strand·ed

left without the means to move from somewhere.

-0-0-0-

Danny wanted to slap his parent's mouth shut, and was immediately discouraged when he realized he wasn't on the stage with them and wasn't in 'Mouth Slapping' range. Just once, he wanted them to not be total idiots and realize the ideas they have sometimes are stupid and ridiculous. Well, not sometimes, all the time.

Some freshmen from Casper High's out-of-state rival school, Norrisville High, had paid for the trip to come to Amity Park and experience ghosts in a city they were comfortable in. The ghosts, that is. Not the students.

Of course the students and staff of Norrisville High accepted the offer, who wouldn't like to know about the creatures other cities face. A few students had gushed over their town's monsters and creatures and their very own hero, the Ninja. A few residents of Amity Park were sceptical of the fact the hero of Norrisville was over 800 years old, but then they remembered their own hero, a literal ghost, and got over the concept of the Ninja quickly.

That was yesterday's talk, now there was something else spreading like wildfire through the halls of Amity Park.

The Fenton family were ready and willing to have the students of Norrisville on an educational trip to the Ghost Zone.

That is, of course, why Danny wanted to wring their necks at this precise moment. Despite the fact that his parents had never laid a single toe in the Ghost Zone, they had decided to bring a group of irresponsible teenagers into a place where they could easily be killed or lost? Nope, that didn't settle right with him.

A small announcement over the intercom systems of the school rang and let all the freshmen, Casper High or otherwise, into the meeting. Danny was only slightly livid as he walked into the auditorium with Sam and Tucker.

He was also minorly upset that they had hosted this small trip invite during the fourth bell of the school day. Sure, it was an easy time to have the Norrisville students meet up, but it was also in the middle of his favorite class: Physics, surprisingly.

Danny, Tucker and Sam sat behind two freshmen from Norrisville High, on tall, lanky and purple haired, while the other was short, ginger hair barely popping up from the top of the theater chairs. Danny couldn't help but pay a bit of attention while the two in front of him were muttering during the entire presentation his parents were putting on, his senses were just a bit too sharp to ignore their talking.

Speaking of, even from the seat behind, Danny could smell the stench of cheese and stale chips hanging off of they two boys. He was concerned for their sanitary and their personal lives.

"Don't you even think of NNS-ing me while we're in this weirdo town! Even if we do have a field trip inside of a field trip, you are still not going to NNS me, got it?" The shorter one said, pointing a finger in the other's chest and only just barely whisper-shouting.

Danny could figure NNS was supposed to be an acronym for something. Though what for, he wouldn't dare try to guess. The people from Norrisville come up with and weird and crazy lingo, even worse than the Fruitloop's weird censored cursing.

"I promise, man, no NNS-ing while we're on this little vacay." The taller responded, also having no real concept of whispering.

A teacher, Mr. Lancer came from the sides of the stairs leading up to the stage to tap the two from Norrisville on the shoulders, promptly telling them to shut up. With a weird salute, the taller confirmed that there would be no more talking for the rest of the announcement.

Danny could hear Mr. Lancer walk away with a scoff and muttering something beneath his breath along the lines of, "Now if any of the children we're actually afraid of me here, then they would listen."

He gave a slight chuckle at that, no one would listen to him anyways.

Sam brought his attention back to his parents when she groaned.

"What are they thinking?!" Sam whispered, rubbing her hands over her eyes, promptly messing up the eyeliner she put on during breakfast with a little help from her grandma.

"I know. Not only have they never set foot in the Ghost Zone, but they are inviting teenagers from another town to the Ghost Zone, where they have never gone to." Danny, frankly, wanted to scream. His parents could be idiots sometimes, but this may be reaching a new goal.

"Tomorrow, both Norrisville and Capser high freshmen will all get to travel to the realm where ghosts reside!" Jack Fenton, as loudly as he could, yelled his speech all across the auditorium even if there was no need to. The auditorium itself was small and there were even a pair of microphones set up on the podium he was at. Maddie, his wife, leaned into one of the microphones, silencing her husband for just one second.

"All we need is a small payment of $36, think if it as a fee."

As the words came out of her mouth, a calamity of noise arose from the student body. Some were groaning while others starting trifling the rough their own wallets, looking to see if they had enough money saved up from the Christmas past to pay for the trip right now.

Danny watched as the shorter boy in front of him elbowed his friend once money was spoken of. The taller, lankier teen rolled his eyes and dug through his pockets to find his wallet.

"Mom only left me with $45, and unless you have seven dollars on you, I guess you're not coming along."

"Oh, come on Cunningham! Of course I have 26 dollars on me!" The shorter one scoffed, pulling out his barely-used wallet and opened it up, revealing one measly 10 dollar bill.

"Or, maybe I don't."

He knew he had a small problem with helping people, it was a small obsession of his. Quickly, Danny intagiablly grabbed his wallet through his backpack, pulling out two fives and six singles.

"Here," Danny passed the money forward to the purple-haired teen, finding him just a tad bit more responsible than the other, and smiled. "I can spot the change, I have to go no matter what, so its no big deal."

"Whoa, that's so bruce! Thanks!" The shorter turned around in his chair to face the three, a wide grin stuck on his face. "Now I can go see those weird ghosts!"

"Never thought I'd say this, but ghosts are a nice change from mechanical apes and stanked monsters."

"I'm Howard Weinerman, and that's Randy Cunningham. We mostly came just so we could see some ghosts." Howard leaned back, pushing against the chair.

"I'm Tucker Foley, nice to see you came for our town's main attraction." Tucker gave a small laugh before turning to his two best friends. "This is Sam Manson, Ultra Recyclo Vegetarian and all things Goth extraordinaire. And this is Danny Fenton, the son of those two up on stage."

For a second, Randy and Howard turned around to take another good look at the two presenters, even if they had been staring at the two the entire time for the past half hour. Both of the Fenton parents were trying to hush the crowd again sot hey could finish their speech and hand out forms.

The two Norrisville residents turned to crook a questioning eyebrow at Danny, who only appeared sheepish and shrugged. The two looked at eachother before facing front as a calmer quiet settled through the auditorium.

Not too soon after, Maddie began to pass out permission slips with a little envelope at the bottom where money or a check could be slotted in. She explained that the Norrisville students whose parents didn't come along to Amity Park could have their chaperone teacher fill it out under the approval of the student's parent.

Everyone grabbed an envelope, then ran out if the auditorium, eager to have it filled out. Though, most of them would forget about it the moment they got home.

-0-0-0-

Anyone who looked could tell Randy Cunningham was so ready for this kind of field trip. They were outside of Norrisville, out of the Sorcerer's reach, so that meant no stankings no matter How depressed someone was. Then, there was a new type of villain here, ghosts, which he wasn't responsible for hunting and taking down; there were already ghost hunters here!

This might be the only field trip Randy has ever had that he could fully relax on. Sure, there would be monsters that might spoil a good time, but there were already hunters here for that. Here, in Amity Park, there was no need for the ninja.

In his lap, Randy could feel the Ninja Nomicon vibrate happily. If there wasn't any need for the Ninja, there were no need for ridiculous encrypted life lessons. And, frankly, the Nomicon was tired of having to wait half an hour for a freshman to finally figure out what they were trying to say.

With the money split, Randy kept hold of both his and Howard's envelopes and shoved them in his bag. Not that he didn't think Howard was responsible enough to keep track of his envelope, it's just… Yeah, he didn't think Howard was responsible enough. His friend could lose the keys to his own home, then ask Randy to "Ninja himself" into his house and unlock the front door.

He didn't need to. Howard's parents gave him an extra key that he kept on a lanyard with his own house keys.

It wasn't too long before everyone else had filed out of the room, including the three kids who had sat behind them during the meeting. Howard and Randy had a sort of need to stick behind after every event. Mostly, it was to keep out of the hearing range of everybody else so the two could talk about confidential Ninja business.

"Oh man, this is going to be so epic! We get to go to a world full of ghosts! This might be the brucest field trip we've ever been on yet!" Howard, as excitable as he is, jumped into the air and practically yelled.

Randy rolled his eyes and couldn't help to grin at his friend. Howard has always been excited for every field trip they've ever been on. Any chance to skip school had a golden star in Howard's book.

"Even better, there won't be any need for the Ninja apparently! They have their own ghost fighters!" Howard started walking back to the auditorium doors, flailing his arms around as he spoke. "You know what that means, Cunningham!"

Planting his foot, Howard turned suddenly, pointing a finger directly in the middle of Randy's chest, even if he had to stretch up a little bit to reach Randy's chest.

"No NNS during the trip?"

"No NNS during the trip!"

-0-0-0-

"I don't know, Danny. The two of them seemed kind of weird; weirder than the rest of the Norrisville students that came over yesterday."

Danny prevented himself at scoffing at his friend.

"Oh, come on Tucker." Sam reached behind Danny to slap Tucker on his arm, smiling as the tech-freak yelped. "I think the two of them are fine, they have the same amount of weirdness that everyone else in Norrisville has, they're not too different from the rest."

"See Tucker? Sam agrees with me on this."

"Sam agrees with you on everything."

"Not the point." Danny, in the middle of the two, lead them to the cafeteria. As he swung the doors open, there were only five others in the cafeteria, including the lunch lady. It was the middle of spring, most people would want to be out in the sun after the cold winter they just had.

And Undergrowth had only attacked last week, leaving beautiful plants and flowers in his wake. People have been making gorgeous flower crowns all week.

"They might be a little weird, sure, but I still think it would be a good idea to befriend them." Sam chose the lunch table, seating near the corner and right next to an exit. "They might be able to tell us more about the Norrisville Ninja if we talk with them some more."

"And any information is good information." Grinning, Danny pulled out his Fenton Lunchbox, copyright claimed by his parents. All edibles inside are "proven" to be safe from any and all ectoplasmic infestation.

In other words, it's got a zipper.

Danny started to eat his small lunch as his two friends continued talking, debating on if they should become friends with Randy and Howard. Danny thought the solution was easy, if he got some basic info of the Ninja of Norrisville from the two, then he would be better prepared in a fight against the Ninja, or be able to formulate strategies so he could work together with him.

Oh, who was he kidding. He wasn't the one who formulates battle strategies, that would be Sam and Tucker.

In all honesty, he was a bit nervous for the upcoming mini field trip his parents were hosting. He knows they are ill prepared to host a trip like this, they have never been to the ghost zone before. Though, this could be a good opportunity for his parents to learn that not all ghosts are bad, some just want to be left alone and drift in the endless void of nothingness that is the Ghost Zone.

He also wants to go back for a little bit for his own personal wants. Danny has been meaning to return to The Far Frozen and thank the ghost-yetis for helping him unlock his ice core. Though, with that unlocked, his skin has been freezing cold and he's been accidentally freezing drinks after holding them for less than a few minutes.

Danny kinda wants to train his ice core with the Yetis of the Far frozen just so he'll stop freezing everything he tries to drink. It started getting irritating after the third frozen glass of apple juice.

Lunch ended a few minutes later, sending the students the fifth bell. From then on, school ended smoothly, what with not having any run ins with any A-Lister who would want to bite their heads off.

Once Sam, Danny and Tucker found themselves in a place where they couldn't be seen, namely behind the school, Danny transformed. White rings spread from the middle of his body, one trailing upwards while the other sank to the ground, leaving behind resident ghost-boy hero, Danny Phantom.

Both of his friends latched onto one of his arms as he went intangible, forcing them to become intangible as well. Then, with barely any warning, Danny flew upwards at high speeds, coming to a slow stop near the bottom of the clouds.

"I keep forgetting how nice the view is from up here." Tucker had to let go with one hand in order to push up his glasses before they fell 6,500 feet to the ground below.

"It's even prettier at night." Danny quipped.

"You'll have to take us flying sometime at night," Softly, sam spoke, tightening her grip a little as she looked to the ground below. "I want to know first hand how beautiful it all is, past the light pollution."

"Soon, maybe. If I can get my grades up by the end of the quarter." With that small joke, he let the three of them go into a minor freefall. With the wind ruffling their hair, Tucker almost yelled when his baret almost flew off of his head. He held it down for the rest of the flight, holding it even as Danny finally went through his roof, right into his bedroom.

Danny dropped his friends off onto his bed, deciding to float cross legged in the middle of his room, even as he transformed back into Danny Fenton.

After, the three friends talked about their homework, the field trip tomorrow, how to prevent Danny from spilling his secret to two classes of freshmen. They talked and talked and talked until Tucker and Sam had to leave.

Following dinner, Danny made a break for his room, wanting to get in as much sleep as he could before the inevitable headache of tomorrow.