DannyMay 2019. Day Thirteen

"Accident"

Danny opened his eyes when the bus lurched and the tires squealed in protest, almost making him fall to the hall between the seat-rows if not for his friends holding him in place.

"Thanks, guys." He said with a grimacing smile, then glared at the front seat where the driver was apologizing to the disgruntled students.

"Huh, it's pretty dark already." Tucker said, looking out the window from his seat, sandwiched between Danny and Sam.

"Pff, day walker." Sam snorted, giving cue to the friendly banter that soon began between Tucker and her and a competence to see whose nightlife was better.

Danny chuckled lowly, amused at his friends' antics, but then looked around at his class, because something didn't feel right. Things seemed to have calmed down by now, and regular chatter filled the space.

"Hey, Mikey," he called to the boy on the seat opposite his on the other row, "what was that, anyway? Did we hit something? Or, uh, avoid something?"

Mikey frowned at him behind his glasses, and instead asked back, "When? What are you talking about?"

Danny rolled his eyes, figures this would be the moment for Mikey to get into one of his moods. "Y'know, why we lurched, what woke me up just a moment ago…"

"I… don't know what you mean, Danny. I will just… look at my phone." And with that, Danny lost him.

He huffed an annoyed breath and stood up, not bothering to hold onto anything as he made his way to the front of the bus, avoiding Dash's extended leg with a roll of his eyes and giving Valerie a small smile and a little wave as he passed next to her, which she returned and then glanced away.

He finally reached the driver, a guy with a wild dark mane that reminded Danny uncomfortably of a famous cartoon character.

"Hey, sorry, but what did we hit? Or avoid, for that matter." He asked.

"What d'ya mean?" The driver asked cheerily, glancing briefly away from the road to look at Danny.

"Just now, you swerved, badly. Why?" He felt his patience begin to thin.

"I think ya need to rest, buddy." The man said, gibing Danny a patronizing an indulgent smile. "We will be in Amity in no time!"

"Mr Fenton," Mr Lancer spoke up from his seat behind the driver, "I think it would be best if you went back to your seat and stopped distracting our driver."

Danny grumbled but did as told, a sinking feeling settling on his stomach with every step he gave.

He sank down on his seat and looked at his friends who had stopped bantering and now were just sitting in relaxed silence. Danny pursed his lips and called at them, afraid of getting answers.

"Guys… what woke me up?" He finally asked.

His friends looked at him, blinking. "What do you mean 'what'?" Sam said. "You just, woke up." She shrugged and Tucker nodded his confirmation.

"So, you don't remember me almost falling off my seat, and holding me up?"

Danny, you didn't fall off your seat, or almost, you just woke up, talked to Mikey, and got up. Are you okay?" Tucker told him.

Danny passed a hand through his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. His friends, noticing his distress, didn't tell him he was going insane, or that he should just forget it, instead, they asked with obvious concern, "What do you remember happening?"

And he told them, seeing how their faces got pinched in confusion and worry.

"So you think we just, forgot?" Sam asked seriously.

"Or something made you forget." Danny declared, his gaze intent. "Cover me."

He dived to Sam's seat next to the window, making his buddies scurry aside and cover his escape with awkward poses, except…

"What the heck?!"

They turned, and saw Danny drop his intangibility and put his hand against the side of the bus, and look up at them with alarmed eyes.

"I can't phase through it."

"What do you mean?

"Are your powers not working?"

"You sure you're alright?"

Danny heard his friends but his attention was elsewhere, looking for the bus' escape routes he had spotted the moment they had entered the vehicle, wanting to use the one with the less collateral damage.

He looked up, finally spotting the skylight, partially open so the smell of sweaty, hormonal teenagers wasn't clogged in the small space.

"Danny?" He heard his friends say at the same time.

He climbed to his seat and then to the backrest, putting a hand against the ceiling for support as he worked in opening the small door, as the murmurs grew among his classmates.

"What's the matter, Fenturd? Are ya pissin' yourself?" "What's Danny doing now?" "Holy shit, Fenton finally went insane!"

"Mr Fenton! What is the meaning of this?!" Lancer yelled, but Danny had finally managed to fully open the skylight, and now he was hanging off it, using his arms' strength to push himself up and out. "Daniel Fenton! Get down here, young man! Your parents are going to hear of this!"

Danny climbed out of the bus, his hair flowing with the night's wind, and looked up…

… to find not a dark, starry sky with all the constellations he knew so well, but a vast green expanse, with spirals instead of clouds and doors scattered at random in the sky.

He looked back down inside the bus, remembering the swerving, Mikey, the driver and not even his friends remembering the sudden darkness…

"No…"

The sinking feeling in his stomach gave way to horror as realization his him, taking the air that wasn't there out of his lungs, making him scramble and get back in again, ignoring his yelling professor, his hollering classmates, as he looked at his two best friends' worried faces, while tears ran down his own.

"… Danny?"

Ok, personally, this I am very proud of this one, if only because I didn't rush it in the end like I do most times, even if I really wanted to! Often times I just think "Uh, whatevs, they'll get the point" but don't really like how these shots end up, y'know? So, even when I really wanted to just finish this and cut it like, before Danny even climbed out of the bus, I held myself back and actually made it the way I saw it on my mind!

As I said, really proud of myself :]