The next day was almost like old days again. Harry seemed have decided to give Louis a bit space and pause his boyfriend act, at least the active one. They were still a faux-couple to everyone else.

It wasn't until the last period that they were forced to interact again. To greater or lesser extend forced at least. 

After their teacher, Mrs Wollring, was through with her explanation about cellular respiration she told them that they wouldn't write a test this term. Before anyone could get exited about it though, she explained that they were doing partner projects instead. Some students got exited either way, but...

Not Louis. He hated those kind of projects. Sure, you had the chance to get a better grade but Louis thought his grades were decent enough. See, Louis had two huge problems when it came to projects. First, you had to invest much more time into them than just studying for a normal test. Second, you had to present those projects and Louis hated speaking infront of people. Especially when you had to stand in the front and the class could watch your every move and to make matters worse, you got graded for your demeanour.

A third problem was added when Calum walked up to the four of them. Well, actually only Ashton, but he was sitting between Louis and Michael. 

"Hey, Ashton."

"Hey." Ashton answered quietly. He was still really shy around Calum. Louis could understand him, Calum was really handsome. Though Louis had no idea if boys were fitting into Ashton's sexual orientation. It didn't really matter, even straight guys could see that Calum was extremely fit. Even if he wasn't as fit as Harry, but that was only because of his little crush. Little, nothing more.

"So, what do you say? Wanna be partners?" Calum asked.

Ashton grinned, seeming happy about this proposal. But he still turned to his friends. "Is that okay for you guys?"

Of course the three others agreed. How could they not if they saw the hopeful twinkle in his otherwise with constant worry clouded eyes?

"I'll just do with Niall, don't we, Ni?" Michael grinned.

"Okay." Niall agreed.

"Okay, I'll just, errm..." Now Louis had his third problem. Normally they would just do groups with the four of them, to Louis' luck because he was really not good with asking others and finding partners.

He looked at Avril hopefully but she smiled apologetic, "Sorry, I'm already with Amy but, hey, you could do with your boyfriend."

She looked into Harry's direction. "No, Av-..." Louis went to protest.

"Hey Harry. Louis doesn't have a partner." She yelled through the class room. Harry turned to them, grinning. Then he came over. 

"Oh no, Harry. You really don't have to." Louis assured him. He knew this whole boyfriend-thing was not about them being together. Harry didn't really want to spend time with him and Louis wouldn't pressure him into doing so.

"No, no. I would love to." Harry answered. It sounded sincere, which confused Louis but he just nodded.

So they were project partners now. How cliché, Louis thought, smiling to himself. But his smile vanished soon as he realized that this wouldn't have the cliché ending. Harry had to agree to being his partner. What kind of boyfriend would he appear as if he just let his boyfriend stay alone? He just wanted to seem like a boyfriend, that didn't make him any less straight.

"Louis?" He jumped, looking at Harry who was now sitting next to him. The curly haired laughed, "You were thinking pretty hard, weren't ya? Or were you just dreaming?"

Louis blushed, "Err..." He said stupidly, "I- I... errr."

Harry laughed once again, "It's okay. I'm a bit of a dreamer too. Liam says it's because my own voice makes me so sleepy."

Now it was Louis' turn to laugh, "You do talk very slowly." Seeing Harry pouting Louis added without thinking, "It's kinda sexy though." As soon as the sentence left his mouth Louis' eyes widened in panic. "Shit. I- I didn't mean to say that, I'm sorry. Does that make you uncomfortable? I made you uncomfortable, didn't I? I'm sorry. We can, uuhh... we can change partners if you want. I'm sure Niall wouldn't mi-..."

"Louis." Harry laughed, "Relax. I don't mind, don't worry. It's rather flattering, really. Especially from you." Harry leaned closer. Louis' heart began racing and he felt his skin get hot and his fingertips were tingling. Was Harry going to... "And you should lower your voice. They can hear you." And he pulled back again.

Louis let out a breath he was holding. Okay, yeah. He was only leaning in because of their act, nothing more. Okay, and Louis had to be more quiet. Good.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked, "I'm sorry, was that too over the top?"

Louis forced on a smile, "No, I'm okay. It's okay." Harry looked at him, unconvinced, opening his mouth to say something but Louis beat him to it, "Yes, I'm sure."

Now Harry broke into a grin, "How did you know I was going to ask that?"

Louis rolled his eyes, "I can read minds, obviously."

Harry subconsciously scooted closer, "And if I wasn't going to ask that?"

"Well," Louis said softly, "Then I guess you're not the Harry I know."

Harry blushed and went to say something before Mrs Wollring interrupted them, "Are you two working?"

Their eyes snapped up to her, "Yeah, of course." Louis hurried to say.

She looked at them sceptically but walked away, "Remember the-..."

Louis didn't get what they had to remember since Harry leaned in to whisper into his ear, "What are we even supposed to be doing?"

"Err..." Louis looked around and giggled, realising that they were the only ones who still weren't working. Harry chuckled along.

"Ash!" Louis whispered since Ashton was sitting the closest to him.

When Ashton didn't react Harry whispered, "Cal!" He didn't react either so Louis and Harry began to chant their friend's names

"Ash! Ash! Ash! Ash! Ash!"

"Cal! Cal! Cal! Cal! Cal!"

They still didn't react and, going by the smirk on Calum's face they did that on purpose. Harry seemed to have come to the same impression, taking a piece of paper and tearing it into a few pieces. Then he scrunched one up and trew it at Calum. Sadly he didn't strike but Louis got the idea.

Chuckling, he made a paper ball himself, earning a grin from Harry. Laughing quietly, they trew paper at their friends who stubbornly wouldn't turn to them. Of course Louis and Harry could just ask someone else but they were having fun right now.

Louis watched as Harry's ball hit Mrs Wollring's, errm, behind. They held their breaths for a moment, then bursting out laughing. The classroom wasn't quiet or else this would have been really noticeable.

"Harry." Louis tapped his shoulder, "Look." He pointed at where Leigh-Anne had one of their paper balls in her hair and they bursted into a fit of giggles again.

"What is so funny, boys?" Mrs Wollring was standing at their desk again, looking down at the laughing couple.

"Errm, he just told me a joke." That was probably the lamest excuse Louis had ever came up with. Well, probably not. Louis was awful at lying. Mrs Wollring raised an unimpressed eyebrow. 

"Yeah, I'm really funny." Harry tried to reason. "Look, Knock knock." Mrs Wollring was still looking at them unimpressedly, "You have to say 'who's there?'." Harry explained.

"I know how knock knock jokes work, Harry. But you really shouldn't have time to tell someone knock knock jokes. You two have to work."

"Yeah, yeah. We're doing that." Louis said. Harry nodded fiercely.

Mrs Wollring raised her eyebrows disapprovingly, "Just know that this is due to next lesson." Louis and Harry nodded docile. But as soon as her back was turned to them again they burst out laughing again.

"Oh my gosh," Harry gasped between his laughter, "I can't believe she believed us."

"She didn't." Louis laughed. Harry came down and just grinned at the still chuckling Louis, who soon settled with grinning back at him.

"You know," Harry commented, "I'm really lucky that you're my boyfriend." He took Louis' hand and laid them intertwined onto the table. Louis let out a stupid giggle. He felt much too giddy for this being just a fake confession. Or maybe it was not. He meant he was lucky Louis played being his boyfriend. But Harry was holding his hand and grinning at him with his cute dimples and Louis couldn't bring himself to care.

The 'couple' broke out of their grinning staring contest when Mrs Wollring announced, "You have fifteen minutes to finish. Rest is homework."

"We should maybe find out what we're working on." Harry suggested.

Louis nodded and turned to Ashton, whisper- shouting, "Ey, Ash!" When he didn't turn around again Louis threatened, "If you don't answer me I'll tell Calum about Cally."

Ashton couldn't have turned his head faster, "You wouldn't." Louis shrugged, smirking. Ashton rolled his eyes, "Don't act mean, you wouldn't hurt a fly. You even like spiders." Ashton grimaced.

"Spiders are cute." Harry commented.

Louis grinned at him, "Aren't they."

"Great, then you have something in common. What do you want from us now. I would rather not have homework because you twats are pulling us into your shit." Calum said.

"We're doing no such thing." Harry defended. Calum and Ashton rolled their eyes in sync. It was kind of creepy.

"Anyways," Louis said, "What we wanted to know since about five hours-"

"Here comes the drama queen." Ashton commented.

"- is, what are we even supposed to be doing?" Louis ended without paying attention to Ashton's comment.

Ashton and Calum looked at them incredulously, the latter answering, "We were working since about twenty minutes."

"If you would have turned around the first time we would have known earlier." Louis pointed out.

"That was funny." Ashton giggled, and Louis noticed Calum looking at him fondly. He couldn't blame him. Ashton's giggle was one of the most adorable things on earth.

"It's awesome that you amuse yourselves with our problems." Louis sassed.

"I'm sorry, Lou. I love ya." Ashton looked at him through his eyelashes jokingly. Louis blew him a kiss.

"Oh my gosh. You guys act gayer than a barbie prince." Calum commented.

"Hmm, I wonder why." Louis winked at him.

"Ey, stop flirting with them. I'm your boyfriend." Harry joked. At least Louis thought he was joking.

Louis smirked, "Want me to flirt with you instead?" He leaned closer.

Harry mirrored him, "Maybe."

"You have really pretty eyes." Louis told him. It was meant to be just a joke but Harry smiled, and Louis thought that his compliment couldn't be more true.

"You too babe." He grinned, not breaking their eyecontact. Louis noticed the small darker dots in Harry's eyes. Also, there was a little bit ocean blue in the middle right by the pupils. But the most was just a beautiful shade of calming forest green. Harry's eyes seemed to move as little as possible and there was something sparkling behind it, like a child seeing a beautiful butterfly which it didn't want to disturb.

Suddenly Harry pulled his head back and looked behind himself, holding the back of his head, "Ow, who was that?"

Louis saw Niall watching them and immedeantly knew he was the one trowing a paper ball at Harry. He glared at his best friend who rolled his eyes. Rationally, Louis knew why he had interrupted them. He thought Louis was going to get hurt and Harry wanted to cause him heartbreak but Louis knew Harry wasn't like that. He was the sweetest guy Louis knew and he liked to have his attention.

"So, do you still want to know what you are supposed to work on? Because I would really like to get back to it. I hate homework." Calum offered, indirectly.

When Harry nodded Ashton explained, "First finish this work sheet, then everything should be clear. After the second task you have to work with a theme. The list is somewhere, err..." He looked around the classroom, "Aah, Jade and Perrie have it."

Louis and Harry went to work after that, at least trying to because even though the tasks weren't that complicated it was like cotton was inside Louis' head, muffling his intelectual power. It didn't help that Harry wasn't really working either. He seemed to have problems thinking too. They would look at each other and giggle sillily at their ineffectiveness.

"Okay, you have five more minutes." Mrs Wollring announced.

"WHAT?" Harry and Louis gasped at the same time.

"How were we supposed to finish this in this lesson?" Harry asked.

"Who doesn't think he will be finished in four minutes?" Mrs Wollring asked.

Nobody rose their hand. "Oh come on." Louis groaned.

"You can't all be finished already." Harry said incredulously.

"Maybe you should have flirted less and focused more on your tasks." Mrs Wollring deadpanned.

At that Louis blushed, looking down on his desk and not daring to look at anyone.

"Okay." Harry said after a while of silence. "I guess we, err..." Harry didn't really seem to know what to do or say. The problem was, neither did Louis.

This was part of what Louis had been afraid of. Making things awkward between them because they had never talked alone and weren't friends or anything either. Louis was not that type of person to just go and hold an easy going conversation with someone. Until now everything had been going alright.

"Louis, Harry." Mrs Wollring was standing infront of them now, "You are aware that you have to do this in the next two days on your own. And don't just let one of you do that alone. This is a partner project and it will be a big part of your grade."

Louis just nodded along. Great, more alone time with Harry where he could embarrass himself.