Danny Phantom - The Next Chapter

The First Day

'So... if I times the twelve by three first, then twelve by forty, then add those two numbers together... I should get... five-hundred and sixteen?'

Dani looked up at Jazz, hoping that she had been able to follow the explanation.

'Yes, exactly!' Jazz replied with a grin, 'You've got it!'

Dani heaved a sigh of relief, leaning back and stretching her cramped hand. Jazz had been teaching her multiplication and division all week and se was finally starting to get the hang of it. She was pretty pleased with herself if she was being honest. It hadn't taken her all that long to figure out the reading and writing, even if her handwriting was still awful, and she had mastered addition and subtraction in around a day, taking Jazz by surprise. She had explained that while biologically Dani was around thirteen years old, her brain was still in the development phase of a baby so she was picking up on new ideas like a sponge in water.

'Yep, I always knew I was a genius,' she sighed, leaning back in her chair with a satisfied smirk.

Across the living room, Danny laughed to himself, making Dani poke her tongue out at him.

'Man, I wish I had it that easy,' Danny muttered.

'You'd better watch out,' Danielle replied, 'I'm gonna catch up to you pretty soon.'

'I look forward to it,' Danny replied.

Wham!

All three of them jumped as the front door slammed open and Maddie and Jack strode inside, both beaming from ear to ear.

'It's here!' Jack exclaimed, waving a piece of paper in the air triumphantly.

'What is?' Danny asked, transforming back into his human form as he calmed his racing heart.

'I have a few contacts in the Births, Deaths, and Marriages department,' Maddie explained, 'And I was able to negotiate getting a birth certificate made up for Danielle.'

'Ta da!' Jack said, slapping the paper down on the dining room table.

Dani stared down at the admittedly fancy looking document, mouthing out the words that were written; 'Name: Danielle Madeline Fenton... Mother: Madeline Katherine Fenton... Father: Jack Robert Fenton.'

She looked up at them, hardly daring to believe it.

'So I'm... a Fenton?' she asked.

'You always were,' Danny assured her, 'This just proves it to the government.'

She looked up at him and took him by surprise as she lunged to wrap her arms around him. Before he could register how strange that was coming from her, she had moved on to do the same with Jazz, then their parents.

'So what does that mean?' Dani asked excitedly, 'Is there like some super awesome prize for being a real person?'

'Well, I suppose the most significant thing now would be that we can enroll you into school. Jazz says you've been picking up on things pretty quickly.'

'Plus you've been a whiz in the lab!' Jack added, 'You'd be the top student in any robotics classes!'

'Do you think she's ready for that though?' Danny asked, joining them in the kitchen, 'Don't you think this is all kinda fast?'

'I'm sitting right here, you know,' Dani replied, 'And I think I doing pretty awesome at this whole learning thing. How much harder could school be?'

Danny grimaced as if that thought brought up painful memories.

'We do still have a bit of a way to go yet before you're caught up with your age group,' Jazz pointed out gently, 'But with the way you're going you'd probably be ready for it in about a month or so.'