Chapter 8: Fool The Whole World

"So how're you feeling, dude?"

Danny shrugged at Tucker as he closed his locker, not even bothering to look at either of his friends. "I dunno. Kinda nervous, but not really? If that makes sense?"

Sam hummed from his other side. "Everything should be okay. Principal Ishiyama promised, and so did Lancer, right?"

"Yup," he confirmed, straightening his backpack. "But still. I guess I am a little worried that people will, y'know, figure it out."

"Dude, don't." Tucker clapped him on the shoulder, grinning widely. "They haven't figured it out before, and they won't do it now either."

Sam nodded. "Right. If anything, life will be easier for you, now that your parents know and the teachers kinda know."

"Yeah," Danny sighed. "I guess so. Let's just get to English before Lancer gets worried or something."

Right at that moment the bell rung, and the three of them quickly made their way to the English classroom. Mr. Lancer was already inside, sharing a knowing glance with Danny when he entered. Danny nodded, once, before making his way to his seat in the back of the room.

Within minutes the rest of the classroom filled up as well, the rest of the class chattering loudly. Too many people were talking at once for Danny to tell what the conversations were about, but he could guess. The holidays, Easter, gossip.

And, oh yeah. The police investigation regarding his corpse. Still a common topic among the rumors of Casper High.

Mr. Lancer closed the door, coming to a halt in front of his desk. The expression on his face made it clear that he was hoping that the class would quiet down on its own. Yeah, like that would ever happen.

Instead the man cleared his throat, momentarily catching the attention of the class. He glared around, ensuring that the silence would last a little longer. "Please, kids. I know you want to talk with your friends and catch up after the holidays, but you can wait until lunch to do so."

The students remained silent for a few moments longer, as if processing what their teacher told them.

And then they completely ignored the man in favor of continuing their previous conversations.

Ah, the beauty of high school. Danny was glad that, despite everything that had changed during the last week or so, some things remained the same as always.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Mr. Lancer didn't feel the same way. His expression had darkened, a frown on his face and his arms crossed in front of him. He was casting his eyes around the classroom, clearly taking in the chaos of the students ignoring him. Danny waved when the teacher looked his way, and Sam and Tucker next to him also remained silent and focused on the teacher. They appeared to be the only ones, however.

Finally Mr. Lancer gave up, slamming his hand against the desk he was standing next to.

"Heart of Darkness people, will you just keep quiet!" The sudden shout had done an excellent job of quieting down the class, as everyone sat frozen in their seats, looking at the teacher. He looked around the class, straightening out his tie with a somewhat sheepish expression his face.

"Ah, yes. Thank you." He looked around the class once more. "I see that you are all still a little out of it after the break, so perhaps we should ease into our schoolwork, yes? Why don't we start with a discussion about recent news? Anything particular we could use?"

"Uhm," Mikey spoke up from the front of the classroom. "Maybe we could talk about the body the police found in the woods?"

"Yeah! Didn't the police release an official statement about that this morning?" Nathan agreed, nodding energetically.

Mr. Lancer frowned, apparently hesitant about taking up the topic. Maybe he was trying to avoid it for Danny? If that was the case, Danny definitely appreciated the attempt.

Sadly, Lancer couldn't come up with a reason to deny Mikey's suggestion. The man sighed before nodding at the student. "Yes, I suppose that would work. Let's start by summarizing the known facts." He turned towards Dash, gesturing at the boy. "Mr. Baxter?"

The boy in question jerked to attention, eyes flicking towards Mr. Lancer. Danny had to repress his chuckles at seeing that Dash hadn't heard anything. "I, uh…"

Lancer rolled his eyes and sighed. "Ms. Sanchez, could you summarize the facts for us, please?"

"Of course," Paulina chirped, putting down the nail file she was holding. "Not that we have many facts confirmed for us. We've known for a while that a body was found in the woods. And earlier this morning, the police officially announced that they have solved the case, but they refuse to give out details." She clicked her tongue, disapprovingly. "Something about respecting the victim and the family, or whatever."

Lancer heaved another sigh, but nodded at her. "Yes, thank you. Now that we know the facts-" Lancer continued speaking, but Danny tuned him out thanks to years of practice.

This was going to be a long day.

Danny had been wrong. It wasn't just a long day, more like a long week. The never-ending rumors about the body found in the woods hadn't let up, and the new statement given by the police had just rekindled the fires.

And, of course, this made the students of Casper High surprisingly sharp. Only his years of experience at keeping his secret had prevented the school from figuring him out. He made sure to double (and triple) check his environment every time he used his powers, and only transformed into Phantom in closets and empty bathrooms.

Unfortunately, while Danny had become quite skilled at keeping his secrets, well, secret, the same thing couldn't be said of his teachers. Because, as much as he appreciated them going easy on him, it was also quite obvious.

Well, obvious to the sharp eyes of Casper High's re-awakened rumor mill, at least.

Naturally, the other students had no problem taking the changed behavior and running with it. Before Danny knew it, rumors about him being a ghost had started circulating, spreading like wildfire.

And he was powerless to stop it.

Really, the only thing he could do was ignore it. Pretend that nothing had changed, in the hopes that it would blow over.

It was dangerous, he knew. Sure, right now they were just high school rumors. But if they kept up, if he in any way suggested that there was a truth to the rumors… Well, eventually the wrong people would find out. And if anyone with any actual power tested him…

Well, he was sure that they would be able to figure out that he was only half ghost. And from there… labs, experimentation, finding out what makes him tick… and how to replicate it. His accident.

Making more human-ghost hybrids.

No, that wasn't something he could risk. But there was nothing he could do, not now. If he did anything, reacted in any way to the rumors, he would only feed them.

So he could only listen to the rumors as they spread, and try not to do anything to suggest them to be true.

The body that had been found in the woods had been an interesting subject for gossip for a while now, inspiring curiosity among the entire population of Amity Park. And, as the queen of gossip, Paulina had to know every theory, every possibility, and, as proven earlier, every fact.

After the press statement on Monday morning, people had started suggesting that the victim had become a ghost, and that they were still present in the city.

It would make sense, Paulina decided, to withhold information about the case if the victim was still around. And, based on that information, the victim was likely still pretending to be alive. Blending in with the living, at least.

The people in charge would've been told. If the victim was a child, or a teenager, like people thought, teachers would've been told for sure.

And with all these new possibilities, people had started paying more attention to their surroundings. People acting out, things that didn't quite make sense.

Which, of course, led to people noticing Danny Fenton.

Sure, the boy had always been different. An outcast, spending most of his high school career outside the classroom, either running late or simply running off. His grades were poor as well, although Paulina had to admit hers weren't much better either.

But now, after the break, something about Fenton had changed. Not him, nothing about his appearance.

No, what had changed was how the teachers behaved around him.

Fenton was always late, always running off, never finished his homework. And the teachers hated him for it. They scolded him, gave him detention, they tried everything to stop the boy from misbehaving.

But now, suddenly, they were nice to him again.

Sure, most of them were clearly peeved when Fenton ran off or was late. But they weren't nearly as hard on him as before the break.

And when they thought no one was looking (or sometimes even if there were), the teachers looked… sad, for lack of a better word. Like something about Fenton upset the teachers, but in a different way than before.

Combined with the new rumors that there was a ghost living among the people… Well, it was easy to connect the dots for the gossipers of Casper High.

Paulina wasn't sure who started the rumors, but quite honestly, she doesn't care. She doesn't care about the fact that she might be spreading hurtful gossip either.

No, all that mattered to her was that this was a delightful story, and Paulina was more than happy to do her job spreading it.

After all, little Danny Fenton, a ghost? His parents were ghost hunters! What a beautiful contradiction, a fantastic irony.

Paulina didn't hold very high opinions of the adult Fentons. Nor of the children, but that was something else entirely.

No, the two ghost hunting Fentons were clearly not in their right minds. Even if they were right about ghosts, they always targeted Phantom! Her ghost-boy, who wouldn't hurt a single human!

And as for the matter of Danny's death… Well, she wouldn't consider it impossible if the parents had been responsible, somehow. Maybe not on purpose, but…

Well, maybe on purpose. Perhaps catching a ghost turned out to be so difficult that they just made one.

Maybe… Maybe Danny had been the first ghost in Amity. Maybe that was why Phantom always seemed to follow him. Her ghost-boy was just looking out for his fellow ghost.

It could even be tradition, for ghosts! To look out for younger ghosts, like a parent over a child.

She thought that that would be perfectly in-character for her beautiful Phantom. To protect a ghost from his own ghost-hunting parents.

Yes, that seemed right. That is what she would spread. Her influence on these rumors, her own twist.

At first, Dash thought that the new rumors were kinda funny. Like, "haha, the freaky ghost hunters' kid is a ghost" funny.

But then he listened to some of the other kids debate and argue, and, well. They raised some excellent points.

He had thought that it was a joke. But maybe, maybe, there was a truth to the rumors.

And that unnerved him in a way he couldn't explain. Not just because of his poor grades, because he didn't have the words for it. No, he couldn't explain it because it was something visceral. A feeling beyond description, beyond words.

Because if Fenton was a ghost, what did that mean for Dash? If Fenton was a ghost, something must've killed him, right? And Dash… Dash bullied the kid a lot. Almost constantly, really. And for the stupidest reasons.

Fenton had never seemed suicidal to Dash, sure. But Dash had also never considered the possibility that Fenton had, at some point, died. And now, watching the boy react to Dash's threats… He could imagine missing it. The reactions weren't quite genuine, like Fenton had seen worse.

And Dash had never noticed until now. So, sure, he could've missed Fenton going suicidal as well. Hell, he could have easily missed the entire arc, from the kid feeling suicidal to ending it and then coming back, without ever picking up on it.

But Dash refused to believe it to be the truth. No matter how convincing the arguments of some of the smarter kids were, how much sense it would make. Because Fenton couldn't be dead. Not really.

Dash couldn't- Dash refused to consider it. Because if Fenton was dead, he could've been the reason for it. And that surely wasn't the case. He was a bully, sure. But it was just harmless fun. A few bruises at worst.

Not this. Not death.

So, sure. He played along, laughed with the others. But he refused to believe it to the truth. Even if Fenton was always pretty cold to the touch.

Even if Fenton sometimes got out of his locker way faster than humanly possible. As if the boy could just phase out of it.

Even if Fenton could somehow stuff Dash's locker with toilet paper without ever opening the locker.

Or being seen.

No. Dash refused to believe it. Fenton wasn't a ghost, and he wasn't dead.

Dash was sure of it.

Danny was freaking out.

Well, Sam thought to herself, bitterly. When is he not freaking out, these days? But she couldn't blame him. Life had been beyond stressful for Danny ever since he became half-ghost. And the whole business with the police finding his body and assuming that he was a full ghost… Well, it was a whole mess.

And now, when things were finally starting to look up, life had kicked him down again. Finally things had been fixed, the police weren't on his ass anymore, his parents knew and accepted him, and even the teachers would be going easy on him.

But unfortunately, Casper High's rumor mill had done a scarily accurate job of targeting Danny. Because they thought that he was a ghost, that it was his body that had been found in the woods.

And god, they were right. They didn't know it yet, didn't have any actual proof. But they didn't have to to freak out Danny. And the more stressed out he became, the more his inner turmoil was fed… The easier it was for him to slip up, to miss something obvious.

To give their fellow students the one final clue they needed.

Sam dreaded it too, of course. She needed her best friend to stay safe, to stay out of trouble. But there was nothing she could do to prevent this situation.

Except…

Except maybe it wasn't all bad. Sure, she wouldn't promote the idea of Danny being a ghost… But maybe it would have some upsides.

Yes. This could work. This was something she could do, a way for her to support Danny.

But, just to be sure, she should talk to Tucker about it. And Jazz, if the girl wasn't too busy with college at the moment.

Sam smiled to herself. Finally, finally, she had a way to help Danny through this mess.

And help him she would.

Title from "Hope Of Morning" by Icon For Hire. We're officially past the half-way mark, both in chapters and in word count. Also the shortest chapter (if we're not counting the first one) in all of Disinterred. And that's after all the padding I've added. This chapter also kept fighting me - I guess it was too vague in my planning? Just wanted the rumors to start building + how people would respond to that, but I didn't bother thinking of any details. It feels kind of... idk, lackluster? disjointed? to me. That having been said, writing from Paulina's and Dash' perspectives was fun, and I do like their bits. Plus there's a lot of setting up for the future which is always good.

Anyway I don't usually respond to reviews on this site bc... idk how; PMs seem too direct/personal and I feel weird sticking them in the author notes? But Nozomi Higurashi asked about Wes Weston last chapter - and no, I have no intentions of including Wes in this fic (or... any of my fics, really). I feel like the actual canon cast is good enough, although Wes is a pretty neat characters - he's just not a character I really need to include for my storylines. Even here in Disinterred, I've already referred to Amity Park's rumor mill (and Casper High's especially) as a very efficient machine. As you might've noticed in this chapter, they really don't need anybody special to weasel out the truth; or what they think is the truth.

Next week: Chapter 9 - But Now I Tell A Single Truth