The Writer (AU)

High-school. Supposedly the best time of someone's life. What a load of crap. When a person is exceedingly tall, it doesn't help their case. That's me. Standing at 6'9" in the eleventh grade, I was like a walking carnie. My converse pitter-pattered against the blue and white tile floors as I made my way through the class, trying to find a place to sit.

"Holy crap," someone commented as I walked past.

"You really can't miss me, idiot," I mumbled under my breath, rolling my eyes.

"Well, hey! I'm Mr. Hilbert," he began. Looking at the teacher, he was elderly with round glasses and seemed very outdoorsy. Everyone was dismally quiet with uninterested looks on their faces. "This is one of those classes. Alright then, I'm gonna call the roll and when I call your name, come up and tell us about yourself." Oh Gosh. That meant I was first.

"Ellison Adams," he chirped with excitement and looked around at us.

"I go by Ellie," I slightly smiled as I walked toward the front of the room

"Ellie," he nodded, writing on the sheet of paper in front of him. "Got it. Tell us a little bit about you."

"Um, I'm Ellie. I play volleyball, basketball, and also do track." Looking at Mr.Hilbert, I shrugged, not knowing what else to say. The class was quiet and all looked at me like I'd just escaped from an insane asylum.

"Thank you Ellie, that was great." Calling student after student up, they all spouted off their own bullshit to the class and I sighed with relief as he got to the last name. The boy sitting in the desk behind me stood and walked to the front.

"I'm Harry," he shrugged, walking back to his seat. Looking at the kid, he was covered in tattoos and wearing tight black skinny jeans with a white t-shirt. I could see small outlines from the tattoos on his chest and was weirdly intrigued. Mr.Hilbert gave us our first assignment and told us to partner up.

"Hey," I said, turning toward the kid. "Wanna be partners?"

"I don't care," he shrugged with a thick accent.

"Good. At least I'll get an 'A.' Great." Hoping he caught onto my sarcasm, I wrote my name on the top of a sheet of paper and handed it to him along with my pen. Watching him scrawl his name under mine, he shoved my paper and pen back at me.

"Someone pissed in your cornflakes this morning," I mumbled quietly.

"What?" he replied, sitting up straighter.

"Why are you so angry? If ya didn't wanna be my partner, you could've said no. Excuse me for actually trying to be nice to you," I replied meanly.

"I'm not angry. I don't deal well with people," he replied so inaudibly, I almost missed what he said.

"Well, get over it." As class continued, I could only muster two coherent sentences out of him before the bell rang. Standing with a sigh of frustration, I gathered my things and headed to my next class. I'm gonna be honest, he was really attractive. Like a Johnny Depp level of attractiveness. Making it to lunch, I fought the urge to just walk out and go home. Looking up from my turkey sandwich and banana, I saw Harry walking toward me. Sitting down with a deep exhale, his eyes met mine. Whoa. His eyes were gorgeous.

"Well, hello to you too," I scoffed, trying to kick the dirty thoughts out of my mind. I could feel everyone in the cafeteria staring at us and was suddenly aware how close he was to me.

"Why'd you pick me for a partner?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed together.

"W-what?" I stammered. Why was I nervous?

"Did I stutter? Why'd you want to be my partner in class?" he replied with a twinge of annoyance.

"Nobody else had asked you and I didn't, I didn't have one." His expression softened for a minute and I swore he was going to be nice before it hardened once again.

"Well," he huffed. Standing up and storming off, I sat there in awe. What the fuck was that about?

As the day continued on, I couldn't help but think about him. Ugh. Walking into my last class of he day, I sat next to the window and felt the sun beaming against my arm. I had a headache and my Spanish teacher made me want to kill myself. I had her for Spanish two and unluckily got stuck with her for Spanish three. Yeah, it was honors. Why don't you just kill me now. As the bell rang, kids filed in quickly and she closed the door.

"Hola clase!" she exclaimed excitedly and I wanted to go deaf. There was a tiny knock on the door and I saw Harry standing outside.

"Señor Styles. Estás tarde," she scowled, shaking her head. Giving her a death look, he made his way around the room to find a seat. The only seat left was next to me. Great. Plopping down next to me, I got a nose full of his cologne and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. How did someone so tall, attractive, and nice smelling piss me off so much? Oh, I forgot, it's called life.

"Where you're sitting now is where you'll be for the remainder of the school year unless I say otherwise. Now, you're going to partner up and complete the speaking activity on page fifteen and then, write a five sentence paragraph about what your partner did over the summer. Due at the end of class for a quiz grade." Internally groaning, I turned toward Harry with a wide, fake smile, knowing he'd make his entire thing hard as hell to finish.