Adopted By Phil Lester

Chapter 10

Delilah's POV

The alarm clock boomed like thunder in my head.

DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH

Wonderful, it was the first day back from mid term, so that meant I was forced to spend six treacherous hours at what I liked to call, the fiery pits of hell, a.k.a West College Grammar School.

I threw my hand over and slapped the snooze button, just as Dan and Phil charged into the room, equipped with a saucepan and wooden spoon.
"WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" Phil boomed cheerfully, the spoon clashing with the pan.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up," I mumbled, burrowing my head under the duvet. My eyes were squeezed shut, however I heard Dan whisper something quietly to Phil, ending in Phil's familiar footsteps heading out the door. Out of curiosity, I opened my eyes slightly, to find that Phil had left the room and Dan was silently making his way to the end of the bed.

"What are you- NO AHH!" I screeched as Dan had seized the corners of my duvet were yanked it off the bed, abandoning me in the cold air of my bedroom.

"Rise and shine mother-"

"DAN!" Phil yelled protectively from the other side of the door.

"Rise and shine Delilah it's a brand new day. Are you just gonna lie there like a wuss? Or are you gonna GET UP, and GRAB LIFE BY THE TITBALLS?"

The fond memory of an old danisnotonfire video triggered a chuckle, but I decided to play the part and swat the words away with my hand, while hugging a pillow close to my chest.

"Are you a wuss?" He questioned.

I groaned into the bed, making no attempt to get out.

"Are you a wuss?" He repeated.

"No, I'm not a wuss,"

"You are gonna jump up in 3,2,1,"

My response, instead of leaping out of bed as I was expected to, was seizing the edge of the mattress, hauling my body forward and then toppling out on top the floor. Dan broke out into a cheerful smile and exited the room, shaking his head. Yeah, like he could talk.

As I was gathering the strength to stand up, Phil burst through the door with bright, happy eyes. His arms were filled with my black and green school uniform, a large folder, my school bag and a packed lunch that he had prepared for me. After carefully placing them onto my desk, he offering me a hand to get up.
Graciously, I took it.

"Okay! You have your bag packed, lunch made, uniform ready, you're all ready!" He told me excitedly.

"Someone's happy that I'm going to school." I grumbled, even the thought of school disgusted me.

"Sorry, I know school isn't fun, I just feel like a proper parent," his mood creeping downhill. The change in his expression broke my heart.

"You are a proper parent, and we are a proper family." I said honestly.

"Thanks, Del," Phil smiled, and enveloped me into a warm hug, it was the best start to a morning.

***

The bus was choc-a-block packed with kids from schools all over town, some were talking casually, some shouting from one end of bus to the other, some scribbling down the answers to homework they had forgotten to do, and some were doing things I'd have never expected. This was a new thing for me, getting the public bus. Before I was adopted, I was left to school in a minibus owned my the orphanage, so needless to say I was gawping at some of things some kids who were only a few years older than me. I won't say exactly, but let's just say I'm pretty sure they were drinking something stronger than water in their bottles. A lot stronger.

The hours in school passed like months. It was only second period, yet it felt like school was the only place I'd ever been. The sky outside the window, painted in ice cream colours seemed like a distance memory as Mrs Boyle droned on and on about the wonders of tectonic plates, explaining the joys of the earth's crust. At least I think that's what she was talking about. I was too busy designing snowflake patterns on the back of my notebook.

"Delilah?"

I froze. My eyes swivelled up to the teacher, who was staring at me expectedly. "Um," I gulped. "Conservative?" The entire class burst into fits of laughter, even Mrs Boyle had to block her giggles with a hand over her mouth.

My cheeks were burning. Before I knew it, so was everywhere else. The stares from my classmates were digging into my skin, cutting my breath short. Mrs Boyle had moved on from my question, I knew she had, but despite that every person I saw whispering, I knew it was about me. About how stupid, or how annoying I was. The volume of Mrs Boyle and the chatter of the pupils had grown 10x in my head, and my palms felt sweaty and disgusting. It was
happening again, wasn't it.

Shakily, I raised my hand to ask to go to the bathroom. With a sign, I was allowed, and stumbled from my seat to the door. I think somebody asked me if I was okay, but I ignored it.
After just making it into the bathroom, I grabbed the sink to make the room stop swaying. Counting to ten and focusing on my breathing usually helps when I feel like this, but not today. Beads of sweat ran down my forehead, my face was greasy, cold and white, almost green.

I wanted to pass out, this was torture. I decided to take a long, slow drink of water from the fountain, bad idea. Sick rose from my throat, and I clasped a hand to my mouth before running and vomiting neatly down the toilet. Once I had finished, I sat on the toilet floor and groaned.

While I was sitting there, a girl with bouncy blonde curls and freckles skipped through the door and produced a mascara from her blazer pocket, then concentrated into the mirror and applied several coats. My attempts to get her attention failed, I was too weak to make any noise. Despite my efforts of croaking miserably and poking my arm out of the cubicle, it wasn't loud enough or far enough. Just as she turned away and I had given up hope, tears stung my eyes, and slowly leaked down my face. Before I new it, I was bawling like a baby.

Of course, this managed to get her attention. "Hello? Do you need any help?" She asked in a sweet voice. Once she found my cubicle she gasped in horror at my state, which made me feel just peachy. "What happened?" She questioned, concerned.

"I-I had a, a p-panic attack," I whispered.

"Okay, okay, don't move, I'll get the nurse." The girl rushed, and raced downstairs."

***
Rebecca, her name was, was holding my hand while I waited for Phil to pick me up from the office. She was trying desperately hard to make small talk, constantly asking about my favourite bands and singers, so much it was making my head hurt even more. I did like her though, not many people would be as nice as her when I was so loopy.

"Delilah? Your father's here," Nurse May called into the waiting room. Rebecca helped me steady onto my feet, and wrapped me in a quick hug. Nervously, I thanked her for her help and made my way out to Phil.

Phil was waiting for me, in his dorky space coat and black skinny jeans. He didn't fluster me with questions, he didn't run up and tell me how pale I was, he simply held his arms out and I fell into them. We stayed like this for a good 30 seconds, before leaving the school and climbing into his car.

"So," Phil began, passing me a mug of hot chocolate, topped with whipped cream and marshmallows. "What happened?"

"I gave a stupid answer in class, so they all laughed at me and I, I had a panic attack. I don't know why, I'm so stupid, it wasn't a big deal to get an answer wrong about tectonic freaking plates."

"Delilah," Phil said, looking me in the eye. "You aren't stupid. You're the most intelligent, beautiful, funny person I know, and you are so much better than a panic attack. It does not make you stupid, or a bad person, and we can get through them, together." He promised me.

"Thank you," I smiled. "Dad."

A/N Hi it's Aine ✌️woo thanks for reading! Your support really helps us😊 Don't forget to vote and comment! Also I'm definitely not writing this at 2am nope no way. 😏