I haven't watched very many of the episodes coz they hardly ever show Danny Phantom in the UK (damn you nick toons, damn you! (shakes fist in anger)). So sorry if this doesn't make sense! I'm usually a Final Fantasy 7 'Reno and The Turks' writer; I've never tried a cartoon fanfic before, but here goes!
Be my ValentineDanny sighed, miserably slouching over his cereal bowl, absent-mindedly swirling the contents of the bowl around with his spoon as he tried to build up some kind of appetite. The pool of apprehension sitting at the pit of his stomach did not help matters. He wasn't looking forward to today, not one bit. Jaz was sat next to him, her head buried in a book as she mumbled some equation or other between bites of cereal.
"Hi kids!" Maddy called as she came into the kitchen, a smile on her lips as she clicked the kettle on and sat next to Jaz humming gently to herself. A few minutes passed in silence before Jaz seemed to register that her mother was in the room, she let her book drop a little and tried to remember what it was that she meant to ask her.
"Oh! Mum! Can I go to the valentines ball tonight?" She asked gleefully. Tim Coban from the year above her had asked her to be his date the day before, and he was such a dreamboat. Tall and handsome with well-conditioned mid-length brown hair that swept across his deep blue eyes, his voice silky and smooth and average test score was a solid A. Maddy narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
"You're not going with any boys who own a motorbike are you?" She asked in a clipped voice remembering that pasty boy she was once interested in who was rather too fond of his motorbike; Johnny something or other…
"No!" Jaz snapped, brows knitted together at having to answer such a dumb question. Maddy's smile lit up again as she went over to the kettle which had just boiled and made herself some tea.
"Okay hon! Sure! What about you Danny? Are you going?" This was the subject that had Danny's stomach all twisted up; Valentines Day.
"Going where?" Jack Fenton asked seriously as he stepped into the room. Maddy smiled to her husband and informed him of the Valentines Day ball at Casper High School. "Oh that's great!" Jack beamed at his kids "Ah Maddy! They're growing up aren't they? Do you remember our first Valentines Day? We pogoed like there was no tomorrow." Danny rolled his eyes and lazily stood up, grabbing his school bag that was resting on the otherwise empty chair next to him.
"I'm going to school." He mumbled, keen to escape his crazy parents' trip down memory lane. Jaz was also keen to get to school all of a sudden, as she rushed past Danny, almost knocking him over in her attempt to be gone before they started to talk about moonlit walks interrupted with ghosts that were only sheets that had blown off someone's washing line.
School was not much better, notices and posters about the dance were up everywhere and everyone was getting excited by it; everyone but himself and Sam. He had already asked Paulina and she had laughed in his face. If Paulina didn't want to go with him, he wasn't going.
By lunchtime Tucker was off asking every other person who resembled a girl to the dance leaving Danny and Sam alone together.
"Valentines Day is so cheap." Sam moaned, sipping her orange juice cartoon and slouching over the picnic bench. Danny had his chin rested in his hand and a glower on his face as he watched Paulina prance about in her new shirt to Dash.
"What's so good about Dash anyway? I mean look at him!" Danny moaned, gesturing to the stocky blonde whose eyes were focused just a little bit too far below Paulina's chin to be acceptable. He didn't even look up to her face when he replied; it was like his eyes were glued to her chest or something. Sam continued her rant about the cheapness of Valentines Day, refusing to comment on Paulina.
"Why do people think that there is only one day a year that they can express their love to one another and feel compelled to buy a collection of kitsch plastic hearts and wilting flowers? It's ridiculous!"
"I know!" Danny agreed, having only listened to the last part of her rant and assumed she was talking about Dash and Paulina. "Does she actually like him staring down her top the whole time? What does she see in that doofus anyway?"
"And what's the point of a Valentines Day card anyhow? All this 'from your secret admirer' rubbish. If you fancy someone you just come right out and say it without needing some commercial tat to give you an excuse. I mean why write someone a card and not tell them who it's from!" She moaned, taking a red envelope out of her bag and glancing briefly at Danny who was still scowling in the general direction of Dash and Paulina.
"So you think I should send Paulina a card?" Danny asked her, Sam rolled her eyes and took the card out of the envelope
"Who? What? Were you even listening to me Danny, or were you just selecting the bits you wanted to hear?" Danny had noticed the card in her hand; it had a big red heart on the front and the words Be My Special Valentine scrolled across the top.
"Whoa! Who are you giving that to, seriously Sam I would have thought you'd be above Valentines Day." Sam scowled and opened the card re-reading it for the tenth time that day. It was sighed 'from your secret admirer.' Her cheeks flushed a little red as she quietly asked Danny;
"…So you didn't send it then?" Danny pulled a face and looked at the card
"Someone sent it to you? Who?" Sam sighed on seeing it wasn't Danny who had sent it, wishing her cheeks would stop feeling so damned hot.
"I dunno who sent it." Her voice was laced in disappointment.
Danny was now scowling at her, forgetting about Paulina for the time being. "Well have you been flirting with anyone? Who would send it? You must have been flirting with someone for them to come right out and send you a Valentines card." He snapped in a sharper tone than he had meant to use. Sam's cheeks raged even redder, but in anger rather than embarrassment.
"I have not been flirting with anyone! Why should you care anyway?" She snapped, annoyed at the accusing tone of voice Danny had used on her. Danny sighed angrily and raised his hands in surrender
"Alright. I don't care." He muttered under his breath, knowing full well that he did care; it was just that he'd rather not, given the choice. But hormones didn't seem to listen to his reasoning so he just had to go with the flow and keep on trying to convince himself that it was Paulina he liked. Paulina. His eyes darted from Paulina, back to Sam then defiantly towards Paulina again, muttering under his breath and trying to remember what it was he was talking about before Sam had started waving that damned card about.
"…So you think I should send Paulina a card?" He asked again, to which Sam rolled her eyes and shut the card.
"No! Yes! I DON'T GIVE TWO HOOTS DANNY FENTON!" She snapped, picking her bag up, anger written in her expressions, "I wish you'd grow up and realise that that excuse for a girl is a two-dimensional, dim-witted moron! I should think by the time you come to realise that, all the girls who could make you happy will have grown up themselves and come to realise that you, Danny, are a fool and just as shallow as the dumb little hussy you so pine over!" With that she spun on her heel and stormed off. Danny's furrowed brows marked the fact that he hadn't a clue what she had just said, but she was angry and he felt bad about it.
She had barely rounded the corner before a shiver went up his spine and cool vapour escaped from his mouth in announcement of a ghost being in the vicinity. He sighed and scanned the playground for signs of spectral behaviour. At first he saw nothing suspicious; but then out of the corner of his eye he spotted a rather pasty looking skinny kid with eyes just a little too green to be human and blonde feathered hair so fair it was almost as white as Danny's ghost-mode hair. He was stood a metre or so away from a couple of kids in Jaz's year who were currently giving one another rather nasty love-bites. The gleeful grin on his face was moronic to say the least as he perved on the couple with drool escaping down his chin. Had his eyes not had that suspicious glow Danny would have immediately passed him off as one of the outcast geeks who had no friends for a good reason. As the ogling spook didn't seem to be trying to kill anyone Danny decided to hang back and watch to see what he was up to. He got his Fenton Thermos from his bag in readiness just in case it decided to go in for the kill.
After five minutes the kissing couple had noticed the gleeful stares of the ashen-faced ghost-kid and quickly moved away with horrified expressions. The kid was not fazed; instead he quickly found another kissing couple and proceeded in staring at them until they too ran off irritably. The more Danny watched the further he could see that this ghost was weird, it just went from couple to couple leering at them until they noticed. It seemed odd that the leering ghost seemed to grow a little less lanky and little more toned as he worked through the many kissing couples (there weren't usually so many kissers about, Danny blamed Saint Valentine.) The bell for the end of morning break sounded causing a whole lot of nothing to happen. Slowly in the space of five minutes people ambled back to classes in no particular hurry to arrive on time, perhaps it was the holiday spirit, but in truth it was the same everyday. Danny was just usually hurried along to class by Tucker and Sam and never saw the slow saunter of the less enthusiastic students. This time there was no Sam or Tucker to drag him away to Lancer's 'Hip and Trendy' English class. Instead he watched the spectre ogle at one last couple before all were gone and it was left alone, seemingly searching for any other couples who had hidden themselves up a tree.
Danny quickly made his way over to the ghost and tapped him on the shoulder, making it jump, it's green eyes widening for a moment.
"Whoa! Er…hi?" The ghost muttered, it really didn't look much like a ghost, but Danny's shivering told him his instincts had been correct and he was a ghost.
"You're a ghost aren't you?" Danny asked with a fake smile, his Fenton Thermos held behind his back. The ghost seemed to pale, if that was possible as it's skin was already a nice shade of grey.
"Er…yeah…but right now I'm not doing anyone any harm here am I? Not all ghosts are so bad eh?" He stuttered, clearly afraid. Danny considered this for a moment, smacking his lips together and gripping the Thermos tighter.
"…Well what are you up to? I saw you leering at all those happy couples back there." The ghost suddenly grinned, relaxing a little seeing as Danny wasn't attacking him or anything.
"Well, it's Valentines Day…The names Cupid. I…er…feed off love basically…" Danny was a little taken aback, from all those dull art classes he had sat through he had been led to believe that cupid was a fat naked baby. While this ghost-kid didn't look too attractive, he certainly wasn't fat, naked or a baby.
"No way? The cupid?" He asked dumbfounded, Cupid rolled his eyes and shifted his position a little as he explained.
"Nah. I get that a lot though. I'm just called Cupid and I feed off love. I don't make people fall in love or anything. I just get strength from the energy that loving couples emit….too bad this dump is full of shallow, fake-love." He moaned to himself, looking down at the ground, his glowing green eyes looking mournful. "I mean I'm only allowed out of the ghost world one lousy day in the year and then all I can find is a bunch of teenagers who play at being in love but base their entire relationships on who's popular and good looking. It means I don't get the energy I need to get back to my old self again." Danny gave the ghost a perplexed look, torn between just sucking him into Thermos and getting to Lancer's lesson at a reasonable time, and standing there to discover what this Cupid fellow had to say. He chose Cupid; ghosts interested him more than onomatopoeias and similes.
"You get strength from love, but the couples here are just superficial with no love shared between them other than the love of their combined image?" He asked, feeling he was sounding just a bit too much like Sam for his own good lately. Cupid nodded enthusiastically; glad to be sharing his woes with someone for once.
"Exactly. And I can only do this once a year, I get all my nutrients on February the 14th, by January the following year I'm wasted away to nothing, as you can see. My true form is far greater and immense than I look now. Unless I get all my nutrients today, all the bigger ghosts'll beat me to pulp again. If I get enough love today so that I'm back to my old self I can cause enough wrath to get people to steer clear of me for almost a year." Danny nodded, feeling a little sorry for this weedy kid now he had heard his story, and if he was intending to go back to the ghost world once he was loved up then surely he could just leave him be?
"Why don't you go and look for some adults, they usually love one another more genuinely." He suggested helpfully, rubbing the back of his neck, as he felt a bit weird having a conversation with a ghost.
"Wanna bet?" Cupid grinned, adults weren't much better than teenagers "The ones who genuinely love one another don't usually spend Valentines Day any differently from any other. So by the time they get back from work and are all lovey dovey my time in this world is almost over. I wanna get filled up on my years worth of love as early as possible so I can enjoy my strength with the remaining hours I have here and cause some sweet commotion. Man! I can't wait until the valentines day ball tonight, I reckon there'll be at least one genuine couple there, and that's all it takes, other wise there'll be enough half-love there to fill me up alright and I can cause some sweet havoc before midnight calls!" He whooped, excited at the thought. So, this ghost was like all the others, he did want to cause upset and commotion; it was just that he was too weak to do so yet. Cupid seemed to see that he had said too much and turned invisible, melting into the ground. Just as Danny was about to 'go ghost' and chase after him he felt a firm grip on his shoulder.
"Fenton! You'll be in my office every night after school if you don't come to class right now!" Mr Lancer snapped. Danny's jaw dropped, he quickly stuffed the Thermos into his bag.
"Er, why aren't you in class sir?" Danny asked as Lancer led him back up to school. Mr Lancer tutted and shook his head
"An incident with my mother, her cat and a rifle caused me to be delayed, Miss Duke the supply teacher is filling in for me right now. Danny, I will have to have a word with your parents about this tardiness." He said in a disappointed tone of voice. Danny lowered his head miserably, just what he needed, his parents getting angry at him again. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and followed his teacher into the classroom, darting to the desk between Tucker and Sam and getting his books from his bag. He tried to ignore Sam's scowls as Mr Lancer thanked Miss Duke for filling in for him and waved her goodbye.
"Hi Danny. What took you so long?" Tuck asked, leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head. Sam wasn't in a good mood with Danny, Tucker had already guessed that when she came into class muttering under her breath about how dumb Danny was and then something about fancying someone, to be honest he hadn't really been listening.
"Pining over Paul-eeeena." Sam mocked in a sneering and ever-so-slightly bitter voice. Danny frowned at her, why was she being so touchy about Paulina all of a sudden, she'd never been this bad before.
"Actually I was tracking down a ghost. Right after you left I sensed one. It turned out to be a ghost who feeds off love…" He started to explain it all in hushed intonations as Lancer read a passage from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
"…And I call on you, spirits of the dead; and on you, wandering ministers of vengeance, to aid and conduct me in my work. Let the cursed and hellish monster drink deep of agony; let him feel the DESPAIR OF HAVING TO TEACH A BUNCH OF INSOLENT HALF-WITS! FENTON! Be quiet or I shall call on those wandering ministers of vengeance otherwise known as your parents!" He yelled with impatience in his voice. The whole class were had turned round to stare at Danny, who had by now gone a rather bright shade of crimson. He kept the ghost discussions quiet until the lesson change over an hour later.
"Well that dumb ghost of yours certainly won't be any trouble seeing as there's about as much love here as there is in Mr Lancer's life: not much." Sam commented, clutching her books as they made their way to science class. Danny was glad she was at least talking to him; she had been ignoring him when they were allowed to quietly talk in English class earlier and it was starting to get on his nerves.
"Yeah, well he said he was going to the Valentines Ball, so I guess I'll have to go after all." He moaned, running his nimble fingers through his thick black hair and sighing over dramatically.
"You do know that you can only go if you have a date right?" Tucker asked just in case. Danny's face dropped, the spark in his blue eyes fizzled out.
"No, I didn't. Great, just great." He didn't hide the sarcasm in his voice as he collapsed onto his stool in the science room.
An hour of prodding a dead frog and listening to Sam rant about the poor little creature passed by slowly. She refused to jab at it with the scalpel as her two friends were nonchalantly doing whilst discussing who Danny could ask to the dance just so he could go there to make sure Cupid stayed nice and non-hostile. Tucker had circulated the class asking varying girls if they'd go with Danny to the dance, but they all already had dates, or just laughed at the idea. Meanwhile Sam was getting more and more irate, Tucker couldn't tell if it was the frog poking or Danny, but decided it was best just to steer clear of her for now.
"Maybe you could ask Denzel?" Tucker suggested after asking the last girl in their class. Danny took a moment away from sulking to look perplexed, staring at his friend fixedly.
"Denzel? Denzel is a boy." He pointed out simply. Tucker shrugged.
"I don't think you're in a position to be picky and Denzel is…well you know…he likes boys rather than girls and he asked me once if you were, y'know, gay, coz he thinks you're cute…I'm sure he'd love to go to the ball with you." Tucker said musically. Danny gaped and took a peek over his shoulder to where Denzel sat two rows back; he was dreamily staring at Danny, his chin in his right hand. He had deep brown eyes and dark floppy hair that swept across his forehead. He was very good looking and all the girls swooned over him, but come to think of it, he was always surrounded by girls, but never dated any of them. Well now Danny knew why.
Now that he had turned round Denzel gave him a cheeky little wave and a wink before Danny whipped back round again, wide eyed and open mouthed.
"Gee-zus! Er…I like girls." Danny insisted, resisting the urge to look back round and feeling a little disturbed at how flattered he felt. Sam rolled her eyes for the hundredth time that day, bending over the letter of complaint to the school she was writing regarding experimenting on animals.
Thankfully the lunch bell rang soon after and Sam pushed her way past Danny and Tucker, pacing off in a huff. Danny went to his locker, his shoulders hunched in defeat. Today was going as expected; terribly. As he moodily opened his locker he narrowed his eyes
"And what's Sam's problem anyway?" Danny finally asked, it had been bugging him. Tucker leant against the locker next to Danny's and voiced his opinions now that Sam had scampered off.
"Maybe she's offended that you didn't ask her to the ball?" He asked, he would have suggested her as a good candidate for Danny to ask to the ball sooner, but he didn't like to interfere in their odd relationship. Danny's stomach heaved a little; he put his books in his locker and tried to ignore the odd buzzing in his chest.
"Do you think that she wanted to go with me?" He asked hesitantly, glancing to his friend briefly, nervousness lacing his movements. Tucker arched a brow and leant towards his friend
"Hello in there? Anyone home? Of course she does Danny!" The buzz filled his chest until he was sure he'd explode, he gulped the feeling down and slowly closed his locker.
"I…I didn't ask her because I was scared she'd say no. I don't wanna loose her as a friend…" He said quietly, his eyes glazed over. Tuck pushed himself off the locker.
"Well, I think maybe you lost her as a friend by not asking her Danny." And that was all Tucker was going to say on the matter, he didn't like getting caught between them like this, and he'd be damned if he knew how the minds of women worked, even if he pretended that he was set on being a ladies man when he had graduated.
Danny sighed miserably, eyes fixed on the ground as they walked to the canteen for lunch.
"Well, when I see her I'm just gunna come right out and ask her." He promised himself as they sat at a bench for lunch. Between bites of his sandwich and a discussion about a video game with Tuck, Danny kept his eyes peeled for signs of a pasty looking perve, and a slender goth.
To Be Continued.
Thanks for reading and please review! Cheers.