Author's Note:

Oh God, am I ever sorry. I said I'd take a little break, not a long break. But then my laptop charger decided to play up and I had to wait a full three weeks to order a new one. Ugh, that is so irritating! Please, forgive me. Here's a chapter, I'll be happy if it makes up just a quarter for what happened.

Chapter 35: Figure it out for Yourself

Upon finishing the third chapter and the final bell ringing, Danny had arrived at art. Both Sam (with an eye-patch) and Tucker (coughing non-stop) sitting mercifully beside him.

"Ugh, I still feel terrible…" Tucker murmured through the teacher's usual pre-painting lecture. "I only came because mum threatened to delete the startup files on my computer if I didn't."

Sam was trying to conceal a smirk as Tucker glared at her. Danny, however, was staring blankly off into space, blind to the world.

"Uhh, Danny?" Tucker asked through a blocked nose. "You okay?"

"What?" Danny asked as he came to. "Fine, just daydreaming I guess."

"Mr. Fenton," started a frowning Mrs. Campbell in her country-accented voice. "I hate to break up you and your friends' conversation, but I can hear your voice from the other side of the room! Whatever it is, can it please wait until work has started?"

"Oh, sorry."

"Don't be sorry; just don't let it happen again." Danny nodded in reply as she continued her lecture on some of the bazaar artworks of Kandinsky. The trio listened to her drone on until it was finally time to paint. Today's topic was 'Something that changed your life'.

"When I became a vegetarian." Sam said to herself. Tucker stared as her for a minute as though she was mentally unstable.

"For me, it was the day my grandfather died. People mourn in different ways; my parents popped open a bottle of champagne." After earning confused looks from both Sam and Danny, he added "He was a real pain. He kept saying that meat was for the ignorant and selfish." Sam abruptly hit Tucker over the head.

Danny paused for a moment. "There's only one thing I can think of."

Sam looked as him, and then shook her head. "Don't pick that. You'll only raise bad memories to the surface."

"I can't pick anything else, there's nothing to pick from! Besides… I think… I'm over it."

"Over it?!" Tucker exclaimed in exasperation. "Like, how can you be over it?!"

"I don't know, it just seems… kind of distant now… I can't explain it."

"Danny, you're like a puzzle with most of the pieces missing." Sam replied. "A mystery."

You know you can't trust them.

Why do you make it so hard for yourself?

"SHUT UP!" Danny screamed, before falling from his art stool and on a one way trip to the floor.

--

"Huh…?"

Everything was white and blurry. Danny blinked a few times before realizing that he was in the nurses' office.

"Oh, you're finally awake! You were out for three-quarters of an hour!"

"Wh-what?"

Danny finally completely came to and realized it was Ms. Dipit speaking to him. There was no one else in the room.

"You're awake." She repeated. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I shouldn't trust you." Danny responded automatically. "Huh…? What the heck?"

The nurse stared at him for a moment. "I could ask the same of you, you know."

"Sorry, I guess I just must be a little dazed still…"

"I see… Anyway, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions." Danny nodded in agreement slowly as he stood up from the small bed he'd lain down on. "Okay, do you have any idea why you fainted? At all?"

"Umm… no." Danny lied. "Maybe the room was just too humid."

"Right, and have you eaten today and kept your fluids up? Did you get eight hours of sleep last night?"

"Umm," Danny said, trying to think. "No, I didn't get any of those today. You know, it's probably that."

"Well, now you know why you should do those things, hm? Now before you go, I'd like to do a few checkups. You're overdue, they should have been done last week, but of course, you weren't here."

"Oh, really I should go to class, I'm missing out on science. If I'm late, Mr. Rihan will have my head."

"Mr. Fenton, you're already late, so this won't hurt. Hop on the scales, we're measuring your weight first."

Danny shot her a 'please' look, then sighed depressingly and stepped on top of the scales.

0.00kg

Ms. Dipit looked oddly at the scales for a moment. "That can't be right, stupid thing must be broken." Danny stepped of as the nurse put one foot on it testingly. The reading became 16.79kg. "Okay, that's just strange."

Ms. Dipit suddenly turned and lifted Danny into the air. "Oh good lord… That's not possible!" he just shrugged and grinned sheepishly.

"Uh, I'd have no idea?"

"Of course you have an idea; it'd be a bit hard to miss if you're weightless!!"

"Okay, fine!" Danny said defensively, putting his hands up in front of him. "But please, if I don't get to class now, Rihan will have my head! I might as well be handing it to him on a silver platter!"

Eyeing him strangely, Ms. Dipit let go of him and put him on the floor. "Fine. Between you and me, I know how much of a pain that man can be. However, I can't just stand by, wondering what's going on like most other times. Fenton, what are you?"

Danny bit down on his lip. "You're not going to let me go until you get an answer, are you?" she firmly shook her head. "Fine, I'm a ghost."

Ms. Dipit obliviously dropped the pen she had been holding. Danny sighed as he sat down on a chair. "Why does everyone react like that?"

"Oh, I uh… it's just that-"

"Don't worry about it." Danny cut her off. "Could you please not breathe a word of it and let me go before Rihan spits fire?"

"Ye-yes, go quickly." He didn't need to be told twice. Danny bolted down the corridor, thanking the lord that he, Tucker and Sam decided to tell each other's locker combinations. Making sure no one was around, Danny phased his arm inside his locker and felt around for the things he'd need. He quickly found his pencil case and science folder, and then dashed to Rihan's class."

"Fenton, you're twenty minutes late! I'd have the right mind to give you another detention had Lancer and Ishiyama not given me a warning about 'so-called' fairness! Now go and get your spectral backside on the seat next to Ms. Sanchez right this instant!"

"Sir yes sir!" Danny said, giving an army salute. A few people cracked a smile at Danny's sudden cheekiness to Rihan, of all people.

"THIS INSTANT!" Rihan roared. Danny flinched even though he knew that would be the most likely answer. But he couldn't help it, it seemed as though Mr. Lancer and Principle Ishiyama had blocked Rihan from giving him unfair detentions. It was almost too good to be true. Almost.

Paullina looked at Danny and moved her chair slightly to the opposite side. Danny's heart sank just a little, but then remembered what she had done last Friday, and found that he didn't care much anymore.

Rihan was doing a lecture today, and they were taking notes. It was about Epilepsy and how people have seizures and such. Nothing too exciting. Danny just hoped he'd missed the surprise pop-quiz already. After twenty minutes of solid note-taking, his hand finally gave in and became intangible, refusing to go back to normal.

Danny found himself doing a pop-quiz left-handed that he had no idea on.

…and he failed miserably.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Rihan decided to rub it in his nose and got out an extra-thick red paint-pen, slashing a bold letter F over Danny's work. Underneath it had written in overly-neat join-up: Sloppy handwriting, poor, incomplete and incorrect answers. (2/20)

Danny groaned and began to pack his things up. This was just plain mean. Then again, half of it was probably part of the being late part and the army salute. The other was obviously pure hatred and a genuinely poor test result.

"Hey, lighten up. It is Rihan, after all. He's about as nice as a pro-wrestler with a grudge." came Kiera's voice from behind him. "Why did you come in late, anyway?"

"Oh, that. I was feeling a bit sick and had to go to the nurse. That's all…"

Kiera nodded. Her eyes seemed unfocused and glazed over, her face looking as though she wanted to say something but couldn't. "Kiera, are you alright…?"

"Um… Danny…' quickly she checked the corridor to see that no one else was within earshot. "I think I know what you are." she whispered. "It all adds up, the intangibility, the invisibility and your other… quirks. In the library on Friday you even let it slip when you said you wished you didn't have to deal with your ghost powers. Danny… I think you're a ghost, and please tell me if I'm wrong, but that's what I truly think."

"You're… right." Danny replied. "It's probably only a matter of time before the whole school knows what I am, though. The jocks do, and they'd hardly keep it a secret. I'd say I'd have until at the very most, until tomorrow before everyone knows."

Sam, Jazz and Tucker came up behind them. "Hey, quit dawdling. I might like to eat, thank-you very much." Sam said, before grinning. "Only kidding. C'mon, let's go and get a table outside."

The five agreed, however Kiera ran off to get a snack first, promising to find them. After a bit of searching, they found a free spot under the shade from the sun. They began to talk, drifting as far away from Danny's touchy subject as possible. That was, until Dash and his 'cronies' came around.

"Hey everyone, come over here! We know something about Fenton that barely anyone else knows!"

There was no other word for it, "Crud!" Danny said as he slammed his head on the table. People began to gather around the table, as Dash was a highly-respected person. Okay, feared, but you get the point.

"Danny Fenton's a ghost! Look! He probably committed suicide because he had such a miserable social status!"

At first, people looked at Dash as though he were mad. But then, they started to see why he was being called a ghost. Kiera had already come running to see what the commotion was all about. They remained silent, until Mikey spoke up. "Danny, are you really-"

"Yes." He replied depressingly. "And, for God's sake, I didn't commit suicide. It was an accident."

"Then… can you tell us what really happened in your parent's lab?"

"No." Danny replied bluntly. There was a disappointed groan from the crowd. "Look, I'm sorry, but I really don't remember…"

"Oh but…"

"Back off from the little brother!" Jazz said, shooting up from her seat. "You've asked your questions, now go! Can't you see why it'd be hard for him to talk about it? Put yourself in his shoes!"

Mr. Lancer came pushing through the crowd. "A Time to Kill, people! What's going on here?!"

"Danny's a ghost!" Mikey squeaked, slightly nervous of the bigger man. "Dash yelled it out to everyone!"

"And yet he's still a real person with real feelings and you lot are surely not helping! Now leave him and his friends alone and give them some privacy!" People groaned loudly and started to move, very, very slowly. "Now, people! None of us have all day!"

Everyone finally moved out, with the exception of Kiera, who came and sat down at the wooden table.

"Thanks for that." said a very grateful Danny.

"It was my pleasure, Danny. At least now that they know, it may persuade them to lose interest."

Sam bit her lip as she saw someone peering through the bushes. "Or increase it."

-End chapter 31-

Author's Note:

There, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. It's great to be back and writing again. And, rejoice, for I now have SPELL-CHECK! Yay for spell-check! So many are probably mumbling 'about time'. So no more stupid tiny overlooked mistakes!

Peace,

MoonlightUmbreon & Kris