Summer '09 [Niall Horan fanfiction]

Chapter One

Hey! So, this is a short (VERY short, actually, compared to what I’m used to) fanfiction that I wrote for my best friend for Christmas. I’m afraid loads of it won’t make sense, because it’s based off of her life experiences at her camp, and truthfully even I don’t understand many of them, but enjoy anyway! Merry Christmas! I hope all of you have a blessed Christmas break, or whatever holiday you celebrate, and a Happy New Year!

<3 vb123321

Chapter One

I only had one thing on my mind that summer. It was 2009 and I was a sophomore in high school, so this would be my second-to-last year at the camp I loved. I was there for two weeks – two glorious, family-free weeks – but it only took me a day to figure out that even though I loved every aspect, there was only one thing that was making my feet lift off the ground. This year was going to be different, and I was going to make it so.

It was a ranch camp that I attended, which meant smelly barns and well-water and tasks involving shoveling horse poop, but I had been going since the summer before seventh grade and couldn’t imagine doing anything different. In the summer of ’09, though, everything took a giant twist in the form of a blonde-haired, sixteen-year-old boy who had come from Ireland to attend my camp.

I first saw him as my counselor Kinsey walked me to the cabin I would be staying in, Long Branch. We were catching up from the previous year when she had been my counselor, and as we approached the cabin area, one of the male counselors, Cole, stopped her to talk. As he was smiling flirtatiously at her and she was coolly ignoring this, I took the opportunity to scan the boy radar that year.

My favorite male counselor, José, was leaning against the door of his cabin, King Ranch. He had attended ranch camp last year as well, coming from his hometown in Colombia, so I knew him quite well. I could hear his Hispanic accent from where I was as he talked to a tall boy that stood near him. He had an unruly mass of blonde hair, his face turned so that I could see he was laughing uproariously at whatever José was saying. A straw hat was perched jauntily on top of the blonde mess, and he wore dark jeans and a red plaid shirt, coupled by cowboy boots to complete the ranch look.

José caught me looking in their direction and threw me a wide grin with flashing white teeth, waving me over. I almost blushed – José was very good-looking, with the whole dark hair, dark eyed Hispanic thing going on. Too bad he was twenty. I glanced at Kinsey – she was still engaged with Cole – and walked as casually as I could over to the boys, trying not to stare at the blonde. He was trying to get his laughter under control, slapping his knee as José muttered something that I couldn’t hear.

“Catherine!” José beamed at me. “So nice to see you again!”

“You, too,” I answered, grinning. I glanced at the blonde boy, wondering if I could be brave enough to introduce myself to him. I had never really talked to many boys before, for I went to an all-girls school. Mustering my courage, I was just about to open my mouth when José did it for me.

“This is Catherine,” he said to the blonde, who smiled at me. My stomach jumped as I offered one in return. “Catherine, this is Niall. He came all the way from Ireland; not quite as far as me, though, no?”

“We were just arguing about that,” explained Niall, his voice coming out in an Irish burr that I thought sounded beautiful. His eyes were sparkling, a mix of blue and green swirled into a beautiful shade that reminded me of the ocean’s waves. He was really good looking, with his mischievous smile, that silly hat, and the way his jeans fell on his hips. “What do you think? Which is further?”

“Um…” He was actually talking to me! My brain was having trouble connecting words. “Well, Ireland’s across an ocean…but Colombia is really south of here…I don’t know.”