Ticket Outta Loserville (Trames au)

Chapter 3- Tristan's POV

I somehow survived the first week of school, but unfortunately the weekend was over too soon and now I'm back here. I'm dreading another week of sitting with James in the morning- I wouldn't mind so much if he was nice, but he never even talks to me, so I'm left looking like a loser. That's partly why I'm so horrified by my form teacher's plan for the morning.

"Some people," he says, glaring at James, "Did not get off to a good start last week, so today we're going to start positively. Give the person next to you a hug." My heart skips a beat- James hates me, there's no way he's going to want to hug me, even though I'd love to be held by him. 

Surprisingly, James is looking less arrogant today, and almost miserable. I turn to him to see him looking sulky. "Look," I say, "You hate me, I know that. And it's none of my business, but you look sad. I'm better than nothing if you need a hug." James sighs sadly, but opens his arms. I lean forward in my chair, and suddenly we're hugging. 

I claim to hate James McVey, which I sort of do, but a part of my has wanted to be held by him ever since I first set eyes on him. I hear James exhale, and all I can think of is that maybe he feels safe with me. He lets go far too soon for my liking, and I swear I hear him sniffle. We sit in silence for a while, until my curiosity gets the better of me. "Are you ok?" I ask.

James sighs deeply. "Why are you talking to me?"

"I just wanted to check you were ok." I answer. James just turns away. "I'll take that as a no, then." I mutter under my breath. To make matters worse, I'm stuck with him for another hour before I can discuss it all with Connor and Brad. I swear those two are more than friends- which is what they claim to be. Having said that, I'm glad that I've only got James in English, RE (where, yet again, I have to sit with him) and French, though he is in my PE class. 

That's going to be embarrassing, given that I'm literally the most unathletic person in the world, whereas James is on pretty much all the sports teams the school has, apart from the girl's ones. He's most known for football though, which, lucky us, we're doing first. I'm so looking forward to embarrassing myself in front of the guy that I'm secretly in love with, who will then go and tell all his friends, and as always I'll be the laughing stock of the school. 

English whizzes by, which I'm grateful for because I'm dying to tell Connor and Brad about this morning's events. "The weirdest thing happened in form earlier." I gush.

Brad smirks. "I bet it doesn't beat the article we got to read out loud about sex offenders in schools. I mean, ironic much?"

I laugh. "No, weirder than that. The teacher made me hug James." 

"That is weird." Connor agrees. "Why?"

I rolll my eyes. "It was something to do with starting positively because apparently some people didn't. We had to hug the person sitting next to us."

"I bet James was happy about that." remarks Brad. "Like, no offence, but he seriously hates you." 

I shake my head. "He looked kind of sad actually. I said to him that he might as well hug me, so he did." 

"That's quite sweet." says Connor. "Though our teacher was getting really annoyed at us because everyone kept talking about Mr Sharp when we were reading the article." I shudder- Mr Sharp is a history teacher who is a total creep, everyone knows.

We stand and discuss the morning until the bell rings. "We've got PE, haven't we?" sighs Brad. 

Connor consults his timetable. "Yes, yes we do." I honestly want to cry just thinking about it- I hate PE, if I was king I would ban it. Most of the people at this school hate me anyway, why should I have to humiliate myself in front of them just because of some sadist teacher? 

We start to head towards the locker rooms, when suddenly James and his posse come past. "Look, it's the 3 musketeers!" one of them says, earning laughter from the others. I sigh, keeping my head down and walking on. Eventually, they get bored of taunting us, but I'm surprised when it stops. I can't resist the temptation to turn around, and when I do, I see a sad looking James talking to them.

I wonder if it was him who got them to stop? I don't have time to think about it though, as I'm going to be late. I get my PE kit out my locker and head to the sports hall. As I walk past James' group, I swear he gives me a sad smile. I must have imagined it though- why would he do that, they all hate me...

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So this is where things get interesting *strokes chin thoughtfully* I added a bronnor tag to this today for 2 reasons- 1,  more traffic (I know, I'm awful) and 2, I'll add some later 😒

I feel like this story will be quite therapeutic as a lot of the characters or their personalities are based off actual people I know (including pervy history teacher 🙄 but mr sharp is not his real name).