Fenton Family Secrets

Part Two

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman does. Cheers!
Oh, no! I can't go ghost with Jazz here! What am I going to do?

Thinking quickly, Danny turned and pulled his sister up off the floor. "Jazz! It's a ghost!" Danny cried. "Go get mom and dad!"

"What about you?"

"I'll keep him busy till you get back! Now go!"

Jazz paused for a moment, then gave Danny an small smile before quickly descending the ladder and screaming, "MOM! DAD! THERE'S A GHOST! IN THE ATTIC!"

When he was certain his sister was gone, Danny squeezed his eyes shut and called on his ghost powers. He embraced the chill that shuddered his flesh-and-blood body, reached deep inside himself, turned himself inside out, from flesh to spirit. The weight of his human body evaporated, and with the sudden lightness came intense strength and power. When he opened his eyes, they glowed a ghostly green, and could see things no human could. At that moment he saw The Box Ghost juggling his grandparents' possessions with glee, and a rage stirred inside him.

"Hey! Put those boxes down!" Danny shouted.

"But, I am The Box Ghost! I own all cardboard boxes!"

"Not those boxes you don't!" Danny cried. "Those boxes belong to my family, and I demand that you put them down right now!"

The Box Ghost stopped juggling the boxes and sneered at Danny.

"Very well, I will put these boxes down, on top of your head!"

He lifted one of the boxes up over his head then threw it at Danny. Danny closed his eyes tightly, concentrating on making himself transparent as air. The box flew through him; Danny could feel the contents inside as they passed through his body. It was a box of old clothing: his grandfather's suits and Army uniform; his grandmother's wedding dress and best Sunday dresses; his father's baby clothes and shoes. The box passed through Danny and fell down the attic opening, landing with a loud thud on the floor below.

"Well, that's one way to get the boxes down," Danny thought aloud, then shouted at The Box Ghost. "Ha! You missed me!"

The Box Ghost snatched the second box out of mid-air, throwing it with all his might. Danny went invisible again, and noted this box was full of old family pictures and photo albums, along with a slide projector and a box of slides. He realized the items might be damaged when they hit the floor, and quickly raced through the opening and grabbed the box, setting it aside gently before shooting back up into the attic.

"Missed me again!" Danny's cockiness got the better of him as the third and final box slammed into his now-solid ghost body, sending it and him flying through the opening towards the floor. Danny landed on top of the box of clothing with a thunk, and the third box landed on top of him, sending the air rushing out of his lungs.

"HURRY! THE GHOST! IT'S UP HERE!" Jazz's exaggeratedly loud voice flew up the stairs, and Danny panicked as he heard footsteps rushing up towards him. He quickly went invisible and flew through the box, back up into the attic. The Box Ghost was waiting for him, the old trunk held high over his head.

"I don't have time for this!" Danny growled. "Put that trunk down now and get out of here!"

"Never! I am The Box Ghost!"

"IT'S UP HERE! IN THE ATTIC!" Jazz cried from below. "DANNY! DANNY, ARE YOU OKAY?"

"DON'T WORRY, SON, I'M COMING!" Jack Fenton called. "AND, LUCKILY I REMEMBERED TO PACK THE FENTON GHOST PEELER!"

"Look, if you don't leave right now, my dad's going to come up here and he'll kick your butt worse than I ever have!" Danny threatened. "Do you want to find out exactly what the Fenton Ghost Peeler can do?"

The Box Ghost's eyes widened in fear. He dropped the trunk, and fled through the roof with a final, "Beware!"

Danny's body returned to normal just as his father's broad shoulders squeezed through opening in the attic floor. Jack Fenton pulled himself up and leapt to his son's side, the Fenton Ghost Peeler at the ready.

"The ghost! Where is it?"

"He . . . it w . . went th . . that way," Danny said, still shivering from the ghostly chill. "Th . . . through the roof . . ff!"

"Quick, Maddie! Go grab the Fenton Ghost Fisher out of the RV! We might be able to catch that thing yet!" Jack turned and jumped back down the opening.

Once his parents were gone, Danny fell to his knees and sighed with relief. "That was close," he whispered to himself. "Too close!"

"Danny? Are you okay?" Jazz's voice was soft and slightly shaky. Danny felt her hand on his shoulder, its warmth moved through him like hot cocoa on a cold winter day, and he smiled.

"I'm fine."

Jazz let out her breath, and knelt beside her brother. "So, how did all those boxes get downstairs?"

"The ghost threw them at me," Danny explained, then hastily added. "Oh, but he missed me completely! It's a good thing I have such good reflexes, huh?"

"Uh, yeah. Whatever you say. So, I guess we only have this trunk to get down . . . oh, no! The trunk!"

Although he had been staring at it, Danny hadn't noticed the trunk's lid had popped open, and some of the contents had spilled out.

"Oh, man! I hope nothing got broken!" He said, as he and Jazz began picking items up off the floor.

Danny picked up an old photo album, and began to thumb through it. A loose photograph dropped to the floor, and he stooped to pick it up. The picture showed four people standing in front of the very house they were in. Danny recognized his grandparents in the picture, though they were much younger; about his parents' age. The boy in the picture was probably his father, Danny thought, but the girl standing next to him was a stranger.

"Hey, Jazz, who's this?" Danny showed his sister the photograph and pointed to the girl. Jazz looked at it and frowned.

"I don't know. I've never seen her before."

"Danny! Jasmine! Are you still up there?" Their father called up to them.

"Yeah, dad we're here," Jazz answered.

Jack and Maddie climbed into the attic still carrying their ghost-catching equipment.

"Did you catch the ghost?" Danny asked.

"No. It got away." His father's shoulders slumped in defeat, and Danny immediately felt bad for asking. "But, what's important is that you're okay. You are okay, aren't you son?"

"Yeah, dad, sure. I'm fine."

"Good! Now then, where were we?"

"Uh, dad?"

"Yes, Danny?"

"Who's this girl with you and Grandma and Grandpa Fenton?" Danny held the photograph up for his father to see.

Jack's face softened, and Danny thought he saw sadness in his father's eyes, even through the small smile on his face.

"I haven't seen this picture in ages!" Jack sighed, then shook his head and stuffed the photo into his pocket. "But! We don't have time for a trip down memory lane today! The moving van will be here tomorrow, and we still have a lot of work to do!

"But, dad!" Danny protested. "Who's that girl?"

"Not now, son!"

"But . . ."

"GET BACK TO WORK!"

Danny winced at his father's gruff response. Wow, he really seems upset! I must've hit a nerve!

Jack and Maddie climbed back down into the house. Jazz turned to her brother and shrugged before following them down. Danny sat down cross-legged on the dusty floor and thumbed through the photo album. On page after page the girl's face smiled up at him. There she was with his father, both of them sitting on the stairs of the front porch eating watermelon, here she was reaching for a brightly wrapped gift under the Christmas tree, and finally she and his father were sitting on the sofa, both of them grinning at the camera and making rabbit ears behind each other's heads.

"Who are you?" Danny whispered to the smiling girl. She had the same shiny black hair and sparkling blue eyes as his father and grandparents; and like his own. "She must be related to my dad somehow. Dad never mentioned any other family - only Grandma and Grandpa Fenton."

Sighing he closed the photo album, turned back to the trunk, and began picking up the items scattered on the floor: more pictures of the mystery girl, a pair of pink leg warmers, black lace gloves, some jewelry, cassette tapes of Blondie, Bruce Springsteen, and the soundtrack to Xanadu, a small diary and a high school yearbook. Danny thumbed through the yearbook and found her smiling face among the senior class, and read aloud her name underneath her picture: "Danielle Jean Fenton!"

"DANNY!" Jazz's voice jolted Danny from his reverie. "DAD SAYS HE NEEDS YOU DOWN HERE NOW!"

"I'M BUSY!" Danny called down.

"I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE BUSY!" Jack hollered. "GET DOWN HERE NOW!"

Danny sighed and slapped the yearbook closed. He tossed it in the trunk, slammed the lid shut, and started dragging the heavy case over to the opening.

"Wait a minute," he said to himself. "If I take the trunk down now, I'll never get another chance to look through this stuff. Maybe if I just leave it up here, no one will notice. Then I can come back and look through it later."

Danny smiled at his own cleverness, then hurried back downstairs to help his father.

The Fenton family bedded down in the RV for the night. They had been tense all day due to Danny questioning his father about the girl in the picture. Whenever Danny tried to bring her up, his father would brusquely change the subject, or find more packing for Danny to do. Jazz yelled at him to shut up because everyone was starting to feel uncomfortable, and his mother kindly asked him to leave the subject alone. Danny reluctantly agreed, but he was determined to find some answers before they left the next day. When he was certain everyone was asleep, he grabbed his backpack and a flashlight, slipped quietly out of the RV, and headed back into the house.

Danny carefully ascended the stairs to the second floor, then climbed the ladder up into the attic. The trunk sat where Danny left it; no one had noticed it wasn't downstairs with the other boxes and pieces of furniture. Danny opened the lid of the trunk, pulled out the yearbook and diary and sat down cross-legged on the dusty wooden floor. He thumbed through the yearbook, pausing to read the captions under each photograph of Danielle. He learned that Danielle played outfield on the Varsity softball team, and was editor of the yearbook. Danny smiled when he saw the pictures of her hamming it up in her Home Ec cooking class, posing with her girl friends in the hallway, and swinging a bat during a softball game. Turning to the back of the book, Danny skimmed the notes written by Danielle's friends, and even a teacher or two, but it was the haphazardly scribbled note in the lower left-hand corner that caught Danny's eye.

Dani-Jean, you're the best big sister a kid could ask for! Love, Jacky

"Big sister?" Danny wondered aloud. "That's it! I knew it! Danielle was . . . is my dad's sister! That makes her my aunt! Mine and Jazz's! Wow! That is so cool!"

He closed the book and frowned. "But, what happened to her?" He wondered aloud. "Where is she now?"

Danny set the yearbook aside and picked up the diary. While part of him balked at the idea of reading a teenage girl's diary, another part of him wanted to know more about his aunt. He hoped to find the answers in the diary.

The book was small, with a plain white cover that had the word "Diary" printed across it in shiny silver, and a silver lock on the side. Danny used his ghost powers to open it, and began scanning the pages filled with girly handwriting and flowery doodles in the margins. He stopped on a random entry and read:

September 19

Dear Diary,

Today was the first day of my last year of high school. I'm so excited to finally be a Senior, but kinda sad, too. It's the last year I'll walk these halls, eat in the cafeteria, and sit in these classrooms. My best friend Stacey and I have a few classes together so it won't be all bad. This may be the last year I'll play softball, too. I hope I can play in college, but I don't even know where I'm going yet. Dad says I should go to the University of Wisconsin in Madison. "It's a Fenton Family Tradition!" He says. But, I'm not so sure. Anyway, I have tons homework (already!), so I'd better go.

Dani-Jean

The following two entries Danny read were similarly themed - pressure from her parents to get good enough grades to get into the University, hanging out with friends, and looking forward to playing softball in the spring. Danny sighed, and turned to the back of the book and read the June 12th entry:

Dear Diary,

Graduation is tomorrow afternoon - Friday the 13th! Ha, ha. I'm nervous and excited at the same time. It'll be the last time I step foot in my high school gym. The last time I see many of my friends, too. But, Stacey told me today that she got into UW-Madison, so we'll be going to college together! I'm so excited! I hope we can be roommates! Well, the next time I write in this book, I'll be a High School Graduate! That sounds so weird, but so cool, too!

Dani-Jean

Danny turned the page and found it empty; in fact, the rest of the book was blank. June 12th was Danielle Fenton's last diary entry. What happened after that? Danny wondered. Was there another diary somewhere, or did she just stop writing?

"And, why doesn't my father want to talk about her?"