"I'm gonna miss this place," I said to the empty room. Old? Yes. Paint peeling? Heck yeah. Smell of mothballs filling the air? You can bet so.

But I was seriously going to miss it all.

"Danny, come on! We don't want to be late for our flight!"

I turned toward the doorway, shouting, "Alright, Mom! Give me one more minute!"

This crappy little room in this crappy little apartment had been home since I could remember; I felt like I was losing some part of me.

"See ya," I sighed, reluctantly turning around.

Maybe it was my imagination, but I could've sworn that someone said, Bye, Danny.

\*/

"Danny, don't act like such a three-year-old," Mom chided as we entered the airport, rolling her violet eyes. "It's a new start! You'll get to make new friends-"

"I had friends back in New York," I interrupted. "We don't need a new start. We were doing just fine."

Mom sighed, her face looking tired. A part of me felt guilty for acting like such a jerk to her, but it was hard to hold back the anger that kept building up in my chest.

I did have friends. Granted, not that many friends, but they were good ones. Dante wouldn't have hesitated to have my back in a fight, and Jaden always found a way to make me laugh, even in my darkest days.

And, again, the apartment. From what Mom told me, we'd lived there since before I was born. Even when Dad died, we hadn't moved. We had memories there. History. And she was willing to just throw it all away.

"Here's your stop, ma'am," the cabbie said. Mom paid him, and we exited from the taxi into the parking lot, pulling our luggage along with us.

As we made our way past the baggage drop and into the actual airport, Mom squeezed my shoulder, trying for a smile at me.

"I know you don't understand now, sweetheart, but it's all for the best."

I turned away from her gaze, afraid that she might get to me and change my mind.

For the best. As if.

\*/

Mom stepped into the townhouse, taking a long, deep breath as she did so and smiling.

I slid my backpack strap further up my shoulder and ran up the steps, straight into what I assumed would become my room.

I sat on the ground and unzipped my backpack, pulling out my Notebook laptop that I had gotten for Christmas a year ago. Immediately, I IMed Jaden. I was just as close to him as I was Dante, but right then, I needed a good laugh more than anything but my old life back.

NASAgeek3045: Hey. I've finally arrived in the Dump. Wish I was messing around with you guys.

JadentheLadiesMan: Danny! D and I are so lonely without your Geekiness! Come back!

NASAgeek3045: Wish I could.

JadentheLadiesMan: Quick, say something nerdy!

NASAgeek3045: Sir Isaac Newton was not, in fact, hit on the head by an apple, but he viewed the apple falling from the tree from his office, which eventually lead to the discovery of gravity.

JadentheLadiesMan: Ah, thank God! I felt so SMART with you gone! It feels good to be an idiot.

I chuckled and was about to reply when Mom shouted, "Danny! Come down here!"

I groaned and typed,

NASAgeek3045: Gtg. Mom's calling. Talk to you later?

JadentheLadiesMan: Later, dude.

I closed the Notebook and shoved it back in my backpack before running down the stairs again.

"Yeah, Mom?"

"We have company," Mom explained with a smile.

I tried not to roll my eyes. The last thing that I needed right then was our new neighbors coming in to give out cookies and neighborly love.

I looked past Mom to an auburn-haired woman who looked about her age. She wore a bright pink dress that, thankfully, didn't show much, diamond studs in her ears, white high-heeled sandals, and bright pink lipstick to match the dress. Her eyes were a lighter shade of blue than mine, and her skin held no blemishes or wrinkles.

Next to her was a girl about my age. She was surprisingly pretty, with amethyst-colored eyes that were thickly outlined with black eyeliner, shiny, chin-length black hair, pale, peach-colored skin, and stained-purple lips. She wore a black tank top with a purple skull on it, a black skirt, purple leggings, and black leather combat boots. Unlike the woman next to her, she didn't look too thrilled to be here.

Mom waved me over and had me shake hands with the woman. "Danny, this is Miss White, our neighbor. Pamela, this is Danny, my son."

The woman- Ms. White- smiled with perfectly straight, white teeth. "Well, isn't he just adorable?"

I fought a scowl at the word adorable and instead nodded, my expression blank. Mom either didn't notice or didn't care.

Ms. White gave the Goth girl a look, and she rolled her eyes, reluctantly holding out her hand. "I'm Sam Manson, her daughter," she said blandly.

I gave her hand a quick shake, and then rested my own hand back into the pocket of my old red hoodie. She didn't seem too happy to have to make contact with another person; I could understand where she was coming from.

"Danny, how about you and Sam go hang out upstairs while Ms. White and I chat?"

Mom glanced at me with a meaningful expression on her face. I sighed, nodded, and gestured for Sam to go first. Hesitantly, she did so.

We sat in awkward silence for a while in the empty room. I ended up pulling out my laptop and searching for either Dante or Jaden to be online, only to be disappointed. I closed my laptop and, finally, broke the silence.

"You don't like being here, do you?" I asked.

Sam glanced at me, and then said in a bored voice, "Wow, how could you tell." Her tone was so flat that it didn't really turn out as a question.

"I don't want to be here, either," I clarified.

"Oh, really. I'd thought that you were bursting with joy. My mistake." Sarcasm oozed from her words.

I rolled my eyes and leaned against the wall, sighing. "No need to be a pain in the neck. I'm just sick of this town already. That's all that I have to say."

Sam, surprisingly, turned to me, her expression still flat. "So why are you here?"

"For a new start," I answered, keeping my opinion about that reasoning to myself.

Sam turned her focus back to the wall ahead of her, not saying anything in reply. I didn't bother trying to bring up another topic either, for two reasons:

Sam either didn't want to talk, or she didn't have any emotion at all, and

I had nothing to say, anyway.

So we were quiet for about twenty more minutes. Then our mothers called us down. Ms. White said good-bye, and Sam left with her, not even glancing back at me.

When Mom closed the door behind them, she sighed, "Well, that was interesting. Pamela is a bit…outspoken."

"You mean she's a total whore?" I asked calmly, sensing Mom's subtext.

Mom gave me a disapproving look. "Well, yes, to be blunt."

I shrugged and turned to go back up the stairs, but she stopped me.

"How was Sam?"

I turned back to her and said in a monotone, "Absolutely joyous."

"So I take it that she wasn't much better than her mother?"

"Oh, no, she wasn't a whore. She was more like an emotionless robot with a pretty face."

Mom smirked, which made me immediately regret that I'd said anything about her looks. "Pretty, eh? Well, I can't disagree with you, there. But it's a shame that she has to grow up with that woman; the poor girl must fall asleep with her mother's voice scolding her in her head."

I shrugged again and ran up the stairs, pulling out my laptop once again. Instead of trying to IM Jaden or Dante, however, I ended up playing a free online game for a couple of hours until Mom called me down again.

"Danny!"

"Yeah!"

"Takeout time!"

"Coming!"

I exited the game and shut the Notebook, running to the door. Mom came, her chin-length copper-colored hair in an incredibly short ponytail, dressed in jeans, a blue Yankees T-shirt, black sneakers, and a thick black hoodie.

She opened the door, and the both of us stepped outside into the cold night air. My breath fogged up in front of me as I raced from the door to the cab that Mom had called.

As I stepped inside after her, I asked, "When are we gonna get our own car?"

Mom thought about it, and then answered, "I guess tomorrow I could rent one. My job doesn't start until Monday, so I'll have time."

I nodded, relieved. I've always hated taxis and cabs. They always gave me this unstable feeling, like I couldn't go anywhere twice without it being different and unpredictable.

Not that I hated anything unpredictable; I just wanted some things to stay the same, you know?

Then I realized, as I glanced at the unfamiliar town passing by me, that honestly, nothing ever stays the same for long. At least, not for me.

\*/

That night, as I brushed my teeth and stared into the mirror at the fair-skinned, skinny kid with messy black hair and sky-blue eyes, I decided that maybe Mom was right. Maybe it was time for a new start.

I mean, of course I still didn't want to be here, still wanted to be in New York, still wished that Dante and Jaden were less than a mile away. But there wasn't anything that I could do about it, and I was getting tired of sulking. It wouldn't hurt to open up, at least a little bit.

When I spit and looked back up, my heart froze for a fraction of a second. Behind me, in the shower, it looked like there was a shadow that wasn't mine. I blinked twice; it was still there.

I turned around, my hands shaking. There was nothing there. Even the shadow was gone.

I shook my head and set my toothbrush down. Just my imagination, I thought. There's no way that could've happened in the first place. I'm just a bit weird because of nerves. That's it.

That was it. That was all that there was to it. Just nerves.

Then why did I feel like I wasn't alone?

A/N:

So...should I be doing this?

No.

But the idea came to me, and now I really like it, and my mind began formulating. So, um, sorry. :D

Anyway, SPOILER (if you care, and if you dare): Fenton and Phantom are not the same person. But it's not pitch pearl (blech). More like friendship that gets reaaaaaalllllly complicated.

So, for once, this does not focus totally on romance or angst. More like friendship, with a lot of romance (again with OTHER PEOPLE), some angst, and SAAAAVIN THE WUUUULD!

Anyway, all in due time. For now, though, I'm trying to pace myself (for once), and you must deal with emotionless Sam, nonexistent Phantom, more annoying than usual Tucker, dead Jack (WHY?! WHY, BRAIN, WHY?!), rational non-scientist Maddie, stern not-related Jazz, cold-shoulder Valerie, etc.

Gracias.

And please review.

:)