ASL// PHAN

1

Dan Howell

Dan has gone to this school for as long as he can remember. Originally it was just until he was able to communicate using sign language, but eventually it became the only place that would tolerate his independence. You see Dan doesn't really get along well with people all that well. He has never really found it easy to make friends with his disability, so he eventually stopped trying all together. But all of this was about to change, whether it was for the worst, or for the better. 

Dan woke up at the usual time to go to school on a Monday morning, as always starting off the week sleeping in late, and not having any homework done due to procrastination, Dan's worst habit. 

Maybe it was just him, maybe it was the way the air was going from warm and muggy, to a cool crisp autumn breeze, but was at that awkward in-between stage that nobody ever talks about. Either way, something was different, and Dan didn't know how to cope with it. For now he would just brush it off as nothing and go on with his lonely, independent day... Or so he though. 

Soon enough the first class of the day started, and Dan was already falling asleep in the back of the room, soon to regret it because of the fact that he will end up missing the whole class as well as the next assignment. 

That class passes and he starts to get a nervous feeling, clawing at the pit of his stomach. This time, he passes it off as guilt. He was probably guilty for sleeping in class again, usually he didn't care, it was just science, it was pretty useless to him anyway. But that's what it had to be... right?

Wrong. 

Eventually his favorite class of the day came around, English. This was his favorite because he didn't have to communicate with anyone. He could just read and suddenly he was in his own world. A world where he could speak, a world where he could hear. Sometimes he would forget that once he closed the book, he had to come back to the tragic reality that he saw as his life. I mean how could he not get lost in a book once in a while, they are so well written and everything he wish his life was. Honestly he didn't expect that he wouldn't actually be reading at all this class. And he certainly didn't expect that he wouldn't mind it. 

When he walked into the class there was another boy next to the teacher, doing something that he hasn't seen in the school in a long while. He was talking. 

Dan just kind of brushed it off, I mean it wasn't necessarily weird, everyone did it. Except for him of course.

He brushed it off like he did everything else that day and sat down in his usual seat. He was about to pull out his book when the strange boy, who looked about 17 years old, just like Dan, walked over to him. 

Dan had only so far seen the back of this boys head, but as soon as he looked into his eyes, that weird feeling at the put of his stomach seemed to return. They were so electric, so blue, he couldn't believe was was right in front of him. And just when he though it couldn't get any better, he signed to him.

"Hi there! My name is Phil."