#20: Petals and Peculiarities

Dan

I wake up with a stiff neck, sitting upright and rubbing it to try and rid myself of the soreness as I yawn widely.

"Daniel, get up!" Eliza's voice orders me, a command which is promptly followed by a cushion whacking my face. I yelp and rub the sleep from my eyes, wondering when Eliza got here.

"Hey, the others pretty much told me what happened yesterday, are you injured?" she asks softly, sitting on the end of my bed.

She must have arrived either really late in the evening yesterday or super early this morning because she wasn't here when I got back from Phil's house yesterday or when I was explaining to Liz what happened.

Mum wasn't pleased that I missed school but she bought Ellie's story that I threw up while I was in a lesson and got sent home because my stomach had a weird reaction to something I ate for lunch.

Sometimes I wish she didn't believe things so easily and actually asked us how we were. It's like the four of us have become our own unit, Florence obviously not included. I chide myself, what am I thinking? Mum's great and so are Ellie, Liz and Eliza. I couldn't ask for better siblings.

"Dan?" Eliza asks once again, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I shake my head, "No, I'm good."

She nods and throws a cushion, the same cushion from before, at me again before slipping out of my room with a smile flickering on her face. I groan but get up all the same, swearing as I see my alarm was only set to vibrate and I'm now technically late or, at least, later than I wanted to be.

It's too early to swear!

I almost fall out of the bed.

Yeah, good morning to you too.

It will be good when I beat you to school.

You wish!

I smile at the thought of Phil sparing a few seconds to talk to me, of all people. After about a minute of pure shock and simultaneous elated joy, I quickly get myself ready, not bothering to worry much about school uniform but still taking time to straighten my hair because hobbit hair is not something that I enjoy having claim over.

Feeling better once I've straightened it, I head downstairs to grab some breakfast. Ellie's already put bread in the toaster so I don't exactly have the opportunity to choose what I want, not that I'd have choson anything different anyway.

"Do you need me to carry any books to school for you?" Ellie asks me as I pull the toast from the toaster.

I shake my head as I take the butter knife from her, "Nah, it's all in my locker."

"Sure?"

I nod at her, not wanting to talk and thus drop the toast from my mouth.

"Hurry up, you're going to miss the bus!" Eliza scolds us so we grin at each other and leave, Ellie grabbing her coat as we open the front door. I slip my hands in my pockets as we let Eliza lock the door and walk to the bus stop.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Ellie asks, concern leaking out of her voice.

"I'm sure Ellie, I promise." I answer, smiling sideways at her.

She nods, then pauses, "Is Phil okay?"

"What?" I frown, not having expected her to ask that.

She giggles and shakes her head at me, "Is Phil okay?"

I open my mouth to reply but end up shrugging after a moment of thought, "I don't know."

"What did you guys do yesterday? You didn't tell me." she frowns, "At his house, that is."

"We just messed around and filmed a video for his channel." I tell her with a small smile.

Ellie stops, standing still with an utterly bewildered expression on her face, before punching my shoulder, "You told him?"

I laugh, realising how much information I managed to miss out about the afternoon I spent with Phil even though I thought I explained everything as best as I could yesterday.

"Yeah, I told him."

"And?" she asks expectantly.

She's using the older sibling voice, the one that basically says they know you're not telling them something and they know exactly what you're not telling them but they won't stop asking you because they want to hear you say it yourself anyway.

I raise my eyebrows, "And what? Now he knows. That's it."

"Aw, you're blushing!" Ellie smirks.

"Am not!" I argue, folding my arms and speeding up.

Ellie giggles but catches up to me a few seconds later, "Hey, hey, wait up! We're going to the same school, remember?"

I just roll my eyes and think about maybe slowing down again but we're already at the bus stop so I don't bother. Once we get there, both of us grab a seat on the metal bench as we wait.

"So much for being late." Ellie grumbles, "We're practically early."

I nod in agreement and lean back so my head's resting on the back of the bus stop, sighing.

"Hey, does Phil have a fringe just like yours?" Ellie asks suddenly.

I just nod without opening my eyes.

"And he also left his bag in school?" she nudges me.

I nod, then frown, "You already know this, why are you asking again?"

"Well, maybe you should just open your eyes…" Ellie tells my mysteriously.

I groan and open my eyes, then gasp.

Am I imagining things?

Where are you?

I think you know the answer to that…

Why on earth are you here?

Phil grins as he walks towards us and leans on the bus stop right beside me, "Hi."

"I'm just going to leave you guys to talk…" Ellie grins, then spots a few people she seems to know.

"Catch you later!" she yells before running over towards her friends.

I frown at Phil, "Do you have petals in your hair?"

"I… what?" Phil reaches up to grab the petals, missing his head completely and poking his eye by accident. He instantly yelps, putting his hand over his eye and blinking furiously.
"Phil…!" I shake my head and gently take his hand away from his face, knowing that contact lenses can hurt if they're jostled around, which Liz didn't stop complaining about for an entire year and still moans about whenever she feels like it.

"Let me see?" I ask and he nods, blinking and looking upwards so I can check if they're okay.

I sigh in relief when I see his eye is fine, just a little red, "You're good."

He blinks away the excess water in his eyes and smiles, "Thanks."

"Just let me get rid of the petals before you blind yourself." I laugh and he grins at me as I quickly pick off the broken petals in his hair, totally not paying any heed to how soft his hair is, how smooth it feels under my fingers or how much I think he would totally suit a flower crown…

"Any more?" Phil asks me, shaking his head as if to try and get rid of any I've missed out.

I decide not to tell him that they've all been gone for a few seconds but I hadn't said anything because I was lost in my own mind and simply nod at him instead.

"What did you do, crawl through a rose bush?" I ask jokingly but he just grins sheepishly and my eyes widen, "You did?"

"I mean, sort of?" Phil shrugs and I frown at him, tilting my head in confusion but he just gives me a smile.

"Why did you crawl through a rose bush so early in the morning?" I consider what I've asked and shake my head, "Why would you ever crawl through a rose bush?"

"Why not?" Phil grins widely but I narrow my eyes, trying to work out why he's in our half of the area by choice so early in the morning.

"Oh my-" I trail off as I realise I said that too loudly.

Phil ducks his head as the people around us turn to glare and I just grin awkwardly, shifting on my feet to avoid their judgmental gazes.

You weren't working, were you?

Maybe?

Phil!

What? It's easier to get here when everyone's asleep in the morning.

Phil…

We have to stop our conversation as the bus arrives. It's probably a good thing because I was only repeating his name in different tones anyway so it was only a matter of time before he commented on it… or just made a face due to his innate politeness.

Phil gestures for me to go first so I laugh and get on in front of him, both of us finding seats fairly close to the front so we can get off before the rush of people from the back, which means we can find, then grab, our bags in time for registration.

"How early did you leave the house?" I ask, still shocked anyone can get up so early.

"Let it go, bear." Phil smiles and nudges my shoulder.

I roll my eyes but intertwine my fingers with his, letting the topic go for now.

He smiles right back at me, his eyes shining and the reflection of the sun through the window bouncing off the blue and green in his eyes. I have to stifle a gasp at this, still in awe of the power that eyes hold and how much emotion we can convey through them. Never mind the fact that I could most likely dive into Phil's eyes and never feel like I want to leave.

"So, who do we say got to school first?" I ask quietly.

Phil frowns, his nose scrunching up and his eyebrows furrowing, "Um…"

I try not to laugh at his expression but fail, chuckling slightly. He whacks me with his free hand, laughing silently. It takes us a good few minutes to recover enough for him to give me a smile.

"Draw?" he suggests.

Draw.

Externally, I only nod in agreement, laughing too hard to answer because the sight of him laughing had me laughing even more in a non - stop chain reaction.

Laughing is far too contagious. You can be on the verge of punching a wall, pure fury raging through your blood, but then someone will laugh and you'll have no choice but to smile, start to chuckle and, before you know it, you're full on joining in and falling into hysterics with whoever is near you, all traces of anything other than laughter forgotten.

We spend the rest of the journey in the most comfortable silence I've ever been a part of, just sitting beside each other with our hands connected.

Phil gasps as the bus suddenly stops.

I laugh and nudge him so he gets up and we practically fall out of the bus together, Phil then taking the lead and pulling me to where we left our bags.

They're still there, tucked under the swing set.

"What the hell?" I ask, poking them.

The entire area, as well as just about everything else, is covered in dew and the remnants of last night's rain, except for our bags and the swing seats.

"Um, I think the world might have broken just a little bit." Phil laughs, swinging his bag over his shoulder and picking mine up for me.

I grin as I take it from him and let it hang on my left shoulder, "This is the kind of sh-"

"Nonsense!" Phil interrupts, giving me a pointed look.

I roll my eyes, "This is the kind of nonsense that makes me question why we're forced through endless hours of science."

He laughs, "This is why I prefer the 'creative' half of school."

"Says the computing genius." I shoot back.

"Coding is an art, I'll have you know."

"If you say so." I smirk and he swings his bag at me with a smile.

"Creative arts equality, Mr Daniel." He tuts, shaking his head.

"Oh, shut up." I grin but I can feel a blush creeping onto my face anyway. It seems to appear no matter how much I try to avoid it happening.

He smiles and we make our way back to the main waiting area where everyone catches up on the random stuff going on in their lives before school.

Speaking of…

"Dan!"

"Phil!"

The two of us turn to each other with a shared smirk and I salute a goodbye as he waves.

Swing set again?

Lunch?

You got it.

See you there.

Bye, bear.

I don't have time to mentally complain against the nickname before Mariah is hugging me.

I laugh as she pulls away again and glares at me, "Where did you go?"

"Never mind that, are you okay?" Chris asks, worry flashing in his green eyes.

"I'm good." I reply.

"Says the bruise on your forehead." Carter reminds me accusingly.

Chris nods in agreement and folds his arms with an expectant expression, but not an unkind one, "Want to change your statement?"

"Okay, I'm mostly good." I amend.

"Something to do with Phil?" Lillith asks, "Do we need to talk to him…?"

She doesn't even wait before starting to walk over to him. I shake my head and try to pull her back but she shrugs me, as well as the others, off and storms over to where Phil is.

Heads up: one angry, misinformed friend coming your way.

Dan…

He sounds kind of exasperated but also amused.

Step to your right!

He does so and Lillith ends up stumbling with her punch falling into thin air. By the time we've caught up, she's glaring at Phil but also has three other girls glowering at her in return.

Why are her eyes pink?

What? They're not pink, they're blue.

Oh yeah, never mind…

Are you okay?

Yeah, thanks for the heads up.

I'm close enough to just smile at him in return, slightly confused at his peculiar question but disregarding it for now because of the epic glaring match currently going on around us.

"What do you want?" the girl with a rose tucked behind her ear asks.

That's Rosie, by the way.

"Nice rose." I comment and she glances at me, her head tilting in confusion before her face lights up and she excitedly slaps Phil's arm.

"So he's Dan?" she inquires, almost giddily.

Lillith pauses as Phil nods, most of her anger now vanishing.

"What exactly happened yesterday? Dan's got a bruise." Lillith sounds so cautious that it's hard to imagine she was about to punch Phil herself.

"So has Phil." The girl next to Rosie fires back.

"We don't mean to start a fight." Chris says calmly.

Even a broken butter knife could slice through the multitudes of palpable tension floating between the nine of us.

Another girl arrives and instantly presses close to the girl standing next to Phil, glancing over us with a curious yet alert frown on her face, "Who are they?"

"Dan's friends." Phil replies instantly and I smile, biting my lip to try and stop it turning into a full blown grin.

We all jump; the bell goes.

"Look, we've got places to be. I'm sure Dan can explain to you what happened yesterday and then you can stop wrongly blaming Phil." Rosie grabs Phil's wrist and pulls him with them, winking directly at me before the five of them head to their registration room.

"I'm sorry," Lillith says immediately, smiling sheepishly at me, "I don't think he could harm a dragonfly, never mind you."

"You what?" I ask, confused as to how dragonflies have anything to do with this. Are they a metaphor for something? Did I miss out on an inside joke?

"Don't focus on the dragonflies. She's obsessed with them because Lesley has a dragonfly tattoo."

Lillith steps on Tulip's foot but grins softly, "It's such a nice tattoo…"

"You hate the thought of tattoos!" I argue as we walk to our lockers.

"But I love hers," Lesley fires back, but with an almost sleepy smile on her face.

"But you love her, more like." Mariah rolls her eyes.

"You can talk! You were the exact same with Tulip!" Carter reminds her.

"Were? She still is…" I laugh, nudging her with my elbow.

Mariah blushes and tucks her hair behind her ear, apparently trying to evade the whole argument, as we grab the books we need for the day and settle at the back of our registration room like we usually do.

I can't wait for lunchtime...

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