Danny shifted nervously from foot to foot as he stood backstage. The school auditorium. That was always fun. So many bad things had come out of the auditorium or happened in the auditorium, Danny shivered. This wouldn't be the worst thing that happened, but he figured that it would stick in his memory for a long time.
Maddie would be on stage soon, announcing to the world her big achievement. Everyone was on the edge of their seats it seemed. It had been a while since anyone had seen Danny Phantom after all and Maddie had alluded that he was involved with this announcement. Danny chewed on a hangnail as he waited for the stupid press conference to start.
Maddie came around the corner in a teal dress. It was professional, giving a no nonsense look, while simultaneously achieving the effect of being elegant. Jack was behind her looking rather uncomfortable in a black suit with an orange shirt.
"Here, let me fix that." Maddie busied herself over Danny's tie, which, due to his nervousness, had been tied backwards. She fixed it quickly, expertly retying it for him before she continued fussing over Danny's appearance, slicking back a stray hair with the universal solvent/gel, mom spit. Danny made a face and tried to slip out of her grip, but her hand was strong and unwavering, holding him still while she made sure he was presentable.
"Ready?' Maddie asked when she had deemed him acceptable, looking him in the eye with what was supposed to be a reassuring gaze.
"No." Danny snorted and rolled his eyes, Maddie frowned at him and then shook her head at his teenage antics.
"Well, that will have to do anyway." She gave him a quick pat on the shoulder before she moved out and onto the stage with Jack to discuss their new invention and how it may change and shape the scientific ghost community in the future.
"Greetings Amity Park. It is with great news that we have assembled you here tonight. You may have noticed something missing from our town, a lack of a key element that makes Amity Park famous as the Most Haunted Place on Earth. But tonight my husband, Jack Fenton, and I would like to share with you the results of our efforts in converting ectoplasm to real world matter."
She began to explain the Promethean gun and the science behind the conversion, showing slides and different diagrams before showing videos of their experiment. Danny didn't really care about the science, all he knew was that it had severely fucked him up. Maddie's voice trailed off as Danny tuned her out, playing with his hands and trying to stop his heart from pounding so loudly. He felt the blood rush to his head and began feeling a bit woozy.
"Hey, you alright?" came a familiar voice. Danny shook his head and looked for the source of the voice, smiling as he realized Sam and Tucker had snuck backstage to see him. Sam was holding a glass of water and Tucker was holding some ibuprofen. Danny's face lit up as he saw then and he quickly approached.
"Man am I glad to see you two." He wrapped them both in a large hug, squeezing them close to him, he hadn't realized exactly how much he had missed the two of them until they were in front of him again. He didn't want to let go.
"Water! Danny, I'm holding water!" Sam reminded him as the glass sloshed a little. Danny backed up, smiling at them, his eyes shining with happy tears.
"You can't imagine what it's been like! My parents are driving me crazy, they have all these questions and it doesn't help that they're out there looking for my human half! I have no way to prove to them I'm me… I think if I tried… they'd think I was bluffing or trying to be manipulative. They don't completely trust me just because I'm human… though they are trying." Danny sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Tucker handed over the ibuprofen as Sam handed him the glass of water.
"Nor can you imagine what it's been like with you gone. I actually went shopping with my mom due to boredom." Sam joked, "It's not the same… but the horror factor and frustration is still there."
"Unfortunately with you gone, Dash has picked me as his new favorite punching bag." Tucker admitted, "nothing I can't handle of course, but still, I miss you dude." He cracked a smile trying to lighten the mood, Danny's jaw clenched with anger.
"I can't believe him." Danny hissed, his hand tightening around the glass. "He's such… such an asshole."
"Danny calm down, it's not your fault." Sam insisted.
"Besides, you have bigger things to worry about right now." Tucker reminded him. Danny nodded, conceding the point and finally popped the ibuprofen into his mouth before downing the glass of water.
"Random observation, but I don't think I've ever seen you with your hair slicked back." Tucker cracked a grin, looking up at Danny's fancy hairdo.
"You kinda remind me of Jack." Sam added with a nod as she looked at him, Danny choked on his water.
"My father? How?" Danny managed to cough out.
"No, Jack Dawson, you know Titanic? When he had his hair all slicked back at the party." Sam clarified, Danny continued coughing.
"Didn't know you were into chick flicks Sam." Tucker raised an eyebrow. Sam punched him in the arm.
"Shut up Tucker, I know you cried while watching it, you don't hear me rubbing that into your face." Sam glared. Tucker rubbed his arm.
"Point, painfully, taken." He moaned as Danny took a deep breath and tried to recover from inhaling water.
"I really appreciate *cough* you guys sneaking back *cough* here like this." Danny sputtered.
"Dude, that's what friends do." Tucker stated Sam nodded in agreement. Maddie's speech continued to drone in the background, Jack adding bits and pieces as they went along.
"Any idea what's gonna happen after this?" Sam gestured toward the stage, Danny nodded.
"I'll be attending Casper High, for the time being, I'm staying with my parents, for research purposes. They've put me in the guest room, I've got a separate set of clothes, a new toothbrush, deodorant, underwear, everything. It's insane." Danny sighed, "Everything is the same yet different, I can't go to my room, Dad keeps giving me looks… like he pities me or something.. Mom thinks I'm going to destabilize at any minute… Which honestly is not that comforting of a thought." Danny ran his hand along the back of his neck, "I would go to the ghost zone and confront Clockwork and ask why he didn't warn me about this… but the problem is my parents put the portal on lock down until further notice. My DNA signature doesn't completely match my old one, I mean it's close, but the scanner just ends up confused and it's not helpful." he sighed before talking again.
"At least the portal being locked means that there has been a distinct lack of unfriendlies… but that won't last forever, I'm not sure what I'll do when they open it up and ghost attacks start all over again. I'm painfully human, stuck as my alter ego and unable to do anything!" He said his voice rising a bit on the last word before he sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"Sounds rough." Tucker sympathized and put a hand on his shoulder while Sam put her hand on his other one. Danny looked up at them and nodded.
"On the bright side we'll be seeing a lot more of you." Sam tried to point out the bright side to keep Danny from spiraling, he sighed and shook his head looking down at his shoes.
"Yeah, but I'm a missing person in my own home. I'm surprised mom hasn't made a gadget to hunt Fenton down yet. Or perhaps she has and it can't find me because I'm not exactly me… UGH this is a disaster." Danny growled.
"I'm surprised you haven't gone crazy yet." Tucker remarked, earning an elbow to the stomach from Sam.
"If I thought about it the whole time, I would have, I've just been avoiding the whole topic really. Trying not to think about it, it's worked fairly well so far." Danny sighed, Jazz wandered up to the trio.
"Hey Sam, Hey Tucker… How'd you get back here, I thought there were guards to keep that from happening." Jazz wondered. "Oh nevermind, you probably found a way to distract them, I'm sure Danny could use your company anyway."
"Jeez Jazz, don't sound so happy to see us." Sam teased, Jazz rolled her eyes; she too was wearing a nice dress.
"Of course I'm happy to see you, that doesn't make the fact that you're here right now wrong. I'm glad you're here, but you guys could get into trouble." Jazz replied offhandedly.
"Bribed the guard." Sam admitted, "There are definitely perks to being the deli cellophane toothpick twirling heiress"
"Impressive." Jazz said with a nod. "Though much less violent than expected."
"Not sure how I feel about that being my reputation… but it's not bad." Sam shrugged.
Danny, Mom is building up to her big climax here soon, so Sam and Tucker should probably head out if they don't want to get caught." Jazz advised. Danny nodded and then turned to Sam and Tucker.
"I have to go… and Jazz is right… you should go." Danny said, not wanting his friends to leave just yet.
"We are here you know, we did hear everything Jazz said." Sam teased him, playfully punching his shoulder.
"I think I'll record you, just in case you say anything embarrassing I can use for black mail later." Tucker joked receiving a chuckle from Danny and a gagging noise from Sam.
"But enough about science… Presenting to you…" Maddie's voice drifted over their conversation.
"Good luck." Tucker nodded as they two shuffled away.
Danny stepped through the curtain. The entire room went silent.
"Danny Phantom." Maddie finished, holding her hand out to present Danny.
The shocked silence continued, there were a few awkward coughs and Danny lifted a hand and waved timidly.
"Uh… hi. I'm Danny Phantom… not so Phantom anymore though…" Danny managed, trailing off awkwardly.
The silence stretched for a few more seconds, before people realized what this meant. Suddenly chaos erupted, there seemed to be a lot of flashing lights all of a sudden and Danny blinked, his mind felt disconnected from his body as he moved slowly toward his mother as people all talked at once, some excited some not so much. Danny half hid behind Maddie, wanting to take the attention of himself.
"Questions?" Maddie prompted, gently pushing Danny out from behind her and making him stand beside her. Danny felt like there were a million hands in the audience. The first fourteen or so questions were actually directed toward his mother and father, asking about science or ethics. Danny spaced out, staring at the ceiling and wishing he could still go invisible so he could vanish and fly out of there. He jerked back to reality as Maddie nudged him
"Sorry what?" Danny tried to focus on the person holding the microphone through the blinding stage lights.
"Who is going to protect us from the ghosts now?" Danny could tell it was a male, probably high school age, maybe even Dash, Danny blinked, unsure what to say exactly, he hadn't expected to be asked any questions, Maddie gently pulled him to the podium to use the microphone and answer.
"Um… well… there is the Red Huntress… uh… the Guys in White… the Fentons… other ghost hunters or whatever…" Danny shuffled awkwardly on stage, the lights were making him sweat, or maybe it was the stress, either way he felt uncomfortably moist.
"Who were your parents before you died? Are the Fentons your parents now?" Another voice, they ignored the microphone and opted to shout instead, Danny shaded his eyes from the stage lights and looked into the crowd.
"I… uh… I'm not sure I feel comfortable answering that… the Fentons have taken me in, yes, but I wouldn't say they view themselves as my parents." Danny chose his words carefully, he didn't want to outright lie for some reason, even though he had no qualms about it in the past. The microphone squeaked causing the room to wince, another person with a question.
"What was it like being dead?" the voice asked. Danny frowned, he hadn't realized that people would be so insensitive and nosy.
"Why do you care?" Danny glared into the crowd before sighing. "It was different and the same… it's complicated. I had this feeling of being disconnected from the world… yet I was still apart of it. I don't know how to describe it." he answered, mostly prompted by the nudge Maddie had given him.
"Can you show us your powers?" came another inquiry, Danny scoffed audibly and rolled his eyes.
"I… I'm human now, I don't have powers, I'm not a ghost. Did you even listen to the whole spiel Maddie and Jack gave?" Danny frowned wondering how people could be so stupid. It seemed now that one person had dared to ask him a question, the rest decided to follow.
"How did you die?" This question was the one Danny had actually been expecting, not that it made it any better how nosy they were.
"Electrocution.I made the mistake of being electrocuted." Danny snarked with a roll of his eyes. "Any more insensitive questions?" he snapped.
"How can we know for sure you are Danny Phantom?" came a pessimistic voice, once again this question was shouted instead of using the microphone.
"I suppose you only have my word, or the word of the Fentons." Danny shrugged, "Personally I really don't care if you believe me, look can I go now?" he asked looking over at Maddie who frowned and shook her head. He sighed.
This grilling session continued for a few more minutes, some more mundane questions asked, like his favorite color, how being human felt, if he was single. The torture continued, Danny could feel his skin growing hot under the lights and the attention and the pressure.
Eventually his mom saved him by redirecting the conference, she talked about their future plans to enroll Phantom is school and keep an eye on him while also talking about the science and where future inquiries could be directed. She mentioned that legal action would be taken against any reporters of ecto-scientists who bothered Phantom without going through the proper channels with her or Jack first.
As the conference wrapped up, there was a short time where people were allowed to come by and talk to the Fentons, or to Phantom as he stood there, his arms folded petulantly over his chest. A long parade of people came by shaking his hand, Danny was sure Dash and Kwan had passed, Paulina tried to kiss him, to which Danny responded to mechanically, ecto-scientists ask for a sample of his blood or his hair, to which Maddie shooed them off, saying that Danny wasn't to be experimented upon; a fact which Danny found immensely ironic.
Everything wrapped up quickly or perhaps it had taken forever, Danny wasn't sure, he was in a bit of a daze by then. Upset about having to answer stupid questions from a bunch of humans who could in actuality care less about him. He put a hand to his head, did he just separate himself from humans? He was half human even before becoming human, were had that thought come from exactly? He didn't know, it was a bit troubling, why were his thoughts more ghost-like even though he had become fully human? He spent the reset of the night puzzling over this thought.
Danny vaguely remembered the trip home and found himself in the guest room getting dressed for bed by the time he felt himself come back to awareness. He had been dissociating a lot lately, Jazz would probably say it was a defense mechanism to manage his emotions as he adjusted to this new reality. As he slipped into pajamas and lay on the bed staring at the unfamiliar ceiling Jazz walked into the room.
"Hey… how are you holding up little brother?" Jazz took a seat next to Danny lying back to look at the ceiling as well. Danny was quiet for a moment as he stared at the paint patterns above him.
"Life sucks." He managed. It was Jazz's turn to be silent. The two lay on the bed for a while longer; the motion-activated porch light outside went on casting an orange glow into the room.
"You start school tomorrow?" Jazz stated it more as a question than a statement, Danny sighed, Jazz wanted him to talk obviously, he wasn't sure what to say, there was too much rattling around in his head.
"I know." He sat up and stared out the window. Jazz wanted to prompt him but instead settled with giving him some time to think and decide if he wanted to talk. It was quiet for a few minutes before Danny finally decided to speak.
"It's times like this when I would go flying to clear my head, to make sense of everything, to escape the confines of my room and…" Danny choked up, "I miss it. There have been times when I've wanted nothing more than to be human again… fully and truly human. I've got that now… but it's messed everything up and I hate it. This isn't how I wanted it to go, this isn't what I wanted. I'm just so frustrated with everything." Danny shoved off the bed and began pacing, "I feel like I've been stuffed into a box, I want to scream or maybe cry and I can't… I can't do anything about my situation. I feel trapped in my own skin in this single human form! I hate this!" The frustration on his face was evident, Jazz sat up with a heavy sigh.
"I don't know what to say Danny." Jazz couldn't offer anything to make the situation any better. Danny gave a mirthless laugh.
"Well it's not often you're found speechless." He commented with an attempt to grin, which faltered horribly and he shook his head before looking down at his hands.
"You're dealing with a lot, but I'm glad you opened up to me. I know that there isn't much I can do to help you, but airing your grievances does help you emotionally. I'm always available if you want to talk, it can help you sort out your thoughts and emotions." She said as she put a hand on his shoulder and kissed his temple.
"Gross." Danny made a face and pushed her away halfheartedly.
"Try and get some sleep, you've got a long day ahead of you." Jazz stood and headed toward the door.
"Yeah, I know." Danny sighed but continued pacing as Jazz left. He glanced around the room, familiar and yet alien. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat, trying to make sense of anything. He was struck with a sudden idea, he could re-create the portal incident. The idea festered in his mind, he gave a small manic grin at the thought, and it would be easy right? He'd died before, it would be easy to die in there again. The shock of becoming human had been as bad as the portal accident after, he could stand that kind of pain once more.
Danny shook his head realizing that it may not work, nor did he know if he'd be able to exactly recreate the accident, never mind that it would probably just reverse the appearance of his human and ghost halves. He wanted things to go back to normal, not make his human half into his ghost half. It would be too complicated to pull off in the end, not to mention, despite his morbid thoughts, he didn't really want to go through that kind of pain again.
Danny sighed sitting on the bed once more. He swung his legs aimlessly, he couldn't think, couldn't be still. He couldn't fix anything and he didn't even want to begin thinking about what his first day at school as Danny Phantom would be like… that is if anyone believed he was Danny Phantom. He thought about what Tucker had said about Dash using him as a punching bag now that Fenton was missing and anger bubbled up inside him again and he returned to pacing the floor. There was a soft knock on the door before Maddie entered the room.
"I brought you some sleeping pills, I figured you'd need them." She held two small blue pills in one hand, and a glass of water in the other. Danny let out a long sigh and nodded, taking the pills from her. Giving him drugs seemed to be the going rate of comfort these days, he thought grimly as he washed the pills down with water.
"Thanks… I've got too many thoughts to sleep." He said, and gave her a weak smile. As angry as he was, it was useless to take his anger out on her after all.
Maddie parted in silence and Danny returned to the pacing. A million thoughts raced through his head, most of which he couldn't pin down. His brain never lingered on one subject for more than a second or two before another one popped up. School, parents, ghosts, Clockwork, Lancer, experiments, lots of painful experiments, the portal, his foolishness for being on the roof that had led to him being attacked by his mother, his anger, ghost attacks, what to do about those ghost attacks when they came back, dogs, Cujo specifically, Dash, Paulina, Sam, healing rate, homework… each new thought tormenting him as the clock ticked by the minutes and the hours.
Eventually he slowed his pacing, yawning and lying down on the bed. His brain was still racing, yet somehow he found himself falling asleep, his breathing slowing as the drugs took effect and he began to dream. It was slow at first, darkness came, then there was a soft glow in the distance and he found himself walking down an endless winding path.
The tiles along the path were a glowing purple color, and the path itself seemed to be immune to the laws of gravity, it turned and twisted and corkscrewed and plummeted, but Danny continued walking on the path, despite the fact that it didn't make sense.
The rest of the terrain didn't exist, for miles around there was only blackness, the only light seemed to emit from the bricks themselves. Occasionally Danny thought he could make out a door at the end of the path. For some reason he felt as if he reached the end. For some reason he knew if he could make it through that door, then everything would turn out ok.
Prompted by this thought Danny began to run toward the door, but it continued to be perilously out of reach. The path began breaking up under his feet prompting Danny to run faster and faster till he was gasping for breath. The breakdown of the glowing path however, was faster than he was and soon Danny found himself slipping from stone to stone before falling into nothing. His heart was racing, he continued falling, faster and faster, the seemingly endless darkness around him.
Below him he could see fragments of purple stone hitting a reflective surface, as he stared downward he saw his own reflection coming into view, but not the one he had grown used to over the past week. Black hair and blue eyes greeted him, seeing his human self however, did not cause any sense of relief, his own reflection grew quickly until he hit the surface, shattering it. His whole body hurt, everything was dark, there was a shrill noise reminding him to do something, reminding him of something important, something was wrapped around his abdomen dragging him down, making it hard to breathe. He was being attacked! He needed to break free, to transform and fight back!
The shrill ringing continued growing louder and closer and the ability to breathe became harder until with a gasping breath Danny was aware that he was hanging upside down from the bed, the blankets wrapped around his body the only thing that kept him from falling off completely, but were also what made him feel like he was being suffocated. The lilac rug of the guest room was inches from his eye, his forehead firmly planted in the ground, despite the blankets tying him to the bed. The shrill ringing he had heard in his dream was his alarm clock.
Disentangling himself from the bedding Danny managed to make it to the ground, where he gathered deep breaths of admittedly dusty air. The sun was barely over the horizon, the smell of eggs and bacon wafted into the room from downstairs. Danny hauled himself to his feet becoming aware that he was shaking badly, the dream or the nightmare had really given him a fright. His trembling hands took three attempts to turn the alarm off; upon success, he made his way out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom, the wall lending its support in his plight. He gripped the rim of the sink as he stared into the mirror. Nothing had changed; he was still stuck as a human Phantom.
Slowly he splashed cold water on his face as if it would wrestle his shaking limbs and pounding heart under control.
After about a minute or so his hands regained their steadiness. He looked back into the mirror, strands of white hair were plastered to his forehead, deep green eyes stared back at him. Danny turned away from the mirror and made his way back to the guest room, taking his time getting dressed and grabbing his new backpack before heading downstairs. His slow descent gave him time to completely calm himself from the strange nightmare.
His stomach gave out a large growl as the smell of breakfast assaulted his senses when he entered the kitchen. Maddie gave him a smile and gestured to a plate that she had already fixed for him.
As Danny took a seat Maddie scraped the last of the eggs onto a separate plate for Jazz, before she sat down with a mug of coffee in the chair across from him.
"We'll have to leave in about 20 minutes or so, wouldn't want you to miss your first day of school." Maddie was disgustingly cheerful for so early in the morning. Danny swallowed some eggs.
"That truly would be a tragedy." Danny rolled his eyes, his words dripping with sarcasm. Maddie shook her head slightly at him as he ate his breakfast.
Jack joined them shortly, smiling at Danny and giving him a small pat on the back before eating the mountain of eggs and bacon Maddie had made for him. He heaped ingredients onto his favorite Jack Fenton toast and then looked over at Danny.
"First day of school huh kiddo? How are you feeling?" Jack asked.
"Annoyed… What kid loves going to school?" He frowned at Jack before holding a hand up anticipating the next sentence and offering a pre-rebuttal. "Before you say Jazz, she's an outlier that should not be counted." Jack laughed at that statement and nodded.
"Fair enough kid." He said with a nod before continuing his assault on breakfast. Danny finished his food quickly enough and glanced at the clock, there was still about five minutes before they had to leave.
Maddie nursed her coffee as Jack went into a rant about his latest ghost invention, which Danny was mostly ignoring. Time seemed to drag on, Jack blathering on about ghosts not helping time move faster; but eventually Maddie ushered Danny into the Ghost Assault Vehicle.
"You remember what I told you? About how to act and what to do?" Maddie asked.
"Yeah, no being creepy and go to Jazz if I need help." Danny grumbled as he leaned his head on his hand and looked out the window as the streets passed by.
"I didn't use the term creepy." Maddie chastised with a small frown.
"No, but talking about my death and how I used to be a ghost is creepy to people, ghosts are creepy to people too." Danny pointed out.
"Fair… I just want you and your new classmates to be comfortable. I don't think it wise to share such morbid details, especially since they already heard about them at the conference." She explained.
"Don't you know that most of the kids at Casper think I'm cool… or at least they did when I was a ghost still… Maybe things will be different now that I'm a powerless human." He sighed. Maddie frowned, she knew Phantom wasn't enthused about losing his powers, but she had hoped the joy of being alive would eventually make up for that. Wasn't it better to be alive and a human than dead and a ghost?
The rest of the trip was quiet, and as they pulled up to the school Danny took a breath, pulled his hood over his head.
"Great. We've arrived at the prison, thanks for bringing me back to life so I can experience the joys of being in freaking High School." Danny said sarcastically as he slipped out of the GAV.
"Cheer up Phantom, you're going to have a wonderful day!" Maddie said, trying to keep the tone chipper, though she also wanted to scold Danny for his sarcasm.
Danny waved half-heartedly before heading into the school. There was a quick stop at the office to pick up his schedule after which he received a quick tour of the school from what Danny judged as an overly friendly Senior, who used the word awesome more that should be legal.
Eventually the bell rang and the friendly senior, Beatrice or something, left him alone to attend his first class. He was surprised when he actually arrived a bit early to english class, he wasn't used to that, usually he showed up late and got detention from Lancer.
Lancer… right.
There were maybe three other people in the room, not including his teacher. Truthfully Danny was a bit peeved Sam and Tucker hadn't met him already, they were supposed to be his best friends, but then again he supposed they had their own circumstances. He took his usual seat leaving his hood up and dropping his bag by his foot before resting his head on the desk and kept his hood up to avoid drawing unnecessary attention.
More students shuffled in, Danny did his best to look inconspicuous as he occasionally glanced up, but he still received some strange looks and hushed awe. It was hard to hide his hair after all, he wondered if it would eventually turn black again, but something made him doubt it. Lancer looked up from his book, noticing Danny for the first time and frowning at the teen with his head on the des.
"Mr. Fenton, remove your hood." Lancer used his "teacher" voice. Danny hesitated, not raising his head, but peaking out from below his arms. He didn't want to expose himself but Lancer was a teacher… and he gave him a look, daring him to disobey. Shaking Danny pulled the hood down instantly exposing his stark white hair. Lancer's face upon recognizing him was almost enough to make him laugh, that is if he wasn't so scared.
He tried to reason with himself, that he didn't have anything to be afraid of, that he'd fought worse, been through worse, seen the horrors of Pandora's box, fought the ghost king Pariah Dark, looked into the face of pure evil. Yet nothing stopped him from shaking slighting as his teacher and the class stared at him, Lancer cleared his throat.
"My apologies… Phantom… you're occupying the spot that young Mr. Fenton generally does. It slipped my mind for a moment that he was missing." Lancer gestured to the seat before speaking again, "You're going to be a bit behind on material, see me after class about some tutoring and extra credit opportunities."
"Yes Mr. Lancer." Danny responded automatically, nodding at him and then staring down at his desk, his brow furrowing slightly as he pulled out his new notebook.
Despite Lancer's insistence on getting on with the lecture, people were still staring at Danny and talking about him in whispered tones. He tried to focus, but found himself unable to shake off their stares. Despite Lancer's disapproval he pulled his hood back up and began to try and take notes in the notebook.
Lancer droned on and on about some dead poet and something about imagery and double meanings. Danny's eyes began to glaze over in boredom, English had never been his best subject, even before he'd gotten so far behind with his ghostly activities. The bell rang signaling the end of class and Danny watched his classmates file out, still staring at him and talking behind his back. He waited till the classroom was mostly clear before walking up to Lancer's desk.
"Mr. Phantom." Lancer said as Danny approached.
"Just Danny is fine." Danny said. "It's not like I'm much of a Phantom anymore… plus Phantom was never actually my last name… more of a… what's the word… nom de guerre?"
Lancer was quiet for a moment before he began to pull out some worksheets from his desk and handed them over.
"I'd like you to complete these, they'll give me an idea of what you know and how much you remember… from before." Lancer said, not mentioning that before Danny died. Danny took the papers and stared down at them, nothing really made sense, but it wasn't like it had made much sense before. He sighed and was surprised when Lancer put his hand on Danny's shoulder causing the teen to look up at his teacher.
"Is there something wrong?" Lancer asked, the man looked genuinely concerned. Danny swallowed the lump in his throat and sighed heavily.
"Everything." Danny managed to turn to leave before Lancer could say anything in response, he fled down the hallways searching for his locker to stuff the worksheets into. As he made his way through the halls, whispers followed him, until he found his locker. Finding the locker didn't stop the whispers, but it helped him to concentrate on something else. He spun the dial, his locker wouldn't open, he tried again and again only to be met with failure no matter how carefully or violently he twisted the dial.
"There's a trick to it." Said a familiar voice to his right.
Sam.
A smile spread across his face and he turned to look at her, he wanted to wrap her into a hug but there were too many people watching. He settled for leaning against the locker to the left of his as Sam opened the locker for him.
"How are you?" Danny asked softly so that the students around them would be able to hear if they listened in, Sam shrugged.
"Better than you from the looks of it." She said, then glanced around noticing they were attracting attention. She stuck her hand out, "Sam Manson, Ultra-recyclo-vegetarian, and Casper High's resident freak." She introduced. Her voice was playful and she introduced herself to make it seem like they were meeting for the first time, Danny chuckled.
"Danny Phantom, Ex- ghost and former Public Enemy Number 1." Danny took her hand, shaking it briefly. Rather than strange looks from before, Sam was now attracting glares, apparently it was somehow wrong that Sam was talking to him. Danny placed some books in the locker along with the worksheets he received from Lancer before he retrieved his books for his next class. He paused, staring into the locker and debating on leaving his backpack or taking it to class again. Sam continued to hover by the locker, ignoring the glaring of their classmates.
"What's your schedule like?" She asked, rather than waiting for him to answer though she took it from his bag, looking it over and humming to herself as she mentally figured out which classes they would have together, "You have technology with Tucker, History with both of us, ooh, Gym too, that'll be fun. Seems like you and I also have Drama together." Sam smiled. Danny found himself relaxing as he closed his locker.
"Not a bad schedule then." He smiled at her, Sam laughed.
"Well, given the fact that it's a high school schedule, I'd say you got off easy." She smiled. Tucker wandered up to them head and hat dripping onto his shirt.
"Sorry man, I got caught up in the toilet." He grumbled, and Danny found himself flushing with anger, his hand clenched into fists.
"Dash?" Danny asked through his clenched teeth,Tucker nodded and pulled a towel from his bag.
"Though I must say it's a relief he used a clean toilet this time." Tucker quipped as he toweled off.
The fact that Tucker was keeping a towel in his bag said to Danny that this was an everyday occurrence, and this made him that much angrier. He found himself grinding his teeth. The warning bell rang and he looked at his friends.
"I'm going to fix this ok, even if I can't get back to normal… I won't let you guys suffer because of me." He promised.
"Dude, don't worry about it." Tucker said, Danny shook his head.
"I'm going to worry about it. You're my best friend… I'll find a way to help." He insisted his voice was low to keep others from overhearing. The halls were beginning to empty as students headed to their next classes, which is what they needed to do. The trio split up each heading in a different direction. Danny consulted his schedule to see what he had next.
Math.
Oh joy. Danny thought and rolled his eyes before heading to the classroom.
Danny grimaced at the door; inside Kwan and Dash were passing a football back and forth across the classroom, Star seemed to be doing her nails. Mikey was bent over finishing up homework at the last minute, though Danny had no doubt that it wasn't his own homework, but likely Dash's. Mr. Falluca had yet to arrive, giving the students free reign to do as they pleased, at least for the time being.. Danny tried to slip in unnoticed. It seemed to work until he tripped over his own feet and went flying into a nearby desk, his hood had fallen off in the process exposing him and his clumsiness to the class.
He felt his face heat up as all eyes were on him, he wished he could just sink through the ground and never come back up. Dash stood over him, Danny flinched as Dash stuck his hand out. It took him half a second to realize Dash was offering him help up. Danny hesitated but gratefully took the hand as he was hauled to his feet like he weighed nothing.
"Thanks." Danny mumbled to him and looked around for an escape, but Dash remained in front of him, blocking the way. Maybe Danny hadn't gotten out of a beating after all, he took a step back before reminding himself he was Phantom now, not Fenton, and Dash looked up to Phantom. Dash nodded in response to the thanks before holding his hand out again for Danny to shake.
"Dash… Dash Baxter, huge fan." He stammered out, looking a little starstruck. Danny gave a tight smile and nodded at him, giving Dash's had a quick shake before pulling away.
"Uh… yeah, I remember you." Danny nodded, he was surprised as Dash blushed slightly and looked at him with wide eyes.
"You remember?" Dash looked as if the gods had named him the chosen one, as if his favorite rockstar had pointed him out by name or something.
"Kinda hard to forget running through the Fentons house while smaller than mice." Danny quipped with a shrug, Dash broke into a huge grin.
"I knew it was you, a lot of people didn't believe that it really was you, but you remembered." Dash bobbed his head up and down, Danny came to realize he was giving him the bro-nod-of-approval.™
"Yeah… thanks… I think." Danny tried to turn away and take a seat across the room but he suddenly found his body being guided by a large hand on the shoulder. A few moments later he found himself sitting between Dash and Kwan as class began. Mr. Falluca looked over his glasses in an attempt to call roll. Things progressed as usual until he got to Danny's name, gave an excited squeak, then disappeared behind his desk. Danny turned red, the entire class laughing as Mr. Falluca appeared moments later to resume class. Apparently Mr Falluca was something of a fan of his, even if he seemed to hide it well.
Class began and would have usually been another dull affair if he weren't trapped between his usual school bullies who now worshiped him like a hero. Even if Danny had wanted to learn anything about Polynomials, vectors, and proofs, it wouldn't have been possible from his vantage point.
Dash and Kwan flanked him, talking excitedly and asking him questions about ghosts he'd fought, what kind of other super powers he had and what he thought of various school drama. Star was sucking up, except she had opted to drape herself seductively over the back of her desk and Danny was having a hard time not looking down her shirt.
Questions varied between, how did you die, to what's your favorite band and would you consider joining the football team and back again to do you want to go to prom with me? Danny wasn't sure who asked the last question, but he was hoping it was Star, given that he didn't want to go to prom with either of his former tormentors. Then again, he didn't really want to go to prom with Star either. Still he said he wasn't planning on going to prom and that if he did he'd consider it: an answer, which did nothing to satisfy anyone. As per his mother's wishes though, he deflected the how did you die answer, reminding them he had explained it at the press conference.
It seemed they never tired of questions, and somehow Mr. Falluca didn't say anything the whole lesson. He wondered if this was because the A-List got special treatment, including the ability to goof off in class. Feeling emotionally exhausted by the time the bell rang, Danny left math and began the long trek to History. As he entered he made a beeline for Tucker and Sam, who both gave him wide grins as he sat down.
"I swear if I have to do this everyday for the rest of my life I will go insane." Danny slouched in the seat with a sigh.
"Can't be that bad." Tucker reasoned. Danny glared at him from under his hood, "Well at least things can't get any wo-"
"NOOOO!" Both Danny and Sam yelled at the same time.
"You nearly tempted fate! Don't be so careless." Sam glared.
"We all know that things can always get worse. You should know better, Tucker!" Danny added. Tucker held his hands up in surrender.
"I know, I'm sorry. I made a mistake." Tucker slowly lowered his hands. Lancer entered the room, he glanced at Danny and said a single word.
"Hood." He didn't even bother seeing if Danny complied and he began writing on the board. Danny obliged, lowering the hood, those who hadn't noticed who he was began whispering to one another, those who had noticed, whispered harder. Lancer turned away from the board, the class restless and rowdy.
"Calm down people!" Lancer instructed, "We already knew that Mr. Phantom would be joining us today. No need to cause such a fuss. He's just like anyone else, and I expect you to treat him as such, which predominantly means, no bothering him while you're in this class room." Lancer's words had quieted the room, "Now, we left off last class talking about early Christianity in the middle ages. Does anyone remember what the clergy began wielding once the king banned holy men from carrying swords?"
Danny settled into his chair, even if he was strict, it was nice that Lancer had put his foot down about people bothering him, he wouldn't have been able to survive another class with people all up in his face and business. He pulled out his notebook once more and began to take notes as someone to his left answered the question.
As he began to write the only thing he could think was that today was going to be a long day.
Author's Note: OH MY GOD I MADE IT TO CHAPTER TEN BEFORE NEW YEARS!
The later chapters do need some editing, but a lot less than the chapters at the beginning, I did originally start this when I was a high school sophomore or something. For context, I graduated high school ten years ago.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I can't wait to bring you more, even more than that, I can't wait to start typing up the new chapters.