It had now been a few days since the incident with Skulker and Danny's attitude didn't get any better. Instead, it was getting worse. He was starting to become more distant and more to himself. Whenever Sam, Tucker, or Jazz asked him if he was okay, he would vehemently deny that anything was wrong. Whenever he was Phantom, he would become more aggressive and would pull fewer punches toward other ghosts. He didn't even try to make one-liners or jokes. He just fought them and made sure they regretted their choices.
In other words, Danny was on a downhill spiral, and he didn't even know it.
Someone who did notice Danny's new behavior was Mr. Lancer, Danny's high school teacher and the vice-principal at Casper High. From the pre-accident era to the post-accident era, Lancer knew something was going on with Danny. He went from a B student to a C/D student to a B/C student in the space of a year. He went from doing his work on time and passing quizzes and tests to not completing his assignments at all and bombing most of his quizzes and tests.
Lancer knew that wasn't normal and now, although Danny's grades have improved, his attitude had not and today he was going to try to get to the bottom of it.
After teaching a half-asleep classroom about literature, the bell rang, and he let all the students leave. Everyone except Danny.
"Daniel, I need you to stay here for a moment. Don't worry, I'll write you a tardy pass. Take a seat." said Lancer.
Danny grabbed a chair and sat down in front of Lancer's desk.
"Am I in trouble?" asked Danny.
"No, Daniel. I'm not punishing you. I just want to ask you some questions because your change in attitude has been somewhat concerning to me. I wanted to ask you if…" Lancer said before Danny interrupted him.
"That's you in a dress." Danny said as his eyes were on the picture on Lancer's desk.
"What?" asked Lancer.
"That picture on your desk. Your 'sister'. It's just you wearing a dress." said Danny.
"Why yes. Yes, it is. You are the first student to realize this. I'm surprised it took this long for someone to notice." said Lancer.
"More proof of how stupid the people of Amity Park are." Danny wanted to say but he kept it to himself.
"Lancer, are…are you into drag?" asked Danny.
"What? No! I…we're getting off-topic. I want to ask you about your recent behavior." said Lancer.
"What about it?" replied Danny.
"Is there anything going on at home that I should know about?" asked Lancer.
"No. I know my parents aren't the most normal out there but they're not abusive. I don't know why everyone comes up with that conclusion." said Danny. Technically, they did attack him when he was Phantom, but he wasn't about to tell Lancer that.
"Daniel, are you telling me the truth?" asked Lancer.
"Yes, I'm telling you the truth. Why are you trying to interrogate me?" Danny said in an aggressive tone. Lancer knew Danny was lying through his teeth but he continued on.
"Daniel, you've undergone a someone drastic change in the last few months. Your attitude, your body language, your hair." said Lancer.
"Oh, so my hair is now a red flag for you?!" Danny yelled.
"Daniel, please calm down. All I want to do is ask you if anything is going on in your life. And if something is going on, you can tell me. I won't tell anyone else. I just want to help you if you're going through anything. Believe me, I was a teenager once. Anything you're going through, I've gone through." said Lancer.
This caused Danny to laugh and say, "Really? Are you sure about that?"
"Daniel, that wasn't meant to be a joke." said Lancer.
"It's a joke to me because you have NO IDEA what I'm going through." said Danny.
"Then tell me what's wrong." said Lancer.
"You know what, something is wrong. Many things are wrong in my life. I have to deal with shit no teenager should ever deal with. For over a year, I've had to lie to everyone I know just to protect them. I've had to deal with ghosts never leaving me alone because of my parents' stupid ghost portal. I've had to literally kill myself to protect this town on a daily basis!" Danny yelled.
"Daniel, what are you saying?" asked a very concerned Lancer.
"You want to know why I changed? You want to know why I suddenly became such a terrible student? You want to know why Danny Fenton disappears every time Danny Phantom shows up to save the day?" Danny asked because he impulsively transformed into his alter-ego, right in front of Lancer.
Lancer was in stunned silence. Fenton was Phantom the entire time and he never even realized it. He tried to say something, but the shock was too much.
Danny then transformed back into his human self and said, "That's why", before taking the tardy slip and walking out of the classroom.
"Fenton is Phantom. That explains so much. How did I not see it before?" Lancer said to himself before putting his hands on his head.
Danny walked straight to his next class, not even thinking about what he had just done. Deep down he knew what he did was extremely reckless, but he simply didn't care. He just wanted to get through the rest of the school day without people annoying him.
Unfortunately, almost right on cue, Wes Weston had to show up to ruin Danny's day. Wes Weston was in the same class as Danny and he was one of the only people in Amity Park to put 2 and 2 together when it came to Fenton and Phantom. But because of the way he tried to explain himself, no one took him seriously and he was labeled a crazy conspiracy theorist.
"Danny, what happened in Lancer's classroom?" asked Wes.
"Fuck off, Wes." replied Danny.
"I heard you talking about protecting people and how you disappear when Phantom shows up. You mind telling me more?" asked Wes, who refused to get the message that Danny didn't want to talk to him.
Danny made sure Wes got the message by yelling, "I said FUCK OFF, WES!"
Danny's tone made Wes walk away fast and Danny walked right into Gym class.
"Danny, you good?" asked Tucker.
"Just peachy." Danny said sarcastically.
Today, the class was playing dodgeball and while Danny would try to act wimpy so no one would suspect anything, today was different. Danny decimated everyone who wasn't on his team, hitting them unnecessarily hard with the ball. And he made sure Dash got hit the hardest, by throwing the ball right at his chest, knocking the wind out of him.
Ms. Tetslaff, the Gym teacher, was extremely impressed and asked Danny when he suddenly got so good at dodgeball. Danny basically told her he'd been working out recently (which wasn't even a lie) and she didn't ask any more questions.
Danny waited until the other guys were out of the locker room before he took a shower because he liked the privacy. While showering, he was able to think about exposing his secret identity to Lancer.
"Damnit! Why did I tell Lancer I was Phantom? God, that was so stupid. Now, he's going to tell everyone else, and my life is going to get even worse. But…the way he looked at me. It wasn't anger, it was shock and sadness. He probably feels sorry for me. And while Lancer can be an asshole, he wouldn't sell out one of his students. Maybe he won't be a problem." Danny said as he continued to shower.
When he got out and put on his normal clothes, he made it through the rest of his classes before he was able to leave. But before he could leave, Lancer stopped him again and gave him a card with his number on it.
"In case you need someone to talk to, I'm here. You can talk to me on the phone or in my office. I'm proud of you, Daniel." Lancer said before he allowed Danny to leave.
So now Lancer knew, and he was cool with him being Phantom. That's one problem gone. But he still had many more problems to deal with and the longer those problems persisted, the faster Danny would sink into darkness.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. So, Danny's frustration led him to reveal his alter-ego to Lancer. Don't worry, Lancer won't rat him out to the Guys In White and Danny won't use his angry attitude against Lancer. Also, the whole 'Lancer in a dress' thing was taken directly from the episode 'Teacher of the Year'. When I watched that episode, my immediate thought was 'Damn. This town is dumber than I thought.'. And yes, I added Wes (a very minor character the Phandom (ha!) popularized) because I thought he would fit in. The next chapter will deal with Danny talking to his parents and the chapter after that will deal with Vlad, I'm excited to write that one. Updates will sporadic (due to college), but they'll still come, so stay tuned. Other than that, I hope you all have a wonderful day. Bye for now and stay safe.