Never Would Have Thought...

Chapter 2

Okay guys it gets a bit more One Direction-y in this chapter... please comment, like and vote! also, if anyone reads this, what's your favorite One Direction song?

Driving home I thought about the day. In a matter of about an hour I had learned I was going to a One Direction concert in about a month, had lots to learn about them, one was Irish, and my best friend had probably gone crazy. How much was there to know about this band anyway? Wait – how many guys were there? Two? Three? It shouldn’t be that hard to learn about just a few band members. Why did I have to learn all about them at all? All I wanted to know was some of their songs so I knew what they were playing! I didn’t have to know their whole life story. I guess Amelia had some different plans than mine.

The ride to my house was only ten minutes or so, so I wasn’t surprised when I saw the small building in the middle of my thoughts. I almost missed our driveway because I was so lost in thinking about this amazing band (sarcasm for ya). I saw my Dad’s car in the driveway, and pulled in next to his.

Walking inside, I was immediately greeted by the enticing smell of baking bread and tomato-y something. I heard my mom humming in the kitchen, something she always did when she was happy, and entered through the doorway to see her sprinkling cheese on a pizza.

“Aw, homemade pizza? Thanks, Mom, you’re the best!” I said with wayyy too much enthusiasm. Mom chuckled and flung some cheese at me, which I dodged. I grabbed a pinch of flour and poofed it right into her face. She laughed harder and grabbed me in a hug, covering me with flour. “I really do love your pizza.” I told her. She nodded and held me by my upper arms, holding me arms length away, inspecting me.

“I know.” She literally had to look up at me. I had outgrown her when I was sixteen. “You’re so freaking tall, Livy, you need to stop growing!” I rolled my eyes and smiled, looking at her short, spiky brown hair, and her crinkly-from-smiling eyes, and the faded freckles on her cheeks.

“Maybe you should stop shrinking.” I teased her, and she flipped more cheese into my hair. “Hey! I was just joking, Mom. I’m not that much taller than you.” She smiled and continued with her pizza-making.

“How was work at the store?” She asked.

“It was fine. Amelia told me her mom got us tickets to see some band…One Direction, I think they’re called? I dunno. She’s coming over tomorrow to ‘teach me everything I need to know.’” I put air quotes around Mel’s words. Mom looked up from where she was beating and shaping another crust.

“Oh, I think I’ve heard of them. How much is there to know? It’s just a band….”

“I know! But, it’s important to Mel so I guess I’ll try to learn. She’s coming around noon tomorrow. Want any help?” I asked her, indicating the large round piece of dough.

“Sounds good. Sure, I’d love some help.” I aided my mom in shaping the dough, spreading sauce and adding toppings – cheese and pepperoni are my favorite. Dad walked in shortly after we placed the pizzas in the oven.

“Smells good in here.” He commented. I gave him a hug, not quite as tall as him. “What’s this about One Dimension? Is that a band or something?”

“Yeah, Dad, but it’s One Direction. Apparently I’m going to one of their concerts in Miami with Mel in like a month. She sprung it on me at the store today.” I shrugged and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge. “She’s coming over tomorrow to teach me about them, I guess.”

“Well that’s…nice? I didn’t know you were interested in bands and concerts.” He seemed confused.

“She’s trying to convert me into a fan of theirs, I guess. And yeah Dad, I like music. I’m just not a dedicated mega-fan to anyone.” He shrugged and Mom announced that pizza would be ready in an hour. I went upstairs to my room to work on some of my unfinished drawings.

Halfway through one of them I got kind of bored with it, so I went to my laptop and googled “One Direction.” I found a music video of theirs, for a song called “What Makes You Beautiful.” It already had over 300,000,000 views. Woah, I thought. That was crazy. I clicked on it and waited for it to buffer, texting Amelia that I was watching it while I waited. She’d probably like that I was getting a head start.

The video started playing, indicating it was buffered, and I watched five boys run across a beach, drive in an old van, and sing to some girls. The curly haired one was kind of cute – wait, there was two curly haired ones, and I couldn’t tell the difference. I watched the video again, admiring the blonde’s crooked teeth and blue eyes. They looked too… nice to be on a beach, but I’ll admit they were pretty cute. I clicked on a related video on the side, which for a song called “One Thing.” It had a crap ton of views as well, and as I watched it I recognized some of the boys from the previous video, though their hair was different. I opened a new tab and found a Wikipedia page about them, and while it loaded I went back to the videos. I watched “One Thing” and in the related videos was a music video for “Live While We’re Young.” As I clicked on video after video, I seemingly watched them grow up, watched their funny moments, and found their YouTube channel, watching every. Single. Video. I think I had a problem. I watched interviews, read their Wikipedia page over and over, learning that Niall was the blonde with the crooked teeth (though he had just had braces) and he was Irish. The rest were British, and I memorized where they were from. I could tell whether it was pronounced “Lewis” or “Louee,” so I stuck with “Louee.” I learned that they were put together as a band on the UK version of X Factor, and that the curly haired one was Harry, and Liam had a cute birthmark on his neck that I read had a hair on it that grew four inches in an hour. What the hell? How?! I had thought after I read that. He was also afraid of spoons… this kid was weird. But very attractive. I googled what they looked like now, in 2013, and wowza were they something. I almost drooled, and to think, I was seeing these boys in almost a month. I grew excited, and I used up all the money left on my iTunes account to buy as much of their music as possible. I found pictures of them to use as inspiration for drawings, and I got right into my sketchbook and drew cartoons of them, realism sketches of them, anything that resembled them. By the time dinner was ready I had finished a group drawing of them, playing in the ocean like in the WMYB video.

“Oh God, what have I done to myself?” I said, chuckling as I finished the drawing. I heard mom call that dinner was ready and reluctantly tore myself away from everything. I had even printed a freaking picture of them and taped it to my wall like a poster. I had a smile on my face going down to dinner, and my parents noticed.

Sitting down at the table, Dad looked at me, then he and mom shared a look.

“What were you doing in your room? You have a crazy grin on your face.” Dad pointed out.

“Oh, I just did a little research on One Direction. I may or may not have watched a few of their videos….”

“Oh gosh, she’s becoming obsessed.” Mom laughed.

“I am not obsessed! I’m just a…directioner.” I sighed, laughing at myself. How had this happened so fast?

“A what?” Dad asked.

“A directioner. It’s their fandom name, and I am a proud one now.” I said, taking a large bite of pizza.

“Well, that’s good that you’re becoming interested in this band. You’ve drawn them already, haven’t you?” Mom pondered.

“Maybe…” I said. They started chuckling and I joined in, laughing at how stupid I sounded. Maybe this was just a phase. Maybe I wasn’t obsessed with a deliciously cute, abnormally attractive, wonderfully talented boyband.

I couldn’t be.

Could I?