The Show Must Go On (Book #2)
Chapter 1 *Well, That Escalated Quickly*
"And what do you have to say for yourself this time, young man?" Mr. Lancer's monotonous voice resounded throughout the dull, bland office. The out-of-shape teacher and vice-principal leaned against his neatly organized desk, not a pencil out of place or a paper crooked.
"One thing," Danny said, keeping his gaze level and unreadable. He sat in one of the two very uncomfortable metal chairs that were set in front of the wide desk. Danny had his chin in his palm and his other arm across his knees as he leaned forward.
Mr. Lancer waited impatiently, leaning forward for his answer.
". . . No regrets." Danny smirked.
That set him off. It was almost as if Mr. Lancer was a ticking bomb, and Danny's last few moments were up. "Mister Fenton! I am done with your pranks and lies! You will be punished, you can be sure of that!"
"But I didn't do it! You really believe I blew up your hunk of junk- I mean. . . priceless vehicle?" Danny had blown it up. But on accident, of course.
It had been just another regular old day walking to school, when suddenly in flies Box Ghost. Danny had only meant to shoot one innocent ecto-ray, but the Box Ghost had disappeared and. . . what do you know. . . sitting there just at the right time was Mr. Lancer's crappy car. BOOM.
Honestly, Danny thought he'd done the guy a favor, but Mr. Lancer was always one for getting Danny in trouble, no matter the predicament.
"Hm. . . What's an adequate punishment?" Mr. Lancer wondered aloud, tapping his chin thoughtfully as he stared off into space. He took his time.
Suddenly he shouted, "Mona Lisa!" Which caused Danny to jump and to kick his foot on the edge of the desk.
"What?" Danny grumbled with a scathing glare in Mr. Lancer's direction. He just wanted to get out of the stuffy room before he suffocated from sheer boredom. In case you haven't noticed, Mr. Lancer wasn't one of Danny's top five favorite teachers. If there had been favorites.
"I've found the perfect punishment, Daniel-"
"Danny."
". . . Danny. To make up for my car, you shall participate, which I know is hard for someone like you-"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Please stop interrupting! And it means I've never met anyone more antisocial than you, besides that goth girl. And we're running low on auditioneers for the school play. Well, we don't have any really. I've had to go and pick random students of Casper High and tell them their part."
Danny got cautious and narrowed his eyes, glancing at the door to see if escape was relevant. Nope. Mr. Lancer had locked it after he called Danny in. Clever, considering he'd made jail-breaks more than once before.
"What does this have to do with me?" Although Danny knew exactly where the conversation was heading. Actually, more like where this SENTENCING was going.
"You'll be taking an active part in our delightful school play, Romeo and Juliet! And fortunately for you, we're running so low on actors that you automatically get the lead of Romeo! Congratulations!"
Danny felt like he'd been accused guilty and hanged on the spot.
After several minutes of stiff silence Danny said flatly, "Excuse me?" His voice cracked on the first word.
"Rehearsals begin tomorrow after school. Show up or fail."
"Isn't there someone else? Someone, oh I don't know, better at acting?"
"Well, there was, but Tucker Foley isn't the best option. He's taking his part a little too seriously. I'll bump him down to underdog. Now please. Leave.
"But-"
"Sshh."
"I-"
"No."
"Wait-"
"Zip!"
Danny sighed, officially giving up on trying to work his way out of this problem. He couldn't give a sufficient explanation, at least not currently. He couldn't exactly say he was a halfa that had duties to protect Amity Park and all its inhabitants from rampaging ghosts.
Mr. Lancer stepped over to the door and unlocked it, opened it, and gestured for Danny to get out.
He stood up abruptly and walked past, not stopping to waste his glare on him. There was nothing he could do now. Except not show up, but that was out of the question. He was already failing in most if his classes, so he couldn't afford to take another blow to his rapidly dropping grades.
The final bell rang, signaling the freedom of the students for the rest of the day. Only Danny didn't feel like he was being set free. He felt like he was getting his required final moments with his family and friends before he was sent off to prison.
'That's it! I'm done feeling sorry myself. I've been less than helpful lately,' he thought to himself. His "amnesia" that he'd "recovered" from two weeks ago had left him unsure and unfocused recently.
"Danny!" Sam's familiar voice reached him through his tangled thoughts. He looked up just as Sam and Tucker reached him from their ninth period class.
"So? What's the deal this time?" Tucker asked. His teal eyes were wide with impatience and expectancy, but he didn't look the least bit surprised. This was sort of a normal thing for Danny.
Danny sighed loudly, wishing they'd just avoid the topic of him. Eventually he said, "I'm being forced to act the lead in the school play because he thinks I'm too "antisocial", which is not true! I have you guys."
"Um, Danny. Two friends isn't exactly being a socialite," Sam said quietly, uncertain how he would react. She bit her lip and shrugged.
"Wait, did you just say, lead? As in the lead male actor? As in my part?"
"Yeah. . ."
"How could he just throw my part away like that? I'm a star! I was born to play that part!"
"Sorry to say this, but you're my underdog now." Danny patted him sympathetically on the shoulder, but with a dash of smugness. Danny didn't want the part but it was kind of funny seeing Tuck in his current state. He really was heartbroken.
"Hmph! You've never even acted in your entire life! What if you stink? What if you quit? What if you accidentally break a bone?" Tucker said. Danny didn't like the way he said "accidentally."
Danny was about to retort some smart-comeback, but found it no use. It didn't really matter at this point.
"I can't quit. He already threatened me," Danny muttered angrily.
Seeing that Danny wanted no more talk of the play, Tucker chose to nag him. If he could just take his part and think he'd get away easily, well, he thought wrong. "When does practice start?" Tucker questioned as they began treading up the hall to the metal double doors that led outside.
"Tomorrow after school. So it's like one big, never ending school day. Except I have to dress up and pretend to be some dude named Romulous."
"It's Romeo," Tucker said, keeping the disbelief from leaking into his voice. "You've never heard of Romeo and Juliet?"
They walked out into the chilling winter wind, all three immediately regretting wearing such thin jackets. "I don't think so. . . Maybe Jazz mentioned it one time or another. You know how she is when it comes to nerdy stuff."
"Romeo and Juliet isn't nerdy, it's literature!" Tucker shouted, attracting a few odd stares.
"Shut up, Tuck! And, personally, I agree with you, Danny. I wouldn't want to be in that play if my life depended on it. Or any play, for that matter," Sam said, zipping her coat so the whipping wind couldn't find its way to her already cold skin. It was now a week into December and the temperatures just kept dropping lower and lower.
Danny dismissed talk about the play after Tucker asked who was playing Juliet. He really didn't want to think about the play, given it was his punishment, and Danny had never acted in his entire life.
After Danny snapped at Tucker, he cleared his throat, as if nervous about something.
"Sam?" Tucker asked uneasily.
"Yeah?"
"Well, I just remembered. . . Are you still moving?"
Sam laughed, whether with relief or humor, Danny couldn't tell. "No, my dad managed to talk my mom into staying. She was having a rough week, I think, that's why she kind of. . . snapped. But she's fine now. As fine as you can get when you're mother to an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian, rebelling, introvert goth."
Tucker sighed and smiled. "Good. I was afraid your mom had gone completely around the loop."
"Oh, believe me, she's long gone! This is the first time in a long while that she hasn't gone completely through with her unreasonable ideas."
They were silent after that, none sure what to say. But it's not like none of them were okay with the quiet. Between ghost fighting and their rambunctious families, silence was welcomed with open arms when the chance came.
As they walked home in the dawning snow, Danny thought about how much he was enjoying the normal-ness of everything, but he knew it wouldn't last long. Life was never normal for someone like him, no matter how much he wished it. And he knew he didn't actually want a normal life, he'd experienced it and remembered how helpless he'd been, how unimportant it made him feel. He would never neglect his special powers, but he appreciated the moments he had to be just a regular teenager. They were usually short moments.
He shivered. Cold, blue air escaped his lips. Immediately he went into fight-mode, fists at the ready and legs in a fighting stance as his azure-colored eyes searched the area for any signs of opposing forces. Sam and Tucker froze, both knowing what was coming. The trio stood back-to-back-to-back.
. . .
"Boooooooo! I am the Box Ghost, tremble before my almighty cubical fierceness!"
Danny went slack. His fists unfurled and he stood up as before.
"What're you doing out here? No matter, I'll enjoy taking my anger out on you, and all the while doing a good deed," Danny said, going ghost as he made his threat, although it was barely a threat. But he wasn't going to waste the good ones on the Box Ghost, that was just pointless.
Danny flew up into the air to get level with him and shot ecto-plasmic rays at him. It took only three blasts to foil Box Ghost's scheme and send him running back to the Ghost Zone with his overalls down.
Danny landed soundlessly and shifted back to human, his silvery-white hair and neon green eyes returning to their usual raven-black, mussed order and sapphire irises.
"Huh, that took shorter than usual. I was looking forward to beating him up, really," Danny muttered, sighing with evident disappointment.
"Ah, cheer up, pouty. While you were busy, Tucker and I decided tonight is movie night! We all need a break from school," Sam announced, looping an arm around Danny's shoulders and then Tucker's. Danny stuffed his hands in his pocket with a small grin. He could always count on his two and only best friends.
When they neared Fenton Works they could see Jack Fenton testing one of his new inventions, which was likely to blow up. Unfortunately Jack saw them before they could sneak inside, and he urgently called them over with such enthusiasm that they were positive something was going to go wrong. And, like many other times, they were right.
"Check this out! I call it the Fenton Controller!" Jack held up a shiny green rectangle the size of his palm. There were about five purple buttons on the surface and a short antennae on the top right hand side. Then there was a red notch that could be turned to the right or left. "This baby right here will be the downfall of all ghost beings! It locks in on a ghost's ectosignature and gives me complete and utter control!" He sounded so overjoyed it was almost maniacal.
Danny laughed nervously and they all began to inch towards the door, but didn't make it very far when Jack yelled, "Wait! Don't you want to see it in action?"
"Well-"
"Of course you do! Okay, I'm pretty sure there's a shivering spook around here somewhere. . . Just give me a minute." Jack held the device this way and that, up and down, side to side, as if he was looking for reception.
The contraption began bleeping after only seconds of no luck, and Jack shouted and whooped with joy.
"Here we go!" he exclaimed, his back to them as he frantically pressed buttons and turned the notch in circles.
Danny sighed in aggravation and crossed his arms, not in the mood to wait for something that 99.9 percent was going to fail. But when he started walking involuntarily towards his father and was incapable of stopping, all thoughts of irritation evaporated.
"Um, guys? Help!" he hissed just low enough so his father couldn't hear. Sam and Tucker stood to attention instantly and realized the problem just as fast. Sam lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Danny's waist and jammed her heels into the cement, but her attempts were futile. Danny couldn't stop or even slow down, and he simply dragged her along without effort. When her arms began to slip and lose hold around him, Danny grasped her hands to keep from slingshotting into Jack, but even then they started to lose hold.
Tucker wound his arms around Sam's waist and dug his shoes into the pavement as well, but that only slowed them down unnoticeably.
Just as Danny was about to ram into Jack Fenton's back and reveal his secret identity, with Sam and Tucker trailing behind, Jack grunted with frustration and sighed thinly.
"Oh, back to the drawing boards," Jack mumbled depressingly. He jabbed a button with his thumb and Danny halted sharply, tangling them into a knot. Jack turned around and a strange look crossed his face.
"What's going on?" he asked suspiciously, narrowing his usually kind eyes.
Danny drew a blank. They didn't look exactly casual in their current positions. But Tucker swooped in to save them with one of his brilliant excuses. Well, Danny thought so, until Tucker actually blurted out the little white lie.
"Um. . . conga?"
Danny barely kept from facepalming.
"Conga?" Jack said, tilting his head . . . "Okay! Have fun!" Jack tucked the Fenton Controller under his arm and saluted, marching on into the house.
"Hm. Why am I not surprised?" Danny asked after the door had been shut and they could still hear Jack's pounding footsteps as he descended the steps into the basement, also known as the Lab.
"I don't think any of us are. . . ahem, uh, Danny?"
"Yeah?"
"You can let go now." Danny looked down to see his hands still holding onto Sam's. He blushed slightly and let go quickly.
"Oh, yeah, sorry," he muttered, not looking her in the eye.
After that awkward scene Danny regained composure and changed the subject rather swiftly.
Refusing to let what had just happened get to him, he said instead, "What're we going to do about the Fenton Contraptor or whatever? My dad's invention actually worked!"
Sam seemed just as eager to forget. "I was thinking the same thing, definitely."
Tucker warily looked between Danny and Sam.
"What!" they shouted simultaneously. Tucker flinched back.
"Nothing! How about we just calm down and have movie night? I'm just as fine with forgetting the Fenton Controller all together. Anyone agree?"
Danny wasn't ready to forget about anything, and not just because Violet had taken his memories. He had a feeling the Fenton Controller was way more dangerous than he thought, but couldn't pinpoint it.
Luckily, Sam decided to break through his reverie and shook him by the shoulder to get his attention.
"Hurry up and get what you need before something else happens. Your dad might want another try at the Fenton Controller." She cast a sly peek at the door, but no Jack Fenton came barreling at them with a thermos and the Fenton Creepstick.
"Sure. Be right back." Danny took off inside and Tucker whipped out his PDA. Sam tapped her foot impatiently, neither aware they were being watched closely.
Watching from above on the nearest building's roof does have its advantages. Carefully, he backed away from the edge and made his way toward the way down.
"Free at last. And the first to have the honored privilege of having my undivided attention for revenge has unknowingly just sealed his fate," he said to himself, rhythmically tapping his fingers together as he pondered on a suitable scheme. It was harder than you think.
"All I have to do is steal that controller, and Danny Phantom is done for. But alterations will made, of course. And not to mention the time it will take. . . or how complicated it will be. . . Having my scepter would be so much more helpful, to have to command a couple of ghosts to fix it up for me. But thanks to those imbeciles I don't have any more power than a weakling human! But I'll be in charge. . . Oh, I'll be permanently in charge." Being locked up by the Guys In White for as long as he had been can do this to you; talk to yourself, make you a little insane, and extremely unstable. Not like Freakshow hadn't been or done any of those before.
As quiet as a fox and as power-crazy as he'll ever be, Freakshow left without another delusional word said.