good boys & bad boys// phan

chapter one

**phil**

Phil walked through the rusting iron gates and looked up towards the buildings that made up his school. He reached into this backpack, and pulled out his timetable. It was geography first. Phil walked over to the humanities block and went into the classroom. 

'Quiet girls and boys' said the teacher. A faint murmur of talking and giggling came from the back of the room. 'Excuse me, boys at the back, hush now' she sighed. After a few seconds, they stopped talking. Phil was glad, he hated people talking over the teacher, it made him nervous. 

'Now class, today we are working on your ability to work with others. Others you may not be so familiar with. This is to make sure that work gets done and to allow you to get to know new people.' the teacher said. Phil liked this idea, getting to know new people could be a good thing. Maybe a chance to branch out a bit more and make new friends. 

'I am going to put you in pairs and then you are going to carry on with last lesson's work with that person'. The class nodded in unison and the geography teacher seemed very pleased with herself. 'I just need to take the register' she said. She called out names and every individual answered with a 'present miss' and the occasional 'ugh yeah' from those who clearly did not want to be there. All until the teacher called out one name. 

'Dan?...' Silence. 'Dan Howell?' No one said anything. 'This is ridiculous, does anyone know where Dan Howell is?' 

'Oh, you mean Dangerous Dan' someone whispered from the back row. 

'What was that?' the teacher asked, clearly loosing her patience. 'If Dan Howell isn't here, and you know why, then just say' 

'Nah, sorry miss, but, my bet is, he's probably by the bike-shed, smoking weed. But that's just a guess, but, it's probably true'. A wave of laughter formed around the class. 

'Fucking emos' someone said laughing. Phil was confused. He'd seen Dan around school but he didn't seem horrible. Why did the class think so badly about him?

'Right, thank you class' the teacher closed the laptop. 'I'll take that as a 'no miss he's not here' shall I?' she said rolling her eyes. 'Now, I am going to call out who will be working with who for the duration of the lesson so please listen carefully' Phil opened his book and wrote down the date and waited for his name to be said. He didn't hear his name, he waited some more, and then some more, and then the teacher stopped talking. Phil put his hand up.

'Miss!' he said. 

'Yes Phil?' she asked.

'I think you missed me out, who am I working with?' he asked. 

'Oh I'm sorry! Phil.. Lester. Right' she paused. 'You're working with Dan Howell' 

Phil's heart sank as a ripple of laughter was sparked. Someone tapped Phil on the shoulder and he turned around. It was Caspar. 

'Fuck, good luck buddy. I'm praying for you' he said. 

'I don't understand, what's so bad about him?' Phil asked, confused. 

'Dan? God, he's a fucking mess. He's being caught doing some of the weirdest shit and' Caspar stopped talking. 

'Caspar? What's wrong?' Phil asked. He turned around and standing in the doorway was Dan. He had headphones in and was holding a pack of cigarettes. The whole class stared at him.