A/N: I promised, so here's my thanks to all of you...

Ginger Guardian Angel: Thank you for reviewing and liking the story. Your reviews are kind of funny to read...I'm glad to see something like that...thanks a bunch.

Spongewolf: (Thanks for the cookies!) Thank you for reviewing, as well. I like how you connect with the characters. Quite inspiring, really...

CrazyCosmoFan: Short, but encouraging reviews, but still, thank you very much for reviewing.

alboc: Thank you for liking the chapters...oh, and BTW, this chapter may answer half of your question...which one, you ask? You're about to find out.

TayloWolf: Thank you for thinking it's awesome! Here's your next chapter.

Ari-Griffin: If you were looking forward to more of the story, here you go...and thank you.

KatrinaKaiba: Thanks for thinking I've got good character portrayal...I'll try my best to keep them all IC...

Now here's Chapter 4 for all you readers out there...I'm still a bit unhappy with its development, though, and I might think of revising it...but if you think it's all right, just tell me.

Chapter 4 - The Center of Attention

RIIIINNNGG!

After everyone took their seats, Mr. Lancer started taking roll call for the first period algebra students.

Rubbing the last remaining portion of sleep from his eyes, Danny took out his algebra assignment from last night and started looking over the problems.

For the most part, everything seemed to be fine...it seemed to be easy, and that was despite Lancer's boring lesson from yesterday, from which he fell asleep...

But as he watched the teacher take roll call, a thought passed through his head. It seemed that Mr. Lancer taught every single class...he was there to help him for his English assignments...he was there for astrology...

Hell, the guy seemed to be the only teacher in the whole school!

He had him so many times during the day, that it felt like every school day was just another day with Lancer...his only classes without him were Special Education and Gym...

...And the handicap was that Lancer was pretty informed about Danny's work habits. Despite his father's chantings about Fentons being a family of intellectuals, he was pretty much a C-student.

And colleges didn't like C's.

Although it was weird for his sister for her to suddenly notice him doing homework, he felt it was a perfect time to turn over a new leaf and start working hard from now on, despite all his time fighting ghosts...

"...Eh, who cares?" Danny thought, as Lancer continued calling out names. "Might as well start with this subject."

He was a little concerned, however, since he was getting a D+ right now...but there was plenty of room for make-up. The final was about two-and-a-half weeks away, and it was an easy chapter. Basically it was just time to start stepping on the gas.

Lancer's voice droned in his usual mechanical fashion as he continued roll call.

"Baxter, Dash!"

"Present!"

"Betcher, Michael!"

"Here!"

"Castro, Peter!"

"Present!"

"Come on, come on," thought Danny, "let's get this over with!"

"Earhart, Anne!"

"Here!"

"Garrison, Star!"

"Here!"

"Hey, wait a minute," Danny thought. "Lancer just skipped over me!"

Sam noticed this too and turned to look at Danny, concerned. Half the class seemed to notice this as well. But Lancer continued spewing out the names on the sheet, seeming to take absolutely no notice.

"What's going on?" asked Sam.

"I don't know," said Danny. "But something tells me that I'm not going to like this..."

"Lee, Kwan!"

"Here!"

"Manson, Samantha!"

A cautious, yet able-bodied, "Present!" came from Sam's mouth.

"Ortiz, Paulina!"

"Here!"

Now Danny was extremely confused. Before he could call out the next name, Danny walked up to Mr. Lancer. He didn't understand. He was in that class for months! He wasn't failing, nor did he have any intention of dropping.

"Mr. Lancer," Danny said, before Lancer could yell out the next name, "what's going on?"

Lancer dropped the sheet in front of him and looked at the fourteen-year old standing there. "Nothing, Daniel, why?"

"Because you just skipped over my name! What happened?"

"I didn't skip over your name," said Lancer, his voice suddenly lightening up. "You're next on the list."

"I'm next?" asked Danny, looking at the roll sheet. "What the heck? It's impossible! My last name starts with..."

Suddenly his hand went slack from the sheet, as he repeated the same word.

"...with...with..."

Then he was cut off from words altogether. His heart started racing at a hundred miles per hour again...

"No," he thought, shaking his head. "It's impossible...no..."

Clear as day, on the roll sheet, Danny saw the next alphabetical name on the list, in bold, uppercase letters.

"PHANTOM, DANNY."

Danny backed away in horror. When was the roll sheet changed?

And since when did Lancer know?

"No...this can't be happening..." he thought as he turned towards his seat. "I wasn't that obvious, was I?"

Danny answered himself. Well, if you considered all of those absences you took to fight ghosts...he might have caught on. He is your ONLY teacher you know, and a smart one at that.

Lancer smiled. "This is your name, right? I changed the roll sheet so things can be well-updated."

The words were out before he could stop himself. "Yes..." said Danny, turning away and walking towards his seat.

"What are you DOING?" asked a voice in his head. "You're going to let it go, just like that?"

"All right!" said Lancer. "Now that that has been settled, who's next?"

"Oh, shit!" thought Danny. He usually cussed only in his head, but as it was something desperate, he came really close to saying it out loud...

Danny snapped out of his reverie and turned around. Lancer was just about to reveal his secret to the entire class!

"NO!" he tried screaming, but no words came out...it was as if someone had plugged his mouth with a scrunched-up cotton shirt...

"Phantom, Danny!" said Lancer loudly, with a huge grin on his face, looking directly at Danny. It seemed as if he had emphasized every syllable with gusto.

"Phantom?" chanted the whole class. Danny couldn't stop it...they were already talking about it amongst themselves...

Danny started sweating. He felt as if he was lifting off the ground...

Wait a minute...he was lifting off the ground! Three feet above the ground!

And he was glowing?

Was he starting to lose control of his powers again? In the middle of class?

"Oh, my GOD!" said Paulina, pointing at Danny. "Look!"

Screams of terror and excitement flooded the room as they realized what was happening.

Every student ran up to him as he remained stationed in the air. He tried to go back down, but it seemed that he had no control over his floating...any doubt that any person in the class had was basically off in space by now.

Danny felt helpless as his eyes shifted from each student to the next, looking at all their reactions.

"Fenton was the ghost kid!" said one of the students. "I can't believe this!"

"Danny Fenton...Danny Phantom..." said Dash. "Duh, even I should have seen that...but you're still a loser, Fenton!"

"The cool ghost kid...his alter ego was Fenton..." said Kwan, shaking his head.

"Oh, my God!" said Paulina. "You're the ghost boy? I don't know what to say..."

Danny's eyes shifted to Mr. Lancer. Lancer never moved from his spot...he had a large smile on his smug face...

Lancer seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.

And Danny was loathing him immensely...

"Can it, Paulina!" said Sam, the only one in the room who had known in advance. "And the rest of you!" she said, looking around at the others, shielding Danny from them as if they were about to attack him at any moment. "I don't know how Lancer knew about this..."

"Who said Lancer knew about this?" said the teacher still standing there.

"What are you talking about?" said Sam. "You're Lancer!"

"No, I'm not..." said the teacher.

His voice was suddenly different...

"That's weird," thought Sam. "That sounded just like..."

The class watched as Lancer's eyes suddenly rolled backwards in his head...and then watch him pass out on the floor...

While suspended in the air, Danny felt his ghost sense go off...someone had been overshadowing Lancer the whole time...

He watched as a body reappeared out of thin air, having been invisible from before...it was a man with a cape...dressed in grey, red, and black...

"Damn!" thought Danny, perspiring profusely. "No wonder...HE'S here!"

Vlad Plasmius had stepped out of the shadows.

"AHH!" cried Paulina. "Another ghost!"

Plasmius laughed. "AH! Daniel...so glad to see you once again...I hope you haven't been getting into trouble recently?"

Danny tried going ghost, but for some reason, couldn't...he could only watch in suspense as his archnemesis continued speaking.

"I said I'd get my revenge sooner or later," said Plasmius. "And what better place to do this, than in the company of your own schoolmates! Enjoy the new power, Daniel? With a wave of my hand, it paralyzes all ghosts in the room...namely, yourself..."

Suddenly it came clear as to why he wasn't moving...

"But I haven't tried it out on humans yet!" said Plasmius, eyeing the horrified class. "I wonder which of you will be first?"

"Run!" cried Dash to everyone else.

"Run?" asked Plasmius incredulously. "The fun's just beginning! And all of you will be the spectators!"

Waving his hand in front of his classmates, Plasmius found it simple, since none of them had powers to try and intercept the attack...

Then he summoned up a ghostly rope, similar to the one Danny's evil half had the ability to create, and bound Danny's classmates against the western wall.

From a series of ectoplasmic blasts that came from his fingertips, Plasmius sealed all their mouths shut with ectoplasmic goo...

"I know that they're unable to speak," said Plasmius, "but that's like a just-in-case kind of thing, don't you think?"

Dany could only glare at him.

"Well," said Plasmius, admiring his work. "That's everyone, I think..."

"I wouldn't think so!" yelled a female voice.

"Huh?" asked Plasmius, looking around.

A flying chair connected with his face and sent him into the corner.

Danny tried to see who it was, but still had no ability to move while stationed there...

But when the person came in front to act as his final shield against Plasmius, he was greatly wishing that she didn't do that...

"You snake!" said Sam, somehow finding the bravery to shield Danny. "You'll pay for this!"

"Sam!" Danny tried yelling, but still couldn't. "Get out of here! Save yourself!"

"Au contraire, my goth friend," said Plasmius, recovering, and summoning up a ghost ray. "It is you that will pay for that attack of yours!"

Before Sam could say anything in retortion, Plasmius blasted the ray in her direction.

The resulting blast catapulted her against the back wall, knocking her head against the sharp edge of the cabinet...

"No! SAM!" cried Danny in his head.

Danny waited for some response, but got none...

"Sam..." he thought, his heart filling with emotion. "No...not you..."

Those familiar tears of misery formed up in his eyes as he realized that his only protector, and friend, in the room, was gone...

His head fell down towards his chest as he grieved in thoughts.

"Why didn't you run, Sam? You could have saved yourself...you should not have tried to protect me..."

Danny knew it was only him and Plasmius now, and there was nothing holding him back...

Plasmius spoke. "Well, Daniel, you knew I'd come back sooner or later once I found out the best way to get around your defenses..."

"By bringing pain to my defenseless friends?" thought Danny.

"...but then I got to thinking. You know, I could destroy you right now, but that wouldn't be a lot of fun, with you, helplessly floating there, and me, flying freely..."

Danny's eyes shifted in his direction...perhaps he'd let him fight, after all?

The given answer, however, was in the typical fashion that Plasmius usually waited for...and it was dripping with sarcasm.

"...so I've realized that I can't do it. So I've brought in a substitute for this while I sit back and watch your demise. I'm sure you'll be quite satisfied with the person I chose...as you're best friends with her..."

"Oh, no..." thought Danny. "You're not talking about..."

"Oh, pawn, I mean, uhh...assistant? Will you come in here?"

After that, Plasmius abruptly changed back into his human form.

Danny could hear the creaking of the door behind him, and saw the visitor...

And when he saw who it was, he realized the reason why Plasmius changed back into his human form...

It didn't seem to matter that his other classmates were still tied up and gagged...Plasmius would stop at nothing in order to get his revenge...

"I heard the commotion inside," said the visitor. "And I saw the whole thing...and I still can't believe it..."

Though it was impossible, Danny could feel his heart racing even faster, as he was staring at the person who he wished could never find out.

But here that person was...and here he was, floating helplessly in the air...an easy target...

Valerie, in her ghost hunting outfit, was in the room.

"Danny Fenton!" she said. "I should have known ALL along that it was you! You were just pretending to be my friend, weren't you? Just another one of your plans to let my guard down and for you to attack me from behind! I should have known you were planning something like this, you liar!"

Danny tried to scream out that none of this was his fault, but he couldn't say a word...

"Do it now, Valerie!" said Plasmius. "Destroy the traitor who tried to befriend you!"

"Yes, sir!" said Valerie, acknowledging her employer, and then pointing her bazooka directly at Danny. "Good-bye, and good riddance, damn Phantom!" she yelled, firing the weapon.

"No..." thought Danny. "No...please...I was your friend..."

But it was too late...

"This for your fake friendship, DANNY FENTON!" she said, pulling the trigger.

Time slowed down again...as the ectoplasmic blast was slowly reaching Danny, something strange happened...

His emotions...caught between the rage of Sam's sacrifice and Valerie's relentless pursuit...somehow he found the ability to speak...

"NOOOOOO!" screamed Danny at the top of his lungs. His eyes snapped shut before the bazooka's annihilating force touched him...

"NOOO!" he screamed again, his arms raising in a futile attempt for a shield...

..."No?" asked Mr. Lancer, getting up after his fainting spell. "Mr. Fenton, what do you mean, saying that x doesn't equal 2? Justify yourself!"

Danny's heart, having taken its toll, stopped beating, as his head lifted from a desk that had appeared out of nowhere...

Plasmius was nowhere to be seen...Lancer wasn't on the ground, fainted...

Danny looked around...all eyes in the class were staring at him...

And Valerie wasn't there either...he was seated in his desk, his feet planted firmly on the ground...

He looked at himself...every eye was on him, but it wasn't because he was floating three feet in the air...

...It was currently because his homework assignment from last night was stuck to his forehead.

He had never turned it in.

Confusion in the class suddenly changed into peals of laughter as Danny quickly peeled off the sheet of paper on his forehead and ran up to the front of the class, depositing the assignment in the bin.

"Danny!" said Mr. Lancer. "Get back in your seat right now!"

Danny didn't say a word to his teacher, who was slowly building up with rage by the second. Grabbing the roll sheet from a potentially dangerous Mr. Lancer, he checked his own name.

"FENTON, DANIEL."

It didn't seem to matter that there were people watching, and that his teacher was slowly getting pissed off.

He was relieved, yet annoyed, that he was the victim of another dream attack.

That feeling of relief suddenly washed over him, as he brought himself to his knees, outstretched his arms, and said, "YES!"

Danny's sudden appraisal was watched on by the class with even more confusion, and then they just laughed even harder.

Everyone, except for Sam. Her head was in her cupped hands, feeling embarrassed for Danny.

Mr. Lancer looked down on him. He didn't seem too pleased.

"Lord of the Flies! Mr. Fenton, what are you doing?"

Danny stood up and faced Mr. Lancer. Realizing the mess he had just caused, he knew he had just made a fool of himself...

"Mr. Lancer, I'm sorry...I...I just..."

"...disrupted the entire class to show off your comedic sketches, and fell asleep in my class once again!" said his teacher, finishing for him. "Detention after school, Mr. Fenton! Now go back to your seat!"

It was like the ultimate walk of shame as Danny walked back to his seat, the whole class in absolute hysterics arond him. His cheeks burned with redness as he sat down, taking out a pencil to write down the rest of the notes.

"All right, people, settle down!" said Mr. Lancer. "Now, as I said before...in the equation 3x - 2 4, the correct answer for x is 2..."

"NOOOOOO!" screamed Dash, imitating Danny's sudden wake-up call. The class laughed again as the incident burned into Danny's ears like a searing mark.

"Haha, very funny, Mr. Baxter," said Mr. Lancer. "The next person to disrupt this class will join Mr. Fenton in detention."

The laughter abruptly stopped.

"Thank you," said Mr. Lancer. "Now...let me continue..."

000000000000000000000000000000

"Geez, Danny," said Sam as they walked out of algebra. "That was some stunt you pulled in class!"

"Yeah," said Danny. "And it's something everyone's not likely to forget anytime soon..."

He glumly looked around. Everyone from the class seemed to be running into friends and passing around his incident in class by either talking about it or imitating it. He sighed, knowing it would be a matter of hours before everyone knew about it...

But at least it would only be about a Danny Fenton, and not a Danny Phantom...

His secret was safe, but his social life was going further and further down the drain.

He sighed again as they continued walking in the hallway. Tucker ran up to them.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked. "Hey, things look quite festive around here. Everyone's laughing and some are actually getting on their knees...it's nice to see that everyone is getting into the holiday spirit!"

"It's not the holiday spirit, Tuck," said Danny, greatly wishing that he was out of the hallway. "They're all making fun of me."

"You?" asked Tucker. "What happened?"

"Danny fell asleep in class today," said Sam. "And when he woke up, he made himself look like a total idiot."

"Yeah, that would sound like Danny," said Tucker, laughing a little.

"Hey!" said Danny. "If you were dreaming what I was, you'd be doing the same thing!"

"Oh, no!" said Sam. "You didn't have another one of those 'premonitions,' did you?"

The half-ghost sighed. "Yes...I did. But I don't want to talk about it..."

"By the way you felt after you woke up, I'm sure you wouldn't," said Sam.

As the images returned to Danny's head, he remembered something he had asked earlier...perhaps it wasn't such a good idea...

"Sam?" he asked.

"What?"

"Uhh...that favor...I asked you to do, earlier...I realized...you do have a lot of things out of common with her, and I shouldn't force you to do something you don't want to do..."

"What are you getting at?" she asked, with a curious-raising eyebrow.

"You don't have to talk with Valerie...you can do that whenever you're ready..."

"Are you sure?" asked Sam.

"Yes," said Danny. "Don't worry about it...I'll give you more time to think about it."

"OK," she said. "But that's too bad. I already had some things planned out to say to her..."

Little did Danny know, that was a lie. A big brass band was echoing in Sam's head.

000000000000000000000000000000

Things weren't any better at lunch, where Danny could barely pass by any group without hearing any gossip about him.

He was starting to feel really miserable when people started walking up to him.

"Hey Fen-toad!" said Dash. "Why don't you try out for the drama club? They're looking for comedic actors like you!"

"Yeah," said Kwan. "In fact, you might be good enough for the lead role!"

Laughter from the entire football team followed the two remarks.

"Just ignore them," said Sam.

But that was easier said than done. There wasn't single place to eat inside without seeing a laughing face.

It had been a harsh day. Another dream had gotten the better of him, and it involved another significant person in his life he thought he had lost...

There was only so much one person could take, and he was only fourteen.

Unable to face a single person, Danny headed for the doors leading to the outside world, his two best friends following after him.

"Danny, wait up!" said Sam, trying to balance her tray of salad.

"Yeah, dude!" yelled Tucker, starting to sprint after him with his tray of meatloaf. "Hold up, will you?"

"Hold up?" thought Danny, basically bursting through the doors. "Why? For them to laugh at me even more?"

Danny quickly turned the corner once he went outside, his two friends in hot pursuit.

He made sure he was out of earshot and seeing range from everyone in the school. Then, screaming, Danny flung his lunch bag to the ground and started taking out his frustration by pounding the brick wall of the side of the school. He was in the middle of his pounding fest just as Sam and Tucker showed up.

"DAMN IT!" screamed Danny, with each pounding of his fist towards the defenseless bricks. "DAMN IT!"

"Danny..." said Tucker, trying to reach out to him, but Danny shoved it away.

"I hate this school!" cried Danny. "Why can't I ever have what I want?"

"What do you mean?" asked Sam.

"I can never be popular around this school! The only way I'm popular is through my ghost side, and even then, there are other ghosts and a ghost hunter who want to get me whenever I become that ghost!"

Tucker and Sam exchanged fearful glances. This was not the Danny they knew...

"You guys...just...go..." said Danny, his head lying against the bricks.

"We're your friends, Danny," said Tucker. "We're not going anywhere until we can get through to you...I mean, geez, man! Look at yourself!"

"Yeah, he's right," said Sam, also trying to calm Danny down. "You have changed...you used to take Dash's bullying with ease. Now you're taking it too seriously..."

"It's these stupid dreams!" yelled Danny, pounding the brick wall again. "Ever since I've had them...things have been changing...usually for the worst..."

The trio was so busy wondering about Danny's problems and fears that they weren't noticing their surroundings.

Several birds on the electrical wires were suddenly taking flight...

The weather was changing...the sun was slowly being taken over by dark, billowing clouds, and a warm wind started blowing through the air...

Something was heading their way...

"Seriously guys," said Danny. "There are just some days that I feel so...so..."

Suddenly Danny stopped in mid-sentence. His eyes were wide, and full of fear.

"What's wrong, Danny?" asked Tucker.

Danny continued the silence as he looked around, waiting...

Tucker got the message. "Don't tell me...there's one of them...out there...right now?"

Tucker watched as his friend shivered, and then answered the question nonverbally as a puff of ectoplasmic smoke escaped from his mouth...

This was followed by another voice in the air...which finished his sentence for him.

"This makes you feel, what, child?...Miserable?" said the voice.

Danny and his friends slowly turned around to see the visitor.

...But it was the half-ghost adolescent that suddenly felt another serious attack of déjà-vu as he was staring at a dark, ragged female spirit, completely colored black...

Cliffhanger! And I'm sorry to say that it will be about a week before the next update...I've got many things on my plate right now...finals and working, ugh...but please continue the reviews!

Chapter 5 ASAP!