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Phantom of Amity Park
Danny Phantom fanfiction
by The Cinderninja

You never really notice these things at first. You never really notice when you grow up. It just sort of happens, and since it's happening to you, you don't realize until a long time later. 'Hey, I'm older!' Right? So it was weird how we all just sort of noticed one day. Actually, it was our first day back to school after the summer. Our first day of grade 10.

Yeah, I'd kept ghost fighting. But my grades had picked up a lot. Actually, I realized I didn't really need to sleep anymore. I could if I wanted to, just like breathing, but for me it was this huge relief. I didn't have to worry about being overtired in class because of ghosts keeping me up all night. Plus I had the rest of the night to try and catch up on school work.

Yeah, I know, who wants to do schoolwork? But I needed to. If I didn't wanna get held back a year, and all that. Heh. I guess most kids think that's at least one thing they won't have to do when they're dead. Or maybe not. I guess most kids don't think about that at all. But still, I did still want to graduate. And my grades were in dire need of some picking up.

Turns out it's also a lot easier to focus in the middle of the night when you can't go play video games, watch TV, or hang out with your friends. I mean, there was nothing else for me to do besides sleep, and that just felt like a waste of time now. Plus, I never really seemed to forget lessons anymore. Even if I wasn't paying too much attention in class, I seemed to be able to remember all of it. It was pretty cool. So school was a breeze for me. Well, maybe not a breeze, but still. I was finally starting to do okay. That is... I would pass.

Anyway, back to where this started. Grade 10. Sam and Tucker had known since a little while before we were let out for summer holidays. And just like when I first got ghost powers, they and Jazz where the only people who knew. So there we were, in the auditorium, waiting for our new schedules. And Tucker just made this comment. About how he and Sam were outgrowing me.

Neither of us had really noticed before then, but I still looked like a grade 9. Not just that, but I mean, I still looked exactly like I did the day I died. I hadn't changed. I hadn't grown at all – not even my hair had grown out. Yikes. I'd better be careful not to get a bad haircut, if it wasn't gonna grow back. Sam just looked worried as we realized what that meant. Tucker still hadn't seemed to catch on. Hadn't really figured out the implications.

You might not have either. But it's actually kind of funny, what my first thought was right then. Well, not funny for me. Now I can look back and realize that my priorities were a little out of order, but still. Right then, all I could think was 'there go my chances of being an astronaut'. Who would ever let a 14 year old be an astronaut? Forget getting a job at all – a real job. Forget even graduating. I mean, we could do what we were doing for a little while longer, but eventually? Eventually someone besides us would notice.

But not right then. Right then all I did was freeze up as I realized that there went my dream, right out the window. Heck, I'd probably lost it back when I'd made stopping the ghost attacks my responsibility. When my grades had dropped and I'd started skipping school. I thought, great, now that I'm able to get my grades back up, I might have a chance. And then that. Dream shattered, take two.

It was kind of depressing. I didn't say anything to them, just shrugged it off. Laughed a bit. Sam knew it was bothering me, and she'd also probably realized what it meant for my entire future. I would never age... Tucker still hadn't clued in though, and Sam seemed to be able to tell that I didn't want to tell him. Not yet, at least. I mean, the people of Amity were clueless! That was a fact! So, maybe they wouldn't notice. For a few more years, at the very least. Maybe then we could find some sort of weird disease that could explain it. Or make on up. Most of them would be clueless enough to blindly believe whatever excuse we came up with.

And just like usual with me as of late, I refused to admit that anything was wrong until I was forced to admit it. Unfortunately, that seemed to come a lot sooner then I'd hoped. I'd been acting depressed all day. Everyone had noticed – it was especially obvious on the first day of school, when everyone was fooling off and having fun. They never gave out schoolwork on the first day, so everyone was pretty much pushing their luck with slacking.

Thankfully, being me, even if everyone noticed no one but Sam and Tucker cared. And even if someone did care I was just some depressed kid as far as anyone knew. Unfortunately, Sam had decided it would be a good idea to tell Jazz. I guess she was hoping Jazz could help or something. Maybe if I hadn't been so down she would have left it be. Let me tell her myself. No way of knowing now, though.

Jazz brought it up to me after school, when I got home. I was sitting on my bed just sort of staring at the far wall. I'd been doing that a lot lately. Just totally zoning out. So anyway, I was just sitting there – actually, I suppose I was looking at my posters more then anything. I was considering taking them down. I didn't want them anymore. I used to think they were cool, now they just annoyed me. So I didn't hear the first time Jazz knocked on my door. She opened it a crack and peeked in – I guess to see if I was there.

When she noticed me just sitting on my bed, she called my name. Asked if she could come in. I was glad for the distraction, so I said sure, why not. She came in and sat down beside me. It was something that'd been happening a lot lately. Jazz coming in to talk to me. At first I'd really needed it. Then I'd started to find it annoying, and just wanted to be left alone. It felt like they – her and my friends – were treating me like I was this delicate thing that could break if they just looked at me the wrong way.

I told them that. I told them it annoyed me how they were suddenly treating me differently. How I just wanted to be normal. Well, normal for a ghost-powered teen superhero. That seemed to worry them even more at first, but they'd gone along with it. Until now. Now it was just like before. Sam going behind my back to talk to Jazz! It was like they didn't trust me! Or maybe... I was being paranoid again. They told me I'd been way too paranoid lately. Irritable, too. It's true though, I guess. I was always getting annoyed with people for no good reason.

So there was Jazz, just sitting beside me on my bed not saying anything. It was like she was waiting for me to go first. Sure, just come into my room and wait for me to talk to you? Whatever. Must be some weird psychology thing or something. But I did get the feeling that she wasn't going to leave until I did, so I sighed frustratedly and looked away from the posters lining my walls. "Well? What is it?" I asked, sounding more annoyed then I'd meant to.

Jazz looked away. "Danny, I need to talk to you." she began slowly. Well duh. Why else would you be in here? "Sam told me about today..."

"What?" I asked, suddenly more than annoyed. It bothered me when my friends talked about me when I wasn't around. Like I couldn't deal with things myself. "What did she tell you?" I asked, defensively. Hoping that maybe she'd just brought up how I was depressed. Jazz was good at fixing that, even if she didn't know what was going on. But no, Jazz admitted that she knew about the other thing. The fact that'd I'd stopped growing – stopped changing, at all. Before I could get mad though, she also admitted that she'd already guessed. Even before I had noticed, she'd realized what was going on.

She'd thought it might, as soon as she'd been able to calm down and think things through, those first couple months. If I wasn't doing anything else, why would I grow? It wouldn't make sense if my whole body had just stopped and shut down. So she'd guessed it would happen. It wasn't for a while longer that she could actually know for sure, when she could actually watch my friends changing over time, and me, staying the same. I thought it was kind of creepy that she'd been doing that – and not even told me. Huh.

When I brought it up though, what she said surprised me. "You wanted to act like everything was fine." But... she hadn't wanted to let me. She said it wasn't good for me, to pretend like nothing was happening. "I knew it would bother you. I figured I'd let you find out on your own. I didn't want to burst the little bubble you'd built for yourself." Wow. That actually caught me off guard. She'd actually been respecting what I'd wanted, even if she thought it was a bad idea? That was actually kinda... cool. Cool of her to do.

So I told her so. "Wow... Jazz. You mean, you didn't tell me just because I didn't want you to?"

She nodded, looking guilty.

"That's... wow. That's really cool." She shook her head. She didn't think so. She felt bad about it.

"No, Danny. It's not – I mean, I should have told you." I shook my head. I didn't want her feeling bad the one time she'd actually done what I wanted.

"No way, Jazz. I'd be just as upset. You just let me enjoy myself a little longer. That's exactly what I asked you to do." And then I hugged her. She was still a little surprised, but not nearly as much as she probably would have been in the past. We'd been doing a lot more bonding lately. I mean, dying isn't something you just say 'okay, cool. Now that that's dealt with, let's move on.' For either of us. And she was obviously the only person I could talk to about it.

Sam and Tucker were great, sure, but it wasn't the same. And they seemed awkward about the whole thing. I think they still didn't like to talk about it. A lot like me, they wanted to be able to pretend everything was normal. I think it's mostly because I was able to act so normal around them, like nothing was wrong. I think sometimes they actually forgot. But not Jazz. She was always there. Like I said, it was annoying at first, but I got used to it. And after a while, I came to rely on it.

She came back into my room a few hours later. All of my posters and star charts were gone. I'd stuffed them in the trash.