Chapter 9: Liar, Liar
Danny woke to someone shining a light in his eye. He groaned and moved his head away, scrunching up his face.
"Danny?" his mother said somewhere to his right.
He opened his eyes. A man stood over him. He gave Danny a small smile. Danny didn't return it. Instead he took a look a round the very cramped space he found himself in. His mom sat across from him on a kind of bench seat installed into the side of the wall. She leaned over and took Danny's hand. He glanced down at their clasped hands seeing that he was apparently laying on—what was it called a gurney, a stretcher? Was there a difference?
"You're going to be okay, sweetie," she said, her eyes bright as if she was on the verge of tears.
Was he...on an ambulance or something? His heart rate sped up. That wasn't good. That was really not good. There was no telling what kind of freaky shit they'd find it he went to the hospital.
"I'm okay," he blurted, as if saying that would stop them from taking him to the hospital.
His mother nodded, giving him a small smile. "Yeah, you're just fine. Your dad is going to meet us at the hospital with your sisters."
"But I don't need to go to the hospital," he said.
The man, apparently a paramedic, patted him on the arm. "We just want to make sure everything is in order, okay?"
Danny sunk back in the gurney. He wanted to argue, but as his mind cleared, he realized there really was no point in it. They were already on their way, anyway.
...
"So, you were unconscious on scene, but you came-to during the ride here," Dr. Matthews said as he went over a paper on his clipboard. "What's the story, Danny?"
He was pretty young for a doctor, probably a few years younger than Danny's parents, but there was a tiredness about him that made him seem older. Nonetheless, he tried to sound up-beat and genuine.
Danny fidgeted. He didn't really have anything to give the good doctor. He guessed he'd just have to pull something out of his ass.
"I, um, ran into the school basement, and..." think, think, think, "...it was really dark so I-I guess I must have ran into something and hit my head." That made him sound like a complete doofus, but at least he could play off his stuttering as embarrassment.
The doctor frowned. "Sorry, this is off topic, but why were you in the high school basement?"
Danny shrugged. He glanced at Danielle. She instantly took up for him. "We were running away from the Man," she blurted.
Danny almost face palmed. "Yeah, we got in trouble...for starting a food fight."
He could feel his parents and Jazz giving him disapproving looks.
"Why would you go and do something like that Danny-Boy?" His father asked in a disappointed rumble.
Danny shrugged. "Uh, a dare?"
"I dared him," Danielle blurted.
"Danielle!" their mother and Jazz exclaimed in sync.
The doctor chuckled. "Well, at least you can cross that off your bucket list. You mind if I get a look at your eyes?" He pulled out a pin light.
Danny nodded and sat still while the doctor shined a light in each of his eyes. Dr. Matthews clicked it off again and put it back in his pocket.
"Well, you definitely have a concussion if you hit your heard enough to knock yourself out, but your pupillary response is normal. Let me see if I can feel anything, do you mind?"
"No."
"Tell my if you feel any pain," the doctor instructed.
Danny let he head be turned this way and that as the doctor felt for bumps or any other injury. Finally, Dr. Matthews retracted his hands. Danny could see he wore a frown. "No bumps, no nothing," he said almost to himself. "Are you sure you hit your head?"
Danny scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, pretty sure."
The doctor hummed to himself before asking, "Do you have any pain in your head?"
Danny pursed his lips. "Not much."
"On a scale of a one to ten what would you rate it? One being you hardly notice it, ten being the only thing you can think about."
"Like...a one, maybe?"
"Maybe?"
Danny shrugged. "Maybe like a one and a half?"
The doctor gave him a small smile. "Well, that's pretty good considering. Anything else bothering you? Like dizziness or nausea? Ringing in the ears?"
"No."
"Any fatigue?"
Danny shrugged. "I guess I'm a little tired. But that could just be because of everything going on." That was a complete lie. He was still exhausted.
The doctor gave him a small smile. "Sure." He then turned to Danny's parents. "I don't think we'll need to keep him for observation, but you should keep a close eye on him for twenty-four hours. Look out for any of the things I just listed, you know, nausea, headaches, impaired cognitive function, anything like that."
"Sure, thing, Dr Matthews," Danny's father said.
"And, ah," the doctor gestured to a nurse that had been standing to the side for most of the exam, "If you want to take care of some paperwork now, Helen here can help you with that."
Jack and Maddie shared a look. "I'll deal with it," Maddie said quietly before standing up and following the nurse out.
"Take me home, please," Danny blurted before his parents could say anything. Surprised by his own outburst, he blushed and looked away.
Dr. Matthews raised an eyebrow. "Don't like the hospital much?"
Danny let out a nervous laugh. "Uh, no offense."
The doctor gave him another small smile. "None taken. So is that it then? You guys want to sign out?"
"Do you think he should stay for observation?" Danny's mom said. "You said he had a concussion."
The doctor shrugged. "Yes, but it's apparently not that bad. He woke up fairly quickly, there's no sign of any neurological damage, no apparent head injury. It's up to you though."
Danny caught his mother's eye.
She didn't look happy about it but she said to the doctor, "I think we'll take Danny home."
...
The ride back home was silent.
His mother pulled into the driveway, and Danny got out before she even had the engine turned off. He quickly went up the steps and waited as patiently as he could by the door for his mom to unlock it. She sent him a probing look, which he pointedly ignored, before sliding the key into the lock and turning it.
He pushed past her and tried to get to the stairs.
"Danny," his mother called, making him pause.
He turned around and faced her. She wore a tired look as she crossed the gap between them. She cupped her hands around his face, brushing an unruly piece of fringe out of his eyes.
"Is there something you're not telling me?" she asked, her expression tightening with worry. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"
God, he wished that were true.
"I told you everything, mom. I was just being an idiot," he said averting his gaze.
She looked at him closer, a small frown appearing between her eyebrows. Unnerved by her close inspection, he pulled out of her hands. "What?" he snapped.
She shook her head. "Did you see anything in the basement while you were down there?"
"No, like I said, it was really dark," Danny said.
"Are you sure you didn't see anything, Danny?" she pressed.
"Yes," he hissed.
He turned away from her and started back up the stairs before she stopped him again."Maybe you should stay down here for a little bit and just hang out," she said. "The doctor said we should keep a close eye on you."
"Yeah, Danno," his father said, coming through the door. "You're not completely out of the woods yet."
Danny let out a sigh. "I'm really tired. I just want to go to my room okay?"
Both parents looked a bit worried. "Okay," Maddie said, "just don't go to sleep."
...
Jazz started to head for the stairs, and Danielle could see it in her eyes that her intent was to go talk to Danny. Catching her older sister's arm, she said bluntly, "Don't go up there. You'll only make it worse."
"Did you really dare him to start a food fight?" Jazz asked.
Well, might as well stick with it.
"Yeah," she said averting her gaze.
"Why?"
Danielle shook her head. "I don't know. I thought it'd be funny I guess."
Jazz snorted. "I never thought in a million years, you two would do something like that."
Danielle gave her a small smile. "Really Jazz? Come on, we can be little scamps when we want to."
Jazz chuckled hollowly. "Sure, but this is a bit too far don't you think?"
"I guess so."
Jazz sobered. "Danielle, please tell me the truth. You didn't really tell him to do that did you. What really happened?"
Danielle lowered her eyes. "I didn't," she admitted.
"What happened?" her older sister repeated.
Think quickly. What was she going to say?
"Dash," Danielle said.
Jazz's expression softened a bit. "What does he have to do with this?" she asked, even though she probably already had a good idea of it.
"He was threatening to hurt Danny, so I guess it was just the first thing that came to his mind to get him off his back."
Jazz sighed and nodded. "Yeah, that makes much more sense."
"You can't tell Mom and Dad, okay? They'd try to go to the principal or something and she wouldn't do anything you know. It would just be best if this stayed under wraps."
Jazz didn't look happy about it at all, but she agreed. "Okay, I'll keep quiet."
Jazz shook her head and let her gaze drop to the floor. "I wish he talked to me—before he let stuff like this boil over. He used to…it just seems like recently he's been drifting away." She looked back up to Danielle, meeting her eyes. "Do you think it has to do with the ghost stuff? Mom and Dad have been on about that nonstop since Christmas. It could drive anyone insane."
"You're probably right," Danielle said. She wasn't exactly lying, just sort of tiptoeing around the truth.
Jazz sighed. "I love Mom and Dad, but sometimes they make it really hard for me to like them."
Danielle gave her a sad smile. "I know what you mean."
There was a small pause until Jazz asked, "Are you going to go talk to him?"
Danielle glanced upstairs in the direction of her brother's room. "You think I should?" she asked.
"I think someone should."
Danielle nodded. "Okay, then I will."
Danielle parted from her sister and climbed the stairs to her twin's room. She deliberated for a second before knocking on his door. "Go away," came the muffled reply.
Opening the door a crack and sticking her head through, she saw Danny laying face down in his bed, spreadeagled. He was the picture of defeat.
"It's me, doofus," she said in a small voice.
Danny's only response was to lift his head and give her a halfhearted glare before plopping his face back down into the pillow.
Danielle walked over and sat down lightly at the foot of his bed. "I told Jazz why you really started the food fight—the part with Dash, not the part about the ghost."
He lifted his head. "She's not going to tell Mom and Dad is she?"
"No, I asked her not to."
Danny let his head fall back down on his pillow.
There was a pause before Danielle said, "You know Mom just cares for you. It wasn't like she was asking about the ghost just because that's the only she cared about. She was probably just worried that it could have hurt you."
"I know," Danny groaned into the pillow. He said something else that Danielle didn't quite catch.
"What was that?" she asked.
Danny huffed and turned his head. "I said, that's what makes it worse."
Danielle worried her bottom lip. "It's not like we haven't lied to them before," she said quietly.
"This is different, Danielle," Danny said, sitting up and turning to her. "This isn't like hiding a black eye that Dash gave me. We could have died. And we could have died again today. There was a ghost, Danielle, and it did hurt me. It tried to kill all of us just because of some stupid menu."
Danielle lowered her eyes. She knew that they both weren't letting on to how much all of this was effecting them, but she was surprised that Danny was so torn over not telling their parents.
Silence lapsed between them. Finally, Danielle drew in a long breath, letting it out in a slow exhale, and said, "If you want to tell them, fine. I'm not going to try to stop you anymore."
She tried not to think about how Dan would feel if Danny actually did go to their parents. He'd probably be pissed, but he'd just have to get over it. She couldn't stand seeing her twin hurting like this anymore.
"No…I'm not going to tell them," he grumbled.
"You don't have to stay silent just because of me. I promise I won't hold it against you, no matter what," Danielle said earnestly.
Danny sighed and ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up in odd places. "The truth of the matter is, I'm not sure I'm ready to tell them yet either, especially after what happened today."
Danielle tilted her head to one side. "What do you mean?"
"Now that I think about it, taking out the Lunch Lady felt…good in a way," Danny said thoughtfully, "like I did something for once in my life that was actually worthwhile. Maybe this is what I'm meant to do."
Danielle snorted. "You've been reading way too many comics," she said with a smirk.
Danny chuckled and kicked her lightly. "Shut up."
There was a small pause until Danny suddenly exclaimed, "Oh!" He slapped a hand over his forehead and sat back.
"What is it?"
"That reminds me! The Lunch Lady is still in the Fenton Thermos sitting in the school basement," he said. "What if someone finds it? We better go get it first."
Danielle's eyebrows shot up. "You mean like right now?"
Danny jumped out of his bed. "Yeah, why not?"
Danielle frowned. There was an excitement in her brother's voice that was in stark contrast with the somber tone he had use just seconds ago. His mood hand seemingly just taken an impossible one-eighty. "Danny are you sure you—"
In a bright flash without any warning he suddenly changed into his ghost form. "Yeah, I'm sure. Now come on!" he said grabbing her hand.
Danielle yelped as he dragged her along, phasing them through his bedroom window.
…
It was around midnight when their mom finally went to bed. Danny listened at the door to her retreating footsteps down the hall. He waited another half hour before he pulled the Fenton Thermos out from under his bed and started to make his way to the lab.
He tiptoed down the stairs praying that his powers didn't make him trip or fall through the floor. Finally, he stood in front of the closed doors of the portal, wondering how he was going to get the Lunch Lady into the portal without causing himself too much injury. Maybe pressing eject would be enough to fling her back into the Ghost Zone and he could race to the close door button before she could get out again.
Danny drew in a deep breath. "Okay," he muttered to himself.
He went up to the panel beside the portal. His hand hovered over the "open" button a second before he mustered enough courage to go through with the action. As the doors rolled open, he powered up in case anything went wrong, like say if some ectopuses were taking a stroll near the portal and decided they were feeling adventurous and went through it.
Danny popped the cap off the thermos and aimed the opening at the portal. As soon as he pressed eject, a banshee scream and a bright beam of light burst from the muzzle and shot into the portal, only becoming slightly muffled as it passed the "event horizon". Danny rushed for the close button all the while the screams steadily getting louder again, signaling that the Lunch Lady was hurrying to get back through the portal. Danny slammed his hand into the button and the doors began to roll close at an agonizingly slow pace. They finally shut with a soft thud. Only another second later, another thud sounded at the doors. Danny gave a soft chuckle as an image of the Lunch Lady flattened against the doors like a Loony Toons character came to mind. Unfortunately, the levity didn't do much to lessen the tremble in his hands.
He changed back into his human form and gave himself a second to breath before he set himself on his second task. He looked around the lab for the Fenton Finder and grabbed it off one of the workbenches when he found it. The schematics for it were right next to it, saving him a few minutes of having to look for it, as well.
He hoped Mom and Dad wouldn't notice it missing, or if they did, that they would think it was just another thing they had accidentally misplaced.
…
"I just don't know where it could have gone!" Maddie said over the breakfast table. "I've scoured the lab, looking in every nook and cranny! It's like it just up and disappeared!"
"Maybe it was a ghost!" Jack said pounding his fist on the table.
The twins shared a glance.
Maddie made a helpless gesture. "Maybe, but unlikely. I doubt a ghost would understand what it was—and we always keep the portal doors closed!"
"Maybe it was the gremlins," Danielle said with a snicker.
Their mom gave her an unamused look. "That's not funny."
"You know, I'm not surprised you lost something," Jazz piped up. "With the state of disarray you always keep the lab in, it's no wonder something went missing."
"But I was sure I left in on the bench up against the northern wall—or was it the southern wall?" Maddie said frowning at the table.
"You see?" Jazz said smugly. For once Danny was grateful Jazz was being a know-it-all.
"I-I don't know," their mother said, leaning her head into her hand. "It just seems so strange because even the schematics are missing."
"Maybe it's not that bad," Jack said placing his hands on her shoulders. "That thing didn't seem to really work anyway."
Maddie let out a deep sigh. "I still don't want to give up the search. We could still salvage the materials even if it didn't work."
"Great," Jazz said without any real enthusiasm. "You do that and we'll be getting to school." She glanced at the twins. "Go finish getting ready."
…
Most of the day went by without being called to the office. This only seemed to add to the already high stress levels in the group. It would have been merciful for Mr. Lancer to have simply called them to the office during the earlier periods, but instead he let them stew. By sixth period they all felt like they were going to explode.
Somehow they had all landed in Mr. Lancer's sixth period English I class. It was a small school in a small midwestern town, so it wasn't too terribly surprising or unlikely, but it was rather unfortunate in this case.
Surprisingly, Mr. Lancer didn't give them any funny looks or call on them at all. He acted as if it was a normal class period, and the events of yesterday hadn't even happened. It was only until the last five minutes of class that he announced, "I would like for the Fentons and Mr. Foley to stay after the bell rings please."
Danny felt his stomach drop into his feet and he instinctively hunched his shoulders.
"Uh-oh, Fenturd's in trouble," Dash taunted from a few seats back.
"Would you like to join them, Mr. Baxter?" Lancer said with venom Danny hadn't heard the teacher use on the football player before.
"No, sir," Dash grumbled.
Finally, after what seemed like ages, the bell rang. While the rest of the class stormed out, the four friends stayed in their seats.
Mr. Lancer raised an eyebrow. "Miss Manson, I don't believe I asked you to stay behind."
"I'm just as much a part of this as they are," she intoned.
The teacher folded his arms. "Is that so?"
"Yes, I participated in the food fight just as much as they did. I should get detention too."
"Sam, what are you doing?" Danny hissed.
"No, no, Mr. Fenton, don't interrupt. Besides we have plenty of time. I don't have a class this period, and I can write you all notes," Lancer said calmly.
"She really had nothing to do with it. It was all us," Danny said.
"Danny," she said in a voice hardly above a growl, "stop." He wilted under her intense gaze.
Mr. Lancer looked between all four of them before he spoke again. "I don't really know what is going on, but I have a feeling it goes much deeper than just the little lunch debacle yesterday. I also get the feeling none of you are going to share with me what this is really about." He paused as if thinking over his next words carefully. "Since this has already been such a hassle and Mr. Fenton actually had to go to the hospital, I'm going to go easy on you and give you four only a week of detention. Consider yourselves lucky. I could have you all suspended. Tomorrow after school, report for detention in the library. Mrs. Robinson will be the teacher on duty."
...
The week passed, and it was Saturday.
Not much happened since the incident with the Lunch Lady. There were a few fights with ectopuses and a few other miscellaneous ghosts, plus another humanoid one calling itself "the Box Ghost," but none of them where much of a fight. Danny had begun practicing with his powers, and had actually started to gain some control over the random episodes he had in the past. They had started to become much less frequent, but after a few more dropped glassware in Chemistry, Mr. Peabody had actually banned him from using any fragile equipment "for life."
At home restrictions from being grounded were gradually being lifted. Danny only just had his phone given back to him, and probably within a few days his mom or dad would tell him he could see Sam and Tucker again.
"So then he—" Danielle paused, looking up when her twin entered her bedroom.
"Danielle, I think your computer's got some kind of virus. You better do a scan quick," Danny quipped.
Dan on the other end of the Skype chat raised a finger to the camera.
"Danny, I finally got my Skype set up," she said excitedly, ignoring his jab. "I was just telling Dan about how you fought a ghost."
Danny puffed his chest out slightly. "Did you tell him how heroic I was?"
"She told me you fainted like a pussy," Dan deadpanned.
"I said ninny, not pussy," Danielle corrected.
"Danielle!" Danny whined. "How could you!"
His twin held her hand to her chest and gave a dramatic gasp. "Would you want me to lie, dear brother? That would be…unthinkable…"
Danny gave her a flat look. He directed his attention to the computer screen where Dan was watching the interaction with a small smirk. "What about you, Dan? Anything interesting?" he asked, managing to make the question sound snide.
Dan sat back in his chair and absently inspected his nails. "Nah, nothing too interesting, though I did almost destroy the fountain yesterday."
"Mm, great," Danny muttered.
Danielle groaned and rolled her eyes. "Even miles apart, you two can be catty towards each other."
Dan looked up from his nails with a frown. "Men don't get 'catty' with each other," he stated matter-of-factly.
"What men? I don't see any men around here?" Danielle snarked.
"Hey!" the two brothers said almost in unison. Danielle chuckled.
She turned her attention back to her twin. "So Danny, what did you come in here for originally?" she asked.
"I-well, I was thinking maybe we should practice the whole…ghost powers thing," he stuttered. "Mom and Dad left to go take care of errands and the lab is empty. Have you ever actually tried to 'go ghost'?"
Danielle pursed her lips and turned away.
"Of course she has, dipshit," Dan said.
Danny sent him a glare. "I didn't ask you."
"I have tried, and I can't," she said interrupting Dan before he could offer a rebuttal.
"Are you sure?" Danny said, a small part of him disappointed. He didn't know why. Having a ghost half made him feel like a freak, and he certainly wouldn't wish that on his sister.
She nodded. "Yeah. You've said for you it kinda just…happens, but no matter how hard I think about it…nothing."
"Well, maybe it'll just take time for you," Danny tried. "You were hit with a lot less ectoplasm. Maybe it just takes time to…set?"
Danielle gained a thoughtful look. "Maybe…."
"Well, until you get your full ghost side, you can't be in our club," Dan said.
"What?" Danielle said, rounding on him.
He shrugged lazily. "You can't be in the creepy ghost kid club. Sorry, I don't make the rules," he said, keeping a straight face, except for the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.