The Girl With the Rose

Prologue

Louis has always known he wanted to be a teacher for children with special needs. He doesn't know what caused him to want to be a special education teacher, but he's very content with his decision up until his first day.

Now, he'd been an assistant teacher for other special education teachers during university, but this is different. He's running his own classroom, and he's honestly terrified. He's going to have to handle four kids all by himself.

The first bell rings, and he can feel himself shake with anxiety. He doesn't even have time to catch his breath, because the door opens. He turns around to see a little girl walk on, brown curls cascading down to her shoulders. She's flapping her hands a bit–a sign of autism-and she's holding a pink plastic rose in one of her hands.

He just smiles at her and waits for her to say hi as, what Louis presumes is her father, walks in behind her. The man, who has curls pulled back with a dark blue headband, smiles at him brightly. "Hello," He greets, putting his hand on top of the girls head. She ducks and makes a whining noise, and Louis smiles back.

"Hi, I'm Mr. Tomlinson," He greets, holding his hand out to the man. The man shakes it with a large smile.

"'M Harry," He replies. "And this is Lennon. Can you say hi, Lennon?"

It takes the young girl a moment to process what her father had said. "Hi," She hums quietly, looking around the rook confusedly with the rose still in her hand.

"Hello," Louis greets quietly, squatting down and making eye contact with Lennon. She avoids it, but she doesn't move around like she had before. Louis can tell she's listening. "My name is Mr. Tomlinson."

"Oh dear!" The girl shouts at the top of her lungs, and Louis chuckles. "Harry, oh dear, Harry."

"She says my name a lot," Harry explains, looking at the little girl with the most love Louis has ever seen. "Even when I'm not there. She says 'oh dear' a lot too, because her Nan says it often."

"Oh dear," Lennon mumbles, hitting the plastic rose against her head, and Louis smiles.

"Okay, what else?" Louis asks softly, wanting to know everything before he leaves. He wants to know what to expect.

"Um, she has low-functioning autism," Harry explains. "'M not gonna sugar coat it, she's not easy. She can be difficult. She's a sweet girl, though, I promise."

"Sweet girl, oh dear," Lennon says quietly.

"Who gave you the rose, Lennon?" Louis asks. She's quiet. Louis watches as Harry's smile falters a bit. Louis' heart clenches. He can't help but feel bad for the poor man. He's obviously been working hard to get her to speak more.

"Lennon, baby," Harry says softly, bending down next to where Louis is kneeling in front of Lennon. "Who gave you the rose?" He takes the rose from Lennon and gives it back to her to show what he means. "Who, love?"

"Nan, baby," Lennon replies, and Louis smiles. She's a very lovely little girl, Louis can't see how she would be a terror.

♛

Lennon throws a tantrum that day.

The other three kids he's gotten aren't too much trouble. There's a little girl and a little boy with Down Syndrome, but they're both very well behaved. There's also a boy with a condition Louis isn't sure of. He hasn't had the chance to check the boy's paper work, but his mother had just simply told him he had a form of retardation, and that bothered Louis quite a lot, but he kept a smile on his face. He couldn't have the parents hating him on the first day.

"Mr. Tomlinson!" The little girl with Down Syndrome–Lucy–called out. Louis turns around and smiles warmly at her, a smile Lucy returns.

"What's up, love?" He asks, and just as he does, there's a shrill scream from the other side of the room. He whips his head around to see Lennon backed up against the yellow painted wall, staring at the little boy, Johnny, cautiously. "One second, Lucy. Lennon, what's the matter?"

"No! Oh dear!" Lennon screeches, curling in on herself on the floor. Before Louis can decide the best approach the secretary bursts in. She's a pleasant looking older woman who is obviously used to being next to the special education classroom.

"Should I call her father?" She asks, having met Harry that morning. Louis nods with a weary smile as Lennon continues to cry and scream, and she nods before closing the door again.

Louis looks over to the other children, two of them continuing to colour while one of them is covering his ears. Louis holds his hand out to that little boy who takes his hand and lets him lead him to the other side of the room, handing him a picture book to look at.

Harry is there in a very impressive amount of time, looking frantic and very anxious. Lennon's meltdown has not subsided, and Louis shoots Harry an apologetic look as he approaches Lennon.

"Hi, baby," Harry greets softly while Lennon cries and shrieks into the floor. "Lennon, baby, Papa's right here. Look at me, babe, look." Lennon looks up, bright green eyes watery and face pink and blotchy. "What happened, Lennon? What happened?"

"Oh dear," Lennon cries, reaching out to Harry, but Louis knows children with autism don't appreciate physical affection, and Harry must know either, because although it looks like he wants to, he doesn't touch Lennon.

"Baby, baby," Harry coos softly, reaching out and brushing her sweaty hair out of her face. Lennon doesn't seem to mind it, down scaling to small whimpers against the carpet.

"Oh dear, Harry, rose," Lennon mumbles, stumbling over her own words as Harry pulls a tissue out of his back pocket and wipes at Lennon's nose. Louis just watches in awe. Harry's so calm.

"Did someone touch your rose, Ms. Lennon Blue?" Harry asks with a warm smile. Lennon lets Harry help her up, sniffling and standing still as Harry wipes her tears.

"Touched my rose, Ms. Papa Blue," Lennon sniffles, making Harry giggle. Lennon giggles as well, just copying Harry's actions.

"I'm sorry to hear that, baby," Harry coos. "It's okay now, though, yeah? All better." Harry picks the rose up off the floor and hands it to Lennon. "There's your rose, Lennon."

"My rose," Lennon says quietly. Harry smiles at Lennon before smiling up at Louis, standing up straight and running his fingers through Lennon's curls.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Tomlinson," Harry says with an apologetic grin. "She's sensitive."

"'S alright," Louis replies after snapping out of his endeared trance. "She's been a sweetheart."

"Hi!" Lucy greets Harry, waving up at him. Harry looks down at her and smiles warmly, hand still on Lennon's shoulder protectively.

"Hello," He greets. "What's your name?"

"Lucy," She replies with a smile. "I-I like your hair."

"Thank you, I like yours too," Harry replies with a mile wide grin. Louis just watches, in awe, trying to remember if it's frowned upon when a teacher has a crush on a student's parent.