Work Text:
Chapter 1
“ Tucker! We’re going to be late- Dammit Jazz stop laughing- Tucker!” Danny shouted as he rushed from his room pulling the rest of his flannel over his arm. His new and improved outfit included baggy black jeans, a white shirt, and a nice black and green long-sleeved flannel that sat a few sizes too big over his growing amount of bruises and scars. He sat at an impressive six foot two, a good three inches taller than Tucker and seven inches shorter than his father.
Danny gave Tucker a half-hearted glare as he saw him in the kitchen. Tucker laughed as he danced around Jazz who was cooking something quick in the kitchen, “ Nah, Dude we’re fine.” He said, raising his hands in a placating manner as Danny shot him a questioning glare. Jazz came up from behind Tucker and stuffed a few pieces of bacon in his mouth and smiled, “ Daylight savings little brother.”
Danny huffed slightly before sitting down. Jazz laughed as she set down a plate of eggs in front of him and sat next to him.“ Don’t worry it’s only Seven, not too late to eat something and make it to school in time.”
“ Don’t worry she says, It’s not too late she says.”
Tucker snorted from across the table as Jazz smacked Danny light upside the head.
“ Yeah dude, the day you're not late is the day that Lancer willing speaks to your parents.” Tucker shared a grin with Danny as they remembered their English teachers' aversion to Danny's Parents. Tucker shoved a few more pieces of bacon in his mouth as he stood up along with Danny, putting the dishes in the washer as they walked out towards the door, “ Hey Jazz have you seen Jack, or Maddie recently?”
Jazz’s reply was blank, “ You talking about last week or the week before?” Danny gave a grimaced laugh and waved goodbye.
“See later beautiful,” Tucker said as he dodged a few eggs and closed the door behind him.
“Eggs or bacon?” Danny said as he threw his bag over his shoulder.
Tucker ran up to him grinning, “Always the eggs, what sane woman would waste perfectly good bacon for Amo?”
Danny shared his grin and started to run.
“Oi! Wait for me, Danny!”
The run to Casper High was nowhere near as exhausting as it had been during freshman year. Danny huffed as he shot Tucker a smug grin as he came to a stop outside of the school door first.
“Yeah, yeah…” Tucker said. “ Not all of us have fought ghosts, and trained in endurance and martial arts since they were fourteen.”
Danny whistled softly, “ More like I’m just that good, let's not give the Box Ghost any more credit than he deserves, which isn't much.”
Tucker gave an unrepentant shrug as they entered the building. Danny tugged at the sleeve of his flannel and ran a hand through his hair as he made his way through the hall toward his locker. Tucker followed him, his dark green cargo pants and back long-sleeved shirt with a black and green headband for his longer dreadlocked hair new to most of the student body who hadn’t seen him during the summer.
“Ten bucks Mr. Lancer stares at you until class starts.”
Danny snorted as he closed his locker, “ Fool's bet, I was on time last year on one of the last days of school and he stared at me the entire time I was in his line of sight.”
“True. There’s always a chance that you’d forget.”
It had been around three years since the accident, and only one year since the regular ghost’s stopped coming. Danny had time to complete school, have fun, and live his half-life to the fullest, or the fullest a teenager could live their life.
After Sam had moved Tucker and him had realized that they had lost the most vocal, social part of their friend group. Danny didn’t need words to communicate with Tucker, and it was the same the other way around. Many of their fellow Casper High students found themselves ignoring the duo as they never spoke up, or caused a scene… unless technology was involved.
As they grew older along with all the other kids in their grade they changed how they looked, their hairstyles, etc. Most didn’t care to notice as they were also changing how they presented themselves, Danny had heard on more than one occasion from Mr. Lancer complaining that his students were having the midlife crisis that he had been looking forward to for years. Danny didn’t know whether to feel pity for the rotund teacher or to laugh at his pain.
“Mr. Fenton?” Ah, Mr. Lancer.
“ You're here!… early.”
Danny almost felt pity. “ Yep, woke up on time, got ready, all good.” He said with a small smirk as he elbowed Tucker who was snickering behind him.
Mr. Lancer nodded absently as he turned back to grade the stack of papers on his desk, sending Danny a disbelieving look every few minutes. Danny, when he caught him looking, would send him an innocent grin that would make the man grimace and stare back down much to Tucker's amusement. He was only on time when there wasn’t a ghost attack, even though many that could be recognized no longer came to Amity park a lot of different, new ghosts would come in their stead, usually before or after school. Danny preferred them honestly, at least he got to finish school before getting the shit beaten out of him, or the more often happening of beating the shit out of them. Ah, misplaced aggression at its finest.
Danny watched with no little amount of amusement as more and more of his class came in and gawked at him, and from the stifled snickers from behind him, Tucker found it just as amusing. Danny was almost put out, he would’ve bet on larger reactions.
“Fenton.” That would be Dash. “ You're on time.” Not a question, not a statement, ah the truth, so rare, so unknown.
Danny only smiled at Dash, all teeth, but didn’t respond verbally.
Danny had no problems with Dash, it had been almost two years since the other kid had done anything slightly resembling bullying to Danny or any other kid. Danny personally believed that the staff had finally cracked down on him, with both grades and bullying, and with a few rumors; Danny had given a few discreet suggestions of him going to therapy or angry management to the teachers and maybe spread a rumor or two about it. Hmm, sweet justice.
Dash couldn’t look any of the so-called nerds in the eyes for a few weeks after the rumored therapy which only added to its authenticity of it. Danny was pretty sure that Dash pitied him; whether it was because of his parents or the fact that he now knew the effects of bullying, Danny didn’t know.
Danny turned to look forward as Mr. Lancer cleared his throat and stood from his desk.
With an odd expression and inflection in his voice, he stated, “ These next few weeks are going to be…” The man looked like he was at a loss for words; which for an English teacher who, in Danny’s opinion at least, never stopped talking was a bit disquieting. From the expressions on the other student's faces, they were thinking along similar lines.
Danny stiffened, Tucker from behind him was the only one that noticed.
“Oh Time.” He whined quietly under his breath. “ Tucker… Dammit, Tucker were they in the school schedule?”
Tucker replied just as quietly, “ Dude. You try to keep a schedule on the Fentons.”
His hearing picked up the footsteps getting closer and closer, one pair heavy, the other light; very familiar footsteps. Ones that he heard all day and night running around in his basement. Danny put his head down in his arms on his desk and whined a little louder drawing a few confused looks.
Then there was a knock and a voice came loudly from the door.
“Ah! Edward, old friend! We’re here for the presentation!” Danny has never related more to Mr. Lancer than at that time the man let a deep sigh of internal suffering. Then again he questioned the sanity of the person who truly enjoyed the company of Jack, like Maddie, but she was a lost cause in Danny’s opinion.
Mr. Lancer towards the door reluctantly in slow steady steps and opened the door; quickly stepping back as the girth of Jack Fenton practically burst through the door.
“- And here we are! Jack and Maddie Fenton to give you the greatest-est news ever!”
Danny winced.
“Honey, love, greatest-est isn’t a word.”
The large man smiled, “ Well it is now!”
Danny felt a tired groan rip deep in the back of his throat and swallowed it quickly, it would be better to keep their eyes off of him for as long as he could.
“ Ok, today we will be going over a large project that this class will be doing over the next two days. You will be working in teacher-designated groups on a project named on this list; which one you will end up doing will be of your own group's choosing.” Maddie walked around the class as she handed out bright green papers to each of the students in the front rows for them to pass back. Jack danced around the room and tapped the projector on the button and grabbed the remote out of Mr. Lancers' hand; Danny almost laughed at the offended look on the teacher's face. Pushing on the remote the projector purred to life before showing a bright green slideshow page.
“ ‘Ghost studies: Opinions and hypothesis’ in this project you, in your groups, will choose a known ghost or after checking off with Mr. Lancer here; a ghost of your creation.” The slide changed to a picture of the lunch lady, “ You will study how it fights, what abilities it has, and a detailed description of what you and your group have observed of its personality and physical details.” She waved for Jack to change the slide and show what she had explained.
Maddie’s ending smile was innocent, “ Then I want you, with all that information, to give us your hypothesis on how they died.” Danny felt his already slowed breath come to a panicked stop.
No.
No.
No.
Danny could feel Tucker pat his shoulder, a reminder for him to breathe, even if he could hold his breath for over an hour when full humans couldn’t. They… there was no doubt that at least one, if not all, was going to at least try to do Phantom for this project. Danny felt sick, he didn’t want anyone looking into anything about him, especially his death; half- death.
“ After we all finish this project Mr. Lancer and the school board have accepted and authorized a field trip for this class. Only for those who do and complete the assignment.”
Paulina, in the front left of the class, raised her hand and began to speak as Maddie called out and motioned for her to ask, “Where will we go for the field trip?” Danny rose an eyebrow in question along with the rest of the class. Maddie grinned and opened her mouth to answer, “ You will-”
“You guys are so lucky! All of us will be going to the Ghost zone!”
Shit.
Nope.
Nuh-uh.
Mr. Lancer looked tired. Danny, and probably Tucker as well, couldn’t push himself to feel bad for the man.
What madman would let the Fenton parents have their way with a group of children in a dimension that no one, other than him and his siblings, understood or mapped? Danny wasn’t going to punch the people who gave birth to him, he wasn’t, honest.
“The ghost zone? Have you ever been there?” Tucker's tone was dry.
Danny watched as his father’s tightened minutely and his mother frowned slightly. Danny tugged at his flannels’ sleeve to cover a few bruises and sneered slightly as his parents floundered and left the room.
“I don’t like this.”
They didn’t need to say anything else here, they would plan for the future trip when they had Jazz with them. Dannys’ and Tuckers’ short exchange was drowned out in chaos that erupted the moment the Fentons left.
Mr. Lancer cleared his throat and stared down his rowdy class, “ I will have your groups for this project taped outside my room after lunch… you will be expected to do work at your own home as a group. The first part of the project is due tomorrow after school.”
Danny sighed.
What a pain.