disclaimer: I dont own Dan, Phil, Chris, or PJ.

This is a present for my secret Santa! Shh :p

Chapter One - Different

Phil Lester had absolutely no idea where he was going. He was just stuck in a car with a small bag of luggage - weird men in black suits acted as some kind of bodyguards. Why? He wasnt actually sure about that either. All he knew was that he'd been told he had to transfer to a strange boarding school he had never heard of called Crayfords Academy for the especially gifted. According to what the big, bulky man sitting next to him said, it was because of what he had done.

He didn't even mean to do anything bad! He didn't mean to hurt anyone. Self defence. It was self defence.

The seat belt was holding him tightly to the hard leather seat. He could barely breathe, but something told him that it wasn't the seat belt.

"We'll be there shortly." The man who had yet to introduce himself spoke with a rough, deep voice. Finally, the car came to a slow stop. Was this going to be like a prison? Were the teachers going to torture him? Would he die here, at 15 years old?

There was an absolutely massive stone pathway beyond the shiny silver gates, shaded by a huge canopy of trees, showing the way up the path and to a gigantic fountain. The fountain, however, was nothing compared to the building it stood in front of. It honestly looked like it was worth billions. Old, but kept very clean with red bricks and marble stairs leading to a large wooden door with those giant metal handles you see on haunted houses sometimes. He had no time to stop and look at the scenery though, because the creepy man who was probably 7'0 tall was following closely behind him.

"This way," the guy ordered him again. Phil obliged, making his way up the marble steps and into the building. The interior was even more impressive. A large hallway with a shiny wooden floor, the ceiling was two stories high and had a chandelier hanging from it. It looked so big that if it fell he would certainly get crushed to death.

The steps inside were also marble - there was more shiny wood. Taking him to the room at the far end which he assumed was the teachers office or something. The man roughly pushed him inside and stood by the door. What was he going to do, escape?!

"Thank you, Bruce," came a voice from somewhere inside. "You can leave it to me now,"

The guy, named Bruce which was a fitting name Phil had decided, left. Phil was left alone, standing at the door.

"Phillip Lester, correct?" An ageing man with greying hair made his way behind a desk.

"Er.. Just Phil-" He mumbled quietly, shuffling awkwardly at the door.

"So, Phillip, your luggage will be placed in your room after we go through it. Now then, please, sit, while I explain to you the rules."

He gulped - the chair was a lot more comfy than the awful car seat at least.

"As you may or may not know, this is a school for people who have 'strange abilities'. For example, someone may have the ability to manipulate water or fire... Very rare, that type. You may have the ability to read minds or teleport - this is a school for, to put it in your words, 'magic',"

Well at least that explained stuff a bit better. It wasn't some kind of prison, at least, less of a prison than he had originally thought it would be. Maybe.

"On your first day you shall be assessed and marked on how well you control it, how good you are in class and the type of ability you have is also factored. You will be placed into an ability based category and a strength/control based category. They are put together to make your overall score.

"Why?"

"It's just protocol. I trust you know how to use a map and therefore find your dorm?" Phil nodded in reply and slowly stood up. Protocol my ass, he thought, as he stepped out of the door and - newly obtained map in hand - made his way to the dorms. To get to the secondary education dorms, you had to walk through the gardens, a small slope and over a river to get there. He was honestly surprised he didn't get lost. The building was large, not as big as the main building, but still very large.

When he stepped inside, it was deserted. He heard muffled voices coming from a room to the left which according to the map said that it was the lounge. A desk was tucked away by another set of marble stairs. A tired looking woman with teeth that said she was a smoker was sitting at it, reading some kind of book.

"Uh," Phil began, moving toward the desk slowly, "I'm new... My names Phil?"

"Phil... Lester? Ah, right!" Her bored expression suddenly changed to one of bubbly almost-excitement. "Here's your key! I'll need you to sign in here. You have to sign in and out every time you leave the dorm," she paused, staring at him for a moment before chuckling. "Yes, I'll come and tell you when lunch is. Oh, your timetable is on your bed - your classes start in two days, before you ask,"

Well, that was strange. At least, it would be - someone reading your thoughts, but Phil decided he should probably get used to it. He took the key from the woman who's name, according to the name tag, was Lizzie. Finally, he was in the room that he would be staying in for... Well, he wasn't actually sure.

It was a pretty nice room. Simple brown furniture with a light blue carpet and white walls. The curtains were horrible, some kind of murky green, but at least the window let in a lot of light. Sure enough when he got to the bed he'd be sleeping in for the length of time he would be at this school, there were a few pieces of paper explaining details about how the school works. He also got his timetable which consisted of things like 'combat skills' and 'power practice' and other strange things he didn't have a clue about. There was also maths, English and science which he was so happy about.

Sarcasm was amazing.

Phil practically collapsed on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. It was a pretty comfy bed,in his opinion, but it felt strange. Like when you're in hospital in bed but the bed doesn't feel like yours. Despite it being comfy, he was actually surprised when he suddenly woke up a few hours later, still fully clothed with lots of unpacking to do. He's just managed to get a few clothes into the wardrobe before there was a knock on the door.

"Hello?" He called.

"It's Lizzie! Dinner's going to be ready soon so just come down when you feel like it, I'll get someone to show you to the lunch hall, ok?"

Phil nodded before remembering she couldn't see him, so he said a quick "Ok!" Before deciding to Change into something that was a worn old shirt and some jeans he'd just thrown on quickly. He took out a green plaid shirt and skinny jeans, fixed his hair a bit (ugh, fringe gaps,) and made his way downstairs.

It was a lot more busy that it was when he'd come a few hours ago - groups of twos and threes left the building, laughing and giggling and doing friend-y things.
"Ah, Phil! This is Dan, I asked him to show you to the lunch hall!"

Standing next to Lizzie was a boy who, in a normal secondary school, he would class as one of those annoying popular kids. At this school, though, he had no clue what the people were like.

Dan didn't smile at him when he made his way over, he just looked somewhere into the distance with his hands in his pockets. Despite Dan's attitude.. He'd never met anyone with such nice brown eyes before. He must've been caught staring, though, because Dan turned his gaze toward him and gave him a look of confusion.

"Um.. Hi, I'm Phil?" He started, giving a small and somewhat nervous smile. He'd forgotten how awkward he was in situations like this. It was annoying.

"Yeah I know, Lizzie told me. Lunch hall's this way." Dan started toward the door and Phil followed before throwing a quick, uncertain glance at Lizzie. "Hurry up, I don't have all day," Dan called.

"S-sorry.." Phil mumbled.

They walked in silence to the lunch hall - down a different path than the one he took to get to the dorm.

"So.. Uh.. What ability do you have?" Phil asked out of curiosity. Dan didn't reply for a while.

"You shouldn't ask people that. If they wanted to tell you, they would've done it by now."

"Oh, sorry..." More silence. Had he offended him? He didn't mean too, if he did. He silently cursed his awful social awkwardness.

"Ok. There's the lunch hall." Dan pointed with a finger to a building which looked like it should be a school in itself. "Now never talk to me again. We're never going to be friends, we're never going to even look at each other."

Well he seemed nice.

Dan had gone the opposite way when Phil started toward the building in the hopes that the people there would be nicer than Dan. It was a tiny building compared to the ones he had been in - it was labeled 'secondary education lunch hall'. He assumed the others had different buildings which did make a lot of sense.

"Hey! New kid!" He was greeted with when he'd walked inside. "Hi! I'm Chris!" The boy in front of him was about his height and had brown hair, it kinda reminded him of Dan's hair.

"Oh, uh, I'm Phil.. Nice to meet you," he gave a small wave.

"Hi Phil! Me 'n' PJ are sitting over there" he pointed to another table with a boy sitting at it, picking at his food. "We knew you were the new kid cause he's class rep and knows your face." He said before he had the chance to ask. He couldn't even reply when Chris had vanished and reappeared less than a second later at the table.

"Hi Phil! I'm PJ, you're in our class, so I just thought I'd invite you to sit with us," He smiled, deciding on pushing his food away.

"D'you not like the curry?" Chris asked. PJ shook his head in reply. "Great! I'll have it!" Chris grinned and took it from PJ. "Oh, Phil, the food's over there. Say you're new and you get it for free on the first day,"

Phil decided on the Chinese stir fry which looked much better than the curry PJ had turned down. It was pretty good for school food if he was honest.

"Oh, wait, be right back~!" Chris said before vanishing into thin air.

"Sorry. He does that."

"Oh, it's ok,"

Chris didn't come back and he and PJ continued talking about the school and things they both liked. He'd also discovered that Dan was in his class, which was great, just great. After a couple of hours of talking, they just went back to the dorm. He'd found out that PJ was three doors down from him, which was nice to know in case he had any questions. PJ has invited him over but he had to decline because if he didn't unpack now, he'd never get it done.

With a sigh, he dragged his suitcase from the door to his bed. His suitcase, which seemed far lighter than when he has previously had it. At first he'd passed it off as his imagination, but as he dug deeper into his suitcase, he realised that it was indeed lighter. A lot lighter.

Oh right. They checked the suitcase didn't they? They went through his stuff and threw away half his belongings. Of course, because he'd been having such a great day to begin with.

All his CDs were missing, his Nintendo DS was gone leaving just the games as of they wanted to tease him. In fact they'd even taken some of his clothes! What the hell! The only personal things that had been left was a Stephen King book and his toy lion. The urge to throw his suitcase to the floor in a fit of rage was strong, but the fear of losing control of said anger forced him to just close his eyes and try to sleep it off.

At least the sleeping worked, but he still wasn't in the best mood when he woke up. He's never even finished unpacking which meant he had to rummage through his possessions to find some half decent clothing. There was a knock on the door and a voice asking to come in. He pulled on some trousers before calling to the person outside the door to come in.

The door opened and PJ was standing in the doorway - Chris behind him, waving.

"Hi Phil! We just came to make sure you were ok with where you're going for your first class! This one we're all split up, you see,"

Oh, er.. I have my timetable here..."

Phil went to grab it, but before he had got there Chris had teleported to where the piece of paper was and started reading through it.

"You're in the same one as Peej! What ability d'you have?"

"Chris, you know you shouldn't ask people that! He might not want to tell you"

Funny, that's what Dan had told him yesterday.. Maybe it really was a bit deal of you asked someone what they did.

"Oh, it's ok. I have telekinesis."

"Oooh. Cool! Pj has-"

"Chris!"

"Sorry,"

Pj gave a small half-chuckle half-sigh before smiling at Phil.

"I can make people see illusions and stuff. people are all in different groups - our group, group A, is all stuff to do with doing things with your or someone else's mind.

"That just made me totally confused, but thanks! So.. Uh, where is the class?" Phil asked, tilting his head a bit. He saw Chris had got distracted and was reading the back of the Stephen King book that he's put on his bedside table.

"Don't worry, come and sit with us at breakfast and I'll take you!"

"Chris and PJ waved a goodbye before leaving his room. Phil was glad that he'd made friends - he didn't even know where he was, where his parents were, but for the first time it a while he felt genuinely happy about everything. He finished getting ready, his bad mood had completely disappeared by the time he opened the door to make his way to the hall for breakfast.