cool | phan

beginnings.

dan met phil on his first day at a new school. what a fucking cliche. that day should have been warning enough for dan. it wasn't.

phil had been assigned to take dan to all his classes for the day and show him around the school. whoever decided phil should do that had obviously never met him.

dan remembered being shocked as he sat in the office and phil walked in. phil had black hair and gorgeous eyes and wore a leather jacket with his dirty converse. dan immediately felt inadequate. this boy was so cool and dan was so boring. he wore a grey sweater with his jeans, for goodness sake! he was the epitome of boring.

but phil took him to his first class and smiled at him. dan noticed he had a lip piercing and a tattoo on his wrist that said take my hand. so cool.

"so, dan, where are you from?" phil asked him.
"erm- london." dan said, looking at the ground. the cool kid was talking to him!
"london? wow. prep school kid?" he asked.
dan just shrugged, not really knowing what to say.

they walked in silence the rest of the way to dan's first class, chemistry. dan knew he had blown it. he was too quiet for this boy. this boy was too cool for him.

by this time, dan hadn't actually asked phil his name.
"so... what's your name?" he mumbled.
"phil lester!" the boy said, beaming at him. the smile was so pure, how could it be fake?

and then phil left him at chemistry and dan walked inside. the teacher, mr kelly, seated him between a girl with blonde hair and bubblegum pink ends named louise and a tall boy with a mess of curly hair on top of his head named pj.

the two of them stared at him with confusion as mr kelly introduced him to the class and then started the lesson.

"did phil lester really get assigned to help you around the school?" louise whispered to him. dan nodded. she exchanged a glance with pj.
"well, you're a goner." pj said, looking at him with pity in his sea green eyes. they were very pretty eyes, dan admitted to himself.

phil picked him up from chemistry. all the other students stared with wide eyes at him and whispered amongst themselves. phil shot them a glare. dan shrunk into his sweater.

after dan's next class, ancient history, phil showed up but so did louise and pj. they marched dan away from phil.
"sorry dan. he's trouble, phil is." pj told him. "would you like to sit with us at lunch?"
dan nodded eagerly. "please!" he said.
louise let out an innocent giggle. "yippee!!"

at lunch, dan met all of their friends. dodie, chris, joe and the american exchange student; evan. they were all very quirky and funny. dan liked them much better than his friends back in london. they never made puns as good as evan, or told stories as good as chris, or sang as well as dodie, or giggled as infectiously as louise, or messed up their hair as many times as joe, or drew as well as pj.

it also appeared that dan was the only one to appreciate evan's puns. the group of teenagers would all groan whenever he made a pun. dan thought it was amazing how quickly he could come up with them.

when louise told them all about how phil had been assigned to help him settle in, they all agreed that dan should stay far far away from him.
"he's a bully." chris told dan. "a fucking asshole."
dan didn't tell chris that phil had seemed nice. he didn't tell chris that phil's smile seemed brighter than the sun, either.

by the end of the day, dan was very proud of himself. he had made lots of friends, already. but he couldn't help thinking about phil.

later in his life, dan wished he had never spared phil a second of his time.