make or break ; phan

0 - prologue

a/n: this might be inaccurate (later parts), but i'm a writer, not an aristocrat, so..

Prologue
//

There's a knock at one of the mahogany doors in the Howell mansion - specifically on the door adorned with glittery stars made of craft foam, the name "DAN" written on an immaculate piece of paper, the letters a striking black because of the permanent marker.

The woman standing by the door sighs, adjusting her uniform and knocking against the wood a bit harder and more repetitive than she did last time, balancing a smorgasboard of healthy food on a tray in one hand, rolling her eyes because how long will it be before Dan wakes up?

Behind the door, a tall, lanky figure rises from his warm temple of velvet blankets and soft pillows, running a hand through his hair and quickly getting up to his feet to open the door.

"Oh!" he exclaims, fiddling with the hem of his Gucci shirt. "Hi Karen, what's up, you need anything?"

"First of all," Karen begins, the tray in her hands shaking a bit, "can I come in?"

Dan looks st her straight in the eye, the wrinkles and circles round her eyes only slightly obvious. "Oh, um, yeah, go ahead."

Karen comes in and puts the tray on Dan's coffee table (yes, the boy's room is that large) and turns on the large flat screen television to Nickelodeon.

"Wow, you've been doing this for me since I was born," Dan tells her in awe, sinking his feet in his soft gray rug. "How do you not get tired?"

"Money," the middle aged woman answers, chuckling. "Eat up, boy," she adds in a motherly tone, pointing to the variety of healthy foods prepared for Dan. "Prepared fresh for you, ya got a lot coming up for today, you know?"

"Thanks!" Dan says with a grateful smile.

"There's...one thing missing, Karen."

"What is it, Dan?" she asks, concerned, her greying hair swaying in time with her head to look at the tray. She examined it quickly - there was nothing she found wrong. Or missing. "Well I don't see anything wrong with it, dear."

"My daily crisps!" Dan whines, looking at her with puppy dog eyes. "You always put a bag of crisps in, where are they?" he asks. "Not that I don't love this," Dan explains, chewing on a strip of bacon. "It's good. Really. But it feels incomplete without my daily crisps."

"I told you," she laughs, "you've got a big day today. You can have your crisps tomorrow. There are lots of activities for you today and I don't they're very nutritious."

"Please?"

"C'mon, Danny," she voices strictly, "You've gotta be eating all that up right now or you'll be late for the commercial filming today."

"Commercial?"

"Yeah, for Topman, don't you remember?"

Dan slaps himself in the face and chews faster than advised on his ham and cheese sandwich. Of course, the commercial; how could he forget?

"Slow down, you don't wanna choke," she giggles, pouring iced lemon water from the pitcher and handing the glass to Dan. "Here's the water. I'll be cleaning the kitchen, the shower's all warm and all your clothes and stuff are neat and ironed, they're in the shower too."

"Thank you so much, Karen," he says, his eyes shifting from Spongebob to the kind woman for a while and he smiles in a warm manner. "I honestly don't know what I'd do without you."

"It's my job, dear," she replied and walked out of the room, leaving Dan with Spongebob, Patrick and a few more spoonfuls of salad.

Dan smiled, looking at the view from the giant glass window in his room. He was going to be shooting a commercial with Topman later, but that wasn't even the best part - he'd be modelling clothes for their online store, and he'd also model a few exclusive releases for billboards.

Dan loves his lifestyle, and he appreciates it more when he realizes he was born into it. When your grandfather designed nearly half of Hyde Park, and when your father owns companies, you're brought into the upper class. And he was damn proud of that.

But he was more proud of the fact that he was given the title "England's Heartthrob" at age 18.