The Ghost Boy (A Danny Phantom Fanfiction)

Chapter Nine

(A/N: Here ya go, guys! Another update! Enjoy! :D THIS CHAPPIE IS DEDICATED TO Corvidave 'CAUSE SHE'S SUPPORTED ME SO MUCH WITH MY STORIES AND ON MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS, SHE'S GIVEN SOOO MANY IDEAS FOR BOTH! Never stahp being amazing, gurl! :D)

The lady in front of me smiled as the girl entered the room. "Hey, sweetie. Are you alright? Have you been crying?"

The girl walked over to the coffee maker and pressed a button. She then faced her mother. "I'm alright, Mom. You know... Just... Ahem. Sorry, I've just been thinking."

Her mother replied with a nod of the head. "I understand. Oh, sorry..." she turned to me. "How could I be so rude? I'm Maddie, and this is my daughter, Jasmine, but she prefers Jazz. Jazz, this is... This is Daniel, he's going to be staying with us for a while."

Jazz snapped her neck up at me as quickly as it seemed possible. "Oh, right... Sure..." I could see her eyes glistening. She quickly wiped them and turned stubbornly back to the coffee machine.

I wanted so badly to comfort her... To do anything... But it would feel a little strange, mostly to her, if I just went up to her and gave her a hug even though she was pretty sure she'd never met me before.

I slowly stood and walked over to her, extending a black gloved hand. "Uh... Hi. It's a pleasure to meet you."

She took a questioning look at my hand, then accepted it, giving my hand a firm shake. "Same to you."

I smiled at her. "Uhm... Not to be nosy or anything... But are you sure you're alright? I mean, you look pretty upset."

She looked down for a minute. "Yeah, fine... Just..." She then looked up. "I'm sorry, but... I was just thinking about... What's your last name?"

I blinked. "Uh..." Oh, crud! "I-I can't remem-"

"Seriously?" she interrupted me. "There's no way you can't remember your surname."

"Jazz..." her Mom said softly.

There was silence for a few agonising minutes. FUCK... I would have to say something... I mean, if I didn't, who would? I sighed. "Look... Jazz, is it?"

She folded her arms.

"Right..." I continued. "I'm sorry, but... Since my parents went missing, I haven't been feeling too good... Ending up here is the best thing that's happened to me so far. I... I just feel like anything related to them is-"

She interrupted me again. "Well, big whoop! Your parents are missing! They're not dead, are they? They'll come back eventually! And don't even try to give me this crap that you don't wanna give us your full name, I would do that... I would tell anyone how great my little brother was... But hey, maybe if your parents were dead, then I'd feel nothing but sympathy for you, but even if your parents are missing, my little brother is gone! And your little sob story isn't going to bring him back or make any of us feel any better, so quite frankly, I don't give a crap! And if you think for even a second that you're gonna get everything you desire just because you tell your little sob story to everyone, then you're sorely mistaken."

"Jasmine!" Maddie cried.

Jazz took her coffee and ran upstairs.

I stood there, rooted to the spot. Ok, maybe I shouldn't have said that... Wow, this was bitter... Without the sweet. Now I felt even worse! I never wanted to make it look like I was creating a sob story to get people to feel sympathy for me... It's not like I'm a conman like that or anything...

Maddie sighed, and it shook me out of my reservoir. "I'm so sorry... I have no idea why she's so on edge... I guess it's really taking its toll on her... The fact that it's been ten years..."