Chapter Text
Dan is having a bad day. It’s the end of the year and he’s supposed to be on holiday in the North with his family but instead he’s here, sitting in the sandpit of an unfamiliar preschool in Rossendale, watching as other kids run past and shout at each other in an animated game of tag.
He’s making a half-hearted attempt at playing, constructing what he thinks is a very cool looking llama, but the teachers won’t stop asking him if he’s okay. He knows they’re only doing it because he’s new and doesn’t have anyone to hang out with, but he’s 4 years old for goodness sake! He doesn’t need the teachers checking up on him!
He’s not going to be there for long anyway, just until his mum and dad are done with their business in town, and he’s used to entertaining himself.
He’s a dramatic child and loves to perform for people and make them smile, singing and acting out plays in his loungeroom for his family. Couple that with the fact that the kids at his own preschool aren’t very nice to him and Dan has no trouble making the time pass.
He looks up as someone else runs past the sandpit, a little blonde girl who’s frantically searching for somewhere she can hide so the tagger won’t get her. She runs into the building (almost tripping on the way up the stairs) and Dan watches as an older boy emerges, book in hand, after narrowly avoiding being bowled over by the blonde.
The other boy has light ginger hair and a pair of blocky glasses that take up most of his pale face and Dan wonders what someone his age is doing at a preschool, especially in the holidays. He’s about to go back to his llama when the cover of the boy’s book catches his eye, the animals, red background and gold trim immediately identifying it as ‘The Lion King’.
‘The Lion King’ is without a doubt Dan’s favourite book and even though he can’t read it all himself he knows the story off by heart because his Grandma reads it to him every night before bed whenever he’s over. He takes his book everywhere, hearing the words in his head and looking at the brightly coloured pages and the happy faces they hold.
The boy goes and sits down on a bench across the playground where there’s less noise and a tree protects him from the sun, his legs swinging forward and back beneath him. Dan glances at the book again and notices it has a curved top right corner, just like his own.
After so much time spent being jostled around with the rest of his things in his schoolbag Dan’s ‘Lion King’ is bent at the top, and this boy’s one looks exactly the same.
No one else could possibly have a book so similar… He must’ve stolen Dan’s somehow!
He can’t believe it. He can’t believe someone took his book, his favourite book, what kind of preschool is this? Dan’s mad. He wants it back.
Without another thought he stands and gets out of the sandpit, knocking into his half constructed llama with his foot in the process. He checks for teachers before running across the yard, stumbling over abandoned toy trucks and past the wooden play equipment in his haste to get to the bench where the boy sits.
He stops right in front of him and the boy looks up, curious at what’s going on. Dan stares down into crystal blue eyes, making his anger clear in his gaze, and the other boy frowns. Dan thinks for a second the boys’ eyes are very pretty and if he weren’t a thief it might be good to have a friend like him, light to his dark.
“That’s my book!” Dan exclaims, pointing to the boy’s hand where he holds ‘The Lion King’, his index finger saving the page.
The boy scrunches his face in confusion and replies, “No it’s not.”
“Yes it is!” Dan insists, “See it’s bent like--” and tries to grab the book out of the boy’s hand but is met with empty air as the older boy snatches it away.
“Hey!” the boy raises his voice and slides over on the bench away from Dan, now clinging it to his chest, “Leave me alone!”
Desperate to prove that it’s his Dan makes another swipe at the book, “Just give it back to me!” and the boy, now equally upset, jumps to his feet and sidesteps out of reach of Dan’s hand.
Before he can try again the boy takes off running in the direction of the building and Dan spins to pursue him. They weave through the maze of a preschool yard, jumping over toys and around other kids who watch with suspense as Dan chases after the older boy with the book.
They race past the equipment and the sandpit and Dan falls behind as his little legs struggle to keep up with the long ones in front of him. He jumps up the couple of stairs that lead into the building after the boy does and emerges into a large room full of activity.
It’s darker in here compared to the light outside and Dan’s eyes take a moment to adjust before he surveys his surroundings. One side of the room is a lounge type area, set up with faded cushions and beanbags and a small TV, and a group of kids his age form a circle on the floor reading. There’s a door directly in front of him that leads out into a hall with a toilet and the entrance to the preschool while a door on the far left wall leads into the unknown.
The other side of the room has three rows of tables unevenly laid out, kids kneeling up on bright wooden seats to paint, craft and draw, felt and glitter scattered on the table tops around them. Blackboards line the opposite wall with scribbled drawings and abc’s covering most of their surface, and windows to the right let in fresh air and sunlight.
Dan scans the room again, searching for the boy’s figure, but comes up with nothing. Someone only runs like the boy did if they’re guilty, so if Dan had any doubts that the book was actually his he doesn’t now and he’s determined to get it back.
He tentatively walks to the right behind the craft tables, looking for somewhere the boy could have hidden. Kids’ forgotten Christmas artwork decorate the wall he’s in front of, reindeers with multi-coloured carrots staring back at him, and once he reaches the end of the row he turns to the left to start down another.
He’s stepping carefully around chairs as other kids work on their art when out of the corner of his eye he suddenly spots a ginger head pop up from behind the third row. The boy takes off towards the door in the middle of the room and Dan follows, trying not to trip over chair legs in his haste.
There’s nowhere to go from the hall Dan thinks, he’ll have to stop and then I can get my book back!
They run into the hall, Dan close behind now, and come to a stop at the end, the boy looking up at the front door that looms before him. He turns around to face Dan who notices that he looks distraught, his blue eyes going watery as he begins to tear up.
“This is my book.” Dan says, a twinge of guilt stabbing his stomach as he removes ‘The lion King’ from the older boy’s hand, finally being able to hold his precious book in his arms.
The boy lets out a sniffle and replies weakly, “It’s mine.”
Dan opens the cover to the first page where his name should be written in the ‘This Little Golden Book belongs to’ space, and is met with shock and confusion as he reads the words ‘Philip Lester’ and underneath, in a messy child’s hand, ‘NOT MARTYN.’
Dan looks up into the boy’s teary blue eyes and doesn’t know what to say, feeling upset and tired after all the running and then now finding out the book isn’t even his. The boy, Phil, wipes his nose on his sleeve and more tears fall down his face, seemingly out of his control. Dan feels horrible.
Just then a teacher comes up, about to tell them off for running all over the place, and Phil rushes to her, hugging her legs tightly while sobbing and blubbering into them. Dan turns toward them but looks away from her, ‘The Lion King’ now dangling in his hand by his side.
Everything else is a blur as Dan’s parents are called, he’s talked to by all the adults and he apologises to Phil, looking guiltily at the boy. Before he leaves, his parents deciding its best that they postpone their business and go up North now, he goes to get his backpack from the yard.
As he passes the sandpit he sees his llama, now a messy mound of sand after he stepped on it. He picks up his black backpack from the ground and is about to zip it up when he sees a glimmer of gold inside. He reaches in and pulls out his version of ‘The Lion King’, bent at the top just like Phil’s.
He shakes his head and sighs deeply. Dan is having a bad day.