So yeah. I went and made a sequel. The idea would not leave my head.
I promise after this Riley's strictly a background character/plot device/comic relief.
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is NOT MINE. Riley is, though.
--Phanny
Can of Worms: a complex, troublesome situation arising when a decision or action produces considerable subsequent problems...
Sixteen-year-old Danny Fenton walked through the halls of Casper High on his first day of school as a junior. He was quite obviously irked at the fact that he had to suffer through another year before next summer, and annoyed that he had somehow been cursed with an assignment of showing one new freshman around the school against his will.
"What's that room?" Riley Matthews hadn't stopped asking inane questions since she'd arrived at the school ten minutes before. The now fourteen-year-old freshman hadn't changed since Danny had first met her, though maybe she had an he just couldn't tell because she hadn't left him or his friends alone all summer. Admittedly, he'd gotten used to her, but now he had to spend every day with her around him until he graduated…or died.
Riley also rode his bus. He could hardly contain his joy.
"That'd be the boy's bathroom," Danny told her, ushering her along, "let's just find your locker before class, okay?"
"Kay!" Riley grinned from ear to ear, "it's number…412."
Danny sighed in relief. That locker wasn't too close to his…
…but it was pretty close to Tucker's.
Tucker wasn't as annoyed by Riley as Danny and Sam were. Both of them were very chatty, and when Danny and Sam eventually stopped listening, Riley would hang on Tucker's every word when he talked about his technology--Tucker had been the younger girl's godsend when she managed to fill her father's computer with more viruses than even Tucker had ever witnessed on one machine. Neither member of the trio had dared to ask what she was doing with the computer that caused it to become infected.
As Danny guided Riley to her new locker, Sam came up behind him, tapping him on the shoulder and making him jump.
"Don't do that!" Danny panted when he saw Sam. Riley snickered at seeing an older boy start at one simple tap on the shoulder, and Danny glared at her, "oh, shut up."
Sam felt a little guilty, though. Little tricks like that often went from 'harmless fun' to 'surprise ghost attack from behind' in Danny's head, nowadays.
"So, you guys seen Tucker anywhere?" Sam asked when Danny had finally stopped giving her his famous 'death glare' (which didn't phase Sam much, seeing as she had a much more effective one in her arsenal), "he called me and said he'd be here but I don't see him."
"He's in the cafeteria!" Riley spoke up from behind Danny, "they have that whole "freshman welcome breakfast" thing and I saw him in there but I didn't say anything because I didn't want to go in because all those freshman are really annoying. And I already ate."
Danny snorted at Riley's thoughts on her fellow freshmen, but recovered and looked at Sam. "Well, there's your answer. You should've known--he goes every year."
"And they kick him out every year, so…" Sam trailed off with a smirk as a very disgruntled Tucker Foley walked towards his locker, only to see his friends already his destination and brighten up.
"No luck?" Danny asked, "Tuck, it's a "freshman" breakfast."
"But it is the only time of year where the lunch ladies bring out the good food," Tucker rolled his eyes, "I mean, the other food is okay, but that stuff is there to trick the freshman into thinking that this is a decent school!"
"I think it's a decent school," Riley said.
"You don't count," Tucker told her, "you already know people here, you won't be drawn in by eggs and waffles, your dad won't send you to Elmerton Academy…"
"Because that school is for gifted kids," Danny muttered, "not people who can't open the plastic wrap without taking off the blade…"
"Hey!" Riley rushed to defend herself, "people could've hurt themselves with that!"
"That's what you use to tear the plastic wrap!"
"Whatever," Riley said, doing her usual thing of ending an argument quickly because she knew she was going to lose. "Show me how to open this thing." She pointed to her locker.
"Use the combination," Danny told her. Riley stared at him blankly. "You do know how to use a combination lock, don't you?"
Riley shook her head, her flyaway hair shaking with it and eventually ending up in her face when she stopped.
"Fine," Danny sighed, "give me the combination."
Riley stared at him, her pale green eyes blank.
"You don't even have the combination?!"
Of course, that was when the bell chose to ring.
"Okay, welcome to the new season of "name that food," ladies and gentlemen," Riley announced as she sat with Danny, Sam and Tucker in the Casper High cafeteria.
Since Danny and his friends were is sophomore year, the school had decided to change the lunch schedules. Now instead of separate lunches for each grade, everyone went to lunch at the exact same time. What a fantastic idea.
"Meet our first mystery dish--greenish-brownish-odd smelling-chunky-vegetable-stuff. Any guesses of the identity?"
"We stopped trying to figure out what that was in ninth grade," Sam sighed in disgust, "even I won't eat that."
"Good," Riley nodded, "looks like someone already did."
"I'd just slide it over to the end of the table and hope someone knocks it over," Tucker shrugged, and Riley did so.
After many guesses as to what was on her lunch tray Riley concluded that she should just bring her own lunch from now on.
All four heads turned as a girl let out a scream. Riley knew that sort of scream--a ghost! On the first day of school!
'…Awesome!' Was Riley's only thought. Her next period was math, maybe she'd get to miss it and see Danny Phantom at the same time! Danny Phantom always came to the rescue. He was a superhero!
Riley just hoped that she wouldn't be the one whom he had to save this time.
Riley realized a moment later that she had lost sight of Danny, Sam and Tucker. Why did they always run away when a ghost attacked?
Riley thought for a minute, 'because there's a ghost attacking. Duh.' She told herself, 'then…maybe I should run too.'
When Riley tried to run, the lunchroom shook beneath her feet and she fell, looking up and seeing the horrendous ghost of a…
…Frog?
"Hey!" Riley pouted, "frogs aren't scary!"
The frog was a sickly purple color, and its croak sounded more like a roar. Riley dissected a frog once, and she knew that they didn't usually have such sharp teeth or three eyes, and she definitely knew that they weren't supposed to be the size of an SUV.
Maybe frogs were a little scary.
Riley tried to get up and run, but the monster's long tongue lashed out and she barely ducked in time to dodge it, causing it to hit the wall behind her. As the frog pulled its tongue back, Riley was showered with broken plaster and tile as the tongue pulled most of the wall away with it.
Suddenly, something black and white came at her quickly, lifting her up in the air. Riley closed her eyes in fear, wondering who her attacker was until she heard him speak.
"Why is it always you?" Danny Phantom said dryly, "can you just stay out of trouble for just one whole weekor something?"
Riley looked down and noticed that the rest of the people in the lunchroom had escaped, and that she was the only one who had stayed.
"I laugh in the face of danger…?" Riley offered, and when Phantom raised an eyebrow she sighed, "just get me out of here, please? I promise I'll be good next time!"
"Why don't you try not letting there be a next time? When I put you down, run!"
When Danny Phantom set Riley down near the door, she did just as he said, no matter how much she wanted to watch the fight.
However, Riley didn't leave the school, instead hiding behind one of the trashcans in the hall and waiting. She was too scared to run any farther, and her legs felt numb.
All that waiting did her good, as she was perfectly safe from the commotion in the lunchroom until she heard the voices of Sam and Tucker join much of the yelling going on. After a moment, there was silence and Riley crossed her fingers. She hoped Sam and Tucker were okay, and that Danny was safe wherever he was.
When Sam and Tucker exited the lunchroom with a floating Danny Phantom, Riley let out a quiet sigh of relief before her eyes widened in shock.
A flash of light had blinded her, and she blinked several times, disbelieving. Danny Fenton stood next to his friends right in the spot where Danny Phantom had stood a moment before.
Danny and his friends went rigid in fear and surprise when Riley came out from her hiding place excitedly.
"Whoa, cool!" Riley pointed at Danny, "do the flashy Phantom thing again! I wanna see!"
Danny could only stare blankly at the young girl.
'Oh…this isn't good.'
It gets worse, too.