It's been nearly a year since I've updated, but to anyone who's stuck around since then, don't worry! I'm still around here, and I promise I'll get back to updating this story maybe once a month, if possible. I've also changed the summary so it says more about the story than simply describing it as 'challenge accepted'.
Additionally, you all might notice that I've removed the character list and episode guide. My visions for the episodes have strayed a little from my original intentions, so I've since removed them and instead, I'll put up the descriptions at the top of the chapter.
elnine27: A girly-girl she is not, but without Danny dragging her into Action Girl territory, she'll just be a tomboy.
123booilove: They're not exactly snobs, but with being popular, they'll act quite a bit differently. Just a bit.
kittylover05: You should definitely watch it! It's an amazing show.
Guest: You've gotten two of them right. The attack name was more of a generalized magical girl genre thing, since I hadn't watched SVFOE at that point. Anyway though, I'm glad that you like this so far!
Summary: There's a school dance coming up, and the Fenton Twins have to contend with a dragon hot on their heels while they try finding a date.
"Hey kids!" Jack's powerful voice boomed through the Fenton household early the next morning. "Come down here for a moment!"
The Fenton twins were still in bed, and the shout of their father successfully startled them awake. Danny spluttered, shooting up straight in bed as he jumped, nearly shooting himself up and into the ceiling of his shared room with his twin. Dani, on the other hand, clambered up with her black hair frazzled and wild, the girl yawning as she rubbed her eyes.
"Whazzat?" the younger twin slurred, half-asleep.
Danny sighed, running a hand through his short hair as the half-ghost boy got to his feet, yawning as he stretched and hearing his joints pop a little from the stiffness of the night before. "Dad's come up with some invention again," he informed his twin, shaking his head to get any stubbornly sticking out hair into its natural style — somewhat spiky in the front and shorter and neater in the back. "We should probably go and see what he wants after we shower and whatever."
Dani jumped to her feet, already attempting to tame her bedhead. "I call the shower first!" the shorter of the two called, struggling with her wild hair as she went to her chest-of-drawers, digging out her clothes for the day — which was her usual blue hoodie and ripped jeans, along with her red beanie hat — and tossing them onto her bed haphazardly before she ran towards the bathroom adjacent to their bedroom.
"Hey! Tidy up before you go!" the older twin yelled at his sister, only for his towel to be chucked towards his face for his trouble. The boy snorted, and smiled in amusement at his sister, rolling his eyes ever so slightly.
After roughly half an hour, both the twins were done with their respective showers and dressed for school. Danny snatched each of their backpacks up from the corner, chucking his sister's at her in retribution for the towel as they headed down the stairs to the basement, bidding their mother good morning on the way there. "What's up, dad?" the older of the twins asked, blinking owlishly at the chrome fishing rod that the hefty man was holding proudly.
"Kids!" the middle-aged man exclaimed enthusiastically. "Just in time. This is the Fenton Ghost Fisher! Now ain't she a beauty?" Jack asked with a wide, goofy grin.
Dani rolled her eyes. "Uh... yeah, dad," the girl said with an awkward, forced smile. "Of course she is!" The half-ghost girl tugged on her red beanie for a moment. "Uh... we still haven't had breakfast yet, so maybe we... uh... should get going before it's time for school and we're late?" She looked over at Danny, blue eyes pleading with her brother to come up with an excuse to get out of the basement before their father's invention came to life and potentially attacked them — or worse, revealed them to their trigger-happy father.
Danny didn't think that was a good idea either way. The teen racked his mind for an excuse, and coming up empty, he gave his little sister an awkward shrug of the shoulders, watching silently as their father tossed the line into the open portal, the hook going far into the swirling green depths of the ghost portal. At this point, Danny silently beckoned his sister to take a few steps back, and stepped back himself, not wanting to be caught in the line of fire of any of the multiple ghost-detecting devices his father was wearing on him.
"Ooh, gotta go!" Jack suddenly bellowed. He shoved the metal body of the fishing rod into Danny's hands, telling him, "Hold onto it for a while, Danny-boy. Your old man will be right back after he goes to the little ghost-hunter's room!" The large man lumbered up the stairs in the basement with surprising grace, and his large blocky form squeezed out the door, racing to get to the bathroom.
Dani crept up closer to her brother, looking warily at the ghost portal. "Well, dad's out. Should we reel this thing back in, close the portal and scram off to school? Penny, Terrence and Val are probably waiting at our usual meet spot by now!" The girl uneasily toyed with the straps of her backpack, looking around the basement lab.
"Good idea," Danny mused, jerking forward suddenly when something tugged at the hook on the other end of the rod. "Whoa! The rod caught something!" he exclaimed. "Gotta reel it back in and toss it back into the Zone!" The half-ghost boy dug his heels into the ground, trying not to get pulled into the portal while he tugged on the other end of the Fenton Ghost Fisher, slowly reeling the line back in until it was easier to stand. "Little help, Dani?"
"Gotcha." Dani reached over to grab his arm, pulling him back from pitching forward as the older reeled the rest of the line back in.
As the hook pulled in, it was hooked onto the strap of an elaborate amulet, which in turn was around the neck of a scaly dragon — a ghost dragon.
"Oh no," the twins uttered in unison, looking at each other. "We're going ghost!" White rings passed over the duo, turning them into their spectral alter-egos, and the twin hybrids took to the air, gloved hands lit up with green ectoplasmic energy.
The dragon snorted a plume of green fire towards the two and roared, prompting Danny to blast it with green energy, making it retract a little, then stretch the long scaly neck forward in anger.
"Great job, hero!" Dani snarked at her older brother. "Now it's angry!"
"Oh, so it's my fault now? I don't see you trying to help!" The older twin started firing off blasts of energy one after the other in rapid succession. Each hit made the dragon hiss in pain. "Come on! The both of us should be able to toss it back into the portal with enough power!"
Dani nodded, preparing to fire off blasts of her own as she drifted a safe distance back, her hands lit up with green energy. Both the siblings worked in unison, managing to evade getting burned by the ghostly flames as well as getting in their own hits.
All of a sudden, the dragon shifted in form to a young woman with pale green skin, red eyes, and blonde hair in a braid, wearing a Medieval dress in blue as she looked around. "Where am I?" she mused aloud. "Oh, I'll be late for the ball! The prince will be so angry with me!" she fretted, turning around and flying back into the portal without even bothering to look at either of the ghost twins.
The portal door shut behind her, and Danny glanced over at his sister at the control panel, confusion clear in his expression.
Dani shrugged, lifting her hand off the button to shut the portal and transforming back into human form. She looked at the clock, instantly freaking out. "Danny, we're going to be so late!"
The boy yelped, and rushed forward, taking her hand as he transformed back, the twins running for the door.
Neither noticed the gleaming amulet that had fallen into Danny's backpack.
"Did you hear about the dance?"
"Awh man, I hope I get a date!"
"Who d'ya think is gonna be the Prom Queen this time? Paulina is deffo out of the running, right?"
Dani raised a brow as she walked into the school with her twin beside her. She looked over at him, getting a casual shrug that indicated he didn't really know and wasn't very interested in knowing, and rolled her blue eyes, widening her stride a little to walk over to their small group of friends, hiking her backpack up onto her shoulder. "Hey!" she called, racing over. "Jazz! Penny! Terrance!" She grabbed onto her beanie to make sure it didn't fall off as she weaved through the pushing and shoving crowd of students. "Any of you see Val around?"
Penny shook her head, the Asian girl tossing shoulder-length black hair over her shoulder as she hugged her morning session textbooks to her chest, standing up on her tiptoes to see if she could see the African-American transfer student anywhere in the morning student crowd. "Nope, nowhere," she said, shaking her head again in the negative. "I'll let her know you're looking for her if I see her, though? We have Math together, and I think that's my first class." The girl looked at her timetable again to affirm her statement and nodded. "Definitely first period."
"Hmm, what about homeroom?" Terrence asked. "Doesn't she share one with you two?" The boy raised a brow slightly. "I heard her mentioning something about Mr Lancer yesterday, and she doesn't have our English class with him, so doesn't she have homeroom?"
Jazz shook her head, tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear. "Mr Lancer also teaches English Literature and Calculus," she pointed out. "And you don't take his Calculus class, plus you hate English Lit with a passion." The redheaded genius patted one of the thick books in her hand with a careful fondness, beaming at it. "Speaking about English Lit, I have that as my first class after homeroom, and I really gotta go," she informed. "I'll see you guys later, bye!"
"See ya, Jazz!" Dani called. She turned to the others of the group, a smile on her face when she finally realized what the students had been talking about. "It's prom week!" she cheered with a grin. "Oh man, this is going to be a blast! Last year totally bombed for us, but this one should be great!" She pumped a fist into the air energetically, her ponytail bobbing eagerly as the girl bounded on her heels. "What do you think about that, guys?" she asked with a grin.
Her older twin frowned. "I dunno, Dani. Remember what happened last year at dance night?" he asked, grimacing at the mention of the mortifying 'punch' incident. "I really don't want a repeat of the 'incident', and I don't think Penny or Terrence want one either."
Terrence snorted. "Nah, man, I'm cool with repeating the 'punch incident'," he said, the blond flippantly waving it off with an enthusiastic grin. "I mean, hot girls, cute girls, and more beauties all dolled up to dance! I mean, who wouldn't want to dance with the dance champion of Amity for the last three years?" The blue-eyed boy shot a passing girl a dazzling grin, and the girl offered him a quick wink in return before walking off like nothing had happened. "See?" Terrence boasted with a smile. "The ladies dig me, man."
The Asian girl of the group snorted, lightly punching her blonde friend. "Yeah, yeah, braggart. Soak up the attention for the rest of the week, and then you can go back to being a nobody," she teased. "You're only popular when it comes to dances. Once they're over, you get dumped again. I, on the other hand, and content with having not to go to prom." She tossed her hair over her shoulder with a mock-haughty sniff. "Honestly, though, I can't go even if I wanted to. Mum and Dad are going out on a family trip to see Grandma in China, and they want me to come with for the weekend," she explained. "You three and Jazz are on your own. And Terr, for goodness sake, don't bring along Rex to the dance."
The blond stuck his tongue out. "Rex is a perfectly good boy," he argued, defending his Golden Retriever.
Ignoring the two bickering as usual, Dani and Danny turned to each other as they headed for their lockers, needing to get their books before their shared classes. "So are you going to ask Miss-I'm-A-Goth to the dance?" the younger twin asked as she opened her locker to retrieve her Physics textbook. "You know you're going to fail, yeah? She has tons of guys wanting to get her for the dance, though it's not like she goes with them anyway."
The older boy snorted. "And you going to ask Tucker-Nerds-A-Lot to the dance?" he shot back with a huff. "It's not like he likes you, anyway." Pulling out his own Physics book, the boy closed the door and rested a hand on the locker as he dug through the pockets of his baggy jeans. "He barely even knows you exist, Dani." Danny pulled out his phone, flicking through his picture gallery to get to the schedule for the day. "Let's see... Physics... Chem... Lit... Algebra..." he listed off slowly, finally dropping his phone back into his pocket."
The girl sniffed. "Don't mock me, Dan," she said, wrinkling her nose. "You know that you don't stand a chance either, so don't mock a girl for dreaming." She looked over at the crowd. "Oh, what do you know? Miss I'm-Too-Good-For-You is coming here now. Why don't you ask her about it now?" She slammed her locker door shut with a little more force than was actually necessary as she folded her arms, her Physics book in her grasp while she leaned on the metal locker. Her blue eyes were glowering at her brother in annoyance.
The siblings had their spats here and there, though it usually didn't last beyond the last bell of the school day. Dani was simply annoyed right now, and she wanted him to see how badly he was doing now.
Danny frowned. "Fine, I will." He handed his textbook over to her, which she easily took, then marched over to the 'Goth' posse, already seeing Paulina, the school's resident cheerleader captain, and her cheerleading squad group gather to the side. He cleared his throat when he was close enough to the black-haired lead Goth, pulling himself to his full height. "Hey, Sam," he said in as even as a voice he could muster. "Are you going to the dance?" The smile he had on was at best awkward, and it was obvious that he was nervous, though his voice was strangely even.
Samantha Manson turned around, raising a brow. "Not really," she said with a casual shrug of her shoulders, making the older boy look crestfallen. "But I've been swamped by people asking me. Can you believe that?" She smirked in amusement, turning away.
Danny just sighed, accepting defeat as the black-haired girl walked off. However, it seemed like he was in luck, as Paulina sashayed over. "Uh... hi, Paulina," he stammered out, taken aback when the cheer captain, second only to Sam in the school's popularity hierarchy, smiled flirtatiously at him. "D-did you want something?"
The Latina smiled, batting her lashes. "Hello Danny," she cooed in a sickeningly sweet voice, that, for some reason, Danny didn't pick up on. "I heard you trying to ask Manson out. You know she's never going to agree, don't you?" Her lips were pulled into a syrupy smile, and she fluttered thick black lashes at the older Fenton twin. "Do you really want to let her keep on putting you down like that?" she continued, still batting her lashes. "It would be such a waste of your time when you could be chasing someone else, you know."
Dani narrowed her blue eyes at the cheerleader in suspicion. I know what you're trying to pull, Sanchez... leave my brother alone, she thought with a scowl on her face. Her eyes would have been a blazing green if she had looked into a mirror, but thankfully, no one else seemed to notice the situation, which made her glad enough. Fed up with hearing the Latina trying to sweet talk and charm her twin brother into humiliating the Goth A-lister for her, Dani took action. "Back off, Paulina," she sneered at the cheer captain. "You're salty over losing out to Manson in the popularity contest, so what? Leave me and my brother alone," she emphasized. To make sure it entered the cheerleader's thick head, the black-haired half-ghost girl grabbed a cup of soda from a nearby student and splashed the fizzy drink onto the Latina's garish pink blouse with a glare.
Paulina shrieked as loudly as was possible, looking down at her ruined blouse in horror. "Oh, you're gonna pay for this, Fenton!" she fumed, but before a teacher could interrupt it, the other cheerleaders were quickly crowding around her and herding the Latina away towards the bathroom to change, none of the squad wanting to make a scene... well, more than it already was, anyway.
Dani harrumphed at the Latina snob and shoved Danny's book right back into his hands. "I really hate that girl," she muttered as she stormed off to homeroom.
Terrence caught up with Danny as Dani stormed off towards the direction of class, the blond quizzically staring after the fired-up girl. "What's got her in a twist?" he commented, stopping to open his locker, which was located right across the corridor from Danny's. "I haven't seen her this angry since Baxter gave you that wedgie last week." He pulled out his books, which were all identical to Danny's, and locked the locker, making sure that no one could pull a cruel prank on him like what happened to the Alfonzo kid from the grade below theirs the last week.
The black-haired teen sighed as he leaned against his shut locker door. "She got all riled up when Paulina tried to flirt with me," Danny explained. "She probably wanted me to do something for her in exchange," he said in reference to the Latina A-lister, "but you know how she gets." Back to talking about Dani. "Dani grabbed someone's soda and emptied it over her shirt. Made a big scene and then there she goes," he said, waving a hand in Dani's general direction. The older teen grimaced, and continued, "This is going to be terrible for our PR."
The blue-eyed dance champion suppressed a snort as he pushed through the thinning student crowd to get to Danny. "Yeah, right," he said with a mildly disdainful tone in his voice. His voice lightened back to the cheerful, optimistic tone it was nearly always in — that he made sure to keep it in. "But you know that we're already out of chances to join the popular kids, anyway." Terrence cleared his throat, hoping that his good friend hadn't caught onto his darker tone and the blond leaned on the locker door next to Danny's. "Speaking of the dance, though, you gonna go?"
The half-ghost looked down at his sneakers like they were truckloads more interesting than the topic at hand. "Class is going to start soon," Danny interrupted hastily, "let's get going first." Like someone was on his tail, he immediately headed off to their homeroom, shouldering his way past students that were only now beginning to crowd around their lockers to get their books for class.
"Hey! No avoiding the topic, Danny!" Terrence called, rushing after him so that he wouldn't lose track of his friend in the crowd of students. He finally managed to catch the older of the Fenton twins at the door to their class. "I'm being serious, Danny. Are you going to the dance?" The teen slid into his usual seat at the side of the class and he patted the chair beside him, looking up at Danny.
The half-ghost sat down in the indicated seat, slowly shaking his head in response. "I'm not sure," he said with a sigh, putting his head in his hands. "I know that you love the school dances and you don't want to go alone, but I don't have a date," he reminded the blond, "and yes, I know that I could ask Jazz or Val, or even Dani as one of those 'friends-only' platonic dates, but it's the principle of the matter, you know?" Blowing out his cheeks in what Terrence could only assume to be frustration, the blue-eyed boy leaned back in his seat.
Terrence reached over, giving his friend an encouraging pat on the back. "That's rough, buddy," he said sympathetically, looking over at his friend. While Terrence was usually a second or third option by girls for dances, mostly due to the 'best dancer' awards the school gave out, Danny sure wasn't. Maybe he could ask a favour from someone? ...no, he couldn't be sure that would work, and besides, owing someone was usually a bad idea. Well, he'd figure something out, he was sure.
"We'll talk about this later," he told Danny firmly. "I'm going to get you a date to the dance, I promise, buddy." Ignoring Danny's quiet protests, the blond straightened up in his seat as Mr Lancer walked in to begin taking attendance.
When the bell rang and homeroom ended, Terrence was about to get to his feet and drag his friend to their next class, but before he could, someone unexpected walked up to Danny — Star Bergen, Sam Manson's lead lackey and not-so-secret best friend to Paulina Sanchez, which meant that while she wasn't on the top of the school's popularity hierarchy, she was still in the top three for the female side of school. But everyone knew better than to assume the ditzy-looking blonde was just an air-headed cheerleader who just happened to like the pastel goth look — she was Sam Manson's, and Paulina's, to be fair, right-hand woman, after all.
"Hi Danny," Star began to the perplexed half-ghost teen with a shy smile. "I happened to overhear you in class and you said that you didn't have a date to go to the dance with..." she trailed off and smiled suggestively at the teen. "I'm sure you know what I mean, right?"
Terrence didn't trust that at all. Danny had said that Dani had ended up publically humiliating Paulina that morning, and he would certainly bet his allowance for the month that the Hispanic cheerleader had asked her best friend to set up his best friend just to get back at the younger Fenton twin. The blond knew his friend well enough to know that at this point, his attention was completely off him and onto the popular girl, so he didn't even bother trying to stop his friend from possibly making a fool of himself, even if Terrence knew that he'd end up regretting it by ten minutes.
"O-oh, uh," Danny stammered, taken off guard by suddenly having one of the A-listers speak to him and basically ask him to be her date to the dance. He didn't seem to sense that anything was off at all. "Uh, s-sure!" He stood up abruptly, and his bag, which he had been carrying with him because the teen couldn't be bothered to physically search through his locker for his homework between each class, clattered to the floor, and an amulet that was glowing green fell out of his open bag.
"Ooh! This is pretty!" Star cooed as she picked it up, looking at the green gem under the classroom lighting. "Did you get this to give to the girl you asked out for the dance?" she asked, a slight hint of disdain coming through in the statement. "It's very shiny!"
Terrence could practically see the gears turning in Danny's head.
"Oh, uh, yeah!" the black-haired teen exclaimed as he gathered his things into the bag. "So, um, if you'll do me the honour of coming to the dance with me, this necklace is yours!"
Terrence suppressed a groan. Now he just sounds desperate.
Star beamed as she put on the necklace and leaned in. "How do I look?" the cheerleader asked, making sure to flaunt the jewellery. "Anyway, though, I'll gladly be your date to the dance! Pick me up Friday at seven, okay?" Before Danny could answer her, the blonde skipped away, no doubt going to Paulina or Sam to flaunt what she had gotten by conning the poor boy.
"Bad move, man," the blond teen said to his friend. "You know the A-listers are a bunch of backstabbing traitors," he cautioned, reaching over to help Danny with the rest of his things. Seeing the dazed look still in Danny's eyes, though, Terrence sighed. He'd lost him already.
Neither of the teenage boys noticed Star's blue eyes glow a toxic green as the A-lister sauntered off.
"Ms Fenton, wake up!" A ruler smacked onto Dani's desk just beside the sleeping teen's ear, startling her awake and making her shoot straight up and back, nearly causing her to tumble back when her chair began pitching back as well. Thankfully for the black-haired girl's dignity, her chair's back caught onto the front of the desk belonging to the person behind her.
"Uh, huh? What? Who?" Dani spluttered, her mind still clouded and foggy with sleep. She then registered Mr Lancer giving her a stern glare right next to her desk, and she felt her face grow warm when she realised that she had fallen asleep in the middle of Literature again. Well, it wasn't as if she could control being dead tired! Unlike her twin, Dani kept a very rigid sleep cycle — at least eight hours per night was the minimum she needed to not fall asleep in the day, so perhaps she probably shouldn't have stayed up that late the previous night with Danny, trying to figure out the Ghost Portal and the Fenton Thermos.
The fact that her dad had woken her up so early in the morning really didn't help.
"That's the fourth time this month, Ms Fenton," the balding teacher lectured. "Detention for you, today, and I want to see your parents this week!"
Dani groaned. "Yes, Mr Lancer," she mumbled in defeat. The girl flopped back onto her desk as soon as the man turned his back, trying not to imagine how terrible things were going to go if her mother caught wind of her sleeping in class. "Great," she muttered to herself, fighting the urge to slam her head into the desk. "This is just great."
Still, though, if she was only getting detention for sleeping in class, it meant that the staff hadn't caught wind of her humiliating Paulina that morning, which was a good thing, especially since she wasn't looking forward to having her parents lecture her about manners in public and respect towards her peers. Personally, she blamed that lecture on her parents meeting Penny's, but there wasn't much she could do to escape it if they decided to get started anyway.
Mr Lancer was about to continue, but the last school bell interrupted him mid-sentence, earning a delighted cheer from the entire class.
Dani was one of the last out of the classroom due to the others swarming out like staying in the class would be the death of them. Personally, the girl agreed with that sentiment. However, she wasn't the only one in there. As the black-haired teen was making her way out through the door, she bumped into someone with a mop of long blonde hair. "Ow!" Today just really wasn't her day, huh?
"Ow," the girl whined, and the instant she spoke, Dani knew who she was — Star Bergen, Paulina Sanchez' best friend. "Watch where you're going, you clumsy witch!" she cried out as the blonde got up, already looking over herself meticulously to ensure that her appearance hadn't been damaged in the slightest. "My nails!" she cried, the shrill sound hurting Dani's ears. "I chipped my nails! If Paulina sees me with chipped nails, she's going to kill me!" she wailed. "I can't see her like this!"
Dani got to her feet, ready and willing to deliver the blond a sharp tongue lashing when she saw the amulet around Bergen's neck glow a sickly toxic green. What was that thing?! The half-ghost girl watched, her mouth gaping wide open as Bergen changed in front of her eyes into a big, scaly dragon just like the one she and Danny had fought that morning. "Oh, dang it," she mumbled, her blue eyes wide in surprise. The younger Fenton twin scrambled out into the corridor, dashing towards her locker down the hall where Danny and Val were standing. "Dan!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "We have a situation!"
Her brother swung around in surprise and astonishment at the use of their code for 'ghost attack', but nothing more had needed to be said, as Dragon-Bergen had broken free of the small classroom's inadequate spacing and into the hallway, where every other student promptly began to scatter. In the chaos, Danny practically flew over to her and they had squeezed into a broom closet to transform.
"We're Going Ghost!"
Phasing out of the closet, the twins surveyed the scene. "That's Star Bergen we have over there," Dani told Danny with a grimace, watching his eyes widen in shock and surprise. "Yeah, that was my reaction too."
Danny shook his head. "Well, let's just roast her first and get her to calm down or something!" Gloved hands blazing with green energy, he took to the air — ceiling, if he was being literal — and fired a barrage of glowing green bolts of energy right into the dragon's gaping maw. Twisting out of the way of a plume of bright green flame, the older Fenton twin headed straight on to hit Dragon-Bergen point-blank.
Not to be outdone, Dani shot after him through the air, throwing blast after black of green ghost plasma at the dragon whenever it was distracted with her brother, flinging the bolts like she was throwing a discus. "Take this!" she shouted enthusiastically, taking the scaly creature's attention off her brother and onto her, only for him to shift it back with a blow to the back of its head.
The twins worked together like clockwork, knowing exactly what the other needed and when they needed it. They zipped through the corridor, hailing down green ectoenergy onto Dragon-Bergen until the creature roared in pain and began to shrink, reptilian features retreating into a human appearance even as Dani delivered one last strike, knocking the girl into a locker.
A bottle of nail polish fell out of some girl's locker as Star Bergen turned back into a human with the amulet she was wearing earlier still around her neck, rolling at her feet. "What happened?" The blonde blinked blearily, but brightened up as soon as she saw the polish, picking it up.
Dani and Danny shared a glance as the twins retreated into an empty classroom, turning back to their human forms. Dani straightened her beanie as she walked out into the trashed corridor, meeting up with Penny and Terrence immediately. "That was eventful," the younger Fenton said.
"What happened here?" Mr Lancer shouted down the hall.
"Let's get going," Terrence urged, and without anything more than a collective grunt of agreement, the group of four fled the halls just in time to avoid getting into trouble.
Penny clicked the link into the website, leaning back in her favourite plush chair as she waited for the page to load — jeez, her Wi-Fi was slow. "Let's see... things that can make a teenage girl transform into a dragon," she said, letting her gaze sweep over the minute words on the page. The Asian girl grimaced and reached for her glasses, folded and placed on the desk. "Got it!"
Danny leaned in to see the computer screen, as did Terrence from her other side. The group, sans Dani, who was still in detention and with the Fenton parents, had beelined for Penny's house to try and see if they could find anything at all about how Star Bergen had been transformed into a monstrous dragon creature, as her house was the closest to the school. Of course, if they had had the time, maybe going to Terrence's house would have been the better idea. His Wi-Fi was way faster.
Of course, maybe the connection wouldn't be as slow if Danny hadn't insisted on video-calling his sister and letting her keep up with them on their research, but Penny didn't mind. The more heads they had, the faster they'd find the answer.
"That's it! Penny, scroll up! It's the golden and green amulet on the left corner, no, the other left," Dani said, the girl pulling her phone closer on the other end.
The Asian girl absently wondered why the younger Fenton was being so relaxed in detention, but she chose to pay it no heed for the time being. "This one?" she asked her friend, clicking in on the image of the ostentatious necklace. "Let's see here... Amulet of Aragon, extreme distress or anger causes the wearer of the amulet to trigger its power and transform them into a dragon," Penny read aloud. "This one, you sure?"
"Hey, Danny, isn't this the thing you gave to Star so she'd go to the dance with you?" Terrence asked, looking back over his shoulder at a suddenly very pale Danny Fenton.
The black-haired teen winced at the statement and nodded — a quick admission of guilt. "It is. I thought it was just something that mum had or it was one of Dani's cosplay jewellery. Figured they wouldn't miss it, but... this isn't good." He shook his head with a scowl. "I'll just get it back from her before the dance. Say, Dani," he said, abruptly changing the subject, "how is Lancer letting you use your phone in detention?"
"Oh, that's easy," the girl said, leaning in conspiratorily. "I possessed dad and flattered him until he let me off. I think he's insisting that our parents chaperone the school dance now, though."
"Dani! You know we're not supposed to do that!" Danny hissed quietly at his younger sister, who just shrugged. "Whatever," he said with a groan, holding his head in his hands. "It's not like we're going."
Terrence raised a hand with a sheepish expression on his face. It came as no surprise to Penny that he'd gotten a date — everyone wanted a chance to be the 'best dancer' at every dance since it always came with a pretty good prize by the student committee. "Your cousin asked me," he started. "I wasn't about to let her go on her own!" The defensive tone slipped right past the twins, but Danny seemed more annoyed that his friend hadn't asked him before asking his cousin on what was essentially a date.
Danny huffed and sat back onto Penny's bed. "I'll have to corner Star Bergen when she's alone and tell her that I want the amulet back. It's going to be social suicide, but I guess I don't have a choice." He frowned, pursing his lips together. "That is, if I can get her alone."
"I can corner her in the bathroom and pull off the same trick I did earlier," Dani offered cheerfully, quickly earning herself a shutdown by Danny.
"No, it's my mess, I'll have to take care of it," the black-haired boy said with a sigh. "But thanks for volunteering anyway, Dani." He groaned. "I'm going to be in so much trouble at school for this one. Never going to live it down, guys, I swear."
Penny laughed at him, swinging her chair around as she put a hand on Danny's shoulder, with Terrence moving onto the bed next to him and copying her. "Don't worry, Dan," she said with a grin. "We're your friends. You'll never have to worry about social issues with us. Ain't that right, Terr?"
"Mhm," the blond confirmed cheerfully. "Couldn't be righter if you were ninety degrees."
The lame pun just earned him a round of boisterous laughter from the group, and Danny ended up wiping a tear from the corner of his eyes — either from the laughter or from a feeling of gratitude towards the group. "Thanks, guys. I'm glad to know I can count on you lot," he said with a chuckle.
The next day, Danny walked into homeroom, nursing a red cheek and holding an amulet in his hands up to Penny, Terrence and Dani with a thumbs up, smiling despite the pain he was feeling on the left of his face. As he sank into his seat, the black-haired teen shot first his twin, then Terrence and finally Penny, a small, self-satisfied grin and a wink. "Done," he said, leaning forward so that Terrence, in the seat next to him, and Dani and Penny, in the seats to their front, could hear him.
Dani frowned. "She slapped you?" the girl asked, receiving a shrug from her older brother.
"Worth it to get it back," he assured his friends. "And I think I learned something from this whole thing," he confided as Mr Lancer entered the classroom. "It's not worth it to be popular, and the dance just isn't worth it." He paused. "Sorry, Terrence," he added sheepishly.
Terrence slapped him on the back in a friendly manner, flashing him a grin. "Don't worry about it!" he chirped. "I'll show Val a good time and I won't touch her, promise!"
Dani smiled, turning her chair around to face her brother and friends. "You know," she suggested mischievously, "dad's still going to be chaperoning. How about we tag along and cause some mayhem for the A-listers behind the scenes?" She grinned, her blue eyes twinkling as ideas began to swirl in her mind clearly visible to anyone who knew her well. "We can have a good time anyway, you know?"
The older Fenton twin grinned, his blue eyes instantly sharing the same glint. "Yeah," he said. "That'd be nice.
Penny chuckled. "You guys have fun. I'll get you lot some souvenirs from China," she said cheerfully.
"Mr and Miss Fenton, Miss Hadley, Mister Morris, may I have your attention?" Mr Lancer cut in, pinning the quartet with a stern glance.
"Sorry, Mr Lancer," Danny said, sitting straight in his seat with an easy smile. His reputation was ruined for now, but this was high school. His friends always had his back, after all.
You all may notice that I did change the ending of the chapter from the original episode. This is because of differences in the two Dannys, one from canon and mine, as well as in the manner the amulet exchange was done. It was a really obvious play to get someone to go with him to a dance with my version of Danny, so he's able to retract the gift fairly 'easily' as well. The quotation marks are there because he did likely get slapped or humiliated in public.
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