Too Late? (5SOS)

TWELVE YEARS AGO

I don't recall much about what happened on the day I met Luke Hemmings, but I remember two very important details: piano class and a playground fight.

The bell had just rung, and several people, some in my grade and some not, were rushing out the school doors like there was an epidemic. I grabbed my backpack and the paper fortune teller I had just made out of boredom, and was about to run out of my second grade classroom when I forgot...

I had piano class.

My mum had enrolled me for twelve sessions, that would be spanning into ten agonizing lessons, one practice period and my most dreaded recital, because she read a book that said that "true intelligent children can play at least one instrument". So here I was for my second class with the creepy Mrs. Harper in an abandoned classroom with the torturing view of a playground.

"Hello there, Tatiana," she greeted me with her round eyes and a smile so frightening her dentures might have fallen off. "You came in just in time, have a seat!"

I grumbled, and climbed the tall piano chair without much help from her. "Now, what did we do last meeting? Would you gladly remind me, dear?"

I thought for a moment, and remembered. "We played the C Scale on the piano," I replied, with a little lisp.

"Very good! Now, would you mind demonstrating it to me?" Mrs. Harper replied. "I heard that you're actually the star student in your class. I wasn't aware that you were so intelligent!"

I rolled my eyes, and played the C Scale for her miserably. As happy as she may have seemed, Mrs. Harper turned into a bipolar shrieking mess and resorted to hitting my hands with her cane when they weren't playing high enough. "TATIANA, I AM SO DISAPPOINTED! I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU THE PROPER HAND POSITION!" she yelled at me, like I had just stabbed her husband or stolen her purse.

I shrieked in pain, and gritted my teeth. I've tried complaining this to my mum, but she had always replied either:

"I've attended piano lessons before, and my teacher used to do that to me, as well. It helped me learn better, and I'm sure it will help you too." or "You're overreacting, Tiana. It doesn't hurt that bad."

Bullshit, I would've loved to hit her on the hand the way Mrs. Harper does it to me.

Once I had finished the C Scale, Mrs. Harper was back to her normal self, beaming with pride. "Well, wasn't that fantastic, Tiana? Would you mind fetching those pieces of paper from near the windowsill? It's time to learn your next lesson!" she said.

I willingly obeyed, thinking I didn't have much of a choice, and got around seven pieces of paper containing the dreaded F Scale, when suddenly, my eyes drew their attention to a growing chaos in the playground. I squinted my eyes, and saw this scrawny blonde boy being hung upside down on the monkey bars, while two douchebags were collecting the lunch money that was falling from his pockets. I wasn't sure if I was seeing right, but Blondehead looked like he was crying.

Out of instinct, and the fact that I would trade piano class for anything in the world, I bolted out the classroom and off to the playground. I still heard Mrs. Harper's voice echoing in my head ("Tatiana, don't run off on me like that! Don't make me fish out my cane!" and still felt the pang of guilt in my heart that told me she was going to call my mum.

I had made it to the playground, and ran in a sandbox that ruined my shoes, until I reached a four-person deep mob that was watching two idiots bully a poor boy. Surprisingly, no one was fucking stopping them, how fabulous.

"Hey!" I shouted. As I expected, no one heard me.

"Hey, you idiots!" I shouted louder. The crowd parted with some additional "oohs" and "aahs", and I finally saw the stocky second graders beating up someone who seemed to look like... ah, Luke Hemmings. He was my classmate, and he was your typical anti-social boy who had around one to two friends. We've never spoken before, but I absolutely know the feeling of being bullied, even if it wasn't physically.

The bullies, Thomas Granger and Aaron Quinn, if I remembered correctly, eyed me with a death stare, which gave me the chills. I didn't really look threatening to them: they knew me as Tatiana Knowles, this geekazoid who was a consistent honor student who wear the thickest glasses and most humiliating pair of braces.

"Oh look who came to save little Lukey! It's his giiiiiirlfriend!" Thomas teased in the most annoying way possible.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Luke shouted, wiping off his tears from his tomato-shaded face. He had this huge pout over his face, like being my boyfriend was even worse than his lunch money being stolen.

Thomas smirked, and asked Aaron, "How much money did we get from this kid?" He checked this sack that they brought along. "Twenty bucks and... fifty-two cents! Ahaha, jackpot!" They gave each other fist bumps, while the crowd erupted into cheers. "Let's get out of here!" Thomas suggested, and in a few seconds, they had all abandoned us, leaving just me and Luke in front of the monkey bars.

I expected a thank you from him, or just a simple smile to express his appreciation. But, no! The douchehead shouted at me! "Do you know how humiliating that was for me?! Now, everyone thinks I need my girlfriend to defend me! They'll tease me even more!"

I just stood there, flabbergasted, and before I could even think about it, I slapped him right across the face. "Listen up, Hemmings. You better be thankful I even bothered to save your butt up there. I know you have no friends who would've done that for you, so if I hadn't come, you'd be stuck in the sandbox until tomorrow!" I shouted, feeling this tinge of pain in my hand.

There was sort of this awkward silence between us, as the wind had blown into my face, ruining my perfect pigtail braids. The sun was already setting, and I was preparing to go back into the classroom, when...

"Would you like to be my friend, Tiana?"

I gazed back at this fool, who was scruffing his blonde hair and staring at the ground, not even bothering to meet his eyes. After an intense deliberation in my head for about seven seconds, I did the most stupid thing in the world, as of that time.

I said yes.

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Hello! This is my first ever fan fiction. Hope you guys like reading it, just as I enjoy making it. Vote, Comment, Share!

- AussieFreaks