What exactly defined the usual "teenage dirtbag"? Was it the way they dressed, how their hygiene was cared for, social status? When you read the word dirtbag, you think filthy or vile. Or maybe you think nerdy, unpopular, irrelevant.

That was what Louis Tomlinson was at Cheshire's Secondary School of Arts. The unpopular, irrelevant kid of the school. The one that no one paid any mind to, except the few friends Louis had in his circle, who were also classified as "dirtbags".

But Louis had a story, just like the rest of the students that he attended school with. Maybe he didn't have a fancy car, or the newest improved iPhone, but he was still a normal human being like the remainder of his class.

Louis never was one to fit in at school, he always stood out one way or another. One way was the hand-me-down Ford Escape he drove to school and back. Another way was his worn out pair of Vans that he's worn since year 11, simply because his doctor told him he was done growing at the standing height of 5'8". He's never needed to buy another pair of shoes, for his feet never grew to need them.

Louis was grateful for what he had, even if it wasn't a first class lifestyle.

His mother, before her death, always taught Louis to be grateful for what he had growing up. She did her best as a single parent to help raise him and his two sisters. Nothing could've prepared Louis for the day his mum came down with a deathly case of leukemia, taking her life months later.

Louis did what he knew was in Jay's best interest once she passed, and that was stepping up to help raise Lottie and Felicite. Louis was eighteen, signing for legal custody of his sisters as their guardian. Despite his aunt fighting for custody of the girls, the written will of Johannah Deakin herself overruled his aunt's side of the argument.

Don't get Louis wrong, stepping up to take care of his twelve year and ten year old sisters definitely wasn't easy. The trio had a hard time recovering from their mother's death, but as a family they stuck together and healed slowly.

But nobody knew this side of Louis at school. He was just viewed as a loser, not the broken teen who lost his mother at a far too early age and took up the responsibility of raising his younger siblings. The Louis that was diagnosed with depression not long after his mother's death. The Louis that turned to cigarettes as a form of stress relief because sometimes being the guardian of two children was not the easiest.

He was doing it all on his own, and he knew his mother was smiling down on him in pride.

The only good thing Louis liked about attending his last year of school was the arts aspect of the curriculum. The secondary school recently undergone a change over the summer, introducing a new name and overall curriculum. The "school of arts" was tagged onto the end of the title, and an entire art and music program was installed into the system.

Before this year, Louis was stuck at any boring typical school, attending his day to day maths and social sciences. But now he was able to enjoy school a little bit more, his favorite elective of the day being his piano class.

And maybe the reason it was his favorite period was more than just because a certain curly headed brunette was also in the class.

Harry Styles, the popular lad of the school. Popular was a bit of a stretch, but Harry was well known enough that he might as well be called it. He had a decent circle of friends whom he was always caught hanging out with in his free time, whether it was during lunch or a private party set up by the students on the weekends.

But Harry wasn't like the usual jocks of the school, he was different; at least that's what Louis thought.

He saw a fire in Harry's eye, something that was itching to escape. Louis noted him as down to earth, helping the one boy in the hallway whose books got slapped out of his arms and scattered across the tile floor.

Harry was nice to everyone, and Louis would admire that about him.

It made him want to know Harry, but Louis knew that the boy didn't even know he existed. He was just another face in his piano class that went unnoticed.

Louis accepted that. He was just a teenage dirtbag, after all.