Hiya!
HA! I survived! I can't believe it. Honestly, I thought I'd just keel over at some point during exam week. I pulled a two-nighter for my property exam and afterwards I was staggering around in a drugged stupor wondering how the grass got so green and linking that to the purpose of life on Earth. It was definitely very weird.
So here we go! For everyone emerging out of self-induced isolation in tiny cubicles tucked away in the deepest recesses between the dimly lit library stacks and blinking sun-starved eyes—an extra long update! (These chapters keep getting longer. It's not intentional, really :P)
Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.
Oh yeah! And if you guys need a refresher of the events, I'd suggest checking back to chapter 18… ;)
Enjoy!
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The Soul Sepulchre
-By Sholay
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Chapter 29 — Monday Morning Murder
"Danny! Dude, where are you? We're going to be late for school!"
Tucker's urgent yell startled Danny and he scrambled to catch his phone as it slipped in his fingers. Stuffing it into his pocket, he jogged out of his room.
"There you are! We've been waiting for ages!" Tucker exclaimed from the open doorway as Danny jumped the last three steps to the ground. "What did you do—fall asleep up there?"
"Nah," In spite of the sombre mood that had taken him in his room, Danny found it surprisingly easy to unwind around his best friend. He grinned easily, revelling in the light feeling. "My phone was just giving me some issues."
Tucker shrugged as the boys made their way down the driveway to Jazz's cherry convertible. "Whatever. We might still be on time to avoid a late. But you're probably on a stricter schedule than me."
Danny squinted in annoyance as he opened the front door to his sister's car—deftly ignoring her annoyed 'Where were you?'—and let Tucker get into the back before taking a seat next to her. "That's right," he groaned. "I have in-class suspension all this week and detention for the next month… Hey, what do you think Lancer'll do about me skipping class on Friday? Can he assign me a double detention?" He directed his last question toward Jazz, who simply shrugged as she started up the car and pulled out of the driveway.
"Hey wait a sec…" Tucker poked Danny from the back seat. "You skipped Friday? Wasn't that your first day off suspension?"
"It was…" Danny twisted around as far as he could in his seat and he looked at Tucker and Sam. "But I couldn't waste time going to school while you guys were kidnapped could I? I went to Clockwork for help. Jazz skipped too, she covered for all of us." Jazz looked at him in surprise.
"You knew?"
He sent her a crooked grin.
"What happened in the museum?" Sam spoke up suddenly. Danny and Tucker stared at her, even Jazz took a moment to study her in the rearview mirror. The girl had been uncharacteristically silent for the entire morning. In fact, this was the first time she'd spoken to anyone except Danny since waking up.
"Sam… you sure you're okay?" Danny asked in concern, but his attempts to catch her eye were foiled by her averted gaze and the long stands of hair flapping around his face.
"Fine." Sam answered shortly. And then her eyes rose and she folded her arms. "But I want to know what happened in that museum when you came to find us."
"Actually… I kinda want to know too…" Tucker, who was rummaging through his backpack, looked up to Danny with a somewhat apologetic eye.
Danny sighed, running a hand through his hair and then using it to hold his long bangs back from his eyes. "Look, guys, now's not exactly the best time to talk about that, but… Hey Tuck, what's that?" His eyes had locked onto the papers Tucker was riffling through.
Tucker looked down, then frowned. "Oh this? These are the maps I printed off of the tunnels under the museum—" Before he could get another word out, Danny had snatched the papers right out of his hand and swung back forward in his seat.
Facing forward in the car, Tucker and Sam could not see the look of shock on Danny's face as he skimmed the plans so clearly laid out before him. The edges of the papers fanned in the wind and he clutched them tightly. He bent over them, protecting them from the wind as he flipped through them and studied the diagrams.
In red, Tucker had circled the Anthropology room where Danny had first fought Legion. Stapled beneath that was the corresponding layout of the underground tunnels.
It was all right there, and as he looked at it he could clearly see the layout—his mind superimposing his memory of the winding twisting maze onto the map in his hands. Now that he saw the map he could see: it wasn't a maze. At least, not like he's first thought. His finger trailed between two thick lines drawn on the paper and in his mind he could see a never-ending hallway of brick with walls that towered over him, narrowly illuminated under his headlamp, dust motes heavy in the air. A few labels on the map stuck out: 'Whale Bone Room'—that one made the pink scars on his torso itch—and 'Soul Sepulchre'. The Soul Sepulchre was the room where he'd seen Legion pacing around Youngblood with the thousand robed figures chanting—he was almost certain. It was the biggest room on the map and the biggest room in his memory. That had to be it.
Just holding the map in his hand gave Danny some confidence. If he'd only had it when he'd broke in… it might have saved him so much time and anxiety during his aimless, haphazard search…
Instead, it had been sitting in Tucker's backpack, getting cold under the backseat of Jazz's car.
"Did you know about this?" He held the papers up in one hand, tone coloured with accusation as he looked at Jazz.
Even a quick glance to the side was able to tell Jazz about the scale and complexity of the maps in Danny's hand. "No… I didn't know." She denied. "I'm sorry Danny. If I had known I would have definitely told you… you had to navigate those tunnels blind, didn't you? And—" She remembered the creature that had wrapped its thick hand around her brother's neck—that had bit him. And she shuddered. "Were you chased the entire way?"
"Chased?" Tucker and Sam were both leaning forward, listening in on the conversation. But if they were expecting Danny to elaborate, they were disappointed. He remained silent as Casper High came into view.
"We're here." He stated the obvious as Jazz turned into the parking lot and quickly found a spot to stop the car. People were still streaming in through the front doors, it seemed they'd still somehow managed to arrive early, and Danny was relieved: he really didn't need any more trouble.
He hopped out of the car and pulled the seat forward to let Sam and Tucker out, but before he could join his friends in walking toward the school, Jazz called him over.
"Yeah?" He asked, hands stuffed into his pockets as he shifted impatiently.
Jazz propped her backpack against the side of her car and used one knee to steady it as she drew out a blue plastic folder. From this, she slipped out a small square of paper that she silently handed to Danny.
One glance at the paper had Danny's eyebrows shooting up. It read, in a flowing cursive:
'Dear Mr. Lancer,
Please excuse Danny, Sam and Tucker for their absence on Friday, April 25. They were sick with the stomach flu.
Sincerely,'
And below that was signed Madeline Fenton in tall loops.
"Jazz, not that I don't appreciate the gesture," He, after all, could never hope to copy their mother's signature so convincingly. "But you were Lancer's star pupil; don't you think he'll recognize your handwriting?"
Jazz waved him off. "Don't worry. I'd print for in class essays and tests. I don't think Mr. Lancer has ever seen my cursive."
"It looks just like Mom's signature." Danny held the note close to his eyes and examined it critically under the sunlight before slanting a look on his sister. "When'd you get so good at forgery?"
Jazz forced a laugh, then slung her bag on her shoulder before starting toward the school at a brisk clip. Danny jogged after her. She offered him no response and he was forced to drop the point as they entered Casper High.
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It hadn't been noticeable while he'd been outside, but the moment he stepped through the doors and into Casper High it became impossible to ignore.
People were staring at him. They tracked him with their eyes through the halls, whispering behind raised hands and staring. When Danny turned to return the looks, he was met by a wall of feigned indifference as people looked away, pretending to be absorbed in the contents of their lockers or conversations with their friends. Then, the moment he turned back around, the stares resumed. And he felt them. The stares burned into the back of his neck and the whispers buzzed around his head like mosquitoes.
"What's going on?" He hissed to Jazz from the corner of his mouth. "Why's everyone looking at me?" Under normal circumstances, he might have been pleased with his sudden popularity, but this was too sudden and unexpected… not to mention plain creepy. People weren't looking at him in respect or interest; they were hedging around him like he was some feral animal.
One guy, Mikey the nerd, bumped shoulders with Danny as he walked by. Then, seeing whom he'd hit, raised both hands in surrender, babbling out a pathetic excuse before practically running away.
Danny stared after the fleeing boy, then turned his eyes on Jazz. His expression was a clear 'what the hell?'.
"Oh, Danny," She sighed, looking down at him sympathetically. "You know how after—"
"Jasmine?"
Danny was left in the dark as Jazz cut herself off, glancing up in surprise at the man who'd addressed her.
"Mr. Khosa!" Jazz exclaimed and Danny turned to look. He'd heard of Mr. Khosa. The man taught the only introduction to psychology course offered at Casper and was one of Jazz's favourite teachers. This was the man whose rhetoric Jazz came home spewing everyday as she tried to psychoanalyze Danny. He was a tall, dark haired and dark-eyed with a shadow of a beard around his mouth. He was casually dressed in jeans and a royal purple shirt that was rolled up to his elbows. He didn't seem like the kind of person who'd teach psychology.
That is—his canines didn't ooze venom like Spectra's.
What caught Danny's eye though, was the rather grim expression on the man's face. He had the look of someone about to deliver bad news.
"Jasmine, can I speak with you for a moment?" Mr. Khosa gestured vaguely down the hall and Jazz nodded eagerly.
"Of course, sir! Danny… I'm sorry. Just, don't pay attention to them, ok? Just ignore it for now and I'm sure it'll all blow over in a few days." If Jazz's words were meant to reassure, they didn't work.
"Very good, follow me Jasmine." As Mr. Khosa ushered Jazz away, his eyes fell on Danny and they locked gazes.
It was an odd few seconds that Danny spent under the eyes of his sister's teacher. The man sized him up, seemed to be analysing him, and Danny could've sworn there was some familiarity there. In a moment he realized what seemed out of place: this teacher knew who he was. Danny had no idea how this was possible—unless Jazz had talked about him, which was unlikely—he couldn't even recall seeing this man walking around the halls of Casper.
That meant that whatever rumours were floating around school about him had reached even the teachers.
"Good to meet you, Mr. Fenton. I've heard… interesting things." And with that, Mr. Khosa walked away, Jazz hurrying at his heels after sending Danny one last apologetic look.
'Great. Just great.' Danny rubbed at his eyes. 'Even the teachers I don't know already think I'm a skeet.'
Without Jazz as his buffer, Danny felt the gazes of his classmates keenly on his back. His ears picked up some of the whispers:
"—back.'"
"Can't believe… already—."
"—fight. Beat up—"
"—suspended."
"Hanged a cat."
"—jock, with a bat."
He hurried through the halls toward his locker and it was with much relief that, as he neared, he saw Sam and Tucker waiting for him.
"Yes! Finally!" He gasped as he tossed his backpack to the ground. "Everyone's gone crazy! Are they still staring?"
Tucker cast an eye around and nodded. Danny sighed as he spun the lock on his locker. Normally he would've just reached straight through the metal door for his books, but with so many eyes studying him he was forced to do it the normal way.
"Urgh…" After the third failure, Danny gave up and slammed his forehead on the locker. "I forgot the combination."
"Oh, move over," Sam displaced him and skilfully spun the lock, opening it on the first try.
Danny gaped. "How did you—"
"Honestly! It's your own birthday backwards; I don't know how you mange to forget it." Sam rolled her eyes and smirked at Danny's flush. When a group of juniors passed by, pointing and staring at Danny, she scoffed derisively. "Look at them all. Two weeks ago, they wouldn't have given us the time of day, now everyone wants to gossip about you. They are all sheep, Danny, waiting to be herded into position by a loud voice and a stick. A lot of people only know the result, not how it really went down, but making up outrageous rumours seems to be the coolest new thing to do."
"How what went down?" Danny asked, confused
"You took down Dash, man. That's big news!" Tucker exclaimed.
"Is that what this is about?" Danny wondered, surprised. "I'm popular because I got into a fight and got suspended?"
"Instant bad boy rep," Sam confirmed. She looked amused. "Not to mention street cred for proving that you can handle yourself in a fight. You should take advantage of it while it lasts."
Danny frowned at her. "What's up with you today, anyway, Sam? I thought you didn't approve of me fighting Dash."
She lifted her shoulders, thoroughly unconcerned. "I didn't. But Dash had it coming. Besides this bad boy reputation could work in our favour."
Tucker leaned in conspiratorially. "Girls have asked me if you're single dude! Not just freshmen, but juniors!"
Danny stopped scrutinizing Sam and turned to Tucker. "Really?" He asked with childlike wonderment, eyes shining.
Sam scowled and slapped Danny's shoulder. "Snap out of it, Romeo. Those girls are only interested in the newest fad. They'll eat you up and spit you out the second Dash changes his hairstyle."
"Maybe." Danny shrugged, not disputing Sam's point. "That doesn't mean I can't take advantage while it lasts, right?"
Sam sent him a disgusted look. "That's so shallow, Danny."
The blue-eyed boy grinned at her suddenly. "There we go! Now we've got the old Sam back!"
Sam looked at him, startled, and she opened her mouth to reply.
"FENTON!"
As one, Sam, Danny and Tucker spun around. A few feet down the hall, huffing and seething, Dash snarled, his fists clenched as he glared menacingly in Danny's direction.
Every student in the near vicinity halted, heads swinging around to watch the confrontation. Danny backed up until he hit the line of lockers, fully expecting Dash to charge at him like the bull he resembled. It was the first time the hybrid had seen the burly blond in days and he couldn't help but notice that there was still a noticeable discoloration around Dash's left eye.
Dash took a threatening step forward, but was halted on both sides by Kwan and a second burly jock.
"Dash, chill man. You don't want to start something here."
"Yeah, you're already on thin ice with the coach. You don't wanna risk getting benched for the rest of the season."
Dash growled deeply, and he violently shrugged off his friends' hands before hiking his jacket back up around his shoulders. "I'm not letting you get away with this, toad. You can count on it. Your hide is mine." Raising two fingers to his eyes, Dash pointed them at Danny in the universal 'I'm watching you' gesture before stalking off with his posse.
The noise level in the corridor gradually picked back up as people moved on. Many seemed disappointed that they'd been cheated out of a fight.
Danny sagged against the lockers. "Great… now he's going to be after me even more. Like he wasn't already hunting me down between feedings. But… well, don't get me wrong, I'm glad he didn't stuff me in my locker, but I don't get it. What's he 'not going to let me get away with'? I mean, I'm the one who got suspended after our fight, he just got off with a few detentions."
"You did some damage to his reputation, I think." Tucker answered.
Sam eyed Danny. "That… and we think he blames you for his cat."
"You can't be serious! He thinks I hanged his cat?"
"Danny? Sam? Tucker?" Looking a bit frazzled and out of breath after running from who-knew-where, Valerie drew up near the trio on her way to Mr. Lancer's homeroom. "How—? When did—? You guys are ok!" She gasped.
Sam and Tucker exchanged glances before looking back at Danny. For his part, Danny was too busy wincing over the memory of his last conversation with Valerie to notice his friends' looks. Not just that, but he'd completely forgotten to check up on her post her disastrous encounter with Vlad.
'Good going Fenton. Way to be a friend.' He berated himself.
"Of course we're ok, why wouldn't we be?" Sam shot back suspiciously.
Valerie made to say something but Danny, as he gathered his wits, spoke first.
"She knows guys." He said awkwardly, a hand going to the back of his neck. "I told her."
"You told her?" Tucker gaped, alarmed. "You told her—"
"Told her what?" Sam interrupted Tucker sharply.
"I told her you guys were kidnapped by ghosts." Danny admitted, sending both Sam and Tucker significant looks. He was glad Sam had spoken before Tucker spilled an even bigger secret.
"You did?" Sam and Tucker both turned on Danny and he cringed, bringing up his hands. "Why?"
"Look—" He started.
"He was probably completely stressed out at having lost you both." Valerie interjected reasonably, sending Danny her own pointed look, which he returned with a rueful smile. "Believe me, he was a mess. When I came by his house to drop off your PDA," here she nodded at Tucker. "He was prepping to launch a one man rescue party into the ghost zone. He was pretty torn up about what to do and probably just confided in me because I was a sympathetic ear. You guys are lucky to have such a good friend."
Sam and Tucker were looking at Danny again, but this time, there was something different about their expressions.
They were doing that silent interaction thing again, much to Valerie's irritation. Tucker and Sam turned inward to face Danny, physically excluding her. Then, her eyes narrowed as she spotted the black discoloration painting Tucker's exposed cheek.
"Hey, what happened to your face?" She asked and the trio looked at her. It took a moment for Tucker to realize she was talking to him.
"Oh… uh, me?" He laughed nervously and both Danny and Sam looked at him. "Well… it was… the ghost, y'know? But, I'm surprised you noticed. You're, like, the first person to comment on it. I even passed Lancer earlier and he didn't say anything." Admittedly, Tucker had been trying to hide the mark and the teacher had looked preoccupied with something else, but still…
"That's a bruise? It's a weird shape for a bruise." Valerie said, surprised. She eyed the way the black mark snaked over his jaw and disappeared under the collar of his shirt. Tucker merely shrugged.
"And, well, it's perfectly obvious to me." Valerie continued, one corned of her mouth lifting. "You're not that much darker than me, of course I'd notice."
Danny's head tilted, somewhat thrown by the casual reference to skin colour. But Tucker seemed to take it in stride.
"Really?" Tucker grinned. "'Cuz when we met, I could've sworn—"
"Shut it." Valerie cut him off, apparently already knowing what he was going to say. Tucker laughed.
Valerie rolled her eyes and glanced back at Danny and Sam. "Are you wearing pants?" She remarked offhandedly to Sam.
Sam fidgeted in Jazz's hand-me-downs. "Obviously." Was her dry reply.
"Hey, 'm just asking." Valerie tossed up her hands. "Don't get all defensive."
Before Sam could respond, Danny stepped forward. "Val… I-I'm sorry. You're one of my friends too, you know that, right?" Valerie didn't immediately answer and he rubbed his hands together anxiously.
Above them, the warning bell rang and the four teens looked up at it in unison.
Danny turned to his two best friends. "Guys, can you go into class ahead of me? I just need to talk to Valerie for a sec."
Sam looked like she was about to protest, but Tucker rolled his eyes. "Sure, man." He turned away, pulling Sam along behind him.
Left alone in the emptying hall, Danny and Valerie looked at each other. He fidgeted uneasily while she simply watched him.
"I mean it, Valerie." Danny said at length, looking straight into her eyes. "I'm sorry for yelling at you when you came by my house. I shouldn't have gotten so upset."
Valerie considered him for a moment before relaxing. Her smile was small, but sincere. "It's okay. So Danny Fenton has a temper. It's good to know that you're not such a pushover all the time."
"Oie…" He protested half-heartedly, grinning as he, too, relaxed.
"Don't think I'm not going to get you to make it up to me though." She threatened with a raised eyebrow.
"Uh huh, right…" He matched her arched eyebrow and added a lopsided smirk.
Together, the teens walked down the nearly empty halls. Students were streaming into their homeroom classes and Danny and Valerie loitered outside Mr. Lancer's homeroom class. Students passed them and Danny felt himself flush under the numerous stares. Valerie saw his discomfort and tossed her head. "Ignore them." She stated bluntly. "Or, at the very least, enjoy the popularity while it lasts."
"Gee, thanks Val." Danny said sarcastically. "Good to know you think the only way I'll ever be popular is by beating up people. Who should I lose it with next? The wrestling team captain? You think that'll make the seniors notice me?"
Valerie probably would've been offended by his standoffish words, if he hadn't sounded so abashed. "Hey, we're going to work on that, okay? It'll only be another week before I can take this thing off and then we'll start on the sparring practice." She said encouragingly, gesturing at the sling on her left arm.
"Besides," Valerie added thoughtfully. "The seniors are already noticing you." She jerked her chin at a group of students down the hall.
The students—tall and undoubtedly twelfth-graders—stood in a huddle near a group of lockers. Sure enough, every now and again one of them would look up and gaze down in their direction. Danny caught one pair of eyes—that of a tall, lanky boy with unruly strawberry-blond curls held off his forehead by a wide sweatband—and quickly averted his gaze. That was when he noticed their jackets. Each of the seniors was wearing a jersey with the words 'Casper High Wrestling' on the back.
"Oh crud. You can't be serious." And he'd just been talking about them! Danny ducked his head, swerving around so his back was to the group of seniors. He leaned in toward Valerie as though she would protect him. "You don't think they're planning on getting revenge for Dash, do you?" This was typical. Just typical.
Valerie laughed. "Relax. The wrestling team has this ongoing blood feud thing with the football team. I don't think you'll be taking any slack from them."
"Oh…" Danny straightened and backed away from Valerie. "Sure. I knew that."
"No you didn't." She teased, carefully hiding her disappointment at their lost proximity. "You really don't know anything about Casper's hierarchy and politics, do you?"
He made a non-committal sound. "Meh. Never really bothered. I wanted to be popular at some point, but that really didn't pan out. My sister's popular and I'm invisible. These days I'm good with that."
"That's right, your sister. Jazz…" Valerie began.
Danny blinked at her. "Yeah, you've met her, remember? I introduced you while… when we were…" He fell quiet, suddenly absorbed in his fiddling fingers.
Valerie blithely evaded the reference to their brief dating episode. "Sure. But I knew her even before then. Everyone knows Jazz. She's the smartest kid in school. Even the seniors taking university credits have gone to her for 'help' on an assignment."
Danny picked up on the odd intonation. "What do you mean 'help'?"
Valerie stared at him. "You don't—?" Then, catching herself, she shook her head, adjusting her backpack and straightening her orange skirt. "Nevermind. I wanted to ask you something else."
"What?" He asked hesitantly.
"How did Sam and Tucker get rescued?" Her voice held barely restrained interest. "Was it your parents?"
Danny felt a bubble of indignation rise at the fact that Valerie didn't even consider that he might have saved Sam and Tucker on his own, but he wrestled with the emotion, pushing it back. Instead he focused the energy on trying to come up with a convincing lie. "Not my parents." He shook his head. "It was Danny Phantom. He saved them."
"Phantom?" Valerie spat, and then, probably remembering that she wasn't supposed to know the ghost personally, abruptly wiped her face clean and pasted on a vaguely curious expression. "But how'd you get a hold of him? Ghosts are pretty hard to track down, even Phantom—or so I've heard. And haven't the ghosts disappeared from Amity Park recently?"
It was a good question. Danny bit his tongue. He'd known she would ask this. He just hoped the answer he'd slapped together would have the effect he wanted.
"Vlad helped."
"Vlad?" Valerie echoed, with probably more inflection than she should have had. Over their heads, the second bell rang, but it went ignored.
"Vlad Masters. He went to college with my parents and is good friends with my Dad. You met him that one time during the ghost invasion, remember?" Danny clarified, playing along and acting as though Valerie had no idea who he was talking about. "He invents things and studies ghosts like my parents. He's the mayor. And he has a way of getting hold of some ghosts. I knew he could find Phantom if he wanted. And Phantom rescued Sam and Tucker." Everything he'd said strictly true. He was proud of his sly wording. If Valerie could see Vlad in a somewhat better lighting, maybe she wouldn't be so keen on chasing the dangerous hybrid down again in the near future.
"So… Vlad… he helped you?" Valerie asked hesitantly.
Danny gave her an ambiguous, half-smile.
"It's just… I've met Mr. Masters a few times. I know him a little." She started.
"Really?" Danny feigned surprise. "You know the mayor? How?"
"He was my Father's boss back when he was in charge of Axion Labs." She tossed her mass of curly hair. And Danny nodded in remembrance. He'd forgotten about that. "I just want to say… Don't… Don't get too close to him, ok?"
Danny looked at her curiously. "Why?" He was interested to know how she'd spin this.
"I just… I get a weird vibe off him, s'all. He's a bit smarmy and he's got too many secrets, even for an old business man." She grumbled, avoiding his eyes as she fixed with the headband on her head.
Danny was actually touched by her concern and he grinned. "Oh, don't worry. Vlad comes in handy every now and again, but he's no friend of mine. I know how to handle crazy fruitloops like him."
Valerie burst out laughing at that one. "Oh yes, I like that. 'Fruitloop'. I'll definitely be calling him that the next time I see him."
"Hey now," Danny brought up a finger and wagged it in her face. "If you can tell me to steer clear of the man then I'm going to tell you the same thing. You shouldn't go around pulling Vlad's tail if you don't have all your ducks in a row. Trust me."
"Mixing metaphors, are we?" Valerie smiled widely at him. "Are we that serious?"
"Yes, well—"
"Ms. Gray, Mr. Fenton, on your way to homeroom, I assume? I realize that arriving on time might have become a foreign concept to both of you, but when the second bell rings that is generally when we are supposed to be in class." Mr. Lancer sent the two teens a stern look.
Danny and Valerie exchanged identical wry expressions.
"Now come along, we're just about to get started." Mr. Lancer opened the door to his classroom and Valerie obediently ducked inside. But as Danny made to do the same, Mr. Lancer halted him.
"Just a moment, Mr. Fenton. I would like to have a word with you." The teacher closed the door, leaving them in the empty hallway and Danny gulped. This was the moment he'd been dreading.
"I have a note, sir." The raven-haired teen said hastily, digging into his pocket and pulling out a folded piece of paper that had gained a fair number of crinkles in it since Jazz had handed it to him barely ten minutes ago. "I was sick on Friday—so were Sam and Tucker." He added quickly. "And Jazz had to look after us 'cause Mom and Dad had work."
"Yes… Thank you Mr. Fenton. It definitely refreshing to see your absence excused by a note." Mr. Lancer scanned the note and, seemingly satisfied, tucked it into his shirt pocket. "But that's not why I asked to speak with you."
"I-It's not…" Danny trailed off warily.
"…" Mr. Lancer gazed at him and that look was so strange that it sent a thrill of anxiety through Danny. His shoulders stiffened and he leaned back unconsciously, almost as though in an effort to physically protect his secrets by curling into himself. He only just managed to stop himself from stepping backward.
"How are you doing, Mr. Fenton—Daniel?"
"I'm fine?" Danny frowned at the drop in formality.
"Are you sure? Your grades and your behaviour have been a bit erratic recently… Daniel… I am concerned that something… something serious might be going on."
Not a single excuse, explanation or smart remark made its home in Danny's blank mind. So he stuck with the only excuse ready on his tongue.
Deny. Everything.
"I-I'm sorry Mr. Lancer, but nothing's wrong." He shook his head. "I had a few bad grades but I'm working to pull those up." He couldn't quite meet his teacher's eyes as he spoke so he focused on the man's chin instead.
Mr. Lancer stared down at him, and Danny could feel the heat slowly rising in his cheeks. He wasn't sure how long they stayed like that but eventually Danny forced a cough, looking down the hall to the clock on the wall.
"Uh… Shouldn't we, uh, head into class? Homeroom's almost over…"
Mr. Lancer checked his watch, sighed. "Yes, I suppose you're right, Mr. Fenton." It seemed Mr. Lancer only used his students' first name when he was trying to interrogate them.
"But I want you to know that I will be supervising your detention this afternoon, and I would like to return to this topic."
For a fraction of a second, Danny's eyes narrowed, but he turned his head away and pretended to swipe at something in the corner of one eye to cover up his expression of frustration. Honestly—he'd only been at school for maybe twenty minutes and already people were shredding away his nerves.
Mr. Lancer opened the door to the classroom and nodded for Danny to enter ahead of him.
Predictably, the moment Danny crossed the threshold, the lively noise level in the classroom dropped to a dead hush. Every pair of eyes in the room fixed on him and Danny winced, clutching spasmodically at the backpack on his left shoulder. He had wanted to avoid this—the stares, the whispers, the looks—by slipping in unnoticed with the rest of the class. Or, failing that, at least having Valerie taking the walk of shame with him would've been a preferable option to doing it alone. But of course, Lancer holding him back had completely shut the window on that opportunity.
Slowly, he made his way down the rows to where Sam and Tucker had saved him a spot near them. As he passed between the desks people goggled at him then leaned in and whispered to each other behind his back. He grit his teeth and forced his feet forward—why did Sam and Tucker have to sit at the very back of the classroom?
Dash was a couple of rows over and his eyes spat daggers. One of his jock cronies stuck a foot out and Danny tripped, stumbling, but caught his balance before he fell to the ground. A ripple of laughter went through the class.
"Freak." Someone hissed in Danny's ear.
"What a loser." Another voice sneered. And, in the corner of his periphery vision, Danny saw a spark of yellow.
"Ok settle down. Settle down everyone. Eyes forward. We have some important announcements to get through today." Mr. Lancer's order, mildly effectual, gave Danny the opportunity he needed to pass by the group of popular kids without another incident.
After an eternity, Danny made it to his seat and slumped into the chair. Tucker, on his right, sent him a sympathetic shrug, which Danny returned with a half-hearted grimace as he tried to rub away the ghostly afterimage of yellow in his eyes.
"Now, as you all are aware, this past weekend one of our staff members was met with a very tragic accident." Mr. Lancer had his hands on his desk and leaned forward as he spoke. "The loss of Mr. Talbot, who many of you had for Chemistry I, has hit the school hard. As such, in lieu of today's morning classes, we will be holding an assembly and a short vigilance in the auditorium for the first half of the day. You will then have an early lunch. Afternoon classes will proceed as normally scheduled. Today is Day 3 on your schedule. Now, in a few moments there will be an announcement calling us down to the auditorium by class number. I want you to proceed in an orderly fashion…"
Mr. Lancer continued giving instructions, but Danny was no longer listening as he leaned forward to poke Sam in the back.
"Did you know about this?" He asked in a shocked whisper, meeting Sam's violet eyes as she turned around, and then turned his head to Tucker. "Did you?"
He received two headshakes in response.
"Man, that's pretty bad. I didn't really like Talbot, but he was a pretty laid back guy. It's weird to think he's dead. I wonder what happened" Tucker mused. "Lancer said it was an accident."
"Oh, no one thinks it was an accident. Lancer's probably just saying that because the school board doesn't want to traumatize our poor teenaged brains."
Danny, Sam and Tucker looked over at Valerie who had spoken up. Sitting next to Sam, the girl lowered her voice conspiratorially. "Everybody heard what happened. I can't believe you guys don't know…Well… I guess you wouldn't…" She sent both Tucker and Sam knowing looks. "And you were probably too stressed to watch the news over the weekend." She finished, raising an eyebrow in Danny's direction.
"Eavesdropping, Valerie? Why am I not surprised?" Sam's lips twisted, eyelids lowered as she looked at the other girl. Valerie shot Sam a glare and probably would have snapped off a scathing reply if Danny hadn't hastened to interrupt.
"So it's true? Mr. Talbot really—he's gone? And it wasn't an accident? What happened then?" Danny questioned.
Valerie's green eyes softened on Danny. "Yeah… It happened—well," she quickly amended. "The police think it happened sometime Friday night. He wasn't discovered until Saturday morning though. The official report is that he drowned. But he was found near Quidi Vidi."
"But that pond is practically a wading pool." Tucker scoffed incredulously. "You could stand up even at its centre."
"Exactly." Valerie agreed, pointing at Tucker. "That's why it couldn't be an accident."
"Well…if he fell and smacked his head off a rock…?" Danny suggested.
Sam shook her head. "The only way that would work is if he fell off the path and hit something on his way down. But there's a wide bank of cattails and grass all around that pond—I go there sometimes to walk. I know the place pretty well." She said defensively when the others looked at her in surprise. "And you can't canoe in Quidi Vidi, so he couldn't have fallen out of a boat or something. Which means…"
Valerie nodded at Sam. "He either committed suicide, or was murdered."
There was a heavy silence after those words.
"Murder?" Tucker eventually said with a weak laugh. "You've gotta be kidding. You never hear about murder in Amity Park."
"But there's something else…" Valerie leaned forward and, taking her cue, Danny, Tucker and Sam did the same. The teens put their heads in a tight circle. On Valerie's other side, Star gave her friend a bizarre look. Then the blonde girl's eyes met Danny's and she quickly looked away.
"Guess who found him?" Valerie whispered excitedly.
"Mr. Talbot?" Danny clarified. When Valerie nodded, he simply shrugged. "I dunno, tell us."
"It was Paulina!" For a moment Valerie sat back, soaking up the amazed stares her audience was giving her. "And she didn't just find him, she tripped over him while talking to Star on the phone. She broke a heel." Valerie made a gruff, exasperated sound at the back of her throat. "That's why she's not in class right now; she's one of the people who'll be speaking during the assembly, so I guess she had to go down to the auditorium and prepare."
"Paulina's not in class?" Danny asked. Surprised, he raised his head and scanned the classroom. Indeed, the spot on the other side of the classroom near the window where Paulina usually sat preening before the morning classes was now empty. Strange that he hadn't noticed that.
Reading his expression easily, Sam raised an eyebrow. "Is it really that surprising that you didn't notice she wasn't here?"
"Hehehehe…" Danny laughed nervously, avoiding her gaze. He'd recognized the familiar, dangerous lilt in her voice. "It's not that… uh… I'm just surprised I didn't notice the empty seat. I didn't think I was that distracted." His excuses didn't seem to help him at all. Now both Sam and Valerie were frowning at him disapprovingly.
"Yes, 'cause we all know it'd take nothing short of a ghost attack in the middle of class to distract a boy enough for him to forget Paulina." Sam snarked with a roll of her eyes. She and Valerie exchanged annoyed looks and Danny groaned, putting his head on his desk.
Turning to the side, he propped one arm up to hide from the girls as he addressed Tucker. "Why is it that the only time they're getting along is when they're both getting mad at me?"
Tucker was barely lending the comment an ear. He'd pulled out his somewhat battered PDA and was prodding at it experimentally, tongue caught between his teeth. "Mystery of girls, dude." He shrugged unsympathetically. "I've got a better question for you: why is it that whenever I try to access any of my applications, everything turns black and screen after screen of green binary starts scrolling by? It makes no sense—binary doesn't scroll!" He enlightened his PDA emphatically.
Danny stared at his friend blankly.
Valerie noticed the PDA in Tucker's hands. "Oh so Danny got that back to you? That's good; and it still works?"
Tucker made a face, tilting his head from side to side. "Ehh…It works, but only if you call 'turning on' 'working'. I can't access any of my functions or programs and odd things keep happening ever now and aga—Hey!" Tucker flinched, nearly dropping when the PDA when it sparked in his hands. "Like that. That's the second time she's done that." He took the PDA in both hands and held it out dramatically before him. "Oh Rosalina! Why are you being so cruel? It's like you don't even know me anymore! But we've spent so much time together! All the free downloads; the cutting edge software! We've gone through so much together, but now it's like you're rejecting me! Oh the payments! I only had two more payments…" And he flopped over his desk, dissolving into tragic sobs.
Valerie looked torn between laughing and cringing away. "Is he all right?" She had been about to tack an 'in the head' to the end of that sentence, but bit back on the words. She was attempting to be nicer to Danny's friends, after all.
Danny patted Tucker on the shoulder awkwardly. "He'll be fine." He said over Tucker's weeping. "He's always protective of his PDAs, even if they do seem to get cycled out at a faster and faster rate."
"And whose fault is that?" Tucker quickly rebutted, head jerking up, suddenly cured of his despair.
"Hey, don't blame me for your commitment issues!" Danny grinned.
"At least I'm not totally oblivious!"
"Whaddaya mean oblivious? I'm so not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Remember the glue incident?"
"Hey, how was I supposed to know at 8 years old that glue melts in water? And that wasn't obliviousness, that was just lack of knowledge. And besides it was your idea to try and send smoke signals."
Disinterested in the boys' childishness, Sam turned to Valerie. "You said you found Tucker's PDA outside the ghost museum?"
"Yeah," Valerie affirmed. "Why? Is that strange?" Silently she was wondering why exactly it would be Danny's fault that Tucker's PDAs kept getting destroyed.
"It is, kinda." Tucker said, as he and Danny stalled their light-hearted bickering to tune back into the conversation. "I mean, I dropped it inside the museum. So how'd it get outside?"
"Someone picked it up and dropped it outside?" Valerie shrugged. "I don't know. All I know is I found it sitting outside that giant, green shield on the pavement. Just be glad it didn't get stepped on before I got to it."
Tucker bobbed his head and opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the PA system before a word could leave his mouth.
"Classrooms 208, 209, 210 and 211 please head down to the auditorium. Classrooms 208, 209, 210 and 211 to the auditorium now."
"That's us," Mr. Lancer announced, gesturing to the door. "You may leave your things at your desks. Please exit in a single file—single file, students!"
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End Chapter 29
To Be Continued…
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Quite a few people added this story to their favourites or alerts since last chapter. Won't you say hello, lurkers?
As for what Danny and Tucker were doing as kids that involved glue and smoke signals… you're guess is as good as mine, hohoho.
To my amazing reviewers: you didn't just encourage me to write this chapter, you also inspired some bright moments during the dregs of exam week: Senside, supaherolena02, DPfruitloop, Phanfan925, MidnightResWri, Ribke D'Crazy, MsFrizzle, Jay Rosie, Yugisrose, smallvillephantom14, Tales from within, Honeygirl30, NeverEnough15, Valid User Name, Princess of Rose, VampireFrootloopsRule, Hopeistheway and TheAuthorAnonymous!
Check back in two weeks for an update!
Adio!
