I do not own Danny Phantom.
Surprising Lancer
Danny, Sam and Tucker frowned thoughtfully. They were in Danny's bedroom, a box of pizza in the middle of their circle on Danny's bed. Picking a piece of pepperoni off and laying it on his tongue, Tucker chewed before he spoke.
"How about we decorate his room?"
Sam chewed on the end of her pencil. "I was thinking we could get him some gifts and lay them around."
Danny lazily tossed a plasma ball up and down, watching the dim glow dance across his walls. "I thought we could do our homework and not get detention."
Sam snorted. "We want to surprise him, not give him a heart attack."
The 'him' they were referring to was William Lancer, their teacher, vice-principal and all-around substitute. He taught so many subjects that the trio considered him their steady teacher. Lancer's birthday was tomorrow, which they found out thanks to Tucker's hacking job.
Hey, teachers were people too.
"What if we do all those things?" Sam smiled. "I could take care of the gifts, Danny the decorations, and Tucker the homework."
Tucker scowled. "Why do I get the homework?"
"You're classified as a nerd. Live up to it!" Sam snapped back as she got up and stretched. "I'm off to hit Amity Mall with Danny. Remember, we have an English essay and those metaphor worksheets. Disguise the handwriting when you work on the worksheets, ok? It'll seem suspicious if the writing looks the same on all three."
Glaring at their retreating backs, Tucker sighed and picked up a pencil and all three English binders.
...
Sam cracked her knuckles and stared in satisfaction at her wrapping job. Five gifts had been wrapped in silver and blue paper; a book on poems, and a coffee mug that was unbreakable. The other three gifts Danny had bought as joke gifts; a dunce cap, a panic button and a mini-dart gun. Each gift was accompanied by small notes Tucker had written up.
Danny picked up the bag of decorations and took Sam by the wrist. "Tuck, are you done yet?"
Tucker flexed his wrist and put the finished papers in the folders. "Yup. Let's get going."
Danny transformed, and the trio phased through the wall and into the orange sky. "Why are doing this at five in the morning?" Tucker asked, clutching to Danny's arm tightly and glancing nervously at the ground, which was far below.
"We want to surprise Lancer. Plus, if anyone finds out who did all this, they'll be classified as a teacher's pet," Sam replied.
Danny phased them through the ceiling of Casper High and right into Lancer's empty classroom. "All right. We should start on decorations."
He dropped the bag of decorations and rifled through it. Colourful streamers, balloons, confetti and party hats were piled onto a desk. Sam removed a small tube of superglue out of her pocket. Danny and Tucker looked at her quizzical. She smirked.
"Those decorations won't last five seconds in our class full of idiots. This is a safety measure."
Tucker grinned and began to blow up balloons. Danny took the glue from Sam and hung the blue, green, red and yellow streamers all along the ceiling. Sam placed a party hat on each desk. She then sprinkled confetti all over the classroom.
"The janitor would kill me if he found out I did this," Sam commented as the last piece of blue paper had floated onto the floor.
Danny finished his streamer job and was admiring it. "I think I have a future as a party decorator."
Sam snorted. "Stick to fighting ghosts. Tuck, you done with the balloons?"
There was no answer. The halfa and Goth turned to see the techgeek on the floor, purple-faced and panting, a pile of balloons beside him. Sam felt her lips twitch. "Um...I kinda brought an air pump." She gestured to the abandoned plastic bag in the corner and smiled sheepishly under Tucker's murderous gaze.
Danny laughed and started taping the balloons to the streamers. Tucker caught his breath and joined Sam as they observed their work. The classroom was an explosion of red, blue, purple, green, yellow, orange and white. All decorations were safely out of reach of idiots like Dash and Kwan.
"Sweet. Now, we start with the presents." The trio picked up the gifts and placed them in various places around the school they knew Lancer would be the next day. Each gift was placed with a note. Satisfied, Sam grinned and high-fived Danny and Tucker.
"Awesome. I got him a little cupcake, but I think I'll get you to slip to him at lunch tomorrow, Danny."
"As long as he doesn't eat it first," Tucker said with a grin. Avoiding the fist, he pointed to the window with a smirk. "We better get going. I say we have an hour until school starts."
Sure enough, cars were beginning to drift into the parking lot. Danny narrowed his green eyes, but smirked back.
"All right." He grabbed his two friends by the waists and phased them to safety.
...
Lancer rubbed his face as he sprinted down the hallway. Already, he could hear his class hollering and shouting. Manson was probably ready to demand why he could be late, but they couldn't. Skidding to a stop, he threw open his classroom door and opened his mouth to shout, but stopped. His briefcase clattered to the ground.
His classroom looked like a six-year-old's birthday party. Balloons, paper streamers and confetti covered every corner. But he didn't tell anyone it was his birthday!
His students immediately quieted down. He then saw each was wearing a silly party hat, even Ms. Gray. Shaking his head, he sat in his desk and surveyed the faces before him. "All right. Do any of you know who did this?"
Heads shook. Dash frowned. "No clue, but I wish they didn't put the balloons so high up."
He caught the snicker between the trio in the back corner. Raising an eyebrow, he felt a smile tug on his lips, but he held it back. "I see. Everyone, take out your homework and pass it forward."
Soon the sheaf of ripped, torn and some pristine papers were on his desk. He was mildly surprised to see that Tucker, Daniel and Samantha had actually done their homework. Okay, he was more than just 'mildly surprised'. He was shocked. But not wanting to question small miracles, he slipped the papers in his folder and gestured to the chalk board behind them.
"I want you to answer the questions I handed out yesterday. That is, if you actually kept them."
Instantly Dash's hand flew up.
"Sir, I need a pencil."
"Would it really kill you to bring your own pencil?"
"I forgot."
Lancer rolled his eyes, but opened his top drawer. Eyes widening, he was greeted with a rectangular blue package.
"Mr. Lancer?"
Shaking his head, Lancer pulled out a pencil and tossed it to Dash. It slipped between his fingers and clattered to the floor. Danny snorted. "Some jock you are."
Ignoring the glare Dash sent Danny, Lancer took the package in his lap and read the note.
Although more inspiration equals more homework for us, I know you'll find this useful.
Tearing the paper away, he was shocked to see a large book of poems. Having no idea who sent it to him, Lancer placed it back in his drawer and smiled softly. The minutes ticked by, and soon the bell rang. Students poured out the door and Lancer followed. He had a spare and he normally spent it in the staff room or library.
Opening the wooden door, he went to the sink to see if there was a clean coffee mug leftover. Realizing the others were staring at him, he turned around with a raised eyebrow. "Do I have a kick-me sign on my back?"
Pete Poluka smirked. "Not today. But I do believe that is for you." Lancer followed the pointed finger to find another package, this time wrapped in silver paper.
Something that will last a LONG time. And is safe from immature ninth graders.
A coffee mug with bold red letters that spelled out Unbreakable Mug. "Unbelievable."
Heading past the confused teachers, he walked straight to the library to think. This was the strangest birthday he ever had. As he went to sit in his favourite chair, he froze and stared in disbelief at yet another package.
A little something that you can use when things get out of hand. Especially in your freshman classes.
Lancer could not help but smirk when he pulled out an orange plastic dart gun that shot foam darts. Indeed. This would most definitely come in handy.
...
"Did you do it?" Sam asked at lunch, popping a carrot in her mouth.
Danny nodded. "Yeah. Nice choice, by the way. Chocolate cupcake...yum."
Tucker craned his head to peer over the many students and snickered when he saw Lancer's astonished face as he pulled out the small treat. "Sweet. Well, we only have the last two gifts left. Good thing Lancer has detention duty today."
"Which we have to serve," Sam grumbled. "All I did was free the frogs."
"For the third time this semester. We got busted for being 'accessories to a theft', can you believe it?"
The rest of the day went by pretty quickly. Lancer enjoyed his dart gun, shooting the small projectiles at Dash when he started throwing his football around and hitting the jock in the eye. Kwan accidently knocked the new coffee mug over, and Lancer was quite surprised to see that it was indeed unbreakable.
The trio shuffled into detention as the final bell rang. Slumping into the last seats in the back, the three watched as Dash and Kwan filled the seats in the middle, and Star and Paulina took the corner.
Lancer filed in soon after and surveyed the usual suspects. "All right. What did you do this time?"
Star and Paulina glanced at each other before the blonde spoke. "All we did was tell Ms. Hanna that she could really do with a waxing job."
Dash sighed. "I got busted for shoving Mikey in the locker and Nathan in the janitor's closet."
"I threw Mr. Poluka's briefcase on the roof when I thought he wasn't looking. He was."
Sam leaned back in her chair and rolled her violet eyes at Kwan before answering. "We got nailed for freeing the frogs."
Lancer stared at the Goth incredulously. "Again?"
Sam shook her head. "I know. I should be an expert at this by now."
It was then Lancer noticed a small blue bag sitting under the desk. Without asking questions, he pulled it out and unwrapped it. He laughed as he pulled a dunce cap and a panic button from the silver tissue paper. Smirking at Dash, who was staring at the white cardboard hat with slight horror, he walked up and put it on the boy's head. "I think it suits you."
Dash turned bright red and Tucker snickered, pulling out his PDA and took a picture before stuffing it back in his pocket.
Lancer thought about the gifts he had received and smiled softly. He may never know who gave them, but he was grateful to know that someone cared.
Detention ended and the trio were the last to leave. As they walked through the door, they turned back and hollered; "Happy birthday, William!"
Laughing, they hurried out, and left a boggled and shocked Lancer behind.