You Again? » l.t. au

Chapter 2

~A/N~

Hiiiii, sorry for the wait! that's all heh. Enjoyy :)

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A lot of dumb things have crossed my mind when I thought about work; the possibility of students not liking me. The possibility of my colleagues not liking me. The possibility in being disappointed in my job.

But never have I ever thought I'd be scared of a fellow worker.

I sat in my usual chair, gripping the edges of the long wooden table as I stared at Maria in horror. She looked like an absolute mess; her hair was messy, her face resembled stone as she dug through her papers. Now I knew how teachers looked when three quarters of their class failed a test.

"What..." She started for the fifth time, her voice tiny at first. "What, what is so complicated about this? They have books, they always take notes. Why the fuck can't they learn the goddamn lectures?!"

I gulped as she looked at me, the look in her eyes switching from raged to desperate. "Is it me? Am I a bad teacher?"

Beside her, Destiney and Renee were sitting and drinking coffee as if nothing was going on. I assumed they'd gotten used to this kind of Maria. Which meant she wasn't like that rarely... oh God.

"You're not, sweetheart." Des patted her back and gave her a small smile. "They're fifteen year olds, no matter what you did, they're still gonna be little shits. Don't take it personally."

Maria looked away from her, pouting. "They're gonna be the death of me," She said through a sigh, before crossing her arms on the table and lowering her head down. I blinked a few times, still a bit shocked that a professor would be that upset about their students failing a test.

"Does this happen often?" I mouthed, pointing to Maria and pressed my lips together as Destiney and Renee both nodded firmly. Well, I think I should brace myself.

The door of the staff room opened, and like everyone else, I didn't turn around to see who it was. I've been told that's something that only students did.

On the other hand, Maria looked up slightly, and scared me once again as she quickly sat up and ran her fingers through her hair. "Just what I needed," She muttered to herself with a small smile, presumably watching the person who had walked in.

I frowned, and smirked a little at the thought of her having a colleague that could make her mood change completely. Only, when I turned around, I was nearly terrified again; it was Louis who had walked in.

He caught me looking at him, and I quickly looked away and sighed. I've been 'successfully' avoiding him for... three weeks now? It would have been completely successful if he didn't try talking to me every damn second we spent in the same room.

I knew seeing him would be weird, but I never thought I'd have to see him every day once I met him again. I always imagined it would happen on the street during the summer, when he's in town because there's a festival or something... and then he'd go back to Doncaster. Simple as that.

But I can't believe the thought of having to work with him never crossed my mind, ever, not even once. I mean, what are the chances of that happening?

Very large, as you can see.

I pressed my lips together and got into an even shittier mood when I looked out the window; it was raining. On the day when I took my car to the mechanics and didn't bring an umbrella. Fucking awesome.

I looked away from the window, finding the view outside too depressing, and glanced at Maria. And saying that her expression was priceless would be an understatement.