Disclaimer: I wish I owned Danny Phantom! Desiree: -turns me into Butch Hartman- AHHHHHHHHH! CHANGE ME BACK CHANGE ME BACK! -is changed back-
TW for somebody trying to out Danny as trans and being a bit transphobic but he immediately gets punched in the face/in trouble every time. Danny never fully gets outed either and the dude learns not to be an asshat
Yo, here's a small followup that several people seemed to like. It takes place near the end of the school year. I know I had said that I didn't plan on continuing this, but it was mainly because I didn't really have any ideas on what to possibly write about, but then this came to mind :)
This also takes place several months after the first chapter.
Official summary: As the school year starts to come to a close, it's time to elect next year's student council president, and Danny finds himself running against Kennedy.
"Bad news, gays," Jeremy announced. In a smooth movement, he had slipped into the dumpster alley, a cigarette already out and being lit. "One of us has to sacrifice their precious free time to run for student council president next year."
The group before him looked up from their activities to stare. Amy was braiding Melissa's hair, Rachel and Tucker standing over Sam's shoulders to watch her play DOOM on her Nintendo switch, and Danny reviewing notes for a test.
"...What?" Melissa asked. She couldn't move her head to directly stare at him, but she raised her eyebrow in confusion. "Why don't you do it?"
"I don't have that kind of time," Jeremy complained, breathing out smoke. "I have work, football in fall, the math league, and I'm in all AP and honors. You do it."
"I have school, work, volleyball in the fall and softball in spring, and volunteering," Melissa argued. "I don't have time either. Sam should do it, she's all about social issues."
"I'm more of a protestor than a politician," Sam spoke up. She didn't glance up from her game. "I hate having to play nice to a bunch of assholes just so that they'll learn that they have to care about other people."
"Why do we even care about who's the student council president next year?" Tucker questioned. He didn't glance up from watching Sam play either.
"This is why," Jeremy declared. He dug through his pocket to pull out a crumpled up piece of paper. He smoothed it out and slapped it against the brick wall of the building for the group to see. Finally, everybody glanced up from their activities to see.
The previously-crumbled paper was an advertisement. Very well done for a high schooler. Too good. Borderline professional level. The hallway advertisement was calling for people to vote Kennedy for student council president.
"...Fuck, one of us has to run for student council president," Danny cursed under his breath, and he returned his attention back to his papers. Ugh, why was this history class so tedious with memorizing every single date?
"Nose goes," Rachel spoke up.
The statement took a moment to click in Danny's head. He shot his head up, putting a finger to his nose, but he was too late. Everybody else already had their finger to their nose, all with their stare fixed on him.
"God fucking damn it," Danny scowled.
Ember idly played her guitar, sitting lazily in the air as Skulker stayed hunted over on the edge of the rooftop. He was holding up binoculars, scanning the skyline. After a while, she hummed along to her tune.
"This isn't really what I meant when I asked if we could go on the double date," she finally complained. Skulker scowled, but he didn't take his eyes off the cityscape. "Come on, we're gonna be late."
"I told you, I wanted to make sure that the whelp wouldn't interrupt us," he argued. "It's just so out of character for him to not show up as soon as we arrive. He's not even at school, I checked, but he didn't move." Skulker lightly pondered what he knew of the ghost kid. "The portal's still up, and I still see him."
"Maybe we're just harder to detect," Ember boredly suggested.
"Oh, I thought Danny Phantom was just ignoring me."
Ember groaned as Skulker's favorite third wheel, Technus, inserted himself into the conversation. Where did he even come from? The couple glanced to see Technus coming through the door that led into the building below. He had his arms full of shopping bags.
"Oh, something must be up. Albert Screamstein is impossible to not detect," Ember commented. She stood straight up, letting herself rest on the rooftop. Technus frowned.
"Hey," he complained.
"Ember's right," Skulker said. He put his binoculars away. "Where is he?"
"Fuck if I know," Technus shrugged his shoulders. Skulker could hear police sirens faintly in the distance, and Technus adjusted his bags. "I should get going, those are for me."
"...What?" Ember stared blankly at him.
"...It's boring to just swoop in and take stuff without the ghost child there to stop me. And I thought he was ignoring me, so I've been just stealing stuff the old fashioned way to get his attention," Technus explained.
"...Old fashioned way?" Skulker questioned.
"Ya know, holding the store hostage and demanding the stuff."
Ember facepalmed.
"There's nothing to lose. It'd be good to put on your college application, Kennedy isn't president, and it's like a half hour after school every day, that's nothing," Tucker pointed out. Danny drummed his fingers on the table in the chemistry room.
"You can push for the LGBTQ club too," Melissa pointed out. She sat on the other side of Tucker, serving as his lab partner.
"You thinking about running for student president?" Rosemary pipped up. She was Danny's lab partner and sat on the other side of him. Rosemary was apparently the youngest daughter of some big bank CEO. She was nice enough, even though she refused to pour anything or touch any of the equipment because she thought they were sticky and gross, but at least she took notes and knew how to answer all the lab questions. "Good luck. Kennedy's got his dad's staff helping him with his campaign. It's why nobody's really running against him."
"Is that why his posters look so good?" Tucker questioned. Rosemary nodded.
"He was talking about it the other day at lunch," she told them. "His dad's letting him use his office to print stuff and even has one of his employees designing the flyers and stuff. It's partly why I'm only going for vice-president myself. Really don't wanna deal with him and his nonsense."
"Between Sam and I, we can probably make even better flyers and posters," Melissa lightly mused. "And between all of us, we can probably reach to every major group and get their vote."
"I dunno," Danny said slowly. Tucker grinned, pulling his PDA out.
"Dude, I can totally get you!" he replied cheerfully, and he was already quickly typing out a mile a minute on the device. "I'll be your campaign manager. I can schedule a time to reach out to everybody and make flyers and help with your speech and everything!" Danny sighed.
"Has the entire gorilla thing slipped your mind?" he asked.
"It'll be different this time, I promise!" Tucker assured him. He handed Danny his PDA. Indeed, Tucker already had various things scheduled. "It's to beat Kennedy. And you should probably have something on your college applications."
"Yeah, internships with your parents don't always hold a lot of weight, and the astrophysics club is just one thing," Melissa added. Danny stared at her blankly before remembering that the "internship" was the trio's code for Danny's ghost hunting.
"Oh, yeah. Right." Danny paused for a moment before deeply exhaling. "Fine. I'll go submit my name to the office, and we'll make a plan at lunch."
"So...absolutely no trace of him?" Ember questioned.
Desiree shook her head. The ghosts were now in the fairly empty park, casually floating in a circle. Not only were they in the park, but had been talking for nearly twenty minutes with...no ghost kid to come and stop him.
"Hmm. This is serious," Skulker mused. "Something's happened to the ghost kid."
"But isn't this what we've have been wanting?" Desiree questioned. "For him to leave us alone more? It's not like he never comes. He still shows up sometimes."
"...It's boring without him chasing us or fighting back," Technus replied. Skulker nodded in agreement. "The normal humans are too afraid."
"Besides the dipstick's parents, who both kinda suck at it," Ember added.
"So…," Desiree stared at the others. "What should we do then?"
Nobody had any ideas.
"So, what's our game plan?" Danny asked, taking his seat in between Sam and Tucker. Melissa and Jeremy were the only other two at the table, as while they supported him, Rachel and Amy decided to opt out of the official campaign help. Rachel due to claims of not being too good at campaigning and being busy with track and field. Amy because Danny had quickly learned that she really was never at lunch and often spent most afternoons with her dad, who was quickly identified as the lead singer of Dumpty Humpty by Sam, working as an intern at his music studio. At least three times a week but often every day, as Rachel had described, her mom signed her and her brother out of school to take them to some fancy restaurant. Danny could see Rachel sitting with another group she often hung with, while Amy was obviously missing.
"So, Mel and I are going to be designing the flyers, and distributing them," Sam began. Melissa held up a sketchbook.
"Yeah, we've already got some ideas flowing," she added. "I'm going to be uploading them onto a computer so we can print them out."
"Should we get special paper?" Tucker asked. One of Kennedy's flyers was on the table, and he picked it up, rubbing the paper with his thumb. "This is printed on some of the good shit. I think it's cardstock."
"The good shit's gonna cost us a lot of money though," Jeremy frowned. "My store does it, and it's almost 60 cents per page. Without color. We're gonna be printing like, over a hundred papers, probably with color. I dunno about you guys, but I can't pay over a hundred dollars for just printing out paper."
"A hundred dollars!?" Danny cried out. "I don't have that kind of money either!"
"I could pay," Sam offered. "I'd have to talk to my parents about it though."
"Wait, isn't your uncle the mayor?" Melissa spoke up. "Why don't you just ask him if we can use his printers and stuff?"
"Godfather. But I dunno, isn't that kinda...cheaty?" Danny was hesitant. "Plus he's kind of a fruitloop."
"Kennedy's dad is a Senator and has used tax dollars to assign him a staff member to help him get elected," Jeremy pointed out. "I think asking another politician for help is fair game."
"...True." Ugh, he hated the idea of getting help from that fruitloop. "I'll visit Vlad's office after school and ask."
"I already downloaded your new schedule," Tucker spoke up. He showed Danny his PDA. "You get all this week and next week to advertise, candidates give a speech this Friday, and we vote next Wednesday and get results by Friday morning."
"I have to write a speech?" Danny groaned.
"It's okay, we'll help," Melissa promised.
"Exactly, you're not in this alone," Sam assured him.
"And if nothing else, maybe we can just bully Kennedy into quitting. Ya know, alphabet mafia style," Jeremy suggested. Melissa punched him in the shoulder.
"So you haven't seen the ghost kid either…." Skulker lightly mused. He rubbed his chin in deep throat. The Box Ghost nodded, waving his arms.
"No! It seems that Danny Phantom has finally acknowledged that me, the Box Ghost, is ultimately too powerful to be stopped! Especially since I now have THIS!"
The Box Ghost held a box up to Skulker. The hunter stared at it.
"Is this a shoe box?" he asked. The Box Ghost nodded. "How is this powerful?"
"I thought teenage boys were obsessed with their sneakers?" the Box Ghost said slowly as he seemed to just now question himself. Skulker sighed.
"Hello, Daniel, here to start a fuss?" Vlad didn't even look up from his paperwork. Danny hated himself. He hated himself, and he hated Vlad. He took a deep, shaky breath.
"Actually...I'm here to ask for help," he said, the words just tasting awful in his mouth. This certainly caught Vlad's interest, and the billionaire looked up at him curiously. Ugh. "I'm running for student council president, and I was wondering if I can use some of your office stuff to make posters and print flyers."
"You're running for student council president?" Vlad immediately perked up. "I have to say, Daniel. This isn't something I expected of you. What brought this on?"
"It looks fantastic on a college resume, and yaknow, can't really join sports with ghost powers, and uhhh, why not, ya know?" Danny lied, sporting a big, fake smile. Vlad raised an eyebrow at him. Danny sighed. "Fine. The other kid running is a jerk, and I really wanna beat him out of spite."
"The tradition of politics," Vlad nodded understandingly. "Running for office for spite. Who is this kid?"
"Uh, his name's like...Cornalicious Kennedy? It's a really stupid name," Danny replied.
"Kennedy…," Vlad said slowly as he thought. "Is that Senator Kennedy's kid?" Danny nodded. "I hate that man and his smug little brats. Use whatever you want from my offices." Vlad reached into his pocket, pulling out his wallet and holding up a credit card. "Make your purchases on this. And don't go crazy with it, or I'll cancel the charges and tell your parents."
Danny eagerly accepted the credit card. Damn, was it potentially worth it to just buy a PS5 to see if he could get away with it? Hm...he'd have to test that once the election was over.
"Thanks!" Danny grinned.
"Did I miss anything?" Melissa's voice asked. The group glanced up at her as she came, two drink trays of Starbucks. The teen was still wearing her work apron and hat.
"No, no, we just got here," Sam assured her.
Everybody immediately began to dig into their pockets, pulling out a small bit of cash to slide towards Melissa as she set the trays down on the table. She began to take the drinks out of the trays, passing out everybody's order to them. She glanced at Jeremy as he reached to take his drink, and she pointedly grabbed it before he could, holding it to her chest. "Where's my compensation?" Jeremy pouted.
"Come on, family discount," he complained. He stood to try and take it from her. She held it out from him.
"Family discount is extra," she joked. Jeremy glared at her, reaching out and managing to take it from her. Melissa glanced at Danny as she took her seat, grabbing her drink "So did your godfather agree to help?"
"Yeah, Vlad agreed to finance it." Danny's face wrinkled up in disgust. Ugh, he couldn't believe he was sinking to this level. "And he said that we can use his office for printing stuff too." He took a drink of his coffee.
Jeremy threw his pencil down in frustration, leaning back in his chair and taking a large sip of his iced coffee.
"God, this really is like politics, isn't it? In order to beat fucking Horny, I have to play nice with good ol' Mayor Masters," he complained. Danny raised an eyebrow at him.
"You hate him?" he asked. Jeremy shrugged a bit.
"Mel and I are basically the poster children of his stupid poverty project," he explained. "Cause we're just poor enough to have people constantly feel sorry for us but not quite poor enough to qualify for other programs, and we're impressive because we do good in school." Melissa frowned.
"And he fucked Jeremy over," Melissa added.
"I don't even wanna talk about that," Jeremy scowled.
"What happened?" Tucker voiced both his and Danny's curiosity.
"Do you know those unsolvable math problems?" Melissa questioned. They nodded. "Jeremy solved one. It's what got him his scholarship. When you solve one of those problems, it goes into review, and once it gets verified by a bunch of other math people, you normally get a lot of money."
"And instead of being able to fucking wait and get the money later once it was proven, good old Mayor fucking Masters swooped in and made this huge ass deal out of the local genius right in middle of shithole Elmerton, and he basically said that he'd just give our white trash family the money now, even more than the promised reward, so we can invest it in my education," Jeremy scowled. "So he wrote me a check for five million dollars."
"Wait, so you have millions of dollars sitting around, and you're wearing a second hand uniform?" Tucker asked. Jeremy stared at him with a dead look in his eye.
"The money didn't go to me. I'm a minor. It went to my parents. You'd be amazed how quickly two addicts can blow through five million dollars."
Tucker winced hard.
"Sorry," he apologized.
"Don't be, my college essays are gonna be fire," Jeremy replied. "We need to get back on track." He gestured to Sam and Melissa. "You two need to finish posters like, today, so that Danny can go get them printed. We don't have long to really advertise."
"Yeah, yeah. Good call," Danny agreed. Melissa reached into her backpack for her sketchbook, opening it and laying it on the table.
"Sam and I came up with this yesterday," she mentioned. Sam nodded.
"Yeah, if you like it I'll use my free period and lunch to put it on the computer, then email it to Danny," Sam replied. "And you can go to Vlad's office after school to print it."
"It looks great!" Danny commented. Jeremy and Tucker leaned in for a better look.
"Yeah, it looks pretty good. Lot better than Kennedy's," Jeremy noted. "Wonder if his dad assigned him the worst intern to help." Melissa scowled at him.
"Either leave Kennedy alone or just make out with him already. This isn't just about beating him," she complained. Jeremy's cheeks flushed red as he made a face at her.
"I told you that in private!" he hissed at her. Melissa ignored him and continued on.
"It'd be great to have a president that could push the school towards allowing an official LGBTQ club," she continued. "and that actually will also represent scholarship kids, and not just all the rich kids." Danny snickered.
"Wait, you don't actually have a-" Danny began, only to be cut off by Jeremy slamming his fists onto the table.
"I swear to fucking God, Fenton! I know where you live! Your house lights up like a beacon with your last name!" he threatened.
"You don't know where I live," Tucker teased, his voice turning sing songy. "Jeremy and Horny, sitting in a tree, K-I." He stopped when Jeremy snatched his PDA out of his hands. "No! My baby!"
Tucker stood up, trying to reach for it. Even though Tucker was the tallest of the ex-Casper High trio at a little over six foot, Jeremy was still nearly a foot taller. He held it over his head out of reach.
"Everybody shut the hell up and get back on track! We have a campaign to run!" Jeremy scowled.
"I'll be quiet, give her back!" Tucker begged. Jeremy stared hard at him before slowly handing it back. Tucker cradled the PDA to his chest, before tucking it into his pocket. He glanced at Jeremy.
"S-S-I-N-G."
Jeremy vaulted himself over the table as Tucker immediately made his way for the cafeteria doors.
"This is so boring!" Johnny 13 complained. Kitty slapped the back of his head. "Ow!"
"So what? I'm boring?" she scowled. Johnny immediately knew that he had dug himself into a hole.
"N-no baby! Of course not!" he replied quickly. "Just that, ya know. I'm so used to having to defend my baby from that brat."
"But isn't this good?" she frowned. "We can finally have some uninterrupted alone time, and all you're thinking about is another teenage dude? Are you crushing on him?" Johnny choked on his own spit.
"What! No!" he stammered. "Baby, it's just weird! He normally is so on our asses. Isn't it weird that we barely see him anymore?"
Kitty crossed her arms over her chest, but she did take what he said into consideration. She thought it over, giving a small hum.
"Hm. Honestly, yeah, it is kinda weird," she mused. "Where do you think he is?" Johnny shrugged his shoulders.
"Hey, you're alive," Danny lightly commented as Tucker plopped in the seat next to him with a sigh.
"I forgot that he played football," Tucker confessed. Danny snorted.
"Dude, he's like? Nearly seven foot tall, how do you forget?" he asked. "We've gone to most of the games."
"I dunno why you're actually watching the games when you could be watching the cheerleaders," Tucker shrugged. "I mean, have you seen how Sophie looks in one?" Danny rolled his eyes.
"Eh, I mean she's pretty, but conversations with her…" his mind drifted back to the scholarship conversation. And the dozens of things he's overheard her say.
"Pretty AND rich, dude! I swear, if I just dated the right girl, I could have one happy life as a househusband," Tucker mused.
"Well, then you'd wanna ask somebody like Rosemary out, she's hella smart," he said. Tucker thought about it. "Seriously dude, it looks like she doesn't do anything in lab, but she's crazy smart. She basically does all the lab questions if I just do the experiments, cause she doesn't wanna touch anything sticky. I've never gotten anything other than a hundred. After the test you should ask her to partner up."
Tucker gave a small hum as he thought about it some more. Danny could see Kennedy storm into the class, and he raised an eyebrow. They didn't have seventh period together. The redhead scanned the room before noticing Danny, and he pointed at him accusingly.
"You!" he scowled. He kept his finger up as he rushed towards him. "You're running against me!?"
"More like basically running unopposed, since I'm pretty sure you're some kind of goblin that lives under the school," Danny replied.
"Yeah, goblins can't run for school president," Tucker confirmed. "Against school policy." Kennedy scowled.
"Oh, shut up! Why are you even bothering?" he demanded to know. "My campaign is already flawless. You're going to lose and just make yourself look stupid. You need to just drop out."
"I'm not dropping out," Danny said firmly. He stood up to properly face the other. "If your campaign is really that flawless, then it'll show itself come election day. But in the meantime, you should focus on what you're doing rather than worrying about what I'm doing."
"You just came here, and you really think you can beat me?" Kennedy frowned. "I've known most of these kids since kindergarten."
"And I've only been here a few months, yet most people in school know me," Danny counter-argued. "Just? Go? You're going to be late."
Kennedy stared at the clock, making a face. He didn't say anything, and he just quick-walked out of the class, the bell ringing soon as he stepped outside the class door. Danny could hear him sprinting down the hallway.
"What's his deal?" Danny mused, sitting back down.
"Eh, he's just pissed cause he's not running unopposed," Tucker assured him. "Ignore him. Listen, I already came up with a few ideas for your speech on Friday."
Danny's posters and advertisements had come out beautifully. When Danny had gone to print them at Vlad's office, the fruitloop had actually been fairly helpful by printing them on a very fancy feeling cardboard like paper that had a glossy shine to them, making the posters that the unofficial queer club had plastered around the school literally seem to shine, looking even better than Kennedy's. The papers passed out to students were also printed on cardboard stock.
The entire week felt like a blur of Danny chatting lightly to classmates who had come to ask him about his campaign and answering questions about it. Kennedy, aside from dirty looks, had essentially ignored him. Danny didn't pay it too much mind, as he found himself spending a huge chunk of time writing and re-writing the speech, running it not only by his friends but also getting feedback from Mr. Perkins, the English teacher who seemed very enthusiastic to help him finalize his final draft.
His parents were, embarrassingly, also involved. Mostly serving as his pretend audience as he practiced at home and got the overhyped enthusiasm that only an overloving mom and goofball dad could give, especially given that this was the first thing he took part of since he began high school, since ghost hunting took up so much damn time. It took everything in him to convince them to not show up to witness the speech in person. He did not need the public humiliation.
The speech took over fourth and fifth period, but Danny and Kennedy were both allowed to leave their class early to go and prepare for when the presentations began.
Danny inhaled and exhaled deeply as he looked over the speech he had spent the past week writing and practicing with everybody's help. Danny was nervous. He didn't eat that morning or during morning break in irrational fear that he'd throw up during his speech, and now he was having a rational fear of his stomach doing a large, embarrassing gurgle in the middle of speaking. At least compared to Casper High, Polter Heights High was very small, barely two hundred students total, which did ease his fears a bit.
He sat in a seat behind the scenes of the auditorium up on the stage, glancing at his notecards. Sam had neatly written out his speech highlights for him, even though he had a full transcript to read from. There were a few other kids that were running for the other positions sitting a short distance from them, all chatting lightly with each other, reading their own campaign speeches or scrolling on cell phones.
Kennedy was sitting in a seat across from him, looking over his own speech. Danny ignored him, focusing on his own. There was no reason to give the snobby rich kid the time of day. He exhaled once more, softly. There wasn't a whole lot of noise outside of administrative workers turning on the lights and checking the microphone and sound to prepare.. Kennedy looked at his watch.
"Good luck," Kennedy told Danny as he stood up. Danny glanced up at him with a half-smile. Then Kennedy said his name. His old name, and Danny was very happy that he hadn't eaten yet, cause he knew he would have stress-vomited right then and there.
Kennedy gave him a smirk on his increasingly punchable face. Danny stared at him, his jaw slightly agape as Kennedy walked away. He had no idea where he was going, but he felt sick and was too shocked to do anything for a while. How the hell did he even…?
The bell rang, making him jump a bit. Pretty soon, the commotion of kids flooding into the auditorium began to break the silence. Danny felt tears of anxiety begin to sting, and he put his papers on the chair next to him in favor of pulling his phone out and immediately calling Sam. It rang for way too long before the goth answered fairly cheerfully. He could hear their friends chatting in the background, as well as their classmates.
"Sam!" Danny croaked out. Sam instantly changed her tune.
"Danny? What happened? Did you get hurt?" she asked. Danny sniffled, exhaling hard to get himself under control so that he wouldn't have to give a speech with red eyes. Her words caught Tucker's attention, and Danny could hear Tucker vaguely say something but Sam shushed him.
"It's Kennedy," he said, and he quickly explained. Sam was livid.
"Oh, don't you worry about that little kiss ass," she hissed. "I'll handle it. Just worry about your speech, okay? You're going to do great, don't let some little school basement dwelling goblin ruin your day."
"...Yeah. You're right," Danny breathed. He exhaled loudly again.
"Listen, we'll go hunt him down, I'll see you at lunch, okay? Love you."
"I love you too," Danny replied, and they hung up. Knowing that Sam was on the case gave him some comfort. If anybody could scare anybody into silence, it was absolutely Sam. He tried to re-read over his speech, but his mind was going a hundred miles an hour, and he couldn't concentrate.
Soon, he heard Principal Freeling begin to talk, and he forced himself to pay attention. His name was called, and he stepped out onto the stage. The auditorium felt empty, which did make sense since it was built to seat nearly two hundred more than the total amount of students. It brought him a weird sense of comfort, and he did his best to smile. He stepped up to the podium, setting his speech in front of him. With a deep exhale, he began to talk.
"Did you see him?" Skulker asked. Technus shrugged his shoulders.
"Nope," Technus replied loudly over Casper High's blaring ghost alarm system as the entire building went into lockdown. "Maybe he's out sick today?"
"Maybe," Skulker mused. Soon, the door nearby was burst open, and the Fenton adults were there, weapons drawn.
"Hold right there, spooks!" Jack boomed. The ghosts glanced at each other.
"Just what the fuck do you think you're doing?"
Kennedy jumped as he was caught, dropping his small collection of rolled up posters all over the ground. Sam stopped on one, rubbing it with her foot and destroying it. The poster he was in the process of hanging up displayed Danny's personal information, and Sam narrowed her eyes at him. He spun to see Sam standing before him with her arms crossed, Jeremy standing with her.
"Look, I'm anti-bullying-," Sam began.
"I'm not," Jeremy interrupted. He reached out to grab Kennedy by the front of his sweater vest. "Think we need to bring it back. Some people really need to be bullied again."
"Let go of me!" Kennedy demanded. Sam scowled, slapping Jeremy on the back.
"Let him go!" she snapped. "We're not cavemen, we can talk about this like human beings."
"He's not a human though, he's some goblin that lives under the school!" Jeremy protested, though he did let Kennedy go.
"I'm not doing anything wrong by simply telling the school the whole truth," Kennedy said. "I think they deserve to know that Danny's first name is-"
Sam interrupted him with a punch to the face. Kennedy stumbled back a step, looking absolutely shocked. After a few moments, he held his mouth, eyes welling up with some tears, though he didn't begin crying. There was a trickle of blood, but nothing serious or teeth missing. Though Sam wished she had knocked a few out.
"Look, Horny," Jeremy began, putting a hand on the other's shoulder. Kennedy glared at him, still blinking back some tears. "I get it. I really do. My dad never told me that he loved me either. But instead of being an asshole who pulls a whole smear campaign, just set a fire or something. For example, just the other day I used a cigarette to light a burger wrapper in the alleyway near the Nasty Burger on fire."
"Wait, that was you?" Sam blurted out. She crossed her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes. "You do realize that it took like four hours to put out and that it nearly burned down the whole Nasty Burger cause of the cooking grease." Jeremy flinched.
"Shut up, Manson, you heard nothing," Jeremy quickly snapped.
"My dad loves me, fucking asshole," Kennedy scowled, pulling himself out of Jeremy's reach. "He tells my sister and I all the time."
Jeremy knelt down a bit so he was eye-level with him. Kennedy ignored him.
"Horrnnnyyy," Jeremy spoke in a loud whisper. "When was the last time your daddy said I love you outside of a public setting when he needed to affirm his family-friendly political image to the public?"
Kennedy narrowed his eyes at him. Sam threw her arms up in annoyance.
"Just kiss already," she snapped. Jeremy instantly turned to glare at her. "Come on, we have smear posters to tear down."
She took a step forward, grabbing Kennedy's arm. She twisted it behind him, slamming him chest-first into the lockers with her knee digging into his lower back. Kennedy whimpered in pain and squirmed to escape, but she had an iron grip. "Listen. We're tearing these posters down, and so help you, if I see another single fucking poster with any of Danny's private info on it, I'll castrate you myself. Got it?"
"Yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes," Kennedy yelped. Sam kept him in place for nearly a minute before finally letting go.
"Now get lost. Actually, you should probably be listening to Danny's speech. Looks bad when a candidate dips on the other."
Kennedy exhaled deeply, grabbing his shoulder and massaging it. The pair and Kennedy stared each other down. Kennedy huffed, staying in place. Sam gave a growl and did a fake stomp towards him, as if she was about to come for him. The redhead instantly paled and rushed back towards the auditorium. Jeremy snickered.
"Thought you were anti-bullying," he teased. He reached for one of the posters and ripped it down before scooping down to pick up the dropped posters.
"Eh, starting to agree that some people need to be bullied," she grumbled, reaching for another poster to tear off the wall. "I can't believe he'd do something like this."
"Like father, like son," Jeremy replied sarcastically.
The school was fairly small, and it was easy to do a sweep and find that Kennedy had only begun putting up posters, which were ripped up and thrown in the dumpster. Sam and Jeremy slipped back into the auditorium. Tucker was filming Danny as he was talking, and Sam took her saved seat in between him and Melissa. Jeremy took the other side of his sister, putting up the armrest of the empty seat next to him so he could more comfortably sit.
"How'd it go?" Tucker whispered to her. Sam shook her head.
"Tell you later," she promised. "How's Danny doing?"
"Doing great!" Tucker replied.
"While I haven't been here for very long, I've met a lot of you and have been listening to what you guys have been wanting. You guys don't like school dances being in the gym. You don't like how stressful finals are. The kinds of themes you want for school events.
"I know what it feels like to be an outcast without a voice. We all deserve a voice in student government, and I hope you'd allow me to be that voice."
The auditorium erupted into a light, polite applause as Danny finished. Sam sprung to her feet to give up two thumbs up, and Danny seemed to visibly relax a bit. He smiled back, giving a small wave as he took his speech with him as he stepped down. Principal Freeling stepped up to the podium.
"And now, please give your attention to Cornelius Kennedy," she lightly introduced. Kennedy stepped up to the podium with his own speech, adjusting the microphone a bit.
"Ah, thank god, nap time," Jeremy sighed. He put up more armrests of the free chairs near him, shifting to lay down.
"Man, he's got the right idea," Tucker commented. He shifted to push up a few armrests himself, grabbing his backpack as a makeshift pillow. Sam rolled her eyes.
"You guys realize that there's other speeches besides just Danny, right?"
"Not interested," Tucker replied, closing his eyes. Jeremy was already asleep.
"I can't believe that little fucker," Sam growled. She hadn't even touched her vegan burger as she sat at their normal table, minus Jeremy. He apparently skipped out during the last bit of the speeches to go smoke. "I swear, I should have just killed him."
"You should have," Melissa encouraged. "You got the money to get off scott-free."
"His dad's a senator though, he also has the money to hire a good lawyer," Tucker pointed out. Melissa hummed, digging into her salad.
"Good point."
"How did he find out though?" Danny asked.
"I mean, unfortunately it's not like it's hard to look up," Sam grumbled.
"Yeah, your parents are pretty well known for being weird," Tucker reminded him. "He probably just found out when looking up to see if your parents did anything embarrassing."
Danny grumbled, pushing his lunch tray of half-eaten food away so he could lay his head in his arms.
"Let's not focus too much on that," Sam tried to comfort him. She reached out to pat his arm. "We still have some campaigning to do. Your speech was awesome, a lot better than Kennedy's. Not that some people would know." She side-eyed Tucker. He ignored her in favor of shoving food in his mouth.
"Yeah, you did great," Melissa complimented.
"Honestly, I really just wanna punch the snot out of him," Danny confessed. "I mean, he almost just straight up outed me."
"Well, you can't punch him without getting in trouble," Tucker said slowly, giving a sly smile. "But you can fill his locker with say, smelly gym clothes."
"Hallway cameras will catch him," Melissa replied.
"Oh, don't worry," Sam smiled, catching on immediately. "Danny is very sneaky."
"Well, in that case," Melissa mused. "You know, the football team practices year round, and man, their clothes stinky so goddamn bad. Jeremy smells like a barnyard when practice over. You can probably ask him when the next practice is and grab them before they get washed." She glanced at her phone screen for the time. "Prob wanna go catch him now. I don't think he's gonna show up for lunch at this point before he goes to his afternoon classes off campus."
"Good call," Danny agreed. He grabbed his burger as he stood up. "I'm gonna go see if he's there."
He shoved his burger into his mouth as he exited the cafeteria. The hallways were empty, and he quickly got to the alleyway, opening the door.
Jeremy was sitting on the brick bench, though to Danny's surprise, Kennedy was there too. It looked like they were just hanging out and smoking together, the latter rubbing his upper arm from Sam's earlier attack. They glanced up at him as he stepped outside into the alley.
Kennedy turned red as soon as he saw Danny, though he didn't look angry. For once, he didn't say anything either, just quickly got to his feet, tossing his cigarette carelessly to the ground and rushed through the door back into the school.
"Wait, do you guys actually hang out?" Danny asked, lightly pushing the door behind Kennedy to get it to close faster.
"Eh, sometimes," Jeremy shrugged. "He's...pretty okay when others aren't around." Unlike Kennedy, didn't seem at all phased by Danny's sudden appearance. He put his cigarette out on the wall behind him. "Plus where do you think Kennedy buys his cigarettes and weed? So what's up?" He stood up to toss the butt into the dumpster, scooping down to throw Kennedy's into the dumpster too.
"So, you know how Kennedy almost outed me?" Danny asked, crossing his arms.
"Yeah?" Jeremy replied.
"Well, I was thinking about putting gym clothes in his locker to get back at him," he said slowly. He gave a teasing smirk. "Or would you rather I not do that to your boyfriend." Jeremy's face flushed red, and he scowled.
"That little snob isn't my boyfriend," he insisted. "But lemme guess, you're thinking of football practice gym clothes, right?" Danny nodded. "What are you going to do about the cameras?"
"Don't worry," Danny assured him. "I'm really sneaky." Jeremy raised a skeptic eyebrow. "Trust me." Jeremy shrugged.
"Your fault if they get you," he replied. "We practice again tomorrow. I'll put a locker's worth aside for you to shove in there on Monday for ya."
Danny could already smell the stinky, stinky scent of revenge.
"What's wrong with him?" Ember asked, gesturing to Technus. The ghost was huddled in a ball in obvious distress, sniffling. Skulker was standing next to him, occasionally giving him an awkward pat on the head.
"Phantom fought me yesterday, but he just hit me with his ghost stinger and put me in the thermos and tossed me in the Ghost Zone," he complained. Ember raised an eyebrow.
"So you actually saw him?" she questioned. Technus nodded.
"Yeah, but he wouldn't banter with me, or say any stupid puns, or even laugh at my jokes or insult me," he whined. "Have I done something wrong? Is he mad at me?" He slumped his shoulders more, putting his head in his hands. "It's just not the same anymore. He just fights me and goes home. There's no more fun in it."
Ember rolled her eyes.
"Man, I don't even need to ask if you got it done," Sam whispered to Danny. The halfa nodded.
"Ugh, what is that smell?" they heard Sophie complain as she walked past.
"I dunno, smells like some animal got into the vents and died," his lab partner, Rosemary, replied to her.
"God, did you forget your lunch in the lockers again?" Eddie asked another classmate.
"No! See? Nothing!" the other insisted as he opened up his locker to prove it.
The hallway already smelled kinda rank, and people were definitely noticing. Danny glanced as Kennedy himself was complaining about the smell to a friend, the redhead holding his nose as he went to open his locker. The second he did, the stench amplified immediately. Danny focused his attention on Kennedy, the kid looking absolutely stunned as he nearly got buried in gym clothes, but managed to step back before it overwhelmed him, staring in stunned silence.
Danny heard somebody throw up, and he glanced to his side to see that Sophie had, indeed, puked from it all over the floor. He held his own nose as his eyes began to water as it got worse and worse the longer he stuck around. Sam gagged as she sped walked away. Danny lifted his sweater vest over his nose, trying to filter it out as he quickly finished getting his shit so he could leave.
"FENTON!"
Later, Amy had told him that she heard the rich kid's shrieking from the other side of the school.
"We already know he's not here," Ember spoke up. She flipped through another one of Danny's comics as Skulker was rummaging through the teenager's closet.
"Yes, but we need a clue as to where that whelp is," Skulker replied. He finally stood up, doing a stretch despite being essentially a ghost in a robot suit. "Technus, find anything on his computer?"
"Yeah! Minecraft!" Technus exclaimed. Skulker glared at him.
"Anything useful? Like where the ghost child is?" he clarified.
"No, but look at this mod he has installed! You can make armor out of beef!" Technus said. Skulker came over, and he silently watched Technus demonstrate by killing a few cows and making armor out of the beef.
"...Can I play?"
Danny found himself spending the first part of lunch in the vice principal's office, next to a Kennedy so red that Danny was surprised he hadn't exploded.
"Mr. Fenton, Mr. Kennedy has accused you of stuffing the football team's gym clothes into his locker," Vice Principal Lesh explained.
Danny gave a confused head tilt.
"When?" he asked, faking innocence. He could see Kennedy's glaring gaze on him. "I was in classes all day."
"Well, sometime during fourth period," the vice principal said.
"Fourth period? I was in Honors Chem. We actually have that class together," he explained. "I did use the bathroom though."
"He's lying!" Kennedy yelled, snapping to his feet and pointing a finger at him. "He's a filthy liar! Check the cameras! I know he did it!"
"Settle down, Mr. Kennedy," the vice principal replied. The teenager reluctantly sat. "Let's all review the footage together."
The vice principal turned his computer monitor so that all three of them could watch. He logged into the cameras, and he backtracked to the start of fourth period. He fast forwarded it until Danny was seen exiting the classroom. They all witnessed Danny going to the closest boys' restroom, remaining there for nearly five minutes before exiting and returning to class. He failed to leave again.
"See! He left!" Kennedy yelled. Danny could tell that the vice principal was resisting the urge to roll his eyes.
"He went to the restroom, Mr. Kennedy, and you saw that's the only place he went," he said. "That bathroom is nowhere near your locker."
"I know he did it!" Kennedy protested. "Why else was he in the bathroom so long?"
"If you look at my records," Danny spoke up. "You'll see that I have a medical condition listed, and I had excused myself to deal with it."
"Oh, what? You on your period or something, freak?" Kennedy snapped. Danny narrowed his eyes at him.
"Mr. Kennedy, if I ever hear of you saying anything of that sort again you're going to be having a week's detention," the vice principal immediately spoke. Kennedy stayed silent. "We absolutely do not tolerate any kind of hate at Polter Heights." Kennedy paled, making a bit of a sour face, but he still didn't reply. "Mr. Fenton, you may go back to class."
Danny smiled, giving a polite thanks as he left. He got to the cafeteria, quickly getting his delicious lunch before sitting down with his usual group. Just one look at Danny said it all.
"I cannot believe you didn't get caught! Dude you are the sneakiest motherfucker!" Jeremy exclaimed. Danny smirked in satisfaction.
"We weren't kidding," Sam replied. "Danny's like a master at it." The perks of being a half ghost.
"I can get away with like, anything," Dany half-bragged. He ate a huge spoonful of mashed potatoes.
"Well, speak of," Sam mused. They all glanced up to see Kennedy finally entering the cafeteria, sulking as he made his way through the lunch line.
Kennedy noticed them staring as he was checking out, and his mood seemed to darken more. He kept his eyes on them until he was done, and he made a beeline for their table.
"Look," he hissed, slamming his lunch tray on the table. "I don't know how you avoided getting detected, but I know you put all those disgusting gym clothes in my locker." Danny rolled his eyes.
"I don't know what you're talking about dude," he replied. Kennedy just turned redder and redder with anger.
"I know you were lying," he scowled. "And I'm going to make you regret the day you were born."
"Well too late, I already regret being born," Danny snapped back. "Get out of here. Don't you have to go roll around in dirt or got some other goblin things going on?"
"How did you get away with it!?" Kennedy demanded to know, ignoring the question. "Without the cameras seeing you?"
"I didn't do anything!" Danny argued. "So get lost."
"...You're going to regret this," Kennedy threatened. He picked up his lunch tray and went to his usual group.
"You think the school goblin's actually gonna do anything?" Jeremy questioned. Tucker shrugged.
"Hey Mom," Danny called out. No sooner than he closed the door did he notice that his mom was already standing near the front door, hands on her hips and looking pissed.
"School called," she said hotly. Danny felt immediate anxiety crawl up his spine despite knowing that, rationally, he did nothing wrong. Nothing that was proven anyway. "They found cigarettes in your locker." He stared blankly at her.
"What? I don't smoke," he protested. Maddie stared at him skeptically. "No, seriously! I don't smoke! I don't even smell like smoke or anything!" He mentally scanned how his room looked when he left that morning. "Seriously, you can even check my room!"
Maddie's expression softened a bit, though she was still staring hard at him.
"Then why were they in your locker?" she questioned.
"I don't know," he replied. " But they're not mine."
Maddie took a step closer, sniffing at him for a moment. She seemed satisfied with what she smelled.
"...Alright, but I better not get another call from school about cigarettes," she threatened.
"You won't!" Danny promised. "I swear!" His mom fully relaxed.
"Well, okay then. I'll be ordering pizza for dinner around six," she said. "Until then, your dad and I will be in the lab, so just make sure you get your homework done." Danny nodded. Soon as his mom turned her back to go downstairs, he made an angry face. Kennedy.
He gripped onto his backpack, rushing up the stairs. He pulled off his uniform, tossing it in the laundry basket before changing into normal clothes. The second he was changed, he pulled his phone out and called Tucker. He picked up pretty quick.
"Hey, sup?" he asked.
"I just got informed by my mom that the school called her about finding cigarettes in my locker," he told her. Tucker said nothing for a moment.
"It had to be Kennedy," he replied. "I can't think of anybody but him and Jeremy who smoke."
"Yeah. I know," Danny scowled. He plopped in his desk chair. "I need to ramp things up. This means war."
"Are you sure?" Tucker asked. "This could get out of control quick. Remember how we got good ol' mayor Vlad?"
"I don't care," Danny replied. "First, he tried to out me. Then, he gets me framed for smoking? And for what? Nothing and because of a smelly locker? This rich asshole messed with the wrong dude." He heard Tucker chuckle.
"So, whatcha thinking?"
Danny paused as he stared at his closet. He suddenly realized how messy it looked, his whole room actually. It looked like somebody was rummaging through everything.
"...Wait, one second. What the hell happened to my room?"
After the morning break, Danny broke off from his friends to grab stuff for his class. He spun the locker combination, opening it, only to be blinded immediately.
Danny gasped in shock as an explosion of pink blasted him in the face. The gasp quickly turned into a cough as he inhaled the fumes, and he waved the mist out of his face as he gathered what had happened, only it continued. He slapped around in his locker before it stopped, and he could finally see what was going on.
Somebody had set up something in his locker to spray pink spray paint directly at the next user who opened it. Danny scowled. Fucking Kennedy. He glanced at himself, hearing a few people nearby starting to giggle. He flushed red, pulling his sweater vest off and shoving it in his locker, rushing to the bathroom to wash his face before class. The second he was done, he made a report, only to get a startling answer.
Nothing had been caught on camera.
The second lunch rolled around, Danny went straight for the alley instead of the cafeteria. He slammed the door open to see Kennedy already there, standing and smoking and staring at the door, almost expectantly.
"How did you get past the cameras?" Danny demanded to know.
"You think you're the only one with a tech geek friend around here?" Kennedy sneered. He took a puff of his cigarette.
"You have friends?" Danny sarcastically joked.
"Eddie and I found out about your little camera exploit," he explained. "Still not sure how you did it all so quickly, but it doesn't matter. I know you put all those gym clothes in my locker. It still smells. And that you got the school to call my parents about a supposed hate text message I sent you yesterday. I don't even have your fucking phone number."
"And I know you're the one who planted cigarettes in my locker, and I'm pretty sure this is gonna stain," Danny replied, tugging at his white button up shirt. The collar was still pink. "My mom's still pissed about it."
"You deserve it," Kennedy snapped.
"I deserve it!?" Danny nearly yelled. "You almost outed me, you fucking prick! You realize this means war. Right?" Kennedy just exhaled more smoke, staring at him coldly.
"Bring it on, bitch."
Lunch that day brought on Danny realizing that he somehow got gum in his hair that almost eventually required a haircut to get the gum out. By seventh period, Kennedy found out that all of his textbooks were scattered all over the school, and he had to hunt them all down.
The next day was full of mischief in between everybody voting. Shoelaces mysteriously tied together, locker being really stuck shut to where it had to be pried open by the janitor, having a backpack full of silly string, missing calculator batteries, multiple hallway "trips", and more. The icing on the cakes was both parents getting a call home. Kennedy about a reported suicide threat, Danny about bullying towards a student that later admitted to Danny privately that Kennedy paid him off to say it.
Being reported for bullying, regardless of Danny's pleas that it wasn't true, got him grounded. Kennedy had gone too far. And now it was time to pull out the big guns.
"...This is what we're escalating to?" Tucker questioned. Jeremy shook his head no in response to Danny explaining his next level plan. Danny made a face.
"What? Tired of seeing me prank your boyfriend?" Danny snapped. "Dude, he started it."
"I don't!" Jeremy grumbled, his face becoming more flustered the more he talked. "Look. All I said to Mel was that Kennedy was kinda cute if you looked past how much of a snobby little rich bitch he was, and she ran with it! I don't like-like him, okay? I just think that releasing an actual ghost on him is going too far. Ghosts are so dangerous, and it's not like the ghost can even just escape or Danny Phantom can come help! We have the ghost shield! If things go wrong, that ghost is trapped in here with us."
"Yeah, Danny," Sam echoed, staring hard at him as she narrowed her eyes. "Hear that? It'd be really unlikely and impossible for Danny Phantom to come to our rescue, or for the ghost to just leave."
"Look, I know what I'm doing," Danny scoffed. "My parents are professionals, I intern with them. It's just the Box Ghost, I can totally handle it. He's practically harmless. We don't need Phantom, we have Fenton."
"I think it's time to just call a truce," Tucker slowly agreed. "We're getting dangerously close to another you-know-what situation." Danny made a face.
"I'm not backing down now," he insisted. "He started it, and I'm gonna finish it."
"Yeah, I'm not gonna be part of this," Sam replied, holding her hands up. "When it fucks up, don't say I didn't tell you so." Jeremy just shook his head, and he accompanied her.
It was only a matter of time until Kennedy finally opened his locker again. Danny kept an eye on him, but Kennedy seemed to somewhat wisen up to the locker pranks and mostly avoided it. But you can only go so long without having to visit, and soon, he spied Kennedy finally spinning the dial after lunch. He opened it slowly, throwing a suspicious glance back at Danny. The door was thrown the rest of the way open, making Kennedy stumble back as the Box Ghost popped out.
Danny couldn't hear the Box Ghost's normal cheesy introduction over the sound of all the horrified screaming as every student but him began making a run for their lives. Danny snickered, looking at the Box Ghost but staring wide-eyed as he ducked as an ectoblast shot out of his hands.
"Whoa!" he cried out. He jumped as another one came out, and he rushed forward. Danny grabbed the Box Ghost by the front of his overalls. "When the hell did you get the ability to do ectoblasts!?" he hissed. Box Ghost grinned.
"I've had a lot more free time, no longer being constantly contained by your cylinder container!" he replied. He easily pried Danny's hands off him and flung him like he was nothing.
Danny groaned in pain as he crashed into lockers, falling to the floor. Boxy had apparently gotten stronger too. Actually, now that he was really looking at Box Ghost...he could tell that he had been working out or something.
"Still think this was a good idea?" he could hear Sam's voice hissing at him. She was on her hands and knees behind the corner. He rolled on to his stomach, glaring at her.
"We just need a random surprise visit fr-" Danny cut himself off at Sam's head shaking motion.
"Who's that? Is that the ghost?" Sophie's fearful voice asked. Danny bit his lower lip in worry. Sam reached out to grab his upper arms, pulling him around with them. He noticed that not just Sophie was with her, but two other classmates he didn't quite know. The three were huddled together, looking pale and terrified.
...It finally really hit Danny how he had no real clue where the safe places to go ghost were, and how much smaller this school was compared to Casper High. Plus he didn't bring a Fenton Thermos to school anymore (what was the point? He couldn't leave). The one that originally had the Box Ghost was...who knows where by now. And none of these students were used to any ghost drills cause of the shield, so they were scrambling all over the place instead of following normal protocol that all Casper High students knew, which normally gave Danny a lot of opportunity to do his thing. And he was also...kinda out of practice too since he wasn't hunting ghosts during school hours anymore.
…
...Wow he did not think this through at all.
"I may have fucked up," he confessed to Sam.
"Yeah! You think!?" she hissed immediately. "Come on, we need to get somewhere safe." She turned to the other trembling classmates with her. "Find a closet or something."
"You do that, I'll go check around and get others," he said. Sam raised an eyebrow at him, giving him a Look. "I know what you're thinking, but nobody here knows what to do during ghost attacks." Sam blinked when it hit her. The PA system came on, the principal giving worried instructions on hiding and that help was on the way.
"...Okay. I'll get them somewhere safe. Just." Sam sighed heavily. "Be careful, you moron." Danny nodded, and he glanced around the corner. The Box Ghost had left, and he took that as a sign to dart down the hallways, keeping his eyes peeled for anybody.
Fortunately, it seemed like most students had at least gone into a classroom or something. But where was the Box Ghost? He continued keeping his eyes peeled, catching the tail end of a few kids cramming themselves into a classroom. Danny turned his attention to a fearful, familiar scream echoing down another hall, followed by the sound of blasts. He rushed down that hallway, eventually seeing Kennedy making a break from it from the Box Ghost. Danny picked up the pace, body slamming into the Box Ghost.
It caught the Box Ghost off guard, and Danny wasted no time getting to his feet and following the other teen around another corner and-god fucking damn it, he led them to essentially a dead end.
Kennedy seemed to realize it right after him, cause he turned to look behind him, and Danny glanced back too. The Box Ghost didn't take long to recover, and he was building up another ectoblast.
Danny slid in front of Kennedy, glancing back repeatedly from Kennedy to the Box Ghost. Kennedy was shaking like a leaf. Least the "prank" worked? God, but to reveal himself or not. Reveal himself or not? Reveal himself or not!?
"Freeze, spook!" his dad's voice boomed. Danny groaned. The absolute worst third option just presented himself, and he regretted showing up for school that day. This was not the "help on the way" he was wanting to see.
Jack Fenton seemed to come out of nowhere, wearing the ghost gauntlets that sent the Box Ghost flying up above the lockers they were huddled near. Huh. His parents were actually getting better, since Danny had basically been skipping like half of all ghost fights now. He didn't know if he wanted to be embarrassed right now or impressed.
Either way, Danny grabbed Kennedy by the upper arm and forced him to rush out of the way, next to a bare wall.
His mom was shortly behind Jack, taking charge and sucking the Box Ghost into the ghost weasel she wore on her back as a backpack. When did they make that modification? God, he hadn't actually been in the lab that much in a while.
"What is the meaning of this!?" a sorta familiar voice yelled out as it entered the school. Danny glanced over to Kennedy to see the other paling, and soon a taller and older version of Kennedy that Danny recalled seeing on TV showed up. Senator Kennedy, with a woman right next to him that he presumed to be Kennedy's mom. Danny noticed a few other unfamiliar adults, clearly parents, starting to enter the building. How did they find out about it so quickly? God this school's alert system was crazy. Casper High sometimes noted ghost attacks in their weekly email updates to parents. "I get a notification that ghosts are in my children's school? A school that was promised to me to be ghost free? A school that promised to me had a ghost shield protecting our state's best and brightest?"
"We already handled it," Maddie's voice replied. Danny watched his mom cross her arms. "Why did you cross the tape we set out? You could have been hurt."
"What about my children!?" Kennedy's mom shrieked. "I swear, I'm going to sue this school! Our children are supposed to be safe here!"
Kennedy and Danny both slumped against the wall as their parents began to start a full blown argument.
"Man, this has gotta stop," Kennedy groaned. Danny slumped further down as he heard his mom yelling louder.
"I think our parents have already humiliated us enough in the ten seconds they've been here," he agreed. He couldn't help but notice how close it looked like his dad and Kennedy's were to starting a fist fight over this, and how Kennedy's mom kept throwing the word lawsuit around, as well as his own mom's voice starting to get louder and louder. "Just promise to not out me, and we can call it a truce."
"...Fine," Kennedy grumbled. He winced as they watched the principal start to get involved, trying to calm down the families, but to seemingly minimal success. "I won't say anything. Jeremy kinda...well, told me how important that was to you, anyway. I guess I kinda get it."
"...Are you two like, actually friends?" Danny couldn't help but ask. Kennedy made a face, his face turning pink.
"No!" he said quickly. Kennedy changed the subject. "But um. Yeah. Truce. May the better...dude?" Danny nodded. "May the better dude win." He paused. "But it's gonna be me."
"You wish."
One of the Fenton gadgets began to smoke, and the fire alarm started blaring. Sprinklers came on, and several students and parents began to quickly rush out to escape the water. Neither Kennedy or Danny bothered to move, nor did their parents.
"...Just keeps getting better and better, huh?" Danny sighed. Kennedy slumped so far down he began to lay on the floor.
"So he just transferred to a new school?" Skulker mused. The Box Ghost nodded. "...Why didn't any of us think of that?"
The PA crackled momentarily before morning announcements began Friday morning.
"Good morning students!" the cheerful voice of Principal Freeling boomed. "First things first, I just wanna talk about our little ghost problem yesterday. No worries, nobody was seriously injured, only a few bruises and scraps. FentonWorks has volunteered to investigate the matter personally to determine what went wrong with our shield." Danny facepalmed. "And with one of our very own state Senators, Senator Kennedy, overseeing the investigation himself too to assure that everything goes smoothly." Kennedy slammed his face into his desk with an embarrassed groan.
"Either way, rest assured, you're all in safe hands here. Now, onto what I know you all have been waiting for. Your treasurer for next year's student council is George Walton. Your secretary will be Emily Jameson. Your vice-president will be Rosemary Wilson." Out of all those names, Danny only really recognized Rosemary.
"And your president next year will be Danny Fenton!" Danny instantly perked up, a rush absolutely hitting him. He barely noticed everybody in the class staring at him as he looked up at the PA system. "If your name was called, please come to the office after school for the first meeting. Have a good rest of the day!"
"Hey, it's President Fenton," Sam lightly teased as Danny made his way into the alley for morning break, Melissa right behind him. Jeremy was already there, smoking as usual.
"I can't believe it!" Jeremy grinned. "Fucking finally time to have some goddamn representation that isn't some rich snobby jerk."
The floor flung open as Tucker came in, grinning.
"Dude!" he grinned. "You did it!" He high-fived Danny.
"Know what? We should celebrate," Jeremy mused. "Our parents are gone all weekend, and my manager won't care if I snag some alcohol from behind the counter."
"Your parents are gone?" Sam wondered. "Where are they?"
"Mom has to go to Michigan to get our dad out of jail," Melissa explained. "Our little sisters are staying with our grandma."
"...Do I wanna know why he's in Michigan?" Tucker asked.
"Cause he has warrants in Amity Park and Elmerton, so dumbass went to another state where he forgot he also has warrants," Jeremy snorted. "So Mom has to drive over and bail him out. But either way, our house will be empty, we can go nuts. And don't even try to lecture me about a party or something, my genius paid for this house and I currently pay bills too, I can party in there as much as I want."
"I'll bring some pizza," Danny offered. Jeremy pointed to him.
"He's the only one here with the right spirit," he declared. The door opened again, and in came Amy.
"I heard the news!" she squealed. "President Fenton!"
"Yeah!" Danny grinned, becoming more and more hyped the more people said it. "I have the first meeting after school!"
"I already decided we're gonna party to celebrate," Jeremy spoke up. "My house, this weekend." Amy's eyes sparkled excitedly.
"I'll clear my schedule!" she chirped. "I'll let Rachel know too, she has to talk to her teacher, but I'll pass the info along! Who else is coming?" Jeremy shrugged.
"Whoever you want," he replied. Amy's cheeks flushed.
"Can you ask…" she trailed off. Jeremy rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I'll ask Matt," he confirmed. Amy beamed. Danny only vaguely knew the Matt in question as a guy on the football team that was a grade above them.
"You're the best!" Amy squealed.
"Maybe we should invite some people from our old school," Tucker suggested. "Like Valerie. She lives in Elmerton." Danny perked up.
"Yeah! Maybe Star too," he agreed. Sam seemed interested in the idea, and she opened her mouth to say something when the door opened again to reveal Kennedy, his cigarettes in hand. He paused when he saw them, seemingly debating on whether or not he wanted to leave.
"Hey, Horny," Jeremy called out. Kennedy made a face, but he still didn't say anything. He took another puff of his cigarette, reaching into his pocket. "Need a light?"
Kennedy stayed in the doorway for a moment before hesitantly stepping forward. He didn't reply, but he accepted Jeremy's lighter, using it real quick before handing it back.
"We're having a party this weekend at our house," Melissa told him. "You can come if you want." Kennedy exhaled smoke slowly, staring at them weirdly.
"I dunno," he finally spoke. He flicked some ash onto the ground.
"Come on, it'll be great," Danny encouraged. "Jeremy's going to be able to get some alcohol."
"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure I can snag some wine from my parents' wine cellar," Sam added. "They'll likely never notice, they have a whole collection down there."
"Oh yeah, I know the combination to my dad's liquor cabinet. I can definitely bring a bottle," Amy agreed.
"My parents don't really drink, so I'm just gonna get some pizza," Danny said.
"Yeah, it'll be fun," Jeremy said. He took another quick puff. "I'll text you the address if you wanna stop by. Tomorrow prob around eight. You can spend the night too." Melissa leaned over and whispered something to Jeremy with a smirk that Danny couldn't hear, but it made Jeremy glare at her with a slight flush and hit her in the arm. "Anybody can stay the night if they need to," he clarified.
Kennedy watched them for a moment. He finished his cigarette, putting it out on the brick wall.
"...My dad has a mini bar in our formal living room. I can easily grab something to bring," he finally said. Danny had literally never heard of a formal living room, but he brushed that aside to give a half smile.
"So guess we'll see you tomorrow."
"...Maybe. I still haven't decided."