Dancer // Phan AU

Chapter One

And here I am. Making my way after more than one year, one more time, towards my happy place, the Magnificence Dance Academy.

Maybe I'm not the best dancing, I am probably one of the worst dancers, but it's okay. I'm not here to compete in the nationals or to become a famous professional classical dancer. I'm in this place just because when I dance I have a sensation that I could never put into words. As an introvert and unconfident person, when I dance I feel like a new and improved person. I don't care about what the others think. If my form is rough or that my pointe is not perfect enough. I simply do this to help myself and to feel carefree at least some hours a week.
Most of the people I know don't know about my passion for dancing. Only two of my best friends, Louise and Pj. They would never judge me for something like that but I don't know what others would think if they knew that the shy guy of the class did ballet. And I don't know what would happen if they did either so I prefer to keep it to myself.
My whole family knows that I do ballet. They have no problem with it. Actually, my grandma is the one who encouraged me to start ballet. I was the type of boy who was always spinning and running everywhere. My grandma used to be a ballerina when she was younger so she always showed me dancing videos of herself or ballet in general, so one day I decided that I'd have to give it a try.

And after taking the subway and walking ten minutes I finally arrived to the Magnificence Academy. It was the type of building that would surprise you, the architecture was amazing. A bit ancient, maybe this building was more than seventy years old but it still managed to look flawless.

I started going up the stairs and opened the front-door while I looked at my watch. "17:27 I still have three minutes" I thought to myself and started heading to my classroom after greeting Betty the receptionist. Everyone was kind of serious and dull here, but it was not something that bothered me. Quite the opposite actually, it made me feel calmer.

After going upstairs, and getting to my classroom I opened the doble light wooden door and at that exact moment Daniel James Howell was getting out of there. He was one of the best dancers in the whole academy, with his tall and slim figure. His dark brown eyes that somewhat reminded you of bitter coffee and his plump lips. His dark brown hair that sometimes was slightly wavy and sometimes was perfectly straight.
I couldn't take my eyes off him but in some way I managed to stutter a "Sorry" and he rolled his eyes, said "Look at where you're going", left the room and headed to god knows where.

Maybe I forgot to mention his redundant self-esteem and confidence. But I don't blame him, if I was or looked like him I would probably be like that too.

After the "incident" with Howell, I got into the classroom and there were Matt, Oliver and Noah. Oliver was the one that I liked the most, Matt was quite cool and Noah was kind but too arrogant. Most of us were around fifteen and eighteen years old. I was seventeen, Oliver was too, Noah was fifteen and Matt was sixteen. Overall we were fifteen in the class and we were trained by our professor called Jackobsen. A man around his forty's. He was quite strict but he also had his soft and polite side. He was very pale and he always had a stubble, he had really dark short hair and his dull eyes were light brown.

"Hey Phil." Oliver said walking towards me while I put down my bag on one of the benches.
"Hey Oli, everything alright?" I asked looking up since I was kneeling while looking through my things.
"Yeah, of course, what about you?" he said sitting down next to me.
I nodded and glanced at the door, looking how all the other dance students arrived, and after them, Jackobsen arrived, followed by Howell.
Every single one of us went to our positions next to the bar standing upright.

"Good afternoon." he said looking at us. Sometimes he managed to intimidate you with a single glance.
"Good afternoon professor Jackobsen." all of us said in sync.
"Well, as you see, today I'm accompanied by this talented student, Dan Howell." the man said pointing him at his left.
"Anyway, in these next days I'll need a replacement in some moments of the classes because of some personal issues, so what would be better than asking this young man? Well, today I won't be able to be in this class so I will leave it to you, Howell." he said glancing at the boy.