Adopted by Harry Styles

Grades

(Song: Anarchist by Yungblud)

The school day ends and I show Scarlett our meeting spot after the school day ends. She apparently lives on the road right next to us, so she's going to walk home with us from now on.

We get to the spot and see Claire, Rachel, and Evan. Ryan was always the last one here since his Locke this on the second floor. "You guys! Guess what?" I say, excitement filling my voice.

"What?" Evan mimics in a high pitched girly voice.

"Ryan asked me to homecoming," I say with a smile.

"What? Oh my god! Ellie, that's great. I knew he was into you, but I honestly didn't think he'd have the guts to ask you," Rachel says with a laugh.

"How'd you know he liked me?" I ask.

"It's literally the most obvious thing ever... he's always looking at you. I'm surprised you didn't notice," Claire says.

"Yeah, it's totally obvious," Evan agrees.

"What's totally obvious?" Ryan asks, coming up behind us.

"You liking Ellie," Claire says.

"Oh, shut up," he mumbles and scratches he back of his head, clearly a little embarrassed.

I giggle at his cuteness. "We're just going to the dance. It's not like he asked me to be his girlfriend or anything," I state.

"Yeah, not yet," Scarlett says.

"Okay, okay, lets move on to a new topic," Ryan says as we begin to walk home.

"Yeah, Scarlett how was your first day?" I ask, glad to be talking about something else.

"It was really good, actually. A lot better than online school," she says.

"Oh, why'd you switch from online school?" Claire asks, curious.

"I moved in with my brother a few days ago. My parents always hated public schools for some reason, but my brother wanted me to go 'experience what it's like being a teenager' or something, so he sent me here," she explains.

We continue walking until we get to my house. "See ya, Ellie," Ryan says. "I'll text you." The rest say their goodbyes and I walk up to the front door.

•~~~~~

"Hi," I yell when I get inside. I drop my backpack in it's usual place, right next to the stairs, and walk to the kitchen where I see Harry sitting at the counter using his laptop.

"Ellie? Come here," Harry says. His voice sounds confused and suspicious. Oh no. What could this be about?

"Yeah?" I ask and sit next to him.

"Your principal called me today and gave me a report of how your grades are... I'm a little concerned," he says, sliding the paper with my grade over to me.

__________
Algebra: 48%
Spanish: 63%
English: 51%
Art: 100%
Gym: 100%
Biology: 45%
History: 56%
Guitar: 100%
__________

I push the paper back to Harry after looking at it for a few seconds. Of course I have terrible grades, I'm stupid and I have stupid teachers. Two dumbs don't make a smart.

"Now, I told her that this was probably a mistake, but then she told me how you never seem to turn in your homework, according to your teachers. Is this true?" He says after turning toward me.

I look down and play with my fingers to avoid talking.

"Ellie, answer me. Do you turn in all of your work?" He asks again, this time more sternly.

"Not... not all of it," I admit. That was true, too. I did, on occasion, turn in some papers. I just never got good grades on them.

"And why not?" He asks me.

I shrug my shoulders as a response.

"You're going to look at me and tell me why you aren't doing your school work," he demands.

"I don't know," I mumble, keeping my eyes looking down.

"Don't tell me 'I don't know,'" he says, annoyed. "You better have a damn good explanation for this, Ellie. I thought we agreed that you would try in school. Did we not?"

"Yeah," I whisper.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you. What's your explanation for not trying in school?" He asks.

I shrug my shoulders. There wasn't really a good reason why I don't put much effort into school. I would just prefer to do things I like. Why do algebra homework when I can be hanging with my friends? Why do a biology project when I can be drawing?

"You're not leaving until you give me an explanation," Harry says, leaving back in his chair.

"Then I guess we're going to be sitting here for a while," I retort and cross my arms.

"I guess you're right," Harry says. He goes back to working on his computer and I just sit there.

After about five minutes, I get bored and pull my phone out from my pocket. I have a few new texts from Ryan.

'Hey, sorry if things were kinda awkward when we were walking home. I didn't expect them to make such a big deal out of it,' he texts.

'It's all good. It's was kind of funny. But, yeah, it's no big deal. Just a dance,' I text back.

"Turn off your phone," Harry says, glancing over at me.

"I'm texting someone," I tell him blandly. Harry's acting like such a dad, it's kind of annoying.

"That doesn't matter. I said to put your phone away," he says again.

"Why are you being so annoying?" I ask in a snarky tone.

"You better not be giving me an attitude," Harry says.

"I'm not," I tell him.

"Okay, well you can turn off your phone and give it to me," Harry says. He holds his hand out.

I look at his hand and then him. "Fine," I say and shove the phone in his hand. "But you can't make me sit here." I stand up and start walking to my room, but then a hand grabs my shoulder and pulls me back.

"You are going to sit in that chair until you can explain to me why your grades are terrible," Harry says. His firm grip on my shoulder doesn't loosen as he pulls me back to the table.

I groan and rest my head on my arm, turning away from Harry so I don't have to deal with him. If he thinks I'm going to talk to him when he's acting like this, then he's wrong.