Danny quickly leaves the house hiking his ratty blue backpack higher on his shoulder as he ducks into an alley. He looks around for a bit deciding, once it was safe, to transform. There was no bright flash but there was a small dim flash of white light leaving Danny Phantom standing in the place Danny Fenton used to be in. His Phantom form aged and grew as he did resulting in his ghost form having longer hair and a muscular physique. With all the fighting and training he did it wouldn't make sense if he didn't at least gain some muscle. Hiding said muscle in his human form was easy because all he had to do was wear baggy clothes and slouch a little and no one really likes to get close to him, so it's a win win.
His ghost form has acidic green eyes and snowy white that was longer than in his human form. He replaced his black and white hazmat suit with a sleeveless black shirt with his symbol in the center, black armbands on his biceps, arm guards that stopped at his lower biceps, and black fingerless leather gloves on his hands. His bottoms consisted of white leather pants, that were easy to move in with almost unnoticeable pockets that were bigger than they looked, with a broad black strip running down the sides and black combat boot.
As he floats to ready himself for the flight to Sam's house, he turns himself and his backpack invisible. He reaches her house entering through the window in her bedroom turning visible and landing face-first onto the couch placed below the window. He changes back, grunting a greeting at Sam who sat at her dresser doing her make-up. "Danny," she calls looking at him through the mirror, "don't go to sleep." She hears him grunt in reply but otherwise staying silent.
She stands swinging her spider backpack on her shoulders. Sam was the shortest of the trio at 5'3 while Danny was the tallest at 5'10 with Tucker after him at 5'8. She was a healthy balance of curves and muscles due to her athleticism and ghost fighting. Her outfit consisted of black jeans, a purple bell-sleeves peasant shirt with a black backless vest waist coat the buttoned under her breast, a choker with the ghost crystal Danny gave her, and her signature combat boot. Her hair was shoulder length with dark purple streaks throughout it was swept into a neat ponytail.
She shuffles over to the immobile Danny, nudging him with her foot. A knock sounds at her door startling her.
"It's your sister." Danny mumbles into the couch.
Sam gives him a look turning to answer the door, looking down to find her 5-year old sister Selina at the door.
"Take me with you!" She pleads her lower lip wobbling and her green eyes glistening with unshed tears. "I don't wanna stay here without you! They'll be mean to me!"
Sam sighs looking back at Danny who sat up with a shrug. He raised a brow looking between the two with green tinted eyes. "Lina," Sam starts hesitantly, "you shouldn't be here. You're supposed to be with Ms. Asmund."
"She's mean to me," the girl pouts.
"I'll think about it, ok?" Sam says softly squatting down to look the younger girl in the eye.
"Ok." Selina turns to leave but changes her mind running past Sam to hug Danny. He smiles down at her blond head as she detaches from him to leave the room.
Sam sighs again grabbing a hoodie to shrug on for when she feels cold later. "So... the cameras?"
Danny nods, putting a hand to his chin in thought, "Will be a small problem for you but not me or Tuck."
"No, they won't," she denies, "when they were introducing the family when I went down for breakfast it was only them and gram on the couch."
"That's harsh," Tucker says climbing into the room. "It's not like they don't have two daughters."
Sam shrugs it off not really caring. "Hell awaits."
Tucker groans as Danny comes to stand between the two. Tucker soothes down his mustard yellow button-down shirt pulling his beret from his brown jeans and shoving it onto his head. He stomps his brown loafed feet as he hikes hsi red backpack onto his shoulder. Turning into Phantom form Danny wraps either arm around his friends on either side of him.
"This is going to be a fun few weeks," Danny grumbles under his breath during the flight to school intangible and invisible.
"My Padre is…" Paulina Sanchez happily explains to a camera as it pans around the hallway, jerking slightly when it sees three kids by a locker that weren't there before. "Oh, those three," she sneers, narrowing her eyes at the only female among the group. "That's the loser trio." Seeing that he won't be able to get more out of her regarding the trio he finds a scrawny red-headed boy with glasses.
"Oh," the boys' eyes light up, "Danny, Sam, and Tucker-the trio. Danny is the one in blue to the left of the girl leaning on the locker, Sam is the girl leaning on the locker, and Tucker is the one in yellow to the right of Sam." The nerd supplies the man helpfully. "We call them the trio cause they're always together except very briefly when Danny dated Valeri Gray and when Sam dated the supposed Hungarian exchange student Gregor," he pauses looking around suspiciously. "Don't say that name to Danny or Sam, it won't end well." The bell rings interrupting the short interview, "I wouldn't bother with them much, Danny does not like strangers." The boy finishes with a small smile heading off down the hall.
The camera pans to the trio again only to find them gone.
"Welcome back students!" Mr. Lancer, the overweight teacher calls excitedly from the front of the classroom. "I hope you enjoyed your weekends because it's time to work."
There was a camera placed at the front of the room above the board that was small enough to go unnoticed by the students, but the cameras stationed at either corner of the room were not. Some students ignored the cameras while others prevailed in them.
"You should notice the changes made to the town and school. We will be hosting an assembly shortly to discuss them. Now-" the teacher drones on ignoring the fact that the majority of his students weren't paying attention to him.
Danny turns his head to Tucker who sat to his right in the back center of the class. He mouths something to the other boy that causes him to scoff amusedly catching Sam's attention who sat in front of Danny.
The cameraman pans to them for a brief second before panning to the loudest group by the window.
"I heard Phantom isn't the reason that they're here. Apparently, Mayor Masters was told that due to all the things the town post on social media people got curious whether we were lying or not," Star Danvers briefly explains easily being the loudest person in the classroom.
"There's a camera in my house," Paulina says proudly.
"There's a camera in everyone's house," April Sanders deadpans looking done with the whole situation. Her response catches the attention of Sam who laughs softly while doodling in her notebook.
"Anyway," Paulina huffs flicking her hair over her pink crop top clad shoulder, "some people, like you Sanders, won't be as important as me or Star. So, when the teachers take attendance, your name will be completely skipped."
"The House of Mirth Ms. Sanchez that's quite enough." Mr. Lancer peaks up, "I'm going to take the role before the assembly. Dash Baxter."
"Here."
"Star Danvers."
"Like, here."
"Mikey."
"Present, Mr. Lancer."
"Kwan"
"Here, sir."
"Nathan."
"Present."
"Paulina Sanchez."
"Like here, duh."
"Daniel Fenton."
The boy silently raises a hand putting it down when he receives a nod from Lancer.
"Tucker."
"Here."
"April."
"Present."
"Samantha."
"Sam."
"Michelle."
"Present."
"Megan."
"Here."
"Dylan."
"Here my dude."
"Gilian."
"Here."
"Kira."
"Here."
"And Valerie Grey."
"Here."
"Excellent everyone is here," Mr. Lancer proclaims proudly. "Now we just wait for the announcement. Until then please talk quietly amongst yourselves." He dismisses them going to his desk and pulling a book out to read.
The A-Listers immediately take the time to gossip loudly amongst themselves drawing all cameras but one to them. The lone camera focuses on the trio in the back of the room. The group consisting of the Fenton boy and his friends.
"How many men?" Tucker asks facing Danny all the while fiddling with his PDA
"It was low, so 6 or 7." The other boy answers with a shrug.
"Really," Sam says, turning to face Danny as well raising a brow, "including the 3 before?"
Danny doesn't answer, furrowing his brows, "I forgot about those so maybe 9 or 10."
Tucker shakes his head, "That's still a low number man."
Danny nods at Tucker in agreement leaning forward in his desk to see what Sam was drawing. "That's cool."
Sam hums in acknowledgement, "Really? I think the shading could be better."
"Naw, it looks good." Sam laughs softly continuing to add small details to the picture of Princess Dorthea in her dragon form with her human form in the foreground smaller than the dragon.
"Before I forget," Tucker suddenly speaks up, getting up to kneel between the two on the floor so that both of them could hear him. "I updated the files, videos, and artillery so that Jazz only has semi-access but not all clearance," he says lowly barely moving his mouth to speak.
Sam nods, "Good work Tech Master."
He smiles toothily moving to sit back in his seat. "Stop it," he says with half-hearted gestures, "you'll make me blush."
"Attention students please report to the gym for assembly."
The assembly blended into lunch so once it ended all the students who had lunch at that period immediately went to the cafeteria.
Sam was the first one to sit down at their usual table since she brings her own lunch, Danny was next, and lastly Tucker, who sat on the opposite side of the table than the other two. Their table was in front of the window farthest from the A-listers and the cafeteria doors.
That assembly was so pointless," Sam huffed aggressively stabbing a cherry tomato with her fork.
"I can't believe my parents were there and just completely forgot I existed. They literally forgot they had another child besides Jazz," he laughs softly biting into his burger.
"Why were they even here?" Tucker asks through a mouthful of food.
"Swallow before you speak, Foley." Sam reprimands face full of disgust.
Danny shrugs unsure. "Did you hear about the field trip that is supposed to be the series final, which will be our senior year?"
Both his friends nod, knowing nothing good will come out of their last year of high school.
"I got introduced to the camera this morning. My dad got my age wrong."
"At least your parents look and talk to you," Sam scoffs. "You spill caviar on the mayor 1 time accidentally on purpose and now you're the problem child."
Danny turns to the girl with mirthful eyes, "That was you?" He wraps an arm around her hoodie clad shoulders. "I wondered why he was grumbling about vengeful goth girls." He smiles before turning serious leaning forward. "The cameras patrol the building, including the cafeteria and gym. In Lancer's class only one camera specifically focused on us. Hopefully they dismiss us as interesting and only show glimpses of us," he says, lowly eyes flickering around for any cameras near them.
Tucker nods, swallowing his last bite of his 3rd burger, "I can simultaneously hack all the cameras to see how many there are and which classrooms have no cameras. I know for sure though that almost every classroom has a camera above the board. Once we get the numbers it'll be easy to avoid them."
"And," Sam starts unwrapping Danny's arm from around her shoulder, "I've taken care of your bathroom problem. You now have a doctor's note on file that says the teacher must let you go to the bathroom when you ask to go as long as that is where you say you are going that is. The best part is that the teachers can't stop you or tell you no." She finishes proudly with a smirk arm crossed over her chest in self-satisfaction.
"Awesome!" Danny nods," Why didn't we think of this last year?"
Sam and Tucker shrug unsure. A cameraman walks past the table as they resume eating. He pans to them then pans away when he sees they're not doing anything.
"Marco said they were interesting but all I'm seeing is a whole lot of boring," he grumbles lowly under his breath walking away from the table.
Danny raises an amused brow after the man, "Apparently we were deemed interesting by a cameraman but the one that was just here said we were boring."
Tucker snorts amused, "Good to know that they don't really have any idea who or what to film."
"Now we just wait for the first episode to come out and-," an unmistakable blue wisp floats from his mouth interrupting his sentence. "It's Ember."
"Casper High are you ready to ROCK!" The ghostly pop singer calls her voice amplified by speakers.
"I'll be quick, "Danny sighs, moving to stand.
"Wait," Sam grabs his arm, "Let your parents handle it."
He raises a brow. "Let the camera see your parents handle a ghost so that their job seems legit." She said with her eyes pleading with him to understand.
"Sure Sam, a ghost, but not Ember McLaime," he scoffs.
"What's all this?" Said pop singer asks upon noticing the cameras.
"Well, spook," Maddie Fenton calls as she kicks the door open, "it doesn't matter because you won't be here much longer."
Ember looks down at the woman unimpressed, "Where's the kid?"
"Phantom hasn't been seen since the cameras got here," a kid calls to her.
She glances around deciding that she didn't feel like fighting today and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. "What was that!" A frightened camerawoman asked shakily.
"A ghost," Tucker says, "duh." He mocks causing the cafeteria to erupt with laughter.
"We didn't do a drill because usually Ember just comes to perform or look for Phantom and the fact that we didn't feel like missing lunch." Nathan tells a cameraman who snorts. "If she was here to cause trouble, she would've blown something up."
"ALL ghosts are dangerous kids," Maddie scolds with a scowl. Danny shakes his head with an unimpressed look as his mother turns to a camera to rant.
"But my ghost boy isn't," Paulina proclaims loudly followed by multiple sounds of agreement.
"Especially him," Maddie's scowl deepens. "He and the Wisconsin Ghost are the most dangerous ghosts."
"Phantom is a good guy," Dash denies crossing his arms.
"Yeah," Tucker yells amusedly voice blending in with the masses.
"Well," Sam drawls getting up to throw her trash away, ignoring what was happening around her. "We should go before this gets worse."
"Totally," Tucker snorts as the argument escalates.
"We'll sneak so my mom doesn't spot us." Danny says heading to the trash, gesturing for the other teens to follow. Once they reach the trash can they go through the kitchen and leave through the back entrance of the kitchen. "This is going to be a very long school year."
"Yeah, no kidding."