Danny stood at the front of a classroom, digital pen in hand and the 'smart' board being projected onto beside him. Now, he would've prefered to be almost anywhere else, but he'd made a promise. And he wasn't going to break it for such a feeble reasonas not wanting to keep it. The students started to trickle into the classroom which was labeled 'Ghost 101.'
The class was normally taught by none other than Danny's parents; Jack Fenton and Maddie Fenton, but they were on vacation. They'd asked Danny to fill in for them while they were gone, and Danny had promised to help them out. After all, he was 25 and yet they still let him live at home. Though he'd all but taken over the third floor. It looked completely different; the entire floor had been renovated. Not like they'd used it before anyways. It had just been an extra place to store defunct inventions and things the Fenton parents hadn't wanted to mess with. After their son had turned out to be part ghost, they set to ridding the house of anything specifically hazardous to him. This included clearing out the third floor, and after Danny and Sam got together they offered the floor to them. Sam had been reluctant to take advantage of the free living space, but it hadn't take much to convince her. After all, she no longer had the practically endless wealth of her upbringing. She'd literally been disowned after she'd said yes to Danny's proposal.
Nine or so odd months after their marriage their bundle of joy, named Allen, had been welcomed into the world. Needless to say it was an odd struggle trying to change a diaper in midair.
So now here Danny stood, in the very classroom he'd taken English in, with his name on the board and not sitting in a chair that was attached to the desk. He was anxious to face kids, after all he'd had to grow up at 14. Questioning glances were sent his way as the students filed in and sat in what Danny guessed were their assigned seats. Soon the bell rang and Danny was left standing awkwardly in front of a bunch of 14 year olds. They were eyeing him curiously as he cleared his throat.
"Hello," He greeted with a small wave and a weak smile. A smattering of greetings was his reply. The somewhat disheartening reaction didn't help his mood, but he going to power through it. God, he hated Mondays.
"My name is Daniel Fenton, but you can just call me Danny." A few hands raised at that and he pointed to the student closest to the front.
"Don't you want us to call you Mr. Fenton?" The blue-eyed brunette questioned. Danny genuinely smiled.
"Nah," he waved dismissively. "That's my Dad. You guys can call me Danny." A few still shot him weird glares, but a few of them looked a bit excited to be allowed to call a 'teacher' by their first name. Danny as only qualified for this job bcause of his knowledge as a result of his being a halfa. Danny wandered over to one of the two desks in the room and pushed a cup of pencils, a box of paperclips, and a stapler aside. It was definetly his Mom's desk. He sat down and turned back to the class. He still had most of their attention.
"So, any idea what you guys were supposed to cover next?" He asked. Almost everyone raised their hands at this. He picked a boy with blonde, side-swept hair and blue eyes.
"We were going to be covering Half-Ghosts." He said with a small hint of excitement. Danny groaned, not just internally.
"Are you sure?" He asked. The boy, along with almost everyone else in the class, nodded.
"Well then." He stood from the desk and wandered over to the board, pen still in hand.
"Basic questions?" Danny was about to call on someone when an all-too familiar blue whisp escaped from his mouth in a hiccup. He eyed it warily as the mist dissapated inro the air. That was odd, no ghosts came near the school since he'd graduated andeven then they usually avoided him, having gotten tired of being beaten.
"What was that?" Asked multiple students without being prompted.
"Was that some ghosty-thing?" Another asked. Danny felt at his sense in the meanwhile, but he couldn't get a clear read on the ghost, but it was familiar...
"Danny, hello?" A voice shook him out of his thoughts. It was the first girl who had spoken.
"Oh, yeah, sorry." He rubbed at his neck, a nervous tic that had persisted even after his teenage years.
"What were your questions?" He picked a girl with curly red hair, green eyes, and freckles.
"How do people become half-ghosts, and can a ghost become half-human?" Danny was a bit surprised at the intelligence behind the question.
"That's an awesome question." The girl smiled at the morsel of praise.
"To answer your question; no, it is not possible for a ghost to become half-human. Think about it this way," He drew a square on the board. Selecting the bucket tool, he filled the shape in. He drew two more squares, one only filled in half way.
"Imagine this one," He gestured to the filled in box.
"Is a human, with the one on the other end being a ghost, and the half-filled one in the middle is a half-ghost." He continued to point as he spoke.
"When a human is turned half ghost, you're just taking away half of the color, aka life. Leaving you with a 'halfa' as the people in the GZ call it. But when you have a ghost, there is no life to add because, well, it's a ghost. Understand?" He looked back at the class from his little lesson and most seemed like they understood. The few who didn't were the ones Danny had heard tapping away on their phones. Super-hearing could be both a blessing and curse, though it was usually only a 'curse' for other people.
"What about how to become a half-ghost?" Someone shouted out, unpromted.
"I'm getting there." Danny assured.
"First you should know that each halfa in the known world became that way by different means." Danny pointed to the blonde boy who'd raised his hand again.
"Aren't there only two?" Danny would've laughed, but someone did it for him. His sharp hearing picked up on strained giggles, as though the person was trying -and almost failing- to hold in a laugh. He'd recognize that laughter anywhere. As expected, not a single student in the class showed any sign of chuckling. It seems like most hadn't even heard the phantom giggles. The laughter sure explained his odd ghost sense. He smiled when he spoke next and spotted a faint ripple -like air in a heat wave- out of the corner of his eye.
"There are four known halfas in the world." A smattering of gasps met his statement.
"These include myself; Daniel Fenton-Phantom, Vladimir Masters-Plasmius, my son; Allen Fenton," What a way to reveal that tidbit of info. He hadn't even told Tucker that yet. He and Sam had only discovered in the last week and Tuck was always busy at City Hall these days.
" -and the fourth," he gave a pause for dramatic effect, which had some students lean closer.
"-is Danielle Fenton-Phantom." Numerous hands raised into the air at his proclamation, but he had bigger fish to fry. Not literally, Sam would get mad. She was still stubbornly vegan.
"Now if you would please turn visible, I can introduce you to the class." Now that had almost everyone practically giving themselves whiplash as they looked to where Danny was oh-so-confidently speaking to air. A few were confused before they processed the 'turn visible' part of Danny's answer. Danielle shimmered into view with a green blush on her face. Danny smiled triumphantly.
"Now what're you doing here?" Danny sat back down on the desk and looked at his 'cousin.' Her hair now pooled around her waist and her costume had begun to grow with her body now that her mental age had started to pass her physical age. Though now her appearance was quite close but still different than her original one. She looked every bit the 12 to 13 year old she now was, though she was scrawny and thin, much like Danny himself had been. She was unsure of her birthdate, which led to the confusion. Her suit now covered her stomach in a more modest fashion. It seemed that she'd figured out she could change her ghost form's appearance. Said girl huffed and set her feet on the ground.
"Your parents never caught me." She said as she dodged through the aisles of shocked students towards Danny.
"They don't have a built in ghost detector and superhearing." Danielle was now near the front desk, and shoved a few things aside and sat on it in a position almost identical to Danny's.
"Aww, so it was my laugh that gave me away?" She whined. Danny nodded and gave a chuckle of his own. Then the movement of over a dozen or so hands in the air drew his attention. He pointed towards a bespectacled, carmel-skinned boy sitting smack in the middle of the classroom.
"Who is she?" He asked, getting straight to the point.
"This is Danielle," He gestured. She took over and introduced herself.
"Yeah. But I prefer Dani." At the confused glances she clarified:
"With an 'I.'" She specified. The looks died away.
"I'm a half-ghost like Danny." She continued, though she was unsure what to say next. She was saved when a hand raised in the air. She pointed at the student.
"How did you become a half-ghost? You're younger than us!" That annoyed Dani a bit. And Danny noticed she was agitated in her answer.
"Well, if you took my mental age and the age I was born at, I'd be, like 25, so shush." She snapped. The student sunk into his seat and didn't question further.
"Tone it down a bit, K?" Danny asked. Danielle nodded. Her emotions wer egtting ahead of her, like Danny's if he spent too long in ghost form.
"Might wanna close your eyes." She warned the students as she turned back to them. A few heeded her words, but most did not. Her blue-white rings snapped into existence and transformed her black and white jumpsuit into black sneakers, two mix-matched socks, skinny jeans, and a red, quarter-sleeved shirt where the tunic of it was grey and white stripes. Her midnight black hair was pulled into a loose side braid which looked suspiciously like that of a certain princess film character. Her red beanie still sat on top of her head, though it was a bit faded and torn in places.
The students stared in awe as they watched her transformation. A dozen more raised their hands again.
"How did you become a half-ghost?" A boy called out. Danny cleared his throat and went back up to the board, clearing off the remnants from his previous explanation. He wrote four names.
'Danny F/P Vlad M/P Allen F Dani F/P' It read.
"Vlad was the first halfa." He pointed.
"He became one after an incident with a prototype ghost portal in college. There was a mistake and it literally blew up in his face. He was exposed to very little energy, and so it took a while for his ghost and human sides to settle. He was gravely ill and in the hospital in the meanwhile." Seeing no hands raised, Danny continued on.
"I wish he'd died there." he heard Danielle remark under her breath. He decided not to comment.
"I was the second." He pointed towards his own name.
"I went into my parent's ghost portal. It was deactivated when I walked in, but I tripped and pressed the 'on' button. I came out in my parents' lab in ghost form." Now there were questions.
"Why did you go into the portal?" The boy with glasses asked. Danny shrugged. It was actually quite a ridiculous reason.
"I was dared." He said. Some hands were lowered, but most stayed. He pointed towards someone else.
"Did it hurt?" The girl asked. Danny didn't like to think about it, but she had asked.
"A lot. Any more questions?" He wanted to change the topic. The girl who'd asked looked guilty and everyone else lowered their hands. Danny plastered a smile on his face. He didn't enjoy their pity, especially for an event that he wouldn't undo even if given the chance by Clockwork. He pointed to Danielle's name.
"Danielle was the third." Numerous hands raised into the air at that one. But one kid spoke out of the blue.
"I thought you only had one sister?" They said. Danny looked at Dani.
"Would you like to explain?" He asked. She looked hesitant, but shrugged and got to her feet, reaching for the pen which he readily handed her. She didn't draw anything, though.
"Well, for one. I'm not Danny's sister. We usually call each other cousins, but that isn't true either." She looked at Danny for support, she was still uncomfortable about the way she came to be. She was rubbing the back of her neck like Danny did. Danny waved his hand dismissively. She could do it.
"The right term would be clone." Danielle said to the group. A few gasped, others didn't look surprised.
"Of course I'm not exactly a clone, otherwise I'd be a boy. I don't know if I have a Mom or not, but, well, earlier when I said that with my mental and physical ages I would by like 25 is because I was already twelve when I came to be, and I already knew how to speak and walk and all that." She waved her hand as if to say 'so what?'
"Vlad created me. But then when I rebelled he tried to murder me so, yeah. I don't really like him." Almost every hand in the class was raised. Dani pointed to someone in the front row.
"Do Mr. and Mrs. Fenton know you exist? Or do you just use the last name Fenton?" She was a bit taken aback, she wouldn't have thought of that question.
"Uh, no. At least I haven't told them." She looked at Danny, asking if he'd told them.
"Nah, they don't know. You're barely around the U.S. anymore. I only seem to run into you in the G.Z." He shrugged.
"Not my fault there isn't much to see in Illinois." She huffed.
"I can't argue there, I guess." Danny turned his attention back to the class noticing that he'd lost theirs.
"Let's continue on, shall we?"