I don't own Danny Phantom.
—
Happy New Year!
It's still the holiday season, I'm not late… more after the story.
3411 Words. Rated K
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"Seventeen dollars for parking?!"
"I know! It's so cheap this year!"
Danny went bug-eyed, gawking at the website.
"Cheap?" He mumbled as Sam took the mouse from him and scrolled to the ticket page.
"Yes, Danny. That is cheap. Besides you're not buying, my parents are. Aren't you glad they want to spend their money on something worthwhile like a formative memory of wonder and joy?"
"Jackson is a year old. He probably won't remember this."
"But he might and more importantly, we will remember this. Besides, Christmas is almost over— you can't be grumpy anymore."
"I'm not grumpy." He grumbled. Crying came through the baby monitor and Danny pushed himself up from the table. "I'll get him. You buy the tickets."
A few minutes later, Danny walked back into the kitchen carrying their sleepy-eyed child.
"Did you put the bottle in the warmer?"
"Just a minute ago. Tucker said they're good to go tonight, so we got tickets for them too."
"Oh, that'll really please your mom."
"Would you stop? She loves your sister."
Danny smirked, passing the baby over. "And she hates Tucker as much as she hates me."
Sam rolled her eyes.
"Are you going to be like this all night? Because I'm not putting up with it."
"No, I'm just joking; let me get it out of my system. What time are we going anyway?"
"Around 6, once the sun is down. We're going to take the van so everyone's meeting here first."
"Sounds good." Danny froze, looking past her to the wall. He scrunched his nose and then spun around, barreling back down the hallway. Sam frowned, realizing why he ran out when the smell reached her. She fast-walked after him, holding her baby up in the air.
"Get back here!"
"You held him last!"
"I changed him last!"
"I took the last two nights!"
"I pushed him out!"
Danny materialized in front of her and Jackson giggled, immediately reaching for his super-powered father.
"Yea, okay. Come here, kiddo."
—
"Hey guys! Merry Christmas!"
"Happy Hanukkah!"
Tucker greeted them, placing a box down next to the tree. He hugged Sam and fist bumped Danny and Jackson. Jazz walked in behind, carrying their sleeping five month old. She said hello and passed the baby to her sister in law; Danny gave her a hug, passing his own son to her.
"Hi Jazz. Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas, Danny. Merry Christmas Jackson."
"We brought the last of the presents from FentonWorks, Danny."
"Thanks, Tuck. We're still good to host Christmas morning tomorrow? Jazz, what time do you pick mom and dad up from the airport?"
"They get in at nine, Danny. It's going to be Christmas afternoon."
Danny took the baby from his wife and she moved to the coffee table to finish prepping the diaper bag.
"That's fine, but we have dinner out with Sam's parents at five so it's going to be a short visit."
"Fine with me. I imagine mom and dad will be pretty tired anyway, even with some rest in between."
"Knock, knock!"
"We're in here, mom." Sam called. Her parents walked into the living room, taking in the large tree next to the mantle where the menorah sat. They sat their luggage down next to the doorframe.
"You did beautiful with the decorations this year, pumpkin."
"Thank you, but it was all Danny this time."
"Mr. Hates the Holiday Season did all this?" Jeremy teased.
"I'm not that bad."
"Son, you did great; don't listen to him. Sammy-kins, did you use my card like I said?"
"Yes, I did, thank you, mom."
"Babe, you get everyone in the car, I'll lock up."
"You heard the man. Let's go!"
Turning to his wife once they were back outside, Tucker mumbled, "They didn't waste any time kicking us out, did they?"
Jazz laughed.
"Do you expect anything less?"
—
"Here's money for parking." Jeremy held out his card from one of the back seats. Tucker reached forward next to him, holding out cash.
"No, please, we'll cover this."
Danny looked at the open attendants and signaled left to search them for the cash counter. Unable to get to the furthest lanes, he swerved back into the original one he was in, crossing over two other lanes as he did. He pulled up to the gate and rolled down his window, smiling politely.
"I promise I'm not crazy. I was looking for the cash line."
"We don't accept cash payment for parking, but you can use it inside."
"Oh, that explains that then." Jazz exchanged her credit card for the cash in her brother's back-stretched hand. Tucker reached forward for his money but she smirked and pocketed it in her jacket. Danny gave the card to the attendant, looking past her at the parking lot.
"Has it been busy today?"
"I couldn't say; people have been coming and going about the same amount since we opened." She gave the card back to him and the gate opened.
"Enjoy your visit to the Imaginarium."
He drove forward, following the cones down the empty lot to the next. Dozens of cars sat lined up in this one, and two attendants stood along the line directing the incoming visitors.
"There aren't a lot of people working this event, are there?"
"No, but they probably planned for a slow work-day. This light show isn't as big as the events this arena hosts either. The County fair every April is the largest in the country."
"Is it really?"
"Yup. We'll get you out here for it this year or the next. I want to take you two and my parents to one of the concerts they do here, but they haven't released the schedule yet. L.A. is full of a lot of up and coming artists, but they do a few big names to bring sales up."
"They have a video game expo this year, Danny. I'm working on getting us special tickets for it."
"Oh, sweet."
He pulled up to the signaling attendant and parked. Danny hopped out of the car and opened the other door on his side for everyone to climb out after he unbuckled his child. Locking the vehicle twice, Danny passed the keys to Sam and the group walked to the front entrance.
"Scan your tickets for each person in your group. Proceed forward when the light turns green."
One by one, Sam scanned the tickets for her family and friends to walk through the turnstile. As soon as they were in, Jeremy and Tucker beelined for the beer stand. Pamela rolled her eyes, and lead the rest of the group past them towards the giant interactive boxes on their right.
"This is as good a place to start as any."
"What are they?" Jazz asked, keeping pace with Sam's active mother.
"Photo boxes. I read that they have thirty of them this year, but it appears some of them are more popular than others."
"This one doesn't have a line." Jazz suggested.
"Probably because half of the walls aren't working." Sam deadpanned.
"Come on, girls. It's all in good fun."
"Yea, get up in there." Tucker encouraged. Sam took Jackson out of her husbands hands and climbed into the box with her female family. Danny pulled out his phone, bending over to sip the second beer in Tucker's hands at the same time.
"Say cheese."
Sam rolled her eyes and climbed out as soon as he took their photo; She looked across the decorations in front of them. Danny pocketed his phone and thanked his friend for the drink.
"Danny let's go stand in the ornament."
"You have to walk through the nutcracker's mouth first." He redirected, ushering the family to the beginning display entrance.
"It's a little sparse, isn't it? These snowflakes look like they could be a maze if there were more of them."
"I don't think this is the main set of lights. They've got more up that hill."
"Too many lights down here would overcrowd the carnival section. If they planned for a slow influx of customers, then they wouldn't have everything running at full capacity."
"I'll take your photo." Jazz offered, following her brother.
"Jasmine, would you take one of Jeremy and I in the heart?"
"Of course." She cheerily replied, pulling the beer out of Danny's hand and passing it to Tucker. She took their photo and they followed Sam's parents to the next giant light stand.
"Thank you dear. You need one too, where do you want it?"
"Let me think about it until Michelle wakes up. There's a lot of people around this area right now."
"Honey, what about over there?" Tucker pointed to a tunnel of golden twinkling lights.
"Oh, Tucker, that's perfect." She looked down when the child threw her head back. Jazz laughed, pulling the blanket off the wide-eyed child.
"Great timing, as always. Come on."
"Give me your beer, Tuck." Danny said, drinking his own.
"Thank you, Pam."
"Aw, sis, you have to frame this one for mom and dad. She's looking right at the camera."
"Maybe for next Christmas. Did you do your Santa photo?"
Danny soured, and Sam cackled. Jackson snapped around in his mom's arms at the sound, reaching to her face.
"Yes, he did, Jazz. We waited three hours in line at the mall for it."
"Three hours? Geez, next time you guys need to come with us to the mall we went to. It only took ten minutes."
"No, go ahead and tell them how late you waited to do it, Danny."
"This past Saturday." He ground out, gesturing wildly with one hand as he defended himself. "But it would have only been half an hour if forty-odd reservations didn't show up late, and the staff and parents of other kids would get it done instead of standing around."
"He has a point with that one. Santa took probably twenty minutes with each family. I'm sure he was exhausted, and they still had ten groups in line after eight p.m. when they were supposed to close."
"I'll go back to the amusement park and have a full day of fun before waiting for a photo instead of just trying to get it done next year. Nothing is worth three straight hours of standing in one place. But yes, Jazz I got the picture done."
"It really sounds like you got into the holiday spirit this year, Danny." She said, teasingly.
"Oh, they have a snow machine. Danny, go make a snow angel."
He chuckled. "You have five bucks?"
The family followed Sam back to the main walkway. She sighed, appreciating the effort the event coordinators put in, but something in her heart ached at the collective differences from their holidays over the past few years. Jack reached out and smashed a piece of falling 'snow' in between his hands.
"It's just soap."
Her parents walked up to her, understanding her nostalgia. They conversed while Tucker, Jazz and Danny stood off to the side, watching.
"Here you go." Jazz held out the twenty she took from her husband. Danny squinted, tilting his head in confusion.
"Make it good."
His eyes widened with his grin, and he gave Tucker his beer again.
"It'll be the best snow angel on the west coast."
Danny jogged up to the pitiful pile of soap on the ground and circled it. Sam looked at him, confused. He nodded to the rest of their group to join them next to it, and his sister and best friend immediately played the part of clueless bystander. Sam set her boy on the ground and he crouched down, touching the soap as it landed around him. Jackson looked up, holding his hands out to catch the pieces of foam that floated down to him.
Standing under the snow machine, Danny subtlety flicked out his hands, focusing on the chilly power in his core. Feeling the cold air surrounding them, he latched onto the slight fog and pulled on it, freezing the tiny, invisible water droplets. His power cooled the temperature further and the clouds rapidly thickened with the heavy condensation. Grinning, he looked around and jumped up with a little levitation to flick the 'off' button on the snow machine.
Shouts of joy and excitement began to ring out around them, as more and more people looked up at the beginning snowfall. The temperature lowered even further and Danny took off his hat, placing it on his son; Sam pulled the boy's mittens out of their diaper bag and put them on him as well.
Tucker wrapped the blanket back around his child and wife, and looked around. Spotting a funnel cake stand, he called for Jeremy and Danny to follow him.
The guys returned with hot chocolates and a funnel cake for the ladies just as the snow drift thickened. Grinning madly, Danny passed the two hot chocolates in his hands to the family and rushed forward to the open space. Condensing the snow drift around him to fall stronger than the rest of the storm, he laid on the ground and spread his limbs, wiping the snow underneath multiple times to create his snow angel while the flurry piled on top of him.
He stood up a minute later and nodded, shaking snow out of his hair.
"Nothing gets me back into the holiday spirit like snow."
Danny held out his hands. "I'll take my five bucks now."
"Dude." Tucker said, exasperated.
"What a wonderful surprise. The weather channel said it wasn't cold enough for the rain to shift like this." Pamela commented, still staring at the sky in awe. She looked back down at her son-in-law.
"Danny, how did you know it was going to snow?"
"Ah, the weather apps out here are unreliable. It never says the exact temperature or weather condition. I've been working on my own climate machine for a few weeks now."
"Oh, you finished your rover project?"
"Yup." He said proudly. "it's on display at the science museum before I take it to the observatory when we move back."
"I know you are not talking about work right now."
"Yea, yea. Come on," he picked Jackson up with one arm and used his other hand to gather a handful of snow. "Let's go look at the lights."
"Drop the snowball."
"I don't know what you're talking about." He smirked, walking backwards towards the lights.
"Show me your hands, star-boy."
Jackson giggled as Danny passed him between his arms, showing off his empty hands dramatically. Their family laughed, following him through the polygon shaped pathway. Once more, he took his near empty beer cup from Tucker and finished it, running off path to drop the cup in the trash. When they got to the top of the hill, Jazz convinced her friends to take a photo in the holiday board. She placed Tucker and Sam in the elves faces, and Danny stuck his head in the grizzly bear cut-out, barring his teeth like an animal. Meandering at the back of the group as they weaved through the display, Danny waited for the perfect moment.
The light show was spectacular, to say the least.
The main display surrounded the carnival games and the food stands in a semicircle, and expanded across a mile behind the photo boxes. There were light tunnels and brilliant standees, water displays that added an extra twinkling in the ripples— and to top it off, a field of floral sunflowers that lit up the ground in a breathtaking display of summertime in the foothills. The snowfall fell throughout the rest of the night, softer as the heaviest clouds parted in the breeze. All around, people milled about slowly, enjoying hot chocolate while living through the once-in-a-lifetime storm that graced the fairgrounds that night.
"Look one of these got knocked down." Danny reached down and tried to stick the sunflower light back into the ground. It fell over immediately and took another down with it.
"Danny's breaking things."
"Go sit it the field, I'll take your picture."
"No, I think I'm good."
They chuckled, watching the influencers who were off path in the middle of the display. Danny shifted his son in his arms, refusing the offer his wife gave to take either the child or the diaper bag.
The young adults and their families walked around the whole arena once, exploring the fairytale characters scattered across the last section and came back down the hill through the giant nutcrackers mouth to the main plaza.
Danny waited until Sam was through the entrance, and pulled the snowball out of his son's jacket hood. With calculated precision he launched the snowball into the air. It soared over the nutcracker, arching down with the pull of gravity and hit her directly between her shoulder blades. She flinched at the contact and froze; turning around slowly, making sure to keep her initial shock on her face. Danny played dumb, pointing to his son lamely.
"Kid's got potential, huh?"
Sam shook her head, silently threatening him with her glare. The moment they passed a pile of snow, she gathered a handful and shot it back at his head. Jackson swiped at his dad's face, smushing the splattered ice against it, giggling. His little laugh was infectious, and Danny set him down so he could play. He made another snowball, targeting his best friend this time, and soon the entire family was pulled in.
Jazz stepped back with her baby, and took the moment to throw away trash. A performance going on to the right of the giant, LED volcano caught her attention, and she walked over to see what it was. The family joined her as it ended, and another show began across the plaza. The speakerphones blared above them and Jackson jolted in Sam's arms, startled by the voice and DJ music that resumed after it. One of the stage performers blasted an airhorn.
"Just five minutes until Big Bee transforms!"
"Wow, Big Bee." Danny rolled his eyes.
"Do we need to stay and watch, or are we good to go?" Jeremy asked, nodding to the children. Michelle was wide-eyed, go-going in Jazz's carrier, but Jackson was looking tired, resting with his head on Sam's shoulder.
"It's just a few minutes, we can stay a little longer."
They spotted one of the workers climb into the trunk of the fake, yellow car, and Sam turned her boy around so he could see. A moment later the lights and music picked up. Smoke filled the stage and indeed, the car did transform. The front half shifted up on top of the back as the DJ increased the music to cover the whirring. Robotic arms slid down from the wheel compartments on either side, and a mechanical face poked out of the upright hood. The transformer spun back and forth in front of the crowd.
"Five dollars to take your photo with Big Bee! That's five for one or five for the whole family!"
"Are we ready to go?"
"Yea, let's beat the traffic."
—
"Bye, guys! We'll see you tomorrow!"
"See you!"
"Drive safe!"
Sam's parents followed them into the house, and Danny gave them a quick tour while his wife got the baby ready for bed.
"Tonight was a hoot."
"Yea, it was. Great idea on the outing, Pamela."
"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. I know you don't find the seasonal stuff fun."
"Yes, thank you for being such a good sport, Danny. We don't normally do those kind of events, but you and your sister are family, and you are important to us."
"I do appreciate that, really. Things surrounding the holidays have gotten better; I learned a long time ago that it's not about the activity, but the memory you create with your loved ones. And I think seeing the way Jackson looked at those lights and laughed all night is my new favorite."
"That is the best attitude you can have, son. It was a treasure watching you kids grow up, but now as the grandparents, there is something so special about watching you and Sam with your own child."
"We best be getting to bed. Good night, Danny. Night Sammy!"
"Good night!" She hollered from the bathroom. Jackson screamed out, splashing wildly— noted only by the slight shriek Sam let out afterwards. Danny dragged his hand across his face in defeat and turned away from his chuckling in-laws.
"Good night."
—
Just a one shot idea I had after going to the Pomona Fairplex for the Imaginarium. Not a lot of effort, cause this was mainly just me writing some of my family's experience and comments about it while throwing in a little ghostly pizazz.
I'd love to be the person who decides where all the light stands go, because it was just missing that extra detail of visual magic. But still, very cool event, and the hot chocolate was amazing.
I should be dropping my first chaptered story within the next few months, so look for that— I'm very excited for it.
— Goose
