Chapter Twenty-Five
Oh, Sweet Niblets
Tuesday morning. Masters Mansion. Danny's room. 7:30 AM.
Danny awoke pretty early that morning, actually. It felt as if he'd gotten more than enough hours of rest. Vlad wasn't even up yet when Danny finished getting ready for school. So now he sat there on his bed, tying his shoe laces….
….and struggling with it. He didn't know why but every time he was sure he'd tied the correct knot, the shoe laces fell untied. He nearly screamed in frustration once, stopping himself in the nick of time. He didn't want to wake Vlad. He let go of the shoe strings, hoping they'd stay in place but as soon as he began to feel satisfied, they fell apart. Again. He stomped one foot then fell backwards onto his bed, glaring at the ceiling. "What the heck is wrong with these things?!" he exclaimed quietly as he sat right back up.
He held his head in his hands as he tried to clam himself down. "This reeks," he grumbled, staring at the shoe laces. He didn't know why he just couldn't get the knot right…maybe it was because he was so nervous. He didn't know, but the minute he woke up he just felt so anxious to get going to school. That was the only reason he actually got out of bed instead of just lying there for a few minutes like he usually did.
Sighing at his thoughts, Danny breathed in deeply and then let out the air in a rush. He looked at the laces and picked on end up in each hand. Slowly, and quietly, he repeated a little tune whilst bringing the laces around in loops until a bow had been formed. "…then pull," he murmured and pulled at the two loops. He let go carefully, afraid it'd fall apart again, then slowly stood up. To his surprise (and great joy) the knots stayed. "Alright!" he exclaimed, then grabbed his backpack, a piece of paper with his handwriting on the bedside-table, and raced out his room, almost crashing into the opposing wall when he tried to skid to a stop to turn onto the stairs.
He grabbed the banister and slid down, climbing off at the last minute before he REALLY hurt himself. He ran into the kitchen, grabbed an apple, dropped the piece of paper next to the coffee machine and raced back outside to the door, backpack slung on one shoulder. "Hey, Tracy!" he shouted at the dark-skinned woman dressed in a mail-person uniform with curly black hair. The woman looked up as she opened the mailbox on the outside of the front gate of the mansion. She smiled.
"Hey, kid," she said.
"Any mail for me?" Danny asked, running up next to her and staring at all the envelope sin her hand.
"Lemme check," she murmured, searching through. "Uh, yes, actually, there's one right here. Addressed to Mr. Daniel J. Fenton from a Miss Gray." She handed him the neat envelope with a smile that said "oooo!" all on its own. Danny grinned.
"Alright!" he said and thanked her before going on his way. He'd catch the school bus today. He really didn't feel like going through the trouble of showing up in a black limo again. Besides, this oughtta be fun. The bus, form what he'd seen, wasn't usually as full as the Casper High bus back home.
He frowned as he ran to the nearest school bus stop.
He grasped the envelope in his hand tighter as he thought this. He looked at the lowly gray envelope and let the backpack strap fall into the crook of his elbow as he stuffed the letter carefully into the largest pocket. At that very moment, the bus showed up in all it's orange-yellow glory. He smiled at the bus driver as he climbed on and then chose the nearest empty seat, staring out the window as the bus started up again.
Home…
School.
The bus ride to school was pretty slow, filled with shouting and whispering and talking students who seemed to just really want to get on Danny's nerves. A couple of girls cooed at him and sat behind him, touching his hair from behind him. He ended up moving to sit next to a boy with large round glasses. The girls giggled and pointed, but eventually quieted down. Danny stared on as the boy next to him seemed to be finishing up on some last minute reading in I know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
"It's a good book," Danny remarked, then looked away before the boy could respond. When they finally arrived at the school, Danny was relieved to climb off the bus. He stepped off onto the sidewalk, only to have the school quarterback, Jake, pushed past him with his posse of large jocks. Danny cursed beneath his breath and tugged at the purple backpack strap more before going on his way into the school to locker No. 742.
He sighed as he made his way into the halls. For some odd reason, though, everywhere he went, everyone stared at him. I mean, not like he wasn't used to occasional stare but this…..this was different. All the anxiousness form that morning showed up again, making his heart pound like the time when he was trying to keep Pariah in the coffin and he thought he wouldn't be able to do it. The type of tension tha5t was so thick is nearly choked him. But he kept his cool, walking through the halls without giving the whisperers a second glance. He made it to his locker alright, actually, and had already started turning the lock to the second number of his combination when a couple of large shadows were cats about him. His hand sort of froze on the dial. His eyes slowly shifted to his right, almost dreadfully so. The minute he saw Jake followed by two other angry-looking jocks, he cursed and swore beneath his breath as much as he possibly could before Jake grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him off the ground.
"What the-whoa!" Danny shouted, kicking his feet. "Hey! Put me down!" Around them a crowd began to gather and shouts and cheers sounded.
"Who do you think you are, Nobody?" Jake growled, staring at the struggling Danny.
"This "nobody" has a name!" Danny snarled back, having to try hard to keep his eyes blue. He glanced around at the crowd now formed all around them. They punched fists in the air, shouted for Jake's victory, booed Danny….it all started to blur into just one big blob of motion of different shades of color.
Jake slamming his back against the lockers snapped him back to reality. He winced, pain racing up form where his back had connected with the protruding combination lock. He stared wearily at Jake. "Brace yourself, new-kid," Jake warned, bringing his fist back and getting ready to knock the living daylights out of Danny.
"Oh shit…"
"Four years you think for sure
That's all you've got to endure
All the total dicks
All the stuck up chicks
So superficial, so immature
Then when you graduate
You take a look around and you say HEY WAIT
This is the same as where I just came from
I thought it was over
Aw that's just great..."
E/N: Song "High School Never Ends" by Bowling for Soup :D
--Airamé Phantom