Chapter 13- Meetings, Part II
"There will always be a reason you meet people. Either you need them to change your life or you're the one that will change theirs."
Tetslaff stood off to the side of the bleachers periodically looking back and forth between Lancer and her class. Most of them seemed to be paying attention although there were two kids who seemed to be drifting off and that one slacker who always did her math homework during this class. There were always the kids who thought that gym was worthless as a class and that exercise in general was a waste of time.
It bothered her, but even more so that the sentiment seemed to permeate the age gap and crossed into a lot of teachers view points if Tetslaff's experience was anything. This lecture being held during her class instead of math or English or hell even lunch was proof enough. And she understood that with finals approaching her's was easier to prepare for out of class than most others. It would be no problem practicing the mile on a Saturday afternoon but getting help on your senior thesis or needing to practice titrating a solution wasn't as doable on your own outside of school.
So while she understood that physical activity needed to take a backseat every once in a while to other academics that demanded more time, Tetslaff wished it was given the same respect when it was being performed. The lack of acknowledgment as a real class translated to her career as a teacher to. Everyone assumed it was easy being a gym teacher- you just blew your whistle and ordered kids to run laps, how hard could it be? And when you got down to it what was the point? Most kids by the time they entered high school knew the basics of football, basketball, baseball, and everything else they played.
Her eyes lingered on Paulina, nicely dressed as always with a sickly sweet perfume Tetslaff could smell even 15 feet away and a tight frown on her face as she discreetly punched some numbers in a calculator. Kids like her were the point. Those who didn't see a need for physical activity. Those who just thought it was gross and sweaty.
Her job as a teacher was to instill the value of exercise and to try to make it a daily habit now because it was hard to get into working out once you were older. There was less and less time as you got a job and into a relationship and started a family. Even without personally having to deal with those last two things Tetslaff did have them indirectly. She took time to go visit her bothers and parents and recently she was stuck babysitting a new niece and nephew. The troublesome twins were going to be nightmare to watch over once they hit the terrible two's.
Tetslaff looked back over to Lancer who seemed to be winding down. This was the third talk and they seemed fairly consistent if not dull. By the end of the day she'd be able to parrot this lecture back at him.
"Are there any questions?" He asked.
xXxXxXxXxXx
Lancer tiredly walked to his run down ford and stuffed the key into the lock before opening the door. He didn't like having to lock it everyday but there had been enough incidents with students that he didn't take a chance anymore. It wasn't even a matter of stuff being stolen (what student wanted to steal tests and essays?). No, the problem was things getting left behind.
Like the stink bomb, carton of rotten eggs, an opened bottle of cheap beer which Lancer assumed was meant to get him arrested should a cop pull him over, a dead squirrel and worst of all- a ghost. He didn't even know how someone had managed to trap a ghost in his car but the box ghost had flown out as soon as the door had opened. Lancer was sure Phantom had helped whichever student had planned the whole thing.
Once he closed the door Lancer put his head on the steering wheel. He knew Tetslaff had been bored to tears listening to the same speech for 8 hours but it was even worse for him as the one giving the damn thing over and over. She could at least tune him out or step into her office for a break, Lancer had no such luxury.
He turned his eyes to the random students passing by and wondered idly if they knew how draining being a teacher was. How much time had to be put into making lesson plans, writing tests, reading essays and what not. Probably not, most of them where chatting excitedly about the fast approaching break, not worrying too much about school anymore.
He let out a heavy sigh. Lancer's break wasn't going to be much of one. There was always work to be done as vice principle and a full time teacher to boot, but that work load got indefinitely worse when a new course was being put together from scratch. And for a subject he knew absolutely nothing about. At least he was going to be getting help from the Fentons. Speaking of, Danny was probably going to be seeing more of him during the summer than during the school year ironically enough.
It would be an interesting break to be sure. Jack and Maddie were… unique people. They were intelligent and enthusiastic and so very eccentric. For all their talk on ghost obsession they seemed particularly obsessed themselves whenever something ghost related came up. Sunday had been no exception with all the energy passing between Maddie and Jack at the thought of educating the younger generation on ghosts.
It had been a surprisingly pleasant visit, for the most part at least. Things had gotten kind of tense when discussing Phantom possibly putting in an appearance but that had worked itself. Lancer couldn't fathom why Danny had told his parents about Phantom potentially showing up. His parents were known anti-phantom folks, anyone could have predicted a negative reaction.
Personally he understood Jack's concern; Phantom was no pushover (you had to give him that whether you liked him or not) and he had a funny way of showing up in places he shouldn't be. He was an anomaly- a ghost that sided with humans and took advantage of anti-ghost technology. But being an outlier didn't make him bad. There were plenty of chances for Phantom to turn on them and yet he hadn't. And that being some sort of scheme made no sense.
According to the Fenton's going theory, Phantom protected the town because that was his obsession and Amity his domain. But if that were really the case why would he bother interacting with people? What did little acts of kindness like cheering Paulina up or letting him out from the janitor's closet do?
Phantom was different and after years of learning to read who students were Lancer was positive the ghost boy was genuinely altruistic. Based on yesterday's conversation it seemed the Fenton's were starting to notice as well. While Jack wasn't thrilled with the idea he had relented in the end and even seemed intrigued by the opportunity to hear what Phantom had to say. Maddie's reaction had been even more shocking- she hadn't seemed phased. If anything she seemed a bit annoyed at Jacks reluctance.
There was a story, Lancer was sure. Something had to have happened to open her mind. Whatever it was Lancer didn't intend to ask or pry. He was just glad the ghost was catching a break.
xXxXxXxXxXx
Jack would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous. The disaster with Blazek was fresh in his mind and his burns served as a painful reminder about how dangerous ghosts were. Despite that, he sat patiently at a table working on upgrades for the specter speeder while waiting for Phantom. As much as Jack wanted to talk to the ghost, he'd been hesitant to do so while injured. Showing vulnerability to any ghost was just asking for trouble but… Phantom was different and as much as Jack didn't like ghosts he had to admit that he owed his life to one.
Phantom had done good. He'd saved that goth kid along with himself and Maddie. If there was any ghost he should be willing to show faith in, it seemed like Phantom was the one. Jack's eyes flickered to the piece of paper sitting off to the side. Preparing questions for an interview was more up Jazz's alley but there were a few things he wanted to ask Phantom about so he made sure to write them down.
A cough from behind alerted Jack to the ghost boy's presence. He looked up with what he hoped was more of smile then the grimace it felt like.
"Phantom." Jack greeted. "Why don't you have a seat."
He watched the ghost sit down and just that simple act had him relaxing slightly. For all that humanoid ghosts were a common sight (the genie, rockstar punk, vampire, crater creep, flaming knight just to name a few) all of them had at least one feature that marked them as dead- their skin. Some were blue and others green and while he was sure there were more exotic colors he had yet to see, Jack was doubtful any of them would look like as close human as Phantom's complexion. It was just another oddity but one he was grateful for.
Without the floating it was easier for Jack to think of him as some kind of slightly glowing human. People did that right? Or they said that at least, that someone looked radiant and had glowing skin? Maddie had gotten a lot of those comments when she was pregnant with Danny.
"… Thank you. For the other night I mean. You saved me and Maddie. And that goth kid Jazz's been helping."
"Oh. It was no problem. That's… kinda what I do, you know? Saving people from ghosts." He paused for a moment. "I guess even bad situations that aren't ghost related are up my alley to." When Jack gave him a dubious look he elaborated. "That jewelry store on Christine Street was getting robbed a few weeks ago and the thief was holding hostages. I overshadowed him and walked the guy right out to the cops."
"That must come in handy." He hadn't heard about that. Jack thought it was only ghost attacks Phantom showed up for.
"Yeah. I mean there are all kinds of little things it helps with. Some grandma accidently locked herself and grandson out of the house. I'm sure a locksmith could have gotten in but this was after 11 so they would've had to stay at a hotel or something for the night and she didn't have enough money on her. I unlocked it for them and she gave me a book of cookies as a thank you."
"Does that happen a lot? You helping people with non-ghost stuff?"
He shrugged. "More than you'd think. Sometimes you see someone struggling and you wanna do something if you can. I lit someone's camp fire once. I've flown several drunks home. Got a cat out of a tree. Phased on ambulance through traffic. Built a snow fort for some hospital kids. All kinds of stuff."
He sounded so human when he shared little stories like that. Jack remembered doing those kinds of things back when he was a teen and young adult. Helping old ladies cross the street. Volunteering at the homeless shelter. He still tried helping people when he could, assuming he knew they needed help.
"I'm sorry." He said quietly.
"For what?" Phantom sounded confused.
"For hunting you down. For wanting to destroy you and all your kind just for existing. We spent so many years looking for ghosts just wanting to study them. When we finally found you guys, we only met the bad ones and just assumed that you all must be evil. I never tried getting to know you Phantom. I just wanted to rip you apart and make sure you never set foot in this world again. So I'm sorry for making assumptions."
They had met ghosts before building the Fenton portal. Back in college Vlad and Maddie had gone with him on many haunted house excursions. Most of them were duds but a few of the houses really were haunted. In all those cases the ghosts hadn't been very nice. They threw object (Jack still had a scar on his forearm from a kitchen knife that had grazed him), exploded light bulbs and just plain screamed at them, demanding that they go away. None of the ghosts had ever considered talking to them.
Once the portal had been built the first ghosts to pass through went on a rampage. The lunch lady incident was the first one he remembered. After that he and Maddie had agreed that no matter what kind of ghost it was, it seemed like all of them were trouble. Perhaps they had been too hasty.
"That's actually why I wanted to talk to you. Well there were a few reasons but, I remember you talking about other good ghosts. You offered to introduce them sometime. I was hoping I could meet one?"
"I think I can arrange something. Probably within the next few weeks if you wanted. And those other reasons?" They were news to Danny, his dad just said he wanted to try meeting another ghost and he figured that speaking with Phantom was the only way to set something up. Knowing that Danny kept in contact with Phantom, his dad had asked him to make this meeting happen.
"I was hoping to get to know you better. And to pass on a message I guess."
"A message?"
"You hang around Casper High a lot." It wasn't a question.
"I do."
"Well, there's a teacher there who's looking to start a class on ghosts. He was hoping that as a ghost yourself you might come in and speak to the kids."
Phantom crossed his arms, looking a bit pensive . "I don't mind but… are you ok with that? You're not very big on ghosts interacting with the public."
"I'm not and it's not ghosts that are gonna be talking to them; you're the only spook with an invitation." Jack snapped. As soon as he did though he sighed. "We both know I'm not a fan of ghosts but at this point I'm kinda bias. I've been hunting your kind for years now. It would be nice if the younger generation had a chance to interact with you guys and make up their own minds. You've still got a ways before you've earned my trust completely Phantom but… at this point I'd say you've earned enough for me to feel somewhat comfortable letting you around kids." 'Provided you have supervision of course.' But Jack wasn't going to mention that.
"Thanks, that means a lot."
With that little tid bit out of the way Jack picked up his paper. "So… there were a few things I wanted to ask you." He looked at the paper, the most pressing curiosity written across the top. "How come your signature disappears? I've seen you on our radar and you just appear and disappear randomly."
That wasn't completely true; Jack had noticed a pattern. Namely that Phantom's signal was more likely to appear after another ghost's signature was detected and disappear once theirs was gone. He assumed the other signature vanishing was the result of being sucked into a Fenton thermos but what exactly was causing Phantoms to suddenly blink out? And how did Phantom always show up right near the ghost?
It was easy to tell when Phantom was on patrol. His little green triangle moved systematically around the town and it was usually nighttime. At that point it was expected that he would eventually find any other ghosts that happened to be out. The strange thing was that there were plenty of times when Phantom's signal magically appeared near another ghost.
"I uh… don't know?" It came out more like a question and Jack knew he was lying. Which wasn't doing much for gaining his trust.
"Look Phantom, we're supposed to be being honest here. If you really don't want to tell me then at least admit that. Don't lie to me."
"Sorry. It's one of my more personal tricks." He replied rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Tricks?"
"Well… there's some stuff most ghosts can't do. It's related to how I can get around ghost shields." He paused for a moment eyeing Jack's paper. "That's on there too, isn't it."
"You can't expect me not to ask about that. No other ghost can do it. It shouldn't be possible."
'I shouldn't be possible.' "Well I know of at least 3 others that can." And Wulf wasn't even a halfa so Danny was willing to bet that there were a handful of other ghosts who could do the same. "Look, every ghost has it's own unique abilities, ones that aren't part of the standard set. Mine allow me to get around certain things."
"And that's all you're going to say on that, isn't it." Jack surmised with a put off expression.
"Jack, this trust thing goes both ways. I'll tell you one day but not right now. If you knew how I did it, you'd figure out a way to get around it." Jazz had already done that with the RV the one time. The ghost shield had kept Phantom in and the locked doors had kept Fenton in. As long as you accounted for both halves it wasn't impossible.
"Fine. And the disappearing trick?"
Phantom gave him cheshire grin. "Ghost are supposed to vanish." At Jacks annoyed look he added, "I have a way of… masking my energy so that it can't be detected."
Huh. That explained a lot, including "Is that why you can go through ghost shields? They don't stop you because they can't tell you're a ghost?" It was a simple enough explanation but hard to believe. How could he mask so much energy so well?
The ghost nodded. "That's the gist of it, but it's more of a combination of masking and suppressing. I can't get rid of the energy but I can hide it so your equipment doesn't pick up on it." For the most part at least. More sensitive equipment like the Fenton ghost finder or the boomerang (which was keyed into him specifically) couldn't be fooled. It would target him no matter which form he was in.
"And how do you do that? What do you disguise the energy as?" Most of their weapons were based on harnessing ectoenergy and, for some, converting it to electricity. Once it was converted though, that was it.
"Ah ah ah." He said wagging his finger. "That's more than I was planning on saying to begin with. Let's just leave it at that. What else did you want to know?"
Jack pouted at the response but looked at the paper moving on. "What makes you different? You don't seem to have any obsession which isn't possible for ghosts as far as we know; you need to have something here to tether you."
Phantom frowned as he considered the question. The obvious answer, which he wasn't going to give, was because he wasn't a full ghost. But was that really the case? Perhaps some ghosts just didn't have an obsession?
Frostbite didn't seem to have one. Or Wulf or Cujo. He couldn't think of one for Dora either and it might have been a lack of indepth personal knowledge about them, but Danny always thought obsessions would be kinda obvious. Like the box ghost's fixation with boxes. It was in his name for crying out loud. Not to mention that Vlad seemed obsessed with his mom to an unhealthy degree, granted he had been since before being a ghost, which did leave the possibility for halfa's to have an obsession.
"I honestly don't know what to tell you. I have a few friends that don't seem to have obsessions either, so they either hide it really well or it's not as impossible as you think."
"But… how can you exist then?" He asked incredulously. "One of the few things that experts agree on is that ghosts form because of an attachment, whether it's to a place or an object. You have to have something connecting you to this world!"
Phantom's eyes widened at the last sentence. 'They're not part of this world. The ghost zone is a parallel dimension, it's not the same.' "But that's just it, they're not part of this world. I mean ghosts had to have been at some point, but the ghosts from the ghost zone form there. I think what makes the difference is where the ghost forms. If it's here," he gestured around, "then maybe there has to be some kind of connection. But if they form in the ghost zone then there doesn't have to be one or at least the connection is with something in the zone."
"So what you're saying… is that there is a subset of ghosts that can form without an attachment."
"It's just a theory but, wouldn't that make sense? Maybe the ghosts in the ghost zone with obsessions were created here and somehow got trapped over there."
Jack considered Phantom's words. It made a certain amount of sense, though there were probably other variables involved. "It has been speculated that there are different types of ghost." He conceded. "Moving on… why are you protecting Amity Park? And if you have friends like you say why don't they ever help out?"
"They have their own territory to take care of and people wouldn't react to kindly to them even if they wanted to lend a hand. Most of my friends live in a place called the Far Frozen and all the inhabitants look like Yetis, people would just freak out. A giant wolf and dragon are also on that friend list and I know that wouldn't go over well. It's just easier if I'm the only one hanging around."
"That still doesn't explain why you hang around. Why not help some other place? You said it yourself- the problems don't have to be ghost related and there are plenty of other cities with more problems than Amity Park. What makes our town special?" If it were any other ghost Jack would assume proximity to the ghost portal was the big-ticket item but in this case he wasn't so sure. Phantom had shown up in far away places like Wisconsin, Florida, California and Nevada that weren't anywhere near a portal. There was something else keeping him stable. Another oddity but not any stranger than being able to fool ghost hunting equipment.
Phantom turned his head to look past Jack and stare at the sky. It was still bright despite being later in the day but that was to be expected with summer right around the corner. He figured there'd be at least another hour and a half before sunset. It was something he was looking forward to. Because ghosts were more active at night, a shorter night meant a decrease in ghost activity which was always appreciated.
After a moment of staring Jack watched his guest get up and walk to the edge of the ops center. Phantom leaned against the railing looking down on the town and Jack wondered what was going on the in the ghost's mind. He was so much more complicated that the other ghosts. So much like a person it was startling. He had all the mannerisms, expressions, and emotions that people did that it was hard to think of him as just a ghost anymore.
"I died here." Phantom whispered.
It was hard to hear but Jack's ears still picked up the quiet admission. His next words were louder and Jack questioned if he was meant to hear the previous ones. "I grew up here, in this little town. I went to school at Casper high and rooted for the ravens. I played in the park, hung out at the amusement park, snuck into the movie theatre for free shows sometimes, goofed around at the mall with my friends…it's kinda personal when I see things happening. When ghosts are causing trouble in my home town I can't just stand by and do nothing, not when I can stop them." He turned and stared at Jack for a long moment. "I know you think there's some kinda of motive, some bigger hidden agenda for what I do but there isn't."
As Jack digested the news a thought occurred to him. "Are… is your family still here?"
Phantom gave him a sad look before turning away. "Yeah."
"Do you see them? Talk to them or anything?"
"Yeah."
"That must be hard on all of you."
"They don't know it's me. Death has a way of… changing people. And sometimes you don't want to admit to what's in front of your eyes."
"Oh." Jack didn't know how to respond. How to deal with the news that apparently this kid was someone he probably had passed by on the street at some point. Someone his kids might have known and been friends with. Someone his wife handed candy to every Halloween.
He was curious but afraid to ask if they had known each other before. Jack couldn't think of anybody that had died recently but ghosts didn't age (although Maddie had mentioned that it looked like Phantom was getting older) so there was no telling how old Phantom was. The uncertainty bothered Jack but he ignored it in favor of looking at his list in the hopes of moving the conversation onto something less oppressing.
"What can you tell me about the ghost zone?"
xXxXxXxXxXx
Jack was still kicking around in the ops center after Danny left and Maddie was talking to Jazz which left the lab open and empty. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, Danny decided to visit the ghosts in mind now rather than later. He opened the blast doors and took off into the ghost zone.
It took awhile but eventually Danny stumbled on the pair sitting on a large floating rock. He raised his eyebrows at the fact that Johnny was the one painting Kitty's nails but decided not to comment on it and flew down.
"Hey guys." He said talking a seat a few feet away from Kitty. "How's it going?"
Johnny looked uncertainly at the halfa. "Fine?"
"Since when do you get involved in our everyday affairs here?" Kitty demanded with a huff.
"What? I can't come to the ghost zone to hang out with other ghosts?" He asked with mock hurt in his voice.
"You can, but you don't. You never have."
"That's not true. I visit plenty of ghosts here. I see Clockwork and Frostbite at least once a month and I try to check up on Dora and her kingdom."
Kitty rolled her eyes. "Uh huh. Why are you here? We're not bothering anyone and neither one of us has gone to your world in the last two weeks. And don't you stop, I need that second coat." She added turning to Johnny who had stopped applying the flaming red polish.
"Ok so maybe it's not totally a social visit (kitty scoffed) but I do have a proposition you both might like."
"Trying to proposition my girl Phantom?" Johnny joked.
"Cut it out Johnny." Kitty said elbowing him in the ribs.
"It was just a joke Kitten."
"Not a very funny one."
Phantom cleared his throat. "I was wondering if you two would be willing to go on a double date to the amusement park."
"You're inviting us to the human world?" "You want to go out on a date with us?" They asked immediately.
"Well yeah and not me per say. My dad wanted to meet some other ghosts and I figured this would be good for everybody. I know you two like hanging in the human world and this would be a good chance to do so."
"So you want us to go on a date with your parents."
"You realize your dad was threatening me with a bat the last time he saw me right?"
Danny winced at the reminder. "At least it wasn't a Fenton bazooka." He mumbled. "Look, I know you're skeptical but look at it this way; you can go on a nice date without me interrupting and get to meet some new people at the same time."
"I've already met your dad." "I'm not looking to meet new people."
Phantom sighed at the two. "Ok. How about this. You do this as a favor to me and I'll cut you some slack the next time you want to go out by yourselves. You can eat out or go to the movies or wherever and I won't cut your date short. How does that sound?"
The two looked at each other and Danny swore they were having a conversation with just their looks and shrugs.
"Consider it a deal." Johnny said as Kitty handed him her other hand to work on. "Do you have an actual date in mind?"
"Not really. A couple weeks maybe? I'm looking to finish up with school and finals before I try setting this up."
"Are you planning on shadowing us?" Kitty elbowed him again.
"I don't think I need to. I'm not expecting there to be any trouble. And speaking of shadowing, are you okay to come through the portal? I remember Johnny trying to get Jazz to wear your stuff so you could overshadow her."
"That shouldn't be a problem now. Your portal closed on me right when I went to step through. It opened a second later but when I tried crossing I couldn't. I think the impact damaged my body so it wasn't stable enough for your world. But that was a while ago, I've healed enough to go through the portal."
Danny frowned. "If it was just a matter of needing time, why go through the trouble of trying to overshadow someone? Why try taking Jazz's body?"
Kitty huffed at him. "It's boring here, Danny. I died a few decades ago and wound up here. Wherever this is." She added with a shrug. "I missed the human world and doing things. A lot of ghosts do but once you're here long enough you give up on going back. Before your parents portal, our worlds were truly separate. Natural portals open all the time sure, but they're never permanent and you never know where they'll be. You can't spend all your time trying to chase one down."
Johnny nodded. "We'd know, I used to try doing it. Some places have a thinner overlap with your world and portals pop up more frequently. Not every day or week or month but a few times a year to every few years one'll open."
"Your's is the only stable one that will access the same place and time and none of us know how long it'll last. Your government's already tried destroying it and all of us in the process. Everyone that wanted to go see the human world for the first time in ages was lined up because it could close at any point."
"You were afraid it would be gone." Danny said.
"I know you still live over there, but like you said, you've made friends with some of us. If the portal closed for good can you honestly say you wouldn't still look for a way to visit? That's what it's like for us. We still want to go back even if it's only for a little bit."
"Well I'm giving you a chance to. I've been trying to convince my parents that not all ghosts are bad and my dad is finally willing to meet someone. I though maybe a double date could be a win win for everybody."
"He know? Is that why he wants to meet us?" Johnny asked putting the nail polish away.
Danny shook his head. "Nah. That would just make him more accepting of Phantom. It wouldn't change how he feels about ghosts in general which is kinda the point. I think we could learn a lot from each other but there needs to be trust first. I uh, I'm also worried he might have a bad reaction if I just sprung it on him now."
"He's your dad Danny, I don't think he'd take it too badly." Kitty said inspecting her nails thoroughly. "I can see him flipping out at first but he loves you. All parents love their kid even if you can't always see it."
"Let us know when you wanna do this and next time we can double date with you and your goth chick."
"We're not dating!" Danny sputtered in embarrassment.
Johnny and Kitty shared a look. "Riiiight." They said in unison.
Danny flushed. "I uh, I have some stuff for school I gotta finish up. I'll talk to you guys in a few days." He said taking off.
"Who do you think he's gonna come clean to first; his parent or that goth girl?"
Kitty stared at Danny's retreating form. "With the way he's running from his feelings, his parents."
Omake:
Maddie knocked on her daughter's door, entering only when she her a soft 'come in'.
"Hi sweetie. What'cha working on?" Maddie asked when she spotted Jazz at her desk typing away on her computer.
"My graduation speech. The valedictorian goes and then there's another speech by a fellow graduate. It's an open essay contest where anyone can enter and a panel of teachers vote on the best one. Since those are due at the end of the week Mr. Lancer wants me to have mine done by then to so he can look it over."
"I'm sure whatever you write will be inspiring and memorable." Maddie said ruffling Jazz's hair.
"I hope so. Everyone's expecting perfection so it's not like I have a choice."
"That comes with the territory of being a top scoring, overachieving student Jazz. But nobody's perfect and your teachers and classmates understand that too. So if you make a mistake with your speech it's ok. Sometimes mistakes are the most memorable part. I had a kid in my class who was so nervous they passed out as soon as they were handed their diploma."
"Really?"
"Mm. It probably didn't help that it was in the 90's that day either. The whole thing had to get paused while we were waiting for the ambulance. Everyone remembers that more than the speech I gave, even me."
"I'm guessing you had another reason for coming up here besides listening to me worry about what I'm gonna write."
"Believe it or not I think about more than just ghosts. It's nice to know what's going on in your and Danny's life. Although…" she trailed off sheepishly, "I did have something ghost related to talk to you about."
Jazz sighed. "Mom. I could get a bachelors in ectotheory, ectoengineering and parabiology without ever having to attend college just from listening to you and dad raving about ghosts." She teased playfully.
"Well you could just pretend you're attending a lecture given by one of us." Maddie teased back. "But in all seriousness, I wanted to invite you to the class Mr. Lancer is hosting next year."
Jazz blink. "What?"
"You've been studying ghosts in your own time Jazz. I know you're not as passionate about them as your father or me but you've got some interest. It though it would be a good opportunity if there's a topic you're interested in or to give your thoughts and opinions if you wanted to speak. College allows more freedom schedule wise so it's I imagine you'll have some free time at some point."
"I'll think about it."
A/N:
So it only took like 8 months to get this out. Life has been hectic this year. My sister had a 9cm ovarian cyst removed back in Februrary, my mom was diagnosed with Parkinson in may, my grandpa passed away mid June, my dad has a skin legion that was confirmed as cancerous (it's only in one area so that's good news) that same week, and my brother had his appendix removed 2 weeks ago. I keep wondering what's gonna happen to me since everyone else in my immediate family had something happen. I'm working in a lab for the summer for school credit and all I can say is I can't wait for summer to be over and to start my fall semester because this is way more stressful than I anticipated. I figured I'd be in the lab for 10-15 hours a week not 20-30.
Story Notes:
1) Danny helping people with other everyday troubles. I can't think of why he wouldn't since this is something most ordinary people do. I've helped jump start people's car, given friends a ride, helped with cat catching- just little things that if you know you can help with you do. With Danny's extended ability range I imagine he's got a lot of non ghost fighting help he's given out. Also a very minor detail probably overlooked, Christine street was based on the name of the car that is possessed in the movie Christine.
2) Jack makes reference to Phantom going to different states; in Reality Trip the trio goes across country and with all the interesting mayhem that ensues I can't imagine someone not posting that on the internet. Therefore there have been stories and sighting of Phantom in far away states like California, Florida and Nevada.
3) Things are starting to wrap up as far as Jack really seeing Phantom as more than just a ghost goes. He's seeing him as a person without knowing that he's part human and that will make him wonder about the other ghosts he encounters. I think that's great progress.
4) Johnny and Kitty. Instead of just one ghost the Fenton's are going to get a 2 for 1 special. So I really wasn't sure who to pick and a reviewer mentioned that I wrote Johnny and Kitty off too quickly and looking back on it I can agree. They aren't bad, and no they aren't exactly Danny's friends but they're neutral. They just want to hang in the human world and I feel like being allowed to do will show Maddie and Jack another side to ghosts.
5) I really wanted a Jazz and Maddie scene and it didn't quite fit into the main chapter so I put it in as an omake. That by the way is what Maddie and Jazz are talking about when Danny see's that Maddie's out of the lab and talking to his sister.
Reviews and comments are always greatly appreciated. Also if you notice and grammar mistakes fell free to let me know so I can go back and fix them. Every author loves getting support. I'll see you guys for the next chapter, until then
~May