Karen Manson is a normal girl; that is, up until her fourteenth birthday. Contains OC's. Rated for cursing and violence later on. R&R no flames please!
Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom. I never have, I never will. Get over it.
Note: Italics Karen's thoughts
"In Quotes"talking/page headings
Chapter Four: Mementos
"A photo album?" I said out loud. It was large, with a teal cover and the words Pictures of Memories printed on it in magenta. "Why would Mom hide a photo album from me?" I considered putting it back in the cabinet, but curiosity got the better of me. I opened it.
I turned the page and came upon a large picture with three people standing in front of the camera making goofy faces. There was a big hall in the background and a banner reading "Congratulations!" At the top of the page Mom had written "My Bat Mitzvah Party, age 13." Underneath the picture it read, "The three of us fooling around with the photographer :)."
There were more pictures like that for the next few pages. She and her friends looked happy, all smiling and having a good time. The girl in all the pictures was clearly Mom, but I couldn't identify who the two guys were. One of them was black, wearing glasses and a red beret, and the other had black hair and piercing blue eyes. Another picture broke off from the series, though it was clearly still the Bat Mitzvah party. Someone had taken a picture of Mom and the boy with the black hair dancing together. They looked cute together, although my bet was that they both got really pissed off at whoever took the picture and tried to snatch the camera out of the person's hands. Underneath Mom had written "Me and Danny slow-dancing."
Oh my God.
The boy with the black hair was Danny.
Danny Fenton.
MY FATHER.
Oh God oh God oh God oh God oh God oh God, I thought in a panic. It's Danny. It's Danny. Holy shit, it's DANNY! Oh God, oh God, oh God. OK, breathe, Karen, breathe. Oh God oh God oh God. Holy shit, what am I gonna do!
I tried to breathe, but my lungs didn't seem to be working. Calm down, I told myself, calm down. It's all right, it'll be all right. Eventually, I felt the lead weight being removed from my chest. I inhaled and exhaled deeply. I could breathe again. After I was sure I wouldn't have a second panic attack, I kept looking at the photo album. I flipped through the pages without much interest. I didn't care about family photos or middle school field trips. I wanted to find more pictures of Danny.
Eventually, I got lucky. One of the pages had a bunch of photos taped on it. The heading above it read "Danny's Parents' Lab." Mom, Danny, and Tucker (I could only assume the other guy in the photos was Tucker) were all laughing, looking like they were having a good time, same as the Bat Mitzvah party. One of the pictures had the three of them all in a line. Danny, Mom and Tucker were standing in a line, and Mom was standing between the two guys with her hands on both their shoulders. It was the only photo there of what Mom and Danny looked like standing still.
Do I look like either one of them? I suddenly thought. I stared at the picture. I had black hair, but both of them did. I looked almost exactly like Mom did when she was my age: slim and with no chest to speak of. But I kept my hair longer, and I didn't have her eyes. Hers were small and lavender while mine were large and light blue. According to the photo, at least, I had gotten Danny's eyes. They were filled a kind of goofiness that would appeal to any girl looking for a fun, carefree boyfriend. I didn't have that, though. Just not a quality I possessed. I wondered if I had gotten anything else from him.
The next picture all by itself on the page. Danny was standing in front of a large circle that had a lot of wires poking out of it, holding some kind of weird cloth...thing. The heading read "Danny Phantom." Wait, what? I turned the page.
The pictures on the next pages made no sense. They were all of some boy with white hair doing really random poses. Was he flying? I couldn't tell. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second, what is this? Who is this boy?
On the next page, Mom had taped a bunch of newspaper clippings. The largest one read "Ghost Kid Declared Public Ghost Enemy #1!" "Ghost Kid"? No, this is impossible, ghosts don't exist. And even if they did, why does Mom have a zillion clippings? What the hell is going on here? The boy in the clippings was the boy in the pictures on the last page, he had to be. But why would Mom have a bunch of old newspaper articles? She wouldn't—
I froze. What if...no, it couldn't be...could it?
I turned back to the last few pictures. I took one of the pictures of the boy with the white hair. Then I took the picture of Mom, Danny, and Tucker standing in a line. I held the two pictures up side by side. No, it can't be—
"Karen?"
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Hi, sorry I didn't update sooner, but I've been super-busy because school just started and I have homework and...blah blah blah, you know the drill. But here it is! The next chapter! Review, but please no flames!