Today Was a Loud Day
Summary: A Day in the life of Dan and Phil as teachers. Word Count: 2170 Beta: slightly-artsy-nonsense A/N: This was written for the Phandom Fic Fests Holiday Fic Exchange Read on AO3
Phil’s alarm went off. It was way too early. Especially since he had only gone to bed a few hours earlier. Phil rolled over and saw that Dan wasn’t next to him. He must have decided to sleep in his own room, Phil thought. Dan and Phil have their own bedrooms because they have very different sleeping habits. Phil tries to go to sleep at a reasonable hour. However, there are times when Phil hears Dan pacing around until five in the morning. Fortunately, last night wasn’t one of those nights.Phil reached for his glasses on the bedside table and put them on. Then he stumbled to the bathroom. He passed Dan’s room. The door was open, so he glanced inside. Dan was still sound asleep. Phil went into the bathroom to get ready for the day.
Dan woke up to the sound of the shower running. He checked the time on his phone. 7:28. Fuck, he thought, I really need to fix my sleep schedule. Dan headed down to the kitchen for breakfast.
Dan took the box of shredded wheat cereal out of the cupboard. It was lighter than he remembered. Phil came down into the kitchen. His hair was still wet from being freshly showered. “Phil,” Dan said, “have you been eating my cereal again?”
Phil looked sheepish. “Sorry,” he said
Dan knew he wasn’t. They had this conversation at least once a week. Phil had a habit of snacking in the middle of the night. What Dan couldn’t figure out was why Phil wouldn’t eat his own cereal. Dan took out a bowl and poured himself what was left of his shredded wheat.
“I was up until two in the morning grading spelling tests,” Phil said.
Dan laughed. “How could that possibly take until two in the morning?” Dan grabbed the milk out of the fridge
Phil took a bowl and the box of Krave cereal out of the cupboard “Seven year olds have very interesting interpretations of the English language.”
“You’re an interesting interpretation.”
“Shut up,” Phil was laughing as he said it and playfully punched Dan on the arm.
“Hey” Dan nearly spilled the milk he was pouring. Phil was laughing. A few seconds later Dan joined in. “You twat,” he said.
Phil took the milk and finished his bowl of cereal. Then he got two spoons. “Do you want to watch some anime?”
“Alright”
About an hour later, Phil said, “Come on. We need to go or we’re going to be late.” Dan got his car keys, and they headed outside to Dan’s car. Phil stared straight ahead on the way there because he tended to get motion sickness. They got to school at 8:30am, only about fifteen minutes before school was supposed to start. The parking lot was near the upper school. So, Phil walked from the parking lot to the lower school. There were a lot of kids hanging out outside of the school. Phil saw a few kids from his class.
Phil got to his classroom right before registration. Most of the kids were already in their seats. When the bell rang, the rest of the kids shuffled in. “Good morning everyone,” Phil said.
“Good morning, Mr. Lester,” the kids chorused.
Phil called roll. After roll, Phil pulled out a stack of papers. “Ok,” Phil said, “we’re going to go over your spelling tests from last week.” He went around the room giving back the papers.
Meanwhile, Dan was attempting to teach a bunch of seventeen-year olds about the English judicial system. He was in the middle of his lecture about alternative methods of dispute resolution. One of the boys in the class, Jay said, “Sir, why do we need to learn this?” A few of the other students giggled. Dan sighed. “To pass your exam.” Jay clearly wasn’t expecting that answer. He looked like was about to make another comment, but he appeared to have thought better of it and shut his mouth. Dan continued on with the lesson. It wasn’t the first time he heard that comment. He was sure it wouldn’t be the last, but he didn’t have the energy to humor the kid that day. The bell rang. “Alright, that’s all for today. Jay stay behind, please. A few of the kids went “oooh.” “Does anyone else want to join him?” The kids stopped. “That’s what I thought. Have a good day, everyone.” “You too, sir,” some of the kids replied. Jay stayed in his seat as everyone else filed out. When the last kid left, Dan closed the door.
“So, what’s my punishment?” Jay said in a bored tone looking off to the side instead of at Dan.
“You tell me,” Dan said sitting down in the seat in front of Jay.
“What?” Jay looked up.
“Well, I know detention isn’t going to work. So, you tell me what you think your punishment should be.”
“Nothing”
Dan laughed without mirth, “Nice try. What about this? Why did you take this class?”
“I don’t know.” Jay looked down at his desk. “So universities think I’m clever.”
“Do you want to be a lawyer?”
“I don’t know”
“That’s okay. I did exactly the same thing when I was your age.”
“You did” Jay looked up in surprise.
Dan nodded. “I had no idea what I wanted to do. I thought if I got a law degree then when I applied for jobs, employers would think I was clever.
“So, how did you end up as a teacher?”
“When I decided I didn’t want to do my law course anymore, I had no idea what to do. One of my friends suggested teaching.
Jay didn’t respond. He appeared to be lost in thought.
“So, I want you to think about all this, and write a one-page essay due next lesson, alright?” Dan got up.
“Yes, sir.” Jay stood up too.
“Have a good day, Jay.”
“You too, sir.” Jay left.
When it was time for lunch, Dan met Phil at Phil’s classroom. Phil liked to stay there. Sometimes his kids would come in during lunch for extra help. Dan had no reason to stay in his classroom, since the sixth form kids came and went as the pleased. Neither of them particularly wanted to eat with the other teachers. When Dan got there, Phil asked him how his day was so far.
“Fine, how was yours?” Dan just asked to be polite.
“Fine, even though we were almost late.” Phil said playfully. Phil had been on Dan’s case for years about how he was always waiting until the last minute to do things.
Dan wasn’t even listening though. He was lost in his own thoughts.
“Earth to Dan,” Phil said.
“Phil, Dan said, “why did you decide to become a teacher?”
Phil was taken aback. “Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know. It’s just something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.”
“I don’t really know why. I just kind of fell into it.I didn’t know what I wanted to do after university. I couldn’t do much with an English degree. When I talked to my tutor, he suggested education. So, I talked to a few of my friends who were teachers, and they all thought I would be good at it. So, I figured I’d try it for a year. If I didn’t like it, I could always drop out.
“But you didn’t.”
“No. I ended up really liking it.”
Lunch was almost over. A few kids came back a little early. The kids were in the doorway, but they stopped when they saw Dan. Phil noticed the kids and cleared his throat, so Dan would realize the kids were there. Dan turned to the door. Dan usually managed to sneak out before the kids got back. So, they had never been formally introduced to Dan before.
“Good afternoon,” Phil said to the kids, “this is Mr. Howell. He teaches law in the upper school. If any of you decide you want to take law when you get to A-Levels, he may be your teacher.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Howell,” the children said.
“Good afternoon.” Dan got up to leave. “I should get going. Have a good day,” Dan said to the kids and Phil.
“You too,” Phil said.
“Have a good day, Mr. Howell.”
Dan was halfway out the door now. He looked at the kids and faked a smile. Dan stepped out of the classroom. The children were all coming back from lunch now. Then the bell rang. Dan was lost in his thoughts as he headed back to the upper school.
When the kids came back from lunch they were all a little more rowdy than usual. Phil took roll to make sure everyone came back from lunch. During roll the kids were talking. He heard snippets of their conversation. A few of the girls were talking. They probably thought they were being quiet, but he heard one say, “he wasn’t wearing a ring. Her friend said, “Mr. Lester doesn’t wear a ring either.” Another one said, “okay, so they’re not married, but did you see how they look at each other?” The other two girls nodded. Phil finished calling roll. “Alright, settle down,” The children all faced forward and stopped talking. One of the girls raised her hand. “Yes, Darcy?” “Mr. Lester, is Mr. Howell your boyfriend?” Darcy asked. The other kids giggled. “Yes, Darcy, he is. Now everyone take out your maths books.” The children did as they were told. Phil carried on as if nothing had happened.
After school, Dan and Phil met at Dan’s car. When they got in the car, Phil said, “Do you want to get something for dinner?”
“We shouldn’t. We’ve been getting takeaway a lot lately.”
“So, what do you want to do?”
“We’ll see what we have in the fridge when we get home.”
“Alright.”
Then Dan turned the radio on, and they drove home. Dan had two radio settings, normal and loud. Phil had learned them well over the years. Normal meant they could talk. Loud meant Dan wanted to drown out his thoughts. Today was a loud day.
When they got home, Dan went to the fridge to see what he could make for dinner. Phil offered to cook even though it was Dan’s turn, but Dan said that he wanted to. Neither Dan nor Phil would claim they were particularly good at cooking, but they were both decent at it. Dan liked to cook slightly more than Phil did. It was therapeutic for him.
“Is stir fry alright?” Dan asked.
“Sounds good,” Phil said.
Dan got to work prepping ingredients. When Dan was almost done, Phil took out plates and silverware.
Dan and Phil sat down together. Dan still seemed like he was in another world. “So, how was the rest of your day,” Phil asked.
“Alright.”
“Dan…”
“The kid’s right.”
“What kid?”
“In my first lesson. He always says shit like ‘what’s the point of this?’ He’s not wrong either. I’m just teaching them so they can pass an exam so they can get into university.”
“What happened?”
“The kid just always interrupts class to say to ask what the point of something is. Today I didn’t even bother giving him a real answer. I just said to pass your exam.”
“Dan, you’re a good teacher. You can’t make someone want to learn.”
“I know, but how do you try to convince a kid that this isn’t all pointless when you don’t really believe that?”
Phil didn’t have an answer to that. Dan carried on explaining what happened with Jay. “It’s so stupid. Like a seventeen year old is going to be able to tell me what the point of anything is when I can’t figure it out.”
“Maybe your not supposed to.
“What?”
“Maybe your not supposed to figure it out. Dan, no one knows what the point of life is. You just carry on and hope that you’ve had a positive impact.
“But how do you know if you did?”
“Maybe you can’t. But it sounds like you had an impact on Jay. You said it seemed like he actually thought about what you were saying to him.
“Yeah…” Dan was back in his own world.
Phil got up and cleared the table. “Do you want to play Mario Kart?”
“Sure”
Dan and Phil played Mario Kart for a few hours. Phil lost another race and threw the controller at the TV in mock frustration. This made the men notice what time it was. 11:48pm. “You know, I think this is why we’re up until two in the morning grading papers,” Phil said. Dan laughed. The sight of Dan laughing made Phil happy. Especially after the existential crisis earlier. Phil got up and turned off the Wii and TV. Phil held out his arm for Dan to grab on to. Dan grabbed Phil’s hand and pulled himself up. “Come on, Phil said, “let’s go to bed.”
