Pieces - Lashton/Malum AU

Chapter Three

Luke got out of lunch with a smile on his face and a positive, optimistic attitude. He never really expected to already have one friend on his first day at a new school, let alone a set group of friends that he could talk to, sit with at lunch, and hang out with a lot.

The class Luke took directly after lunch was Algebra 2. He wasn't exactly the best when it came to math, but he wasn't the worst either. Plus, his mother was a math teacher and tutor, which helped him a lot and made math so much easier for him. Luckily, he had only come into this new school about a week into the year, so he didn't have as much work to make up as he probably would have if he had moved later on around the time the second semester would have started halfway through the school year.

He already knew what was going on in the lecture, so he immediately thought that this class would be a piece of cake - at least for a while until his class would be moving on to learning harder things.

The class went by quickly and he moved on to his sixth and final class, which was chemistry. He was not looking forward to this class, considering the fact that science was his worst subject.

He was also wondering about who he would get stuck with as his lab partner, but tried to look on the bright side - perhaps the people in this class would be nice to him. Maybe he'd make a new friend. But he tended to look on the negative side of things, no matter how hard he tried to be just a little bit more positive.

Luke walked into what would hopefully be the correct classroom, and sat in the back, trying to not draw too much attention - or any attention, for that matter - to himself.

Luke looked at the boy sitting next to him at the double desk.

The boy had blonde hair that slightly swooped over his forehead, almost covering his eyes, and wore glasses. He looked kind of short. Well, shorter than Luke, at least.

"He has nice hair," Luke thought to himself, "If only he would turn around and I could see his face. Maybe he's cute."

The boy continued to be silent and not say a thing. Luke wouldn't blame him, though. He didn't really pay attention to anything except for texting someone on his cell phone.

The contact name read "Babe" with a heart emoticon next to it.

"So he has a girlfriend," Luke thought to himself, sighing, "or a boyfriend. Who knows?"

Luke peered over Ashton's shoulder and saw one of the messages in the conversation. He couldn't exactly decipher the whole message without getting caught by whoever this boy was, but he read something about the mall, makeup and a dress for homecoming. He also noticed a tiny picture in the corner right by her contact name.

"Yep," Luke said to himself in his mind, "He has a girlfriend."

He frowned but shrugged it off. He barely knew this kid; they hadn't even said a single word to each other.

The bell rang and the blonde boy next to Luke quickly put his phone in his backpack, hoping he wouldn't get in trouble.

The teacher quickly walked in the room with an overly enthusiastic smile on her face.

"I believe we have a new student," she began, "Lucas Hemmings?"

"Not again," Luke mumbled to himself as Ashton noticed and quietly snickered.

"It's just Luke," Luke tried to explain.

The teacher nodded and continued to take attendance.

"Ashton Irwin?"

The blonde boy sitting next to Luke looked up from his desk and exclaimed, "Here!"

Ashton. So that was his name.

The teacher continued her lecture, and Luke had no clue what was going on, considering that everyone else in all the other CP Chemistry classes were already almost halfway through the book.

He wanted to ask Ashton for help, but wasn't exactly sure if he could trust him. Or at least, not yet. So, Ashton and Luke ignored each other for pretty much the entire class.

The final bell rang, and everyone packed up their belongings and immediately walked outside of the room.

"Luke, can you come here for a moment?" the teacher asked

Luke nodded and walked towards the desk.

"Here's all that you need to know from what we learned since the beginning of the year," the teacher explained.

Luke turned his head and zoned out as he saw Ashton walk out of the classroom and towards a girl, most likely his girlfriend, putting his arm around her.

"Luke?"

Luke turned around and realized he had spaced out.

"Sorry," he said as he took the load of assignments he needed to make up, "Thank you."

•

Michael walked with Calum to his house, like he usually did after school.

"So, what do you think of that Luke kid?"

"He's pretty cool," Michael answered, looking at the ground, "Seems like a nice guy."

Calum would say that he knew Michael really well, and acting so quiet was not like him at all.

"Hey, is everything alright?" Calum asked concerningly.

"Yeah," Michael lied, "Why do you ask?"

"It's just that you seem a bit off today," Calum explained,"You don't seem like, well, you."

"Cal, I'm fine, okay?" Michael told him, "Don't worry about it."

The truth was, Michael wasn't fine at all. He couldn't think of a word to specifically describe how he felt at the moment. He felt some sort of connection with Calum. Not like the "I'm so close to you and you're like a sibling to me" kind of connection, but more like "I feel something for you and I don't know exactly what it is yet" kind of connection.

Calum and Michael had known each other for a long time and Michael all of a sudden felt something going on between them; some sort of connection or spark. It was something that could never be described, and nobody would know what it felt like unless it occurred to them.

He was confused about it all and that was what was tearing him apart. He was determined to figure everything out... somehow.

Author's Note: Hi (or hey!)

What are your thoughts on Luke and Ashton having a class together?

Ashton having a girlfriend?

Michael being confused and possibly having feelings for Calum?

Drama and more of the actual plot will happen soon, don't worry.

Hope you're enjoying the story so far!

-Meg :-)