Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!
"Punch!" Maddie shouted and the five-year-olds complied.
"Again! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten!" They brought their hands down to their sides after the tenth punch.
"Kick!" Once again, they all did as she asked.
"You're all getting the hang of this really quickly!" Maddie exclaimed. "I've never seen anyone learn these moves so fast. Now we're going to spar. Does everyone have their equipment?" the children nodded and got out their plastic gloves, helmets, and mouth guards. Once they finished getting ready, they looked up at her expectantly.
"Okay, how about…" Maddie consulted her roster for a second. "Sam and Dash." Sam stepped into the center, along with the blonde boy from before. Dash's equipment was red and Sam's was black.
"First, both of you bow," Maddie instructed, and the two children did so. Then, they immediately rushed each other and began throwing punches and kicks at one another. Dash opened with a sidekick, but Sam blocked it and threw a punch. Dash ducked and tried to sweep his leg around. Sam jumped up and as soon as she landed, quickly let loose with a karate chop. This time she made contact, and conked Dash on the side of the head.
"Ow, that hurt!" Dash wailed, and began crying.
"Shh…it's okay," Maddie soothed as she walked over to the boy.
"I'm really sorry," Sam said softly as she watched Maddie comfort her opponent.
"It's okay, don't worry about it," Maddie replied as she led Dash away to sit down. "Next up-Valerie and Kwan!"
"Good luck," Sam said to Valerie as she approached the center.
"Thanks! And good one, with Dash."
"Thanks!" Valerie and Kwan each bowed, and it wasn't long before Kwan was sitting off to the side with Dash. Sam and Valerie high-fived and stood together with the rest of the group.
At the end of the lesson, all of the children changed into day clothes and the kids' parents came to pick them up. They all talked excitedly about their first karate lesson and described in excruciating detail what they had learned. Finally, only Sam and Valerie were left in the karate studio. Valerie was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a yellow T-shirt, and Sam had on a black skirt and a purple sweater.
"Sam? Valerie? Why haven't your parents come by to pick you up yet?" Maddie asked as she stepped out of the employee's changing room, now clad in a blue HAZMAT suit.
"My daddy's at a meeting," Valerie replied, a tone of boastfulness barely apparent in her voice. "He's an important man at Axiom Labs."
"And I think my mommy and daddy are in Europe or something," Sam said. Maddie put a hand to her forehead.
"I can't just leave you two here…" she paused for a minute and seemed to be deliberating something. Finally, she said, "I guess you could come home with me, but just for a couple of hours. Sam, is it okay if I drop you off at Valerie's house once her father comes home?" Sam nodded vigorously. Just then, the 'cool metal truck' Dash had spoken of earlier pulled up to the studio.
"That's our ride," Maddie said. She opened the door and held it for the two girls, and the three of them clambered into the RV.
"Girls, this is my husband, Jack," Maddie said as she introduced the large man in orange who was driving the RV. "Jack, these are Sam and Valerie. Their parents forgot to pick them up, so they'll be staying with us for a couple of hours until Valerie's father gets off work. They're my two best students." The two girls beamed at that last part.
"Great! Two more people I can blather on to about ghosts!" Jack exclaimed.
"No! Ghosts are scary!" Valerie protested.
"Don't worry; if there's a ghost around, I'll protect you. Me, Jack Fenton!" Sam giggled at his goofiness. Jack interpreted this as awe at his self-proclaimed ghost-hunting prowess, and puffed out his chest proudly. As he started up the RV and drove off, he started to talk about all of the really cool inventions that he'd made over the years that would help him and Maddie fight ghosts.
After about fifteen minutes, the girls gasped in awe. The RV had pulled up to a brick house on a street corner. But that wasn't what had awed them. The house had a huge neon sign sticking out of it that read 'FentonWorks' and had this big…big…thing coming out of the top.
"Whoa…" they both said in unison.
"Welcome to FentonWorks, ghost hunting central!" Jack announced as he put the RV into 'Park' and unlocked the doors. The girls eagerly ran out of the RV and into the house, expecting the inside to be as cool as the outside. They were slightly disappointed when Maddie opened the door to reveal a normal-looking living room, staircase, and kitchen. They managed to get a peek at the basement, which appeared to be made of chrome, before Jack eagerly bounded downstairs and closed the door behind him. Both girls took off their shoes and put them neatly in the coat closet next to the door.
"So," Maddie began as she clapped her hands together. "Who wants cookies?" The two girls glanced at each other, grinned, then started jumping up and down and raising their hands as high as their little arms would extend. Maddie chuckled.
"I'll take that as a yes. Why don't you two make yourselves at home while I start baking?" She headed into the kitchen, and Sam and Valerie went into the living room and plopped down on the couch.
"Mr. Fenton is really funny," Sam began.
"Yeah, and Mrs. Fenton is so nice," Valerie replied.
Just then, a redheaded girl a couple of years older than them sat down on the couch and started reading something. Neither Sam nor Valerie knew how to read yet, so they couldn't tell what the book was. It looked really thick, though. The girl was so immersed in her book, she apparently didn't even notice Sam and Valerie sitting near her. The two younger girls smirked at each other as a plot silently formulated between them. They slid off the couch and snuck over to the older girl, who was lying on the couch so that her head was on the armrest and her feet were up on the seat. Sam stood to the side of the couch so that her head just barely made it over the armrest and Valerie clambered up the back of the couch so that she was just peeking over the top.
"Ready?" Sam mouthed.
"Sure!" Valerie mouthed back. "One, two, three, NOW!"
"HI!" Both girls shouted at the exact same time. The readhead jumped a good two feet in the air and when she landed, the book was sprawled over her face.
Sam thought she heard a chuckle and spun around to find its source. She thought she'd seen something move on the stairs, but before she could look more closely the Something had sped up the stairs in a flurry of black, red, and blue. Intrigued, she was about to investigate, but she'd forgotten one tiny, little problem. The redheaded girl.
"MOM!" The girl shrieked, and Sam and Valerie immediately clapped their hands over their ears. Maddie came running into the living room holding a silver-colored rod about a foot long.
"Where's the ghost?" She asked as she brandished the weapon around the room. She lowered the rod and it powered down with a mechanical whine when she realized that it was just her daughter overreacting to the presence of her students.
"What are these kids doing in our house?" the redhead demanded of her mother.
"Their names are Sam and Valerie, and they're two of my karate students," Maddie replied.
"But what are they doing here?"
"Their parents forgot to pick them up; they'll be staying here until Valerie's dad can come get them. Sam, Valerie, this is Jazz, my daughter." After the introductions were over, she returned to the kitchen to continue working on the cookies.
"Hey, Jazz," the younger girls mumbled, their gaze set on the ground.
"Sorry for scaring you," Valerie said softly.
"You should be," Jazz said with a huff, and marched across the room and up the stairs. Sam just barely caught her mumble, "Honestly, they're almost as bad as Danny," before she disappeared.
"I wonder who Danny is," She commented.
"Probably one of her friends," Valerie answered.
"If she gets mad that easily, she probably doesn't have too many friends," Sam said and the two girls giggled. They sat back down on the couch and talked about their first karate lesson for a bit, but then a delicious smell began emanating from the kitchen.
"The cookies are done!" Maddie called from the kitchen.