The Beginning

Chapter One

New Student

"Danny! Are you up yet? You do realise that you must leave in ten minutes!" Maddie called out to her fifteen-year-old son. When she received no reply, she shrugged and returned to the kitchen to work on another of her new gadgets. She knew that she had to use her Jack-free time wisely, and she planned to achieve as much as she possibly could without her slow-witted husband dragging her down.

Danny hadn't heard his mother calling his name, though. He was in the middle of sucking the annoying Box Ghost into the Fenton Thermos, and trying to think of a way to keep him in there for eternity. Maybe his parents may invent a weapon such as this. But then again, it'd be very dangerous for Danny, him being half-ghost and all. Plus, if he suggested the idea, he'd receive strange looks as he wasn't supposed to be interested in the ghost hunting stuff.

What he told his parents was the truth though, since in fact, he wasn't interested in coming up with new ecto-weapons to destroy the pests that interrupted his life. The only reason that he hunted down ghosts was because he didn't actually have much choice in the matter. If he stopped hunting them, then the ghosts would break free of their world – the Ghost Zone – and wreak havoc on Amity Park, the town that Danny was so devoted to protecting. There was also the problem of his life being in danger if he didn't fight back when the ghosts attacked him. So all in all, he hated what he had to do.

Danny rolled his eyes as he placed the cap on the Fenton Thermos and placed it in his school bag, despite the inconvenience the Box Ghost would create. He hated taking ghosts to school with him, but since he was running low on time, it was the only choice. There was no way – apart from turning invisible and alerting the ghost-sensitive house that there were paranormal activities taking place in the room – that he could reach the Ghost Portal without his mother seeing and growing just a little bit suspicious. Anyway, he needed to take the Thermos to school, just in case a ghost showed up.

With a sigh Danny gripped the door handle and turned it slightly, letting himself into his house without making a noise. It wouldn't be smart to alert Maddie to the fact that her son hadn't been in his room, where he was supposed to be. Unfortunately for Danny, he didn't know that his mother had just called out for him to hurry up, and had heard his footsteps in their earlier on in the morning.

"Danny?" Maddie asked, coming to stand in the doorway and frown at her son with suspicious eyes. "How did you get outside without me knowing? I could've sworn that you were up in your room a few minutes ago," she narrowed her eyes even further. "Have you been climbing out of your window again? One day, Jack and I are going to bolt it shut so that you can't climb out of there."

"You didn't hear me? I… uh, I went out the back door to go around and see if we had any mail." With a short glance towards the mailbox, which could be seen through a large window at the front of the house, Danny made sure that what he was telling her couldn't backfire on him. "But we didn't. Look at that, huh."

Maddie threw her irritated eyes towards the mailbox and saw that Danny was indeed telling the truth – there was no mail to be seen. "So, tell me, young man. Why did you sneak out of the back door when it would've been quicker to just go out the front door?"

"I didn't want to… disturb you, yes; I didn't want to disturb you. You hardly ever get the chance to work on your own projects, instead of always fixing dads. So, I went out the back door just so that you could get as much done as possible." Danny replied with a smug look in his eyes.

At these words Maddie's face softened and she smiled at him. "Well, thank you." She thanked him warmly before glancing absently at her watch. "Have fun at school, Danny."

"Sure will," Danny muttered before pecking his mother goodbye on the cheek and heading out the front door, to another average Monday at school.
As soon as the front door shut behind her son, Maddie sighed to herself and turned back to look into the kitchen. She absently fiddled with the necklace that her son had given her when he was barely five years old, one that he had bought with his own supply of money and had given her with so much love in his eyes. It wasn't like that anymore.

As he was growing older, he seemed to be growing more distant too. When he was younger, he had used to come to her with all his problems, no matter how small they may seem to be. But ever since the accident that Danny was involved in when he was fourteen, he had stopped confiding in her. He had come home with bruises, scratches, injuries that had no stories behind them. He was blocking her out of his world. This must mean that his son was hiding something from her, something dangerous like drugs, alcohol or smoking.

What was her son keeping from her, and why?

"Hey, Danny! You're a bit slow this morning!" Tucker called to his best friend as Danny tried to catch up with them. "We thought you wouldn't show, didn't we, Sam?" Tucker said with a wink, nudging Sam on the shoulder.

Sam frowned at her feet – Tucker's attitude was really beginning to get on her nerves. "Yeah, that's right. What took you so long?"

Danny glanced at them, wondering if he should still be upset about their disappearance on Friday night. He had planned a night full of video games, movies, and lots of junk food. Unfortunately, he had instead spent the night sitting all alone in his room, reading a boring old comic book once again. For him, Friday nights only meant that there were two days with no school ahead of him. He'd never been to a crazy party that average fifteen-year-old boys did every Friday night. The only thing he could look forward to was the sleepovers that he and his best friends always had on a Friday night. But they had taken that away from him.
He shrugged his shoulders and looked away. "It was close, but luckily it was only the Box Ghost. Only problem is, mum's starting to get a bit suspicious."

"Are you planning on telling her?" Sam asked her friend curiously, brushing the dirt from his back.

Tucker raised an eyebrow suggestively at Sam, who began to blush furiously. "I'm sure that Sam will be able to comfort you if it goes wrong or anything."
"Cut it out Tucker." Danny growled, ignoring the heat rushing through his face. He was quite sick of Tucker's suggestive comments by now. If only the techno-geek knew the real story behind those blushes, but then Danny dismissed that thought. He had promised Sam that he would never let the fact that they had once 'hooked up' reach Tucker's ears. They would never hear the end of it.

"Oh, you know you love it." Tucker chuckled as he hitched his glasses further upon his nose.

"No, Tucker, you don't understand." Danny growled as his eyes flashed green due to his anger. "If you really want to get to school, you'd shut up."

Tucker shrugged his shoulders just as they all heard the bell ring. The school wasn't too far ahead of them, but Danny didn't entirely feel like running to his History class. He hadn't finished his homework and Lancer was quite used to him being late. He would rather take a detour to the principal's office than arrive on time. Even though he'd get two lectures, one about being late and one about not doing his homework, Danny thought that it was worth the five minutes of class that he might miss out on. History really wasn't his favourite subject.

"You're going to be late again, aren't you?" Sam guessed, rolling her eyes.

"Sure am. You guys have fun running to class. I'll see you in a few minutes. Oh, don't forget –"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll save you a seat." Tucker replied just before the two headed for the school at a quick jog.

"Am I really that predictable?" Danny asked himself as he stopped walking and gazed off into the distance. A smile tugged on the edge of his lips as he thought about the question. "Of course not. After all, not many people would suspect that I was public enemy number one, Danny Phantom of Amity Park."

After a long stop at his locker, to gather the correct books and equipment that Danny would need for his lesson, he pulled the late note out of the front pocket of his jeans and slowly began his trip to Lancer's History classroom. To pass the time, he'd look at each door, examine the number, and try to see if he knew anyone in those classes. Anything would be better than Lancer's classroom. But he must look inconspicuous; otherwise a teacher would stumble out into the hallway and demand that he hurry to his first period class.

But no matter how slowly he may travel, it would only be a short amount of time until he came to class 24B, the class that he dreaded most at the time. And unfortunately for him, the door locked from the inside, so he couldn't slip in without drawing Lancer's attention to himself. Instead he had to knock, and wait for the storm to blow over.

The door was opened a few moments after his knock, and the teacher's balding head poked out of the crack between the door and the doorframe. "Mr. Fenton?" He sighed, disappointment evident in his tone. "You're late once again. Now, tell me, what is your ever so entertaining excuse this time?"
Danny looked coldly at his teacher and thought of a number of inappropriate answers that he could give to the teacher. Instead, exercising a tight control on his mouth, Danny wordlessly handed up the note that had crumpled a fair bit in his hand. He dropped it into Mr Lancer's palm and didn't wait for a reply – instead he squeezed past the fat, old man and looked into the classroom.

Sam and Tucker occupied two seats at the front of the classroom, and there were two others located beside Sam's desk. Danny glared at Tucker, assuming that his geeky friend had set this is up ever so sneakily so that Danny and Sam would coincidentally be sitting next to each other. Tucker met his glare levelly and cracked a weak smile, one that read 'ha, got you'.

Danny pushed his books onto the small desk and slid into the seat, glancing behind him as he did so. The rest of the class seemed to have moved their desks to the back of the classroom, not only to escape the 'unpopular nerdy group' but also to escape the terrible missiles of spit that escaped Lancer's mouth regularly. He felt a bit annoyed at Sam and Tucker for not obtaining better seats in the classroom, but then decided that that was an unreasonable thought. He should've been here earlier.

Just as he'd gotten comfortable in his seat and pulled a pencil out of his pencil case, there was another tap at the door. Lancer glared at the door, and then turned to face the students, glaring into the eyes of each and every one of them. Everyone, that is, except for Sam. Sam was Mr Lancer's 'favourite' despite her unique sense of style and her outspokenness. She was a good student, got top marks, and tended to pay quite a bit of attention during Lancer's boring lectures. Danny didn't understand how she did it.

Lancer shuffled to the door, his fat gut wobbling with every step he took. Danny shuddered and turned away, to look out through a misted window. He hadn't noticed how cold it was outside, but that was only a result of him being a half ghost. While everyone else was huddled in a fur coat and warm pants, Danny would be in his usual attire of a shirt and a pair of jeans. It was just the way his body functioned, and there was nothing he could do about it, though it did make him feel a bit uncomfortable when he received raised eyebrows. People probably thought he was an idiot for going out in this weather without anything warm on.
The door clicked open and all talking behind Danny ceased. He didn't pay attention though, because he assumed that it was just one of the deputy principals, coming to speak with the bumbling fool, Lancer. It happened occasionally, and since the deputy principals were harsh to students who didn't show signs of obedience, everyone had learned to be quiet when they were around.

"Ah, I see I have a new student."

Danny's head snapped up at those words. A new student? He didn't remember the last time that that had happened at Casper High. The 'haunted' high school seemed to scare students off, not draw them nearer. Not many new people arrived at Amity Park, let alone Casper High School, due to the infamous ghost attacks that occurred so frequently that the locals didn't even scream anymore. Well, not unless there was a new and creepy looking ghost lurking around.

It is then that the new student walks in, and Danny stares as he realises instantly that it is a girl, and a very pretty one at that. Her hair looked smooth and silky, long and straight, a deep fiery red. Her eyes met his briefly and the depth in them amazed him. They were the colour of an emerald, one with only small flaws to show that it was genuine. Her skin seemed to emit a faint glow even though there was only a small amount of sunlight entering the room. She smiled nervously at the gawking students in front of her, until Lancer cleared his voice.

"You may take that seat over there, next to Danny Fenton." Lancer spat, showing his dislike for the clumsy student who always seemed to be late for school.

The girl nodded and slid into the seat next to Danny, who found that his heart was beating faster than normal. Stupid damn teenage hormones, Danny thought grumpily. He watched her from the corner of his eye as she rearranged her short skirt and placed her brand new, clean books on the table in front of her. She seemed so perfect, as if she had no flaws at all.

He continued his examination of her as Lancer started to rumble on about some unimportant topic. Thankfully, he had forgotten about Danny's late arrival, due to this new student. But what was her name, if such a wondrous creature could indeed be given a name? Her pale green singlet seemed to fit her perfectly, and the black skirt she wore underneath wasn't creased at all. Over the top of the singlet she wore a black half-jacket that matched perfectly with the skirt. Surely she was the daughter of two rich people, so why would she be in a public high school such as this.

Her head turned, the fiery red hair following, not one strange out of place. "Hi," she whispered nervously, her voice that sounded like music to his ears.

His breath caught, and he reminded himself to keep it cool. "Hey," he whispered in return, his voice sounding like a nails on a chalkboard compared to hers. "I'm Danny."

"Kelly," she whispered in return, her eyes flicking slowly back to the front of the classroom to make sure that Lancer wasn't paying attention to the conversation that they were having. "My last name's Stager."

"Where're you from?" Danny asked, not wanting to end this conversation ever. That such a goddess would talk to him was surely a miracle.

"Wisconsin. I moved over here with my parents and my older brother." Kelly answered distantly as she began to copy down the notes that Lancer was scribbling all over the board in his unreadable handwriting.

"I don't mean to sound rude, but why'd you move here?" Danny asked hesitantly, curious as to why a rich girl from Wisconsin would want to live in Amity Park, where it was just an average town, that was only known due to its numerous ghost sightings.

"Are you making yourself another geeky friend, Fenturd?" Dash remarked slyly with a grin upon his face.

Danny gritted his teeth and turned to face the blonde haired jock. "Shut it, Baxter."

"Daniel, do not speak to Mr Baxter that way!" Lancer barked as he came to stand in front of Danny's desk. Since the student didn't seem to pay any attention he slammed his ruler on the wooden desk, barely missing Danny's fingers.

"You will refrain from calling out in class in the future!" Lancer ordered Danny, turning to face the chalkboard once again.

"Uh, yeah, but if I recall it correctly, he was the one who called out to me. You're being completely unfair!" Danny protested.

"I know what I heard; do not accuse me of doing something unjust like that. Detention, Mr Fenton." Lancer answered cruelly, causing Danny to become silent.

"Geez, what's he got against you?" Kelly asked as she leaned over towards Danny's desk, her long hair falling onto his hand.

Danny felt his cheeks grow hot as he inhaled her lovely scent but forced himself to calm down a bit. He must act coolly. "Oh, he's always like that. I don't know what his problem is, but I've learnt to live with it. You didn't answer my question, by the way." He reminded her, changing the subject.

"Oh, right, you asked me why I moved here. My parents are kind of obsessed with creatures from fantasies, such as ghosts, gremlins, unicorns, witches, creatures such as those." Kelly informed him, rolling her eyes to show that she thought it was just stupid.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. My parents are the number one ghost hunters in this town." Danny muttered this last sentence sarcastically.

"Are they actually any good at it?" Kelly asked with a strange note in her voice.

Danny shrugged off the feeling that Kelly was a bit scared of the answer and turned back to face the board, deciding that he had better do some work. "Nope, my dad's useless and he drags my mom down."

He wasn't sure if he was imagining things, but he was sure that he'd heard a sigh of relief from Kelly Stager. It seemed quite suspicious but he didn't focus too much energy on the thought before dismissing it. It was just his body reacting to the shock of finding someone who was so perfect, so like him in so many ways, apart from her being perfect and him being completely hopeless.

"Daniel Fenton, may I ask where your homework assignment is? And why, indeed, you were late for class?" Lancer demanded.

Danny groaned – it was only the start of a long day, one that was likely to be filled with at least two ghost attacks. Surely his parents would be getting suspicious by now.

I've decided to put in the lovely outtakes for each chapter. I wrote this one when I had thriller in my head, but decided it wouldn't fit in with the plot.



Outtake for Chapter 1: (After Lancer says "Ah, I see I have a new student")

"Coz this is thriller, thriller night!" Danny cried out uncharacteristically, breaking into song. He jumped onto his desk and behind him the other students did the same. Soon, everyone was a mini Michael Jackson, dancing in front of a horrified Mr Lancer. But even more horrifying was the fact that he only wore underpants that were covered in pink ballerinas twirling around and around.

"Hi, I'm Ke…" the new girl starts to introduce herself as she walks in the door, but stops as she realises that something strange indeed is happening inside the classroom. For the students have now all been transformed into crazy ghouls!

"There aint no second chance against the thing with forty eyes," Danny cries loudly above the rest of them.

"Oh, my…"