CHAPTER 4: HEART SONG
It is now a year. Danny is now three years old, still loves to tap-dance. Jack and Maddie take Danny to pre-school where he can now learn and join with his classmates. That includes his best friend, Jenny the robot. Danny arrives inside the classroom with the class chanting to alphabet. Danny joins them.
"Good morning, class." A blowfish, who is the teacher of the class, greeted them as they are done with the alphabet.
"Good morning, Mrs. Puff," the class including Danny and Jenny said to her.
"Right!" Mrs. Puff said, "Well, today we begin with the most important lesson you will ever learn at Nicktoonia Pre-School, including at all the schools you will attend soon. Does anyone know what that is? Anyone? Anyone? Someone? Brad?" Mrs. Puff turns to a red-haired toddler named Brad
"Driving?" he asked.
"No, that's when you get older," Mrs. Puff said to him and turns to the class, "Danny?"
"Um…" Danny wondered, "Don't eat yellow sand from the beach?"
"No, that's not it, no," Mrs. Puff said.
"It's our Heart Songs, miss," Jenny explained.
"Yes!" Mrs. Puff said, "Thank you, Jenny. Without our Heart Song, we can't be truly human can we?"
"No." The class said.
"What about being a ghost?" Danny asked.
"Ghost or halfa," Mrs. Puff said, "You're still human. But my dears, it's not something that I can actually teach you. Does anyone know why? Anyone? Anyone?"
"You can't teach it to us, ma'am," Jenny spoke, "Because we have to find our Heart Songs all by ourselves."
"Well done, you," Mrs. Puff said to her star pupil.
"The voice you hear inside," Jenny continued.
"Yes!" Mrs. Puff said.
"Who you truly are," Jenny finished.
"Yes!" Mrs. Puff said, "Thank you, Jenny. Excellent, lovely, thank you. So let's all be very still now. Take a moment and let it come to you."
The class does what Mrs. Puff said. "I got one!" a student, Tucker, said.
"Pick me!" Brad said. The toddlers were eager to show the class and Mrs. Puff their songs.
"One at a time," Mrs. Puff said and turns to Brad, "Yes. Brad."
Brad sings with a rapping Heart Song.
Brad: Don't push me, cause I am close to the edge
I'll trying not to lose my head
"Yes I like that one," Mrs. Puff said hearing Brad's Heart Song, "I could really get jiggy with that. Lovely."
"I'm ready!" Jenny cried, "I got one!"
"Oh, I thought you might, Jenny," Mrs. Puff said.
Jenny clears her throat and starts to sing.
Jenny: Midnight creeps so slowly
Into hearts of men who need more than they get
Daylight deals a bad man
To a woman who has laid too many (vocalizes) bets
Everyone in the class and the school hear Jenny sing. "Wow!" one of the teachers said.
"Amazing!" one of the students said. Everyone adores Jenny's voice which was so beautiful.
"That's as far as I got so far," Jenny said to the teacher and class with her Song finished.
"Oh yes, lovely," Mrs. Puff said feeling calm by her voice, "Really lovely."
Even the students love Jenny's song. But to Danny, it was like what his dad said to him. Jenny singing just breaks Danny's heart with pure joy that makes him feel happy and just smile. "That's beautiful!" Danny said expressing his feelings for Jenny's Song.
"Well, Danny," Mrs. Puff said to him, "Since you seem so keen to share, you're next."
Danny comes to the front of the class. "Mine's sort of a boom and a…" Danny uses his tongue and blew a raspberry to make a song. Some of the students laughed.
"Oh dear," Mrs. Puff said.
"And another boom," Danny added.
"You heard that in there?" Mrs. Puff asked, wondering if Danny heard it from his heart.
"Do you like it?" he asked.
"I'm afraid that's not a tune," Mrs. Puff said.
"It's not?"
"No dear. A tune is like uh…" Mrs. Puff said and sings to show an example.
Mrs. Puff: La la la la la la la!
"Oh, okay," Danny said and clears his throat to sing.
Danny: La la (off-key) LA! LAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Danny sings, but wasn't what the kids and Mrs. Puff expected. Danny singing was so horrible that his singing voice almost sounded like a wail of what a ghost makes, making it worse.
Squidward and the Elders hear his singing. Squidward turned to a window of the school to see Danny sing badly.
"Who is that?' Squidward asked.
"That's the boy of Jack and Maddie Fenton." Vlad, now an elder, said to him.
"The wee hippity hopper?" Squidward asked, "You're kidding, right?"
"Nope." Vlad said.
Danny didn't notice about his voice and still sings.
Danny: (off-key) La la la! La la la la! LAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAA-AAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Danny sings and wails the loudest that that was even more bad. With his singing, the windows break, then the mirror, even Tucker's glasses. A light bulb above him was rumbling. It broke and the pieces hit Danny on the head. Danny stops singing and the class laughs at him because of his singing voice. Danny felt humiliated as the class laughs at him.
But Jenny was the only student who didn't laugh. "It's not funny!" Jenny yelled angrily to the class, defending Danny.
"No. No, not in the least." Mrs. Puff said, "A human without a Heart Song is hardly a human at all."
"Or a ghost or halfa," Danny said sadly to himself.
"I think he broke my ear!" a student said.
"Danny," Mrs. Puff asked, "May I have your parents meet me in a Parent Teacher Conference?"
Jack and Maddie meet Mrs. Puff in her classroom. Outside the classroom, Danny was happily dancing. Mrs. Puff explained everything to Maddie and Jack about Danny singing. "In all my years of teaching, I've never, I mean…" Mrs. Puff stammered, "And you having such fine voices. Well, it's bizarre. Did anything happen, you know, during early development, like when he was a newborn?"
Jack froze. He remembered and realized something about what happened when he dropped Danny as a baby and he had a coma for a year. 'Uh no.' Jack thought.
"No, all fine." Maddie explained, "My pregnancy was healthy and normal before he was born. No drinking and smoking."
"Right." Mrs. Puff said.
"Wasn't it honey?" Maddie asked Jack.
Jack didn't want Maddie to know about his secret of Danny. "Yeah. Yeah," he lied, "It was a tough winter, I guess."
"Right. Right," Mrs. Puff agreed.
"Uh, uh," Jack continued, "We did ghost experiments and he's half ghost, but okay."
"Yes, I understand, yes."
"To think," Maddie wonders, "He might spend his life alone, never to meet his true love."
"Oh please, Mrs. Puff," Jack begged, "Isn't there something we can do?"
"Well," Mrs. Puff wondered, "There is always, Mr. Bickles."
"Mr. Bickles?" Jack asked, "The drama teacher?"
"Yes, and he's also the voice coach," Mrs. Puff said, "If anyone can, Mr. Bickles can."
Danny was inside the stage of the school with Mr. Bickles. Maddie and Jack watch them.
"Can't sing?" Mr. Bickles asked Danny, "Can't sing? Rubbish, my man. Every little tot has a song."
"Even…" Danny was about to say.
"Yes, even ghosts, fairies, and creatures too," Mr. Bickles said, "I can teach you to sing. I taught every famous star to sing: Chip Skylark…Brittany Brittany…Skip Sparkypants!"
"Who's Skiip Sparkypants?" Danny asked.
"Oh, who cares about him," Mr. Bickles said, "When I have finished, your singing will be giving everyone the goose bumps! Now to begin. First, we find a feeling. Happy feeling, sad feeling. Maybe, lonely feeling. You feel it?" He turns to Danny.
"Uh-huh," Danny nodded.
"Good," Mr. Bickles said, "Now, let it out! Be spontaneous!" He listens to hear Danny sing, but didn't. He turns to see Danny dancing. "That, what is that?" he asked seeing Danny tap dance.
"I'm trying to be spontan-you-us," Danny tries to pronounce. Maddie and Jack watch him and sighed.
"Little boy," Mr. Bickles asked, "You want to meet the beautiful girl?"
"Uh-huh." Danny answers.
"You want to make the baby?"
"Huh?" he asked, "Where do babies come from?"
"You don't want to know that, until you get older, son," Jack said.
"Well, I want to be the beautiful girl, " Danny said to Jack and Mr. Bickles, "Oh yes, I do."
"Well, sing!" Mr. Bickles said close up to Danny, "And no jiggy-jog dancing! Do not move a muscle. No moving!"
Danny gasps and froze. He begins to sing.
Danny: Twinkle, twinkle, little (off-key) STAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He sings badly again with a powerful ghost wailing sound that makes it awful. Maddie and Jack gasps and covers their ears. It was worse than they thought.
"Enough!" Mr. Bickles cried stopping Danny from singing, "We go back to the top. Forget body. Look inside soul. Feel the feeling. Enormous feeling. So enormous it fills your whole body. It must escape or you will explode. Now open your mouth. Come on." Mr. Bickles puts Danny in a steady position. "Yes, yes. Lift up your head, that's it." Danny lifts his head, about to sing. "Now…now…now sing!!!" Mr. Bickles sings to inspires him.
Danny inhales and was about to sing. He pauses for a moment. Suddenly, Danny starts to tap-dance like crazy. Mr. Bickles, Jack, and Maddie sees him. Danny twirls around and tap-dances. Maddie chuckles to seeing her son happy, but Jack groans seeing Danny not singing. Danny giggles and still dances with joy. He stops and looks at Mr. Bickles and his parents with a smile.
"It's a disaster!" Mr. Bickles wailed, "A catastrophe! My dream…ruined!" Mr. Bickles looks at a picture frame of Chip Skylark. "Chip!" he cried, "Forgive me! I never failed before!" He sobs and wracks himself with the picture frame. "Never! Never! Never!" he sobbed.
Jack, Maddie, and Danny leave the school with Mr. Bickles still sobbing and wracking himself with a picture frame. They walk from school to their house, Fenton Works. "Well, I thought it was kind of cute." Maddie said to Jack about Danny's dance moves.
"But it's just ain't human, okay?" Jack said to her with Danny following, "Other that he's half ghost."
"So what if he's different?" Maddie asked, "I always kind of liked different."
"He's not different!" Jack disagreed, "He's a regular human being."
"You mean a regular half-ghost and half-human hybrid," Maddie reminded.
"Whatever!" Jack snapped, "He's still normal."
"Hey, you know what?" Danny wonders and has an idea to tell his parents, "I can leave school. Then we can go to work! The three of us!"
"Whoa, little fella," Jack said, "You ain't going nowhere 'til you got yourself an education."
"Us, Fentons, are a family of geniuses," Maddie explained to Danny, "We get a good education and straight A's, or on your father's case, B minuses."
"Hey! That's solid B minuses," Jack snapped at Maddie and turns to Danny, "Danny, my boy, you get them singing muscles big and strong like your ghost powers, you got that?"
"I'll try, pa," Danny said to Jack.
"You bet you will," Jack said, "The word 'triumph' starts with 'try' and it ends with…?"
"'Umph,'" Danny answers.
"That's right!" Jack said to him, "A great big 'umph.'" He turns away and walks out. "I'm going ghost hunting."
Maddie and Danny follow him. "Umph, umph, umph, umph," Danny repeated.
Maddie sighs. "Oh, Danny," she said softy to him.
-End of Chapter-