Chapter 1 ~ Where it all began
It had been a day at school, and Jazz and I had decided to hit up the Nasty Burger the local food joint that was pretty much was the local teen hangout. We mainly met up there to study, get dinner, or both. I walk in and over to our usual booth and wait for Jazz. Which surprised me because she is usually waiting for me given that she already has a car, a sleek red convertible. And thus, always arrives a little before I do. And I begin pulling out my math sets from today, consisting of 3 sets across 5 pages. We are currently in what our teacher calls "Unit 0" which is basically a review from grade 8 and is going to last a week and a half, it is gonna have a test at the end mainly so the teacher can make adjustments based on where people are struggling or so she said.
Anyway, I am halfway done with my first set when Jazz finally pulls up. She is in her usual black fitted long-sleeved shirt paired with a pair of blue (almost cyan) jeans and black flats. Her hair is ginger, straight, and ends halfway down her back with a cyan blue headband. Her eyes are a deep turquoise. Her skin is pale but not sickly. I begin to wave at her as she approached; she smiled and quickens her pace. She sits down across from me in our booth and begins pulling out her homework, probably being quite a lot tougher than mine as she is a junior and I'm a freshman.
"Hey Jazz what took ya?" I asked her.
She replied with "I decided to take extra hours tutoring starting this semester" I frowned a bit at this as I am going to see her less and we had and will always be pretty close. She's been taking odd jobs around for as long as I can remember. She did this to help pay for food in the house and clothes on our backs. As much as our parents love us, we can't help but feel they loved their research more than us. And by a pretty large margin at times. Sometimes they are downright neglectful which kinda hurts to say. Often, when they are into the flow of work on an invention or research we won't see them for days at a time. This is probably why I'm so close with Jazz. That, and our parents' career choice had alienated us from the rest of the town and our respective peer groups by consequence. She was always teaching herself important life skills so she could intern and teach me. I often see her as more of a parent than a sister in that regard.
"So how was your day at school today?" She asks with a hint of concern.
"Slow mostly, classes aren't really kicking off yet with the first week and all," I said as a matter-a-fact-like. She frowned a bit as she can tell am holding back but decided not to press. The bit I wasn't going to tell her that I was shoved and locked in my locker as I was getting my geography textbook and binder by none other than Dash Baxter. Which then in turn made me 37 minutes late for said class when I was let out by the janitor and lost a perfectly good lock in the process (AN: Gosh that used to happen to me in grade school and it sucked and was a bit scary. I was kinda the 'strange kid' throughout school and it, unfortunately, followed me to post-secondary) She asks me "Danny are you doing ok on your math?". And I reply with "It's mostly stuff from last year so far, which you did a pretty good job at explaining as always." And said with a bit of a grin.
"Well then, while you finish that. I'm gonna pull out my question on 1984. Do the readings." Leaving 'ask for help if you get stuck' unsaid and takes on a serious face as she begins to read.
I have no issues completing my math and move onto my English work concerning To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Whereas, Jazz begins her physics work and man did question looks strange to me, making me very glad I am only in Gr 9 math. And after about 45 minutes pass,
"Hey Jazz what have you got left? Because I got 3 more reading questions." I ask about getting a bit of hunger making my stomach growl. She giggles at this and answers with "Just the 5 physics questions. Why don't you go order our supper after you get those last three done?" She replied still in the middle of her 8th to last problem. I hurry to finish the questions which takes about sevenish minutes. Then I proceed to put my binders, textbook, and English book back in my school bag. Jazz then hands me 12 bucks for both our meals. And I walk over to the cash and internally groan a little when I see the length of the line. There are about twenty-five people ahead of me. 'Damn that early Friday evening rush!' I internally exclaim. I wait in line for the next sixteen minutes. I finally get to the cash the cashier asks in his usual squeaky and nasally voice, also with a slight lisp due to headgear? I thinking that was a thing of the past. It perplexes me a bit.
"How may I take your order?" He asks me.
"2 Nasty teen burger combos please" He punches it in and rings me up with 11.50 and I hand him the 12 bucks and he asks
"Would you like a receipt?"
I reply with a simple "sure." Then I advance in the 'waiting for food line' and do another 8 minutes of waiting before I get our food.
I then walk back over to Jazz, who had already her homework and is waiting for me. I start unwrapping my burger and take a few bits. Then, Jazz adopts a look of concern on her face. I realize now that she is going to press what didn't earlier.
"Hey Danny, did something happen at school today?" And I was right. I know that I should have told her initially but I was determined to prove that I can handle myself, not only that, but I was a little embarrassed. And with a little more nonverbal prodding on her part, I tell her what went down with the day.
"Danny you really have to tell someone about that boy or stand up to him to discourage this behavior." Jazz states in a serious but caring tone. I sigh with a bit of an eye roll.
"For one waaay stronger than me. And for two he's an A-lister and quarterback giving him immunity to punishment by the principle and like most if not of the teachers who get a slice of the sports pie, making any attempts to report him futile." I deadpan, then add "It's pretty damn backward that the people the A-list bully are the ones that get in trouble. Being locked in lockers/closets and being late for classes getting reprimanded by teachers. Or, how they force the nerds to their homework and assignments for them. It's absolutely disgusting!" I am fuming by this point. Jazz simply nods and listens as I continue to rant and we finish eating our fast food supper. We get up to leave, clear our trays in the trash. We both wash our hands and we leave the establishment.
As we are getting into Jazz's car she asks me "Do you want to go to Staples to get a new lock?"
"Sure, why not?" Staples is about a five-minute drive from Nasty Burger. She pulls up and parks close as she can to the store entrance. We get out and enter the store and head for the school supplies aisle. Luckily it's still early enough in the semester that the back-to-school sales are still active. I pick out a pack of 4 master direction locks for 12 bucks, and with that, we head, and with that we head to the cash and out of the store.
We get back in Jazz's car and head home. Which is a 7 min drive from staples. Now our house is quite unmistakable with its huge UFO looking structure on its roof and the bright neon sign reading 'FentonWorks' with an arrow pointing to our front door. Jazz pulls up on our driveway and we enter and head up to our rooms on the second floor.
My room has a pretty standard twin bed, blue walls, desk with a desktop computer. The walls are littered with NASA posters and on my ceiling, those kiddy five points glow in the dark stars with a few planets mixed in. I have a dream to become an astronaut or at the very least work for NASA. I set my bag down by my computer desk and grab the directional locks and start trying to pry the packaging open. Then get scissors because this is getting ridiculous. I finally open the packaging. Picking the black and white one out of the pack I set to read the instructions set the lock 'up up up left down right down' and practice it a few times and once I get it down pat, I place it in my bag and boot up my computer and pull up an article on the Andromeda Galaxy. I'm not even halfway through the article when I hear my dad's booming voice.
"Jazz, Danny, come down to the lab right away!". This is the first time I've heard from either of my parents in days. They've been engrossed in some new portal invention as far as I can tell.
I head down where I meet my sister. We both give each an eye roll. And climb the stairs down to the lab.
Both my parents are standing in front of a massive hole in the wall. Almost shaking with excitement grinning ear to ear. My parents are an odd pair. My dad Jack Fenton, in his usual bright orange day-glow hazmat suit with a black rubber collar, gloves, and boot. He also has a hood with orange goggles that is easy to tuck into the collar which is how he usually wears it but not right now hiding his midnight blue eyes and greying hair. My Mom Maddie Fenton was in her complimentary blue hazmat suit, with a black rubber collar, gloves, and boots. Like my dad's hood, hers can also be tucked away into the collar but unlike my dad, she had red goggles and usually wears it up. Hiding her auburn hair and purple eyes. Both my parents are ghost hunters/researchers. They both have an intense hatred of ghosts but at the same token are completely fascinated by them.
"Kids go grab your hazmat suits, so we can begin," mom instructs. Jazz and I head over to the far wall where all the spare hazmat suits are. I grab my hazmat suit which is white with a black rubber collar, gloves, and boots, and head into the lab washroom. Take off my usual clothes which consist of a white t-shirt with a red-ringed collar and sleeves, and a red oval on the chest, a baggy slightly worn pair of blue jeans, And white and red converse. Once I had zip it up, I notice a super cringy sticker of my dad's grinning face and rip it off. I hope he won't get insulted. I exit the washroom and Jazz enters. A moment or two later she emerges with her hazmat suit which is lime green with the same collar, gloves, boots, and hood the same as me, but her goggles are blue and mine, black. We all pull up our hoods and goggles. Jazz asks in slight disinterest "What's this one supposed to do?"
And dad gave a booming reply of "This baby's gonna bust open a hole into the ghost dimension! Jazzypants!" I'll admit this invention is starting to intrigue me. Dad then grabs two fat cables, one going to the portal and the other the wall.
Simultaneously as he connects them he shouts "Bonzai!" And a visible spark runs up the cables, halfway to the portal, and fizzles out.
"I don't understand, we check over the calculations and the schematics several times over" dad said in disbelief. Mom walks over to dad and puts her hand on his shoulder.
"Jack, why don't we take a long walk together and grab some triple chocolate fudge as well. And come back to this tomorrow." Dad smiles a bit at the fudge but not with the same enthusiasm as he usually would. Both our parents exit the lab and head out. We pull back our hoods.
"Man, Jazz, I've never seen them that crush before." Jazz rolled her eye.
"You and I both know that portal was never going to work because ghosts and the paranormal are fiction." I just sigh in response, then she adds
"they'll get over it eventually and hopefully they will finally give up on this nonsense" she puts her fists in the air as she finishes.
"I'm heading back upstairs" and with that, she changes back into her normal clothes and leaves.
A few moments pass and I'm lost in thought 'maybe they just missed a wire, a switch or something.' 'It would be pretty cold to explore step foot in a whole new dimension' and with that mind is made up. I walk over to the portal and climb inside. Just as jazz comes down I'm already at the end of the portal.
"Hey, Danny, have you seen my phone? Danny you still down here?" She calls.
"No I haven't, have you checked the washroom? I'm in the portal." I answer.
Jazz responds with "Danny what are you thinking! Get out of there now!" I hear the worry in her voice and head back out. But as I do, I trip on a bundle of wires. To stop myself from face planting, I shoot my hand out and it catches on a panel. I hear a 'click' and remove my hand to reveal to buttons; On and Off, the on button is pushed in. I hear the whine of electricity. And turn to run, but it is ready too late. There is a sudden bright green, blinding light that engulfs me. And with it unimaginable searing white-hot pain. I feel as though every nerve and cell in my body is being torn apart and reforming. I hear a deafening blood-curdling scream and I slowly realize that's me screaming. 'Am I dying?' The pain starts to subside a bit as I hear a woman calling, no screaming my name it's so familiar but I can't quite place it. It's so far away, I want to get closer. But I'm so tired, my limbs feel lead. I remember whose voice it is now. It's Jazz. I tumble out of the portal and the world fades the black.
AN: I know quite the cliffie, I've had trouble sleeping with my wisdom teeth just being pulled out. I am pretty proud of this chapter. It's honestly the first piece of creative writing I've written that I've posted (also my first fanfiction). You also may have noticed that Sam and Tucker weren't present in the chapter, well in this AU they don't exist. I'd love to see what afterthoughts are to be had!
~SkarlettSkwrl