"I can do this," Danny Fenton told himself, not for the first time. A paper was clutched tightly in his hand, though he was careful not to crumple it. He slowly wandered down the stairs and into the kitchen. Glancing around, he made sure that neither of his parents were in there before shuffling over to the basement's door. He was sure they were down there - that was where they were nearly every second of every day, now. Studying, experimenting, ignoring the fact that their son was just up the stairs. All alone while his friends took separate trips halfway across the world to 'get away from these crazy ghost problems' and his older sister off to visit some college she was thinking of attending.
But he hoped that it would be different today. Maybe his parents would listen to him. Maybe they would listen to him today. Maybe they would take their attention off of their inventions long enough for him to explain.
Taking a deep breath, he forced his feet down the second set of stairs and into the lab.
"I can do this," he repeated, looking down at the colorful bit of paper. He looked up again as his foot hit the floor of the lab, which always felt slightly sticky and glowed in the dark thanks to his dad's experiment with 'ectoplasmic steel'.
He looked around the lab, his dad blaringly obvious as he tinkered over the ghost portal's control panel. His mom took a few seconds to locate, over in the opposite corner of the room. She had her hood up and her goggles on as she blowtorched one of her recent inventions that just looked like a metal box with wires sticking out of it. Swallowing thickly, it was to his mother that he went.
"Uh, Mom?" he called softly, his head down as he peered through his bangs at her. She just hummed.
He shifted his feet and swallowed again, lifting the paper closer to his face and clutching it with both hands.
"Um, so, there's this space camp thing that I've really been wanting to go to for a while now, since the space place was letting people in for free..."
She gave an 'uh huh'.
"It says that the whole family can go, so I'm pretty sure you and dad could come along. I told you about it last week, remember?"
She hummed again and bent lower over the box.
"If... if it's okay with you, do you think we could all go? Together?" He looked up hopefully at his mother's back. She straightened suddenly, and Danny felt the happiness bloom inside of him as she turned and pulled her goggles off of her face, smiling wide. He felt his own smile take over his face as she picked up the box thing-
"Jack, I've done it!"
-and walked right past him, actually pushing him out of the way without a glance. As if he wasn't really there.
Even as his smile fell and his hands dropped to his side, he didn't quite process what happened until he heard his mom gushing over the 'Fenton Destructinator' and how the 'ghost boy' stood no chance against it. He stared at the blowtorch she had left on the table, still smoking lightly. Absently, he noticed that there was still a couple of wires left on the table.
He turned his head slightly to look at the scene behind him. His mom was babbling on about the box, while his dad tried to not snatch it out of her hands and take it apart to figure out how it worked.
Both had wide, excited smiles on their faces. They looked happy like this.
Happier than he'd ever seen them outside of the lab.
Finally, his mom seemed to notice him. A surprised look took over her feminine features.
"Danny, how long have you been standing there?" she asked, handing the box to his dad. "What's wrong, sweetie?"
Turning to face them completely and ducking his head, he hid the paper behind his back.
"It - it was nothing, Mom. Just came to say hi," he lied with a fake smile. She stared at him a moment longer before smiling back.
"Okay, if that's all it was," she said. "But we're pretty busy down here, and a lot of this stuff is dangerous, so make sure you're wearing a proper jumpsuit next time, alright?"
If Danny had it in him, he would have scowled, said, 'There won't be a next time!' and stormed up the stairs before slamming the door behind him. But as it was, all he did was smile and nod before slipping past them.
"And don't let the ghosts catch ya!" his father suddenly boomed, brandishing the metal box dubbed the 'Fenton Destructinator'. "If they try, we have this baby to destruct them!" His mom nodded and patted her husband on the arm as Danny fled up the metal steps and into the kitchen.
He stalked moodily up to his room, closing the door tightly behind him before throwing himself onto the bed.
They never once saw the space-themed paper in his grasp, informing him that he was invited to the space center's 'young astronaut' astronomy camp, completely free with family welcome. They didn't see as he crumpled the paper into a tiny, extremely condensed ball before he threw it into the already overflowing wastebin, trying in vain to scrub the tears out of his eyes. He sniffed, staring at his lap before his eyes drifted to the paper ball that had bounced out of the bin and onto the floor. He flopped back onto the pillow, listening to his dad's booming laughter and his mom's lady-like giggles.
"They just forgot about it," he murmured to himself. "It's no big deal." He stared up at his plain ceiling, this time not stopping the tears as they slid down the sides of his face and began to dampen the pillow.
I really want to make a pun right now, but I feel like now isn't the time.