Disclaimer: I own none of this. Butch Hartman does.
Dinnertime at the Fenton Household
Part 1- Cooking with the Fentons.
"Dinnertime was family time. It was a calm time where everybody could get a meal and talk about how their day went. Well, at least you could relax as you ate …and if all else failed you could get a full meal in your stomach…" Introduction to Dinnertime; Page 201 of the Book of Etiquette That You Can Impress People With, owned by the Manson family.
Whoever made that up must have never even met the Fenton family, let alone seen the chaos that occurred before and during dinner!
Maddie Fenton was relieved to find an excuse to have her whole family together during dinner. Lately, Danny had always been with Tucker and Sam, and Jazz was staying after in one of her many after school activities or hanging out with her friends.
When was the last time we all ate dinner together? Maddie thought to herself. Since it seemed like a special occasion, Maddie decided to dig out some of her old recipe books and cook dinner.
The recipe she chose was chicken with lemon sauce. As a side dish, Maddie decided to make broccoli and rice. The recipe seemed simple enough. What could go wrong?
Maddie seemed to have forgotten that her family wasn't your average, everyday family.
She also conveniently forgot about the time the turkey came alive on Christmas Day; the time the hot dogs started attacking them; the time the rice swirled together to become a water- well, really it was a rice spout; the time the ham started glowing different colors; the time the mashed potatoes exploded in everyone's face… and so on. One could go on all day and all night about all of the various incidents involving food at the Fenton household and not even be halfway done!
She got out the ingredients that she needed to make dinner and preheated the oven. Maddie then started to mix the ingredients in a big mixing bowl. The current color of the mixture was a pale yellow. Just then, she heard a distant beeping noise in the basement.
"Ghost alert… ghost alert… you would be an idiot not to notice the ghost in the lab… ghost alert!"
Jack must have forgotten to turn off the Fenton Ghost Catcher and the ghost alarm, Maddie thought to herself. She was going to go downstairs for five minutes, no more, no less. She just wanted to see what was going on. All of the ingredients would still be there when she got back, right?
Danny Fenton had just walked into the kitchen with his two best friends, Sam and Tucker. He was looking for something to eat- maybe one of his mom's cookies. Hadn't she just made the chocolate chip with licorice bits? It was a weird combination, but Danny loved it. He was going to force Tucker to try a cookie also. While Danny looked around for the chocolate-and-licorice-chip cookies, Sam and Tucker were arguing about trying said cookies.
"Aw, Danny, do I have to try one? I love chocolate chips, and I love licorice- but not together!" Tucker moaned.
"Well, Tucker, if you like them both, then at least try them together!" Sam exclaimed back at Tucker as Danny checked the ghost cookie jar.
Nope, they're not in there. Why is the ecto-fudge in the cookie jar, anyways? Danny thought to himself.
"Sam, if you want me to try the cookies so badly, then why don't you try them yourself!" Tucker replied to Sam.
"I already tried them yesterday. Remember? We were all playing video games over here, after fighting Skulker." Sam said this like playing video games after fighting a ghost was an everyday occurrence. In reality, it was.
"Guys, keep it down!" whispered Danny. "My parents are downstairs! If they hear you talking about Skulker, they'll think he's a ghost!"
"Okay, okay, we're sorry. Where did your mom put the cookies? If I'm going to have to torture myself, I better get it over with," Tucker said, groaning as he said the last sentence.
"Where did she put them? I thought they would be in the cookie jar, but that's where the ecto-fudge is," Danny wondered aloud.
"Maybe they're in the fudge box on the top shelf? It would make sense, considering the fudge is in the cookie jar," Sam replied helpfully.
Little did they know that the fudge box was in the same spot as some of the ectoplasm samples. They also didn't realize the top shelf was above the uncooked chicken in the pan.
Danny grabbed a chair from the table to try reaching the top shelf. Everyone in the Fenton household except for Jack needed a chair of some sort to reach it. Danny was the shortest person in the family; it was a guarantee that he would need a chair to reach high objects.
"Tucker, Sam. Could you hold the chair for me? This is the one that wobbles back and forth," Danny asked Sam and Tucker. They agreed, and Danny climbed up to start searching for the chocolate and licorice chip cookies.
As Tucker and Sam were bringing up their age old argument about whether it was better to be an Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian or a carnivore (brought up by the uncooked chicken currently sitting on the stove), Danny was rummaging through the cabinet. He clutched the clear, unopened ectoplasm samples to his chest as he reached for the fudge box.
"Meat is very healthy! It's full of protein, and is all around better then veggies!"
"You would kill innocent little animals just for protein to fill your belly?"
"Some of the so-called 'innocent animals' have killed us humans before for food! It's the cycle of life, Sam!"
"But how would you feel if you were hopping along in a forest and some man shot you just to put packaged food on the supermarket shelves? We can live on vegetables!"
Distracted, Tucker and Sam let go of the chair Danny was currently standing on. The chair started to wobble back and forth.
"Um, guys?" Tucker and Sam continued their argument. "Guys? HELLO?"
The vegetarian and the carnivore stopped their argument, but it was too late. Danny fell off of the chair; going intangible at the last possible moment. However, he dropped a few of the ectoplasm samples- both clear and glowing green- into the pan that the chicken was to be cooked in.
All three friends stared nervously at the pan as it started to glow. What were they going to do? Danny was the most nervous of them all. It was his dinner, after all.
"What the- why did you guys let go of the chair?" Danny questioned Sam and Tucker, looking them both straight in the eye (the best he could, considering he had two eyes and Sam and Tucker combined had four). "Were you arguing about herbivores and carnivores again?"
He got no response, which was just as well. It had been a rhetorical question anyways.
Without saying a word, the three friends started to spoon some of the ectoplasm that had mixed in with the chicken out. They left some of it in. After all, it would probably be mistaken as the lemon sauce.
Unbeknownst to the three teenagers, the chicken was slowly absorbing some of the ectoplasm. It gave off a faint but steady glow. Danny, Sam and Tucker were wrapped up in their own little world. They didn't notice a thing.
"Hey, Danny. Weren't we going to play video games upstairs?" Sam said quickly.
"Yeah! I was going to be the Super Mega Ultra Monster of Doom this time!" Tucker cried, not as quickly as Sam but still very fast.
"Yes, let's go upstairs before Mom comes back up. She'll already be mad enough at me for getting a D in Cooking- ruining dinner would make it even worse!" Danny led Tucker and Sam upstairs to his room.
The three friends finally played the much-awaited video game that they had waited so long to play.
Jack Fenton wanted to tell Maddie about the interesting discovery he made about the ghost boy. Apparently he was much more powerful then any ordinary ghost- this could be because he had the general range of powers. That part confused him. Usually, ghosts had powers pertaining to their passion in life. Why, wasn't that blue-haired rocker girl a ghost who obviously wanted to be a star once? What past passion could the ghost boy have had while he was alive to give him such a wide range of power?
He very much needed to talk it over with Maddie. Together, they would both get the mystery of the Phantom.
He also happened to be in the kitchen because he had a craving for the ecto-fudge on the top shelf.
Jack saw the chicken on the table. By now, the chicken had an invisible glow surrounding it. As said glow was invisible, Jack couldn't see it. Although he did sense something wrong with the chicken, though.
Was it… could it be… a GHOST?
Later, Danny and Jazz would question his sanity at the moment. Maddie would wonder why the broom was covered with chicken bits and ectoplasm.
At the moment, Jack picked up the nearest object- a thick bristled broom- and started beating the chicken. He contemplated using one of the ecto-guns in his jumpsuit, but then his family would wonder why dinner had been blown up. He used the broom as if it was a club or a bat. Jack hit the chicken mostly every time. Once, the broom hit the sauce in the bowl instead of the chicken.
All the while, he was going, "Ghost, ghost, ghost, ghost, ghost, ghost, GHOST!"
After a few hard hits, Jack was almost sure that the chicken was totally ghost free. He still felt something weird every time he hit it, but surely that was from hitting a raw chicken with a broom so many times.
Where was the Fenton Anti-Ghost Mix, which cancelled out the ectoplasm that constantly got into their food, that he and Maddie made just last week?
He was sure that he put it in the top shelf, in front of the fudge box and close to the ectoplasm samples. But when he poked his head up there, it had looked like someone had recently moved everything around. That someone had been looking for something- presumably the fudge box; as that had been close to the edge. Also, a few of the ectoplasm samples were missing. Jack suspected Danny, because Jazz would have left the samples in place. He would just have to bring it up at dinnertime.
Jack realized that the Fenton Anti-Ghost Mix wasn't on the top shelf. It annoyed him, that someone had moved something as important as the Fenton Anti-Ghost Mix.
Maddie must have put it somewhere. Or Danny must have moved it someplace else.
Jack turned around and realized that the jar of the Fenton Anti-Ghost Mix had been on the counter behind him the whole time. He dumped about a cup into the sauce, and half a cup onto the chicken. Realizing that either his wife or his children might question why there was an odd combination of herbs and spices in the chicken, Jack pulled out some other spices, food coloring and water. Once Jack was finished, the sauce looked slightly darker than it did before, and it had some strange spices floating in there.
Now where was that ecto-fudge?
Jack then heard the faint beeping of the ghost alarm in the lab. It sounded like someone was trying to fix it. The voice that was supposed to announce the ghost in the lab was gone. So that's where Maddie is; she's fixing the alarm in the lab.
Jack rushed down to the basement. He totally forgot about his fudge craving.
Jazz Fenton just got back from one of her numerous extracurricular activities. She had to work on her essay on psychology, which was due the next week. Currently, her mind was filled with thoughts about the human mind.
Jazz walked in the door to a surprise. She meant to call for Maddie, but she was stopped by the disgusting-looking stuff in the bowl that was supposed to be their dinner.
It smelled oddly like ectoplasm, was this awful dark yellow color, and had the weirdest assortment of herbs and spices. Jazz walked over to the raw chicken and smelled an even worse stench. There was this strange dark stuff that was half covering the chicken. Someone must have just dumped it all on, and they didn't even bother to spread it properly!
That looks oddly like the Fenton Anti-Ghost Mix, Jazz thought to herself. Either Dad or Danny- most likely Dad- must have dumped a cup of that stuff onto the chicken and the sauce.
She decided that she might as well remove some of the Anti-Ghost Mix. Jazz grabbed a large metal spoon and started transferring the mix into the trash can.
Jazz didn't get too far doing that. All of the sudden, the chicken rose in the air surrounded by a cloud of green smoke. The sauce started rising, also. Jazz grabbed the same broom her father used to "beat the ghost out of the chicken" just in time. Her uncooked dinner started swirling around her, trapping her inside it. She started beating the cloud with the broom to no avail.
Jazz chanced a look up at the top shelf. Luckily, the swirling mass of living food hadn't covered the area above her yet. Some of the ectoplasm samples were missing from their usual spots.
Of course. That's why the chicken has suddenly come alive. This one was most likely Danny, though. He was looking for the… fudge box? That wasn't right.
Whoever it was, for the record, I blame you.
She was so going to bring this up at dinner later that night.
At the moment, she started bringing out some of her mom's best karate moves out on the cloud. She also started shouting while she did that.
"Jazz? Are you all right?" Her mother's concerned voice floated upstairs. "Is it ghost trouble, sweetie?"
"I'm fine, Mom," Jazz shouted in reply.
"I'm coming up there anyways. If we want to eat dinner anytime soon, I have to really get cooking."
Just as suddenly, the food returned back to its original place. Maddie walked in to find Jazz holding a broom high above her head. That said broom was dripping with… ectoplasm?
"Um… Mom. Just practicing those karate moves you taught me, I'm really getting better at them. I have to work on psychology homework. Bye!" Jazz darted upstairs at the speed of light, leaving Maddie to look around at the disarray in the kitchen.
Maddie groaned aloud. The sauce and the chicken looked presentable enough, but they weren't as they left them. Furthermore, her thick-bristled broom was dripping with sauce and ectoplasm. It also smelt horribly of raw chicken.
On the top shelf, some of the ectoplasm samples were missing. Everything had been moved around- not once, but twice?
I leave for 20 minutes to fix some trouble with the ghost alarm, and I come back to find dinner looking different, the top shelf in disarray, the broom with something dripping on it and Jazz holding a broom over her head in a karate motion? What am I going to do? Maddie mentally groaned to herself as she started fixing her family's dinner.
30 minutes later, dinner was ready, and Maddie called Jack, Jazz and Danny down to the kitchen.
A/N: Finally! It let me post this- I had it written since Tuesday night! This wasn't posted with Phantom Drabbles and Oneshots because it had two parts and it was too long. This is part one of two. Hopefully, part two- Dinner with the Fentons- will be posted by Thursday. Anyways, R&R!