Laptops are configured, by default, to use their own screen as the primary display; perhaps for entirely logical reasons when you think in terms of what they're designed for being used as.
Every time you use the external monitor it will function as your primary monitor, the reason being that has been conceived as a temporary function for the hardware, and nothing more.
You could try some dual monitor software to control this, but I suspect as you're using an HDMi port this could prove futile in truth.