Chapter 33

Danny couldn't shake the nervous feeling the next day. His parents were forced to leave the school, citing something about having no legal rights to shut down the high school through the use of an EMP to hunt down viruses. He wasn't sure of all the details since his parents were grumpy the whole night about being asked to leave, more like kicked out of, the school and allow things to return to normal the next day. Tucker explained some legal mumbo jumbo to him before class when they had a moment to talk without Sam, and now Valerie, around to overhear their discussion. There was apparently some law that stated the seizure of a facility, like a high school, wasn't allowed without some sort of paperwork and signature from the mayor that gave permission for the facility to be temporary shut down and cleansed of virus activity.

His parents were probably trying to get that paperwork done right at that moment. A level nine virus contamination sounded pretty bad, and Danny knew there was an odd increase in virus activity at the high school ever since his fall into the under level. Those spidery viruses kept cropping up like some sort of infestation within the school. Danny hoped that Tucker could pinpoint the source of the spiders. If he could take out the source, Danny thought he could eliminate the threat and that would keep his parents from trying to shut down the school again in their attempt to capture the viruses in Casper High. He didn't want his parents turning up again unexpectedly and using the EMP. Tucker said he would try to make something to counteract the EMP, and Danny hoped his friend could in case anything like yesterday happened again.

Danny still didn't know what to do about that whole thing that took place in Lancer's office. Since no one came crashing in at any point to knock him out or capture him or anything, he felt safe in his belief that Lancer would keep his secret. But the thing that was really confusing him was how he managed to overcome the shutdown of his body after the EMP.

"Ow!" The piercing of something sharp against his thumb snapped Danny out of his thoughts. He brought his thumb up his mouth, sucking on it after he stuck it with the needle. "Remind me why I have to help with making the costumes but they don't." Danny nodded his head toward the other two members of their group for theater.

Dash and Kwan were lounging back in their usual seats chatting for the duration of the class while Danny and Paulina worked on the costumes. Their script was pretty simple, so they didn't worry a whole lot about rehearsal. The lines were all pretty easy to remember, and they still had weeks left before they went around to the grade schools to perform it.

"For one, Kwan only knows how to cross-stitch," Paulina explained like that fact shouldn't be some embarrassingly dark secret for her friend. "The last time I tried to get him to help me with sewing clothes was a disaster." She sighed out in exasperation as she remembered it. "And Dash mostly only sews teddy bears."

"Teddy bears?" Danny repeated with a skeptical raise of his eyebrow. "Why would he sew teddy bears?"

Paulina shrugged as she clipped the end of the thread. "He gives them to the children at the hospital when he visits."

"And why does he visit the hospital?" Danny's brow furrowed at this bizarre new information he was learning about the jock that he used to only think was nothing but a jerk.

"Oh." Paulina blinked at him like she just realized that she let slip top secret A list information to a loser. "Sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned anything about that. Forget I said anything." She held up the pink vest that would be for Dash's pig costume. The pink slacks were already finished. "Maybe I should have agreed to being a pig. Your dress is really cute."

Danny flushed at the mention of the dress. "Don't remind me," he groaned, looking forward to when they would be done with the play and he wouldn't have to worry about looking ridiculous in the dress.

It was embarrassing enough already simply remembering when his sister used to treat him like a dress up doll and make him join her for tea parties when they were children. Their photo albums were filled with tons of pictures of him wearing dresses, and he still hated that Jazz actually showed all of them to Tucker and Sam. Sighing, he lifted the vest he was working on up to take a look at it, and he wished again that Paulina hadn't learned that he knew how to sew clothes.

His blue eyes glanced toward the pair of jocks, and he frowned as he turned to Paulina. "Hey, um," he bit his lip. "Is everything okay with Kwan?" Danny felt silly asking, and it wasn't even his place to poke his nose into the jock's business. "I mean, outside of school and stuff. With his family." What he saw when he unwittingly hacked into Kwan's webcam still bothered him.

"Why do you ask?" Paulina eyed him, not quite able to look innocently baffled by his inquiry. "If you want to know something, why don't you just ask himself yourself?"

"I did ask, but he just said things were difficult because of his brother moving back in," Danny said as he made a quick glance toward the jock. "If anything was happening though, I doubt he would confess anything to me. I mean," he shrugged awkwardly, "I'm not his friend. But it's just - I-" He shook his head. "It's not my business. I know."

Paulina stared at him for a while before her mouth curved downward and her gaze slid away from him. "I guess we aren't really friends." She shrugged as her fingers traced over the smooth fabric of the pink vest. "But I thought we were all getting along pretty well since we ended up in this class together." Her brow pinched, putting wrinkles on her perfectly smooth forehead as she turned back to Danny. "Do you think we're jerks?" She chewed on her lower lip. "We dropped Valerie just because her father lost his job and she's not in the cool kids club anymore. We're bad people for caring only about our own social standing, aren't we?"

Danny nearly let the vest he was working on slip out of his hold and onto the floor. Her question shocked him, mostly because he couldn't believe Paulina would worry about something like that. "Paulina, you're like the queen of this school," he said seriously. "The most popular girl that has ever walked the halls of Casper High. Every guy in the school dreams of being able to date you."

"Well," Paulina said, glancing toward the two jocks, "not every guy."

Danny's face scrunched up in confusion as he followed her gaze. "What?"

A sly smirk spread onto Paulina's face as she inched a little closer to Danny. "Did you really think Dash just up and decided to stop bullying you for absolutely no reason?"

Danny's expression slowly fell into shock as he stared at Paulina. Tucker's earlier inquiry about crushes and if he liked any guys wiggled back into his mind. Danny turned his gaze toward Dash, recalling how the jock jumped in to stop Calvin from picking on him and his claim to keep Calvin from hurting him. Was it all because Dash developed feelings for him? Danny snapped his gaze away when Dash looked in his direction. He didn't know what to do with this information.

"I don't think it would work between us," Danny said, shaking his head.

"Is this because he used to bully you? Because Dash is a real sweetheart underneath it all."

"No." Danny shook his head. "Not completely. I mean, it's nice hearing that someone likes me. I don't get that a lot. Not the whole, like, crush thing. And maybe there is a little about him having picked on me a lot. But," he sighed, not even knowing what he was saying anymore. "I never really considered, you know, liking another guy, but I just don't think Dash and I would mesh well together." He could see the sadness entering Paulina's emerald eyes at his words. "Has he ever thought about Kwan though?" He glanced at the two friends, Kwan smiling as he listened to whatever Dash was saying.

"He seems pretty hung up on you," Paulina admitted. "And Kwan, well, he's never really shown interest in anyone. Though I will say, I'm so glad his date with Star ended pretty fast. I know she's part of the A list, but sometimes I just can't stand being around her."

"Which brings us back to what we talking about," Danny said, thankful for some excuse to escape the topic about Dash having a crush on him, because that was just too weird to think about at the moment. "You're like one of the biggest trendsetters in this school. You wear something, you do something, and immediately it becomes the next big thing that spreads through the school like wildfire."

"Please!" Paulina rolled her eyes. "If I came to school wearing some hideous outfit, I'd be laughed out of the A list."

Danny shook his head. "Nope. Don't believe that. I bet you come to school in the ugliest outfit you can throw together, and everyone will follow after you like little sheep."

Paulina opened her mouth, paused to think for a moment, then grinned with a look in her eyes that made Danny worry. "I'll take that bet. But with a few changes. I bet I can get Dash and Kwan to do the same. Tomorrow. And if I succeed, you have to come to school in a dress, or skirt, and wearing your pig wig for a week."

"Why do you hate me?" Danny stared flatly at her, wishing he never said anything.

"Oh, Danny, I never hated you." The sincerity in Paulina's voice actually shocked Danny.

"All right. Then if you get them to dress up tomorrow, you have to sit with us at lunch," Danny returned. "I can't say Sam will enjoy that, but Valerie would probably be happy to talk with you again."

Paulina suddenly yanked him into a hug. "Thanks, Danny."

"Uh, you're welcome," Danny mumbled in uncertainty when she released him. Paulina actually hugged him? Tucker was going to be jealous when he told his friend about that!

When the bell rang, they put away their materials for the costumes, which were almost completed with plenty of time for them to chill out during class and practice their play at their leisure until it was time for them to actually put on their performance for the first and second graders. As they left the classroom this time, Danny was overly aware of Dash nearly brush right against him on the way out the door. He rubbed at his head, trying to make sense of that. Dash liking him as anything but a punching bag was too strange to accept.

His remaining classes passed with little incident. He entered his final class of the day, and he gulped when his gaze locked for a moment with Lancer's green eyes. But his teacher said nothing to him and let him pass by on his way to his assigned seat. Lancer taught the class like everything was normal, though Danny was certain his teacher's gaze lingered frequently on him whenever Lancer glanced around the room while talking about their current reading material. At the last bell of the day, Danny was relieved to pack up his things and leave until he heard-

"Fenton, a word," Lancer said, stopping his student before Danny could leave the classroom with everyone else.

"Is there a problem?" Danny asked nervously when his teacher closed the door. He gulped as Lancer locked the door to keep any unwanted visitors from popping in during their talk.

"We didn't get much of a chance to discuss what happened yesterday," Lancer explained as he leaned against his desk. His arms folded over his rounded belly, and he stared down his nose at his student.

"Nothing to discuss there." Danny laughed shakily as he shifted awkwardly under his teacher's gaze. "As long as you don't go around screaming it for all of Amity Park to hear, there's nothing to talk about."

Lancer frowned, his expression becoming more concerned. "Daniel, this is a huge responsibility that's been placed upon you. I want you to know that I'm here for you if you ever need someone to talk to about this."

"I'll keep that in mind, Sir. But if that's all-" Danny eyed the door.

"Please don't brush me off like that, Daniel." Lancer's firm tone jerked Danny's attention back to his teacher. "I'm very concerned about this. Daniel," he pushed away from his desk and placed his hands on his student's shoulders, "do you even understand how it pains me to know that you're out there risking your life to fight viruses? That you're getting hurt and keeping all of this a secret from everyone? There are people who care about you. Have you considered what they would feel if one of those viruses seriously injured or killed you? Do you know how much that would hurt those that love you?"

"I-" Danny hesitated, lowering his gaze. "I know that, Sir. I just - Having someone in the know about this is all very new to me. I thought keeping it secret would protect the people I care about." He sighed heavily with the strange sense of his world suddenly unraveling from meeting Vlad to Valerie getting her suit to Tucker finding out the truth. Now Lancer knew. He felt like something horrible was about to hit to blow his cover to the whole world.

"That thing yesterday," Lancer said, frowning as he recalled the incident in his office. "Does that happen often?"

Danny shook his head. "First time I've been hit with an EMP. I still don't really understand why it shut me down like that."

Lancer wrapped an arm around his body as he stroked his chin in thought. "And you obviously can't ask about this sort of thing to your parents. Is there," his mouth thinned, "anyone on the NetZone that might be able to help you understand more about what happened to you?"

Danny opened his mouth then hesitated, wondering how much he should tell Lancer. "There is," he winced, "someone like me. But we didn't exactly get off to a good start when we met. I wouldn't be surprised if he hates me. But he said something pretty awful to me when we first met, and I might not have reacted all that well to it."

"But he's like you?"

"Yeah." Danny refused to meet his teacher's gaze.

"I won't ask any details, Daniel," Lancer assured him. "But if he's like you, it might be best for you to open a line of communication with him. If he knows things about your condition, he might be able to help you figure out things you don't understand about yourself."

The corners of his mouth dipped as Danny continued staring at the floor. "Actually, that was the whole reason I went to meet him at all. He was supposed to help teach me about my powers. But then he said... stuff, and things got all messed up between us." He bit down hard on his tongue, definitely not wanting to repeat what Vlad told him about how living outside the NetZone was killing him to his teacher.

"Have you thought of things from his perspective?" Lancer returned to leaning against his desk.

"What?" Danny lifted his head to blink blankly at his teacher.

Lancer sighed tiredly. "I imagine before you showed up, he thought he was the only one with this power." He gestured to his student with one hand. "Even if he's interacted with other programs, or even viruses, he surely wouldn't feel like he belongs there. And having to keep it secret from the rest of the populace would leave him feeling rather lonely. You should understand that feeling as well. Even if you had your friends always at your side, I imagine you still felt a distance with them, not being able to talk about everything going on with you."

Danny lowered his eyes, realizing what Lancer meant. He got frustrated plenty of times when he had to keep himself from telling Tucker and Sam about his experiences with viruses and in the NetZone. Vlad had it worse, isolated in his domain on the NetZone and severing his ties with his old friends. It must have been very lonely living like that for over two decades.

"I guess I didn't really consider that. I was," Danny rubbed at the back of his neck, "just really angry about what he said. I've been acting like a real child around him ever since." He didn't realize that until Cujo forced his way between them during their glaring match after Valerie got sucked into the NetZone with him.

"My suggestion is that you try to resolve whatever issues you have with him," Lancer offered. "I know you've done quite well by yourself so far fighting as Phantom, but if this other person can help you learn anything more about what happened to you and about the things you can do with these powers, then I really think it's for the best that you talk to him. I have faith in your natural abilities, but having someone there to guide you can help you reach your potential far better than simply stumbling through things on your own."

Sometimes, Danny really hated when figures of authority were right, but he knew Lancer had a good point. Danny let his own anger blind him to the fact that he did need Vlad's help to learn more about himself and train his skills to better fight against the viruses.

"Yeah, I think I'll try talking to him right away." Danny shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Um, thanks, Mr. Lancer. For, well, everything really. I'm really glad to have you as my teacher." He had a sense of déjà vu, remembering how things ended yesterday in his teacher's office before the EMP.

Lancer smiled as he walked over to the door and unlocked it. "And I'm honored to have such a bright and wonderful student like you, Daniel."

An embarrassed blush colored Danny's cheeks as he bobbed an awkward nod to his teacher. When Lancer opened the door for him, Danny left the classroom. Having made the decision to go meet Vlad, he felt nervous about actually going through with it. He wasn't exactly the nicest person in the world to Vlad. What if the man refused to listen to an apology? Danny sighed, hoping by some miracle things would work out in the end.

Sammi: Who knows? 8D

maltese: He totally is! =D Woo, awesome Valerie! Poor Tuck, he tried to look all cool in front of Val by standing up to the bullies, then he has the whole freak out over Danny.

Just Will: Val volunteers for that! XD Dash and Pauline probably will too. But being weird and excitable is part of what makes Lancer great! 8D I love how much he cares for his students, but sadly, his students treat him so badly. =( Haha, yeah, about the only person other than Lancer and Tetslaff that's mentioned by name at the school in the show is Principal Ishiyama, but she barely shows up. I swear Lancer actually runs the entire school. No! Keep the Shamalamadingdong away from our Danny Phantom! D: I always kind of thought that the ghost sense was something that all ghosts had, and they just made it come out like that to indicate Danny sensing a ghost present. Hm, I thought in that episode, Danny felt cold because Spectra was keeping the temperature super low in the school. But it's been ages since I've watched My Brother's Keeper. Phantom Pulse! That sounds like a pretty cool name for an attack. XD If only Lancer knew earlier! Maybe he would have been more lenient toward Danny about getting things in on time.

midnight: Thanks! =)

DB-KT: I have terrible memory too. XD;; Oh no! D: Is your computer okay? He's going! He's going! XD

swagdanny: Funny you should mention that.

starsinjars: I forgot about Code Lyoko! Man, I haven't seen that in ages. XD;; Haha, yeah, Megaman and Tron are, like, big influences with this story. =)