DANNY Chapter 43 by Roberta J. Cabot This is a story about Daniel, a guy with a unique talent and an even more unique problem: A great singing voice and the looks of his gorgeous sister. And how he and his family deal with his having breasts. And how he ends up as the female lead singer for a high-school cover band as well as a radio DJ. A couple of weeks after the concert, the gang recruited Valerie, a friend of Danny's, to help alter Danny's school records so that there wouldn't be a trace of him doing any internship at the radio station. That way, Robin's true identity woud be safe. Never a dull moment with Batch Fourteen, and Dan & his gang.

 
Chapter Forty-Three:  When The Cat's Away

(note: Except for the first three paragraphs, chapter forty-three is actually chapter nine of the story "Playing The Part: Counterfeit Crusader." This chapter is the bridge between the two stories. It's up to you, however, whether you want to assume the events in Counterfeit Crusader are real events, or just a a fever-induced hallucination of Nikki's. There are a few changes, though necessitated by the events in the previous chapters here. Hope you guys don't mind.)

***** (Nikki) *****

It had been weeks since the kick-off concert for the new FM station of KRPQ, and their "mission impossible," and things had gone back to how things were before, except, of course, everyone now believed Danielle was Dannie, and none of us would try and change that point of view as it gives Danny a way of covering up his connection with the band. Of course, Danielle had to be part of the, ummm, subterfuge, now. But, as she said, it was a small price to pay.

In any case, things were running fairly smoothly, except that there were now kids hanging around our houses almost everyday, especially at Danny's. But it was something that everyone had learned to cope with.

A few weeks ago, I had caught the flu that was making the rounds in school, but that wasn't the problem.

Danny had been disappearing after school a lot, ever since I got back from the flu. Danielle told me he'd been coming home late these days, like around midnight or sometimes even later. I told Danielle I was worried that he'd found another girl. Danielle shook her head and said that she would know if he did. I knew how close the twins were, and since I trusted Danielle implicitly, that settled my mind a bit. I then had this thought.

"What if it wasn't another girl?" I said. Danielle looked at me, a question evident in her eyes. "What if... Danielle, what if it was a guy?"

We looked at each other, thinking of the possibilities and the ramifications of Danny cheating on me with a guy...

"Nikki,..." Danielle began, and faltered. "Nikki, I don't know if that's even possible." Danielle shook her head like she was trying to shake away an image in her mind that she didn't like.

"But one thing's sure," she said, looking me in the eye, "I would know if he was cheating on you, whether it's with a girl or with a guy. Believe me, I'd know. And he's been head over heels in love with you for a long time - don't you know that?"

I sighed. "I guess I'm just being paranoid."

Danielle touched my cheek in understanding, just like Danny would. Sometimes it's like they were the same person. "But, Danielle," I took her hand. "If it isn't that, then what's he up to?"

She looked out the living room window, with an expression of both worry and fear. "I don't know, Nikki, and I'm worried."

His bandmates were worried, too. Danny had said he couldn't join the band for their usual Saturday practice this afternoon, as well as the gig tonight. Dale was beside himself, but Danny told him he cleared it with Mario and he said Mario was fine with it. Dale tried to find out what he was up to but couldn't get anything out of him. In the end, he and the others had no choice, and they went ahead and played without him tonight. Danny suggested they get Fallon to fill in, and Dale agreed.

Mel and the others were there. It wasn't the band's best gig, she said, but good enough that Mario wasn't too mad, even though she said there were a lot of disgruntled people, pissed that they wouldn't see Danny. Actually, that's why I was here at Danielle's sleeping over tonight - I mean, what's the point of watching Unlimited Bandwidth if Danny wasn't there?

Everyone assumed it had something to do with Janet, and the recent troubles with her, but no one wanted to bring it up. I'm sure everyone thought so, too, but pretended like it was because of something else.

Anyway, long after the show, and everyone had gone home already, Danielle and I caught him sneaking in through their kitchen door.

"So where've you been!" I huffed, hands on my hips. "We were all worried sick!"

He looked down, chastised. "Ummm, just out. And did a few errands. The bank to, ummm, pay my credit card bill." He did that sometimes when the station wasn't able to pay his company-issued credit card's bill on time - He'd pay it himself so he could avoid the late payment charges.

He looked down at his shoes, scuffing the floor like a guilty little boy, making me smile at how cute she was, I mean 'he' was. I couldn't stay mad at him when he acted like that. "We'll talk about it later then," I said. "go to your room and get washed up. I'll come check on you in a bit."

Danny nodded and picked up a shiny black box that was by his feet, roughly two feet by two feet by one. It looked like a big, shiny, black ceramic bento box stood on its side, but without any designs painted on it.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing," he said nervously. He tucked it under his arm and ran up to his room. I noticed a slight limp. Have to ask him about that later, too.

I turned and saw Danielle giggling.

I wasn't in the mood. "What're you laughing about, little miss smartypants?"

"You sounded just like our mom," Danielle said, and continued giggling.

I just had to giggle at that, too. "Yeah, I guess I did." I gestured up towards Danny's room. "Did you notice he was limping a bit? And what was that he was carrying?"

Danielle shrugged. "We can ask him later. And that thing's probably some computer thing, or maybe an amplifier for his guitar, or something like that. You know him and his toys."

"Yeah."

After maybe twenty minutes, we knocked on Danny's door, and found a freshly-showered Danny in socks, a freshly-laundered un-ironed oxford shirt and what looked like Bermuda shorts. And no telltale limp. I looked around and found the box standing beside his candy-pink guitar propped up against the wall. Danielle was right, probably just an amplifier.

And, as was typical, Danny was able to charm me out of my misgivings and we never did get to talk about his disappearing act. He polished off the big bowl of popcorn I made in nothing flat. Typical. And since he started acting normally again, as well as in the following weeks, (no more unexplained nightly disappearances, I mean) everyone forgot about the whole thing.

Later, when Danielle left us to go to bed, she reminded Danny that Dad said to keep his door open. She giggled and winked at me, shaking a finger at the both of us.

I stuck my tongue out at her, trying not to giggle myself. When she left, having pointedly left Danny's door wide open, I snuggled with Danny on the bed, staying on top of the covers. It would have been too much of a temptation otherwise, and we were expecting Danny's folks to come home anytime soon.

As we lay there quietly watching TV and wrapped around each other, I couldn't help but wonder what Danny's disappearances were all about. He said it was just some stuff for school and the glee club, and I took that at face value, as we almost always did Danny's explanations. But I promised myself to look into it. But later - right now, I was enjoying myself too much.

to be continued...

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