jellyfish ❁

month before the flight + chapter one

[disclaimer: you know the drill. i do not own phil, louise, pj or dan. these are all real people, just set into a fictional alternate universe and yes, this is getting boring.]

A month before the flight.

Phil grumbled, pulling an egg out of the case.

Phil looked over at his mom, furrowing his eyebrows. "Mum, come on," he said, hitting the egg softly against the side of the bowl. A simple habit of many things he did when he was obviously stressed.

Mrs. Lester glanced over at him from across the room, pulling out multiple pans from the cabinets. Shaking her head and letting out a simple giggle, she ignored his complaints. Phil always hated it when she would do this. It was utterly annoying, mind you. He found many things annoying, though. Silence, jellyfish, water swishing, Pepe memes, jellyfish.. It went on for ages, really. Nothing really interesting.

"Do you know the dangers of this 'road trip'?" he continued, cautiously, "What if a serial killer signs up to go on it? See, mum, this is why we don't suggest trips on social media." He pointed his spoon at her, scrunching up his nose.

Finally having enough of his whining, Mrs. Lester walked swiftly over to her son, smacking him softly with her spoon. "Phillip, that won't happen. Three mothers have already signed up for it, and each I, just like you are with your friends, were in the same grade as me in school," she beamed proudly, which made Phil feel a tinge of guilt.

"Their names are Honorable Pentland, Georgi Liguori– Phil, laughing is not nice– and Codi Howell," his mother said simply, Phil watching her. A brief silence passed of awkward silence, before she continued, "They all have a child around your age. Isn't that lovely, Phillip? New friends."

He was pretty sure that wasn't lovely, but didn't say a word. That would set his mother off.

He nodded, sending a fake smile.

Mrs. Lester continued with the cookies and pans, now humming a song. Phil looked over at her, taking the spoon out her hands and deftly stirring. She looked over at her son, sighing. He was sure she noticed him trying to do it quickly, and that was his plan. He hated doing Christmas cookies, especially when his mother insisted on doing them a month before actual December.

That was his mum's obsession. Mrs. Lester owned a bakery, small and simple. They lived atop it in a yellow apartment, also small and simple.

It was just Phil and her, never anything more. His dad had been gone for– who knows how many years. How old was he again? Right. Seventeen. His dad had been gone seventeen years. Didn't bother Phil, though. Each day he would get up, throw on whatever, and go away towards school. Who needs a dad? Not Phillip Michael Lester and Jammee Catie Lester.

Phil noticed he was jabbing the spoon practically into the bowl.

His mum noticed to, because she was eyeing him awkwardly. She gently laid her hand on his shoulder. He shuddered, hating when people touched him. "Philly, dear," she said soothingly, "Stop killing the mix. Just," she hesitated, looking down at it, "Let me do it."

Phil grinned, handing her the spoon and bowl then walked into his room [which wasn't far away].

He fiddled around, searching for his phone. Beeps were going off– annoying, that's how he would describe it. Finally finding it laying on his stitch doll from fifty years ago, he turned it on.

Ten messages appeared:

crappy lego building 👌🏻
phil fuckjng fucj fuvk

crappy lego building 👌🏻
brononon o where's phil

cori [totoro]
bro he's just probably turtling

crappy lego building 👌🏻
.. turtling??

crappy lego building 👌🏻
oh my god now phil's dead anD and my brother's drunk

cori [totoro]
nO IM NOT

deborah 🐽
guys,, shut up pls

cori [totoro]
ooh does maud have a boy toy over ;))

deborah 🐽
yes and SHE moans 5x louder than u bye

crappy lego building 👌🏻
philly please save me

Phil shook his head, twisting his mouth in confusion. He quickly replied with a simple 'ok' then left the chat, ignoring Nioll's constant complaints of him not being there.

Thinking for a moment, Phil noticed he needed to figure out who the kids are he would be having to deal with for four weeks was.

He clicked quickly on Instagram, searching in the last name 'Pentland' first– since it was the easiest to pronounce. A girls profile of the name 'uisewise' came up, her name said to be 'Louise Pentland'. Her bio stated that she was the girl who carried a new book each day. Phil remembered her telling him he was an 'apocalypse bound to happen' in grade four.

Next was PJ Liguori.

Phil noticed two things. One, he was a brat who took selfies in front of his mansion doing kissy faces. Two, ninety-two percent of his photos were arts & crafts this boy had done. Legit life, bro.

And then there was Dan Howell. Almost immediately Phil knew he was messed up. This boy was awkward. Let's start out with his username. Phil was very curious to find out that it was 'pendanhowell' which was okay. His profile, though, was picture of a boy with the same hat on ever photo. It was purple and green, and was like the things you'd wear in winter. He had fringe hair– which Phil couldn't really talk about since he had his own version– and was almost black, but was brown. Penguins were edited in ever photo into somewhere, and each one had their 'names' in comic sans above it.

He was sort of shocked. What an odd personality with a pretty boy.

Eventually Phil got bored. About a hour past and it was only 8:15. He sighed, just deciding to go to bed anyway. He wasn't excited about the road trip, but at least it would get his mother done happiness.

His breaths slow started to get quieter, and he fell asleep.