If possible, today felt worse than it did yesterday for Danny. Danny stared at the "ceiling" of Vlad's canopy bed. It was 8:00. He had to be at City Hall at 9:00. He should probably get up. However, his body (or Vlad's body, per se) disagreed, and he still laid in bed.
However, he managed to get up by the sheer fact that he was already more than halfway through the week. By the end of it, he would be able to return to being a normal teenager, not a debonair billionaire. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes as he got ready for the day.
On the contrary, Vlad was metaphorically floating on cloud nine. He was energetic as he woke up, being able to have a good night's rest from being relatively stressless. Sure, he had two tests today in English and Chemistry, but he had already studied for them during Danny's study hall, and it was relatively light work compared to his job as mayor.
Unlike Danny, he was carefree as he left Fenton Works with Jazz. Although he hadn't studied that much for the tests he had today, he trusted that he would do well since he had already studied them in Wisconsin.
"So, have you studied for the tests Danny has today?" Jazz inquired.
Vlad seemed irked by the question, huffing as he walked along. "Of course, Jasmine, I've studied for them. Besides, I'm familiar with Chemistry; I have a lab."
"And what about English?" Jazz pressed.
"I have an expansive library. Julius Caesar is a classic; of course I've read it." Vlad reassured. "Jasmine, I understand that you care deeply about your brother, but I've got this."
Jazz still wasn't sure about Vlad's sincerity when he said that, but pressed no more.
They then parted ways to their separate classes once they reached Casper High. Vlad's first class was English, so he got to start off the day with a test. Normally, Danny would groan at this, but Vlad was grateful, as he could get the test out of the way quickly while the information was fresh in his mind.
As he stepped inside the classroom, he saw many of Danny's classmates groaning and sighing, grumbling about something along the lines of "It's too early to do a test…". Hmph. Let's see how you fare being Mayor of Amity Park. Vlad sneered mentally.
Mr. Lancer would usually give Danny a disdainful look as he walked in, but because of his marvelous behavior this week (especially not having to go to the "bathroom"), Mr. Lancer gave Vlad a smile as he walked in. Automatically, Dash, situated at the back of the room, scowled. Fen-turd is trying to take Mr. Lancer's favor away from me! He'll pay for that…
The bell rang as Mr. Lancer passed out the tests and scantrons. "Remember, you have 50 minutes to complete the 25 multiple-choice questions. That leaves you with 2 minutes per question. Plenty if you ask me." Mr. Lancer stated before he sat back down at his desk.
Immediately, Vlad began working while the other students started to sweat bullets at the first question.
Who stabbed Julius Caesar first?
Casca.
Who eluded Julius Caesar of his wife's (Calpurnia's) warnings?
Decius.
What is hubris?
Excessive pride which leads to the downfall of a character.
Vlad knew he had this in the bag; he had aced the World History test with a 95 (he forgot who had invented the printing press).
Meanwhile, Dash was stumbling on the first question. Football practice took longer than usual, so he barely had any time to study. Damn it, I blame this on Fen-toenail! (even though it was practically his own fault).
Unaware of Dash's malice towards him, Vlad continued breezing through the test. Plot questions? Easy. Literary terms? Know them by heart. Quotation identification? Possibly hard, but he had read Julius Caesar at least 10 times.
After about 30 minutes, Vlad was done while other students were only about halfway done. He double-checked his work just to be sure. After that, he got up and handed Mr. Lancer his test.
Mr. Lancer was pretty suspicious when "Danny" walked up with his test, because he was 15 minutes early. He remembered when Danny somehow got the answers to the C. A. T., and although he owned up, it shattered his trust in Danny not to cheat. It had only been about 3 months ago anyway.
"Done already, Mr. Fenton?"
Sam and Tucker looked up, nervous as to what Vlad was doing.
"Uh, yeah...should I wait until everyone else is done?" Vlad awkwardly asked.
Sam and Tucker sighed of relief, returning to doing their tests. Vlad was just a huge nerd; no signs of evil intent here.
Mr. Lancer seemed to get the idea as well. "No, that won't be necessary. Set it down there." He gestured to a blank spot on his desk before going back to reading a magazine.
After setting it down, Vlad returned to Danny's desk. He still had 15 minutes left of the period, so he sat there while watching other students freak out.
Meanwhile, Danny was still trying to rub sleep out of his eyes as he sat in City Hall, listening to a bunch of middle-aged people argue. He had the final say as to whether this law would be passed, so he just let them argue it out until they asked him for his opinion. Besides, he didn't really think he would have anything useful to contribute to the debate.
"The new McMasters should ban children as well!"
"But it only bans teenagers!"
"Since this is Mayor Masters' idea, let's ask him!"
The mention of Vlad quickly jolted Danny out of his stupor as he tried to think of something to say.
"Well, only banning teenagers, in my opinion, is enough. Children aren't usually nuisances.' Danny replied.
"But they disrupt the atmosphere if they have an outburst!" One Council member cried.
Danny mentally facepalmed. "The McMasters is still a fast-food restaurant; I don't think children's temper tantrums will be of much concern."
"Oh, okay. But what about food? Should it be the same?'
"No, then adults can't distinguish between it and the old Nasty Burger!"
This continued for a while as Danny sat slumped in his chair, trying to tune out the shrill voices arguing about ridiculous things. Man, if Vlad has to deal with this every day, I might actually pity him. Danny thought.
Finally, they were finished around 11:00, and people started to file out of the room. Danny was one of the last few to leave since the Mayor's chair at the giant desk was far from the door.
Danny welcomed the vast expanse of main City Hall as he headed to his office, where he would stay until 5:00. He sighed as he arrived at Vlad's desk and unwrapped a sub sandwich which he had brought from home as lunch. Today was going to be LONG.
Meanwhile, Vlad was sitting in Chemistry now. Lunch was right after this period; he just had to get this test done. After the tests were handed out, Vlad immediately started working. Unfortunately, this test was slightly harder than the English test.
Not that he didn't know what he was doing, but Chemistry was a bit harder because it required some math. He disliked math, although it was necessary. However, some questions were seemingly obvious.
H3PO4?
Phosphoric acid.
Atomic number 13?
Aluminum (or Aluminium, if you were British).
Which group were halogens in?
The 17th group.
However, not all was well. Although he could balance equations, it was tedious and time-consuming because he couldn't use a calculator.
CH4 + Cl2 - CCl4 + HCl
Vlad's eye twitched as he saw the problem. A computer usually did this for him in his lab, but he had to do this by himself.
Okay, the carbons are equal, chlorines are 2 and 5, hydrogens are 4 and 1. Multiply HCl on the right by 4, then hydrogens are 4 and 4, but chlorines are 2 and 8 now. Multiply Cl2 by 4, then chlorines are 8 and 8. Therefore, coefficients would be 1, 4, 1, 4.
CH4 + 4Cl2 - CCl4 + 4HCl
He had to remember to overhaul the education system when he got back into office; technology did all of this mundane work for people.
C3H8 + O2 - H2O + CO2
...He was going to lose his mind if he got something more complicated than this.
5 minutes later, and he managed to solve it by using his fingers. Unsurprisingly, others around him were doing the same thing, so if anyone judged him, he had an excuse.
C3H8 + 5O2 - 4H2O + 3CO2
After 3 more of these frustrating problems, he was done. However, others had actually finished before him, and he only had 5 minutes to spare. I didn't know my math was so weak; when high schoolers can do better than you as a 40 year old, something's wrong. Vlad thought as he handed in his test.
However, he felt confident in it as the bell rang 5 minutes earlier and he was off to lunch. Sam and Tucker were waiting for him at their lunch table.
"So, I assume English was easy for you?" Sam asked sarcastically.
"Yes, I have a vast library and I've read Julius Caesar multiple times. I practically know it from memory. Besides, it's a classic." Vlad replied.
"Yeah, but Mr. Lancer seemed suspicious of you when you turned it in THAT early. Besides, Dash was giving you a death glare." Tucker pointed out.
"Right, because of Daniel's evil self, was it? And Dash, in my opinion, is not a threat. As I've told you, I've dealt with bullies before." Vlad reassured.
"Since when did Danny tell you about that?" Sam asked, suspicious.
"If you really need to know, Samantha, it was since we switched bodies. Clockwork mentioned Daniel's evil self when we visited his lair." It was a white lie; Vlad had actually snooped into Danny's ghost files.
Sam quirked an eyebrow at the answer, but said nothing more about it. "Anyway, you seemed a bit more realistic in your timing during Chemistry."
"Yes, because of those wretched balancing equations problems." Vlad complained.
"What's wrong with them?" Tucker asked. "They're simple multiplication."
Vlad's eye twitched as the math that he took the longest to do was deemed as "simple." "I haven't used arithmetic in years, Tucker; why should I have to when we have calculators and technology in general? Not being allowed to use calculators on the Chemistry test seemed illogical to me. It's tedious to do mathematics by hand."
"I guess that makes sense, but adults are expected to do mental math very quickly." Sam pointed out.
"I know that, Samantha, but sometimes when you're busy as mayor, you don't have time to go and practice things you haven't used in 20 YEARS." Vlad explained.
"Talking about the mayor, how do you think Danny's doing?" Tucker asked.
"Yeah, we haven't seen him since the public speech on Monday." Sam added.
"To be honest, I don't know. I haven't seen him since the speech as well. Since Amity Park hasn't turned into an anarchy, however, I assume that Daniel is doing decently." Vlad stated.
By that time the lunch bell rang, and they went off to their afternoon classes.
Danny's lunch period, on the other hand, was nonexistent. He ate the sub sandwich as he looked over paperwork and made phone calls to various people. He had to sign at least 100 documents today, ranging from charters for companies trying to start business here, contracts with Elmerton for new infrastructure, and patents for the new McMasters.
Forging Vlad's signature wasn't the issue, but the fact that his right hand was aching from having to write so much was. It was almost like writing notes for Mr. Lancer's class all over again. You would have to write at a fast pace to keep up with the work, with no breaks to let your hand rest.
However, Danny was faring marginally better than he was yesterday. He looked less disheveled than he did yesterday, and people dismissed that day as a bad day for Vlad. He looked slightly less tired and he didn't look like he was about to have a mental breakdown, more like he was under a lot of stress, but he could handle it.
He looked up at the clock on the wall to see that it was only 1:00. Sigh. Four more hours to go.
Vlad, however, was irked during Danny's World History class. He could feel Dash's eyes boring into him, now that Tucker mentioned it, and when he glanced over at Dash, it was clearly visible. Nevertheless, Vlad diligently took notes while the teacher lectured about the Mongol Empire, not paying any attention to Dash's glare.
However, he found his pencil wavering slightly as he got pelted with a spit-covered ball of paper. Defusing a fire which told him to murder the jock, he ignored it as he continued writing and looking up at the teacher.
Dash, however, didn't think that one spitball was enough, and sent another one toward "Danny's" head.
Vlad felt his heat get pelted by another spitball and whipped his head around to glare tight back at Dash, before returning to taking notes. Man, if he had his full ghost powers right now, he could overshadow Dash and embarrass him to the point of submission.
The rest of the period went spitball-less, but Vlad still felt Dash's glare on him.
Once the bell rang, Dash wasted no time confronting "Danny."
"Yo, Fen-toad!" Dash yelled.
How many of these does this guy have? Vlad wondered. He turned his head around to glare at Dash. "What do you want, Dash?"
"Stop sucking up to Mr. Lancer! We all know you're just trying to get on his good side!"
"The fact that I'm actually TRYING in English is none of your business, Dash." Vlad stated. "In fact, you're probably just hoping that he'll give you a grade bump that you desperately need."
Dash was angered by this and hurled "Danny", headfirst, into a locker, slamming it shut and storming off.
Vlad really had to resist the urge to go Phantom and beat this guy into the Ghost Zone. He had a temper, and it wasn't hard to set off. However, he forced himself to not do anything he would regret and slowly opened the locker, groaning.
Sam and Tucker rushed over after seeing Vlad get shoved into the locker.
"I told you Dash would do that at some point." Sam sighed.
"Yes, Samantha, but it's too late for that now, isn't it?" Vlad remarked as he got up, walking to their next class: Algebra II.
Algebra II passed without much happening, and before Vlad knew it, the last bell rang and it was dismissal. He met up with Jazz after school and they walked home together.
Danny was still at City Hall at the same time, feeling overworked and tired. He had finished an amount of work which probably was equivalent to the amount of work he would have doe for a whole semester. He stared at the clock as it read 4:59. He could almost hear it taunting him as he sat at Vlad's desk.
Finally, the second hand reached the top of the clock and it was 5:00. He quickly gathered his stuff and left City Hall for freedom: Vlad's mansion.
Once he got there, he saw there was a package at Vlad's front door. Once he got out of Vlad's car, he went to the main foyer and brought the package inside, opening it...only to have the Box Ghost right in his face yelling "BEWARE!" like a broken record.
Danny facepalmed as he saw the Box Ghost come out of the package. He really should've seen that coming.
"Look, Box Ghost, I don't have TIME for you right now. I just came back from mayoral duties and-" He was cut off by the Box Ghost yelling in his ear. Ouch.
"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR EXCUSES! I AM THE BOX GHOST! BEWARE!"
"Yeah, yeah, we know." Danny was about to hurl the Box Ghost into the Ghost Portal until he had a great idea.
A smirk coming onto his face, Danny suggested something. "Actually, why don't you go bother Vlad? He probably has more time than I do."
It took the Box Ghost less than 5 seconds to zoom off to the Fentons. He had no personal vendetta against Danny; he was willing to fight anyone who was affiliated with him or him himself.
Satisfied with getting ghosts off of his plate, Danny promptly took a nap.
Meanwhile, Vlad was in Danny's room doing Danny's homework until a cold mist came out of his mouth. A ghost? But I thought I solved that- Vlad's answer came when a resounding crash sounded as the Box Ghost crashed through Danny's window yelling "BEWARE!".
Vlad's eye twitched as he registered what was happening. "...Why the HELL are you here?"
"DANNY PHANTOM REJECTED MY PRESENCE! HE WAS BUSY WITH WORK! SO i CAME HERE! I AM THE BOX GHOST! BEW-"
"I know." Vlad interrupted, exasperated at the fact that ghosts came to him because Danny was too busy,
Not even bothering to say anything else, Vlad got the Fenton Thermos off of Danny's desk and sucked the Box Ghost in.
Jazz barged in soon after. She had heard the crash and rushed over. "Vlad, are you alright?" She eyed the broken window and the smoking Fenton Thermos.
"Yes, Jasmine, a ghost just decided to barge into Danny's room and make a nuisance of himself." Vlad reassured.
"Oh. I can make up an excuse and tell Dad to fix it." Jazz said, going back to her room."
Vlad replied with his thanks and resumed working, lowering the blinds as a makeshift window until it was fixed.
4 hours later, and Vlad was lying in bed with a repaired window, sleeping. He was sure that this little incident with the Box Ghost would be a one-time thing and it wouldn't be something he would have to deal with for the rest of the week. Little did he realize, however, that this little problem would turn out to be bigger than he had ever imagined.
Wow, this story has reached 1,000 views! Thank you all for the support! Chapter 10 will be ready by this weekend. Reviews are always appreciated!
