A/N: This was supposed to be kind of funny. I don't know who will take it that way and who won't but I'm hoping someone will at least giggle at this. I don't know why I wrote this. I just started writing and before I knew it was done. It is the longest 'chapter' I have ever written. It was twenty three pages on Word. It was a lot of writing. So, I hope you will enjoy it. I do not own DP! Please Review! Now read the fic and please tell me what you think!
My Bad Day
You know those days when you wake up and everything from that moment on goes wrong? Well, for me, that was today. I swear, today could not have been worse.
For one thing, my parents found out my secret and didn't take it all that well…
"Daniel Fenton you are in so much trouble!" Mom yelled at the top of her lungs.
I hovered above my bed in ghost form with a sheet wrapped around myself. Despite the fact that I had my jumpsuit on, I felt completely naked.
"But Mom! It was an accident! I couldn't help the fact that I tripped!"
See, I had just got done explain everything to them after they barged in on me going ghost to chase down the Box Ghost for the fiftieth time that week. Now, they were being nit picky about various things in my story, pointing out that I handled the whole situation completely and utterly wrong.
"For one thing, young man, you didn't use proper lab safety! You know that since you're a minor you are not permitted to use any of the lab equipment without adult supervision! For another thing, you did not wear your goggles! And lastly, you nor your friends told us after the accident! You could have been killed!"
My jaw dropped. I can't believe it. My parents find out my greatest secret and all they can do is fret over my lack of lab safety on the day of my accident.
"Now we are going to ground you for your lack of common sense!"
"Yeah! What your mother said!" my father adds as he stuffs his face with more food. He had been fairly quiet until now since my mother found out while he was eating his breakfast. Apparently, meals are more important than the living status of his kids. Suddenly, a weird look crosses his face. "Uh, how are we going to ground him? He's a ghost."
"First, we are going to deactivate your ghost powers for a week…"
At that point I was out the window and flying at top speed to Sam's house. Now way am I going to give up my ghost powers for a week, especially when I don't deserve the punishment!
That's when worst thing number two hit me…
"Ha! Gotcha ghost kid!" yelled Valerie triumphantly as a single blue blast struck me.
Sadly enough, that blast deactivated my ghost powers, which was what my parents wanted. They, my parents, were standing on the street below me and caught me in a net. Then they took me back home and made that deactivation a little more permanent, as in I can't go ghost for a week. Amity Park is so screwed.
That was bad thing number three by the way. Bad thing number four ran into me on my way from school.
"Hey, Danny! Or should I say ghost kid?"
Valerie. Shoot! I was hoping she wouldn't say anything to me for a while.
"What is…"
Bam! She punches me in the face. My hands clasp my nose which is now bleeding more blood than Niagara Falls does water.
"You dirty rotten ghost! You think you can lie to me for months and get away with it?! I can't believe you! Actually, I can! You're a filthy, putrid, fiendish, no-good-dirty-rotten-lying pig! I hate you and," she lowered her voice at this part, "I swear from this second forward I will make your life, or what's left of it, a nightmare you will never, even after death, wake up from." She turns and leaves and I stand there trying to get my nose to stop bleeding. It's going to take a while.
Bad thing number five comes sticking its way into my day when I attempt to open my locker. I pull. I yank. I kick it. My locker refuses to give in. I have two minutes left to complete this task and make my way to first period English class with Mr. Lancer. If I don't I will have detention after school today and tomorrow. Plus, Mr. Lancer will more than likely call my parents who are already ticked off at me. Not good for my plan to suck up to my parents when I get home in order to have my sentence shortened so that maybe, just maybe, my town won't get squashed under the weight of various ghosts' attacks.
So, I pull some more. I yank harder. I kick it more times than I bothered counting. Still, it remained resilient.
One minute left!
Kick, yank, pull! Pull, yank, kick! Yank, pull, kick! Kick, kick, yank!
Thirty seconds to go!
Yank! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank! Pull! Puuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuull!
Fifteen seconds!
Kick, pull, smack! Pull, pull, pull! Kick, yank, pull!
Ten seconds!
Kick! Nine!
Pull! Eight!
Smack! Seven!
Curse as you fall down after kicking the locker wrong! Six!
Pull! Five!
Yank! Four!
Yank again! Three!
Kick! Two!
Locker finally opens! One!
Briiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!
I scream as I see that the books I need are not in my locker. I scream louder when I remember that they are at home on my desk in my room.
Bad thing number six was Lancer giving me detention for today and tomorrow.
Bad thing number seven was Lancer telling me that he thinks that a call to my parents is in order.
Bad thing number eight came during second period math with a teacher whose name escapes me. He's that unimportant… until now.
Mr. What's-his-name is a boring teacher, a dull teacher, a fairly unremarkable teacher. Nobody knows where he came from, how he got here or how he got the job for that matter, or anything that might shine some light on this poor man's past. Kids simply walked into his room, heard his lecture, got their homework, and left. Nobody questioned his existence and he didn't question ours… until now.
The class started out like it always did. I came in. I sat down. I fell asleep. Fifteen minutes into the class period and I was still asleep. The only difference between this snooze and any other was that I had a dream and it wasn't a pleasant one. It was horrible. It was awful. I opened my eyes and screamed, "Quit calling me Inviso-Bill!"
Then I realized my mistake. The class stared at me as if I had grown an extra head… or as if I had just walked up to the front of the classroom, transformed, and reintroduced myself as Danny Phantom… which I pretty much just had done. The teacher, whatever his name was, backed away slowly. His eyes were so wide they seemed to take up his whole face. He was shaking his head and muttering, "no, no, no, not a ghost, not another bloody ghost!" He turned on his heel and ran out of the room screaming like a maniac. The students followed suit and it wasn't long before someone at the office got the story and called me down.
That brings me to bad thing number nine.
Now, this is going to seem completely random but just hang in there. It will make sense after I explain it.
Now, bad thing number nine was probably the most emotionally and psychologically scarring of the various bad things that happened to me that fateful day. I don't think that I will ever be able to unsee it. Are you ready for it? You are? Okay. Now brace yourself…. Have you braced yourself? You have? Good. Now… Wait for it…
…Are you waiting?
…You are?
…Great!
…Okay. Here it is. It was Tucker… He was wearing…
…Are you sure you're ready for this? Because I can wait all day. Or maybe we should just skip this part. It's not that impor… Okay, maybe it is important to the overall story, but I don't want to damage the sanity of my audience. Are you sure you can handle this? You can? Fine, I'll tell you.
…He was wearing my costume. He was wearing my ghost costume! You know, the spandex black and white jumpsuit? Yeah, that costume! And he was wearing a white wig! Yes! A white haired wig! And he had these weird neon green contacts that totally didn't mimic my true ghost eye color! Actually in my opinion they were an insult to my ghost side! My eyes are not that unnatural looking!
And that's not the worst of it! What really got me going was what he told me…
"Danny!" he yelled hysterically as he crashed into the office. He slammed the door behind them and plopped down on a chair next to me. He was breathing heavy as if he had just run five miles in six minutes or something crazy like that. "Danny! I… heard…that… you… were… in… trouble and… I ran… here from…drama!"
"Drama? Is that why you are…"
"Yes! They made a… play about… your ghost… half!"
"What?!"
"Yeah," Tucker said. He pulled on the spandex suit's sleeve. "Isn't it great? I get to be you!"
I couldn't believe it! They made a play about me! Already! It was only one and a half years since I first gained my ghost powers and already they had made a play about me! They probably didn't even get all the facts correct!
"What's it about? How am I portrayed? Am I the bad guy or the good guy?"
"Well…" he started, looking embarrassed. He fidgeted, pulling on the gloves and adjusting the wig.
"Well what?!" I wished he would just tell me! All I really needed to know was whether I was the good guy or the bad guy.
"You don't um…"
"I'm the bad guy, aren't I? They're casting me as a bad guy! What am I going to do?!"
"Actually, Danny…"
"I've barely managed to get a decent reputation and now they're going to tear it apart! I'm doomed! First my parents take my powers away this morning and I know they're going to extend it and I won't be able to explain myself or defend any of the completely wrong accusations made by those pompous drama people! I'm ruined! Ruined!"
"Actually, Danny. You're a cameo."
I stopped and blinked. "I'm a what?"
"You're a cameo. You, or actually I, make a brief appearance in Act Two in which the main characters kill me/you. That's it. I don't even have any lines."
"I'm the most famous ghost in Amity Park and they can't even give me a proper role!"
"Danny, it's a play about a ghost hunting couple who 'free' Amity Park from the clutches of the 'evil' ghosts! What kind of role do you think you'll have?"
"But it has ghosts in it too! I'm a ghost!"
"Mr. Fenton, could you please come into my office and quit yelling that you are a ghost. It's quite disturbing," said the principal as she stood behind me in the doorway of her office.
I froze and slowly turned around. The principal was giving me a hard look. I gulped and stood up.
And here is bad thing number ten.
"Now, Danny, would you care to explain why you found it necessary to scare poor Mr. Wilkins to death?"
"I didn't mean to! Honest! I fell asleep in class…"
"I don't want an excuse, Danny. I want to know why you did it," she said as she folded her hands on her desk.
"I had a bad dream! Okay? I fell asleep and I had a bad dream!" I crossed my arms in front of me and pouted. Why was this such a big deal? Sure, I'm not supposed to sleep in class, but I can't help it if some old man can't handle shouting. This is high school! If he couldn't handle loud noises maybe he shouldn't have taken the job! Duh!
Unfortunately, the principal didn't like my answer at all.
She sighed and looked at me with sad eyes. "Danny, why are you lying to me?"
My eyes widened. What was she talking about? I told the truth!
"I am very disappointed in you. I thought you would be reasonable about this. But I know you're lying.
"When you 'woke up' you screamed, and I quote, "Stop calling me Inviso-Bill!" Now tell me Danny, what kind of nightmare could you have been having that would cause you to shout something like that, something mind you, that only Daniel Phan…"
"It's Danny! Not Daniel! Danny! His name is Danny Phantom! For goodness sakes, why can't you people get his name right?!"
She stared at me for a good long while. My face and hands and… Oh, my whole body turned whiter by the millisecond as I realized my second mistake today. Whoops!
"Maybe I should call your parents…" She picked up the phone and dialed. My parents were going to kill me.
I didn't even get to third period. I never ate lunch. After the second call my parents came in and talked to the principal while I waited in the reception area under heavy watch by Lancer who happened to have a planning period right then. So, I twiddled my thumbs and contemplated my demise. I quickly decided that I hate long waits. I hate having the opportunity to think about all the things that can happen to me. I just like to get stuff over with. If something, be it good or bad, is going to happen to me, I don't want to have time to think about it. I just want it to happen so I can either enjoy it or get it over with. It's better than having to sit and watch one of your least favorite teachers glare at you.
I sat there for twenty minutes and thirty seconds before my parents finally came out. My parents were apologizing left and right. They told her that they didn't know what got into me and that they would punish me as they see fit. Oh yes, Madame, they would make sure I never did anything like this again. I was a naughty boy who deserved what I had coming to me.
They marched over to me and grabbed my wrist. I was then dragged to the Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle and driven home where more bad things awaited me.
The bad things did not stop coming after I arrived home. They kept attacking me from all sides and angles, in all ways possible, and without relent. I was tormented by them no matter what state of mind I was in or how much I begged. Did I mention that bad things kept happening?
Bad thing number eleven occurred the instant I stepped into my house. Somehow, I managed to phase through the floor. You're probably wondering why this is bad. I mean, I just used my powers despite the fact that they were disabled! Well…
"Ouch!" I cried as I hit the really hard floor of the basement. I slowly sat up and rubbed my back. Man did that hurt!
"Daniel Fenton!" roared my mother and father. They hurried downstairs and dragged me to my feet, never mind that I was hurt and all!
"What do you think you're doing mister?!" my mother growled.
"I didn't do anything! I don't know how that happened!" I explained. She didn't listen.
"Too bad!" my father replied. I was pulled over to the examining table, shoved down and buckled down. Again, neither of them bothered to ask me if I was okay; seeing as how I just fell through the floor and landed painfully on my butt!
"We've had enough of this half ghost business! You don't need your ghost half! You are plenty complete without it!" my mother said as she began pushing buttons and turning knobs. I didn't like where this was going.
"But mom! I…"
"No but's! That side of you has been nothing but trouble from day one! First you kidnap the mayor…" my mother began ranting.
"I was framed!"
"Then you steal all our Christmas presents…"
"Again, framed!"
"Then you start posing for the camera…"
"I can't help it if the paparazzi follow me around with cameras!"
"Then you have the nerve to disrupt the whole school!"
"Today hasn't exactly been good to me!"
"And now you are arguing with me!"
"Nobody else is standing up for me! Actually, I'm not even standing up…" I trial off as I contemplate this.
"Well, your father and I have had it up to here," she raises her hand above her head to give me a visual of how much Dad and her have had it with me. "with this Danny Phantom of yours and we are going to tear him out!"
"Uh… Danny Phantom is me. We are one in the same. How are you going to tear me out of me?"
She pauses with one finger raised. She glances back and forth. "How are we going to do that, Jack?"
Jack doesn't answer. Then again, that could have something to do with the fact that he is no longer present.
"Jack? Jack?!" she begins calling.
"Wha…" he asks as he comes back downstairs to the lab with a face full of… I don't even want to know what that is.
"Oh, there you are!" Mom says as she begins to pose her question again. "How are we…"
"Did I miss anything?" he asks after he swallows… whatever that was…
"Yes, Danny asked…"
"You know, anything important… Anything about ghosts…" he interrupted for a second time.
"Yes, Danny…"
"What about Danny? Did he see a ghost?" he interrupted for a third time.
"No, Danny…"
"Is he being possessed by a ghost?" he interrupted for the fourth time.
"I don't think…"
"Then why is it important?" Do I really need to say how many times he interrupted?
Mom shook her head. "Never mind." She wanders over to the control panel and presses a button. The lights above me turn on and a laser point focuses on me.
"Mom! Don't do this!" I yell and begin struggling against the straps.
"Sorry, sweety, but I can't have a half ghost trouble maker for a son," she says and presses the big red button that generally means trouble.
Lights blink, more lasers point at me, my parents stare in awe as strange noises emit from the various machines that are supposed to tear the ghost out of me. I sweat and struggle and scream as the ceiling falls down on me…
That's bad thing number twelve… Just so you know… Ceilings falling on you are usually bad. This was one of those times where the ceiling falling on you wasn't a good thing. It hurt a lot. I think I might have passed out for a little while.
Anyway, my parents cleared the debris, unstrapped me, and drove us to a hotel until the mess could be cleaned up and the house repaired. They called my sister, Jazz, to tell her where we were and why.
An hour later she showed up and then bad thing number thirteen happened.
We went out to eat. How is this bad, you ask? I mean, you have all heard about how bad my parents are at cooking right? So you would think this would be great. Well, it's not. It was pretty bad.
"Come on Danny. Eat your veggies," my mother said, encouraging me to eat the buttered broccoli on my plate. I continued to push it around with my fork.
"Yeah, Danny! You can't have desert without eating the healthy stuff first," Dad piped up.
I rolled my eyes and wished I could get away.
Be careful what you wish for. If you take anything away from the story, take that. Oh, and take the other lessons too! They're free!
I didn't actually notice anything was wrong until after I was thrown against a wall. Screaming isn't anything new in Amity Park. And since my powers aren't exactly working, my ghost sense didn't go off. So, when Skulker showed up, I didn't know automatically.
"Ghost!" my Dad yelled while grabbing his ectoblaster. Skulker shot him and he was sent flying through a window.
Mom began firing blasts like crazy. She was captured in a net.
I stood up and tried to go ghost. My powers weren't working. Huh. Go figure that they only work when I don't need them. Thanks Mom! Thanks Dad! Thanks for going crazy on me and helping to put me in a position where I am in true mortal danger! I love you both!
Skulker picked me up by the neck.
"Hello, ghost child! I'm…" he stopped midsentence and stared at his arm. His sensor wasn't beeping.
"Sorry, Skulk, but my parents decided to make me normal for a while since I am such a troublesome child," I explained. "Trust me, I would have gone ghost a long time ago and completely trashed you if I still had my powers fully operational."
"Oh," Skulker said. He blinked a few times. "Wait, did you just call me Skulk? Did you shorten my name?!"
"What of it?" I asked.
"You have a nickname for me?!"
I narrowed my eyes. I couldn't tell if he was excited or just plain angry at me for doing that. I didn't even mean anything by it. I just didn't feel like wasting my breath on his full name.
"Does it matter?"
"Yes!" he exclaimed. "You know I don't like it when you get all sentimental! It takes away from the hunt!" He stood up straighter. For a second he reminded me of a teacher. "Emotions limit the actions of the hunter and his prey. They get in the way and keep the participants from performing at their full potential. And besides, nicknames cause attachments so even when the hunt should come to the end it doesn't because then," Skulker paused and gulped as if he were about to cry. "… you can't kill the prey!"
"Did you just choke up?" I ask, curious.
"What's it to you?" he asks defensively.
"What? I'm just curious!"
He pauses before answering. "She was Fluffy."
"Who was fluffy?" What does something being fluffy have to do with anything?
"No, Ghost Child! I named her Fluffy!"
"Oh."
"She was my first prey. My father and I were hunting. He was teaching me the rules, how to be a great hunter, the greatest! We came upon her. She was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen! She had hair whiter than snow and eyes greener than grass. She sat blissfully in the meadow. The sun angles just right, so she lit up brighter than the sun. I named her, Fluffy. My father, however, had no such sentimentalities. He told me to shoot her. I refused. So my father took aim and fired. I lost her that day. I lost my father too, for her believed that I was not good enough. On that day I vowed that I would be the greatest hunter if only to make my father proud and to hopefully find Fluffy once more."
"Um… What was Fluffy?" I asked.
"Fluffy was a rabbit," he replied. "And you better not tell anyone."
It took everything in me to keep from laughing. Skulker hunting rabbits? That was hilarious! I mean, he has been hunting me for months now! I couldn't imagine him doing anything else! Was that sad?
"I won't," I promised once I was sure I had myself under control.
"Good," he said as he put me down. "Now, get out of here."
"You're letting me go?" I asked in surprise.
"Of course, ghost child! You're worthless without your powers. As soon as they're back though I will hunt you once more! The hunt is only worth while so long as the prey can fight!"
He turned to launch himself into the air, but I stopped him.
"Hey, Skulk!" I called.
"What, Ghost Child?" he asked.
"You do have a term of endearment for me!"
"What's that?"
"You call me Ghost Child!" I replied triumphantly. Huh! Beat that!
He growled. "Get out of here, Ghost Child before I change my mind!"
I grinned and saluted him before wandering off to find my parents. They were somewhat okay. Dad had a broken arm and Mom had a few cuts and bruises but otherwise they were fine. I don't know where Jazz ran off to.
Well, folks. That was my day! I hope you learned at least one valuable lesson to carry with you forever. In case you were curious, things got better after that day. My parents eventually undid the thing on me so I could use my powers. I didn't have to go to detention. Skulker admitted that Ghost Child was a term of endearment. Apparently, I reminded him of Fluffy. I think that's kind of weird but I guess it could be worse.
Anyway, that's it! The End! Go away! Shoe! There's nothing more to see here!
Why are you still staring at me? I told you to go away! Now go!
The End