So Far Away

Clearance

The rest of the school day remained uneventful, with loads of attention towards Dan. He was the 'new kid', and with the feature of an exchange student, he was a lot more popular. Numerous students had offered to let Dan accompany them, to which he had awkwardly agreed. He was yet to separate the idiots from the respectful students.

Australia was blowing him away already. Trees stood proudly amongst the grounds, their leaves falling gracefully, lacing the air with beautiful scents of eucalypt. Colourful birds flew over the school, singing in exotic tunes. The air was dry and hot, and the accents of the teenagers fascinated Dan. His rough German accent singled him out immediately.

"Hey, German kid!" A boy yelled. He was young, and accompanied by two other males.

"Yes?" Dan said, panic rising in his throat.

"Is Hitler like your king or something? Have you met him?" One asked, a daft question.

Dan suppressed a laugh. He wasn't ready to get on the wrong side of some idiots on his first school day.

"No." Dan said simply, looking at him strangely.

The boys laughed obnoxiously, before interrogating him more. During the one-sided conversation, Dan turned his head and saw Phil walking up a path by himself. The two made eye contact, before Phil smiled lightly and continued walking. Dan fought the urge to sprint to him, for safety.

~

Phil noticed Dan moments before the latter saw him. He was being preyed upon by some chavs, and Phil  wanted nothing more in the world to run up to him and shoo them away. But, that was not Phil's nature. Suddenly, Dan met his eyes. Phil blushed slightly, then turned to continue walking. His destination was a small spot underneath a tree, to study. He would have to let Dan figure this out for himself.

After he reached the spot, Phil hauled his bag off of his shoulder and lay it beside the base of the tree. Sitting himself on the grass, he pulled out a large geography textbook and opened to his marked page. As he skimmed through the information, he couldn't keep his mind off of Dan. Why didn't Dan follow Phil? Had Dan already found a group to sit with? Was he friends with those chavs? Did Dan even like Phil?

Phil shook the thoughts from his head, before realising he'd barely been paying attention to the information provided. He drew all concentration to the book at hand and began to read.

~

Dan found Phil quite easily. After the boys had lost interest in hassling Dan, he'd walked down the path to find the black-haired boy. After a few weird looks from other students, he found Phil huddled under a tree, a textbook in hand. Dan cautiously approached.

"Um....Hello." Dan spoke quietly.

Phil looked up, slightly startled. "Hi Dan." He smiled. "Do you wanna sit down, or something? You don't have to if you don't want to, it's just if you have no where else you're welcome to-"

Dan smiled slightly. "It's OK, I can't find anyone." He lied smoothly. He'd seen Jacob and Luke earlier. "It's Phil, right?"

Phil relaxed slightly. "Yeah. How has your first day been?" His attempt at conversation seemed to ease Dan.

"Uh, good I guess. It's really hot." Dan said, sitting beside Phil. The raven-haired boy hid slightly behind his fringe, taken aback by Dan's interest in him.

"Yeah, it can get really hot. Today's not even bad, compared to some other days. It'll start to cool down soon." Phil spoke, nervously playing with his hands.

Dan smiled softly. "It's very different to Germany. There's a lot more trees and animals. At home, it's snowing and very cold."

"Oh wow, I've never seen snow! Is it fluffy?" Phil looked up, his eye's slightly less nervous.