Behind Blue Eyes
I don't own Danny Phantom, but man I wish I did.
Five times Star thinks she knows Danny Fenton and one time she admits she doesn't. As you can tell, this isn't going to be a very long story, but yes the following chapters will take place following the events of this one. Some events are planned while others are open to change.
Read on, readers.
Game Night
Star looked over her reflection in the mirror, judging her own outfit before going out to meet Paulina. Tonight was the first football game of the season and everyone was super pumped for it, practically the whole school would be there so she had to look her best.
Her make-up changed her complexion just enough that she wasn't as pale as her white short-sleeved shirt, her orange jeans were freshly dry-cleaned and her white flats were newly shined. She put a hand on her hip, leaning slightly to see if it helped accentuate her figure at all like it seemed to do for Paulina.
"How does she do it?" Star muttered to herself, trying another position.
She was more than confident in both her body and her looks, except somehow Paulina always managed to make her feel inferior. They were best friends, but sometimes Star hated the Latina with everything she could. With Paulina, it was never that easy though.
Sighing in aggravation she let her hand drop to her side, deciding to forego the modeling all together and focused on getting ready again. She grabbed her two favorite hair clips from the jewelry box on her desk. One was an orange flower, clipped easily into the mass of blonde hair that hung down on the left side of her head. The second was one she saved for special occasions, a light blue star-shaped hair clip that was slightly smaller than the palm-sized flower she normally wore. Star clipped the star into place with a grin, putting it slightly in front of the orange flower to make her hair appear shorter on the left as her blonde mane hung down to nearly her waist.
Running her fingers through her hair one more time, Star smiled at her reflection. Last but not least, she put on Kwan's Letterman jacket to show support for her designated boyfriend even though early September wasn't known for it's cool and refreshing temperatures.
"The things I do for popularity." She sighed out, already feeling sweaty in the oversized jacket.
Nonetheless, she grabbed her turquoise purse and slung it over her shoulder. She gave herself one last glance in the mirror before pulling herself away and leaving her bedroom, heading out to meet Paulina at the football field.
"It's a good thing we got here so early, seats went really fast." Star commented from the bleachers.
They had gotten good seats in the third row, only behind what looked like the families of some members on the team that stayed to watch the practice too. The girls ended up on the end of their row, making it easy to slip out for bathroom breaks, snack trips or the event of a ghost attack.
"Totally." Paulina replied shortly, glancing down at her recently manicured nails. Star couldn't help but feel put out by the response. So, she couldn't resist zoning out while Paulina began talking her ear off about a new set of heels she wanted.
She could see the team getting ready to start; both teams huddled up planning out their moves. The bleachers were full of faces she recognized both from school and around town. If she didn't know them by name, she knew them by face. It was no surprise that she saw almost the entire class there; they were juniors now, they wanted to start off the year having fun. Which is why she was only slightly surprised when she noticed a familiar mess of black hair in the crowd. Only one boy had hair that messy and dark, so when the mom in front of him sat down (finally!) Star was greeted with the sight of Danny Fenton, sitting in the row behind them but a lot closer to the middle of his section.
Fenton was a strange one.
For the longest time, all he seemed to care about was joining the ranks of their A-list. She remembered him and his geek friend Tucker Foley plotting and scheming all through junior high to befriend someone, anyone that could help improve their social status.
Then freshman year, things just changed. They tried harder than ever for a few months, but after that- not a word from either of them. There was even a point in time Fenton outright rejected an offer to join AND the rumor mill says he dumped Paulina! Although Paulina denies they were ever together, there were a lot of people that claimed otherwise. It was like they suddenly didn't care about popularity anymore, like they became content with their own lives.
In a way, Star admired and even envied that. There were days she wished she wasn't friends with Paulina or dreamed about leaving the A-list but she knew she'd never do it. They could destroy her if she thought about leaving, and staying wasn't the worst thing; they really were her friends, after all.
"Are you even listening to me?" Paulina's voice rose in volume and brought Star out of her own head. "What are you even looking at?"
Star turned rather quickly, embarrassed at being caught spacing out, to face her friend but Paulina's face was a lot closer than she remembered. Paulina had leaned over to see where her gaze was.
"Aw, look at the freak boy- here all by himself. How lame." Paulina mocked, giggling rather loudly.
Star only just noticed that she was right, beside him were two near strangers. One from school, one she recognized as a cashier in the supermarket. Neither of his friends Manson and Foley were anywhere near him, which might explain his rather bored expression as he leaned forward on his knees and held his head in his hands.
Rather odd, Manson and Foley stuck to Fenton like glue for the most part. It was like they were afraid to let him out of their sight or he'd disappear on them. Like that would happen, Fenton didn't have anyone else to go to outside of his freaky family.
Although she never understood why, since he didn't remind her of the typical bully target. He was a bit awkward, sure, but he was always nice if not downright polite when he spoke. If you pushed his buttons, maybe you'd get a few jabs and sarcastic comments out of him but not always. He seemed content to walk away from any situation that seemed like it would go further than a casual greeting, whether 'further' meant 'let's get lunch' or turning into a shouting match.
He wasn't ugly either, and more importantly he wasn't what Paulina considered ugly. There were no braces, pimples, freckles or glasses, he wasn't overweight and he wasn't covered in body hair. He didn't have any particularly bad habits that might get on someone's nerves; he didn't smell, he didn't shout, he didn't chew with his mouth open. By all accounts on everyone's regard, Danny Fenton was an average teenager with hardly anything special about him.
"Look at that cut on his arm! It looks new, I bet he got it doing something stupid on his way here." Paulina continued on.
The most noteworthy thing about him was his constant sketchy behavior that last year created a rumor that he was in a gang. He was always leaving classes halfway though, sometimes coming back but not always, and showed up late for more classes than Star was on time for the whole year. He always seemed to be both around for all the crazy and nowhere near it. All that coupled with the various injuries he's been seen walking around with made for a lot of interesting school buzz.
Ultimately, the rumor mill decided that Danny Fenton wasn't in a gang and was only an extremely tardy teenager with an adrenaline addiction that led to dangerous stunts and a high pain tolerance. Everyone was more than content to agree and move on.
"What's he even doing here?" Paulina finished her nit picking on the Fenton boy.
Star conceded that she had a good point that time, why was he here? It probably wasn't to show support or school spirit, and he definitely wasn't friends with anyone on the football team unless he became really okay with taking beatings and being shoved into lockers all of the sudden.
She didn't have time to dwell on the question, though, as the loud noise of a whistle brought her attention back to the field before them. The teams were marching out into formation as the refs and coaches took their positions. The game was starting. Star took one last glance behind her at Fenton, who looked entirely uninterested in the game about to unfold.
She looked away.
The game was only half over, but everyone was very excited; it didn't look like Elmerton would be able to catch up; they had only scored one field goal so far compared to the multiple touchdowns Dash and Kwan had amassed already. It was shaping up to be a really good evening and Paulina was already talking to her about plans to celebrate the win after with Dash and Kwan when suddenly, the temperature dropped.
Star, previously sweating underneath Kwan's Letterman jacket, shivered and tried to rub her hands together for warmth. Everyone from Amity Park knew what was happening; a ghost was about to show up. Nobody moved yet, unsure of exactly what would happen; if they stopped what they were doing every time a ghost showed up nothing would ever get done.
But when they heard laughter and one popped into view, dramatically waving its arms around they knew they got one of the crazy ones. Best thing to do was run, try not to trip and hope Danny Phantom showed up in time to stop it.
Almost at once, the crowd stood and bolted. Paulina, being at the edge, was off first and gone before Star could even blink. She attempted to follow, only to be ruthlessly shoved through by a family of six and then again by a middle-aged man. Losing her balance on the side, she fell to the ground with a thud and could only roll underneath the set of bleachers she was just on top of to avoid being trampled by the crowd of people still running away.
She collected herself and peaked between bleachers to see what was going on, getting her first good look at the ghost.
It was one she hadn't seen before, a rare occurrence. Ghosts attacked very frequently, but rarely did a new one show their face anymore; they had their own rogues' gallery of ghosts by now. This one was sports themed, so attacking a football game was not a coincidence.
It had green skin like a lot of ghosts, but orange eyes and a football helmet on. Covering its body was what looked like a baseball uniform, and a very plain one at that. A simple black short sleeved shirt with an orange long sleeved undershirt and brown stripes running down the chest. It looked to be wearing ice skates at the bottom that were plain black, but with blades that were a bright Ectoplasmic green. The jersey had a bright orange '35' on the front, sewn with green stitches.
"What's the matter? Does nobody want to play ball?" The ghost cried out, creating a large blast of ectoplasm in its hand and throwing it at the field.
Players that were still evacuating were thrown around like nothing, trying to avoid the debris. It laughed again, throwing more and more blasts and keeping groups of people from escaping. Star panicked, unsure of what to do. How could Paulina not wait for her?
"Star? What are you still doing here?" A voice cut through her thoughts.
She turned to see Danny Fenton under the bleachers with her, sounding a lot more surprised than scared.
"I panicked and hid instead of running away." Star lied easily, unwilling to tell the boy about how she had been pushed aside like yesterdays mail. "What about you? You're normally the first person off the scene of ghost attacks, Fenton."
She tried to put an edge on her voice, unwilling to answer questions that could lead to her embarrassment.
"Oh, I uh- I fell of the bleachers in all the panic. You know me, so clumsy." Fenton replied through mild stuttering.
Star wasn't sure whether to get angry or not at the indirect insult, but didn't have time to think before Fenton yelled and lunged.
"Get down!" He cried, leaping forward and practically tackling her to the ground.
Somehow, he grabbed her so one hand cradled her head and prevented it from slamming into the ground while the other was around her waist, doing a good job of not letting it touch the ground either. After a brief second, she watched as his face clenched in pain before relaxing as she felt her back and waist touch the ground with surprising tenderness.
"Are you okay?" Fenton asked immediately, blue eyes searching all over her form.
Star could only nod through her surprise. She felt Fenton relax even more, slipping his hand out from under her head as he pushed himself off of her and stood up. Star sat up too, still dazed.
"Okay, I'll go, uh, get his attention, you get outta here." Fenton told her, running out from under the bleachers.
Star could only watch in complete shock as the kid who wouldn't look Dash in the eye lazily strolled onto the center of the now empty football field to confront a ghost. Specifically so she could get away. She started to walk towards the exit, only a few feet from where she was hiding
"Hey ball breath, you missed." Fenton said with such conviction Star couldn't help but glance back.
The ghost seemed surprised at first, which Star guessed was fair, but then it morphed into what seemed to be fear. Fear of what? The only things around were herself and Fenton by now.
"How did you know which game was the target?" The ghost asked in a rage, fear forgotten for now.
"You're predictable." Fenton replied with a shrug of his shoulders. He glanced back, his eyes meeting hers briefly before he looked back to the ghost. "You get one chance, leave. Go home, now." He said, getting louder.
Star caught the double meaning and turned to run, but so did the ghost. When it turned and saw her, it began to laugh and Star stopped in her tracks again.
"I should've known, of course there's a reason you're still here like that!" It cackled. "And here I thought we were having a friendly huddle, rookie."
Before Star could even begin to contemplate what the ghost was talking about, it started to charge another attack in its hands and aimed for her. She tried to run again, but the attack hit the ground in front of her and flung her backwards. She hit the ground again, a lot rougher this time.
"Star!" She heard Fenton cry out in shock.
She sat up, vision blurry for a moment and turned towards her classmates voice. She watched in shock as Fenton ran for her, dodging the ghosts blasts without even looking; the kid who was clocked as the slowest in gym crossed half the football field in seconds and jumped at least double his own body height at one point to dodge those blasts.
Star gasped as she felt herself leaving the ground again, this time being supported by two deceptively strong arms.
"Fenton?" She whispered in confusion.
Fenton was carrying her now, going just as fast as before despite the added weight of another person. Just before they could get out of the fenced in field, the fence glowed green and pulled itself shut, growing ten feet in the process. Fenton turned them around to see the ghost floating with its arms pointed outward at them, showing it was his doing.
"Uh, uh, uh. Game's not over yet, rookie. We've got a score to settle." The ghost cried out. All around the ghost, sports balls were formed. Green footballs, basketballs and baseballs floated in a circle around him.
"You act like it was a close game." Fenton muttered under his breath.
Star felt Fenton running more, but closed her eyes to deal with the massive headache she felt forming. She opened her eyes slowly again after she felt shade encompass her and Fenton started to set her down. Despite herself, she gripped his shirt.
"Relax, just for a minute." He said gently, feeling her tightened grip. They were underneath the bleachers now and Fenton was glancing left and right, ready for the ghost to attack again. "Trust me and stay here, I'll be right back." And then he was gone before Star could protest.
Not that she would protest, of course.
"You're really starting to get on my nerves, Fanatic." Fenton's voice sounded agitated again, like it did the first time he ran off to face the ghost alone.
Star tried to stand, but her legs wouldn't properly respond. She could hardly sit straight up, but she tried to peer through the bleachers to see what Fenton would do against their attacker.
"Why don't you do something about it then? Or is one little human enough to bring about your demise?" It mocked, launching all kinds of balls at the teenager.
"Oh please, you couldn't defeat an egg!" Fenton replied, jumping into the air and- and running up the stream of basketballs and footballs towards the ghost?
Since when was Fenton that coordinated and agile? Forget that, something like that shouldn't even be physically possible for people in peak physical condition let alone the scrawny kid that got picked last in gym. It just got weirder and weirder because the ghost didn't even look surprised and turned them all around, aiming to hit Fenton from behind.
Star tried to shout a warning, but her voice failed her as she watched what happened next. Fenton pushed off a basketball and turned around mid-air, palming another basketball coming at him and using it to deflect multiple others incoming. He got hit in the chest, but simply gripped the ball for dear life and flipped forward, which seemed to break it from the ghosts spell and threw it for all he was worth at the ghost. Star didn't know why she was surprised anymore when it smacked the ghost in the face and Fenton stuck the landing with a roll onto the ground.
"You weren't supposed to be here! You always ruin everything you stupid half-breed!" The ghosts orange eyes glowed fiercely, but Fenton seemed unfazed.
"Shove it, Fanatic. Consider yourself out of the playoffs." Fenton quipped, pointing something silver at the ghost.
Then before her very eyes, Star watched the ghost get sucked into whatever it was Fenton was holding and disappear in a flash of blue light. Then, she heard his voice again.
"Game's over, guys. Come back, meet at mine." He paused. "Star!" She saw him remember her, then dash back towards the bleachers.
He was by her side moments later, helping her stand.
"Are you okay? You didn't get hurt too bad, did you? That was a pretty nasty fall." Fenton asked, looking her over as she tried to regain her balance.
The fog was starting to clear from her mind and she wasn't sure it had anything to do with the ghost's disappearance. She glanced around, seeing certain things return to normal. The fence was returned to its default position and a lot of glowing green balls disappeared, but the field was torn up beyond immediate repair and there was scorch marks all over the place, including Fenton's chest.
"I- I think so." Star managed to answer eventually after realizing he was actually waiting for an answer. "What about you?" She found herself asking, eyes drawn to the scorch mark shaped like a basketball on Fenton's chest.
"Never better-" He paused, glancing down. "I mean, uh- my chest hurts a lot and it hurts to breath, but I think I'll manage. I'm also really tired, too, you should probably get going."
Star's head still hurt a lot, so it wouldn't be until later that she reflected on the obvious lie. But for now, she just nodded and held her head in both hands a moment longer, trying to force herself to think clearly again.
"You are okay, aren't you? Do you want me to walk you home?" Fenton asked her, offering a hand as the other put something in his back jean pocket.
Star didn't know why, but she found herself unable to decline and gave Fenton one of her hands. He smiled at her and she tried to pretend she didn't notice the concern in his eyes.
Danny Fenton, as it turns out, is a really strange one.
He held her hand the whole way home, but rather than harping on it or attempting to pretend it was romantic he held his arm up, using his own hand to stabilize her the whole twenty minute walk home with no complaints. She was pretty sure she tripped quite a lot and she really expected to fall a lot more, but Fenton was deceptively strong and managed to hold her up every time.
And on top of that, he even asked her to forget everything that had happened! He didn't want her to tell Paulina or Dash or anyone about how he saved her or took care of that ghost, alone no less. In her confused state, she nodded before asking why, a choice she would regret later. It seemed like he wanted to forget tonight ever happened and he seemed borderline eager to leave her on her doorstep without so much as another word.
Anyone else would've milked something like this for all it was worth, which was a lot in Casper High. Fenton could've tried to bargain his way into the A-List, onto the football team, into Paulina's pants- hell most boys would've tried for a kiss or to grab her ass on a moonlit walk home regardless of the circumstances. But all Fenton did the whole walk back was make sure she was okay about twenty times, carry her purse for her and ask her to forget about what happened.
"This is me." Star said, pointing. She let Fenton walk her up the steps and prayed the door wasn't locked. It wasn't, and she opened it quietly.
"You don't need me to, uh," Fenton trailed off, gesturing to her house. She got the hint.
"No, dad says no boys in the house while he's not home." Star replied automatically. She almost went to take it back, but he nodded contently and smiled at her again, letting go of her hand for the first time since the football field.
"Right, good rule. I'll, uh, take off then. If you're sure your okay?" Fenton checked on her one last time, giving her her purse back.
"Yes, good idea." She said, turning to the door.
She heard Fenton step back down the steps without another word or complaint. Before she could stop herself, she called to him.
"Fenton?" She turned, watching how quickly he turned to check on her at her call. "Thanks." And then she stepped inside, slamming the door shut behind her.
Star couldn't think anymore and mindlessly fell onto her couch, ignoring the mental image of Danny Fenton walking away from her house with a bright smile.
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