Well, I'm back again even though I promised myself not to post here anymore, I got bored. :P ! (Hard to believe, I know). Life and schoolwork has been my main priority, but I really needed something else to help inspire my creativity- plus I was frankly bored with my own story for now.

Anyway, I actually started writing this right after I finished my last story, taking into account what people had voted for in addition to my own ideas. There was a tie between some ideas, so I will try my best to incorporate them all into the story. Other than that, you will just have to wait and be surprised. I have most of this planned out as far as what I want to happen, but that can all change as you know, if you followed my other story. Also, I will tell you in advance that I have slow updates and never really have time to write these things as it is- however, I will try to do better than I have done in the past. No promises though.

Okay- down to business- this story will eventually involve some time travel, and the first set of chapters will jump around between the past and the future, so I hope it won't be too confusing. Also, although I don't really care about who gets together with who, I just used the main pairings for the future that people have come to expect (D/S, T/V, D/P, etc. though it doesn't really make a difference in the long run and point of the story. It just made it easier for me- flame me if you want, I don't care.) Okay, with that out of the way, enjoy the story.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Danny Phantom or it's characters. I believe the owners are Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon.

(Amity Park 2015)

It was the start of another normal morning (or rather, as 'normal' as it ever got for Daniel Fenton) as he made his way to the front doors of Casper High School, noting that whether he intended to or not, he always seemed to arrive to school earlier than the other teachers and even some of the custodians and janitors did, since not even all the hallway lights had been turned on yet. True, Sam would leave for work even earlier than he did, but he got a certain satisfaction from being back where he had spent a memorable part of his childhood. True, he would never have gotten here this early when he was an actual student, but he was a teacher now and he had new responsibilities. It was a whole different world at the school in the morning before the students started arriving, and he kind of liked the quiet solitude before the storm.

Granted, he had been working here for two years and loved his job (almost as much as his other 'secret' one), but he still couldn't help but become caught up in memories of the time he was a student himself, walking down the same halls with his friends, and sitting on the other side of the desk that he now found himself at. However, the school looked a bit different now, having just finished undergoing a renovation in which a new addition was added to the back of the large brick building, which included more classrooms to accommodate the increased number of students that had moved into the area. Walls had also been repainted, the floors had been retiled, the old lockers had been replaced, new security cameras guarded the entrances, and his parents had even installed a newer, more improved ghost alarm to warn the school of any imminent invasions. The school itself seemed to shine even in the semi-darkness.

"Hey Dan!" a cheery voice said in greeting to the dark-haired smartly-dressed man sporting a small goatee from around the corner of the hallway. Normally, it probably would have blended in with the constant prattle of students, but now the voice seemed to echo eerily despite its friendly, yet somewhat quiet tone in the empty building.

Danny stopped and turned towards the voice. "Hey George," he answered back. He should have known George the janitor was here- he always was. The elderly gentleman grasped a broom in one hand, and a bucket with a red rag hanging over the edge of it in the other. "Would you like a hand with anything before I have to get going?" Danny asked. He remembered this janitor had been here since he was a kid, and must really be dedicated to his job to be here all the time, especially in his old age.

"Oh, no, but thank ya," he answered. "I've noticed ya've have been coming in earlier and staying later."

"Yeah, I've had some science projects I needed to set up for the kids in class before they got here. There also seem to be more and more kids joining the after-school science club these days and I need to find stuff they may be interested in to keep them busy," he chuckled. "Today I'm going to teach them how to build mini solar-powered cars to race outside, and I'm throwing a star party here on the football field next week as part of an extra astronomy lesson. We'll have a bunch of telescopes, star charts, snacks, hot chocolate, and the like. You're welcome to come, if you want to."

"Really? I may just take ya up on that offer. Ya're a good teacher, Dan- wish I had had someone like ya in high school to inspire me. Too bad ya're so overworked with all the different classes they have ya teachin'. Ya're really dedicated, even though I see ya run out of here at an oddly quick pace every now and then…"

"Heh heh- yeah, but it's not too bad," Danny said trying to change the subject of his quick disappearances, though he would never leave his class alone for more than a few minutes at a time, with the excuse of having to drop off some papers in the office or having to get some supplies. (Sometimes that's all the time he needed). For a busy janitor, he was still very observant. "They are in the process of hiring some new teachers for those new rooms- after all, since Mr. Palooka retired, the science department has been a bit… lacking in resources," he mused. "Oh, and you know, you can call me Danny. In fact, I'd prefer it. You're the only one who calls me 'Dan'," the teacher added. For some reason, he didn't feel that the name "Dan" suited him. He merely preferred the name he had always gone by. 'Dan' seemed a little too mature, and he didn't want to admit he had grown up completely anyway. Not to mention the fact that it brought back bad memories of something he never wanted to become.

"Ah, alright," George answered, before remembering what he had been about to say. "Oh right- I wanted to ask you about that old locker ya kept. Ya know, the one in your room."

"Danny's eyes widened. "What…do you want to know about it?"

"Do ya want me to throw that beat-up rusty thing away, or did ya ask the construction crew if you could keep it for a specific reason?"

Danny chuckled and breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, that old thing? I just asked if I could have it for um… sentimental reasons. It was my old locker as a kid."

George straightened up and smiled. "Well okay then, though I must admit I've never heard of anyone wanting to keep their old locker. I guess you learn something new every day. Take care Dan…ny," George said, and turned the rest of lights on, illuminating the previously darkened hallway.

"You too George," Danny said before continuing on his way.

As he came to his classroom, he quickly glanced at the sign on the door that read "Science Room- Mr. Fenton" and he unlocked the door after straightening it out. He turned on the lights, took a newspaper out from his briefcase and tossed it onto the desk along with a familiar cylindrical container which he put in the right bottom drawer. He then placed the briefcase on the floor next to his chair. Afterwards, he continued to the store room in the back. He was supposed to dissect a frog for the students in his biology class so they could see a real one, while they would all work on the reusable synthetic frog cadavers that Sam had worked so hard to get the school board to accept for the science program when they were younger. However, Principal Lancer had been adamant about using at least one real animal so the students could make educational comparisons. At least one wasn't so bad, and oddly enough, he found that kind of stuff fascinating.

As he took the cadaver from the science closet, removed it from its vacuum-sealed bag, and set it up on a tray for his first period class, he felt the room become very cold, and a bluish mist escaped his mouth. He glanced around, prepared to transform, when he noticed a small greenish glowing blob sitting on the back bookshelf. He walked over to it to try to see it clearer, with the thermos in hand, and noticed it was a frog, most likely the one he was preparing for dissection. "Great," he said to himself. "That's one thing about this job that you wouldn't expect."

The frog eyed him warily, but didn't move away.

"Alright, little guy, sorry about this, but you're going to have to go back to the Ghost Zone." He saw the green, semi-transparent frog's eyes become large and puppy-doggish as it tilted its head in protest and croaked loudly. Danny raised an eyebrow and smiled as he turned the thermos off, its mechanical whirring ceased and its florescent blue internal glow faded. "Well fine for now at least, I guess you can keep me company until the kids start sauntering in. We owe you that much." The frog jumped happily into his hand, and Danny carried him back to his desk after taking out the box of fake frogs and placing it on the back counter. He closed the door so none of the teachers would notice the oddity as they walked to their rooms, sipping coffee and eating donuts.

"I wonder how you got out here," Danny mused as he stroked the frog on the head as if he were petting a very small dog, and it happily enjoyed the attention as he prepared his chemistry lesson. He would be teaching that class about chemical gas laws and subsequent equations, and he had taken out the lesson plans for that. However, he was most excited about his fifth period astronomy class. It had taken him almost a year to convince Lancer to let him teach the subject (his favorite) in conjunction to the physics curriculum and he finally wore the bald man down. This was the first year it had been offered, and there was a large student interest in it already. They had already designed and built rockets as part of the physics aspect of the class, which they had to calculate the trajectory of before they launched them off over the football field. He was particularly excited since there was to be a big meteor shower that would be appearing over the eastern sky in a few days. He had scheduled the star party so that his students would be able to see it then.

He looked at the various posters on the wall as he sat back in his chair with the paper and drank some hot chocolate that Sam had made him before she had left that morning. He never did like coffee. He had one poster representing the evolution of humans from early hominid ancestors, one describing different cell types, a bunch of space photographs with pictures of planets, nebulas, stars, galaxies, etc. including a poster with a large picture of a spiral galaxy with a tiny red "X" in a spot along one remote edge of it. The title was "You Are Here." Finally, he and some of his students who volunteered had painted a giant Periodic Table of Elements along the back wall. In addition, there were various odd types of plants, models, bookshelves full of books, etc that really completed the room. Also, unknown to the students, the storeroom also contained an old locker with the numbers '724' on it, and a locked cabinet that was full of ghost-hunting equipment, save for the Fenton Thermos, which Danny tried to keep near him at all times.

"I guess I never really could get away from this place, no matter how hard I tried," he reflected to himself as he stifled a small chuckle. "And I never would have imagined I'd become another Mr. Lancer."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," A nasally voice answered and Danny's breath went cold again.

"Hey Sidney. Not so sure about what?" he asked the ghost who had appeared next to him. Most people would be surprised or shocked by a sudden appearance of a spirit right next to them, but Danny had been around the block a few times in that regard. Sidney Poindexter was a spirit of a kid who had been constantly picked on by bullies while going to Casper High in the 1950s. However, he had become more popular in his Ghost Zone realm after seemingly standing up to the 'halfa' after he had switched bodies with Danny. Despite that incident, they had become good friends ever since- especially after Danny had defeated Pariah Dark when he was younger and protected the other ghosts from his wrath. Sidney still hung around the old school watching for bullies and scaring them off the best he could.

Sydney looked through his thick, wispy glasses at the teacher. "I think you're a better teacher than Mr. Lancer. At least the kids are interested in what you have to say, and they actually listen to you. I even think you are pretty interesting because I drop in and listen in to your classes sometimes. Not to mention, most of the girls in your classes have a crush on you."

Danny chuckled and cleared his throat. "You don't say, huh? Well don't let Lancer hear you say stuff like that. He's my boss now. But, I'm glad you think I'm a good teacher."

"Of course. But that's not why I came to talk to you…"

"Oh right!" Danny said happily. "I got it for you- it's in the back closet- that store room. Now I know the mirror is gone, but…"

"That's okay. Is it okay if I keep it for myself?"

"Be my guest- that's why I got it."

"Do you mind if I keep it where it is?"

"You don't want to keep it in the Ghost Zone?"

"Goodness no! This locker is the only physical object that can keep me connected to this plane of existence- like an anchor point. If I take it back, I won't be able to come here anymore. I had used it as a portal once, but now I just use the one your parents have since you broke the mirror. Plus, I like it here better than in the Ghost Zone, and I don't like to cause trouble- I try to prevent it." Many of us 'wayward spirits' spirits need something to allow us to stay here- something that our spectral energy is well-attached or bonded to whether it be a physical object or something else. So many of my memories have to do with that locker, which is the reason why I haunt it. If I didn't have it, I'd cease to exist here."

"Wow- I never knew that. I guess we do learn new things everyday."

"Yeah, well I guess you wouldn't have the same problem, since your human half ties you here, but I must be going on patrol. Thank you again."

"No problem. Hey, why you're at it, would you mind taking this frog back with you to the Ghost Zone?"

"Sure, I wonder how it got out," Poindexter pondered, and took it as he flew up through the ceiling and vanished just as the first few student walked into class and took their seats, eying the frogs curiously.

"Good morning," Danny greeted them cheerily as more people started filing into the room. They each gave him a look that read, don't even talk to us before 7:30. "It's going to be a long day," he sighed.