Dan sat in the cafeteria, staring at the plain white walls, emotionless, his bagel remaining uneaten. His stomach growled, but the ever growing lump in his throat wouldn't be going away anytime soon, and butterflies beat relentlessly at his tummy.

The sun peeked through the curtains, and landed on the petite, pretty face of the teenage girl next to him. She was forcing lucky charms into her mouth, carefully counting out each bite.

"One...two...three...four." She muttered, her voice barley audible above the chatter of the other patients. Her light brown, fluffy hair framed her circular face perfectly, and just touched her shoulders. "One..."

Dan slowly turned his head, getting a better look at the strange girl. He had seen her around one or twice in the past few days, but she had never made an effort to talk to him, so why now was she sitting next to the male? Was she even real? Dan hadn't hallucinated people in years, but perhaps his brain was finally rebelling against the medication that barley worked?

"Why are you looking at me?" She asked softly, making eye contact with the teen next to her. She seemed nervous. "Have I got something in my hair?"

"N-no!" Dan stuttered, stumbling over his words in an effort to get his point across.

"Then what is it?" She snapped, mixing her spoon into her cereal four times, blushing lightly.

"I was j-just um trying to decide if you were real or not..." He whispered, immediately regretting what he had just said. In the rush to answer her question, he hadn't thought about what he would say in response, and just blurted. Now the pretty girl would think he was crazy, or worse. A deep blushed broke out on his face.

but of course you're crazy the voices whispered, and Dan fought to ignore them, biting his lip in concentration.

"Well... I think I am." She said uncertainly, not a hint of a mocking tone in her voice. Instead she seemed genuinely concerned. Dan didn't know how to react to that. Usually people ran away, or laughed in his face when he asked questions like the one above.

"Why are you sitting here then?"

"You looked lonely. I know what it's like to be lonely." She hung her hair in shame, brown bangs falling in front of her eyes. Dan was rendered speechless, and stared at the girl with his mouth agape in confusion. Stuff like this never happened to him. The only people that would talk to Dan were the nurses and his mum when she visited every Sunday. This was utterly absurd. Lost in his own mind, Dan was unaware of the steadily growing awkward silence between the two kids, and looked at his hands.

"If you don't wanna talk to me you could have just said so." She said, disappointed after Dan had not answered her for quite some time. She started gathering her plastic bowl and cup, getting ready to leave.

"N-no wait!" Dan stuttered, standing up, towering over the tiny girl. "I-I um.... What is your name?" He blushed slightly, pulling down the sleeves of his black jumper nervously.

"Dorothy..." She sat back down, and Dan followed her lead. "But everyone calls my dodie. You?"

"D-Dan..."

Dodie started to nervously tap her pointer finger against the table, doing four taps, before waiting a beat and staring over again. It filled the awkward silence and Dan squinted at her finger, biting down on his soft lip hard.

rip her fucking hand off the voice whispered, and Dan whimpered earning a concerned looked from the girl. Break her finger. Make her stop. Twist her wrist.

Dodies small mouth was moving, but Dan couldn't hear anything other then the voices, jeering on the unhealthy actions.

Slap her. make her sorry she ever sat next to you. you don't deserve friends Dan. Dan bit his lip so hard he tasted blood, and fought against the raging war in his head.

But, just as soon as it had started it stopped. Everything was silent in his crazy, messed up head.

"Dan?! Dan? Dan? Dan?!" Dodie was asking feverishly, completely turned around in her seat so that one of her legs were balanced on each side of the uncomfortable bench. Her small hands were rested on the boys shoulder gently.

"I-I sorry..." He blurted, letting out a shaky breath. "Sometimes these v-voices um..." His checks burned in shame and he let his dark fringe fall in front of his eyes, glaring at the hands that now rested in his lap.

god you're so pathetic Dan thought to himself bitterly. Did you have to mention the voices?

"It's okay, I get it." The girl muttered, completely and utterly shocking Dan. His head snapped up, and his eyes grew wide. In all the years he had spent in his hell hole, Dan was the only person here with Schizophrenia but now....

"My OCD makes me do some crazy stuff."

oh... Dan thought. of course. He hung his head again, slowly blowing out a breath he didn't know he was holding. you'll always be alone Dan Howell the voice told him, and he nodded in agreement. Always alone.

"I burned my hand on a curling iron and... Well I felt the need to do it three more times..." She seemed ashamed, and blushed bright red. "I dunno why, but I just couldn't not do it four times..."

Dan nodded, and looked to the hand that was still rested on his shoulder, grounding him to earth. Sure enough, it was wrapped in a crisp, clean while bandage, bright red skin peeking through it.

"I had no skin on it... Third degree burns." Dodie sighed, and pulled her hands back to her lap, quickly hiding them behind her back and forced a smile on her face. She opened her mouth to speak again, but one of the nurses screamed at the assortment of teens and kids to clean up their plates and head to one of the classrooms they needed to be in after taking their medication.

"See you aground!" She stood up, waved and counted her steps to the trash can.

Dan waved back, and unsteadily pushed himself up, heading towards the line of kids receiving their pills.

* * *

Dan was trying in vain to get his homework done, when in all actuality the paper was left blank and his eyes were trained on the clouds floating by the window.

He'd always loved clouds, even though he barley understood them. They swam through the sky, casting shadows on the earth and showing countless different shapes. And there were so many different types...-cumulus clouds
stratus clouds, cirrus clouds, nimbus clouds-

And they were never the same either. Each shape was completely different, just like humans.

Currently the clouds were clumping together in an angry pile of black, signaling that soon a storm would be coming.

With a loud groan, Dan threw his maths worksheet across the room, and turned to face the window completely. His bed was pushed up right against the window, in the far corner of the small room. Luckily, the other bed at been mostly empty, considering the fact he had been here so long. The nurses felt bad so they let him bunk alone.

On the wall across from the two beds was singular desk. Pencils and paper were littered around the piece of wood that was rarely used. Dan preferred to laze around on his bed, and use one of the multiple hard cover books on happiness as a table.

The walls were just plain white, with nothing decorating then to light up Dans life. The mental hospital was pretty boring.

"Hey." Someone suddenly said from the other side of the room. Dodie stood in the door way, a plain black, but cute dress hanging on her small frame. A light pink sweater was tied around her waist. That was totally out of style butsomehow it looked adorable on her.

"H-hi." Dan said, internally cursing himself for stuttering.

"Did um...did you finish your science homework?" Dodie asked, taking one small step into the room and looking around, despite the fact their wasn't much to see. Dan gave his head a curt nod, trying to sit up straighter, a difficult task on a comfortable bed, but he wanted to look better for Dodie.

"Can I um..can I copy it?" Dan nodded eagerly and quickly pulled out the piece of paper, thrusting it in front of him, anxious to impress this girl.

"Thank you!" She squealed, and ran over to take the paper, hungrily looking over the answers. Her green eyes gleamed with happiness. "I'll have to do something to pay you back." She said, a little to quickly, anxious to make sure Dan knew she wasn't just using him.

"Um actually..." The brown eyed male started nervously. "Can I um copy your maths homework?"

"Sure!" She smiled warmly, and as if she knew Dan was going to ask that question, she pulled the finished work sheet from her back pocket and handed it over. "Just return it when you're done okay?"

"Sure."

"Alright Dan, see you around!" And with that she left, and Dan realized she took exactly four steps to leave the room.

With a satisfied smile, Dan set to work, forcing himself up from his comfortable, warm bed and picked up his own worksheet before feverishly copying down Dodies answers.

He was half way through with the homework when there was a knock on his door. Snapping his head up, Dan frowned when he realized it was one of the emergency room doctors, white lab coat and all. A stethoscope was wrapped around his neck and a clip board was in his large hand.

"Hi you're uum..." He looked down at the clip board in his hand, blonde hair falling in front of his bright blue eyes. "Dan right."

He nodded.

"Okay Dan, say hi to your new room mate!"

Too excited to not post this chapter so here ya good. I hope all you little cloud people enjoy.