Chapter 11

Danny checked the directions on his phone as he skated down the street, weaving through the people milling around on a Sunday afternoon. He had slept in, by accident since he failed to hear his alarm go off, but another nightmare ended up waking him. His body had sank halfway through the bed at some point during the night, making him glad he slept with the door shut. The idea of needing to learn control over his powers felt all the more important when he imagined accidentally turning intangible in front of someone and dropping halfway through the floor.

The map on his phone showed he had reached his destination, and Danny put his foot down on the ground to stop his skateboard. Lifting his gaze from his phone, he tugged out an ear bud as he stared at the building before him. His phone slipped from his hand, and he fumbled to catch it before it hit the ground. His parents wouldn't be pleased if he broke his phone. Sam's family was among the wealthiest families in Amity Park, and Danny had grown used to seeing her mansion of a house after multiple visits. Elle's house looked more like a castle. Just who was Elle anyway? Since she attended the benefit, Danny knew her family was wealthy, but the large home made of white stone held such a regal impression. Was that a turret? He could imagine a princess trapped up there, like Rapunzel waiting to let down her long hair. His gaze darted around like he expected a dragon to come charging out and eat him before he could approach the front door.

Danny stuffed his phone and ear buds into his pockets then bent over to pick up his skateboard. A bad feeling settled over him as he passed through the front gates and walked down the long drive to the front door. Elle could probably afford the top tutors in every field of study. Why she want him to teach her? Maybe he should have convinced Jazz to come along with him so she could take over when he completely failed.

With a sigh, Danny raked his hand through his hair, trying to get the unruly raven locks into some semblance of order. After he rang the doorbell, he shoved his hands into his pockets with his skateboard tucked under one arm and waited. The minutes ticked by, and Danny thought he probably should have called ahead of time after all. Then the door opened. A short woman in a well fitted pantsuit greeted him with a flat expression. She had dark eyes behind her thick glasses, and they glared at Danny like he was a speck of unwanted dirt upon a floor she had just spent an hour waxing.

"Um," Danny said and gulped, his throat feeling much too dry, "I'm here to see Elle. She, uh," he shifted his weight nervously, "told me to drop by anytime over the weekend."

Her gaze flicked over him, and Danny had that same feeling every time Harold turned his nose up at him. Then she stepped aside, holding the door open for him. "I warn you now," she said with a slight narrowing of her eyes, "steal anything from this house and you will regret it."

Did he really give off some sort of thief vibe? Or did the rich just always assume the poor were looking for opportunities to steal from them? "I'm not going to take anything."

The woman didn't seem to believe him. She turned on her heel with a humph and began walking toward the stairs with the instruction, "Follow me."

Danny's eyebrows lifted as he noted the front hall of the house. The carpet leading up the stairs was a dark green with golden trim. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling. When he glanced to the sides, he saw glass display cases mounted onto the walls. The cases held pennant banners of green and gold, jerseys, posters of teams, and even a football that looked like it might be signed.

Ah, Danny thought with a nod of understanding. A Packers fan. Danny could imagine his father getting along with whomever owned all that paraphernalia since his father was also a big Packers fan.

The woman led him up the stairs and down a hall, and the house seemed to have more rooms than anyone could possibly need unless the family had about a hundred live in servants. As they neared the end of the hall, the loud beat of a bass boomed from behind one of the doors. The woman sighed in exasperation, probably not for the first time dealing with the obnoxious noise. She stopped in front of the door and knocked sharply three times. The music shut off after a moment. Then Danny heard a rustle before the door was yanked open.

With a scowl on her face, Elle appeared, looking somewhat disheveled with her ebony hair pulled back into a sloppy ponytail. A spaghetti strap on her white top slipped down one shoulder, and the black leggings she wore looked like something she might work out in and perhaps that was exactly what she was doing before he interrupted her. Her eyes lit up immediately when she spotted Danny standing behind the woman, and a smile stretched across her face.

"You came! I was beginning to think maybe this weekend wasn't a good time for you after all," Elle said as she opened the door wider, revealing more of her room. While the rest of the house was clean and orderly, Elle's room looked like it was struck by a tornado. Clothes littered the floor and bed, which was a complete mess. Books and magazines were tossed about with no order. His parents would never let him leave the house if he left his room in such a state.

"Something came up yesterday," Danny explained with a shrug of one shoulder. "But today was clear."

"Great!" Elle grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him into her room. "I'm in desperate need of some help. Thanks for bringing him up, Carmina."

"Ah, but Miss-" Carmina's protest was cut off when Elle closed the door on her.

"Servants aren't allowed to come in without my permission," Elle explained with a bright smile as she strolled over then dropped onto the foot of her bed. Her king sized, four poster bed. "So she can't come in here and bother us."

Danny lifted an eyebrow as he moved farther into the room. "And that's not going to be any problem with your parents? Having an older man, alone, in your room?"

Elle shrugged, kicking her feet lightly. "I can deal with my father. And anyway," she sent him a cheeky smirk, "you're not exactly my type."

Danny's mouth pursed slightly, feeling mildly insulted by her comment. Though he couldn't say she was exactly his type either, it still stung to have it stated so bluntly. "So where do you want to start?" His gaze drifted around the room, taking in the full extent of the messiness. It could have looked like the room of a princess with the delicately crafted white vanity and fancy molding on the ceiling if it weren't for everything thrown about haphazardly. Elle had tons of music posters slapped upon the wall in a chaotic mess, some hanging at odd angles and covering each other. He spotted a Dumpty Humpty poster, like the one hanging on the wall in his own room.

One poster stuck out to him, and he thought it must be the newest one to her collection because it was on top of a bunch of other posters. It showed a woman with alabaster skin posing with a purple guitar. Her hair was pulled back in a high ponytail and the bright blue of it matched with the flames decorating her guitar. Dark makeup lined her green eyes with black lines curling down from the corners of her eyes.

Elle must have followed his gaze because she said, "Oh, you like it? That's Ember. She has about one more strike before the principal gets fed up and expels her from our school. She has a band that's been trying to hit it big. Sometimes we jam together."

"Jam together?" Danny repeated, blinking in surprise at Elle.

"Yeah!" Elle wore a big grin, but it twisted into an unpleasant expression. "My dad wants me to take over his company one day." She made a gagging motion, opening her mouth and sticking a finger into it. "No thanks!" She hopped onto her bed and struck a pose. One arms shot into the air reaching for the ceiling. Her other hand curled like she held some invisible object, and she lifted it close to her mouth. "I wanna rock! Have a sea of people out before me, cheering me on as I sing." She sighed as she dropped her hand, her body seeming to deflate. "But my dad thinks it's too unstable a career path and I should think about something more stable and secure."

Danny could understand the disappointment of having people tell him he should consider a different job than the one he had dreamed about since he was little. For as long as he could remember, becoming an astronaut was all he ever wanted. He went to space camp, he read up on everything he could find about space exploration, but with such a small chance of actually being chosen to become an astronaut, his dream seemed virtually impossible to achieve. It hurt like a knife digging into his heart. It was worse than the feeling of being zapped a million times by bolts of electricity to have a dream constantly out of his reach.

"Well, your dad doesn't know everything," Danny said with a shrug. "Maybe you will make it big. Five years from now, I could be buying your album and telling everyone around me that I met you before you became famous."

"Maybe I should give you my autograph now then," Elle said with a laugh as she jumped down from the bed. "First autograph. That's gotta sell big."

"Who said I would sell it?" Danny smirked. "But on the off chance things don't work out, wouldn't it be good to have a backup career in mind?"

"And I suppose you have a backup career in mind for yourself?"

"Actually, I-" Danny groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. "I'm sounding like my sister. How did that happen? I'm not supposed to be the one talking about responsibility and preparing for the future."

Elle patted him on the back, but the comfort was ruined by her laughing. "Okay. We should get started. I was thinking, thirty dollars an hour would be a fair payment."

Danny's mouth dropped open, but he stopped himself from complaining. He had the feeling this tutoring arrangement wouldn't last for long, and if her house looked like a castle, thirty dollars an hour probably seemed like chump change to her. "If you think that's an appropriate amount." He tried to keep from sounding overly excited about the money.

"Great! Then if that's decided, let's get to work." Elle grabbed her books and tablet then dropped onto the floor, spreading them around her. Her desk was completely covered with magazines and CDs, hardly the best place for her to try to get some studying done. The floor, at least, had some open space where they could work without being crowded by the mess in the room.

Danny didn't mind the floor, sitting down across from Elle as she opened one thick textbook to her homework. He looked over the different units she was working on in her various classes. Business wasn't something he knew a lot about, the same holding true for economics. While he got shoved into physics, not his favorite, he knew chemistry far better, and the units Elle was studying were ones he knew quite a bit about already. Computer science, though Tucker was a lot better at it, and engineering were right up his alley. He even spotted an astrophysics book buried among the rest and lifted his eyebrow at it.

"You take all of these?" Danny's mind boggled at the idea of taking all those classes at once.

"My dad is very insistent that I learn everything I need to know so I can take over the business when I'm older." Elle sighed tiredly with misery written clearly on her face. She didn't want to take any of these classes or even run her father's company in the future. Danny's parents encouraged him to pursue whatever career he wanted, one that would make him happy. He couldn't imagine the pressure of being forced into a career he would hate.

They talked about some stuff while Danny tried to help her understand everything for her homework. Elle showed interest when he talked about space, but Danny managed to stop himself with heat creeping onto his cheeks when he realized he was rambling. Then he considered the idea that Elle wasn't interested in space at all but thought getting him to talk about it would distract him from the tutoring. After that, he paid more attention to keep the conversation from being sidetracked away from Elle's assignments for school.

When he heard a loud growl, Danny flushed darkly with embarrassment. "Ah," he tried to think of something to say while Elle bit her lip to hold back a snicker.

"Come on." Elle stood, grabbing hold of his hands to drag Danny to his feet. "I think I can convince Sasha to fix us a snack, but we'll have to eat downstairs." Her expression turned rather serious as she said, "No food upstairs. None. Zilch. Nada. You take food upstairs and I'll take my wooden spoon to that derriere of yours."

Danny chuckled at her impersonation, and Elle grinned impishly, like she broke that rule more than once in the past. He picked up the tablet then followed her out of the room. As they walked down to the kitchen, he flipped through Elle's work on the tablet, going over the homework she had done under his tutoring.

"Hm, you've miscalculated the answer on this one," Danny said, pointing out the answer he meant on the tablet as he showed it to her.

Elle groaned. "Equations!" She threw up her hands in exasperation. "I don't understand how you speed through them like they're nothing. I have to spend about an hour on each one."

"The speed doesn't matter." Danny shook his head as they walked into the kitchen from where a delicious aroma wafted. "If you rush, you're more likely to make mistakes. It's more important to take your time and work through it carefully." He laughed to himself, rubbing his forehead. He couldn't believe he was sounding so much like Jazz.

"But it's just so long and boring." Elle sighed dramatically then her attention shifted to the woman working at the stove. "Sasha!" She skipped over and hugged the short, stout cook.

Sasha turned her head, giving Elle a firm stare. "You want something."

"Just some snacks." Elle smiled innocently. "All this studying sure works up an appetite."

Sasha's mouth stretched into a wide, flat line across her frog like face. "Go sit in the front room. I'll bring something out in a few minutes."

"We can continue working on your homework." Danny grinned, holding up the tablet with a little wave.

"I regret asking you to be my tutor already." Elle scowled at him, but it didn't hold any venom. She was joking, but Danny knew she didn't enjoy hours of homework anymore than he did.

They left the kitchen and entered the front room off to the right of the hall. Danny almost feared sitting down on the nice white couch because seeing the fancy furniture looking like it could have come straight from a royal castle made him feel like he was covered in dirt and grime and unworthy to even glance at it, let alone touch it. He couldn't imagine growing up in a place like this where there were so much expensive furniture and breakable antiques. He sat down gingerly on the couch and handed the tablet over to Elle.

A few minutes later, Sasha entered the room with a platter of finger sandwiches cut into perfect little triangles with the crust cut off. Danny reached out and picked one up after the cook had left the room. It had some sort of creamy paste spread between the two slices of bread, and he couldn't quite pick out the flavoring but found it delicious anyway.

"Is that right?" Elle's brow creased thickly in concentration as she turned around the tablet to show Danny her work.

Danny took the tablet to look over her work. With his focus on the equations, he missed hearing the creak of the front door opening. Or the footsteps in the front hall until someone cleared their throat. He lifted his gaze to the doorway, and the tablet nearly fell from his grasp. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open as he stared at the man in his fancy suit with his silvery hair tied neatly back in a ponytail.

"Snacking when we're about to have dinner?" The man frowned in disapproval, and it took Danny a moment to realize the man was actually talking to Elle and not him. Danny snapped his head around toward Elle, who was staring down at the half eaten sandwich in her hand. The look on her face said another pound of disappointing her father was thrown onto her shoulders.

"It was just a snack," Elle mumbled. "We were studying since one. We got hungry."

"Studying?" repeated the man, sounding like he didn't quite believe it. Then his gaze turned onto Danny, who sat up straighter under the scrutinizing blue eyes. "And you are?"

Danny swallowed, forcing down the lump in his throat. He almost forgot his name after realizing he was in the home of the Vlad Masters, president of Axion Labs. As Mr. Masters lifted his eyebrows, Danny realized he was looking ridiculous in front possibly the richest man in Amity Park, next to Sam's parents. They were sort of neck and neck on being richest.

"Danny," he finally managed to say in a voice that didn't completely crack like he was still going through puberty. "Danny Fenton."

Mr. Masters' brow creased slightly before a smile cut across his face. "Will you be staying for dinner, Daniel?"

Danny resisted the urge to shudder. He hated when people called him Daniel. It always gave him the feeling of being in trouble. "Ah, no, Sir. I should probably be heading home soon."

"Are you certain? We have plenty of room, and it wouldn't be hard for our chef to prepare an extra plate."

It was really tempting to stay. Why wouldn't he want to share a meal with Vlad Masters? It would give him the chance to pick the man's brain! He could ask about the space exploration projects he missed out on seeing because the tour of Axion Labs was cut short for him. "Well-"

"Dad, don't be embarrassing!" Elle complained, her cheeks turning rosy pink. "He's probably expected at home to have dinner with his family."

Mr. Masters frowned at his daughter, and Danny suffered another moment of utter disbelief. The news never mentioned much about the billionaire having a daughter, but perhaps Mr. Masters liked to keep that information quiet for the sake of keeping his daughter out of the media spotlight. Danny could understand why Mr. Masters would want to do that. It couldn't be easy for Elle being the daughter of such a famous billionaire. Sam had tried to keep her family's fortune secret from him and Tucker when they were younger, but it was impossible to hide her family's identity from them forever.

"I'm sorry." Mr. Masters didn't sound sorry at all. "Have I interrupted something? Am I ruining your date?"

"It's not a date!" Elle argued, and her cheeks darkened. Danny could feel his own face warm with a blush. "He's my tutor! I met him at that benefit the Mansons held. Since he was so good at solving the equations, I thought he would be a good teacher."

Mr. Masters turned his gaze onto Danny, and one eyebrow arched upward curiously. "Oh? And has he taught you anything? I would hate to waste money on another tutor only to see your grades haven't improved at all."

"Ugh! Dad!" Elle puffed out her cheeks like a child pouting when she didn't get her way. "Yes! He's helped me a lot. I actually feel like I understood half of what he said. Unlike the others who were better off talking Greek since I couldn't stand anything they said."

"Uh, maybe I should just," Danny interrupted awkwardly, "go now. It's getting pretty late after all. My parents would want me home before dinner."

"Ah, yes." Mr. Masters nodded. "We shouldn't keep you then. How much do we owe for taking up your time?"

"Well, we agree to thirty dollars an hour, and we started around one." Danny glanced at his watch. "So for five hours, that would be a hundred and fifty dollars."

Mr. Masters pulled the money out of his wallet and handed it over to Danny, who almost couldn't believe the man carried so much money on him.

"I'll text you about our next tutoring session," Elle said, walking him toward the door. Danny didn't miss that her father remained standing the hall, watching them with his sharp dark blue eyes.

"Okay," Danny said with a jerky nod as he stepped out onto the front step. "I'll see you later then." Elle nodded agreement, and they waved before Danny turned down the long drive to the front gate. He dropped his gaze to the money in his hand as he walked. Maybe he would be able to pay for that dry cleaning bill after all. He frowned. But would Valerie try to milk more out of him if he simply paid her off? With a tired sigh, he stuffed the money into his pocket.

kirahphantom: I need to buckle down and get more writing done! XD;; I feel like I've gotten rather sluggish in writing each day.

Tetractys: I'm having lots of fun writing them together. XD

midnight: Poor Danny. XD He really needs to get a hang of his powers. And learn how to change his appearance when he's Phantom. XD;;

The freedom girl: Well, there will be plenty of people for Danny to fight in the future. XD;; There should have been more sibling fluff in the series~