Only Just A Name (Phan)

Chapter 5: Dan's POV

I spent the entirety of the morning thinking about Phil. It was a week since our last texting session but we talked actively during lunches and free periods. I learned a lot of things about him. I learned that he hated cheese and he'd bought Halo 2 before playing the original and that his mum has houseplants all over his house and that he has an individual name for each of them, ranging from 'Planty' and 'Susan' to 'Chris Plant'. I snorted and called him a dork.

For the rest of Geography, I drew all of his different houseplants he had told me about and labelled every one of them with their correct name, gender, and location. The bell rang just as I finished Planty's pot design, which I was told was very intricate with flowers and leaves and for some reason, bells.

~*~*~

Today at lunch, it was a Wednesday and the first thing I noticed was Emilia sitting with our group, her violin at her feet. She was busy telling Grace about her exam that she was studying for and all the scales she had to remember. I watched her expression form all different emotions as she described her frustration and happiness and her confidence in her playing. It was very fascinating and today, she looked very pretty, in a way I hadn't noticed before. Her eyes shone when she talked about her opening pieces and changed when she described the climactic and intense parts of the piece.

I watched her very carefully, from the corner of my eyes, just observing her from time to time. Not in a creepy way. In the way that a child looks at its mother, as she's talking about her and the world and about everything and nothing: with curiosity and in wonder. I had the sudden desire to ask her if she would play her favourite piece for me. I wondered what the piece would sound like. Whether she would smile and take her violin out or if she would brush it off and laugh and tell me 'Maybe another time'. I wondered whether she was going to be a good friend of mine.

Louise, who chose that moment to jump into our not-really-a-circle-more-of-a-square formation of benches, ripped me out of my thoughts and I swear, in that moment, if humans had superpowers, she would've been flying. She jumped up and down and was squealing so loudly that other tables had actually turned their heads in our direction.

Grace was laughing, as she tried to restrain her friend.

"Louise – Lou-Louise, calm down!"

Louise was still glowing when she finally sat down next to an exhausted looking Grace. Chris put his elbows on his knees and placed his chin into his open palms, looking at Louise with disappointment.

"Louise, my ears are fucking ringing, there better be a good explanation."

"Louise, what happened?" Emilia asked, looking across Grace and ignoring Chris's remark.

Louise was breathless. She pulled up her sleeve and showed us her right wrist. I was sitting next to Phil at the time and was at the wrong angle to see but I had a pretty good guess as to what it was from everyone's next reaction.

"Whoa!"

"Congratulations, Louise!"

"It so wasn't worth my ears."

"Chris!"

"He's got a point, it's just her letter," PJ intervened.

"But it's her second letter! I doubt you've gotten your second letter! More to the point, why do you always take Chris's side?"

Silence. "Enough," Louise said. "No more arguing."

"Hey, Louise. Can I see?" I asked her.

She showed me her arm. There, on her right wrist was a curly 'M', followed by a lowercase 'a'. I told her congratulations and that it was so worth the hearing ability in Chris's ears. Chris scowled.