AN: Don't mind me, just forgot the disclaimer...

Disclaimer: I do not own DP. I also didn't own the quote used last chapter, nor did I own Barbie.

Summary: It's been a week since defeating Dark Dan, and Danny still has to make up the CATs

Genre- Hurt/Comfort

Rating- K+

"Mr. Fenton?"

I looked up from the blue-gray tiled floor. Mr. Lancer was looking at me expectantly, holding a packet in his outstretched hand.

"Your test, Daniel?"

"Oh." I grabbed the papers from his hand.

The room was quiet aside from the ticking clock. No one else was here today; guess I was the only one who still had to make up the test. I walked over to my usual seat near the front of class. Lancer took a seat in his teachers desk.

"You may begin."

One week. It's been one week since the whole Dan incident. One week since I discovered my own dangerous future and how it came to be. And here I am now, back where it all started: taking the CATs.

I feel like I've come full circle now. After battling with my evil self from an alternate future, nearly killing- no, obliterating my friends and family in the process... It's easy to forget the cause for all of that. For what almost happened.

A test.

Granted, it was the test to top all tests. Kids like me spend a majority of their school life hearing from teachers about how much it will determine their futures. But still, to think that just over a week ago, I was freaking out over a test to the point of actually considering cheating... Maybe that's why I did- er, would have done- what I did: Pressure. Expectations. For having a sister with an IQ so high, her biggest concern was which ivy league college to go to. And, most importantly, for recognition.

I mean sure, Danny Phantom gets the limelight often enough, even if not everyone thinks I'm a good ghost. It's just... for once, I wanted people to know that Danny Fenton could be great, too. Even just them knowing I was not a total failure would have been nice. I wanted Mom and Dad, Mr. Lancer, and heck, even Jazz to know I could be more than just a C-average student. I know I'm smarter than that, and this test would be able to prove it.

But I was scared. Scared I would blow it on the exam, scared I would freeze up at all the answers, scared that maybe I was just a C student after all. The slightest slip-up could end up failing me. And then Mom, Dad, Lancer, and everyone else who only knew me as Danny Fenton would be convinced I was a failure. Even though I made sacrifices every day to protect them from ghost attacks; even though I really was trying my hardest to juggle supernatural problems and math problems; they wouldn't see that.

With me thinking those things... I don't know, I guess I just... panicked.

Those thoughts seem so ridiculous to me now. Tests weren't important. Saving lives was. Besides, I knew I was smart. Not all ghost fights can be escaped with just strength alone, and I've been in enough of those situations to know I've got at least some brains in my skull.

Enough daydreaming, Fenton. You've got to focus.

I looked down at the questions, reading them over carefully. Smiling with new-found confidence, I bubbled in letter "D" under question one.

Looks like this test wouldn't be so hard, after all.