Disclaimer: I do NOT own the show Danny Phantom, nor any of its characters. But I am the designer of the older version of Danielle that inspired this whole thing.
In this chapter, Danielle has a few encounters with Dash. I know in the show he seems older than Danny in comparing their heights and stuff and I've read some stories that say that he should have graduated by the time this story takes place. But if you look at the character biographies on the Nickelodeon website, they're actually in the same grade. Anyway. On with the story. Let's see how Danielle's adjusting to her new life with the Fentons.
Chapter 18: Old and New Rivalries
Monday morning came and Danielle woke up long before her set alarm clock even rang. It was the morning of her first day of enrollment at Casper High School with Danny. She had been both nervous as well as excited about this event and she just didn't know what to expect. She supposed she would find out soon, though.
Danielle was just too anxious to get back to sleep before another hour and a half had gone by, when her alarm clock would actually go off. She got to the school before any of the other Fentons were even up. She felt that it would be a good idea to get familiar with where her classes were so she didn't get lost and possibly be late for one of them when school actually came to be in session.
The newly adopted Fenton had been to this school once before when spying on Danny for Vlad, but during the three years of her existence, she had never actually had the kind of education her cousins were getting. While she had been going around traveling, she had frequently visited libraries in her human form to do her own research. Not only on ghost studies, but on some school subjects that she may have been interested in. Her favorite location to visit was the Library of Congress itself in Washington DC. There, she had read up on enough to be in the proper grade for her age. Some classes she was actually able to advance far enough to be at Danny's level of education. In that regard, they would even have some of the same classes together.
This thought always excited her, but the clone of the ghost-hero was still unsure of how this arrangement with her living with the Fentons would work out. So far, a weekend with them had proven to be quite enjoyable, though she still felt a bit awkward to call their house her own.
As the female Phantom phased through the doors of the school (since they were still locked, as it was still quite early), she started to feel nervous about how many new people she would probably meet today. They would eventually find out that she was the new Phantom that had been helping Danny with the several ghost attacks since his return and she wasn't exactly looking forward to that. It wouldn't be as easy for her to hide the fact that she was half ghost either, since she looked so much like Danny in her ghost mode and he was already revealed. In fact, people would probably just start guessing once they found out that she was Danny's cousin.
But maybe she was just worrying too much. After all, the explanations with Danny's family went much better than she thought. Perhaps these new introductions wouldn't go so bad either. Like Danny had said to her back in the cabin at Camp Skull and Crossbones, no one would even have to know that she was a clone.
Eventually, As Danielle started to feel familiar with the layout of the school, more students started to gradually arrive in the halls and she realized that it would soon be time for her first class. She got to her locker, which she had organized earlier, and got the right books, keeping an eye out for Danny or even Sam or Tucker. Unfortunately, she didn't see them at all before her first class started.
The new Fenton, of course, had to introduce herself in her first class, being the new student, but she just gave her first name. Thankfully, no one asked for her last, which they would have used to make the connection that she had ghost powers. The first class went by fine, but she still felt she would be better off if she at least saw one familiar face.
As she walked through the halls after the bell rang, she did see a face she recognized. However, not exactly one she was looking forward to seeing: A big and muscular, blond boy with a red and white letter-jacket, blue jeans and white tennis shoes was picking on a nerdy looking redhead kid with glasses.
Dash Baxter. (As she had remembered Danny say his name was.) She recognized the blond jock from the first time she was at the school. She knew Danny wasn't exactly fond of him at the time and from what she was seeing, she was starting to understand why.
A foreign looking boy who was similarly dressed as Dash was helping him roughen up the redhead and threatened to stuff the geek into his locker unless he handed over his lunch money.
Danielle stopped in the hall and watched a distance away as the poor, frightened kid fumbled in his pockets and extracted his whole wallet for them. As soon as it was in Dash's hands, however, the other jock kid pushed him into the locker anyway. The two bullies started laughing as if they had just done something funny. When they started walking away, looking quite snobbish and leaving the poor redhead stuck in the locker, Danielle stood defiantly in their path, glaring at them in disgust.
The letter-jacketed boys stopped in seeing the young girl in the hall in front of them. After looking confused for a millisecond, Dash raised his eyebrows in a flirting way at Danielle. His friend looked at her in the same manner. "Well." The blond one began, using his hand to smooth back his hair. "The name's Baxter. Dash Baxter." He said.
The foreign student then cleared his throat loudly.
"Oh, yeah. And this is Kwan." Dash said in remembrance.
Kwan rolled his eyes, apparently in annoyance that Dash didn't give him a cool introduction like he had done with himself.
The blond jock then bent down to Danielle's face level as if examining her better. "I don't think I've seen a pretty face like yours around here before."
Danielle narrowed her eyes at him. "Yeah. Well, I've seen you before, and I know you're a jerk." She responded bitterly. "Now get out of my face and let that kid out of the locker. And give him back his money."
"Ooh. Feisty." Kwan commented and Dash straightened up again before he added, "But…Nah." It was as if her demand was a mere suggestion. "Dash and I can think of loads of stuff we could do with this." He indicated the stolen wallet as Dash pocketed it in his jacket. They both winked at Danielle as they walked right by her.
As they passed, the female hybrid slyly turned her hand intangible and phased the wallet right from Dash's person. The two jocks didn't suspect a thing as they disappeared into a nearby classroom.
Danielle went over to the locker she saw the nerd get shoved in and glanced around, making sure no one was looking. Then, she turned her hand intangible again, as well as invisible, and secretly reached inside the metal door, unlocking it from the inside. The locker swung open and the boy crammed inside it suddenly tumbled out.
"Here you go." Danielle said to him as she helped him up and handed back his wallet. "Just make sure they don't see that you have it back." Then she walked away, leaving the boy staring after her in thanks but still puzzled.
Danielle headed to her own locker to get the necessary materials for her next class. As soon as she closed the door to it, she jumped in seeing two girls who had approached her from behind the then open locker door. One had long, wavy black hair, pulled back with pink barrettes that matched the color of her shirt that exposed her midriff. She also wore light blue capris and white shoes. The other girl was a blond with orange barrettes that resembled small flowers in her hair and she wore a white shirt with orange lining the edges of it. She wore red capris with it and white shoes that were similar to the first girl's.
"Why hello." The black-haired girl said to Danielle with a smile. She spoke with just a hint of a Hispanic accent in her voice. "You must be new here."
"Is it that obvious?" Danielle said, a bit shyly.
The blond girl answered this question. "Well you're definitely someone I've never seen before."
"I'm Paullina." The girl with the pink shirt said. "This is my friend, Starr." She indicated the blond girl next to her, who raised her hand a bit in response.
"Danielle." The young hybrid simply said in introduction and smiled back as pleasantly as possible.
"Nice to meet you, Danielle." Paullina responded.
This girl seemed nice enough, but Danielle was a bit confused. She had seen these same girls just before school started and they never bothered to approach her before. Why now?
"Hey, do you need help finding your next class or anything?" Paullina continued.
"Nah. I'm sure I can manage." Danielle shook her head politely. "Even if I do have any trouble, my cousin goes to this school. I'm sure he'll be able to help me out."
"Well, okay then." Starr said with a shrug. "But if you ever do need to get somewhere and your cousin's not around, don't hesitate to give us a holler."
Danielle grinned in appreciation and started down the hall to her next class. The two girls walked on either side of her and Paullina started speaking again. "You know Danielle, that thing where you picked Dash's pocket to get that kid's wallet back was pretty impressive. He didn't even seem to know that you did it."
Danielle stopped in mid-step at hearing this. The two girls walked on a few more steps before turning back around to look at her, wondering why she had halted so suddenly.
"You saw that?" The ghost girl asked, nervously.
"Oh, yeah." Starr nodded. "Not sure how you did it, but it was totally stellar. So was the way you got that geek kid out of his locker."
Danielle felt slightly relieved that they didn't seem to notice how she had used her ghost powers to do those things, but she was starting to get a bad feeling about these two girls, despite their friendly approach. Why would they be interested in her slight-of-hand skills and the ability to open a locker that was not her own?
"In fact, on that regard, we were wondering if you could do us a favor." Paullina said.
When Danielle asked her what it was, she leaned in closer to whisper and pointed further down the hall.
"See that girl over there? The Goth with the boots and grotesque makeup?"
Danielle looked where Paullina was indicating and realized that she was pointing at Sam who had arrived at her locker a distance away. "What about her?" The clone asked, as her uncertainties grew stronger about the two girls.
"Well, as you can plainly see, she has the look of someone dark and mysterious: Like someone up to mischief." Paullina said in a low voice. "She's pocketed some of her own stolen money from me and Starr."
With this, Danielle's suspicions were confirmed. She may not know Sam very well, but since she was a life-long friend of Danny's, she knew that there was no way the Goth would do something like that. Danny would never have befriended her otherwise.
"I don't see anything wrong with the way she looks." Danielle casually replied with a shrug, not showing that she in fact knew Sam.
"Are you kidding?" The black-haired girl said, sounding rather offended by the very suggestion. "Just look at her. She's a disgrace to anything fashionable with her simple want to stand out like a sore thumb. And she's also guilty of theft from innocent fellow students, like me."
Paullina indicated herself with such puffery that Danielle cocked an eyebrow at the way she clearly thought herself to be superior to anyone else.
"We just wanted to teach her a lesson." Paullina continued. "If you could snag some of her cash for us, we can use it to get her some proper attire that she can use in the stead of that junk she always wears."
Danielle glanced back at Sam who seemed to be out of earshot and then glanced between Paullina and Starr. "If you want to be so nice, why don't you just use your own money?" Danielle asked the preppy girl. "Stealing hers will only make you just as bad as those two bullies I had to deal with back there." She jerked her head in the direction down the hall where she had met Dash and Kwon earlier.
Paullina seemed to be getting impatient and folded her arms. "You just stole from the popular boy." She said with an excuse.
"To return the thing he stole to the right person." Danielle argued.
"Well, that girl stole from us." Paullina interjected, nodding towards Sam.
Danielle was the only one who noticed that the Goth was now looking in their direction, when she asked Paullina, putting one hand on her hip with a smirk, "How do you know?"
When Paullina didn't answer, Starr cut in with a sweeter-sounding tone. "We could get you some barrettes too." She suggested, trying to pull Danielle's long bangs out of her face with her fingers. "A girl who dresses as nice as you shouldn't have to hide behind her own hair."
Danielle just scoffed and jerked her head away from Starr's hand before all three girls heard a voice behind them.
"Danielle?" It said.
They all turned around to see Danny Fenton had come up behind them.
As soon as Paullina saw the famed ghost-hero, she started to stare at him dreamily. Then her expression changed when she realized that the boy had just said Danielle's name.
"Danny! Hi!" Danielle waved to him excitedly and hurried over to him.
Starr and Paullina stared after her, obviously in bewilderment at how the two greeted each other like long lost friends.
"What's up, cuz?" Danny asked with a laugh as he gave Danielle a side-squeeze. "I didn't see you all morning. I thought you might have just taken off from town again without even saying goodbye."
"No, I just wanted to get familiar with the school before classes started." The hybrid clone responded. "Didn't you see my note?"
Danny rubbed his head in thought for a second before answering. "I thought I saw something on the table, but I didn't get to read it before I left."
"Wait a minute." Paullina interrupted.
Both ghost-powered kids turned, seeing that both Paullina and Starr looked quite shocked. Paullina especially looked twice as stunned as her blond friend and was pointing between the two cousins with her mouth hanging slightly open.
"You mean…Danny's your cousin?" She asked Danielle in astonishment when the connection seemed to finally click in seeing the resemblance before her. "The famous ghost-boy is your cousin?"
Danielle nodded in confirmation. "Mm-hmm. And that Goth girl you so happen to hate so much…"
"…Is his girlfriend." A voice finished.
The two popular girls spun around to find that Sam Manson had snuck up behind them the way Danny had. The Goth walked between the girls to move by Danny's side.
Paullina gritted her teeth at Sam with a look of absolute loathing as she saw the two put their arms around each other's waists.
Danielle couldn't stop smiling at Paullina's reaction before she spoke. "Yeah. So about that offer, I'm afraid I'm going to have to respectfully decline." She told the two snobs. "Besides. I like my hair this way." She tossed her dark, ponytailed hair back as she finished her statement.
Now Paullina gave the new Casper High student a bit of a glare before turning to the blond. "Perfect." She said, sounding very frustrated indeed. "A girl that actually has style ends up being a friend of the loser Goth."
Ignoring the fact that both Sam and Danielle were right in front of them, listening to every word, Paullina stomped off in the opposite direction. Starr followed in step behind her, taking one last disappointed look at Danielle as she went.
"What was that all about?" Danny asked with a bit of a laugh and turning to his female clone.
After Danielle gave him and Sam a quick story of how the two preppy girls had seen her encounter with Dash and asked if she could steal from Sam for them, Danny just shook his head with a scoff and Sam rolled her eyes.
"Figures." They both remarked in unison.
All three then started walking down the hall together (Danny and Sam having their hands linked) as the eighteen-year-old ghost-hero explained to Danielle how he had once had a crush on Paullina even though she and Sam had been enemies since they first made eye-contact. Paullina had always been disrespectful to the less popular kids in the school: Particularly Danny Fenton, and his two closest friends. Ironically, the head cheerleader just so happened to have a crush on Danny Phantom. After Danny had revealed himself to be the ghost-hero, Paullina suddenly took an even stronger fancy to him as either a ghost or a human. However, with that came an even stronger loathing for Sam, since she and Danny had by now taken their already powerful friendship to another level.
"Great." Danielle said with a bit of a sigh after they had finished. "My first day of school and I think I've now made her list."
Danny scoffed at this. "Oh, trust me. Anyone who disagrees with Paullina is on her list."
"But I bet I'm near the top of it, now that she knows I'm on your side." Danielle replied.
"Hey don't be taking all the credit. She was my enemy first." Sam said, playfully punching Danielle's arm. "I think she'll still have me as the number one. Besides. It's not like she'll be able to do anything about it, seeing as you have ghost-powers and she doesn't."
This cheered up Danielle a bit, but she felt that Paullina would only be the first of other girls who might be jealous of Sam. Danny's enemies were slowly becoming her own over the past few days and the same would probably happen with Sam's competitors.
Aside from the run-ins with Danny's old rivalries, Danielle did have a pleasant first day of school. She had her math class with Danny who took the pleasure of introducing her to Mr. Felucca, the stout little teacher with gray and balding hair and glasses who was quite friendly. He introduced her to the rest of the class before he started the lesson and let her sit next to her older cousin.
English with Mr. Lancer, the tall and yet, out of shape teacher in addition to vice-principle, with absolutely no hair except for on his chin, was a bit of a different story. This educator was Danny's least favorite teacher when he was just starting high school. He was always the hardest to deal with when it came to being late for class because of some ghost dilemma that the ghost-boy could never really talk about before the Disasteroid. After Danny's secret was out, explaining why he had been absent more than once, Mr. Lancer became a bit more tolerant. However, he still preferred the rules to be followed. The English teacher sometimes had Danny stay after school to make up for the time he missed on the days he had been late because of ghost-fighting duties. The thing was, sometimes the makeup time had to be missed as well because of another ghost attack Danny had to tend to.
Danielle was a bit nervous around Mr. Lancer when she and Danny approached him, but he greeted her in the same pleasant fashion as Mr. Felucca, being impressed that her skills in his taught subject had progressed two full years beyond the normal educational level of her age. In addition, there were no ghost attacks during school hours for the next week, making things a bit easier for the both of the cousins. The message of Danny's return seemed to have had a much better effect than they had hoped.
Miss Tetslaff was another tough teacher that the two cousins had together for gym class. This army martial of an instructor just took one glance at Danielle when she first saw her and scoffed at her small and skinny figure, thinking she probably wouldn't even make it through the first twenty minutes of the class. Before the first class was up, though, Danielle was able to prove quite capable. Miss Tetslaff worked her students hard, but both Danny and Danielle had had plenty of practice in aerobic exercises with the ghost fights they had done in the last three years. Both felt it was their duty to stay strong and prepared for anything whether they were ghost or human, especially after Danny had gotten his reputation as the famed ghost-hero. Danielle's abilities of a natural gymnast earned her the respect of even this huge and brawny woman that most students feared.
Out of respect for Danielle's want to keep a low profile for the time being, Danny, as well as the teachers, were discreet enough to not be so open in revealing the fact that Danielle was the same ghost-girl who was found fighting alongside Danny Phantom lately. Though, Danielle had no doubt that others were starting to suspect already. People were always coming by to talk to Danny, being the hero celebrity that he was. Sam was also getting a bit of attention since her return from being suddenly snatched from the school by a ghost who was working for an escaped fugitive. Tucker also got his share in attention in being taken by the same ghost from City Hall, in addition to the fact that he was the mayor of Amity Park. (Danny sometimes wondered how Tucker was able to even come to school anymore with his duties as the elected leader of the city.)
Since Danielle was almost always in the company of these three, people started to give curious glances at her as well. Before the first week of school was up, she had met several people that Danny was acquainted with, both on good and bad terms.
There was one time where a gang of senior boys, who were just passing by, decided to have a bit of "fun" with the new girl. While she was alone out in the schoolyard, they started literally pushing her around. The snatched her backpack away from her, curious as to what kinds of things she kept in it besides books.
Danny had seen this happening from nearby and was starting over to assist Danielle when she was trying to reclaim her book bag from the leader of the punks, who had raised it above his head, out of her reach.
In pure frustration, Danielle tried to punch him, but he stopped her fist in his palm before it hit its intended target.
"You hit like a girl." He mocked as she struggled for the release of her hand.
This was when she really got fed up and she glared at him with glowing green eyes and charged a plasma ray in her caught fist. The release of green energy suddenly blew him back against the brick wall of the school and made him drop her bag.
"Why, thank you." Danielle said in her own mocking way. The other gang members stared at her, uncertain of what had just happened as she took back her school bag.
"Ha ha! A lesson for losers like you guys." Said Danny, as he arrived at the scene he just saw his clone handle quite nicely on her own. "Don't mess with my little cousin. You'll pay for it."
The boys looked fearfully between the two Fenton cousins before the leader scrambled to his feet and they all backed away slowly at first before suddenly taking off.
Though Danielle didn't have any more problems with those boys, they seemed to have spread rumors about her being the new ghost-powered girl. By the second week, Lance Thunder's article about Danny's temporary absence from the town and his return with a female look-alike had also been published in the newspaper. Theories increased in numbers that the new Phantom was in fact going to Casper High. Danielle couldn't help but notice more and more people giving her inquisitive looks as she walked through the halls of the school, accompanied by Danny or not. Though this wasn't unexpected, Danielle was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable with the people who were constantly glancing in her direction.
Jazz had come by one day to check how the newly adopted Fenton was doing when one of the classes at her university was canceled for the day. The college girl was able to hear out her cousin's concerns and gave her reassurance that Danny had a hard time adjusting to the people who were always looking at him too. In fact, after two years of it, she still didn't think he was quite used to it yet. Danielle found Jazz quite easy to talk with as the days went on and felt grateful that she could have the support she used to always give Danny. Sometimes she wondered if it was just because Danny had requested it of Jazz to make sure she felt more welcome as a new member of the Fenton family.
On Thursday of Danielle's second week, during lunchtime, the inevitable came when several students suddenly came screaming from the hall and bursting through the doors of the cafeteria. Both Phantoms' ghost-senses went off as some of the kids came rushing to the table that Danny and his friends were sitting at with the ghost-clone.
"Danny! In the hall! More ghosts coming this way!" one of the kids shouted, panic-stricken.
Everyone within earshot started screaming in fright and running in all directions to take cover.
"If this school is always getting haunted, why hasn't anyone put in an alarm or something?" Danielle asked, standing up from her seat as well.
"Everyone screaming practically is the alarm." Danny stated. He started running towards the double-doors to the hall, but stopped, realizing that Danielle had not moved. "Aren't you coming?" He asked her.
Danielle bit her lower lip in hesitation and looked around nervously at the many students who were now watching and waiting for Danny to jump into action.
Sam and Tucker looked around at everyone too, knowing what Danny's cousin was thinking. "They're going to find out sooner or later." Tucker said to Danielle with a shrug. "You may as well get it over with."
When Sam nodded in agreement, Danielle let out a heavy sigh but gave Danny a readying look. Then she ran with him to head to the scene of the commotion.
Some of the students started staring after her, confused as to why the new sophomore girl was heading with the ghost-hero to a battle as if she was going to join in.
"Going Ghost!" came Danny's battle cry before he slid to a halt on the tile floor in the hall.
"So am I." Danielle said in the same tone as Danny as she slid to a stop the same way he did. Then, at the same time, the familiar white ring of light appeared around their waists and transformed them into their Phantom forms.
As soon as it was complete, every student within range had their mouths hanging open and their eyes wide in speechless surprise (Or telling off their neighbors that their theories about the new girl had been correct).
Both Phantoms took off through the halls until they came across more students who were running to get away from the ghosts that were coming towards them. "Everybody duck!" Danny called out.
The students dove to the floor, covering their heads as the Phantom cousins fired green plasma rays above them, shooting back the ghosts that were chasing them.
Despite the abnormally large size of the green specters, the two Phantoms were able to handle them quite well with a few other united tactics. Danny gave Danielle the honor of finishing it. She used her ecto-boost to speed passed the ghosts who tried to flee when seeing that they were overpowered. Once she was in front of them, she shot one of them with a plasma ray from her fist, knocking it towards Danny who had a Fenton Thermos out and then she did a crescent-kick that sent of a wave of green energy at the second, blowing it back and, like its counterpart, got sucked into the Thermos.
Danny screwed the lid on and everyone in the hall cheered at the Phantoms' success. Both changed back to their human appearances and by the time they had made their way back to the cafeteria, practically the whole school had crowded around them, mostly looking at Danielle in wondering awe. At this time, Danny introduced Danielle properly as the second Danny Phantom mentioned in Lance Thunder's article and putting in the fact that his return was possible because of her.
"Sweet!" Dash Baxter said from nearby after Danny had finished the introduction of his little cousin.
Danielle wanted to hide behind Danny as the students started closing in on them even more, asking several questions at once, like where she had come from, how long she was staying, how long she had her powers, and why Danny had never mentioned her before. Things only settled down when Principle Ishyama and some of the teachers, including Mr. Lancer, told the students to clear off and get back to their lunch break, finally giving the two Phantoms some space. It still didn't stop a few students from at least shaking Danielle's hand in welcoming her as the new student of Casper High after the crowd had died down.
Dash later approached the table the two hybrid cousins were sitting at with Tucker and Sam. "I was wondering what happened to that wallet until today." He said, to Danielle. "Pity I don't have the spare cash anymore to take you out on a date." He made himself sound as solemn and disappointed as possible as he said this. Then he smoothed his hair back and looked at her dreamily.
Danielle cocked an eyebrow, getting a bit frustrated by this action. "Um. Danny? Is this guy hitting on me?" She asked, turning to her fellow hybrid, even though she already knew the answer.
Danny looked up at Dash in sarcastic consideration and nodded his head. "Yeah, I think he is, Danielle."
The clone girl then (Sam noticed) eyed the football star evilly and fired a thin ecto-ray from her finger at his face.
"Yow!" Dash cried out, as the small green blast hit him right on the nose, making him take a step backwards from the non-harmful but still unexpected sting.
Danielle fired another blast from her eyes and made his just smoothed out hair suddenly stand up in all directions, making it a total disaster.
Everyone in the cafeteria suddenly burst into laughter at the sight, including Tucker, who actually fell out of his seat and started rolling on the floor in doing so.
Once Dash realized what was so funny, he hurriedly tried to fix his hair and looked at Danny as if asking for help.
"Don't look at me, Dash." Danny said, raising his hand defensively and shrugging. "Just because my sister's now out of your reach doesn't mean you can start flirting with my cousin. Especially if she can give you a makeover like that."
Danielle now started giggling at this comment and everyone continued to laugh as Dash hurried out of the cafeteria with his hands covering his messed up hair.
The only one who wasn't amused from this sight of the tough, muscular, kid having his own fun getting backfired on him for once, was Sam. She was looking at Danielle uncertainly at what she had just done.
Dash may have always been a jerk, especially to Danny, but that was before he had saved the world. The popular and normally good-looking football player had laid off in teasing Danny and his friends when he learned that the runt had actually been helping him as well as the rest of the school, despite what he had done to him. So had just about everyone else who had ever picked on Danny or any of his friends. (Though Dash still tried to find opportunities to beat other kids down once in a while.)
This may have been a bit hypocritical of Sam to think, considering her relationship with Paullina, but though Dash may have been getting on Danielle's nerves and she no longer had to worry about keeping her identity a secret, was it really necessary to humiliate even the old school bully like that?
This took quite a bit of work to arrange and I still feel It's a bit scrambled up. It's really only to help lead up to a part I've been planning out already. But with Danielle's encounters with Paullina and Dash, I hope you guys felt it was worthwhile. If there's anything you feel can be written a bit better, please let me know.