Y'all, I'm homeschooled. Why am I writing a high school AU?

Requested by: Brianaisnotamazing

Bri you didn't give me any specifics, so I just went with something. Hope it's kinda what you wanted??

Word count: 3,754

Genre: Cliché cliché FLUFF
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Dan Howell. Everybody knew that name. It was whispered and gossiped down every school corridor. Girls would swoon if he even glanced at them. Only few got the privilege of being his close friend.

"-slept with her last week-"

"-so handsome-"

"-heard he's really good in bed-"

You get the point.

What was not to like about Dan Howell? Long brown hair perfectly shaped around his head, deep brown eyes, thin pink lips, and a think, lanky body. It's no wonder girls and guys were falling for him left and right.

"Hey Chris, hey Peej," Dan says as he walks over to his only two best friends.

"Hey there, Mr. Popular," Chris grins.

"You know I hate that nickname," Dan groans. Chris nudges Pj before opening his mouth wide and batting his eyelashes. "Pj look! Omg it's Dan Howell!" he says in an exaggerated girly voice.

Pj joins in. "Oh my gosh, he's like, so hot." Pj pretends to faint.

"You two are the worst," Dan groans. He opens his locker which is besides theres. Not a coincidence, they had all met because their lockers were next o each other. He takes out a few books that he would need for next period.

"How are things with Angie?" Chris asks, shrugging his backpack higher onto his shoulders.

"I told you, I'm done jumping from girl to girl," Dan says with a huff.

"You say that, but you also say you're not gay, so," Chris shrugs.

"Are you purposely trying to annoy me today? I didn't realize that was an event on the calendar," Dan says, rolling his eyes.

"It's not, but we should really look into making that a thing," Pj says. They begin to walk to their first period class together: Maths.

"I will literally murder you if you do," Dan says, staring at them hard.

Chris and Pj aren't phased. "Aw cmon Dan, lighten up a bit," Chris says, lightly punching Dan's arm. "You're always so series and sarcastic."

"It's just who I am," Dan replies shrugging.

"I know who will snap you out of it," Chris says, smirking. "And they're heading right towards you." Dan looks up and immediately spots who Chris was talking about.

Phil Lester. Nobody knew that name. He was the classic nerd of high school, minus the glasses, but Dan was pretty sure he wore contact lenses. Other than that, he fit the picture pretty well; tight buttoned, colored shirt, black skinny jeans, a black fringe styled in the opposite of Dan's, and books constantly protectively clutched to his chest.

Dan watches him pass, head staring down at the ground. He had his arms wrapped around his books making his small frame look even smaller.

Dan notices Chris and Pj watching him with smirks on their faces. Dan waves his hands at them. "Shove off, I do not like him."

"Yeah right, and My Chemical Romance is gonna break up one day," Chris snorts. "You need to work on your lies, Dan."

"I don't like him, and I'll even prove it to you," Dan says stubbornly. Chris looked so happy you would've thought he won the lottery. He turns to Pj and they begin to whisper back and forth to each other as they walk.

"Yo Dan!" Someone shouts from behind him. Dan turns to see Rob jogging towards him. Rob was the captain of the football team, which was pretty obvious from his tree trunk sized arms. "You coming to Adam's party tonight? Friday night, I expect it'll be pretty wild."

Dan was about to say yes, but Chris tugs has back and answers for him. "No sorry, he's got something he has to do." Dan looks at Chris confused. What was Chris talking about? He quickly shuffled through his memories, but couldn't recall him telling Chris and Pj of anything he had to do tonight.

Rob looks at Chris skeptically. He then turns to dan with a raised eyebrow. "This true, Dan?"

"I, uh.." Dan looks at Chris and Pj, who are both nodding slowly. "Y-yeah, I'm busy tonight, sorry mate."

Rob looks satisfied with this answer. "Too bad man, it would've been sweet."

"Yeah," Dan said, chuckling awkwardly.  Rob clamps Dan on the back, nearly knocking him flat. "Alright, see you Monday." He turns around and runs off into the crowd.

Dan immediately whirls onto Chris and Pj. "Explain."

"We'll explain later, we'd better get to class," Chris says, walking off briskly towards their class. If Dan knew anything about Chris, it was that he cared nothing about getting to class on time. It was usually Dan and Pj that made him, otherwise he might even skip it altogether. Just because Dan was considered a popular doesn't mean he didn't care about his grades. He had an average of A's and B's in all classes. Well, all classes except English. English could go jump in a hole. He already knew how to speak English, why did he need to know what every single word in the dictionary was? Who cares if one word is an adjective and the other is a noun? Not him, that's for sure.

They get to class and sit down in their usual spots. No one ever sat in them, they just fought over who got to sit in the seats around him. As Dan opens his textbook up to what they were learning, a girl in front of him turns around in her seat.

"Hi, Dan," she says sweetly, batting her eyelashes at him.

"Kathrine," Dan says through his teeth, already annoyed.

"Have you been avoiding me?" She pouts, putting on a sad face.

"What do you want," Dan sighs, rolling his eyes.

Kathrine pulls her top down a bit. "I just want alone time between me and you," she whispers.

"I told you I'm done doing that stuff," Dan says hotly. "Now would you mind getting your fake breasts off my math book?"

That shut her up real quick. With an indignant hmph, she turns back around, muttering something about being a size C.

"Wow, you really are changed," Chris says behind Dan. Dan turns around and deadpans at him. "Good to know
you'll always believe me, buddy."

"Hey, I just had to see it to believe it," Chris says, holding his hands up. "Now I see it, I believe you." Just then the teacher came in, and Dan turned back in his seat.

"Alright class, settle down, settle down. Mr. Stokes please stop throwing gum in Miss McKaylas hair, we aren't in middle school anymore. Today, we're learning about graphs..."

Dan settles back into his chair. This wasn't anything he didn't already know, today should be an easy lesson.

***

As soon as class was over, Dan dragged Chris and Pj to the bathroom. "Okay you two," he said, looking back and forth between them, "explain."

Chris gets a mischievous smile on his face, while Pj just steps back as if about to watch an incredible show. "Tonight, you have a tutoring appointment with Phil."

"What?!"

Chris nods, a smug smile on his lips. "You have to take lessons from him for at least a week, and if by the end of it I notice no change between you two, then you truly don't have a crush on him. But if I do notice change," Chris grins. "You owe me 10 pounds."

"Woah woah woah, hold up. I can't just walk up to Phil's house and demand he give me tutoring lessons."

"I've already got it worked out. You're meeting him tonight and every night except weekends from 7-9. He'll be teaching you English."

"When did you sort this out with him?" Dan asks bewildered. He was also slightly jealous that Chris and Pj had been talking to Phil without him- no Dan! You're supposed to be showing them you don't like him. Which you don't.

"Just today," Pj speaks up. "We just mentioned that we liked a few video games he liked, a few bands, and we were basically besties."

"Jealous?" Chris asks, smirking.

Dan crosses his arms. "Pfft, no."

Chris' smirk deepens. "Right, okay. Anyway, make sure you're there tonight or you'll probably break his heart. Poor boy looked like he was going to explode when I asked him if he could tutor-" Chris takes on a dramatic voice,"-The Dan Howell."

Dan groans. "I'll go." Pj grins beside Chris. "But only because I want to win this bet," Dan adds quickly. They hear the bell ring.

"Well have fun in class mate," Chris says, patting Dan's back.

"Yeah, try not to stare at Phil too much," Pj adds. They both laugh before walking down the hall. Dan rolls his eyes. He did not like Phil Lester. He wasn't even that attractive. There's nothing appealing about his form fitting buttoned shirts, or black skinny jeans conforming to his long legs, or.. blue eyes always so wide and full of curiosity.. so beautiful too...

Dan shook his head to clear his thoughts. Chris and Pj must be getting into his brain.

They split off down the hallway, as they didn't have thiscclass together. Dan sighs as he makes his way to his least favorite class; English.

But Phil's in that class.

Dan growled and shook his head again. He really needed to stop his thoughts from wondering so much.

"Hey, Howell!" A voice yells behind him. Dan turns around to see a boy about his height walking towards him. He had blonde hair jelled up, and his face was marked with cuts and a few fading bruises.

"Hey Chad," Dan says, stopping in the hallway, even though he really didn't want to talk to him. Chad was constantly getting into fights and causing trouble. But he knew people and could easily target someone. It was better to be on his good side. Dan didn't think he would dare fight him, but better safe than sorry.

"Rob told me you aren't coming to the party tonight," Chad says, tone light but Dan can hear the slight menace in it. "Hope you're not bailing out on us, Howell."

"No! No, I want to go but, I uh," Dan comes up with something quickly, "my mum and dad want me to have a family night home or some crap like that."

"Oh that's easy, just have the night with them then sneak away after they go to bed," Chad says with a shrug.

Dan knew that if she showed up to the party at 9, everyone would be suspicious. Dan was always there when the party first started.

"I-I really can't, my parents are being very serious about it," Dan says, then throws in an eye roll.

Chad looks at him skeptically, but then a smirk grows on his face. "Alright then, I'll see you another time." He starts to walk away then calls over his shoulder, "and you better come to the next party!"

Dan exhales heavily. He was treading in dangerous waters by not going to this party. As stupid as it was, he had to go to them to maintain his status. And it wasn't like he desperately wanted to keep his "popular" title, but he knew that if he fell out of it, he would immediately be a target of Chad and his goons.

Just then the second bell rang. He'd better get to class. He jogs down the hallway until he gets to the room. The door was still open: he had made it. He walks in and immediately feels lots of eyes on him. Chatter dies down for a second, before picking up again. Dan looks around and sees there was only one seat remaining. Right next to Phil Lester.

Of course it is, Dan thinks sarcastically. I'll bet Chris and Pj somehow rigged it. He slides into his seat and places his bag next to his chair. He looks to his left to see Phil looking very tense.

Dan decides to try to make conversation. "I'm coming over to your house for tutoring, right?" He asks.

Phil looks over to him with wide eyes, as if he had never expected Dan to be talking to him. "Y-yeah," he stutters, face going red. He ducks his head and hides under his fringe.

Cute.

"Lighten up, I'm not going to bite your head off," Dan says with a grin. Phil looks horrified that Dan had noticed how nervous he was. "R-right. So-sorry."

Dan smirks and shakes his head. Phil was as jumpy as a scared dog during a firework show. The teacher walks in and Dan sees Phil slump back into his chair with relief. Dan feels slightly bad for making Phil so scared, but it's not like he was trying.

"Okay students, quiet down. Open your notebooks to your writing notes, and copy this down..."

***

Dan bounces his foot up and down impatiently as he waits for the class to end.

"Final one," the teacher speaks up from where he's writing on the whiteboard. "Appeal to emotion. This is when during an argument, you use emotions in place of reason. You could even call it manipulation. For example: a commercial that shows a ragged, hungry child starving on the streets. This would obviously cause someone watching to pity the child. After they have grabbed your emotions, it's easier for them to make an appeal to you, such as buying their product because 'the money goes to a charity to help starving children.'" Dan looks over at Phil, who's fervently writing stuff down in his binder. He looks very concentrated. "I'm not saying that they're lying when they say it will go to a charity, but they still got the money from using people's emotions rather than logic and reasoning."

The bell rings, and immediately everyone is on their feet. "Remember everyone, your research papers are due Monday!" Dan groans and throws his head back. He had completely forgotten about his paper. He gathers up his things before throwing his backpack over his shoulder.

The rest of his day passes normally. He goes to his classes, talks to the people that he was inclined to, avoided the people we didn't want to talk to, and flirted with a few girls.

"I thought you said you were done sleeping around with girls?" Pj asked at lunch. A pretty blonde had just left from talking with Dan. Dan had thrown in a flirt here and there, the girl returning them eagerly.

"I said I was done sleeping with a new girl every couple weeks, not flirting with them." Dan said. Pj and Chris gave him expressions that show just how unimpressed they are. "Hey, I'm working on it, okay? You can't expect me do he perfect," he said, crossing his arms.

"Alright alright," Pj says, taking a bite out of his sandwich. Dan surveys the lunch area. It was obvious how the room was dived. One table held all the cheerleaders and popular girls, who were all ogling at the table next to them; the jocks. The jocks were just as interested in the girls as they were in them, it made Dan want to vomit. Next there were the people who really didn't fit into any categories, just were there. The nerds were all huddled at one antisocial table, with their noses in books and textbooks.

As Dan stares at the table, he notices Phil sitting alone at the end of the table. Dan's heart lurches at the sight. He remembers back when he had first started coming to this school, and every lunch for half a semester he was sat by himself. Those were not fond memories.

Without thinking, he stands and walks towards Phil. People he pass by look up at him and their eyes follow him. Once he's at the at the table, he stands near the end of it where Phil was sitting.

"Hi Phil," he says. Phil jumps with surprise and looks up at him. He looks surprised to see Dan, then scared.

"H-hi," Phil squeaks, trying to give a small smile.

"Do you want to come sit with me and my friends? I couldn't help but notice you were kinda lonely over here," Dan says, gesturing over to where Chris and Pj were sitting. Dan now notices the smug looks on their faces. Dan shoots death glares at them but returns his expression to normal when he looks back to Phil.

"Oh, uhm, s-sure.. if I'm not annoying you o-or anything," Phil replies meekly, closing the book he had been reading.

"No, you're fine," Dan says, beginning to walk and motioning for Phil to follow. Phil follows meekly behind, shrinking under people's gazes as they stared at him. Who was this weird nerd Dan had taken notice of?

Dan sits back down at his table next to Chris and Pj. They both had expressions of smugness but also surprise. Phil cautiously sits down on the same side, but not very close to Dan.

"Hi Phil," Chris says, initiating the conversation. "We've met before, when I told you about Dan's horrific need for tutoring."

Phil smiled nervously. "Y-yeah, I remember you."

"We've met also," Pj says, waving his hand which was holding a fork. Phil nods at him, still looking incredibly awkward.

"So Phil," Chris says, shooting a pointed look at Dan as if you say you should be the one making conversation. "Is English your favorite subject?"

"Y-yeah, I like it a l-lot."

"You and Dan must come from completely different planets," Chris says, grinning, "because Dan hates nothing more, than English."

"That's because our teacher sucks at explaining things," Dan whines.

"Is it the teachers inability to teach, or your lack of attention that's the problem," Chris asks with his permanent smirk on display.

"Judging by that Dan has the attention span of a squirrel, I think that's probably our answer," Pj says.

"You guys suck," Dan says with a roll of his eyes. Dan glances to his right and notices Phil observing their talking with amusement written on his face. When he notices that Dan was watching him, he flushes and looks down at the table.

"Phil, where's your lunch?" Pj asks, giving Phil a kind look.

"O-oh, I left in on m-my counter at home," he says with a small chuckle. It sounded rather sad.

"That's a downer," Chris says, looking down at his own finished lunch. "I wouldn't give you mine, but.." he pats his stomach.

"Yeah, I don't think mine would look very appetizing if I regurgitated mine back up," Pj says.

Dan looks down at his own half finished lunch. It wasn't much, just a half eaten peanut butter and jelly, a handful of chips, and a bag of vegetables. He slides the food over to Phil.

"Here, you can have mine," he says, then quickly adds, "I wasn't gonna finish it anyway, better to let someone eat it than throw it away, right?"

Chris and Pj don't look like they believed his reason, but Phil bought it instantly.

"Are you sure?" He asks, staring down at it as if it was the most precious item in the world. "I-I wouldn't want you to be hungry because of me.."

"No, go for it," Dan says with a shrug. Phil timidly bites into the half eaten sandwich, then seeing as no one was reprimanding him, bites into it more ferociously.

Lunch passes as usual from now, other than the fact that many more glances were directed at Dan's table than were usual. Phil still looked around nervously as he ate, obviously not used to so many people watching him. He mainly just sat and listened to Dan, Chris, and Pj talk, but occasionally he would stutter a sentence in.

As Pj and Chris start to fight over wether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable, Dan zones out of the conservation. His eyes wonder over to Phil, who appeared to be deep in through. His hand was holding the last bite of Dan's sandwich, but he was leant against the hand. His pale cheeks, scrunched up by his hand, were smooth, and if Dan looked closely, had a subtle dusting of freckles. His black hair framed his face wonderfully, reminding Dan of a lion's mane.

But by far Phil's most stunning feature was his eyes. They were solid blue. No, wait. They were blue with streaks of green and flecks of yellow. Yes, that was it. Overall, they were the most gorgeous eyes Dan had ever seen.

"-Dan!"

Dan jostles back to reality. It appeared Phil was too, by the loud voice, for he jumped a bit too. He looked around, and caught Dan staring at him.

Crap.

Dan turns his body towards Chris, who had yelled. "What?" He asks impatiently, cheeks tinted pink from being discovered.

"I've called you 4 times, you were just so intent on- what were you doing, anyway?" He asks, narrowing his eyes. Dan blushes deeper and glances at Phil. He needed to stop blushing, he never has before. Phil was in a similar state, cheeks red as he stared down at his nearly finished lunch.

"I was- I just zoned out, that's all," Dan says, shrugging casually.

Pj, ever the sharp lad, caught on to Dan's pink face and glances at Phil. He grinned. "I think he zoned out while he was checking out-"

At that instant, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Dan turns to Pj in a combination of desperation, anger, and embarrassment. "Don't you dare finish that sentence," he hisses under his breath. "I was not checking him out."

"Oh yeah, and that's why you look like a tomato," Pj grins, then lifts his head up and yells to Chris who was throwing away his trash, "which is a vegetable, by the way!"

"I'm not blushing!" Dan says, though he knew he was. He's never blushed before, even with relentless flirting from girls.

Why did a single glance from Phil suddenly crumble all his composure?

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...
I told you it would be cliché.

I don't really know exactly where I'm going with this story, so if you have a preference, comment it here! It might just happen...

When is your guys' summers? June is coming up close, which means summer is too. (it can't come soon enough though)

Goodbye!

"What are you laughing at, hot topic?"

"Aw, you think I'm hot."

~💜🖤~