Forbidden {L.S.}

Forty-Five

“Get the assignment done,” The sub said. I looked at Niall and rolled my eyes. “Mr. Malik or someone is coming in to check on you guys, so I’d work if I were you.”

Niall sighed and I did too, but we started working. The rest of the class began talking, like normal. Sone students even laid their heads on the desk. I knew it was the last hour of the day, but still. It wasn’t a hard assignment and they hadn't worked all week.

True to the substitute’s word, Zayn came in with a few papers in hand about halfway through class. “I’m putting in grades for Tomlinson,” he announced. “Anything that isn’t turned in tomorrow by the beginning of class is a zero. He’s not very happy that basically no work has been turned in.” Zayn looked at Niall and I. “You two, get your stuff. I need to talk to you.”

I gave a confused look to Zayn, then to Niall. He looked just as lost, so we put the assignment up in our bags and stood up. The class started whispering about how it wasn’t fair and that they should have gotten a better heads up about what was going on. Before we walked to the front of the room, Zayn started talking again. 

“Tomlinson actually told me to enter everything today. I’m trying to give you a chance to get a decent amount in. Don’t make me regret it. I’m coming back in at the end of the period, and if there isn’t work turned in, I’ll enter them then. You’ve been warned.” With that, he motioned for us to follow him, so Niall and I left the room.

“You two aren’t in trouble,” he explained when we got to his room. “You’re both the only ones who have turned in all your work, so I’m giving you a break. Like I think maybe three students have turned in a total of five assignments since he’s been gone.”

“Yeah, I just would rather get everything done when he assigned it then scramble to get it done right before he got back. I don't want to fall behind again.”

“Or have something like this happen. I mean, we knew you’re supposed to check on the class and everything, this was always a real possibility.” Niall shrugged as he sat down on a desk. “Especially if no one is doing their work.”

“To be honest, I’m glad Tomlinson isn’t letting it go. Some teachers would.” I sat down next to Niall and Zayn shrugged while he started writing on the board.

“I’m glad Louis got your grades back up. You were both slipping for a while. I think he alone can do a lot for the school. He’s trying to push on a lot of issues that the other staff ignore. It’s hard for him though, since this is his first year teaching here.” Zayn stopped writing and turned to us. “Has he said anything about that?”

I shook my head no. Niall agreed with me. I had an idea about this because Louis had vaguely brought it up, but he didn’t want to talk about it yet until he had a more solid idea on it.

“Well, we aren’t the best school by far, we all know that. Louis wants to try to raise our ranking by doing small things that really aren’t that hard, like having tutoring after school, having test prep, stuff like that. It’s not difficult, or even that costly. Just teachers here are fine with doing the bare minimum.”

“What if Harry and I started supporting the ideas. Harry already does the tutoring thing regularly, and if I start, that’s us. We can get other people to join too, and we can talk about how if we would have had the help, how we could have done better on our testing or something. But I’m down for this.” Niall looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “What about you, H?”

“I’m down for this. I probably would have done better if I would have known there was even a test prep thing at all.” 

Zayn grinned. “Have Louis talk to you about it when he gets back. He has a lot of ideas, and maybe you guys could help weed out the ones you don’t think will do that well. Have you guys thought about maybe joining student council?”

“That is too much work,” Niall complained.

“It’s really not. You sit in a room and come up with half assed ideas. Louis is thinking about taking it over next year if Johnson steps down like she’s saying she is.” Zayn shrugged. “It’s just an idea. I won’t force you to, and I doubt he would either.”

“He wouldn’t.” I said. “But hell, I might do it. It could be fun.”

Zayn smirked but let it go quickly. “Yeah, just think about it. I’m not gonna force you guys to stay in my room either, just don’t get caught.”

Niall grinned. “I love my teachers this year.” Zayn just chuckled.