I just want to let you guys know that if you read my other story I am not abandoning it in any way! In fact, I almost have three chapters of the other story done and I'll get them too you as soon as they are beta-ed.

Anyway, this fic came to me about three days ago and I have been obsessing over it ever since. And since it had to come out somehow, I supposed I would write it for you. Let me know what you think so far, enjoy!

Recommended to read full Summary!

Full Summary: Instead of Amity Park, Danny lives in a small town in Massachusetts with his parents and sister. His parents are as obsessive as ever with ghost hunting. They build a ghost portal only to have it, surprise surprise, not work. Their fourteen year old son is just trying to survive his first year of high school, which is full of bullies, cruel teachers, and judgmental peers. So basically, a regular high school. Danny doesn't have many friends and the ones he does have, he isn't very close too. On top of all this Danny's curiosity gets the better of him and he enters the portal. Similar events happen, Skulker, Technus, Vlad, ice powers, even Dark Dan, but this time he doesn't have Sam and Tucker to help him. Having to deal with everything alone changes how Danny feels about his powers and himself. In this Danny is a little darker and even more self-conscious, but don't worry it's still the Danny we love, he's just buried a little deeper. Danny Phantom is hunted by the Fentons, except this time barley anyone in his home town thinks he is a good ghost. He is blamed for the ghost attacks, even though without him, his town would be overrun with malevolent spirits. A year later his family moves to Amity Park where they bought a bigger house with a basement twice as big as their last lab. Now Danny and Jazz start their very first day at Casper High…

Chapter 1 A new face

Tucker sat in the front row, not his choice mind you, but Mr. Lancer always assigned seats for his students. Not only does his position make it hard to talk with friends, but even worse, it makes it extremely difficult to text or play with his PDA at all! Now that was criminal.

A few friends whom he ate lunch with sat in the back row, so there was no hope of conversation. He had a lot in common with his friends; they all loved technology, not as much as him of course, and they were socially labeled the same; geeks. But whatever, they were proud of their geekiness, even if it did make it impossible to get cheerleaders.

Not all his friends were geeks, although most were. There was one girl who he had become close too, even though it was unexpected for a geek to hang out with a Goth. But then again, Sam had never been one to fit into the expectations of others.

The two of them rarely talked at school, even though they had a ton of classes together. And they both hung out with their own friends during lunch so it was a wonder they knew each other at all. However, they had gone to the same school since preschool so they had a lot of history together. But they didn't truly become good friends until last year when they randomly met up at the mall after both their friends had ditched them. After spending the day together they realized that even though they had nothing in common, and their way of thinking couldn't be more different on some issues, they actually enjoyed hanging out together. So whenever Sam's Goth friends were busy and she needed something to do or Tucker's friends were off studying or getting ready for a chess tournament, which he thought was extremely boring, the two of them would hang out.

Usually Tucker would be using his natural charm to score a date, but not with Sam. It wasn't that Sam wasn't pretty, because even though she tries to hide it, she is. But Tucker knew he was more likely to be punched in the face by her then to get a date. Besides, she wasn't really his type, how could he date a girl that didn't eat meat? Come on, that's inhuman!

Tucker sighed, his sophomore year had only just started a month ago and he was already bored of school. He was about to see if he could look up how many days of school he had left on his PDA without getting caught, when the door to the classroom opened. In walked a nervous boy about his age with black hair that hung in his bright blue eyes. He did not walk with confidence and his shoulders were slumped like he was trying not to be noticed. He handed a note to Mr. Lancer and licked his lips apprehensively.

Mr. Lancer read the note and nodded. "Class, we have a new student joining our classroom, this is Daniel Fenton."

There was a lot of whispering at the mention of his last name. Everybody knew the Fentons. Some blamed them for the increase in ghost attacks, although most people blamed Danny Phantom more. The Fentons were recognized for being one of the only ghost fighters, other than the Guys in White, to be able to handle the supernatural entities that pledged this world. The students of Mr. Lancers English class had to wonder, now that the Fentons were living in Amity Park, would the ghosts follow? Once or twice Amity Park had a ghost emergency, but it was nothing the local Guys in White couldn't handle.

"Now Mr. Fenton, why don't you take a seat…" but before the English teacher could assign a place for Danny the questions started.

"Have you ever seen a ghost?" One girl in the corner asked.

The new kid's eyes flicked nervously to her, "Umm… yeah once?" He answered uncertainly.

"What did it look like?" Another kid questioned.

"Big and it umm, glowed?"

Tucker felt sorry for him, he seemed like a shy kid who didn't like a lot of attention, and here he was, being interrogated on his first day of school.

"Have your parents ever caught a ghost?"

"Sure."

"I thought your parents were more like mad scientist or something."

He shrugged. "Some days I think they're insane."

Tucker blinked; did he just make a joke? Maybe he wasn't as shy as he led on. Or maybe he was telling the truth.

"Have you ever met Danny Phantom?"

"Ph-Phantom? N-no, of course not." He stuttered. And just like that he was back to being the jumpy new kid again.

"Catcher in the Rye! Quiet down people!" Mr. Lancer shouted over all the questions."You will have time to talk to Mr. Fenton after class." He looked down at the new kid, "now, please take your seat in the empty chair next to Mr. Foley." The kid did this, looking relieved to be out of the spotlight.

"Hey," Tucker greeted, "Tucker Foley," he introduced himself.

"Danny." The kid corrected Mr. Lancer's use of his full first name.

Tucker continued to talk to Danny in a low voice so Mr. Lancer wouldn't hear. "Well, welcome to Casper High, oh and I'm sorry."

Danny looked at him in confusion. "About what?"

"You're part of the unlucky class who stuck with Mr. Lancer as a teacher."

Danny attempted to suppress a grin, but failed miserably. "Well, at least he stopped the questions, I'm grateful to him for that."

"Oh yeah? Wait until you see our homework assignment and then tell me how grateful you feel." Danny's eyes sparkled in amusement. "You can't blame them though," Tucker continued, he was talking about the class this time, "everyone thinks that since the Fentons are here ghosts are going to start attacking this town. That won't happen though… right?"

Danny's grin slipped from his face as he grew serious, he seemed to be studying Tucker, but it was like he was looking through him, instead of at him. Danny's gaze was intense and Tucker felt a chill run down his spine. This person beside Tucker was no longer the shy innocent kid with a good sense of humor he had been talking to minutes ago; instead he looked troubled and even dangerous. Tucker couldn't explain it, but fear started balling up in his chest. He didn't know if it was fear of what Danny's response would be, or if it was because the kid's cold emotionless stare was freaking him out.

Unexpectedly, a warm smile came across Danny's face and his eyes softened into innocence again. "Nah, you'll be fine. And if they do, my parents will just capture them." His voice was light and untroubled. Tucker felt himself relax and let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Now Tucker's flash of fear for the kid seemed ridiculous and he pushed it to the back of his mind. He must have been imagining things; Danny had to be the quietest and most unassuming person in the classroom, there was nothing freaky or weird about him. Actually, he was pretty cool; perhaps he should invite the new kid to sit with his friends and him at lunch.

Fifteen minutes before the class was over Tucker looked over to find Danny had fallen asleep. He hadn't thought much of it before, but he noticed Danny did have dark circles under his eyes. Tucker felt sorry for him, bad things happened to people who fell asleep in Mr. Lancer's class.

"Mr. Foley." Tucker was startled by his English teacher's sharp voice. "Please wake up Mr. Fenton for me."

Tucker nodded and leaned over the side of his desk to shake Danny awake. When he did, Danny bolted upright so fast the desk rattled, incurring laughter from his peers. A bright blush crept onto his cheeks and around the back of his neck. Tucker tried not to be one of the people laughing, but he couldn't help but let out a snicker or two. It was a little funny.

"Mr. Fenton, I don't know what they allowed at your last school, but in my classroom I expect students to at least act like they are paying attention."

This only caused Danny to blush deeper. "Y-yes sir, it won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't." Mr. Lancer responded before turning back to the lesson.

Danny looked over at Tucker, grinning sheepishly, "that's going to happen again," he assured him ruefully, "do you think you can wake me up when it does?"

"Sure thing man, what wrong? You didn't get enough sleep?"

Danny nodded and yawned, "Let's just say a little pest kept me up all night."

"Rats in your house?"

"Yep, ghost rats."

Tucker stared at him, eyes wide, trying to figure out if Danny was joking or not. But the kid just smirked and turned his head towards the board. So not fair!

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDDPDPPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPD

Danny tried not to give anything away as he stared at the bored and pretended to pay attention. Who knew Tucker was this much fun to mess with? Despite what he had Tucker believe, it had not been ghost rats keeping him up all night. No, this was a different pest in the form of blue skin and overalls. Yes, the Boxghost was at it again. Every time the ghost got close to the new Fentonworks Danny's ghost sense would go off, waking him up. And for the life of him, Danny had a hard time finding the ghost this time. The ghost teen had given up and gone back to bed only to be woken up two other times and repeating the process. It wasn't until four in the morning did Danny actually catch the ghost. The box obsessed ghost had been going from warehouse to warehouse collecting boxes, saying something about how he had to 'start his collection over.' Apparently moving the Portal had made the ghosts more disoriented than Danny. Anyway, it was a wonder how he caught the ghost at all, usually it was easy, but that was because ghosts normally cause loud trouble that is easy to spot.

School had been okay so far, except for the two mistakes he had made already. One, he had fallen asleep in class. He did this all the time in his old school, and it was unavoidable due to his late night activities, but he had hoped that at least for the first day he could make a good impression. No such luck. At least Tucker seemed to like him, this was good. Danny needed to make friends, he wouldn't look normal if he didn't have any. And Danny desperately needed to look normal, mostly because in reality, he wasn't. This is where mistake number two came in. Even though it was for a short second Danny had dropped his normal happy-go-lucky façade. This is when he pretended to be shy and nervous like you would expect a normal teen to be on his first day of school. This mask he wore also demanded he have bad posture and to act like a weakling, this included pretending like he couldn't stand his own against bullies. Basically, he acted like himself before the accident.

He supposed his entire persona wasn't a fake; there were parts of it that were genuine. For example, he really is a shy, slightly jumpy, and a naturally happy person. But that didn't mean he couldn't adjust himself when the situation demanded it. If he needed to be serious he would, if hesitation and nerves would get in his way, then he needed to find the strength to quiet them.

Danny was usually really good at knowing which mask to use and how to keep them believable. It bothered him that he had slipped up with Tucker. When his classmate had asked him if Danny's family moving here would put the town at risk, Danny couldn't help but feel a stab of guilt. The ghosts would continue to come out of the portal, and even if Danny hunted ghost 24/7, people would still get hurt. This was inevitable. He thought about shutting down the portal, but he knew it wouldn't do any good. There were still many natural entrances ghost could come out of, and then without a portal Danny had no way of putting them back.

Danny had been swept up in a bout of anger, furious at himself for not being able to do more, when he had lost his mask. Tucker looked frightened of him in that second, and Danny wondered if he really was that terrifying, even in human form. A year ago Danny Fenton wouldn't have been able to scare anyone; but now, after all he had seen and done, even his human form didn't even feel human anymore.

Sometimes 'Phantom' got through, and when that happened he always comes close blowing his fake-innocence cover. Danny must have looked nothing like the innocent happy kid he had been projecting only moments before. Luckily, he must have caught himself on time because Tucker didn't seem too worried about it. And truth be told, Danny liked Tucker, perhaps they could be friends. That is, if Danny didn't make any more mistakes.

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

It was lunch time and Tucker noticed Danny at the end of the line for food. People had been talking about the Fentons all day. Students were excited that this could mean their town would be visited by ghosts, but behind all the excitement, people were frightened. Everyone has heard stories about how dangerous and coldhearted ghosts could be.

Tucker had hear a particular horror story, and the horrible part was it actually happened, of a man who came home from work to two young children and a loving wife every night. However, one night the man did not come home alone. He was possessed by a ghost and the monstrous creature was out for blood. The ghost forced the man to murder his wife and children and after the creature was satisfied he left the man alive, but with nothing left to live for. The man had committed suicide only days after he told the police what had happened. The story made Tucker shiver every time he heard it, but it only proved that ghost were evil monsters bent on hurting people for pleasure. The ghost in the story supposedly had no grudge against that family, according to the father; it had just murdered the family out of pure boredom.

So it was no wonder people were afraid, but Tucker could at least take comfort in Danny's trust in his parent's skills. After all, if anyone had experience in this sort of thing it would be the Fentons.

"Hey Danny," Tucker greeted, coming up beside him in line.

"Hey Tucker, please tell me you're here to tell me what's eatable or not, because, believe it or not, I was never very good at Eeny Meeny Miny Moe."

"Oh I can believe it." Tucker assured him, at the same time wondering how someone could be 'good' at randomly picking items, he was sure that was contradicting the whole point.

Danny gave him and evil look which melted away into a grin.

They chatted about Danny's first day and every so often Tucker gave Danny "words of wisdom" from a "knowledgeable" source. To hear Tucker tell it, he knew everything there is to know about the school. Most of these "pieces of wisdom" were either really obvious or really random, but whichever they were, they were always entertaining.

After they had gotten their food, Tucker invited Danny to sit with him and his friends. So the two of them made their way to the back of the cafeteria were the nerd table was. Clumsy as ever, no matter how many ghost powers he had, absentminded Danny Fenton neglected to watch where he was going. He ran into something soft, it was smaller than him, but not by much, it also wore a lot of black. Danny's superhuman reflexes reacted before he could stop them and he managed to catch her tray full of food, which would have landed on her shirt, while still miraculously balancing his own.

By the furious look on her face Danny could tell she was about yell at him for not looking where he was going, when suddenly, she stopped herself. A curious look crossed her face as she watched him balance the two trays, which wasn't easy.

"Sorry," Danny grunted as he handed her food back to her. "Are you okay?"

She flat out ignored the question. "You're Danny Fenton." It didn't sound like a question so Danny didn't answer. "Do you hunt ghosts?" She asked with a cross look on her face.

Danny licked his lips nervously, "no, that's my parents job. I'm not really into the family business. Who are you again?"

An impatient growl left her lips, "Not important. Did you know that what your parents are doing is morally wrong?"

"Umm?" Danny wasn't sure how he was supposed to answer.

"Ghosts have rights, same as humans do! It's not fair to hunt them indiscriminately."

Tucker rolled his eyes, "come on Sam, not this again! You know ghosts are evil."

Sam, apparently that was her name, rounded on Tucker and Danny thought he was pretty brave for disagreeing with her. "Not all ghosts are evil Tucker, they use to be human too, don't forget."

"Well, there not anymore. And do you think it's wrong to hunt them if they're attacking people?"

"No, but I think it's wrong to shoot them when they haven't done anything." She argued passionately. "The Fentons hunt them just because of what they are, you can't tell me that's fair."

"Maybe I would agree with you Sam, if there was proof that some ghosts can be good, but there's not!"

"Yes there is. Danny Phantom."

Danny froze and almost dropped his lunch tray.

Tucker groaned, "not this again. Sam, he's not the hero."

"Yes he is, haven't you seen him fighting other ghosts on the news?"

Danny couldn't believe it; he didn't think Danny Phantom supporters existed anymore.

"Just because he gets into fights with ghosts doesn't mean he trying to save people. Even he stopped disagreeing when people call him evil."

It was true, people weren't listening and so Danny stopped defending himself, it was easier to just do his job anyway.

"Well, I still think he's a good person. The property damage he caused doesn't erase the lives he's saved."

Danny found himself smiling at her words; it had been a long time since anyone had said anything good about his alter ego.

But his smile disappeared when she rounded on him again, anger flashing in her eyes. "And that is why your parents are doing the wrong thing by hunting him. They should be working with Danny Phantom, not trying to hunt him down!"

Danny snorted. "My parents would never work with Phantom." And this was true, but only too late did he realize it was the wrong thing to say.

Sam let out a growl of frustration, "just as I thought, the Fentons are nothing more than small-minded ghost hunters who can only see in black and white." She turned, ready to storm away in anger.

"Danny Phantom…" he began hesitantly, making her pause, "I've never met him, but I think Danny Phantom would be glad that at least- at least someone still believes in him."

Sam looked over her shoulder in surprise and confusion. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but then closed it again; shaking her head she walked away.

"Who the heck was that?" Danny asked when she was out of ear shot.

"Sam Manson, she's a good friend of mine."

"Oh yeah, you two sounded like friends." Danny noted sarcastically.

Tucker laughed. "We do end up arguing a lot," he mused. "But we've know each other since forever, so it's all good."

"Whatever you say." The two teens continued on their way to the table.

"Don't let Sam get to you. She just doesn't like the way your family hunts ghosts, its noting against you personally. At least, I don't think so…"

Danny shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't insulted by Sam. In fact, he liked her already. He had served as a protector for so long he forgot was it was like to have someone defend him.

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPD

Tucker's friends were really nice, but they acted strangely excited around Danny, probably because of his last name. They asked a lot of questions about his parents and if he had ever seen a ghost. It got tiring after a while, but at least it was better than his old school. There he was considered more than just 'the kid with the weird parents'. Some people blamed his parents for the ghost attacks and they took their anger out on the Fenton children. Not that he couldn't handle himself, but glares from strangers on the street, grades marked down by angry teachers, and abuse from bullies could take its toll. Sometimes he thought people treated him better as Danny Phantom than Danny Fenton, but then again, Phantom had the power to vaporize them, so fearful respect was at least granted to one of his sides. This had been one of the reasons his family decided to move in the first place. In Amity Park the Fentons could avoid the picketers and criticism, at least for a while.

Danny was not enjoying the attention he got from being the ghost hunters' son. He was trying to blend in and be normal, and yet his parent's reputation was making that very difficult. He wondered if Jazz was having the same problem. Probably not, she loved attention, this was a perfect time for her to talk about her families psyche or something.

Speak of the devil.

"Danny!!" an orange haired girl yelled from across the cafeteria. She found it necessary to wave her hand frantically at him.

"Who's that?" Mikey asked.

"The biggest spazz you will ever meet." Danny answered casually.

They all looked at him in surprise, "that's a little harsh," a brown haired girl with glasses stated.

He shook his head, a smile on his face. "Nah, she's my sister."

"Ohh." There was a collective sound of comprehension.

"Gets on you case, huh?" the same girl asked, and for the life of him, Danny couldn't remember her name.

"She's a little overprotective," Danny agreed. To the halfa's distaste his sister was making her way towards him.

"Hey little brother! How is your first day of school so far?" She asked in that cheerful voice she had.

"Great Jazz, it's great." Danny answered unenthusiastically.

"That's good!" she beamed at him. Jazz was the most observant person Danny knew, so she had to be ignoring his bitter attitude on purpose. "Well, I have to get back, see you at home little bro." She ruffled his hair before leaving.

Disgruntled, Danny glanced over at Tucker, "see what I mean?"

Tucker laughed.

And Danny smiled.

Not bad for a first day.

DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP

Hello everybody! I seriously wrote this in record time (for me) and honestly I think this chapter is a little boring, but I had to explain everything so you can understand where the characters are coming from. Next chapter should be a lot better; I think I'll have Tucker and Sam meet Phantom. When I first thought of this story it kept me up from 11:30 until 3:00 so I have a lot of it planned out. But I am also going to be making a lot of it up as I go along so if you guys have any ideas, please tell me and I'll see if I can work them in. I wrote this spur of the moment and I'm not as serious about it as I could be, so I plan to have fun with it and see how it comes out. But I want to know what you guys think so far, so review please!