FicWad

A/N: Dedicated to turbunny who read the whole thing several times and corrected it where it was necessary. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own characters portrayed in this fanfic.

Hayley was heading to her additional maths class. The constant development of her dance moves and voice was fulfilling, yes, but also time consuming and she couldn’t focus properly on other activities, such as learning. She was doing well with subjects like history or those based solely on remembering skills. Hayley had a good memory for memorising facts by singing them to a certain rhythm. She learned using her sensitivity to sound. Unfortunately, it didn’t apply to more scientific subjects, as knowing exact numbers in formulas by heart wasn't the best solution to understand them. That was why she faced some troubles with maths. Her teacher was especially strict and didn't want to hear any excuses about Hayley's future artistic career. Luckily for her, the school organised extra lessons to help those who struggled the most. The idea was to create friendly environment and let students teach other students. The best students were selected to be teacher assistants. People tended to be less intimidated by someone their age than by the teacher who strongly pressured them on daily basis. Hayley knew that lately she has been slacking off more, due to increased amount of dance practices. Without those additional lessons she would be doomed and sure to flunk her final exams. They weren’t voluntary though. Students who were failing a subject had to take them, unless they were not interested in graduating. Hayley was more than happy to oblige, as she understood the utmost importance of finishing high school.

Hayley entered the classroom and glanced at the vacant chairs. Three of them were unoccupied. Out of habit, she decided to avoid those two situated just in front of the teacher assistant's desk, placing herself on the chair near the back wall of the classroom. She wasn't the type to be overzealous and ready to answer every question. Instead, she was constantly thinking about music, singing to music or dancing to music. However, today wasn't the day to lack focus. She had to pass maths and she needed to fully comprehend the material. That's why she took her earphones off and put them in her bag – the ultimate proof of her being serious this time. During regular lessons she just covered them skilfully with her hair and happily continued to play her music.

She could feel other student’s eyes on her. Her little dancing show last Friday made Hayley notably popular. Not many days had passed since her performance but today, on Monday, as rumours spread, she was getting more and more attention. Not used to being noticed by her schoolmates to that extent, all those pros and cons coming with recognition still felt unfamiliar. Being stared at constantly, for example. Hayley felt like a wild animal, put in a cage and presented for the first time ever in a local zoo. It was rewarding to see all those envious glances directed at her but also extremely tiring. As for the reason why she started singing and dancing in front of everybody, there was no right answer. She simply didn't know. Perhaps it was her way of showing that artistic side of her and a pure desire to share something that has been hidden for so long – her true self. Perhaps it was her way of manifesting that even frequently unnoticed people were worth something and should be brave to express themselves. Perhaps she just wanted to get the attention of those popular and extremely beautiful girls and she felt skilled enough to do it. Something inside her was telling her that the third option was the closest to the truth but she didn't want to admit it. It was so unlike her to show off in front of other people but did she regret it? Absolutely not. She was getting positive feedback via all of her social media. There were haters as well, of course. The majority of people were pretty enthusiastic about her display but she stumbled upon several hateful messages. She’s sworn that she wouldn't let them get to her but during the nights that façade had a tendency to slip easily and her mind often wandered to those harsh words. She was anxious that most people just didn't want to hurt her and maybe the haters were the honest ones, saying that at that time, in the cafeteria, she just looked stupid. Someone even filmed the whole thing and posted it on the Internet. While being brave enough to perform, Hayley was too self-conscious to actually check how it went. She was aware that people have seen the video and kept watching it but she wasn't ready to do it by herself yet. She has read some comments and most of them included many variations of the word “thirsty”. People must have noticed how she looked at those popular girls while dancing. That move with headphones and bubblegum was especially “thirsty” and comments must have been referring to it. Funny story, she couldn't remember much of that day, feeling like in some kind of trance. At this point, Hayley was sure that this video was a total disaster. Perhaps she was wrong and she shouldn't have danced. Perhaps people kept staring at her because she looked absolutely ridiculous and they were laughing shortly after she was no longer within hearing distance. The remedy for all that negative thinking was always the same – music. It was calming and always brought back her willingness to live and perform.

The classroom was filled with noises. Their teacher was still absent and silence was reserved only to the times when a mentor was present. Hayley was getting bored without her earphones. She quickly checked her Facebook and smiled. She lived for comments saying that she made someone less shy or those containing appraisals. Everybody enjoyed being praised. Somewhere between giving a like to a simple “I love your dance” comment and answering to “what kind of style is that and where can I learn it” Hayley noticed that the class went silent. The inevitable was here. She had to start learning some maths. Her eyes landed on the teacher. It was her first time having extra classes and she wasn't even aware why people were always excited to be here. She understood as soon as she recognized the teacher. One of the best students in terms of maths was that one popular girl that Hayley accidentally, kind of, maybe, flirted with during her dance show off. The most beautiful one from the group, she had to admit. Purely looking at that girl furtherly confirmed Hayley’s conviction that she’s not so straight and that seemed close to impossible. Pulling her by those headphones was a bold move and after the adrenaline wore off, Hayley spent all day laying on her bed, embarrassed. It was one thing to just dance in front of other students but to engage them in any physical contact by violating their personal space – that was something completely different. That girl must have been displeased with her show, surely. Now Hayley had to face the consequences, stay in this class and learn something. Oh, and try to be as invisible as possible which was hard to do, considering her being somewhat a school star now.

The girl started to check the attendance and Hayley realised she would be next to respond. Not only that, but she had to respond to that girl. It would be their first time having something that in some way resembled a real conversation. She looked up just in time to see that her temporary teacher ignored her and kept calling out other student’s names. Hayley would be in huge trouble if her name didn’t end up on that list. The girl clearly despised her now but Hayley was desperate to pass maths. She raised her hand and, without waiting for a permission to speak, she started moving her lips in an attempt to form audible and coherent words.

“Could you put my name on the list, please? You didn't ask and I'm sure it was just a simple mistake and if it wasn't I understand if you d...” as soon as she started speaking it was hard to stop. There were so many things that she wanted to say to that girl. She wanted to apologise for her actions. She wanted to beg her to be professional, forget that thing and treat her equally. It was high school though. No one simply forgets things in high school. Especially things that are unexpected and well, meaningful. Of course, she also wanted to say how pretty the girl was but after the incident it was out of line.

“Oh, I already did. I know your name.” The girl said, raised her eyebrow and smirked. She looked like someone who smirked all the time and it was probably the right assumption. Hayley was ready to make her speech about being irresponsible and/or elaborate on other foul behaviours of hers when she heard the answer. She looked at that smirk and got to the only possible conclusion – that girl had a list of weird people and had to look up her name to put her on it.

“And by the way, for those of you who are here for the first time - I'm Blake and I will teach you maths today. Well, for the rest of the month, to be exact.” The teacher assistant continued talking to the whole class this time. So that girl's name was Blake. Hayley found it very fitting. Especially combined with that low voice. The rest of the class went smoothly to Hayley's slight surprise. Blake was awesome at maths and awesome at teaching. One could only imagine how awesome she was at teaching maths. The trick was to present some problems using real life examples and portray maths as useful, contrary to some people's beliefs. It was refreshing and Hayley discovered that maths didn't have to be boring at all.

–


One week has passed since she started attending Blake’s classes. It was Monday again and she spent all of her usual classes battling with herself whether she was brave enough to finally apologise to Blake or not. Over the weekend she decided that she had to do it. She couldn't avoid her during the class, since averting her eyes wasn't the best solution. When the bell rang, telling students to move to another classroom, Hayley felt a bit anxious. Sitting on her regular chair felt somewhat different that day. Surprisingly, one look at Blake's elegant handwriting on the board and Hayley relaxed a bit. Especially when she noticed how the TA absent-mindedly played with the chalk when she was explaining a new topic. Or when she noticed how sun rays underlined slight curls of Blake's hair. As soon as she caught herself thinking that, a major realisation hit her. Some time throughout their classes she developed a slight crush on Blake. Before, the girl was only someone extremely popular and extremely beautiful, nothing more. Previously, when she was looking at Blake, she felt something comparable to the feeling when she was looking at a well-known and perfectly shaped statue. Extraordinary but static, without any liveliness to it. She was guilty of objectifying Blake, perceiving her as an example of a “popular girl” trope. She had thought of her as someone who was interested in looking good, shopping with other good looking girls and posting as many photos of her good-looking self (and her good-looking friends) as she could. Not that Hayley has ever visited any of Blake's profiles on social media but she assumed a certain scheme and refused to believe otherwise. Now, it all has changed, obviously. Hayley could see the other girl in a different light. Blake turned out to be enthusiastic about teaching maths and genuinely wanted to help other people understand the subject. Those stories she loved to use as an example were often witty and Hayley found herself smiling many times during the lesson. Every time the joke was appreciated by the class, Blake looked so accomplished, like she was trying so hard to make them like her. Things like that totally removed Hayley's previous assumptions and she started perceiving Blake as a living person with feelings, insecurities and her own unique personality. And with an extreme beauty, naturally.

Hayley was so occupied with her thoughts that she didn’t even noticed when the subject of her intense daydreaming approached her. The anxious feeling came back as she remembered about the reality in which she was crushing on a girl whom she’s offended a while ago.

“You look a little lost. Can I help you with something?” Blake asked. Hayley glanced quickly at other tables. It looked like they got an assignment and everyone was busy with solving problems except for her. Blake must have assumed that she didn't understand how to do them. The truth was that she wasn't even aware of today's topic. There went all those promises about focusing during classes. Another quick glance at the board and at least she could get the main idea.

“Erm... Yeah... I mean, how those progressions work once again?” She felt like a fool while asking this. Blake was an awesome teacher and Hayley shouldn't lose focus. The teacher assistant didn't deserve to explaine the topic once again. Now she was probably thinking how stupid Hayley was for not catching this earlier.

“You're like... 20 minutes behind, are you aware?” Blake smirked - as always when it came to interacting with Hayley. She was making fun of her. “However, others are busy with work as you can see so I'll try to explain it better to you this time, okay?”

“It's not your fault. I wasn't focused enough, I'm sorry.” Hayley answered looking the other girl in the eyes. Usually, she avoided doing that because she didn't want to seem confrontational. Oh, and she would be lost admiring her face.

“That's a shame, something is more interesting than me explaining arithmetic and geometric progressions”. A second before Blake was standing in front of Hayley's table. Suddenly, she changed her position, grabbed a vacant chair and sat near her student. Hayley chose to be silent as she couldn't voice what made her so unfocused. She was only afraid that the second attempt of explaining would fail as well – Blake was too close and she started leaning to write something in her notebook. Hayley thanked herself for not having the habit of drawing anything while spacing out. Otherwise, there would be a high possibility of a badly drawn heart with the teacher assistant's name written inside.

“Okay, look, let's imagine you've just posted that video where you dance in the cafeteria.” Blake paused to look at the girl and send her one slight smile before she continued. “Let's assume no one liked it yet. That means the initial term is zero. Then let's assume in one minute you've gained one hundred likes, okay? After two minutes the total number of people liking your performance is two hundred likes. Can you guess how many likes is a common difference in that example?” Blake asked while writing a symbol in Hayley's notebook to make sure the knowledge weren't to be forgotten.

“Well... One hundred?” The girl answered hesitantly.

“Great! One hundred, indeed. Okay, so how many people will enjoy your sexy dance after seven minutes?” Blake looked in Hayley's eyes, awaiting the response. It was quite an intense look but Hayley was too preoccupied with counting to notice. She could have sworn that Blake winked at her at some point but she blamed her imagination and focused on the job at hand. She wanted to be correct and prove Blake that she wasn't stupid and she could catch up quickly. That's why her next phrase came accompanied by a proud smile.

“Seven hundreds, obviously.” Blake nodded in agreement and wrote the answer in the notebook.

“As for the geometric progression, it works slightly different. Your homework is to find proper formulas and solve the problems that you were supposed to do when you were thinking about more enjoyable things. To make it easier for you, I wrote something useful while you were so busy coming up with the right answer...” Blake was making fun of her again. “I wrote down the example of geometric progression. The initial term of your subscribers is going to be two, let's say you begged your parents to subscribe to your channel before posting anything. Two minutes after actually posting the video you gained a total number of eight subscribers. Three minutes more and you've got sixty-four people mesmerised by you. Figure out the rules by yourself, okay? Just so you know, I would explain it thoroughly to you but my duties as a class teacher are calling. As I can see the rest of the students already finished and as much as I would like to, I can't focus on tutoring just you.” After that, Blake was gone, checking the work of other students and leaving Hayley with a strong scent of perfume, perfectly written numbers in the notebook and with a feeling of wanting more tutoring sessions like this.

The bell rang and Hayley suddenly remembered about her duty of apologising about the video. Blake didn't seem to have negative feelings for her in any way but perhaps she was just being professional and hid her true emotions well. Hayley waited for students to leave the classroom and reluctantly took several steps to reach the destination, to be in front of teacher assistant's desk.

“Excuse me, can I talk to you for a minute?” Hayley asked and did everything to avoid Blake's curious gaze directed at her. She wouldn't be able to do it while looking straight at the girl.

“Of course, I'm all ears. Is it about progressions? Tomorrow we'll be doing some more examples and you don't have to worry about them now. Well, you do if you plan on spacing out tomorrow as well.” Blake raised her left eyebrow trying to playfully challenge the other girl but Hayley was too occupied with her mission.

“It's not about that. I mean, partially. You explained progressions using the video with me in it as an example. Look, I'm sorry for what happened that day. I was out of line. I shouldn't have touched your property and I shouldn't have danced on the table. It sounds so weird when I'm saying it out loud.” Hayley quickly glanced at Blake to see if the girl was still there, listening. “And about that video. I'm sure you're in it as well and it's probably embarrassing for you and if you want to I can talk to the person who posted it and make them remove it. Just say so, okay?”

At this point she was looking at the desk in front of her. Not stuttering at that moment was a notable achievement. She said it. Hayley felt relieved and ready to go when she heard Blake's totally alluring and simply amazing voice.

“Have you even seen the video?” When Hayley didn’t answer, Blake continued “I thought so. It explains a lot.” And with that the teaching assistant was gone. Hayley looked at her just in time to see that smirk she has been getting used to lately. That was not how it was supposed to go. Blake was supposed to say something about ruining her image, demanding to delete the video and angrily saying that violating her personal space was simply unforgivable. On the other hand, perhaps if she was actually thinking like that she would confront Hayley sooner. Nevertheless, that was not the reaction she expected. Definitely not.


–
That was it. It was going to happen this evening. She was ready. No, she wasn't. She had to be, though. Hayley had to see the video, especially now after Blake's remark earlier in the classroom. Her hand lingered on the touch pad of her laptop. She was one click away from starting the video. This time she decided to skip reading comments. Minutes had passed and she still didn't make the final move. She grabbed a newly open beer. There was one more empty bottle next to the laptop. It could qualify as an under-age drinking but who cared. It was an important moment and buying beer illegally was a minor inconvenience. Harassing Blake's personal space was a bigger crime and somehow she got away with it. Hayley took a big sip out of her bottle.

“Arrghhh, it's done, I won't change it, why I am such a coward?” she muttered angrily at herself and decided to finally do the responsible thing and face the consequences. She clicked the play button.
At first she was amazed by the cameraman’s editing skills. The video had her song played in a high quality. She expected to hear the same music she has been listening to that – from her cell phone placed on the cafeteria's table. The longer she watched the video, the more she realised how awesome it was. Her dancing perfectly synchronised with music and of course there were those popular girls looking surprised and... kind of turned on?

“Wait, whaaat?” The beer must have gotten to her because, firstly, she was talking to herself and secondly, more importantly, she came to the conclusion that some of the girls featured in the video were visibly enjoying her show, Blake included. Actually, Blake looked like she enjoyed her dance the most, every second of it. She looked almost like she was ready to propose another dancing show but this time in private and with less dancing and more headphones pulling with additional kissing. Hayley looked at the comments once more and she finally understood them. “Thirsty” wasn't used to describe Hayley's behaviour towards girls but Blake's behaviour towards Hayley. There were also comments about shipping Blake and Hayley together and Hayley had to admit that she would gladly be the captain of that ship. Fans have even nicknamed Blake as the 'Headphones Girl'.

She chugged the rest of the beer but at that moment she was sure the feeling of drunkenness wasn't coming from the alcohol only. She was relieved and happy. That video wasn't a complete disaster. She was worrying too much while overthinking the whole situation. As a bonus, she discovered or rather hoped that Blake might be interested in getting to know her outside of the class. Hayley laid on the bed with earphones inside her ears and closed her eyes. It wasn't easy to fall asleep but for the first time since the great performance, she had a genuine smile on her face.

- -

Hayley hasn't slept that much the following night but she didn't mind. She felt like she was on a strong drug that didn't let her feel tired nor unhappy. The change was visible, she was more open to strangers in the school corridors and smiled at everyone who just barely looked her way. She kept her shoulders straight and even the style of her walking was more confident. The video shown her what kind of magic confidence could do. Her insecurities were still there but this time she decided to hid them deep inside her. She admired that brave and proud girl from the video and reminded herself once more that it was her.

Hayley spent the entire extra maths lesson dividing her focus between serious stuff a.k.a polynomial functions, simply admiring Blake and trying to come up with a good tactic to approach the teacher assistant after class. She couldn't just go and ask her if she had a crush on her. That would be weird and creepy. She decided to be spontaneous and let things go naturally. For the rest of the lesson she tried to catch Blake's attention by intense staring and she even succeeded several times. Perhaps it was her wishful thinking but the girl seemed to be a little bit distracted every time Hayley caught her attention. Hayley regretted avoiding direct contact before. It was fun to see Blake pausing in the middle of the sentence for seconds before continuing her lecture.

Finally, students heard the desired sound of a ringing bell and hurriedly left the room. It was one thing to enjoy the teacher but the other to lose their precious free time. Hayley patiently waited and came to the main desk in the classroom. Blake didn't notice her at first and started putting her jacket on and preparing to leave as well. She even had the same headphones around her neck as those in the video. They were a hit in their school now. Were they worn so often before the clip? Quiet music filled the air.

“Hm... I haven't been aware that you could teach maths so well” Hayley said the first thing that came to her mind. Well, maybe not the first. There were several things that Hayley thought first. She could go with “you're so pretty and intelligent and funny, come on, let's date”, for example. Or she could start with “will you make out with me if I ask?”. Instead, she went with some totally lame statement. Blake seemed to be startled at first but quickly regained her composure.

“And I haven't been aware that you could dance so well.” she retorted and smirked as if realising that the other girl hasn't thought about her line carefully.

“Touché.” Hayley smiled sheepishly and glanced at the other girl trying to find something else to say. They were looking into each other's eyes in silence, both slightly smiling. The only object separating them was the desk and they were both standing near its edge on their respective sides. Hayley knew that Blake could tell that something has changed. It was obvious. No more avoiding contexts.

“I have seen the video.” Hayley stated, not averting her gaze from its initial destination. Neither of them wanted to break that eye contact. Hayley caught herself placing palms on the desk in front of her. Blake's hands rested at that same desk long before.

“Congratulations, high time”. Blake's whole posture was provocative and now their faces were noticeably closer than before. So close that Hayley was able to hear the music from the other girl's headphones. She raised her eyebrows as soon as she realised what was currently playing. Her song.
Hayley has seen the clip so many times the evening before that she could recall what was happening during every note of it. Blake noticed the coincidence as well.

Hayley could barely tell what happened next. She didn't register when Blake took off her headphones and how they were placed around Hayley's neck. She could only tell that during the fragment of the song corresponding to that moment when she pulled Blake by the headphones in the video, she was being pulled by them instead. Only this time their lips met. After a while they broke the kiss but not before satisfying a good deal of their needs in terms of tasting each other. Passionate kissing wasn't the most comfortable while being separated by a desk and Hayley promised herself that she would stop with climbing tables. For now. She stood there for a little longer with eyes closed, not wanting to wake up from the dream. When she finally opened them, Blake was still there, once again smirking only now her face was visibly flushed. This time, Hayley spoke the first words that came to her mind.

“Will you be my headphones girl?”

“I thought you would never ask.”


- -

A/N: Thanks for reading!