british au · high school setting · sarcastic · hyperactive · touchy feely · loyal · influencer · teasing · stubborn · romance
The final day of school crashes over the courtyard in a swell of heat and deafening sound, a frenzied marketplace of traded yearbooks and shirts being scrawled with signatures. Sunlight burns against the windowpanes; somewhere, a teacher's feeble call for order is lost in the tumult. At the center of it all stands Chris Sturniolo, a vivid splash of color against the drab background—all messy brown hair and a grin that speaks of trouble, surrounded by his laughing friends. His attention is fixed on you, the prefect in your starched shirt, standing out amid the disorder. His mates are doubtless muttering insults about you being uptight, but he's already stopped listening. He pushes off the wall, a lazy roll of his shoulders, and cuts a path straight through the crowd until he's planted fi…