His Perfect Match (Liam Payne AU)

Part 1 - Liam

Liam got out of his car, removed his sunglasses and stared at the building. It was nothing special. A run of the mill elementary school. A long rectangle with a set of double doors in the middle. As much as he was excited to be back to work, the summer hadn't been the great. His divorce was final, after over a year of being separated from that lying cheating bitch. Plus, he been on a few terrible dates. Vacationing alone turned out to be an awful experience. It is not fun riding a bike to a lovely picnic spot and then eating a sandwich, alone. So, he spent most of his summer alone, sitting by the pool, with his dog, a golden retriever named Max. Yep, he got the house and the dog and most of the bills. Yep.

He grabbed his bag and headed into the school. Today he was going to work. School didn't start for a week and he needed to set up and clean up. There wouldn't be too many people around to watch his lame attempt at hanging bulletin board paper. He never could cut that shit straight. He did go and buy new border, but that was all. Everything else from last year would be fine. He taught 4th grade. Those kids didn't need frog themes or cute cut outs on their lockers. Let his teaching partner do that. She ate that shit up.

I mean, she was a nice lady. He loved her to pieces, but she was a true elementary school teacher. Crayons in the labeled buckets, name tags that matched her border. Her library was labeled with levels and titles, everything in the proper baskets, easy to find. She always had a pencil in her hair and one in her hand. She was born to do this job.

She had often told him that his room was the nightmare of an OCD person. She'd offered to help him organize, two years ago when his job at the middle school had been cut. He was a math teacher. Math. And here he was trying to teach 4th grade. Not that he didn't love it. He did, but thank god for Jackie. She saved him that first year, walking him though everything he needed to do. She showed him everything to how to handle recess to how to order from the scholastic book order. He grinned to himself, thinking of Jackie. She was his age, nearly 30, but seemed so much wiser than he did. She was great. He hoped she was here. She'd called him a few weeks ago, letting him know that she was pregnant and would be off in January. He was going to have to take care of himself. No more Jackie to remind him to order lunches or collect the field trip money. Dang, he thought, he'd have to plan the trips, wouldn't he? Maybe she'd do it before she left. She'd be back before the big trips to Greenfield Village and Splash City. And they went to the Science Center in the fall. She'd be here. He'd just have to do the Valentine's trip to the bowling alley. Ugh, the start of the school year was overwhelming. He needed to get inside and make lists. Then he laughed, right out loud. No, he didn't. Jackie probably already had all of these lists done.

He hurried into the school, turned right and walked down to his room. Jackie's light was on. He went to the back of the room, popped open the door that joined their classrooms and yelled out "Hey! Jackie! Let's see that belly!" just so he could get that hurt out of the way and get to work.

"Jackie is in the bathroom." A voice called back.

Liam looked up. The voice belonged to the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life. She had long, dark hair that curled at the ends. Her eyes were large and even from here, he could tell they weren't brown. Green, maybe? She had a small smile on her full, pink lips and held out her hand. "Hi. I'm Mrs. Horan's student teacher. Nice to meet you, Mr. Payne? Right?"

"Uh. Ya. Uh, Liam." he said, striding over to shake her tiny hand. She was so small. And Young. She was too young, he thought. Stop thinking about her. "Your name?" he asked. "You didn't tell me?"

"Oh! Sorry! It's Alexandra. Most people call me Alex."