SETTLING

Summary: Dani's not good at it, but she tries. A tad AU

When Dani found herself back at the Fenton's, fidgeting nervously under Danny's surprised gaze, she said that she wanted to try being a teenager for once. "You know," she started, "like going to school and hanging out at arcades and stuff."

So after a rather stilted conversation with his parents, Danny managed to get her enrolled into Casper High as the freshman Annie Fenton. Long lost cousin, you know. She was fine with it, the name having stuck better than 'Dani with an I'. It was Tucker's idea and his reasoning still made her laugh.

"Well, she's a she, isn't she?" she remembered him say with a shrug. "So take off the D to match."

Annie – and she was getting used to that surprisingly quick – had laughed herself sick after she got the joke, even while Danny cringed and Sam looked about ready to punch Tucker. She was ever grateful that she could call this group her friends.

But, of course...

It only took her a week to be bored of it. Why did I think school was a good idea? She'd been made to be perfect, so she'd known lots of things when she was 'born' because Vlad had programed it into her. After he stopped being a douche, much later, he'd helped tutor her. So, Annie didn't really need to be in school...

She just thought a bit of normality and stability would be good for her. Oh, was she wrong.

Annie sat at her desk, left arm laying mostly flat on the surface with that hand holding up her head, and absently spun a pencil between the fingers of her right. She wasn't paying the slightest amount of attention to Mr Lancers lecture, focusing instead on how fast she could make the pencil go. Faster and faster, until it was a yellow blur–

The pencil flew out of her hand, clattering to the floor. All sound stopped. Then...

"Ms Fenton!" Mr Lancer exclaimed, appalled. Annie sat up straight, fixing an apologetic look onto her face. From the look Mr Lancer was giving her, it worked about as well as it did for Danny.

Annie had also thought, though she didn't tell anyone, that by going to school, she'd get to spend more time with her 'cousin'. Not only were they in different grades, but she only rarely saw him at lunch because of ghosts and bullies and a whole host of other things. He wasn't even around to pass notes to!

School wasn't supposed to be this boring, was it?

"Are you listening to me, Ms Fenton?" Mr Lancer said suddenly and Annie jolted, startled. That was all the answer he needed and the teacher sighed. "Detention, Ms Fenton."

Annie silently groaned. Just what she needed.

"Maybe you can learn something from your cousin. Although, given he's sharing your detention..." Mr Lancer muttered as he turned away and Annie lit up with a grin once he wasn't looking.

Maybe she could pass notes to Danny.

A/N: Credit where it's due, the name comes from chapter 22 of Shots in the Dark by HappyLeif. Quote was rephrased.
The AU factor comes from the events of Phantom Planet: here, Vlad wasn't stuck in space and the whole event managed to fix some of the loose screws in his head, so he tried acting like a sort of dad for Annie the few times she dropped by. Other than that, I guess you should know that I haven't seen the show in a while, so I'm a bit wonky on the details of this series heh.