AN: Hello my fabulous readers! :D Hope you're all doing well!~ So, this is the product of reading a conversation about toast sent to my by a very good friend of mine. The mention of toast got me wondering about why Danny hates it (I mean, it's just crunchy bread) when this little plot bunny was born. XD It can take place pretty much anywhere in the series as long as it's after the first episode and before the last, so you could really take your pick. I think it's a nice little break from all the angst I've been giving you guys lately with Second Chance. :) Anyway, I hope you enjoy!~
Danny, Sam, and Tucker sigh in unison as they walk into the battlefield known as the school Cafeteria. They go over to the line which was rather short from them being delayed by The Box Ghost. They get most of the way when Danny groans and turns away as if to walk on to their table.
Sam grabs his shirt and keeps him from doing so. "What's wrong? Did you forget lunch money again?"
"No, I remembered. I don't want to spend it on that, though!" he protests. Tucker looks around the people blocking the food and sees the meal.
"Sweet! Ham and cheese!" He starts drooling a bit then looks at Danny, confused. "You love ham and cheese, Dude!"
"Yeah, I do, but look at the bread." He starts again with trying to get out if Sam's grip, but she just tightens it and starts dragging him towards the line again. They get there and she surprises them both by picking up a tray.
"Uh, Sam, that's meat," Tucker points out unnecessarily. She sighs and continues ignoring them, instead getting the attention of the lunch lady.
"Can I please have some normal bread?" She gives the woman a smile. Danny and Tucker then understand, going up to her as the lunch lady hands Sam two pieces of plain bread, accepting the two dollars from Sam's hand as surreptitiously as she could. Sam hands the tray to Danny, who continues to get the rest of his food, avoiding the toasted bread like the plague, and pay for it, as does Tucker. Sam gets a water to supplement her brought lunch. They pay and go to their table.
"You've never told us why you hate toast, you know," Tucker hints, taking a bite of his own toast, ham, and cheese sandwich. Danny sighs, taking the time to get a bite of his toast-less one.
"It's not really a pleasant memory.. "
A tiny, three-year-old Danny Fenton hurries into the kitchen, trying to pull on his shirt while he hurries to his mother. He gets it over his head (not noticing or caring about it being inside-out) and grabs her leg, smiling up at her as she stands at the stove. The smells of breakfast fill the room. Bacon, eggs, and Danny's favorite food ever. Toast.
"Ith it ready, Mommy?" he asks innocently and adorably. Maddie smiles down at him, making a mental note that he might end up needing speech lessons if he couldn't fix his "s" words.
"Almost, Sweety. We have to wait for Daddy to get back from dropping off Jazz."
"Okay!" He let's go and goes over to the table before beginning to try pulling himself onto one of the normal chairs. He slips at first but fearlessly tries again, managing to climb up the side of it, miraculously not pulling it over on top of him. Maddie snaps off the stove and puts the rest of the bacon on a plate before turning around and jumping at the sight of Danny in the non-protective chair, beaming with self-pride. She puts down the skillet and hurries over, picking him up and moving him to his table-height, customized high chair (which kept him in it while allowing him to use the normal table) despite his protests.
"Mommyyyyyyyy! I don't wanna thit in my chair!" Maddie smiles at him, knowing what to say to win the argument.
"If you don't sit in your chair, you don't get any toast... " He gives her a horrified look and starts rapidly shaking his head no.
"Toatht! Toatht!" Maddie smiles again and assures him he'd his toast. The front door opens, so Maddie calls out to Jack.
"Jazzy said love you and have a good day!" he tells them as he enters the kitchen, smiling at his wife and son before jumping in his spot at the food. Maddie serves the three of them and settles herself in her chair, half of Danny's toast gone already. There are a few moments of peace when there's a large crash outside, followed by a scream.
"GHOOOOOOST!" cried Jack, who leaps up and rushes outside. Maddie follows wordlessly, looking determined. Neither of them thought to stay with the toddler once a ghost possibility showed up.
Danny watches his parents rush out, second piece of toast halfway in his mouth still. He's confused on where they went and what his dad meant, but shrugs and continues to eat.
He doesn't know what happened to cause the next occurrence, but does know his toast is suddenly awful. He doesn't know he can spit it out, so he simply swallows it and chugs some of his sippy-cup-held milk. He then looks at the toast and screeches, throwing it away from himself.
"No! No! No!" Danny's still protesting and has started crying when Maddie rushes back in.
"Danny! What's wrong, Sweety?!" She hurries over to him and picks him up, relieved when she finds no injuries or entities near him. He points to the discarded toast, still crying. She doesn't see it from her angle, so she asks again.
"T-toast!" Maddie let's him slip down in her grasp a tiny in surprise. For one, Danny said his "s" properly. For another, he seemed terrified.
She sits him in his chair before going over and gasping at the former piece of bread. She whips out an ecto-gun and fires at it, nailing the center in one attempt. It disintegrates into a puddle of ectoplasm.
She stares at it, wondering how in the world a piece of toast came to life as a ghost. She goes back to her small son and begins trying to calm him down. He stops crying after a moment but then throws up on his mother, toxic green being the prominent color.
"I ended up getting sick for three weeks with some kind of ghostly food poisoning. After that, I've barely been able to look at toast, especially since my dad started making his Fenton Toast... " Danny finishes. Sam and Tucker are staring at him, dumbstruck.
After a moment, Sam seems to regain her senses.
"So.. You don't eat toast.. Because you accidentally ate a haunted piece of it when you were three? Even now when you're a ghost hunter with ectoplasm in your veins... You still won't eat it." Danny gives her a sheepish look. There's a moment of silence until Tucker starts chuckling. It rather rapidly turns into cackling with him banging his fist against the table.
"Yeah, sure. Laugh it up, Tuck. I'll just tell Sam about the lettuce incident." Tucker shuts up almost immediately, but knows it's already too late.
Lunch continues to pass by with funny stories of each other and eating until the Box Ghost shows up yet again and starts causing chaos in the storage room. It worsens when the Lunch Lady then shows up as well.
The three get to work yet again, glad they all got a little while to laugh and have fun.
Because I love the Box Ghost :D If you're wondering why I chose for Danny to have trouble with his "s" words, there is nothing canon which points to the possibility, but he's three. Give me a break. I had plenty of freedom with that one. XD I really only thought of it because I had to have speech classes through Pre-school and Kindergarten because I couldn't say "s". The real kicker for that? My name starts with S. XD I hope you liked it :) F, F, & R!~