Evanescent Signs

Amity Park's citizens start realizing things about the son of their most famous ghost hunters that they should have noticed a long time ago.

(Ch. 6) Lights Out

In which a blackout at Casper High leads to Danny seeing in the dark.

"A tornado," Lancer muttered. "I almost forgot we have those."

"The damage will be kept to a minimum at the very least," his colleague, Linda, the 9th grade biology teacher said. She was a little old lady who barely reached his shoulders but provided companionship amongst the hoard of students, nonetheless.

"Maybe we won't have to replace a wall this time," she continued.

"I'll be honest, I'm looking forward to no human shaped holes," Lancer commented wryly. He'd take a tornado over a ghost attack any day.

The procedures changed roughly around the start of the year. During a ghost attack, more or less the instructions prior to the Fentons installing a ghost shield around the gym were to get low to the ground and pray. Now, every class sought shelter inside the ghost shield for both tornado warnings and ghost attacks.

His students may not have been used to tornado threats, but they'd adjusted to ghost ones and just did the same thing. Lancer eyed his class gathering blankets and pillows in the corner. He suspected they stashed them in the gym last week.

"Do we even have insurance for tornados anymore?" Linda wondered.

The Federal government provided them support for ghost attacks as long as they kept quiet about the reason – if the ghosts were content with remaining in Amity Park, then the rest of the world did not need to know about America's little problem, according to the government – something that Mayor Masters negotiated a few months ago.

"We can claim the damage came from an attack during the storm," Lancer replied, shifting his weight. The students occupied the bleachers and the floor while the teachers stood by the entrances. Lancer's feet hurt. Ghost attacks were a lot shorter than unpredictable natural disasters.

"Do you think there's a ghost that controls the weather?" Lancer heard Mikey ask. His students remained together in a corner by Paulina's blanket hoard. They looked comfortable.

"Yeah, and he's probably a little bitch," Blake, one of the linebackers for Casper's football team, said irritably.

"I think Phantom should show up for every disaster, not just ghost ones," Paulina announced from under a blanket. Lancer thought he saw Star's arm sticking out the other side.

"You want Phantom to fight the weather?"

"He'd win," she grumbled back.

"We should make a bat-signal for him," Nathan said.

"You idiots would call him for getting lost in the halls," Dash cut in.

"As if you wouldn't use it to invite him to your football games," Sam said. Her voice sounded amused.

"S-Shut up!"

"Do you guys ever go to the football games? Not just specifically you, Danny, I mean you and your friends. Cause I play. Linebacker. At the games if you ever want to watch. Um," Jason, one of the Casper High offensive linemen, said.

"Jason, please stop," Dash pleaded into his hands.

"No, please continue," Sam said.

"If I have to be stuck with all of you for another hour, I'm throwing myself out the window," Valerie informed.

Lancer needed a drink. He eyed Linda's thermos that, by the smell of it, did not contain water. She smiled innocently at him. Great, he was the only one left to suffer then.

A particular loud sound caught their attention when something scraped against the wall closest to them. The object sounded metallic and rather large, dragging against the East and West walls of the gym as the tornado tossed it around.

"I hope that wasn't anything important," Lancer said in one breath and "Brave New World!" in another when the lights went out.

Blackouts were popular when ghosts attacked, but the Fentons had truly thought of everything. With the installation of the ghost shield, any time a blackout occurred they'd have the glow of the dome to navigate by. Unfortunately, with Amity Park's shitty luck, Lancer was pretty certain the metal object launched into oblivion was their ghost shield.

Did the teachers have a plan B? No. Were they going to pretend they did? Definitely.

"Everyone, remain calm," Lancer heard one of the 11th grade teachers on the other side of the gym announce. It was pitch black outside and without electricity it was just as pitch black inside for a moment.

One-minute Lancer couldn't see a thing, then the gym was filled with green light.

"The shield?" Linda wondered, squinting against the sudden change.

Lancer would like to think he had a six sense when it came to his class. Not only had he taught the genius that is Jasmine Fenton, he gained quite a few odd characters from the class two years behind her, including her brother.

The incident with the football team and the discovery that both Jasmine and Daniel could speak "Ghost Speak" wasn't even the start of it. Lancer first vivid memory of the kids was when Jazz entered high school and little twelve-year-old Danny was dragged along to the parent teacher conference because there were "too many dangerous inventions at home the kids might get into."

Jack Fenton's proud face when he claimed Danny had taught himself how to pick locks would forever burn in his memory.

Back then, the family had been a joke. Amity Park was a hotspot for supernatural energy? What bogus! No one had listened to them. Lancer still remembered when Danny and Jazz had a hard time adjusting, preferring to hide in the corner and pretend to be invisible in Danny's case, and distancing herself from her family's weirdness in Jazz's. Now, the two were quite recognizable for different reasons, and wherever they were, there was bound to be a scandal.

Lancer ignored the sudden increase in shocked voices in favor of rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Daniel, why are your eyes glowing?" he asked.

Daniel Fenton, to his credit, looked just as confused as everyone else. His expression was fairly easy to see, even with the two beams of gentle green light radiating from his eyes.

"This is new," Danny said, eventually, blinking a few times. The light shone through his eyelids.

"Neat," Jason exclaimed, leaning closer. Beside him, Blake suddenly gasped.

"Wait, does this mean your sister didn't clean up all the ectoplasm from that explosion you told us about?" he said, looking worried. "You're not poisoned, right?" Lancer swore he heard him mumble something about a sleepover.

"Are you wearing goggles?" Mikey questioned, tilting Danny's head back so he could get a closer look. Several students across the gym complained when the light was taken away.

Danny looked otherwise normal except his eyes. Lancer didn't trust that as a measure of what was normal. Already several other classes were attempting to move closer, but the football team was making a circle around Lancer's corner.

"Are you injured?" Lancer asked, kneeling beside his student to avoid looking directly at him. The iris, pupil, and sclera were all glowing, making the teenager look like a rather odd flashlight.

"It was probably last night's Spaghetti," Danny said, smiling. "I'm fine, Lancer, honest."

Lancer wished he could express to Danny how much that answer did not constitute fine. His expression must have done that for him because his student laughed.

"Do you know how much ectoplasm I ingest on a daily basis from my own mother's cooking?" Danny elaborated, looking unconcerned. "Not to mention the cafeteria food."

"I hate everything about that sentence," Blake said.

"You've ingested ectoplasm," Paulina echoed, wide eyes reflecting off Danny's light. It seemed she had forgone the blanket for this discovery.

Danny turned his head towards where Dash was sitting. "I told you guys I knew what I was talking about when blood and ectoplasm mix. Jazz and I have been exposed to small, nonharmful amounts of energy since we were toddlers. The GIW have no idea what they're doing."

Lancer heard about the incident that placed Mr. Trenton on temporary leave. Dash looked like he was contemplating how terrible it would have been to glow in the dark – even if it meant dying later.

"Your family is super fucking crazy, dude," Blake concluded, nodding at Danny. He shoved Dash with a pointed look, "Good luck."

The implications behind the sentence and Dash suddenly stumbling over his words meant Jasmine Fenton had arrived. She looked as unconcerned as Danny, and Lancer was beginning to regret the benefits that came with a $19,000/y salary.

That was a joke. There were no benefits.

"And why don't your eyes glow?" Lancer asked Jasmine Fenton when she found herself a seat amongst Lancer's 3rd period class like she belonged there.

"Takeout," Jazz replied.

"I think somebody needs to look into the cafeteria food because I am not okay with those implications," Tucker announced, looking queasy.

"Go vegan," Sam said.

"Shut up, Sam," Tucker said back.

During the commotion, a few of Lancer's colleagues left the doors to investigate where the new light was coming from. To the shock of no one, they didn't seem surprised it involved Danny Fenton. The 10th grade History teacher offered to phone his parents, but Danny declined.

"So, no hospital?" someone asked, hovering behind Lancer who was still crouched beside his student.

"I'm good," Danny said, smiling.

"I could use one," Blake said. "I bought lunch today."

Lancer refused to take pity on his poor, confused, colleagues; his job here was done. He announced to the gym that Mr. Fenton was fine, that they had light and should be grateful for it, and everyone needed to stay in their seats under the danger had passed.

Linda was where he'd left her, sipping her thermos with a smile.

"Quite a few characters you've got, Edward," she commented, making room so he could lean against the wall next to her. "They sure keep you on your toes."

"I think I can confidently say I have never had a student quite like Daniel Fenton," Lancer agreed, sighing with bone-deep exhaustion. "I swear, it's one thing after another. If it's not ghosts, it's ghost-related."

"That comes with having ghost hunters for parents."

"I can't even imagine what their childhood was like."

"The rumor is the Fenton's were invited to the Amity News Station in a couple of days. Are you going to watch?"

"I have had quite enough exposure to the Fenton family, thanks," Lancer huffed, arms crossed.

Linda hummed. "I think I'll watch. Jasmine's a bright, young girl and Daniel's such a charming young man. Maybe I'll learn something. You can only pretend to be indifferent for so long, Edward."

Lancer looked to his right where his class huddled around Danny, making shadow puppets across his eyes. He wasn't indifferent, Lancer just believed nothing mattered in the face of making sure his students were happy.

Simply put, Lancer could care less about the strange things that revolved around Danny Fenton. The moment he made eye contact with a twelve-year-old boy dragged to his sister's parent-teacher conference, Lancer made the decision to make sure the stars in his eyes never went out. He didn't need to know why those stars were even brighter now. He just wanted to keep counting them as they grew; maybe even be the reason one or two were there.

Because Danny Fenton was a child born with stars in his eyes and nothing could change Lancer's desire to see him amongst them.

o.O.o.O.o.O.o

A/N: More of a fun perspective. Lancer is based off the personality of a teacher I work with and Linda is my internship teacher. They are sarcastic shits and they know it.

19,000/y is not a livable wage. That's about the same you can make working fast food – which is in no way a dismissible job and should definitely be paid more so someone doesn't have to work 3 jobs in order to make ends meet. Teachers are paid shit in most states and America in general.

All of my DP files deleted. I have to start from scratch for all my stories. I finally got the motivation to update this one.