20Disclaimer: I wish I owned Danny Phantom! Desiree: -turns me into Butch Hartman- AHHHHHHHHH! CHANGE ME BACK CHANGE ME BACK! -is changed back-
Summary: The Fentons only have two children...Right?
Rating: K+
Inspiration: Phic Phight for SummersSixEcho: A mix of doppelganger and hoax, as well as a tumblr post
Pairings: N/A
Warnings: N/A
Other Notes: N/A
"Um...hello?" Maddie spoke hesitantly at seeing three children sitting in the Fenton kitchen, eating breakfast. They all looked up at her when she spoke. "Morning Jazz, Danny. And…" She trailed off.
An unfamiliar child was eating cereal, and she was an absolute doppelganger of her son. Black hair pulled back in a side-braid, bright blue eyes just like Jack's. She smiled warmly at her as she chewed. Maddie couldn't help but notice that she was dressed in Jazz's old black tank-top and jeans.
"Morning!" Jazz chirped. She had a bagel and coffee, and Maddie never took her eyes off of the trio as she went to fetch a cup.
She broke contact enough to pour herself some, only to set it all down. Nobody was sleeping over that she could remember. She looked a tad too young to be one of Jazz's friends, and the only girl Danny ever brought around was Sam. This was definitely not Sam. Who was she? How come she had never seen her before?
The huntress spun to meet the three.
"I'm very sorry, dear, but who are you?" she asked. The unfamiliar child frowned.
"Mom, this is Ellie," Jazz scowled. "Your youngest? Our little sister?" Maddie had no clue how to respond to that. "How can you forget her?"
"I only have two kids," Maddie said firmly. She turned to get her coffee, taking a drink. There was no way she was just simply so tired that she was hallucinating the entire thing.
"You have three," Danny spoke up. As always, he sounded exhausted, and he was also eating cereal. "Trust me, they gang up on me."
"It's true, I made him give me a piggyback ride home from school yesterday," the unfamiliar girl, Ellie?, replied cheerfully.
"She did, lazy little," Danny muttered off something as he shoveled another spoonful of cereal into his mouth.
"It was far, and I was tired!" Ellie exclaimed.
"No, no," Maddie insisted. "I have two children." Danny sighed tiredly.
"Mom, how come you don't remember me?" Ellie's voice sounded absolutely heartbroken, and Maddie immediately felt a wave of guilt.
It didn't take long to immediately be hit with concern. What was this? Maddie knew she only had two children. There was no way one simply...forgot a child. As in, not forgot your child at the store, but the entire existence of a girl who had to be at least fourteen? This had to be some kind of prank. Her children wouldn't prank her like this though, would they? Neither were cracking up into giggles, the normal giveaway. Instead both were casually eating like it was...normal. Nothing seemingly out of place.
Maddie studied the girl as she took a long sip of coffee. She looked way too much like Danny and Jack for it to be some random girl for a prank either. Even if they found a doppelganger, which in itself was so unlikely, she could already immediately notice Fenton-specific quirks. The using of the inner wrist to wipe her mouth instead of a napkin of her hand, the way all of the children hunched over as they ate. It was odd how...much this girl fit into the family.
"What's going on?" Maddie demanded to know. She set the cup down on the table. Danny sighed, dropping his spoon into the cereal.
"Fine. I got detention again," he confessed. Maddie stared at him, and she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Look, I'm sorry. It wasn't my fault, it was Dash, he-"
"I mean about this girl, Daniel James," Maddie spoke coldly. Ellie dropped her own spoon in shock.
"I didn't do anything!" Ellie whined. "He's the one who got detention, I was in the library the whole time with Valerie!"
"You little liar!" Danny accused. "You weren't in the library, you were setting up a prank for Paulina with Sam!"
"Was not!" Ellie protested.
"Was too!" Danny argued back.
Was she having a stroke? Maddie watched the bickering in stunned silence as she tried to piece together everything.
"Are you a ghost?" Maddie asked bluntly, even though she immediately felt silly for asking such a thing. Of course a ghost wouldn't come out and confess such a thing.
Jazz sighed, annoyed as she put her bagel down.
"Mom, this is your daughter," she insisted. "Why do you resort anything to ghosts? It's not healthy to obsess this much on ghosts. Maybe tonight we should have a family night. It's been a while since we had one."
"Ugh," Danny made an annoyed noise from the back of his throat. "I'm not in the mood to watch Ghostbusters for the hundredth time."
"We can play board games!" Ellie pointed out.
"That's even worse," Danny complained.
"One of you two are going to explain what's going on," Maddie pressed her two (?) children, staring directly at Jazz and Danny. Neither flinched, nor gave any of their normal indications that they were lying, which honestly? Chilled her. What was going on?
"Ugh, one second." Jazz left the room, muttering something about the stairs. She returned moments later with her scrapbook, opening it, and Maddie couldn't believe her eyes.
This girl was in every family photo, and there were baby pictures of her. Pictures of school events with her there. Pictures of Maddie holding her as a baby, of her having three children at the beach and three Fenton children opening presents.
She didn't know what to think.
"We're gonna be late," Ellie spoke up, nodding at the clock. Everybody else glanced up.
"Ah, shoot," Jazz sighed. "Come on, I'll drive us."
Maddie watched Jazz and Danny pick up their normal backpacks, and Ellie pick up Danny's old backpack, a Crash Nebula themed one that he claimed to have outgrown.
"Bye Mom, love you!" Danny called out.
"Love you, see you after school," said Jazz, the three leaving the kitchen.
"Bye Mom! I love you!" Ellie chimed in.
"Um...have a good day, kids," Maddie spoke slowly. "I love you too."
She heard the trio of children chattering happily in the hallway, collecting coats and other winter gears. Nothing in particular, mostly just teenage talk about the upcoming day. School projects, friends, pointing out the recent snow and discussing weekend plans. The door opened, and it shut.
Maddie hurried to the window, watching the trio get into Jazz's car, it turning on almost instantly. Dani sat in the back, and Danny in the passenger seat. The car sat idle for a few seconds before her daughter pulled out of the driveway and took herself and her sibling, siblings?, to school. Maddie slipped back at the table, drinking coffee and looking through the scrapbook. When the hell did she gain a third child?
Jazz sighed heavily as she grasped the steering wheel. Her siblings got into the car, and as soon as the doors shut, she finally spoke.
"I think that...actually kinda worked," she replied. She glanced up at FentonWorks in amazement.
"The power of just acting casual," Ellie grinned. The clone buckled her seatbelt. "Tucker's amazing at Photoshop."
"Was this really easier than just telling them the truth?" Jazz accused Danny. He shrugged, clicking the seatbelt into place and leaning back.
"That's the backup plan. But all we really need to do is convince an entire school, Dad when he gets home, our neighbors and extended relatives that Ellie's always been here, and also somehow keep Vlad from finding out," Danny grinned. Jazz made an annoyed huff.
"Good luck," she scoffed, and she backed out of the driveway.
