Chapter 12

                                    

                                          
The next few days at school were super boring. All Danny did was stare out the window all day. Luckily, the teachers hadn't caught on to his habits yet so he could get away with it. He was even able to sleep in a few of them if he was careful. 
                          
Ever since Poindexter, the ghost sightings in Gotham had intensified. Lucky for him, Gotham was a kooky enough town what with the supervillains, so no one suspected that they might be ghosts.
                          
Every once and a while, he would glance over at Artemis who would give him a funny face. The two had become fast friends. Their personalities just seemed to work together. Danny was a lot quieter these days, and Artemis liked to talk a lot. She could do all of the talking for him. 
                          
It was lunchtime, and Artemis was telling another story at Dick's expense. He rolled his eyes. A few months back, he had been so happy to finally tell the team his secret identity. However, it was times like this that he really regretted it. 
                          
"So, then Dick was like, 'what's an avocado?' It was hilarious!" she concluded.
                          
Barbara was laughing so hard her face turned red. 
                          
However, what surprised them was that even Danny started cracking up. Normally when someone told a joke, he would give them a smile, but it was very rare to see him laugh.
                          
Unfortunately, they had been staring too long. When he saw them all looking at him, he immediately stopped and looked down at his food. 
                          
"You don't need to stop," Artemis told him quickly. "We were just happy to see you laughing. It doesn't happen often."
                          
He nodded but didn't say anything. The others decided to stop talking about it and moved on to another topic. 
                          
"Hey," Dick looked at Barbara and Artemis, "Would you guys like to come over tonight and watch a movie. I invited Wally." He looked over at Danny, "He's been dying to meet you."
                          
Artemis and Barbara nodded, "That sounds fun."
                          
"The movie part." Artemis clarified. "I see Wally too much to categorize it as 'fun'."
                          
~time skip~
                          
Danny wasn't quite sure what to expect of this Wally guy. Dick talked about him a lot. Dick had told him about a lot of his friends, other than Artemis and Barbara, but Wally was the one he talked about the most. 
                          
So, when a guy with bright red hair and freckles came walking in the door, Danny didn't know how to approach him. Danny decided to just stand by Artemis for a while until Wally and Dick stopped talking. 
                          
However, a few seconds later the guy saw him and started grinning really big. He ran over to him and quickly started shaking his hand. "Hi! I'm Wally West! You're Danny, right? Dick talks about you a lot. Not like in a creepy kind of way, like he never stops talking about you. But he's mentioned you a few times. Has he mentioned me? We've been best friends for years!"
                          
Artemis smacked him on the head. "Cool it kid mouth! He can't understand a word you're saying!"
                          
Wally blushed, "Sorry about that, I tend to talk kind of fast. I uh... get it from my uncle..." Dick and Artemis had to keep from groaning. Could he be any more obvious? 
                          
Danny gave him a small smile, "That's okay. And yeah, he talks about you a lot."
                          
Wally grinned over at Dick, "Aw... love you too babe!"
                          
Dick just rolled his eyes and smacked Wally on the head. "Please... never look at me like that again... Alright, let's watch the movie!"
                          
They ended up watching the first Star Wars movie. Danny enjoyed it; it had been a few years since he had seen it. He had forgotten that these movies were part of the reason he wanted to be an astronaut. Too bad that couldn't happen now. 
                          
When the movie was over, he saw Wally was pestering Artemis. Danny smiled. He could tell that they both liked each other. Danny liked Wally; he was a funny guy. 
                          
Wally looked over at him, "Well Dan, you like the movie?"
                          
Danny instantly stiffened and his eyes widened. Everyone looked at him with concern. Danny held his hands to his head. "I'm... I'm not like him... I'm not him... I'll never be him... I promised..." they couldn't understand what he was saying, but it was starting to freak them out. 
                          
Barbara started shivering, "Man... it's cold in here..." 
                          
That pulled Danny out of his mini panic attack. He bottled up his emotions again. He looked over at Wally. "My name's not Dan..." he said quietly. He got up and went up to his room.'
                          
Wally looked over at Dick, "I... did I say something wrong?"
                          
Dick sighed, "I don't know... We don't know much about him... maybe calling him Dan brought back some bad memories? I have no idea. I'll go talk to him later. For now, let's give him space..." they all nodded.
                          
"Did you notice how it got super cold in here?" Artemis asked.
                          
Wally nodded, "Yeah, that freaked me out."
                          
Dick nodded as well, "Yeah, that was kind of strange..."
                          
~time skip~
                          
Later that night, Dick had gone up to Danny's room and knocked on the door. He didn't receive a reply but just assumed that he was sleeping. Little did he know, that Danny wasn't in his room at all... 
                          
(A/N - Hey guys, thanks for reading. I hope you liked it. These are difficult times, stay safe out there. Stay whelmed and go ghost!)