Yay! Finally after long last I have finished the next chapter! It's longer than the last one I had, and it was going to be even longer than this but I decided to cut it short to start Chapter 10.
Chapter 9 Location: Roswell, New Mexico
Claire stormed off down the street, muttering to herself about how unfair this whole situation was. Everything had been fine when she woke up that morning, and now everything was falling apart…
Nicole hated her, Max and Michael were being completely unfair about everything and not letting her have a say in their rules. And on top of all of that, new neighbors were moving in.
"Well, at least there's no possible way this day could get any worse…" she said to herself. "I just need to go home, watch some TV, and think of ways to annoy Max and Michael before they give in on letting me tell Nicole…"
She had just neared her house when she heard a loud noise coming from in front of her. She glanced up to see an RV driving down the road, but something about this one caught her attention. She wouldn't have thought anything of it, except this RV was different than any one she had ever seen before.
It was bulky, plated with metal all around. There were two large tires on either side of the front, and there was a sort of conveyor belt that went across four smaller tires on either side of the back of the RV, allowing them to move together.
The top of it dipped in the center, and looked like it was a sort of opening for a variety of things. There were three headlights above the front windshield, all of them off for the time being.
There were two doors in the front on the drivers and passenger's side, and a sliding door on the right hand side of the RV. There was a window in the back, and two large ones on either side. All of the windows were tinted somewhat, making it hard to see inside froma distance.
There was also a large 'F' placed on the left side beside the window, painted in a shade of vivid neon green with the shape of what looked like a ghost around it.
Claireraised an eyebrow, having never seen this car around here before. But that's when it started to sink in…new car…new people…
"Crap! I knew I shouldn't have said things couldn't get worse…" she said to herself.
Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw a moving van driving behind the RV, both of them beginning to slow down.
She hurried through the last couple of yards and walked behind her house, coming around the other side and peering out from behind the wall to see both vehicles stop in front of the house across the street.
Danny jerked forewords suddenly in his seat from his dad stopping the van so quickly. He had been half asleep for most of the drive and wasn't even really aware that they had arrived at their new home already.
He gave a tired yawn and stretched, leaning back in his seat again and staring out the window in boredom, his eyes partially closed. It was than that he finally realized the van had stopped.
At first he thought they were getting more gasoline, but he realized they weren't at a gas station. He sat up, suddenly awake.
"So, we're finally here son…isn't it great?!" Jack said happily, smiling over at him.
Danny gave a slight smile in reply, but he already had this strange feeling that he was going to hate this place no matter how interesting it seemed. Nothing would ever compare to Amity, to his old house. And he was positive that nothing could replace it.
Jack unbuckled his seat belt and hurried out of the van to meet Maddie and Jazz, who had already gotten out of the RV and were looking around.
His parents got into a conversation almost instantly as the two of them headed up the driveway towards the house, but Jazz kind of wandered around in front of the RV, looking around at how different this neighborhood was.
Danny unbuckled his seatbelt as well, putting his hand on the door handle. He hesitated, and than pulled his hand back, leaving the door closed. He wanted to go outside, but than again he didn't…
Jazz glanced at him, seeing him looking troubled. She was about to go try and talk to him but her parents called her and she bit her bottom lip, walking over to them instead.
"Jazz why don't you and your brother go pick out your rooms?"Maddie asked. "You can have which ever one you want!"
Jazz smiled, knowing they were trying to cheer her up. But she knew she wouldn't be happy with Danny being so miserable.
Maddie must've noticed her staring at Danny, because she said"Is Danny okay? Why hasn't he come out yet?"
"He's probably going to come in a minute…" Jazz answered, though she knew he probably woundn't.
"Maybe I should go get him! I still haven't finished talking to him about that other invention we had…" Jack said, moving to go towards the van.
But Jazz quickly stepped in front of him, blocking his path. "Uh, I have a better idea! Why don't you guys just go pick out a new room for a lab and we can let Danny be alone for a while!" she said.
Maddie and Jack glanced at each other, "Alright…just make sure he doesn't stay in there the whole time…" Maddie said, sounding a little concerned, butgrabbing Jack's arm and pulling him into the house with her.
Jazz sighed in relief, glancing at Danny again. She decided to leave him alone and follow her own advice…he would probably come out of there sooner or later…he just needed some time…
So with one final look she turned and headed into the house after her parents.
Danny watched the rest of his family go inside, feeling guilty. He wanted to go in and look around, and the curiosity was eating at him. But part of him just wanted to hang on to that last little hope that this wouldn't be permanent…that he wake up any minute and it would all be a dream.
But he knew it was real, and it wasn't going to go away…and that made him angrier than he had been before. He was just about to step out of the van when suddenly he saw something out of the corner of his eye.
He suddenly had a strange suspicion that someone was watching him…he slowly turned and looked around, and sure enough he saw a girl that looked around his age peering out from around the back of their house, staring over at the moving van and his new house...
Claire narrowed her eyes, seeing the family walk into the house. So far she had only seen three people…two she guessed were the parents, but they had been wearing the weirdest clothes…blue and orange lab suits…
And the third looked to be a teenage girl around Max and Michael's age, long red hair, blue eyes, a black shirt and a pair of light blue pants. She seemed pretty normal.
"Hmm…maybe this family won't be anything to worry about after all…I mean, they seem a lot weirder than us…" she muttered to herself.
She sighed and pulled her head back around, not seeing Danny hop out of the van and close the door quietly behind him…
He hurried across the street and than slowed his pace, walking over to the house across from his new one and sneaking along the wall towards the back yard.
Claire peered out from behind the wall again, hearing a noise like a car door…but no one was outside…she frowned slightly, wondering if she was hearing things.
But since the family seemed to be out of sight and in the house, she figured this would be a good opportunity to do a little light investigating.
After making sure the coast was clear she walked out from behind her house and walked the length of her yard, picking up her pace as she walked across the street.
Danny finally made it to the end of the wall and poked his head out from around the corner, expecting to see the girl still looking around the corner of the house.
He narrowed his eyes and walked clear out into the backyard, not seeing anyone there at all. "Okay, that's weird…I could have sworn I saw someone over here." he said to himself, looking around suspiciously.
His first thoughts were that the girl was a ghost. But they were quickly put to rest when he figured out that if that were the case, his ghost sense would have gone off.
"But if she's not a ghost where did she go…" he wondered, as he walked around the tree's in the back yard, looking up into them and all around to see if she was hiding from him.
"Whoa…talk about weird…" Claire said, as she peered through the window of the Fenton RV. She was standing on the set of wheels in the back, her face pressed up against the glass because the sun was casting reflections, and it was hard to see through the windows.
There was a fair amount of buttons in the front up near the driver's seat, knobs and switches, some blinking. The entire back of the RV looked pretty strange as well, with seats on all sides and a small control panel on the left side of one of them.
'I wonder what that is...' she thought, stepping off the set of wheels and moving around to the back of the RV to peer through the back windshield. There was a thermos lying on the floor, halfway under one of the seats. It looked like it might have been hidden, but thrown out of place by the RV stopping so quickly.
It had a silver colored strap tied around the top of it, and was metal looking like the RV, having two green stripes of metal going down both sides.
She held her hand up to the back door, pressing it against the cold, hard metal surface where the handle and lock were that would allow someone to open it.
She wanted to unlock it…curiosity was getting the better of her…but she let her hand drop to her side as she moved away from the back door.
"Okay that's it, I give up…" Danny muttered grouchily, walking back out around the house and into the front yard.
"Maybe I'm seeing things again," he said, running his hand through his hair. He looked up suddenly to see someone moving around behind the RV. He couldn't see clearly who it was, but he could see the figure's shape through the windows.
"Or maybe not…" he added.
Claire had just turned and walked around to the front of the RV as Danny walked around the back, peering around the corner. "Now where the heck did she go?!" he hissed.
Danny growled and turned around, both of them heading in the same direction. Right as they both neared the back of the RV, Danny took a step foreword from behind the back of it and both of them caught sight of each other.
"Ahhhh!" they both yelled in surprise, eyes wide. Claire took a few steps back, as did Danny.
"Where did you come from?!" Claire inquired of the black haired teen that was standing in front of her. He looked about her age with had blue eyes, a pair of blue jeans, and a white T-shirt with red sleeves, a red collar, and a red oval in the center.
"I live here, where did you come from?!" Danny asked, staring at the brown haired girl standing in front of him.
She had soft brown eyes and was wearing a light blue top with a pair of black jeans.
The pockets were dark navy blue, and the bottom cuffs of her jeans were striped with blue and neon green. Her bracelet matched with the same pattern, as did her necklace.
Claire stopped for a second. 'How did I not see him! I saw everyone else! Unless he was in the moving van or something…' she thought.
"I was…I…" Claire stammered, not really able to come up with a good excuse for her being over here.
"Were you spying on us!?" Danny demanded.
Claire stared at him, narrowing her eyes suddenly. "Were you spying on me?! I haven't seen you since these cars pulled up over here! What were you doing, sneaking around following me or something?"
"I was in the moving van and I saw you behind that house over there! I came out to see why you were watching us, but every time I came close to you, you weren't there!" Danny snapped.
"Have you ever heard of walking? People do that to move around." She said coldly.
Danny growled slightly, feeling his face grow hot with embarrassment. He kept wondering how he could be having an argument with someone he had just met less than five minutes ago.
"That still doesn't answer what you're doing over here." He replied frigidly.
Claire glared at him for a moment, "Okay look. Why don't we both forget this little meeting ever happened, I leave, and you can go back to brooding."
"Brooding? I wasn't brooding!" Danny snapped angrily.
"Well you said you were in the moving van right? Why weren't you in the house with the rest of your family?"
"I didn't feel like it, is that a crime?"
"No, but you were still brooding." She said, crossing her arms.
Danny growled, "I don't even know your name and you're trying to tell me what I was and wasn't doing?!"
"Fine than…why don't we just start out fresh? My name is Claire Davis." She replied.
"Danny Fenton…" he said warily.
They both stared at each other for a moment and than shifted their attention to their surroundings, the silence becoming awkward.
"So…you just moved here…" Claire said, trying to start a conversation instead of repeating the argument that had taken place before.
"Yeah…from Amity Park."
"Never heard of it…. but I bet you've heard of this place right?" Claire said, asking it as if it were obvious.
"Yeah…Roswell…pretty hard to ignore the whole 'Alien thing'." Danny said.
"Aliens…what a joke huh?" Claire replied, trying to hide the slight nervousness that bordered her voice.
"Yeah tell me about it…I guess my parents couldn't see the tourist trap of it all."
"Is that the only reason you moved here? Because your parents are UFO nuts?"
"Uh…well actually more like—"
"GHOST!!" a voice shouted suddenly, causing several birds in the tree's nearby to take flight.
Danny winced at the sound of his father's voice, trying not to look in Claire's direction for fear of mockery.
She was staring at the house, her eyes wide. "Uh…was that your dad?" she asked, turning to him slowly.
"Um…just out of curiosity…If I said yes how much laughter would I have to endure from you?" Danny asked.
Just than the front door slammed open, causing Danny and Claire to jump in surprise, both of them whipping around. Jack bolted for the moving van, completely ignoring the presence of both of them as he threw open the back of it and began ripping through the boxes.
After a minute or two he came out holding some sort of invention, and he hurried back past the two teens, running back into the house. "I got it Maddie!!" he yelled, the door closing behind him.
For a minute Danny and Claire just stared at the door after him, until Claire turned back to Danny, looking shocked. "Wow, and I thought my dad was weird?" she said.
"Heh…yeah…uh…sorry about that…my parents are a little….eccentric…"
"About…ghosts I'm guessing?"
"Sort of--well yeah...they're inventors actually, but they use most of their inventions to try and capture ghosts…"
"So why are they here? What, do they want to try and capture an alien or something?" Claire said sarcastically.
"Actually yeah…or an alien ghost…or…I don't know really, I didn't even want to come here in the first place." Danny answered.
'Great…this is just perfect…a stupid family moves here obsessed with the paranormal…that's just what I was hoping for today actually…you know, since it just completed the worst day of my life…' Claire thought.
"So, do you live around here?"
Claire snapped out of her thoughts and turned to see Danny looking at her. "Oh…uh yeah, right across the street." She said, pointing to her house.
Danny recognized it as the house he had seen her behind from the moving van. "So you were watching us from your house than?" he said, smirking.
"Don't start that again…" Claire said, a slight hint of anger in her voice.
Just than the front door opened again and this time Jazz stalked out of the house, muttering something under her breath about how crazy her parents were acting.
After a minute she noticed Danny and started to walk over to him, not seeing Claire until she was a few feet away.
"Jazz? What are you doing out here?" Danny asked, wondering why she would be out here instead of searching for the perfect room.
"Mom and Dad are acting psycho again…they think there's a ghost in the basement." Jazz answered, as she reached him.
She glanced at Claire, who looked back at her, though neither of them said anything. Danny looked back and forth between the two for a moment before finally deciding he would have to be the one to introduce them.
"Uh, Jazz? This is Claire Davis…she lives across the street, I just met her." Danny said. "And Claire, this is Jazz, my sister." He added, glancing at Claire.
"Um…nice to meet you..." Jazz said, holding out her hand.
"You to…" Claire replied, shaking it.
"So…if you're out here, it means you probably met our dad already, since he came out here to get one of his inventions." Jazz said.
"Well I wouldn't say I met him per say…" Claire said.
Jazz raised an eyebrow and stared at her for a moment.
"Uh, he kind of didn't really notice us…he was in to much of a hurry." Danny explained, seeing Jazz's confused expression.
"Oh! Right…so how did you guys meet? And when did you come out of the moving van?" Jazz asked, turning to Danny.
"Uh…I came out when everyone was inside." Danny replied, avoiding the question about how he had met Claire.
Jazz didn't seem to notice that he hadn't answered her first question, and instead she turned to Claire. "Is this house haunted?" she asked her, as if the answer were evident.
"Not that I know of. Than again I've never lived there." Claire replied.
Jazz sighed, "I'm going to go see if all the commotion with the ghost is over with…" she said, heading back up the stairs to the house. "Nice meeting you!" she added, waving to Claire before disappearing inside.
"She seemed nice." Claire said, turning back to Danny.
"Yeah she is, when she's not being annoying." Danny said, walking down the driveway.
He stopped, noticing Claire was still standing there. "Aren't you coming?" he asked.
Claire shrugged, "To see the inside of your house? I don't really see any fun in that."
"Neither do I, but if I don't go in there soon Jazz'll throw a fit." He replied, turning and starting to walk again.
Claire glanced back down the street towards Max's house, not seeing Max nor Michael coming after her yet. She didn't really want to stay here, especially with what Danny had told her about his parents having an interest in the Paranormal.
Besides, they were trying to avoid the 'new family' not become friends with them considering the obvious…But than again, she had nothing else to do since Nicole was mad at her.
Deciding that she didn't care what Max and Michael would say, Claire sighed and hurried after Danny.It wasn't like she'd tell him about her powers. After all, she wasn't even able to tell Nicole.
Yay! Danny finally made it Roswell! No more switching places back and fourth! And thanks again to everyone who has reviewed my fic so far! (Hands you all candy)