Strange (Phan AU)

Chapter Five

Despite the masses of encouragement from Louise and her mom that morning, Phil hadn't seen Dan all day. At lunch, he had ignored the tray of whatever and spent his time scanning the crowd for the familiar mop of brown hair that belonged to the guy he wanted to befriend, but no luck. When the bell finally rang, he let out a resigned sigh and picked up his bag, bracing himself for the next hour of Mr. Lidall and whatever surprise he had planned for the day. When he had passed out the syllabus the day before, it merely read "TBD" in big font, with a line for a parent or guardian's signature at the bottom (which Mrs. Pentland was more than willing to sign for him). Even after a day, Phil knew that he wouldn't know what to expect from his English teacher.

Whatever he was expecting, walking into the classroom and seeing Dan sitting at his desk nervously hadn't even crossed his mind as a possibility. He sent a confused look to Mr. Lidall, who returned the confusion, and they had a sort of staring contest at the front of the classroom for a few moments. Once Phil finally figured out what was going on, he restrained his ability (hopefully not causing any permanent mental damage) and sent a questioning glance towards Dan and back to the teacher, this time pushing feelings of understanding his way. His face practically lighting up with this, Mr. Lidall unfroze and rubbed the back of his head, making his nest of a hairstyle even messier, and gave Phil a sheepish grin. "Sorry Phil," Out of the corner of his eye, Phil could see Dan practically jumping out of his skin hearing the name, "Dan just got switched into this class earlier today. You two will have to share a desk for the time being. That's fine, right?"

Dan had a terrified look on his face that clearly said it was nowhere near fine, but Phil saw no other alternative, so he smiled at Mr. Lidall and nodded, moving to take his seat. As he sat down, he hummed to himself and pulled his thing out of his bag, pretending not to notice the chair scooting as far away from him as possible. Instead, the pair (if you could call them that) both focused their attention to Mr. Lidall, who was clapping his hands for attention at the front. Once the other students were paying attention (due, in part, to Phil's influence), he cleared his throat. "So," he began, waltzing from his desk to the whiteboard, marker in hand. "Shakespeare. Great guy. Great plays. My personal favorite is Hamlet, but, unfortunately, freshmen are required to read Romeo and Juliet."

The class groans, some students actually bringing their heads to rest on their desks as they emotionally prepared for whatever their teacher had planned for them. "Relax," the teacher chuckled, "I'm going to make this fun, I promise!" more groans from Phil's classmates, including Dan. "See? This," he waved his hands wildly around the room, "is exactly why I'm assigning this project. Everyone complains about how 'lame' it is, but how many of you have actually read it?" Nobody moved, and Mr. Lidall grinned. "Exactly."

Phil looked at Dan to see if he was just as confused, but the boy next to him seemed willing to make eye contact only with the wall at the front of the room. "You will, of course, still have to read it," Mr. Lidall continued, "But I'm making this more interesting. With a partner, you will need to write why you think the play is overrated before reading it," Students began to glance across the room, some making excited eye contact with their friends, others frantically searching for anyone they would at least tolerate working with, but Mr. Lidall shouting over the commotion put an end to this. "The partners, though, have already been chosen!" The class burst into more groans, and Phil could hear even Dan let out an irritated breath next to him. ""Now, I'm sure you've noticed, but based on desk placement, or, in one case, sharing a desk, you've already been paired off." This time, there was definitely an audible groan from Dan's side of the desk, and Phil covered his face with his hands. He was not ready to break the news to Louise that the outfit she picked hadn't worked any miracles. He was sure she'd insist it was because of the socks.

"Now," Mr. Lidall shouted, clearly beginning to get annoyed, "After I've finished talking, I will give you some time in class to discuss the project. This will be the only class time you will have to work on this," groans escape from the students, "However, rather than a final at the end of the semester, you will present you projects." the annoyed faces become grins, and everyone breaks into a cheer. Mr. Lidall laughs, and moves to sit at his desk, silently telling the students they were now allowed to talk amongst themselves.

Before Phil could even turn to face Dan, he heard a determined "We're not friends, okay?"

With a sigh, Phil nodded his head. "I know," he mumbled, "But we still have to work together on this project." He grinned at Dan, doing his best to force his enthusiastic attitude to reflect in Dan. However, just like yesterday, his ability had no effect, and might have actually made him more annoyed. "We could meet at your house this weekend?"

"Absolutely not," Dan huffed, as if the very idea of Phil knowing where he lived was preposterous. "My house is off limits. Let's do it at your house, it would probably be-"

"NO!" Phil interrupted, panicking at the thought of his unstable mother around anyone other than him, "My house is a bad idea too." He took a deep breath, rubbing his temples as he tried to figure out the best solution. "Look, there's a coffee shop a few blocks from here. We could meet there this Saturday? Around noon"

"Fine." Dan agreed, and pulled a book from his bag. Suddenly, Phil felt isolated, and decided he would rather have Dan throwing insults his way than ignoring him. Still, neither were anywhere near friendship, and Phil wasn't even sure that was in the realm of possible anymore. Even worse was the fact that he would have to spend the semester working with someone that seemed to hate him. Pulling out a notebook, he scribbled down random shapes, doing his best to restrain his emotions from affecting anyone else until the bell rang.

Hi guys! I updated on time this time! I tend to avoid deadlines, but if I don't set one, I'd never update, so I'm afraid this awkward schedule is what you're all stuck with for now, sorry! I'd like to thank everyone that's stuck around this long, though. I know the hype has probably died quite a bit since I posted the original prologue almost a year ago, but I'm glad to see that some people are still interested in reading this cliche lil story. I'd love to hear your thoughts too, of course!! I thrive on attention, and to be completely honest, the more I get, the more motivation I'll have. That's not me saying I won't keep updating either way, though! I love this story regardless of what others think, and I intend to write to completion.

Anyways! As always, you guys can find me on most social media as lestersigh, but I HIGHLY recommend following my twitter (@/_lestersigh) if you want to make sure I haven't died or quit or anything between updates, or if you want to hear me talking about what I'm doing instead of actually writing. Next update, again, will likely be in two weeks, but I hope to post more frequently as things pick up.

Again, thank you so much for reading this, and I'll see you all soon!