Prologue: A Day in the Life
Part One

"Okay, Fenton. You can do this."

Danny Fenton stood in front of his bedroom mirror, glaring at his blue-eyed reflection with what he hoped was an expression of confidence. He straightened up, puffing his chest up and throwing his arms back. You've only been waiting for this for the last three years. It's just the first day of high school.

"I can do—"

"Danny!"

He deflated instantly, turning in surprise to the door. "Ja-azz..."

Red-headed Jazz Fenton stared at her younger brother a moment, eyebrow raised, then said, "Mom says you need to come down to breakfast; it's getting cold. Okay?"

"Yeah, okay," Danny replied, waving a hand at her to leave. "I'll be down in a minute."

"All right." She made to leave, then glanced back at him. "You know it's nothing to get all worked up about, right?"

"Yes." Danny gabbed his backpack up off the floor next to his desk and looked up at her meaningfully. "Can you go now?"

Jazz rolled her eyes and left. Danny barely noticed, his head nearly vanished inside his bag as he rechecked its contents. Notebooks, folders, and most importantly—his schedule and a map of Casper High School. Once he replaced everything, he tossed his backpack on his bed and hurried downstairs.

"Morning," he said as he entered the kitchen and sat down. He began piling bacon and scrambled eggs on his plate.

"Good morning, sweetie." Maddie Fenton looked up from the sheaf of papers before her. "So, it's your big day. How are you feeling?"

"Okay," Danny said through a mouthful of eggs. He poured himself a glass of milk from the carton on the table. "Is there any toast?"

Jazz, her nose buried in another of her psychology books, silently pointed at the toaster, where four slices of toast waited. Danny went over and grabbed a couple slices, then returned to his seat. As he began to butter them, he looked around the table again. "Where's Dad?"

"Down in the lab," Maddie answered. "I think he's getting close to a breakthrough on the ecto-filtration system! Once we get that taken care of, we can move on to power..."

Danny glanced at his sister, who returned his exasperated look. "The portal again?" he asked quietly.

"The portal again," she confirmed.

Danny sighed and scarfed down his toast. His parents were okay sometimes, but at times like now... He shook his head. If he'd been able to choose his parents' careers, Jack and Maddie Fenton would probably have been anything but professional ghost hunters and inventors.

As Danny finished his breakfast, Maddie went down into the basement laboratory to call Jack up to the kitchen. Jazz looked up from her book again. "I think I'm gonna go," she said. "You sure you don't want a ride? This is one-time only, you know, so--"

"Yeah," Danny answered, starting on his third slice of bacon. "I told Sam and Tucker I'd meet 'em on the way."

"All right," Jazz said, snapping her book closed. "If you want a ride home, you know where to find me." She left the kitchen.

"Yeah," Danny answered absent-mindedly, but he dropped his bacon when he realized what he'd just said. "No, Jazz, wait, I don't know where to—" The front door slammed. "Dang it." He picked up his bacon, his worries about the coming day overcoming him again. He hardly noticed when his father's enormous girth filled the chair next to him.

He did notice, however, when his father slapped him on the back, causing him to nearly choke on his food.

As Danny coughed, Jack started in proudly, "So, Danny. It's your first day of high school, eh?"

" cough hack "

"Ah, yes, I remember my first day of high school, too..." He smiled widely at the memory. "It was September of '75 and—"

"Jack, are you sure you got this calculation right?" Maddie interrupted, squinting at a scrap of paper she'd brought up from the lab. "And Danny, if you're meeting Tucker and Sam, you probably want to get going. You wouldn't want to be late on your first day of school." She smiled at him, and very quickly winked.

" cough no." Danny got up, rubbing his chest with one hand. "No. Uh, thanks for breakfast, Mom. 'Bye!"

"Bye, sweetie!"

"Have a great day, son!"

Danny grinned, ran upstairs and grabbed his backpack, then left out the front door.

Ten minutes and three blocks later, Danny stopped in front of a blue townhouse, where two teenagers sat on the porch steps. "Good morning, fellow high school student," said one of them, an African-American boy in yellow shirt and red beret.

"Morning, Tuck," Danny replied. "Hey, Sam."

The girl in black and violet grinned, then stood up. "Hey, Danny." She picked up her backpack. "Can you believe we've finally made it to high school?"

"No," Danny answered.

"Yes," Tucker said at the same moment. "Anyway," he went on, pulling a PDA out of his pocket, "we should probably get a move on. According to my GPS we're approximately four blocks away from the school, and we don't want to be late until we actually know where our classes and stuff are."

Sam stared at him a moment, then started walking. "You know, I still can't believe you spent the last two weeks building that simulation of the school. They did give us maps at orientation, you know."

"I know," Tucker said matter-of-factly. "But what's a map compared to a fully realized 3-D sim?"

"The exact. same. thing."

"You have your ways, I have mine." He glanced at Danny. "So how are things over at Ghost Hunter Central?"

"Eh, the same," Danny replied, shrugging. "They're still working on the Fenton Portal. It's been nothing but ecto-filler this and—and flux capacitor that at every meal."

"So you think they're serious about this one?" Sam asked.

"I know they are. I don't think they've ever been so nuts about something before."

"Besides ghosts," Tucker pointed out.

"Well, yeah. Besides ghosts."

"So... will it actually work, when they're done with it?" Sam raised her eyebrows.

"Do pigs fly?" Danny asked incredulously. "I mean, okay, maybe it could, but considering how much of their other stuff has..." He shrugged again. "Things aren't exactly leaning in their favor."

"And as much as I'd like to continue this conversation," Tucker said, stopping at the street corner, "I'm afraid we'll have to cut it short. Lady and gentleman—we have arrived."

Casper High School sat spread out before them, almost shining in the morning sun.