Happy Dance! HAPPY DANCE! I passed the 10 review mark! Or at least hit it anyway. Sweet.
So this chapter is a little swear-happy, and you find them everywhere. I don't think Danny's really one to curse, but I'm sure even a couple priests would crack a few good ones if they were in his situation, so there you go. A warning. BAD WORDS ABOUND!
This chapter was probably my favorite one to write, at least in the beginning. Things got really out of character at the end, so I apologize. There's a big chance that I'm going to change my mind about the end of this chapter later on, but for now it's going to stick. Sorry, I don't like it much either.
One more thing; this chapter got a little out of hand, and I stuffed, like, fifty more plot points in here accidentally, so the plot's a bit different. This was supposed to be an entirely humorous chapter, and it was supposed to cover the entire first day, but, you know, stuff happens. No biggie.
Disclaimer: Hiya! My name's Disclaimer, Clay for short, and I absolutely love everything! Even you! My favorite color is pink, and since there's not a lot of it in Danny Phantom, I decided to let Butch Hartman keep his stupid show! The only cool person on the entire thing is Paulina, and she barely gets any air time! Anyways, I absolutely LOVE everything! LOVE everything! LOVE everything! LOVE everyth-
/brick'd/
/Sajoli appears, tossing another brick in her hand/ Now that's out of the way (and possibly concussed), on with the show!
"Ohhh, fuck," Danny whispered.
At that moment, a family plus one too many appeared in the door. "Danny, are you all right?" they chorused.
"FINE!" he screamed, pushing the covers in front of him. He caught his breath, but still looked a tad panicky. "Abso-friggin-lutely fine! I mean, why wouldn't I be fine? It's not like anything really, really bad happened and I think I'm a bigger freak than I was yesterday! I'm fine!" He started hyperventilating. "So fine, in fact, that I'm going to go get ready for the day with a bright and happy smile on my face!" He attempted a grin. It would have scared the pants off anyone.
Jack and Vlad had drawn back, surprised and scared. I think Vlad peed his pants, I'm not sure.
Maddie and Jazz remained in the doorway, a little bit afraid his head was going to start doing 360's, but otherwise fine. "Danny?" Jazz questioned, automatically going into 'Concerned Female' mode. She remembered reading somewhere that a lot of pressure after sleep could drive someone insane. "Are you… okay?"
Danny drew back farther into his cocoon of bed-sheets. "Didn't I just say I was fine?" Another creepy grin flashed nervously. "Really, really fine. So fine, I'm happy about going to school today, and can't wait to get ready to go."
"…Danny, it's a Saturday," Maddie reminded him. There was a rather obvious 'If-you-don't-tell-me-what's-going-on-right-this-instant-I'm-going-to-strap-you-down-to-a-table-and-spin-you-around-and-around-and-around' tone in her voice.
"Then I'm even finer! I can't wait to get out of bed and start the day like a completely normal person who is not a freak in anyway and is really just perfectly fine! I'm going to get out of bed right now, in fact, and begin my perfectly normal, perfectly non-freaky, perfectly fine day!" He remained where he was.
There was an awkward silence.
"LEAVE!!!" Danny roared, sending the two women and men scurrying.
'Deep breaths, man, deep breaths,' he ordered himself, taking short, jerky breaths. 'This is nothing you can't handle. You handled being half-ghost just fine, you handled… handled… okay, so you didn't handle a lot of things too well. But you're still going to be perfectly fine!
'Take one more big, deep breath,' Danny managed to choke on the air, 'and get out of bed.' Shaking, he pulled himself up with his bedpost. He could see red in his peripheral vision, as though someone had been bleeding on his bed. 'Moving on, just grab your clothes and walk to the shower.' He accidentally fazed through his clothes before picking them up, and then walked into a wall. 'That's it, you can do it, just put one foot in front of the other, and soon you'll be walking into the bathroom.'
He latched the bathroom door, safely locking himself away from the world. 'Okay, good. You're doing real good, man. Now you need to take a shower. Take your clothes off.' Danny fazed them off. 'Okay, that works perfectly fine, too. Now go take a shower.'
Danny complied, turning on the hot water. As he was climbing in, he spied a glimpse of his back in the mirror.
'DON'T LOOK IN THE MIRROR!' he thought frantically, but it was too late.
Small knobs covered in red gook sprang from his shoulder blades, dripping blood onto the clean white tiles. They contrasted sharply against his pale skin, little rivulets of crimson trailing down his back like veins.
Danny sucked in a sharp breath.
"Ohhh, fuck," he repeated.
'It's not that bad!' his inner side protested frantically. 'Just two little bumps! You can handle that fine, can't you?' Danny shook his head mutely. 'Yes you can! You'll be perfectly fine! Just take a shower and clean… yourself up, and we'll figure out what to do after that.'
(SC)
Blankly observing his brand-new wings in the mirror, Danny wondered when life was going to stop screwing him.
But back to the wings. Now that they were clean and dry, he could see them as they were supposed to be. Soft grey down covered them, few feathers actually sitting straight. He absentmindedly smoothed them out, but they sprang right back up, like his messy hair. He guessed they were about a foot long if they were stretched to their fullest. There were three joints: one ball-and-socket joint, close to where his back transitioned smoothly into feathers, and two hinge joints, respectably set three quarters and half-way down the wing. He could also move them easily, as though he had had them his entire life, which was an altogether freaky experience.
"Time to be normal," he said cheerily, whistling "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as he grabbed a knife that had popped up out of nowhere. He aimed it towards his wings, ready to cut them off, and damn the consequences.
'What? Wait! No! Don't do that!'
"And why not?" he said aloud merrily. He poked a wing, producing a small blood flow.
'Because… Because… Because that's self-mutilation! You can get sued for that! Probably!'
"Don't care!" Another poke, and the other wing started bleeding.
'But doesn't that hurt?'
Danny paused. It did hurt.
'It does, doesn't it?' The blade wavered in his hand. 'That's just as bad as slitting your wrists! You're hurting yourself, and for what? A chance to feel normal? You haven't been normal since the day you were born! Doing this isn't going to change anything!' Danny dropped the knife and slid to the floor. 'Good, man. You did good. Now dress those wounds and yourself. We've got a long day ahead of us.'
(SC)
Jazz supposed her little brother was hiding something. Of course, she always thought someone was repressing the truth in some way or form, so that wasn't any different from normal. But still, today Danny had been… weird.
Speaking of her little brother, he was coming down the stairs right now. There was a carefully constructed look on his face, giving nothing away. He was wearing about six layers of shirts. Could he be hiding something? No, of course not. Just a coincidence.
Maddie spoke first. "Danny, what are you wearing?" she said cautiously, standing at the stove while she cooked an omelet.
"One undershirt, one green long-sleeved shirt, my regular shirt, a dark blue sweater, a black sweatshirt, and a light blue vest," he said smoothly, sinking into a chair next to Vlad. Vlad edged away cautiously, closer to a frightened Jack.
Jazz smirked. It wasn't everyday one saw Vlad Masters scared shitless of a lanky teen.
"But why?" his mother pestered, flipping the omelet onto a plate. She placed it in front of Danny. He stared at it apathetically.
Then he pushed it away, looking at his hands in faux-interest. "I'm not that hungry," he muttered. He swept himself up, surprisingly elegant in his many layers. "I'm going out for today," he excused himself. He gracefully brushed past the rest of the group, and was out the door before anyone could stop him.
The door slammed, echoing dispassionately throughout the house.
Jazz held her breath, waiting for the blow to fall.
"What's going on with Danny?" Maddie spun on her, glaring accusatorily. "You know him better than any of us. What secret is he keeping from us now? Is he half-peanut or something?"
"Mom," she protested shakily, "I'm just as clueless as you are."
"Jazz," Jack warned. "You can't really expect to keep his secrets from us any longer. You know we know who he is, and we're proud of him. But now he's not telling us anything."
Vlad choked on his orange juice. "You know," he sputtered nervously, "this is actually a family moment, and I really should leave you three to talk it out." He inched out of his seat and towards the front door. "Now, if you'll excuse me--"
"Vlad, stay here," Jack commanded, not taking his eyes off his daughter's face for one moment. "You are apparently a big part of this."
"But really," he flustered, still shaken from Danny's oddness this morning and therefore less calculating than usual, "I should lea--"
"Stay. Here," Maddie hissed. "What you have done to my son already is unacceptable, and you have obviously done something more to him this morning."
"No, really, it's not--"
"I found blood!" she shrieked, whirling around to face the rather apprehending billionaire. "I found blood on his bed sheets! Now whose fault is that?"
"Um, Mom?" Jazz whispered. She didn't even turn to look at her daughter, just stared, unblinking, at Vlad. "I don't think he knows anything. Danny's probably just fine."
"What about the blood?" Jack rumbled darkly, showing a different side of him, one that would kill for his family. Vlad shrank back.
"I don't know," Jazz replied softly. "I'm sure we could get him to tell us. But for now, I think everyone here needs to talk about their place in this."
She rose to her feet, standing tall in the midst of the adults. "Now, I believe Vlad should begin."
All eyes turned toward the rich man, petrified and unsure in this situation, so unlike his normal smarmy and conniving self. He gulped.
He wasn't going to get out of this one in one piece, he could tell, with the way his former friends were acting.
He hitched on a rather uncertain smile, a mere shadow of its previous confidence, and began his tale.