The Lucky Girl

The Kids in America

Los Angeles 11:32

“Oh, wow.”  Niall said, leaning forward in the shot gun seat to get a good look at the riot of screaming fans a few yards away. It was crazy. They had only arrived in America two hours ago and there was already a small crowd of Directioners finding out where they were staying.

“Stop the traffic….bring ‘em through.” Louis was dancing to the music coming from his iPod, oblivious of anything happening outside as they turned into the parking lot of the small hotel. It was chosen to make the boys feel “more at home” even though they were a whole ocean from it.

 “Lou,” Harry called, both because they had arrived and he was tired of hearing Louis sing ‘Stop the traffic…bring ‘em through’ a billion times in the past hours. “Louis!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, which for Harry was not very loud. He brought his hand across Louis’s face with a loud smack.

 “Ow! What the-” Louis glared at Harry, who was laughing at the imprint he had made on Louis’s face. “Oh, you think this is funny?!” Louis tackled Harry, making the curls placed on the top of his head spaz every which way.

 Niall clutched his stomach in laughter while rooting Louis on as the boys wrestled. Zayn looked up drowsily from his sleep. When he saw the chaos was just Harry and Louis again, he laid his head back down and tried to return to his dream date with Megan Fox.

 “Boys!” Liam yelled, chuckling at the pair. “Pay attention!”

 Harry and Louis both looked at Liam confused. He pointed their attention to their driver/ guide for the day.

 “Okay boys,” Marcus said in an instructive tone. “A half hour, that’s all you have to socialize, take pictures, autograph, whatever with these fans. After that we have to get you inside and ready for your interview tonight with People. Got it?”

 All the boys nodded, even though they had been too distracted by the man’s strange American accent to get the true meaning of the lecture.

 “Good. Let’s do this then.”

 Louis jerked open the door to the silver minivan. It wasn’t the most stylish hook up they’d ever been driven in, but it was good enough for them.

 “Hello, ladies!” Harry cried joyously, hopping over Louis and facing the crowd first.

 In the front, Niall kicked open his door and climbed out smoothly. He was suddenly attacked by a young girl who looked to be thirteen.

 “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! You-you’re Niall Horan?!” She squealed and pulled away as she took the hint he didn’t feel quite comfortable in a five minute hug. “You-you’re real!”

 “Yeah, I guess I am. ‘ello there!” he took the CD she thrust at him and used the miniature sharpie he kept handy nowadays to sign his name quickly.

 “’Vas happenin’!” Zayn screamed as he jumped out of the van and all the girls laughed. Liam quickly followed, pushing Louis aside.

 “Thanks mates.” He said sarcastically in his pushed aside state, fixing his beanie before climbing out.

 The boys put on their best smiles as they began responding to questions, signing CDs, and offering jokes that made all the girls laugh like hyenas.

 “Can you dougie?” A girl yelled and the rest of the crowd eagerly awaited the boys’ answer.

 “Can I what?” Louis asked. To him it sounded like something extremely inappropriate.

 “Like this,” a girl displayed the moves to them. Harry and Louis stumbled along happily, but the rest of the boys refused to try.

 “Yeah can you believe it?” Niall heard one the fans say to another in a high pitched voice. “She said they had too many people attacking them anyways. They didn’t need one more girl squealing. They’re just ‘normal’ people…they need a break too…whatever.” She rolled her eyes.

 “How dumb is that?” The other responded. Right then a loud strum of a guitar emptied out into the street from the park across the street. “And there she goes again…”

 Niall immediately looked towards the sound since the guitar was his favorite instrument. The chords began in steady and catchy rhythm. He smiled and looked back at the other guys who were all looking too.

 “She’s good,” Niall mouthed. “Did you hear what they said about her?”

 “Mhm,” Harry said, something driving him to go talk to the unordinary fan. “Be right back,” he clasped Niall on the back and made his way across the street.

 The stage sat low in the nicely groomed grass of the park. It was lonely there in the middle with some metal bars and stereos littering the ground around it. There must be local concert being set up soon, Harry thought.

 At the edge of the stage, with her legs dangling off the end, sat a brunette strumming her acoustic that was hooked into an amplifier. She was moving her head to the rhythm and he could see her lips spelling the words silently.

 “Hi there,” Harry called, pushing his hands in his pockets.

 The girl’s head shot up and for a moment her brown eyes widened in realization. But then she relaxed and gave a soft smile. “Hello?”

 “So…I heard you playing.” He shrugged. “Are you a musician? A singer?”

 The girl eyed him a little with a look that said “Why are you talking to me?” Instead she said with a chuckle, “I dabble a bit,”

 “You should go out for the X-factor then,” he nudged the air like she was right beside him. The girl snorted, lightly laying her guitar down beside her. “What? You could get discovered even if you don’t make it all the way! Look at me,” He tugged on his collar in mock haughtiness…but not in fake hotness.

 “It’s not for me,” she rolled her eyes. She looked over him once, her face obviously curious.

 “What’s up?” He moved in closer. She reminded him a bit of what Lou was like when he first met him. Shy and then a bomb of energy.

 “Why are you talking to me?” She asked, not in a rude way, but in a self-denoting fashion.

 Harry laughed, flipping his curls and then brushing them back into place. “I heard what some of your friends said back there. About giving us a break because we are just normal people…well in the being a human sense.” He added, since they weren’t mentally normal people.

 “They think I’m crazy,” she grinned.

 “But you’re right,” he nodded, leaning against the stage beside her.

 She gave a breathy laugh. “I think it’s funny that there are people who are elevated by talent and “fans” fall over at their feet when there’s someone with the exact same level of talent right down the street from them who gets no attention.” She said. “I guess that’s why I don’t think I should suffocate you guys.”

 Harry smiled and looked at her. As he did so, her face filled with teasing. “Your friends seem to want you back,”

 Harry looked across the street, thinking she meant the boys, but instead he saw girls looking at him possessively and boiling with tears. “That never gets old,” he pushed off the stage and began back towards the street. In mid stride he stopped and turned back to see the girl strumming her guitar softly again. “Oi!” She looked up. “Do you want to join me and the mates for lunch?”

 She cast a small smile. “Nah. I don’t think so,” she picked at the guitar once. “I don’t want to be murdered tonight.”

 “Alright,” Harry laughed, nodding once and then walking head first into the screams and the snatching hands of American fangirls.