The Boy at Camp - Phan AU

Chapter Two

Dan stood up after he heard the second period bell. He had missed his entire English class. He stumbled to the sink and stared at his reflection.

He had a bleeding nose, a black eye, and bloodshot eyes. He looked miserable. He awkwardly lifted his shirt to find a large bruise where he had been kicked, and a few others scattering his chest. He sighed and started cleaning himself up, gently dabbing a damp paper towel onto his face. He winced every time he touched his black eye.

When Dan had finally cleaned himself up, which took about five minutes, he grabbed his backpack awkwardly. He felt intense pain every time he moved. He bit his lip and exited the bathroom. He walked through the halls to get to his French classroom, praying that he wouldn't run into Jack.

Thankfully, whatever god he prayed to was on his side.

He swiftly walked into his classroom, trying to go unnoticed by Madame Farah. She saw the bruise on his face and said nothing, continuing her lesson. Dan sat inn the back corner and pulled out his notebook, writing down what the teacher said. When she ed out a worksheet to all of the students, she gave it to Dan last.

"Daniel, est-ce que ça va?" Madame Farah asked.

"Oui, je vais bien," he lied. He was not good, but he gave her a smile to try and reassure her. It did not work.

"Ce qui vous est arrivé?" she asked in concern.

"Rien, je vais bien," he said, sighing. He took out his pencil and started to do the worksheet.

"Êtes-vous sûr?" Madame Farah asked. She looked genuinely worried for Dan.

"Oui," he said. She sighed and realized that he wasn't going to talk about it anymore.

"Je suis là pour vous si vous avez besoin de moi," she said finally and walked back to her desk.

Dan finished his worksheet quickly. He was very good at learning and ing French, and he often was the first to finish in class. The others around him were continuing to struggle. A few looked up, noticed he was done, and glared at him. He tried to ignore them, but that was easier said than done.

Dan tapped his pencil against his notebook lightly. When he saw more people glaring at him, he stopped. He started doodling in his notebook. Flowers, eyes, and vines flowed across the pages from his pencil. He smiled lightly, as it made him feel better.

The third bell rang, and Dan stood quickly. He winced in pain, since he had moved too fast, and bit his lip. He put his notebook away and quickly left the room, giving Madame Farah a small, "Merci, au revoir."

Dan held onto his backpack tightly, only looking up from the floor so he wouldn't bump into anyone. He was in a lot of pain. His chest hurt, his lungs burned, and he wanted to leave the school, but he knew his house wouldn't be much better. His mother and father would probably be constantly telling him about how he shouldn't get into fights and how he needed to go to church and how it was wrong to be gay.

Someone in the middle of the hallway shoved past him. They muttered, "Faggot," under their breath as they went. Dan let out a small whimper of pain and realized that Jack had probably told the whole school about what happened. He sighed and walked into his English classroom. He knew it would be a long day.

--

After three days, school was finally over. Summer was upon the students, and they were already planning parties and dates and fun events that Dan knew he wouldn't be invited to. He was used to that, though. No one at his school had ever liked him, and now it was even less.

Dan quickly left the school building and started walking to his house. He wanted to leave this people as soon as possible, and he was hoping he could leave unnoticed.

But, with his luck, there was no way that would happen.

Jack and his goons stood in front of Dan and blocked his path. "Hey, faggot, where are you going in such a rush?" Jack asked, smirking. Dan looked up at him nervously.

"I- uh- I was going back to my house," he said quickly, trying to get past him.

"Aww, gay boy, stay. Don't you want to celebrate the fact that school is out?" Jack asked, laughing. The boys around him also laughed.

"No. I don't really care that school is out," Dan said honestly. He pushed past Jack before he could say anything else and started running back to his house. It hurt like hell, since he was still bruised, but he didn't care.

After a few minutes of running, he arrived at his house. He was lucky enough to live a few blocks away from the school. He ran into his house and closed the door behind him. He put down his backpack and sighed.

"Hi, Daniel. How was school?" Dan's mother asked, walking into the room and smiling at her son.

"Uh, it was fine," Dan said, not being entirely truthful.

"Did you run home?" His mother asked, looking up to him in confusion.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I wanted to get some exercise in," Dan said, shrugging. He grabbed his backpack and started to walk away. His mother stopped him.

"Wait, Daniel. Your father and I need to talk to you at dinner," she said.

Dan looked confused. "About what?" His mother said nothing, and Dan took that as his cue to leave. He walked up to his bedroom and sighed.

He pulled out his headphones and plugged them into his phone. He pressed shuffle on his playlist and smiled as one of his favorite songs came on. He pulled out his notebook and did some sketches.

His pencil flew across the page, a line of graphite and emotions dancing along to the music. Dan often drew while listening to music. It took his mind off of the madhouse that was his emotions.

After about an hour, his father came into his room. He had a stone-faced look, as always, and he stared at his son with his arms crossed. Dan took out his earbuds and put down his pencil, his sketch lying unfinished on his bed.

"Hi dad," Dan said.

"Dinner's ready," his father replied sternly, turning and walking out of the room. Dan sighed and stood up, following him.

When he got to the table, he saw that it was only his mother and father. "Where's Adrian?" Dan asked, looking confused.

"Oh, he's at a friend's house. He's sleeping over," his mother replied, already sitting. Dan nodded and sat across from his parents.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked, taking a bite of his dinner.

"Are you gay?" his father asked without hesitation. Dan choked on his food.

"What? No. What made you think that?" Dan said. His father just nodded and looked at his mother. It was obvious that he didn't believe him.

"Dan, we signed you up for a camp this summer," his mother said, looking at him like he was a small child.

"What kind of camp?" Dan asked. He already knew the answer.

"Conversion camp."