it was four weeks into the new school year, and louis has never been so mentally and physically exhausted in his life. ignoring harry styles jr. seemed like the most hardest thing he's ever done.

louis felt like harry jr. has picked up on the teacher ignoring him, and is picking up the class clown role. louis has never had such a nuisance in his class since greg horan from a few years back.

mr. tomlinson sighs when he sees harry jr.'s writer's notebook. he's the only one he hasn't graded, and honestly, louis doesn't want to read it. it's probably blank anyway, little harry always fails to do the writing assignments louis gives out.

the writing assignment was a simple one. it was to write about the best gift they've ever received. it was an opening to a book they were going to be reading in class.

louis groans and opens harry's notebook hesitantly. he flips through the pages and finds that harry actually did the writing assignment. louis looks at it in surprise before he fixes his glasses and starts to read the scrabbly handwriting.

the best gift i've ever received? it was when my dad finally divorced my shit of a mum.

okay sorry for my cussing up there, it's just she was a really bad mum. like really bad.

i didn't really want to do this writing assignment but my dad thought it was a good idea because my grades are already slipping. i don't know why, there's nothing to it really.

like, i don't know why i'm even writing about this mr. t, but... ugh i don't know.

okay, i'm closing this out now. the best gift i've ever gotten was when my mum became irrelevant to me for good. even better than the Mortal Kombat game I got last summer. and that's saying something.

louis looks at the entry, but cannot help but feel a bit giddy. that means that harry is single! right?

the teacher immediately feels guilty for thinking of his own self and not of his student. little harry decided to open up to louis, just a bit, and all he cares about is his father being single.

he mentally slaps himself and bites his lip before grabbing his pen and writes feedback below the entry.

harry,
i'm glad you decided to do the assignment, and i'm sorry about your mum. thank you for trusting me with this.
- mr. t.

he clicks his pen before adding a little note below.

p.s. please don't use ever profanity again.

louis caps the pen before there's a knock at his door. louis rolls his eyes because he doesn't even have any friends, it's probably one of those girl scouts.

the door opens and there stands a 16-17 year old zayn malik with a huge smile on his face. louis doesn't remember him on the spot, and speaks, "what are you doing here? who are you?"

zayn's face dropped and kicked some pebbles at the door step. "damn, i'd think you remember me," zayn whispered before running off.

louis, not hearing what the younger lad said, shrugged and closed the door.

he didn't remember zayn that night.