The video is the piece of music which Dan plays later in the chapter. It's a beautiful piece btw you should listen :) also idk why it has a hippo just ignore that

The day only went downhill from there. Dan went from feeling slightly cheered by his time in badminton to feeling terrified as a group of furious Masters backed him into a corner.

"You're a freak," one of them snarled. "You shouldn't be here. You shouldn't even exist."

He grabbed Dan's collar and slammed him against the wall. Tears collected in Dan's eyes and he blinked them away angrily. The boy laughed, and the others crowding around laughed as well.

"Aaaah... Is little Danny feeling a bit scared?" He shook Dan roughly, and leaned in close to his face. "Too bad you're not normal, isn't it? Then you might be able to escape."

He nodded slightly towards another boy, who approached Dan. He didn't look very menacing, but when he reached them, Dan saw that he was holding a small flick knife.

Dan's eyes widened as the boy held the knife to his stomach, but he didn't make a sound.

"Do you know what would happen if we sliced through your stomach? Probably not. Most people would know, of course. But then, you're a bit too stupid, aren't you."

Dan tried to keep his face expressionless, painfully aware of the cold metal pressing against his stomach.

"Mason, stab him."

The casual way in which this was said scared Dan. It seemed to scare the others as well, including Mason, the boy with the knife. He backed away from Dan, closing the blade.

"I... uh... I don't think that's a good idea..." he stuttered.

The 'ringleader' scowled. "Am I giving you a choice?"

"No, but... We weren't expecting to hurt him..."

The ringleader rolled his eyes. "You're a bunch of useless, pathetic lumps, all of you. Get out."

Dan stood, shivering, as the boy turned away from yelling at his minions, and looked at him dead in the eye.

"You," he hissed, "are the most vile creature ever to walk this earth, and if I ever get the chance, I will kill you. Understood?"

Dan nodded, frozen to the wall, trying to disappear and escape this boy who, for some reason, hated him.

The boy made a strange growling noise. "Leave."

Dan was only too happy to do so.

He hid in a narrow space between Macaulay and Stoneycroft, every so often moving a few inches further in, scared that they might come back to finish him off.

By the time the bell for the end of lunch went off, Dan was stiff, hungry, and still worried that the boys were coming for him.

He slid into a seat in the very edge of their registration room, trying to draw as little attention to himself as possible. The teacher turned to him in a number of occasions, looking like he was about to say something, but then, seeing Dan's face, thought better of it.

By the end of registration, Dan was no less stressed than he had been before. He pulled his timetable violently out of his bag, and examined it, with an almost angry air.

It only took four words to erase this stress almost entirely.

Piano - Music Room 4

Dan had forgotten that he'd chosen double piano to end Monday. He felt waves of relief wash over him. He didn't know how he'd have coped if it had been something else that he couldn't do.

He didn't bother with directions on his EMD, preferring to follow the signposts, so that he would know better where the piano room was.

When he arrived, he knocked quietly on the door, and was greeted by a cheerful, "come in!"

The room was almost completely empty except for a boy with dark blue hair, two girls poring over sheet music, and the teacher, who was sitting at a computer, scrolling through something that looked suspiciously like tumblr.

"Hi!" she said brightly. "I haven't seen you before. What's your name?"

Dan closed the door behind him and shuffled awkwardly to the edge of the room. "Dan Howell."

"Oh, so you're Dan. I've heard of you." She made a sympathetic face, but didn't say anything more, and he was grateful. He didn't know how the people here would react, and he wanted this lesson to be the one time when people didn't think he was weird.

"I'm Miss Averell," she told him. "It'll be lovely to have you in our class, Dan."

He smiled at her and made his way to the back of the classroom, where there were five doors. The room was set up with long rows of desks, and he sat down at the very end of the back row. The two girls sitting at the other end of the row smiled at him briefly before turning back to their music.

He watched the clock tick slowly towards the start of the lesson. One of two more people walked in - a boy with hair so short you could see his skin through it, and a girl with short, curly hair wound carefully around her head.

The bell rang, sounding very quiet, because the piano room was soundproof.

Miss Averell stood up and walked to the front of the class, brushing her hair off her face.

"Hello, class, and welcome back! Now, I already know some of you, because you've been in my class before," here she smiled towards the three girls on the back row, "but I haven't met a few of you, so we're going to go round the class and say our names, ok?"

The boy with blue hair groaned, and muttered, "this is like bloody infant school."

The teacher turned towards him. "Perhaps you'd like to share your opinion on this exercise, Charlie?"

Charlie scowled. "I think it's a load of shit."

Miss Averell gave him a sarcastic sort of look. "Well, you won't want to stay here then. Please leave."

"Nah, I'm good."

"That wasn't a question. Leave."

Charlie grabbed his bag and stood up. "Fine. I don't even like piano anyway."

Miss Averell opened her mouth, ready to answer him, when the door creaked open, and everybody turned to look.

"S-sorry I'm late, Miss..."

"And who might you be?"

"P-Phil Lester, miss."

Dan recognised him as the boy from parkour. He looked closer at him, and saw the blue glimmer of his eyes.

Yeah, definitely him.

"I'll let you off just this once, Phil, because I only have the energy to be angry with one person per lesson."

She turned back to Charlie. "Your timetable won't be including piano, Charlie. I didn't want you in my class last year and I don't want you here now. Go to reception and tell them what's happened. They'll sort you out a replacement lesson."

Charlie glared at her, but kicked his chair under the table and stormed out of the room.

Miss Averell smiled. "Now that's over with, let's start the lesson."

Phil slipped round the edge of the classroom and sat down in the seat in front of Dan.

"At the start of every lesson I like to play a little game, to help is all get to know each other. So this lesson, names. We'll start with... You." She pointed to the boy with the short hair.

"My name's Michael," he said cheerfully.

The three girls were next. The one with brown plaits was Rose, the blonde Sophia, and the curly haired one was Grace.

The teacher looked expectantly at Dan.

"I'm Dan," he mumbled, trying to avoid getting attention, but when he looked up, Phil's blue eyes were watching him.

"And finally..." Miss Averell continued, "we have..."

"Phil."

"Excellent! Now that's done, we can get you into groups. We only have five piano rooms, so two of you will need to share, unless anyone wants to use a keyboard."

Everybody shook their heads at this offer.

The three girls approached the teacher. "Could we go into the bigger practice room?"

"Sure. I expect great things from you guys by the end of the lesson, ok?"

They laughed. "Sure thing, Miss," Sophia smiled.

They left through the end door, furthest to the right, leaving Dan, Phil and Michael standing and looking at one another.

Dan wanted desperately to ask Phil to go in a piano room together, but before he could even muster enough courage to open his mouth, Phil slipped out of his seat and went into the room next to the girls', closing the door behind him.

Michael went into the one beside that, leaving Dan and the teacher in the quiet room.

"Dan? Do you need me to help you?"

Dan looked up at her. "No, I think I'll be alright. I've been practising piano for a while, so I'm quite good."

She smiled at him. "That's great, Dan. I look forward to hearing you at the end of the lesson."

He smiled back. "Thanks Miss."

Dan decided to go into the room furthest to the left, so he didn't have anyone in the room next to him. He wasn't sure if he wanted anyone to hear him making any mistakes, although he was fairly certain he wouldn't.

He entered the room, shutting the door quietly, and gasped in surprise. He hadn't expected the rooms to be this beautiful.

The piano in the middle of the room wasn't just an average upright. It was a glossy, black, full size grand piano. The piano stool was made of gorgeous red fabric, with a highly polished silver frame. It matched the three pedals under the piano, which were silver, and the ledge for holding your music, which had the same red fabric on, to stop the sheets slipping.

In one corner there was a table with tuning forks lined up in size order, for people to use to tune their piano if they needed to. There was also a shelf of music books, and standing at the very end of that shelf was a small potted plant.

Dan stood in the doorway for a second, drinking in the beauty of the room. He'd played piano in quite a few places - his little keyboard in his bedroom, the upright piano in their living room, and the upright in his grandparents' house, but he'd never played a full size grand piano in a gorgeous music room made especially for him to use, and it was an experience he was already enjoying.

After a few minutes, he finally gathered himself together enough to walk over to the piano stool and run his fingers over the silky fabric.

He slowly sat down and pulled the stool closer to the piano. He ran his fingers over the keys, and pressed each of the pedals in turn, testing every part of the piano to see if it sounded as good as it should.

He played a chromatic scale, pressing every key, from the lowest to the very highest.

Then, taking a deep breath, he played the opening notes to his favourite piece, and smiled in delight at the sound.

He turned slightly, so he was facing away from the door, and lost himself in the music. The piano was the one thing that he was good at, the one thing that he could do without people realising he wasn't a Master, and, after the day he'd had, it was a relief to be able to pretend that he wasn't different.

The final chord of the piece echoed through the room, and Dan relaxed his posture.

No more practise needed on that one, then.

He thought for a moment, and then decided on another piece by the same composer. He made a few mistakes in this one, but the overall effect was so good that he only practised a few more times before deciding to move on to another piece.

When he was in the middle of this third one, the bell rang, sounding even quieter through two sets of soundproof walls, but still audible.

As soon as the ringing died down, Dan heard the other piano room doors being opened, and then there was a soft knock on his door.

Miss Averell stuck her head round and smiled at him. "We always perform our pieces at the start of the second half, Dan. Are you going to join us, or do you want to stay here?"

"I... I'll join you, I think."

She beamed. "Wonderful! That'll be lovely!"

He smiled back, standing up and pushing the stool away from the piano. He followed her out of the room and sat down at the desk he was at earlier, looking straight at the glossy black-haired back of Phil's head.

"Now comes the point in the lesson where we perform!" Miss Averell chirped. "Who wants to go first?"

Michael and the three girls all put their hands up at the same time.

"Ooh... It's so hard to decide... Let's go for Michael first, then you three. Alright?"

The girls nodded as Michael stood up and made his way to the grand piano at the front of the room.

"What are you going to play for us today, Michael?"

"Piano Sonata number 11 in A Major, Miss."

"That sounds great. Off you go!"

Michael then proceeded to play the most ridiculously fast, technical piece, which Dan could only dream of playing after days of practice, completely perfectly.

By the time he was finished, Dan was exhausted trying to keep up with his playing.

The girls' piece was no less tiring. They'd composed a trio which was impossibly complex, and seemed to be them attempting to play as fast, and in time, as possible. And the thing is, because they were Masters, it was perfect.

Dan and Phil both seemed reluctant to go next, however. Dan knew that his piece was far too simple to impress the Masters in here, and Phil didn't seem to want to have a go.

"Come on, guys!" Miss Averell said, cheerfully, but with an edge of irritation. "One of you play your piece."

Phil turned around and looked at Dan. "Dan? Will you?"

Dan groaned inwardly. He knew he couldn't resist those eyes, and considering that was the first time that Phil ever spoke to him, he felt like he should do something to honour the occasion.

"I'll play," he sighed, standing up and heading to the front.

Miss Averell grinned at him, and then leaned over the piano and whispered, "if you make a mistake, pretend it never happened. They think you're a Master. They won't realise."

Dan nodded, and played a quick warm up scale.

"What are you playing for us, Dan?" the teacher asked, her voice back at normal volume.

"I'm playing I Giorni, by Ludovico Einaudi."

She looked impressed. "Lovely! Whenever you're ready, then..."

Dan took a deep breath, and began to play.

Play the song now if that's what you feel like doing although it's far too long to fit here nvm

During the piece, he found himself looking around the room at people's faces. The group of girls at the back looked interested by the piece, but unimpressed. Michael had a similar expression. Miss Averell looked particularly surprised, but it was Phil's face that Dan really wanted to see.

Phil knew he wasn't a Master. He was aware that everything Dan was doing now was all because of the practise he'd put in. Yet, his expression was one of slight boredom. Only when Dan looked much closer did he see the admiration in his eyes.

While he'd been studying Phil's face, though, he'd stopped concentrating on the piece. As he turned back to the piano, he hit a wrong note - an obvious dischord - and winced. Pulling himself together, he focussed harder, and played the rest of the piece without a hitch, but one look at everybody's faces confirmed what he already knew.

They'd realised.

He could almost see the cogs in their brains whirring as they tried to figure out how it was possible for him to have made a mistake.

He darted back to his seat and sat down, staring at his hands and trying to ignore the people openly studying him.

"Phil? Would you like to play?" Miss Averell called.

Phil started. "I- uh... Do I have to?"

"Yes, Phil. Dan did, so now you should."

Phil looked scared. "But I-"

"No buts. Play that piano, Phil. You can do it." She smiled humourously at him.

Phil stood up, his shoulders sagging. He sloped over to the piano and sat down heavily on the stool.

"And what will you play for us today, Philip?"

Dan could see Phil considering. "Für Elise."

She smiled. "Good choice. Off you go."

As soon as Phil started playing, Dan could sense something was off. He looked like he was concentrating too hard, his hands didn't seem to flow over the keys, and-

Was that a mistake?

As soon as Phil had made one mistake, the entire piece started collapsing around him. The baseline lost any sort of rhythm, his two hands were playing out of time, and about half of the notes were wrong. Phil's face became a deeper and deeper red as he desperately tried to fix it, but to no avail.

In the end, he took his hands off the piano and ran back to his seat, furiously blinking back tears.

In Dan's mind was the same question as was in everyone else's.

But he's a Master...?

A/N
Wow this was long
Hope you liked it :)
also my grandma has rabbits and they're so adorable I'm dying help
Ty for reading <3
Good luck to anyone with exams this week - you'll be phabulous :)
Byeee :D