Sorry it took so long for me to update this. I've been having a bit of writers block for a while now. Nothing I write seems to be good lately. Especially this chapter. Doesn't really seem to have much of a point to it...but the next one, which I'm working on now, should be better.
Chapter 10 Location: Roswell, New Mexico
"Okay, I have to warn you, my parents are not normal." Danny whispered, opening the door a crack and peering inside.
"Uh, Danny? I think you could say that for just about every parent in the known world." Claire said, walking up behind him so that both of them were on the porch.
"Yeah, but you haven't seen mine—well you saw my dad, I guess it can't get any worse than that." Danny said, opening the door all the way and walking inside. The door creaked as it opened, the hinges rusty.
"Looks like the coast is clear." Claire said as she followed him inside, closing the door.
"Come on, I think the rooms are upstairs." Danny said, putting his hand on the railing as he walked up the first few.
"COME ON MADDIE! THE GHOST IS THIS WAY!" a voice shouted, though still sounding muffled.
"I stand corrected, it can get worse..." Danny wined, turning to see his parents burst through the door leading to the basement.
Jack and Maddie stopped, staring at Danny and Claire with puzzled expressions. Maddie was holding the Fenton Ghost tracker in front of her with both hands, and Jack was carrying the Fenton Peeler.
Maddie glanced at her invention and raised an eyebrow, seeing it blinking and beeping fiercely as she moved it in to face Danny. "Huh, that's strange…" she said to herself.
Danny's eyes darted nervously from one invention to the other, knowing what the Fenton Peeler could do, and what the ghost tracker already was doing.
Claire noticed he looked a little nervous, but after all who wouldn't be? The things his parents were holding looked pretty dangerous…
"Uh, hi mom, dad! I was just coming in to pick out my room! So uh, I guessI'llseeyoulaterbye!" he said quickly, running up the stairs.
"Danny hold it right there!" Maddie said.
Danny sighed and stopped, wearing a miserable expression as he walked back down the stairs slowly until his parents were in view again.
"Aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?" she asked.
"Oookay, this is Claire Davis, I met her a little while ago. Claire? These are my parents. Okayenoughsaidbye!"
"Daniel Fenton will you calm down for one second?! Your room can wait!" Maddie snapped, seeing him trying to leave again.
Danny cringed as his mother used his real name, and walked down the stairs yet again, trying to avoid eye contact with Claire.
"Nice to meet you Mr. And Mrs. Fenton." Claire said, shaking their hands politely. Maddie put the ghost tracker on the small desk beside the door and turned it off.
As she did this Danny sighed in relief, but luckily neither his parents, nor Claire were paying any attention to him
"So Claire, do you have an interest in ghosts?" Jack asked, leaning closer to her and whispering as if a ghost were nearby.
"Uh, n-not really," Claire said, taking a few steps back.
"Have you ever seen a ghost?"
"On TV..."
"Do you know if any ghosts are in Roswell?"
Claire was about to answer but Danny grabbed her arm and pulled her up into the middle of the staircase where he had been standing. "Yeah dad! Actually, I think I saw one outside behind the house, faaar away from right here…" Danny said.
Jack's eyes widened and he grinned in excitement. "Haha! Success! Our first day here and already two ghosts!" he yelled, bolting out the door with Maddie right behind him.
Danny stared after them for a minute, making sure they were gone. "Phew, that was close." he muttered.
"And now I think I understand why you didn't want to come in the house." Claire said, as both of them walked up the rest of the stairs and into the hallway.
"You know, this place doesn't look that bad." Claire said, pushing one of the bedroom doors open and peering into the room.
"Yeah, and the titanic didn't look like it was going to sink." Danny muttered sarcastically, walking into another of the rooms. He was surprised to see Jazz sitting on the bed, staring out the window.
She jumped, hearing the door rasp as Danny entered the room. "So, I guess you decided to come in after all?"
Danny rolled his eyes and looked around, walking into the center of the room, "So, did you pick this one?"
Jazz shrugged, "I don't know yet. Mom and Dad kept trying to drag me into the basement to see their so called 'ghost', so I haven't had much time to look around."
"What about you? Have you picked a new room?"
"No, I haven't even looked around yet…mom and dad stopped us on the stairs."
"Us?" Jazz asked.
"Oh, I invited Claire to come inside."
"So she finally met mom and dad huh?" Jazz asked, smiling at him.
"Yyyeah, but I told them there was a ghost in the backyard and they finally left us alone." Danny said.
"You're evil you know that?" Jazz said, smirking at him.
Danny rolled his eyes, "I'd better get back to looking for a room. If we're going to be stuck in this stupid house from now on I want to get the good one."
"Well than go! I think I'll stick with this room anyway…since it's the first one I came into. Besides, it's probably better than any room you'll find." Jazz added smartly.
"We'll just see about that…" Danny said, leaving the room and walking back into the hallway.
Claire was standing there, leaning up against the wall with her arms crossed.
"Uh, sorry, I was talking with Jazz." he said.
"It's okay…listen, I'm not really doing much to help you. Maybe I should just head home." Claire said, regaining her posture.
"Oh, sure, you can if you want." Danny said, walking down the hall. Great, the first person I meet here and even she doesn't want to stay in this stupid house.
He pushed open the door near the end of the hallway and walked into the bedroom, looking around. The room was completely empty except for a bare bed in the center of the room, pushed against the wall. There were two windows, a large one strait in front of him, and one to the right.
His eyes widened as he looked up to see yet another window, but this one was on the ceiling…it was strait over the bed, and stretched out about four feet in all directions.
It was in the shape of a dome, instead of lying flat like a normal window, it curved outwards like a bowl, sort of like something he'd expect to see in an observatory.
He walked over to the bed and stared up, seeing the feathery white clouds roll across the afternoon sky.
"Whoa…"
Danny turned to see Claire peering into the doorway, staring up into the ceiling in amazement.
"I thought you were leaving?" Danny asked, though he sounded a little happier at the fact that maybe his new house wasn't as horrible as he thought.
"I was, but than I remembered that I don't really have anything else to do." Claire said, walking into the room and looking around.
"What do you mean?" Danny asked curiously.
"It's nothing really…my friend's just not speaking to me." Claire said casually, thought there was a hint of sadness in her voice.
"That doesn't sound like nothing to me. Did you guys get in a fight or something?" he asked, walking past her and opening the door to the closet.
He backed away quickly as a wave of dust blew into the room, causing him to sneeze. "Looks like someone hasn't cleaned in there for a while." Danny muttered, coughing a few times and looking annoyed.
"More like a disagreement." Claire said in answer to his previous question.
"Yeah but there has to be something else you'd rather be doing than spending your afternoon here." Danny said, coming out of the walk in closet and sliding the door closed again.
He glanced up at her, "What's there to do in Roswell anyway?"
"If I told you there was nothing, would it ruin your day?"
"Not more than it already is." Danny grumbled.
Claire gave a slight laugh, "Well than I hate to break it you, but this place is boredom central. Well, for me anyway, but than again, I've lived here a lot longer than you have. I've had time to get bored of everything."
"Define 'everything'?"
"Tourist shops, all over the place of course. There's the schools, the library, the Crashdown--it's a fast food restaurant." Claire said, seeing Danny's puzzled expression.
"Then there's an observatory not to far from here, and the UFO center—"
"UFO center?" Danny asked, seeming a little more interested.
"Whatever little hope you had of it being interesting, you can put to rest." Claire said.
"Wow, you really aren't enthusiastic about anything are you?"
"Not today I'm not…" Claire replied dully.
"So what is it?"
Claire sighed, "It's kind of like a museum for extraterrestrial related things…I mean, it's not like a real museum, one of the boring ones that you go to on school field trips. But it has exhibits, and slideshow programs that you can go see to learn about the crash…you know, the supposed UFO crash in 1947?"
"Speaking of the crash, did it really happen?" Danny asked, staring at her as he waited for an answer.
"I don't know…it's a conspiracy isn't it? The government said it was a weather balloon, and everyone else thought it was a UFO. I guess it depends on who you ask."
"Well do you believe in aliens?" Danny questioned.
The question caught Claire off guard, and she paused for a moment. Why does she always acts so weird every time I mention Aliens… Danny thought to himself.
Noticing her silence she said, "I don't know, it depends on if there's any proof that they exist." her voice came out surprisingly calm considering how nervous she was.
Does he suspect something? No…he was just asking a question…than why am I so jumpy all of the sudden? Claire thought.
"Yeah, but just because there's no proof of something doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
"Like ghosts' for example?"
Danny shrugged, "There's proof that ghosts exist…"
"Okay than, what is it?"
"Haven't you ever heard of haunted houses, or ghost sightings?"
"Haven't you ever heard of Alien and UFO sightings? People can just make things up you know, it doesn't mean that they're true." Claire said.
"Why, do you believe in ghosts?"
Claire shrugged, "I've never seen one, so I couldn't really say that they're real…but than again hundreds of other people have 'claimed' to see them, so I guess it could be possible that they exist."
"Okay, than if you think that, why couldn't aliens exist? Hundreds of people have claimed tohave beenabducted by them."
Claire stared at him, knowing he was right, "Okay you have a point…how about I just say I'm not going to believe in either one until I have proof, would that answer your questions?"
"No, but I think I'm annoying you so I'll stop asking them anyway." Danny said, smirking at her as he walked over to his window.
He started laughing and Claire narrowed her eyes, walking up to him. "What's so funny?"
Danny pointed down into the backyard and Claire followed his gaze, starting to laugh a little herself.
Danny's parents were in the backyard, looking for the 'supposed' ghost Danny had seen. Maddie was holding the ghost tracker in front of her as they both walked, and Jack had the peeler out in front of him, aiming it every which way as if a ghost would strike at any second.
Just than Maddie turned in the direction of the room Danny was in, pointing the tracker upwards. It must've been beeping pretty hard, because Jack turned around so fast that he accidentally pressed the button on the Fenton Peeler.
Long metal ropes came out of it, enwrapping around him and forming a sort ofmetal suit. He tipped sideways a few times before falling flat on his face, leaving Maddie to giggle and turn off the Tracker to help him.
Danny burst out laughing. Even though he knew the tracker must've been picking up on him, it was funny to see his dad acting so goofy.
Claire laughed as well, still staring down at Jack, "What is that thing anyway?"
"What? The thing my dad has?" Danny said, trying hard not to laugh again as he glanced down at his parents.
Jack kept pressing the button to suck the suit back into the invention, but it wasn't working. Danny couldn't help but snicker again.
"Yeah, you said your parents made inventions right? So what are those ones supposed to do?"
"Well my dad has the Fenton Ghost Peeler, and my mom has the Fenton Ghost Finder—don't ask…" he said, seeing Claire's confused expression as to why they had the name 'Fenton' in them.
"Anyway, the Ghost Peeler is supposed to peel apart ghosts, and the Fenton finder is used to track them."
"Do they actually work?"
"I couldn't tell you, since they've never actually caught a ghost to test them on." Danny replied.
"Okay, so if that one your mom has is some kind of 'ghost' tracker, how come it keeps picking up on you?" Claire asked.
Danny's heart jumped into his throat and he froze stiff, the color draining from his face. She knows…she has to know…she saw the tracker picking up on me earlier!
After a few seconds he noticed he wasn't moving, and he turned back to her, hoping he didn't look as edgy as he felt.
"I-I don't know, I guess they built it wrong or something…but it picks up on Jazz! All the time actually! And it used to do that to my friends to!" he lied. Smiling innocently but nervously, he quickly moved past her, trying to avoid eye contact.
"Than why didn't it pick up on me?"
Danny stopped again, staring at the wall. She has to know by now…that stupid cover story was the lamest thing I've ever thought of! Gosh, I'm so nervous I'm not even thinking!
He turned back to her, smiling like all of this had been some kind of joke. "I don't know, I guess you'll have to ask my parents." he said, with a small but nervous laugh.
Claire stared at him for a second, not sure what to say. It was believable enough that the inventions his parents made could be completely messed up, considering how she had seen the Ghost Peeler kind of backfire on his father.
But if that was true, why had he seemed so nervous when she brought up the question in the first place? Or maybe she was mistaking nervousness for embarrassment. After all, if her parents acted that weird all the time, she'd be pretty embarrassed by them to.
Claire smiled after a minute; "I guess that makes sense, considering how much that invention your dad has is failing." she said, voicing her thoughts.
Danny seemed to grow less alarmed now that she didn't seem to be so suspicious, "So, uh, I guess we can go check out the rest of the house if you want." He said, heading out of the room.
Claire followed and the two of them walked down the staircase, coming back into the vacant living room. Danny walked across the length of it, pushing the door open as he headed into the kitchen. It swung back and fourth a few times before closing.
Claire was about to follow him again when she caught a glance of someone out of the corner of her eye. She turned, narrowing her eyes as she peered out of the window near the door.
She walked up to it, lifting a few of the blinds to get a better view of the road. Her eyes widened as she saw Michael and Max heading down the street towards her house.
No! Ack! they have to pick now of all times to go talk to me?! she thought angrily.
"Claire? Where are you--" Danny pushed the door open and peered out of it, looking around the living room and catching sight of Claire near the front door, just as she whipped around.
The shade on the window was rocking back and fourth lightly, from her letting go of it so fast.
"Uh, hi Danny! Listen I kind of have to go, you know because I'm not really helping you and you probably want to look around the rest of your house by yourself, and my parents are going to be home soon so I'd just better leave!" Claire said quickly, backing away a few steps and grabbing onto the door handle, though she was still facing him.
Danny stared at her, raising an eyebrow in question, "Are you okay? You seem kind of jumpy…"
"Huh? Oh! Yeah I'm fine, I just, have to leave, now…" Claire answered unsteadily.
Oh man…if they catch me over here I'm dead! Not that it matters because I've decided not to listen to them…but still! They were mad enough when I started hanging around Nicole, and after we promised to avoid the new family… she thought, catching another glimpse of her two friends outside of the window, closer than before.
"Listen, it was really nice of you to invite me inside and everything, so thanks! And uh--have fun at your new house!" she said, pulling the door open and hurrying outside.
Danny stared after her for a minute, confused. Okay that was weird…she left so fast it's almost like she saw a ghost or something…
Danny turned around as he thought this, almost as if he expected a ghost to be behind him. But there was nothing there. He sighed, turning back into the kitchen.
She couldn't have suspected anything could she have? Even though she was really suspicious before we came down here…but there's no way she could know. But than why did she leave so fast? Ga! Danny stop torturing yourself over this! You have enough to worry about as it is without having to think if you exposed your powers… he thought to himself.
He walked over to the counter and leaned against it, running a hand through his hair absentmindedly. Just than he felt a familiar chill shoot down his spine and he started to shiver, a blue mist floating out of his mouth…