"It's not that bad, honest," Marcus told Dan. "There are so many different lessons, and everyone gets to choose which one they go to, so you're bound to find one with something you're good at."

"But that's the thing. I'm not good at anything." Dan hung his head miserably.

"You're good at piano."

Dan shook his head. "Not as good as anyone else, though."

Marcus sighed. "Look, I'll come with you to help you choose your timetable. We'll find something you can do."

Dan nodded sadly. "If you say so."

The small age gap between Dan and Marcus meant that they were much better friends than most siblings. Marcus seemed to understand Dan, and he was always trying to help him - teaching him piano, for example, or tutoring him in maths.

"It's not going to be as bad as you think, Dan."

*****

It wasn't as bad.

It was far, far worse.

When Dan had visualised the school, he'd seen a smallish building with maybe a thousand pupils. He'd be in lessons with people of his own age, and it might even turn out that he's not too bad at some of the activities.

It was nothing like that.

The only resemblance the school bore to a 'smallish building' was that it had walls and a roof.

Dan felt himself shaking as Marcus led him towards the huge double doors labelled 'Stoneycroft'.

"The school's divided into four sections," Marcus explained. "There are three more buildings like this, but you'll never have to go into them except to visit Reception. You'll have all your lessons in Stoneycroft."

"Where are the other sections?" Dan asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

"If you look just to the left," Marcus said, pointing, "you can see Macaulay, where the reception is. Over to the right is Whitehaven, and blocked by the building is Bjerkley. There are four thousand people in each section."

Dan made a face. "What's with the names?" he asked, trying to take his mind off the sheer number of students he'd have to deal with.

"Honestly? No idea. I think they're named after people and places, but I've never heard of them, myself."

They'd crossed the field and were standing at the entrance to the building.

"The main reception is shared between all of the buildings," Marcus said, "and you have to go there to get your timetable. This way."

Dan, wishing he could shrink to the size of a key, and hide in Marcus's bag, followed without complaint.

They reached the office. It looked unprepared, considering over sixteen thousand people needed to use it, but Dan realised that the one girl - she couldn't be more than sixteen - sitting at the desk was more than capable of handling everybody. Within two minutes, the queue was gone, and Dan was stepping up to the desk.

"Hello, how may I help you?" she asked, her voice sharp and professional.

"I- I'm new and... My brother says- that is, I..." Dan was becoming increasingly aware of the long line of people looking curiously at him.

"I swear Masters don't do that," one person whispered.

Dan's face heated up.

"He's here to choose his lessons," Marcus said smoothly.

The girl heaved a sigh at Dan, and then turned to Marcus. "Of course. If he could fill in these forms."

Marcus took the large pile of paper and nodded his thanks, and Dan followed him over to the chairs in one corner.

As Dan sat down, he could feel the burning gaze of a hundred curious students, all staring at him, trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

"Dan." Marcus's voice snapped him back to reality.

"Sorry, what?"

Marcus sighed. "You need to choose your lessons off here."

Dan took the offered sheet, and stared at it. Words and figures blurred together in a swirling mass of confusion. He blinked.

"I don't get it."

Marcus took the sheet off him. "Basically, you have a list of all the lessons you can possibly do. You need to choose them, choose how many times you want that lesson in a week, choose which group you want to be in for that subject, and write it in."

Dan took the paper back off Marcus and looked at it. The confusing squiggles morphed into words.

"So, hang on... I can choose anything I want?"

Marcus nodded. "Yep. Do you need my help?"

Dan nodded gratefully. "Please."

Marcus smiled at him, that knowing sort of smile which seemed to imply that he understood Dan, and couldn't do anything about that fact that Dan would never be as good as him.

He took the sheet off Dan, and scanned it quickly. "Ok. So, what lessons do you like? What kind of things are you good at?"

Dan shrugged. "The only thing that springs to mind is music."

"Music. Perfect." Marcus said. "They've split it into individual instruments, so all you need to do is choose the ones that you want to play."

"What are the choices?"

Marcus handed Dan the sheet, pointing to a small box in one corner. In it was a long list of every instrument that the school owned - in fact, it seemed like it was every instrument in existence.

"Well, I already know some piano," said Dan, putting a small tick beside the word.

Marcus nodded encouragingly. "That's great. Any others?"

Dan squinted at the tiny word at the bottom of the list. "Drums?"

"You want to learn drums?"

Dan nodded enthusiastically, trying to act interested. "Yeah."

Marcus raised his eyebrows, but put a tick beside the word. "Any others?"

Dan shook his head. He wasn't interested in becoming a string player, especially since the string instruments sound awful when you're not very good. He didn't like the clarinet, and he really didn't understand why anyone would need to learn the didgeridoo, of all instruments.

"How many times do you want to have them?" Marcus asked.

Dan looked at the empty timetable in the top left of the sheet. "Piano every lesson."

"You can't."

"Ok, piano every lesson except the ones I can't have it in."

"You can only have the same subject seven times."

Dan stopped dead. "Only seven?"

"Yeah. It's so people get variety."

Dan gritted his teeth. "But then I need five different subjects."

Marcus smiled sadly. "At least, yeah. Sorry."

Dan snatched the sheet back and glared at it. "Fine."

He grabbed a pencil off the table and examined the group lists, choosing to be in Piano12, which had seven lessons a week. He did the same for drums, skim read the rest of the choices, and, after a little bit of thought, added seven badminton lessons.

"You still need two more," Marcus said, ignoring Dan's annoyance. "How about something unusual?"

Dan scowled at him. "I'm choosing things that I can pick up the most easily."

"Why not do some science then?" Marcus suggested. "You've already done some with mum."

Dan looked at him like he was stupid. "You don't get it, do you?"

"Or you could do maths, you were getting quite good at that..."

"I CAN'T!" Dan yelled. "I CAN'T DO MATHS. THEY DON'T TEACH ANYTHING AT THIS BLOODY SCHOOL, AND I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING, SO HOW AM I MEANT TO CHOOSE SOMETHING LIKE THAT, WHERE YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO KNOW STUFF?"

Marcus looked shocked. "Dan, you'll pick it up-"

"That's just the thing, Marcus. It doesn't work like that." The sudden cold fury in Dan's voice made Marcus shuffle backwards slightly.

Dan stood up roughly, pushing his chair to one side. He turned to see the entire reception staring at him.

"Oh, fuck off. Go enjoy your perfect little lives," he snapped.

He pushed violently past a dark haired boy to the desk, where the receptionist was looking a little unsettled. "H-have you chosen your subjects?" she asked quickly.

"I've chosen three. Put whatever you like in the empty boxes, because if I'm honest, I really don't give a shit."

A/N
Hiiiya
Hope you enjoyed this chapter all about how Dan clearly has anger issues ;)
I posted a thing in the wattpad clubs saying I'd do editing and my gosh have I got a lot of requests. It's terrifying. And a lot of effort.
Anyway hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading, and bye!
:D