I'm not sure exactly how long this has been collecting dust on my computer, but it's been a while. I can't even remember how I came up with the idea, but I did.
The episode referred to is "13", if it's not obvious.
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is owned by not me. XD
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Kwan held out Tucker's PDA and exclaimed, "Check me out, I'm Tucker Foley, styling large in the latest techno geek fashion."
"Dude, you do that a little too well…" Dash responded, looking at Kwan with a scared expression splattered on his face.
Kwan's eyes widened and shifted back to look at Tucker. He screamed, "Techno geek's contagious!"
As he fled the scene faster than a cheetah running after it's prey, Kwan was transported back to a time before Amity Park—when he lived in California. That place was full of only bad memories…memories Kwan had sworn he would not relive. He didn't like to face the realities of his old self.
He could still hear the echoing cries of his schoolmates…
"Techno-geek!" a particularly cute blonde screamed at him. Kwan, a seventh grader at Hawkman Middle School, sighed. He liked that girl—Patricia Willows—but he also knew that he would never stand a chance with a girl of such high standing. He would have to skip cross country and completely reorganize his image to even dream of getting a girl that pretty to like him.
He glanced at his fellow tablemates. There were three other people sitting at the table, none of whom he was actually friends with. One boy was the captain of the chess team, the other the king of the dorks—who was momentarily distracted as he thought long and hard about the strategies he would have to execute once he resumed his online games this afternoon after school—and the third was a Goth girl who didn't have any other place to sit. Kwan himself was the techno-geek.
A technology whiz won't ever get any recognition around here, Kwan thought sullenly.
He enjoyed technology—more than that really, he devoured it. Tech-stuff was his passion and purpose for his life in its entirety. There was always the newest, cutting edge phone or computer or combination of the two being rattled off the shelf and Kwan was always one of the first to be seen showing it off. There was nothing more that he wanted but the sweet perfume of a new, shiny, and polished-to-perfection piece of equipment.
"Heads up, dork!" Kwan averted his eyes from his food tray to the cloudless sky and caught sight of a football pass gone haywire headed his direction. Acting quickly and without thought, he hopped onto the table and jumped high to catch it. Quickly, his feet hit the table and he directed the football back to where it came—and where it belonged. Kwan was positive his pass had been worse off than the one he had caught; he didn't even bother watching it soar through the air like a wingless bird.
Throwing that football painfully reminded him of the other reason he loved technology so much and so consumedly. He wasn't good at handling any other kind of…anything.
"What...did you do?" the chess team captain asked with amazement shining in his eyes as ketchup dripped from his hamburger and onto his nice, ironed kaki dress pants.
"What?" Kwan asked, turning back to his PDA and pushing his glasses up further onto his nose so he could read the screen. He scrolled through his calendar for the next month. All that was coming up was the release of a newer version of the PDA he held in his hand.
When he had received no answer after several seconds, he looked up to find his three tablemates staring at something behind him. He swiveled slowly in his chair and glanced cautiously up to take in the face of Hayden Elche. He was an amazing middle school quarterback and most people assumed he would soar high his first year in high school.
"You throw that ball back?" he asked in a gruff voice—the kind of voice Kwan wished he had instead of his squeaky chirping.
Slightly frightened, Kwan answered, "Yes. Are you mad because I didn't get it anywhere near you?"
Hayden looked at Kwan as if he had swallowed a watermelon whole. "You kidding? You threw that right back to me. It landed in my arms."
Kwan shot him a disbelieving look and pivoted away from the tall guy. He took up his lunch—his other hand still clutching the life out of his precious hand-held—and stood up. Hayden took a step back. "Thanks for trying to make me feel better, but you failed. I know you're lying."
Kwan began to scuttle away, trying to be free of the humiliating gaze Hayden was putting him under. He was more than bewildered when he heard the soft pound of footsteps on the grass behind him. He stopped, curious.
"Dude, I'm not joking. I know you're a dweeb and everything"—at this Hayden took a careful observation of Kwan's right hand, the one attached to the PDA, and shook his head— "but you have a good arm. Have you ever thought about football?"
Kwan would've laughed, but his voice most likely would have gone up an octave in nothing short but a completely embarrassing squeak. Instead, he cleared his throat and answered with a completely serious voice, "No way. I'd be laughed off the field."
"Kwan, think about it, please," Hayden begged. Kwan glanced side-long at the ever-so-popular guy and shook his head.
"You're setting me up to fall, man," Kwan blatantly told the guy and turned up dust as he shot across the grassy common's area toward class.
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It was that night before Kwan had even thought about thinking about the strange lunch period that day at school.
"Kwan, sit down; we need to talk." Kwan may have only been a seventh grader, but he was smart enough to identify the four worst combined words in the English language. He steeled himself for whatever the announcement may be. Someone could be dying, his parents could be getting a divorce, or he may be getting grounded from his sweet, precious technology.
His mother set her hand on his knee. "Do you like it here?"
"Here as in…?" Kwan questioned, confused and shooting down two of the three ideas that had screeched across his mind.
"California. Hawkman Middle School. Your friends and classmates," his father explained, looking grim.
"Why?" Kwan asked, fearing the absolute worse. What if he had to choose between parents?!
"Because your father got a promotion at his job and we're going to be moving far away," his mom answered.
Kwan's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "We're moving?"
"Yes," his father confirmed. "We're going to have to move no matter what."
Kwan smiled. "When are we moving?""You're not upset?" his mom asked.
"No, not really," Kwan answered, honestly. He hated his school and his classmates...mostly because they despised him.
Both his parents smiled and his mom told him they could wait until school ended at the end of spring before they had to leave, but Kwan interrupted her. "We don't have to if you don't want."
His mother look completely confused. "But Kwan, if we move now, you'll have to start a new school half-way through that last semester."
"That's fine with me. I can catch up," Kwan patiently explained.
His father laughed. "Kwan, we're staying here until then, okay. We just wanted to let you know. We'll start packing in the next few days or so."
Kwan smiled and agreed, not feeling as if he would accomplish much even if he pursued moving sooner for the next hour.
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In his room later that night, tapping away on his computer, was when the thought hit him.
Maybe I could recreate my image.
His thoughts shifted to Patricia Willows and her beautiful blonde hair. She would be one to fall for a striking football player, not a dorky techno-geek. Kwan pushed himself away from his computer desk and stared off into space, pondering if he could pull off a complete image turnabout.
He didn't think it would be that impossible.
That is, he didn't think it would be until he glanced at his precious cell-phone sitting on his desk. He cast his eyes over his much-loved PDA and thought about the new one coming out later that month. His computer was screaming at him to not even think about betraying it. Kwan's head hit his hands hard.
He had a choice to make. He could begin to ungeekify himself now or he could go out and buy the new PDA in few weeks. He could try to give the transformation a head start by trading in his glasses for contacts or he could stick with the comfortable environment that came with hiding behind his glasses. He could aim for a girl like Patricia Willows at his new school or he could settle for the bland, day-to-day, ordinary girls he might have half a shot at possibly getting a date with.
So basically the decision he had set up for himself was this: popularity (with the side-effect of girls) or technology (with the side-effect of owning the largest home in looserville).
Of course, there was still the problem of actually believing that he could be any good at football. Kwan bit his lip nervously and cast a wary glance back at his cherished technology. He had made his decision.
He stood up and set a hard glare at his window, as if challenging the world to shove him back into his seat. Tomorrow he would march up to Hayden Elche and take him up on his offer of playing football. He would tell Hayden that he would be moving before fall and explain how he wanted to go ahead and get down the basics of the game before he moved so he wouldn't appear horrible on the field.
Of course, his room could always be his safe haven of technology, but he would keep it low-key. He would begin his endeavor by refusing to buy the newest PDA. A pain shot through his stomach at that thought, but he struggled through.
Kwan was going to recreate his image.
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Kwan's hand shot up to push his glasses further up his nose.
Oh right, he thought after his finger hit the high part of his nose instead of a metal rim, I got contacts three months ago.
His mom was smiling from the driver's seat. "You excited about your first day at Casper Middle School?"Kwan swallowed the nervous feeling that jolted his body every few seconds and lied. "Yeah. I can't wait." Why had he thought leaving California would be a good thing?
"I still can't believe you left your PDA at home, Kwan," his mom mused for the fourth times since getting in the car. "It's so much a part of you…at least, it was.""Yeah, well, I'm going to see how I fare without it," Kwan answered as his hand zoomed toward the pocket in his pants where his PDA would have been regularly. His fingers twitched in what he would call pain when there was nothing there to grasp. He stood a steadying breath.
"Have a wonderful day," his mom chirped. Kwan looked out the window to find that the scenery had drastically morphed into a school grounds. He had been riveted on the floorboard the entire trip to school.
Outside the car, Kwan began the treacherous journey toward the front door. As he walked by, people shifted their gaze toward him. It felt weird to have people stare at him, so he kept his eyes securely bolted to the ground the entire time. It was much easier than attempting to look at the other students.
"Hey! You!"
Kwan stopped in his tracks, petrified that he might have been the one to be called out. With an immense amount of effort, he raised his eyes to peer around the school yard. A swift skim of the place revealed a figure in Kwan's eyes coming straight toward him. The guy was tall with blonde hair and broad shoulders. Kwan instantly stood up straight and attempted to look as big as he could manage. The next fleeting moments of his life could make him or break him for the rest of his entire school career.
"What's your name, kid?" the guy asked while he was still stalking toward Kwan.
Kwan ignored the nervous feeling that fought for attention and focused on setting up a larger-than-life name for himself. "Kwan."
"Where are you from, Kwan," the guy asked in a mean voice.
"California," Kwan responded obediently.
"You a sports guy?"This was it. The moment that would change him forever. He could stand up for what he had always believed in and proclaim his love for all things electronic, or he could call upon his weeks of football training (which had gone surprisingly well) and announce how he was a football star. Kwan had prepared for this moment and rehearsed it in his head throughout the entire summer and finally…finally it was blooming before his eyes.
Kwan, ecstatic about how his voice didn't squeak so much anymore, declared proudly, "I play football…or, rather, I trained at my old school to go out for the team here. I was good there."
"Football player, huh? Or…about to be," the guy corrected. His blue eyes opened wide and a smile graced his lips. "Cool. Me too. I'll get you where you need to be. Dash is the name."
And just like that, Kwan had changed his identity. It was so easy, so…thrilling. But at the same time, it was bittersweet. He fingered the cell phone in his pocket and sighed. Most teenagers had a cell phone; that was utterly the sole reason he had chanced bringing it to school. It would still be difficult for him to pull through without having his beloved technology to rely upon but he would simply have to get it done.
Kwan followed Dash as he whirled around on one foot and began the trek back to the school building. On the way, they passed by three other students that caught Kwan's attention--actually, only one held his attention. There was an African American kid wearing a red beret standing with two other students.
In his hands gleamed the PDA Kwan had refused to buy back in the spring. He was pounding away at the precious piece of technology and rattling off something or other to the other two, who were looking at each other with wry expressions on their faces. The black haired boy rolled his eyes as the creepy looking girl smirked and stole the PDA. She held it high above her head, and in a pitiful attempt to retrieve his stolen hand-held, the boy jumped and a jumbled mess of wires and plastic beeping contraptions fell from his pants to the grass.
Dash sneered in the general direction of the three. "Those three are losers. That one's a Goth, and the other"--he paused to allow a short burst of laughter--"a techno-geek."Kwan flinched on the inside, but didn't dare to show it on the outside. That fragment of his life was done away with now, and he was going to accept the fact, move on, and swear to never think of that period of his life again.
And when a cute Latino girl flagged on one side by an even cuter blonde girl rushed up to join Dash (and, consequentially, caught a glance of the guy standing next to him) Kwan had a feeling that it wouldn't be that hard to forget anyway.
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I finished this in like, two days. On and off of course, but it's after two in the morning.
I meant for this to portray Kwan's transformation (which it did, hopefully) but I kind of ended up showing the…vanity?…would that be a good word?…of some types of popularity.
Thank you my beautiful readers.