And after an excruciatingly long wait, here is chapter 8!
Something was pushing Danny awake.
He turned his head away. Maybe if he wasn't facing it, it would go away.
"Danny," a soft voice whispered. He felt another gentle push. "Danny, it's time to get up."
He groaned and mumbled something incoherent.
"Come on, Danny. Wake up."
That damn voice. It was familiar.
"Danny," his mother said in a singsong voice as she nudged him again.
Ugh, his mom was waking him up. Which meant it was probably before his alarm was set to go off, which was so annoying and hadn't he told her that he always set his alarms? Sure, sometimes he ignored them or outright slept through them, but he wasn't so irresponsible that he would mess up on his first day of outpatient.
"It's time for your first day! You have to get up!"
His eyelids lifted only for sunlight to assault his retinas. He snapped his eyes back shut and grumbled, "Go without me."
He could feel his mother rolling her eyes.
"I can't go without you, honey. Come on, didn't you go to bed early last night? I'll make you pancakes if you get up now."
Right. He did go to bed early last night.
Why was he so damn tired then?
But then, as if his brain were waiting for that question, the memories from last night hit him all at once.
He had a nightmare. It was about being cut open, wasn't it? And...something else. He couldn't remember what it was fully about now, but he knew it was bad. Maybe it was that night. The one when Operative O visited him with the red bag.
The red bag.
Oh.
His eyes flew open and zeroed in on his nightstand where he knew he had shoved the bottle of oxycodone in last night.
Right. No wonder he was fatigued.
He should flush the pills now.
"Well, there you are! Welcome to Earth, Danny!" His mother joked, pinching his cheek.
He groaned and brushed her hand off his face, momentarily shoving the thought of the pills to the back of his mind. He couldn't worry about that now with his mom in his room like this. She would get suspicious, and then she would figure him out, and then she would send him back to inpatient because he couldn't last one day outside of the hospital without resorting to his own terrible methods of self-care.
"You need help getting ready at all? I can grab a shirt from your closet if you'd like?"
"Uh…" He glanced over to his closet. Instinctively, he wanted to refuse the help. He wouldn't be able to rely on his parents to help him reach for clothing on hangers forever, so he should just practice as much as he could now.
But, oh man, he was so tired.
"Actually...yeah," he found himself saying. "Can you just grab me a—a long sleeve? It doesn't matter which color."
Maddie hummed and made her way over to the closet while Danny focused on dragging himself from his bed. His wheelchair was right there, right next to his bed. He had to wonder how the hell he missed it last night during his...debacle.
Well, whatever. He wasn't going to let that—any of that—happen again. So it didn't matter.
"Is this alright?" Maddie held up a plain gray shirt.
"Yeah, thanks," Danny responded, his gaze drifting back to the nightstand drawer.
He shook his head, forcing himself to look anywhere but there. He was acting too suspicious. He just needed to chill. It was fine.
He needed to get his mother out of his room now.
"You need anything else? Want me to grab pants? Socks?"
"No, it's fine, I can get those."
"Are you sure? I'm already up."
"I got it."
"Alright." Maddie smiled. "I'll get started on those pancakes, okay? Yell if you need anything."
"Yeah. I will."
She left, gently closing his door behind her.
His head dropped into his hands, and he sat there, trying to rub the fatigue from his vision. Damn, it had been a while since he felt this exhausted.
Okay, Danny, get it together.
He pulled open the drawer to see the orange bottle right there where he left it, its contents gleaming under the morning sun. This was it. Now all he had to do was sneak into the bathroom and dispose of the evidence in his toilet. If he did that, he wouldn't have to worry about anyone finding this, he wouldn't get sent back to inpatient, and everything would be okay again.
Reaching down, his fingers brushed against the smooth plastic sides of the bottle.
This was it.
Danny went to wrap his fingers around the container when suddenly a light rapping sounded from his door.
"Danny? You in there?" Jazz's muffled voice said. "Are you decent?"
"Just a minute!" Danny ripped his hands from the bottle and hastily shut the drawer. "I'm changing!"
"You need any help?"
"Ew, Jazz. I'm not a toddler!"
"Alright, alright! Just making sure. I'll see you downstairs."
Danny didn't respond, instead choosing to focus on the morning routine that he established at the hospital. And by the time he dragged himself into the passenger's seat of the GAV and shut the door, he wanted nothing more than for this day to be over.
Maddie hopped into the driver's seat. "Alright, Danny! First day in your new program!"
"Yeah." Danny unlocked his phone and checked his new messages from Sam and Tucker. His text the previous night was inescapably cringy to read again, but thankfully, his two friends seemed too excited by the prospect of hanging out with him that day to care.
"Are you excited?"
Danny glanced over at his mother, eyebrows raised.
"For your first day! This is a big step, you know."
He felt his cheeks heat up and averted his gaze back down to his phone, shrugging.
Who cared how big of a step it was? Danny didn't, that was for sure.
It was only the first time Danny was going to be in public since the big reveal, since returning from the Guys in White and inpatient. It was only the first time he'd be confirming to the world that yes, Danny Phantom couldn't fly and in fact he couldn't walk either, and Danny Phantom also slept on a concussion and was going into a building where there would be new people and he really just wanted to crawl into bed and never get up again.
"Are you nervous, honey?"
Everyone was going to know who he was. Not that everyone didn't know who he was in the hospital, but this was different. This was a smaller group; it was more intimate. The hospital was just for stability, just enough to get him to a point where he didn't feel like he was losing his mind anymore, but this was where the real work started.
Was he ready for this?
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's whatever. Same thing, just new people."
Maddie made no move to continue the conversation, so Danny took this opportunity to lean against the window, pressing his forehead against the cool glass. A car passed by him, and he saw a young child in the backseat. Her blonde hair was tied up into pigtails with two bright pink scrunchies, which bounced excitedly along with her rapidly moving mouth. Danny couldn't make out what she was saying, but he watched as her mother broke out into a proud smile in the driver's seat.
He closed his eyes. All these strangers around him were living out their lives, forming happy memories with their loved ones.
He felt nauseous.
Thankfully, Maddie didn't try to initiate conversation for the rest of the drive.
The trek to the PHP was nothing like the short drive to school. Casper was under a twenty-minute walk from Danny's house. It was a perfect location, just far enough away to escape the constant embarrassment of his parents' gaudy experiments while close enough to be within a comfortable walking distance.
But this program was too far away to walk to. It was past the residential areas of Amity Park, past the shopping centers and restaurants, past the movie theater that still had a sign out for Dead Teacher Five. It was beyond Danny's usual bubble of Amity Park, past what he knew to be home.
The car finally stopped at an office complex. He peeled his head away from the window and glanced over to see Maddie studying her phone.
"Yup, this is it. It should be on the third floor. They told me there was an elevator inside." She pocketed her phone and unbuckled her seat belt. "Stay here, I'll grab your chair."
Danny looked back at the building. It seemed normal, nothing like the inpatient facility. There were no medical signs outside the building, no children's play center and fenced-in field, no disabled schools on the property. It seemed like a normal brick office building.
Maddie opened his door, and he gingerly slipped from his seat to the chair. The distance from the GAV to his chair was far too large, and Danny was just thankful he'd managed to avoid falling face-first onto the pavement.
The visual loudness of the GAV had always been a sore point for Danny's perpetual teenage humiliation, but today it felt especially unbearable. He could only hope the ground would open up and swallow him whole before anyone noticed them.
"I think the ramp entrance is on the side of the building."
Danny frowned, looking at the front door. His first instinct was to insist that it was only a few steps between the main entrance and the pavement, that he could do it. Don't worry, he wasn't that bad at walking.
But that would mean his mom would have to help him and who knows what would happen then. What if someone saw him? What if someone took a video of him and posted it online? The news would spread it like wildfire, and then soon everyone would get to see Phantom struggling through a door. It would be trending in an hour.
"Okay, let's do the ramp."
The interior of the building was small and plain. Reading over the office list next to the elevator, Danny saw nothing out of the ordinary. On the first floor was a financial consulting office, a construction management company on the second, and on the third floor in blue letters were the words "Kaufman Health Center."
The elevator door swung open with a ding, and—with some help from his mom—Danny maneuvered himself inside.
This was it. No turning back.
Not that he had a choice.
Danny tried to focus on his breathing. He was fine, this was fine. It didn't matter that by the time he got home today, the entire internet would have leaked pictures and information detailing his recovery. What, did he think he was really entitled to privacy? Of course this wasn't going to last.
He refused to acknowledge the sound of the elevator door opening up once again, but his mother pushed him out of the doors anyway. He hated it. He hated how his hands automatically took over and moved him to the door, hated how easily he pressed the accessible button next to the door, and he hated how little effort it took him to wheel himself into the lobby of the health center.
This wasn't what he planned his life to become. He wasn't supposed to be here. He was supposed to be at school right now, messing around with Sam and Tucker, maybe texting during class, planning their next movie night or talking about how cheesy last week's film was. He was supposed to be pretending Phantom and he were separate entities and that Fenton was nothing more than some random geek.
He wasn't supposed to be here.
And yet…
Danny peered up to see another teen gawking at him from across the lobby. He and Danny locked eyes, and the other teen jolted out of his trance as if he'd been slapped, his head hurriedly swiveling away as he shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets.
Danny glared down at his lap, his face burning. From the corner of his vision, he could see the teen move out of the lobby, but Danny couldn't look back up at him. Was it shame? Embarrassment? The weight of his failures?
It didn't matter. None of it mattered.
He was here. He was really here. It was a real place with real people and real problems, and he was now a part of it.
Maddie went over to the front desk and talked to the bubbly voice behind the counter, but Danny wasn't listening to what they were saying. He refused to. It was just…
How did he end up here?
Another teen crossed in front of him, and Danny could feel the stares. But there was nothing he could do. Everyone was going to know now...everyone…
He pushed himself over to the wall near the couches. Maybe if he was out of the center of the room, he would be invisible again, just like he used to be as only Fenton. Maybe if he kept his head down and held his breath, nobody would notice him.
Maddie sat down in the empty chair next to him, her hand armed with a clipboard full of paperwork. Danny knew she had noticed his tense behavior—she had to—but thankfully, she didn't say anything.
Danny watched her fill out his paperwork, making notes in the "medical history" section of the paperwork with the practice of someone who had been writing it for years.
How many nights had she spent, then, reading his reports over and over again until they were burned into her memory? How often did she open his files, checking and double checking every detail until she was cross-eyed? How often did Jack have to tug the files out of her hands so she could go to sleep?
Maddie deserved better. She shouldn't have had to be dealing with him, worrying about him like this, taking him to the doctors and therapists every day. She shouldn't have had to worry about the media hounding her, or her stupid half-ghost son who stupidly got revealed on national television.
No, she deserved so much better.
"Maddie? Maddie Fenton?"
Danny flinched, the voice shocking him from his pity party. He looked up to see a short woman in a park cardigan appear from the hallway. She strode across the blue carpet, her hand extended out in front of her.
Maddie stood and shook the woman's hand. "Hello. Yu-Jin, is it?"
"That's right." She nodded, a bright smile decorating her face. "We spoke on the phone a few days ago, but it's nice to formally meet you."
"Yes," Maddie said. She turned to Danny, placing her hand on his shoulder.
It felt heavy.
"This is my son, Danny."
"Uh…" Danny's hands fidgeted on his lap. Was this woman expecting a handshake? She hadn't made any movements to get one, so did that mean she didn't want to touch him? Or maybe she wasn't allowed to since he was a minor? Was he being rude by not even offering a handshake?
Oh god, was he messing this whole thing up before it could even begin?
She gave him a short wave. "Hello, Danny. It's nice to meet you. I'm the head therapist for your group, and I look forward to working with you the next few weeks."
"Hi…"
God, he was so embarrassing. This was the first person he had met outside of the hospital who knew he was Phantom and he was just going to act like this? Completely incompetent? He might as well be back in the government compound, then.
"I understand this is a difficult transition, Danny," she continued. "I hope we can help make this process a little easier for you. Everyone here is very kind, and I think this place will be a good fit for you."
"I think it will too," Maddie said.
Danny picked at his cuticles. He wasn't so sure.
This woman seemed nice but she wasn't...her. The therapist from the other place. Danny combed through his brain for a name, but came up blank.
Surely he would have gotten her name though, right? It might've been on a piece of paper somewhere? But Danny knew, deep down inside, that he never wrote down her name during his stay and wouldn't be able to remember it. Not now, not tomorrow, not next week. It was simply gone from his memory.
The new therapist—Danny had already forgotten her name too—chattered on with Maddie about...Danny didn't know what. He'd stopped listening. His mind was already drifting to other places.
He wondered if the redhead from inpatient was doing alright. He was too nice of a person to be in this situation. Danny couldn't remember his name either...
"—and Danny?"
Danny's head snapped back into focus. He blinked, surveying the quiet lobby before his eyes landed on the new therapist.
Oh, right. He was at the new building with the new people and the new schedule.
He was too tired to be here.
"Yeah?"
"I told your mother this over the phone, but it's important I let you know as well that we can provide any accommodations you may need during your time with us. So please don't be shy if you need any help with anything from us."
Danny felt his eyebrows scrunch. Just what in the world was she talking about? Accommodations?
...oh.
"I—I don't have...I'm human, I swear," Danny stammered. "I, uh, I mean I'm not, but—but—it's not—I'm not—"
"Oh heavens, no! My apologies. I should have been clearer. I was referring to disability accommodations. We build our therapies and activities to be done by anyone regardless of mobility, but occasionally, we may have to make slight adjustments for you. Don't be afraid to speak up about anything, alright?"
"Okay." Danny hoped his face hid his confusion.
She turned back to Maddie. "I'll let you finish the paperwork up. Please feel free to ask Sharon any questions you may have. We keep copies of the schedule at the front desk if you would prefer a printed version. Danny, would you like to come with me? I'll show you to our room."
"Yeah." His eyes flickered back up to his mother. Despite her calm expression before, now her face was pinched, her smile strained.
"See you later?" He didn't mean for his voice to come out like a question, and he mentally kicked himself for doing so.
"Goodbye, Danny. I'll see you for pickup, okay?" Maddie said.
Danny undid the brakes on his chair. "Bye, Mom."
"Don't forget we're going straight to PT after."
"Alright, I know."
"I'll bring you a snack to eat on the way. Okay?"
"Sure."
"Would you rather a granola bar or a banana? I can bring both if you'd—"
"Banana." Danny said, the words slipping out of his mouth with a speed that surprised even himself. He swallowed. "Banana's good."
"Alright, sweetie. Have a good day."
Danny turned so he wouldn't have to see his mother's misting eyes. "Yeah. You too."
"Okay, Danny?" the therapist said, waving him forward. "Come with me."
Every eye in the room was on him.
Danny knew that this would happen. Ultimately, he was Phantom, whether he wanted to be right now or not.
But even then, every eye in the room was on him.
He hesitated, unsure if he should proceed deeper into the room or not. On one hand, he could act like he didn't notice anything strange and go over to the small group of teens sitting at the table. On the other hand, he could say something. Introduce himself. Maybe if he spoke, people would snap out of it.
But at the moment, all he could do was stare back.
Maybe one of the teens would realize what they were doing and look away. Maybe one of them would speak first. Or maybe—
The door burst open with a loud, "Sorry I'm late, I—oh! Uh, hi."
Danny blinked, staring back at the teen in front of him. She was tall, with thick blonde curls tied up in a ponytail. She stood in front of him, looking as if she had just run a mile.
"Uh…" Danny froze, unsure of what to do. He could wave, but that might've been weird. He should just talk, but he was pretty sure if he tried that, his voice would choke up.
Thankfully, he was saved from responding by the therapist entering the room. "Jessica, good to see you! Don't forget to fill out the morning check-in sheet. Danny, you too. We fill these out each morning to establish a baseline for how we're doing before our morning meeting."
Danny followed the blonde girl to the table—making sure to sit at the corner, as far away from the other teens as possible—and grabbed a piece of paper. It was a simple questionnaire, and it seemed easy enough to do.
But everyone was still staring at him.
Why was he like a zoo animal on display?
Phantom was such a fascinating subject, isn't that what he'd been told before his reveal? How fascinating he was as a ghost because he was just so different from the other ghosts? He remembered reading all the theories back then and laughing about them because he thought that nobody would ever get to the truth.
There were subreddits about him, countless usernames analyzing his fights and trying to pick apart what exactly made him so special. What made Phantom so powerful? Why did he do the things that he did?
The truth was far less glamorous than the theorists anticipated. As it turned out, Phantom was just some weird mutant half-breed. That was all.
'How did you sleep last night?' the check-in sheet asked.
What would it matter if he didn't sleep well? It wasn't like he ever slept before the reveal, and no one seemed to care. Why was it different now—because he was suddenly fascinating as a human too?
Danny felt the back of his neck itch, and he wondered if he'd be able to dig his pen into his neck and remove the ecto-suppressing chip himself. After all, what was a little more nerve damage to him?
'Did you shower this morning?'
Danny didn't even want to think about that. The stupid bench. It shouldn't have felt any different from when he was in inpatient, but for some reason, it did. Maybe he thought that everything would suddenly go back to normal once he got home. Maybe that was what he wanted to happen.
But it didn't.
And people were still glancing at him.
"Fascinating…" The operative studied the device hovering over his chest. "Your core has nestled itself right next to your heart, right in the center of your chest. It should be restricting your lung, theoretically, but its small size combined with your lesser need for oxygen makes the whole system work seamlessly. Truly fascinating anatomy…"
That particular operative hadn't hurt him—not physically—but something about the way he was speaking made Danny feel sick nonetheless. At the time, Danny had chalked it up due to the fact that he was the Guys in White's latest little test subject for what he assumed was the rest of his life.
But now that he was home, now that he was here under the stares of these new strange teens, he realized that maybe there was more to it than that.
Maybe, just maybe, Danny didn't want to be fascinating to everyone else. Maybe he just wanted to fucking exist in peace. Maybe he didn't want to be here.
Maybe he could still get his old life back.
The chair across from him moved, and Danny looked up to see the therapist sit down, clipboard in hand.
"Good morning, everyone." The therapist beamed at the group. "We'll begin our morning meeting in just a second. First, I'm sure you all have noticed, but we have a new peer joining us today. Why don't we go around the circle and introduce ourselves so we're all acquainted before we do anything else. Alright? I'll go first."
Danny wanted to point out that she'd already introduced herself, but then he remembered that he couldn't remember her name and didn't she read his file and already know that this was a waste of time because there was no way in hell his stupid brain would be able to memorize all these names?
But he bit his tongue.
"I'm Yu-Jin, and I'm the lead therapist for this group. I've been here for eight years, and I'm very happy to be working with you all." She turned to the blonde girl. "Would you like to go next?"
The blonde girl gave Danny a quick wave. "I'm Jessica. I'm sixteen and I go to Brickstone High. Nice to meet you."
"I'm Mark," said the boy next to her. He was tall, broad, and if not for the brown hair, could have easily resembled Dash Baxter. "Seventeen, and I go to Central High."
A timid voice came next. "Maria. I'm seventeen."
"Hey, I'm Arabelle," a girl with teal hair styled into a pixie cut said. Her gaze flickered over to Danny once before remaining pointedly fixed on the therapist. "I'm fifteen and I'm from Elmerton."
Danny took stock of the other teens. They didn't seem like they despised his existence, at least. So maybe it could have been worse.
But the discomfort that was radiating off of each of them was palpable. Their eyes either didn't leave Danny or avoided him like the plague. It was as if he were a feral beast poised to attack if a single foot stepped out of line.
Maybe you are a cornered animal, Fenturd. Isn't that how Dash treated you? In the locker room that day?
"Danny? Would you like to introduce yourself?" the therapist asked, her voice cutting through his brain like a hot knife.
Danny surveyed the room one last time. If he did open his mouth and speak, then everyone would know how much he'd lost over the past months. Everyone would hear him, and any dignity he had left would evaporate in an instant.
But what choice did he have? If he didn't speak, he would be sent back to inpatient, and he would never be able to return to Casper High.
This was so humiliating.
"Hi." Danny paused. That was right! If he just focused on saying small words, he might be able to get through this intact. He could do this, he just had to be as direct as he could.
"I'm Danny."
And just like that, everyone's eyes had zeroed in on him.
Should he continue? Was it even worth it? Everyone here already knew who he was. They'd likely seen all the news footage of his disappearance, they probably knew about the court case, they'd probably seen photos and videos of his parents and sister and maybe even his classmates and old teachers too.
But if he didn't continue with the introduction, would people just think he was being rude? Would they assume him to be some raging narcissist?
His head turned down to his lap where he watched his fingers twist together. He wished he had that stress ball right now, the one from inpatient. It would be so much better to have something like that in here.
"I'm sixteen."
There. That was bound to suffice for his introduction. It was short, it was to the point, and it got out everything that this group would need to know about him for the rest of the day.
When was this program going to end?
"Welcome, Danny," said the therapist. "We are happy to have you in this group, and we hope you feel comfortable here as well."
He hoped he gave her a weak smile at the very least, but he wouldn't be surprised if it looked like a grimace.
"Alright, let's get started on our morning check-in discussion. Just a reminder to everyone that everything said here is confidential; it stays between us," the therapist said. "So for the morning check-in, we're just going to read off of our sheets so we can see how we're all doing today."
Danny's brain short-circuited. He glanced over to his questionnaire, and it seemed to be positively glowing under the bright ceiling lights.
No. No way. They were going to make him share this? Just in front of everyone?
They couldn't.
He looked up to see the blonde girl holding her sheet up in front of her. She was moving her lips, her face looking passive, bored.
Danny dug his fingernails into his palms. He didn't understand why this surprised him at all. They all had to share personal details in inpatient, didn't they? It wasn't like any of this was new to him, so why did it feel so different?
Because it was different now. Before, he was confined in a space with teens, most of whom were taken straight from the hospital. They couldn't leave, they had no one to gossip with aside from their therapists, and everyone was too busy getting used to their new medications to worry about each other.
But here? The teens here would go home at the end of the day. They would tell their parents that they were in a group with Danny Phantom and they might talk about him and even if the therapist said this was all confidential, was it really? He wasn't stupid, he knew people would talk. He was a news topic, a national event, a celebrity.
He was Danny Phantom.
Or...he was.
He tried to grasp at his core, but it was still too dull and muted and he couldn't feel it like he used to. His body wasn't what it should've been. He was trapped in this faux-human bubble, and he needed to escape it.
Back in freshman year of high school, Danny had so desperately wanted to be popular. He wanted to be loved and respected by his peers, he wanted their acceptance. He remembered trying so hard to fit in. He tried buying the right clothes and going after the right girls and listening to the right music in the fleeting hope that maybe somebody would give him the attention he so craved.
If Danny had a time machine now, he would go back to that time, punch himself in the face, and yell at him to give up because you don't want the attention, you don't want it like this!
They said the grass was always greener on the other side, and Danny had never understood what that meant until now. He had the attention he wanted, but it cost him everything.
He wouldn't be able to fit in here, not with him out as Danny Phantom. Not after everything that happened. Not after the Guys in White, the broken bones, the damaged nerve system, the memory and speech issues, the loss of everything that kept him whole.
This fame wasn't worth it.
He was so stupid.
Being an invisible loser sucked, but at least he could still be Phantom when he wanted to be. Now the roles were reversed and Fenton just...sucked.
"Danny?"
Danny jolted up to see everyone—once again—staring at him.
What now?
"Would you like to share your check-in sheet with us?" The therapist nodded encouragingly.
Danny obediently picked up his paper. "Today I'm...I…" He felt his face grow red. He would take another day hooked up to the Guys in White's ectoplasm machine to this. "I'm feeling okay. I—uh, I didn't shower this morning. I took my...um…I—I took...I took..."
The sheet slipped through his fingers and fell onto his lap. He made no effort to pick it up again.
He kept his head low, his lips parted slightly, trying to form words that wouldn't come out. He felt his eyes sting, and he forced the tears back because he was not crying right now, he refused to be like this in front of all these strange teens and he was not crying, damn it.
This sucked. He sucked. He wished he could skip this part of the day and go to PT. At least then he would be up and moving, focusing on strengthening his body, focusing on actually getting better instead of whatever this bullshit was.
He couldn't do this.
"Sorry," he mumbled, even if he really wasn't sorry at all. He was pissed and his chest hurt and he was sick of sitting all the time and he wanted to leave.
"It's alright, Danny," the therapist said. "No one said this was going to be easy. Would you like to try again?"
He shook his head. He knew he wouldn't be able to. He just couldn't do this.
"That's okay. Can everyone hand me their check-in sheets?"
But Danny didn't want to pick up his questionnaire again because that would mean he would have to give it to her, this woman that he didn't know and then she would have it and he couldn't do that because then she would wonder what the hell was the big deal why Danny didn't want to share his check-in sheet like everyone else did no problem and she was going to contact his parents and what if she shared his sheet with anyone else what was going to happen then?
"Danny, can I have your paper?"
Danny ripped the sheet of paper off his lap and thrust it out to her like it was a venomous snake.
"Thank you," she said.
Danny refused to look at her face.
Who knew the great Danny Phantom would be defeated by a piece of paper?
He couldn't imagine how he looked, head low, shoulders hunched, his movements stiff and uncoordinated. It was no wonder why everyone was staring at him.
Really, Daniel, Vlad would say. You can't act like that and expect people not to notice.
Danny's arm twitched, and it took everything in his power to refrain from pulling his hair out of his skull.
He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to be around all these people. He didn't want to have to pour out his feelings in front of these strangers.
Where the hell was Desiree when he needed her? He wanted everything to go back to the way it was. He couldn't do this, he couldn't be here, and if this was going to be the rest of his life, then he didn't want it anymore.
I'm very sorry to those who thought this fic was abandoned. It's not! It just took me an unnecessary amount of time to finish this chapter. But the good thing is that because this chapter took so long, I actually have most of the next chapter's first draft already written. So that's good!
A bit of a personal detail, but during this hiatus I'd made a portfolio and applied to grad schools, and I got accepted to literally every program I went for! So that was unexpected but very flattering. I have a week to pick which school I'm going to go to. Should be fun!
As always, a hugeeee thank you to tumblr user imekitty for not only beta-ing this chapter, but helping me sort through the mess that was the first drafts. Additionally, thank you to tumblr user prydoniantrash for helping me with all the PHP details!