((high school musical reference bc this is a hs au. again. what a shock. but this is going to clearly take place in the summer!))

This sucked.

Summer school on everyday except Saturdays.

You weren't even the one actually learning there, it was your younger brother but you had to drive him to and from the school everyday. Most days you just dropped him off in the mornings and came back in the afternoons, except today his teacher wanted to talk to you about his progression. He wasn't even your kid, he was just your delinquent little brother, and you mean that in the most loving way possible.

"Come on Jeremy, let's go!" You yelled up the stairs. when you heard his grumbled response you began walking to the front door, car keys in hand.

"What? No breakfast?" He asked, and you rolled your eyes in response.

"I told you I made breakfast half an hour ago, if you were up, you would've gotten some."

"Y/N, my new teacher, he says breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Gets upset if he finds out we didn't eat before going to school."

You climbed into your car and started the engine. "Get something from the cafeteria then."

"That shit's gross!"

"Then make sure he doesn't find out you missed breakfast."

You turned up the radio in the car, and didn't complain when Jeremy changed the channel. He was your brother after all, and you were only hard on him because you knew he could do better.

At the school, you parked the car and got out. "Lead the way, my man."

Jeremy smiled at your use of the nickname for him, and gestured you down the halls. "I do have to warn you, Y/N, some of the kids can be pretty rowdy in here."

"Jeremy, I've gone to this school for more than four years, I can deal."

"No, they've gotten really bad since Mr. Howard's been out sick."

"Mr. Howard's sick?" You asked. Mr. Howard was the teacher you meet at the beginning of the summer. He was an aging man with balding salt and pepper hair and a thick Boston accent that you could barely understand most of the time.

Your brother nodded. "For almost a week now. We've had other teachers come in but nobody's volunteered to stay, except the new guy."

"New guy?"

"Here's not even a teacher, just a really advanced college student. He moved here just this summer and decided for some reason that the best way to meet people was to teach them summer school. He's going to the community college, actually."

Your interest piqued at the idea of a new kid going to your community college. "My college?"

Jeremy stops at the door with the paper sign taped to the window that said 'SUMMER SCHOOL'. "Yep, here we are."

Inside the classroom, you couldn't spot anybody who seemed to be in charge. Some girls were in the corner painting their nails and texting on their phones, a bunch of jocks were trying to dunk paper balls in the trashcan from the back of the classroom, and it seemed that only one kid was actually doing any work. He was looking down at his desk, bright red hair falling in his face as he dutifully did a worksheet of some sort.

You watched as Jeremy joined his friends throwing paper balls, and leaned against the wall for the 'teacher' to arrive. For some reason you had taken a keen interest in the one kid actually working, it seemed he actually wanted to do well in school. After a few moments of you observing him, he glanced up at the door you were standing next to, and you quickly averted your eyes from him as he noticed you, down to your phone.

When you looked up again he was walking over to you, a smile on his face. "Hi, are you a new summer school student?"

"Oh, no. I'm Jeremy's older sister, the teacher asked me here to talk about his progress." You answered, fascinated by his warm chocolate brown eyes underneath his glasses.

Before he could answer, a paper ball hit you right in the face. The room went silent as you bent down to pick it up off the floor. Jeremy was whispering angrily at his friends, and you knew he was telling them off and that only he was allowed to mess with you. Calmly, you looked the perpetrators in the eyes, then walked over to the recycle and threw it away unblinking.

"I recommend you all do some work. Y'know, since this is summer school." You spoke clearly, walking back to your spot where you where talking to the brown-eyed boy.

The class immediately went into their bookbags to pull out worksheets and pens and pencils as he looked at you with wide eyes. "You've really got authority with them."

You shrugged. "I've known most of them since they were diapers, a lot of them are my brother's friends, or are a grade younger than me and know I don't take their shit, or are underclassmen that recognize me as college-age."

"They've never immediately started working like that."

"Maybe this new teacher hasn't been strict enough on you guys. Speaking of which, where is he?"

He suddenly started laughing, and you couldn't figure out why. "What's so funny?"

"I'm not one of the students. Well, one of the summer school students. I'm the teacher, but I'm gonna be at the local college this year."

"You're the new teacher Jeremy mentioned, oh I'm so sorry." You apologized, blushing for some reason. You put the strange occurrence of redness in your cheeks to the slightly broken AC and not how the boy's laugh made you feel inside. Warm, like everything was okay. "I'm Y/N, you wanted to meet with me or something?"

"I'm Mark, it's great to meet you. And yeah, I wanted to talk to a parent or guardian about Jeremy."

"Mom and Dad aren't available, am I okay? I've been helping Jeremy with school since he started learning his ABCs."

"Yeah, that'd be great, let's go into my office." He led you over to the other door in the room.