Moments In Time

Chapter 1: Flashbacks

2011

Zayn sat in a chair, waiting along with the rest of the guys for the girl that would be joining them in the band.

He still didn't think it was a good idea. It wasn't that he didn't want to share a band with a girl, because he did. He just didn't want people to make disgusting assumptions about her.

Louis sighed as he tossed a football in the air. Liam was playing on his phone, and Harry and Niall were doing schoolwork. Zayn just sighed again as he doodled on a piece of paper. He just wanted to get this over with.

They all looked up as the door opened. Simon walked in first, followed by a small, petite girl who looked no older than 16. She looked up and smiled at the group of guys.

"Boys," Simon said. "This is Kacey Owens."

"Nice to meet you all," Kacey said.

Zayn noticed she that had an American accent, and a Southern one at that. It was cute. Different, and the rest of the guys would probably tease her about it later, but it suited her.

"I'm Harry," Harry replied, shaking her hand.

"I know," she replied. "Harry, Liam, Louis, Niall, and...Zayn."

She had pointed to each of them, and stopped at Zayn with a soft smile. Zayn remembered Simon telling him that she'd probably get along with him the best, they were a lot alike. Obviously, he'd told her the same thing.

"Nice to meet you, Kacey," he said, smiling a little.

"Wow, you have a nice smile," Kacey said, clapping her hand to her mouth when she realized she said it out loud. The guys laughed as Zayn flushed a little.

"Thanks," he replied, shrugging. "You do, too."

"Oh yeah," Louis said, throwing an arm around their new bandmate. "We're going to get along famously."

They all got to know each other a lot over the next few weeks. Kacey was eighteen, and had a mother and a brother. She had been adopted into the family, but when she was ten, her father had left with another woman. Her biological parents weren't really in the picture. She didn't like to talk about them much.

She was from a small mountain town in North Carolina called Cedar Grove, but she was living in Asheville when Simon found her. He'd heard her singing at a college vocal competition and asked her to join the band.

Kacey loved all kinds of music, from rock to religious, pop, country, Latin, and R&B. She sampled some songs for them, and all of them were sold on her voice. She sounded like a mixture of Rihanna and Adele, and she added just enough flavor to the harmonies to make them all sound amazing.

"She sounds like a splendid person," Liam said one day in the hotel room he and Zayn shared.

"Who?" Zayn asked.

Liam rolled his eyes as he played on his laptop.

"The only she in the group," he said. "The past few weeks have been so much...I don't know...more brighter with her around."

"Yeah," Zayn said. "I can see that. She's just happy, I guess, and she brings it out better. She's funny, too."

"I bet," Liam said slyly. "I hadn't heard you laugh that much since, well, ever."

"You're the one who fancies her," Zayn said, keeping the glumness out of his voice. Liam was one of his best friends, and although he didn't know how Kacey made him feel just yet, he wasn't about to risk a friendship over a girl.