Danny yawned as he walked through the hallway. Another day of boring school. He couldn't wait to go home.
"Hey, Fentina!"
Danny groaned. Of course. He couldn't ever go a day without seeing his favorite person in the world.
"What do you want, Dash?"
Dash grabbed Danny's backpack hook and yanked him backwards, almost causing Danny's feet to come out from underneath him. Then he shoved Danny into the lockers.
"Just want to wail on my favorite nerd. I saw you over here and I just couldn't resist."
Danny rolled his eyes. "Man, Dash. you couldn't resist me? I didn't peg you as being into guys."
Dash's cheeks turned pink and he jostled Danny against the lockers again.
"You better not peg me at all."
Danny smirked. "Wasn't planning on it."
Dash's face turned red. "Shut up! Loser!"
Dash shoved Danny to the ground and he hit it hard. He hit his elbow as he landed and hissed.
"You're just a geek. A freak. A loser."
Danny sat up and glared at him. "Yeah, and you're a jackass."
"A jackass with a perfect life." Danny rolled his life.
"I wish you'd understand what my life was like." Danny muttered.
A beat of silence and then Danny covered his mouth and looked around them. He said the word. Dash looked up and down the hallway as well.
"Are you dumb, Fenton?"
Danny slowly pulled his hands away from his mouth as he continued looking around. "Uh, maybe. It doesn't look like she was here though?"
"I'm blaming you if we go through some freaky Friday body swap bullshit."
Danny started standing back up and waved Dash off. "We would've noticed if she granted a wish by now. It'll be fine."
"You better hope so."
Dash walked by Danny and shoulder checked him. Danny hissed at the impact and glared at him over his shoulder.
Dash was a jerk.
Danny walked into the lunchroom. The room was already filled with people. He got in line to get his lunch.
Once he had his food he turned to scan the room for Sam and Tucker. He saw them already sitting at their usual table near the windows. He made his way over to them.
"Hey guys." He set down his tray and sat down
"Hey, dude." Tucker said through a mouthful of his burger.
"Had a run in with Dash again today." Danny rolled his eyes and stabbed his lettuce with a fork. "I think I got him back pretty good today, though."
"Nothing ghostly I hope?" Sam frowned at him.
"Nope, I just flustered him." Sam shook her head and gave him a questioning look but Danny ignored it. "That reminds me though. I accidentally sort of used the w word out loud."
Sam groaned. "Danny you didn't."
"Tucker slurped at his juice box. "What'd you wish for?"
"That Dash would understand my life or whatever."
"What? Why?" Sam asked.
Danny let out a deep breath. "I'm tired of him picking on me. I just think it'd be cool if he knew what it was like."
"Yeah, but what if Desiree-"
"I said it and nothing happened." Danny said as he looked between Sam and Tucker. "I don't think she heard it."
"Phew." Tucker breathed out. "Imagine what she could've done with that wish. Would the roles be flipped? Would you become a bully? Would Dash have been born to ghost hunting parents? Would he have replaced your best friend in the whole world's role and been your best friend instead?"
Sam rolled her eyes. "At least she wasn't here. It definitely could've gone bad. He could find out your secret identity from it."
Danny raised a brow at her. "How?"
Sam shrugged. "If he's living a day in your shoes, wouldn't that mean everything? School and the ghost powers?"
Danny looked back down at his food. He guessed that was true.
"Yeah. I-"
Danny flinched as something hit him in the back of the head. He looked down to see an apple.
"Hah! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Fenton!"
"That doesn't even make sense!" Sam placed her hands on the table and stood up, glaring at Dash.
"Oohhh what are you gonna do?" Dash mocked.
Danny watched Dash walk towards his table where his friends sat. He placed a hand on the bench he sat on and spread his intangibility through it and onto the floor. When it reached Dash, he took a step and his foot went into the floor and set him off balance. He fell to the floor, his lunch tray clattering on the ground.
The rest of his table burst into laughter, except for Kwan who stood up and bent down to check on Dash. He gently pushed Kwan's hand away but he still had a bite in his voice.
"I'm fine!" He stood up and glared at the rest of his friends and stomped out of the room with Kwan following behind him, lunch tray forgotten.
Danny snickered with Tucker and Sam shook her head.
"You better hope that Desiree didn't hear your wish." She took a sip of her milk. "If he finds out you did that, he'll kick your ass straight into the ghost zone."
"If it's a body swap situation would it technically be my ass or his?" Him and Tucker laughed together.
"Unfortunately for you, I don't think he'd have any gripes about not using your ghost power on you."
Danny waved her comment off.
"It's not like it'll ever happen."
Danny woke up groggily the next morning. He groaned and shifted in bed. But moving felt funny. It was almost as if he was heavier than normal. Maybe his arms had fallen asleep while he was sleeping again.
He rolled onto his other side and then his alarm started going off. It was a different sound. Jazz must've changed it. Something about it waking him up easier if he wasn't used to the sound.
With his eyes closed, he slapped the top of the alarm clock, missing the first time. He threw the covers back and swung his feet down to the floor. Danny yawned.
Bathroom.
He stood up and stumbled his way to his door and grabbed the handle.
Danny opened the door to the hallway, blinking open his eyes, and stopped before he walked out of the room.
This wasn't his hallway.
He closed the door and opened it again. Still the wrong hallway. He closed the door and turned around to look at the room he was in. This wasn't his room. Where was he?
He walked up to the closet and pulled it open. His heart dropped when he saw the hangers filled with letterman jackets and the bears all over the floor.
He was in Dash's house. How did he get here?
Danny ran his hands through his hair but pulled them back when all he felt was fuzzy short hair.
Something was wrong. Really wrong.
He started digging around in the room. Dash had to have a mirror in here somewhere. Surely.
All Danny found was a spoon. Peeking in the spoon's reflection, he saw Dash's face staring back at him.
He groaned. Desiree heard him make his wish yesterday. Of course she did.
Danny tried pulling at his core, but of course since this wasn't his body, he couldn't feel anything.
"Dash! Get your butt up! You'll be late for school!"
Danny jumped at the sound of Dash's dad's voice. How was he going to make it through a conversation with that man?
Danny looked around the room. He found a pair of pants laying on the floor and a black shirt. He changed and stared at the letterman jacket on Dash's desk chair. He'd pass on that.
He grabbed Dash's backpack and looked out the window. Could he make it down from here?
Danny debated it for a couple minutes before deciding against it. He didn't want to break Dash's body within not even ten minutes of being awake. He'd have to chance going downstairs past Dash's dad.
He opened the bedroom door and tiptoed into the hallway. He looked down both ways and pulled the door shut behind him. He could hear Dash's dad making noise downstairs and then a door shut.
This was his chance.
He hurried down the stairs and glanced around for the front door before spotting it. When he was outside he started booking it down the road.
He had to find Dash. Surely he would be at Danny's house. There's no way he would've gotten anywhere yet.
He turned onto his street and saw Fentonworks come into view. He ran up and knocked on the front door, out of breath. Then he paused.
What was he going to say to his parents? What excuse would a random kid have to be at their house before school?
"Coming!" His mom's voice called through the door. She pulled it open and Danny straightened his stance and stared at his parents.
"Hi, uh, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton." Danny looked between his parents with wide eyes. "I- I need to speak to Danny. About. Our… english project?"
"Oh sure! Let me call him down here." she turned her head in the direction of the stairs. "Danny! Someone's here to see you!" A thump could be heard through the floor and she chuckled.
"So what's your guy's english project about?" Maddie asked.
"It's- uh-"
Danny's eyes widened as he watched his own body slip through the ceiling and fall onto the living room floor. When he looked up he looked straight at Danny. His look was a combination of I'm gonna kill you and what the fuck.
His mom turned around at the sound when Dash stood up.
"Oh! Danny, good you're awake. Your friend came to see you about your english project?"
"Our english project." Dash stared at him.
"Yeah." Danny said." Our english project? We were reading Freaky Friday?"
"I thought Freaky Friday was a movie."
Danny wanted to strangle him. His mom sighed.
"Danny, dear, you need to start paying more attention in school."
"Can I just come in? We have to talk about our presentation before we get to school today."
Dash threw his hands up into the air and turned to walk towards the stairs. His mom waved him in.
"I'm sorry about that. He must not have gotten much sleep last night."
"It's okay mo- Mrs. Fenton!"
Danny walked in and followed behind Dash. When Danny got up there he saw Dash studying the doors in the hallway. He walked up to his bedroom door and opened it. Dash stomped his way inside. When the door closed Dash turned around and glared at him.
"This is all your fault, Fenton!"
Danny rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I know. You can lay off. I'll hear about it again later from Sam. But we need to fix this."
"How do you think we're gonna fix this?" Dash was still glaring at him. "We're not Phantom. We don't hunt ghosts."
Danny shuffled on his feet. "I mean- no. But we can find Desiree."
"How are we gonna do that?"
Then his feet disappeared and he started sinking.
Dash looked up at him in panic. "And why do I keep falling through the floor?!"
Danny grabbed onto Dash's hands and pulled him back into the room. His feet landed on solid ground and he sighed.
"We have to skip school today."
"You're not even gonna answer the question?!" Dash flailed his arms around. "What is wrong with your body?"
"We can't have you going to school like that." Danny gestured at him. "I don't think we'll be able to pretend to be each other very well. We just need to find Desiree."
"Let's just find Phantom." Dash walked up to Danny to stare up at him.
A flash lit up the room and Danny's eyes widened in panic. His transformation washed over Dash. Dash watched as the suit formed over his arms and legs. He was staring at his hands and raised his head up slowly to look at Danny.
"You've got to be kidding me."
"Surprise! We've already got Phantom."
"You're Phantom?!"
"Shh!" Danny covered Dash's mouth with his hand and turned his head to look at the door. "This is why we can't go to school. If you can't control my powers you're gonna blow my identity."
Dash grabbed Danny's wrist and tried to pull his hand off of his face. Danny smirked.
"Isn't it so fun when you can't fight back, huh?"
Dash finally managed to move Danny's hand. "You better watch it. Couldn't I suplex you with your powers?"
"You have to figure out how to use my super strength first."
Dash frowned at that. He looked down when the transformation rings appeared again and changed him back into Danny's human form.
"Danny! You and your friend should hurry up if you don't want to be late for school!"
Danny let go of Dash. "Get dressed."
Dash's cheeks turned pink and he looked around for some clothes. He picked up the first shirt and pants he saw on the ground and was about to pull his shirt off before he locked back up at Danny.
"Don't watch me change! Turn around."
"Dude it's my body! What does it matter?"
Dash stared at each other until Danny groaned and turned around. He crossed his arms.
"I didn't realize you were that shy, Dash."
"I'm not. I never thought Phantom would be watching me undress."
"Did it even cross your mind that I had to dress your body today?"
Dash groaned and Danny felt a pillow hit him. Danny turned around and Dash was finishing pulling his shirt on. He was about to start walking when Danny pointed at his backpack next to his bed.
"We have to look like we're going to school. Grab my bag. It has a thermos in it too."
Dash grumbled and picked up his backpack and Danny opened the door. When he headed down the stairs his mom walked up to him and Dash.
"Here you two! Have some muffins for the road." Danny smiled and took the banana nut muffin. Dash took his and just stared at it.
"Thanks! See you later mo- Mrs. Fenton!"
Danny elbowed Dash and knocked him out of his muffin induced stupor. "Oh. Yeah. Thanks."
They walked out the front door and Danny pulled it shut behind them. Dash was still staring at the muffin.
"What, you've never had a muffin before?" Danny asked him. He took a bite into his own.
"No. My dad just doesn't generally make meals for me anymore."
"Oh." Danny shuffled on his feet. "That sucks."
"Yeah." Dash peeled the wrapper off the muffin and took a bite out of it. "Where are we going anyways if we're not going to school?"
"I'm not sure. I haven't planned that far yet."
Dash groaned.
"Hey, give me my phone. I gotta call Sam and Tucker."
Dash pulled Danny's phone out of his pocket and handed it to Danny. He brought up Tucker's picture and hit call.
"Danny?" Tucker asked as a greeting. He sounded worried. "What's up?"
"We've got a, uh, situation, Tucker."
"Dash?"
Danny shook his head. "Nope. We had a freaky friday mishap."
Tucker paused before his laughter sounded from the other end of the call.
"Tucker!"
He kept laughing and then he heard some shuffling and Sam's muffled voice over the line.
"Give me the phone Tucker! Danny?"
"In the flesh. But not really."
Sam groaned. "Dash is with you then?"
"Yep."
"Has he figured out your identity?"
"Oh yeah totally."
Sam sighed heavily into the phone and Danny cringed. "What do you need?"
"We can't go to school today." Danny said as he looked at Dash. His hand went invisible. "He doesn't know how to control my powers and we can't risk him exposing me. We need to find Desiree."
"Why don't you make another wish? That could bring her right to you." Tucker's voice cut in loudly over the phone. Danny could hear as Sam lightly bapped him on the face.
"She twists the intentions of people's wishes around. What if they make another wish and it makes it worse?"
"What if they w-i-s-h for Desiree to be there?"
"She'd have to be there already in order to grant their wish."
Danny thought as Sam and Tucker bickered on the other end of the call. Then his eyes widened.
"Hey, Tucker. How far did we get in cataloguing the ghost's ectosignatures? Did we ever get Desiree's?"
"Oh!" He heard Tucker messing with something. Probably the tracking device that he always carried on him now. They reconfigured one of his parents' trackers to tell them which ghost was showing up on the radar based off of their ectosignature. It was a real godsend, especially if the ghost setting off his ghost sense was just Cujo or the Box Ghost.
"Yep! We've got her in here already." Tucker paused. "Huh."
"What?" Danny asked.
"She's here."
Danny groaned. Of course. Why wouldn't she be at the school?
"What?" Dash asked him. Danny ignored him.
"I guess we'll meet you guys there."
Danny hung up and Dash tried to grab it out of his hand. Danny held the phone up in the air. "We gotta go to school."
"What?" Dash frowned at him. "I thought we couldn't."
"That's where Desiree is. We just gotta soup her up and it should undo her spells."
Dash grumbled. "Why'd you have to get me roped up in ghostly weirdness?"
Danny rolled his eyes and started walking towards the school. "It's not like I was trying. It just slipped out."
Dash crossed his arms and then flinched and rubbed his elbow. "What did you do to your arm, Fenton?"
Danny raised an eyebrow. "Do you not remember shoving me to the ground yesterday? Did you not think it would hurt?"
Dash was quiet and pointedly ignored Danny's gaze.
"Just because you can't feel it when you're wailing on people doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. How would you feel if you got hit and it hurt so bad you had trouble moving?"
"It sucks."
Danny turned to look at him, his brow furrowing. It threw him off the way Dash had said that. It was like he knew. Who would be dumb enough to wail on Dash Baxter?
"Who-"
"No." Dash shook his head and sped up so he was ahead of Danny. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay." Danny looked away from him.
He saw the school coming up ahead of them. Sam and Tucker were still standing outside the building waiting for them.
"Hey, body swappers." Tucker waved at them. Sam rolled her eyes.
"Hey, Tucker." Danny walked up to them with Dash behind him. "Can we have that tracker?"
"For sure. Here you go." Tucker pulled the device out of his backpack and handed it to Danny. "It says she's still somewhere around here.
"Are you gonna be able to defeat her without your powers?" Sam asked.
"Dash has my powers."
She pointed behind him and Danny turned. Dash had faded from sight. Then he popped back into visibility.
"We've defeated Desiree when my powers were out of whack." Danny waved her comment off. "I'm sure we can do it again."
"Well good luck." Sam turned towards the school. "We gotta go before we're late."
"Bye, thanks you guys." Danny turned towards Dash and pulled out the tracker. "Okay now let's see where she is."
Once he found her on the tracker, he was about to take a step in that direction when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"I trust you boys are on your way to class?"
Danny and Dash turned around to look up at Mr. Lancer.
"We, uh, we sure are." Danny pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "Our class is just-"
"In my english classroom?" Lancer raised a brow at him.
Dash shot Danny a look and Danny facepalmed. Mr. Lancer grabbed both of them by their wrists and started pulling them into the building and down the hallway.
"Way to go!" Dash hissed at him. "Now what?"
Danny looked around them. He didn't have his powers. He couldn't phase them out. And Dash couldn't reliably do it either.
"I guess we just have to go to our first hour." Danny whispered. He shot Lancer another look and looked at Dash. "We have to find Desiree before he leaves."
"Are you boys planning on skipping your next class too?"
"No! Mr. Lancer!" Danny straightened. "Of course not."
"Mhm." Mr. Lancer hummed out.
He let go of their wrists just before the classroom door and Danny debated bolting, but he knew they'd be deep in it with Lancer if he did that.
He sighed and walked through the door to the classroom. He walked to the desks and Kwan stood up to meet him.
"Hey, buddy!" Kwan slapped a hand on Danny's back and he flinched. He mustered up a weak smile at the other boy and sat down in Dash's usual spot.
Behind him he heard someone fall to the floor and when he turned Dash was on the ground. The class burst into laughter.
Today was going to be a long day.
Danny sat down at his usual table in the cafeteria and let out a deep breath. It was like the teachers were on both of them all day. Neither of them had been able to slip out to find Desiree yet. Lancer must've emailed them to keep an eye on them.
He heard someone else sit down and he looked up to see Sam and Tucker.
"This is still weird, but unbelievably funny." Tucker said as he picked up a chicken nugget.
"I can't believe Lancer sicked the entire faculty on you guys to prevent you from leaving." Sam pulled her lunch from her bag.
Danny sighed, resting his head on his hand. "I know. It's gonna make going ghost difficult if he keeps it up."
Then there was a commotion in the cafeteria behind them. Danny turned to see Dash standing in the middle of the cafeteria, the tray he had grabbed laying on the floor. It looked like it had been knocked out of his hands.
Dash clenched his fists and went to push Dale but Dale shoved him to the floor. Dash winced but didn't move to get up.
"Come on, Fenton. What are you going to do about it?" Dale smirked.
"Hey, lay off man." Danny stood up and walked over, stepping in between them. Dale gave him a look.
"What's up with you, dude? You love beating on this kid."
Danny turned and saw the grimace on Dash's face.
"Maybe it's about time that changed. We can't push people around for our entire lives."
Dash's friends exchanged looks in between them and shrugged. They gave him a couple more weird looks, except for Kwan who gave him a thumbs up, and walked back to their table.
Danny held a hand out to Dash and he grabbed it. Danny pulled him up off the floor. They stared down at the tray on the floor.
"Sorry about your food." Danny said.
Dash shrugged. "You weren't the one that did it."
"You can have some of my food." Danny moved to walk back to their table. Dash sighed.
"Sure, Thanks." Then he gasped out a breath of cold air. He shivered. "What was that?"
"Oh, no." Danny looked around. "That was my ghost sense."
He pulled out the tracker and turned it on. Which ghost was it?
The label blinked and he smiled.
"It's Desiree! Come on!"
Danny grabbed Dash's wrist and dragged him behind him out of the cafeteria.
"Woah, what? Where are we going?" Dash asked as he tried to keep up.
"We gotta find somewhere to hide so you can go ghost." Danny saw a janitor's closet and pulled it open, pushing Dash inside.
"Go ghost?" Dash looked at his hands, no doubt picturing the jumpsuit gloves he'd been wearing earlier that day. "How do you do that?"
"Do you feel that feeling in your chest?" Danny tapped the middle of his chest, near his heart. "You kinda have to pull on it. That triggers the transformation."
Dash closed his hands into fists and then closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and wore a concentrating expression on his face.
After a few moments, the ring appeared around his waist in a flash and traveled over his body. Left behind was Danny's ghost form.
Dash opened his eyes and looked down at himself. A grin appeared on his face. "Yes! I did it!"
He floated into the air and turned on his side. His arms swung out as he tried to stabilize himself in the air. Danny righted him by his shoulders.
"Now you gotta turn us intangible so we can go through the walls and find Desiree."
Danny grabbed Dash's hand. Dash had a concentrated look on his face again and then Danny could feel the telltale feeling of intangibility washing over him.
"Now let's-"
Danny was cut off as Dash pulled him through the wall. He kept walking and eventually they found themselves outside the school. Desiree was floating in the air above them.
"Hey, wishmaker!" Danny shouted. She looked down at them.
"Ah, do you like your wish, ghost boy?"
"No!" Danny shouted up at her. "We're here to send you back to the ghost zone."
"Ah, ah, ah." She waved a finger at him. "I refuse to be forced back there by the likes of you."
"It wouldn't be the first time."
Danny jumped at Desiree and moved to punch her but she swung an arm back at him. She sent him flying into the brick wall of the school and it knocked the wind out of him. He fell to the ground and curled in on himself.
"Hey!" Dash shouted at him from where he floated in the air. "Be careful with my body! It can't handle getting thrown into buildings!"
"Yeah, I can tell!" Danny wheezed. His back hurt much more than if he'd hit the wall in his ghost form.
"How do I do the blasty thing?" Dash held his hands out in front of him. A moment later an ectoray blasted out from his hands, flying towards Desiree while it sent him flying backwards. It hit her and sent her back a little.
"How dare you!" She morphed her hand into a hammer and hit Dash with it, sending him flying away into the wall Danny was laying by. Dash groaned and stood back up. "Man getting thrown into walls hurts."
"Yeah, duh Dash."
Dash jumped into the air again and flew back towards Desiree. Danny watched them, his backpack bouncing on Dash's back. His eyes widened.
"Dash! The thermos is in my backpack! We need to get it out!"
"On it!" Dash took off the backpack and went to unzip it when Desiree transformed her hand into a lasso this time. She looped it around Dash's waist and yanked him back and forth until the backpack flew from his hands. It landed a couple feet away from Danny.
He stood up and groaned when pain radiated from his back but he made his way to his backpack. Unzipping it, he rummaged around until his hand touched the thermos and he grabbed onto it.
Pulling it out, he uncapped it.
"I wish Desiree was inside this thermos!"
"Noooooo!"
Desiree was sucked into the thermos' blue beam. Her yells faded as she disappeared inside it. Dash landed on the ground next to him.
"That's a lame way to end a battle."
Then Danny had a splitting headache and his head started spinning. He grabbed his head with his hands and waited for the world to stop spinning. As it faded, he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Dash standing in front of him.
Dash was standing in front of him?
Danny laughed and looked at his arms.
"Yes! Everything's back to normal!"
Dash opened his eyes and lowered his arms. He smiled and shook Danny by his shoulder.
"We did it! The ghost fighting part was actually kind of cool."
Danny wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, except for when it interferes with almost every part of my life. I always have to drop everything to go fight a ghost."
"Yeah. Especially when you have assholes to deal with at school."
They stood there awkwardly and Danny scuffed his boot against the floor. "Are you going to go back to wailing on me?"
Dash looked at the ground and shook his head. "My friends would wonder why I defended you and went back on my word if I did that. And I can't keep wailing on you knowing that I'm wailing on my hero."
Danny rolled his eyes. "Wow, thanks. I'm glad those are your only reasons."
Dash looked up at him. "It also reminded me how I don't want to be my dad." Dash shuffled his feet. "Picking on people makes me feel powerful, but what's more powerful is to not be like him."
Danny nodded and smiled softly. He nudged Dash's arm with his elbow. "That it is. Break the cycle."
Danny transformed back into his human form and grabbed the thermos from Dash's hand and picked his backpack up. He shouldered it just as he heard the bell ring.
"I guess we better get back to class." Danny sighed. "So much for eating."
"We could go to the Nasty Burger after school?" Dash rubbed the back of his neck. "You know, if you want."
Danny smiled at him. It wouldn't be perfect, but it'd be a good start to mending things.
"Yeah, that'd be cool."