Lounsbury Prep

The following day, Zayn worried. The boys knew that he didn’t have a girlfriend, but what if they wondered why? He had a feeling that they didn’t really believe that he was just happy being single, and he wasn’t exactly rushing to tell them that he was gay.

“You’re so uptight,” Liam teased. The two of them were hanging out in their dorm room for a while until they were expected at the auditorium building for the group bonding to start. “Is school giving you that much trouble?”

“Not so much anymore,” Zayn admitted. In the beginning, he did stress heavily about his grades and getting his work done, but once he realized that none of his teachers collected the homework to grade, he went from stressing and forcing himself to do every problem to trying his best. It lifted a massive weight off his shoulders, and it made him feel like he wasn’t a failure, simply because he didn’t know every answer to every question.

“Then what’s your problem?” Liam asked. “You feeling alright?”

“I’m feeling fine. I’m just a little nervous about how personal the questions are going to get when we do our group bonding, that’s all.”

Zayn hadn’t meant to tell his roommate the truth so easily, but once it was out, there was nothing he could do about it. But from the way Liam’s mouth started twitching, Zayn could tell he thought the idea was ridiculous.

“We’re not going to get that personal,” Liam assured the new boy. “I don’t think you have to worry, okay? We’re not a bunch of hormonal teenagers playing Truth or Dare.”

Zayn felt his face heat up with embarrassment. “That’s not really what I was inferring,” he insisted. “I don’t know how to say what I’m thinking.”

Liam shook his head a little bit. “Now you have me curious what secrets you’re hiding from us.” Zayn’s heart stopped for a second, completely petrified of the next words out of his roommate’s mouth, but the statement turned out to be completely benign. “You could be a serial killer or something.”

“Oh, yeah, absolutely,” Zayn agreed jokingly. “Jack the Ripper II.”

“I knew it.”

The two boys laughed for a minute before Liam got to his feet. “Alright, let’s head over the auditorium.”

The two made the journey across the courtyard once again, the leaves crunching underneath their footsteps as they went. “Want to place bets on who’s going to be there already?” Liam asked. “I think Harry will be there with that whiteboard of his.”

“The Sidekick,” Zayn filled in with a laugh. But he stopped the second Liam turned and raised an eyebrow at him; he’d totally forgotten that what he called the whiteboard wasn’t its official name, just something Zayn deemed it in his head.

“What?” Liam chuckled. “Did you give the whiteboard a nickname?”

“Um, yes.” Zayn could feel his face getting hot, but Liam seemed to think the situation was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. He was still snickering when they reached the door and pulled it open.

“Guys!” Liam yelled as the two of them entered. “You’ll never guess what Zayn just said to me.”

“He doesn’t have a penis,” Harry replied without missing a beat. Everyone turned to stare at him with confusion, so he added defensively, “What?! I’m right, yeah?”

“No,” Liam shot down. “He called the whiteboard that Harry always uses The Sidekick. How brill is that? I think we should make it the official name.”

“I second that motion,” Louis spoke up, deepening his voice to sound more like a member of Parliament. “All in favor, say aye.”

Liam, Louis, and Niall were the only ones that said anything, while Zayn stood off in the corner, wholly uncomfortable, and Harry seethed in the corner about people picking on his ever-present rolling whiteboard.

“You know what?” Harry finally interrupted. “Everyone, sit in a circle. Group bonding is going to begin, and everyone needs to stop their talking about other useless things.”

Zayn, thankful for the subject change, sat down between Louis and Niall on the floor of the stage. Every one of them had sat Indian-style, so their knees almost touched to form a kind of physical circle outside the one made of empty space between them.

“Okay, first things first,” Harry demanded. “We’re going to go around and say name, birthday, age, and year here at the school.”

“I’m pretty sure we all know this about each other,” Liam broke in. “Right?”

“Shut up, Eugene,” Harry tried to snap back, but he was unable to keep a straight face. “Louis, start it off.”

He smiled as he said, “I’m Louis Tomlinson, my birthday is December 24th, I’m seventeen, and I’m in Year Twelve.”

Zayn thought he would be nervous, talking in front of all four of them at once, but when it got to his turn, he felt quite at ease. “I’m Zayn Malik, my birthday is January 12th, I’m seventeen, and I’m in Year Twelve.”

“I’m Niall Horan, my birthday is September 13th, I’m sixteen, and I’m in Year Eleven.” Zayn stopped for a second and looked at Niall; he had no idea that Niall was a year younger than the rest of them, and it made him feel almost uncomfortable that the other four boys were going off to university the following year, while Niall had to stay at Lounsbury and fend for himself. And hadn’t he taken the economics class already? How had he taken the class he and Liam were taking in their last year when he was only in his second? He was going to have to ask Liam later.

“I’m Liam Payne, my birthday is August 29th, I’m seventeen, and I’m in Year Twelve.”

“I’m Harry Styles, my birthday is February 1st, I’m seventeen, and I’m in Year Twelve.” He cleared his throat quickly as his green eyes skated over the group. “Alright, now that those basics are settled, we can ask people specific questions. Louis, what happened with that girl over summer break? The one that you started talking to the end of last year?”

Zayn felt his heart break inside of his chest. He had known Louis was straight, that he didn’t have a chance with the blue-eyed, beautiful boy. And yet he’d allowed himself to get his hopes up that Louis felt the same way, and his internal organs were crumbling into powder and settling in the bottom of his abdomen.

“We didn’t work out,” Louis responded without a bit of sadness. “When I told her I was bisexual, she dumped me. She was convinced I’d run off with a guy and leave her alone or something.”

Bisexual. Louis was bisexual! Zayn could have cried with joy, but he bit his tongue to keep from bubbling over with excitement. So he did have a chance. Not that Louis would know how Zayn felt, since he wasn’t sure he wanted to share his sexual orientation with the other boys. Granted, they seemed perfectly okay with Louis’ attraction toward both genders, but Zayn was still a newbie to the group. He had no idea how they’d react to the news about him.

“Zayn,” he heard Niall say, “why haven’t we ever seen you talk to anybody from back home?”

That was a fairly easy question to Zayn, and he let out a short breath. “Well, when I talk to my parents or sisters, they always tell me to stop talking and get back to work before I flunk out. And as for my friends, they kind of just let life go on without me. I’m sure that if I went back home, they’d welcome me, but for right now, we’re on totally different paths.”

“That happens with a lot of us,” Harry encouraged Zayn. “But I think the friends we make here are better than the ones back home, anyway.”

The rest of the boys nodded, and Zayn instantly felt even more comfortable than he had before. Maybe, someday, he’d feel comfortable enough to tell them the truth about him. But for just then, he decided to keep it a secret, trying his hardest to keep his eyes from wandering to sneak glances at Louis’ perfect profile.

By the end of the meeting, he learned that Liam’s first kiss was an accident, Louis used to have the bad habit of biting his toenails until he was eight, Niall had a girlfriend back home that he thought was cheating on him, Harry’s best friend from back home tried to pick up his mom, and they all had some kind of issue that lead to their enrollment at Lounsbury.

Right as they were about to leave, Zayn burst out, “Liam and Niall, wait! I was just wondering how Niall took the economics class last year if he’s a year younger than all of us.”

“It’s a Year 10 class,” Liam informed him. “I wasn’t here Year 10, which is why I’m taking it this year. My friend Ed that I mentioned is in Year 11 with Niall right now.”

“I figured he’d graduated,” Zayn muttered. “So why isn’t he in Glee Club with us?”

The four other boys shot looks at each other and chuckled. “Ed’s got his priorities elsewhere,” Harry answered shortly. “Alright, meeting adjourned. We’ll meet back here next Monday to start rehearsals. Until then, try to learn the music if you don’t already know the words.”