Chapter Nine: Game of Phones
While Danny was overall pissed at Wes, he had to admit that he was grateful for what he had done for him. As it was, Danny alone wouldn't have been able to commission a truce between him and Valerie so easily. But from what he'd gathered, Wes had done it almost effortlessly. He didn't know how long it would take before she realized that Wes was not Phantom, but he was going to enjoy the peace as long as he could.
Now that's not to say that everything was forgiven, hell no. Wes was borderline obsessive with proving that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom were the same, and it was getting worse almost every day. The scary thing was, he wasn't sure how he was going to get Wes to stop. There had to be some way to shut him up...
"Mr. Fenton, I would like it if you could join us, please," Mr. Lancer tore Danny from his thoughts.
"Sorry Mr. Lancer. Just... spacing out," Danny mumbled.
"And I would suggest you start paying attention if you want to achieve your dream of going to space," Mr. Lancer said.
Danny almost snorted. He gave up on that dream months ago. When he realized that he would have to live with his powers for the rest of his life, he came to the conclusion that there was no way a freaky half-ghost could make it into the space program. Besides, even though there was no way Lancer could know this, he'd been in space before. Despite the fact that it was only a few minutes (and the fact that he was fighting a satellite possessed by Technus), there was something breathtaking from seeing the entire Earth from orbit.
Feeling slightly nostalgic, Danny rested his head on his desk. He wished he could be in space again, except this time, without any ghosts to fight. Mr. Lancer's words were lost on him, and he didn't understand what a majority of what he was teaching. Something about... foreshadowing. Whatever the hell that was, Danny figured he could use one to ultimately bore a ghost back into the Ghost Zone.
All of a sudden, Danny's phone started vibrating in his pocket. That was strange... he must've forgotten to turn it off before school started. Just when he was about to turn it completely off, he noticed that he had an unread IM from a blocked number. Letting curiosity get the best of him, Danny clicked on the message.
"i kno who u r, danny phantom
if u dont meet me after school 2day in gym, ill tell every1"
Momentary panic seized Danny. He forgot where he was and what he was supposed to be doing. His knees hit his desk, and his phone fell to the floor. Thankfully, his Mom had created him a custom 'Fenton Phone Case', which protected it from stray ecto-energy and normal blows to the floor. But now the entire class was looking at him, and – oh crap. Lancer was walking towards him.
"Mr. Fenton," he said sternly. "What were you doing on your phone, during my class?"
Danny gulped, "Checking the weather?"
"If your biggest concern while we're discussing literary devices, then you might just simply want to look out a window. Now, I'm going to have to suspend your phone for the remainder of the day. You can have it back, after your detention today."
"Yes sir," he nodded. As Mr. Lancer went back to the front of the room, Danny didn't fail to notice Wes's gigantic smirk. That little bastard... texting him in class.
"So you got another detention?" Tucker asked casually.
"Yep," Danny groaned. "Weston thought it would be funny sending me anonymous, threatening messages during geometry."
Tucker winced, "Ouch."
"I know," Danny said. "And now Lancer has my phone for the rest of the day. The one part that bothers me the most, is that I don't even know how Wes got my phone number."
"Don't know how to find that out," Tucker said slowly, "but if you're looking for ideas for payback, I think I got one."
"Woah, wait, I don't really want to do anything... aggressive," Danny's eyes widened.
"Oh, don't worry man, this is pretty much harmless," his friend reassured, before laughing. "Yet, oddly effective."
Wes had saved up his money for three weeks so he could buy a version of Photoshop. He'd finally been able to buy the cheapest version on the market two days ago, and had proudly put together some evidence. Once again, he held his head up high as he walked into Casper High, ready to convince people of his theory. If a doctored picture of Phantom with Fenton's black hair couldn't persuade people, he didn't know what would.
"Hey Dash," Wes said casually, "do you still not believe that Fenton is Phantom?"
Dash snorted, "Yes, because the puny weakling I wail on everyday is secretly a dead superhero with super awesome ghost powers. Then I completely believe you, Phantom," he mocked.
"Well," Wes said, reaching into his pocket where he kept the picture, "you might want to check this out..."
Just when Wes was about to hand the picture to Dash, his phone started ringing. Wes was immediately taken aback. This wasn't one of his ringtones.
I'm the invisible man,
I'm the invisible man
Incredible how you can
See right through me
I'm the invisible man
I'm the invisible man
It's criminal how I can
See right through you.
Who the hell set his ringtone as "The Invisible Man" by Queen? He looked at the number calling... blocked caller. He looked around frantically, completely ignoring the A-List's glances of confusion. His eyes found immediate confirmation... he knew exactly who had done this. After all, everybody knew that Foley had a shitty taste in music.
For the remainder of the week, whenever Wes would try to talk to someone about Danny, he would get random phone calls from the same blocked number. And it was always the same ringtone... "The Invisible Man". Wes understood it was a take on some punny joke, but honestly it just fell flat.
What pissed him off the most was how thorough Tucker had hacked his phone. Even if he turned it off, he could click a button, and it would force an automatic power-on without Wes being the wiser. Unfortunately, he found that out the hard way when his phone accidentally went off during a science quiz.
Danny was satisfied with himself. Thanks to Tucker's quick thinking, he found a way to shut Wes up for a few days. He honestly hoped it would last, but his hopes were crushed when he found out that Wes did a complete reset on his phone.
Unfortunately, that was the least of his problems Monday, October17th. The night before, his Dad had installed another Fenton lock on the ghost portal (he was convinced that Danny Phantom was somehow breaching his current security system, and in reality, he wasn't wrong; Danny used the portal all the time), and had repeatedly opened and closed the portal to demonstrate it. That meant that Danny had to spend the entire night hunting down countless ghosts. The worst part was, most of them were more violent than usual, so now Danny was barely making it through the day on two hours of sleep, minimal painkillers, and coffee.
Ever since Jazz found out that morning when he had come to her with a number of scratches on his forearm (stupid ghost birds), she had been hovering over him. It wasn't much of a surprise when she called him in between classes when she couldn't leave the library for her usual SAT studying (despite that the SATs were four months away).
Danny reached into his locker, holding his phone between his shoulder and face, "Jazz, it's fine. I caught all the ghosts no problem."
He could practically hear Jazz narrow her eyes, "I thought I heard your ribs break."
Danny took a breath, "It wasn't that drastic. Whatever damage there was, my healing factor is already taking care of it."
"So you are hurt," Jazz said.
At that moment, Danny closed his locker to reveal Wes on the other side of the door, attempting (and clearly failing) to act natural. Damn... will he ever leave me alone?
Jazz's voice rang in Danny's ear, "Danny, don't hang up on me."
Danny turned away from Wes, carrying his book to his next class, "I should really be more careful where I talk about this."
Both Wes and Danny knew that he had heard too much when Danny was on the phone talking to his sister. And Wes was outright overjoyed at what he had overheard. Catching ghosts... healing factor... He might as well as written and signed a confession right there.
So when Danny reluctantly left to 'go to the bathroom' again in seventh period, Wes was more than ready to follow (plus, he was starting to flunk history anyway). By the time Wes reached the bathroom, Danny was long gone. So, he did something he didn't think that he'd ever do: he climbed out the window.
The school yard was completely desolate during classtime... not even the landscapers were outside in the brisk, October weather. Wes roamed a little bit, lost on which direction to go in. He assumed that the ghost attack would be pretty easy to find (from Wes's knowledge, they were usually loud), but it was actually the opposite; he didn't see, nor hear, ghosts anywhere. Finally, after about twenty-five minutes (had it really been that long?), Wes gave up and wandered back inside. He figured he could make some excuse for Mrs. Rosenbalm, considering that Danny got away with it all the time.
What he did not expect to see when he snuck back inside the building was to find Principal Ishiyama lecturing Danny. Not so lucky for Wes, Danny immediately spotted him.
"Hey, why do you have to isolate me. Weston was skipping too."
You never know true fear until your female Asian High School principal looks you dead in the eyes with fury in her heart and words of rage spitting off her lips.
"-completely irresponsible! Now, Mr. Fenton, whether I like it or not, this has become expected of you-"
"Thanks for reminding me."
"-but I obviously expected more from one of our school's basketball stars!"
She continued like that for about two more minutes until she finally reached the (dreaded) punishment.
"While I feel like detention would be a normal disciplinary measure, I believe I have a more appropriate punishment. As you two may be aware, Halloween is just around the corner and Casper High is hosting Amity's first annual Phantober Fest-"
"I'm sorry," Danny interrupted, "hosting what?"
Wes looked at Danny. How had he not heard yet? For the past week or so, advertisements had been everywhere! Almost every morning on the intercom, they announced sign-ups for different events. Wes didn't think it was possible for anyone to not know about the Phantober Fest.
"Phantober Fest," explained Ishiyama. "It's a party for the whole town on Halloween night. Usually we do a haunted house, but after last year's fiasco..."
Danny grinned sheepishly.
"This year," she continued, "the council suggested a festival on Halloween night for the entire town. They penned it, the 'Phantober Fest', due to the popularity of Danny Phantom – considering that he's basically Amity's mascot these days."
"So uh," Wes asked nervously, "what does this have to do with our punishment?"
"You two," Ishiyama grinned, "will be serving at the snack table."
There were about five seconds of painful silence before Wes and Danny both started pleading for a different punishment. There was nothing wrong with the snack table, in fact, it was actually a very light punishment compared to what Wes was expecting. It's just that it was on the worst night possible! He was supposed to be having fun on Halloween, not playing public servant!
But there was no changing Ishiyama's mind. Once that woman was set on something, she was set. As he and Danny awkwardly walked back to class together, she called down the hallway, "And don't forget! Costumes are highly suggested!"
Wes might've killed himself right there if it wasn't for Danny's apprehensive glare.