A/N: Sorry for being gone so long. More on that at the end!
Without further ado, here is the long awaited chapter!
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Chapter Twelve: Open Season
She slams her purse onto an empty table in the very back of the library, so secluded and well hidden that not even the nerds know about it. She discovered this little island while trying to hide from a ghost attack. She often comes here when she needs to think, and boy does she need to think. She dumps out her purse and scrambles to get a pen and notebook, trying to at least have something done before the first bell rings. She decides she should keep it simple, Phantom doesn't seem the type to like extravagant things. She will make a simple shrine, and decorate it with simple things he likes and lots of flowers. She hunches over her notebook, ignoring the screaming outside, and continues her work for what feels like all of twenty seconds when the bell rings. Startled, she looks at her phone clock, and realizes it's actually been twenty minutes and that was the second bell!
She throws everything back into her purse and bolts for the exit. She bobs and weaves through the halls full of students, relying on her cheerleader's balance and flexibility. She can see her classroom in the distance, Lancer is just about to close the door. She lunges into a barrel roll and tumbles into the room, performing a hand spring and landing onto her feet. Breathing hard and slightly surprised she smiles, not thinking that would work in her favor.
"Miss Sánchez, while your athleticism is quite impressive, this is a history classroom, not a gymnasium. Take a seat, and please, for the love of Gatsby, walk."
She tries to get her breathing under control as she makes it to her seat. She notices Manson snickering into her hand but chooses to ignore it, for now. She has more pressing issues to attend to. As Lancer starts the lesson she opens her notebook and writes down her supplies and ideas. She's already decided that the shrine should be in the shape of a gravestone, since she doesn't think he has one. It will be a black base decorated with white and green skulls and little green ghosts. She will make little levels for the food, drinks, and other artifacts. Finally the bottom will be full of flowers. Of course his name will be written on the top in white. She's so thankful for those calligraphy classes her mother made her take in grade school. She doesn't hear Lancer calling her until the guy behind her pokes her with his pencil.
She jumps up, deer caught in headlights, as Lancer repeats himself with a twitch of his eye. She answers the question correctly, much to his exasperation, and sits back down. She looks over her "notes" one last time before closing the notebook, making an effort to fake her interest in the lesson. However something feels off, as the hair on the back of her neck starts prickling. She can feel a shift in the air.
"Mr. Fenton! Seeing as being consistently late to my classes is your self appointed goal in life, I would appreciate it if you didn't sneak in and pretend you were here all along"
She looks to her left and watches Danny freeze, hand on his chair, as Lancer calls him out on being late.
She furrows her expertly plucked brows, there's no way he opened the back door of the classroom and walked the length of the room towards his seat next to her and she not hear the squeak of its hinges. Or the sound of his footsteps for that matter, and they're on the third floor, so the window is out too. There's no way he could sneak around so quietly. Her whole body feels an uneasy shift in the atmosphere. She looks at him, really looks. Because the only time she feels this type of unease is when there's an ectoplasmic entity nearby. It can't be just because he lives in the same house as the ghost portal, she doesn't feel that type of electrically charged aura from him...often.
A cold sweat starts to gather at the base of her neck. Her breath catches in her throat ever so slightly. There's a slight glow around his body, quickly fading by this point but there's no mistaking it. He must have felt her burning stare because he turns to her and the look he gives her is bone chilling. It was only for a second, then he morphs back into his goofy self and waves at her apprehensively. He sits down but her eyes remain trained on him as Lancer's voice drones on in the background.
Class ends and she sighs slightly relieved. She must be going crazy if she could even consider the possibility of Danny Fenton, AKA klutziest boy in school, being a ghost. That's just ludicrous! The boy literally runs in the opposite direction whenever there's a ghost attack. She shakes her head with an incredulous smile, as she puts away her books. How paranoid could she be, thinking Danny could be a ghost. She laughs to herself, bewildered by her brain's conclusion jumping. However, there have been times when he does or says somethings that don't really make sense. Sometimes he knows things he shouldn't and other times she's seen his eyes change color even without the sun shining. There have been times where he's even interacted with the ghosts as if they're old pals. Then she returns to the incident at her house. How fearless and strong he was against the spider ghost. How his eyes changed color in the sunset that day, how even his hair fluctuated from black to white.
She slowly grows uneasy, feeling as though a heavy veil has just shifted in a gust of clarity. She thinks about the hypothetical, just for the "what if" as she reaches for her notebook. However, being deep in thought she overshoots the distance and smacks it to the ground. To her horror, it fell open on her shrine design, titled in big highlighted letters 'Dia Del Phantasma'.
Just as she's about to reach it, Danny picks it up. She gasps and snatches it out of his hands, however, the damage has been done. He looks at her with barely contained surprise, which slowly morphs into something else she can't quite place. She can see the gears turning behind his eyes, which are slightly getting bigger by the second. She clutches the notebook to her chest in a white knuckle grip. He's going to think she's still obsessed with Phantom. Feeling slightly ashamed and embarrassed she looks away, she didn't want anybody to know what she was doing. At least until the day of and it all went great. Her panic at his reaction rises all at once and suddenly punching him in the arm she bolts out the door. She can hear him calling her, asking her to wait. She speeds up, something about the way he looked at her made her scared. She turns a corner and smacks into a solid body, causing her to stumble backwards. However before she hit the floor, chilly hands caught her around the arms. She opens her eyes only to see the very boy she was running from. She gasps and wrenches herself out of his grasp, taking several wobbly steps back.
"How did you do that!? I know you were behind me and there's no connection in the halls that would let you run around me, and even if there were you're supposedly not fast enough to catch me either."
She breaths hard, feeling her heart racing and the adrenaline shooting through her body making her legs shake slightly. He looks caught in a whirlwind of fear and panic. She stares at him for what feels like a small eternity until he hesitantly opens his mouth.
"Listen, Paulina I...!"
He never got to finish, because the strange blue mist she used to brush off as nothing, came right out of his open mouth. He gasped and clamped his mouth shut, slapping his hands over it for extra measure. She kept her face carefully controlled, pushing down her ever rising anxiety and dread. Just watching him as he looked at her about ready to cry in frustration. She could hear the screaming as the schools ghost attack alarm activated throughout the building. She doesn't take her eyes off him, something in her gut says she shouldn't. He takes a slight step back, then another, and another. He drops his arms and looks resigned, a cold indifferent mask slipping over his face. He looks at her.
"I'm sorry"
Then he turns around and bolts down the hall and around the corner. She follows hot on his heels, the adrenaline propelling her further, faster. When she rounds the corner, her heart free falls down to her toes. It's a dead end, no doors, no windows, and he is nowhere to be found.
Her breathing comes in short burst, bordering on hyperventilating. Her legs are wobbling at the implications her brain is making. She turns back the way she came and stands at the closest window in the open hallway, watching Phantom fight the ghost with a cold detachment uncharacteristic of him. She observes him, watches his movements, really analyzes him. Overlaying in her minds eye the two boys that have plagued her brain in the recent month. The similarities she draws are too close to be coincidences. Especially Phantom's current mood, which is eerily similar to Danny's before he...vanished.
She walks away from the window. A sort of eerie calm washes over her, bringing her senses into hyper focus. Part of her still has lingering doubt about her conclusion. But the more she thinks about the weirdness that revolves around Danny, the more it makes sense. She decides to make one final stand, to humor her doubt one last time. She turns and watches as Danny Phantom defeats the ghost and sucks it into the thermos, witty quip chillingly absent. She takes a deep breath and walks back to her next class.
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The next four hours dragged on towards infinity. Every class felt twice as long as it should, and worse still, Danny was staring her down the whole time. She would catch him in her peripherals, watching, radiating panic and dread. She takes a deep breath, trying to calm the tempest of emotions raging within her. The minute classes are over she bolts, Danny hot on her heels. Everyone leaps out of the way as the two of them race through the school, careening ever closer to the outside. He tries to cut her off at every turn, but she's anticipated it, and barrels onto the girls bathroom, vaulting over the sinks and out the small window that is just barely wide enough for her to squeeze through without loosing her momentum.
She hears a thump behind her, making the mistake of turning to look. She screams in surprise at how close he really is. However in her momentary distraction she trips over a tree root. Danny not expecting the sudden move crashes into her and they both roll down the hill towards the football field, finally stopping at the fence behind the bleachers. He recovers first and traps her wrists above her head as she starts to struggle beneath him. She kicks her legs but he has them pinned down too, practically sitting on her thighs. She huffs and glares up at him, however at the look on his face her eyes soften just a bit. He looks so embarrassed by how he's pinned her down, and almost desperate. For what she doesn't know but the wild tempest of emotions swirling in his eyes gives her pause. She sighs deeply.
"What Danny?"
He opens his mouth but nothing comes out. He slams it shut and just stares at her, eyes wide and pleading, almost willing her to hear his thoughts. He looks away and she can see the vein in his neck, straining in his frustration, his jaw muscles clenching.
"If you're not gonna talk then get off me!"
It came out harsher than she intended as she watches him flinch. He wavers, the grip on her wrists loosening just a bit. She takes this opportunity to take him by surprise and flip him over, pinning him down in the exact same way she was. His face is priceless, as he goes from ghostly pale to cherry red in seconds. It's then that a thought occurs to her. This is probably the first time he's ever been this close to a girl.
"Listen Danny, whatever it is you want to say to me you'd better make it quick because I have very important things to do today"
At her words his eyes focus and he furrowed his brows in determination, he puffs his chest out, only to deflate and look away.
"Nothing...never mind, it's not important"
She snorts at such a bold faced lie. But won't press him for it, she's learned that Danny will talk when he's ready and not a second before. She releases his hands and sits back unconsciously, realizing a bit too late what she did. Danny chokes on his gasp, and she blushes to the tips of her ears, hastily getting up. He practically jumps up and turns around, only sparing her a quick goodbye and running away. She smacks herself in the forehead.
Sighing, she shakes her head. This day has been too much. Too much thinking, too much running, too much anxiety, too much doubt. She stands up, brushing stray bits of grass off her clothes and watches Danny as he meets up with Manson and Foley. There's only one way to finally put her doubts to rest. She's going to have to use the boomerang tracker on Danny Fenton.
A/N: Hey guys! Long time no write amiright? I want to apologize for my long absence. I was going through a tough time emotionally / mentally and wasn't feeling up to doing anything, and because I wasn't doing anything I felt super guilty that I wasn't writing since so many of you lovely people enjoy this story and I wanted to keep delivering. I stopped drawing and just pretty much stopped caring about everything.
Anyway long story short I spiraled into depression, wallowed in negative thoughts for a while, climbed my way out of that hole, got a job I like, and now I'm on my way to getting my Masters degree! So I'm much happier and in a much better place now. Thank you all for reading my story and thank you so much for your reviews. I always go back to read them again when I'm feeling sad. It really brightens up my day!
Please R
-Digi