Consider it a Welcome

Chapter 5: You're something Dan

The afternoon had gone less than swimmingly. He'd been late to period four after forgetting how to get back to his class room and having to run back to the science block to embarrassingly ask Dr Ulanksy, interrupting her lesson on the female body and scaring the crap out of some teenagers. He'd laughed at that to be fair but the initial hilarity hadn't lasted long when he'd finally reached the unimpressed looks of his year twelves. Apparently the previous teacher he was replacing had been some sort of super genius, got them good grades and was funny at the same time.

As dan sat in his desk chair long past the bell with his head on the desk he pondered just straight up quitting, he knew he couldn't be whatever this teacher had set out for him to meet up too. Maybe he couldn't be a teacher after all, maybe he should just go back to the failed acting career and his dingy apartment barely getting by. Go back to Cambridge and give up. He missed Chris. He missed Louise. He'd been happy in Cambridge, it had been easy in Cambridge. "Knock Knock" came a familiar northern tone. Footsteps traipsed towards him with a clumsy rhythm when dan didn't respond, too busy drowning in his own self loathing. "What if I'm just too shit to be a teacher. Did I learn nothing? Am I failure? Is that even a question dan of course you're a failure you tried to be an actor and wound up as a teacher who's students hate him on the first day and-"

"Dan. Dan. DAN" a firm shout interrupted his thoughts, his brown eyes flashed open and focused in on the desk he still had his head on, his cheeks felt wet. When had he started crying? "Dan please don't be dead" the voice came again before dan felt two hands grasp his shoulders and begin shaking him from side to side. "Seriously this isn't funny now! You're too cute to die" The voice whined, yanking on his shoulders softly until he gave in, sitting back in the chair only to be greeted with two concerned eyes, fear swimming in the aqua blue irises. "What the fuck Phil" was all he could think but realised that wasn't socially acceptable. "Yes Phil I'm fine" he breathed slowly, attempting to keep his voice steady. Quickly he rubbed his eyes, delicately swiping away the tears hoping it wouldn't get brought up. "Thank god" Dr Lester exhaled, collapsing onto the floor from where he'd been crouching to be eye level with dan. His long gangly legs kicked out from underneath him as he toppled down, now looking up at the younger teacher "I didn't want to have to file paper work for a dead teacher" he half laughed. "Why are you here?" Dan asked, wincing at how accusational it sounded. "I was wrapping up an experiment, putting the stuff away and washing it all because we don't have an assistant when I saw your light still on. Thought I'd better come and get you before you get locked in the grounds" Phil laughed, seemingly not bothered by the others tone. "Oh ok" Dan nodded, thoughts beginning to return to his failure as a teacher etc. Etc. but Phil interrupted him again. "Hey are you ok?" He asked, standing up and perching himself on the desk, feet still firmly on the floor despite the height of the thing. "I- yeah just had a rough first day you know" Dan smiled weakly but he could practically see the older man staring through his lies. "It's not easy your first day, especially not here. It's such a terrible school" Dr Lester sighed, sympathy dripping from his words. "Why do you still work here then" Dan asked, getting up to wipe down the board. "That's a good question Mr Howell. I think it's the kids you know? Sure they're ungrateful but every now and then you get one or two who's eyes light up at your experiments and your lessons and it's all worth it. Those kids make you feel a little lighter. Plus I think my form would just cry without me" he said seriously before breaking into a fit of giggles which Dan found himself reciprocating. God this man was infectious.

"I'm not quite seeing the joy yet. All my students look like they'd rather I just turned into a rat and ran away. Or just didn't exist at all. I don't know how I'm ever going to manage to survive this" he sighed, walking back over to the desk where Phil sat. He found himself sliding up beside him despite the entire rest of the room being free for him to choose, he decided not to look too much into that fact though. "You'll get there. We all do. Hell on my first day I swore in front of a student, dropped an expensive piece of equipment I had to pay for out my first two wages, jammed a printer and threw universal indicator all down Beatrice. Good job we became friends really" he chuckled to himself. Dan couldn't help but let his jaw drop so far you could probably fit a fist in his mouth, "Phillip Lester, swearing? Heaven forbid I couldn't picture it" he feigned shock, dramatically clutching his chest like he'd been deeply wounded. "Seriously that's the part of the story you're most shocked over" he shook his head, "you're...something dan" he chuckled again.

The two sat in silence for a moment, just staring at the whiteboard ahead. It was comfortable, Dan for once didn't feel the creeping desire to say something to avoid this being a cringe attack in ten years. It was nice. He could barely see the sun setting out the window, wind was whistling past and the world was dissolving into grey as tiny water droplets hit the glass but for once the weather didn't reflect his mood. Five minutes ago he would've said something different but here they were, sitting in silence watching the world fall asleep. A lone light in the school and dr Lester by his side. Dan could feel sleep pulling at him, he hadn't realised how hard he'd been trying today until he'd stopped. His face was hurting from all the forced smiles and his head throbbed from the overthinking. His eyelids fluttered shut and before he knew it he felt his head lull to the side to drop off. He felt his body give in until his curly hair dusted something. "Shit" Dan thought, uprighting himself and slipping off the desk before he did anything else that probably wasn't socially acceptable for the first day of meeting someone.

Pressing himself up against the board opposite Phil he realised the mans head had dropped, eyelids shut just like Dan's had been a moment ago, his quiff that had been perfectly positioned earlier was flopping over into a fringe that was cool in 2007. "Damn" he muttered looking over the pretty teacher. "Pretty?" He mentally scolded himself. "This dude is a grown ass man you can't just throw out the word pretty five hours after you met" he began to ramble internally, starting off on another tangent. "Hmm? Dan? I think we should get going" a sleepy voice interrupted him again. Phil was barely awake, rubbing his eyes with one hand and pointing to the window where water was bouncing off the glass with force. "Hm? Yeah ok come on then sleepy head" Dan said, too softly for it to be ok but he didn't retract it. He was too tired to play a part and his head was too burnt out criticising himself to care.