An Average Kid
He had never been very popular. Well, he was, in a sense, if you count being one of the most bullied kids at Casper High. No matter what, there was always some jock there to give him his daily beating. He couldn't even count the number of times he had been shoved into lockers or given some insulting nickname. Other than that, the other kids never paid him much mind. He was quiet. He was clumsy. He wasn't particularly good-looking. He did just barely enough to pass in school.
He was just an average kid.
Just an average kid with obsessive ghost-hunting parents, of course. They gave the kids at school a reason to make fun of him. They were weird. It was always ghost this or ghost that. People defined them as crazy. They embarrassed him to no end. They never saw the boundaries before they crossed them. They didn't get it. They didn't understand their son as much as they thought they did.
And as much as they embarrassed him or ruined his reputation, he still always felt that he was the one at fault; that he was the one disappointing them. He was always late for curfew. He came home with unexplainable injuries. He was constantly lying to them. He skipped out on family activities. He couldn't achieve anything close to what his sister did.
His sister was a genius. Everyone was sure that she would one day become some sort of psychologist or something. She was practically perfect, and everything that he was not. She was popular, smart, pretty… She was better than him in every way; he knew it. Sure, she said she wasn't, but he knew she was lying. And besides that, she was extremely overbearing. She was always protecting and defending him, whether he wanted her to or not, in school or at home. She made him feel like such a little kid.
He did have friends. Two really great ones, at that. They would always cover for him when he needed them to. They always fought by his side. At school, they stuck by him no matter what. Even if that meant they were bullied and ridiculed along with him. But sometimes, even he wondered if maybe they had different reasons for staying with him.
For when he was more than just an average kid.
When he changed, everything seemed to change along with him. He was popular. He was powerful. Some people looked up to him. Some people feared him. But there was still that small percentage of people who despised him. Ghosts, the government, people he considered friends and… his parents; they all hated him.
Constantly, he would be fighting them. They were always hunting him. Either they thought he was evil, or it was for the simple satisfaction of getting rid of him. He couldn't go anywhere that an enemy was not, and if he did, they would just end up showing their faces later. He did his absolute best to fight them off, and – if he could help it – without injuring them. He just wanted to make them realize he was only trying to be the good guy.
And he was the good guy. But they still wouldn't believe it; still wouldn't stop hating him. In fact, he could be the greatest, most powerful superhero the world had ever seen, and they would still hate him. If he told them the truth, there was no way they could ever accept him. They were ghost-hunters. He was a ghost. They would never be able to see him the same way.
But despite those who doubted him, many saw him as a hero. He kept them safe. No matter what kind of ghost was attacking the town, he would be there. If they needed saving, he would do it. He wouldn't let them get hurt, as long as he could help it. He did his best to be good; to be a hero.
But he was still an average kid.
And he still had fears. He was afraid. He was afraid that one day he might not be able to save them all. He feared for his loved ones, his neighbors, his peers – everyone. He was scared that one day, his secret would get them all hurt or even killed. He didn't want that; to become something he was not. He didn't want his powers to overwhelm him. He didn't want to be evil.
His friends told him it would never happen. It could never happen. He was too good. As much as he wanted to believe them, he was still afraid. They weren't there. They didn't see what might happen. He did. And he was horrified. He never wanted to become that. That evil being terrorizing the place he called home. He never wanted to lose them all like that. He never wanted to become the one everyone feared and hated. It was enough to be hated by a few people who never knew the truth about him, but to be hated by the world? He just couldn't do that.
And what was the truth? The truth was that he was different. He had one foot in two worlds. Was he human? Was he ghost? Not even he was sure anymore. He was a hybrid. He was rare and strange. Not many knew, and he hoped to keep it that way. He was sure they would never accept him for who he was. For how could they? He was a freak.
No matter how average he told himself he was, that wouldn't change who Danny Fenton, whom some still might see as an average kid, truly was.
And that was Danny Phantom.
A completely un-average ghost boy.
A/N: Hello there! I was in a Danny Phantom mood... so I wrote this. I don't know. It's pretty short. :P How'd I do? Was it okay? Leave me a review and let me know? Please?