I don't want to work with Dan. He's got the lowest score in the class, and I have the highest. I don't care what Mrs Watts thinks, I can't teach anyone as hopeless as him anything. I swear he almost tripped on his way over here. My seat is like four feet away, seriously? Ugh. Does he have to sit so close? I know we're sharing a table but still...
Oh god, I'm working with Phil? Crap. He's such a swot, and I know he detests me. Look at him. He sits with his back perfectly straight, although he's obviously not, and he just looks so arrogant all the time. "Oh, I got the highest score in the class? I'm sure Grandmummy Elizabeth will be proud. Perhaps she'll let me pet her corgis. Look at that, my score was almost as high as my pinky! Oh ho ho!" Yeah, shut up. Ugh.
"Dan."
"Phil."
The two boys glared at each other as aggressively as they could without the teacher noticing and scolding them both.
After they dropped eye contact to listen to the teacher, Dan was the first to speak. Phil's mouth was clenched in posh fury.
"So."
Phil scrunched his nose disapprovingly and wrote something down. Dan suddenly realised that he'd sat on the wrong side of the boy, and if they wrote at the same time, their elbows would be fighting Hunger Games style. He'd just have to not write anything. Phil seemed like the sort of person who just did all the work without saying anything then complained when you didn't help.
"So um... We're working together-" Dan started, hoping he could nicely ask Phil to do the work.
"Oh, you noticed? It's not like you to pay attention to anything other than your daydreams." Phil snaps without looking up. It's then that Dan notices that Phil doesn't sound very posh at all. Actually, he sounds really Northern-y. Maybe he was posh in the North. What if he was royalty or something, and that's why he acts so posh. That was probably why he moved to London, so he could meet more of his huge family. He was probably 31st in line for the throne or something-
"I told you, all you do is daydream. You need to help me!" Phil chided, before adding "Not that I need your help. But you can't just sit there and do nothing; you'll make me look bad. At least open the textbook and look like you're doing something."
"Who put you in charge?" Dan snarled.
"If you were in charge, all hell would break loose in the classroom. And we can't have that; the classroom has to be tidy for writing in Literacy or we'll never focus!" Dan rolled his eyes and flipped the textbook open. He could honestly say that he had no idea what the book was going on about, but he was also pretty sure that it wasn't really a book. Real books are captivating, and you read for what feels like five minutes but then the book's finished and you need to wake up in two hours. That's a real book. Not this stupid 'Science is Magic!' thing, where you read one paragraph and it feels like bedtime.
"This is nowhere near as good as Harry Potter..." Dan couldn't help but mumble. He saw Phil twitch from the corner of his eye.
"Harry Potter?"
"Mhm."
"You like Harry Potter?"
"Mhm."
"Oh. Me too."
Dan and Phil glanced at each other before simultaneously turning away. They were both the last person each of them would ever go to to talk about their passions. Especially the ones that are considered uncool.