Notes: Most of this chapter has been written forever... some of it... hasn't. If there are problems, please let me know, but this is still unbetad because I'm terrible and keep forgetting to get a beta for this. *headdesk*
Info about the timeline at the end!
xXx
The Fentons got back to Amity Park (much to Danny's relief) late Sunday night.
His relief didn't last long as the town they returned to was in chaos.
Immediately, his (very tired) parents perked up, dropping the two of them off – without even their bags, only their backpacks – and going off to find the ghost.
Danny had just sighed and reached for his phone. It had died. Of course.
He may or may not have walked over to the door just to bang his head on it. Jazz offered to drive him around town, but he rejected with a smile.
"I'll be fine. Promise. Um… can I borrow your phone though?"
She didn't look too sure, but she exchanged phones with him, going up to plug his in while he transformed and flew out to find out the source of the problem.
It didn't take him long to realize that he had two options: Desiree must have taken his absence as a chance to push her boundaries, or another ghost had shown up. The Fright Knight? October was approaching quickly… No, that couldn't be it. And few other ghosts could do such wide-spread damage that was, as often as not, just… weird. Like trees in the park being different colors, or random storms, far too close to the ground, hovering over one spot.
He shook his head. It had to be Desiree. She would have had to stick with his wish of 'only small wishes', but apparently pushing that could send people into the streets brawling, in multiple areas, at 11:30 at night.
He finally found her overlooking a fight consisting of two girls and a boy, all in their late teens, giggling. The girls were fighting – as in a knock-down brawling fight – while the guy sat to the side looking half thrilled, half horrified.
Floating up behind her, he uncapped his thermos.
"I wish you would undo everything you've done and get into my thermos."
She jumped a mile, then realized who was floating there with widening eyes. For a moment, Danny thought she'd actually try to fight him on it, but then she hung her head and sighed.
"So you have wished it…"
The girls stopped fighting, looking confused while the guy asked why they'd started. They didn't know. He asked why they stopped. Both girls slapped him and left. Danny sighed. Again.
The trees returned to their normal color, the strange weather disappeared… No one really knew what had just happened and everyone was a little freaked out about it.
Speaking with Desiree later that night, Danny found out that she'd simply pushed her definition of 'small, inconsistent wishes' as far as she could, justifying it to herself the whole while. Danny understood, he really did, but she caused damage, panic and pain to the people in his town and had thus broken the rules. He didn't think she'd had any intent to actively hurt someone, so he left her in the thermos for an hour and released her into the ghost zone, assuring her that she could come and ask him to in about a month to be let back out.
He was glad his parents had come home and gone directly to bed as that allowed him to sneak down to the portal and back to his room without any incident.
Of course, that put him to bed well after one in the morning. Naturally.
And he was up at six.
Stupid alarm. Stupid school. Stupid ghosts.
He found his phone on his bedside table (thank you, Jazz) and managed to stumble into a fast shower and out the door in time to catch the bus.
Fortunately, no ghost attacked that day and he was able to get to bed and to sleep that night.
Actually, ghost activity remained light for the next several weeks, with only a couple minor ones showing up here and there. He'd still like to know how the Box Ghost kept getting out of the ghost zone! That had been something he'd never gotten an answer for in the future, although the lair idea being connected to the human world still had merit… Fortunately, all Jonathan needed were a couple of updates and that was that.
So Danny had fallen into a fairly normal rhythm when October rolled around.
xXx
Mr. Lancer had the worst timing.
Why was he around to stop fights (that Danny could completely avoid on his own, thank you very much, and he'd even been looking forward to recording this one!) and assign detention (or the equivalent of) now?
And why was Danny whining to himself? Yeah, he'd attribute that to his 14-year-old self. Too childish to be his future self. Right?
He wasn't being bitter about that stupid ghost eel getting by him again. He'd like to see it grin smugly at him if he'd been able to freeze it. Yeah, he couldn't wait for his ice powers to stabilize. He could still only really cool down a drink at this point. Even that took a lot out of him.
The problem was, this ghost had gotten by him the first time around. He had no idea where it had disappeared to then, and wasn't entirely sure he could track it now. Likely it went over to Lake Eerie. There had been too many hauntings over there in his past life to not have something to do with ghosts. They didn't tend to actually hurt humans, so Danny had left them alone. Maybe he should reassess that stance.
"Scariest room wins," Mr. Lancer said as he walked away. "Football star or not."
Danny frowned. He hadn't really been involved in Halloween for a while. Usually he was out patrolling for natural portals this time of year, as they tended to pop up more often. He had taken a couple of electives on writing/critiquing scare tactics and horror though. He was part ghost, after all.
Hmm.
"Hey, Mr. Lancer," he called out after the balding teacher, ignoring Dash who looked about to pop a blood vessel right next to him. Mr. Lancer paused. "I have a couple of friends who would love to be involved in something like this. Can I get them too?"
The older man frowned in thought. "My first instinct is to say no, because both of you need to come up with this idea on your own. But..."
"Please, Mr. Lancer! I promise we'll each come up with our own!" Dash said from beside him, trying to pull off a puppy-dog face of all things. Danny wondered who fell for something like that.
"Oh, very well. But I want an idea from both of you by the end of tomorrow."
"You got it, Mr. Lancer," Danny said... and if he had a devious smile crossing his face, then who could blame him. After all, people got places in life by who they know just as much as what they know.
Of course, the moment Mr. Lancer turned the corner, Dash had turned around and gotten in Danny's face and proposed his bet. Just like last time.
The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.
Danny looked at the (very disgusting) underwear for a couple of seconds. His first instinct was to say 'no', but he knew that would brand him as a coward. He could honestly work with that, but it still rubbed him the wrong way. Of course, if he said 'yes', he was giving in to immaturity. Still...
"Fine," he said. "But only on the condition that you eat them if you don't."
Eh, he was still 14, mentally. Sometimes the idiocy just wasn't worth fighting. The fact that it made Dash pause for a moment was incredibly satisfying. Probably more so than it should be.
"Fine. May the best man win."
With that, Dash turned to walk away. Danny just stared after him as Sam and Tucker came up beside him.
"You okay, man?" Tucker asked.
Danny felt a smirk pull at the side of his mouth.
"I'm fine."
"Do you really think you can win?" Sam asked, sounding skeptical.
"Hmm," Danny replied noncommittally. Then he turned to Tucker. "If you're willing to help me, I need you to look up everything you can on how to make something scary – books, plays, movies and haunted houses."
Tucker nodded. "I'm here for you, dude!"
Danny's smile became softer and warmer. "Thanks, man. You're the best."
Then he turned to Sam. "Will you help me?"
She scoffed. "Of course."
His smile grew. "I really am lucky to have the two best people in the world as my friends."
She waved a hand, although her cheeks had darkened a little bit and he didn't comment on the slight downturn of her shoulders. He'd just told Vlad it took time to get over things and he needed to apply that to both him and Sam as well.
"Yeah, yeah. We get it," she said.
"We're awesome," Tucker responded with a wide grin.
"Then we can start brainstorming ideas to implement, and they'll be the best if they come from the Goth Queen herself."
Sam rolled her eyes. "Enough with the flattery. We're wasting time. Let's go."
They went to grab their stuff and hurried out of the school.
"What about the ghost you were chasing?" Sam asked, once they'd gotten outside.
Danny's smirked fell away. "It escaped. I have no idea where it is now."
"Well, there has to be a first time for everything, even failure," Tucker muttered from beside them, looking up something on his PDA. Probably already researching.
The half-ghost blinked. "I've failed before, Tuck."
Sam scoffed. "You have future knowledge. You know every ghost you go up against."
"Not every one," Danny mumbled.
His friend shrugged. "Like Tucker said, there has to be a first for everything."
"Yeah, well, I'll figure out a way to find and get this ghost too." If it ever showed its slimy hide around here again...
Was it just Halloween that was making him think so... childishly?
"So," Sam said, "Brainstorming?"
Danny's grin came back full force. "What ideas do you have?"
xXx
The Lunch Lady stared at Danny for several seconds before she replied to his question. "Let me understand this, sweetie: you have to scare humans for a class project, and you want me to... help?"
"Only if you want to," Danny said hurriedly. "And there would be some pretty strict rules. You can't openly show any major ghost powers, and you can't touch or overshadow any of the people who come through. You'd have to stick to the script pretty closely... so I get it if it isn't your thing but... well, it is me letting you out to scare humans... on Halloween. So, entertaining at worst."
"Hmm," she responded as she thought over that.
"You don't have to give me an answer now, but soon would be good."
The older ghost just smiled at him. "Of course I'd be happy to help you, dearie."
Danny looked relieved. "Thanks," he said.
"Who else have you gotten to help?" she asked curiously.
"Well, Dora and the Box Ghost have both agreed to help me as well. No one else seems to have time and... well, I don't trust many others who don't have their own obligations."
"Very well, sweetie. We shall make them DINE ON OUR FURY!"
Danny sighed, albeit fondly. "So close."
xXx
Mr. Lancer looked at the two papers in front of him. Mr. Baxter had a detailed description of the 'Gym of Doom' he wanted to do for his room. He wished the boy would put in as much effort to the rest of his schoolwork. This was the most he'd seen from him since... well, ever.
Then there was Mr. Fenton's. All it had on it were two sentences. "My Halloween Room will be centered around the theme 'Compare and Contrast.' I will utilize ghosts." And that was it. Well, he hadn't assigned them a certain length, and that was really all his fault.
Besides, he was probably more curious about what Danny would do than he otherwise would be, so he was willing to let it slide... this time.
xXx
Danny got everyone together before Mr. Lancer showed up.
"Alright, you all know the rules – invisibility, flying and intangibility only. No overshadowing, no giant meat monsters," he shot a look at the Lunch Lady, who sniffed, "or dragons," he looked at Dora who nodded firmly back, "or storms of boxes."
"You are making a mistake!" the Box Ghost said in his usual voice.
Danny raised an eyebrow. "I'll take my chances."
"Danny, he's coming!" Sam, dressed up in a black body suit and a skeleton mask on top of her head, rushed in.
"Is the ghost shield up?" Danny asked.
Sam nodded. They'd gotten special permission from his parents to put up a ghost shield... one that Danny knew how to work and that they had tested out. Not only would it be extra protection, but his parents wouldn't think to look for ghosts here. He hoped.
"You good, Tuck?" he asked into his Fenton Phones.
"You bet I am, dude."
The half-ghost grinned. "Alright, places everyone! Stick to the script as much as you can. Stick to the rules, period. But honestly, have fun."
"We have to win this," Sam said. "It's a matter of pride." She ran past and through the doorway of the little maze they'd set up. The others followed her.
"I mean it," Danny called after her, "It's about fun!"
Somehow he felt that his and her roles had reversed this time around. Hadn't she been the one to try and talk him out of winning at all costs last time? Although, she wasn't wrong. It was a matter of pride at this point. Four different ghosts working on this haunted house and they didn't win? That would be a disgrace. But he could deal with that as long as they'd just done the best they could. Honestly, he was pretty impressed with how much they'd worked on this.
"Mr. Fenton," Mr. Lancer said, knocking on the door. Danny made sure he was in his normal, human persona before he flipped all the lights off and opened the door.
xXx
Edward Lancer had to say he'd been impressed with Dash's room. The football player had definitely taken the 'eew' factor to an extreme. But now he was approaching the room he'd been looking forward to the most. He had a feeling that this would either be a huge disappointment or something truly spectacular.
He knew what he was expecting. He also knew what he was hoping for.
Stepping up to the door, he knocked. "Mr. Fenton," he said loudly. He saw a flash under the door. Strobe lights? Promising. The door opened and a pale face that didn't even have any scary makeup on peeked out. Disappointing.
"Alright, come in, Mr. Lancer," Danny said, gesturing to the deep black room behind him.
"I hope you know, I don't scare easily," the teacher said with a deadpan expression. He couldn't help but wonder what the blackness he'd just stepped into would hold.
"Right," Danny said closing the door. "Then let me introduce you to Danny Fenton's Room of Doom!" With that, he flipped on the lights, revealing a small room full of obviously fake Halloween decorations. Danny pushed a button on a boom box he'd set up in the corner and a fake crash of thunder sounded.
Edward was not impressed.
Danny looked crestfallen. "Um, this way," he said, leading the teacher through the plastic bag hanging over the doorway.
"You aren't off to a good start," the teacher said, already chalking up the room to be a failure.
"Right," Danny muttered again, stepping through the plastic barrier. "Could you just wait here for a... hey. That isn't supposed to be... wait! What?!"
A loud crash and a scream had Edward rushing through the door. He ran right into a fallen bookshelf. Toys were still scattering from the fall and... wait, was that Danny underneath it? He saw an arm and some hair and... wait... wait...
"Alright, Mr. Fenton, that wasn't too bad," he said. That scream had sounded incredibly real. Then a loud slam sounded behind him. He turned around to see that where there had been plastic before, there was now a sturdy door. Where had that come from?
"Mr. Lancer?" an echoing voice asked from behind him. He turned around and almost dropped his clip board. Danny was standing in front of him alright, but he was transparent – completely see-through. He also stood inside the fallen bookshelf, popping right out of the back of it as if it wasn't even there... or as if he weren't.
Mr. Lancer took a deep breath and forced his heart to slow down. "Alright, Mr. Fenton, this is much better."
"What's... better?" Danny asked, tipping his head to one side.
Mr. Lancer just pushed past the obviously fake 'crime scene' and into the door beyond. The whole room had been set up for that. Yes, now that they were past it, he was feeling better about the whole thing, no matter how (or perhaps because) it had shaken him.
"The effects, the acting. I see what you mean by compare and contrast. I wasn't expecting anything good because of the last room and so you..." he paused. Danny wasn't there anymore. He blinked.
"Well, let's keep going then, okay, Mr. Lancer?"
Edward jumped a little and looked down to the side. Somehow Danny had silently moved from the bookshelf to right by him. He was still transparent. The teacher took one last uneasy look at the hand and body he could see peeking out from under the bookshelf.
Okay, maybe they had a winner here because this was still making him feel very uneasy.
He brushed that aside as Danny beamed at him. "Great! Follow me."
With that, he stepped through another plastic-covered doorway. Mr. Lancer followed. The moment he stepped through, green smoke began to billow towards him. He coughed and looked around, unable to see much of anything.
"Danny?" he asked. No answer.
"Mr. Fenton," he said, voice sterner. Again, no answer.
Then a giggle echoed around him. It was male, and didn't sound nice.
"He thinks he's still in Amity," the voice said. It wasn't Danny's. One of his friends, then? More voices joined the first, laughing and chuckling. Mr. Lancer wrote a couple of notes down on his clip board. He went to look back to see if Danny had somehow gotten behind him again and gasped. The door was... gone. He couldn't even see where it had been! How had they managed that? He reached his hand out and felt it there... solid. There hadn't even been a sound. Yes, he'd gone from severely unimpressed to extremely impressed very quickly here.
Movement out of the corner of his eye had him turning back around. The mist swirled. More movements... shadows zipping around far faster than humans should be able to move. Yes, the effects were very believable.
"Not in Amity," one of the voices said. Despite himself, Edward was getting more and more impressed. This was starting to actually scare him. He still cleared his throat and decided to humor Danny by just heading into the room. The boy had certainly made good use of his space. Where had he gotten the temporary walls to set this up?
Edward came to a corner and turned to see a short hall in front of him and then another turn. Ah, so this was set up like a maze? A tried and true tactic. All of these walls had been painted green and a strobe light began to flash as soon as he stepped into the hall. With the green smoke, it looked as if the walls themselves were moving.
"I will take points for you not being here, Mr. Fenton," Edward said aloud.
"Aw, but Mr. Lancer, where's the fun in that?" Danny's voice echoed even more than before.
"Perhaps I can help?" A new voice asked. Edward blinked. Where had she come from? A woman, who had not been there before, now stood in the middle of the hall. He stared at her for several seconds, even though the strobe light made it difficult to really study her. She was a young, perhaps in her 20's, with brown hair piled onto her head in neat curls. She wore a lovely, old-fashioned dress, perhaps from the 50's, that flared at the hips and short gloves. She was rather attractive.
Truthfully, Edward didn't have any issue spending time in this girl's presence.
"Very well," he said, hoping he sounded more dismissive than he felt.
"This way," she said with a slight bow and a smile as she gestured to the hall. Even in the flashing light, her movements looked practiced and graceful. Too bad Edward would have to take points off for this because she definitely took the scary factor down.
Just on the other side of the turn hung some butcher paper, lit up from the other side with smoke spilling from underneath it. Well, Danny certainly liked his flimsy dividers. Then again, if it isn't broken...
They stepped through to the space behind it. There hung three more semi-transparent dividers of butcher paper instead of walls. Mr. Lancer nodded at that, then looked at his guide. Then he jumped back. Where before he'd seen smooth skin and perfect makeup, he now saw a zombie in the same dress. Her lips seemed to have been eaten away, revealing the teeth behind. Several patches of her gray-green skin looked to have rotted through, and bones poked through her now moth-eaten gloves.
"I must insist that you choose your own way. I'll follow."
Mr. Lancer forced his heart to calm again. And they were back to impressive. Compare and contrast indeed. But he knew how to beat a maze. So he picked the right and followed the wall. The zombie girl fell into step behind him.
They ran into a couple of dead ends, but he was still able to follow the wall completely around the room. Every now and then, he'd glance behind him, and was surprised that each time, the girl had changed from perfect makeup to zombie and back again, all while keeping that bright, calm smile on her face.
He honestly had no idea how she was doing that.
On top of that, more shadows would dart around them. He could usually only see silhouettes as they appeared and then disappeared again.
The amount of effort put into this...
Surprisingly, it took him a little while to find the exit. They'd placed it more or less in the middle of the room, and then had encased stairs leading up and over the maze so he couldn't just follow the walls. Definitely a stroke of genius and taking advantage of the high ceiling in the room.
"It is here I leave you," the woman said with a curtsy. She looked normal again. Edward went to nod, but then she leaned forward and, before his eyes, she changed again. He couldn't help but take a step back. Not only had she invaded his personal bubble, but how had she done that?!
"Make sure you're careful from here on out," she said, and he could smell the rot on her breath. And then, she vanished.
Edward had to sit there for several seconds and calm down. He didn't scream though, so there was that. He was going to make Danny tell him how they'd pulled half of these things off once he got out of there.
Once he'd gotten his racing heartbeat under control, he walked up the steps and into darkness. It wasn't so bad until the light behind him disappeared.
"Be careful," Danny's echoing voice said. "There are steps ahead. You wouldn't want to get... hurt."
"We might have to have people sign a waver before they come in here," Edward muttered.
"Hmm," replied Danny... he sounded like he stood right behind the teacher. "Probably not a bad idea."
"Indeed," Edward said. "This is a rather tight squeeze." A cold breeze rushed past him and he shivered.
"They'll just have to go single file," Danny said from... um... right in front of him? How could he have possibly gotten past Edward? Oh, it had to be a voice projection of some kind. Right.
They got to the bottom of the stairs he couldn't see, where a couple of dim black lights had been set up. All around him, skeleton parts hung in the air. He couldn't even see the strings. Must have been painted black. Around the edge of the room, full skeletons lay haphazardly. He was sure more than one of them was real, likely borrowed from the school.
And then one of them moved. It actually stood on its own before taking wobbly steps towards the teacher.
Wait, were those hanging skulls moving too? Towards him? Oh, that had to be some of Danny's friends in black suits with the white and off-white skeleton parts being all that the black light could illuminate. It was a very creepy effect, even once he'd figured it out.
He had to avoid the moving people as he made his way across the room.
"There you go, Mr. Lancer," Danny said. "Right through there, one more hallway, and then the exit."
Thank goodness. He'd never admit it aloud, but he was more than willing to get out of this place.
Tetslaff wouldn't know what hit her.
Edward reached for the doorknob and yanked. It didn't budge.
"Mr. Fenton," he said.
"Oh... it's stuck... I guess you'll have to use the other one... Um... maybe we should just stop this now."
Edward rolled his eyes. Did he really think goading like that would work on him? Please. That would be admitting defeat.
"Where is the other door?" he asked, a little impatiently.
Danny didn't answer.
"Over there..." a skeleton with a very high, raspy voice said. It was the one that had moved. It now stood behind Edward and pointed. And it also got into his personal space... without touching him, of course. The detailing on that mask was pretty phenomenal. It looked real as well.
"Yes... well," Edward said, clearing his throat a little. He turned and began to walk towards the area the skeleton had pointed to. Then... it laughed. Soft, as if to itself, but still cruel-sounding somehow.
He found the other door – black, of course, with no skeleton parts on it. Then he pushed through a heavy cloth cover, this time. He had to blink and step back. The light on the other side was about as bright as the skeleton room had been dark.
Compare and contrast. Right.
He braced himself and stepped through again, ignoring the skeleton's continued chortling behind him. A long hallway, likely the length of the room, stood before him. At the end, glowed the green 'exit' sign. The hallway, while short, had been painted white and was well-lit. It even had white tiles underneath his feet. It wasn't quite 'hospital' grade, but could definitely pass off as 'science lab' of some kind. They had to have brought in a generator for those extra lights, as bright as they were.
Well, he took a step forward, towards the end. Not a bad ending, if he did say so himself.
Then the lights went out and Edward froze.
A couple of seconds and it came back on again. At the end of the hall stood a figure dressed in a black robe with a hood over its head. It also held death-like scythe in one hand. They definitely hadn't been there before.
Edward swallowed but again forced his frazzled nerves to calm. He went to take another step forward and the figure slowly lifted its head. The teacher couldn't help but gasp as the hood was empty... except for two red, glowing orbs.
And then the lights went out again.
Behind him, a loud thump sounded, causing him to jump. He whirled around, trying to see something in the dim light, but even when the hall lit up again, he could see nothing. The thumping continued, combined with groaning. That definitely wasn't Danny's voice. It sounded much higher. And older...
This was ridiculous. There was nothing but a wall there.
Edward turned to the exit again. The figure was gone.
A voice whispered in his ear. "Oh, the poor dear. He chose wrong."
No one was there and he could have sworn he'd felt a cold breath on his ear.
"He can join us," a second, deeper voice said on his other side.
Swallowing, Edward forced himself forward. He'd taken no more than three steps before the lights went out again. He froze again.
The lights came on, and the figure stood not a foot from him, scythe raised to cut him.
That was the first time Edward yelled out in surprise and fear. "Something Wicked This Way Comes!" he yelled. The scythe came barreling towards him – phasing through the walls. The teacher yelped again and fell backwards, but it wouldn't be enough and—
"Mr. Lancer!" Danny said, barreling past him in a rush of cold air as the transparent boy leaped forward and tackled the black figure. The scythe missed Edward by an inch. He could feel it as it rushed by.
He looked to see where Danny and the figure were struggling on the floor.
Danny looked back. "Run!" he said.
Edward didn't wait to argue. He rushed forward, leaping over the pair of them, side-stepping the scythe that had fallen, and rushed towards the exit. Had real ghosts infiltrated this?
No, he didn't believe in ghosts...
And yet..
His hand yanked on the door and, to his relief, it opened. He stumbled out into the dim hallway outside – a different door than the one he'd come in through – and slammed it shut behind him. Then he took several seconds to catch his breath.
Wait, if a ghost had been in there, he couldn't leave Daniel who... wait... something didn't add up...
"Well?" A new voice startled him, and he looked down to see Tucker Foley, his PDA out and a big grin on his face. "How did we do?"
Mr. Lancer blinked as he tried to wrap his head around the question.
"How did we do?" Tucker repeated.
As Edward continued to just stare, the boy sighed and tapped his ear, where a bright-green bulb that looked about half-way between an earring and a microphone sat.
"Alright, guys. That's a wrap for take one. Come out to see what kind of a grade we got."
Behind Edward, the door to the white hallway opened and five people spilled out into the hall. A skeleton, the woman in the 1950's dress, an older man in overalls, an older woman in an apron and Daniel Fenton himself, looking completely unscathed and very, very opaque.
Edward could only stare. They'd almost convinced him that it had been real.
He wanted to stutter for a bit, but he forced himself to relax (yet again) and then crossed his arms. "How did you do that?" he asked.
"Do what?" Danny asked innocently.
"The transparency."
Tucker snorted. "Have you watched Scooby Doo? The kind of equipment necessary to project someone like that has been around for ages."
Somehow, Mr. Lancer thought that Mr. Foley's definition of 'ages' was different than his own. So he turned to the woman in the dress. He squinted a bit. She looked familiar... but he couldn't place where he'd run into her before. He must have seen her around town or something.
"How about your zombie look, then?" he asked.
She blinked.
"It's a special makeup that's invisible until you see it in a certain light," the skeleton said, lifting up the mask to reveal Samantha Manson.
"I see," he said. "Then how about—"
"Mr. Lancer, are you going to try and ferret all of our secrets out of us?" Danny asked, looking a little annoyed. "We worked hard on this. Some of our secrets should stay that way – ours."
Edward frowned, then nodded, conceding the point.
"Very well."
"So, who won?" Samantha asked.
Edward blinked. He had been told in no uncertain terms to favor the sports teams... but the sheer work (and money) that had to have gone into that room...
"You," he said, perhaps a little grudgingly. The group cheered. That meant Dash would be serving detention and he'd have to explain why to the principal... and the superintendent. Bah.
Well...maybe not...
"Could you, perhaps, keep this up for a couple of days?" Mr. Lancer asked. "I'd like a couple of other people to see it, but it will likely be tomorrow night or the night after."
Danny blinked. "Um... sure, I guess. I can come back... Tuck? Sam?"
"Sure," Tucker said.
"I'll talk my parents into it," Sam affirmed.
Then Danny turned to the other three. "What about you, Mr. Beasley? Ms. Lunch?"
Lunch? Was that an actual name?
"Oh, why of course, dearie," the older woman said sweetly. "This was the most fun I've had in... a long time."
"I will as well!" the man in the overalls said in a very exaggerated voice.
Danny sighed. "Mr. Beasley, we talked about this."
The man huffed and turned his head, grumbling under his breath.
Finally, Danny turned to the 1950's woman. "What bout you, Dee?"
Must be an old family friend if Danny was on first-name basis. The woman looked a little uncomfortable.
"I... will see if I can."
Danny's face fell into something that looked almost menacing. "If Aragon gives you issues, let me know."
That took Edward back a bit. He'd never heard his normally rather quiet, if clumsy, student sound so… vitriolic.
The woman's eyes widened. "Oh, no S... er, Danny! That isn't necessary!"
Danny didn't look too happy, but he finally nodded. "Alright, then."
Edward really wasn't sure what to make of that interchange, so he did what he normally did and filed it away to think about later.
"Well, we'll be getting Ms. Tetslaff and her group here soon, so please prepare," the teacher finally said with a smile and went to wait at the door. He also made sure to bring out the recorder he'd bought specifically for this. He couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces.
It went over swimmingly. Even Tetslaff had to agree (rather grudgingly) that the rooms, especially Danny's, had been excellent.
Her word around town may or may not have been why there was a line to go into the house the next night when Edward brought the board of Education around.
Needless to say, Dash got the detention.
xXx
AN: The DP universe is notoriously nasty when it comes to timelines. I've been keeping more or less to the timeline of how each episode aired so far, BUT I'm going to have to deviate a bit for a couple of reasons. 1. Halloween happens. There is only one Halloween episode (sad day) and it fits into my timeline here. Thus, we get a Halloween episode instead of Prisoners of Love… which happens in May. May 9th to be exact. SOOO we're definitely getting Ember and Cujo first… and we'll likely skip or glide over Christmas because A. we've already taken care of Ghostwriter and B. I refuse to believe their Christmas episode happens in their first year of school. Johnny and Kitty may be in there as well, although the equivalent of Teacher of the Year will likely be a bit later, either right before or right after Prisoner's of Love, and then we'll be getting the second half of season 1. Wulf and his story will depend heavily on PoL, but then we get more Johnny and Kitty, more Valerie, and we're likely going to completely skip Maternal Instincts altogether if Vlad sticks to his promise… I haven't decided whether he will yet or not. I'm leaning towards him keeping it… but that isn't necessarily all good either. Just saying. Million Dollar ghost will likely be similar… which worries me because now I have to figure out how to bring in the GIW and…
I'm babbling, aren't I. In any case, continuity goes downhill from there.
I haven't mentioned some ghosts that will be prominent. FYI. IE Spectra and Bertrand, Aragon (Dragon except with an A… why did I never get that before?), likely Youngblood, Amorpho, Far Frozen, Pandora, Undergrowth and Nocturn at some point (I still haven't brought Pointdexter into this either… huh). Almost all of the third season can be thrown out by now… Not that I'm complaining too much, though. ^^; ahem But I still want to bring in a lot of the universe's ghosts. If you feel I've forgotten something, please feel free to comment. Please and thank you!
And finally, I HAVE FANART! Oh, gosh, you guys don't know how happy that makes me! In any case thank you to Oriyart for this! www . instagram (period) com/p/CEn3T16FMo7/ (without spaces)
Check out discord . gg/zJQSDa8 for my Discord! I do live streaming once or twice a week and otherwise it's a fun place to just go and geek out/show support!