So there have been a few of you who have said in the reviews that you don't think or you can't believe that Sam would believe Tucker and Valerie over Danny. Just to put it into clarification; Sam was torn between who to listen to, which one of her friends to believe. And she cares about everyone's happiness. But Sam does know that Danny and Valerie have had their issues due to Danny being Danny Phantom and Valerie being a ghost hunter under Vlad Masters' tutelage (mentorship), even though Valerie doesn't know who Danny Phantom really is. So there's that seed of doubt already in Sam's mind and with Valerie crying and seeming so upset, the seed grew and grew and Sam started to believe Valerie and Tucker. In her mind, Danny is the one who's done wrong and she's still being a good friend by believing Tucker and Valerie.
I also had one reviewer say that if Sam and Tucker ever do apologize to Danny, that he shouldn't forgive them so easily. I've already planned out key points in the plot and what happens between Sam and Tucker, and Danny is a major one, as well as Danny's confrontation with Valerie (whenever it comes up). There is also one other major twist that I already have planned for a few chapters from now, probably around chapter 8 or 9. So be on the look out for those.
It's pretty amazing just how many people reviewed the first chapter! Set a record for first chapters of all of my stories. I just feel really blessed to have such a positive reaction from my readers. Please keep reviewing and let me know what you think of this fanfic, even if you only ever review once, I'd like to hear from everyone to read, favourited and followed this fanfic.
The next couple of chapters are already written but because I can only get on every couple of days now, updates might only happen once a week, maybe less. It just depends on what's happening. I'll try do update once a week, if not once a fortnight (2 weeks).
Now, onto the next chapter!
X-X
The next day wasn't better than the one before. Not by a long shot. Danny was late to school and for that; Lancer gave him detention for that afternoon. Sam and Tucker avoided him and hung out with Valerie, who would watch Danny every now and then but turn and sniff pathetically whenever he caught her staring and bury herself more into Tucker's side. Tucker then glared at him, along with Sam, and Danny would turn away, feeling worse than before.
The whole school day continued like that, with the other students watching and snickering quietly but after his detention was the worse part of Danny's day.
Lancer had assigned him extra homework on Shakespeare that he had to finish before he could leave. It seemed relatively straight forward so it didn't take Danny too long to finish it. He stepped outside and walked to his locker.
A hand grabbed him before he could reach it and threw him against the row of lockers on the other side of the hallway. Danny looked up to see that Dash had cornered him in the empty hallway and slammed him against the locker. The dial on the locker had jabbed into his back and he cried out in pain. Dash smirked at Danny's pain and punched him in the stomach. The air whooshed out of Danny's lungs, leaving him breathless and in more pain. His weak legs collapsed underneath him but that didn't stop Dash's assault.
A swift kick to his ribs had Danny screaming in pain, thick tears leaving trails down his face and splashed onto the floor. A beefy hand grabbed his right wrist, already painted with a small bruise, and yanked upward, pulling Danny with it and resulting in pain flaring in his wrist. Dash twisted Danny's wrist, rejoicing in the weak cry of pain coming from him.
He smirked evilly.
A split second later, Danny was howling as Dash slammed his wrist down onto one of the locker dials. To Danny, it felt like it had broken, the pain was so intense.
A sharp kick to the back of his left knee sent him to his knees again, with Dash towering over him, his face twisted into a sick happiness.
"We're gonna have so much fun, Fenturd!"
An hour later, Dash walked out of the school, with bruised knuckles and a sick smile on his lips.
Danny limped out fifteen minutes after Dash and he was covered in blooming bruises, blood pouring from a gash on his forehead from having his head slammed into the locker. It matted in his hair and stuck to his skin. His leg throbbed from a particularly well aimed kick to the back of his knee and Danny knew that it was at the very least severely sprained. Finger shaped bruises crawled up his arms, disappearing underneath the sleeves of his shirt.
Danny's dull blue eyes searched around, trying to find any sign of Dash or one of his jock friends hanging around to beat on him some more. Thankfully, it seemed like they'd all gone home either with or before Dash did. Moving slowly to a more secluded area, in case one of the other people in town spotted him, Danny took a moment to check his wrist. It was painfully swollen, painted a grotesque black/blue colour. He prodded it carefully with a finger, having gained some experience with sprained wrists since the accident that had given him his ghost powers. It didn't feel broken, just severely sprained. He doubted he'd be able to lift even a feather with it at the moment.
Sighing sadly, he transformed into his alter-ego and flew home, fully intending to get some medical supplies from the lab to fix his wrist and knee.
But his parents had more work for him again when he got home around 5:30 that afternoon. They'd been trying to invent a device that would detect a ghost (once it was in close proximity) and fire specialised eco-blasts to neutralise it. It wasn't going well for them and when Danny walked into the lab, he saw the destruction they'd caused.
Broken beakers were on the floor, vials smashed, expensive equipment turned over or destroyed. And the almost ever present layer of goo that covered the lab every time one of his parents' inventions malfunctioned or exploded.
Danny stood there for a moment, cataloguing the mess, before walking back into the kitchen where his mother was beginning to cook dinner. "Mum, there's so much mess down there. Can't Jazz help me?" Danny asked, knowing his request was reasonable and knowing it would take him hours to do on his own, longer than normal due to his injured wrist and knee.
Maddie didn't even turn to face her son when she answered. "She has that test next week she needs to study for. We mustn't disturb her. Besides, it's not that much mess, Danny. Don't complain, just clean it up."
Her son stared in shock at her turned back but she didn't notice. Neither her nor her husband had even looked at their son since he'd gotten home, instead sending him to clean up their mess. Maddie knew she had to get dinner ready by the time Jack woke up from his nap, which would be in two hours, so she didn't have time to clean up the lab. Danny could do that for her. He needs to start pulling his own weight, her husband's voice sounded in her head from earlier that week. She had nodded in agreement, thinking the same thing.
Danny sighed, trying to not let tears build up in his eyes. His mother had just told him to stop complaining, not even giving him a glance away from her precious cooking. He gathered up his cleaning supplies and headed down into the lab, knowing it would be hours before he would see the outside of it again.
He scrubbed benches, cleaned off the damaged equipment, vacuumed up broken shards of glass from the floor and the worktops. He cleaned the ghost portal, which has taken the brunt of the goo explosion, and turned back over the chair, equipment and other devices that had been overturned during the explosion.
Danny called out to his mother once, around 8:30, and asked if he could come up for something to eat, as he'd spelled the spaghetti she was making from the lab. His stomach had growled in response to the question but then plummeted when she called back that he had to finish cleaning the lab before he was allowed out of it.
Nearly seven hours later, he was finally done. His arms ached, his knee and wrist burned from excess use, even though he'd tried to keep weight off his knee and use his right hand more to pick things up or clean them. His ribs burned with pain and he was ready to collapse. Danny knew he could have transformed and gotten the work done faster because he wouldn't have had to hobble around with a sore knee but the fear of one of his parents' inventions recognising his eco-signature or his family peeking in on him quickly shoved that idea into the discarded pile.
Too tired to walk the stairs, he phased from the lab to the kitchen and cast a brief glance around. No food was left out and another quick glance in the fridge, microwave and oven told Danny that there wasn't any left. Dad probably ate it all again, he sighed. Oh well, I wasn't that hungry anyway.
He phased to his bedroom, desperately wanting to sleep. But then he remembered the gash on his forehead. He hadn't felt the pain from it until now.
Danny walked into the bathroom across the hall quickly, trying not to wake anyone up. Turning the light on, Danny saw that blood had caked in his hair, which stuck to his forehead along with dry swear from working in the basement that afternoon.
Grabbing a small wash cloth, he carefully cleaned away the dried blood and pulled his hair free, making sure not to disturb the tender and fragile skin that had begun to scab over.
When he was satisfied that all of the blood had been wiped off and his face cleaned, Danny tip-toed back to his bedroom. His bed called to him, wanting him to sleep on it. And Danny was a willing victim of his bed's seduction. But it seemed as though sleep just wasn't in sight for Danny.
"I am the Box Ghost!"
Danny growled in frustration, instantly transforming into Danny Phantom. He turned intangible and flew out of his window and began to look for that annoying Box Ghost. He found him two streets over, once again ransacking the local post office for post boxes. Danny cleared his throat, startling the Box Ghost. "You know, I thought I put you in the Ghost Zone, Boxy."
The Box Ghost trembled, feeling fear flood through him. "Well, see, uh, you did. But I'm out again and I'm not going back!" He stood straight against Danny, eyes glowing with all the power he possessed, which wasn't much, and boxes began to float up from the floor, rushing towards Danny.
Danny just sighed and phased through all of the boxes, leaving them piled high against the still-locked front door, one particularly full box smashing through the front store window. Wrapping a hand around the thermos that was always attached to the belt at his waist, Danny uncapped it, ignoring the pain the movement caused his wrist and ribs, and pointed it at the Box Ghost.
The Box Ghost screamed the beam from the thermos hit him and he was sucked into the thermos, cursing Danny Phantom for once again capturing him.
With his job done, Danny phased out of the post office and began to fly home, but was stopped when an eco-blast hit him in his already bruised ribs, causing pain to flare up once again. He stopped mid-flight, roaring in pain, and pressed a hand against his side. Danny stayed floating in the air, trying to get air back into his lungs.
His attacker wasn't about to give him the chance. They fired again, barely grazing his elbow and another blast singed the hair on his forearm. Danny took off flying, still trying to get air into his lungs but his survival instincts overtook him.
He spun around, did flips that made his stomach clench, and phased through objects to avoid the eco-blasts being aimed at him.
"Stop running, Whelp! You know that I'll catch you!" Skulker's displeased voice shouted. "I must have your pelt for my wall!"
Danny froze, turning around and raising a shield against the eco-blast that shot towards his chest. His eyes glared daggers at Skulker, glowing a sickly green, finally having had enough from the hunter. "I am not a whelp! I am not a trophy for you to collect! And while you are running around trying to catch me, I have more important things to deal with! Like the fact that everyone hates me for something I DIDN'T DO!" Danny roared, ripping the cap off the thermos and aiming it at Skulker.
Skulker had no time to avoid the beam coming from the thermos and for once, he didn't want to. He watched his whel- Phantom glare hatefully at him, oblivious to the stream of tears casting two identical lines down his cheeks, which were red from adrenaline and rage.