First things first, I will firstly say that I am sorry for the huge delay on continuing this story. And to be honest it was because of my turn of focus on finishing 'The Paranormal Case' and then starting 'The Ghostly Auror' so my inspiration and focus on this story falter until I got an uncanny burst of reviews, favorites and alerts in August.
And so I began to rewrite this chapter while working, moving in to my new place and finishing another short story.
I hope you enjoy the chapter! Remember to review once you're done the chapter!
Also, remember to read the important note at the end of the chapter deciding the fate of this story!
Chapter 14
Star exhaled in frustration as she stared down at the box in contempt. Sam, Danny, Tucker as well as Star were all carrying boxes through the halls of Casper High.
"Why am I doing this?" Star asked exasperated.
"Because you're a good friend, now stop complaining." Sam ordered.
Star sighed but continued to carry the heavy boxes. "What exactly are in these boxes anyway?"
"They're metal frog dummies for safe dissection without an innocent frog to die from our own hand" Sam said with some teenage attitude and anger.
"And do they have to be so heavy?" Star muttered.
Sam looked at her with a clear glare not saying a word to the formerly popular blonde. The group finally made it to the gym and got on the side of the stage and placed the boxes on the side. Star looked up to the building crowd of students and looked over to the drawn curtain. "Is everything set up Sam?"
"Yep, just got to do my speech and have the curtain open where-"
"Um, Sam, I got to go to the washroom." Danny interrupted in a hurried voice. Before Sam could even answer Danny took off at a startling speed and made it out of the assembly doors in a flash.
Sam groaned but just shrugged it off. Star looked over at Sam worried that her stance on frog dissections could ruin her already fragile view in the public eye of the school.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Star said to her gothic friend.
Sam looked at Star with an unamused look to her face. "I don't care what people think about me Star. This is about the innocent frogs that are cut up as some twisted learning tool from the establishment!"
Star nodded glumly and stayed silent. Once Sam was on a course of action barely anything can change her mind.
Sam looked over to Mr. Lancer who nodded to the young teen and moved his head towards the podium.
"Well, it's time. Wish me luck!"
Tucker and Star nodded and stepped back to the side of the auditorium. Sam stepped to the front of the podium and took a steady breathe before she began.
"Students and faculty of Casper High! Something sick and sinister in this school! And I'm going to show you what it is!" Sam said in an upbeat and somewhat revolutionary voice.
Suddenly the curtain behind Sam started to move open. Sam got out of the way and pointed her hands towards the poster of a frog in a red circle and crossed exe in the middle with pride. But the goth girl didn't see was the form of Danny standing right in the middle of the stage wearing a pink dress with a matching pink hat on his head.
Everyone in the school focussed all their attention on Danny and at the slightest sound of one person starting to laugh, broke the entire dam of everyone's self-control and they began to join in on the laughter.
Danny looked around at the crowd and himself in utter confusion, not sure what he should do.
"Woo! Take it off!" Tucker yelled in enthusiasm.
Star and Sam instantly looked at Tucker with a menacing glares, Tucker instantly cringed, shoulders slouching underneath the women's glares. "What…he should take it off."
Two days later…
Over the past two days Star started to notice a shift in how everyone in the school acted towards Danny, and it wasn't pretty. The constant jeers and insults about him in a dress and the abuse he got from Dash a day ago looked brutal to Star.
But the black haired teen just tried to ignore it even if he wasn't doing so well since he's become a slouching mess, looking as though he had almost no self-esteem left in his body.
And then he had the joy to find his locker completely trashed, the door ripped off on the floor with many pictures from two days ago of Danny in the dress. Written messages were drawn all over the pictures. Like 'girly', 'wimp' and other nastier messages drawn on the walls.
Star just watched as Danny slouched down to the ground leaning himself into the lockers and drew his knees into his chest, looking utterly defeated.
"Come on Danny, lets tell the principal about this and we'll get you a new locker." Star said in reassurance.
"What's the point, it won't help me with the rest of my problems." Danny said miserably.
"You can't just let them push you around all of the time Danny, you've got to stand up for yourself."
"Yeah? Because a small guy like me can take on those big muscled jocks like Dash." Danny said angrily.
And with that he packed up his bag of all the books and things from his locker and walked away, still slouched and miserable.
'This can't go on, I've got to help Danny somehow…'
Star started to think of anyway that she could help stop the bullying but it almost seemed nigh impossible for a whole student body to lay off on their fellow peer.
'There must be something I'm missing…' Star mused as she walked through the halls of Casper High.
She looked up and Dash in the middle of stuffing a small nerd into his locker, and then she started to remember the days where she was welcome in the Quarterback's home.
As if a light bulb buzzed on above her head, an idea of inspiration took her as she remembered a secret that she found out about Dash only a year ago and promised him that she wouldn't tell anyone about Dash's secret.
'Well maybe I could use that secret to my advantage.' Star thought with a smirk.
Star watched Dash from the side searching through his locker for his books to his next class. She tried to think of the most natural way to approach her old friend, but couldn't think of any way to hide the awkwardness of approaching the jock.
'It shouldn't be about what is the most natural. I'm blackmailing him, I should stand up tall and stand up for my friend.' Star thought, while putting her chest out proudly, starting to make her way towards Dash.
The bell rang signalling everyone to start making their way to their next class. Just as Dash closed his locker he noticed Star standing right where the door had just been laying open.
"Hey Star-nerd, how's it going?" Dash said sarcastically.
Star tried to ignore the name he'd called her and carried on with what she wanted to say. "So Dash, I've seen all of the stuff you've done to Danny in the past few days and I'm going to kindly ask you to stop picking on him, as well as stop anyone else from picking on him."
Dash just smiled slyly below at the much shorter Star. "Pfft, and you'll do what?"
Dash started to walk away from Star, making his way to next class when Star walked up from behind him. "I don't Dash, though I bet the whole school would love to hear about your teddy bear collection in your closet."
The blond jock whipped around in an instant glaring down at Star as though she'd just said something unspeakable. "You wouldn't dare. You have no proof."
Star comedically looked down at her nails, making it seem as though she was inspecting her nails. "I do know your Mum, and I'm sure she'd let me in to pick something from your house."
Dash now looked panicked and stressed as the idea of his secret teddy bear stash could be known school wide, hurting his reputation. He looked down at Star again giving an intimidating glare with his big muscular mass to try and frighten the blond girl.
Star just tried to hold her cool while he did this, trying to show just how serious she was about her threat.
Dash glared at her, now gritting his teeth in frustration at the thought of even giving in. "Fine, I'll lay off him"
"And…" Star said drawing on the D to add to the effect that she was in control of this situation.
"And I'll get everyone else to lay off him…jeez."
"Thank you" Star said with a wide smile. "Glad you could see things my way."
Dash looked at Star with his face blood red looking as though he'd do anything than be in this situation. Knowing that Star was finished with him, he shifted his books and stomped off to his class clearly looking agitated.
"Ok, now let's hope this works" Star said quietly to herself.
Later…
"Hey little Miss Fenton, how's it going?" A tall jock mocked to Danny as the boy walked past.
Danny winced but just tried to ignore him.
But the African American jock as well as Kwan continued to pursue behind Danny.
"Why in such a hurry Fenton? You should be careful, you might trip on your pink dress!" Kwan said laughing, expecting the skinny junior to retort in some way, but Danny just continued walking.
The two jocks didn't like that Danny was ignoring them so they both grabbed Danny by the shoulders and shoved him against the locker walls. "You should respond to him, after all, you are a lady" Kwan threatened.
"Let him go" A voice said from Kwan's right.
Kwan, Danny and the other jock all looked over to the source of the voice and saw Dash standing there with his arms looking on reluctantly disappointed at the Kwan and the other jock.
"Why?" Kwan asked confused to his best friend.
"The joke has gotten old… it just looks pathetic now." Dash explained trying to look disinterested to the whole situation.
"But-but I think it's still hilarious…" Kwan complained pitifully.
"Well who cares what you think, now let go" Dash retort immaturely.
Kwan and the other jock let go of Danny looking at Danny with no remorse, more like they had been told by their mother that they couldn't play with their favorite toy.
The two of them looked away and stomped off knocking into anyone foolish enough to get in their way.
Danny turned to Dash looking at him confused ready for Dash to do anything to him at that point.
"Why?" Danny asked the blond jock in confusion.
Dash just turned to Danny his face turning a tinge of red in anger as he stared at the shorter, less popular boy in his school. "Can't a guy do a favour without being questioned about it?"
And with that Dash turned around and walked away leaving Danny incredibly confused.
Soon Dash had reached all of the bullies of Casper High and made it a point to not bully Danny Fenton. Danny had noticed this and couldn't figure out why the bullying king of the Casper High had suddenly wanted to defend him. He had made a point of it when he had spoken to Tucker, Sam and Star at lunch.
"I don't understand why would he do this?"
"Maybe he's suddenly just realized that bullying is wrong?" Tucker guessed feebily.
"I still see him stuffing some other kids in locker. It doesn't make sense!"
Star followed along trying to not show her inward smile and secret knowledge of what had really happened.
She was happy that it worked, but she didn't want Danny to know about her actions in this affair.
Danny and his friends let her into their little group and provided support when no one else was there. They didn't ask for anything in return, so she wouldn't either.
Days later…
Danny and Star had their last class together and with Sam and Tucker busy with their club meetings after school. Tucker was a part of the StarBattle club (a sci-fi RTS video game with huge popularity worldwide) and Sam was a small role of the student government aspiring to big things. Since Star had been unofficially kicked out of cheerleading she had no extra curriculars and strangely Danny didn't have any either leaving the two of them to walk home alone with each other.
Danny had his hands in his pockets looking as though he was contemplating something on his mind. "Hey Star can I ask you something?"
"Yeah"
"Did you have anything to do with Dash getting everyone to lay off on me?"
Star turned to Danny in surprise and tried to mask her surprise in the question. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Danny looked at her and gave her an inspective look. "Really? Are you sure"
"Ye-Yeah" Star said stuttering. Clearly showing how nervous she was.
"Ok then" Danny said and looked down and continued walking in silence. It was only took a few seconds for Star to crack under the guilt of Danny's silence.
"Fine, I blackmailed Dash to stop bullying you" Star said frantically showing that she couldn't deal with guilt at all.
"Wait…you blackmailed Dash!?" Danny said in surprised.
"Yeah, I knew about a collection of teddy bears that he has in his closet…"
"Teddy bear collection!" Danny said laughing.
"And you can't tell anyone about it or Dash would stuff you up a locker for the rest of your life." Star said trying to stop Danny's laughter.
"Oh man, that has to be true because that cannot be made up!" Danny exclaimed in between breaks of laughter.
It took a little bit of time for Danny to finally stop his laughter but eventually the teenage boy finally got control of himself and looked over at Star with a look of admiration. "I just realized, you blackmailed Dash to help me…"
Star blushed at the comment, putting in her hand together and nervously fiddled her thumbs. She twisted one of her feet as she tried to hide her fidgeting. "Yeah…"
Danny stepped forward and hugged the pretty blonde. "Thank you…you've made my life so much easier…"
Star wrapped her petite arms around the raven haired teen. "Anything for a friend like you, Danny."
The two stepped away from each other and blushed at the realization of their hug. Just as the two of them were going to begin walking again, Danny gasped as though he'd taken a deep breath after a long run. Then old squabbling voices were heard from above.
"We should ask for directions, you no idea where were going."
"Yes I do, we just took a wrong right a little earlier. I'm sure were on the right direction now."
"That's what you said ten minutes ago!"
Star looked up and saw what looked like three old vultures flying over the streets. Except these vultures were a neon green colour instead of the traditional black colour. All of the bird were wearing strange hats giving of an eerie white glow.
Star watched as the three birds dived into a home on the right side of the road and went right through the ceiling. A few seconds later the vultures would come right back out of the ceiling and go into the next house.
Star gazed out amazed at the scene. Not only did the vultures look paranormal to the extreme, but they could also talk! That boggled Star's mind.
Then there was a sudden whoosh that blew Star's golden blonde hair in every direction. She looked around and then back towards the vultures again and saw for the first time in 2 weeks, was the glowing mysterious boy chasing after the vultures through the air. The vultures ran away scared of the ghost boy trying to get away from him. Soon it was impossible for Star to even watch where they went as they flew off to the distance.
'He's amazing' Star thought dreamy eyed.
"See I told you that boy existed, Danny." Star said with a big smile on her face. "Danny?"
The blonde looked around and tried to find her friend, but he was nowhere to be found.
"Where did he go?" Star asked to herself confused as she started to look around the street.
Then she came to a silly thought. 'Maybe he got spooked by those ghosts.'
She laughed at thought. "I guess Danny is more of a fraidy cat than I thought"
So, I hope you liked the chapter!
IMPORTANT:
On my profile page there is a poll that is deciding if I continue this story or not. So make sure to vote! (I'm doing this because I have a ton of stuff I want to write and if there's no more interest then I'll move onto something else, like the sequel to 'The Paranormal Case')
Review what you thought of the chapter! Feel free to ask anything and I will answer you (unless your an anonymous user, I wouldn't be able to PM you an answer)
Until next time,
Prophet =P