Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.
Maddie and Jack Fenton stood over their children at the table with undeniable excitement in their eyes. "We have exciting news to share with you two!" Jack exclaimed with a bright smile.
Danny and Jazz looked at each other with growing trepidation. Usually, when their parents were this excited, it involved them testing out a new ghost invention; often involving reincarnated food and loud explosions. "What is it?" Jazz reluctantly asked with growing dread.
"Well, you know how we've been working on something big in the basement recently," Maddie began, "and how we haven't told you what it is yet? Well, now that the final stages are laid out, we can tell you!"
Danny frowned. "You mean that giant hole in the basement?"
"Daniel!" Maddie scolded, "You aren't supposed to go into the lab! We have dangerous chemicals and inventions that could hurt you without supervision!"
Danny rolled his eyes. "I just took a glimpse from the steps, don't worry. Besides, I'm not stupid enough to mess with your crazy junk in there."
Jazz scoffed. "You sure about that? You certainly seem that stupid." Danny responded by throwing a balled up napkin at her, which hit her forehead lightly. "Nice try."
"Psh. Whatever, I'm not stupid," he insisted. Jazz knew he wasn't stupid, but he certainly had a strong mischief streak that led him to trouble more often than not.
"Anyway," Jack continued, "that 'hole in the basement' is actually…" here he paused for dramatic flair, "a portal into the Ghost Zone!" The Fenton parents smiled excitedly at their children, who just stared at them blankly.
"Portal?" Danny asked with interest.
"Ghost Zone?" Jazz asked with skepticism.
"Yep! It'll take a while, but we've got high hopes for this one! And," Jack's smile became a little sheepish, "Maddie's going to make sure I-we don't make any mistakes."
"So, it's going to be a portal into a different dimension?" Danny asked with real interest. "Cool! I didn't know you could do that!"
Jazz just rolled her eyes. "They can't. All this ghost business is just nonsense." She shoved down the memories of Thanksgiving turkeys as she said this. "It's just a weird hobby that a lot of people use to make excuses for the bad things that happen in life, especially with supposed 'hauntings' in various homes-"
"We don't live in a haunted house, Jazz-"
"Don't interrupt, Danny, they need to hear this." She stood up from the table with a stern look in her eye. She was only fifteen, but almost always felt that she was the most grown up in her household. If they were never going to realize the harsh truth themselves, then she'd just have to tell them outright. "Ghosts don't exist. The fact that you chase after them, like-like you're in some Ghostbusters movie, is just a sad excuse for a fantasy distraction from real life. You need to realize that real life involves real people, not imaginary ghosts."
Throughout her lecture, her parents wilted more and more, until the excitement faded completely from their eyes and they hunched over in depression. The hurt look in their eyes almost made her regret saying all those things. Almost, but not fully. She was tired of listening to them ramble on about ghosts; she was tired of seeing all the weird looks they get for the giant sign and Op Center on their house; she was tired of all the teasing she gets from her peers at school…
Jack turned to Danny with a hurt look in his eye. "Do you feel the same way?" he asked softly. Danny looked uncomfortable, and just shrugged, not meeting their eyes.
"Well…" Maddie said in a thick voice, "if you really feel that way, we won't talk about it in front of you anymore." She then held her head high, and said, "But believe it or not, your father and I truly believe in the existence of ghosts, and we will dedicate our lives to proving that truth." She let out a shaky breath. "It's alright if you don't share those beliefs, but I will not take disrespect for the inventions that put food on the table. So, go to your room, Jasmine. I'm very disappointed in you; I thought you had more kindness in you."
Jazz looked a little shocked, and felt a little hurt, but washed it away with a glare. "Fine! I don't even care!" she ground out, and stomped up to her room.
An hour later, she slumped on her bed, clutching Bearburt Einstein and reading a book on hallucinations. She wasn't absorbing the words, however; she kept thinking back to the tirade she launched at her parents. After the scolding words her mother said, she had run up to her room and cried for ten minutes. Now, she just felt numb.
A knock sounded at her door. "What?" she said tiredly. The door was locked, but she didn't really feel like opening it if it was her mom-
The door opened with a short rattling and a soft click, and Danny entered. He held his old homemade locking pick, specially designed to break into her room. She sighed, annoyed at his presence and the fact he picked her lock again.
"What do you want?" she mumbled. Danny didn't say anything; he just sat backwards on her desk chair, his arms laying on the backrest with his chin on top. He was silent for another moment, before saying:
"You really hurt Mom and Dad's feelings back there."
Jazz just sighed, no longer feeling the anger she had before. "They needed to hear it at some point."
"Well...I don't know, it might be true."
"What might be true?"
"You know, ghosts and stuff."
Jazz groaned and tossed her book to the side, convinced she would never finish it now. "Not you too," she said. "Ghost-hunting parents are bad enough, but a brother? I'd be the only normal one."
Danny laughed a bit. "Psh, you're normal? No way. No one in this family is normal, ghosthunter or not."
Jazz thought about that for a second, then reluctantly agreed with him. She'd always gotten odd looks at school, and not because of her parents. She was smart, really smart, and so was Danny, and sometimes it put people off. Danny was better at handling it than she was, where he found two steadfast friends and a few extreme bullies, she had no one.
"Well, normal or not," Danny continued, "we've only got each other. So...hold back a little, alright? Even though their inventions may never prove anything, they still look really cool."
Jazz laughed. "Maybe they'll start building movie sets for scifi flicks instead of running around looking for dead people."
Later, Jazz apologized to her parents. They took it pretty well, considering she'd just insulted everything they'd believed in. She was still grounded, but she didn't mind. The only thing that wore her out was listening to all the details of the 'Fenton Ghost Portal.'
Danny was very enthusiastic and interested about the project. He told his friends about it before Maddie and Jack could tell him not to, but they let it slide since Sam and Tucker were practically extended family anyway. Sam seemed very interested, realm of the death and all, and Tucker was interested in all the hardware that went into it.
Jazz still didn't think it would amount to anything. After all, even if there was a realm of the dead, or Ghost Zone, whatever it was called, she doubted her parents would be able to get there. It was impossible.
Only when the half-complete portal zapped their house into a strange, green world for a few minutes when Jack spilled some milk on one of the wires did she start to doubt those assumptions.
Haha, Danny is that stupid to mess with his parents inventions. It's been a while since I've updated this story, and this idea came to me. It's a little different because it centers more on Jazz than Danny, and Danny actually isn't a mean little prank devil. I even threw a little angst and drama, oh mylanta!
Remember, this story is kind of like my dump palace. I think of an idea, write it, and no matter how short or stupid it is, I'll post it here. As long as it has to do with Danny and Jazz. I have a brother, so I'm pretty good at sibling behavior.
So, if you have any comments or critiques, don't hesitate to tell me! And if you think flames are critiques, go ahead and write those too.
Until next time.