It was official, high school sucked just as much the second time as it had the first time. He'd barely been back a week and he was already completely over it. The lack of freedom was very annoying, mandatory attendance, not to mention the childish antics of his classmates. The whole situation was nightmarish at times, in fact he could have sworn he had this exact same nightmare, returning to high school and having to live it all over again. Sometimes he wondered if this was a nightmare, but it was too painfully real to be just a bad dream, particularly when he was being shoved into lockers by Dash. He needed to figure out a way to get Dash to leave him alone, preferably without exposing his ghost powers or resorting to violence. That wasn't the only thing wrong with school if he was being honest, the food was terrible, the teachers turned a blind eye to students in need, and the sense of deja-vu was becoming maddening.
If there was one silver lining, it was the chance to improve his grades before college. He may have barely passed his class in the first go around, but at least he had a second chance this time. Most of the material was familiar, and with his college classes still fresh in his mind, most of his math classes should be easy enough. English would continue to be a pain, but he just needed to manage his time better to make sure he had enough time to study and write papers. He could probably do with some better time management anyway, which would hopefully improve if he managed to secure truces with his enemies. It also helped that he'd mastered the art of pulling an all-nighter and bullshiting papers well enough to get a B average at minimum by the time he'd been a senior at Casper High. If he could manage a B average while still hunting ghosts on the side, perhaps in his second life he may even manage an A average, even if it was a low A average.
"Hey." Sam said as she smiled. She approached and leaned against the locker nearest to Danny's as he spun the dial to open the blasted thing and get his books. He missed some of the ghostly artifacts he had come across, such as his "bag of holding" which made his life so much easier in carrying things around. Technically it was more like a coin purse of holding, but that just made it easier to carry around than a book bag. It was nice that everything he needed could be conveniently stored in his pocket.
"Hi." Danny said with a small smile and a nod in her direction as he finally got the locker open and began to rummage around for the books he needed for his first class of the day.
"How's it going?" She asked hesitantly, her body language implied an awkwardness and Danny knew she wasn't just asking casually but asking about his time regression.
"I'm… not sure… I swear I've had this nightmare before." he said with a weak smile trying to keep the mood light, Sam nodded as she glanced around the hall.
"I'm not enjoying this the first time, I can't imagine having to go through it again." She said, Danny nodded in agreement and pulled out his book for history before slamming the locker door shut.
"I've been trying to keep a positive outlook on all this, clearly the future was terrible enough to warrant this misadventure to the past, but… I don't know… I'm at a point when I'd rather face my terrible future than spend another day crammed in a locker because of Dash… Though on the bright side, my powers are developing nicely and my human and ghost half are starting to synchronize better." He said with a small smile. Despite his frustrations he really was trying to keep himself from falling into an angsty teen funk.
"Why not use that Phantom advantage for a little ghostly get back on Dash?" Tucker asked as he walked up to them, Danny smiled then shook his head.
"Tried that in my first life, didn't work out so well… speaking of bullies, I still haven't figured out how to open the portal in Poindexter's locker and free him, at least he can enjoy the Ghost Zone in peace instead of being tormented by the shadows of his past." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair before looking up at his friends and smiling at them.
"You guys have been amazing through all of this, and all my future ramblings and my extra weirdness." He said, his eyes filled with appreciation. "Thank you, I couldn't wish for better friends."
"Don't get all sappy on us dude, you're our best friend, it's a given we'd stick by your side, ghostly weirdness and time travel headaches aside." Tucker smiled, gently punching Danny in the shoulder. Danny smiled and leaned against his locker, he really did appreciate his friends, he wanted them to know that, especially after they had taken all of his confessions seriously and rolled with them.
"Speaking of time travel weirdness, besides a serious case of deja-vu, and the nightmare-inducing return to High School… how are you holding up?" Sam asked, Danny shrugged and looked toward the ceiling.
"Fine I guess… Everything is a bit strange still… There are times when I feel more like the fourteen year old I currently am and times when I'm more my future self… I'm still balancing that out as well." Danny sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I still remember the future though, which will be invaluable in stopping ghosts and avoiding trouble… but I haven't had any more flashbacks about what happened before I was sent back."
"Well, at least you have plenty of time to sort it out… at least eight years to figure it out, since we know you were of drinking age." Tucker said, raising an eyebrow at Danny to see if he could get more information out of him.
"Spoilers. Still not telling you how old I was even if you guess it." Danny rolled his eyes and then considered the situation again. "While I may have time to figure out how to prevent that future… If I can't remember who caused that terrible future then I don't know how to stop it." He frowned up as he considered it before speaking his thoughts out loud, not wanting to leave his friends out of the loop.
"If it's an enemy I know then I can probably manage to stop them from getting too powerful, but only if I know who it is. If this is a chain of events type situation then… that changes things, I don't know who attacked therefore I can't work out what led up to it and change the past. The best I can do is just try and make things easier on myself, create more allies, and grow my own power faster until I finally remember."
"Too bad your powers may rage out of control if you remember all at once, if your previous experience is anything to go by." Tucker pointed out. Danny sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"Remembering would definitely be helpful… I wish I knew why I was sent back to the portal accident… is it because I need to change something soon or was it just the easiest place to insert me?" The warning bell rang above them and he sighed. "I guess we can discuss this more over lunch, provided I don't end up in a locker before then."
"Well… even if you do, you can get out easily enough." Sam smiled as they began walking to their respective classes. "I'm proud of you for not snapping on Dash and phasing him through a wall or something."
"Hmmm… what about halfway through a wall?" Tucker suggested and Danny laughed at the image while Sam glared. She clearly still didn't like the idea of Danny using his powers selfishly.
"I'm supposed to be the hero, remember?" Danny rolled his eyes. "Catch up with you guys later." He smiled and waved before breaking off from the group and heading into history. He set up his notebook and settled in to take notes. He missed his psychographic powers, it was easier to take notes when all he had to do was think of the words and have them appear on the paper, lots of things were easier with his powers. Unfortunately a majority of them had yet to develop.
He tapped his pencil's eraser against the blank page before quickly jotting down the class, the date, and the subject before staring at the clock and waiting for the final bell to ring and begin his torment anew.
Danny took his seat with Sam and Tucker in the corner of the lunch room, for now the food was top-soil free, but if his memory was correct, he had about a week left until the menu changed. He knew Sam was going to stubbornly insist on a chance, and while that had frustrated him, he also knew it was important to her and therefore tried not to let his frustration get to him. He sighed and stared into the disappointing contents of his tray as Tucker and Sam looked over at him.
"Class boring?" Sam asked, Danny nodded.
"It was boring the first time, I'd say it's more boring the second time." He shrugged, they were all quiet for a moment considering what to talk about next, Tucker found a topic first and began to speak.
"So… how are we doing on the dealing with future ghosts front?" Tucker asked as Danny poked at his chicken sandwich and withered fries.
"I think I have plans on how to stop most of them, or even reason with them… I just need you two to steer clear of this first one. I think so long as I reason with her, we may be able to avoid another school covered in meat incident… or the first school covered in meat incident… man that's confusing." Danny said as he rubbed his head.
"The first… another? As in more than one?" Sam raised an eyebrow, clearly disgusted by the mental image, Danny didn't blame her, he'd gone vegetarian for a week after his first fight with the Lunch Lady after having to clean up the stinky rotting meat from around the school. He did not look forward to doing that again if he failed to reason with the ghost, he shuddered before answering.
"Yeah… I think I can redirect her obsession, but if she figures out Sam is the one who changed the menu, or lobbied for the change, then she will be too focused on her revenge to listen." Danny said as she chewed on a fry and grimaced. "This is worse than I remember, and that's saying something… I think dunking the whole thing in ectoplasm would actually improve the flavor." He said, frowning at the tray, Sam laughed.
"Don't you have enough experience with ectoplasm covered food because of your parents?" She asked.
"Yes… though after becoming half ghosts, it definitely tastes different than when I was fully human." He shrugged. "I wouldn't say it tastes amazing but definitely better than this." he said gesturing to the tray with disgust.
"You could always fly to Nasty Burger and pick us up something to eat." Tucker suggested with a smile.
"My allowance won't allow for that on a daily basis." Danny shook his head, "I guess I could fly home and cook something… but I may end up getting caught by my parents…" He trailed off and poked at the sad looking chicken sandwich again before deciding to voice his thoughts. Jazz was right after all, talking about things definitely did help.
"You know… on some level I'm glad they're too obsessed with the portal to notice my ghostly weirdness… but on another I'm not sure I'll be able to tolerate hearing about them ripping me apart molecule by molecule and dissecting my ectoplasmic remains for another three years." Danny sighed and he ate another limp fry.
"Well… you could still try and tell them." Tucker suggested, Sam rolled her eyes.
"Danny's parents are ghost hunters, they might shoot first and ask questions never" she said, her own discord with her parents coloring her worldview.
"Who knows… I guess… I could do some ghostly nonsense in front of them and pretend to be just as freaked out by it as I was initially… but even if they don't shoot at me… they may try to fix this, especially if they think I'm freaked out or that its hurting me." Danny frowned as he looked at his hand, it flickered out of sighed before fading back into view, it was becoming easier to control again. "They may be so wrapped up in thinking that they're helping they won't see that this is just part of who I am now… besides, there have always been terrible side effects to separating my ghostly and human halves. Weird personality shifts, strange crossover between my two halves, near death… again." He said ticking the various problems off on his fingers.
"Your powers are cool and all, and I admit I'm a bit jealous… but the weird teenage angst of being half dead and having your parents hunt you… I could do without." Tucker said with a shake of his head.
"I'm used to being like this, I can't see myself being any other way anymore… which is probably strange because it just happened for you guys… but these powers… this half-ghost status… it definitely comes with its disadvantages."Danny said with a sigh. "I wouldn't be too jealous if I were you."
They were quiet for a moment and Danny held a fry in his hand, practicing his ghost ray by trying to cook it more and make it look less limp and sad. He only succeeded in making charcoal and he sighed. Tucker raised an eyebrow before shrugging and eating his own fries while Danny opened the top of his chicken sandwich and tried to make it better by adding some condiments. He put the bun back on top before he could empty the ketchup and mayonnaise packets because he was pretty sure the chicken wasn't supposed to be gray. Sam broke the awkward silence by asking a question.
"Any chance history sparked any memories?" Sam asked, though she didn't look too hopeful.
"Nope." Danny said, popping the 'p' and eating another fry before frowning and sighing. "Why am I still eating this?"
"Because you're a teenage boy and therefore a bottomless pit." Sam teased.
"You have a point." He agreed, Tucker didn't have the same aversion to the school food that Danny seemed to and he was happily scarfing down his food, before pointing to Danny's tray.
"You going to finish that?" He asked.
"I'd rather eat blood blossoms." Danny said as he pushed the tray toward Tucker.
"Thank you!" Tucker said in a sing-song voice before beginning to scarf down his food. Danny laughed and then shook his head, he opened his mouth to speak before a football made contact with the back of his head knocking him forward slightly. Danny grumbled and turned, glaring at the person who threw the ball at his head.
"To what do I owe the pleasure Baxter?" He asked, sliding out of the table and picking up the football, tossing it from hand to hand idly as he glared at the taller boy. He definitely missed being older now, he had grown taller than Dash by the end of Junior year and wasn't the scrawny short kid that could be pushed around anymore.
"Do I need an excuse to wail on you, Fenturd?" Dash asked as he gestured for Danny to toss the football back. Danny had a small revenge fantasy of throwing it into his gut with his supernatural strength, but held back and tossed it underhand to the jock who caught it easily. Danny put a finger to his chin as if he was thinking about that before he smiled and shrugged.
"Didn't realize you liked me that much Dash, maybe you constantly calling me a twink is a bit telling. I didn't think you liked me like that, but repressing your crush on me… that would certainly explain a lot. Perhaps I should be taking all this attention as a compliment." He quipped with a small smile, pointing at Dash and gesturing at him, Dash turned bright red in response, the vein in his temple nearly popping and Danny thought he might have an aneurysm.
"You're dead Fenton!" He snarled as he lunged for Danny who easily dodged out of the way, causing the other boy to over aim and stumble forward to the ground.
"Half dead, but who's counting?" Danny glanced at Sam and Tucker before giving a small bow. "With that, I must bid you farewell, catch you after school I guess." he sighed before taking off running, bursting through the cafeteria doors and heading down the hallway. It didn't take too long for Dash to recover from his stumble and race after him, chasing him through the halls.
Danny ran for a while, Dash hot on his heels before he skidded around the corner and ducked to one side, turning invisible. Dash to jumped around with a growl thinking he'd finally cornered Danny only to wonder where he had gone to, Danny toyed with the idea of transforming and yelling "Boo" at the jock before shaking his head and slipping through the floor and reemerging out in the parking lot where no one could see.
He became visible in the blink of an eye, it was a small victory but it satisfied the part of him that was fourteen again, at least until his stomach growled.
"Damn, maybe I should fly to the Nasty Burger after all and get something to eat after all… not fries." He said as he put his hand to his stomach, hungry, but still put off by the disgusting cafeteria fries. He glanced around making sure he was still alone before transforming into his ghost half and taking flight, heading down the road toward the familiar old fast food joint.
He felt more at home in his body now that almost a month had passed, reconciling his two halves was going well, and while he may have made months of progress in just one month, he knew he had a long way to go before he was back to full strength. Still, it was reassuring that his powers could be controlled easier. His core thrummed with the familiar energy, his soul rejoicing as he took flight once more. His first flight after the portal accident had been clumsy and tiring, it was a relief to be able to take to the sky once more, flying as easily and breathing, though he didn't need to do that as a ghost.
He smiled and did a few loops in midair, dipping down then soaring up high, enjoying the feeling of weightlessness and the wind in his hair. He laughed happily as he swooped through the air feeling free, his core alight with his contentment. His ghost half drew power from emotions, unlike other ghosts, his own emotions fueled his power and he didn't have to siphon emotional energy from humans. He had discovered that he could, if he had to, but he avoided it. There were a lot of ways he became more ghostly as he aged, but his humanity had kept him from needing to resort to tactics such as feeding on emotions, dreams or other ghosts.
He laughed again as he zipped through the air, a bit disappointed to find himself at his destination already, before slowly floating down behind the Nasty Burger and transforming back into Danny Fenton. He strolled casually, pulling out his wallet and ordering from the dollar menu, even if he was hungry he wasn't interested in spending his whole allowance on food, at least not today. There were movies to watch and video games to buy after all.
He took a seat at a booth nearby as he waited for his order to be ready and glanced around the dining space, just watching the other people who had gathered. It was always interesting to see who was where and why, the curious lives they had so separate from his own. It often reminded him why he fought so hard to protect the town, he wanted to protect these humans, their lives and their dreams. There were a few of the upperclassmen, some of them probably had a free period, and an old couple argued in the corner about dogs or something. He glanced at some of the tables across from him and paused when he noticed a pile of books, he frowned, he only knew one person to bring piles of books to the Nasty Burger. He stood up and made his way to the table, sitting down in the booth across from the familiar ginger haired teenager.
"Hey Jazz." He said with a small smile, Jazz looked up from her book acknowledging his presence with a small nod.
"Welcome home, Danny." She said distractedly and looked back down at the book before her brow furrowed and she looked up at him, then around at her surroundings.
"Wait… how… they don't let freshmen off campus… How did you get here? You also don't have a car." She frowned, her eyes narrowed slightly, wondering how he had snuck off campus and gotten to the Nasty Burger, it was too far to walk and make it back to class in time. Danny could read it all on her face and he smiled.
"Oh you know… I just flew." He said with a shrug as he waved her off.
"Flew? Very funny? Which upperclassmen did you bribe to take you and how?" She wondered as she raised an eyebrow at him, Danny only laughed and shrugged.
"That's my little secret." Danny said with a smile. "You can psychoanalyze it out of me another day." He shrugged, Jazz looked him over and then nodded, accepting his blow off easier than Danny expected.
"This is probably just some kind of trauma response to your near death experience manifesting as teenage rebellion." She mused to herself, Danny raised an eyebrow.
"Or maybe I died in the portal accident and now I'm a ghost, so I just flew over." He quipped in response as he rested his elbow on the table and his chin on his hand. "Maybe I'm having a whole identity crisis about being a ghost in a house full of ghost hunters and lamenting my premature death while still trying to keep up a human facade."
Jazz stared and as Danny rolled her pencil back and forth across the table with his free hand. He glanced up at her, she was definitely trying to look into his head, he could see it on her face, she was wondering why he had said that, debated telling him ghosts weren't real, and then opened her mouth, likely to lecture him. Luckily for him his stomach growled and the tinny voice of the speaker system announced that his order was ready so he stood quickly, stretching and turned to grab his food, Jazz grabbed his wrist and stopped him.
"That was… dark, Danny… not in a coping dark humor way… That was something different and oddly specific. Do you want to talk about it? Are you struggling with the near death experience? Has it made you feel wrong? Question your own reality?" She asked. Danny paused and sighed, realizing he did want to talk to her, or at least wanted her to know about the half ghost thing. He hadn't realized how much he'd relied on her support until it was gone and he was fourteen again.
"I… I don't know… it's complicated Jazz… I've talked to Sam and Tucker but… I don't know. It's just a lot, and I… I need to get my food." He said pointing over his shoulder to the counter.
"Okay. I'm here if you need to talk to someone." She said with a reassuring smile. "I'm not going to force you, but having a near death experience can be really traumatizing, I'm more than willing to listen and help, or at least find you a good therapist if you don't want to talk to me because I'm your big sister."
"Thanks, Jazz." He said with a smile before pulling his hand free gently. "I know you're there for me… I'll be back." He promised before leaving and going to grab the bag of food with his order number on it. He looked inside the bag, his burger and onion rings were inside and he grabbed the soda that was next to the bag before going back over to Jazz's table and sitting down across from her once more, pulling out his food and enjoying the warm burger, even if it was a bit greasy. Jazz was quiet, but she was clearly waiting for him to begin talking, she had even set her book to the side as she waited. Danny took a couple bites of burger before speaking.
"Something happened in the portal Jazz, something impossible." He sighed and shook his head. "I don't know how to tell Mom and Dad… it's not… easy to explain and I'm afraid they're going to try and fix it. I'm also… not entirely myself in more than one way." He said his voice low to keep others from overhearing. Jazz frowned as she looked at him, considering his words before speaking.
"I think Mom and Dad's weird obsession has affected you, you're talking about ghosts Danny, you didn't believe in ghosts before the portal accident but something must have spooked you when you had that near death experience. I'm going to need more information if I'm going to help you though." Jazz said gently.
"Jazz…" Danny sighed. "Ghosts… Ghosts are real, and they're going to keep coming out of the portal… Jazz… It wasn't just a near death experience… I died in the portal… well half died…" He sighed looking around and making sure no one was looking in their direction before he held his left hand out for her to look at. In the center of his palm was still a circular mark, unlike the Lichtenberg scars, it hadn't faded with time.
"I died… but I also came back… but I didn't come back completely human." he said softly as he made his hand turn invisible starting in the center of the scar then moving outward. Jazz gasped, clasping her hand over her mouth before Danny brought his hand back into visibility.
"That… that's a trick right? Or I'm hallucinating… maybe I have unprocessed trauma myself from the fact that you almost died." Jazz mused, her eyes darting to her stack of books as if they would contain the answers she was seeking.
"No… not a trick, you're not hallucinating, this is real Jazz." He said as he took her hand in his, he gave it a small squeeze. "There is more… but I can't show you here. I need your help, your brain specifically, in figuring out what to do next, more importantly how to explain this to Mom and Dad before things get out of hand… again." he sighed and retracted his hand going back to eating his burger as he waited for Jazz to processes everything he had just said. He had thought it over and while he hadn't intended to do this here or now, he did eventually mean to talk to Jazz about everything, but unlike with Sam and Tucker, he knew he needed to start small, lest he give Jazz a nervous breakdown. Even the fraction of power he'd shown her seemed to send her spiraling.
"Ghosts… ghosts are real? Mom and Dad were right?" She frowned. "Wait… but… we haven't ever seen any other ghosts… What if this is just some side effect… it doesn't have to be ghosts." She pointed out. "Plus at the hospital you definitely had a heart beat, you can't be dead." She argued.
"Half dead, my heart rate is lower than a normal person's, as is my temperature, which I'm sure you felt just now… and I know I'm a ghost… I'll… I can show it when we get home… like I said, I can't do it here." He said, giving her a sympathetic smile before finishing off his burger. Jazz thought for a while before nodding.
"Okay, compartmentalizing this for now, you're definitely going to explain when we get home, but you need to get back to class soon, lunch is almost over. I can drive you if you'd like, to make sure you get there on time." She offered, neatly saving her mental breakdown for later.
"I'll be fine, It shouldn't take more than a couple minutes to get back for me… I… I wasn't exactly joking or just being facetious when I said I flew over." He admitted with a small smile, Jazz stared at him opening her mouth to ask questions before shaking her head.
"Then you should hurry and finish your onion rings, the bell rings in six minutes." She said before she picked up her book and continued to read. Danny smiled, eating quickly before wiping his hands and shoving his trash back into the back.
"Thanks Jazz… I love you." He said, his voice low as he kissed the top of her head before grabbing his soda. He threw his trash away on the way out before finding a place to transform and fly back to the school. He sucked on his soda as he streaked across the sky, dropping it into a trash bin on the way before blinking out of the visible spectrum and landing in the bathroom. He de-transformed and made his way to his locker to meet up with his friends once more.
He knew he was going to have a lot of explaining to do to Jazz when he got home, but he couldn't help but feel like this was what he was meant to do, this was a step in the right direction and he buzzed with excitement. Allies, yes, allies was what he needed and Jazz was invaluable, all of his family and friends were.
"Everything is as it should be." He said with a small smile to himself.
Author's Note: Hope you've enjoyed the chapter! As always reviews/comments give me life! I will warn you that the next few chapters will follow the episodes closely in some way, but won't be a complete rewriting word for word. I hope it doesn't come off as too monotonous and repetitive of the series. It may take a few weeks before the next chapter is out too. I have things generally plotted, but not completely thought out. The big plot points are good to go, but some of the more minute details on how things will change (with Danny being the future Danny) I haven't completely decided.