Bound by Pages | larry

fourteen

Harry had his debate today. He needed to debate today and he was nervous. He had no idea who he was debating against, which was either reassuring or completely terrifying. He just didn't know which.

The alarm would ring in about ten minutes. Harry had woken up before his alarm today, an extremely rare occurrence judging by how much the boy loved to sleep. It almost felt like his body knew today was an important day. Harry didn't mind waking up early. He wasn't tired at all and at least he didn't oversleep. That would have been much worse. 

The house seemed oddly quiet, even though it was only ten minutes before Harry would get up. He probably should make an effort to look decent today, seeing that he did have a few extra minutes. Also, he wanted to look good for the debate. Was that a stupid thought? Probably, but Harry wanted to make an impression.

He tossed through his closet, looking for the perfect outfit. Harry kept his clothes neatly hanging on clothes hangers. All his shirts were lined up on a metal bar with his pants folded underneath. Liam always called his closet girly, but Harry loved how easy it was to access his clothes. 

Finally deciding on plain black jeans and his favourite sweater, he laid the outfit on his messy sheets and went over to the bathroom attached to his room.  Harry's hand reached for his toothbrush but stopped in midair when he realized that it wasn't in the holder. He chuckled to himself, remembering that he threw it out last night.

Harry was unfortunately crouched under his cabinet, reaching for a toothbrush, when his alarm finally did go off. Now, this position was unfortunate because Harry hit the very top of his head when he jumped up in surprise. A searing pain ran down the side of his face and into his jawline as he clutched his head in pain. Harry cursed under his breath, leaping over his bed to disable the alarm.  

He grabbed his phone to the bathroom before going back to brush his teeth. Harry always loved a new toothbrush because of the way the bristles bent perfectly. It was an odd thing to love, but it made him happy.

Other than tripping down the stairs, Harry's morning was quite uneventful.

~

The first debate had gone normally. They argued their facts, backed up their points, and just played it out like a normal high school debate. Obviously, their topic was a lot lighter than the one Harry and Louis had gotten.

Both opponents had agreed to do the debate during the first period since they had spares. Harry still didn't know his opponent since nobody else had shown up to the classroom other than the first two. 

Harry could barely pay attention to the first debate because of the boy sitting next to him. Louis was giving off a scarily nervous aura. His face was paler than his tan usual, with his eyes radiating fear. When Harry grabbed his hand, he found that it was cold and clammy. Currently, the boy was rubbing circles into the palm of his hand, hoping to calm him down, at least a little bit. 

"You'll be fine, I promise," Harry whispered in the general direction of his partner. At first, he wasn't sure if his words had been heard because the tension persisted. Slowly Louis' shoulder relaxed, and he risked a glance towards Harry's eyes. Harry smiled as reassuringly as he could, making sure to squeeze the younger's boys hand gently.

"Alright, can we have a vote?" Mr Wikards read out the two opinions. Harry raised his hand for the second one, not caring what it was. He hadn't been paying attention enough to know what was going on, but his teacher didn't have to know that.

"Louis, Harry, come up." The teacher asked them. The two boys went to the front of the class, where a long desk was positioned. There were two chairs on either side of the dark stained table. Though the chairs were set up across the narrower side of the desk, there was still plenty of room for papers and sheets of work and points.