Chapter 12
"This whole cousin-in-law thing is working out better than I imagined," Danny admitted after they left the building that housed his last class before what he considered to be his lunch break.
"This is why the little details are so important with a cover story," Valerie said as her green eyes swept around the campus. They hadn't run into any trouble since that morning when Spike came to harass him, but she was always alert, all part of being a bodyguard. "If we were trying to make things up on the fly, we'd risk getting caught a lot easier."
Danny nodded his agreement. He kept the things he told Dash earlier about his theories on the Badger filed away in his memory in case he ever had to repeat them. One thing about having secret identities was constantly having to remember what lies were told to cover it up. He hoped Phantom would resurface soon so that he didn't have to keep up with the lies for too long. No one seemed to suspect anything yet, but that didn't mean they wouldn't sooner or later.
"Are you sure you don't mind?" Valerie question, turning back to him with her brow creasing just slightly with worry lines. "I don't have to go into the classes if you don't want me to."
The corner of his mouth tugged upward as Danny shook his head. "It's fine." After his first class, his next teacher bumped into him just before he entered the classroom and questioned Valerie's presence. When Danny finished the explanation, his teacher encouraged Valerie to sit in and see how she liked the class. "You can think of it as coming to college without having to pay or do any of the work." He chuckled. "And if the class bores you, you don't have to pay attention and you won't get in trouble for it."
"I have to admit the class on paranormal studies was pretty interesting." Valerie smirked as she nudged him with her elbow. "I shouldn't have expected any less from the son of the Fenton's."
Danny flushed, scratching awkwardly at the back of his head. "I guess it sort of runs in my blood. My sister always hated it though. If ghosts weren't all around us all the time," he stopped to let the ghost of a small girl dart past them as she chased after some ghost butterflies, "my sister would probably be in denial that they even exist. She ran off to New York as soon as she graduated to continue studying psychology."
"Do your parents ever go overboard praising you for following in their footsteps?"
Danny shrugged as they headed toward the cafeteria. "I guess. I mean, they really like that I'm studying the paranormal, and they always want to discuss stuff with me when I go home. But I guess it's just always been like that so I don't really find it so overburdening. When I was younger, I always thought they were pretty embarrassing, but not so much now."
"Are your parents as crazy as people say?" Valerie flushed lightly as she turned her gaze away when Danny's expression soured. "It's just people say they're really obsessed with ghosts, and on television, they never really look all that competent." She winced as she spoke.
"They do tend to get pretty overenthusiastic," Danny agreed with a sigh that felt like it drained most of his energy. He pulled open the door to the cafeteria and held it open for her. "But they're a lot more skilled than they appear, and they always have new ideas for inventions to help protect people from the more violent ghosts. Unfortunately, some people use them on completely innocent ghosts that aren't bugging anyone."
"Just point them out to me." Valerie slammed one fist into her other hand and cracked her knuckles, and Danny had to grin. After seeing how she dealt with Spike, Danny knew she could teach those bullies of ghosts a few lessons.
"I hope you're not suggesting violence on the university's campus."
Danny froze when he heard the man's voice, and even Valerie winced. "Uh, hi, Mr. Lancer." He smiled up at his teacher, hoping the man wasn't about to give him a stern, and long, talking to about using violence against bullies.
Lancer nodded in greeting as he stared down his nose at his student. "I appreciate that you've always stood up for the protection of ghosts on campus, but I do hope you realize that answering bullies with violence might only make you a target for harassment too."
"I know, Sir. We're not going to go out searching for bullies to beat up or anything." Danny gulped when Lancer nodded in that slow manner with a look in his green eyes that said he would be watching to make sure they didn't get into trouble.
"You've yet to introduce us." Lancer's gaze broke away from Danny to glance toward the woman standing next to him.
"Oh!" Danny ducked his head briefly in embarrassment for forgetting to make introductions. "This is Mr. Lancer. He teaches literature here. Quite easily one of my favorite teachers."
"Flatter won't improve your grades," Lancer said, eying Danny as he held out his hand to Valerie.
"Valerie Gray," she greeted as she shook his hand. "Danny's new cousin-in-law. My father recently married his aunt."
Danny felt a nervous laugh bubbling up in him when Lancer glanced his way, but he squashed it down. "It was really sudden. My aunt didn't even tell us about it until Valerie turned up here."
"I was pretty shocked when I came back from Paris and discovered I had a new step-mother," Valerie added. "But they seem pretty happy together. So I thought it was best if I actually get back to my education after getting lost exploring Europe for a while. Visiting my new cousin-in-law," she hugged an arm around Danny's shoulder as she grinned, "seemed like the best way to get started on that."
"I see," Lancer said slowly, and Danny felt sweat on the back of his neck, fearing that his teacher may have figured out their back story was all a lie. "Well, I hope you won't provide too much of a distraction for Mr. Fenton during class. Otherwise, you're welcome to sit in if you like. I'll see you in class." He nodded his head to Danny before walking past them to leave the cafeteria with his lunch bagged up.
"That went well," Valerie said, leading the way to the counter.
"I don't know," Danny mumbled uncertainly. "He might have figured it out and didn't want to make a thing of it in public."
"You're sounding paranoid, you know?" Valerie laughed at him as they waited in the short line.
"Not that paranoid. He figured out, um," Danny glanced around at all the people in the cafeteria, "the other thing," he finished lamely. He didn't want to mention it by name where he might be overheard, but Valerie would know what he meant.
"And I thought you were clever at keeping it secret." Valerie faked disappointment as she shook her head.
When they reached the front of the line, Danny allowed Valerie to order her lunch first before putting in his own order. He started to pay, but Valerie had the money out faster and handed it over to the man behind the counter with a polite smile on her face. He thought about arguing but decided against it. Why not enjoy this free ride of not having to worry about ever last cent he had being wasted to pay for rent and for food? It was nice to relax and not worry about money. Once they had their food, they left the cafeteria.
"I guess it's time you meet my friends," Danny said as a wash of nervousness came over him. He wasn't sure how well they could keep the charade up in front of his friends. Sam and Tucker weren't as easy to fool as some of his teachers. "By the way, I should probably mention that they're dating. But they're trying to keep it secret from me. My guess is that they don't want me feeling like the third wheel so they figure it's best not to say anything and we can keep pretending like we're still the same old friends." Danny shrugged. "They think I haven't noticed, but they're kind of obvious about it to me, so I haven't bothered telling that I know."
"Just how many secrets can one man keep?" Valerie questioned, eying him with a certain amount of wonder. "You should really work on not keeping so many. Secrets have a way of catching up to you one day, you know."
"I do worry about that." Danny winced. "It keeps me up at night. I just stare at the ceiling in the dark thinking one of these days everyone is going to find out all the secrets I've been keeping and my world is going to crumble down around me." He stared wistfully up at the sky as they headed for the spot where he usually met Sam and Tucker.
"So overdramatic!" Valerie gave him a shove, rolling her green eyes as if his playacting annoyed her, but her mouth tugged into a grin of amusement.
"You can't really blame me for some of the secrets I have to keep though," Danny said after a chuckle. "I'd rather not get mobbed by people if they knew I'm the voice behind you know who." His blue eyes darted around quickly, but most of the students they passed weren't paying much attention to them. "And I've promised to ensure no one discovers that I'm filling in for a certain someone that's decided to play hooky for a while."
"I understand having to keep those ones." Valerie nodded, but her expression turned worried as her mouth curved downward. "Though you should probably tell your friends you know about them at some point so they don't have to keep worrying about you finding out one day or how you'll react to them sneaking around behind your back."
"I suppose you have a point there." Danny sighed tiredly. He knew eventually they'd have to break the illusion that nothing had changed in their friendship, especially if one day Sam and Tucker decided to get married and start a family. He glanced over to Valerie and frowned. "You're worried about him, aren't you?"
"I wish he would at least tell me where he is so I know he's all right," Valerie admitted. "If he just wanted some time off, he could have talked to Vlad first before staging this whole runaway thing. Vlad's a pretty reasonable man. He might seem like a workaholic that's basically married to his job, but he does care for his clients. If," her gaze darted about quickly, and she lowered her voice, "Phantom really wanted to take a break, Vlad would have given him the time off. Or at the very least spaced out the scheduled appearances to give him more down time. He may be a ghost, but that doesn't make him immune to the pressure and stress of a taxing work schedule."
Danny frowned, seeing just how worried Valerie was about Phantom. He wasn't simply a job for her. He was a dear friend. "I guess the only way we'll ever know what was going on in his head is to ask him when he finally turns up again." He reached over with his free hand and gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze.
"Danny!"
He looked over when he heard his name called and spotted Tucker waving his arm wildly to get his friend's attention. Danny rolled his eyes since Tucker greeted him that way every time they met for lunch. Leading the way over to where his friends sat on a blanket that Sam no doubt brought with her, Danny joined them at their usual spot with Valerie sitting down near him.
"So," Tucker said, grinning as his green eyes slipped sideways toward Valerie, "who's your new friend? I don't think I've seen her around campus before. And I happen to know every girl on campus." He leaned back with a smug grin as he glanced more fully toward Valerie, who narrowed her green eyes back at him.
"You might want to watch it, Tuck," Danny said, catching the glare from Sam. "You're going to make someone pretty angry with you later."
"Huh?" Tucker blinked in confusion at him while Sam turned her gaze to glare at the sky as if she were angry with the bright sunlight. Danny heard a noise beside him, but Valerie covered up her laugh with a cough.
Danny shook his head, holding back a chuckle of his own. "Anyway," he said as he tore open the bag with his lunch in it, "this is Valerie." He popped the top off the container with his turkey sandwich in it as Valerie gave a wave, holding a plastic fork for her salad in her hand. "She just arrived Saturday evening. My aunt married her dad, and she's here to check out our wonderful institution." He grinned, and it probably looked rather cheesy. "The great thing about this arrangement is, I get to share an apartment with her that her dad is so generously paying for so I don't have to put up with Spike anymore."
"Dude!" Tucker gaped at him with a bit of hurt in his expression. "Why didn't you ever tell us your aunt got married?"
"She didn't exactly tell us about it either." Danny rolled his eyes before taking a bite of his sandwich. After swallowing the mouthful, he added, "It happened pretty recently. I think they sort of eloped so that they could get it done quickly and not bother with the whole huge thing with a big wedding."
"I'm Sam," she introduced, holding out her hand to the other woman. "And I apologize for anything stupid these two idiots might say or do around you."
Valerie laughed, putting down her roast beef sandwich to shake Sam's hand. "Valerie. And I wouldn't worry about that." She smirked. "I can take care of myself around idiot guys."
"Trust me. She can." Danny glared at Tucker. "So you better not do anything stupid."
"What do you think I'm going to do?" Tucker gasped as if he were wounded by those words.
"Just warning you," Danny said simply as he twisted off the cap of his water bottle. "If she can throw Spike over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, you'll be like flicking away a fly."
"Really?" Sam's brow lifted with curiosity. "Maybe you should show me a few things. It's always good to know how to take care of myself if annoying," she glared pointedly at Tucker, "pests ever bother me and can't take the hint."
"Sure!" Valerie seemed happy to help. "I did suggest showing Danny a few things too. You know, to deal with obnoxious roommates." She grinned and patted him on the shoulder when Danny frowned at her. "We can use Mr. Charm Master over there for practice." She nodded her head toward Tucker, who paled at the suggestion.
Danny grinned as they all chatted while they ate their lunches. Relief washed over him, and he didn't even realize until then how nervous he was about Valerie meeting his friends and the potential disaster it could have turned into if Valerie and his friends didn't get along. A few times during lunch, Danny thought he caught Sam's eye, and she was staring at him with some suspicion, but her gaze always snapped away much quicker than he could read her. Pushing that out of his mind, he decided to simply enjoy his lunch and the time to sit and relax with his friends.
The Magnetic Witch: Is that to say it's cheesy? XD;;;
NikaStarlight: I swear he's coming! I might do some time skipping over some of Danny's appearances as Phantom. XD;;;
midnight: Sometimes Danny doesn't learn? XD;; Danny, you don't have ghost powers. You don't get to mouth off to bullies.
Inisfree: At least she's getting some of the experience while hanging around Danny? D: But yeah, it's kind of sad being that dedicated to her job while she's still so young. Spike felt like a loose end that needed to be addressed. XD;; He wasn't going to be happy when he woke up to find Danny had moved out without a word to him.
XD: Thanks! =) Valerie's so badass. 8) Haha, some are taking it well. Then others are kind of staring with suspicion and not quite believing the tale. XD;; Skulker's suit would probably really help. XD;; I think his natural form looks froggish? Like if he were to squat down, he'd resemble a frog. It's funny because in canon, I was always like "that makes no sense." And now writing it, I'm like "Skulker and Ember make total sense!" XD;; Sparkly auras! XD Can you imagine when Phantom turns on the charm and smiles at his female fans and there's an actual sparkle? XD I look forward to read your reviews! =D
Guest: Why can't Danny really exist like that? D8 I don't know that Danielle will appear yet? I haven't thought of a reason for her to be included in the story.
vampireharry the 2: Thanks! =) Hopefully I'll have more soon!
