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q-gorgeous · 1 year

Text

A Ray in the Dark

fanfiction

ao3

word count: 2389

No one knows AU. Instead of being assigned homework or busywork for his recent detention, Danny is presented with two chairs and a teacher who just wants to talk and try to understand him. And after having a huge fight with his friends after bailing on them at lunch and a fight with his family that morning, Danny is actually willing to talk about everything and finally open up to someone. @darthfrodophantom

im not good at titling things ahhh

“Danny! It’s time to get up for school!”

Danny groaned as his mom called to him from downstairs in the kitchen. Either her or Jazz must’ve come by and opened his bedroom door. He didn’t remember that happening, but when he squinted his eyes open he could see through his doorway and into the bathroom. He sat up and threw his covers off of him and closed his door again. He grabbed a change of clothes and started getting ready for the day.

He had to fight a ghost last night. It made him miss curfew by an hour and then another one had popped up again in the middle of the night. He’d barely gotten any sleep before his mom called him.

After he changed he grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. He ran down the stairs and set his backpack in the living room before heading to the kitchen.

He smiled when he saw his favorite breakfast food sitting on the table waiting for him. Strawberry pancakes and syrup with a side of eggs and sausages. He pulled his chair out and started digging in. He could feel his parent’s eyes on him as well as Jazz’s. When he looked up at them, they all looked like they wanted to say something but didn’t know where to start. He slowed down on eating his breakfast. He knew what they were doing. They were buttering him up before they gave him bad news.

“Danny, sweetie.” His mom started. She wrung her hands together, looking to his left before she made eye contact with him. “We need to talk.”

He swallowed the bite of food that was in his mouth and shifted his gaze between the three of them. “About what?”

“Your grades have been dropping for a couple months now. You’re failing a handful of classes. We know you can do better. Your grades used to be so good. What happened?”

He leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just stupid now. Not everyone can be as smart as you guys or Jazz.”

“Danny, that's not all that’s been going on though.” Jazz said softly. She placed a hand on his arm. “You’ve been coming home past curfew, skipping school. I even saw that you snuck out last night.”

He pulled away from her grip. “What?”

“You left your door open last night.” Jack said. “Jazzy-pants was going to the bathroom when she saw that you weren’t in your room. She came to get us when she realized you weren’t downstairs either.”

Danny crossed his arms. “Some sibling you are, snitching on me.”

“This is serious, Danny!” His mom exclaimed. “You’re never where you’re supposed to be. That can be dangerous for a kid your age in a city this big. You can’t do whatever you want whenever you want, especially when you aren’t passing any of your classes. It’s those things that are causing your grades to fail.”

“How do you know what’s causing my grades to fail?” Danny shot back at her. “This is the first time you’ve ever actually talked to me about it. Every other time you bring it up you make it out to be that I’m dumb, that because I’m a Fenton I need to get good grades. You never ask what’s wrong.”

“That’s why we’re talking about it now.” Jack said. “It’s gotten to a point where it needs to be addressed. Until your grades start to go back up, you’re grounded.”

“What?” Danny shouted as he stood up from the table. “Why?”

“We need to keep an eye on you to make sure you’re actually getting your homework done. You need to attend every class and be home on time so that your grades can get better.” Maddie said. “We’re doing this because we love you.”

Danny scoffed. “More like you love good grades.” He walked out of the living room and picked up his backpack, throwing it over his shoulder. “I’m leaving, then. Maybe if I leave early for school you won’t think I’m some kind of delinquent anymore.”

“Danny, wait-”

He slammed the door on the sound of his mom’s voice and started walking away. They didn’t understand why his grades were failing. He couldn’t tell them either. He was probably going to be grounded for the rest of his life if this is what they insisted on doing. He needed to talk to Sam and Tucker. They didn’t know anything about why he was suddenly failing all his classes either, but he could at least complain to them about his parents.

-----

Danny ran back into the school out of breath. He had to fight another ghost and it caused him to miss both his lunch hour and the class right after it. He was supposed to meet with Sam and Tucker during lunch, he’d been so busy all the time, giving them excuses about why he couldn’t make it to lunch. Today he promised them he’d be there, that he didn’t schedule anything for today but then this stupid ghost had to show up.

In the speakers above him, the bell rang and students started filing out of their classes. He slowed down so he didn’t run into anyone and looked around for Sam and Tucker.

There they were! He saw them walking out of their English class and started jogging towards them.

“Sam, Tucker!” He shouted at them, waving a hand in the air.

They turned around to look at him and he slowed down again at the expressions on their faces. They definitely looked mad at him.

He made it the rest of the way to them, still breathing heavily from running into the school.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t make it. Something came up and I had to-”

“Are you really?” Sam asked coldly.

His brows drew down. “What? Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You keep bailing on us, dude.” Tucker said coldly. “You’re never around anymore. You always have some excuse for why you can’t eat lunch with us or why you can’t hang out. You say you’re studying or making up work but you’re not. You wouldn’t be failing all your classes if you were actually doing all that.”

“And if you’re not working on your schoolwork why would you be avoiding us unless it’s because you don’t want to be friends with us anymore?” Sam shot at him.

“What? No, of course I still want to be friends.” Danny looked at them with panicked eyes. “I just have a lot going on right now that’s taking up all my time but it’s not anything to do with you guys.”

“Why don’t you tell us what it is, then?” Sam asked. Danny looked away from her. They didn’t know. He couldn’t tell them. They’d think he was a freak, just like the rest of their classmates.

“That’s what I thought. Come on, Tucker. Let’s get to our next class.”

He watched as they turned their backs on him and walked away. He could feel the tears threatening to spill from his eyes and he clenched his hands into fists. He turned to walk to his next class when he bumped into someone.

“Sorry, my-”

He looked up and made eye contact with Mr. Lancer.

“Ah, Mr. Fenton. I see you’ve made it back to school. You seemed to have disappeared for a while there.”

“Uh, yeah. I got caught up with something. My-”

Lancer shook his head. “You’ll be serving a detention after school today, Mr. Fenton. Meet me in my classroom after your last class today.”

He walked past Danny to go into his classroom. Danny could feel his eyes welling up with tears again and he stomped away towards his next class.

Great. As if today couldn’t get any worse. First he had a fight with his parents and got grounded. Then he had a fight with Sam and Tucker, his only friends. Now he was going to get detention, which would only make his parents more mad. He hated today. He couldn’t wait to finally get home.

-----

Danny stood outside Lancer’s classroom door. The teacher wasn’t in there right now and Danny was debating whether or not he wanted to leave and go home or if he wanted to serve the detention. No doubt he’d get a call sent home either way.

He sighed and jumped when a voice sounded behind him.

“Hello, Mr. Fenton. Let’s head on inside.”

Danny walked into the classroom with Lancer following close behind him. He sat down at a desk, dropping his backpack down on the ground. When he looked back up he saw Lancer closing the door behind him. Danny looked around at the empty classroom.

“Aren’t there other kids that have detention today?” Danny asked. Usually there was at least one other person in here with him.

“Not today.” Lancer said. “I wanted us to be alone so I could have a word with you, Danny.”

Danny squirmed in his desk chair. Mr. Lancer didn’t often use his student’s first names. Something about some kind of personal vs professional boundaries. Danny didn’t think it made a lot of sense since they were just kids in high school but that’s just what the teacher did.

Lancer pulled his desk chair out from behind his desk and pushed it in front of the desk that Danny had sat in. He sat down in it and looked at Danny.

“Is everything alright, Danny?”

Danny just stared at him. Was this the only reason he had gotten detention today? So Lancer could try to talk to him one on one where he couldn’t leave?

“I saw you arguing with your friends earlier today.” Lancer continued. “And as one of your teachers, I know your grades have been dropping and how often you’ve been skipping class. I feel it is part of my duty as a teacher to make sure you’re doing alright. Has something happened? Is it a home issue? Do you need help?”

Danny was stunned. All this time since he’d gotten his powers and was fighting ghosts, no one had asked if he was okay. Apparently every single important person in his life had noticed something was wrong, but it took his English teacher to notice something for someone to finally ask him ‘are you alright?’.

He took a deep breath. “I don’t… I don’t think so.”

He finally let the tears fall. They had been building up in the time since his accident, since his grades started falling. It had been building up today when everything kept happening and it felt like there were no solutions. He didn’t have a way of fixing any of this without letting the ghosts attack Amity Park. And he couldn’t let himself do that.

Lancer turned and grabbed the tissue box that sat on the top of his desk and placed it in front of Danny quietly. He grabbed one and blew his nose.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Lancer asked softly.

Danny stared down into the tissue in his hands. He hadn’t told anyone what happened. Not his parents or his sister, not even his best friends. Was his English teacher really going to be the first person he told his biggest secret to?

He looked back up to Lancer, meeting his concerned eyes. He’s the only person who asked if he was okay. If he wasn’t going to tell him, who else would he tell?

“I died.” He said quietly. Another sob threatened to come out of his throat but he held it back. Lancer’s eyes widened at the admission.

“You died?”

Danny nodded. “It was the portal accident. The one that kept me out of school for a while at the beginning of the year. I turned the portal on from the inside and it electrocuted me.”

Lancer looked dumbfounded. “If you were electrocuted, how are you…”

Danny shrugged. “It killed me but it also did… Something else. It kept me alive at the same time. It just came with some side effects.”

“What kind of side effects?”

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. After a few moments of steeling himself for it, he pulled on his core and transformed. He could feel the rings pass over him and after they were gone for a few seconds, he finally opened his eyes and met Lancer’s gaze. His eyes were even wider and he looked ready to have an existential crisis of his own.

“What? You’re- You’re the ghost boy?”

Danny nodded.

“Lord of the flies! Is this why you’re always missing class? Why your homework is never finished and you always look so tired?”

Danny nodded again.

Lancer leaned back in his seat, stunned. “To kill a mockingbird. If I’d known-”

“You’re not going to tell my parents are you?” A sudden spike of panic washed through Danny. He didn’t think about that part. Teachers were obligated to tell parents certain stuff, right? This seemed like it would fall under the ‘something your parents should know about immediately’ category.

“No! Of course not!” Lancer met his gaze again. He looked nearly as panicked as Danny. “I’m not daft, Mr. Fenton. I’ve seen how your parents follow your ghost self around town with weapons brandished at the ready. I would never put you in danger like that.”

Danny heaved a huge sigh of relief. He slumped down in his seat and closed his eyes. He heard Lancer take a deep breath of his own.

“I’m not going to pretend like I understand how any of this happened.” He said. “But, I do understand that you need some serious support right now.”

Danny opened his eyes. “What kind of support?”

“We can start with accommodations for your schoolwork. We’re going to make a plan for you so that you can still get your assignments done and do whatever you need to do as your ghost self.”

As Lancer kept talking, a warm feeling was growing in Danny’s chest. For the first time since he started fighting ghosts he felt like he’d be able to do this. Like he’d be able to be more than just a disappointment or monster to his friends and family.

“Thank you.” Danny whispered.

“You’re welcome, Danny.”

#gorgi writes #danny phantom #danny fenton #mr lancer #maddie fenton #jazz fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #phic phight 2023 #fanfiction

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