all friends - a one direction story

3

*Ruby's POV*

Five boys had showed up at the classroom door and made their way in one by one, walking past our desks to get to their seats in the row adjacent to us.
One was blonde with baby blue eyes and a cheeky smile. One wore a striped t-shirt and had a cheesy grin on his face. Another had flicked over brown hair and tripped as he walked, causing the blonde one to giggle. One had dark brown, curly hair and a charming glare. And the final one, trailing at the back, had tanned skin and a pierced ear and held his gaze on me for a few seconds longer.
They all took their seats.

"I'm glad you five have joined us." The teacher spoke again. "I'm Craig. I'm your tutor for the next two years. I'm really happy to meet you. And in true Craig fashion, we'll be doing a little icebreaker where we each take a turn to say our name and a fact about us, right?" He spoke in his Scouse accent.
"Right!" Steve fist pumped the air and the five of us girls plus the five new boys all glared at him.

"So, I'm Craig. I'm good at Maths, and I love being a teacher."
Craig pointed to the first four students and they gave their brief fact.
"Hello there, I'm Rory, and someday I'd thoroughly love to be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom."
"Hi, I'm Megan. I was voted Head Girl for three  consecutive years in high school."
"I'm Valerie. I hate people."
"Yo, I'm Steve. I'm a sick dancer, and love watching twerking videos."

Craig turned his attention to our row next.
"You." He pointed at Eve, who stood up reluctantly and timidly.
"Uh, I'm Eve. I have three cats." She stifled her giggle and sat down, whispering to me, "I didn't know what to say!"

Craig called on me next and I stood up confidently. "I'm Ruby. I like smoking joints, taking shots and reading."
"Inappropriate, Ruby. I get that vibe from you." Craig tutted, unimpressed.
I looked over at the row of boys and saw the tanned boy smirking to himself.

Craig called on Saffron next, and she stood up. "I'm Saffron, or Saffy, or whatever. I don't really have anything interesting to say about myself, I'm not a very interesting person actually. Oh, I like mojitos and I want to move to an exotic country and I'd like to go up Mount Everest and I -"
I put my hand on her arm gently to stop her rambling and she smiled and sat down.

Next up was Lana. "Hi, I'm Lana. I treat my plants like babies."
"Hey, me too!" The boy in the striped t-shirt shouted and they both chuckled.

Marley was last out of us girls. "I'm Marley. I like football." She sat back down.

"Right. Boys next." Craig announced. "You." He pointed at the boy who'd tripped over.
"Uh, I'm Liam. I'm learning to play piano. I like to think I'm a bit of a joker." He shrugged and sat back down, but I noticed his gaze fixed intently on Eve.
"Interesting." I whispered under my breath.
"What is?" Eve hissed under hers, but before I had time to answer, Craig had called on the next boy.

"I'm Louis. I like plants like Lana does. And... candles." He sat back down.
"Bit random, mate." The tanned boy commented and I smiled a small smile at how attractive his voice was.

Next up was the blonde boy who stood up confidently but couldn't help but giggle when he tried to speak aloud. "I'm Niall. I'm a football fan. That's it, really." He laughed as he sat back down. I was surprised to hear the thick Irish accent when he spoke.
"I like him." Saffron whispered to me as he sat down.
"You do?" I asked and she nodded.
But I'd noticed that he hadn't been looking at Saffron. He'd been looking at Marley.

The curly-haired boy stood up next. "I'm Harry. I like to sing." He gave a charmingly reserved smile before taking his seat again.

And finally, the tanned boy stood up. He glanced at me before smirking to himself again.
"I'm Zayn. I could probably listen to music in my bedroom on my own for a full week." He nodded as he spoke. "Oh, and I like a joint, too." He grinned, causing several people to laugh along.
I didn't laugh. I fixed eye contact with him and we gazed at each other as the laughter faded into the background of our hearing.