always got a strange look on his face when someone inquired about his past.

If his girlfriend was just odd, then Daniel Fenton was just plain weird. In addition to having the worst grades out of his homeroom students, he was also completely incapable of dealing with any technology from later than 2010, it seemed. Her couldn't seem to manage to even work his cell phone, which was an older model, for at least a week. Whereas Miss Manson simply disliked technology, he almost seemed to be suffering from technophobia.

Sometimes it felt like he was considerably older than he looked- indeed, sometimes he came off as feeling even older than Mr. Lancer was. He seemed to know the past one hundred years of history vividly, as if he had lived through it rather than just having read about it in a textbook. He was always heavily dressed, even during the middle of summer- the only part of his body that was ever uncovered was his face. He was blind in his left eye, from an unexplained scar that ran through it, and seemed to avoid the nurse's office like the plague.

All in all, he almost found it fitting that they should be in a relationship together. Danny and Sam had begun to go out just about four months after he had transferred, although they were friends before that. They seemed to be very close, as if they had known each other for years, rather than just a few months. He'd heard them say that they had been pen pals at one point, which would certainty explain that.

He had to wonder if the reason he had moved to Amity Park was just to be with Miss Manson.

There was a knock on the door then, and Mr. Lancer glanced. "Stay put." He eyed the pair, before he went to open the door. "Oh, Miss Fenton. What can I help you with?" He asked.

Standing at the door was Danielle Fenton, the youngest child of the Fenton family. Although they had the same last name as Danny, they did not seem to be related to each other. For all that, there were a surprising number of similarities between Daniel and Danielle, which were not limited to their names. Both had black hair and blue eyes, and often displayed similar personality traits.

"Hey, Mr. Lancer!" The fourteen year old girl grinned, holding up a small stack of papers. "I wrote that extra credit report you wanted." She told him, passing them over to the balding teacher. He took them from her, flipping through them. Ah, yes, he remembered giving her this- it was to make up for how poorly she had been doing in his freshman literature class.

Danielle wasn't a bad student, per say, she just didn't really pay enough attention. She always had her head in the clouds. She was always so busy helping her parents after school, that she didn't always seem to get her homework done- and when she did, she would often forget it.

"Yes, thank you, Miss Fenton." He said, tucking them under his arm. "I'll review this tonight and get back to you on your updated grade. You do remember what I told you about paying more attention in class, right?"

"Huh?" Dani blinked. "I'm sorry, did you say something?" It seemed that she had been peering behind him, waving to Sam and Danny. She seemed to be good friends of them both. "Oh, yeah, paying attention in class. I gotcha, Mr. Lancer, don't worry about it." She grinned.

"Yes, well." Mr. Lancer cleared his throat, adjusting his position in a way so that she couldn't see the other two. "Thank you for dropping this by, Miss Fenton. You can go now." The raven haired girl seemed to take his hint, and took her leave. Turning back around, Mr. Lancer let out a groan as he noticed that she wasn't the only one.

Danny and Sam were gone.

"I don't think I could have planned that better myself." Sam grinned, glancing up at her white haired boyfriend. "Dani has a wonderful sense of timing."

They had made their escape while Mr. Lancer was talking to Dani. It wouldn't be too suspicious if they left the room, seeing as they were on the first floor, and the detention room did have a window with a broken lock. They didn't even have to use Danny's ghost powers to get out.

"Maybe I'll forgive her for not telling me about the Ghost Portal." Phantom grinned, looking down at Sam. She was currently in his arms, being carried princess style as he flew through the air. Sam enjoyed flying with him, and didn't really seem to care who saw them together. After all, it was well known that Phantom and Sam had been good friends well before Danny Fenton had moved to town. Who was to know?

"Mm, you should." Sam advised him. "You know Dani, she's fascinated by the work her parents do. She probably wanted to see it activated just as much as they did."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Phantom grinned down at her, heading towards the ground now. They landed near the park, and Phantom set her down. "So, what's this I hear about you changing the lunch menu anyways?" He asked, changing the topic. He didn't want to dwell on the fact that a ghost could pop up at any moment and ruin their time together.

"Ah, that!" Sam grinned, taking Phantom's hand. There were some odd looks from the people who were around, but most of them seemed to recognize the pair. After all, when Sam Manson wasn't hanging out with Tucker Foley or Danny Fenton, she was hanging out with Phantom. And Phantom had never really tried to hide himself from the humans- it kind of seemed like he needed the attention.

Considering that he had spent ten years alone in a ruined city, who could blame him?

"Yeah, I talked to the lunch ladies at school." She told him. "Starting next week, we are switching to a vegetarian menu for the week." She grinned, seeming to be proud of herself. "I encouraged them to try to deviate from that old menu of theirs. I mean, the thing has been in use since before you were even born!"

Phantom laughed a little at that, knowing it was true. That was one thing that hadn't really changed. "Oh man, I imagine some people are going to pissed, though." He said. "It's a good thing Tucker graduated last year, otherwise he wouldn't be speaking to you for the entire week."

"Oh, he's already pretty annoyed with me." Sam admitted. "But you know Tucker. We've been friends for so long, he really just can't stay that mad at me. Besides, if anyone is that irritated with it, they can just bring their own lunch. It's not like I'm forcing them to eat the food or anything."

"Yeah, but some of them aren't very given over to logic." Phantom observed. "Like Dash."

"He is a dick, isn't he?"

Sam and Phantom turned around, glancing at the owner of the voice behind them. "Dani!" Phantom grinned, letting got of Sam's hand to ruffle her hair. "Thanks for the save back there."

"Ah, that?" Dani waved her hand, after ducking away from Phantom's head rub. "No problem. Didn't actually know you two were in there." She grinned. "But hey, if I can make things work out better for my favorite friends, whose to complain?" She asked.

"Well, I'm sure Mr. Lancer will have a few complaints." Sam commented. "But we owe you one. Are you hungry? We were just going to head over to the Nasty Burger."

"Both of you?" Dani asked, glancing over at Phantom. "I will never understand why you like to eat, Phantom." She shrugged her shoulders. "You do know you're kind of dead, and don't exactly need to be worrying about that anymore?" She asked.

"What can I say?" Phantom shrugged. "My taste buds are still alive and kicking." He took Sam's hand again. "Besides, I'll be switching over before I get there, so I won't stand out half as much as you seem to think I will."

Out of the few people that knew that Phantom was Danny Fenton, Dani was the last one of them. She had always been good friends with him, despite the fact that her parents were ghost hunters. When asked why, Danny used to say that she reminded him a bit of his younger sister. After that, people stopped asking. Although he had one hundred years to get over the whole being dead thing, his family still seemed to be a sensitive issue for him.

Sam and Tucker theorized that he might be related to the Fentons, but also allowed for the possibility that it was a coincidence. The only existing record of Amity Park residents from before the fire was on the Memorial. Everything else, from the four years leading up to the fire, seemed to have been lost after the city had started back up.

Anyways, they figured that if a hundred years wasn't enough time to get over whatever was bothering him, then maybe they should just leave it alone.

"Mm, then I'll guess I'll take you up on that offer." Dani grinned. "Besides, I'm starving."

"One of these days, I swear, I'm going to figure out what the hell the Nasty Burger mascot is supposed to be." Danny commented, glancing up from his cheeseburger to look at the stand outside. "Some kind of weird beetle?" He asked, arching an eyebrow. "I don't think bugs are very appetizing myself."

"Well, to be fair, it is the Nasty Burger." Dani pointed out, munching on a french fry. "But I can see what you mean. When I first came here, I thought I was going to hate the food. I mean, really, a nasty burger? How good can that taste?"

"I think the people who founded this place were big into irony." Sam commented, taking a sip of her soda. The trio was sequestered away in a corner booth at the restaurant, out of the way of everyone else so they could talk with no worries.

"Mm, that would explain a few things." Dani said, finishing off her fries. "Thanks for treating me, by the way." She said, looking up at Sam.

"It's not exactly like I lack the money." Sam told them, grinning a little. She was rich, after all, though she hated to flaunt it. She'd much rather spend her money buying her close friends some lunch, than waving it around and trying to gain popularity with it. It wasn't exactly a secret that she was rich, given her parent's well known names in the city, but people kind of forgot it because of how she chose to act.

"Which is convenient, because otherwise, we could never go out on proper dates." Danny joked, grinning. "I'm not sure how positions there are available for a zombie."

"You mean, besides brain eating and being an extra in horror flicks?" Sam asked, looking over at her boyfriend. "I think you're just lazy, Danny." She told him, but couldn't really keep a straight face. "You keep on mooching off of Tucker and me all the time."

"Yeah, but could you see him working?" Dani asked, grinning at her. "There's technology everywhere these days. He wouldn't survive for one day at a job, I can guarantee you that."

"Oh come on you two, I'm not that helpless, am I?" Danny asked, giving them a look, almost seeming to be offended. "Surely I can manage at least a day. It's two days that I would have trouble with."

The two raven haired girls exchanged grins, although it was broken by the sound of Sam's phone ringing. She groaned, knowing by the ring tone that it was her parent's calling. "Ugh, they're probably pissed at me by now." She frowned, pulling it out of her bag and turning it off. "Well, let's not deal with that now."

"Mm, what do you think they're more mad at you for?" Danny asked, finishing off his cheeseburger. "Skipping school, or skipping school to hang out with me?"

"Oh, skipping school to hang out with you, definitely." Sam nodded firmly. "They just don't like you, Danny." She said, glancing over at him. "No matter what form you're in. Do you know they blame Phantom for my whole 'Goth thing'?" She asked him, putting air quotes around the last two words.

"Ah, they might actually be right about that one." Danny pointed out. "Do you think you would really be half as interested in the stuff you are now if it wasn't for me?" He asked. "It's just the whole bad influence idea that they've got wrong."

"Ah, that could be." Sam admitted. "Who knows? If I hadn't met you, I might be romping around the halls of Casper High like Paulina." She shuddered at the thought. "Oh god, I've never been more grateful for your friendship than I am right now, Danny."

"Ew, I just got a mental image of that." Dani made a face, looking as if she was about to throw up. "Pink really isn't your color, you know." She pointed out. "And polka dots don't look good on you."

"Exactly what were you imagining?" Sam asked, looking blankly at her. She held up her hands then, changing her mind. "No, wait, don't tell me. I think it might be best if I never know."

"That it is." Dani agreed with her.

"Yeah, well, I'd still be very bored if I hadn't met you, Sam." Danny admitted. "Having powers like that is cool and all, but the enjoyment kind of starts to fade after awhile." He told them, eying Dani as he said this. He knew that the smaller raven haired girl had always dreamed of having ghost powers of her own, something which he had always told her wasn't as fun as she seemed to think it was.

"I don't see how." The younger girl huffed, just as Danny predicted she would. "Personally, I think it would be awesome!" She grinned. "I mean, with powers like yours, I could do whatever I want!"

"Yeah, but what would your parents think?" Danny asked, arching an eyebrow. "Your folks are on good terms with me and all, but I know they're just kind of waiting for me to show my 'true nature'." He said, making air quotes around the last two words. "It's not all it's cracked up to be, trust me."

"Well, I still think it would be awesome." Dani pouted, refusing to see it his way.

"Now, now." Sam intervened, playing peacemaker. "Come on, let's not argue about it. There's no way you could get them anyways, Dani. Danny was a one time thing." She told her, arching an eyebrow. "Besides, Danny's your elder, you really ought to listen to him sometimes."

"Elder?" Dani asked, grinning. "He's like my great-grandpa or something, Sam."

"Hey!" Danny protested. "Come on, you know I don't like it when you guys poke fun at my age like that." He huffed. "I'm sensitive about it."

"Oh come on Danny, you know she didn't mean it." Sam took his hand. "Besides, you don't look a day over eighteen and you're never going to look any older. Don't worry about it so much."

"I think it's cool." Dani told him, taking a sip of her soda. "You're like immortal or something, Danny. There's no way that can't be neat."

"You can't be immortal if you're already dead." Danny pointed out. "Besides, it's not really all that it's cracked up to be anyways." He was still smiling, but there was something sad about his face. Sam and Dani exchanged a look, knowing that was their cue to change the subject.

Luckily, they were saved by the ringing of Dani's phone. "Oh hang on, it's mom." She said, pulling out her phone. "Hey mom. Oh, yeah, I turned it into him, don't worry. Where am I?" She asked, repeating her mother. "I'm at the Nasty Burger with Sam and Danny. Yeah, Sam's treating me. Oh, really?" She asked. "Okay, I'm done with my food anyways. I'll be home in a few minutes."

"Mmkay, bye mom. Love you too." Dani hung up her phone then, glancing over at Sam and Danny. "I have to run. Mom says they've got something they want to show me."

"Another Ghost Portal?" Danny asked, glancing over at her. As much as he had planned to forgive her, he was still a bit annoyed that she hadn't told him.

Dani winced, knowing that he was kind of angry with her for that. "I don't really know. It's probably nothing, but I promise I'll tell you about it this time." She said. "I just kind of wanted to see what the Portal could do myself." She confessed. "I didn't think it would unleash a bunch of ghosts."

"You didn't think a ghost portal would unleash ghosts?" Sam asked, arching an eyebrow. The younger girl flushed in response, not having an answer to that. "No, don't mind me, Dani. You hurry on home."

"Okay." She said, lifting up her hand. "I'll see you two in school tomorrow!" She hurried out the door then.

"Mm, shouldn't you be heading home too?" Danny asked, looking over at Sam. "The longer you stay out, the more your parents are going to be pissed at you." He pointed out.

Sam reached over to him, and gave him a light smack on the head. "As if that has ever stopped me before."