Genius
A “One of a Kind” fanfiction
by sapphireswimming
June 26, 2012
Maddie silently moved down the hallway until she reached the sanctuary of her room. Sitting down on the bed, she struck a pensive pose. If she could believe the clues laid out for her… if she could only believe what the woman had said… But everything had happened so quickly today that she hadn’t had time yet to process quite everything that had occurred.
The news that the magazine people were coming had just come the day before. Jazz had been bouncing off the walls and even though most mothers would have frozen in the shock that there was going to be an interview in their (unclean!) house in just a few short hours, Maddie took it all in stride. A few passes with the FentonCleaner and all would be set to right in the house… as long as she remembered to let Jazz or Danny handle it instead of Jack. He would get a little too excited about using it.
The rest of the time had been spent in a flurry, trying to figure out what to say and how to handle the camera crew. And then, of course, the lady with the unbelievably poofed hair held out her microphone and Maddie was torn between showing the world just how brilliant she was and supporting whatever came out of her husband’s all-too-enthusiastic mouth; pacifying Jazz who felt the need to interrupt every other sentence and then Danny and his friends dashing into the house with nothing but a suspicious explanation of what they had—or had not—been doing.
She’d been distracted too much by their entrance. Danny had been distant lately. Different. And she wondered about that. She worried.
Was it just something boys went through as they grew up? She had never had to deal with anything like this from Jazz. Then again, Jazz had grown up so fast. Was an adult before she was finished being a child. Reading psychology and her old college textbooks while she should have been enjoying Dr. Seuss.
She knew from other parents that they had trouble with their teenagers. But Danny and Jazz had never been a problem. Until now. Why now? His social circles hadn’t changed. Was it just high school? Was it the accident? Was it something she was doing? Or not doing?
She hated to think that she was doing something wrong as a mother. For weeks now, she had considered checking up on him more often, offering to help with his homework, and, oh, any number of things. But every time she got close, he skirted away. And every time she asked, he ran.
So she didn’t do anything. But she still thought of everything that might be wrong. Of everything that she was supposed to be doing to fix the situation. After his escapade in the zoo, she determined that she would talk with him, at least figure out something about what was happening. See if the accident had shaken him up more than they had originally thought. If he was as fine as he had protested he was and as the test results seemed to indicate, he should have gotten over the shock.
But she put him out of her mind for the moment, getting back to the matters at hand. The magazine. The interview. The rest of her family trying to run things for her.
Until the crashes.
Danny didn’t normally draw attention to himself, or make trouble, especially when there were people over. So naturally, it concerned her, but now was not the time to deal with it. Once everyone was gone. Let Danny have his space until then.
The lady was insistent on investigating, though, going up to Danny’s room and barging in without knocking, despite the “Danny’s Room – Keep Out” clearly pasted on the door. Maddie almost told the woman to mind her own business… but the fact that it was her business kept her from turning the lady away. The reporter was curious, but she was concerned about what happened behind the door. It would be good to see what was behind… to see if he was okay… to see if she had done something horribly wrong…
Before they could see anything other than a destroyed room— why, Danny, why?— he pushed them out. Pushed her away. He had never done that before. Then again, she had never barged in before… never let a stranger barge in before her.
She felt terrible. She deserved to be shut out of his life. But he didn’t deserve to shut everyone else out. He should be acting like this. What had she done wrong? How could she fix this? How could she reach out to him? How did she tell him that she understood what he was going through… that she would always be there for him, despite anything that might happen in his life. Despite hardships with school or friends. Anything.
She needed to go back there, go back to him. But not with these people here. Not with strangers watching. Seeing how she had failed. Had let him drift away so far. Not with them butting in with their microphones and their fake makeup, hair, and nails. No, just mother and son.
Failed mother.
Distant son.
These were the thoughts that ran through her head. Until the woman turned to her with a conspiratorial smile.
What? Maddie thought. What was wrong? Did she see it too? Did this woman, who had been in the house for less than an hour, already see so clearly what Maddie had been doing wrong?
“Brooding… messy… reclusive… these are the signs of a true genius!”
Maddie stood stunned on the steps, was unable to process anything else that happened the rest of the afternoon, didn’t even remember the photo-shoot or the crew leaving.
Just the implications of the woman’s statement. The expert in reading the smartest people across the country had said that her son was a genius. And that the way he had withdrawn himself over the past few weeks wasn’t a problem, wasn’t the result of something she had done wrong, but was simply the natural outpouring of her son’s natural brilliant inclinations. Something to encourage instead of hamper.
And who was she to discredit the woman? Here her son had discovered that the rare gorilla had been labeled the wrong gender, something scientists the world over had failed to note. He always had been smart, had always had that special insight to everything, even when he was small.
So she sat here on the bed now, smiling. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Danny’s hiding away wasn’t a problem. It was a good thing. She shouldn’t coddle the boy. He needed to strike out on his own and forge the path on which his intelligence would take him. She would let him stay away in his room as long as he wanted. But that was okay.
It was as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
Her smile grew. She always knew that her son really was one of a kind.
Genius
A “One of a Kind” fanfiction
by sapphireswimming
June 26, 2012
throughdannyphantom 