Mr. Coach (Larry)

Chapter 1

"Only ten more, I know you can do it," I shout. I stand next to one of my weaker players as they attempt to finish their round of push-ups. 

"Yes Coach," he barks back. I cross my arms and look across the field. I watch as my star player, Liam Payne, leads the offenders into another drill. I sigh contently as my gaze fixates back on the athlete below me. 

"Finish up," I yell. I watch as the groups finish off with one last kick and starts back towards me. They look so happy and sweaty; all signs of a practice well done. 

"You guys had a great practice today. Be on the field at 4:45 tomorrow; if one person is late the whole team does suicides!" The boys groan and roll their eyes. As much as they complain about running you would think they would get their shit in order, but alas everyday someone shows up late to practice.  

I dismiss the students back to the locker rooms to change out and head home when I hear someone call me. "Coach Tomlinson," The voice shouts. I turn and see a guy standing at the edge of the field. He wears a plain button down shirt and a pair of tan pants. His hair is pulled up into a bun on the top of his head and a pair of black glasses sit perched on his nose. 

I try to contain my distaste towards my fellow staff members. The majority of them act like high schoolers themselves with their cliques and gossip. It's mostly trivial and bothersome, which is why I have the reputation as a loner amongst the other teachers. 

I watch as he glances down at the ground, probably noticing the mud. I sigh softly and walk closer towards him. When I'm close enough to properly talk I question him, "You are?" 

"Harry Styles, I'm the geometry lead. I was wondering if you had a Liam Payne out here. He was supposed to come to tutoring today after school and skipped. I know he's some super big athlete which is why I came down here," The teacher explains. My face softens as his voice washes over me. 

"Yeah, Payne's here," I tell him. I turn towards the field, trying to make out the student among everyone. I spot him carrying a bag of balls towards the locker room. "Payne!" The boy turns and jogs over to me. I watch as his face drops when he's close enough to make out the teacher in front of me. 

"Yes...," He hums. I could tell he's nervous and that he knows he fucked up. 

"Why did you skip tutoring?" I turn to him and cross my arms over my chest. It makes me look slightly more intimidating considering I can't quite look him in the eye. I'm the shortest coach, but that just means I make up for my height with more aggression. 

"I didn't want to miss practice. We have a game Tuesday and I didn't want to sit out," He explains. I figured it had something to do with the game. He always stresses over the games. He needs to learn to let go and relax. I turn back to Mr. Styles. 

"I'm sorry for his lack of effort in your class. He'll be benched from the game on Tuesday if he doesn't come to practice tomorrow with a note signed by you saying he stayed for tutoring." Payne promises me he'll try better before running off to the locker room. I give one last awkward smile to Harry before he turns and heads back inside.

"Like what you see?" I jump as the person' voice shouts out of nowhere. I go to yell at whoever surprised me when I turn around and see Mr. Malik, the art teacher. He's wearing his usual sweater and slacks and his hair is styled up into a quiff. He's leaning against the bleachers, smirking at me. 

"Shut up, Zayn. Sure he's kinda hot, but that doesn't mean I want to date him," I state. Zayn finds it his business to tease me about any guy I look at for more than a few seconds because I've been single for so long. 

"You don't have to date him to tap him," Zayn points out. I flip him off. He shrugs, "I'm gonna head home, see you there?"

"I need to do something, so yeah, go without me." Zayn gives me a thumbs up and starts towards our cars. We lived together in a house a few miles away from school. Our friendship is a surprising one to most people considering I'm a coach and he's a art teacher, but we never see it like that. We've been friends since middle school, so he's always been just Zayn to me. 

I head into the building, going towards the math hallway. I knew Harry has to be somewhere in there. I walk for a ways before stopping at a door with a 'Styles' wood cut out hanging off of it. I bring my hand up to the door and knock. 

"It's open," He says. I open the door and step inside. I glance over the room quickly. He has a few math problems on the board and a table for his laptop and projector off to the side. His classroom is filled with neatly placed tables of two. My eyes dance towards the back of the room where I find Mr. Styles sitting at his desk grading papers.

"To what do I owe this visit?" I bite my lip as I think of what I'm going to say. He looks up and raises an eyebrow. I manage to find my words after a moment or two. 

"I just wanted to thank you for coming down to practice. You really didn't need to do that," I explain. He nods, giving me an awkward smile. We stare at each other, neither of us really knowing what to say. 

"It was no problem, really. Look, if that's all I have a lot of papers to grade...," Harry suggests. 

"Wait! Before I go, how did you know my name? I don't remember telling you my name, but you... knew it," He looks down and takes over his glasses. 

"Well, considering you're one of the first gay coaches to not get fired you're highly known among the lgbt community," Mr. Styles' explains. Lgbt? Is Harry...gay? 

"Are you... gay?" I blurt. My eyes widen as I realize what I said. He sighs loudly, obviously feeling slightly uncomfortable by my invasive question. 

"I thought I made that kind of obvious, but I... guess not. Yes, I'm... gay," He says. I can tell he wants me to leave, but I can't. My feet are almost glued to the ground, not allowing myself to leave the room. 

"So, uh... are you new here? To the campus that is, I mean... I've never really seen you around before." 

"Look, I wasn't joking when I said I have a lot of papers to grade. If you want to chat maybe we can talk outside of school, but right now is not the--," 

I interrupt him, not knowing what comes over me as the words spill out like word vomit, "Give me your number and I might do that." I could tell I did something right as he sets his pen down and shows me shocked expression.

"Just like I remember," He whispers. I raise an eyebrow, but he doesn't seem to notice that I heard him. He scribbles something down on a sticky note and passes it to me. I look at it and see his phone number. I try not to smile as I shove it deep into my pocket. 

"Well I guess we'll talk later," I say as I leave his room. 

~_~_~

This is the first edited version of Mr. Coach! Please tell me if you like it! Thanks so much for everything you do! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! ~B