The Rubik's Cube Champ // l.s.

4.0

"Okay, okay! Would you hooligans sit down please?"

"Yo! All of you sit down and start respectin' my main man, Styles!" Some kid yelled in the back of the class.

Everybody quieted down and turned their attention to Mr. Styles who stood at the front of the class, "Uhm, thank you, Mr. Trembleck. I would like to start off class by handing out your papers I graded this weekend. If you didn't turn it in, you get no grade and you'll have to meet up with me sometime tomorrow to talk about it."

Mr. Styles began to pass out the student's work, repeating the grades in his head: B, B, B, D, C, C, D, F, C, B.

Louis was confused when Mr. Styles went returned to the front of the room and he hadn't gotten his paper. Was it really that bad?

"Most of you will see that I think you did poorly. I did leave comments, but if that isn't good enough for you then you can ask me questions at the end of class."

I turned it, right? Of course I did, I worked my ass off on that fucking thing, Louis thought to himself.

"Mr. Styles," Louis said quietly, trying to gain his teacher's attention.

"Not now, Louis."

"But Mr. Styles, I didn't--"

"Now," Mr. Styles said with a clap, "there is one student's work that really stood out. He did a fantastic job in his description and the voice of the story is very unique. In all honesty, I was quite surprised of the amount of effort put into this. Anyways, Mr. Tomlinson's piece should be a good example to you all."

Oh, well, fuck.

"Mr. Styles..." Louis tried again.

"I have printed copies of one paragraph that has a lot of detailed description," Mr. Styles ignored Louis, "You will read and keep track of what things are described and how they give you a clear image in your head. Any questions? Good, now take one pass it down and hand me any extras."

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

No, no, no!

"Mr. Tomlinson, can I have a word with you?"

Louis rose from his seat and followed his teacher to his desk, God, they're all going to laugh at me.

"I just wanted to congratulate you on what a great job you did. You definitely deserve the A plus you received," Mr. Styles said handing Louis his paper with a big, fat 'A+' on the front. Next to was a smiley face.

"Thanks, but I really don't want them reading that."

"Why not? It's wonderful!"

"Yeah, okay, but that wasn't meant for them to read. I mean, I wrote it thinking you and I would be the only ones to read it," Louis explained.

Mr. Styles was thinking of his actions and realized that he never asked for Louis' permission, "I never thought about that. My apologies. I wasn't thinking."

"Yeah, apparently not," Louis replied, crossing his arms. He suddenly felt self conscious.

"Well how about we discuss this after school?" Mr. Styles said, keeping the conversation formal.

"Yeah, okay, whatever," Louis said, walking back to his seat, mumbling 'Douchebag' once he sat down.

The end of school came quickly and Louis really didn't want to meet with Mr. Styles again. It was one thing to say he was dumb and a nuisance, Louis could handle that. It was another to completely embarrass Louis by sharing how great his writing was; Louis couldn't handle that.

Knock, knock.

"Come in Mr. Tomlinson," Mr. Styles spoke from his desk, grading papers.

Louis entered and took a seat in the second row--he hated being front and center--and Mr. Tomlinson sat on the surface of the desk in front of him.

The English teacher took off his reading glasses and smiled weakly, waiting for Louis to say something.

"You didn't have my permission," Louis finally stated.

"I'm sorry. I really am. I didn't mean to upset you."

"Upset me? You didn't just upset me, you embarrassed me in front of everyone. God, you should have heard the kids outside of class. It was terrible. I've never been so embarrassed in my life," Louis exaggerated.

Mr. Styles raised an eyebrow, "Is that really the case?"

"Well," Louis began, "Not exactly. I mean, I was kind of nervous about other people reading my stuff."

Mr. Styles crossed his arms, slumping a bit, "It's a common thing to feel that way when others are reading something you write. Tell me, Louis, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

This question had always been easy for Louis to answer he knew from when he was just five-years-old that he wanted to be a writer.

"Well, I want to be a writer. An author who writes realistic fiction, actually."

"That's a good choice, but you can't worry about what others think of it. You should publish what you want to write. You have a good voice already, so focus and channel your energy on writing what you like, what you would read."

Louis nodded and said his thanks. Mr. Styles replied by changing the subject, "I think we'll start today by focusing on what you're strong at then Friday we can get into your weaknesses. Does that work?"

Louis wasn't going to argue so he listened to Mr. Styles and did the work with his teacher's help. He found this session quite helpful; it brought him more courage in his writing. He also got to see Mr. Styles as more than just that boring, crabby teacher he had to see every third hour. He gained a new perspective of his teacher.

"I think that this is good enough for today. It's getting late and I'm sure you have other homework to do along with other plans. I'll see you back Friday," Mr. Styles said as he began to pack up his things.

"Actually," Louis began, "I was thinking that maybe we could make this an everyday thing. I have nothing better to do at home besides get in trouble so it would be better for me. Of course it's all up to you and how convenient it is."

Mr. Styles looked a bit shoked, "Yeah, okay. Tomorrow then."

And boy, was Louis happy to hear that.

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A.N. This was a bit longer. I'm so proud. I did most of this on my iPod so if there are mistakes, my apologies! I hope you're liking it so far. I have to say I quite enjoy it.

Thanks for voting, commenting, etc. as always! :) -M

QUESTION: When do you think all the lovey stuff is gonna happen? (I'm curious to read your answers!)