Time's Reflection

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."
― Søren Kierkegaard

Reflecting

"My name is Abigail Navarre," a small woman, brown and shaped like an apple told her junior English class as they filed into the room. "I am the new vice-principal of this establishment and I will not be taking any slack, flack, or talking back from you kids. Your previous authority figure is gone, so if any of you were his pets, tough. Now, take out a sheet of paper and a pen; you are going to write a short essay on something you did this summer."

The A-listers grinned and Paulina turned around in her seat and actually winked at Danny, who thanks to one of his Master's powers, managed to maintain a human appearance in public for a few hours.

The hour passed quickly and students filed passed the teacher's desk, dropping half-completed gibberish on her desk. Several of them, however, surprised her. Picking up the first one, she read:

We were sitting under the big top, waiting for Ringmaster Lydia, when Danny's pet, Plum, started bouncing around.

"DannyDannyDanny," it said, with no pause between the words.

"Shhh!" Danny told him, tilting his head upwards to look at Plum, who floated excitedly above his head.

"DannyDannyDanny," it chanted again. It must have seen something in the crowd, because very few things get Plum this riled up.

"What is it?" Danny finally asked, exasperation dripping from his tone.

"Danny throw," Plum stated, yellow eye stalks wide with happiness.

Danny sighed and stood up. Plucking Plum from the air, he threw his little pet in a high arc over the heads of the crowd.

I heard Plum cry 'Whee!' from all the way where I was sitting. Okay, so I was sitting next to Ember, who was vaguely amused by the whole situation.

"What was that about?" I asked her.

"Plum saw Apricot just now, I expect," she answered.

Ghosts sure are strange.

written by: Star

Mrs. Navarre snorted at the absurd story by the blonde-haired girl who loved wearing peach-colored flower barrettes. The girl was an air-head for sure. She marked a 95 on the paper, only taking five points off for not including her last name. She picked up the next paper, which seemed a continuation of Star's story.

While Danny and Apricot played catch with Plum as the ball, my Darkling was not so amused with Plum's antics.

"Not like," he rumbled into my ear. The ghost who had given us the little plum-like pets, Moaers he'd called them, was right. The little creatures can pick up human and ghost speech as if they had heard it all their lives.

Danny caught Plum one last time; he was panting with exhaustion.

"Plum happy," he said, floating over to me.

"You'd better be," Danny told him darkly. "My arm is tired from throwing you. Why the sudden came of catch?"

"Plum like Apricot's panties," he said, causing me and Danny to both blush. Ember giggled at the silly statement.

"I hope he means pancakes," Dash whispered to Tucker. He was sitting on my left; Tucker on my right. Ember, the Ghost Princess, sat two seats to my right with Danny on her left and Star on her right. Everyone else was in the row in front of us, except for Plasmius.

"Not panties," Plum said, swivelling his eye stalks in our direction. "Like Apricot's panties."

"Considering she has a tail and doesn't really wear panties," Dash snickered, catching the last of Plum's outburst.

Ember wacked him in the back of the head with her program. "Stupid human, get your mind out of the gutter."

"With all teenage hormones under control," Plasmius, Danny's mentor snapped, from the row behind us, "will you pay attention. Chips Ahoy, you lot are really grating on my nerves today."

"That's because you're used to dealing with one annoying teenager, Fruitloop," Danny retorted. Plasmius zapped him with a small ecto-ray, forcing to sit back down abruptly in his seat.

"Okay, okay!" he said, raising his hands defensively. "Shutting up."

"Good boy, Daniel. We'll have you house broken in no time," Plasmius replied. What a snarky git!

written by: Sam Manson

Mrs. Navarre wrote a 100 in the left margin of the paper and had to pause for thought. Apparently, there was a larger narrative than she thought. Going through the essays, she pinpointed the rest of the group, who'd apparently from what she gleaned, went to a Winter Carnival of sorts in another dimension.

Placing the papers in order, this is what she noted down:

Tucker Foley reported that the opening of the Circus Gothica was pretty awesome with the human not actually monologuing, but he was pretending to be the ringmaster, while the true ringmaster, a ghost named Lydia, floated alongside him and performing amazing tricks with her ghostly tattoos.

Paulina Sanchez commented on the fashion attire of Danny, Ember, of the ghosts in the ring, and on her little 'Dite's beautiful colors and mannerism. The word cute was used so much, that Mrs. Navarre wanted to hurl and brush her teeth at the same time.

The boy, Kwan, who sat next to Mr. Baxter, retold how they got their new ghostly companions, of Danny's status in the ghost world, and of how the ghosts freaked out when Freakshow, the human who thought he was the ringmaster of Circus Gothica came out with red glowing orb affixed to a steel pole, casting a ruby aura about his person. Apparently, the ghost who was watching the teenagers had to reassure his ghostly wards that 'Ringmaster Lydia took away the staff which enabled the freakish clown to enslave ghosts.'

There were more to the stories that this particular gang of kids told, but what was going through Mrs. Navarre's mind as she stared glassily out the window was, 'What the hell have I gotten myself into?'