𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐔𝐓𝐎𝐑! | harry styles

𝐈𝐈𝐈

Jocelyn listened intently. "That's true. Like, the only times he wants to hang out are the times when I don't invite him. If I'm going to a club or something, he'll tag along, but if I say, 'hey let's hang out', he always says he can't."

Rebecca nodded. "See? Just try it and I bet you he'll be asking you out before the week's end.

Jocelyn was encouraged by Rebecca's words. And nothing would be nicer than a date with Harry Styles this Saturday night.

"I could wear that black top I got the last time we went shopping," Jocelyn said, getting a little ahead of herself.

"Ooh, yeah. That's so cute." Rebecca agreed.

"Oh, and Becs, not a word of this to Connie. She thinks Harry isn't worth a dime and I don't want to hear about it all day and night."

"Yeah, sure. Not a word." Rebecca nodded.

* * *

Harry scanned the faces of his classmates as they walked around the campus. He was inconspicuously looking for faces he didn't recognize. He didn't bother looking at the runts in the ninth and tenth grades. Anne had said his tutor was in his class. Bree Hanson…who was that?

"Hey, do you guys know a girl named Bree?" He asked later when he'd met up with his friends at their usual spot in the quad before second period.

"Yeah, she's in my history class," Connie answered.

"Who is she? What does she look like?" Harry probed.

"Why?" Jocelyn asked quickly, already forgetting what Rebecca had told her only hours before.

"I just want to know. I didn't recognize her name," Harry shrugged.

"Oh, well she's a hag." Jocelyn finished.

"Great," Harry muttered.

Tom came up and stood next to Harry at that moment.

"Hey, you wanna ditch?" he asked quietly.

"Can't, man. I have English." Harry answered.

"So? You always ditch English." Tom countered.

"I can't," Harry stated in a tone that let Tom know the discussion was over.

"You'd better not ditch!" Connie directed her gaze towards Tom. "We have to cook a soufflé in cooking today and I am so not doing it alone."

"I'm not in that class anymore." Tom stated without making direct eye contact with Connie.

"What?" her face fell. "You dropped? Why?"

Tom shrugged. "I just did."

The bell rang then, and Harry and Tom walked away from the core, each walking in different directions.

Connie watched Tom as he walked away.

"Um, bye," she called after him sarcastically. He held up his hand in a silent wave and continued walking.

Connie turned back to Rebecca and Jocelyn with a pout on her face. "Okay, what the hell was that?"

"What?" Jocelyn asked as she tried to conceal the fact that she was smoking in the quad.

"Tom. Did you see the way he was acting? He wouldn't even talk to me."

"What'd you do?" Jocelyn asked.

"Nothing!" Connie's voice escalated in octaves.

"Maybe he's on his period. You know how they say friends cycle at the same time," Rebecca joked. Jocelyn laughed loudly as she extinguished her cigarette on the bottom of her shoe.

Connie harrumphed before walking away. "I'll see you bitches later. I have to go to class."

* * *

Bree was delighted that Jocelyn had seemed to forget who she was this morning in history class. Now, if the rest of her classes were as uneventful as the first one had been, she'd have a great day.

"Um, Bree," Miss Teale approached her with reservation.

"Yes?" Bree eyed the small stack of papers the teacher held in her hands. Even though Bree had yet to turn in an assignment, she immediately grew apprehensive that she'd done something incorrectly.

"Mr. Leary told me this morning that you'd agreed to tutor Harry Styles," she said.

"Oh, that," Bree exhaled in relief. "Yeah."

Suddenly the chair next to Bree moved backward and Harry sat down with a thud.

"Oh, Harry, good. You're here," though Miss Teale's tone defied any jubilation at his presence.

Bree's eyes shifted to her side quickly. This was Harry Styles? Oh great!

"I was just telling Bree that this was the material I need the two of you to cover." Miss Teale held the packet out between Bree and Harry, urging one of them to take it. When it became obvious that Harry wasn't going to take the initiative, Bree reached up and grabbed it.

"Bree, if you have any questions, you can call me or email me here at school." Miss Teale stated as she walked back up to her desk to begin the class.

Bree glanced over at Harry and noticed that he was glaring at her.

"What?" she asked him. Wasn't she doing him a favor by agreeing to tutor him, for free? Why did he look so angry?

Instead of answer her, Harry turned his attention to Miss Teale and her lesson for the day, but it was very apparent that he wasn't listening.

The bell rang to signal the end of class. Without one single, solitary interaction between herself and Harry, Bree wondered how tortuous tutoring him was going to be. He gave her a hint with his next breath.

"Do you know Jocelyn Grey?" he asked.

"I know who she is. She's in my history class," Bree answered.

"Yeah. And if you tell anybody about this fuckin' tutoring shit, she's going to pay you a little visit. And it won't be for tea." Harry didn't bother to stick around to make sure Bree understood what he was saying. He simply turned on his heels and walked away, leaving Bree to curse the moment she stepped foot in Lockridge Falls.