Don't Threaten Me with a Good Time

Chapter 28

Two days had passed after that fateful Halloween night. Sure the night was good fun but he still had a splitting headache, and the Flash did not take any prisoners. As soon as he was out of his room the next day he was sat down on the sofa and lectured about the dangers of underage drinking by the fast hero. What made it worse, he could hear his team listening in around the corner and sniggering at his misfortune.

"It was an accident, I didn't know I was drinking alcohol." Phantom retorted as he slumped down in his seat.

"Then don't accept drinks from strangers!" The hero replied exasperated.

"Technically, he's not a stranger anymore." Flash sighed.

"Just, no more alcohol."

"Fine." Soon after the lecture was over and Flash was walking over to the Zeta-tube that would take him to the watchtower. "You can come out now," Phantom called to the team hiding in the hallway.

"Welcome to the family, Phantom," Wally called as he flopped down beside the ghost teen.

"Wha-" Before he could even finish the word Wally interrupted him.

"My uncle just lectured you, that normally means you're part of the family whether you like it or not." Wally threw an arm over Phantom's shoulder. "How does a ghost even get drunk anyway?" Wally quirked a questioning, disbelieving eyebrow at him.

"I dunno, I've only been doing this for like a year." Phantom sighed running a hand down his face as he leant forward out of Wally's grasp. "I better get packing." He muttered as he stood up.

"Where are you going?" Artemis asked as she plopped down next to Wally.

It takes a few moments for Phantom to come up with something to say, does he lie? Does he tell the truth? They were his friends, after all, he trusted them- to a certain extent. Maybe a half-truth.

"Home, I'm going home."

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It took Danny all but an hour to pack his things. A couple of sets of clothes, his washbag, an extra pair of shoes and his chargers. He had already called his school, claiming to have a fever and wouldn't be in for a few days, that was already dealt with so he wouldn't have to worry. He had sent a text to Dash Baxter earlier and he had told the ghost teen that he would be staying with him since his parents were away on a business trip.

Danny didn't know how to feel about his, he could feel the tears running down his cheeks, but he made no move to wipe them away. He sat right on the edge of his perfectly made bed, he had always liked making his bed, that had never been an issue for him or his parents, he liked getting into a made bed at nighttime, having something less to worry about.

And now he was going back to his home town, he was finally going to pay his respects to his Family's graves, to his friends, to the people he had cared about most in the world. He felt the pressure built up in his chest as he let out a cracked sob. Danny quickly covered his mouth with one of his hands, it wouldn't be good for the team to hear him and come rushing in just to see human Danny and not ghost Phantom.

After a lot of heavy breathing from behind his hand and biting his lip to stop himself, the pressure subsided. He could break down when he got to Amity Park, where he was safe to be either Phantom or Danny without worry.

He quickly changed into his ghost half and picked up his bag, heading out of his room. Before he reached the Zeta-tubes, which still freaked him out, by the way, Batman came across him.

"Phantom?"

"I'll be gone for a few days." The scowl on the dark knight seemed to deepen, but in reality, his dad instincts were being set off and he didn't know how to show the worry in his bat persona.

"Anything we should be worried about?" Phantom shook his head in a no, and Batman was not going to push him for more information. He had already done that once and it created a huge strain on the teen's trust in the hero. Batman simply nodded to the boy and watched him fly off into one of the tubes.

"Recognised Phantom, B-zero-seven." The Zeta tube's calm voice called out, signalling the young hero's departure.

Phantom was spat out of a photo booth in Fawcett City. He quickly shoved his backpack on and took to the skies, it was quicker to get to Amity from Fawcett than it was from Happy Harbour. It only took the teen a few hours and soon enough he was landing gently in the park of his home town.

Despite the tragic accident that had happened there the town had remained almost completely the same. There were only a few differences, such as the neon glow of Fenton Works being shut off and a new fast food joint had taken the place of the Nasty Burger. He didn't know how to feel being back, everything was completely the same, but o-so different. He wanted to scream. He wanted to pull his hair out in frustration. But most of all he wanted to see his family, he wanted to see their faces, he wanted to give them all hugs. He wanted to have musical marathons with Jazz, he wanted to help his mom cook, he wanted his dad to help him with his homework. But all of that was snatched from him within seconds. Most of all he wanted to tell them all of who he really was, he didn't want them to die without knowing who he truly was.

He powered down from his ghost half as he walked down the street, heading towards Dash's house. He'd never thought he would see the day where he would be willingly going to Dash Baxter's house. But there he was, knocking on his down and being ushered in by the blonde jock.

"Hey Danny, the guys are here, we're studying for a chemistry test tomorrow." Dash takes Danny's backpack off the teen and puts it upstairs in the guest bedroom whist he joined the rest of the football team in the living room.

"Hey." He stuttered out to the room of jocks. After all, it wasn't that long ago that they use to be his tormenters. Kwan and Dale made a space between them on the couch for Danny to slip into, which he did with a lot of nervous shuffling. Once Dash came back downstairs the teen quickly got back to studying with the T.V on in the background playing 'gossip girl' reruns.

"I can't understand any of this," Dale muttered out as he was working on a practice test. Danny took a glance over his shoulder seeing that he was working on an electron transfer reaction.

"So," Danny points to the element with more electrons, "this element here has more electrons than the other, the element with more electrons will have to go through oxidation, meaning it will lose electrons, and the element with fewer electrons will gain the electrons through reduction. Reduction means that it gains electrons. If you take the aluminium-oxygen example, which is the one on your page, the aluminium is oxidized because it loses the electrons, while the oxygen was reduced because every electron transfer reaction involves simultaneous oxidation and reduction." As Danny finished his explanation to Dale, he was met with stares from the football team. "Sorry, was that too confusing?"

"No! That made total sense!" Dale was jotting down the notes and the solution, but he was still getting stares from the rest of the team.

"You guys remember I'm a straight-A student, right?" Danny asked feeling nervous at their stares.

"Please teach us!" Brad practically yelled out. "We're not stupid, but we barely understand any of this stuff!"

That's how Danny spent the rest of his night, going through each question with the rest of the boys, trying to explain it and simplify it to the best of his abilities. Though he could only do so much. But all of them seemed to be taking note of everything he said and even asked him to repeat some parts and expand if they didn't completely understand his explanation. Soon enough the practice test booklet was complete and the boys felt more confident about their test tomorrow, in fact, all of them felt like they could easily pass the test.

But until then they put on Disney movies, sang at the top of their lungs to each song and ate so much junk food. Danny easily fell into place with them and felt himself relaxing with the other teens until they all had to go home. After all, they didn't want to miss their test that they all were definitely going to ace.