The high school looms before him, brick after brick stacked in the same boring formation but still somehow managing to strike that first pang of fear in his chest. It's Phil's fifth school in seven years. With a father in the military, his family's constantly being shuffled around, so it should've been nothing new when his parents told Phil and his brother that they were moving again. Luckily, his parents had promised they wouldn't be moving after this, as Phil's going to be a junior and has to focus on his studies. Phil has gotten exceptionally good at making friends and adjusting to a new school, and yet, something about the first day at a new school stirs up that terrified feeling in his chest. Phil looks back at his mom in the car behind him which he had just left, and her encouraging grin gives him that push to take a deep breath, turn back around, and walk toward the front steps.

Phil had been to this particular school before, so it's not as horrible as past years. Because Phil wanted to be on the football team, which he had been on at his old school, the coaches had required him to attend the summer training program before the year started. During that, Phil was able to meet some of his fellow classmates that would be going to school with him in the fall. He was also able to walk around the school during a tour led by one of his teammates, Andrew.

"Hey, Phil!" A familiar voice calls. Speaking of, Phil looks in the direction of the sound and sees Andrew striding towards him. "I see you got your jacket," he says, gesturing to the jacket specific to the varsity football team that they both were wearing. Andrew had explained it was a rule for the football players to wear their jackets on the first day of school and on the days that they had games later in the evening, but it was tradition to wear it every day ('school spirit and all that', Andrew had said).

"Um, yeah," Phil mutters, giving a small smile and smoothing out the fabric.

"So how are you? Ready for your first day?" Andrew questions, doing his best to make Phil more comfortable.

"A bit anxious, but I've done this type of thing before," Phil says, shrugging. Andrew knows about Phil's dad, how they're a military family, and how they have to move a lot.

"Ah, right. Well, let me know if you need anything," Andrew says with a smile before moving away to greet some of his other friends. Phil sighs, already resigning himself to a lonely first day. He knows Andrew means well, but he clearly isn't going to be Phil's best friend.

Phil walks through the front door and finds his way down the halls to his locker, trying to remember where he's going without having to look at a map. He finally arrives and sees a boy leaning his shoulder on Phil's locker, who looks to be Phil's age although he is much shorter. Well, Phil's quite tall, so that isn't a surprise, and he's also pretty slim to be a football player. Phil prepares himself and walks up to the boy. "Hey."


Dan is shuffling around in his locker, stacking his books in a pile on his arms. He's leaning on the locker next to his, facing his open one, and not really thinking anything of it. Then he hears a voice coming from in front of him. "Hey." Dan turns and the first thing he sees is the red fabric of a varsity football jacket. He reflexively flinches, memories of being pushed around, slammed into lockers, and made fun of by people in those jackets rising to the front of his brain. "Dude, relax, I'm not gonna hurt you," The voice says, a lilt in his speech suggesting the smile on his face.

Dan opens his eyes. "Then, w-why are you talking to me?" He questions, looking up into the boy's face. "Oh, you're new," Dan realizes upon not recognizing the beautiful boy standing in front of him. A look of confusion crosses the boy's face.

"Why would you think I would hurt you?" he says.

"'Cause you're on the f-football- you know what, nevermind," Dan says.

"Okaayyy, anyway," the boy continues, "you're uh, standing in front of my locker," he explains.

"Shit, really?" Dan mutters, moving out of the way. He can't believe his luck. Of all the people that could've gotten the locker next to his, it was a football player. The football team had been his main tormentors for the past year, and since they rule the school no one would stick up for him. Of course, Dan tried to defend himself in the beginning, but that had only made things worse. He did have a group of friends that stuck by him, although they never wanted to get involved.

"Do you have a problem with that?" The boy asks Dan, shocking him back to reality.

"No! Um, sorry," Dan apologizes quickly. He knows it's a long shot, but because this kid is a new student, maybe he won't join in on the team's favorite hobby. Maybe he'll even get them to stop. The kid seems nice, anyway.. "Uh, I'm Dan by the way. Dan Howell. What's your name?" He asks.

"Phil Lester," Phil answers, smiling.

"So, uh, where did you move here from?" Dan says, turning back to his locker to pick up a couple more things.

"How did you know I moved here?" Phil questions, turning to his own locker and fiddling with the lock.

"Well, you're on the football team, and I'm pretty sure I know everyone on the football team.." Dan trails off with a grim smirk.

"How?" Phil questions the brown-haired boy again as he opens the locker.

"Uh, the team gave me a pretty hard time last year," he says.

"Why?"

"You have a lot of questions, don't you? Well, um, who knows why anyone would do that?" Dan gives a vague answer, not really wanting to get into the whole thing with someone he just met.

Dan closes his locker and stuffs his pile of books into his open backpack. "So, I'll see you in homeroom?" He asks hopefully to the tall boy standing next to him.

"No, uh, wait a sec," Phil says before shoving his own books into his bag and slamming the locker. They both flinch at the sound and some heads turn as the noise rises above the usual chatter in the hallway. "..oops," he mutters with a lopsided grin down towards Dan. He offers a smile back and they walk into the classroom together just a little ways down the hallway, as the closest lockers to a classroom were given to students that had that class as their homeroom.

Dan weaves his way through the lines of desks toward the one in the back corner and drops his backpack on the floor while sliding into the seat. Phil copies Dan, dropping into the chair next to his. They chat about their schedules and compare them to see if they have any classes together (Lunch 4th period and World History 7th period). Suddenly, the bell rings and the two boys glance up to see the room has filled without their realizing it. Phil looks to his left and sees a girl with long, brown hair and brown eyes looking at him as well. They give each other a small smile in recognition, but Phil is sure that is the only interaction they will have with each other all year.

"All right, good morning, class," the teacher addresses the students as he walks to the front of the room. "Welcome to homeroom. I am your.. supervisor, shall we say, Mr. Thompson. I also teach World History, some of you may have me later in the day." Phil and Dan glance knowingly toward each other. "During these first 10 minutes of the day, I will take attendance and we will listen to the announcements. You may use the rest of the time to chat with your neighbors or study schoolwork," Mr. Thompson continues. "Let's get started, shall we?"

As Mr. Thompson calls out the names, Phil glances around and tries to associate the names with the faces while Dan pulls out his phone. It appears as though everyone in the class are juniors, like him. "Daniel Howell?" the teacher says from the front. Dan just casually raises his hand without looking up from the phone. A few heads turn to stare, but Mr. Thompson continues calling roll. Eventually the alphabet reaches him, Phil responds with a confident 'here,' and even more heads turn back towards the direction of his voice to see who possessed the unfamiliar name. Phil shifts uncomfortably underneath the stares, but Mr. Thompson, thankfully, continues.

The rest of homeroom passes uneventfully, but a few people come back to talk to Phil (thoroughly ignoring Dan). A couple minutes later, the bell rings, and a chorus of chairs being scraped back on the floor ring into the air as students pack up their stuff. "I'll see you at lunch, yeah?" Phil asks Dan before he leaves.

"Um, I guess so," Dan replies, surprised at the idea Phil might actually want to sit with him.

"Cool. Catch you later," Phil says, giving him a quick smile before walking to his next class.

"See you," Dan mumbles a quiet farewell, even though Phil is out of hearing range, and turns in the opposite direction Phil went to head to his first period.

A/N: Hey guys! I decided to write a hs AU. obviously. I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter! Please follow/favorite if you did, and leave a review telling me what you think! ~L

update 7/7/18: hey y'all, so i've decided to go through this fic and touch up the early chapters, cause looking back i see a lot of grammar mistakes and just things that could be written a lot better which i want to edit. i've also been seeing only the first chapter get hits but people aren't continuing to read this, so hopefully making these first chapters less shit will change that. i did start this about a year ago, and i have (hopefully) improved writing since then, which is making me want to go back and change some things. so this is the first chapter i have redone, if you're just now finding this fic and there is no update of this kind on the next chapters that means i haven't redone them yet. but please keep reading, i promise they're not as shit as i'm making them out to be. love you guys! *cheesy hand hearts from pinof 1* ~l