Author's Note: So I have been writing a few of these cute little devils on Tumblr for awhile now so I thought I would put them on here too? I guess I should give you a warning because they are SUGARY SWEET. This will probably be told in a series of chronologically out of order oneshots, since there's really no need to plot very hard with this. It's just... cute kids doing cute things and trying to be detectives sometimes. And who doesn't like that?

Danny Phantom does not belong to me, obviously.

The Case of the First Meetings

Crimebusters AU

Summary: For every story, there is a beginning.

"Alright Danny, are you sure you have everything?" Maddie asked again, kneeling down on the ground in front of her son, a gentle hand resting on his shoulder. "Did you remember your lunch box? You have your pencils? Crayons? What about your tissues? Did you remember your hand sanitizer, just in case? Public school bathrooms can be a little icky."

"I got everythin' momma." Danny told her, the little five year old boy frowning a little as he looked towards the classroom. "What if nobody likes me?"

"I'm sure they will!" Maddie assured him, giving her son a tight hug. "There's plenty to like about you Danny. Just be yourself, and I'm sure that you'll make friends in no time, okay?" She told him, ruffling his hair a little. "You're a great kid, Danny, I promise you that you'll make friends here. That's why we moved here." She told him.

Well, they had actually moved to Amity Park because of other reasons in concern to Danny, but he didn't need to know about that. He wasn't old enough to understand yet. She was a little worried that suddenly moving away from their old city and transferring schools would be rough on him, but for the most part, he seemed to be taking it well.

"Okay momma." Danny nodded his head, giving her a hug back. "You'll be here to pick me up after school?" He asked her, looking hopeful.

"Of course." Maddie smiled at him. "No go on. You don't want to keep your new teacher waiting." She said, standing up. "Have a good day, Danny."

"I'll try." The little boy frowned a bit, trying to seem hopeful, but not quite ready to believe his mother's words just yet. She had said the same thing about his last school, and that hadn't ended up very well at all, even though he had tried really hard! Glancing down at Cujo, he reached down, petting the ghost dog on the head a little, who gave him a reassuring bark. Taking in and letting out a deep breath, Danny entered into his new classroom, where class had already started.

"Ah, here we are!" Mr. Lancer broke away from his ramblings, looking over as the door entered, and the new student walked in. He glanced up briefly, waving back to the boy's mother a little, before he looked back down at Danny. "Mr. Fenton! What a pleasure it is to have you join us!"

"Class, this is the new student I was telling you about." Mr. Lancer told them, stepping away from his desk and putting a hand on the young boy's shoulder. "This is Daniel Fenton, he had to change schools due to family reasons." He explained- or at least, that's what he had been told. "Do you have anything you like to be called, Daniel?"

"D-Danny." The little boy stammered a little, peering out from underneath his messy bangs. "I like being called Danny."

"Ah, an excellent name!" Lancer smiled, turning to face his classroom. "Everyone, please do your best to make Danny feel right at home. Having to move can be a very trying time for a child his age, so let's try and make his transition as easy as possible." He told them.

"Mr. Lancer!" One of the students, a blonde girl with blue eyes raised her hand. "What's a trans-transpition?"

"Transition." The balding man corrected her. "A type of change, moving away from one thing to another. Don't worry, it won't be on your next spelling test." He said with a chuckle, before looking down at Danny. "There's a seat free in between Miss Manson and Mr. Foley." He told him, before glancing in that direction. "Mr. Foley? Could you please raise your hand since Miss Manson is in timeout?"

"I'm not staying in here forever!" A girl's voice could be heard grumpily calling out from the back of the room, where she had been placed in a chair and was facing the wall.

"That's five more minutes for talking out of turn, Miss Manson!" Lancer called out. "There, see Danny, there's Mr. Foley right over there." He said, motioning towards a boy with very large glasses who had raised his hand.

"Mm." Danny nodded his head, adjusting the strap of his backpack as he headed back towards the desk, taking a seat on it after slinging his backpack on the back of his chair. The boy who sat next to him turned to give him a big grin, clearly excited about this new transfer student.

"Hi!" He whispered, offering him his hand. "I'm Tucker Foley! The grumpy girl over in timeout is my best friend Sam. Your name's Danny?"

"Un-huh." Danny said, giving him a slight nod, frowning at the hand a little. After a moment of hesitation, Danny reached out to take it, hoping that he wouldn't give the boy a nasty shock.

No luck there, as Tucker clearly winced a little, a spark flying between their hands. "Whoa!" He said, laughing a little. "That's some static problem you got there." He told him, seemingly pleased by his knowledge of the word 'static'. "My grandpa's the same way, always shocking people left and right." He told him. "Where did you move from?"

"Wisconsin." Danny told him, giving the boy a small smile. He seemed nice- maybe his mom was right, maybe he was going to be able to make friends here after all. "Borley, Wisconsin."

"Never heard of it!" Tucker said bluntly, before grinning again. "You're going to like Casper Elementary, Danny. I promise."

"Mr. Foley, Mr. Fenton." Lancer called out, raising a brow. "Please keep it down, we are trying to have a lesson. You have plenty of chances to get to know each other later."

"Okay!" Tucker called out, grinning. He turned back to Danny then, whispering a little. "Sam and I will talk to you at arts and crafts period then, Danny. That is, if she ever gets out of timeout."

"What did she do?" Danny whispered, giving a curious glance back towards the black haired girl.

"She punched Ricky Marsh in the nose." Tucker told him, motioning towards a red haired child with a baseball cap, who already seemed to have a bruise forming around the nose in question. "He called her cute on the first day in kindergarten, and she's never forgiven him for it. You want to steer clear of saying anything like that to Sam."

Danny gave a quick nod, his eyes going wide. He didn't want to get hit!

He turned back towards his lesson then, pulling out his notebook and listening to his new teacher talk. Glancing briefly down at Cujo, who had curled up by Danny's feet, apparently dozing off, the little boy smiled a little, thinking that maybe this new school wouldn't be so bad after all.

Trouble started when it was time for reading and writing lessons. Mr. Lancer was going over the spelling list for the week, and was calling up students to come and try their hand on the blackboard to write out a word of his choosing. Danny had squirmed in his seat a little upon hearing about this, secretly hoping that his new teacher wouldn't call on him. He didn't want to mess up in front of the whole class and write something strange.

His mother had told him it was 'ghost speak' and the fact that he knew it had a lot to do with the reason he could see them in the first place. She told him it was just part of him that made him special and unique, and that he shouldn't be ashamed of it. But as much as she said that, Danny had been picked on whenever he slipped into it at his old school, even by some of his teachers. They thought he was a bad kid and a liar when he told them he couldn't tell any difference between his 'nonsense words' and English.

He wasn't so lucky, it seemed.

"Mr. Fenton?" Lancer asked. "Would you like to come up and try a word? I don't quite know where you were at your old school, so I'll give you something simple."

"O-okay." Danny slowly nodded his head, looking a bit hesitant. If he refused, the students might think he was weird, and he didn't want that. Maybe he would be just fine. Getting up out of his seat, he heard Tucker whisper 'good luck' to him, and the boy took a deep breath, fighting back his nervousness.

"Mr. Fenton, your word is right." Lancer told him. "As in, right or wrong." He clarified after a moment.

He could write that! Danny thought to himself, eyes shining brightly, a few crackles of electricity coming off his hair. The teacher took notice of it, but said nothing- he had already been informed of Danny's little static problem. Taking a piece of the colorful chalk, he stood on the little bench that had been set down, and scribbled down the word, turning to look happily at his teacher after he was done. "Right!" He said, grinning from ear to ear.

And then he heard the snickering from the rest of the class.

"Ah, Mr. Fenton I don't think that's quite correct..." Lancer began, frowning a little at the strange series of symbols on his chalkboard. They appeared like words to a degree, but he couldn't make out what they were saying- clearly not the word he had assigned Danny to spell. He had read about this on the student's profile as well, but he didn't expect to run into Danny's language problem so quickly. "Would you perhaps like to try one more time?" He asked him, trying to keep his voice gentle.

It wasn't Danny's fault that this had happened, Lancer reminded himself. Clearly his brain was just wired a bit differently from the rest of the class. Frowning a little, he turned towards his snickering class. "Now class, this isn't funny. It's just as simple error. It's not polite to laugh at other students."

Danny's face, however, was now bright red, and from the little sparks of electricity that came out from his hair, it seemed as if the laughter was getting to him. He seemed to be trying very hard not to cry.

"Enough." Lancer repeated. "The next student I hear so much as a giggle from is going to be sent over to the timeout corner with Miss Manson." That shut his students up, and got a grumble from the girl who had been reunited with the timeout corner after spending no more than twenty minutes out of it for writing 'poop' on the board instead of her chosen word. "Mr. Fenton, if you would like to try again...?"

"O-okay." Danny stammered, slowly nodding his head. It would be okay, right? He could still do this. Taking in a deep breath, he shakily reached for the chalk, concentrating as hard as he could on writing the word in English this time.

"Very good, Mr. Fenton! Your handwriting could use a bit of work, but that is the correct spelling." Lancer told him, to which the boy let out a sigh of relief. "Do you think you could use the word in a sentence for the rest of the class now?" He asked.

"I'll try." Danny nodded his head, stepping down from the bench, looking over the class, some of them still obviously finding what he wrote on the board funny. He seemed happy, however, to see that Tucker didn't seem to be one of those students. Racking his brain for a sentence, he quickly decided on one, something he heard his sister say from time to time. "Sometimes it's hard to do what's right, but it is always good." He finished.

And then there was more laughter.

Oh no.

Mr. Lancer sighed, patting the student on the shoulder, giving him a sympathetic look. Danny really was trying, he could tell that much, and he was probably used to getting this sort of reception from his fellow classmates. "Class, don't laugh. Mr. Fenton has a few language issues, but it's nothing to make fun of him about. If this keeps up, all of you except for Mr. Fenton, Mr. Foley, and Miss Manson, the latter two who have not laughed even once, will be staying inside for recess."

The class shut up again, but it didn't seem to be quite enough to keep the little boy from starting to tear up again. A mild electric shock caused Lancer to remove his hand from the boy's shoulder, as sparks flew out from his hair, as the five year old bit down on his lip, clenching his fists and trying very hard to put on a brave face. Clearly this was a special student, if the small sparks that emitted from what tears did fall from his eyes were any indication.

But he was a student nonetheless, and at the moment, was a very upset little boy. "You did very well, Danny." Lancer assured him. "Go on and take your seat."

Danny slowly nodded, rubbing away the few stray tears from his eyes, heading to his desk and taking a seat in it, almost not daring to look over at Tucker. Mister Lancer had said that Tucker hadn't laughed, but he still probably thought he was weird now.

"That was neat, what you wrote on the board." Tucker whispered instead, causing Danny to look up in surprise. "I'm sorry the other kids laughed at you. I thought it was cool looking."

"T-thanks." Danny stammered, sniffing a little. "Momma says it's cause I'm special."

"Man, I wish I was special." Tucker frowned. "I don't know what I'm good at yet. I know a lot of things, but I don't think that's quite a talent. Do you know a whole 'nother language, Danny?" He asked.

"Yeah." Danny whispered, nodding his head. Sensing the feelings of his friend, Cujo jumped in Danny's lap, giving him a lick, before settling down, curling up to go back to sleep. Resting his hands on the ghost dog, Danny smiled fondly at him, scratching him underneath the ears.

"Is there something on your lap?" Tucker asked, frowning a little.

Danny flushed red again, suddenly remembering that nobody else could see Cujo, sparks crackling from the boy's hair as he turned towards Tucker. He hadn't laughed at his ghost language, and he had even thought it was cool, so maybe- maybe he would be okay with this. "It's a dog." Danny whispered. "It's a ghost dog."

There was a long pause then, as Tucker blinked a little, frowning- and then his eyes went wide, and he nearly leaned out of his chair. "You can see ghosts!?" He hissed, a little louder than he intended.

Danny flinched a little, before slowly nodding. "Un-huh. You don't think that's... weird, do you?" He asked, hesitating.

"No way, that's so cool! I can't wait to tell Sam!" Tucker said.

"Mr. Foley!" Lancer spoke up, looking over towards him. "Perhaps you would like to take Miss Manson's place in timeout?" He asked him, before looking over towards the sulking girl in question. "Miss Manson, you can return to your desk now. Please do keep quiet. Again, you can get to know your new classmate during arts and crafts if you feel so inclined."

Danny barely even heard the teacher- he was still too awestruck by the fact that Tucker's reaction to learning about his ghost sight was not to freak out or call him a liar- but he said he was cool! Nobody had ever called him that before, ever! Maybe- Maybe he really could be friends with this kid! Oh, Danny hoped so. He had never had a human friend before in his whole life!

"Finally!" Sam grumbled, getting up from the little chair and stomping back over to her desk, sitting back down in it. She smiled briefly over at Danny, but clearly didn't want to take her chances with the timeout chair anymore for the day, so quickly went back to her own work. Or at least, Danny thought she had, but a quick glance over towards her notebook revealed that she was just drawing bears instead.

He couldn't wait until arts and crafts period! Maybe he really would be able to make some new friends- with this Tucker boy, and maybe his friend Sam. He'd never really talked to girls his own age before though, and to be honest, he was a little intimidated by what he heard about her earlier. But... she hadn't laughed at him earlier, and Tucker seemed to like her, so maybe they could be friends too!

Today was going to be a good day after all.

When Mr. Lancer finally spoke up, announcing to the student's that it was time for arts and crafts, Danny couldn't be happier. He would finally get a real chance to talk to Tucker- and this Sam girl too! Cujo leapt from his human friend's lap, giving him a sharp bark as Danny got up.

"You don't need to get up." Sam spoke up, grinning as she scooted her desk over. "We join our desks here. I'm Sam, by the way. Sam Manson! I liked your stunt up at the blackboard."

"It wasn't a stunt." Danny frowned a little, although he did seem thrilled that she was joining him without so much as a second thought- and even more so when Tucker scooted his desk over.

"Sam, wait until you hear this!" Tucker grinned, his eyes shining. "Danny here can see ghosts! How cool is that?"

"Really?" Sam asked, leaning in, her own violet eyes going wide. "That's so neat! I wish I could!" She told him, her darting around the classroom. "Are there any here right now!?"

"Just Cujo." Danny told them shyly, before realizing that they wouldn't know who Cujo was. He was still more than a little floored that they had taken to him so quickly- especially given the fact that they had seen him do weird things already. But they didn't seem to mind, either of them, and he honestly wasn't quite sure what to make of it. At his old school, everyone avoided him, and they called him names- sometimes even the teachers did behind his back, he knew. So to have already met two kids his age who didn't seem to care- who even seemed thrilled to meet someone with his unique talents- was quite the change for him.

"Cujo's my dog. He's a ghost." Danny told them, kicking his feet a little, as Cujo barked in response. But what if they thought he was just making things up? Danny didn't want that either. "Cujo." Danny instructed, and the green, glowing dog perked up, wagging his tail eagerly and awaiting his master's command. "Kiss."

With that, Cujo let out a loud bark, unheard by anyone other than Danny. Jumping up on Sam's desk, the dog gave the girl a big kiss on the face, causing her to yelp a little when she felt a cold, wet sensation on her face. The dog jumped over to Tucker's desk, doing the same, and causing much the same reaction.

"Wow, there really is a ghost dog in here!" Tucker grinned, feeling around for Cujo and failing at this. "That's so cool, Danny." He repeated again.

"Y-you think so?" Danny asked, his face flushed a bright shade of red, a crackle of sparks all but jumping from his hair. He could hear Sam let off a loud whistle, and flushed harder- that was right, normal kids couldn't do that, could they? He had caused his parents all sorts of trouble with that, breaking all kinds of things all over the house, even though he had never meant to. Sometimes he even broke things at his old school, or while he was out and about at his old hometown. Everyone looked at him like he was some kind of jinx for it.

"Can you shoot lightning bolts or something?" Sam whispered, furtively glancing about the classroom, trying to see that nobody was listening in.

"No." Danny shook his head. "Momma says I just got an 'lectricity problem." He told her. "Y-you two don't think I'm weird?" He asked them after a moment, frowning a little.

"No way!" Sam shook her head, her eyes going bright. "You're not weird! I've never met a kid like you, Danny, and I think that's neat! I'm all about uni-" she scrunched her nose a little, as if she was trying to recall a word a bit beyond her own abilities. "Uni- special stuff!"

"R-really?" Danny asked, his eyes going wide. "U-um." He hesitated again, before taking a deep breath, gathering up all his nerve as he looked between the two of them. "U-um. Will- will you two be my friends?" He finally spat out, clenching his fists tight as he nervously awaited their answer.

Which came almost in an instant.

"Yeah!" Tucker cried out, grinning from ear to ear.

"Sure." Sam smiled at him. "Let's be friends, Danny."

And then, although he had managed to hold them in earlier at the blackboard, Danny's eyes teared up again, and he started to cry in earnest. As his crackling tears trailed down his cheeks, Sam and Tucker were quick to jump up, horrified that they had done or said something wrong, but it was okay. Danny wasn't crying because he was upset, not this time.

He was just so very, very happy.