Chapter Twenty-Seven
Infringement
"I hold on so hard
And pray that I won't say something wrong
I look at the stars..."
Dulce closed her eyes and faced the door, ready to accept any punishment that would be put on them: detention? Hopefully no worst than that. As she braced herself to deliver some sort of story on why they were in there, she found Pablo grasp her arm and pull her into him. "What in the-" she started, but did not complete the sentence as two lips pressed against her own before she could say anymore. "Mmnn!" Her eyes widened and she desperately tried to break away from the boy as he pressed close into her. What the hell is he doing! she thought.
Pablo tried to keep a grip on her, hoping she wouldn't get the wrong idea. Mr. Harris was a sucker for the whole lovebird thing. Concoct the right story he'd let you off smooth if you promised to never do it again! He heard the door open all the way and felt a could feeling wash over him. Chills?
"Hello?" the Principal asked into the seemingly empty room. "Hm...could've sworn I heard someone in here. Oh well. I'd better get back to the office."
Upon hearing the words, Pablo quickly let go of Dulce, astounded and confused. "He didn't..." he started, but stopped as he felt something slap himself across the face, leaving his cheek stinging and red, no doubt. He touched his face and turned to stare at the perpetrator, shocked.
"You stupid jerk!" Dulce shouted, breathless. "What the hell was that for!?"
"I was trying to-"
Laughing made him stop dead in the middle of the sentence. Danny Phantom reappeared sitting against the wall, gripping his stomach as he laughed, pratcically kicking his feet. "Oh man!" he said, the laughter dying down. Dulce's face burned red and she covered her mouth. Pablo blinked, confused.
"Wait a second..." Pablo mumbled, finally catching on. He growled and pointed accusingly at the laughing teenager. "You turned us invisible, didn't you? Why didn't you just sya you could do that in the first place?!"
Nothing could wipe the smile off his face. He pointed back at him. "Hey, I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't let me!" Pablo seethed, his face starting to burn red as well. Danny started laughing once more.
It felt good to laugh. He hadn't done that in awhile. At least, not like this. Not like when he used to laugh with Sam and Tucker. But it was shortlived. Before he could determine what was happening, he found something hard and cylindrical in shape being thrown at his stomach. A few more inches down and that could've REALLy hurt! He blinked, laughter gone. The thermos. He looekd up at the perosn who'd thrown it.
Dulce brushed locks of hair behind her ear. Her stare was angyr and cold. "Here's your stupid thermos," she said, voice low and sinister. Neither Pablo nor Danny said a word as she stepped between them and towards the door, hand frozen on the knob as she remarked without a second glance, "You're both a bunch of jerks." Then she left, slamming the door behind her.
"Damn," Pablo mumbled, and started after her. "Dulce! Wait up!"
Danny watched them go, woundering what on earth had just gone on. He stood up, finding himself alone in the room now. He stared at the thermos then, the same dread he'd felt before starting to sink in once again in the solace. He gripepd the thermos twice, knowing exactly how it had fallen into her hands. She must have found it lying around when he dropped it in the hall. He also wouldn't be surprised if she'd found otu what it did from some newspaper article from Amity Park.
"So much for laying low for as long as possible," he grumbled to himself. Now the pressure and urgency was rising. He needed to capture Dan as soon as possible. The quicker those two were out of danger, the better. He couldn't let Dan hurt anyone else. He wouldn't allow it. By all means possible, he needed to stop him. "Watch out, Dan," he said into the air, as if expecting the ghost to hear him. "I've defeated you once, I can do it again."
We'll see, Phantom, he thought, watching as the boy disappeared form sight, we'll see who shall defeat who...this Time.
"Dulce! Come on!" Pablo exclaimed, sitll chasing after the fast-paced girl. She wouldn't turn back to even look at him.
"Leave me alone, Dominguez!" she shouted, dodging past a couple of teenagers wlaking down the hall the opposite way she was going. Pablo tried to scramble to a stop before he crashed into the same two teenagers, muttering an apology as he squeezed past them.
"Oh come on!" he cotinued to shout after her. "I didn't do anything!"
Dulce didn't respond, she walked straight into the Journalism Room and locked the door behind her. Pablo tried the knob, just barely missing his chance to open it. He cursed to himself, turned and put his arms behind his head, trying to calm himself down before banging on the door. "Let me in!" he shouted. "I didn't do anything! Dulce, come on!"
Dulce leaned her back against the door, as if afraid he might come busting in despite it's lock. She waited for the noise he was making otuside to quiet down.
"Come on," he said after a moment. "I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have done that." She waited, covering her mouth to try to stop herself from starting to sob. "Dulce? Come on. I said I was sorry. Just let me in. Dulce? Dulce!"
She banged her fist on the door. "Go! Away!" she shouted. There was silence. A short one, before he kicked the door. Dulce felt tears start to well in her eyes as she slowly slid down to the floor into a sitting position. She took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. You over-reacted, she told herself and smacked her own forehead. Idiot.
Sighing, she quickly wiped away the oncoming tears and blinked her eyes dry, staring around the empty room. Sighing, she stood up and walked towards a stack of newspapers on the table. Today's issue. She picked one up, deciding to try to get her mind off of this whole thing. She walked over to her corresponding computer desk and sat down on the swivel chair, staring to read over a couple of the articles.
She frowned.
"I don't remember this article..." she mumbled, reading through it. It was badly written, she could see, dozens of typos littered all over the place along with a couple of misused words and abused cliché phrases. "'...about the football team, insulted by peer Danny Fenton." She stood up, "'Jake Morrow in particular was called out in his...threats...'" She looked up from the paper, staring aorund the room, as if she could find the crook who wrote it somewhere inside with her. "These are lies..." she mumbled, staring abck down at the paper. "Who could have written this!?"
Then, as if on cue, an unnatural breeze blew, knocking over the stack of newspapers that was once situated on the desk. She blinked, a sudden chill running down her spine. She shivered.
This...was not normal.
"Who...who's in here?" she asked, fear choking her words. "This isn't funny." She started to slowly ease ehr wya towards the door, twisting the newspaper in her hand into a tube.
But just as she was about to make a run for it, one of the filing cabinets from across the room slipped open. She jumped, freezing on her feet and watching as folder after folder was blown from inside the drawer. She took steps back away from the papers flitting to her feet, heart pounding as an unusual weight seemed to shift into her chest, making it hard to even breathe. Then, she felt herself walk back into something sturdy. She dared not look over her shoulder, only shivered as that something breathe into her ear, "Run, little girl...run."
She didn't have to be told twice. As soon as the last word was whispered, she ran for the door, fumbling aorund to unlock it, and let the door slam closed behind her.
"Pitiful."
E/N: Song, "My Crazy Angel" by Kill Hannah 83
--Airamé Phantom