A.N. I think in one episode Tucker said their school ran from 7.30 to 3.30, what a bummer. I decided to try to write a school scene rather than just ignore it all together, because as all students know, whether we like it or not, school takes up a large part of our lives!
(Also, for the sake of my universe this story is set after D-stabilised but before Phantom Planet, so that makes Danny about 15 nearly 16, and also for this story Jazz is in University and is home for the holidays, do you call Uni College in America?)
What Unnusual halflives we lead
Chapter 2: Consequences Of Unfortunate Runins
Running through the abandoned corridors, or as best as he could with his injury, his head continually turned from right to left, avoiding anyone, especially Mr Prickly. The man had been dubbed the 'wanna-be hall monitor' the only perk from the self-appointed job he received was an overcrowded detention class at the end of each day, and Danny was his favourite pupil, with Valarie an obvious close second.
As a relatively new edition to the schools already wonderful teaching staff it was hoped by the students that at least one normal human being would grace their education. But of course, they were sorely mistaken, Mr Prickly or the Prick, as the students nicknamed him, (and let's be honest they didn't need to be creative to come up with that one) was obsessed with punctuality, cleanliness and appearance. He was a tall, well-muscled man with a proud full head of black hair which he always brushed back and wore dress pants and a white button down shirt. This produced the overall effect of a funeral director with an unfortunate name and a complex with said name.
"Fenton!" the Pricks loud ominous voice wailed, like a bell tolling Danny's demise, "Front and centre." The flamboyant clicking of his shiny black shoes rebounded on the vinyl composition tiles until he stood behind the boy. "Late again, boy…nasty 'abit; lateness," he stared down at Danny and continued, "Be so good as to tell me the time, Fenton."
Danny sighed in resignation and frustration as he turned to gaze at the clock on the opposing wall. A new addition of the crazy dude who now stood before him was a compulsory clock in every corner, corridor and classroom that rang simultaneously every hour without fail. "7.55," he replied quietly.
"7.55…what?"
"7.55, sir," he ground angrily through his teeth, as his anger quickly resurfaced from its slumber he tried desperately to keep his eyes their usual blue, and not waste this dude, maybe a teeny tiny ecto-blast wouldn't hurt, just to wipe that smug smile from his face.
"Oh, then why aren't you in class, young man?"
"…I…overslept…" Danny muttered without breaking eye contact. He had learned from his numerous ghost fights that to do so was a sign of weakness, and there was not one person in school who could out stare him. But so far this man was proving a new and unwanted exception, he just wouldn't back down.
"What was that, kid?" Prickly asked keeping his own grey eyes locked with Danny's azure ones with an amused expression on his face. Danny was almost convinced from his first encounter with this man that he and Vlad were somehow related, it was just too weird.
"I overslept…sir…" Danny muttered, and scowled when the man's smile grew.
"Oh dear, oh dear, well, that's another detention then," Prickly turned and began to walk away, "anyone would think you had something better to do with your time, Mr Fenton."
"Says the Prick," Danny muttered, spun on his heels and opened the door to Lancer's English class.
As usual the whole class ceased its highly imperative discussion as Danny entered the room and took his seat in front of Tucker and Sam, who shot him sympathetic looks as Lancer frowned.
"As I was saying," he said, with his usual air of 'what I say is far more important' "your assignments will be based on Othello, due in after the holidays." He pointed to the board and on it he began to write the characters of the play. "You need to read the whole of act one and tell me what you learn about each of the characters, while I grade these essays." He concluded and sat at his desk, picked up a pen and they took that as their cue to work, or in this case talk.
"So, what happened?" Tucker immediately asked Danny who was slouched over his desk in both lethargy and frustration. Sam looked over and noticed his tired eyes as he pulled the book from his bag.
"The usual: Skulker doesn't share the Pricks love of 'time management'," he poorly copied the teacher's voice, "so I was up at 1 in the morning and I got thrown through 3 brick walls. 3! All at the same time," Danny sighed, "and to top it all of I woke up this morning and the fruit loop was in our kitchen, our kitchen, what gives? And my dad's new Ghost Gabber 'likes' me," he quoted with his fingers, "and I have another detention, which means as soon as I get home it'll be 'Danny, why are you always late' or 'Danny, why can't you be more like Jazz and show a little interest in your school work.' Man, my half-life reeks." He concluded and rested his head on the table ignoring the strange looks from his class mates at this point and gazed longingly out the window. Maybe he'd skip the rest of the day and just go flying, yeah, that was a good idea.
"Dude, that's rough," Tucker replied, "er…we could always tell your parents you came to my house…"
"Nah…they'd only find out anyway…and they'll probably just end up blowing another huge hole in your house just to ask you what we were doing, or why I didn't call them, or…you get the idea…" He muttered.
With that they made a start on their work; however Danny soon gave up and continued to stare with glassy eyes at the sky outside. It was a cloudy day but the sun's rays occasionally shone through the murky monotony and onto the ground below. It wasn't the best weather to end the school term on but beggars can't be choosers, as the saying goes, and a few weeks off from school was a cause for both celebration and some much needed rest. Not that the ghosts he knew and fought thought the same way.
He'd been thinking about flying over to Florida, more specifically to the NASA Space Centre, it'd be easy with his new top speed of over 300 mph. Just to look at the rockets, and maybe get a glimpse of the new photos he'd read about on-line of the fabled 'Planet X.' It was thought to lie beyond Neptune that scientist had been searching for since the 1990's. (*1)
Having been into space, as few teenagers can boast, it merely encouraged him to want to see more of it. His small telescope on his roof allowed him to plot the close constellations around Amity Park, but it wasn't nearly strong enough to try anything serious. He didn't have the money to buy anything that scientific, and he daren't ask his parents, just thinking about how much one would cost gave him a migraine.
The English work on Othello he was meant to be doing was nothing compared to the beauty of the planets and stars that had for so long fascinated him. And he wondered how others failed to appreciate it as he did. Tucker and Sam often stayed up late at night with him on the rooftop of Fenton Works but though they found it interesting, he didn't think they were as captivated as he was, was there something wrong with him? Duh! Ghost powers, ghost hunters for parents and a strange unexplainable space obsession, yup there was seriously something wrong with him. Why did he even bother to ask such a stupid question?
By the end of the class there was a loud shuffling of papers and bags, and scraping chairs as the students practically ran out of the room. The crowded corridors offered more loud noises and voices which told of happy plans for the half-term break (not sure what you'd call it in the US.) Family outings, concerts and general lazing-around-doing-nothing days were, as always the most popular among the teenagers.
"Don't forget my huge party Sunday night," Paulina shouted through her megaphone adding further disruption to the existing chaos, "it's gonna be fab!" she smiled, "Don't bother if you're not invited." She added as a pleasant afterthought.
"Great, just what we need…another cool party which we're not invited to…again!" Tucker moaned as they made their way to the science lab.
"Oh no, we'll miss another stupid Paulina party, whatever will we do?" Sam replied her voice laced with sarcasm. This of course was lost on Tucker as he was too distraught to notice.
"I know, it's just so not cool, according to my calculations," he said looking down at his PDA, "we've missed…like…20 parties over the whole course of high school, which makes us the school life equivalent of…"
"Amoeba's…" Sam suggested.
"I was gonna say pond life, but that works too," Danny added with a smile.
"Oh…if anyone sees the Ghost boy tell him he's invited to my party," Paulina's loud voice interrupted "he just has to come."
"Well, at least half of you is invited." Sam laughed.
"Too bad it the wrong half," Danny moaned with a long drawn out sigh as they swarmed into the science lab with the other students and took their seats, rallying themselves for two lessons on ionisation.
After the first half of the day passed uneventfully Danny and his friends sat down with their dinner trays and odd expressions. "Isn't there usually a ghost, or two, or three that likes to get us at school, what gives man?" Tuck whispered, taking an enthusiastic bite of his burger.
"I'm not complaining," Sam replied and Danny nodded in agreement, "it's been so long since we've had a ghost free day that I forgot what it was like…i'ts really, really boring."
"No…it's not, I need a break, now stop talking about it or you'll jinx us," Danny said after finishing his soda.
"Fentina!" a brash, angry voice shouted, and Danny winced. "A ghost free day's not all I need." He muttered and glanced over to the quarterback who now resembled an angry bull in a china shop, unfortunately for Danny he was the china. The overcrowded cafeteria offered little shelter as everyone shied away from the advancing bull.
Dash marched over to the table and scowled down at Danny. "Guess what happened to me today?"
"Err…you decided not to beat me up?" Danny replied with false hope.
"NO! I got detention, because you were late, we were waiting for YOU, so we were late too!"
"How is that my fault?" Danny demanded as Dash hoisted him up by the front of his shirt.
"You can't blame that on Danny," Sam shouted, "you were only gonna wail on him anyway, and you're doing that now!"
"Shut up, Sam," Danny muttered.
"Your girlfriend makes a good suggestion," Dash began.
"She's not my…" Danny shouted.
"…not his girlfriend…" Sam finished standing up in anger.
"…I wasn't gonna wail on you, I just wanted you to do my time for me, but now I'm gonna wail on you good!"
"Great…" Danny sighed and thinking fast he wriggled out of Dash's death grip on his shirt, with the added help of his ghost powers ran at superhuman speed from the cafeteria with Dash and his cronies following him.
"You just had to say it didn't you, Tuck,' Sam sighed as she sat back down.
"Don't look at me, man, I said ghost, not quarterback." He replied pointing at her with a salt laden French fry which promptly went into his mouth.
"We better go find him," Sam suggested, but Tucker made no move to get up as he continued to eat his chips.
"Nah, dude'll be fine, we only got gym remember, and he'll probably skip it anyway…maybe I should skip it too."
"No, you shouldn't, and Danny can't afford to miss any more school, I'm gonna go look for him…you just…wait here…"
"No problem." He replied, now finished with his own food, he made a start on Danny's fries, Sam sighed and ran off.
She searched the corridors and several empty classrooms without success, tried his mobile, also a failure, and made her way outside. It was raining quite heavily, and as she stood in the doorway several first years ran past her using their jackets and bags to protect against the rain. Scanning the yard as best she could she eventually notice Danny sitting on a tree branch in one of the few tall trees in the schools vicinity. Disregarding the weather she walked over to the tree and leaned against the huge trunk. "You gonna skip?" she asked after a minute, and look up at him. He had his arms wrapped round his legs and was staring straight ahead at the school.
"Nah…I don't need to be in even more trouble than I already am," he quietly replied with a hint of pathos.
"Good, you don't need to miss any more school than you already have either," she smiled.
"Hmm," was all he said, and they heard the bell ring that signified the end of lunch, and his favourite lesson: gym.
"Come on, we'd better go," she said sadly, he floated down from the tree and they made their way into the school. After making sure no-one was looking he held her shoulder and turned them both intangible so that the rain fell from them and onto the floor. "Ghost powers have their perks." He merely smiled at her as they walked through the gathering crowd.
A.N So what do you think, I'm still not sure about a few things in this one but it had to be done? The second half of the day will be in the next chapter.
Reviews please, kind people.
(*1) If there are any space nerds out there, I read a little about Planet X, and my little world is completely fictional, I tried to make it sound realistic, but since we don't know if it even exists yet don't hold me to anything.
