Chapter Text
“Ulrich, Odd, hurry up, we’ll be late for the bus.”
“Don’t worry Einstein, we’ll make it.”
“You sure you can handle taking care of Kiwi?”
“We’re sure, Odd. He’ll be fine.”
“Belpois! Stern! Della Robbia!”
“Coming!”
“Don’t forget. Message me if Xana attacks.”
“It’ll be fine, Jeremie. Have fun.”
“Hurry up, or Jim will have your butts in detention again.”
-.-.-.-
“Tell me, why am I here again?” Tucker asked, stretching out in the chair as the three sat at the airport.
“Cause we have to.” Sam retorted.
“But I don’t have to house any of the exchange students.” Tucker pointed out. “You know anything about who you’re getting?”
“Elisabeth Delmas. I think the paper said she was the principal’s daughter.” Sam said, relaxing in her chair.
“I think the papers I got were wrong ‘cause it said the kid’s name was Odd.” Danny noticed his friend’s faces and explained. “Not Odd as in weird, Odd as in Odd. O-D-D. That’s what it said.”
“Did it give a last name?” Tucker asked, pulling out his PDA and typing in something.
“Uh…Della Robbia.”
Tucker typed in the name only to gain a shocked look. “You’re right. It is Odd.”
“Who names their kid Odd?” Sam asked, equally surprised.
“I just hope he doesn’t plan on sticking to me all week.” Danny sighed.
“Well, if anything, Jazz could distract him.” Tucker pointed out. “That is, if he’s not in hiding from your parents.”
“I hope somebody warned him.” Sam nodded.
“Attention, flight 182 has just landed.” A female voice called over the public announcement system before repeating herself.
“That’s our cue.” Danny groaned, standing up.
“Come on, Danny-boy!” Jack’s voice called, the only warning the black haired teen had before being pulled away from his friends by the big man in an orange jumpsuit.
“See you Danny!” Tucker called out as father and son forced their way to the gates.
“Danny, you wanna hold the sign?” Maddie asked as the two stopped next to the woman. She handed him a cardboard sign that read “Kadic Academy: Odd Della Robbia”.
Danny shrugged, not too happy but dealing with the cards he’d been dealt. He faced the card forward as a gray haired lady who could almost reek of being a teacher got close. She was talking to a man in a sweat suit before the two stopped and usurer a group of children his own age over to the side as if to tell them one last thing.
“Any idea what he looks like?”
Danny turned around, surprised for a second only to realize who was behind him. “Jazz! Don’t sneak up on me!”
“Call it pay back.” Jazz shrugged.
“And no, I have no idea what he looks like.” Danny admitted, going back to watching the group of students. “I just hope his English is good.”
“It’s probably better than yours.” Jazz retorted, a smile on her face.
“Smile kids.” Maddie reminded, getting them to notice the group of students had broken away as they started to look for their names.
“Hey, Odd, il y a!”
Danny looked over at hearing Odd’s name and saw what looked like three good friends. The one that had said something was now pointing in their direction, getting their purple clad friend to smile and wave towards Danny.
Odd turned to his friends and called out “A tout ta la!” before heading for Danny.
As he got closer, Danny noticed his hair, which was styled a bit strange to begin with, had a purple splotch in the center.
“He wears enough purple.” Jack mumbled through his smile, only to receive an elbow to the side. He turned to his wife who only smiled innocently.
“Mr. and Mrs. Fenton?” Odd asked, making sure he had the right family.
“The one and only.” Jack bellowed, shaking the kid’s hand.
“And here’s our kids.” Maddie said, taking a step behind the two. “Jazz and Danny.”
“Hi.” Jazz smiled.
“So kid,” Jack said, not too sure about calling him Odd, “do you like ghosts?”
“Dad!” Danny whined.
Odd covered his mouth, trying to cover a laugh.
“Come on. We’ll talk about ghosts later.” Maddie said, trying to push her family plus one out towards the parking lot. “I’m sure Odd is tired.”
“Actually, Mrs. Fenton, I was hoping for a tour of the town.” Odd said, putting his hands in his pockets. “I travel enough that jet lag doesn’t get me.”
“We’ll take him!” Jazz piped up maybe too loudly.
“Are you sure?” Maddie asked, eyeing her children.
“Yeah.” Danny nodded.
“Okay, I’ll go ahead and bring your bag home than.” Maddie offered, taking Odd’s string bag. “Be home for dinner, please.”
“We will.” Jazz nodded.
“Hey, could we get something to eat now?” Odd asked, his stomach growling as the Fenton parents walked away.
“I heard food, I’m in.” Tucker said, appearing next to Danny.
“Don’t forget to tell them you eat like a cow.”
“And proud of it!” Odd retorted back, a smile on his face as the brown haired boy walked past. “That’s Ulrich, a good friend of mine.”
“Well, if you eat like a cow, than you’ll fit in.” Jazz said, smirking.
“Yeah, Tuck eats like a pig.” Danny finished.
Tucker shrugged his shoulders before saying, “Come on, I thought we were going to eat.”
“Alright.” Danny smiled as the four started to head out of the airport. “So why aren’t you with Sam?”
“That Elisabeth girl was driving her nuts.” Tucker explained, twirling his finger next to his head. “I really don’t think she’ll last a week with her.”
“You’re friend’s housing Sissi? Ouch.” Odd shivered.
Danny was about to ask something when a shiver stopped him as he saw his breath. “Uh, guys, I, uh, forgot something back at the airport.” He’d already turned and started running away as he called out, “Go ahead, I’ll catch up.”
Odd stared at the boy’s retreating form before glancing at Jazz and Tucker to see a look pass between them.
“Come on.” Jazz sighed, nodding the way they’d been heading.
The three started walking again only to stop as gun shots were heard behind them.
Quickly, as if instinctively, Odd grabbed Tucker’s arm and forced Jazz in front of him as he pushed them towards an alleyway close by. He stuck his head back out towards the street only to see nothing. “Where are you?”
“What’d you say?” Jazz asked, rubbing her head from where she had landed against a brick wall.
“I was wondering where those shots-“
Odd was cut short as a black and white blur was shot back into their alley. It collided with the brick wall and fell to the ground in a dazed heap, its white hair covering his face.
“Phantom!?” Tucker called out, recognizing the ghost. Tucker quickly rummaged through his bag and pulled out a thermos. He threw it at the ghost as he realized what had happened.
“Get back here, ghost child!” a voice called out from the street. “So that I can hang your pelt on my mantel!”
“Um, ew?” Odd said, not quite sure as he spotted a mettle ghost floating about a story off the ground.
“Make up your mind, Skulker.” Phantom called, floating up to be eye level with the ghost. “Do you want my head or my pelt?” With this he threw a ball of green energy at the ghost’s arm, destroying the joint that held it.
Odd watched in awe and disbelief as Phantom fought this “Skulker”.
The ghost in the suit raised up his remaining arm and shot missiles, missing their target as the ghost child flew gracefully around them.
Phantom smiled as if this was a fun game. He shot downwards, gaining a confused look from Skulker.
“I think your aim is getting worst, whelp.” Skulker laughed.
“Give it a minute.” Phantom said, holding up a finger.
Odd, curious, looked where Phantom had shot only to see the green glowing energy picking up speed as it ricocheted off mirrors and hubcaps.
Skulker narrowed his eyes as he brought forth guns from his shoulders only to be blown to bits from behind as the ray finished its build up and bounced off the last mirror.
Skulker’s armor flew upwards, giving Phantom the need to go intangible. He quickly went back to having tangibility as the ghost’s head fell in front of him.
“Nice, it worked.” Phantom said as he pulled out a tooth-like blob by its feet and smiled at it. He dropped the helmet to the street to be back with the rest of the suit.
“You haven’t seen the last of me, ghost boy!” Skulker’s shrill voice cried out.
“I know.” Phantom smirked, thumbing off the cap to the thermos Tucker had given him before sucking the blob inside.
Phantom dropped down to his feet and knelt down to grab the lid. He put it back together before turning to the group of three. “Here, thanks.” Phantom said, tossing the thermos to Jazz, who caught it before it hit the ground.
Odd watched, amazed, as the almost human looking kid flew up and disappeared from sight. He turned back to Jazz and Tucker, not sure what to ask first as a million and one questions flew through his mind.
“No one told you, you’re in the most haunted town in America, did they?” Jazz asked, reading his face.
Odd shook his head no, trying to except that what he had just witnessed was a ghost fight.
“Hey, did I miss something?” Danny asked, stopping next to Odd, only to look confused at the teen’s expression.
“Just Skulker.” Tucker informed. “Phantom kicked his butt, like normal.”
“What’s with the thermos?” Odd asked, finding his voice.
“Oh, this?” Jazz asked, holding up the said device. “It’s a Fenton Thermos. Our parents made it to catch ghosts. I’m surprised Danny Phantom didn’t have his own on him.” As she said the last part, she glared over at Danny as if he was who she was wanting to lecture.
“Wait, I thought Phantom was a ghost, but is he a hunter too?” Odd asked only to shake his head as if to clear it. “Never mind. One day here and I already give up. Let’s just eat.”
Danny smiled, more towards himself as the four continued on their way down the street. It was looking like this Odd kid, both meanings of it here, wasn’t too curious, or at least not enough to ask questions.
“So, where are you from, Odd?” Jazz inquired, genuinely curious as well as hoping to change the subject from ghosts. “Your English is better than I expected.”
“Well I’m born French but my grandparents live in New Zealand so I learned English from spending summers there.” Odd explained.
“I get why you don’t get bothered by jet lag.” Tucker noted.
The three turned a corner and Odd noticed the fast food joint on front of them. “Why is it called Nasty Burger?”
“Didn’t it used to be Tasty Burger?” Danny asked, as if trying to remember.
“Yeah, that was back when it was just build.” Jazz reminded. “Remember, it was Casper’s senior prank that year to change the name.”
“Right, I forgot about that.” Danny admitted, opening the door for the group to enter.
The four got their food, Odd with enough to feed two people, and found a booth in the semi-busy restaurant.
Jazz found herself noticing that even though both Odd and Tucker ate alike, Odd had more manners and didn’t talk with his mouth full.
“…and the guy called back saying he wanted shoo fly!” Odd ended, making Jazz realize she had just missed his joke, but noticed Danny wasn’t laughing at all.
Tucker, on the other hand, was in the same laughing state as Odd.
“Do not, uh, give into him.” A blond haired boy with glasses said, stopping at their table.
“He means, don’t humor him. His jokes just get worst.” The brown haired teen said, appearing next to the blond.
“Hey, I resent that.” Odd laughed, far too much in a good mood to mean it.
“Yeah, I actually liked it.” Tucker admitted, wiping away a laugh tear from his eye.
“No wonder, your jokes are as bad as his.” Danny retorted, a ghost of a smile on his face.
“Odd, we need to talk about something Madam Hertz assigned us.” The brown haired said as the blond shifted the laptop in his arms as if a signal of what his friend meant.
“Okay.” Odd said, taking the burger he was working on as he stood up. He glanced back at the table and smiled, “I’ll be back.”
Odd followed his friends over to a more secluded table and sat down. Jeremie opened his laptop and turned it towards his friends, glad he could speak French with them. “We’ve got problems. You see this?” he pointed to a map of the world with a pulsating light above the North West United States.
“You know, none of that makes sense to us.” Odd reminded.
“You remember that tracking program I created after Xana got out to the internet?” Jeremie asked, receiving nods from his friends. “This is it.”
“So he’s working on getting enough power to attack us here?” Ulrich asked.
“Yeah, I think so.” Jeremie said, turning the laptop back to face him so he could type something up.
“You tell the girls?” Odd asked.
“Yeah, but they should be going to sleep soon.” Jeremie reminded, smirking as he realized he probably didn’t need to remind as Ulrich yawned.
“Hey Fentard!” a voice rang out, getting Jeremie to cringe as they turned to see a jock in a letter jacket cracking his knuckles looking down at the table Odd just left, Danny and Tucker all that was sitting there at the moment. “I figured I’d warn you that since I’ve gotta live with some nerd all week, I’ll be walling on you more.”
“Surprised you’d warn me.” Danny mumbled loud enough for him to hear.
He grabbed Danny’s collar and lifted him out of the booth before growling, “You’re lucky you mean.”
“Hey! Put him down!” Ulrich demanded, jumping to his feet and into a fighting stance.
“Who’s going to make me?” Dash asked, sneering at Ulrich. Dash found himself laughing as he tossed Danny down to the ground and headed over to the green dressed teen. “Alright, Frenchy. Bring it.”
Ulrich quickly kicked up, connecting his white shoe to Dash’s cheek and nocking the boy to the ground. Ulrich put a foot to Dash’s chest and looked down at the blond. “Mess around again and a sore neck won’t be all you’ve got.”
Ulrich took his foot off, leaving the jock to get up to his feet. Dash straightened his jacket before looking coldly at Jeremie. “Mom wants you home for dinner. Don’t be late.” He growled before leaving, Kwan following close behind his friend.
Danny walked up to Ulrich, surprised the boy stood up to the jock.
“You okay?” Ulrich asked, seeing Danny’s shirt was still rumpled.
“You’re living with Dash?” Tucker asked, pointing at Jeremie from behind Danny.
“Yes, I noticed he was the American Jock.” Jeremie said, standing up.
“Ulrich, right?” Danny asked, making sure he had the name right. He got a nod in response. “Thanks, but if you wanna keep your friend safe while he’s living under Dash’s house, just let him beat up on me.”
“What?” Ulrich and Jeremie asked in unison.
“I’m already Dash’s favorite punching bag. I’d rather it just stay that way.” Danny informed.
“Hey, what happened?” Jazz asked, rejoining the boys.
“Nothing.” Danny answered quickly. “We’re just talking to Odd’s friends, Ulrich and…”
“Jeremie.” The blond informed.
“Name’s Jazz.”
“Hey, I gotta go.” Ulrich said, pulling out his phone to check the time. “Nice meeting you.” He turned to his friends as he put his phone back in his pocket. “Message me if- yeah.”
“See you tomorrow.” Odd nodded his head as the boy left. Odd turned to Jeremie and offered, “You wanna stay with us till dinner?”
“No. I need to stay here and work.” Jeremie said, pointing towards his computer.
“Well, if we’re not too much of a distraction, we’ll at least eat with you.” Jazz subjected, feeling bad about leaving the boy on his own.
“Sure.” Jeremie shrugged, sitting down. Very quickly he found himself surrounded and, like he knew would happen, couldn’t do more than glance constantly at the pulsating dot on his screen.
“Hey, what’cha watching?” Tucker asked, trying to see past Odd to the computer screen.
“Oh, I’m just keeping an eye on a program.” Jeremie said, hoping the boy would drop it at that,
“What type of program?” Tucker asked, curious.
“An update.” Jeremie tried, not really wanting to come up with a real answer.
“It’s an update for his internet browser.” Odd lied, cooling looking at Tucker over his second burger. “Jeremie’s an Einstein at everything but languages.”
“Oh, so you’re here with your language teacher?” Jazz thought out loud.
“Actually, no.” Jeremie said, glad to get away from his computer in topic. “Our science and phys ed teachers put this together.”
“Oh, so Mrs. Hertz was the gray haired lady?” Danny asked, remember earlier in the day.
Odd nodded his head. “She and Jim are going to be at Casper so you’ll meet them tomorrow.”
“I wonder what story Jim will try to attach to this.” Jeremie said, laughter in his voice. A ping from his computer took his attention, and Odd’s, from the conversation.
“What is it, Einstein?” Odd asked, a serious tone in his voice.
“Just Aelita.” Jeremie informed, replying to the message.
“A friend back home?” Danny guessed.
“More to some.” Odd smiled, throwing his eyes to the boy next to him.
Jeremie blushed, hearing Odd’s words.