The Shy Girl

Chapter 9

(Emmaleigh's POV)

"Hi," Niall smiles at me. "You look really pretty." I blush. "Not that you didn't look pretty any other times!" Niall says quickly. I laugh.

"I understand," I say quietly. I'm so nervous I can't even talk loudly!

"So," Niall starts. He looks down at me. "I know you'll hate me for this but," he pauses for a moment, "can we get something to eat?" It takes me a minute to process what he said, seeing as he said it so fast. So when I did understand, I laughed and nodded my head.

"That sounds fine," I assure him. I lead the way to the 'snack shack' part of the park. All of the little kids would complain about being hungry. So the man who had made our tree house made the snack shack.

"What would you like?" Niall asked me. I hold up my hands and shake my head.

"No, no!" I say, not wanting him to waste his money on me. "I have my own money." He looks at me with a look that says 'I don't believe you."

"Oh really?" Niall asks sarcastically. I nod my head. "Where's your purse? Your wallet?" I tap my pockets and then remembered that Tamsin had all of our stuff in her bag. I just smile up at him.

"2 hotdogs, a pretzel, and 2 cokes please," Niall tells the snack lady. He turns to me and smiles. "What would you like?" I laugh.

"I will take ice cream in a cup, some root beer, and a spoon."

"Is that all?" she asks, never looking up.

"Yes it is," Niall replies, laughing.

"That'll be $7.75." He pulls out cash from his wallet and I notice that it's American. I look at him confused.

"I'm in America, I wouldn't be able to pay for my food without it," Niall states.

"That makes sense," I tell him. The snack lady didn't even notice who Niall was until we had gotten out food.

"Was that -" we hear her ask herself as we're walking away from her. We just laugh.

"So why did you get ice cream in a cup?" Niall asked me with curiosity in his voice. We were walking to the swings when I looked at him, shock clear on my face.

"A root beer float?" I expected a bulb to go on over his head. But Niall just shook it, not following. "You know, putting soda in ice cream?"

"I've never tried that." We sit on the swings. I laugh a little, and start to pour Root Beer into my cup of ice cream.

"Well then, we will share it," I say, mixing the soda and ice cream together. "Mkay?" I ask looking at him, making sure he's ok with sharing a float.

"And you're ok with sharing a spoon?" Niall asks me cautiously. I laugh out loud.

"Yes, Niall, it's not like you have COOTIES," I tease, feeling my walls coming down easily. He smiles and says, "alright." I pull the spoon out and put it to his mouth. "You can have the first taste," I tell him. While the ice cream-Root Beer mix was in his mouth, I was his expression. "What do you think?" I ask, hopeful. He turns his head to me and swallows the last bit.

"That," Niall starts, "was delicious." A grin breaks out on my face and he takes another spoon.

"Want some?" I hear suddenly. I look at Niall, who is holding out his pretzel. I smile, but shake my head no. "Are you sure?" he pressed.

"Yes, I'm sure. But thank." I don't hear anything for a moment. I look at him and see that he's looking straight forward, with his lips in a straight line and eyebrows scrunched together. Then he suddenly turns towards me.

"Try one," he says, breaking a piece of the pretzel off and holding it out to my mouth. "Open your mouth," he laughs and adds, "for me," when he sees me hesitate.

I smile a little, not being able to say no to this cute, blue-eyed Irish boy. When I open my mouth, he smiles and pops the pretzel in.

"So," Niall starts to say while I'm swallowing. "You're homeschooled." He says the statement as a question. I nod my head. "How long?"

"All my life," I answered. Niall makes a face that practically says "wow!" I continue thought. "But I started Veritas when I was in 7th grade. In 9th, all four of us met and clicked." Niall smiles. "I bet you were the one that talked a lot," he assumed. I laugh out loud. It was the complete opposite.

"Actually," I began, "Tamsin was like the trunk of the tree; Mia, Julia, and I were like the branches."

"Really?" Niall asked credulously. I mod my head slowly and he lets out a long breath.

"Yep. She talked to each of us by herself and then we were in the same class one year."

"How was it?" Niall was curious, I could hear it in his voice. But why he wanted to know about all five of us meeting, that completely blows my mind. I shrug my shoulders to his question and look straight ahead.

"I was the quiet one. I'm still the quiet one."

"I knew you seemed quiet!" Niall shouted suddenly, making me jump. He looks at me and smiles. "Sorry about the outburst. Continue." I laughed.

"Well, we all sat around Tamsin and she introduced us." I laughed at the memory. "And then she mentioned you guys, One Direction, and all of us were inseparable after that."

"I like that you're not an insane talker," Niall says, looking at me. He smiles. "Shy girls... They end up being really good listeners. Not that girls who talk are bad listeners!" Niall covers, as if he has said something wrong. "It's just that I want someone who can handle my constant and useless babble." We both laugh and look around us.

"You didn't get a lot of food," Niall points out, giving me another piece of his pretzel while taking a spoon of my float.

"Yeah," I laugh, "I don't like eating too much." Niall nearly chokes on the pretzel that was in his mouth and I try to clear up what I had said. "Well.. Well, not TOO much. Just, you know, a diet." Maybe diet was the wrong word choice...

"DIET?!" Niall exclaims. I laugh at my embarrassment, putting my head in my hands. I look at him.

"I play volleyball," I say. "I want to stay in shape." Niall looks at me up and down and smirks. I feel the blood rushing up to my cheeks.

"You're doing a pretty good job in my book," Niall complements. "I could definitely handle your small appetite," he smirks at me.

We sit there for another 5 minutes, looking at each other. Then I come back to earth.

"We should probably meet up with the others," I say quickly. We both get off of the swings and he holds his hand out.

"After you, Miss Emmaleigh Sheppard," he smiles, walking right next to me, towering over.