+ + Phil takes a very reluctant Dan over to meet his classmates. The bell has yet to chime and the teacher has not yet arrived. Dan sullenly walks over to a boy with a mop of brown hair (much shaggier than his) and another boy with silkier dishwater hair. The first boy is calling out names and the other is saying something about them, as far as Dan can tell.
"Lisa."
"She likes underage turtles."
The two giggle, playfully shoving one another. "Phil!"
"Duh, our radical kid."
"Does that make you two my parents?"
The second one's head pops up in alarm. He shoves the older one over and glances up to Dan. "Who's this? Your lover?"
Dan tries to look anywhere else, hoping to conceal his blushing. Phil giggles. "No, he's my new underclassman."
"Right. That whole Charlie thing."
"Chris!" The first boy knocks him over, hissing.
Dan notices Phil's face drop to a bitter shade of red. Chris looks up mortified, as though he hadn't realized he's said that out loud.
"You know he didn't mean it like that."
"Yeah, I know, Peej. PJ, Chris, this is Dan. Dan, Peej and Chris."
The bell chimes then and Phil takes a seat on the floor. He pulls Dan down as well and the teacher walks in. He doesn't acknowledge the new student and instead goes straight into today's discussion of human-animal relationships. Dan feels so out of place the entire time. This and lunch is the only time shared with PJ and Chris. Phil is already on his feet leading Dan to their next class when the bell chimes.
"Y'know, you never finished telling me the other weird classes you've had."
"Hmm." He mutters in agreement. "Okay, where were we? Oh, sophomore year. I took superhero physics, punk aesthetics, global warming care, embodied culture, and the sociology of fame. Moving on. Last year, I had turntablism,"
"Like, as a deejay?"
Phil nods. "I took an internship at BBC Radio 1 for part of my assignment."
"Lucky."
Phil smiles. "I also took daytime serials,"
"A class for soaps?"
Phil nods and continues. "I had American rebels and romantics,"
"That sounds like an interesting class."
"It was." He sighs. "Plus, I took Writing for Game Design."
"Did you get to make your own video game?"
Phil nods. "7 Second Apocalypse."
"You did not!"
Phil cocks his head to the side. "You've played it?"
"Played it? I own it! It's amazing!"
"Oh. Thanks." He replies in a quieter voice. "And I also took Facial Reconstruction."
"Like makeup?"
"Like putting a broken skull back together and identifying remains. Here we are."
Dan glances up to see the next classroom. It is not a classroom, but more like a miniaturized auditorium. There are more students in here than there were in the other class. Two sets of girls sit all the way up front. A boy and girl sit off to the side and another boy and girl sit farther up. Two boys sit in front of them. Phil leads Dan toward the boy and girl to the side.
"This is Cinema Studies. We're going to watch a film and take notes on the day's theme." Phil explains. He glances up to the catwalk in time to notice the sign being scrolled. "Today's theme is innocence. The screen will split in two and we'll use the headphones." He pauses to show Dan two sets of headphones connected to each seat. "Plus they'll add subtitles. We'll be watching two separate movies and write about their connections and ties with innocence."
"Huh." Dan can honestly say he's never had a class like this before. "What movies are we watching?"
Just then, the bell chimes. Another boy and girl come in and take the first seats they come to. Both movies start to roll and everyone has got their headphones. The movie on the left screen is 'Life Is Beautiful'. It is about a father protecting his son from the barbarities of the Holocaust by turning it all into a game. The movie on the right screen is 'Edward Scissorhands'. It is about a teenager with a childlike strength of mind who is shunned by his town because of his unusual appendages.
When the credits roll on both movies, the dimmed lights brighten. The students remove their headphones and write their names on their comparison pieces to turn their work into the teacher. Instead of another class, Phil then leads Dan to the cafeteria for lunch. The younger boy sees several lines and feels the need to question the necessity when there are not many students in the first place.
"Salad bar, liquid bar, solids bar, vapor bar, snack bar, caffeine island, dietary island, allergy island, raw bar, takeaway bar, desserts bar, ticket booth."
"Okay.. So where do you go?"
Phil shrugs. "Usually Caffeine Island and the takeaway bar."
"Which means what exactly?"
"Chinese food and coffee. What do you want?"
"That sounds fine, only I'm not a big coffee drinker."
"The caffeine bar also has sparkling lemonade and hot chocolate."
"I'll take the hot chocolate."
The boys go through the lines and grab their meals. Phil then leads Dan to a secluded area beyond the soccer field where PJ and Chris are already eating and gossiping. During lunch break, they talk about PJ and Chris's other classes - like Wordplay and Introduction to Winery. They also teach Dan about their "language" they made up last year in ALC, or advanced language composition.
Dan feels out of place but easily comfortable at the same time. PJ and Chris aren't as pastel as Phil, but they don't swear or seemingly do anything wrong. They listen to calming music and don't watch too much television. They are hardly on the Internet and have only played Phil's game once, to show their support. They attend church every week, and Dan can't help but feel a twinge of regret. They separate as the warning bell sounds and Phil takes him on a journey to their next class after cleaning up. Dan jogs in front of Phil and stops, pleading to ask him a question.
"Can you promise not to hate me if I talk to you on religion?"
"Um, okay?"
"I mean it. If you judge me, I'll.. I'll beat you up."
Phil sighs. "What religion are you?"
"Uh, I'm an atheist."
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay."
"Well, it's just, your friends. They're like real churchy and God-loving and I'm all, atheist."
"They're not really my friends." Phil replies. "I don't really have any. But no, I won't judge you on being an atheist."
"Oh. Good. Um, what about you?"
"Agnostic."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Oh." Dan shakes his head for being so worried. "What class are we going to next?"
Phil smiles then. "Kitchen chemistry."
The classroom isn't a classroom at all. Each duo gets their own kitchen counter with a stovetop, an oven, a toaster and a sink built in. There is a large table with a mixed variety of foods - all ingredients anyone can use. There are six duos in the class. Soon as the teacher unveils what they will be making, an uproar of students clambers around one another to gain the perfect ingredients. Phil is a tad competitive, Dan notices with a smirk. He has no clue what to do, so he listens to Phil and hopes for the best. They wind up with an A2. An A for presentation and a 2 for second best in class.
"Sorry we didn't get best." Dan groans dejected.
"Don't be like that, Dan." Phil immediately reprimands him with a goofy smile. "Laura and Nicko are the best chefs in the school. Nicko is going to be head of the fast food nation and change it for the better, and Laura's dad owned an Italian restaurant, so she knows everything pretty well." He pauses. "I wonder what the school will be like when Laura graduates. Jemma did pretty good for a freshman. Maybe when Laura and Harto graduate, Jemma will be Nicko's new underclassman. Makes sense."
"You think about this stuff a lot, don't you?"
Phil shrugs. "Oh, look. Last class."
"Today's been pretty cool."
"Yeah, you've actually shed most of your punk skin." Phil agrees with that beaming smile. "Ready for last class of the day?"
"It's now or never."
"You said you like games like 7 Seconds Apocalypse, right?" He asks, opening the door.
"Yeah, I told you-whoa."
Before him is an enormous television screen connected to six controllers, which lie on the floor beside three two-person beanbags. The boy and girl who they sat by in Cinema Studies are relaxing on the green beanbag to the far left. On the blue beanbag to the far right, there are two girls giggling about something. Phil carelessly plops onto the orange beanbag in the middle. Dan carefully sits down next to him.
When the bell chimes, the instructor passes around zipties for the students to wear while gaming. Every day, the students get some form of restriction or distraction while playing Portal 2. The students need to interact with one another to complete levels. It is a versus game. Each beanbag color is a team. Only twenty minutes into the game, Phil senses Dan's underlying punk. When Dan opens his mouth to let out a long string of cusses, Phil promptly begins playing with one hand and his mouth while his other hand quickly covers Dan's mouth to muffle the rage.
When class is over, Dan is ready to leave. Instead, Phil takes his hand and leads him to the main office to grab a new assignment. He explains that while the others have already started on theirs in September, he didn't have an underclassman and couldn't get started. Now, a month late, they've got a partners' assessment project to work on. Phil's idea is to work on it at his house on Saturday and promptly gives Dan his address. They separate and head to their respective homes.
+ + Please review even if you didn't like it and would like to give me constructive criticism. Don't review if you're just going to hate on my work. Thank you.