Negative Feedback (Danny Phantom Fic)

Chapter 9

The art you see above these words is by the amazing @ariloveshetalia! She has done SO many amazing art pieces for this story and I honestly can't thank her enough. You're the best! <3

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There was still hope for me? Tucker's report still rang through my head hours after he and Sam had gone home for the day, and more than once I caught myself smiling like an idiot at nothing apparent. 

'Without the energy, you would just fade away. With enough of it, you would become a full-fledged ghost with a core and everything.'

Then again... what did that mean? A "core?" This was probably something to ask Danny about, but he was in the middle of trudging through homework before the weekend could be interrupted by a ghost attack. Maybe it was a good thing he wasn't paying any attention to me; I would've looked like a complete doofus, just sitting there and smiling at the wall. 

His room was remarkably quiet, save for the scratching of pencil on paper and his occasional unhappy mutterings. After about half an hour of this, I caught a grumble about how hard it was to "balance these stupid reactions." Suffice to say it made my ears figuratively perk up with interest. 

"Are you doing chemistry stuff?" I asked hopefully, breaking the stillness that had fallen over the room. 

He leaned back in his seat and slouched, throwing an arm over the back of his chair. "Yeah, and it's impossible!"

I was on my feet and peering down at his worksheet before I consciously realized I had moved at all. "Lemme see... Oh! I think I see what you did wrong. Hang... on..." Using his pencil, I sketched out the equation on the side of the paper and drew a couple of arrows to the factors he'd left out. "And then you take this part here... Gotta remember how many electrons are in each one... This makes this, and this makes that..."

The equation was done, and I was proud of myself for remembering how to do it despite how I hadn't taken a chemistry class since the first term of the previous school year. It was still summer in my brain, after all. But then it hit me: I hadn't really shown him anything. I'd just taken over without even thinking! 

"Oh... Oops," I murmured, bringing a hand up to my mouth and looking down at the finished problem. "S-Sorry, I didn't... didn't mean to just take over like that."

"Do you wanna do the rest of my homework for me?" Danny asked, obviously joking by the way he laughed a bit at the end of his question. 

"Nice try," I answered. "Never heard that one before." 

"Okay, but seriously, you actually get this stuff?" he continued. "Can you explain it to me? The way my teacher goes over it makes zero sense." 

"Uhh... Yeah, sure." He scooted over on his chair and patted the empty half of the seat, so I gingerly sat down and grabbed up his pencil again. Sharing a chair and a pencil, we managed to work through the entire worksheet in about twenty-five minutes thanks to my guidance. Somehow, I managed to fight the urge to just do it all myself. That's what usually happened when I worked in groups back home, anyway. 

"So... Does it make more sense now?" I asked when the last mark had been made on the paper. To the best of my knowledge, everything was more or less correct. 

"Honestly? Yeah, I think I get it now," Danny replied confidently. "I can't wait to see the look on her face when I hand this in on Monday." He turned a little to look at me with a genuine expression on his face. "Thanks for your help, Camry." 

"Y-You're welcome," I said, feeling my cheeks grow a little warmer in light of the gratitude. 

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