[center] [u][b]A Phantom’s Mother[/b][/u]

[i][b]Chapter 2: Finding The Note[/b][/i]

[i]Fifteen Years Later…[/i]

Danny’s Point of View

I was in the lab in the basement of Fenton Works. I was hiding from the rest of my family, who thought that it would be great idea to celebrate my birthday, which was today. Even though it was my birthday, I just didn’t feel like celebrating, the reason why was unknown to me. 

I was cleaning up the lab a little, since it was a mess from the ghost fight that had just occurred. My parents knew I fought ghosts, and they knew I was Danny Phantom. They knew ever since the Earth was close to being destroyed by the astroid, and I sort of had no choice but to reveal my ghost half. In front of the whole freaking world, and not just to my family or the town, I might add.

As I was going through some old papers that were scattered about, I found a piece of paper that I had never seen before. It looked like a note, and for some reason, I wanted to read it. But, I decided to put the note aside for now, wanting to focus on cleaning the lab. 

“Danny? Are you okay?” That would have been my sister, Jazz talking. 

Sighing, I grabbed the note and pocketed it before responding to Jazz.

“I’m fine, Jazz. I just don’t feel like celebrating today.” I answered.

I headed up the stairs to main part of the house. They were decorations from the party that hadn’t been taken down yet, and my parents were working on taking them down. I thought that Jazz would be helping with the taking down of the decorations, but she seemed more worried about me at the moment. More worried than usual, I might add. 

“Shouldn’t you be helping mom and dad take the decorations down?” I asked, not looking at Jazz as I spoke. I was looking ahead, watching my parents move about.

“I’m more worried about you right now, Danny.” Jazz replied.

“You mean, more so than usual?” I answered, earning a glare from my sister. 
“Danny…” Jazz started to speak, but I was already heading towards the flight of stairs leading upstairs to the bedrooms. I wanted to check out the note, though I usually didn’t read the papers that were in the lab, I just organized them, for the most part. 

But the old note had caught my interest. Why did I feel so drawn a piece of paper that seemed to be just as old as me? Would it tell me something that I didn’t know? I doubted it, and nearly laughed at the thought. Considering that I still didn’t really pay all that much attention in school, I put the fact that the paper would tell me something new in the back of my mind.

Getting to my room, I opened the door and shut it behind me. The room was dark now, due to the fact it was now about six o’clock in the evening and it was the end of January. I flipped the light switch to turn on the lights, just out of habit even though my ghost half now allowed me to see in the dark. Don’t get me wrong, I can see in the daylight as just well as I could before the portal accident, but the whole thing with the ghost portal made me able to see in the dark. I guess that was one good thing about my powers that I didn’t realize until now, when I actually thought about it.

Wait a minute. I just realized, that in a few months, it would have been a year since the portal accident. A year since I became Danny Phantom, and not just Danny Fenton. It was somewhat hard to believe that it was almost a year. But, maybe it was believable, and that I had just been too busy fighting ghosts most of that year that I totally wasn’t paying attention to the time and the days going by.

Moving to the desk in my bedroom, I pulled out the chair and sat down. I placed the piece of paper down in front of me, but I hesitated to open it. Why was I hesitating? It wasn’t like it was going to make a big difference in my life. It wasn’t going to tell me something life changing, was it? I doubted it, but I still couldn’t bring myself to unfold the stupid piece of paper. 

Yes, I was getting rather frustrated with myself and the paper. But more myself than the paper. Still, I stared at the folded piece of paper, giving it that would burn it if looks could set things on fire. I just wanted to ball up the paper, throw it out the goddamn window and forget that I ever found it. Something prevented from doing so, and for a moment or two, I found myself thinking about what was still holding me back. 

Letting out a frustrated growl, I started to unfold the paper. I was glad that I had finally managed to convince myself to open it, but after I opened it, I saw the reason I was hesitating so bad.

There were words on the paper, and in rather neat handwriting I might add. But, it wasn’t the handwriting that bothered me, it was what the note said. 

The note said this:

[i]This is my son, Danny. I don't have the proper resources to take care of my child right now, so I decided to leave him with a loving family who could give him the life I couldn't. Please, assure him when he is old enough that I love him with all my heart, and that if I would have kept him if I could have. I only ask that you raise him as if he were your own child.

Signed, Unknown
[/i]
My world started to fall apart right there. So, Maddie and Jack Fenton weren’t my birth parents? They adopted me and didn’t bother to tell me this? Memories flashed through my head, and sorrow seemed to pierce my body. So, everything that I knew Maddie and Jack was a lie? At least the part about them being my birth parents? As my thoughts spun, the same question repeated itself. 

“Why didn’t they tell me?” That was the question that kept repeating itself over and over again. Fithteen years, and they couldn’t bother to tell me that I was adopted? So, then… did they celebrate my “birthday”on the day I was abandoned at the Fenton Works doorstep? The note didn’t have a date on it, so I assumed now that Maddie and Jack Fenton didn’t know my true day of birth, that they were just going by when I was abandoned.   

The anger that I felt at the moment wasn’t directed at myself anymore. It was directed at my parents. All of them. Both birth and adopted. I felt my eyes flash green in my anger, and tried to calm myself down. I would confront my adopted parents tomorrow, but for now, I had to figure out the best way to confront them, which I admitted that I couldn’t do in my current mood. 

Sighing, I put the note in one of the drawers and headed to my bed. I needed sleep, and the fatigue from the long day had hit me suddenly. I didn’t bother to change into my sleepwear, and just closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. [/center]