Moods- A DanIel Howell Fic

Just One Question, What The Hell?- Two

"Can Mrs. Matts come to the office please? Mrs. Matts?" The staticky voice echoes through the intercoms. Mrs. Matts is the maths teacher.

"Oh, excuse me for a moment." She excuses herself.

Oh great. I doodle little moodlets on my notebook, passing the time. All of a sudden, the paper is snatched from me, and I look up to see Alfie standing, judging the drawings.

"Haha! Howell's drawing emotions because he doesn't have any!" He pushes the book against my chest, and I cough.

"I still- still have e-emotions," I protest lamely, pushing the words in my mind away. Do you, though? Lately you've just been empty, and sad. You only have one emotion. Yeah whatever.

I sit in silence, ignoring Alfie's stupid insults. Eventually he got bored and sat down again. Mrs. Matts walks back into the room, a young girl following her. She has dark brown hair like me, and brilliant green eyes. I notice that she had bags under her eyes, and she looks exceptionally thin. I hear gasps around me, and I can't understand why. She looks ordinary. Black jeans and a grey Muse hoodie. Medium length hair, heart shaped face... oh. Oh!

Above her head, where her moodlet should be, is a solid black line. Just like mine. Her emerald eyes sweep the room, before locking on mine. Her eyes flicker up to my line, then back to me. I can't believe it's not just me.

Rebecca Evans' POV-

 My dad just had to move to this stupid town. Stupid new school and stupid new bullies. More people to know about this stupid line above my head.

Or that's what I thought the entire time, until I noticed him.

I mean, I didn't know who he was, or what his name was. He had straight kind-of-emo-hair-but-not-really and dark brown eyes. Those features didn't stick out to me as much. It was the black line above his head that did. I could tell he was as shocked as I was.

"Class. This is Rebecca Evans. Rebecca, I am not introducing you to everyone. Find a seat," Mrs. Matts ordered, looking every bit as annoyed as a cat in a bathtub.

I go to sit beside the guy with the line, but another dude sticks out his leg to trip me. I step on it, and he yelps. Take that, motherfucker. Think I haven't seen that one before? He's gotta be one of the bullies.

As I get closer to him, I notice that he looks pretty beaten up. He has faint bruises along his jawline, and puffy eyes, a symptom of crying. He has a cut on his nose, fairly fresh, as it was still scabbing over. I stick out my hand.

"I'm Becca."

"Uh- Dan."

"Nice to meet you, Dan."

"You- you too, I guess," Dan seems quite frail. I bet it's those guys. I glare at the tripper guy and a couple of others he was conversing with. Poor Dan.

__

After math class it's lunch, and I walk beside Dan. I'm hoping to not be so alone in this school. Especially now that I found someone like me. Someone... different. A freak. My mind whispers, but I ignore it.

"Hey! Howell! Found a freak girlfriend?" The guy that tripped me shouted down the hallways, and I blushed, though I'm not sure why. I saw Dan shake his head, and another boy with a loose fringe whisper to his friends. He was all the way down the hallway, and I can't see him very well.

"Leave them alone, Alfie!" He shouted. Alfie, huh? I turn to use my locker, which is right next to Dan's. I pile my books in and grab my lunch.

Alfie pushes Dan up against the lockers, and Dan looks down helplessly. I swear, anger boiling up inside of me, and hot pot of rage. "Scared, Howell?" Alfie teetered, and his groupies snickered, slamming Dan against the metal doors again.

"Alfie! Put him down!" I say quietly, calmly.

"What did you just say, freak?" Alfie drops Dan, which was my goal. I take a deep breath.

"Thank you," I return to my locker, ignoring Alfie as he looks to his friends, confused and angry. I'm assuming nobody ever stands up to him.

Alfie grabs my shoulders and presses me up against my lockers, Dan looking on in concerned silence. I wink at him, and his eyebrows raise.

"Listen, bitch, nobody talks back to me. Not even the teachers. You're new, so I'll let you off with a light punching." Alfie raises his fists and Dan cringes away.

"Right. Mmkay, you do that." I try to sound nonchalant, though I'm so afraid, afraid of being hurt again. I force myself to swallow my tears, trying not to sound pathetic.

"Oh, you're asking for it," Alfie raises his fists again. It connects with my jaw, but before he can hit me again I block it. He looks at me, surprised. His moodlet changes to anger and I sigh. Teenage boys, amiright? He winds backup and swings, but I just duck and dodge, and he punches the locker.

"Fine then. If I can't hit you, I'll hit your boyfriend. I know he's less capable." Alfie drops me, and I exhale. I can't believe it. I did it! I finally won, more or less. Finally fought off the bully, kind of.

Alfie punches Dan in the face, and knees his stomach. He hits Dan until he's on the floor, and kicks his gut repeatedly, saying harsh, cruel words. Alfie's buds are holding me back, so I can't reach Dan. After Alfie has had his fair share of beating, he leaves, his goons following loyally.

Dan coughs, spitting out a mouthful of blood. Holy shit... I lift him up and bring him to a table outside the school, where the garden is empty and quiet. I leave to get a wet paper towel, and when I get back Dan has spit up more blood. Not too much, and not seriously injured enough to call 999, but it's still gross. "Here, let me help you," I offer, and pat his face with the cold towel, cleaning up blood and scrapes.

"Sorry I couldn't help more. Two people is a lot harder to fight than one." I apologize, and he just nods, probably afraid to open his mouth, in case he bursts into tears. I know the feeling.

"I can not believe it's not just me. I'm not the only one being beaten to a bloody pulp or being bullied to the point of breaking. Not the only one with this..." I trail off, pointing at the stupid black lines above Dan and I's heads.

"I know what you mean," Dan rasps out, but his voice is crackly and sparse.

"Maybe just don't talk for a bit," I laugh, and he offers a grovely chuckle. We exchange numbers, and house addresses. Sometimes you need an emergency place to stay. I glance at the sky. It's getting cloudy, and it looks like it's going to pour.

__

At the end of the day I wave goodbye to Dan, my newest, and only, friend as I walk to my own house. I dread what's waiting, but hey, at least it's not Alfie, right?