Adopted By Harry Styles

12

I probably shouldn't have agreed to go to the party. I hardly knew Jade and Raquel, I didn't know where it was, and I already knew smoking and drinking wasn't going to end in anything good for any of us. But I did.

I think I just wanted to belong so badly. I wanted to fit in and be like other girls, even if it meant doing something stupid like smoking.

"Yeah. Sounds like fun," I say.

She slides me her phone. "Put your number in. We can pick you up when we go," she tells me.

I pick up her phone from the desk and type my number in. It still felt weird typing my last name as Styles.

I hand her phone back to her and she smiles when she sees my name. "Styles. You're related to Harry Styles?" She chuckles as she spoke, but I was just confused.

Did she know who Harry was?

I laugh along with her anyway, though. It didn't make sense how they would know each other. Jade was probably ten years younger than Harry. Maybe I'd ask Harry how he knew her later.

The bell rings to dismiss us from class and Jade speaks up. "What class do you have next?" She asks.

I grab my schedule from the table and find my third period class. "History with Mr. Hartley," I tell her.

"Oh hey, me too," Raquel chimes in. She was still putting her papers away in her backpack. She seemed to be pretty well organized, which isn't something I really expected from Jade or Raquel.

"Good, you can show me the way. I got lost on the way here," I admit.

//———

Raquel walks with me to Mr. Hartley's desk. Apparently, he wasn't a nice teacher.

I never really did understand why teachers choose to be teachers if they're just going to be miserable. I'm sure there are plenty of of other jobs they could have gotten if they didn't like dealing with kids.

"Mr. Hartley," Raquel says, impatiently, and then looks over at me to roll her eyes. Even though I haven't even met him, I'm pretty sure I was more scared of Mr. Hartley than Raquel. She seemed so fearless.

"What?" He turns around to face us. He was young teacher, probably in his early thirties, and the impatience in his voice resembled Raquel's.

"You have a new student, Maddi," Raquel tells him. Mr. Hartley glance over at me and then back at Raquel.

"Go have a seat," he tells her and then speaks to me. "Maddi, you can sit at that empty desk over there." He points to the desk in the front row next to the wall.

It was right next to Noah from math class. How strange.

"You again?" Noah says, smiling as I took my seat. I couldn't help but notice his dimples and how kind they made him seem.

"Me again," I say, returning the smile.

"I know you're not any good at math...but what about history. I'm not too good at this one," he says, tapping his pencil on the desk, probably annoying a few of the other people close by.

"You're out of luck. I'm no good either," I tell him.

"Noah? Maddi?" Mr. Hartley says just as Noah was about to speak. "Get to work." His voice was sharp and strict, and we earned a few looks from the other students, which makes my face go red.

Noah didn't seem to be phased by any of it though. He looks over at me and begins to chuckle. "You're blushing," he points out, making me roll my eyes.

"No I'm not," I say and try to cover my cheeks with my hands.

"Right," he says.

//————

I walked with Raquel to lunch, and she leads us to a table where Jade and a few others were sitting.

Harry had given me some money for food, but I wasn't that hungry, and the line was too long. It seemed like I'd be in line for all of lunch had I gone.

"Hey," Jade greets me. I take a seat next to her and across from Raquel.

"Hey," I say with a smile.

"These are our friends, Luke, Mike, and Lauren," Jade says. "Guys, this is  Maddi. She's new."

Most of lunch was spent talking about the party this Friday.

It was going to be at Luke's house. He was the captain of the football team, and, apparently, he was pretty popular. It made sense, too. He was attractive; his quiffed dirty blond hair, outgoing personality all worked in his favor.

This whole friend group confused me, though. Well, except for Jade and Raquel. The rest were all so different from each other.

Sam, the outgoing athlete, Jade and Raquel, laidback and carefree, Mike, quiet, Lauren, studious. I don't understand how they became friends, but I guess I don't really have much experience with friends in the first place. Maybe this weird combination of people was normal.

//————

My last period was science with Mrs. Meadows. Luke and Mike were both in my class, thankfully. I was glad to already know a couple people in my class.

And Mrs. Meadows was a nice teacher. She lets the class choose their seat, so I sat next to Mike, across from Luke. She didn't make a big deal about me being the new student either. No introduction or anything, just the way I like it.

The class seemed to pass quicker than the others, and I'm not sure if that's the fact that it was fourth period or the relaxing environment Mrs. Meadows creates in her class. Whatever it was, though, I'm thankful for.

The bell rings and everyone eagerly makes their way to the exit of the classroom. Luke didn't say goodbye. He seemed to be the first out the door—football practice, maybe. But Mike waited up for me outside the door of the class.

"You know how to get out of here?" He asks. It was a sweet gesture, and, in all honesty, I wasn't sure if I did know where I was heading, but I didn't want to tell him that. I didn't feel like bothering him.

"Yup, thank you, though," I say.

He nods his head. "Alright. I'll see you around then. I've got to head upstairs to talk to a teacher about a class," he tells me.

"See you later, Mike," I smile at him and then turn away, following the herd of students, figuring they'd be able o guide me to wherever the main exit was.

A/N: omg, sorry I've been so bad with updates (and sorry there's no Harry in this one!!—Next one, I promise.) School has been keeping me so busy. I'm trying to write as much as I can in my free time though.
I'm thinking about doing a small time jump of about two weeks, just so I can get to some actual interesting parts (and I'll probably want to write more when there's interesting things going on, so hopefully more updates haha.) Thanks so much if you've stuck around!! ❤️