A/N: UM HI. this is my first story so play nice my lovelies and have a jolly good time yay
Warnings - language ahh
Chapter 1
*BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP* The shrill sound of my alarm clock echoed through the silence of my bedroom and I winced, being shoved out of my dream and straight back into reality. I opened my eyes, testing the brightness of the room before lifting up my arm and hitting the snooze button for the shrieking that rattled my brain to stop. My whole body ached with the thought of waking up so early, so I reverted back into hibernation mode and dived back under the warmth of my covers. Just for a few more minutes.
*BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP* Groaning to myself inwardly, another arm appeared from the duvet covers and smashed the random buttons, looking for the power. Still more than half asleep, I stumbled out of my bed, careful not to fall over, and proceeded to search for a t-shirt to wear. A black and white one with no visible stains and a slightly fresh smell stood out on top of the clothes pile. I shoved it on, not worrying about bottoms as I hurled myself into the bathroom next door.
The light was much brighter than my bedrooms, and my eyes didn't thank me for it. A small hiss of pain escaped me as my pupils constricted. Once fully adjusted to the light, the wall mirror in front of me took my attention away from bright bathroom lights and onto my own reflections state of appearance. Countless nights of staying up late to browse the internet had obviously taken their toll on my body; anyone could see that I was sleep deprived. A curly mop of a side fringe hung across my face, whilst other bits of deep brown hair sprang out from my head at all angles. Tired, lifeless eyes with large bags underneath each stared back at me, my back hunched from sleeping in a funny position and being too tall for my own bed. I sighed, and turned away from mirror, looking back the time and deciding I might as well get into the shower while no one else was awake. After washing my hair with a ridiculously fruity shampoo, I sprinted back to my room to get dressed.
A white button up shirt, a navy blue tie with our school logo displayed proudly in the middle, a navy blue v-neck jumper, black trousers, a blazer that I would never grow into and some hilariously nerdy Pokemon socks that no one would ever see under my shoes left me practically ready for the oncoming day ahead. My hair straighteners were already in their rightful position beside my bed, and as I used them to de-hobbitise my hair, thoughts of what exactly the oncoming day would actually entail raced around my head. I had my drama exam in a few weeks, so I guess rehearsing for that would be one thing… But the rest? I didn't really want to think about that.
"Shit! Ow, ow, ow, ow!" I shouted, maybe a bit too loud as my now burnt finger stung in pain. Too much thought, not enough hot hair straightener concentration. When my hair was straight to an acceptable level, I left the burning utensil to cool down, grabbed my bag off from a pile of clothes on the floor and crept down the stairs. Swinging my arm on the end of the banister and into the kitchen, I found my mum making breakfast.
"Daniel! You're up earlier than usual, what's happening as school today then?" My mother beamed at me as I reached into the fridge and pulled out the orange juice, taking swigs from the carton that I knew she would probably scorn me for.
"Nothing important." I gargled through a mouthful of juice, but the look on her face told me she wasn't convinced.
"I think I know you better than that love, you wouldn't wake up this early if it was the oncoming apocalypse for goodness sake! And Daniel, stop drinking from the carton and get a glass like everyone else, we don't want to share your germs." She gave me a stern look as carried on cracking eggs into a pan. Finished with the carton anyway, I pushed it back into the fridge and shut the door with my foot;
"Honestly, mum, its nothing, I just wanted to be there earlier is all." I smiled what I hoped was a convincing smile and turned away to pick up my coat. She laughed when I nearly tripped over my own feet and set about dishing up the breakfast food, it did smell pretty good, I was never normally up in time for breakfast…
"Sure you don't want to stay for the full English? Your father will be up in a minute." I reassessed the situation at the mention of my father and stuffed my arms inside my jacket, getting stuck along the way and struggling for my hands freedom.
"No, mum that's okay. Thanks though! See you later!" I hurled my bag onto one of my shoulders and opened the door, letting in the chill air of the outside weather. Stepping out into the cold, I took a sharp breath in and paused to look around. It was still dark, and the sludge that lined the roads from last weeks trickling of snow encouraged me to stay cautious when walking to my school. January's gloomy atmosphere matched my mood as I trudged through the pavements, hands deep in my pockets to stop them from going blue, headphones in and up full volume.
Though the sky was grey; the emptiness of the roads, save for a few early risers on there way to work, left me in peace. No hassles or worries enveloped my mind; it just blankly listened to the crooning voices and guitars of my iPod that I didn't have to pay much attention to. It was a short walk to the entrance of my school however, and my peaceful mindset wouldn't last much longer.
As I approached the gates surrounded by groups of other teenagers chatting amongst themselves, I felt my headphones being ripped form my ears as a tall, rounded figure loomed in front of me. Cold eyes set on a stocky head and horrid sneer looked back at me;
"Ey, mornin' bender, what're you doin' here so early then?" The taunting tone of Leon's question made me turn my head in disgust and the thick drawl of his accent made my skin crawl. Where do these people learn to speak English? Instead of replying to his question with a witty remark I'm sure he wouldn't even understand, I simply ignored it and tried to walk past him.
"Where d'ya you're goin? Too much of a faggot to answer me huh, dickhead?" A strong, fatty hand lifted out in front of me blocking my path. His mocking shouts had attracted the attention of a few more stocky twats like him, all crowding around me, leaving me with no more options of escape. Most weren't even taller than me, but the stances in which they held themselves were intimidating to say the least.
"Jesus, you look like a fucking wreck, too busy whoring yourself out to the public to get any sleep huh?" A guy who I think was called Jason called out from my left, leaving the others to laugh at was I suppose was meant to a funny remark. The words stung, despite there being no truth in them and my throat closed up at the thought of what was more than likely going to happen next.
One boy from god knows where pulled me down by the end of my tie, tightening around my neck and making it fairly hard to breath. Another ripped off my bag and threw in into the road behind us; whilst two or three more kicked my shins hard, forcing me onto the floor as I held back my cries of pain. The first boy who had walked up to me lifted me back up by the scruff of my collar and forced up my chin so as to look back at him. The burning frustration and anger that built up behind my eyes when I looked at his face made me want to kick and shout and have a tantrum like a two year old, but the strength of his beefy arms stopped me from doing so. All the other boys stood away from us as he slammed me back into the icy sludge covered ground. A shout of agony that I just couldn't hold back anymore ripped through my vocal chords as he kicked my stomach to finish and walked away laughing with the others. Nothing but pain and anger registered in my mind, their words all somehow getting to me. Badly.
No one came to my aid; no one even turned their head to look down at me, not even the teachers. As the rest of the remaining students were herded inside the school, the fact that this was completely normal to the people around me, made me realise just how much I hated almost everyone inside that god forsaken building.
After stopping a line of cars to pick up my half crushed bag and trying to straighten up my jacket and tie so I still looked half presentable, I walked into the school just as the final bell rang. Younger years were rushing around to get to class on time, whilst the older ones lazily walked into the classrooms, not caring now that their time in this prison was almost up. My form room throughout all my years here had always been S2, a science room, which also happened to be right at the other end of the school. Walking uneasily to get to the classroom on time, I tripped over a book lying on the floor and into a unit of lockers. No one noticed as it rubbed my head and tried to get back on course, which wasn't anything special, and I reached my class in record time. Knocking on the door into the room full of desks, safety goggles, human skeletons and Bunsen burners everyone was just as loud as they had been outside, save for a few at the front reading and our teacher who didn't seem to care as she chatted to another beside her. A few people noticed my presence in the room and started to giggle as word spread around about the incident outside this morning, that's how fast words travel round when these sorts of things happen. I lowered my head and walked to the back of the room, dumping my bag beside a chair and slumping into it as I took my jacket off.
A second bell signalling that all students should now be in class rang a few minutes later, and my teacher looked across the classroom to check for missing students.
"Daniel, where's Chris today?" She directed the question at me, seeing as the seat beside me that Chris usually placed himself in was completely empty. Surprised I hadn't noticed before, my reply was slow and unsure.
"I-I'm not sure miss, he was fine yesterday. Maybe he's ill…?" The terrible excuse I had given to cover for Chris clearly wasn't up to scratch for my teacher, but she just shook her head and carried on with the register anyway. I answered my name with a quiet 'yes miss' as I wondered why yet again, Chris wasn't in school today. His attendance was one of the worst in the class, and he frequently took days off without telling anybody, including me, a person who he liked enough to actually consider his friend. Wishing that he would have told me about this little bunk so I could have joined him instead of being stuck in this hellhole, a loud knock of the classroom door made me jump so much that I fell out of my chair. Landing in an awkward position with my legs sprawling across the floor, our head teacher waltzed in, eyeing me up as he spoke to the whole class.
"Class… 11Y1, is it? Yes… well, we're only one week back in term from Christmas and I'm sure you'll all be delighted to know that you have a brand news student to join you on your journey through education!" The whole glass sighed and groaned together at the mention of the education venture, hoping that he wouldn't elaborate and witter on about it until our ears started to bleed. When he didn't, everyone started to whisper at the mention of a new student, would they be a girl, a hot girl? A boy, a smart boy, a nice boy, tall, short, fat skinny?
I too, had my part of thinking, but it only involved the thought of how quickly would they realise that I'm not the person to make new friends with, how fast would everyone else complain to them about me and the class freaks? Pretty fast was my guess. As these thoughts invaded my mind, our teacher continued to talk on about the new student, until he eventually welcomed him or her in. A fairly tall (not quite as tall as me though), lanky boy of our age shuffled awkwardly into the room, avoiding eye contact with everyone but the teacher and fiddling with the hem of his jumper as a distraction from all the stares. Bright blue eyes that actually half scared me adorned with pale skin and jet black hair struck me about his persona first, until I noticed the bright and colourful Pokémon bag strewn across his shoulders and couldn't help but let out a chuckle.
Apparently, my chuckle was louder than I initially thought, as half the class stared back at me instead and I suddenly remembered that I was still lying across the classroom floor. Hands awkwardly placed behind me, chair knocked over and legs stuck in my bag. Leaping back into action, I struggled to stand up, and loudly lifted my chair back up off the ground, making a horrid squealing sound as it did. I cringed at the sound and looked up to see both teachers' heads on their hands and the new boy looking at me with a strange look plastered onto his face. Great, now he already knows you're a freak, and he hasn't even been here five minutes.
Someone sitting in front of me coughed and I felt my cheeks started to heat up, turning a bright crimson colour as I slinked back into my chair, trying hard to block out everything around me. My teacher cleared her throat and thanked the head for bringing in the new student, whilst he continued to stand there awkwardly until told where to sit.
"Well then, it's lovely to meet you, er, Mr…" She struggled to find his name on the register until the boy butted in to finish her sentence.
"Phillip Lester." His accent was different from the usual around here, and it caught my attention. Where was that from? I couldn't quite place it.
"Ah, yes. Welcome to the class Phillip, I think you'll quite like it here. Now, you can have a seat next to…" As she decided where to place the new kid my eyes popped as I realised with Chris' absence that was the only free seat left in the whole room. The inevitable was going to happen.
"Next to Daniel, over towards the back. Yes, it would be good for him to socialise more I think." A wave of sniggers echoed through the room, as I tired to glare daggers towards my teacher. Phillip, as had now been discovered, searched around for the empty seat and to my surprise, a big, cheesy grin adorned his face as he walked up and sat down easily. The class dissolved back into the general chatter and loudness as I just sat there. Staying quiet and ignoring his presence was difficult, after all he had just taken my only friends seat in the class.
I waited for the usual swarm of people to rush over towards Phil and interrogate him with generic questions, which gained them generic answers, ask him where he was from, idolise his hair, even talk to him about school - anything! But they never did. The new kid had no attention paid to him, which was odd, and so he was left to sit in his seat awkwardly until someone showed him what to do and where to go. As much I really didn't want to, seeing as no one else was going to make the effort, and being the nice guy that I am (ugh), my mouth turned against me and turned round so as to face him, saying simply in a friendly but cautious tone,
"Hey." It took him a second to realise that I was actually talking to him, but when he did, his expression lightened into a smile, body almost lifting out of his chair with eagerness to talk to someone his age;
"H-hey! Thanks for saving me back there… I hate being the new kid, y'know?" His slight stutter made me inwardly chuckle, feeling comfortable talking to a boy I had only met a few seconds ago,
"Yeah, it can be awkward… I'm Daniel by the way, but call me Dan." Sharing this simple amount of information with the boy made me realise how trusting I already was with him, and he laughed with his reply,
"I'm Phillip, but call me Phil. I guess you already heard my name back there anyway…" I let out a small laugh myself at this, when some people towards the front of the room looked back towards me and him. Muttering something to the lackeys, they proceeded to get up from there chairs and make their way to the back of the class. Leon was the leader of this little crew, and, slamming his hands on my desk in an attempt to frighten me, made Phil jump slightly in the process.
"Found a new lover have we Danny boy? Who's the new kid anyway? Looks like a faggot if you ask me, ey lads?" He turned towards his friends, earning several nods and 'yeahs' in his general direction. I was used to this daily torment, of course, being the only boy who didn't act like a massive dickhead to everyone I met, but, glancing to my right Phil looked completely terrified, his scary blue eyes widening.
Still slightly worried about talking back to a person who looks like they could squash you with their own body weight, I didn't retaliate. They all carried on hurling insults at me and Phil until one of them tried to make a grab for my collar again. As they did, another bell rang telling us to leave for first period, and it made Phil jump with a quiet shriek. I saw it as a chance to escape, and became too focused on getting out of that door before others managed to block it. I made no comment, but simply stood up and sped out the room as quickly as I could. From behind me I could see the swarm of people enveloping Phil as looked past them at me, scared as ever. Guiltily, I mouthed out the words, 'sorry' and sped off, leaving the first person that had treated me like a normal person all alone. My heart wrenched violently as I half ran to my next class, trying to keep thoughts of what they would do to Phil out of my head.
what did ya'll think? sorrrry for the rushed ending, i ran out of ideas let be real here… if any one person does want me to write any more, let a brotha know! ta for reading babies
- grapes :*