This is an idea that I've had for a while now, so I think I'll try and write it out, see what happens. I really hope you like it, and if you don't, feel free to demand the wasted moments of your life back. You don't get them back though.
There was very little that Danny Fenton disliked more than his first day of school. The Box Ghost - the reason he was currently late for the first day - ranked very near the top of that list.
"I am the Box Ghost!" he wailed annoyingly. "Fear the contents of my squareular wrath!" Another box of macaroni was hurled at Danny Phantom's head, exploding in his hair with minimal force.
"Dude, find a dictionary already." Danny said, pulling out the Fenton Thermos. "Whatever you just said is so not a word." He unscrewed the lid and with a final "Beware!", the Box Ghost was gone. Sighing heavily, Danny capped the thermos and began flying very very rapidly towards school.
Landing behind a conveniently placed tree, he quickly transformed back into Danny Fenton, shaking his hand roughly as the familiar blue ring seemed to hesitate. Moving from behind the tree, he entered the line of kids slowly shuffling into the building, looking just as excited as him.
"Hey Danny." Sam suddenly appeared behind him, resting her arm on his shoulder. "You do know that there's pasta in your hair, don't you?" Danny shook his head, and a noodle fell out.
"Stupid Box Ghost." he muttered, rubbing his hair and displacing Sam's arm. A miniature shower of macaroni hit the cracked sidewalk. "I swear, I think he exists merely to annoy me during my free time." He felt for his backpack before realizing that he had dropped it sometime during the fight. "Oh great. First day of school and I already lost my bag. Way to go Fenton."
"Duuuuude!" Danny turned around to see Tucker running towards him. "Dude, you will never guess what hit me on the way here!"
"Lemme guess." Sam muttered. "The fact that you look excited for a hundred and eighty days of misery?" Tucker skidded to an off-balanced halt and flailed his arms in a rather comic effort to stay upright. "Don't flat on your face first day. It's bad luck."
"I bring good luck to my friends." Tucker said, reaching back and pulling a backpack off of his oversized bag. "And am an avid collector of Danny Phantom memorabilia, including a mint condition backpack dropped during a fight this just moments with the Box Ghost." He handed Danny his backpack.
"Thanks Tuck." Danny said, feeling a little better. "I seriously thought I lost this- Wait, how did you know I was fighting the Box Ghost?"
"One, only one of your enemies would attack you with cereal, and I'm pretty sure that there are enough Froot Loops in there to last you until winter. And two, I've got all your recorded fights streaming live straight to my PDA." Danny was rooting through his backpack in hopes of Tucker's aforementioned free breakfast, but looked up at streaming live.
"Wait a minute Tuck." Danny said, looking at his friend strangely. "What do you mean my recorded fights? And how are they streaming live? There were no news casters there." Tucker shrugged and pulled out his PDA, quickly bringing up a video.
"I don't know who does it dude, but all your fights in the city limits are up on this site." He brought up the link quickly, and Sam leaned over his shoulder to watch Danny's latest fight. "Every fight cuts off either when the bad guy get sucked into the thermos or runs away. They don't even try to film you changing back. Its so cool!" He clicked away quickly and scrolled down the page, showing a long list of numbers. "They even have battle stats. Its awesome dude."
"Awesome?" Sam questioned. "It sounds dangerous. Danny, you should find out who's watching you. What if the find out your secret?"
"It seems safe enough." Danny said, grabbing a handful of Froot Loops and swallowing them. "Besides, Tuck said they don't film me detransforming. I'm not worried." He headed towards the door, still eating and just managed to beat the bell. "And now, to homeroom with…" He consulted the homeroom chart hastily taped to the wall. "Lancer. Again. I am not surprised."
"Neither am I, Mr. Fenton. With as often as I have to see you and your classmates, one would think I was this school's only teacher." Danny looked over his shoulder to see Lancer standing behind him, already looking displeased. "Now, please go inside so I can properly surprise the class without great effort on my part." To his credit, Danny did go inside.
"Hey, what do you think Lancer means by 'surprise'?" Sam asked as Danny sat down in the same chair he sat in all of the year before. "Maybe we'll have edible food in the caf this year." She sat down to his left.
"Sam, grass isn't food." Tucker said, sitting down to Danny's left. "Its probably that we all have to take another standardized test or something… Or that the cheerleading squad is hosting open gym." Sam opened her mouth to yell at him, but before she could, Mr. Lancer walked through the door, holding a sheet of pink paper.
"Alright class, I know you want to be here as much as I do, but state law and a hefty pension require that neither party leave. Now, let's get this over with." He held the piece of paper close to his nose, and read off it slowly. "As your teacher, insert name here, I am quite pleased to announce that even though our school has maintained the same group of children since kindergarten, you now should all be pleased to meet your new classmate, enter student's name here." Danny wasn't really paying attention, so he was concerned when Sam poked him with a pencil.
"Ow, Sam, what was that for?" Danny asked, not realizing that the entire class was asleep, and surprising himself with his own loudness.
"Fenton!" Mr. Lancer called out. "Be quiet. This is actually somewhat important. And the rest of you, wake up!" There were several discontented mutters from the class and a few heads raised. "Anyways, he backslash she will be unfamiliar so please be hospitable, blah blah blah, don't feed the kid to alligators, alright?" He looked around. "I have to go get this genderless thing from the office, so pretend to be civil until I get back or you will all have instant detention." And with that, Lancer walked out.
"Danny, aren't you worried about the new student?" Sam asked him in an unnecessary whisper. "You know, that they might be a you-know-what?"
"… A fangirl?" Danny asked, confused. Having a new student might be cool, a new friend, or at the very least, someone who didn't know he was a loser. Yet.
"Danny!" Sam hissed. "A ghost!"
"Dude, Sam does have a point." Tucker said, leaning in. "Every new person to our town since you opened the portal has been a ghost."
"Guys, chill. This one might not be. Maybe someone just moved here for the uhm…" Danny had to think for a moment. "… fresh air?" His friends looked at him skeptically. "Look, this new kid is going to have to walk right near me, right? If my ghost sense goes off, I'll know." Just then, Mr. Lancer returned, two girls behind him.
"Class, these are your two new classmates. Apparently, the secretary didn't notice one of them." Mr. Lancer jerked a thumb at them. "So, to make this as awkward as possible, I'm going to make them introduce themselves, starting with the one that our school didn't know existed."
"Uhm… Hi?" The girl looked about average height, with dark skin and brown eyes, shoulder-length black hair, looking fairly average. She wore a white and purple striped shirt and a denim skirt that came to her knees, and black wire glasses that sat on her nose crookedly. "I'm, uhm, Illusen. Illusen Mantey." She looked down at her black high tops, nudging the toes together nervously. "Erm, nice to meet you all."
"This one's socially deficient." Mr. Lancer said, patting her head. "There's an empty seat in front of Fenton, you can sit there. He's the boy in the stupid t-shirt." She nodded, and hurried to her seat, tripping slightly over Dash's outstretched leg.
"Oops." Dash said. "I'm sorry. I didn't see you there." Kwan slapped him a high five, and they both laughed as Illusen took her seat.
"Hi." Danny whispered. "Don't mind Dash. He's taken on too many footballs to the head to really count as worth caring about." The girl smiled softly, and he held out his hand. "I'm Danny. Danny Fenton."
"Uhm, thanks." Illusen muttered, blushing softly as she took his hand. "I'm Illusen. I'm, uhm, kinda shy." Danny took a good look at her, but she didn't make his ghost sense go off. A human being. How refreshing.
"And now class." Mr. Lancer said, redirecting Danny's attention. "The one you actually wanted to meet." He turned to the girl. "Go ahead, seduce the class. Its not like they pay attention to begin with." The girl stepped forward, looking ready to dazzle.
"Hi." she chirped. "I'm Marie Suzanna Eris Turquoise, and I'm sure we're all going to be great friends." She, in turn, had long blonde hair all the way down her back, flawless fair skin and large, bright cerulean eyes. She wore a bright crop top the same emerald as her manicured nails, and tight black pants with bubblegum pink heels. "I'm very well rounded, socially active, and I like kittens and barrel racing and gymnastics and feeding the homeless and myself." She giggled, and Danny's eyes were drawn to her sparkly belly button piercing.
"Very nice. I'm sure you'll all learn to worship her or something of the sort." Lancer muttered. "You can go sit with your own kind… Cheerleaders are on the left." Flashing him a dazzling smile, she sat at her new seat.
"Call me Mary Sue." she whispered to Paulina, who seemed to have no concerns about the girl who might unseat her. "I'm sure this will be great."
"Hey, Danny." Sam said, waving her hand in front of his face. "Helloooo. Earth to Clueless One. Ignore the succubus." Danny blinked hard, and noticed Sam's hand. "Geez Danny, you'd think you'd never seen a popular girl before."
"Not like her." Danny muttered, missing Sam blanch. "Oh, anyways, why was your hand waving?"
"You were drooling." she said, sounding slightly disgusted. "And Lancer assigned you as Illusen's tour guide."
"I, uhm, hope that's not a problem." Illusen said quietly. "I don't want to bother you on the first day of school." Danny shook his head.
"No, its fine." he said. "Just watch out for Tuck. He's a bit forward at times."
"Hey, stop making me sound bad." Tucker interjected, leaning in his chair. "I'm actually very helpful. I'm great with electronics… And the ladies."
"And you think you need our help to look bad." Sam said, rolling her eyes. Illusen giggled softly as Tucker took off his hat and over-dramatically bowed, falling out of his seat as he did.
"You guys seem like great friends." Illusen said quietly as Tucker picked himself up. "I'm glad my uncle was right."
A little nervous about how the chapter turned out and about the length, but it can't hurt to share. If you can, please give me your comments. Thank you in advance!
~ Natalie