Status: active.

Ruled by Fate

five

It was a week later when Harry made even more progress with the new girl, though she was hardly new now. 

It was in his English class, and they had been assigned a new project, a partner project. Now, Harry had glanced at Nahla in the corner of his eye, wondering if anyone besides him wanted to be her partner, but it didn't even matter because the teacher announced that he had already picked their partners for them. The class collectively groaned in protest, all except Harry and Nahla. Harry prayed his partner was Nahla; he thought this to be the perfect opportunity to finally get to really know her.

His prayers had been answered again when the teacher called out, "Harry Styles, Nahla Sparrow." He had almost leaped for joy when it happened, but he thankfully restrained himself from doing so and stayed calm so he didn't embarrass himself.

He glanced at her to see what her reaction to him being his partner, but he was a little disappointed when she still held her neutral expression. But, it was better than one of disappointment or disgust, so that at least was something.

They were given time to work on it during class, so the class erupted in loud chatter not a second later, all turning their bodies and moving about the room to get to their partners. Harry clenched his jaw to refrain from saying anything stupid, and merely turned to a clean page in his notebook to start writing down notes. Maybe Nahla was one of those people who just did everything for you because she didn't want a failing grade. Or maybe she was one of the people who just relied on the partner to do all the work. God, Harry hoped not. He didn't mind doing his half, but he didn't want to do the whole thing.

"So, I was thinking; we could just split up the work? One of us does the report, the other does the art," Harry tentatively suggested, hoping Nahla wouldn't get mad or think it was stupid. He didn't want to come off as unintelligent.

She looked at him, nodded once. "Yeah, that sounds fair. Do you have a preference? Though, I'm telling you now: I'm shit at writing papers," she smiled, and fuck, Harry loved her smile.

Harry laughed softly at her statement though. He honestly thought it couldn't have been planned more perfectly. "That's perfect because I have no art skills whatsoever."

"Deal," she laughed. "I'll do the art, you do the paper."

"Deal," Harry agreed, and both shook on it. Honestly, Harry was a bit excited. The project wasn't too horrible: Everyone had to look up a mythical creature, write a report on it, and then have an art piece that wasn't off the computer. Nahla and Harry decided on werewolves.  And Harry also had a killer partner. Since Nahla was doing only the art, she offered to look up some of the notes as well, and Harry was more than happy to sit next to her in the library during lunch hour. Harry could tell Nahla was serious about school work; he wondered why. It didn't seem like it was university related, or future career. But he couldn't figure out why she wanted to go above and beyond for this project; he didn't care, though, as long as he got to spend time with Nahla and they got an A mark.

"So, uh, do you maybe want to work on the project some more tonight? We can go to someone's house and do research there and everything." Harry's hands had been shaking violently when he had asked - more like stuttered. It felt like he was asking her out on a date. But he wasn't, he swears! It was just the thought of going to where Nahla lived, or her going to his that make him nervous.

Nahla stared at the notebook in front of her for a few minutes, and Harry wondered if he had spoken too low for her to hear him. But his thoughts were put away when she bit her lip and shook her head. "I can't tonight." Harry felt his stomach drop. Nahla started to put her things away when she began talking, "Maybe tomorrow, yeah? At yours?"

Harry couldn't fight the smile this time as it made its way on his face. Tomorrow! They were going to be together tomorrow! And at his house no less. Operation Know All About Nahla was getting put into effect. "Yeah, sure. Sounds good." It sounded fantastic.
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oh gosh, sorry it's so short, i didn't realize it. i like to warn you for a short one. the next one is longer, though, i promise!

Nothing much to report today, the next chapter sets everything off. It's cute, I think c: Tell me what you thiiink!

this just freaks me out on how they're so in sync:
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-marley