Negative Feedback (Danny Phantom Fic)

Chapter 16

The art you see above these words I have typed here was created by ariloveshetalia , and she is amazing and you should all go check out her art books here on Wattpad! A million thank yous for this!

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Camry's POV~

Friday afternoon~

The dance was tomorrow night, and preparations had-- as far as I could tell-- been going all according to plan. The food would be started in the morning, the decorations were nearly done being put up, and just about all of the invitations had been replied to. All the time that freed up for me had prompted Dora to send me out to the practice fields with a palace guard as my temporary instructor. 

My right hand was curled into a fist while my left hand braced my arm as I took aim at the metal target some twenty yards in front of me. The guard, a green-skinned ghost who had said I could simply call him Pavel, looked on with his muscular arms folded across his chest. His accent made me think he was of Russian descent, but I couldn't say for sure. 

"Find that energy source deep inside you, Cam-i-ry," he called out. "It is what keeps you centered in this existence. Try opening your hand instead of keeping it closed."

"I can't do it that way," I grumbled loudly, but complied just to see if it would work. As I expected, nothing happened. "Why is this so difficult?"

"Come, try again," Pavel encouraged in a gentle tone. "You can do this."

"How can you be so sure?" I suddenly snapped, throwing my fists down at my sides just as a rush of heat swept over me, radiating just under my skin. I coughed twice, covered my mouth with one hand, and saw more lava pooling in my palm a second later.  "Oh, come on!" 

"You are letting negativity get the best of you," Pavel said as he stepped closer to stand beside me. His gaze landed on the lava in my hand; I shook it off before it could start to cool and form a crusty layer of rock. "Here, let me tell you. You must think very hard about this, Cam-i-ry. Your core is a part of you, yes?"

"Yes..." I answered uncertainly, unconsciously copying his pose by also folding my arms over my chest. 

"And your core needs something to keep it stable. Focused." For emphasis, he put a hand on each side of his face, framing his eyes with a mimicry of blinders or binoculars. " What do you care about the most?" 

"What I care about?" I echoed. Both of my eyebrows darted up into my bangs at the question. "Uhm... I care about... my friends, and my family." 

"Good, good. This is a good start," Pavel said. "You care about keeping them safe? About how they think of you?"

My mind immediately wandered back to that blurry day five years ago, the day that gave me the scar on my face, and I grimaced. "Of course I care about keeping them safe." 

"Then you must learn how to use your powers to keep them out of harm's way," Pavel explained, his tone dropping very seriously. "But you should think about what you care about the most most. That is what will really focus your core."

I sucked in a deep breath through my nose and let it out slowly through my mouth, then nodded and spun to face the targets again. Arms raised, I took aim at the bull's-eye directly in front of me and thought about my family. My mom, with her bright smile and incredibly careful hands; my dad with his twinkling smoky quartz eyes and stubbly beard; the three of us going on trips in the summer, and roasting marshmallows over the fire pit in our backyard, and--