Hi Peoples!
"Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family." Kofi Annan
Now…
I own nothing you may recognize and some things you won't.
The Dark Phantom:: Book One:: Growing Pains:: Chapter 7
Sep. 2nd
"DANNY, TIME TO GET UP!" Yells the mother from down the stairs.
The child looks at the closed door as it opens. Jazz pokes her head in, nods, and closes the door. He looks questioningly at the wisp spinning around his arm. Then shrugs and walks out the door.
At the top of the stairs, Danny sees the woman who calls herself his mother about to start up them.
She looks confused for a second, "Oh! You're already up. Come on down to grab some breakfast. School starts today; doesn't that sound fun!" She then turns and heads back towards the kitchen.
The child silently follows behind. Once he gets to the kitchen, he plops down into his chair. He watches as the only adult in the room stacks another pancake on the pile with a good two dozen. Wide-eyed, the child looks over at this sister, who's ignoring everything in favor of a book. He looks back at the woman.
"Too many!"
Maddie turns around and smiles at her children; She flips a pancake onto a plate for each and hands it to them. He blinks and slathers the pancake in the butter and drowns a small bowl in syrup. Then rips the pancake apart and soaks a piece in said syrup. After eating his pancake piece, he turns to his plate only to find Blue bouncing on it. He snorts.
"What?" Jazz asks as she looks at her little brother.
"Blue jumping on the pancake. Pancake stack bouncier." He states half to Jazz, half to Blue.
The wisp takes the bait and starts to bounce on the tilting pancake stack. Jazz gives Danny a look, then shrugs and goes back to eating and reading.
Once Jack bumbles down the stars, Jazz stands up; "Come on, Danny, don't want you late!"
Danny looks at her confused but follows her out the door anyway.
"Just so you know, respect you teacher. Be kind, even if they aren't to you and be careful." Jazz starts off the stern, then her void softens, "If any bullies you, tell the teacher. Learn everything, you never know what'll be useful. Don't let people take you food."
Danny cocks his head at her, wondering if she knows from experience, then tunes her out as she starts babbling about everything she's learned.
As they walk into the front door of a building, a young woman comes over, "Welcome, welcome! And who might the two of you be?"
Jazz huffs, "Danny was signed up some weeks ago and is supposed to be in a class. I'm Jazz his older sister and I start k-kindergarten in half an hour."
The woman blinks in surprise, "You speak well for a five-year-old."
Jazz rolls her eyes, "When one reads a lot they speak better."
"Well, young lady, I hope you enjoy school, and I wish you well. Come along, Danny, let's meet your teacher."
Danny waves bye to Jazz and follows.
Loud yelling becomes louder as a solid wooden door opens. The woman enters, and Danny follows in. The young woman walks up to an older woman, "Mrs. Cleaverwood, this is your new student, Danny; Danny, this is your teacher, Mrs. Cleaverwood."
The older woman smiles and nods, "Thank you, Sarah; I'll take it from here." The young woman nods and leaves, "Welcome, Danny, come and sit down; it's circle time."
The last few words were spoken louder; the other kids start to push and shove as they sit down in a lopsided circle upon a rug. Danny follows the teacher at a slower rate watching the chaos. As he sits down, he glances at Blue, who has been sitting on his shoulder. Blue changes to deep violet and lets out a chirp, agreeing with Danny.
When the last child finally sits down, Mrs. Cleaverwood begins, "Alright, everyone, we'll go clockwise starting with Mikey here and go around the circle. Please say your name, favorite color, and something you like to do. Ok? Alright, Mikey, go ahead."
"I-I'm M-mikey, I-I l-like red a-and m-my friends." Said the sorry thing sitting to the left of the teacher.
The circle continues until it hits Danny (and Blue), "Danny, blue or green, swims."
The teacher clips her hands together once and smiles, "Well, I'm Mrs. Ann Cleaverwood. My favorite color is purple. I enjoy reading and teaching. My favorite book is Harry Potter. Thanks for participating. It's playtime now. Let's meet some new friends. You are not allowed outside until after snack time."
Danny sits in a mini-blue chair with a pencil to paper when another kid sits across from him in a red chair. The kid starts to adjust his yellow beret while playing on one of the new Gameboys, a red one. (Red Gameboy Advanced SP) When Danny glances up at the other boy, he recalls from the circle: The next kid was about a quarter of the way through the oval; he was wearing a red sweatshirt and baggy cargo pants with many pockets looking full.
"Hi, I'm Tucker, I like red, yellwo and wedo games."
"Playing?"
The other kid looks up, "Humm?"
"Playing?"
"Oh, a word game."
"SNACK TIME!"
"YAY!" Many of the other kids cheered while rushing towards the teacher. Danny and Tucker look up from their respective activities, look at each other, and shrug. They carefully maneuver around the other kids and reach where food is served. After grabbing their food, they head back to the 'art' area.
"Gimme food."
Danny and Tucker see the biggest boy in class standing over them. The boy had introduced himself as Dash. Tucker starts to push his plate over when Danny asks, "Why?"
"Cause me bigger!" Dash proclaims.
"Bigger? Not stronger, faster?"
Dash raises his first when the teacher calls out, "Mr. Baxter, if that fist lands anywhere near someone, I will call your parents. Now time out."
Dejected, Dash storms off to a corner where he sits facing the wall. Danny pushes Tucker's plate back and picks his crayon back up. Tucker sits there, dumbfounded.
"Wanna play a game?"
Danny looks at the other boy before responding, "Ok."
Tucker looks excited, "Uhh cops and robbers?"
"How play?" Danny cocks his head, glancing around the tree and the wide field on which all the other kids were running.
"So uhh, you…"
The boys quietly look for a place to sit with food in hand.
"Gimme you food. Teach no 'round."
Dash stops in front of Tucker and grabs his plate while Danny looks around for help. Dash shoves Tucker to the ground and walks away, laughing. As Tucker's eyes start to water, Danny pushes his hand out for him. Then Danny leads them both to a lesser-used corner.
Danny sticks his plate between them, "Have some."
"B-but you food."
Danny proceeds to stab a piece of meat with his plastic fork, then holds it out to Tucker. "Here."
Tucker takes the proffered meat and chews on it. "T-thank, thank, thank, thank –"
"Just say thank you next time." Danny cuts him off while laughing.
Sometime after Tucker went home, Danny is back at the drawing table when movement catches his eye. Seeing a head in the middle of the table, he looks around. He is only one of four kids left, and the teacher is talking to some parents. He glances at his art, then looks at the head and tilts his own to the side.
"You can see me, can you not, child?"
Danny nods, his eyes not leaving the head.
"Unlikely though it may be, perhaps you may be of help for an old spirit? I am looking for my watch, buried under this building after the great fire. The watch is a precious family heirloom, and I would like it back. Unfortunately, I am bound by this building and cannot go looking myself."
Danny blinks, then glances at Mrs. Cleaverwood.
"I can distract your teacher if you will help me."
He thinks, then nods and watches as the head disappears. He ducks under the table, and a bright white-blue light shines out from under the table for a few seconds. He then lets the feeling of being overtaken by ice-cold water and sinks through the floor.
The dirt feels weird as he floats in it, but he tries to pretend he doesn't mind, like when the Adults go on anti-ghost rants. Floating forward a little way, he feels a tug at his navel. Being the only clue he could have, he follows it. The pull takes him further and further away from the building. Eventually, he sees something that is almost metallic buried in the dirt.
It's round and metal, old. Figuring it was the item, he reaches forward, and his hand passes through it. He frowns. He reaches out, and again his hand passes through it. He cups both hands around the item and focuses on feeling the object in both hands. Success, he feels it!
The tug is back. He follows the pull while also feeling the watch in his hands. He only drops sit a few times. He pokes his head out and finds himself under one of the chairs at the art table. He floats forward until he is under the table, then brings himself entirely out of the ground. He lets the rings overtake him. Crawling out from under the table, he plops back into his chair.
"Well, well, I did not expect you actually to make it."
Danny's head snaps to the voice; he sees the man from before above his head. He knows it's the man, although the flesh is wrong. Like the few times, Maddie doesn't bring the food back to life, burnt. The man grins.
"The fact that you were even willing to help was strange, rare." The grin turns dark promising pain. The man leaves through the bale, the item gone.
The door opens, "There you are. We've been looking everywhere!"
Danny whips around; in the doorway stands Mrs. Cleaverwood and Jazz. He turns to point at the man, only to find him gone. Danny blinks a few times, then turns and walks to the ladies. Jazz takes his hand and pulls him out of the building. He waves to his new teacher as he is dragged away.
"YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN WHERE WE COULD'VE FOUND YOU." Jazz yells. He wasn't listening; he helped someone. "Danny, please, we were worried when we couldn't find you."
Chapter Stats: 5 pages 1749 words.
This was mainly chapter 6.
Now Reviews…
briskpillow642
No need to apologize of the short chapter, its still a chapter giving details and plot development. Awesome job developing Em as well and you are right she would be wary I know I would.
Em is actually biased off of me (my name is not Emily), specifically in personally. Therefore, I think about what I would like to do in that kind of situation and I also have time skips in some of the weirder places so the personality might be harder for you people to pinpoint. My friend has also told me that I have pretty good character devolvement in Blue which is also an OC… I should add that.
See I don't think about my details, so half the time I have no clue how you would take somethings then I would, but isn't that the best part about being half vague. 'Sides 490 words is a short chapter for me. Thanks for the comment about the character devolvement!
Peace and Pieces,
Sugar