Welcome to the first part of this story/oneshot look forward to writing 10 more chapters

Also, sorry, I don't think this will have a kiss at the end.

Dan Howell was popular, that was all there was to it, and every year he won the school's Christmas jumper competition. He didn't even like doing the competition, and every year he would just stick a Christmas sticker or gift tag on a red jumper and still end up winning.

Dan wasn't oblivious as to why, he was funny, nice to most people, and he was pretty damn attractive. This may sound egotistical to some people, but to him, it was something he just learned to get used to.

People would fawn at his feet, stuttering and praising him like a god. It was ridiculous. His friends would always make fun of how popular he was, always mentioning it, and imitating all the people who talked to him. They were also the people who persuaded to enter the competition, year after year.

At first, it had been Dan's own idea to enter the competition, to see what would happen if he just stuck a ribbon on his jumper, but then he won. He realised that people were voting for him, just to vote for him. Even the teachers voted! But in this case it was because he was "finally contributing to the school's community, finally getting involved", but this wasn't true at all. He despised the jumper contest, it was cheesy and made people try way too hard, just to watch Dan steal the prize away from them like the Grinch stole Christmas.

Hey, look at him, using a Christmas analogy. See, he wasn't that bad. Dan laughed at himself at the stupidity of that statement, just because he mentioned Christmas once did not mean he was a fan of it. Mostly it was just this damn competition that drove him up the wall. It was such a hassle, all the expectations of his adoring fans, waiting for him to win.

This year, he was dragged into the competition, yet again.

"This time, you should just go shirtless with a tag tied around your waist" his friend Chris said, sniggering.

"Gotta do something with that body." His other friend PJ added.

"Guys, my body is really not the prettiest sight. Despite my looks, I can barely get up the stairs without being out of breath and you know how much pizza I eat, so please, not that." Dan explained, exasperated.

"So you do agree to do it?" PJ pushed.

"Do what?" Dan asked faking being oblivious.

"The competition. You said you wouldn't go topless. You didn't say you didn't want to do it." PJ explained smugly. Dan just groaned in annoyance, he wasn't going to win the argument, like every other year.

~~

Dan slumped slowly to the school entrance. Here comes the day of cheers and supposed Christmas cheer, where he would be pestered constantly and go through the whole process just to be standing champion yet again. He knew he should be appreciative of this luxury but it was difficult when he didn't even ask for it, and it had been going for four years.

This time, when he walked into the room, he got a surprise. Yes, there were whispers from every member of the school but they didn't seem directed at him. Normally everyone was forthright with their opinions of him, waiting to be noticed by the great Dan Howell. This time, they were only glancing at him, then conversing between themselves, whispering away. Dan saw his friends in the distance and walked towards them. He could hear a faint sound of "foll" and "ester" and was wondering what the hell they were saying.

"Hey" Dan said to his friends, as casually as he could.

"Uuh, yeah.. hey" Chris said uneasily, which was completely abnormal for him, everything he said was done with gusto and spirit.

"Eerr, what's wrong guys?" Dan asked seriously scared of what's going on. They always tell him anything. They start looking at their feet and shuffling uncomfortably.

"Phil Lester is taking part in the competition." Dan just stared at them for that confession.

"And?"

"And, he's like so well known for his crazy outfits. He may look ridiculous but for this, it'll be in his favour." Pj explained, like it should make me more worried.

"And? I don't care if I win the competition or not, I hate it." Dan said, ready to turn away.

"But you do." Pj insisted. He just walked off at that. He didn't care about some dumb contest that he never tried for. He will win anyway, even if this Phil guy was amazing at fashion, he was the most popular.

He didn't know much about this dude, but Dan knew he'd only been here for a year, so had yet to take part in this jumper thing. He guessed he's actually excited about this and actually wants to win.

He was also aware of his strange fashion ways, his outfits were always incredibly colourful and he never failed to make a statement. But this meant he was often mocked. No Dan  should be fine. He was just annoyed this guy would never win it, taking the burden of him. No one will vote for Phil Lester's jumper tomorrow.

~~~

Phil Lester loved Christmas. He just found it so fun and warm and CHRISTMASSY! there was no other way to describe it. Every year he would go all out on the decorations in his house, making his mother a little more irritated every year. His mum wouldn't be so irritated with his festive decoration, if it wasn't for the  fact that he always ended up trashing the place, getting every single decoration out from under the stairs, even buying new ones because what they had 'just wasn't enough'.

It was unfortunate that even though he loved Christmas, he would never win the Christmas jumper competition. Even though he'd only been at this school for a little less than a year, he knew how it worked. Dan would win. The contest was only about popularity and Phil could never win that.

No, Phil Lester was not popular. He wore too many colours, was far too excitable, and just was the most awkward person on earth. He liked to be big, and loud and just.. there, but all it meant was people looked at him oddly instead of admiringly. This contest would make or break him. It was clearly very important to others and showed who was the most admired, but it would also allow him to be himself in all his glory, and he could celebrate Christmas in style. It also gave him a chance to try out his new glue gun.

It also meant that he could get closer to the man who won every single year, Dan Howell. This was good for many reasons.
The main one was of course, he wanted to find out what made him win every year, and ask whether he really did hate being chosen every year.
If that assumption was true, he would then want to shake the man. How could one boy be so ungrateful?! Phil would do anything to win and all he had to do was blink for everyone to vote for him. He always had that persona, of being above everyone else, like he could just walk on air, and Phil was repulsed by it.

Then again, the final reason he wanted to see him was because, like everyone else in this school, he had just the tiniest of crushes on him, and would just love to see him up close. Phil had quickly dismissed this reason, as he knew everyone felt like that, and probably his crush was based on superficial looks, and he'd much rather crush him by showing that he is not always the winner of everything. Yes, that was more like it.

Phil had told everyone he was doing the Christmas jumper competition, which was a big mistake. People were constantly asking whether he thought he could do it, or telling him he could never beat Dan, or just whispering around him, but it wasn't his fault! He had to tell people as people had told him he should enter, as they admired his very fabulous jumpers he wore every day. He was also very excited. How was he supposed to hold it in for the few days before it started? It was impossible.

~~

When Phil walked through that door the day of jumper, so many people stared at him, whispering to each other. They were just waiting for the moment he messed up, later today. He could see Dan in the corner of the hallway, talking to his friends, who has worried looks on their faces. They must be threating over whether Phil would win. This was good, this meant they had doubt that Dan would win.

Dan himself seemed absolutely unfazed, just looking around the room, looking bored. And Phil was insulted by it. How dare he think he wasn't competition? All Phil wanted to do was stomp over there, and pretend to be kind saying good luck, just to psyche him out, by showing his amazing jumper, but he knew that was cruel. He would win fair and square.

Once people stopped whispering about the fact Phil was entering the competition, people started to take notice of the jumper, and he could hear mutterings of "wow"s and "he might actually have competition"s, and it filled Phil with pride. There were also a lot of "he's never gonna win"s and "that is one ugly jumper"s, but he didn't mind, and the ugly comments were good, it was an UGLY jumper competition, people just forget that.

One person talked directly to Phil, saying, "oh my gosh, that is so cool! Did I hear you decorated it yourself? How did you get the reindeers nose to light up?" Then, him being the need he was started explaining all the details of the lighting function. Yes, he had a light up jumper that he made himself, along with glue gunned on snowballs and material from an actual Christmas hat. Phil could definitely win this thing, there was no doubt about it. Now, he just had to spend the whole day in this jumper, and wait for the end of the day, for the votes to be added up.

I kept on accidentally slipping into first person so I had to change all that 😂

Thanks I guess to my friend SonyaTheDoodler for finally  reading my story when I've pestered you, and yess!! Also you're another voter!! Guys! We have 4 people who voted! (I am legit so happy about that)