Okay, so I got carried away and made this chapter a bit longer than usual.
Told from Valerie's POV because I'm in a Valerie mood
For those that read the first part already, I added more after the break. For everyone else, enjoy the read!
Curse this stupid school and their stupid rules. Who on Earth decided a student teaching a class full of people their own age was a smart idea? Especially this class? I wasn't upset about being the new Ghost Defense teacher, but I wasn't exactly fond of teachingthis group of kids.
Dash and Kwan were hitting on Paulina and Starr: don't know why Kwan was hitting on Starr when they were already in a relationship.
Remember what Fenton told you. I had asked Danny for advice on how he dealt with this crowd yesterday. His mom told him "Positive things happen to positive people." So long as I stayed optimistic, I'd get through this like it was a ghost fight.
The only thing that made looking at them even remotely bearable was Danny sitting directly behind them.
In my head, Danny was giving me courage, awakening the dormant bravery that only ghost sightings could ever evoke in me.
Seeing his face almost made me forget how much I hated my former friends, and Phantom. Phantom had ruined my life. He destroyed everything my dad and I owned. And then my friends cut me out because I wasn't rich anymore. Danny was the only one to be there in my time of need. Well, him and Tucker, but he was just trying to make a move on me. He doesn't count.
"All right, y'all, listen up! I'm the woman in charge here. You wanna goof off, fine, but it's your chatterbox against my ectogun, so one way or another, this room's about to get real quite," I threatened as I changed into my red ghost hunting suit.
Unfortunately, the verbal attack was enough to shut them up. You could hear Tetslaff and Ishiyama playing chess three rooms down the hall. I could see through the edge of my eye that Lancer was impressed. I changed back and started teaching the class what the instruction manual Vlad gave me said.
"The basic building blocks of ghosts are different from those of humans, which is why human objects, such as this book, or even bullets from a gun, would go right through them," I started. "that's why we have these ecto-weapons. Their ammo is a special anti-ghost plasma, making it as lethal to them as guns and arrows are to us, if fired at the right organ."
While I was teaching them about ghost anatomy, I couldn't help but let the question of how half-ghosts like Dani and Vlad worked occupy the back of my mind. I almost didn't notice Dash interrupt my from the back of the room.
"You're like a ghost. I didn't even see you there" He was talking about Danny behind him.
"I am a ghost."
I was too shocked at Danny's response to reprimand the A-Listers for talking over me. "Danny, that's not something you should take as a compliment."
Ghosts ruin lives. The only good ghost is Dani, and only because part of her is still human. Danny more than anyone should know that being called a ghost was an insult, having grown up in a family of ghost hunters. I remembered that time the Fentons thought their daughter, Jazz, was a ghost. As long as that assumption was in the air, Jazz went through nothing but pain, suffering, and humiliation.
"But he's right, Danny continued. "I can even turn invisible and shot green beams of energy out of my hands."
Kwan bursted into laughter at that. "HAHAHA Fenton's got a sense of humor! Who knew?"
Even Starr was chuckling a little, though she was trying to hide it. Danny turned to his friends Sam and Tucker, almost saying "I told you so."
He was smirking. He only smirks when he likes what he hears: when his trick or trap worked. Was he hoping for Dash and Kwan to dismiss his remarks as nothing more than a joke? What if he was telling the truth?
"I wonder why they made her teach this ghost class," Sam started. "It's not like she has any real ghost fighting experience." Sam's tone was oozing mockery.
What's going on, here? Does she know my secret? What's with Danny? Danny started chuckling, but suppressed it once he noticed my glare. It freaked me out that Tucker seemed to be the most normal of the trio.
"Yeah, Danny Phantom could be in this class right now. No one would be able to do anything about it without Danny's ghost hunting weapons!"
Okay, I take that back. Tucker was plenty annoying.
"Tucker, so not helping the situation," murmured Danny. A dozen needles danced across my forehead. I didn't understand how Danny was able to do this for 20 straight days. That's it! Danny!
"Hey, Danny! Come up here! I need you for a demonstration."
"I need you to play the part of Phantom."
Sam and Tucker started snickering, much to Danny's dismay.
"You're no ghost hunter," Danny started. "You couldn't catch a cold if it... rang the door bell?"
The entire class burst out in laughter. Too bad they were laughing at Danny and not his witty banter. It earned a genuine chuckle out of me, though.
Danny clenched his fists and lounged at me, trying to land a weak punch. I dodged and flipped him onto the ground. I hoped Mr. Lancer was okay that I was turning his classroom into a dojo.
His exclaiming "Phantom of the Opera" disproved that hope real quick.
"That punch might save you when you're up against a Box Ghost or two, but you're gonna have to be a little more aggressive than that against me. Why not use that fabled intangibility, or those 'green beams of energy`you were talking about?'"
"I'm not actually going to hurt you," Danny said after a moment enduring the back pain from being thrown into the floor.
I smiled, letting out a short breath through my nose. "That makes one of us."
When Lancer called my house asking me to do the job, I agreed because I couldn't imagine it being much worse than my old job as the Nasty Burger mascot. Come the start of class, my opinion had completely turned around. I thought this class was going to be the death of me, but you know what? Danny made this class worthwhile.
"Indeed it does," yelled a voice from out the window. Almost on cue, metal screens ran down all the windows and the announcers blared "CODE EMERALD. CODE EMERALD. CODE EMERALD." A couple "CODE EMERALD"s later, the sound of metal hitting window sills echoed across the school.
"Code Emerald? Is that different from a Code Green?"
"Code Emerald means 'ghost attack'," Danny told Kwan, taking out his Fenton Thermos.
"Do you always carry that thing with you?"
"Only every Tuesday and Thursday."
I joined Danny's and Kwan's conversation. "Where was that silver tongue earlier?"
"Why can't all monsters just leave us alone? We never did anything to them." Starr was having a minor panic attack, and I couldn't blame her.
Up until two weeks ago, ghosts were the bane of my existence. Danny Phantom and his dog destroyed my home and took away my father's job. He's been nothing more than an ectoplasmic blob of misfortune and a pain in the thermos for the Gray family. But meeting Dani made me realize that ghosts can be just as humane as... well, humans, and meeting Vlad made me realize humans can be just as rotten as ghosts.
"Hey, not all ghosts are monsters," I defended. "Just having powers doesn't make you a monster. That doesn't happen until you start acting the part."
"Wow, Val. I didn't know you were a phanatic, too." the only think missing from Dash's attempt to rekindle our friendship were sparkles.
"Yeah, I am." Dani Phantom. Maybe Danny Phantom wasn't that bad a guy after all, and I was just letting my past feelings getting in the way, but I figured I'd save that internal monologue for another day. "I'm still mad at you guys for leaving me to rot when my life was in pieces."
A few minutes later, the ghost came phasing through the reinforced door. "BEWARE! I AM THE BOX GHOST! THESE METAL RECTANGLES CANNOT CONTAIN MY FURY!"
Speak of the devil. While everyone else was hiding under their desks, Danny walked up to the ghost.
"Are you the one that's been terrorizing this school today," he asked.
"BUT OF COURSE! WHO ELSE COULD CAUSE THIS BIG OF AN UPROAR?" You could hear crickets off in the distance.
"He does have a point." Danny turned to Sam and Tucker, who were giggling, the only two students in the class calmly sitting in their seats.
The ghost raised his arm, palm facing a pile of boxes in the corner of the room, and poltergeisted it into Danny's face. Danny dodged all of them like he'd done this a million times and slid across the floor, stopping behind the ghost.
"Show's over, folks," said Danny as he uncapped his thermos. A blast of wind and a cyan beam encapsulated the ghost as he shrank and was sucked into the thermos.
The class erupted into applause: a good change from the laughter Danny was subject to earlier.
"You know, you make a pretty good Phantom," I joked, propping Danny up off the floor. "Make sure I don't catch you in that mock-Phantom jumpsuit you have when I'm patrolling the area. I just might kill you!"
Danny just looked back at Sam and Tucker, then looked down at the floor, almost to say "Too late for that."
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