Chapter Text
"Dan, Adrian, dinner!" The brown haired boy heard his mum call from downstairs. He slammed his laptop shut, making sure to pause the video that he was watching so that he could return to it later, before slipping out of his bedroom and down the stairs to join his family at the dinner table.
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After thanking his mother for his meal, Dan made his way back up to his bedroom. When he opened the lid to his laptop a pair of piercing blue eyes stared back at him, Dan smiled.
"My mum is a lobster,"
Dan let out a sigh as he thought himself, how do you get that Internet famous? How is he so successful, I don't understand. I envy him.
Phil was everything that Dan wanted to be. Dan had aspired to make YouTube videos most of his life, he did spend almost every spare second of the day online watching videos that other people have made. Dan was so jealous of the fact that he didn't have the skills and the time to make something as funny and entertaining as what these people had made and published for the entire world to see. Dan wasn't sure why he had never tried it before. After all he'd made plans to film videos and he'd come up with ideas for click bait but he just never got round to doing it, he didn't understand why. Maybe it was nerves or maybe it was the lack of inspiration or the fact that he was never home alone. He was scared of what his family might think of him if they caught him talking to a camera in his bedroom.
By this point Dan was so lost in his own thoughts that he had to replay the video that he was watching as he was no longer paying attention to Phil.
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The next morning Dan woke up with his laptop strewn across his lap. He often fell asleep watching Phil's videos, it was a bad habit of his that he had recently picked up. YouTube was taking over his life and it wasn't even had a productive way. Dan was desperate to be more creative, he wanted to show the world what he was capable of. Little did he know all he needed was a little bit of encouragement.
"Why don't you just message this guy?" A friend of Dan's suggested to him at break. Dan stared at his timetable in his hand and sighed.
"Isn't that weird though because then I'm a stalker, aren't I?"
Dan's friend shrugged him off.
"Okay then here's the plan. I've got one more lesson today and then I can go home early and I'll draft an email. How does that sound?" Dan hated the idea as soon as it left his lips. His friend just smiled and said "yeah whatever" then made his way to his next class. Dan sighed as he shoved his time table back into his bag and shuffled off to his next class too.
It was hard to concentrate in class when Dan's mind was racing. He was thinking of all the possibilities that he could write in this email. Should he start by introducing himself? But then how should he introduce himself? Should he say he's a fan and that he appreciates Phil's work or that Dan just thinks he's cool or maybe should Dan just pretend he doesn't know who Phil is and say that he heard of him through a friend. It was probably not going to give Phil the best impression of Dan if he introduced himself with lies.
The sharp ring the school bell which signalled the end of class interrupted Dan's in-depth thoughts. Dan didn't even realise how distracting planning emails could be. Hell, Dan didn't really think that he'd ever drafted an email before this, had he really even sent important emails before? Was this an 'important' email? Dan just grabbed his stuff and made for the class exit as quickly as possible. He had to get home.
