Chapter Text
If you knew Hailey Austin to any degree, you would know that her favourite subject at school, aside from Music and possibly History, was English. Every unit of the subject was enjoyable for her, especially creative writing. Admittedly it did help that she was naturally good at it, which is why song writing came naturally to her, but regardless she had never had any issue with the subject (she couldn’t say the same for maths and science).
Every year since she was a kid she would get exceptional marks in the class, she always had no issues with any of her classmates and her teachers liked her since she never caused any disruptions, that on top of her already present love for the subject made it something to look forward to in comparison to the majority of the other classes on her weekly schedule.
That was until the first lesson of junior year.
See the issue was football practice had to be moved time slots which meant PE (physical education) had to move times along with it to match, this was due to the school holding them at the same time for ease. Unfortunately, this led to classes being held at different times compared to the past two years they’d been at the school and for some reason it also meant a handful of students being moved groups for their English and Maths set classes.
Now other than the time change that meant English was now during third period, three times a week, Hailey found herself mostly unaffected as she walked into her first English lesson of Junior year, sure there were a few different people to usual but she was lucky enough to still have the same group as last year. Minus a few, one notable one was the fact her desk mate was nowhere to be seen, meaning he’d probably been switched classes as he had typically always been one of the first to arrive into class.
She wouldn’t have minded this if it weren’t for the fact Jake Sterling walked in the door of the room only seconds later, this clearly meant he’d be taking the only unoccupied seat left in the classroom. The seat next to her.
Now look Hailey isn’t really one for swearing but she’s sure somewhere among her thoughts she heard a certain word beginning with ‘F’.
This was practically the worst thing that could’ve happened, ok well maybe not the worst overall (she could’ve had to sit next to Drew and that would’ve gone south really quick) but Jake was still one of the last people at their high school that she would ever want to be stuck next to for the rest of the year.
She honestly contemplated kicking up a fuss about it and asking for a change in seats but that felt dramatic and would honestly just cause unwanted attention that she really didn’t need right now. Plus, that would let him know that he bothered her enough for her to complain and she refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing that.
Glancing back up to look at Jake, she found him already looking at her, seemingly he’d come to the same conclusion that she’d just been having. His nonchalant ‘cool guy’ attitude was briefly interrupted as he looked between Hailey and the seat directly next to her before he seemed to shrug and started making his way towards his newly designated seat.
Hailey looks down at her desk and says nothing as he drops into his seat, she’s honestly just waiting for him to say something to her but instead he just turns and starts talking to some guys on the next table over, she thinks she should know their names but she honestly doesn’t have a clue.
~ * ~
The lesson that Hailey would normally breeze through was now dragging on, they had only gotten half an hour in to the lesson but she felt like she’d been sat here for two already!
It was absolutely excruciating trying to focus with Jake next to her. He hadn’t said anything to her the entire lesson, not a single jab or mean comment had passed his lips yet and honestly the anticipation was killing her.
Her focus wasn’t helped either by how he had been sat with his leg pressed against her all lesson! This guy had literally no concept of personal space and unfortunately it didn’t matter how much she tried not to think about it, her mind wouldn’t stop hyper focusing on the way his arm brushed against hers whenever he moved or how his leg was pressed into hers from the way he was sat obnoxiously manspreading.
So long story short she was glad it was the first day of the year and they didn’t have any difficult work to do yet because her mind today seemed way more focused on the extra body heat pressed up against her and being hormonal instead of her school work which was far more important.
Rolling her eyes she dropped her head down onto the desk with a sigh, this was torture and she was pretty sure she was the only one feeling like that considering Jake’s aloof manner since the beginning of the period.
She was interrupted by a chuckle and movement from the boy next to her, she lifted her head to see Jake who was sat back in his chair and looking at her, he practically had become the epitome of amusement and he sat and watched her.
The smug look on his face was infuriating and she watched as his lips tilted into a smirk as he took her in before moving to speak.
“Having a nice sleep there Princess?”, his head tiled as he spoke, accompanied by the upwards twitch of one of his eyebrows. Yep he was an obnoxious git alright.
She sat up fully before turning back to her work and picking her pen up from where she’d left it on the table, “I wasn’t sleeping, you idiot.” she really hoped he would take a hint and let her be, she was annoyed enough as is and she really didn’t need him pissing her off any more right now.
She saw his arm appear on the desk next to her out of the corner of her vision, he was resting his chin on his hand and very clearly trying to get in her face as much as he physically could despite her facing forward, “Awh Princess if you weren’t comfy enough you know you could always lean on my shoulder”.
Hailey turned to face him as he finished speaking, shooting him the most unimpressed look she could muster on her face. She, unfortunately, was only met with a wink from the blonde leaving her to roll her eyes and ignore him.
He simply laughed and turned back to his own work, apparently deeming that interaction as a victory for him, Hailey left that lesson with less than a page of work done.