Damaged Goods. (A Harry Styles Fanic)

Chapter Twenty

Lola lifted her head from the desk to view the equations being written into the reflective plastic whiteboard. The pen squeaked as it curled around the number six, followed by the slow motion of an X. Lola felt her eyes begin to flutter shut at the slow and heavy boredom of this lesson and the irritating sound of pencils scribbling, chairs shuffling and chavs chattering. She wished she could turn around and tell them to shut the fuck up without getting beaten up, but she was smart enough to have learnt that’s not a good idea.

Lola glanced beside her at the sleeping young man with his head slumped into his arms on the desk. His eyes were shut and tangly curls sprawled out across his head, his upper body slowly making rise and fall motions as he breathed peacefully. Lola wondered if he’d actually fallen asleep, but didn’t want to disturb. She wished she was doing the same thing.

“I’m going to come round and check your homework so have it out ready please” the teacher announced, clicking the lid back onto her whiteboard pen.

Lola gave Harry a small nudge. “Harry”

He didn’t stir.

“Psst, Harry” Lola prodded him. Harry yawned widely, water gathering in his tired eyes. He was tempted to stretch but didn’t want to make it obvious that he’d taken a nap during Math class.

“How long was I down?” he asked peering down at his watch

“About fifteen minutes. Same amount of time it took for her to copy out one sum from the book” Lola answered, rolling her eyes.

“Homework please guys” the teacher appeared infront of their desk, holding her mark book in one arm and a pencil in the other hand.

“I did most of the questions, but I got stuck on the last two and forgot to come to you before class” Lola said, feeling the womans intimidating eyes fixed on her listening intently to the excuse. She paused before sharply exhaling and giving a nod, checking off Lolas name in her mark book.

“Harry?”

Lola chewed her lip and glanced to the side to Harry who didn’t even have any paper in front of him, let alone completed any work. He swallowed and looked at Lola’s work, realising he had missed out yet again. He scratched the back of his neck, rolling the sleeves of his school jumper up to slouch around his elbows.

“I..I haven’t done it Miss”

“Harry this is the fourth time in two wee-“

“I know, i’m sorry” Harry dropped his head, looking down at his lap. Lola felt bad watching him not bother to tell her his valid excuse, he just wasn’t interested enough anymore to try and justify his laziness. School was an inconvenience to him right now, and he couldn’t wait for the summer to start.

”Miss?” Lola spoke up, seeing Harry look at her too out the corner of her eye “It’s not Harrys fault…things are happening at home and it’s been difficult..” she said hesitantly, hoping Harry would be okay with her revealing his personal life to their teacher. Probably not, but she didn’t want him to get in trouble and sabotage his education over what had happened in his family life. Even if he got annoyed with her later, she figured there was some good outcome from it.

The teacher nodded slowly, giving Harry an understanding look of acknowledgement and moved onto the next desk.

Lola looked down at her Maths book, her eyes trailing over all the individual blue lines creating hundreds of square shapes in the paper. She felt Harry give her a gentle nudge in the side, and looked up to him.

The ends of his mouth turned up slightly as he looked her in the eyes, giving her an appreciative smile. “Thanks”

Lola nodded slowly and mumbled a quiet “No problem”