Foreign Exchange // Punk Luke Hemmings

Famous

<Haylee's POV>

I sat in math class on Monday, and as numbers swam through my head and I tried to keep up with the lesson, I realized the blonde behind me wasn't being his usual annoying self. That's when I remembered our pact and smiled a bit to myself, moving my hand from where it had been under my chin to cover my face.

It made me happier than I'd anticipated to think that we'd try to get along better now. Luke really seemed like a cool guy and I guess I could learn a lot from him, but at first I really did have reason to dislike him.

He was a dìck.

He treated me like I was shít.

He didn't seem to care about anything.

Now that I knew what was going on in his mind, now that I knew his reasoning, that made the situation better. It didn't excuse his actions, but it meant we could step in the right direction.

The bell rang suddenly, waking me from my thoughts. I inhaled sharply, sitting up straight and sighing. Standing, I started to gather my things and sling my bag over my shoulder as Luke stood behind me, waiting patiently to get past.

"You can go," I gestured for him to go around me as I fumbled with a binder.

"It's fine," he shook his head with a small smile and shrug. "I'll wait."

I bit the inside of my cheek as I finally picked up my songbook and turned to leave. Luke followed closely behind, and when we were in the hall he caught up to walk beside me.

"So what do you have next?" He looked down at me curiously.

"Chemistry. What about you?" I replied. He really was trying at this whole being nicer thing wasn't he?

"Government. Even though I don't even live here. It's so dumb," he chuckled.

"Yeah. I'm not sure why they'd still have you take it eve-"

As we went to turn a corner, I was shoved to the side, and of course by none other than queen Rylee herself.

"Move loser," Nadine sneered as they all paused to look at Luke and I. The tall blonde boy stood on the other side of the Herd, right where he was perfect bait.

"Oh, Luke, isn't it?" Rylee smiled at him as if noticing him for the first time. She stepped toward him, wrapping a lock of hair around her finger and twisting it around. "I heard you're a musician, right?"

He stiffened immediately. "Uh, yeah I guess I play a bit of guitar and sing some..." He grumbled, looking very uncomfortable. His gaze flickered over to me in a silent plea, but there wasn't anything I could do as the rest of the group separated us.

"Oh really? I wouldn't say that..." She put a finger to her lip in fake thought.

"What's that supposed to mean, Rylee?" I cut in.

"Well, I mean... He's only sold 1.5 million albums worldwide.... Yet he says he only sorta plays guitar and sings..." Seems a little to me like the poor boy doesn't want to be recognized over here in America...." She stepped closer to him, placing a hand on his shoulder and the other on her hip. "Why would that be?"

"Maybe because I want to be a normal person sometimes?" He hissed. "Fame isn't as glorious as people make it out to be..."

"But you're gorgeous, you can sing, and I'm sure you've got money. What else could you ask for?" She was practically chest-to-chest with him at this point, and he had to look down to see her.

"I could ask for you to back the hell up. That's what," he retorted irritatedly, brushing her hand from his shoulder and stepping away.

Scoffing, Rylee put on her usual bítch face once again and glared at me as Luke pushed through the Herd to rejoin me on the other side. I clenched my jaw before spinning on my heel and stormed off. It wasn't difficult in the slightest for Luke to keep up with my feverish pace since his legs were about a mile long, but nevertheless we were out of sight and earshot of the Herd in no time.

"God I hate her!" I grunted, looking up in exasperation.

"It's fine Haylee. Don't worry about it..." He shrugged with a small smile.

"No, it's not fine! She just... UGH!" I came to a stop in the middle of the hall and rubbed my hand over my face roughly. I heard Luke stop about a second after me, and he stood there quietly as I tried to soothe my anger.

"Since when have you sold that many albums?" I whispered, my eyes still screwed shut.

"Since about a year and a half ago..." He replied softly. "I've been on a world headline tour, been touring with One Direction three times, and I can hardly go anywhere without getting recognized. The only reason I've gone this long here is because I hardly have gone anywhere but here and your house. The airport was a bit hectic but nothing compared to what it usually is..." He muttered.

"We're you planning on telling me this? I knew you were famous but not...not this famous...." I looked at him now. His head was turned, his hand rubbing the back of his neck as he blushes slightly.

"Yeah just... Just not this soon, I guess." He glanced at me.

"Well, I guess you've got a lot to tell me about what fame is like then," I grinned a bit and started walking again. The halls were empty since the bell had already rung, but I didn't really mind that I'd have a tardy.

This was a much better use of my time.

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A/N

DONT HATE ME PLEASE. I LOVE YOU.

Okay. So this was just.... I apologize for everything about this chapter. It took me forever, even WITH you guys asking for it all the time, and on top of that its really not that good. I mean, I feel awful about the chapter, but knowing you guys you'll still love it and that's what I really adore about you all. Even though sometimes I can't make things the way I want them to be and I think poorly of them, you still support me. So thank you for that.

I also want to thank you for all the reads. Last time I updated, there were just over 25k. Now there are over 36k. I promise you it won't be a pattern of updating every ten thousand reads. That's just cruel, even though it's been like that for the last three chapters.....

Anywho, I just wasn't feeling this chapter until I finally just laid down (I ended up writing it in about an hour just now, and I'm currently in bed so....) and wrote it. This is the final product. I hope you enjoyed it and hopefully the next update won't take so long.

I love you all and I hope you're happy lately.

~CC