A/N: This chapter starts the time Danny got picked up from school. On with the chapter! I don't own 'SOS' by Good Charlotte. This is the other song that inspired this story.
Chapter Eleven
My Dissection
"I've been stranded here and I'm miles away
Making signals hoping they'd save me
I lock myself inside these walls
'Cause out there I'm always wrong
I don't think I'm gonna make it
So while I'm sitting here
On the eve of my defeat
I'll write this letter and hope it saves me..."
Danny got out the limo that picked him up from school, and climbed the steps of the porch to the door. He opened it, then immediately put a hand over his mouth and nose. "Ugh!" he shouted. He noticed Vlad sitting on the couch. He walked over to him. Vlad looked tired, exhausted, and every other synonym I can't remember. "What is that smell? Smoke?"
"Lab," Vlad answered simply. "A simple explosion. I couldn't see a thing with all the smoke. The smell has yet to leave."
Danny looked at Vlad. "How long have you been working in the lab?" he asked, genuinely confused and concerned. He hadn't thought he could ever feel concerned about Vlad. The man had taken him in, he had to be grateful.
"Not long," Vlad said.
"What caused the explosion?" Danny asked.
"It's of no importance," Vlad said. He was hiding something, Danny could tell. Something happened that Vlad didn't want to tell him about, but what? "By the way, Daniel, this came for you in the mail." Vlad reached over to a white envelope sitting on the coffee table in front of him and held it out towards Danny. Danny hesitated. The handwriting on the front of the envelope looked painfully familiar. He took the letter, ahdn trembling with fear of who it may be from.
"From Val?" he asked, vocie quiet, barely a whisper. He'd thought he'd left his past behind. But ehre it was again, hitting him in the face again. He had wanted to move far away from Amity Park, ebcause out there, everything always went wrong. He was always wrong. Now here he was, in Madison, Wisconsin, about to break the lock and open the door back into the world he'd hoped to escape.
"Seems so," Vlad said, analyzing the boy's reaction with great interest.
Danny stood rooted to his spot, not answering. "I'll be upsatirs," he said then, swiftly moving across the floor to the stairs. "I won't be coming down for dinner either. Lost my apetite for anything." Vlad said no more, only watched as Danny disappeared upstairs and into the hall to his room. He sighed. Maybe he should tell him...maybe he shouldn't.
Danny opened the door to his room and went to sit down on his computer chair. He didn't open the letter yet, only stared at the envelope. What would Valerie possibly have written in the letter? And why did it seem as if the letter gave him such grief he thought it was Valerie's own sadness? He'd been a little mean to ehr the last time they talked, he would be ashamed of himself if she were to write something so painfully kind to him when he didn't deserve it.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened the letter, tearing the side of the envelope. He opened his eyes andtook out the paper, sliding it out carefully, as if afraid to damage Valerie's very words. Setting the envelope on the desk in front of him, he looked at th folded letter. Did he really want to read it? A part of him told him he must. But another told him he didn't want to. His fingers finally opened the letter, reading the first few lines.
Dear Danny,
Hey, it's me, Valerie. I guess you probably weren't expecting this, but I haven't heard from you in awhile. I miss you, I guess. It hasn't been the same at shcool without you. You probably just want us to leave you alone so you can try to start over again in Madison, but even I need someone to talk to some times. Besides, we've had a lot of changes going on since you left. Hope you liek what a few students, your classmates, wrote.
Danny's eyes widened. He hadn't noticed that the space left on the paper was adorned by many different styles of writing. He saw a few names he knew immediately, others he hadn't heard of since middle school.He saw a message from Dash, Kwan, Paulina, Mikey and Star.But each message was almost the same. Dash wrote about how much he missed wailing on him everday, big whoop. Paulina and Star wrote about how awkward things ahd gotten over the past few days since he left. Even Kwan ahd something to say. He wrote about how the A-list was falling apart from not having anything to talk about during lunch. He also wrote on how a couple of monuments were being built to remember his family and friends, and Lancer. Another thing he caught was that Kwan stated that they were rebuilding the Nasty Burger, in hopes of bringing back some normailty to the city.
Danny ignored that and continued on to read the notes from some of his teacher. Every single one was almost the same. They told him to not let anything interfere with his studies, and that they were sorry for what happened. Maybe it wasn't so abd having someone to talk to. Even if they were from his past. He sighed. He felt compelled to write back.
Grabbing his backpack, he pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen and began to write.
Next day. Wednesday. School. Danny yawned. He was sitting in first period science, hoping to get this over-with soon. The teacher was explaining to them about the digestive system of a cat. They were to dissect one soon enough. She'd asked him about a dozen times already if he was up to it. He'd merely nodded and let her continue with her lesson. It was only ten minutes into class, and Ms. Russell had already covered every detail.
"Okay," she said, finally finished with everything she had to explain. She looked out at the class. Everyone was wearing a black dissection apron, and had a scalpel, pincers, and pins on their desks along with a pair of goggles for each student. They were suited up looking like, as Ms. Russell would say, super scientists. "Are you sure you're up to this, Danny?' she asked again.
"Yes," he said, rubbing his eyes. She nodded and went back into the storage part of the room where the carcasses were located. All the students looked towards that way to see the bodies. Danny didn't stir. How could they be so excited about opening an innocent animal? The teacher had told them time and time again that these particular animals were raised for dissection and were killed for that reason, but it disgusted him still. Then again, he didn't want to be the only squeamish kid in the class. Besides, he wasn't squeamish at all, he just didn't like to know that that animals life had been taken just for their bodies to be dissected. It felt wrong to him.
Then, a sickening smell was wafted over to him. He made a face and turned to see the teacher carrying a bucket with liquid inside and the bodies inside as well. "Alright," she said. "Remember, don't take your goggles or your gloves off, else I'll kick you out and no dissection for you ever again. As Super Scientist, you have a job to fulfill. Treat these animals with respect."
As the teacher came by to Danny's group, composed of unfortunately Tania and a boy named Steven, the teacher took the tongs and picked up the small, cat carcass from inside the bucket and, after letting the foul-smelling liquid drip into the bucket, placed it on their dissection plate. Danny made a face and wanted to hold his nose, but he didn't want to. He'd dissected before, what was the big deal now?
The teacher walked on by to the next group of three, one composed of Dulce, Pablo, and Junior, Danny looked over at his group members. Tania was looking at the cat, probably wishing she weren't there. Steven, meanwhile, looked a little overjoyed by dissection. Tania had warned him not to pop out any internal organs. Danny could only imagine why.
The teacher stood back at the front of the room and began to explain how they would cut the cat open. Only now, looking at the cat carefully, did Danny notice it was skinned. He took a deep, sickening breath and held it down while Steven made the cuts. The room was beginning to smell worst, and Danny found that his goggled were starting to fog up. Tania looked at him, as if waiting to see an equally disgusted face on his face, but found something else. Danny's teeth were clenched, and he wouldn't look at the carcass.
It's just an innocent animal, the thought had crossed his mind before but he hadn't known why. He also now realized that it wasn't his own thought. It was Sam's. It was her voice too. And before, with Jennifer, when he'd thought she reminded him of Jazz, he realized that in his mind he kept telling himself that Jazz should be talking to him, not her. Then, something happened.
"I can't do this," he whispered, and without further ado, he tore off the apron that adorned his body and three it to one side, breaking into a run to the outside of the room. He tossed his goggles down on the way too. Tania froze, Steven did too. And in the next group, Dulce was wondering what everyone else was. "What happened?" Ms. Russell said.
"He just ran out," Tania said. "He said he couldn't do it."
"But," Ms. Russell stopped and sighed.
"I'll go after him," Tania volunteered.
"No, I will," Dulce stated. "You can't run off from dissection. Your grades forbid it."
Tania looked at Dulce. She'd already started taking off her apron at a pace that only emphasized how serious she was. She folded it, then placed her goggles on top once it was.
"Both of you go," Ms. Russell said. "Tania, you're excused from dissection. Make sure he doesn't leave campus, and get him over here. I'm gonna have to talk with him."
Both girls nodded and went on their way, Tania taking off her goggles and apron on her way out the classroom.
Outside, there was no sight of Fenton. Dulce looked right, looked left, spotted nothing. "We'll split up," she said. "The school is big, he could be anywhere and getting farther away."
"Okay, I'll take the lower stories," Tania said, thinking that the lower stories would be the most reasonable places for him to have gone. Dulce nodded with no objection.
"Alright," she said. "If you find him, just take him to class. We'll meet here intwenty minutes."
Without another word, both girls made their way to opposite directions of the hall, Dulce to the left, Tania to the right. At this rate, they'd find him soon enough.
E/N: Rolling Stone, believe it or not, thanks for your review. I was planning to write this chapter mostly about Danny, actually. Hope you liked it. You don't have any idea what'll happen next! Oh, Rolling Stone, is there any way I can talk to you without having to put it ehre? An E-mail address?
--Airamé Phantom
