Where Is My Mind (Larry/Ziam AU)

01.

CHAPTER 01

Louis is sitting third from the end in a row of chairs. To his left, sits Zayn - his best friend. Eight others sit around the two boys, each student focusing on their teacher who is currently handing back essays to the row in front. Louis fidgets nervously in his seat, he can see the disapproving looks several of his peers receive when their papers are handed back and he has a sinking feeling he will be the next to receive one of those looks.

His teacher steps around the back of the row in front of them and begins at the end furthest from where Louis is seated. With each step he takes closer, Louis sinks a little lower in his seat. Zayn notices the action and pokes Louis’ side, making him squirm a little and turn his attention away from his approaching doom and towards his friend.

“What?” Louis hisses, joining his voice to the ones already floating around the room.

Zayn merely rolls his eyes at Louis’ attitude and tries to give him an encouraging smile. He knows Louis has been struggling, but it looks like he’d really knuckled down while working on the paper they were about to be handed. He has more faith in Louis than Louis does in himself.

“Don’t worry, the mark will be fine.”

Louis ignores Zayn’s remark because he doesn’t want the mark to be just fine. Louis needs that mark to be perfect. His average score is... Well, he isn’t very proud of it to say the least. People always ask Louis why he doesn’t just drop out. He would if he could, but unfortunately for Louis, he needs to pass this class to pass his course. It is also unfortunate that it is his worst subject. Louis has never really been a reader even when he was just young and learning. Now that he is bordering on nineteen, Louis has no desire to pick up a paperback of his own accord. Even when he has no choice but to, he always finds himself doing something else. He’s never been one to pay too much attention in school, either. He just sort of fluked his way to where he is now, so Louis has no idea what he is doing when it comes to English Literature.

Someone clears their throat, drawing Louis’ attention. He looks up from his slumped down position to see his teacher and that familiar unsettling disapproving look. Slowly, Louis reaches out and takes the paper from him, not even looking at the mark before he drops it face down on the table. Louis forehead is quick to follow the papers path as he drops it roughly onto the hard surface. The worst part isn’t even the disapproving look he’d grown accustomed to, it is the way his teacher shakes his head and gives him a sorry grimace. His professor knows how important it is for Louis to pass this class, and he has offered Louis extra credit tasks here and there, but when Louis completed them just as badly, both of them realised it was doing him no good and only stressing Louis out more.

When Louis first began failing, he had tried to blame his professor - he spent good long hours ranting to Zayn about how unfair it was and how their teacher just simply couldn’t teach. After it became apparent to Louis that he was the only student in the class struggling so much, and he realised Zayn was always making the opposite comments about their professors teaching, Louis had been forced to accept that he just simply sucked.

“It can’t be that bad,” Zayn is trying to sound cheery as he tugs the paper from beneath Louis’ head.

When there is no further comment from Zayn, Louis knows that it is in fact that bad. He doesn’t want to look at it, he doesn’t want to know. However, when he raises his head again to look at Zayn, his eyes land on the big red 18% that’s scrawled across his paper and surrounded by a messy circle. Of course Zayn would put it back face up. Louis flips the paper over and covers his face with his hands, but not before he see’s the 97% on Zayn’s own paper. As much as he is happy for his friend, he hates him for finding the class so easy while Louis isn’t even barely scraping through.