Rival Love (A Louis Tomlinson Fanfic)

Chapter 3.

I dragged Liam through the maze of halls and doors, every turn looking the same. "Hurry, hurry!" I whisper-shouted at him. "Math isn't my best subject, I gotta be in this class!"

"Alright, I'm coming!" he laughed. "You know, keeping up with you isn't that easy, even though I'm 160 pounds of pure muscle," he joked. I cracked a smile at him.

"How do I know that we're going to be great friends?" I ask rhetorically. I turn once more, and arrive at our destination: Pre-calculus. "Get ready for hell," I mutter before pushing open the door. Mr. Brooks, my math teacher, glares at me.

"You're late," he states in a short tone. "Good thing I know you're a good student, Ms. Steele." he winks at me and I smile gratefully back at him. I gesture to a couple of open desks for Liam and I, and we take our seats, getting settled. When I glance at Liam while taking out my binder, he has a stunned expression on his face and I giggle.

"How did you do that?! We didn't get into any trouble!" He hissed in awe. I gave him my best mysterious smirk.

"A girl never spills her secrets," I grin and turn my attention to Mr. Brooks. Liam mock-sighs and starts to take notes as well.

A little while later, after Math and English, I lead Liam into the cafeteria. We've become pretty friendly with each other and talked about our lives. I learned about his mother and father and two older sisters, Nicole and Ruth. I knew his August 29th birthday and his fear of spoons. In exchange, I told him about my younger brother, mom, and dad, and my birthday and how I hate horror movies and will scream if I see even the smallest insect. Of course, we also talked about things like where we have lived and hobbies and aspirations.

"There are the boys!" Liam pointed out the five handsome boys and hurried over to them, leaving me in the dust. I rolled my eyes at the typical boy behavior before following him, hot on his heels. As I approached the table where everyone was, I noticed Laura and Kai, but also Holly, Jenna, and Caitlyn, much to my dismay. "Hey mates!" Liam greeted his band mates happily. "How have everyone's day been going?"

"It's pretty fun here!" Niall replied quickly in order to get back to his sandwich.

"Yeah, the people are pretty nice," Harry agreed, stealing a glance at Laura, who blushed.

"Well, MOST of the people are," Louis added in, obviously directing his comment towards me. Everyone looked around uncomfortably, except for the three queens, of course. They smirked at each other, as if they knew some big secret that the rest of us didn't.

"I dunno Lou, Anna seems pretty chill." Liam defended me after a couple of awkward seconds. Louis rolled his eyes sullenly.

"Whatever," he scoffed. Great. Holly already had him under her spell.

"Louis, cut it out. Whatever your problem is, you need to get over it." Zayn retorted, annoyed. That shut Louis up, and I shot him a small, grateful smile. Laura and Kai cast questioning, curious gazes at me, wanting an explanation. I mouthed to them that I'll tell them later.

"If Anna is causing such a problem, maybe she should sit somewhere else?" Caitlyn's stupid, high-pitched voice suggested. I groaned in irritation and stood up suddenly.

"Fine!" I snapped and strutted off to the courtyard, to eat under the trees. I could hear footsteps hurry after me. "Laur, Kai, I appreciate you guys coming over me, but I'll explain everything later, I just gotta think right now," I turned to inform them, but instead of two familiar faces, I saw one fairly new one. "Liam?" I expressed my surprise and he grinned shyly.

"Yeah, sorry about Louis, I don't know what's gotten under his skin" he scratched the back of his neck, embarrassed. I smiled gently,

"It's okay. I know what happened, I'll explain." I sat down under the cool shade of one of the small birch trees and Liam followed suit. I sighed and ate a chip before recounting what happened this morning. "So, this morning, I saw Holly bullying a younger sophomore girl. You know, calling her a slut and the usual, backing her up into some lockers. I intervened, because my trio of friends, Laura, Kai, and I, we usually stand up for the unheard voices and misfits. So she started to insult me and I called her a fake, anorexic Barbie, which is the only part Louis heard of the exchange. So now he thinks I'm some kind of awful bully and doesn't want to associate himself with me. To make matters worse, Holly is showing him around the school, which gives her a chance to brainwash him more. I'm afraid he might never believe that I'm not a bully. Does that make sense?" I asked hesitantly.

"Of course it does!" he reassured me quickly, sensing my uncertainty. "Don't worry, I believe you, and I'll pass it on to the other boys, maybe we'll be able to convince Louis otherwise, although he's very stubborn." He smiled warmly at me. "Can you tell me more about Jenna, Holly, and Caitlyn? They don't seem like the best people from your description." I nod my head to agree and begin spewing out all the dirt I have on the three of them, promising him it's all true.

I'm still trying to explain how Caitlyn became one of the queens before we enter french class. "She's just so dense! Even if she has connection throughout the school, it doesn't make sense!" Liam argues intently. I laugh, throwing my head back.

"I know, I was so surprised at first!" I exclaim. Within the time of the 30-minute lunch periods and the short walk to French, I had managed to tell Liam how I used to be bullied until I met my two best friends and the characteristics of each queen. The best part was that he believed me!

"Uh-oh." he mumbled, suddenly looking less enthusiastic than a couple of minutes before. I turned my head to see what he was talking about, and my eye immediately caught Louis's. And if there was a Louis, there was a Holly. Sure enough, she sat in all her glory next to him, snapping her gum obnoxiously and flipping her platinum blonde hair over her shoulders every 5 seconds.

"How is this even possible? Bio with Jenna and Caitlyn, and now French with Holly? I have the worst schedule ever this year!" I groan, exasperated.

"At least we'll be a couple of desks away from them," Liam tried comforting me.

"Thanks Liam," I laughed, sliding in one the empty desks that was in a pair, and Liam ungracefully plopped down in the other chair. I had to admit, Liam was very attractive. I mean, come on, those muscles? That were fucking everywhere? How could I resist? But for some weird-ass reason, I desperately wanted Louis to know I wasn't a terrible person. Sure, he was cute and all, but surely Liam was better, right? Right? Ugh, I had never been good at dealing with boys.

"Anna, Madame asked you how to conjugate the past participles of the 16 etre verbs," Liam whispered, snapping me out of my jumbled thoughts.

"Je suis desolée Madame!" I quickly said and proceeded to conjugate the verbs, albeit very poorly, my mind still being haunted by Louis and Liam.

Thank you all for reading! Vote, Comment, Share! All reads are very appreciated! Btw 'Je suis desolée' means I'm sorry, which is what Anna says, if anyone was confused