Recap:
She pulls the thin sheet over her body, trying to stop her shivering from the cold autumn air coming through the cracks in her window before closing her eyes, trying to sleep and block the sound of Mike screaming at someone on the phone downstairs.
06:30 am. Louis' alarm blares through his and Harry's shared bedroom. It was the first day back at school after the six-week summer holiday break and Louis was going to meet his new Year 1 class, who he would teach for the next year. He rolled over to hit the snooze button and then cuddled back into Harry, bringing the covers up tight to his neck as the cold September morning made him shiver from the small movement.
Harry stirred, turning over to face Louis and began threading his fingers through Louis' hair. "y'gotta get up, Lou. It's school t'day", he said, his voice deep and croaky from sleep.
Louis hummed in response, "it's too cold t'get up".
Harry chuckled at his husband's response and pulled the duvet cover away from them both and chucked it on the floor, much to Louis' dismay.
"what the fuck Haz" he exclaimed. Quickly sitting up, glaring at Harry and tucking his hands under his arms to try and keep his bare torso warm.
Harry stood up, laughing at how grumpy Louis was when being woken up and turned on the bedside lamp, giving the dark room a warm orange glow; it was too early for the sun to be up to give them natural light. "c'mon babe! You get to meet your new class today! Don't you want to be there early to set their things up?" he said, walking into their en-suite to freshen up. Harry didn't necessarily need to be up this early, he was working from home and had online meetings in the afternoon, but he wanted to help his husband out seeing as it was the first day back at school for all his boys and getting back into that hectic morning routine was not easy. Especially since Louis is definitely not a morning person.
Louis followed him into the bathroom and they both began to get themselves ready. Louis chose his outfit which consisted of a pair of black trousers with a pale blue shirt which he cuffed the sleeves on. Harry just threw on some joggers and a hoodie, not needing to look so formal.
Once they both were dressed, Louis made his way downstairs to make breakfast and sort his bags out whilst Harry went to make sure the boys were up and getting ready.
Harry knocked on Liam's door first, knowing the boy would most probably be up already being the more "school-lover" out of the kids. After getting a response to enter he opened the door and was greeted by a freshly showered Liam clad in just his school trousers, his hair damp and rummaging through his wardrobe to find his shirt and tie.
"mornin' Li, just checking you're up for school" Harry said, still standing in the doorway.
Liam smiled at his dad before pulling out a white shirt and beginning to put it on and button it up. "morning dad. I had my alarm set so I could be up a bit earlier. I'm excited for Year 12!" He replied.
Harry smiled fondly at his eldest son, "it will be a great year for you Li. Hard-work with starting your A-Levels though!".
Liam groaned at the mention of A-Levels, but both he and Harry knew he would have no trouble with the harder work. He began to put on his tie before Harry spoke up again. "Anyway, Papa's making breakfast today so I wouldn't expect anything more exciting than toast. I've got to go and get Niall out of bed as I haven't heard any movement from him yet".
Liam nodded and continued his morning routine as Harry shut the door and made his way over to Niall's room, knocking on the door but was greeted with no reply. Harry slowly opened the door before stepping in, seeing just a tuft of blonde hair sticking up from under the covers. He walked over to the side of the bed where Niall was before gently sitting down on the edge and pulling back the covers to see his youngest son's face.
Harry secretly loved having to wake Niall up in the mornings and sometimes wished Liam wasn't such a morning person so that he could wake him up too, because they were more affectionate then. The truth is Harry doesn't like the fact his boys are growing up; they no longer want to be kissed on the cheek or cuddled while watching a movie, so mornings allowed for Harry to 'baby' Niall more than he could at any other time since Niall would usually forget the first few minutes of waking up, being in a delirious state from sleep.
The soft approach was the best way to coax Niall awake as he got really disorientated if you startled him up. Harry gently brought his hand up to Niall's face and lightly stroked his cheek with his pointer finger, the other hand reaching under the covers to rub circles on his back, patting it a couple times every so often. "Nialler, time to wake up for school sweetheart" he whispered.
Niall stirred, but didn't make any attempt to actually wake up and open his eyes. He shifted and rolled onto his back, Harry's hand now continuing its motion on Niall's tummy. Harry laughed to himself; Niall was definitely more like Louis in the mornings.
"C'mon darlin', it's your last year of GCSE's! You don't want to be late!" Harry said, his voice slightly louder than his previous whispering. With that statement Niall finally opened his eyes and stretched, waking himself up more before making eye-contact with his dad.
"g'mornin' dad. Don't wanna go t'school", he said with a slight frown. Harry mentally rolled his eyes at his son's statement, 'ugh teenagers!' he thought to himself. Nevertheless, he questioned Niall, waiting for some silly excuse for him wanting to stay home. "why don't you want to go, Ni?" he asked.
Niall yawned and stretched again before speaking, "cause 'm tired... s'too early".
Harry patted Niall's tummy once more before standing up off the bed and going to open Niall's curtains. "you need to go to bed earlier then Ni. Year 11 is important, you can't be missing any days, especially not your first day back".
Niall just hummed in agreement and got out of bed and made his way towards his wardrobe to grab his uniform. Harry smiled, satisfied that Niall was not going to fall back asleep and made his way over to Niall after picking up some dirty washing left chucked on Niall's chair. He ruffled Niall's hair, "good boy, shower first please sunshine" and left with a kiss to his head. Niall groaned at this and reached to rub away at the spot where his dad had kissed him; Harry definitely knew Niall was awake now, back to wanting no physical affection from his father.
Downstairs, Louis had made himself and Harry a cup of tea and his boys some toast and was checking he had all his new students' books and supplies in his bag. The family's dog, Arthur, was following him around like a shadow, still waiting to be fed his breakfast; Louis had clearly forgot, a mix of being overtired and stressed for his first day back.
Harry came down the stairs and noticed Arthur begging to be fed so decided to let his husband do his thing and whistled for the golden retriever to follow him into the kitchen and gave him his breakfast, scratching behind his ear and muttering a "good boy" before making his way towards the countertop where Louis had left him his tea.
Ten minutes later Liam came down the stairs, school bag on his back and P.E bag in his hand. Niall following another ten minutes later after being shouted on by Louis to "hurry up".
Harry bid Louis and his boys goodbye before going to watch the TV in the lounge as the other boys got in the car and were on their way to St Luke's Secondary School. It was only a few roads away from St Luke's Primary School where Louis worked. He dropped off the boys, almost having to drag Niall out of the car and into the building; you would think he was one of the five-year-olds in Louis' class!
Once Louis had made his way into the Primary School, he went straight to the Staff room as he had twenty minutes before any of his students would arrive. He greeted the receptionist, Miss Walker and she handed him his class register, name badge and key to his classroom.
Louis' classroom was the first classroom out of three at the end of the long main corridor. The door already had been labelled with "Year One, Mr Stylinson" in bold letters on the glass and a laminated sheet of paper titled "Our Class Captains" just below, which reminded Louis he needed to get the children to vote for a class captain and vice-captain later that day.
He went in and set up his desk first, adding gold star stickers to the top drawer, coloured pens, pencils, and crayons in the three pots on top of his desk and he left the register in the centre. He then went to the whiteboard and wrote out the date and his name for the students to get to know him before logging onto the computer to open his seating plan he had made so he could set up his students' books on the correct desk.
Before he knew it, some kids came through the door carrying their book bags with huge smiles on their faces. Louis greeted them at the door.
"Hey kiddos! I'm Mr Stylinson, what are your names?" he asked enthusiastically. First replied a young boy with crazy brown curly hair it reminded him of Harry when he was younger. "I'm Fin! My long name is Finley, but my short name is Fin!" he replied. Louis had to chuckle at how the little boy explained his nickname. Next was a girl, quite tall with long blonde hair tied into plaits and blue eyes, "I'm Zoe River". She was well-spoken and Louis took a guess that she was going to be one of his top students.
He ushered them out of the doorway and told them to go find their pegs lined up on the wall next to the door and to put their P.E bags and coats there. Once they had done that a few more of his students arrived and did the same thing before they entered the classroom and waited for Louis to point out their designated seats.
"Okay! So, your books are on your desk and I'd like you to put them in your trays which are just below the desk. Please keep your bookbags tucked neatly under your desk so no one trips over them! We wouldn't want any injuries on the first day!" he said. The children shook their heads fast, none of them liking the idea of tripping over a bookbag.
Ten more minutes went by and all the children were present, ready for the day to begin in the next five minutes, but he was still waiting on one girl. Holly.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Holly Thomas! If I don't hear movement coming from you in the next two minutes, then this morning will start with a beating!"
She awoke with a start. Scared out of sleep by her stepfather. She definitely did not want a beating on the first day of school. She jumped up and rushed getting dressed into her old uniform. Despite being old, it wasn't too small. The poor girl hadn't grown much and still fit into age 3-4 when she should be 5-6. She quickly strapped up the Velcro on her shoes, not realising she had put them on the wrong feet, grabbed her bookbag and ran down the stairs to be met with a raging Mike.
"About time! The only reason I'm even up this early is because the school policy of not allowing kids under the age of 10 to walk to and from school alone! When I was your age, I had to walk myself to school! Fucking stupid nowadays!" he shouted at her, as if the school policy was Holly's fault. She muttered a quick sorry before Mike opened the door and shoved her out in the direction towards the car.
"Get in and shut up!"
They drove the two minutes to the school in silence before Mike stopped off outside the school gates and made Holly walk the rest of the way on her own.
She was greeted by the lovely teaching assistant at the door, Mrs Webber. "Good Morning Miss Holly! Do you know where your classroom is?" she asked, not missing how Holly's hair clearly had not been brushed, her shoes were on the wrong feet and she was not wearing a coat in the chilly September air.
Holly timidly shook her head. She was still very tired after being woken up so rudely and she had an awful memory. Mrs Webber then reminded her, so she set off down the long corridor before standing in the open doorway to the classroom.
All her other classmates were already sat down, and she felt quite uncomfortable with all the attention on her. Louis noticed this and told the students to talk to each other about what they did over summer to distract them before making his way over to Holly and crouching to be her height.
"Hello! What's your name? I'm Mr Stylinson". Louis already knew who she was, but it was a way to engage her in a conversation.
After looking around the room, making sure nobody was staring at her weirdly, she replied in a small voice, "I'm Holly. Sorry I'm late" she apologised.
Louis' heart warmed at this. She was so sweet with those big green eyes, light brown hair, and rosy cheeks. "No need to be sorry, you're right on time! Why don't you go take your seat next to Scarlet?" he said and motioned for her to go and sit down, which she did.
Louis couldn't help but notice how tiny she was. He knew kids at that age had growth spurts so some would be very tall and others small, but she was abnormally tiny for any five-year-old. He also noticed how she was walking funny and smiled softly when he noticed her shoes were on the wrong feet, he found it quite adorable. Nevertheless, he began the lesson: "So class! I know you all know each other but I don't know you, so let's go around the class and say our name, our favourite animal and what we are excited to learn about this year! I'll go first. My name is Mr Stylinson, I love penguins and I am excited to learn about rainforests!".