Mmmmmmkay.
Um. Hi.
I...disappeared from the DP fandom for awhile. So...uh, I want to see if I can get myself back in here...
So here's a new story featuring my OC, Riley. She, my friends, has been my character for a little over two years and has gone through some MAJOR overhaul. She's moved down to a minor character in the long years I've been working the kinks out of her. So much so, in fact, that her being involved in any of my stories is rather unnecessary.
So, why am I putting her in a story? Well...I like her. I just do. And if I ever DO decide to put her in a story, I want you to know where the heck she came from, and how she knows Danny, Sam, and Tucker.
So. Yeah. And I'm sort of trying to wedge myself back into the fandom here, because I don't have quite the inspiration to update any of my other fics. I'm caught in between to obsessions here, guys...
SO. Introducing, Riley Matthews--not to be confused with another character of mine, Riley Frasier--one of the biggest non-ghostly nuisances that our favorite trio have ever encountered. Won't this be fun?
"Explain the purpose of this trip to me again."
Danny Fenton's head thumped against the bus window, his dull eyes showing how tired he was, and how enthusiastic he was about the latest Casper High field trip. Mind you, enthusiastic is a term used very loosely here.
"Apparently we're buddying up with eighth graders from Spectral Middle School, because both Lancer and some other teacher booked this museum trip at the same time," Sam Manson, one of Danny's closest confidants, also sounded annoyed at the arrangement, "instead of one them just moving their trip, they made this oh so wonderful compromise."
"Man, this is gonna suck," Tucker Foley chimed in, finally looking away from the game he was playing on his PDA, "remember eighth grade? These kids are gonna be brats."
"Tucker, you shouldn't just assume stuff like that," Sam began to chastise him before he cut her off.
"Remember how we were in eighth grade?"
Danny and Sam shared a glance, and Danny let his head fall against the window again.
"These kids are gonna be brats." He moaned.
"Hey, Danny you got it the hardest," Tucker told him, "if a ghost shows up, how're you going to ditch a kid without getting caught on Lancer radar?"
"I always get past Lancer," Danny looked puzzled, "what're you worried about?"
"Now you've got a thirteen year old who'll rat on you if you disappear."
Danny's eyes widened, "you're really not making this trip very appealing for me."
"You three sound excited," all three students nearly jumped out of their bus seats at the sound of Mr. Lancer's voice.
"Oh, well--we were just--"
"You all should be honored," Lancer was now talking to the whole bus full of students, who snickered when the bus his a bump and he lost his balance, "this is a chance to give a young, high-school bound tween a glimpse into the life of a sophomore. Think of this as a gentle nudge into the world of higher education, and when you realize what a favor you have done these children, you will feel the pride your own teachers feel when their students walk through doors of high school with the knowledge to ensure a fruitful future."
Lancer's heartfelt speech was met with silent stares and an awkward cough from one of the back seats.
Danny, Sam, and Tucker exchanged a glance.
"He could really use a hobby," Sam decided. The boys had to keep from laughing.
When the bus from Casper High arrived at the museum, the Spectral Middle school bus had already gotten there a few minutes before.
The eighth graders stared at their tenth grade partners, and vice versa. Needless to say, this was very awkward.
"I'm pretty sure they don't want to be here either," Tucker muttered, and Danny merely nodded. Sam nodded too, but before she could say anything Mr. Lancer and the middle school teacher addressed the kids.
"When Ms. Graysee and I call your names, you will come forward and meet your partner for the day. Ms. Graysee will call her students and I will call mine."
"Well, duh," Someone from the eighth grade group muttered, just loud enough to hear. Ms. Graysee gave a brunette girl a hard stare before turning back to her clipboard.
"Zachary Kimble," The aged woman adjusted her glasses as a young boy with dirty blond hair came forward, and before Lancer could speak she held out her hand to the boy. Zachary cheekily gave her a high five. "Gum, Mr. Kimble," Graysee told him sternly, not at all amused.
Once the boy had thrown away his gum, Lancer called Dash Baxter out to meet him. Well, there was one pair taken care of.
Danny sort of zoned out as the names were read off, exhausted from a late night of work as Danny Phantom, the town's ghostly superhero.
"Danny Fenton," the boy started when he heard his name and sluggishly came forward to meet his partner. It was the brunette girl who had received a rebuke earlier. She stared up at him silently, her curious eyes as green as the star on her black shirt. With a jolt he realized that he should have listened for her name.
As soon as the left to join the other pairs, the silence he had been graced with when he first met his partner was gone in a flash.
"So yeah, my name's Riley, and you're name is Danny right? That's cool. I have a cousin named Danny, except he's not like you because he had his fingers blown off by a firecracker that one time he was showing me how to safely use them. Some irony, huh? Anyway, if you ever think about using firecrackers I suggest you don't because you might lose a finger. I figure that must suck."
"Uh…" Danny didn't recall ever meeting someone who could talk that much without stopping for air.
"Oh hey, I even got a pic of his hand without his finger. It's on my phone, you wanna see?" Riley reached into the pocket of her cargo pants and pulled out a beat up cell phone, and Danny held his hands up to stop her.
"No, uh, that's okay." He'd seen some pretty nasty wounds in his life as a superhero, but he wouldn't want to look at them if he had a choice.
"Oh, well, yeah I guess it's pretty depressing. He should've lost his pinky instead, because without that one finger he can't flip people off no more."
Danny desperately waited for Sam and Tucker to get over to where he was. Maybe they would rescue him, or their partners would be people she would want to talk to instead.
"Hey, you okay? You're lookin' kinda twitchy there, dude."
"Yeah, I'm fine." He assured her, casting a glance at Sam and Tucker, who were two of the last few people to be assigned.
'Help me.' he thought.
"All right, all pairs get into groups of three and grab a clipboard," Lancer said as a tour guide handed out worksheets. The entirety of the group groaned. "This is a school sanctioned trip, did you really think you were going to get out of doing some work?"
"We hoped!" Sam's partner, a girl named Emily, called.
"Ms. Parker," Ms. Graysee chastised. Danny never knew one's name could sound so threatening.
"As I was saying," Mr. Lancer continued, "each pair get into a group with two others, and Ms. Allen here will assign you to a certain section of the museum. You will rotate every thirty minutes, so don't dawdle. These worksheets must be completed before the end of the trip, and any copying is prohibited. Every section of The Amity Park Museum of Natural History is something to be experienced first hand.
"In other words, every section museum will bore us to tears in its own special way," Danny remarked dryly. And both his friends and their partners snickered, as well as his own.
The tour guide standing next to Mr. Lancer now spoke, "all right, everyone into groups? Good. Let's see…These groups," Mrs. Allen pointed to the group Dash, Kwan and Paulina had formed, along with Danny, Sam and Tucker. Danny inwardly groaned at the thought, "will go to the first floor west wing, which is over to the left, just follow the signs." It took about 15 minutes until all the groups had been assigned to their areas.
"All right, you've all got until 4:00. So off with you." Ms. Graysee said, waving them off.
As soon as her teacher spoke, Riley dashed off, leaving the others in her dust, and Danny groaning.
"Does she always do that?" Sam asked, and Emily spoke from next to her.
"Yeah," she said solemnly, "you get used to it."
"Well go get her, Fen-Toad. I ain't getting an F because you can't control a little psycho eighth grader." Dash snarled, and Danny shuddered, remembering points would be counted off if a group split up. Lancer made some pretty weird rules.
"I'm going, I'm going…" He groaned, not at all looking forward to chasing the girl. How was he going to get through the day dealing with this kid? If a ghost came around he'd be screwed, not only because he could cost himself a grade if he left to fight it, but also for the fact that his partner might just destroy the museum if left to her own devices.
There was no time to think about it now, though. Now he had to hunt down an ADD little girl.
He wondered if he should be getting paid for this.
This chapter is boring.
I'll spice the story up a bit in the next chapter...whenever I get around to it...