Last Hope (Ziall Horlik) AU

Chapter 5

Niall's POV

Over the next few days I kept feeling worse and worse. My body continued to ache and my couch continued to get worse. I would get sweaty, yet I was freezing cold. I knew I was sick with something, but I had tests to take and I had homework to turn in so I forced my sickly body to school after the weekend. Plus, I've never missed a day of school.

It was now Thursday morning and I was walking to Mr.Malik's classroom. I still felt bad for getting mad at him last week and yelling, but I was also embarrassed about my behavior. Some of the trouble makers in my class tried to get me to act up again to make the new teacher have a struggle. I would ignore them, but they would continue to annoy me.

I got into the class just as the bell rang and slowly made my way to my empty seat in the back. When I sat down, I couldn't help but lay my head on the cool desk. Mr.Malik began class, and I let my heavy eyes slip shut.

A light pat on my back woke me up, causing me to turn my head to see Mr.Malik kneeling next to me. His brown eyes were full of worry and one of his hands gently rested on my forehead. Of course, he pulled it off my when I started coughing into my arms.

"Niall, I think you should go to the nurse. You're burning up." He told me quietly. I looked around to see everyone was taking some notes off the board for an upcoming exam we were going to have. I picked my head up and started to get my notebook out of my backpack and a pen out.

"I'll be okay. I didn't know we were taking notes." I whispered to him with a small blush of embarrassment finding my cheeks. I weakly opened my notebook, but found it hard to even hold my head up with how weak I was feeling. A tan hand with a tattoo over it gently gripped my wrist, drawing my attention back to my teacher.

"Niall, go to the nurse. I can give you the notes later, but you look really sick. Can you please do that? If not, then just lay your head back down or leave for air, okay?" Mr.Malik told me worried. I nodded and laid back down on the arm that his hand was still holding. His hand hesitantly ran through my sweaty hair, but it made me close my eyes and wish this comforting touch wouldn't leave me. But it did and I was left shivering and sweating while trying to find sleep.

Zayn's POV

I sat back at my desk grading some papers from my other classes while my class took the notes I had up on the board for the test they would have on on Monday. I couldn't help myself from looking over to Niall and wanting to pick the skinny boy up and hold him or take him to the school nurse.

My door opened and Louis walked in with a folder in his hand. I waved him over to my desk, and he handed me the folder that had the University of London official stamp on it. I opened it and saw a few other teachers signatures on it but I wasn't sure what this was.

"What is this for?" I asked him quietly. He smiled, then pulled out the most beautiful transcripts I've ever seen. There wasn't a grade on them below a 95 percent. I saw the name on the paper and wasn't surprised to see they belonged to none other than Niall Horan.

"Fuck, he's a genius. He's also being stubborn in the back of my classroom, but these are wonderful." I told Louis. He chucked, then looked back to where Niall was shivering so much it looked like he was having a seizure. That made me want even more to go take care of the boy. Louis pat my shoulder, then pointed down to the papers.

"All of his teachers are signing off that he deserves the full ride scholarship to this school, not the other two competing students. We just need yours now." I got my pen and signed away on the young lad before looking over the courses he has taken in the past. They were all harder than any class I would have taken in high school, but it made me proud of him.