"Hi, Dan!" Miss Averell's cheerful voice greeted him as he stepped back inside the piano classroom. The other students in there looked up to see him, and the girls from the back row gave him a small wave.
The bell rang just as he was sliding into his seat, and he sat up straighter, and looked around. He didn't want to admit to himself what he'd been looking for, but the answer was obvious when he saw the empty seat in front of him and sighed.
No Phil.
Miss Averell stepped lightly around the tables to the front of the classroom, and smiled at them all. "Welcome back, guys! Lovely to see you!"
A few people smiled back at her.
"Before we start, I'd like to learn a little bit more about all of you. This week, I'd like you to tell me..." She paused, thinking. "Your Inability."
A few people looked surprised that she'd ask this question so early on. Dan was surprised too, surprised that the very thing he'd been talking to PJ about was the thing that Miss Averell was asking about.
"Let's go round the room, then Michael, you first."
Michael's Inability turned out to be training sheepdogs. It seemed vaguely ridiculous to Dan that some people could do everything except sheepdog training, or, as in Rose's case, surfboarding. It also seemed very unfair that people like PJ were unable to talk, while others, like Grace and Sophia, were only unable to 'code websites' or 'sculpt clay dragons' respectively.
Politely, she didn't say anything to Dan.
"What's your Inability, Miss?" Sophia asked.
"I'm not a Master, Sophia. Remember?"
Sophia blushed at her idiocy. "Sorry, Miss."
The teacher smiled. "It's fine. You'll be in the piano rooms today, as usual. Try to prepare something different to last week. I look forward to seeing what you'll play at the end!"
The girls split up, and went into three different music rooms, and Michael followed suit, leaving Dan to return to the room he was in last lesson.
He pushed open the door and sat down at the piano, pulling a piece of paper from his pocket. He'd been working on that paper all of last night, scribbling new notes down, attempting to compose something that sounded half as good as what people had been performing during last piano lesson.
He pushed the discouraging thoughts from his mind and sat down at the piano, his crumpled bit of paper on the ledge in front of him. He took a pen from the shelf and put that on the ledge as well, and then, rather hesitantly, started to play the first few bars of his composition.
Within only a few seconds, he had the pen out, and was crossing out and re-drawing notes. Then he played again, this time not changing anything. And moved on to the next bar, editing, re-drawing and playing.
The piece started to take shape. Before long he had almost a whole page of the piece fixed, and it sounded amazing.
He decided to ignore the next pages, and started to practice the first page. He played it three times, each time sounding better than the last.
During the third rendition, a quiet knock came at the door. He didn't hear it.
The door opened quietly, and a figure came creeping in, sitting silently down on the floor in the corner, and watching Dan as he played.
Dan finished the page with a flourish, and relaxed. He reached over to the shelf, and took the rest of the music from it.
Then, he saw the figure sitting in the corner, and froze. "Phil?"
"There... There weren't any free rooms, so I came in here..."
"Oh." Dan didn't have a lot to say to that.
"You're not a Master, are you?"
"Well observed." Dan answered drily.
"I wouldn't have realised from your playing there if I hadn't already known," Phil said, his blue eyes wide.
Dan raised an eyebrow. "That's a lie, but thanks. I haven't practised piano for twelve years for nothing."
Phil laughed. "Piano's my Inability, you know."
"Wow, no way? I would never have guessed."
"Don't be sarcastic. I don't like it," Phil said, looking hurt.
"Oh. Sorry. Sarcasm is just how I am. I can't really help it."
Phil smiled. "If you say so."
"But yes, I was aware that you can't play piano."
"Other than my performance last week, how did you find out?" Phil asked, curious.
"I was talking to PJ in badminton. You know PJ?"
Phil grinned, looking faintly satisfied. "Everyone knows PJ."
"If you say so. Anyway, I asked him, if you must know. I was curious."
"Oh."
They were silent for a while. Dan picked up his papers. "Do you mind if I carry on?"
"No, not at all. I'll just listen."
Phil sat silently in the corner while Dan played through the next few lines of the second page. He turned to Phil and raised one eyebrow. "What do you think?"
"I think that's pretty impressive."
Dan smiled at the compliment, and turned back to the piano.
"Will you teach me?" Phil blurted out.
"What?"
"I said, will you teach me?" Phil repeated, wringing his hands together, worried that he'd said something wrong.
Dan wasn't sure what to say. "I won't be a very good teacher."
"But you'll know what it feels like to be unable to do something. All the Masters can teach amazingly, but they don't know how to learn anything. You can play the piano amazingly, and you know how it feels to be completely useless at something."
Dan didn't say anything, still trying to process what Phil had said.
"Please, Dan?"
Dan looked at Phil's pleading blue eyes and sighed. "I'll try."
A/N
HI GUYS
I don't have a phone atm (it's an awful existence like seriously help) so it's a bit harder for me to publish chapters - I'll try and get them done on time but plz understand if I don't publish one on time and don't say why - it's because I have no access to wattpad. Thanks guys :)
Hope you enjoyed this strange and pretty shiz chapter ngl
Thanks for reading
bye :D
YOU ARE READING
Mastery ♪ phan
Fanfiction{COMPLETED} Dan Howell is the equivalent of a brainless potato in our society. A Non-Master surrounded by people who can do anything perfectly, first try, he is incompetent, lonely, and one of the last remaining teens who knows what the word practis...
