Double update?! Oh how I spoil you

Dan was worried, he had to admit it. Throughout the day, people had been complimenting Phil's jumper. People never complimented any one's jumper, it was completely unheard of. No one even complimented his jumpers, as people knew his jumpers were rubbish, but that's not why they voted. Actually, that wasn't true, the first year when he did it as a joke he got many compliments, as it was so bad it was funny.

This year everyone was telling Phil how cool his light up jumper was. Dan looked at his own plain red jumper. He hadn't even bothered to add anything onto the jumper, now he was seriously regretting that.

It didn't help that he shared every single lesson with this Phil guy. How had he never noticed that? This meant he had to go through these compliments all day, it was torture.

The worst thing was, although he complained, he could not fault that guy's jumper. It truly was amazing. He couldn't believe he decorated that all by himself. He even heard him say to someone that he just bought a plain white jumper and went from there, and then of course he ducked his head down, pretending not to have been listening, or even bothered.

Chris obviously noticed this and had teased him immensely, saying, "oh Danny boy, do you realise the competition now? You scared? Of course you are, his is fucking amazing." And all Dan could say was, "why is everyone calling his jumper amazing? Do people not know any other vocabulary?" But Chris just smirked at that, so he gave up.

They were now sat in the school's auditorium, well, the other students were. The people 'competing' were forced to stay back stage. People had been voting the whole day, putting pieces of paper in a little box. It sounded lame, and it really was, but for some reason people actually did it. Anyone who wanted to take part was put on a poster above it so people knew who to choose from. Lately, only a few people bothered competing, and it was never to win, it was just because they were proud of their jumpers, they knew Dan would win.

Dan's hands were actually shaking, as he stood behind the curtain, merry Christmas everybody playing all round the auditorium, like, really loudly. It kind of hurt his ears, which was a shame because, although he hated Christmas festivities, he felt nostalgic about this song, as he'd sung it in primary school. Why did he have to wait so long to get the prize?

~~~

Phil was having a great time. So many people had stopped to say how great his jumper was, and he was pretty humbled by it all. It was nice to get the attention for a change. It seemed weird that there was so much excitement around it, maybe people really were bored of Dan winning Everytime, maybe he was sucking out the fun for everyone, or was that too harsh?

Well, he was having a nice time, but now he had to pace back and forth waiting to be called to the stage. Phil hated doing things on stage, and he normally avoided it at all times, but this was something he had to do. It called to him. Merry Christmas everybody was playing and it calmed his nerves a little.

~~

One of the English teachers stood in the middle of the stage, with a microphone. The whole room was decorated with tinsel everywhere.

"Ladies and gentlemen I present to you, the Christmas jumper competition!" She said, enthusiastically, while everyone laughed at how seriously she was taking it. "I know, most years, one person tends to win this, but maybe this year will be another person's lucky day!" She continued. There were mutterings in the crowd then, people talking about the famous winner. "So, now we shall see our competitors onstage, and check out the wonderful outfits!" With that, six people walked onto the stage, walking to the other side, then spinning around before taking their place in the line.

"This is Chloe's jumper. Um, she decided to... What? Could you read it out lovely?" The teacher, said, a little confused.
"A blue jumper with a picture I edited with the Yee dinosaur with a santa hat on." She explained, the audience looking very confused, but one person let out a woop.
"Uumm.. okay, good." The teacher praised, unsurely. "Next we have Max, with a cute light up Christmas tree. Did you make it yourself?"

"...no." max replied, sounding extremely nervous.

"Okay then, it's a really nice jumper." The teacher assured quickly. "Dan, with his....I'm sorry, could you also explain your jumper?" There was a bunch of cheering before Dan could speak.

"It's a Christmas jumper miss." Dan said, grinning in a way which made most of the audience sigh.

"Care to expand on that?"

"It's red, like Christmas." Dan said, again, grinning, then adding a wink to the audience."

"Again, I love that you're getting involved with a school activity, well done." The teacher said, and the whole audience clapped, while some cheered, and Chris yelled, "take off the jumper!" As loud as he could, and Dan just averted his eyes awkwardly.

"This is Olivia's jumper. She has stuck real mistletoe berries onto her jumper." Olivia nodded her head and the teacher added "a very creative idea."

The teacher turned to Phil. "Our new student, Phil has decorated his jumper of rudolph with pom poms stuck on for snow, and has created a lighting system to light up his red nose." She said, beaming. "Did you start off with a plain jumper of rudolph?" She asked him.

"W-well no. It was just a-a plain white jumper but I painted on a reindeer, then d-did all the other s-stuff" he slightly stuttered.

"Well, that's very impressive."

The teacher then turned to face the next contestant, but they had stormed off backstage. "Oh! Looks like one contestant was a little intimidated. Okay, we shall have a vote with any one who voted for them. But for now, enjoy some Christmas music and mince pies as we count the votes."

~~~

Dan ran back off the stage wanting to just die. He'd looked so stupid up there, with his little red jumper that he'd put no effort into, while Phil had done everything and was praised by the teacher. Some part of him wanted to just quit, let the guy win, but hell, his pride was too big for that. He blinked slowly, trying to bring reason to his raging thoughts. He would win, it was fine, everybody loved him. A hand fell onto his shoulder and he jumped.

"You okay there? You were so great on that stage, you'll probably win."

"Yes, I know I'll win thankyou." He said without turning to see who it was.

"W-well good you're so sure then." Dan then turned around and saw Phil Lester, the guy who might beat him talking to him. Why would he be so positive? Surely he was competition, he seemed like a guy who would want to win. Was Dan going to win? He didn't know. He then realised how much he was doubting himself and snapped, "yes, I am. Now go away, you're my enemy right now."

Phil then backed away slowly and left Dan on his own. He was fine, everyone loved him, he was fine.