lethal //phan

n i n e

Dan
The disappointed looks he received off Phil didn't come as a surprise to him. It was obvious Phil and him weren't on the best of terms in the first place, but what had happened between them beforehand had made it worse.

In theory he and Phil should've formed a friendship like everyone else was friends with the people they sat with, but it just didn't seem to be happening.

"Stop the chatter now class, I understand that it's a Thursday morning but these conversations can wait until break time."

Shame to break the great conversation him and Phil were having he thought.

Phil was staring out of the window at the beach a few hundred yards off the academy's grounds. His mouth was turned in a half smile and the blue in his eyes matched the colour of the water he was gazing at. Dan couldn't help but smile to himself as well.

"I've decided since its only a few weeks until the spring holidays I'm setting you all a group project," came the voice of Mrs Evans from the front of the room.

She wasn't wrong; the cheering, and loud chanting from a few people at the front, made it quite clear that nobody wanted to start preparation for the exams they'd all be sitting in the summer months.

"With your desk partners you need to get in a group of eight maximum and within those groups produce a presentation on any aspect of the academy's history."

Group projects had to be one of his least favourite things in the world. What was he supposed to do when everyone was choosing who to go with?

Usually he'd walk out if the class and show up on the day it was due and stand by a group he'd choose at random and hope they knew what they were doing. It was most likely pure luck that all the groups he'd chosen actually had decent senses of organisation.

It was either that or beg the teacher to let him do it as an independent project. However, that was a last resort; Dan didn't beg. But of course, now Phil had arrived he'd be forced to go with all of his friends. That wasn't happening.

"It can be presented in any way you wish as long as each persons contributes in some way. The deadline is three weeks from now, there will be no set homework until after this project so I expect you'll be working on it outside of lessons."

So that meant he'd have to spend even more time with them?

Well, this is perfect he thought.

A perfect time to leave.

What did he have to lose anyway?

Mrs Evans was too preoccupied with calming down the class that she didn't notice him quietly get out of his seat and walk straight out of the door.

Phil
It was expected that Dan would walk out, he'd seen it coming. Chris and PJ would have to act as a replacement Dan for the time being.

Either the teachers levels of observance were horrific or she'd simply turned a blind eye to Dan - or the lack thereof - because she'd witnessed it so many times she'd given up trying. It was probably the latter.

Chris and PJ were only two desks away so he got to them both easily without Mrs Evans noticing. Typical that Dan would walk out on a group task - it frustrated him that Dan thought he could do what he wanted with no regard for others, selfish in his opinion.

"Don't just assume that, Phil." PJ interrupted his train of thought.

"Why not? What's he going to do about it?" Phil retorted back.

"You think I have a clue? He freaks me out, I'm a good judge of character and he is weird."

"Please don't tell me that you're scared of him too."

"I wouldn't say scared, 'wary' is a better word. Get involved with him if you want just don't say I didn't warn you." There was a grave tone in PJ's voice.

"Since Dan's not here you can choose whoever you want to work, it's completely up to you." Chris quickly changed the topic back to their work to end any further debates.

"PJ! Chris! Are you going to be working with us?"

Phil remembered her - he'd had a brief conversation with her, but he couldn't remember much about her.

"Yeah, we're coming to you now, Louise." Chris called back.

"Bring your friend as well." was the response.

"If you want to come that is."

It wasn't much of a choice if he thought about it, he'd have to meet the rest of Chris and PJ's friends eventually, at least he'd have the project as something to talk with them about.

He counted two other pairs aside him, PJ and Chris.

There was Louise and next to her was a boy with the contagious laugh and glasses that he'd remembered from the first day, though his name had slipped Phil's mind.

Another boy and a girl were sat together, they both had identical brown hair and smiling blue eyes.

"It's Phil, isn't it?" asked one of them.

Phil nodded in response.

He didn't really know what to say to them. What if he embarrassed himself? Do any of them have an appreciation for animal facts? Hmm, probably not.

PJ and Louise began to laugh. Of course, they heard that.

It wasn't a promising start, he couldn't even get through fifteen minutes without him saying something stupid.

"It's okay, Phil. I've heard some people's inner monologues that are far worse. Louise can read people's emotions as you were so curious to know."

"How does that work then?"

"When I look at a person I can see colours above their heads and each colour corresponds to a certain emotion. Your colours a minute ago were a variation, that means you were feeling a mixture of emotions, but purple and orange stood out most, purple meaning fear or nerves, and orange showing anxiety or embarrassment."

"You don't have to be scared of us, we're not all that bad," one of them joked.

"Your current moods are yellow and orange. The yellow shows happiness, it was overpowering the orange so it means you're more happy than embarrassed." Louise answered.

Happy but embarrassed - seemed accurate enough.

Throughout the lesson practically no work was done. They had a fair amount of work to catch up on. The only constructive thing he'd done that in class was learn the names of everyone in the group.

Tyler was the one with the glasses. He had a wicked sense of humour and he'd often laugh at his own jokes before he could say the entirety of them. It usually caused everyone else to burst into fits of laughter along with him.

Louise seemed to be some sort of mother figure in the group.

The other pair were siblings named Zoe and Joe. Despite them being alike in looks, Joe's personality was a lot louder whilst Zoe only talked on the odd occasion.

Joe was well-known around the academy for pulling pranks on a regular basis, much to his well-behaved sisters discontentment.

It was a relief that Phil had been accepted by everyone, they spoke like they'd known each other years and not like it was the few times he'd exchanged words to them. For that time Phil was happy, and every thought about Dan had disappeared.