Work Text:
Danny raised his hand high, trying to not let his desperation show as he silently begged Mr. Lancer to notice. His ghost sense had just gone off and if he didn’t leave and change into Phantom in the next few seconds then things might get messy.
It felt like forever as Danny waved his hand in the air before Mr. Lancer’s eyes finally landed on him. But instead of the quick permission he was expecting, he just got a sigh and a, “Not again Mr. Fenton. You can’t leave every class and I’m about to go through the test for next week.”
“But I really have to---”
Mr. Lancer cut him off, “No. You can wait five minutes.”
Danny slowly lowered his hand. Fuck . What was he supposed to do now?! He didn’t have five minutes! The ghost would be here any second.
Before he had time to do more than consider the repercussions of simply running out the classroom—and whether his suffering attendance record would survive it—he saw Mr. Lancer look back up at something over Danny’s shoulder and heave an even deeper sigh. “Really?”
Danny spun around in his chair and saw Paulina, Dash, Kwan, and Star, all with their hands in the air.
Danny bit back a frustrated groan. What were the A-listers up to now? He didn’t have time for this!
Mr. Lancer gestured for Star to talk. She didn’t waste any time before boldly stating, “Mr. Lancer! You really should let Danny go to the toilet.”
Danny blinked in surprise. That… was not what he’d been expecting.
“Yeah! He…” Paulina agreed and then trailed off with the look of someone who was desperately trying to come up with a good excuse.
Dash jumped in with a loud, “He really has to go though!”
Paulina swore under her breath. “God damn it, Dash.”
“He’s not a child,” Mr. Lancer said very primly considering the topic of conversation.
Danny stayed half-turned in his seat and just stared. What was going on…?
Kwan almost got up from his seat as he said, “Do you want him to go in here ?!”
Star gasped in clearly fake outrage. “Mr. Lancer! How could you?!”
Mr. Lancer seemed just as confused as he looked between all the A-listers. Then he turned his attention back to Danny, “Okay, what’s going on here?
Danny raised both his hands in the air this time, fighting the blush on his face as he registered what exactly they had been saying. “I have no idea.”
Maybe this was some new form of bullying they were trying out? If so; it was scarily effective.
Paulina cleared her throat and then proceeded to not clear up anything as she said, “We just really think you should let Danny go to the bathroom.”
“Yes, I got that,” Mr. Lancer said with a troubled expression, “I just want to know why .”
Kwan scoffed. “Because that’s where you go when you have to pee, Mr. Lancer. Or don’t you know that?”
Danny desperately wished to sink through the floor. Or turn invisible. Or die again. He wasn’t picky. Tucker and Sam were absolutely not helping; Sam stifling a laugh behind her hand and Tucker bringing out his phone to record the whole thing.
And for some reason all of the A-listers were sending him increasingly panicked looks as well as scanning the whole classroom as if looking for something. Which did remind Danny that he really had to get out of there, and soon.
But then, as if things couldn’t get any worse, Dash suddenly stood up and almost screamed, “He’s got really bad diarrhea!”
“Yeah!” Kwan nodded.” Why do you think he leaves all the time? You should see the bathroom.”
Star shook her head intently. “Or don’t! Don’t go with him!”
Mr. Lancer was starting to look horrified. “Okay, that’s enough of whatever this—”
And that was the moment Skulker burst through the outer wall of the classroom. Danny was almost grateful.
But now he really needed to get out of there.
“It's okay!” Kwan shouted over his shoulder in Danny’s general direction. “We’ll hold him off!” Which didn’t make any sense, but he didn’t have time to figure out what was going on with the A-listers.
He exchanged a quick look with Sam and Tucker before diving out of the classroom and into the hallway just in time with the ghost-alarm going off. He managed to change into Phantom just in time before all the classroom doors burst open and the hallway was flooded with students and teachers alike.
Danny turned intangible, ignored the gaping stares around him, and flew back into his classroom. He was expecting Sam and Tucker to have kept Skulker occupied but was shocked when he got back in the room only to find half his class still there and worse yet; involved in the fight.
Dash perked up as soon as Danny entered, screaming, “We’ll help you, Danny!” and tackling right through Skulker and into a wall.
“Phantom!” Star exclaimed with a big smile from where she was hiding behind an overturned desk.
Kwan pumped his fist in glee and said, “Phantom Danny! Shit. Danny Phantom!”
“Good save!” Paulina praised a she continuously fired off a small ectogun, missing every shot.
Sam and Tucker were in the back, still filming. Which probably meant that Skulker hadn’t really come here to fight seriously. Which was confirmed when he turned to Danny when he entered the room and frowned. “I don’t know what these puny humans think they’re doing but I’m the greatest hunter in all the realms! I demand a fair fight!”
Which was almost the same as asking nicely for a ghost.
But first he had something to clear up. “What are you guys doing?!”
“Helping!” Star exclaimed unhelpfully.
Danny was so tired of whatever had gotten into them by now, but he still didn’t want them to get hurt. “Get out of here!”
“But we're helping!” Dash said from where he lay on the floor and Danny had never thought the day would come where he’d see Dash pout.
Danny shook his head and fired off an ectoblast at Skulker. “You're really not!”
Skulker grinned. “Ah, so now the real fight starts!”
“We’ll get him, Danny!” Dash screamed as he got back on his feet.
Star jumped up from behind the table. “He means Phantom!”
“Yeah!” Dash immediately agreed. “Phantom!”
If they refused to leave the room, then Danny would. And. Well. Danny wasn’t in any hurry to go back to his class after what had just happened. He looked around the room. Was still happening? He sent the A-listers one last confused look and then took off through the wall with Skulker in hot pursuit.
Danny opened the door to the classroom fifteen minutes later, back to human and trying to hide a slight limp as he quietly made his way into the room.
And he thought he had gotten away with it too, but then all the A-listers sat up straight in their chairs and stared right at Danny with wide grins. As if they were proud of something. Of course, this drew Mr. Lancer’s attention and he turned to see Danny halfway in the door.
“Mr. Fenton! Where were you?”
Once again, before Danny could answer himself, the A-listers jumped in. Dash loudly said, “Finally back from the bathroom, huh? You… Fen turd !”
Mr. Lancer immediately turned his attention to dash with an outraged, “Mr. Baxter!”
Kwan nudged Dash’s shoulder before loudly whispering, “Good one, Dash!”
Were they… trying to actually help him?
Danny sat back in his seat, more disturbed by this possibility than the undead hunter that had just tried to skin him alive.
In fact, he was so distracted that after class he accidentally jammed his hand intangibly through his locker door. He froze with his arm enclosed in metal up to the elbow and then pulled it out as soon as his brain had registered what he’d been doing. He cast around in the corridor to make sure no one had seen his little slip up and met the gazes of four wide-eyed A-listers across the hall.
Star smiled wide enough to show all her teeth. The worst part was that it looked genuine . “We didn’t see anything.”
“No,” Dash agreed, hesitating slightly before adding, “Only three nerds !”
Kwan nodded and nudged Dash’s side. “Nice one.”
Okay, this was going from weird to worrying. If not even Dash’s bullying felt natural, something was definitely up.
Danny tilted his head and addressed his old tormentor. “Are you okay, Dash?”
This made him blink in confusion. “What?”
Danny shook his head. “It just doesn't feel like your heart’s in it, you know?”
“You want me to bully you… With more heart?”
“I mean… If you have to do it, you can at least do it right? Now it’s just weird.”
“Shit,” Dash cursed, leaning towards his three friends and whispering in a voice loud enough for Danny to clearly hear, “We’re being weird!”
Paulina flipped her hair over her shoulder and raised her nose in the air. “Come on guys. No use hanging around these losers.”
And then she walked off with an air of indifference. It would almost have worked if Star didn’t send him another genuine smile, Kwan mimed a sorry and Paulina kept glancing over her shoulder at him as they walked away.
Danny was left alone in the hallway for all of three seconds, staring dumbly after the departing sources of his recent confusion, before Sam and Tucker sidled up next to him with barely restrained mirth.
“Okay,” Danny said as he leveled his friends with an accusatory glare. “You guys know what’s going on.”
It wasn’t a question. Tucker blinked his eyes in a facsimile of innocence. “Maybe?”
“We just want to see how long it takes for you to figure it out,” Sam said, completely unrepentant.
“That's unfair!” Danny complained.
Tucker patted him condescendingly on the shoulder. “Yeah. You are pretty slow.”
Danny slapped him off and groused. “Let's just go eat.”
On the way to the cafeteria he saw the A-listers further down the hallway, crowding in around Mikey and pushing him around. But then Kwan's eyes landed on Danny and he paused, said something to the others, and then they all stopped to smile awkwardly at Danny and patting Mikey on the shoulder as if they wanted Danny’s approval. Like they respected him.
“Why are they…?” Danny stopped dead. He'd only seen them act like this towards Phantom. The thought made all the A-listers weird actions of the day make perfect sense and he groaned. “They know, don't they?”
Tucker pumped his fist. “Yes! He got there!”
“What made you realize?” Sam asked as they started walking towards the cafeteria again.
Danny shrugged. “They treat me like a human. Which, ironically, they only do when I'm a ghost.”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “ That's what makes you realize they know??”
“That's so sad,” Tucker said while shaking his head.
Danny groaned. “But I can't believe they know ! Wait,” he paused as he turned to face his two friends. “How did you know that they know?!”
Tucker whistled innocently as Sam rolled her eyes and said, “You're welcome. We’ve already threatened them into silence.”
Tucker laughed. “Not that we would have needed to. They were falling over themselves to help.” he nudged Danny’s side. “I think you have some new best friends.”
Danny wrinkled his nose. “Gross.”
They passed the A-listers in the corridor and Sam called out, “Hey guys! The gig is up!”
“You only lasted half a day!” Tucker added with a wide smile, hand outstretched. “Pay up.”
“You bet on me?!” Danny asked in outrage as Paulina handed over a small bundle of bills to Tucker.
“At least you’re good for something,” Sam shrugged and ignored Danny’s outraged, “Hey!”
“So now we don’t ave to pretend anymore, right?!” Dash asked with the same enthusiasm as Cujo showed for a new toy.
Danny took a small step back. “How did you even figure me out…?”
Kwan laughed. “Dude. The alley behind the Nasty Burger is not really private.”
Danny groaned. He always tried to be so careful! Well, except when he changed in the middle of the school corridor half an hour ago, or when he did it outside behind Sam or Tucker because he didn’t have time, or, yeah, when he did it behind the Nasty Burger because he wanted to drink the last of his shake, or—Alright. Maybe he should be more careful. But that didn’t explain why they had been there. So he frowned and asked, “Why were you behind the Nasty Burger…?”
“Don't ask!” Tucker cut in, voice panicked.
The whole group of A-listers turned bright red and Danny decided he really didn’t want to know. “As long as we’re good?”
Star immediately jumped in with a very energetic, “We won’t tell anyone!”
“Yeah!” Kwan agreed. “We’ll help!”
Danny thought back to the disaster of the day so far and only managed a weak, “Please don't.”
Dash slapped his back. “We’ve got your back, Phantom!” Paulina cleared her throat and Dash immediately pivoted to, “ Danny ! We’ve got your back, Danny!”
Danny groaned. “Oh joy.”