Warnings: None

Word Count: 1964

Request: could i request something related to the rose colored boy series? as i've said i love that story a lot haha. but maybe just a little imagine about how they met each other and their first impressions? -OhMyJosh_TayTayandTy

Author's Note: As stated in the request, this is part of the Rose Colored Boy storyline! Their meeting in english class was mentioned on multiple occasions, so here it is for you to read :) I hope you enjoy it! Also, yes, I have listened to Level of Concern and I love it!!

*     *     *

Your POV

Music blasted in your headphones as you made your way through the halls towards your English class. Your fingers were wrapped tightly around your backpack straps, tucked into your sides to avoid bumping into anyone. Getting to English class was always the worst part of the day since you had to walk all the way from one end of the school to the other through crowds of juniors and seniors who were just getting back from lunch, hence the tucked in arms and loud music to move quickly and drown everything out.

You were relieved when you finally made it to the English hall. There were only a few kids hanging out outside of their classrooms, mostly talking to friends and putting off going to class as long as they could. They hardly gave you a second glance as you walked past and ducked into your own classroom.

You started to head for your seat out of habit until you realized that Julie was sitting in it, scrolling idly through her phone. Confused, you turned towards the projector to see if there was some warm up activity about sitting at a different table. Your stomach practically dropped when you realized that there was a new seating chart. You had just gotten comfortable enough to make small talk with the people you had previously been sitting with.

After a minute or so of working out how the seating chart was aligned, you figured out where your new seat was and sat down in it. Your table partner, Tyler, had already arrived and was scribbling something down in a bent notebook. He glanced up at you and smiled as you took a seat, but didn't say anything.

Probably because of the headphones.

You snuck a glance at Tyler when he seemed particularly wrapped up in whatever he was doing. The two of you had never talked before, but you knew a little about him. He was one of the kids from the other middle school that a couple of your friends had gone to; they were always talking about how they had huge crushes on him in seventh grade, but he had never really been interested. You could see why they thought he was cute, his eyes were nice and the brief smile he had given you was enough to make your stomach flip. That, and he played basketball; that was always a bonus in your friends' eyes.

He started to turn in your direction, so you quickly made yourself busy by unzipping your backpack and pulling out your designated english notebook. The front was already covered in doodles from the friend that you used to sit next to in this class, but now she was on the other side of the room. From the looks of it, she was having no problem making friends with the new people that she was sitting with. Your table, on the other hand, was largely ignoring each other's existence.

When the bell finally rang, you paused your music and tucked your headphones away into your pocket. You were only a few months into the school year and had already received numerous warnings about listening to music in class. Mr. Brown had even said that if he caught you one more time, there would be detention involved. You weren't really looking to have to explain that to your parents... or Carter, for that matter.

"Alright, class! Good morning! I'm happy to see that all of you were able to find your new seats," Mr. Brown said, making his way towards the front of the room. "I will be using that to take attendance today, so please make sure that you are sitting in the correct spot so that you don't get marked absent. While I do that, I would like you to take a few minutes to introduce yourselves to your table members. You will be working closely together during the next unit, so I want you to at least know each other's names. Go ahead."

You slid a little farther down in your seat, not wanting to be the first to introduce yourself. Thankfully, Tyler was more than willing to start everyone off.

"Hi, my name is Tyler."

He looked to you and raised his eyebrows. You cleared your throat and sat up a little straighter.

"Y/N," you said, forcing a smile.

The rest of the table introduced themselves and then went quiet, getting back on their phones or making faces at their friends across the room. You idly tapped your pencil against the cover of your notebook.

"What music were you listening to?" Tyler asked.

The question took you by surprise. Sure, your friends had told you that he was talkative at times, but you never really expected him to talk to you. You stopped leaning on your hand and turned to face him.

"Oh, you know, just random stuff," you said, too embarrassed to give him the actual answer.

"That's cool," he nodded.

"Do you... ever... listen to music?"

Really?

"Yeah, I'm really into music."

"Who do you listen to?"

Tyler shrugged and leaned back in his chair. "I think The Killers and Death Cab for Cutie are my favorites right now, but it's always changing."

"My brother really likes The Killers, he's constantly playing their music while he does homework."

"Same, I listen to their music when I practice basketball, usually."

"You play basketball?"

Yes. You already knew the answer.

"Yeah, I've been playing since I was little."

"Are you going to try out for the basketball team?"

You were surprised by how easy conversation with Tyler was becoming. Maybe it was the encouraging smile on his face or the fact that he hardly even blinked when you were stumbling over your words. Either way, you were beginning to be thankful for the seating arrangement change.

"I'm thinking about it, but I'm not sure that I would be good enough."

"It's worth a shot, isn't it?"

"Yeah, you're right," he smiled. "I guess I don't want people to think I got picked just because my dad is the varsity coach."

"Easy, just make sure you're actually good at basketball," you laughed.

"I am, don't worry."

You were about to make a joke about his cocky attitude, but the teacher grabbed everyone's attention again and started to talk about what he had planned for the day. Tyler smiled at you over his shoulder before turning and paying attention.

This was definitely turning out better than you had anticipated.

*     *     *

Tyler's POV

"Alright, I'm going to give you the last ten minutes of class to silently work on next week's short story assignment! If you have any questions, I'll be at my desk."

Silent? That wasn't going to work.

I glanced over at Y/N, who had already written a few sentences at the top of her page. Her hand was moving quickly across the page, writing sentences that looked much neater than mine would if I ever started writing. I would much rather sit and talk to her, but there was no way I would be able to get away with it during silent writing time. There had to be some other way that I could keep up a conversation.

I quietly ripped out a sheet of notebook paper and pulled off the perforated bit on the side. Across the top, I wrote down a question for her to answer as an icebreaker.

What are you writing about?

I folded the paper in half and made sure that Mr. Brown was turned towards his computer before sliding it to her. She stopped writing and glanced at the piece of paper. With furrowed eyebrows, she unfolded it and scanned the question I had written. I watched as she wrote out her answer, folded the note, and slid it back to me.

It's kind of hard to explain, but basically there's this city that all these people are stuck in and they try to escape. Only one of them is successful though. I don't know, it's kind of stupid and I'm not explaining it very well. What are you writing?

Stupid? That didn't sound stupid at all. I made sure to write that down.

I don't think that's stupid at all, it sounds really cool. I'm not really sure yet, any ideas?

Y/N took a moment to finish her sentence before grabbing the paper and reading my new note. She pursed her lips and took a moment to think before answering, trying - and failing - to conceal a smile as she wrote back. It was cute.

Wait, what?

What if you write about a castle that's under attack by something ridiculous? Like a giant pineapple or something?

Now I understood why she was smiling. We shared a look before I started to write back. It had to be funny, that way I would get to see her smile again; something about it made my stomach fill with butterflies.

And once they destroy it they celebrate by making piña coladas for the entire town?

I passed the note back to her. She opened it and smiled.

Success.

Before she had a chance to pass it back to me, there was the sound of footsteps behind us. The two of us turned around to see Mr. Brown standing behind us, his hands clasped in front of him. In our excitement over the story idea, we had failed to keep an eye on him and make sure he wasn't paying attention. Wordlessly, he bent down and picked up our note. He was nice enough to read it silently.

"I'm expecting you to come up with your own ideas, Mr. Joseph, but you should be thankful that Ms. Y/L/N is nice enough to help you."

"Thanks," I said, turning to her. She tried so hard to conceal a laugh that she ended up snorting.

"Back to work, you two."

I didn't make a second attempt at trying to pass her a note, not wanting to get her in trouble for my bad decisions. Her ideas had helped me create my own, though, and I was able to spend the last five minutes of class writing a couple paragraphs.

"I want to actually thank you," I said as I started to put things into my backpack. The bell had just rung and the entire class was filled with the sounds of shuffling paper and zippers. "I didn't use the pineapple idea, but it did help me come up with something."

"I'm glad I was able to help," she smiled as she pushed an earbud into her ear.

"Also, you should totally listen to Death Cab for Cutie and let me know what you think."

"I think I'll do that."

I could see that she was eager to go and I was the only reason she was hanging behind. Not wanting to keep her longer, I said a simple, "I'll talk to you next class."

"Bye, Tyler."

She put her other earbud in and walked out of the room without another word. I finished packing up my things and walked into the hall to meet up with Nick, who had just finished his own english class.

"How was class?" he asked.

"Really good. We got a new seating arrangement and I'm sitting next to this really cool girl."

"Oh yeah? Is she cute?"

"It's not like that," I said. "She just seems like someone I would want to be friends with."

"You can be friends with cute girls, you know."

I shook my head, although my cheeks were already getting hot. "Ok, yeah, she's cute."

"I knew it!" Nick laughed. "Still, that's really cool."

"Yeah."

For the first time ever, I was looking forward to the next time I had english.