The last chapter. I feel so happy/thankful/relived/excited!
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or other relating characters.
Chapter Twenty Six: The Power Is In The Play
3 Months Later
Danny paced around, muttering to himself. "Frailty, thy name is woman." He flipped the page to his manuscript and continued muttering.
Other students around him were scurrying, moving props, practicing scenes together, or running to get changed.
Danny stepped out of the way of a clothing rack as it came rolling past him.
"Danny-boy!" Dan approached Danny.
"Hey, Dan. Dani's back there." Danny pointed to a door with a star on it without looking up from his manuscript. He already knew what Dan was here for.
Dan walked up to the door and opened it before it hit Danny. He stopped short of his mutterings to warn Dan of the oncoming danger. "No, wait! Dan, that's-"
Too late. Dan had already opened the door.
A series of high-pitched scream ensued as several pairs of heeled shoes came flying at Dan's head. The elder ghost abruptly closed the door, causing the shoes to hit the back of it instead of his face.
"…the girl's changing room." Danny finished his sentence with a snicker.
"Thank you for telling me before I opened the door." The annoyance in Dan's voice was unmistakable.
Footsteps approached the door from the other side of the changing room. "Dan! What are you doing?" Dani's voice asked.
"Sorry, I didn't know and someone didn't bother to tell me." Dan glared at Danny.
The door opened as Dani stepped out wearing an olden-style pink dress. "The girls inside are talking about how much of a pervert you are." She giggled.
Dan rolled his eyes and Danny joined into the female halfa's laughter.
"Where are you sitting?" Dani asked.
"I'm in the left section, a few rows down from the front of the stage. Vlad and Ghostwriter are with me too, so we're hard to miss." Dan drew the curtain back a sliver from the side to show her.
Dani squinted her eyes as she tried to see through the small opening. "Is Vlad holding a video camera?"
"Yeah. He said he wants to preserve his Little Badger's moment of fame."
Danny let out a frustrated sigh. "That's just great. I bet my parents are filming this too." Running a hand through his hair, he looked through the sliver. Sure enough, his mother was holding a video camera of her own. He drew his head back and turned to Dani. "Is Sam still getting ready?"
"I think so. Do you want me to call her?" She asked with a devilish smile.
"That would be great."
Dani did as she said she would. She called her. "SAM! YOU'RE BOYFRIEND IS WAITING FOR YOU!"
Danny cringed. He was sure the entire audience had heard that. Though, a little bit of pride did swell inside him at the words. He no longer had to deny that the two of them were in a relationship. Yes indeed, he had a girlfriend!
A girlfriend! And here he thought he would be spending most of high school single with Tucker.
"Just a minute!" Sam called from inside the dressing room.
"All right people!" Lancer clapped his hands loudly to get everyone's attention. "Fifteen minutes until show time! Let's do a good job out there!"
"Break a leg!" Dan slapped Danny rather painfully on the back.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming. The students have spent the past few months working very hard on staging this performance. We hope you enjoy the show. Without further ado, on behalf of the student body, I give you: Hamlet!"
Applause filled the auditorium as the curtains parted.
Dash stood in front of a gate, pacing back and forth. "Who's there?" he called.
Kwan walked forward from the right side of the stage. "Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself."
"Long live the king!" Dash adjusted the cap he was wearing as it was falling over his eyes.
"Bernardo?" Kwan asked.
"He."
"You come most carefully upon your hour." Kwan walked up to Dash in order to 'exchange posts'.
"'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco."
Tucker approached Danny, who was sitting in a nearby chair. "'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father: But, you must know, your father lost a father; That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound In filial obligation for some term To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever In obstinate condolement is a course Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief; It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, An understanding simple and unschool'd: For what we know must be and is as common As any the most vulgar thing to sense, Why should we in our peevish opposition Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven, A fault against the dead, a fault to nature, To reason most absurd: whose common theme Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried, From the first corse till he that died to-day, 'This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth This unprevailing woe, and think of us As of a father: for let the world take note, You are the most immediate to our throne; And with no less nobility of love Than that which dearest father bears his son, Do I impart toward you. For your intent In going back to school in Wittenberg, It is most retrograde to our desire: And we beseech you, bend you to remain Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye, Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son." He let out a small sigh of relief. He thought for sure he would have forgotten at least half of the lines in that monologue.
Valerie crouched down on the other side of the chair. "Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:
I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg."
"I shall in all my best obey you, madam." Danny felt his face turn red as he saw Vlad and Ghostwriter wave to him.
Danny took a deep breath as his solo came on.
"I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king
and queen moult no feather. I have of late—but wherefore I know not-lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame…" Danny panicked and looked around. He couldn't remember his lines!
The stage lights seemed a lot brighter now. Was it just him, or was the room getting warmer?
He searched around panicking when he saw Dani hold up a sign from behind the stage. It was his line!
"…the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to
me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling
you seem to say so."
Ghostwriter could be heard cheering very loudly over the next lines of the play.
Danny tried his best to shrink off the stage in embarrassment.
"What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho!" Valerie backed away from Danny.
"What, ho! help, help, help!" Sam placed a hand on the sheath of her sword.
Danny turned towards the curtain from which the noise originated from. "How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!" He pulled out his own sword and made multiple stabbing motions at the curtain.
Sam rolled out from underneath with fake blood smeared on the front of her costume. "O, I am slain!"
Nathan crouched down in front of a crazed looking Dani. "A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted."
Dani held up a purple flower to Nathan, "There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue
for you; and here's some for me: we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with a difference. There's a daisy: I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father
died: they say he made a good end,-" She paused a moment before singing.
"And will he not come again? And will he not come again? No, no, he is dead: Go to thy death-bed:
He never will come again. His beard was as white as snow, All flaxen was his poll: He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan: God ha' mercy on his soul! And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' ye." Dani lowered her head and pretended to fall unconscious as the stage lights went out.
"Let four captains Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage; For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have proved most royally: and, for his passage, The soldiers' music and the rites of war
Speak loudly for him. Take up the bodies: such a sight as this Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot." The student held his place until the curtains finally closed.
There was a wild round of applause as the curtains came back up and every cast member was lined up. They all linked hands and took a bow.
Mr. Lancer took the microphone once more. "Weren't they great? Before we close up the night, let's give an extra hand to our star, Danny Fenton!"
Danny felt himself being pushed forward. He gave a small embarrassed bow before returning to his friends.
"We thank you all for coming. Have a good night."
"Danny, you were great."
"Thanks, mom." Danny rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment at his mother's praise. This night had way too much embarrassment for him to handle. He was just glad it was over.
"You're mother's right. We're real proud of you, son." Jack gave Danny a pat on the back.
Danny smiled. "I need to go change out of this costume. I'll find you guys when I'm done."
Danny pushed through the crowd, trying to make his way to the backstage area. A hand on his shoulder stopped him in his tracks.
"Well done, Little Badger." Vlad had the camera on Danny's face, still filming.
Jack must have followed Danny (or seen Vlad), because he somehow appeared next to Vlad. "Right, Vladdie my man! Wasn't my boy great?"
"Yes, Daniel was spectacular." Vlad clearly refusing to refer to Danny as Jack's son.
As Vlad continued pretending to be interested in whatever Jack was saying, he didn't notice Dani push her way behind him.
"Yoink!" She pulled the video camera out of Vlad's hand and made a run for it.
"Danielle, be careful with that!" Vlad called to her retreating form.
Dani ran off giggling. She had the camera, she might as well try and film something. She searched for Sam, finally spotting her outside of the auditorium.
"Hi, Sam!"
Sam waved to the camera. "Hey, Dani. Where did you get that from?"
"I stole it from Vlad." Dani shifted the focus of the camera, trying to clear up the blurriness around her subject's face. "Show us your sword, you know, give us a little demonstration!"
Sam pulled her plastic sword out and began swinging it at random passersbiers.
Dani filmed for a few minutes before turning the camera off.
"Oh yeah! Dan was looking for you." Sam scanned the crowd from the doors. "He's somewhere."
"Thanks. I'll have no problem finding him now!" Dani waved and returned to the frenzy of parents. With a sigh, she began pushing through the throngs of adults.
"Excuse me. Pardon me. Excuse me." She droned mindlessly as she wiggled her way through. She tried to push her way through a rather large adult, but found herself unable to.
Maybe he hadn't heard her. "Excuse me!" She announced loudly.
The man gave her a glance before returning to his conversation with a group of parents.
Frustrated, Dani did the only logical thing in such a situation. She turned her hand intangible and phased the man's belt off his pants.
The man's face turned beet red as his pants fell off for no apparent reason. He quickly pulled his pants up and made a mad dash for the bathroom.
Dani laughed quietly to herself, examining her prize before throwing it into the nearest garbage can.
Soft applause came from behind her. "Bravo. I couldn't have done it any better had I been doing it myself." Dan playfully tugged at her hair, which had been placed into a braid for the occasion.
Ghostwriter settled for patting her on the top of her head.
Dani childishly stuck her tongue at him. "He had it coming." She turned on the camera, pointing the lens at Ghostwriter. "So, how do you think Danny did?"
"He did amazing! When I think about it, why wouldn't he? I was the one who helped him get into character. Perfection was inevitable." Ghostwriter almost puffed his chest out in pride.
"Full of yourself, aren't you?"
"Perhaps I am." He winked at the camera.
Dani pulled the curtain back and slipped through, still filming all the while.
"Danny, there you are! So, did you have fun?" She has spent quite a while trying to find the star of the night. It seemed like he didn't want to be filmed, or photographed, or anything else that would eventually remind him of this night.
"No!" Danny turned his back to the camera, crossing his arms over his chest in aggravation. "I've spent the past half hour hiding from Vlad because of this. He's trying to get a picture of me! Do you know how hard it is to hide from a guy who can walk through solid walls?"
Sam came up from behind Danny and wrapped her arms around his chest. "Admit it, you enjoyed this." She took hold of the camera lens and turned it to her face. "He had fun. He's just too stubborn to admit it!"
"Here." Dani handed the camera to Sam. She walked in front of her brother and spun him around, forcing him to face the camera. "Admit it! Come on, Danny. Admit it!"
"No! You guys are making me do all this unnecessary work."
"Awwww!" Dani let the long wine-like sound drawl from her mouth. "It's okay, I still love you." She pulled Danny's head closer and placed a kiss on his cheek.
Danny gave a sigh of defeat. "Fine, fine. I had a little bit of fun."
"The Silence Of The Lambs! Please quiet down for a moment!" Mr. Lancer held his hands up, trying to get the student's attention. He had actually been standing there for the past ten minutes, but no one had taken notice of the exceptionally dull (and out of shape) teacher.
When he finally had their silence, Mr. Lancer continued. "Good job out there. Please return costumes to their proper racks, without the students still inside them preferably." He looked to Kwan, who was just about to hang Nathan upside down on a coat rack.
The teens cheered as the Packers managed to fumble a touchdown.
Everyone was sprawled out in the living room of Dan's condo. Some on the couch, the floor, even seated on the coffee table. Well, they were on the coffee table. Dan didn't like that too much, so he kicked them off.
Vlad was sitting on the floor, leaning against the base of the couch.
Danny was next to him on the couch, upside down.
Vlad had recorded the game on his TiVo because it overlapped with the time of Daniel's play, but how he ended up here was still beyond him.
After spending a good twenty minutes chasing Danielle around for his video camera, he somehow got pulled into the teens plans to sneak out.
Dan would let them use his condo for such purposes as long as the cleaned up before they left. It shocked everyone to see how orderly Dan could be when it came to his stuff.
Digression aside, Vlad had continuously turned down the teens offer. Really now, what could he possibly do with a group of teenagers that would constitute as 'fun' to both parties?
He finally relented when Danny brought up the prospect of watching the game they missed. Sure, he could have watched it at home on his ninety inch plasma screen, but how could he give an opportunity to spend some father-son bonding time with his Little Badger?
So here he was! Surrounded by a bunch of teenagers who cheered the loss of his favorite team.
"They are still in the lead." Vlad pointed out to the cheering teens.
"For now." Danny gave him an upside down smirk, from his place on the couch.
Vlad tousled his hair with a smile of his own.
Dan sat in the quiet calm of his own room.
He wasn't too interested in the game, and could tell who was winning by who was cheering louder. Vlad cheering? Packers were in the lead. Teens cheering? They were losing.
Dan suddenly snapped his book shut as he felt another presence in the room. "What do you want, Clockwork?"
Clockwork gently drifted out of the dark corner of the room. "Is that anyway to greet an old friend?"
"I think 'friend' is a bit of an overstatement, don't you agree?" Dan's tone hardened. "Enough. What did you really come here for?"
"Just a little check up. Danielle is also in my charge now, but I digress."
Dan continued glaring at the time master. "I'll as you once more. Why are you here?"
"Just making sure you aren't tearing the city to pieces. It is your-"
"I know, I know." Dan cut him off. "It's my second chance. Don't worry; I'm not going to waste it."
The End
OH THANK GOD, IT'S FINALLY OVER!
Don't worry, I'm not satisfied with the ending either, but if I write anymore it might dip into the next story.
I want to give a special thanks to my two most dedicated reviewers. DanPOWER and Lani's Tamer-chi. I wouldn't have been able to do it without you guys!
Now, I know what you're thinking. "Hanajima, there are so many loose ends!" You can thank Lani's Tamer-chi for this one, for there is going to be a sequel.
The sequel will be called 'Frozen Air'.
It will be released on February 8th, 2011.
So, if you're lazy, you can just add me to your alert list and it will update you.
In the sequel, everyone will be older and Dani will be in a mature relationship with Dan. The story will still be T, but said relationship will be implied. I won't be holding back, so you have been warned.
Thank you all for sticking with me to the end.
Review Please; It is the last chapter after all. No seriously, review!