The Admiration Project

Chapter 1

Louis ran over the entire curb when he turned into the school parking lot. He was five minutes late, which would be alright literally any other day of the year. However, it was the first day, and being five minutes late to class your senior year after navigating your way through the school for three years straight is just embarrassing. Louis was not trying to embarrass himself this early in the school year.

He snatched his backpack from the passenger seat and flung his door open, forgetting to turn the car off before getting out. One of his backpack straps got caught around the steering wheel, causing his bag to slam into the horn. He let out an awkward squeak as the few last few stragglers in the parking lot glared at him. So much for avoiding embarrassing scenarios. The first one had already occurred and he hadn't even made it to the door yet.

After pulling the key out of the ignition, Louis locked his rickety old red Toyota Corolla and hurried off toward the back entrance. He made it inside just as the warning bell rang, signaling about two minutes until he'd have to be in class. He released the pent up air from his lungs that he didn't notice he was holding in and slowed his pace. He watched his feet as he walked, dragging against the white and grey tiled floor since he was too tired to pick them up any higher. There was one single smiley face doodled in black sharpie at the toe of his white vans. If only he could be smiley right now. His homeroom was upstairs. He was so not looking forward to having to walk up the stairs first thing every morning. Why did school stairs always feel so much harder to walk up than regular stairs?

It was as if the sun had just emerged from the clouds when he spotted the all-too-familiar face of Liam Payne sitting grumpily in the back row of the classroom. Liam's eyes lit up a tiny bit at the sight of Louis trudging towards him.

"Thank fuck," Louis muttered as he settled into the seat right next to Liam.

"You could say that again. Thought I was going to have to ask the girl next to me to wake me up everyday after class was over."

"Glad I could be of assistance." He scanned the classroom for anyone else he tolerated, and upon finding no one, he sat back in his seat and crossed his arms across his chest. "This class is shit."

Liam nodded in agreement right as the bell rang. The teacher ambled in a moment later with a bright smile on her face.

"Hello guys! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Mrs. Anderson. I teach History 4, and I'm glad you all decided to take a fourth year of history even though it wasn't necessary." Louis and Liam traded knowing glances. Bless her and her pure heart that ignored the fact that ninety percent of the students in the classroom were only taking the class to fill their empty schedules.

Mrs. Anderson rambled on about the curriculum and the syllabus and first day of school bullshit that had Louis zoning out until it was time to leave. He rushed out of class after saying goodbye to Liam and strode through the hallway in the same style he'd been for the past three years: eyes on the ground and a scowl on his face. As the day dragged on, he hated himself more and more for agreeing to a full schedule instead of leaving early like most seniors. Colleges, his guidance counselor had said. Colleges want overachievers. Especially the one you're looking into. Whatever.

So he went through with it, begrudgingly sitting through all seven periods and listening to new faces talk about the same shit they did every year. It'd been going as swimmingly as it possibly could until he was on his way to his last class of the day. The class he'd been on the fence about taking all summer.

It was a new class, just added to the list at the end of his junior year. His english teacher had been adamant about him taking it, claiming that it had his name written all over it. From the way she described it, it sounded like a regular english class with a bit of a creative twist.