[new] [ziam au] on hold :(

five

omg look at him

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"ok class," the teacher claps her hands together, "my name is ms. coolahan and i'll be teaching you art this term,"

i'm seated towards the left side of the classroom, and the tables are all positioned in a semi-circle with ms. coolahan standing in the middle.

"ok, so i want us to practise our life drawings," everyone groans in response, "i know, i know, but it must be done. ok who wants to model for us?" she crosses her arms, looking at every one of us individually until she stops at me.

"oh! you're new, what's your name?" she asks, coming over to my desk.

"james, james payne," i reply, twiddling with my tumbs. every one turns and looks at me, and i notice all the girls smiling at me and the boys giving me welcoming nods. why the fuck is everyone so nice to me?

"for a second there i thought you were going to say james bond but anyway, ok you stand in the middle and put your hands on your hips," she pulls on my arm, dragging me to the middle.

she's quite noticeably shorter than me. she positions me so i'm looking straight at zayn. when our eyes make contact, i feel like my legs are about to buckle underneath me.

"ok class off to work, you should have your pencils. paper and drawing boards are in the store room," ms. coolahan says, already turning attention back to her computer.

i stand where i am, hands on my hips, and watch everyone around me shuffling around and getting themselves sorted.

once everyones seated, i feel all eyes on me. but the ones that bother me the most are the hazel ones directly in front of me, framed by incredible long and dark eyelashes. every time he glances up, his eyebrows are furrowed in concentration and his lips between his teeth. i dart my eyes between his, the ground, the ceiling and the wall behind him.

i notice the drawings on the wall are all the students' work. portraits, still life, pop art, posters, prep work and finished pieces scattered artistically cover the electric blue wall. i spot a sort of comic book style drawing of a figure underneath a lamp post. it's night time and the man has his collar up while gazing up at the stars. a signature and title are scribbled in the bottom right corner.

mesmerising night sky by z.m.

by the time the class is over, my legs are aching and my arms feel like they're about to fall off.

everyone is already gone out of the room and i'm left to pick up my bag. before i leave i notice zayn has left his drawing on his desk. it's the same style as his picture on the wall. he seems to have captured the unruly curlyness of my hair and my weird squished nose exactly, which almost makes me cringe.

underneath i see it signed, 'imperfect prefection by z.m'. i almost faint.

i quickly slide into my bag and scurry out of the room, quick to not miss my next class.

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i'm really sorry about not updating sooner, but i have the whole story planned out so (hopefully) updates will be more consistent

please vote and comment, it lets me know if this story is actually worth updating

and i'm sorry for keeping on mentioning how liam (james) is shocked by people being nice to him but he hasn't received respect in a long time and you'll find out why soon