Chapter Text
It all started with a school assignment.
“Alright class,” Elle’s teacher, Mrs. Peters, said, “Today, you’re going to be filling out a getting-to-know-you worksheet.” She started handing out the papers. “Feel free to answer in pictures, sentences, bullet points…”
Elle tuned her teacher out as she looked at the worksheet. There was a grid of boxes, each containing things like “Favorite Song” or “Goals”. One of the boxes said “Mother”. She raised her hand.
“Yes, Miss Fenton?”
“I don’t have a mother.”
Mrs. Peters looked embarrassed. “Oh, yes, of course, you can leave that blank then, or you can use it to write about someone else.”
Elle nodded and got to work.
Under “Father”, she wrote:
My father is named Danny Fenton. I’m named after him. He’s 15 and has dark hair, like mine. We also have the same taste in music and food, although he doesn’t eat as much as I do. He’s unpopular, but funny and good against ghosts.
Under “Mother”, she wrote:
My other father is named Vlad Masters, and he’s a creepy stupid fruitloop. I’m glad I’m nothing like him.
Elle forgot all about the worksheet until a few days later, when the teacher asked to speak with her.
“Miss Fenton, I know your home life is a little...less than normal, but how do you expect me to believe this?!” The teacher gestured to her worksheet. “I had Daniel Fenton in my class four years ago, and Mayor Masters is maybe fifteen years older than him!”
Elle snorted. “Try twenty.”
“Legality aside, there’s also the issue of you being only four years younger than you alleged ‘father’.”
“Hey, Vlad’s not a billionaire for nothing.”
Mrs. Peters had her head in her hands. “So you’re telling me that Mayor Masters...bought a way for him to have a child with a four year old?!” Elle nodded, and the teacher sighed. “I guess I did technically get to know you...” She pulled a pad of paper out of her desk. She scribbled something down before ripping off the page and handing it to Elle. “Give this to your REAL father. I want to meet him in person about this behavior.”
Elle smiled. “Believe me, you will.”
Danny sat at lunch, poking at his spaghetti as Sam and Tucker fought over...something. Probably veganism. He wasn’t really listening. He was far more interested in the green goo dripping from the ceiling. It splattered next to him on the bench. His ghost sense hadn’t gone off yet, so Danny wasn’t worried.
He was about to poke the goo when a voice called out, “Didn’t your mama tell you it was rude to touch a girl?” and a large blob landed beside him. It shifted into a human shape.
“Elle!” The girl smiled as Danny wrapped her in a hug. Sam and Tuck stopped fighting and greeted her.
“How’s life?” Sam asked with a fist bump.
“It’s great! Middle school is so much better than staying with Vlad all day.”
Danny chuckled and pushed his spaghetti over to her. “I bet.”
“So what brings you around?” Tucker took a huge bite out of his quadruple-meat burrito.
Elle fished two slips of paper out of her backpack and handed them to Danny. “My teacher doesn’t believe that Danny’s my dad, so he needs to come to a parent-teacher conference.”
Tuck almost choked on his burrito, Sam spat out the water she was drinking, and Danny tried not to laugh.
“You told them I was your dad?”
Elle sent him a confused look as she ate his spaghetti. “Well you are, aren’t you?”
Danny looked at the worksheet she had handed to him and burst out laughing.
“What on earth did you write, Elle?” Sam asked as Danny passed her the worksheet. She scanned it before snorting. “Vlad’s a ‘creepy stupid fruitloop’. I don’t see what your teacher can’t believe, these are all just facts.”
Tucker stopped coughing and grabbed the paper. He read it and started laughing too. “I can’t believe you put Vlad in the mother section,” he wheezed.
Danny snickered as he composed himself. “You know what the best part of this is?”
“What?”
“The teacher won’t believe me if I go alone. We’re gonna have to call in Unkie Vlad. ”
“You want me to do what ?!” Vlad’s voice boomed through the tinny phone speaker.
“Come to our daughter’s parent-teacher night.” Silence. “Come on, we both know that if I go in claiming to be Elle’s father, they’ll never believe it, but who would challenge Mayor Masters ?”
“Daniel, if I remember correctly, you told me to ‘get out of Danielle’s life’.”
“And I’m asking you now to pretend you’re in it! Please, just one meeting with one teacher.” The line went quiet again. Danny sighed. “Would it help if I invited you to Fenton Thanksgiving or something?”
“Throw in Christmas and you’ve got yourself a deal.”
“Dad probably would’ve invited you anyways but sure, Thanksgiving and Christmas.” Danny told him the location and time before hanging up.
Man, this was going to be great.
Julie Peters was a simple woman. She had been working at Hamlet Elementary School for many years, and didn’t like to put up with nonsense.
She checked her schedule for the day. Ah yes, that parent-teacher meeting with Danielle Fenton’s parents. The list of issues she wanted to discuss with them had only grown since she met the child.
Julie started filing some papers. Daniel Fenton and Mayor Masters, she scoffed. Daniel was a fine student, and as far as she knew, Mr. Masters has not done anything wrong in his life. Although, Danielle did have an uncanny resemblance to Daniel...they must be cousins or siblings. That would explain her last name as well. Yes, that was the only reasonable explanation.
“Hello? Mrs. Peters?” a voice rang out. Julie startled, dropping papers all over the ground. “Crap, sorry, here, let me help--”
Julie knew that voice. Say what you will about her age, but she never forgot her students’ voices.
Sure enough, Daniel Fenton appeared in front of her, scooping up papers and stacking them up.
Julie composed herself and took her papers from him. “Mister Fenton, I will have you know I do not find this practical joke funny. I wished to speak with Danielle’s real parents, not her older sibling or cousin.”
Daniel looked up at her, brow furrowed. “But I--”
The door slammed open. Julie and Daniel turned to see who it was.
It was Vlad Masters.
Julie almost had a heart attack on the spot.
“Daniel, I’m disappointed in you. I arrive two minutes late and you’ve already made a mess of things.”
Daniel stood and glared at the mayor. “Oh, like you’re one to talk.” Julie gasped. What was Daniel doing? Didn’t he know that Mr. Masters was the most influential person in the town? She braced herself for the mayor to put the teen in his place...
...but he never did.
Instead, Mr. Masters rolled his eyes and sat in one of the chairs Julie had set out for Danielle’s parents. He caught Julie’s eye and held out his hand for her to shake. “Vlad Masters. Mayor of Amity Park and father of Danielle Fenton.”
Julie felt like a bucket of ice water was poured over her head as she remembered why Daniel Fenton and Mayor Masters were in her classroom.
“You’re actually here.”
Mr. Masters raised an eyebrow. “Yes? Did you expect for me not to be here?”
“...I thought this was a practical joke but you’re actually here.”
Daniel chuckled and said something under his breath, but didn’t elaborate when Julie looked at him.
“Julie Peters, I’m Danielle’s teacher, it’s an honor of meeting you, sir.” Daniel scoffed again, what was with that teen? Did he have no sense of how important Mr. Masters was?
“Let’s talk about the matter at hand, shall we?” Julie could only nod along with Mr. Master’s words. “You accused my--”
“Our,” Daniel cut in.
“--our,” Mr. Masters corrected, noticeably displeased with the word, “daughter of lying about her family. Well our presence cleared that up easily, didn’t it?”
Julie nodded.
“Were there any other issues that came up?”
“I’m afraid to say there were, Mr. Masters. She’s slightly disruptive, and has a dark sense of humor that disturbs her peers.”
Daniel cut in. “I can explain that, it’s her first year being at school, ever.”
That did explain why she was awkward with the other students. Julie found herself nodding.
“You seem to be taking this eerily well, Mrs. Peters, are you sure you’re okay?” Daniel asked.
Suddenly, it set in. If Mr. Masters was really Danielle’s father, then that meant that Daniel--
“Mister Fenton, how could you throw away your future like this? You were meant for great things!”
“There it is.” Daniel sat back in his chair before straightening up again, brow furrowed in confusion. “Wait, great things? What do you mean, I--oh.” Daniel started laughing. Julie didn’t know what was so funny. Daniel turned to Mr. Masters. “Four years ago, when I was in Mrs. Peters’ class, I had straight A’s.”
Mr. Master’s eyes widened in disbelief. “No.” Daniel let out an undignified snort and nodded. A hand shot up to cover the mayor’s mouth as he started to laugh as well.“You’re kidding. Good grades? You?”
Julie felt the need to defend the teen.“Daniel Fenton had the best grades in the school, only surpassed by his elder sister.”
Daniel scoffed, “Always in Jazz’s shadow.” He turned to Julie. “I should have you know, I’m a straight C- student nowadays, with an attendance as bare as Vlad’s social life.” Mr. Masters sent a glare at the teen. “I think I spend more time in detention than I do in class.”
Julie was horrified. Daniel had been a perfect student, but now?! He was ruined! Also--
“And you--” she turned to Mr. Mayors, who wore an amused smile. “Don’t get me wrong, I respect you as someone to look up to when times are tough, but I don’t know how much of a role model you are now! Gallivanting with four-year-olds?!”
The effect was startling. Danny shot up from his seat and jumped away from Mr. Masters, whose smile dropped.
“Ew! No, Mrs. Peters, that is NOT how it was! Eulgh, gross!” Daniel started to walk around the room, supposedly to clear his head.
Mr. Masters shook his hands frantically. “Julie, I can assure you, it was hardly ‘gallivanting’.”
“Yeah, all he did was like, borrow some DNA and buy a super fancy science thing, and boom! Danielle.”
“Well, it was more complicated than that, but yes. I promise, I have only ever seen Daniel as a son, who happened to be the DNA donor of my daughter. Nothing more, nothing less.”
If that was right, and Julie had no reason to disbelieve Mr. Masters , then they were sitting on the science to artificially create humans! She wasn’t a scientist, but that was something even she knew was probably really valuable. Julie put her head in her hands.
Daniel started to cough on something, and he sat back down in his chair, but this time noticeably on the edge of his seat, ready to leave.
“Alright, if that’s all, can I leave now? I need to...do homework. Or something.” Right. He was only fifteen .
Julie waved him off. “Yes, yes, that was all I wanted to talk to you about.”
Mr. Masters stood as well. “If it’s alright, I shall take my leave as well.”
The mayor and teenager left the room bickering.
Julie needed a retirement.