At the states you need to have a degree to be hired by a major, but in the UK and in Europe this is not the case (
AFAIK), and it is possible to have a career as a pilot without going to college first.
It is relatively simple to be a pilot, as long as you have the money for it. Just search online for a flight school near you, wait until you are 19 (I believe that is the minimum age for a frozen ATPL), pay the school, and obtain your license. The experience you will have after finishing flight school, although officially is enough for any airline to employ you, is not competitive, and most probably you will have to pay for your own type rating, line training, or sign on enormous bonds so an airline hires you. That will pretty much depend on the market situation when you get your license, which is something that nobody can predict 6 to 8 years ahead of time, which is your case.
No, there is no need to take maths, science, or any subject prior to enrolling in an integrated ATPL course (integrated will give you all the licenses and ratings you need, condensed in 18 months time). All the knowledge you will need as a pilot is already included in the syllabus.
The issue here is not becoming a pilot, but doing it spending the less amount of money possible, and receiving the best training for that amount, without risking losing it in a flight school that may close doors before time leaving you stranded in the middle of the course. And the yet even bigger issue is accessing a job after you get your license. In 2015-2016, almost every pilot that came out of flight school got a job within months, the market was open and hungry for pilots. Seeing that, many enrolled in integrated courses, and by the time they got their licenses in 2018-2019 the market was already full and airlines were not recruiting, and then came Covid, which has brought to a stop the flying career of many fresh graduates.
So, don't focus on what to do, focus on how you are going to pay for it, and how you are going to survive financially if you are not able to get a job after getting your license.
And not being an aviation nerd is a +1 for me. Nothing worse than a 5 hours sector with someone that only talks about airplanes.