fun ; phan

three

I wake up in my tiny excuse for a room in the orphanage, more comfortable than the past few months, as I got my cast off. Although it's a relief, I almost wish I could've kept it on, just to prove that someone was nice to me and signed it. I know that at the end of the day Phil is probably no different to the other assholes in the school, but his warm, crooked smile that he gave me said otherwise.

I get up feeling groggy, but not wanting to spend another second in the discomforting bed that I sleep in. Chucking on some clothes that had to be bought from the kids' section, I look in the mirror, seeing my hair to be more of a mess than usual. Most of the time, it's just curly, but sometimes, like now, it's fluffy and disorderly. I laugh at myself slightly and pull on my shoes, just a pair of black trainers, walking out of my room with my bag slung over my shoulder, skipping down what seems like thousands of steps, as I'm on the top floor, and leaving the place, no words said to any of the staff.

Around here, there are a bunch of kids, the only people that I'm taller than, so that's a plus: most mornings I can have a brief moment of feeling tall, before walking into school with giants like Phil Lester. Not only is he tall, but he's strong too, the exact opposite of me. There's also the guys like Max, Justin, and Pete, etc, who arent's as tall, but are definitely almost as strong. It scares me, in all honesty, being surrounded by people who could so easily kill me if they wanted to, even the girls, (not that I'm sexist, but stereotypically guys are taller and stronger).

I just need to put up with it until the end of the school day, and then I can head to the park until nightfall. I have a slight skip in my step as I enter the school building, which instantly falls when my eyes land upon Max, and the rest of his gang. They didn't bother me the whole time I had a cast on, but I feel that that's going to change now. There's eyes lift up, spotting me, and I panic. Just at that exact moment, their attention is drawn away from me, when Phil Lester approaches.

"Hey, Lester! You coming to practice today?" One asks, holding out a hand, which he seems hesitant to shake.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Need to be ready for the game that's coming up. Apparently, all the kids from the school we're against are, like, actual buff people."

"We've got you though, Lester. We may not be fucking beasts, but you're tall and quick."

I notice that I'm staring and eavesdropping, so I look down at my feet and hope they don't notice.

"You know, we could have a little bit of practice now," Pete says, and though I can't see, I can feel their eyes burning into me.

"W-What do you mean?" Phil asks.

"Howell's over there. Pretty easy way to practice tackling, he's so fucking short!"

"That is not going to happen." He answers sternly, walking away.

I realise that he's walking in my direction when I can see his feet on the ground that I've been looking at, and then I tilt my head all of the way up so that I'm looking up at his face.

"You okay? They're assholes, I know. They're not my friends, I swear, it's cause we're on the rugby team, so I kinda have to. I'm not like that." He explains, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. You don't have to pretend to not be their friends, I'm not judging."

"Trust me, I'd never be their friend."

"Oh, good, cause I was secretly judging very hard," I say cheekily with a giggle.

"You're cute," He says, ruffling my hair, with no difficuly, because of my height. "I'll see you around." He adds, walking away with the group of his 'friends', and turning his head back slightly to flash me a smile.

What the fuck just happened.