Lunch had always been a particular type of Hell for Louis. Even when he was a child and things were easier, he had hated lunchtime. For obviously different reasons than now, of course. When he was younger, all Louis really had to worry about was what his mum had packed him for lunch. And, of course, which group of friends he was going to sit with and play with at lunch. Everyday, it seemed like Louis got in trouble with one of his friends because he didn't eat or play with them.
Now, though, Louis had to worry about so much more. Lunch was after English on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. On the other days it was right after his Maths class. He always had third period lunch, when the only food left was what the first two period lunches didn't care for. So, usually it was sandwiches, salads, a little bit of the main dish, and pizza. But Louis was always the last person out of the classroom, whether he liked it or not. So, he got the most undesired parts of lunch; pizza and salads, mostly.
Louis would most likely than not choose pizza, since he was able to get a side with that, and not with the rather tiny salad. After choosing out his pizza and usual side of Mandarin oranges, Louis would venture out into the court to find a place to sit. When Niall had the same lunch as him, Louis would go and sit with him.
Niall was one of Louis' only friends. He was a new student from Ireland whom had joined in the middle of the year. It made Niall stand out from everyone else. Everyone knew who everyone was and where they belonged. Niall, however, knew no one and no one knew him, making him an outcast. And not just any outcast, because even they had a place to be; with each other. Niall was in the same place as Louis was; the forgotten outcasts. Louis used to eat his lunch on the loo, hidden in a dingy, dark stall. But he ended up running into (literally) Niall on the way to the bathrooms. They introduced each other and they hadn't separated since.
But on days where there was no Niall, and no open area for Louis to sit in a stall, he was left wondering where to go. Louis had to eat lunch, because he would become practically paralysed from shaking so hard. And really, school was hard enough when Louis wasn't vibrating at his desk. It was really difficult to find a place, though. Sometimes Louis was accepted into the teacher's lounge, but Fridays were their meeting days. Due to privacy problems, he was not allowed in there on Fridays.
Louis had absolutely nowhere to go on Fridays.
It was the same problem as always as Louis looked around the court, trying to find an empty table. But, because of Mr. Langston speech, Louis had been the last one in the food line. That meant that everyone else had grabbed their food and found a place to be. A place where Louis just was not allowed.
Louis sighed and walked away from the court, hoping to find a place in the toilets. Of course, there wasn't a place there, either. Louis was contemplating asking a teacher if he could just wear headphones or something when Louis noticed a boy walk into the library with a lunch tray. Louis furrowed his eyebrows, confused. No one was allowed in the library with food. Louis wasn't even sure if students were allowed in there during lunch at all. That was usually a time when people with online classes got their work done, meaning no one else could be in there.
Louis walked over to the library window, looking through it. He watched the boy walk up to Ralph, the librarian, and tell him something. Ralph laughed, patting the boy's shoulder before pointing towards the stairs. The boy fixed his dark brown, practically black, hair before walking off to the stairs. He climbed them quickly, taking two steps at a time. He moved up them with ease, like he had done that same thing every single day. Then, he disappeared someplace around the corner. Louis could no longer see him, making him disappointed. He wanted to know where the boy had run off to. Louis was sure he had seen the boy before, maybe in his art or writing classes. But he was always too shy to talk to anyone. It was no wonder why Louis didn't have more friends. Niall had to wait a week for Louis to say anything else other than his name and class schedule.
Louis stood there for awhile, just watching the corner where the boy had turned. Something in him wished that he the boy would come back. Maybe see that Louis was just standing there, watching, and invite him up the staircase. But the boy never came back in the five minutes that Louis just stood there, watching. So, Louis sighed and went outside, deciding to just bear the cold and eat out there.
~DIS~
When the weekend rolled around, Louis was both happy and upset. The weekend meant that he no longer had to deal with stupid people at school or embarrassing moments in front of people. But school was still a place to go to that wasn't Louis' house. It wasn't really like Louis hated his home, no. He had a loving family and lots to do there. But Louis felt like he had to be perfect in order to get anywhere. Louis' sisters Charlotte and Félicité were both exactly that; perfect. They had amazing grades, good looks, great personalities, and perfect voices. Neither one of them stuttered or stammered or lisped or anything. They were perfectly fine while Louis was just not up to par. He had mediocre grades, pimples up the wazoo, a shy and unpractical personalty, and horrible speech.
Louis was honestly surprised that his parents dealt with him. Louis barely wanted to deal with himself half of the time. He was tired of himself all of the time, it felt, because he just could never be like his younger siblings. Louis was never going to be as good as them, so at some point, Louis just gave up. He spent most of his time at home in his room, where it was quiet and comfortable. Which meant that all of Louis' weekend was spent on just staying inside.
Of course, his parents did try to get him out. Whether it was for a quick run around the neighborhood or dinner at the local diner. But Louis often refused, making up some kind of stupid excuse as to why he just couldn't do it. Often, Louis would just say he wasn't feeling well. But, in reality, he just didn't want to embarrass his parents or siblings. When there was school, he had no choice but to embarrass himself, so Louis just went and dealt with it. It was something to do, and there, Louis didn't have to deal with the stares that he would get anywhere else in public. At school, everyone was used to Louis' stupidity.
This weekend, though, was completely different. For some reason, Louis' mum had been in some kind of redecorating rampage. She wanted to redo every single room. So far, Jay had changed every room in the house. Except for Louis' bedroom. And this weekend was the weekend that Jay decided it was time to take over Louis' room. There was no disagreeing with Jay; what she said went, so Louis didn't even try to argue with her.
On Saturday morning, Jay woke Louis up at the ass-crack of dawn.
"Louis, come on baby, wake up. The movers are almost here with your new bed," Jay murmured, trying to get Louis out.
Louis grumbled, trying to shoo Jay away. But she smacked his hand away and shook him again. Louis groaned, but sat up, blinking blearily up at Jay.
"C-can I have f-five m-more m-minutes?" Louis whined, just wanting to go back to sleep. It was only six in the morning. He didn't even have to wake up that early for school.
Jay shook her head, practically pushing Louis out of bed. He groaned and grumbled and whined some more as he got out. Louis glared at Jay when he was officially up, but she just smiled back and left the room so Louis could change. The boy rolled his eyes and got dressed as slowly as he could, ignoring Jay when she called for him to hurry up.
After getting dressed and enduring a lecture from Jay, Louis went downstairs for breakfast. Jay had put together a display on the counters of waffles, fruits, and bacon. Louis smiled happily, picking up a waffle and gathering some sliced strawberries to spread across it. After, he poured some syrup over it, sitting down with his plate after. Probably the only thing good about Louis being kicked out of his room was the food.
"Good morning, Louis."
Louis looked up, swallowing thickly when he saw Lottie. She smiled at Louis before putting together her own plate of food. Except, she only grabbed a bunch of fruit, and not anything else like Louis had. Of course she had to also be healthier than Louis, too. Louis sighed and smeared the syrup across his waffle.
"G-good m-morning, Lottie," Louis mumbled. He sniffled a little, taking another nibble at his waffle. Suddenly, he didn't feel as hungry. "Wh-what are y-you d-doing up s-so early?"
Lottie shrugged, popping an apple slice into her mouth. She chewed on it thoughtfully before humming. "Just a nice morning. Figured I could go out for a run or something. There's not much here to do. At least not exercise wise, and I need to get my workout in. I've been doing really good recently," she replied, smiling proudly.
Louis looked at Lottie's skinny torso, then down to his tummy. He sighed, poking lightly at his chub with a finger, pouting a little. "Um. C-could I p-possibly c-c-come with?"
Lottie smiled wider, nodding. "Yeah! Of course! I've been wanting a workout buddy. Who better than my brother?" the fourteen-year old asked.
Louis smiled back, small and shy. "Y-yeah."
~DIS~
An hour later, Louis was huffing and panting on a bench, not believing that he had just outran his rather athletic sister. He was sure she had faked some of it, since Louis could never outrun Lottie, not even when he was super fit and young.
Lottie was breathing heavily next to him. But it was like she wasn't suffering at all, because there was a wide smile on Lottie's face. As for Louis, though, he couldn't even fake a smile. He was starting to wonder if your lungs could collapse after just a run.
"That was fun!" Lottie said, grabbing the water bottle attached to her hip. She squirted some water into her mouth, swallowing it loud. She then passed the bottle to Louis, who practically drowned himself with how much water he took in at once.
"Y-yeah. S-s-so much f-fun," Louis breathed out, still out of all of his air.
Lottie giggled, taking the water bottle back, clipping it back to her hip. "Don't worry, Lou. You'll get better at breath control soon. Just run with me every morning. I do it before school at six on the weekdays and usually at eight on the weekends. But Mum woke me up early when she was trying to wake you up. And I knew that those dumb movers would be there soon, so there was no use in trying to go back to sleep," she said, smiling at Louis.
Louis chuckled, smiling back. "Y-yeah. M-Mum's a little ins-sane right n-now," he replied. It was then that a boy about Louis' age walked past on the sidewalk just a few feet ahead. Instantly, Louis perked up. It was the boy that he had seen before, back in the library. A smile pulled at the corners of Louis' sweaty lips. "H-hi!"
The boy looked over his shoulder at Louis and Lottie, his broken eyebrows furrowing. He obviously had no idea who either of them were. But he still gave curt wave to Louis, the tiniest form of a smirk coming upon his face. Something in Louis fluttered, making him smile wider. Could they possibly become friends after this almost run-in? A voice inside of Louis' head screamed now, but for some reason unbeknownst to Louis, he felt like it could happen. He felt something he hadn't felt in awhile at this coincidence. It was starting to become more than just a coincidence. It felt something like fate.
Before Louis could do anything else, the boy was crossing the street, probably down to where he lived. Louis didn't feel discouraged, though. Because what he had felt flutter in his stomach earlier was definitely something he liked to call 'hope'.