All eyes were on Harry as he looked around the classroom hopelessly - some people had both hands clasped to their mouths as they tried to stifle a laugh and some looked shell-shocked that this normal, new kid had provoked such a reaction from Louis Tomlinson.
Harry just wasn’t sure what exactly to do, should he go ahead and sit down where he had first thought to? Or should he just fall to the floor and pretend none of this was happening? Either way, the whole situation was completely humiliating.
Luckily the teacher took pity, and decided to save him before he made even more of a fool of himself.
“Class, this is our new student, Harry Styles. He’s just transferred from Africa so please make him feel welcome.” She said, giving a stern glare to some boys at the back who were muttering something unintelligible and laughing at Harry.
“Why don’t you take a seat over there Harry? Normally you would be sitting next to Louis Tomlinson - don’t worry though, we can deal with his attitude.” She continued as she rubbed circles onto Harry’s back, coming a little too close to his ear with her mouth.
Harry walked off to his new seat, maybe a little too quickly - she was making him feel weird. Very.
He tried to focus on his class but it was hard when he could feel the stare of his classmates boring into him from all sides. He just wanted to sink down in his chair and not come back up. But there was no point in allowing this first little hurdle get in the way of his scholarly happiness.
After this class he had lunch - surely it’d be easier to talk to people when their mouths were stuffed with food.
———
The bell rang and Harry allowed most of the other students to file out of the class before him - he didn’t want to run into anyone else in the hall after thatfirst encounter.
He walked into the cafeteria slowly, looking around as he tried to find somewhere to sit. Most of the tables were full but there were a few vacant places that he was sure he’d be able to fill.
The first table he approached shoved a bag onto the chair that he had spotted – its occupants giving him a glare as he walked by.
The second table didn’t even notice him, but he did overhear a bit of their conversation - “Did you see nipple? It only counts if you saw nipple.” He decided to avoid that table, he didn’t want to talk about that whilst eating lunch.
He tried to sit in a few more places after that but he was met with the same harsh stare or weird people he decided he wanted to avoid. In the end he just gave up - this was the first day after all. He’d probably make friends later, but for now he was just going to have to eat on his own.
The only problem was that there wasn’t anywhere in the cafeteria that he could eat on his own, everywhere was either full or unwelcoming. Harry would have to go to the only place he could get some privacy.
He almost jogged to the bathroom, in a hurry to just get out of the way of the other students before someone spat in his food. He quickly locked himself in a cubicle and sat down on top of the toilet seat.
It was kind of disgusting - he was eating in a toilet, but where else was he going to go? He sighed to himself and took a bite out of his food, only to find that he’d completely lost his appetite the moment he’d been rejected by everyone in the school.
He just didn’t understand what was so wrong with him.
Even though Harry only took a few small bites out of his sandwich, he stayed in the cubicle until lunch ended because even if he didn’t have to return to the cafeteria, he didn’t know where else he could go.
