knees

1. the quote

First day

The moment Courtney stepped on the land of low anticipation and even lower spirits, she was instantly stopped by a fellow student with a camcorder on his hand. Courtney yelped and dropped her cup of hot chocolate on the floor. Some of it splashed on her face like a tidal wave.

“Jesus,” she hissed, wiping of the remnants of the liquid off from her face. “Look what you did.” Courtney bent down and picked up the cup, walking to the nearest trash bin. She gripped it hard then threw it in forcefully.

The boy scurried behind her anxiously. “I told you to stop calling me by my second name,” he said. “I’ll buy you another cup but I need you to answer this question first.”

Courtney faced him and her expression was hard and stern. “You said that four cups before, Danny.” She crossed her arms in front of her and sighed deeply. Not today, so calm down and just let it go.

“I know,” Danny retorted, “and I swear I will repay you.”

“Fine. So what’s the question?” she asked.

Danny’s face lit up in excitement and joy. “Thank God I’ve found someone that’ll spare their time and answer,”

Courtney felt a small smile tugging at the side of her cheek. “I’m one of the only people that answer your newsletter questions. Hurry up, or Mr. Salvador will shoot me out of the window,”

Danny hastily pointed the camera directly on her face and pressed the record button. He was thankful to have her as a lab mate, really. “Here it goes,” he said before going into his full-on interview mode. “This is Courtney Stalls, a sophomore student—should I even introduce you since I ask you every week. What is the root of your wildest thoughts and imagination?”

Imagination week. Courtney grunted audibly, she didn’t really have a soft spot for this because she fails in almost all imagination-related works. “Uh, it was all started by a mouse,” she quoted.

Danny cocked an eyebrow. “What mouse?”

Courtney stopped herself from rolling her eyes. He wasn’t really as much of a Disney geek as her. “The one in my attic. Look it up,” she waved at the camera, gave her best faked smile and walked away.

Closing the camera, Danny ran by her and said, “Thanks for that, Court!”

“No problem.” Courtney said. She thought about what she just said. It wasn't everyday that she answers Danny's questions from the pits of her heart. But it was true; every liter of imagination she had comes from the same mouse she always looked up to. (No, it wasn't Ratatouille.)

That and she forgot about the paper to be submitted to Mr. Salvador about Hamlet. 

"Come on," she whined to herself and dashed to the classroom. Courtney went through everything she remembers about it and all that was there was: Horatio, I am dead. The line was deadly accurate.

❄❄❄

Danny remained where he was, thinking of what mouse was Courtney talking about. He thought and thought and thought until everyone in the corridor disappeared and the bell rang. “Not again,” he grumbled.

As he ran to his class, he bumped into someone--literally bumped into someone. Danny fell on the ground with such force that made him think that this was karma for all the times that he caused the fall of Courtney’s hot chocolate.

“Sorry,” he apologized as he eyed the person he bumped (who also was planted on the ground, looking more confused than he’s ever been in his entire life).

The victim shrugged. “Nah, it’s alright.”

Both of them got to their feet awkwardly. Danny knitted his eyebrows together. “How come I’ve never seen you here before?” he asked.

“I just moved here,” the boy said. “Transfer student.”

“Yeah, I figured it out.” Danny inquired. “So what’s your first class?”

He took out a folded paper from his back pocket and scanned it accurately. “Um, English class with Mr. Salvador.”

Danny smiled brightly. “You’re in luck. I’m on my way there; I’ll save your sorry butt since Mr. Salvador fumes rage when someone comes in late for his class.”

“Won’t he get furious with the both of us then?”

Danny sympathetically patted the back of the new transfer student. “No, he won’t. This is the perfected art by me called Danny-fying.”

The transfer student blinked. “Whatever you say,”

“Come on,” Danny said, leading the way to Mr. Salvador’s class. “By the way, what do they call you on your turf?”

“I’m assuming you’re asking me my name. Well, it’s Flynn.” he answered, slightly in a questioning tone.

Danny squinted. “Like Flynn Rider?”

“More like Flynn Walker but yeah, like Flynn Rider.” he laughed lightly.

“And I bet your sister’s named as Rapunzel,”

Flynn pursed his lips. “Yeah,”

Danny grinned. “Knew it. Now, off to Danny-fying the English class.”

It’s also the same mouse in Courtney’s attic that started his friendship with Flynn. It was the same mouse that started all of this. And neither of them will lose sight of it.

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a/n: the first chapter isn't that good, i know. i've had a really hard time thinking of what i can do with it so basically  it wasn't that...yeah. you get me?

anyways, next chapter's longer (if that helps)