Hey, guys. I know it's been awhile since I last updated any of my stories, and I'm sorry about that. But my Mom hasn't gotten the internet up yet, And I've only been at Dad's a week. That, along with both my jobs... I just haven't had enough time to sit down at a computer and type, and the only times I can are from midnight till dad catches me and threatens to leave me in Europe this week. Oh yeah, I failed to mention the fact that I'M GOING TO THE FREAKING UK FOR A WEEK! How awesome is THAT? I'll try to work on my stories while I'm over there, though, and I'll try not to forget about you guys in my excitement. I've saved up 200 dollars for the trip, which is about what? somewhere around 160 pounds? I dunno. Okay, on to the story!

Unfortunate Circumstances
Chapter 6
Vegetarian BBQ and School

By: FirestarterX

"C'mon, Danny! It's just over this hill!" Sam ran just slightly ahead, her purple and black skirt blowing out behind her.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Not everyone is as athletic as you, ya know." He paused for a minute to catch his breath, hands on his knees. He glanced up to see that Sam had disappeared over the top of the hill. "Hey, wait up!"

He ran as quickly as he could to catch up to the beautiful goth. Not that he would ever admit how beautiful he thought she was to her face, as he still had some sense of self-preservation. When he reached the peak, he saw that Sam had spread a blanket out on the soft emerald grass. A basket was set on the edge of it, lid closed. He jogged down to join her, flopping down on the blanket beside her.

"Oh, wow. You didn't have to, Sam." She elbowed him in the gut, clearly annoyed at him.

"I didn't! Jazz called, and told me to bring you here. I assumed she would be here." She shrugged. Danny's stomach grumbled, making him reach out and open the basket.

"Never mind, then. Let's see what she packed, I'm starved." Sam rolled her eyes at this statement.

"What is it with boys and food?" Not bothering to explain it to her, he pulled out the items one by one. After he pulled the plates and utensils from the bottom, he pulled the aluminum foil off of each dish. This revealed a platter of sandwiches, a fresh salad, sliced apples, corn on the cob, nachos, and a custard pie. Last but not least, he lifted a pitcher of lemonade out of the basket.

"Aw, she forgot to pack any meat!" He pouted jokingly, pouring himself a glass of lemonade from the pitcher. She growled and shoved his shoulder with no little amount of force. "HEY!" he complained, wiping at the huge wet spot on his pants from his spilt lemonade. He grabbed a handful of salad from the bowl and threw it at her face.

"Oh, it's on!" She announced, tossing a scoop of nacho cheese at him.

"HOT CHEESE!" He shouted, half-joking, as he wiped his eyes. He grabbed the remaining lemonade that was in the pitcher and dumped it over her head, ignoring her squeaks of protest as the ice ran down her shirt. In retaliation, she grabbed the custard pie and slammed it in his face. He pulled it off and wiped it out of his eyes. He blinked a couple of times for good measure before glaring at Sam, who was stifling laughter. When she saw his look, she broke out in hysterics.

"I.. think I won." She gasped between laughs, on all fours on the ground. After a minute, she pulled herself back into a sitting position and ran a finger down the side of his face to collect some of the custard. "Not bad." She commented appraisingly. She scooted closer, leaning in. She ran her thumb across his lips to remove the custard as she leaned closer. Five inches... four inches... three... two... one... When their lips were just a millimeter apart, she stopped.

"Your life is over, Daniel. It's over, and you're the only one to blame." She whispered, pulling away enough so that he could see more than just the bottom half of her face. If it were possible to scream right then, he would have. Her entire body was blackened bone, with the occasional chunk of charred flesh dangling off the bone. Where her ribs were was a small crater where some of the ribs were gone, and the edges were fragmented. The injured section was in an almost perfect circle. When he looked back up at her face, the urge to scream increased. The skin on her face had burned off, revealing sharper than normal teeth stretched in a permanent grin. When he looked up at her eyes, he saw that the eyes were still there, but had turned coal black. "You're the only one to blame..."

"I AM THE BOX GHOST! FEAR MY CARDBOARD CUBES OF DOOOOOM!" Danny fell off the side of the bed with a muffled shout. As he worked on untangling himself from the sheets, he turned his head and glared at the imbecile who was now floating over his bed in a supposedly threatening manner. Growling, he pulled himself to his feet.

I suppose that I should thank him for waking me up...

Nah. You're about to enter a whole new kind of nightmare today anyways.

Which would be...?

Private school.

Damn.

Language.

Don't you even... Anyways, how did he get in? My ghost sense should have gone off a while ago.

The alarm clock. Vlad must have tampered with it.

Not that I'm complaining, but weren't we asleep when he showed up? How do you know that?

He had the image of a smug grin shown to him mentally. Constant vigilance, Danny.

He sighed as he shot a blast at the Box Ghost, who at the time was levitating a bunch of cardboard boxes from who-knows-where. "Leave it to Vlad to find a way to get me up on time." He grumbled to himself as he shot another blast, stronger this time, at the ghost. To his surprise, the blast was dodged by the overweight "fiend", and made a dark scorch mark on the wall.

"You cannot hope to defeat me with your measly- UMPH!" The Box Ghost's tirade was cut off by a blue sneaker flying into his nose.

"Alright, I'm up. Unless you direly wish to be shoved into a Thermos, I would leave." He gestured towards the general direction of the doorway. With one last "Beware!", the Box Ghost flew through the opening and vanished down the hall. A minuscule smile on his face, Danny shook his head and closed the door quietly before striding over to the closet.

The usual assortment of suits and ties met his eyes as he scanned the room for something acceptable for his first official day as Daniel Masters. Daniel Masters. The name sounded... right, somehow. Almost as if this was where he was supposed to have been all along. Daniel Fenton had never quite sounded right, hence the nickname Danny. But his new name seemed to fit more. It was as if he had been wearing the same scratchy old sweater for his entire life, and he had finally switched to a soft T-shirt. It was just more right.

He sighed, bringing himself back to the present. See anything good? He asked Dark, struggling to make a decision.

Yeah, I see this great looking tee with bloodstains on it over there. But I'm guessing you mean something to wear to school without getting expelled. Dark chuckled. How about a black jacket with that gold oxford and a dark blue tie, and dark blue dress pants?

Danny sighed gratefully as he grabbed the indicated clothing off the shelves with extreme care as not to crinkle them. I love you, Dark.

Don't let your fan club hear that.

Before stepping out of the closet, he grabbed a gold watch, black belt, and a pair of black shoes and socks. On his way to the bathroom, Vlad walked past on the way to the kitchen. Vlad had a humorous glint in his eye as he asked, "Did you have a good night's sleep?" Danny glowered at him.

"We're going to have to talk about your methods of waking me up later. But right now I need to get ready. See you at breakfast!" He continued on his way to the bathroom, closing the door behind him as he walked over to the tub. Deciding that he needed to relax, he turned the red knob as far as it would go. Walking back over to the sink, he grabbed the conditioner, soap, body wash, anti-frizz gunk, bubble bath, and was about to grab the shampoo when he realized that he had run out last night. Not wishing to bother Vlad, he crossed over to where he knew Vlad's shelf was in the wall. Popping it open, he spotted a bottle that looked like his old shampoo one. Its label read:

Teinture pour les cheveux
Avertissement: Ne pas utiliser comme shampooing

He could only understand one word of that, which was 'shampooing'. Good enough for me, he decided, grabbing it off of the shelf and carrying it over to where he had put the rest of the stuff. Grabbing a towel off the counter, he peeled off his sweat-soaked pajamas and climbed into the tub. Gasping at the extreme change in temperature, he swam to front of the tub and turned off the flow of water. That being done, he paddled back to where he had been before and massaged a decent amount of conditioner into his dripping mass of hair, let it sit for a minute, then did the same thing with the anti-frizz serum and Vlad's shampoo. Once he scrubbed himself down with the bar of soap, he pulled himself out of the water into the sub-zero temperatures of the room. He spread the towel out on the floor and shed the water onto it, avoiding the mess he had made the first time, and held a weak ectoblast up to his hair to finish drying it. Next, he put all the bottles back in their cabinets and grabbed his clothes off the edge of the sink. As he looked through his clothes, he groaned as he realized that he forgot his boxers. Holding up the sweat-soaked ones he had slept in and wincing, he concentrated with all his might on the stack of boxers in the corner of his closet. He carefully infused the pair on top with the tiniest bit of his ectoenergy and summoned them towards him. He sighed happily as the pair phased through the door and landed in his hand. He had never tried that on an object he couldn't see, and was thankful it had worked. Danny pulled the boxers and pants on, looping his belt around his waist. Next, he pulled the oxford on and buttoned it up to his neck, and tried to figure out the tie. Remembering what a tie was supposed to look like, he tried a few ways that might end up with the same result. After the sixth try, he accidentally made a perfect Windsor knot.

Not bad, he thought, as he pulled on the jacket. He snapped on his watch and put his socks and shoes on, glancing at the mirror afterward to adjust his collar. When his eyes snapped on his reflection, however, he gave a yelp and stumbled backwards. In a flash Vlad was in the doorway. When he saw Danny's hair, he had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.

"It's not funny!" Danny snapped, annoyed.

"Yes, it is. If it makes you feel better, you look rather good with your hair like that. Besides, it's not all the way silver." Indeed, Danny's hair was silver with the occasional black streak through it. "I don't even want to know how you managed this, but it should wear off in a couple days." Danny sighed and ran his fingers through his hair tiredly.

"Thanks. I'll be down to breakfast in just a second. You can go ahead down." Danny still had to get his hair done, and he didn't want Vlad to see Dark take control. Vlad hesitantly went out of the room, still chuckling. The moment he was out of view, he asked, Ready?

Do you even have to ask?

Danny took a deep breath, focusing on his anger and frustration as Dark had instructed so many times before. Like always, he felt his control slip away until he saw only what Dark saw, felt only what Dark felt. Dark glanced in the mirror, bringing their focus to the fact that his... their?... eyes had turned blood red.

Um, Dark?

Oh, alright. Dark blinked, forcing his eyes to turn back to the normal icy blue. Popping open the compartment in the wall, he pulled out the hair gel and got to work styling his hair. In a matter of moments his hair was flat in the back, spiked in the front, and completely awesome. You know, I think your hair looks better in this color.

Oh, shut up.

Not bothering to suppress a chuckle, Dark took a final glance in the mirror before turning intangible and phasing through the floor. Once he was through, he stopped floating and landed with a thump in the chair next to Vlad. This sudden appearance caused Vlad to start and spill a bit of coffee on the table, which he quickly mopped up with a napkin.

"Oh, good morning Daniel." Dark rolled his eyes as he grabbed his fork to begin eating his platter of pancakes. At the last minute, however, he changed his mind.

"Really, Vlad? The Box Ghost?" Vlad began chuckling again as he continued to eat. After a minute, he paused and replied.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time. Would you have preferred Skulker?" Dark growled menacingly at the elder halfa.

"You do realize that you could have just turned the bed intangible, right? He's not that much of a deep sleeper..." Damn! He cursed silently as Vlad's eyes widened. Searching for a good excuse to get out of there, Dark glanced up at the clock. Thankfully, the clock now read half past five. "Well, time for me to go!" Dark waved quickly at Vlad before grabbing his satchel off of the kitchen table and dashing out the front door.

Clever. Danny commented mockingly. Do you think you made it obvious enough, or should we go inside and show him your ghost form while we're at it? Oh, no, wait, I have a better idea. We could talk out loud to each other while he's in the room! That would freak him out plenty! Or maybe we go up to him and say, 'Hey Vlad, guess what? I have a little voice in my head that takes control of me on occasion. Okay, I'm off to school! Bye!' Danny chuckled as he imagined Dark actually saying that. Dark rolled his eyes with a smirk as he climbed into the back of the limousine sitting in the driveway.

I think my twisted sense of humor has rubbed off on you. Watch out, world. Besides, I made a mistake. It was a once in a lifetime thing, you know that.

If that happens again, you won't have much more of a lifetime for it to happen again in. Dark rolled his eyes and growled softly. This sound caused the driver to glance back in the mirror and notice Dark's absent expression.

"You okay, ki- er, Mister Masters? You look like you're having a pretty big argument with yourself." Dark laughed and shoved Danny's protesting voice to the back of his head.

"You could call it that. And my name isn't Mister Masters. It's Daniel. What's yours?" The driver seemed surprised that Dark was telling him to call him by his first name. But considering that he worked for Vlad, he could hardly be blamed for that. After a moment of silence, he apparently remembered that Dark had asked him a question.

"Oh, right, my name. It's Alexander, sir." Dark rolled his eyes at the title. Just to make it clear that he didn't wish to be titled as such, he responded in a voice heavily laden with sarcasm.

"A pleasure to meet you, Alexandersir. It truly is." He faked a bow, not able to keep a broad grin off of his face. The feeling must have been mutual, because Alexander laughed loudly as he watched the road ahead carefully. After a few minutes of silence, mainly filled with Dark chuckling fakely at Alexander's lame attempts at humor, Alexander declared that they had arrived.

Dark glanced out the window, expecting to see something that at least resembled Casper High. Instead, his eyes were met with something that could only be described as a castle. It was the size of at the very least two of Vlad's mansions, with exterior walls made of grey stone that crumbled just enough to let you know that it was old, but not enough to give you the idea that it lacked funding. Ivy wound up both the shallow cracks in the cement filling of the walls and the stone columns supporting the entrances, creating a pleasant, calming atmospere. An indentin in the massive structure made room for a large courtyard of bright green grass and small shrubbery, freckled with the occasional picnic table for sunny days when the students wished to dine outside in the open air. There were three doorways leading to this exterior yard, connected by a short flight of stone steps, and of the three, only the center had a large set of mahogany doors with golden push-thingies.

As he took in the appearance of the school, Dark decided that he needed to extend his vocazbulary. He was NOT going to be walking around a place like this saying things like 'push-thingy'. Deciding that he would continue on that train of thought later, he went back to observing the building. About every ten feet on the castle, a small, four-pane window would be sunk about five inches into the wall in such a way that in you could tell that way back in the old days, before electricity but after Vlad was born, the people defending this fortress could shoot out of the windows without having to worry about the enemy returning fire. From the angle Dark was at, he couldn't see the roof, but could see at least two towers rising out of the top of the building. Flying from the top of the towers were small (from his perspective) purple and gold flags. The background of these banners were a deep royal purple, while gold scribbles were emblazoned in the upper left and lower right hand corners. In between these two scribbles was a gold badger with purple markings. Stretching his ghost sight to its limit, he was able to discern the fact that the two scribbles were two phrases;

King of all Kings Private School
Only to conquer is to succeed

Dark nodded thoughtfully, ready to continue examining the school, when he noticed the letters moving around. In a matter of seconds, the text had changed to;

Rex Kings Private School
Tantum ad Conquer est ad Succedunt

Hopelessly confused at the change, he watched the flag for a moment. Sure enough, it changed back and forth between the two languages. Uncertain whether or not he was going mad, he glanced back to Alexander. "Can you read that flag?" Alexander squinted up at the flag for a minute or two.

"I'm no expert, but I think it's in latin. Sorry, kiddo." He shrugged. Dark winced inwardly. I was afraid of that.

What, is it no fun now that YOU'RE the one going insane? I for one am rather enjoying this.

Oh, so you're back now, are you?

Of course! Watching you panic is freaking hilarious. We should put a popcorn machine back here.

Do you want your body back? Because I really don't have to give it to you.

Did I say that? Oh no, I meant that this is terrible and we should get this figured out as soon as possible.

Good boy. Danny flashed him the image of himself strangling Dark. Oh, how nice. Getting all pumped up for a big day at school?

I despise you, Dark.

I love you too, Danny boy. Okay, now focus on something happy. He felt Danny's mind freeze in shock.

Are- are you not going to help me this time? Oh wait, never mind. Okay... I'll try. Danny focused on the image from the dream he had had last night, with Sam sitting on the picnic blanket waiting for him.

Too easy! Dark scoffed, bringing up the image of Sam's demonic grinning skeleton, the background in flames.

Growling, Danny thought of Sam and Tucker standing in front of the Nasty Burger, waving him over. Right when he was about to reach them, Dark smirked. Kablooie. The Nasty Burger exploded, leaving him standing there alone. This time, Danny made sure no other good memories had weak spots before attempting to use them. Right when he was about to give up, he remembered one day that, to the disgust of his friends, made his heart swell with pride and happiness. He brought forth the image of Dash lying on the ground, unconscious, a bloody pulp from where Danny had snapped and nearly killed him before leaving him on the ground for dead. There was no way Dark could possibly twist that memory more than it already was. As Danny felt the feeling return to his limbs, Dark asked him, Is that really the happiest day you can think of? Danny didn't bother to answer as he climbed out of the limo in front of the school.

After all, he thought, straightening his suit and tie before picking up his satchel, Only to conquer is to succeed.

Any guesses on what the "Shampoo" bottle said? I'm going to bed. Oh, and for you IZ fans, the next chapter contains a human version of Gir by the name OF... I dunno yet. It will be a guy though. And on that note... for you girls out there, NEVER play Marco Polo with a bunch of hormonal guys. Let's just say that I was it, I reached out to what I THOUGHT was arm-level... and found out that my 19-year old cousin likes me as more than a friend, if you know what I mean. EW.