DarkFoxKit: *Has a collar and leash around her neck. Onyx was covered in pink candy-flavored goop* You know, considering what happened, Prince Aragon let me off easy.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Sighs* At least this castle has a nice bath to clean up in… Though I still can't believe Aragon's response. He smirked at me and said 'If I wanted to see the lands I shall share with him, once we are wed, so badly, then I should have simply asked to view them.'
DarkFoxKit: At least you can finally get out of the castle. Although now you have to walk me like I'm a dog or something.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': I still can't leave the entire kingdom though… that would still result in war. And I'm sure he'll have me bound in some way when we leave the castle to make sure I don't try anything. Now, let's get in the bath so I can try and get this goop off me before it hardens… I'd rather not become a giant rock candy statue.
DarkFoxKit: Hey, that just meant it worked. It's only too bad you didn't fly away...
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': How can I fly away when this sticky goop is preventing me from spreading my wings? And why didn't you tell me to throw it at Aragon? I was the only one who ended up getting covered in this stupid sticky goop…
DarkFoxKit: I did tell you to serve it to Aragon. *Scratches at the collar*
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Groans* Next time you have a plan, give me a little more information than that. Now come on, I'm gonna need you to use your claws to get the goop between my scales. Maybe afterwards I can see if I can loosen that collar a bit.
Chapter 56: A Rough Fitness Day
The morning sun was already rising in the sky by the time I got back to Fenton Works. I phased through my window before turning back into my human form. I looked over at the clock to see it was 7:03. Danny wasn't in his bed, so he was probably either showering or eating breakfast by now. I looked over at my bed to see Hope was sitting up. She gave me a curious look.
"Where were you?" Hope asked. "And uh… why was I on your bed when I woke up?"
"I was out on my morning patrol," I answered, trying to stifle a yawn. "And I put you on my bed because I figured that someone should use it."
"Ah, well when your brother woke up, he gave me a strange look before he shrugged and left," Hope responded. "Now, shall we discuss what happened last night? Or would you rather discuss the transformation that I just witnessed?"
I wonder if she remembered seeing me transform last night too?
"That would be a lot to talk about," I said. "Could we talk about it after I come home from school?"
"Yeah, though it's not like I really have a choice in the matter," Hope responded before she gave a small smirk. "Just make sure not to fall asleep in class."
"Hey, if I do, I know who to blame," I chuckled right back.
"Yourself," Hope retorted.
"Yeah, I suppose I deserve that," I sighed.
"I meant yourself because you could've tried to get some sleep instead of going out," Hope said.
"There wouldn't be a point, I would've only gotten three hours of sleep," I said.
"Better than no sleep whatsoever," Hope pointed out.
I couldn't sleep even if I tried to anyways. I had to clear my head after what happened. I sighed to myself. "I'll see you later Hope. We have a lot to talk about when I get back."
"One quick question though," Hope quickly said before I left. "Are you in middle or high school? If you're in high school, you can probably take a nap during the free period that most students get. If you're in middle school… good luck."
"Nice to know you're concerned about me," I chuckled tiredly.
"The actual reason is that I want you to be at least coherent when we talk," Hope responded with a huff. "Half-conscious zombies aren't all that great at conversation."
"I'm sure I'll be fine, now I should go. See you later, Hope," I said before walking out of my room.
I was looking down at my bowl of Lucky charms, wondering why I poured it in the first place when I didn't have much of an appetite. The reason I didn't have an appetite was because there was a single train of thought that had been bugging me ever since I left the opera house where Juliette was staying. If Hope doesn't want to stay with me and I do give her to Juliette… what will I say to Jazz? She'd think I was delusional from my own fear to believe that Hope was actually a ghost… I don't want to go on another sleepless night because Jazz put Bearbert in my room as punishment.
Almost as if the universe wanted to torture me, Jazz walked in.
"Hey, Andy, how was your night?" Jazz asked. "You ready to start training for the Presidential Fitness Test?"
I looked up at Jazz and gave a frown, "That's starting today?"
"Yup!" Jazz cheerfully responded. "Your weekend must've been exciting if it flew by that quickly."
If Jazz knew the training for the stupid fitness test started today, why did she give me Hope last night? She knew I would have trouble sleeping with a teddy bear in my room. I wanted to tell Jazz off about that, but decided to hold my tongue. Hope didn't need to hear me grumbling on about her again even if she wasn't in the kitchen. I decided to stuff a spoonful of my cereal to keep myself from talking.
"You know… I probably should apologize," Jazz said as she sat down at the table across from me. "I should've waited to give you that gift, and I honestly was going to. I was planning on giving it to you this coming Friday, but I was just too excited to wait. But my impatience may have ultimately been detrimental to you as it looks like you're exhausted. I mean you're trying to scoop up cereal while holding the spoon upside down right now."
I frowned as I looked at the spoon I was holding. I sighed as I put the spoon down on the table, "How am I going to survive the fitness test like this?"
"I'm sure I could talk to Ms. Tetslaff and see if she'll give you a bit of a break," Jazz suggested. "I'm sure she'd be willing to listen to me and my reasoning. That and she and I are on quite positive terms with each other, I helped her out with… well I actually can't go into it what with patient confidentiality and all that."
"I… probably don't even want to know," I said with a sigh.
"What I'm saying is I could offer to talk to her on your behalf," Jazz stated.
"Yeah, and thanks for the offer Jazz," I said. "But I'll be fine. A little morning roughness won't hurt."
"Andy, you do realize you'll be training for a four minute mile, right?" Jazz asked.
Before I could answer, Danny came into the kitchen.
"Hey, morning Andy, morning Jazz," Danny greeted.
"Good morning, Danny," Jazz said before she turned her attention back to me. "The offer is still on the table, Andy, just let me know before your PE period."
"What offer?" Danny asked as he took a box of Lucky Charms.
"Here, you can eat this, it's already prepared," I said as I pushed the bowl of Lucky Charms that was in front of me towards him.
"Soggy Lucky Charms… just what I wanted…" Danny groaned.
"It's better then letting it go to waste," I sighed.
"I just offered to talk to Ms. Tetslaff for Andy," Jazz answered Danny's earlier question.
"Why?" Danny asked as he took the bowl of soggy Lucky Charms.
"We start the Presidential Fitness Test training today," I answered with a yawn.
"And by the looks of it, you're exhausted," Danny said before he took a bite of cereal. "You could've let me do the morning patrol, bro."
"Yes, but I still wouldn't have gotten any sleep," I sighed. "We always fail that fitness test every year anyways… well, except Jazz and Sam."
"Why not just take one of Mom's sleep meds?" Danny asked in response. "As for our past failures, that's behind us. We have a good chance of passing this time besides our ghost forms making us naturally in better shape, we've been training and fighting quite a bit."
"I had too much on my mind to think about taking sleep meds," I said. "And I guess we'll see if fighting ghosts really paid off."
"I'm sure it has," Danny said with a smile. "If you were fully rested I would've probably tested your reaction time by throwing this spoon at you, but since you're tired, your brain is probably moving slower than normal."
"Do you boys want me to drive you to school today?" Jazz asked.
"Yeah, we should save as much of our energy for the training today," Danny responded as he finished the bowl of cereal. "By the way, where are Mom and Dad?"
"Last time I saw them, they were working on a new invention in the lab," Jazz answered with a frown.
"What is the invention this time?" I asked.
"I think Dad called it the Fenton Crammer or something," Jazz said. "I'm not sure what it does."
"From the sounds of it, either cram a ghost into something or cram something into a ghost," Danny guessed.
"Don't we kind of already have something like that with the Fenton Thermos?" I asked.
"Then it's probably designed to cram something into a ghost, probably to slow them down or make them explode," Danny said.
"Or Dad just wants an invention to help him cram food into his mouth," Jazz said with a chuckle.
"I believe he would make something like that," Danny chuckled before he looked up at the kitchen clock. "We should probably go grab our backpacks and head to school."
"I'll get the car started," Jazz said as she got up from the table.
This was going to be a long day. I stood up from the table.
"Oh and Andy, you should probably pack an orange or something into your bag in case you get hungry while at school," Jazz said.
"I will," I said as I grabbed an orange from the fruit basket near the fridge.
After Jazz drove us to school, we met up with Tucker and Sam and headed to our homeroom. After we did attendance in homeroom we headed to our first class of the day. I was glad I didn't pass out during Mr. Lancer's class, or he'd give me double the homework as punishment.
When we were walking down the hallway to get our books for the next class, Sam was smiling.
"So, are you guys ready for the fitness test?" Sam asked excitedly.
"And get humiliated again?" Tucker groaned. "You only like it because you're so good at it. Also, it's really weird to see you so cheerful like this, you're not really owning up to your whole 'goth' image, are you?"
"Hey, just because I'm goth doesn't mean I can't be cheerful every once in a while," Sam said. "As for the fitness test, you'd probably do better at it if you'd just apply yourself and add some vegetable to your meals."
"I'm not going to eat grass," Tucker grumbled. "Why does it have to be a fitness test by the way? Why can't there be different options instead of fitness, for instance, why couldn't there be a Presidential Intelligence Test or something?"
"Because we have that in school every other day," I grumbled tiredly. "And we'd still fail."
"Then perhaps a Presidential Grumpiness Test," Tucker said as he looked at me. "I'm sure you'd ace it."
"Andy didn't get any sleep last night, so he's a little cranky," Danny said with a sigh.
"If I hadn't gotten any sleep I'd probably call in sick," Tucker said. "Then again, I can't really do that, apparently I've run out of sick days. I honestly didn't think schools had a sick day limit."
"They don't, they probably came up with that limit just for you," Sam said with a chuckle. "How many times have you called in sick anyways? Actually, let me ask more specifically, how many times have you called in sick when you weren't legitimately sick?"
Tucker grumbled as he looked down.
"I personally rather not miss a day in school," I said as we stopped by our lockers. "Because I don't like having the extra homework to make up for it."
"At least you aren't one of those people who are obsessed on perfect attendance records," Danny said. "With our family, a goal like that would be impossible to achieve. Remember the one time when Dad made us miss a week of school because he thought there was a ghost virus or something in our house and he didn't want to create an epidemic?"
"It turned out to just be false readings on one of his experiments," I chuckled. "Jazz was very angry at Dad when we found out."
While we were putting our books away into our lockers, and getting out the ones we needed for our next class, we heard some students talking to each other as they were passing us by.
"Jeez… I didn't know Coach Tetslaff could get any worse…" One of the students said.
"Yeah, she's acting more irritable today. I think she's in a bad mood," Another said with a sigh.
"She's really living up to that whole Coach No Laugh nickname," A third student remarked. "It's almost like someone drained all the positive emotions out of her."
"I think it's because that guy she was seeing broke up with her," The second student said. "No wait, it was that the guy was cheating on her."
"I feel bad for anyone who has to put up with her for PE these next two weeks," The first student said. "She's going to be brutal."
"You say that like you're gonna be skipping PE or something," The third student said.
"I'm planning to try, no way am I going to PE these next two weeks with the mood Tetslaff is in," The first student responded.
"You're going to have to go pretty far to get out of PE, she was pushing one of the students that recently sprained their ankle," The second student stated. "Probably have to get hospitalized or something like that."
They were soon walking too far away for us to hear them anymore.
"Sounds like Tetslaff is going to be extra hard on us today," Tucker groaned.
"Maybe you should take Jazz up on her offer, bro," Danny suggested. "If you do, can you ask if she'll include me too?"
"No," I said with a frown.
"Okay, I don't need to-" Danny began to say, but I cut him off.
"It's not that. I don't think Tetslaff will let me off even if Jazz talked to her. She pushed a student even though he sprained his ankle. Being a little tired is going to be nothing for her." I frowned.
"I'm honestly surprised the school would let her keep her job if she was that rough with the students," Tucker said.
"They probably see it as her pushing the students to do their best," Sam responded.
"Considering this is the same school that let bullies off the hook for hurting the other students because they're a football star, I can believe that," I said bitterly.
"You do have a point… we could always try to go to the board of education for our district," Sam said with a smile. "I have been wanting to go see them for a while."
"For now, we'll have to try to survive Coach No Laugh today," Danny said with a sigh.
Yeah, today is going to suck. I thought to myself as I closed my locker.
The only thing that kept me from passing out today was the dread of going to PE. And now it was time to head to the gym. First we had to change out of our day clothes into our gym clothes, after that, we had to line up in the center of the gym as Ms. Tetslaff walked around us. She was holding a clipboard and studied each of us, almost as if she was sizing us up.
"Do you all know what today is?" Ms. Tetslaff asked as she continued to walk around us.
Nobody answered.
"That wasn't a rhetorical question!" Ms. Tetslaff loudly said as she stopped right in front of us. "Do you know what today is?! I expect an answer this time, from everyone!"
"It's the Presidential Fitness Test, ma'am!" We all said, though our unison wasn't in sync at all.
"Wrong!" Ms. Tetslaff yelled. "Try again! What is today?!"
Everyone looked at each other, not sure what she wanted us to say. Everyone had just been calling it the Presidential Fitness Test. Maybe she wanted someone to say it's the start of training? But what if that's not what she's looking for? I don't want to be the only one to say it and get it wrong. It'll not only be humiliating but punishing as well. I think I better stay quiet.
"You have five seconds to answer or you all get to do 50 laps around the school!" Ms. Tetslaff yelled.
"Today is the start of training for the Presidential Fitness Test, ma'am!" I heard Sam say loudly.
Ms. Tetslaff slowly walked towards Sam before stopping in front of her.
"What did you say, Manson? It sounded like you were trying to whisper something, but I couldn't quite make it out," Ms. Tetslaff said. "Would you like to repeat yourself in a voice that everyone can hear?"
I turned my head to Sam, seeing her not backing down.
"TODAY IS THE START OF TRAINING FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL FITNESS TEST!" Sam yelled loudly, louder than I have ever heard her yell before.
"Good!" Ms. Tetslaff said, cracking a very small smile before she looked at the rest of us. "Now everyone else, what is today?!"
We all gave her the answer Sam had given her as loudly as we could. I couldn't help but think to myself. So I was right after all.
"Good! Now get to work! You can all start with the four minute mile!" Ms. Tetslaff commanded. "Since it's the first day of training, I'll go easy on you pansies, if you can finish a mile in 10 minutes, you can move on to other exercises. But for those of you who can't even manage a 10 minute mile, you will keep going until you either get a 10 minute mile or until you collapse and can't move! Does everyone understand!?"
"YES MA'AM!" We all shouted loudly.
"Then get out there and get started!" Ms. Tetslaff ordered. "For any of you who think that you can cheat by running for a bit and saying you finished a mile, you're wrong. I will be out there watching all of you and I will be keeping track of your times!"
All of us hurried out of the gym. We were to run a mile outside. I stuck with Danny and Tucker as we began jogging on the track circuit around the football field.
I'm just glad it isn't raining, with her current attitude, Coach Tetslaff most likely would've made us still run. I thought to myself as I saw Sam easily run past everyone else. As always, she's faster than everyone else. I wonder if all this ghost hunting made her even faster than before?
"How are you holding up, bro?" Danny asked as he ran besides me.
"I'm hanging in there," I answered. "It's better to pace ourselves, no need to go all out."
"Good, I don't want you pushing yourself too hard since you didn't get any sleep last night," Danny said before we both saw Sam passing us again. "... sometimes I have to wonder if she's even human…"
"Thinking about everything that's happened… maybe she isn't…" Tucker huffed as he caught up to me and Danny. "Her diet… would kill most humans… and she's surprisingly athletic… maybe… she's an alien… or an android… or something like that…"
"Hey, now there's a conspiracy theory," I chuckled. "Sam being an android. Her family's stinking rich, it's possible."
"No, if she was an android they made then they probably would've programmed her to be exactly like them and not be a rebel," Danny pointed out.
"Maybe her… grandmother made… her," Tucker suggested, still trying to catch his breath. "She doesn't… agree with… Sam's parents… either…"
"Heh, then maybe we should go ask Sam's grandmother," Danny said with a laugh.
Suddenly there was a loud whistle.
"FENTONS! FOLEY! IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH ENERGY TO JOKE YOU HAVE MORE THAN ENOUGH ENERGY TO PUSH YOURSELVES HARDER!" Ms. Tetslaff yelled.
"How did she hear us?" I asked in a quieter tone.
"Sam… probably told… Coach Tetslaff…" Tucker huffed. "That… or she's watching us… somehow…"
"Let's just keep jogging before we get into even more trouble," Danny grumbled.
Danny and I jogged further together, before I noticed Tucker fell behind. I turned back to see Tucker had slowed down and was dripping in sweat.
"... You know, this probably wouldn't be a problem if you didn't eat only meat in your life," I said.
"Don't… start…" Tucker managed to respond between breaths.
I gave a shrug before I continued jogging.
"We should probably help Tucker to get better at running at some point," Danny suggested. "It would definitely help with ghost hunting."
"Yeah, maybe athletic Sam could help whip him into shape," I chuckled.
"Maybe," Danny said. "Though she'd have to have some way to motivate him to get into shape and go along with her training. We can think about it more later, right now we should focus on our own training."
"Yeah, I don't want dragon lady yelling at us again," I said. Maybe dragon is too nice a compliment. I am friends with someone who turns into a dragon after all.
Danny and I finished the mile in 9 minutes. I had the feeling that our running and stamina had improved since we've been fighting ghosts. Tucker still needed work, mostly because he did the least amount of activity when it came to ghost fighting, he usually used technology while the rest of us had to fly or run around everywhere.
After finishing our mile, we got a two minute cooldown before we had to head back into the gym. Once there, Ms. Tetslaff assigned everyone different physical activities like sit ups, high jumps, and even rope climbing. Danny, Tucker, Sam and I were doing chin ups on stationary bars near the middle of the gym.
Tucker groaned as he struggled to do a chin up, "How… many… was that…?"
"... two," I answered as I did another chin up myself.
"... only two…? It feels like… I've done so many more…" Tucker complained.
"Nope, that was only your second," Sam said as she continued doing her own chin ups.
"How many have you done, Sam?" Danny asked.
"This is 100," Sam said as she did one more chin up. Once she was done, she then rocked her body back and forth before she did a flip off of the chin up bar and landed perfectly on the floor.
I frowned and gave an annoyed glare. "Showoff."
"You're just jealous because you can't do that unless you're in your ghost form," Sam quietly said with a smile.
"Have you ever thought of being a gymnast? You'd be really good at it," Danny said.
"I don't do leotards," Sam responded.
"Is that the only reason?" I asked. "I mean you do seem to have the talent to be a great gymnast."
"The other reason is because a stereotypical gymnast is supposed to be peppy and happy all the time which would be too much work," Sam answered. "That and it would conflict with my goth image since if I was a gymnast I would pretty much become the center of attention."
I finished my tenth chin up before letting go of the bar.
"Look at this," I heard Ms. Tetslaff said in a disapproving tone. "This is pathetic, all of you maggots are out of shape, with a few exceptions like Manson!"
"You would think everyone in this school would be in better shape," Sam commented. "We're practically always running off whenever a ghost attacks, which feels like every week."
"Running away from ghosts and hiding doesn't do much," I pointed out. "Most people would hide rather than run for long. The ghosts usually ignore them anyways."
"Manson, follow me, I want to have a word with you," Ms. Tetslaff ordered.
"Yes, ma'am," Sam said before she followed Ms. Tetslaff.
"I have the feeling… that this isn't going to end well… for us…" Tucker said with a small shiver.
"I hope Ms. Tetslaff doesn't make Sam try to whip us into shape. Sam can be a tough teacher when she wants to be," I grumbled.
"Knowing Coach Tetslaff, it'll probably be exactly that," Danny responded with a sigh.
After a few minutes, Sam and Ms. Tetslaff walked back towards us. Tetslaff gave a smirk before she said, "Alright, Manson, you know what to do."
"Of course, ma'am," Sam said with a smirk of her own.
"Sam, what did you and Tetslaff talked about?" Danny asked.
"I'll give you two guesses," Sam said, still smirking.
"You're going to try to whip us into shape, aren't you?" Tucker pointed out while laying on the floor.
"Close, but I'm just supposed to whip you up in shape, Tucker," Sam said, her smirk growing into a smile. "Ms. Tetslaff gave me the responsibility to make sure you are in a good enough shape to pass the test by the end of next week."
"I'm surprised she didn't assign someone like Dash to be Tucker's tutor," I said.
"She knows that we usually hang out in a group in the first place," Sam responded. "She also knows that it would be better for me to train him instead of someone who doesn't know what would motivate Tucker the best. Sure she could have assigned someone else to help me, but they would be clueless when it came to what makes him tick."
"I don't like the sound of that," Tucker said in a worried tone.
"What about Danny and me?" I asked, "wouldn't Coach Tetslaff have assigned anyone for us?"
"I don't know about you two yet, she only told me to whip Tucker up into shape," Sam answered with a shrug.
"When are you two going to start training?" Danny asked.
"Hmmm, I was thinking that the best time would be after school after we have a small bit of time to do whatever homework we might be assigned," Sam answered.
"So you're going over to Tucker's house tomorrow to whip him into shape?" I asked.
"Do I have to?" Tucker groaned.
"Yes, and yes, we'll also be doing intense training this weekend, Tucker," Sam answered. "Just be happy I decided not to do morning training as well. I'm not much of a morning person myself."
I felt bad for Tucker, he looked like he was about to burst into tears at any moment.
"Though there is one big incentive for you, Tucker," Sam continued. "If you pass the Presidential Fitness Test I will get you a gift that I know you will enjoy."
"Nothing you can get will get me to be motivated to do intensive training," Tucker grumbled stubbornly.
"Really? Not even a brand new cellphone that isn't even on the market yet or an extremely high performance computer?" Sam asked in response.
Tucker's eyes widened at that, "No… there's no way you could possibly have those."
"Tucker, it's Sam, her family is rich and probably has friends in big companies that could give her things like that," Danny pointed out. "Heck, knowing how wealthy her family is, they probably even know the President of the United States."
"Oh, we do," Sam said with a smirk.
"... I'll see you at 5 for training," Tucker said to us.
"We still have a couple classes together after this, Tucker," Danny chuckled.
Another whistle was heard before Ms. Tetslaff yelled again, "Alright, maggots, stop whatever you're doing and head to the locker rooms to shower, class is almost over!"
I was relieved when school was over for the day. I'm going to be sore tomorrow. After we got everything we need from our lockers, Danny, Tucker, Sam and I stood outside of the school.
"Remember, meet me outside at your house at 5," Sam reminded.
"Yeah, I'll be there," Tucker said with a determined look in his eye.
"We'll try to finish our homework and hope there won't be any ghost attacks by then," I said.
"If there are any ghost attacks I'll find a way to work training into it," Sam said with a smile.
"Of course you'd be able to make it work, Sam." Danny smiled.
I looked at Danny and Sam. I never did ask them how their little date went after they were under the influence of that love potion.
"Well, see you guys later," Sam said as she began to walk away. She then suddenly stopped. "Oh, and if you guys want, after I finish training with Tucker for the day we can go to a restaurant for a healthy, balanced dinner. It would be better for your training compared to the normal food everyone eats."
"Sounds like a plan," Danny responded with a smile.
"Just no grass," Tucker added. "I have no plans on grazing like an animal."
"No promises there," Sam said.
With that said, Tucker and Sam went their separate ways from us. Danny and I began walking home together as usual.
"Hey Andy, do you know if we have and healing powers?" Danny asked as we walked down the sidewalk towards home.
"Why do you ask?" I asked Danny in response.
"Because we'll probably need it by the time we wake up tomorrow," Danny answered. "Without some kind of healing powers we'll most likely be too sore to move a muscle, let alone get to school."
I shook my head, "I don't know if we do. Vlad never said anything about having healing powers, and I've never experimented with healing before."
"Well perhaps we should try before we sleep, otherwise we'll be skipping school tomorrow…" Danny said with a small groan. "My muscles are still burning even though gym class was more than an hour ago…"
"Yeah, I know. Mine are too," I sighed. "I don't know how we'll be able to learn by then. We don't know anything about healing. Do we know any ghosts that can heal?"
"Considering we're always blasting them and they keep coming back, I'm sure there is some kind of healing power," Danny said as he began thinking. "Maybe all we need to do is go ghost and our ghost forms will heal our bodies automatically… that is if we can even go ghost with how tired we are… Oh and we probably shouldn't say anything to Mom or Dad about being sore and tired, otherwise they might want to try out one of their infamous 'home remedies'."
I cringed at the thought of trying another one of their home remedies. Danny and I got sick to our stomachs for a week after their last attempt. Jazz might be able to help, she's always helped us after we got injured from a ghost battle. But I'm not sure how well Jazz would be able to help us with soreness.
"You really think our ghost forms would heal our muscle strain?" I asked. It might work, we've never tried to transform into our ghost forms before for that. We never get sore after a ghost battle either.
"It probably wouldn't hurt to try," Danny with a sheepish grin. "The only other options we have are to either deal with the soreness tomorrow when we wake up or try to see if there is some ghost healing powers we could learn quickly."
"We can try," I said with a nod. "When we get home, we lock our room and then transform for about… five minutes and see if that helps."
"Yeah, and think about it, if it doesn't work, we can probably skip school tomorrow," Danny said with a smile.
"I doubt it, but that's some hopeful thinking," I chuckled.
"If we can't move our bodies then we can't go to school," Danny pointed out.
"Well… at least look at it this way, if we can get stronger as humans, we'll be even stronger and faster as ghosts," I said.
"Heh, maybe that's one of Vlad's secrets on how he got so powerful," Danny chuckled.
Danny and I chatted about ghosts and possible healing powers as we reached our house. The talk had me intrigued about our possible healing powers.
"I'm gonna go make a snack before I get started on homework," Danny said. "I'll make some for you too since you're probably still hungry. You devoured that orange before lunch and then went through lunch equally quick."
"Heh, yeah," I blushed a little at that. "You go ahead and do that. There's something I need to take care of first."
"Alright, do you want me to call you down after I make our snacks or bring them up to you?" Danny asked as he tossed his backpack down on the couch and began to head for the kitchen.
"Yes please," I said with a nod. I wouldn't want you coming into our room while I'm talking to a stuffed animal.
"Uh… yes to which?" Danny asked, making me realize I said 'yes' to an 'either or' question.
"Call me down when you're done," I answered, feeling a little embarrassed that I wasn't specific with my earlier answer.
"Heh, alright, if you fall asleep I'll let you sleep," Danny said before he disappeared into the kitchen.
I gave a small sigh to myself before I headed upstairs into my room. I half expected to see Hope was gone, but I was relieved to see she was sitting on my desk. I took off my backpack and set it on the floor next to my bed before I walked over to Hope.
"Hey, I'm back," I said quietly. "Have you been sitting here all day?"
"No, I had a grand adventure in a magical land with unicorns, ponies, and pegasi while you were out," Hope sarcastically responded before she gave a smile. "I actually stretched my legs from time to time by walking around your room but I promise that I didn't leave."
I gave her a smile of my own, "I'm glad. Now that school is out for today, I think it's time we talked."
"You should probably lock the door first, you know, that way nobody wanders in while we're talking and immediately assumes that you've lost your marbles," Hope suggested.
"Yeah, the last thing I need is for Jazz to think I've lost it even more around teddy bears," I sighed before I went over to my door and locked it. "There, now they'll have to knock." I just hope Danny doesn't decide to come up here and phase through the door suddenly.
"Good, now we can finally talk," Hope said as I walked back over to my bed and sat down.
"Yeah… I would like to ask… if you were a ghost before, why did you become a teddy bear?" I asked.
"I already told you most of my story last night, but I assume you want more details," Hope said before she took a deep breath and let it out. "Alright, the most basic way of saying it is that at one point I was human, I died, and became a ghost. As a ghost, I had to fight others to keep myself safe and just get by. Nobody wanted to be friends, nobody cared about each other, it was every ghost for themselves and I truly despised that life. I then one day heard a rumor about a ghost that had the power to fuse ghosts into inanimate objects and then send them to the human world. I immediately knew that I wanted to find them as it was the only way to be rid of living my horrible ghost life."
"You figured that you would find a better life by inhabiting a stuffed animal?" I asked.
"Not exactly," Hope responded. "That was the thing, I didn't know I would end up as a stuffed animal when I went to look for the ghost, according to the rumors, the ghost would choose a form for you after you had already agreed to go through the process. I could've ended up as a lamp or a book or anything like that, heck there was a story that one ghost ended up as a package of diapers."
I stared at Hope before I said, "... Wow, I would not want to end up as a package of diapers."
"Neither would I, anyways, it took me awhile to find the ghost, but when I found them, they asked me a question. One simply, but extraordinarily important question, why? Why did I want this, what did I hope to gain from going through this, and would it truly make me happy if I was given a new form," Hope continued. "After I gave the ghost my answers, she smiled at me and then said that I was one of those ghosts that inspired her to continue her work. She told me that the reason she did what she did in the first place was to give ghosts another chance at life, to give them hope."
I gave a smile at that, "Wow, I didn't know there was a ghost like that."
"There's a ghost for everything you can imagine," Hope said with a smile of her own before she continued her story. "As I said before, according to the rumors, the ghost would give you whatever form she chose. I was honestly surprised when she told me that she had a form that she had been saving for a special ghost like me, a form that was meant for only the most hopeful and purest of ghosts. She then pulled out this stuffed animal form and told me that she would be happy to give me that form if that is what I wanted. As you would expect of a desperate ghost, I instantly accepted her offer to use the stuffed animal as my new form. My memories are kinda a blur after that, I remember she said I had to inhabit the stuffed animal before she could begin the fusing process, then I remember some discomfort, and then I passed out. When I woke up, I was sitting inside a box inside a store, all I could see from where I was were other dolls in boxes similar to mine, but none of them looked exactly like me."
"So you were more of a one of a kind?" I asked. "I mean weren't there other Hope teddy bears like you?"
"Yeah, there were, but none of them had the red eye like I have," Hope said, pointing towards her red eye. "I remember overhearing some of the employees talk about how I must've been one of those super rare factory defects that somehow become a super rare one of a kind doll."
"Yeah, factory defects are very rare, since machines rarely screw anything up," I said. "But then… how did Jazz get her hands on you? I would've imagined a collector would buy you faster than one could blink."
"I'm honestly not sure about that, if I had to guess, nobody really advertised me being one of a kind, so no collector would've known about my existence," Hope answered. "Giving it some thought, I'm honestly glad I didn't end up with a collector since I probably would never have been taken out of my box to 'protect my condition' or whatever logic collectors use."
"True. I was never a fan of that logic. Why bother buying something if you're never going to use it?" I grumbled. "But… I'm guessing with your red eye, most children and their parents didn't want to buy you?"
"Yes, that was another factor. I'm sure if I had ended up with a pink colored eye instead of red I would've been instantly snatched up by the first child that saw me," Hope said before she chuckled. "I remember one boy being so scared of me when he saw me that he wet his pants. The only reason I'm laughing is because I had watched that same boy pick on his slightly younger sister. I remember getting so mad at the boy, who knows, maybe the reason the boy was scared is because my eye glowed. I remember seeing a soft red glow inside my box when I got mad at that boy."
So Hope's red eye can glow? I remember seeing it glow slightly in the moonlight last night. That was really creepy. "When your eye glows, it does get pretty creepy. Especially when it's dark."
"Yes, I'm sure it is pretty intimidating," Hope chuckled. "I mean it made both you and that boy terrified. Anyways, that's my story, started human, died, turned into a ghost, then a stuffed animal, then I finally ended up with you."
"I wonder if Jazz chose you because of your red eye?" I said in wonder. "She did say that the present was going to be a one of a kind before she gave you to me."
"Perhaps she did, though it doesn't really matter all that much. Now I've answered your question about me. What about you, what's your story?" Hope asked.
"Hmm…" I leaned back in my bed before I said. "Mine is a bit long, but I'll see if I can shorten it. It all started a little over half a year ago..."
Scrappy Doo Fan: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, sometimes it's good to just take it easy from the action.
Kitty: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Well actually we based the design of Hope of a combination of Monokuma and Monomi, at the time we thought of her, we didn't even know about Monophanie ^^'.
DarkFoxKit: Which 'Ultimate Lucky student' are you talking about? As far as I know, there's only two of them, one of them is a hopeful boy while the other is a sociopath who loves 'hope' a little too much. Also, yeah, Hope is more Monomi than Monophanie. Andy probably would bond with Shuichi pretty easily, the two of them have a lot in common.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Regarding the piano being sentient, no it is not. Juliette was probably just trying what she could to make it work without having to open it up.
DarkFoxKit: Freakshow does remember everything, but he won't be relevant until Reality Trip. Huh, yeah, Andy did mention that Corrupted Danny still scares him more than Bearbert, and it has been a while since he said anything about that corrupted era. The reason for this is because Andy is trying to move on from it, after what happened with Dan and Dustin, he hoped that there would be no reason to bring up the corrupted past that never happened again. As for the world ending being something Andy is used to by now, well he's got experience but it's not really something you just get used to. ^^'
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': While it isn't something one can really get used to, they can grow jaded from the amount of times it happens to them. Though I actually don't see that happening with Andy. Andy is a logical person, with the experience he has gained up until now, he would look at the world ending threat. Instead of acting emotionally like most people do in crisis situations, Andy would try to figure out a way to prevent the world from ending.
DarkFoxKit: Although Andy sassing Freakshow would be pretty funny. Freakshow would mind control people, but I think he was too drunk on power when he finally got the Reality Gauntlet working to think about doing that. Besides, who's going to snap anyone out of Freakshow's control this time? They'd all be under his spell. And those are all very interesting… scenarios, but it's not really something we would use in our story. We have a few ideas for happy stuff for Andy, so don't worry about that. Dash is someone we bring in and out, but we don't have a 'main character' purpose for him yet.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': In regards to the whole 'andy should have a school rival', I think it would be kinda insulting to the story to just throw in a rival without giving good reason for it. We might do something like that in the future, but it would be after giving it some time and thought.
DarkFoxKit: Andy really isn't the kind of person to have a rival either, he'd rather talk than fight or prove himself in some kind of competition. I suppose the closest to a rival he has is either Vlad or Freakshow right now. I mean Danny could be seen as a rival, but you know, they're not exactly comparing each other.
Coco Baldwin: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Don't worry, we have a good amount of ideas for Hope. She definitely won't be a one off character.
Mysteryfan4ever: DarkFoxKit: Heh, we'll see if Andy keeps Hope or not. :3
RedHood001: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': While I'm sure Ninjago used that quote at some point, it's a bit older than that. I believe Abraham Lincoln used a different version of the quote. But yes, the best way for Andy to conquer his fear here is to make friends with it. I'm sure Andy realizes what he is doing, he just knows that it's either Hope or a different teddy bear.
FireSoulKid: DarkFoxKit: The big battles are kind of spread out and more sparse since we prefer focusing on the characters themselves rather than a big battle spectacular, plus I'm a bit all battle writing out after Pokemon and another fanfic I've been writing. We will still have them, but I feel like the battles will be worth more if we're not doing it in almost every chapter, gotta enjoy the quieter moments too to really appreciate the characters. Heh, I'm glad we managed to get Danny's character down almost perfectly.
Jewel moonstone: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': I'm sure Andy's ghost name will be something very fitting to him. Glad you enjoyed the chapter and thought it was cute.
Luna Lillyth: DarkFoxKit: Hope wasn't originally going to be a character, it just kind of happened. As for Jazz's response… we'll let you see what happens.
seruis: DarkFoxKit: We don't have plans on seriously injuring Andy or any of our main characters, it is still a 'family friendly' story after all. I suppose we could do something that might be serious enough to have people wonder if Andy or another main character will be able pull through, but anything like a permanently lost limb or something is going too far in our family friendly story.
GhostWriterGirl-1: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Glad you enjoyed the content in this chapter, it was definitely fun to write. You'll have to wait and see who Hope ends up with. The piano most likely isn't sentient. Juliette isn't losing her mind, no. She might just be one of the types who believe that old items gain a sort of spirit. We decided that while battles are awesome, we would break them up a bit with character development and relaxed chapters. I doubt Andy is going to consider any of the nicknames that Danny suggests. Andy's ghost name is something he needs to come up with on his own.
eeveemaster: DarkFoxKit: Danganronpa is where we got the idea. Although we didn't plan on Hope becoming a character at first, it was just going to be an ordinary teddy bear that Andy believed to be alive.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Then I asked "what if it is alive?" and the end product is Hope, a ghost in the body of a teddy bear.
DarkFoxKit: As of right now though, we don't have anything big planned for Hope, but she's there to help Andy out with his teddy bear issues.
Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Rest assured, though, we do have plenty of ideas for stuff we can do with Hope.
DarkFoxKit: Heh, good to see you enjoy Child of Mew so much too. Hope you can enjoy all our stories.
jhay.0324: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Raises a brow* I can't help but wonder what you were about to say, but I also hope that a replacement is found for me.
DarkFoxKit: I'm sorry for your loss. I'll try to pray for your older brother, but that's all I can do.
Mana: DarkFoxKit: Hope will make her own choice who she'll stay with. The result may surprise you. We've already written what Andy will be doing in Micromanagement, and we'll probably explain our reasoning for it when we get to it.