DISCLAIMER: I own nothing! Nothing mentioned in this story is mine! I wish some it was… that would make an awesome birthday gift.
Chapter 2: Buckets, Spider Backpacks, Spectacles, and Suspicions.
Danny and Reynard sat in the room in silence. Both were thinking the same thing. Why didn't Rhonda pass? She had wished them luck when she left but… but what? Danny realized. 'Didn't she cheat? Had the women caught her? Why wasn't she upset when she wasn't called?' Ugh. His brain hurts.
The Halfa glanced at the boy next to his. He didn't like all this silence… in fact, he hated it. "So, what's your name?" he asked. The boy turned, his thoughts disturbed.
"Reynard Muldoon, but call me Reynie." Danny nodded slowly. "What's yours?" Reynie didn't like the silence either.
"Daniel Fenton, but call me Danny."
"You from around here?" he questioned. Reynie realized this guy was quite nice. Did he find out the test was just a puzzle, too? Reynie had also noticed that Rhonda had slipped two answer sheets in, one for him, one for Danny. If Danny didn't cheat, he must be a pretty decent fellow.
"No, I'm not, actually. I come from Amity Park, Illinois." That sparked an all new conversation.
"Ghost capital of the USA?" Danny nodded. "Do ghosts really exist? Have you seen one?"
Danny smiled. This was the perfect time to get word out about his alter-ego! "Yeah, I've seen tons. Danny Phantom, he's our town hero. Stops bad ghosts. But, some people, my parents for example, think of him as a menace. They say, "Let's rip him apart! Molecule by molecule!""
Reynie choked a laugh. "Cool. What does he look like?" Reynie didn't want to go back to the silence at all. It was so… unfitting.
Danny's smile widened, glad for an excuse to keep talking. "He has white hair, neon green eyes, he wears a black jumpsuit with a white collar, boots, gloves, belt, and symbol."
Reynie tried to picture the hero. He had never met one. He has heard of tons. Superman, Teen Titans, Justice League, but Danny Phantom was a solo worker. Phantom must be very good at his job! He must be pretty brave… then he realized he had said that last part out loud.
"Really?" Danny sounded so enlightened… did he know Phantom?
"Well, he fights ghosts, doesn't he?"
The pair were unaware that ol' yellow suit was listening in. They hadn't even seen her enter, they were so entranced in this conversation.
"Yeah, I guess that make him brave." Danny was bursting with excitement. This boy, whom had never met his alter-ego, already thought he was brave!
"Well, now that you two are finished," she interrupted, "The other children are all gone. We have them doughnuts and sent them on there way." Reynie interrupted.
"Excuse me! But I really need to call Miss Perumal!"
Realizing that they hadn't called Mrs. Foley, Danny said, "And I need to call Mrs. Foley!"
Yellow suit nodded kindly. "Not to worry, we have contacted your guardians."
"Miss," Reynie continued, "Excuse me, Miss?"
"Yes, Reynard?"
"You wouldn't happen to be lying to me, would you?"
Danny was shocked be his question. Even as a hero, he wouldn't have questioned adults… except Vlad. Never trust Plasmius.
"Lying to you?" Mrs. Jobozle repeated, shocked.
"I'm sorry to ask it. But you told Miss Perumal I could use your phone. Then you said there was no phone. I just don't want Miss Perumal to worry."
Then the women smiled. She was unphased by his words. "That's a reasonable question." She gave him a quiet nod, as if made to leave.
Danny slumped in his chair. He hadn't even thought of contacting his temporary guardians.
"Miss, you haven't answered my question!" Reynie exclaimed, snapping Danny from his thoughts. The pencil women, for she reminded Reynie of a giant pencil, sighed.
"I suppose you would prefer the truth?"
"Yes, please!" Reynie said exasperated, while Danny whispered it.
"Truth is, I haven't called anyone. But I will do so immediately. Actually, I was about to call her when you asked me. Are you satisfied?"
Danny glanced at his new friend. He looked like he didn't know how to respond; and Danny didn't blame him. How could you reply to an adult that had confessed that she lied?
"May I just call her myself? It will only take a minute."
Danny was awed by Reynard's courage. Then Danny realized why he hadn't called. He didn't need to. Danny was always out late patrolling invisibly, and the Foleys gave him an 11o'clock curfew in stead of the ten o'clock one at home!
"What would you say if I have told you I did, in fact, call her? Wait, you wouldn't believe me. How about I pass on a message, hmm? 'Do you see now that you didn't need luck? I'm glad you wore matching socks."
Danny laughed. Matching socks?
Before Reynie could send playful glares at Danny, the pencil women bolted out the door.
A few minutes passed in silence. Danny, okay with this silence, yet wanted to tease his new friend, said, "Matching socks?"
"Shut up!" Danny was about to make a remark, when he and Reynard heard footsteps. Soon, a bald, skinny, light chestnut skin, owl-size eyes, and wore spectacles, boy appeared in the doorway. "Hello, is this where I'm supposed to wait?" Danny, who had advanced hearing, nodded at his question. Reynie, who was an average human, had to strain to hear his timid voice.
"This is where were supposed to wait," Danny answered.
"You can join us." Reynie said quickly, hoping to make up for Danny's slight rudeness. "I'm Reynie Muldoon, and that," he gestured to a waving Danny, "is Danny Fenton."
The boy walked in cautiously. "I'm Sticky Washington. I was just wondering if this was the right place. The women said to look for two boys, Daniel and Reynard."
"That's us." Reynie exclaimed. "People call me Reynie for short." He stuck out his hand, Sticky shook it hesitantly.
"Are you here for the third test?" Danny asked anxiously. When he did, Sticky smiled slightly at him. Sticky hadn't even heard his question.
"Did you live in Amity? I heard about these ghost hunters there." His voice then got really quiet. "Do ghosts really haunt there?"
Danny was a bit taken back. This kid had heard of his parents. His parents. "Yeah, to all of your questions. I'm their son." Reynie raised a curious eyebrow. "Well, are you here for the third test?" The Halfa persisted.
Sticky gave a slight nod. "I've been waiting all day. I had to be here at nine o'clock in the morning. When the test ended, which was at ten, I was left alone in an empty room. Thankfully, I had a pear or else I might've starved. I heard all the other children got doughnuts. Why didn't we get any?"
"Same thing I wanted to ask!" Another voice exclaimed. Danny instantly recognized it.
An African-American boy with a pair of classic rectangular glasses waltzed in.
"Hey, Tuck! You made it?" Danny asked, immediately gaining the other two boys attention. Tucker laughed.
"Yeah. It was easy."
Sticky's eyes widened. "You knew all the answers, too?" Now Sticky had everyone's attention.
"You knew those answers?" Danny exclaimed, completely amazed by the fact. Sticky recoiled and blushed brightly.
"Not all. Some made me think."
Tucker's eyes looked like they might've exploded. "One, how in the world do you know all those answers, two, I just used the trick that I've used since I was a kid. I guess it worked on this test… it never works on the others." He turned his attention to Danny. "How did you pass? Last I checked, you're barely passing ninth grade!"
Curious to the friends exchange and not wanting to hear Danny's answer, since he was sure it was the same as his, he asked a quick question. "What's your trick?"
Tucker forgot the question he had asked Danny and smiled proudly. "I read the answer choices. Whichever letter the first one starts with is the one I chose."
Sticky's head took a small leap back. "What if the first question starts with Z or something?"
"Then I count down to see! For example if the question had five answer choices, but the first started with a P, I would give each letter a number 1-5 in prefer until I got to P. Then, I would just circle that answer choice."
"And it works?" Reynie asked, completely shocked by this.
Tucker frowned slightly. Then a nervous smile spread across his face. "Well, no, not really. But I guess it did for this test."
"Are you the only one who passed the second test?" Reynie inquired, curious to see if anyone would join them.
"First test, no. Danny passed it with me. Second, yes. How about you?" Tucker said, turning to Sticky. Sticky nodded.
"A girl half my size passed the first one with me; haven't seen her since yesterday, though. Was she in your one of your guys group?" Everyone shook their heads. Sticky shrugged. "Maybe she's coming later. And I'm the only one who passed the second test. But that confused me because—"
Danny interrupted, suddenly intrigued by this conversation. "Because there was a girl who cheated?"
Sticky took a small step back. "How do you know that?"
Reynard's turn. "Same thing happened to us! I bet it was a trick of some kind. Tell me, did she drop her pencil down a drain? Right before the test?"
"Yes! I couldn't believe anybody would take such a chance. After all, we were only supposed to bring one pencil."
"What did you do?" The Halfa asked.
Honestly, Sticky answered, "I felt sorry for her, so I tried to help her. She lowered me down into the grate, she was stronger than a bear, you know, and because I'm so skinny, I slid right through the bars. I wasn't able to get her pencil. You know what she did? She pulled me out, thanked me, an pulled out another pencil! Then, on top of that, she offered me the test answers! Glad I refused, though. She appeared to have the wrong ones."
"Me, too," Reynie said. "I bet refusing was part of the test. If we cheated, theyd have known about it and none of us would be here!"
While this exchange was going on, Danny and Tucker were having a quiet side conversation. "How'd you pass?" Asked the techno-geek.
Danny shrugged. "I don't know. Answers just felt right, like it was obvious."
Tucker leaned in closer and whispered, "A new ghost power, maybe?"
"Maybe. But what type of power is that?"
"Wisdom?" Tucker joked. Danny crossed his arms and leaned back.
"I highly doubt that, Tuck."
Few minutes later…
"So, you knew all the answers?" Danny asked, still fascinated by Sticky for being so smart. Sticky pulled out a cloth and began to polish his glasses.
"Yeah, most anyway. I didn't finish in time so I circles some at random, hoping I'd get lucky."
"So you didn't fun out the test was a puzzle?" Reynard asked, awed.
"A puzzle? No, I didn't. I only passed because I knew most of the answers. That's why poeple call me Sticky. Anything I read sticks in my head."
"That," Tucker began, "is absolutely amazing." Sticky beamed.
"Anyway," Danny said, "what's this puzzle you were talking about?"
Reynie was taken back by this. Hadn't Danny passed the same way he had? Maybe he passed the same way as his friend, Tucker. "You didn't notice all the answers were in the test?" Danny shrugged. Tucker tilted his head back and forth in consideration. Sticky frowned.
"I noticed the same information was repeated a lot. I just didn't take it into consideration." Sticky sighed.
"I didn't even read the questions." Tucker said honestly.
"I zoned out the whole test." Danny informed. Reynie was about to question him, but thought better of it.
'He'll tell us if he wants to.' he thought.
They spent the next hour just talking and laughing. Danny told them about some of the ghosts. Sticky told them about Rhonda. Tucker told them about Sam and her… athletic and Gothic ways, with Danny's help.
Reynie described the ordeal regarding Miss Perumal. The topic made Sticky uncomfortable. He began to polish his spectacles again; Danny noted the habit.
"Same thing happened to me. But she called them and it was all okay." Sticky said nervously.
It continued like this for a while. Then, the conversation of families and homes appeared.
"Where do you live?"
Then the door flew open. A girl, carrying a red bucket, races in. She was followed by Sam, who had her spider backpack hanging on her left shoulder, not that Reynie and Sticky new that. Sam split from her and raced next to Danny, while the blonde, her hair was in a pony, she had bright, ocean blue eyes, fair complexion— though not as fair a Paulina's— rosy cheeks, and broad shoulders, she was also very tall for a teenager, ended up standing next to Sticky, who leapt back in alarm.
"What's the matter?" He cried.
"What's the matter with you?" she countered.
"Well, what were you running from?"
"From? I wasn't running from anything. I was racing her," she waved her hand at Sam, "to this room. By the way," she turned to face the Goth, "I so won."
Sam scuffed. "Yeah, right. I was ahead of you, you just happened to turn into the room sooner."
"So I won."
Sam rolled her eyes.
Since Sticky was in a state of panic, Reynie introduced them. "I'm Reynie Muldoon. That's Sticky, Danny, and Tucker."
The goth glanced at her friends. "I know them. I'm Sam. And I believe the girl who lost is Kate."
The blonde glared at Sam. "I'm Kate Wetherall." Kate turned to face Sticky. "why do they call you Sticky, eh? You don't feel sticky." She touched his arm.
"It's a long story." Sticky warned. Sam and Kate plopped down into a desk chair.
"Let's have it then." Kate suggested.
So Sticky told them how he got his name. Kate then told them something… interesting. "I've always wanted a nickname. I try to get people to call me The Great Kate Weather Machine, but no body ever does. I don't suppose you would call me that, would you?"
"It's a weird nickname." Reynie stated. "It takes a while to say."
Kate admitted, "I guess it does, but not if you speak it quickly.
"We'll think about it." Tucker promised. Kate nodded in silent agreement.
Reynie, and Danny, for that matter, both wanted to ask about the bucket. Reynie beat Danny tithe punch. Kate gave him a shocked look.
"Who doesn't know what a buckets for. It's for carrying stuff, silly!"
Danny rolled his eyes in a teasing way towards Reynie, who gave him a fake hurt look.
"Yes," Reynie continued, "I know that. But in case you haven't noticed, normal people don't go around carrying buckets."
Kate swayed her head, considering his words. "I guess, they should, though. I can't imagine not having my bucket. How else would I carry all my things around?"
"What things?" Danny and Sam said simultaneously.
Kate grinned ferociously. "I'll show you!" She pulled out an Army knife, a blue flashlight, a pen light, and a bottle of extra-strength glue. She checked the cap, and deciding it was tight enough, set it on the ground. Then came a bag of multi-colored marbles, a slingshot, a thing of clear fishing twine, a panicle and eraser, a kaleidoscope, and a large, horseshoe magnet, which she had to yank to get it to release the metal bucket. "I've been through tons of magnets, but this is the strongest I've managed to find." Then she showed them a rope, that had happened to have been wound up around the bottom of the bucket.
"Wow." Tucker exclaimed. He couldn't believe it! She had tons of strange objects, but not a single, a single, electronic.
"That's a lot of stuff to carry." Sticky pointed out calmly.
"It's all useful! Take this morning for example, some green haired girl dropped her pencil down a drain out on the plaza—" the boys exchanged glances, "— and, because of my bucket, I was able to help her get it back!"
"Was, by some weird coincidence, her name Rhonda?" Danny inquired.
"How do you know that?"
"We'll tell you later. Just finish your story." Reynie said, hoping and wondering how she got her pencil.
"Okay. Well, I took my knife and screwdriver and pried open the drain. I tied a rope to the park bench and lowered myself into it. I used my flashlight, since it was pitch black down there. The pencil had rolled into a crack, a ten and a half inches deep one, too. I took out my pen light, stuck it in my mouth so I could work with the twine and glue." She took a deep breath. "To put it short, I dabbled the glue on the tip of the twine and stick it down the crack, waited a few seconds, then pulled out the pencil." She looked at all of their faces. Noting that most were wide, she continued, "I couldn't have done any of that without my bucket, could I?"
"Weren't you scared?" Sticky asked, intrigued. He had been completely afraid when he was lowered. He really didn't want to be the only one afraid.
"Of what?" she scuffed. "Getting wet? It hasn't rained in days!"
Sam nodded at the girl. She had an attitude that she approve of. And, she new, her parents wouldn't. But something she had said made her think… "How'd you know how deep the crack was?"
"Oh. I've always been able to tell distances. Like this room, for example, is 22 feet long and 16 feet wide."
"Are you sure?" Danny asked, beating a skeptical Sticky to the punch.
"Of course."
"Then let's measure!" Reynie suggested. He fetched a ruler from yellow suits desk and him, Tucker, and Sam walked around, measuring the classroom. Sure enough, the room was 22 feet long and 16 feet wide.
Sam gave an approving nod, whole Reynard whistled and Sticky key her know it wasn't bad.
Because Danny wanted to hear her finish the story, he asked, "So, did Rhonda offer to give you the test answers?"
Kate shot Danny a suspicious look. Sam, who had also met Rhonda, was fascinated by Danny. Had he met her? Back to Kate, she inquired to know if Danny was spying on her. Assuring her he wasn't, she continued, "Well, I called her a loon. Cheating? Who would do that?"
"Well, since you didn't cheat, I assume you found out the test was a puzzle, unless, of course, you knew all the answers."
Kate raise her eyebrows. "Who on Earth could possibly know all the answers to that test?"
"Sticky did."
It was Kate's turn to be impressed. "Nice. Now," she turned towards Reynie, "what's this about a puzzle?"
"But if you didn't know about any of the puzzles, how did you," Reynie glanced at Danny, "and you, pass?"
"I didn't pass. Only Sammy here did." Sam cringed at the nickname. "O only stuck around because I helped out Old Yellow Suit."
Of course, everyone wanted to here about that. So, Kate launched into a full explanation.
"When the test was finished, Yellow Suit took us down and gave everybody doughnuts—"
If you tried, you could hear Tucker complaining, "I want doughnuts…"
"—and told the parents how dreadfully sorry she was. Most parents weren't very happy with her. They kind of formed a mob, blocked the exit, and demanded answers.
"I wanted to help because she was only doing her job. While the grown ups were yelling, I snuck through the crowd, went to the door, and removed the doorknob. Thinking of a distraction, I yelled, "Y'all, there's the man behind all of this! That him in the corner!" And all the adults tried to see who it was. All but Old Yellow Suit. She ran towards the exit. Once she was out, I shut the lights off and closed the door. We ran down the hall. And we had a food head start, since all the crannies were trying to find the doorknob. When they did get out, we were already in a closet, safe and sound.
"Once we heard the last person leave, Old Yellow Suit smiled at me and told me to go onto the next stage of testing." Kate finished.
Danny smiled widely at her heroic actions. She was brave. "Wow." Was all he could say.
"Amazing!" Reynard exclaimed.
"Impressive." Sam mentioned.
"Nicely done." Tucker commented.
"I can't believe it! You're a hero!" Sticky cried.
"Oh please," Kate said, clearly embarrassed. "It was no biggie. Anyone could've done it. Now, tell me your story. How is it you know about Rhonda Kazembe? And what's this about the test having puzzles?"
Before anyone could answer her, Mrs. Josozle— otherwise know as pencil women, Yellow Suit and Old Yellow Suit— poked her head in. "Children, it's time for the third test. Report to room 7-B immediately." She then disappeared again.
"Where the heck is room 7-B?" Tucker cried.
"Yeah!" Sticky agreed, "It took me half the night to find the Monk Building!"
"I'm sure we can find it easily enough." Reynie motioned. Him, Danny, and Sam were all think similar thoughts. Half the night? What about his parents?
"You'd better fill me in quickly," Kate said, bursting through their thoughts, "Old Yellow Suit isn't particularly patient."
"You're right," Danny and Reynie instantly agreed. Then Reynard, on his own this time said, "We'll fill you in on the way."
Then, all six of them went in search of room 7-B.
OMG! Another chappie over 3,500 words! My fingers hurt! You'd better review! I only did this because I was bored! Now excuse me, I've got a teacher to email. REVIEW!