Act Two: Glimmers of …

Scene Two: Invisibility

Danny did his homework with his friends that night. Tucker helped him with his math homework, and Sam helped Danny read the second act of Romeo and Juliet. Now three weeks into his Freshman year at Casper High, Danny was already drowning in his math class, and he'd never been crazy about Shakespeare. Luckily his friends helped make up for his weaknesses. He always did better when he studied with his friends.

The next day Danny felt delightfully normal. He slept well, didn't wake up outside of his bed, and didn't fall through the stairs on his way down to breakfast. While Danny wasn't ready to dismiss the odd symptoms of the last day and a half, he felt things were looking up.

In the kitchen he found his parents, poring over lab results while eating cereal. Maddie looked up. "Good morning, sweetie! Feeling better?"

Danny opened his mouth to reply in the affirmative, but his father beat him to it. "Danny!" Jack cheered, jumping up from his chair. "The Fenton Portal is an amazing success! Good work!" He clapped Danny on the back, making his son nearly stumble into the table.

"Oof!" Danny tried to catch his breath, offering a weak smile. "That's great," he managed.

"We've been able to get readings on ectoplasm like none recorded in history," Maddie declared. "I can't wait to send these results off to the Miami Ghost Convention Confederation!"

Danny poured himself some cereal. "Uh, that's awesome," he offered, before spilling his bowl across the counter when Jack slapped his back again.

"And it's all thanks to you, son! How'd you do it?"

Danny gathered his wits and the cereal, dumping the spillage into the trash can before trying again. "I didn't really do anything," he confessed. "I think I just pressed a switch or something."

"The switch inside the Portal," his mom mused. "We should have checked it first." The truth was, they had both been so disappointed to see it had failed that Mr. and Mrs. Fenton had gone upstairs to mope and pore over their blueprints for errors instead of checking the hardware, as they should have – a fact Danny had known.

"No matter; it's working now!" Jack boomed. He beamed at Danny. "Glad to hear you're feeling better."

Danny poured his milk and orange juice and sat down to eat. "Thanks, Dad." It was typical of his father to talk about the inventions before the people, but the whole idea of the Ghost Portal had been Jack's – something he had pursued for over two decades. I just wish I knew what it's done to me!

He ate in silence while his parents bickered over something regarding this or that result, his mind drifting to the misery of school that stretched before him. Mr. Lancer would probably dock points for late work, even though he had a legitimate excuse, and every Algebra class he missed spelled imminent disaster. He was so doomed …

His hand disappeared.

His spoon floated innocently in the air, filled with cereal and milk, but there was nothing visible holding up.

"Gyah!" Danny startled, and at the same time, the spoon fell into his bowl, even though he hadn't released his grip on it. Panicking, he cried out again when he fell backwards – right through his chair.

Danny was suddenly brought back to the present when, in the midst of wishing he could disappear, his hand actually ceased to exist.

Jack and Maddie both looked up in alarm to see their son on the floor, having apparently thrown himself out of his chair in fright. "What is it!?" Maddie cried.

"Was it a ghost!?" his father threw in.

Danny blinked up at both of them, uncomprehending for a moment, before jerking his hand up to stare at it. It was back to normal. "Um …" Wow, if he said he'd just seen his hand disappear – no, turn invisible – and his body had just magically passed through his chair, he'd sound nuts. "Yeah, it was a ghost," he stammered. "Just flew right through the kitchen."

"I knew it!" Jack crowed, and Maddie jumped up with him, just as excited. "Ghosts can come through the Portal! Maddie, we've got to install a door! I'm going to go find that ghost!" Jack pounded out of the kitchen.

Maddie started to run out after him. "Honey, don't forget the Fenton Bazooka!" Then she poked her head back into the kitchen. "You're all right, Danny?"

"I-I think so," Danny answered, picking himself up slowly as he relaxed from the scare. His parents hadn't seen a thing – something Danny wasn't sure was a good thing or not. If they saw, then maybe they could figure out what was wrong with him. If they didn't see, then Danny just sounded like he was crazy. "Just startled. I've never seen a ghost before."

"Neither have we!" his mother laughed. "Now hurry up and eat your cereal; don't be late for school!" She rushed off.

Danny glanced at the kitchen clock and realized suddenly that he was running late. "Yikes!" Strange incident forgotten, he charged up the stairs to collect his books, looking disturbingly like his father chasing the imaginary ghost.

&

On his way to school (on the ridiculously overcrowded bus – usually he walked, but when he was running late it was a different story), crammed next to Tucker (who was almost always running late), he remembered to tell his best friend since forever about this new incident. "It just keeps getting weirder," he confessed. "I'm sorta freaking out here."

"I'll bet you are," Tucker sympathized. "But you've gotta admit, it's kinda cool. You turned invisible, man!"

"Just my arm," Danny protested, "and on accident! What if that happens at school – or if I fall down the stairs again? Everyone'll laugh at me," he sighed.

"We won't," Tucker answered honestly. "Well, I might a little, but you know."

Danny smiled weakly. "Yeah." He and Tucker got laughs off each other on a regular basis, both intentional and unintentional, but most of their actual fights and hurt feelings were fleeting. "As long as Paulina doesn't see …"

"Yeah …" Tucker and Danny both zoned out in a cloud of hormones as they thought about the hottest girl in school, and remained mostly that way until they arrived at their daily prison.

Danny, unlike his sister, was never enthusiastic about school. He had been in elementary school, but who wasn't? Back then, homework was counting oranges. Now math had letters in it: obviously, it was meant to be a living hell. Every summer he was sorry to see the lazy days go.

Fortunately for Danny, he shared most of his periods with both Sam and Tucker, and his locker was near Tucker's as well. Sam met them at Danny's locker, looking unusually concerned but just as made up as ever in full Goth regalia. "Morning, boys. Let's see: smells like bus. Running late?"

"Slept in," Tucker explained.

"Parents," Danny sighed, getting an understanding nod from Sam. "They're thrilled about the Portal. I still haven't looked at it."

"It's not that exciting," Tucker snorted. "A bunch of green swirling stuff, that's all."

"Ectoplasm," Danny corrected absently. "Swirling ectoplasm. That's all the Ghost Zone is, practically." Or so his parents had been saying for years.

"Then it does lead to the Ghost Zone." Sam leaned against the lockers. "You doing okay, Danny? Anything weird happen?"

"He can turn invisible!" Tucker blurted before Danny could talk.

"Thank you, Tucker." Danny rolled his eyes. "And my arm disappeared this morning at breakfast, it was totally an accident, and then I fell through my chair. So this weird stuff isn't just gonna go away." He sounded as disappointed as he felt.

"Oh, it's too early to say that," Sam scoffed, but she sounded worried. "Who knows what'll happen in the next few weeks?"

"Oh, let's see …" Danny began sarcastically.

"He could die of ectoplasm poisoning," Tucker said with characteristic bluntness.

"Tucker!" Sam and Danny cried as one, both cringing. "I'm not gonna die," Danny added firmly. At least I hope not …

"He's gonna be fine," Sam stressed. She turned to Danny. "Look, the worst case scenario, the weird symptoms stay. So what? It makes you unique. Unique is good."

"Says the only Goth in the whole school," Danny smirked. Sam had fallen in love with the clothing style just about two years ago, and the trend had yet to die off. Her parents, whom Danny and Tucker had never seen much less met, were supposedly furious, which suited Sam just fine. Danny, for one, couldn't imagine living with his parents constantly angry at him.

"I'm not the only Goth, and so what if I was? Unique is good," Sam said again.

"If you say so," Danny sighed. He didn't want to be unique; he wanted to be popular. Then maybe he would have a chance with Paulina Sanchez, the hottest – and thus most popular – girl in the whole school, at least in the freshman class.

Speaking of which …

There she was, walking down the hallway, deep in conversation with Star and Valerie about the latest fashion trend. Her perfect black hair flowed down her back in perfect waves, setting off her perfect sea-green eyes perfectly, and her t-shirt and leggings fit her perfect body with clingy perfection.

Danny went into another hormone-induced trance, which meant that he didn't hear what Sam said next. And then his view was blocked – by the very large, very imposing torso of Dash Baxter.

Dash was a walking first for Casper High: the star quarterback of the varsity football team, and only in his freshman year. He looked the part; his parents had already bought him a letter jacket, and he was an imposing five feet eleven inches, with wide shoulders and huge muscles.

Danny was intimately familiar with the muscles part.

"Hey, Fentina, time for your daily wailing!" The bigger boy sneered, slamming one fist into an open palm.

Danny looked up with horror. This was nothing particularly new; it had started in fourth grade, really, but Dash hadn't been huge back then. He'd hit his growth spurt in eighth grade, and it had all been downhill for Danny from there, because for reasons that had once been incomprehensible but were now all too glaring, Danny was his favorite target.

He'd once wondered what horrible offense he'd committed to deserve this, but in the end it had come down to this: his parents were nutcases who believed in ghosts, and Danny was in pathetic physical shape. What wasn't to hit?

"Leave him alone, Dash," Sam snapped. Tucker was amazingly quiet – a self-preservation thing.

"Or what, you'll bore me to death with bad poetry?" Dash smirked. His gaze went back to Danny. "Hmm, your locker looks kinda empty today. Let's fill it up – with you!"

Danny had enough time to yelp before Dash was hauling him up by the shirt and shoving him face-first into his own locker. The door of the locker slammed shut behind him, and there was raucous laughter, followed directly by the late bell ringing. Danny groaned aloud, not so much hurt as humiliated; he was pretty sure he'd heard Paulina's laugh right there with the others.

"Oh, Danny." That was Sam's voice. "At least that'll teach you to not listen to me. You okay?"

"Other than my spirit being totally crushed? Yeah," Danny grumbled. Sam had already memorized his locker combination for such emergencies as this. "Lancer's gonna kill me."

"Us," Sam corrected. "Tucker's already covering for us, though." Which did explain why there wasn't any goofy commentary on the current situation.

"Well, there's that." Danny fidgeted, trying to lift one leg; if he only had a bit more space to move around in …

He felt an odd tingle in his back, and then he was falling backwards. "Gyah!" He fell to the floor, sprawled on his back, and staring up at Sam, who blinked down at him with wide eyes.

His locker door was still closed. "Great," Danny groaned, picking himself up with agonizing slowness. "Did you see that?"

"You falling through your locker door? Yeah." Sam offered a hand to help him to his feet. "You okay?"

"Other than the fact that what just happened isn't even humanly possible!? Yeah, I'm fine," Danny snapped. "This is weird! It's freaking me out!"

"Hey, at least it's useful," Sam smirked slightly. Danny gave her a withering glare, and her smirk faded. "Danny …"

"Yeah, yeah," Danny grumbled back, sighing. "I just wish I'd never stepped inside that Portal." He stomped off towards class, Sam following in his wake.

He never noticed the look on Sam's face at his words.

&

Danny was lucky enough to sit at the back of the class in Algebra. He hated getting called on for questions, and unless the teacher was feeling particularly vicious, he only called on students in the first three rows. Unfortunately, however, today was one of the days that he was feeling more malicious; Tucker warned him at lunch.

He hunched in his seat and wished he was somewhere else.

The teacher scanned the classroom as the last of the students trickled in. "... seems everyone is here except … Mr. Fenton. Hm. Has anyone seen him today?"

Danny sat up suddenly in his chair. Being present was awful, but if his parents heard he cut class it would be worse. "Here," he called.

The teacher looked bewildered, and looked right at Danny. Then his eyes scanned elsewhere, still searching.

Danny's eyes widened, and he glanced down at himself. He knew he was sitting, but there was nothing in his chair. He was well and truly invisible. Nonono, I've got to be here, turn visible, turn visible! With an imaginary pop, His body reappeared beneath him.

"Ah, Mr. Fenton, there you are. I didn't see you … somehow …" the teacher looked confused for a moment, but then he dismissed the occurrence out of hand and started the lesson.

Danny slumped in his seat again, his heart racing. Well, that wasn't completely random, he realized. I didn't want to be here, so I kind of … wasn't. It was slightly heartening to know that there was a reason for his random disappearances, but they shouldn't have been happening at all!

"And the answer is … Mr. Fenton?"

Danny lifted his head, cheeks burning. He didn't even know what question they were on. "I … I dunno …"

"Please, Mr. Fenton … if you're going to be present, at least try to put forth a little effort to listen," the teacher said dryly before moving on to another hapless student.

Danny buried his head in his arms. Who could concentrate on Algebra at a time like this?

&

And the cataloging continues:

--Danny was doing a reasonable job at school when he had his accident, so he wasn't skipping class and was trying hard.

--Dash loves picking on Danny in particular.

--Danny's parents have never seen a ghost.

--Jack knows, according to the teaser, that ghosts can come through the portal even though he's never seen one do so.

--Danny hates math, and is bad at it.

It's my personal canon that the Fentons made the Bazooka (which creates mini-Ghost Portals) before they finished the permanent Portal. There's no evidence to prove it.

Sorry, no preview for you today. Thank you to all who reviewed: StormDragonGirl, YumeTakato, Baka Hanyou Rahvin, Nonasuki-chan, Sweeteen19, Acosta perez jose Ramiro, Epona Harper, Sword on Fire, DandNsGirl, Linda, Henshi-anichan, Phillip Clark, and cordria. Thank you, everyone, you rock my socks!

Reviews loved and appreciated.