A/N: So, here I am, back with part two!
Summary:Thisis where the fun starts. 'Nuff said.
~oOo~
The next day at school…
Mr. Lancer stared, fuming at the students who were crowding around Miss Sanchez's desk. They were being rowdy, not at all like the model students that he dreamed of having. Model students don't become pains in the behind. Model students don't scream at the top of their lungs to some person sitting on the opposite side of the room. And model students especially don't cause class to start late!
Mr. Lancer couldn't even think about starting class until he got them quieted down, because they were being way too loud, and way too disruptive. Chat, chat, chat, that was all they ever did, and they never stopped. Any intelligent thoughts of school or work or anything productive were pushed to the back of their little minds for them to come back to sometime later, whenever it was convenient for them. And it was about to drive Mr. Lancer crazy.
But one even more grating voice rose above the rest.
"… And I was all like, 'I love you! I'm your biggest phan!' And then he was like, 'I love you, too! We deserve each other!' and then… He kissed me! And… And then he signed my diary!" Some doubting grumbles from Paulina's peers followed that comment, but a few people were staring wide-eyed at the book that was lying open on her desk.
Mr. Lancer rolled his eyes in disgust. Going just by the way Paulina was acting and by the unusual stutter in her voice, he could tell that it was all some lie that she had fabricated right on the spot. But, judging by the plethora of students hunched over a book on her desk, she did appear to have some sort of an autograph present.
Mr. Lancer stole a glance at the clock on the back wall of the classroom.
8:07.
They were already starting class late.
"People!" He tried yelling over the chatter of excited students, "Please go to your seats!" No one listened to him. He tried again, this time standing up out of his chair to give the appearance of being in more control. "Class is about to start! To your seats, now!"
They all ignored him. Everyone was too busy looking at that stupid - probably fake - signature. The only kids who were staying at their desk despite the events were Miss Mason, Mr. Foley, and Miss Grey, who were all sitting with their arms crossed and with bored looks on their faces. Mr. Fenton, one of their dear friends, was nowhere to be seen. Naturally.
"The Jungle, people! It's time for class to start!" Nothing, not one little comment seemed to get through their thick skulls. Mr. Lancer, despite the doubtful chances, tried one more time to get their attention. "I hope you all have studied for that quiz!" Once again, everyone in the class ignored him.
Mr. Lancer huffed. This was completely unacceptable behavior. He was the teacher, for heaven's sake! They should be paying attention tohim, or at least to their schoolwork, and not idolizing over some annoying ghost's signature. He didn't quite get why everyone was so obsessive over this ghost, anyway.
Well, sure, he was one of the only benevolent ghosts out there that they knew of, and he had saved the town multiple times, but Mr. Lancer still didn't understand it! It just wasn't right! Phantom wasn't technically even human! So why were they idolizing him, slaving over his signature? Besides, it was unhealthy for kids to obsess over things. That fact was proven multiple times at the Ember concert just a few months ago. Oh, how the children had fawned over her…
Mr. Lancer cringed and shook his head, trying to rid it of that disturbing memory. But with that specific image in mind, he finally marched over to the huddle, approaching the direct source of the disruption.
"Miss Sanchez?" He asked expectantly, but Paulina continued to ramble off the next part of her story.
"…And then he lifted me off of my feet! Like, he actually did, 'cause he can fly. And we flew off into the sunset, and-"
"Miss Sanchez," He stated more firmly.
"…And he took me to his ghost lair, and then…" She paused mid-sentence and looked up at her teacher, "Yes, Mr. Lancer?" Her smile was sweet, but her voice was dripping with venom that clearly showed how annoyed she was for him having interrupted her very interesting story.
Mr. Lancer held out his hand in the internationally know gesture of 'give it to me'.
"The book. Let me see it."
"What?"
"Can I see your journal, please?" He asked in a more direct yet impatient manner.
"Oh, right, yes!" Paulina lit up immediately, and she lifted her diary up to his face so Mr. Lancer could get a clear view. "It has Danny Phantom's autograph in it, see?" She pointed at an amateur-looking scribble of a signature. Even when he squinted, Mr. Lancer could just barely make out the famous specter's name before it was whisked away, back into Paulet's hugging grip. "Do you want to know how I got it?" She was practically jumping up and down in her seat from the excitement.
"No, I do not." Mr. Lancer answered smartly, snatching the diary out of her arms and completely ignoring her new whining protests.
"Hey, Lancer, that's mine!" She yelled, standing up quickly in shock.
"Not anymore, Miss Sanchez. I've been waiting patiently for class to start, and that diary of yours is just too distracting to the other students!"
He held the diary up as he spoke, giving his comment something to refer to. This action let Paulina get a good, long, tempting look at it. After staring at it in silence for only a few seconds, she tried to grab it from him. Mr. Lancer pulled the booklet back just in time.
"This'll just have to stay will me until sometime later, when everything has calmed down," He stated matter-of-factly.
"But Mr. Lancer-!"
"Don't 'But Mr. Lancer-!' me, Miss Sanchez!" He hissed, "Whining will only make me keep your journal for an even longer amount of time. Right now, it is mine until school is out for the day."
Paulina was practically in tears. But they were fake tears that were probably just an act to get Mr. Lancer to feel sympathy for her. He had been a teacher long enough to know all of those girl's little tricks. He had played along with them too many times before, but enough was enough.
"But, Mr. Lancer, please?"
"That's another twelve hours added," He smirked, "If I were you, I would stop."
"Pretty,pretty plea-?"
The door of the room burst open loudly, cutting off Paulina's plea, and in sprinted an exhausted-looking Danny. A few kids looked up at him, Sam and Tucker especially. He then proceeded to make his presence even more apparent by banging the door loudly behind him. Danny stood panting with sweat pouring down his tired face, his hands resting on his knees. He looked like he had just gotten run over at a drag race.
"Sorry," pant, "Mr. Lancer," pant, "that I'm late…" pant, "Again."
The entire room went quiet. Even the chatty kids who were discussing Paulina's bad luck with Mr. Lancer stopped to look at the rag-tag state that Danny was in.
Oblivious to the attention that he was drawing, Danny wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his shirt collar and leaned against the door, spending more time catching his breath. And before Mr. Lancer could say anything about the tardy, the teacher was put to silence by the mere appearance of his most disappointing student.
Danny's shirt was ripped and tattered in many places, with dirt and grime making it nauseatingly filthy. His pants were covered with mud from mid-calf down. Danny's hair was covered by an unknown substance that suspiciously looked like glow-in-the-dark boogies. He held his worn, dirt-caked, use-to-be purple backpack by one of the straps and let it dangle to the floor.
The boy himself looked completely terrible. Mr. Lancer, by this time in the year, was use to the daily sight of Danny looking exhausted at best, but this was somehow different. The bags under his eyes were obviously darker, and his eyes weren't focusing on things like they should. It seemed like he had gotten only a few hours of sleep in the past week, maybe even less, which was definitely doing nothing positive to his already disintegrating health. Danny looked like he was about to sink to the floor and fall asleep right there in the middle of class. His eyes were closing, and his breathing was slowing down…
"Mr. Fenton!" The teacher finally barked out, pulling Danny back to reality, "To your seat! Everyone else, sit down as well. Class is about to start!"
As the boy made his way by Mr. Lancer on the way to his desk, the teacher grabbed Danny by an arm and pulled him aside.
"Mr. Fenton... Are you alright?" He asked, for once sounding truly sincerely.
Danny nodded, seeming not fully awake. "Hmm, yeah. I'm fine. Just, you know, really tired..."He was slowly inching his way towards his desk, desperate to get away from the teacher's prying eyes. Mr. Lancer grabbed his arm again and looked him straight on.
"I think I need to send you to the nurse, Mr. Fenton. Just this once, though."
"Naw, no need. I'm fine," He nodded again, but this nod seemed more like he was trying to convince himself rather than Mr. Lancer, "Really. I'm just... tired. And I tripped down the stairs in front of the school, and... Yeah. It probably looks worse than it actually is."
With that last comment, Danny continued walking to his desk. Mr. Lancer didn't try to stop him. He decided, for once, to excuse the tardy. Besides, it's not like he interrupted a lesson. If anyone should be getting a detention, it's Miss Sanchez. But, then again, sheisa popular…
~oOo~
Danny's PoV…
"So, how much did I miss?" Danny whispered hoarsely as he slid into his desk.
"Nothing much," Sam replied just as quietly, keeping watch on the lecturing Mr. Lancer, "Only the Witch bragging about how 'Phantom signed her diary!' Seriously, Danny, why did you do that?" She had asked simply, but there was a threatening tone somewhere in her voice.
"They mobbed me yesterday," A yawn escaped his mouth, "I didn't just signher diary. Almost every single freakin' person in Amity Park bombarded me, wanting me to sign something or another! I must've signed about three hundred different things. Some things I even signed twice because their owners got back in line. My hand stillhurts from writing my 'name' down so much." He cradled his aching wrist, which just emphasized his point. "It stank."
"I bet," Tucker sighed, not really wanting to imagine what his friend must've gone through. He quickly changed the subject. "So, what made you late?"
"Was it Skulker and one of his lame attempt to make you some sort of mount on his wall?" Guessed the Goth.
"Nope, surprisingly," Danny laid his head on his desk and started closing his eyes, "I caught him earlier last night, as well as the Box Ghost, so don't ask about either of them. It was actually Cujo." Danny ran his hand stressfully through his disheveled hair and winced once his fingers touched the gooey substance. He lowered his hand eye-level to examined the dog slobber and sighed. "... And now I need to wash up between classes, too. Great."
"Cujo? He's the one who tore you up?" Sam asked, having been told the unexpected. "I thought he liked you!"
"But he wanted a treat, and I didn't have a treat, and that made himreally mad, so…" He yawned again, "There's that."
"Dude, you look awful," Tucker pointed out. Danny responded by re-positioning his head in between his crossed arms on his desk to block out all light. "You really need to get some sleep. I mean, you're usually tired, but this is way beyond tired. You look utterly horrible!"
"Uh… That's nice," Danny hummed. After a few second, a loud snore came from the general direction of his exhaling body.
~oOo~
About a minute later…
"Mr. Fenton?"
"Hmmm…?"
"Mr. Fenton!"
Danny's head jerked up suddenly at the sound of his name.
"Huh where's the ghost?" He slurred almost incoherently, as he was still half asleep. The class laughed at him, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Thinking about falling asleep in my class again, Mr. Fenton?" The teacher asked slyly. He didn't respond, save for the un-focusing and re-focusing of his eyes. Danny blinked groggily a few times when Mr. Lancer waved a piece of paper in front of his face.
"What's that?" He asked as he disorientedly grabbed the paper out of Mr. Lancer's hand.
"This is your quiz, Mr. Fenton. The one that you are about to take, in case you forgot about it. You know, the one over The Lord of the Flies?"
At these words, Danny seemed to become at least partially alert.
"Oh, um, right. That test over… that book..." He trailed off, eyes focusing again.
Crud! I haven't even started to read it yet!He slowly looked over the test in his hand, not even attempting to understand what the questions were about. He tried as best as he could to keep panic off of his face, for Mr. Lancer's sake.
"And I would suggest that you get started on it sometime in the next decade, Mr. Fenton. There are only twenty-five minutes left in class."
"Right."
And with just that answer, Mr. Lancer strolled away. Danny sighed in relief and turned his attention towards the impending quiz.
Danny wanted so badly to take a nap. He had to practically hold his eyelids open just to stay awake. He wiped away some slobber - his own, this time - from his desk before blearily setting down the paper. Danny wrote his name and the date at the top, and then read the first question.
1.) What does the character Ralph symbolize that is in our society?
No idea. Danny thought over what he knew about the book, which wasn't much, so he eventually just had to make something up. He jotted his answer down on the lines provided.
2.) What does 'the Beastie' symbolize?
Danny rubbed his eyes, left that question blank, and moved on to the next one.
This was how he went through the entire quiz. Danny didn't know the answer to any of the questions, and more than half of them were left unanswered. The rest of them were guesses that were more than likely wrong. He fell asleep a few more times, but was always elbowed awake by Sam just in the nick of time. But, eventually the bell rang, and an unsatisfied, still-exhausted Danny was left to turn in a failing test.
~oOo~
Later that day…
Once again, Mr. Lancer was stuck at school grading papers until the late hours of the day. Already, it was a quarter past seven. It was getting dark outside, and he wanted nothing more than to pack up and go home for the night. But after spending all afternoon grading that stupid quiz, the work was finally starting to pay off. Mr. Lancer only had about four more quizzes left to grade, and would be at home enjoying a nice cup of tea before the hour was over.
Mr. Lancer picked up the next quiz from the ungraded stack, and he could tell immediately whose quiz it was. Yes, judging by the sloppy handwriting, the half-answered questions, and the lack of writing in general on the sheet, this quiz was most definitely the work of Mr. Fenton.
The balding teacher sighed. Most of the time, Danny just seemed like the typical slacker student, but sometimes he got the strangest feeling that Danny actually wastrying. And he always looked so disappointed in himself when Mr. Lancer handed back a terrible grade. But with the grades he was getting, the teacher couldn't imagine that was the case. Here, Danny had turned in an incomplete test that couldn't possibly earn him more than a 50%. Mr. Lancer didn't quite understand it.
But just as a step of extra precaution, or, more accurately, the response to habit, Mr. Lancer glanced at the top of the page just to see if it truly was Mr. Fenton's test in his hand. That's when he stopped dead in his tracks, and actually had to do a double-check and a triple-take to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating. But he wasn't hallucinating, which was just absurd!
Mr. Lancer stared at the sheet in silence, trying to see past the trick. Because it had to be a trick! It couldn't be real! For the quiz, surprisingly enough, wasn't Mr. Fenton's.
It was Mr. Phantom's.
~oOo~
A/N:That wasn't what you expected, was it? You justcouldn'thave guessed that outcome… Right?*Gasp*Or are you all psychic?*Gives readers suspicious glare* I honestly don't know how I uncovered this plot bunny. It must've been knocking around up here for ages!*Bangs side of head a few times.*
And thanks to EVERYONE who reviewed my story! I LOVE YOU AND I SHOWER YOU WITH COOKIES! Your choice of flavor! YAY!
Disclaimer: I don't own.
And thanks to my Beta Reader, sapphireswimming!