Waiting for Superman [Harry Styles AU]

I had never taken classes with people twice my age before. It had always been the same people, just a different year. People I had gone to school with since year one were the ones I were used to seeing in class as I would listen to the lesson. Currently, I had a man of about fifty years on my right, and on my left was a college sophomore who I had already forgotten the name of. He looked extremely bored, tapping his fingers quietly on his desk.

When class was dismissed, people didn’t push past each other to get out like students would have in high school. Most took their own time to gather their things, slip papers into necessary folders, and so on. I felt awkward when I was the first one out of the classroom.

To be quite honest, college didn’t seem like the most friendly place. After another lecture and introduction to Structural Writing, I took my lunch break. I found a quiet area within the campus grounds, a small table with benches on either side. I sat down and took out my lunch, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a bottle of water.

Others began to crowd the area, and it wasn’t quiet any longer. Guys wearing varsity jackets kicked footballs around, and girls sat under trees, talking and eating their lunches together. I, on the other hand, was all alone.

“Ollie!” Alone, but not for much longer.

“Hey!” I grinned as Ella jogged towards me. She sat down across from me and retrieved a Hot Pocket from her satchel. “How’s your day been?”

“Not too bad, actually.” she smiled. “One of my teachers almost fell asleep while teaching though. I honestly think they should reconsider how they hire teachers.”

I laughed, chewing on a portion of my sandwich. I looked up and caught the eye of the same sophomore student that had sat next to me in my Structural Writing class. He walked past Ella and I with a large group of friends. He looked away at the second eye contact came between us, turning away as if I didn’t exist.

“I don’t like his hair,” Ella interrupted my fantasizing over a probable jock.

“Pardon?”

“I don’t like his hair.” she repeated. “If it’s curly, you should let it curl, not push it up to make yourself look like a fatass bastard. He looks like he’s go for the skanks, anyway.”

“Ella!” I gave her a look, though I decided I didn’t really like his hair either. “That’s so mean.” However, I was on the verge of cracking up. She managed to make everything she said, blunt and hilarious.

Ella shrugged. “Just saying.” She swallowed another bite of her Hot Pocket. “Hey, what class have you got next? I’ll be depressed if we don’t have a class together.”

“Um, I’ve got an Illicit Drugs and Society class next. It’s supposed to help me in the law field.” I answered, looking at the schedule in my bag for confirmation.

“Oh,” Ella’s eyes lit up. “My sister took that class a couple of years ago. She said it was alot like high school. Apparently a really cool teacher teaches the course.”

Alot like high school. I did not like the sound of that.

“Hey,” Ella’s voice softened. “Why do you look so down? Didn’t you hear? I said it was supposed to be fun, not boring.”

“Yeah,” I shook my head. “I know. Just thinking.”

“Women, you suck at lying. Better work harder at that if you’re going to be a lawyer.” Ella snorted, continued on eating. I smiled at her comment, knowing she was right. I was a terrible liar, yet my dream job was to lie in front of a crowd of people and an official judge. I had a lot of work to do.

I got a head start on navigating my way through the large campus, trying to find my class. I ran into a couple making out by the water fountains, but that was nothing new. That had been Noah and I once.

By the time I found my way to the classroom, my energy was running out in my left leg. All the walking needed to be done was wearing my muscles out, too quickly. I entered the room, and got a very good impression on the class almost immediately. The desks were pushed together into tables instead of boring rows, and posters filled with mockery on drugs and negative social aspects were glued to the walls. I took a seat next to a small built girl who was too busy reading her book to notice I had taken a seat beside her.

I took a look around the room to get an idea of the kind of people that would be in this class. Not one person in the room looked older than twenty one. I spotted the curly headed jock sitting in the corner of the room. I could tell in an instant that he had his phone under the desk, because it looked like he was smiling at his crotch. If only he knew how odd he looked.

A loud clapped stopped the quiet conversations going on around the room. A young man stood at the front of the room. He couldn’t be too much older than me, maybe in his late twenties.

“Hello all,” he smiled, waving his hands at the class. “Welcome to Drugs and Other Societal Flaws. My name is Jonah Depp.”

“No way,” someone muttered from the back on the room.

Mr. Depp laughed. “Trust me, I am not related to Johnny Depp. However, I do manage to obtain his good looks and his body.” He laughed at his own little joke. “If you call me Johnny Depp, or anything other than Mr. Depp, there will be consequences.”

I smirked at his bluntness. He reminded me of Ella.

“Now then, find the table that has the first letter of your last name. The table labeled ‘Odd Letters’ is for people whose names start with ‘x, y’ or ‘z’.”

The class chuckled in response and he grinned. People began to get up, searching for the table with their last name letters. I realized I was already sitting at the table for last names starting with “S”, so I stayed seated. My heart nearly dropped when the curly haired sophomore jock sat down in a seat across from mine.

“Hi,” I mumbled, realizing how green his eyes were. I figured he would just ignore me the way jocks normally would, but instead, a smile grew on his face and he answered,

“Hey.”

“Okay,” Mr. Depp cleared his throat. “I’m going to hand each table a slip of paper with an essay topic on it. Each topic relates to a conflict in today’s society.” I swore a devillish glint passed through his eye. “Essays are to be written with group effort. Research must be attached when submission date arrives, which will be next Monday.”

Mr. Depp put a slip of paper on each table group that he passed, dropping one on our desk. The curly headed boy stared down at it, and so did I. I was a bit scared to pick it up and see what it said. Then again, it was a college class. Prone to be boring. So, I picked it up and read it.

The prevalence of pornography in the United States.

I read the words and started cackling.

Curly headed boy took the paper from me as I tried to contain my laughter, but soon, he had joined me.

“Table S, is there a problem?” Mr. Depp called us out with a knowing grin.

“N-no sir,” I stuttered, trying to calm myself down. However, other table groups had began to snicker as they read their own essay topics, so the jock and I weren’t the odd ones out.

“Technology is permitted for research anytime during class. However, if I catch you texting, snapchatting, facetiming, facebooking, tweeting, or blogging, I will not hesitate to take your devices away.” Mr. Depp announced. “Get to work, fellow newbies.”

I turned to the curly headed boy and pushed a smile onto my face.

“I’m Ollie. What’s your name?”

“Harry.” he answered. “What do you think of our topic?”

“I don’t know if I should tell the truth, because then you might think I’m an unpleasant person.” I bit my lip.

“Nah,” Harry smiled. “Im my opinion, this is going to be one hell of an awesome class.”

“Watch your mouth over there, curls!” Mr. Depp called from the front of the class. “But yes, you are correct.”

Harry and I chuckled together at Mr. Depp’s remark. “I was worried for a second there.” Harry chirped.

“Why?” I asked, still recovering from our assigned research topic.

“Thought you would be one of those snobby freshman chicks that think they’re all that. God, those kind are so annoying.” he answered, to my surprise.

“Are you kidding?” I raised my eyebrows. “I thought you would be some asshole jock who thinks they’re better than everyone else.”

“How do you know I’m not?” he waggled his eyebrows at me.

“Well,” I snorted. “For one, you’re talking to me.”

“Yeah, but that may only be because we have this stupid assignment to do together.” he pointed out. His comeback didn’t quite affect me. I was more than used to people faking their liking towards me.

“Shh,” I winked. “Mr. Depp might hear you.”

Harry laughed and pulled his phone out from his pocket. “I don’t know if I should feel comfortable researching pornography.”

“You shouldn’t.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Unless you’re a perverted freak, which is quite frankly possible.”

“Trust me,” Harry held his hands up in surrender. “The last thing I thought I’d be doing in any of my classes was searching up this.”

“Let alone writing an essay on it.” I added.

I pulled my tablet from my bag and began looking for valid sources to support our project. I felt so dirty. Last time I checked, you got in trouble for searching these things up. Instead, my teacher was encouraging.

So maybe I would like this class.

“You a freshman?” Harry asked, looking up from his phone. “I haven’t seen you around.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “What about you? Sophomore or junior, I’m guessing?”

“Sophomore.” he confirmed. “Freshman year is going to keep you on your toes. There’s a hell of a lot of tests compared to high school, and GPA’s are a tough game. There’s a shit load of competition at this campus.”

“Thanks for the encouragement.” I nodded my head at him. “By the way, you never quite answered. Are you a jock?”

“Well, I do play for the football team, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m a jock. I personally do not believe that I am a jerk.”

“I’ll be a the judge of that.” I giggled lightly, turning my tablet screen towards him. “Look. A whole list of video sources.”

“Disgusting,” Harry stuck his tongue out. “You think Mr. Depp will let us change topics?”

“Doubt it.” I snorted. “He’s enjoying our misery.”

“Atleast he isn’t like our Structural Writing teacher. That women made me want to fall asleep from the minute she started talking. She sounds like a robot.”

“Agreed.”

Harry and I collectively gathered fifteen sources to support our essay within the class period, and in the meanwhile, got to know each other quite decently. We exchanged numbers after class and said our goodbyes, heading in separate directions.

Funny thing was, I was starting to like that hair of his.

Notes

Second chapter :) Hope it's good! And four votes for the first chapter? Pretty amazing!!! :) Thanks to all who voted and subscribed.