Sunday, September 19th, 2004
Day 10: Sisterly Concern
"Don't. Say. Anything."
Jazz raised an eyebrow at her brother. His hair was messier than usual, tired shadows under his eyes and a scowl on his face. "What's eating you?"
"I didn't get to sleep all night," Danny grumbled. "And I said don't say anything. I'm not in the mood."
"I guess you don't want cereal then," Jazz waved the box in front of his nose. He snatched at it, but she pulled it out of his reach. Despite himself, he could feel a grin trying to creep its way to his face.
"If I don't eat cereal, I'll have to eat our parents cooking, Jazz," Danny whined. "You wouldn't do that to your poor, starving little brother, would you?"
"Fine, you poor little urchin," Jazz teased. She finally deposited the box of cereal in front of him.
The childish bickering had managed to raise Danny's mood a bit.
"Good morning kids!" Maddie beamed as she entered the room, her blue jumpsuit hood not up yet. "We'll be finished with the portal doors by the time you both get home. But we won't have a way to tell if they work right away, so you both need to be very careful, understand?"
"Okay mom," Danny said nervously. Jazz just rolled her eyes.
"There are no such things as ghosts, mom," Jazz insisted. "You shouldn't pollute Danny's mind like that! He's at a stage where he is easily influenced, Danny never goes along with what you say!"
"Jazz," Danny groaned. "Let it go, I'm not a kid," his mood fell again. "I can listen to what mom says if I want."
Jazz stared at her brother, wheels turning in her head. "Danny... you never listen to our parents rambles about ghosts. Never. What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing, I'm absolutely fine," Danny stabbed his bowl with a splash of milk.
'So Calypso lets him go... and then... dangit, what happens after that?' Danny flipped irritably through his book. 'I hate this book so much...'
The sunlight fell across his papers enticingly. Danny found himself staring out the window, chewing absently on his pencil. Thoughts of going ghost and flying around were swimming around his head temptingly. When he accidentally broke the pencil, he hastily grabbed another one and tried not to look out the window.
Danny's cell phone interrupted his attempt at studying for English. Grateful for the distraction, he quickly pulled it out, "Hello?"
"Hey man," Tucker's voice answered. "What's up?"
"I'm trying and failing to study... again..."
"Want to go to the park with me and Sam so we can practice your powers?"
"Yes!" Danny said eagerly. "Anything to get away from the test on Wednesday! I'll be there in ten!"
He rushed out the door, ignoring Jazz's protests.
"Okay, nobody can see us here, so you should be fine to... 'go ghost'," Tucker snickered.
"Tucker..." Danny said warningly.
"Come on, Tucker, lay off," Sam sighed. "Let Danny call it whatever he wants, they're his powers."
"Fine, fine. Go on, Danny," Tucker waved his hands encouragingly.
"Okay... Going ghost!" Danny called out. Sam and Tucker watched him change with interest. Danny floated a few feet into the air, "Okay, so what are we working on first?" Danny asked. 'Please say flying. I want to see how fast I can go."
"How about we start with..." Sam stopped, staring. "Uh... Danny... look down."
Danny blinked, turning his attention to his feet... Or at least where his feet should have been. Instead, he saw a mist-like tail.
"AH?! Where did my legs go?!" Danny shrieked. He flailed his arms, "I want my legs back!"
"Cool it, Danny," Sam waved her hands at him. "What were you thinking when your legs vanished?"
"I was thinking... Uh... that it would be cool to be able to go faster," Danny screwed up his expression. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Try flying fast," Tucker suggested.
"B-but my legs!"
"Just do it."
Danny looked from Sam to Tucker and then back again, before sighing and taking to the air, flying as fast as he could manage.
Everything became a blur. Danny abruptly halted, "Woah, that was fast...." he said dizzily.
"Danny, think about going slower!" Sam called from far below.
Danny blinked, 'When did I get so high up?'
"Danny!"
"Right! Sorry!" Danny screwed up his face in concentration. His legs tingled. He looked down, "Yes! My legs are back!" He floated back down to them. "So... my legs disappear when I want to fly faster?"
"Apparently," Tucker shrugged.
"That's creepy, I don't think I like having my legs vanish," Danny crossed his arms. "Why can't I fly fast with my legs still there? I look like a friggin mermaid!"
"It's not that bad," Sam said comfortingly. "Okay, let's work on invisibility, since we've spent most of our time on helping you control your intangibility."
They spent a few hours working on getting him to turn invisible and back on command, both in human and ghost forms. Danny had mostly gotten the hang of becoming visible again in human form, but for some reason he was having trouble becoming invisible voluntarily – not that that stopped him from turning invisible at random moments.
"Dangit, not again," Danny sighed when his ghost sense went off as they approached his house. He determinedly ignored it, until they opened the door and a rush of boxes flew out.
"BEWARE! I AM THE BOX GHOST! MASTER OF ALL CORRUGATED CARDBOARD! HOLLOW CUBICAL OBJECTS, AND PACKAGING MATERIALS!"
"Finally! A proper ghost attack!" Danny sighed, pleased. "Even if the ghost is lame! Going ghost!"
"I am not lame! I AM THE BOX GHOST! FEAR ME!" Boxes hurled themselves at them. They were easy enough to dodge.
"What's that?!"
"Is something happening at the Fentons?!"
Sam threw a horrified look down the street, "Crud, people are coming! Get inside!"
They hurried into the house, shutting the door behind them.
"Time to go into the ghost zone, boxy!" Danny yelled. He flew at the Box Ghost, but a large box knocked him back. "Ow." His voice was slightly muffled by the enormous box on his head.
"That was lame," Sam rolled her eyes.
"You okay, man?" Tucker raised an eyebrow.
"My pride isn't," Danny shoved the box off his head. "Okay, note to self: Dodge," Danny took to the air again. True to his word, he actually dodged the onslaught of boxes this time, punching the Box Ghost through the wall. "Haha! Take that!"
"Is it me, or is he having too much fun with this?" Tucker exchanged a look with Sam.
"Hello! I've spent the last like three days with my ghost sense going off and not being able to do anything about it! Hello misplaced aggression!" Danny called. He phased through the wall, finding the Box Ghost wailing about the destruction of one of his boxes. Before the Box Ghost could react, Danny knocked him through the portal.
Danny landed back on the ground, stumbling slightly from his bad landing.
"Danny! Are you in here!"
"Oh crud, Jazz!" Danny squeaked, too panicked to control himself properly. "Change back, change back, change back... Come on, change back!"
To his relief, a second before Jazz came down the stairs, the now-familiar flash of light indicated he had returned to a human form.
"Jazz, there's really no need to-"
"Y-yeah Jazz."
Sam and Tucker were babbling, trying to slow Jazz down. Danny put his most innocent look on his face, "What's up Jazz?"
"I want to talk to you. Alone," Jazz said, scowling. "As in, without your friends here."
"R-right, we'll be going then," Sam said. She seized Tucker's wrist, "Come on Tuck, we're out of here."
"Yeah."
Danny scowled at them as they left, "Oh thanks!"
Jazz stepped in Danny's line of sight, arms crossed.
"Danny, where did you go off to? Didn't you have homework?"
"Uh.. yeah... but I... did it already," Danny lied. "I was at the park with Sam and Tucker."
"Again? You've been locking yourself up in your room with them and going to the park with them moer than usual ever since the accident."
"The accident was only like a week ago," Danny reminded her. "I always hang out with Sam and Tucker."
"But usually you're going out to the movies or the amusement park or the arcade. You guys shouldn't be cooped up in your room all the time, you guys need fresh air."
"We've been going to the park," Danny reminded her. "Not that it's any of your business."
"Yeah, a section with no other people," Jazz said accusingly. "I didn't ever expect this of you, Danny... But puberty can change a lot of things. Are you doing drugs?"
"What?! No!"
"Alcohol?" Jazz prompted.
"Look Jazz. It doesn't concern you, and no, none of us do anything like that, Jazz. You should know that, if you're really as brilliant as you claim," Danny said angrily enough to mask most of the hurt that his sister thought he was a delinquent.
"Well, I didn't really think so," Jazz admitted. "But it is a typical teen thing for your age group, especially with the stress of having weirdos for parents. Plus, a near-death experience like the accident might trigger something."
"I'm fine Jazz, really," Danny insisted. "No drugs, no drinking. We're all totally emotionally stable... aside from our lack of popularity."
"Alright, I'll let it go, for now... But something is up with you. You're hiding something, I can tell," Jazz insisted. "And I will find out what it is." She stalked off. Danny watched her go, feeling guilty.
'I shouldn't feel guilty,' Danny tried to tell himself. 'I mean, Jazz is always butting in on my life, and who knows what she'll do if she finds out I'm half ghost... she probably won't even believe me even if I told her.'
Somehow, that almost hurt more than her thinking he was a delinquent.
A/N: THIS IS THE UPDATED, NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION OF CHAPTER TEN! FEAR ME!
Hopefully this version is a bit better. If something is still bugging you, let me know in a review or PM and I'll try to fix it. I don't really have time to properly edit stuff, so...
Also, I have watched Mystery Meat so many times now, to make sure I get minute details right... Also... The Prisoners of Love date of May 9th. TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE! I don't know where they pulled that from, but Danny's fourteen for most if not all of the show and that episode is before Fright Night.
Thanks for the reviews!