Hello people, and welcome back to Midnight Coloured Fruit! This one little oneshot is the longest little MCF oneshot I've evah written. It began in Spanish class, continued at home, continued again in Spanish, continued again at home, and...well, it just kept continuing like that. That's my favourite part of MCF-I can write whereeever I want. Well, not in MOST of my classes, but in Spanish only because my teacher doesn't teach at all, and gives us an hour of 'chill time'. *facepalm*
And now, a special message from a good friend of mine, Nikevi.
Nikevi: Hi reader peoples! Read Silvertongue's Daughter's stuff cause it's awesome and I might have to slaughter you in your sleep if you don't. KTHANKSBYE
Me: O_o
Right. I suggest listening to her. Or...well, I'm sure you all read the message. Enjoy!
Also, don't harp on me for centering it around an OC. It just wouldn't work for the story if she was connected to Danny in any way whatsoever.
And this takes place in the future.
(I don't own Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman does. I don't own Apple or BlackBerry, either. I do own Delaney, though.)
I stared at the mirror, my expression blank, my mind horrified.
I swallowed, before turning to look at my mom, who was beaming at me, the picture of delight. I swallowed, before saying what I knew would crush her spirits. Normally I wouldn't be so harsh-but she brought it upon herself, honestly.
"I'm never letting you cut my hair again." I said bluntly, before glancing down at the bundle of white-blonde hair scattered across the floor beside my chair. I looked back to the mirror, directing my green eyes to what was now a boy's haircut.
On MY head.
I could see my mom's face in the reflection behind me-she looked downright depressed. I knew how much this haircut meant to her, with her constantly bragging about the hair class she'd taken back in high school and how she'd done her friend's hair ever-so-beautifully, and that's why I had agreed to it, too. But if I'd known how badly her skills had deteriorated...well, I wouldn't look like a boy now.
It wasn't just the haircut, either. With the size of my chest, my long, Rapunzel style hair was the only thing keeping me classified as female.
My mom placed a manicured hand on my shoulder-whether it was to help her 'connect' with me or to help keep her balance, I wouldn't know-and took a deep breath. "Delaney..." she said softly, "I thought it would look...nice on you."
I turned around as best I could in my chair to face her, eyes wide. "so you made me look like a boy-on PURPOSE? I-bu-n-MOM! Why!" I sputtered, shocked.
She ran her hand through her hair (still long and beautiful, I thought bitterly), and averted her blue eyes away from me. "it was a popular hair style when I was younger. Lots of girls had it-it was called a pixie cut." she said quietly.
"I-but mom." I said, "that was in, what, 2011, when you were fifteen? You're thirty, now, mom, and that haircut is WAY out of style."
Half an hour later, I was in my room, grounded. Without an apology for the atrocious haircut. And my mom took away my BlackBerry Apple, too.
"Really, Delaney? Still grounded? It's been a month."
"don't you think I of all people would know that better than anyone? My mom says I'll be ungrounded when my hair grows back to what it used to be." I replied grimly.
"Sucks for you."
"You think?" I pointed to my hair. My bangs were the only things that had grown, and they had decided to do it remarkably fast, and I hated it with a passion. "I look like I've got a backwards mullet."
My friend Sophie sighed. "well..." she said, scrunching up her face in thought.
"Yes...?" I egged her on.
"Um." she stared at the backwards mullet on top of my head. I rolled my eyes and waved for her to continue.
Finally, she grimaced, and looked me in the eye. I raised my eyebrows, awaiting whatever it was that Sophie never failed to say to make me feel better.
"...no more Tangled jokes?"
I groaned, and buried my head in the seat in front of me on the school bus. If one of my best friends wasn't any comfort, the first day of school was going to be brutal.
"Martin Arthur?"
"Here."
"Susan Benson?"
"Here."
"Lillian Bohr?"
"here."
"Lenny Dennis?"
"Mornin'."
"Good morning. Delaney DeLong?"
I paused.
"Delaney DeLong?"
"Here..."
"Delaney, please take off your hat."
I stared up at Mr Glenn, silently begging for him to change his mind. "uh, do I have to?"
"Yes, you have to. I get it if you haven't had any rules to follow over summer, but I hope you remember that it's a lot different at school. Come on."
I groaned. "with everybody staring at me?"
Mr Glenn rolled his eyes. "Class, if you would please avert your eyes from Delaney, she needs to take her hat off."
The class giggled around me and I glared at them all, before grudgingly taking off the blue beanie I had placed upon my head.
Well, they weren't giggling anymore, that was for sure. In fact, calling this giggling would be calling Lindsey Lohan a slight disappointment.
"Alright, alright, quiet down, I need to finish with the attendance.
I don't think I'd ever been more fond of Mr Glenn than I was in that moment.
"hey, Delaney, you a guy now?"
"Careful, Del, or else Jacqueline will ask you out."
"Delaney, you're walking into the wrong bathroom!"
Remember earlier, when I said that today was going to be brutal?
Brutal is tame.
This? This was insane torture.
The comments, fuelled by the new teachers I had continually mistaking me for a guy, followed me all the way home.
My next door neighbour, for instance, had the best opportunity, and he claimed that he was teasing my times ten to make up for the time he missed over summer while he was in Mexico.
"I mean, what is that? A backwards mullet?"
I glared at him before quickening my pace.
He just sped up to catch up to me. "Really, Delaney? Mullets went out of style before my MOM was born, a backwards one won't work."
There. My house was only down the street. Not too long before I got to ditch him and shut myself in the safety of my room.
"you look like you got a haircut from my seven year old sister." he remarked, smirking. "it's almost as bad as-"
I would have let him finish his stupid insult, honestly. My leg kicked out on its own accord! Or at least, that's what I told my less-than-convinced mother.
I walked down the short hallway to my room, hitting my feet hard against the wooden floorboards, making sure my mom could hear it, loud and clear.
My hand wrapped around the dull metal doorknob on my bedroom door, then I recoiled as if I were burnt-but it was actually just the opposite. The doorknob was as cold as ice! I examined my hand for a second; nothing was wrong with it, though it was still remarkably cold. I stared at the doorknob.
I considered calling my mom to check it out, but I was sure that she'd just tell me to shut up and stop making a big deal over it. I bit my lip and gingerly poked the doorknob with one finger. Yup. Still cold.
I shook the sleeve of my black sweatshirt out so it covered my hand, and used it as a makeshift glove to grab the doorknob. My eyes widened as I still felt the cold through my sleeve. I had the feeling that what I was about to do was really, really stupid. But I braced myself and turned the doorknob, pushed the door open, and-
Screamed as an avalanche of boxes fall on me. It took a second to actually recognize that they were boxes anyway, but once I identified the cardboard, I came to the conclusion that there was something really heavy in them. And boy, did it hurt. Not to mention that the boxes were also extremely cold, making me shiver. I began to wonder worriedly about what on earth could be going on.
"ow..." I moaned, as I attempted to move unsuccessfully as I felt a sharp corner dig in between my shoulders. I was beginning to get scared now. What was going on?
I heard maniacal laughter, and the room got colder, and my fear grew like a chip in the window. I could actually see frost forming on the box right in front of me. My eyes widened, and I held back a squeak of terror.
A voice began speaking. The voice sounded young, but rather scratchy, like a young girl with a cold. "finally!" it exclaimed, triumph colouring its tone, "I have captured the ghost boy!" the temperature in the room dropped a couple more degrees, and my shivering became even more violent. I didn't understand what was going on. Who was this ghost boy? It wasn't...wasn't me, was it? I swallowed, not even taking the chance to be offended by this.
Suddenly a face appeared through-yes, THROUGH the box-and stared at me, a hungry gleam in its eyes. I was terrified and still trying to comprehend the fact that it was going through the box, so the fact that it was a glowing blue took a backseat in my mind. Its glowing eyes were widened in an insane glee, its mouth was still wide in laughter, and the worst of it is that the boy it had been talking about before was definitely me-gender confusion aside, all I wanted at th moment was not to be this...thing's target.
"I caught you!" it shouted, and I flinched at the volume, "I really did!"
I just stared at the thing, trying to understand what was going on.
It stopped to examine me for a moment, and its smile faltered. Then, in the same manner that its head popped through the boxes, a hand reached out and grabbed me, and I was lifted up off the floor and...through?...the boxes. Before I could scream at just this itself, I was violently thrown to my bed, breaking it with a near panic-inducing jolt.
The thing...the, the monster, or...what was it? It was flying, and it flew over me. Literally. It hovered above me, its face only inches from my own. It was frowning in confusion.
"you..."
I shook my head frantically, close to hyperventillating. "N-n-n-n-no," I said, "not me..." I said, terror filling me out to every corner of my body, stone cold yet boiling hot, I didn't know or care what was going on so long as it stopped and this was all just a dream.
"but you're not him." said the monster...glowing floating mutant thing.
I shook my head, trying to make it look like it wasn't because of my already shaking body.
"n-no," I said, my voice a whisper, "i-I'm n-nobody, I...I'm a, a g-girl, I'm n-not...not HIM, I...I just, I...I don't know who HE is, I..."
It leaned in even closer, its cold nose almost touching my own. "no..." it whispered cryptically, "you don't..."
Then, miraculously, its expression changed from a puzzled from to the pout a child wears when denied a snack before dinner. It flew back away from my face and landed on what remained of my broken bed and crossed its arms.
"Great." it mumbled, "I thought I caught the ghost boy. And mama would have been so proud, too..."
Now that it wasn't interrogating me, I was calm enough to examine it properly. It was actually a girl, I decided. She seemed to be around nine or ten years old, with tacky purple overalls and a light pink tshirt underneath. A hat rested upon her head that was he same colour as her shirt, between two long black pigtails on either side of her head. Her hands, I noticed in surprise, weren't the blue I thought they were, but instead encased in silver gloves, a lot like the ones I had on my own hands-except mine weren't glowing. Although I couldn't tell whether or not it was the gloves glowing or just HER. She turned her head to look back at me, and I instinctively flinched backwards.
She reached out a hand, smiling-yes, smiling. She had braces holding her teeth in place. "Cookie?" she asked sweetly, and, sure enough, there was a chocolate chip cookie in her hand. I took a brief moment to wonder where she got it from, before taking it. I didn't know what else would please her. I just hoped she didn't make me eat it.
Her sweet smile turned into a mischievous grin, and she floated up into the air above me again, although thankfully nowhere near as close as before. She spread her arms wide and spoke to the ceiling as she announced, "I am the Box Lunch! Daughter of the Box Ghost and the. Lunch Lady!"
Then, as quickly as it came, she dropped her ecstatic announcement act and dropped back onto the bed again, turning back to me with her sweet smile. "eat up your cookie, dear."
I stared at her. Part of me was wondering why or how this...little kid of a monster...would offer me a cookie, and the rest of me thinking about the lecture given to me by my dad to never take candy from strangers. Or in this case, a cookie.
Her smile was strained. "Eat it." she commanded, more forceful than before. Scared for my life, I put the cookie in my mouth and took a bite out of it. It tasted like cardboard, but I made a half strangled attempt to smile at her so she wouldn't change her mind and eat me instead.
"Who are you?" she asked, examining me again, although thankfully not so close this time. "D-Delaney DeLong." my voice shook.
She squinted at me. "and...what is your relation to the ghost boy?"
I stared blankly at her, terrified that she would vaporize me for not knowing this...ghost boy...?
"you don't know him, do you?" she asked slowly, and I shook my head just as slow.
"but...but you look so much like him." I swallowed, and it took every effort I had to shrug.
"Hm."
And within a blink of an eye, she just...disappeared. A quick look around my room assured me that her boxes had gone, too.
Ta daaa!
Okay, I know it's the most abrupt ending ever, but I hope y'all get the storyline. I'm thinking maybe I'll do another oneshot somewhere in the far future centering around Delaney again, but that's just a maybe. The one I'm thinking about right now is about Dani, though...I got the idea off of MLIA. sounds fun? I hope so.
See ya next chappy!