Chapter Text
"Liam, love, you have to get up," a kind voice rang through the boys bedroom, it was his mom trying to get him up for the hundredth time it felt like this morning. Today was the first day of junior year of high school and he could honestly care less. "Can I just sleep through junior year and just skip to senior year?" Liam mumbled hiding his head from the sun that was assaulting his bedroom. "We both know that is not possible, hun, get up please," Karen, his mom, said shaking her head and walking out.
School had always been rough for Liam, especially mentally, he was diagnosed with autism when he was nine and suddenly everything made sense with how he viewed the world. There was one person who stayed with him even after the initial diagnosis, his friend Zayn, or more like his ex friend at this point. Zayn, the words felt like poison on his tongue every time he said his name in passing or with a conversation with his parents on why they hadn't seen him around.
He eventually pulled himself out of bed and slowly got ready for the day that was going to be ahead of him. There were few clothes that Liam actually could stand being in and that was of course his sweatpants and some random graphic t shirt that had a super hero on the front of it, of course today was Iron Man since his favorite Batman shirt was in the wash. Iron Man is Zayn's favorite super hero, their first conversation when they met on the playground was that, and of course Liam argued that Batman was clearly superior. After Liam made his argument, Zayn decided that they were going to be friends even though they didn't agree on their favorite super heroes.
"Where's your Batman shirt, hun?" Karen asked as she saw her son dragging himself downstairs with his backpack around his shoulder. "It's in the wash, mom, I forgot today was the first day," Liam explained taking a seat in front of his dad, looking at his plate, face scrunching a little bit, it was scrambled eggs and some bacon. Liam actually really liked scrambled eggs, until the eggs actually started to taste like eggs, then it was game over for his appetite.
"You ready for the first day, son?" Geoff, his father, asked as he took a bite of his own eggs, looking at his son up and down, trying to read his emotions. Liam just shrugged as he tired to scarf down his eggs before they started tasting a bit off, he knew he needed to have a proper breakfast before putting himself in the line of fire of the first day back. "Do you need one of us to drive you, love?" Karen asked as she put the pots and pans back underneath the sink. That is exactly what Liam needed on his first day, his daddy or mommy to take him to school.
"Yeah, as if I need to be looked at anymore differently than I already am," Liam mumbled shaking his head and drinking whatever chocolate milk his mom had put out for him, getting up and slinging his backpack back on his shoulder. "Li, do you have everything you need, though?" His mom asked walking towards him. Sighing deeply he opened his bag to show her everything. He had discreet earplugs in case the walk to his classes got too loud, sunglasses for the drive to school, and an assortment of little comfort items that would help ground him throughout the day.
"If you have any problems you need to call us immediately, Liam," Geoff said looking sternly at his son. This was the normal routine for Liam since his diagnosis, once him and Zayn parted ways, the man started some rumor that he was severely autistic and that he needed help with everything like some infant, everyone looked at him differently, and it showed all too often. "I don't need my parents to back me up when things go bad," Liam insisted grabbing his car keys and walking out the door before either one of his parents had a rebuttal for that.
The drive to school was peaceful, he had some random music blaring from his speakers and he thought that he could get through the day, until he got to school, the school assigned their parking spots to him and as soon as he pulled in next to the car next to him, his heart dropped as soon as he saw who it was. It was Zayn, he was in the school parking lot smoking with some of his friends, laughing and blaring some tasteless EDM music, the bass even shaking Liam's car.
"Unbelievable," Liam said to himself as he got out of his car and immediately grabbing his AirPods, sticking them in his ears and turning up the music. He slung his backpack over his shoulder before he heard a faint "Liam!" over the music. He recognized the voice, it was Zayn, he knew good and well it was Zayn. Turning around, reluctantly, he glared at the man who was leaning against the hood of his car, taking a long drag of his cigarette before smirking at him. "You know there's no smoking on the school grounds, dumbass," Liam said smartly before turning around before the man could argue and practically ran to the front of the school doors.
His first class of the day was math, he didn't really like math all that much, but he was good at it so he couldn't complain. Frowning slightly when he saw that the teacher assigned seats to everyone, thankfully Liam was in the back. Glancing over at the three people who were going to be sitting near him, the names Perrie Edwards, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan were scrawled in messy handwriting on a sticky note on the desks.
The first person that came in after him was a female, who sat immediately in front of him, he assumed it was Perrie. "Hiya!" The female said turning around and extending a hand for the two to shake, "my name's Perrie! I'm assuming you're Liam? Or you're in the wrong seat if you're not," she said with a smile on her face letting Liam shake her hand. "Oh, yeah, that's me, I'm Liam," the man said shyly shaking her hand.
"Oh! You're next to Niall! He's one of my best friends, he will ask if you have any snacks, just say no, the boy has a bottomless stomach but the metabolism of a fucking bird or something liken that, I'm not sure if that's true though, I just read it in some random science book last year," Perrie said smiling at the boy who was nodding along to what she said as he doodled lightly on the sticky note that was still on his desk.
"Hey, P!" A loud man with an Irish accent came towards the two of them and sitting in the seat beside Liam. "Niall, this is Liam! He is about to be my new best friend if you don't pipe the fuck down," Perrie said gesturing to the boy who looked shocked at Perrie who was obviously joking to everyone else. "Oh! No I'm sorry I didn't mean to," Liam said quickly, his face heating up slightly. "Hey, all good mate, she was just joking, she couldn't get rid of me if she tried," Niall said smiling as Liam took a sigh of relief.
"So, who is going to be next to Liam?" Niall said looking at Perrie who craned her head back to get a better look at the sticky note that was sitting on the desk to the other side of Liam. "Oh yikes, it's Tomlinson," Perrie said sucking in a harsh breath, looking at Liam with a look of pity. Liam knew all about Louis Tomlinson, star football player and he is one of Zayn's friends, or he used to be, he isn't too sure and he doesn't care enough to find out.
As soon as it was discussed, the man walked through the door, he was carrying his football bag and threw it on the ground behind him as he slid in his seat. "Hey, Tommo," Niall said smiling at the boy who gave a kind smile back and looked at the three others who were all staring at him. "Well since I am the popular one right now, this is Liam! You two know each other right?" Perrie said gesturing to Liam whose face was heating up again as he looked at Louis. "Yeah, you're one of Zayn's friends right?" Louis said smiling at the boy who immediately shook his head, "we used to be friends, we really don't talk anymore."
"Liam, let me see your schedule," Perrie said sticking a hand out and letting the boy put his paper schedule in her hand. She leaned over for Niall to look as well, the two nodding and smiling at each other. "So, here's the deal, you're our new friend, we all have lunch together and you are going to eat with us whether you like it or not," Perrie said smiling at the boy and handing the schedule back to him. Liam nodded, giving a slight smile at the two of them as they cheered quietly and high fived each other. Liam wasn't used to having actual friends in school, he usually just stayed to himself so the fact that these people were actually wanting him around was a new feeling.
The school bell rang and signaled that it was time for class to start. The teacher, Mister Grimshaw, walked into the class, smiling at all the students that were actually settled down in their seats. "Okay, everyone, this is just going to be a chill first day, here's the syllabus and how about we do an icebreaker?" He said listening to the entire class groan out a response, there wasn't a single thing that a group of moody teenagers hated more than some dumb icebreaker.
"Okay, okay, since you all are so thrilled with this, how about we start in the back and work our way up? Just your name and some fun fact about yourself," the teacher said leaning on his desk and pointing over to Louis who was the first victim which meant that Liam was immediately after. "Okay, hi, my name's Louis, and I guess I'm the captain of the football team?" The man said leaning back more in his chair, glancing at Liam who was now up. A fun fact? Nothing about him was fun sometimes.
"Um, hi, my name's Liam and a fun fact is, I guess my favorite superhero is Batman?" The man said, feeling his cheeks still red with slight embarrassment. "Solid choice, Batman is a favorite of mine as well," Mister Grimshaw said pointing to Niall whose fun fact was that he was Irish, if anyone in the room couldn't tell, and Perrie's was that she was auditioning to be the lead in the school musical this year. The class moved along, stating stupid little fun facts here and there and once it was over, the bell was ringing to signal that it was class changing.
"Liam, isn't your next class theatre?" Perrie said looking at the man who nodded reluctantly, he needed a fine arts credit and the art class was filled up already so he just went with theatre. "Perfect! You can come with me then," she said grabbing the man's hand and dragging him to the next class. This class was filled with different people to say the least, he meant that in the kindest way of course, he just knew he did in fact not belong in there with them.
"I am assuming that you are doing this for your fine arts credit?" Perrie said hopping on top of one of the tables that was in the classroom, gesturing for Liam to take a seat, watching him nod and pull his bag closer to him. He knew basically everyone in the class, you couldn't be in actual theatre if you were a freshman or sophomore so the class was littered with juniors and seniors, smiling and talking to each other. He was finally having an actual conversation with Perrie when he saw his worst nightmare walk through the door.
Zayn walked in, smiling at some of the juniors in their class talk to him, grabbing a random seat before the two of them locked eyes. "Liam what the hell are you looking at?" Perrie said turning her head and looking at Zayn as well who gave her a kind smile before she turned her head back to Liam. "I see they're just letting anyone in these days," she mumbled and saw Liam's offended face, "not you of course, you look like you'd belong here."
This year was going to go well, Liam thought to himself, even if some egotistical jackass was going to be in his presence once again.