Chapter 1
My P.O.V.
My name’s Christina, I’m 16, and have the biggest crush on One Direction ever. Niall Horan, the blond Irish one that played the guitar and had the voice of an angel, was specifically my favorite. My neighbors, the Taylor’s, were dropping of one of their daughters’ off at college, so they asked me to take care of their two dogs and cat. I normally took care of their pets when they went away because I came at a cheap rate and I loved doing it. I didn’t have my license, only my permit, but because I lived on a private road and it was only my neighbors’ house, I was allowed to take my mom’s van. School was about to end, we were taking our finals now, and I had two days of finals left including today.
I took the bus home from school, because I didn’t have a ride. I never took the bus but my brother Russ was in Belize at an archeological dig site, and both my parents were at work. I’d been working on a song but recently I became stuck and felt like I needed some time to myself to be able to expand my song. I took all of my sheet music with me so I could try to look at other samples to stop my writer’s block. I got off of the bus and got into my mom’s van that I left at the top of the street. It’s a mile long road so I could have walked, but I wanted to get to the Taylor’s quick to let the dogs out and I wanted to spend time there, and wasn’t sure if I would be there long enough that it would be dark, because I hated walking home basically in the woods in the dark. My songbook had become broken due to so much wear, so I had all of my individual sheets of music shoved in a messy pile. Even though it was only a 2-minute drive to get there, I popped in my One Direction CD and belted out the lyrics as I drove. I hated silence in the car because it made me feel alone.
I drove up their steep driveway and continued singing along. Once I got to their driveway I turned the key once so that the car turned off, but the CD player stayed on. I finished singing the song out loud before I grabbed my music from the passengers seat and got out. I wasn’t looking and before I knew it I ran into something, sending me on the ground and my music in the air. “Shit, I’m sorry!” I heard a thick Irish accent say. I only knew one Irish guy in the world, but he happened to be both famous and my idol. “Are you… Niall Horan?” I blurted out. I quickly apologized and avoided eye contact as he helped me pick up my music. “Yeah.” He said as I looked up to see him blushing. There was another strong gust of wind, and before I knew it, the music that was once settled on the ground was now airborne once again. Niall bolted up and sprinted after my flying sheet music. I quickly gathered the rest of my music that was on the ground before it could fly away and stood up to see Niall diving for the music. I let a small giggle escape my lips before I saw that his left arm was bleeding. I ran over to him and helped him up. “You didn’t have to do that, it was just a piece of paper…” I let my voice trail off, our eyes had just met and they made me speechless. The magazines gave his eyes no justice- they were perfectly sea blue with a hint of green that was brought out with his turquoise polo that was buttoned up to his neck. I quickly blushed and looked away, pretending to be completely absorbed with fixing his arm. “Here, I saved this for you.” He smirked, showing his braces as he handed me my tattered sheet of music. “Thank you, you didn’t have to kill yourself for it though!” I smiled back at him as I took the music and shoved it in my pocket. “You should really get your arm bandaged up, it could get infected if you don’t clean it out soon.” “I’m fine.” He said, getting up and brushing the dirt off of himself. “Are you some sort of doctor…?” He asked, fishing for conversation. I giggled and extended my arm. “No, I just get hurt a lot, I’m Christina by the way.” He took my hand and fan girling was the last thing in my mind, the first thing was I was shaking the hand of an attractive guy, let alone one of the band mates of the biggest bands in the world. He took my hand and I felt a shock go through me. At first I thought that it was an actual shock, but the feeling lasted until our hands separated. “That’s a beautiful name, what are you doing here anyway?” He asked. Clearly I forgot to ask why One Direction was at my neighbors’ house, but apparently my being here was more shocking. I started explaining how I was watching their dogs when I saw the rest of the One Direction boys walk up the tar driveway. They joined our conversation as I finished my story. “Boys, this is Christina. Christina, this is Louis, Harry, Liam, and Zayn.” The smiled and waved at me as Louis winks at me and says “You know Niall, we are quite capable of introducing ourselves, we’re big boys.” “Oh shut up.” Niall complained to them, clearly embarrassed by Louis’ remark. To distract everyone from Niall’s rosy cheeks I asked the question that had been consuming my brain. “Why is One Direction at my neighbors’ house…?”. Everybody laughed as I just stood there with a confused look on my face. “We’re here for a private performance for a Sarah Taylor…? It’s for her 16th birthday, but we arrived a few days early because we read her email incorrectly…” Louis said as he glared at Harry. Harry shrugged, “We didn’t get to finish high school, reading wasn’t something all of us learned…” Everybody laughed and I joined in this time. “Anyway…” Zayn continued. “We were looking around for the key or something and we heard you singing and decided to follow it.” I smiled until I heard the last part. Heard me singing? I didn’t have that bad of a voice, but I always sing better outside of the car. I blushed as I desperately searched for something to change subjects. “If I let you guys into the house, will you promise never to speak of me embarrassing myself again?” Everybody cheered as I said this, giving me the illusion that they had been looking for the key for hours.
I unlocked the door with the spare key that the Taylor’s always kept under their mat. I opened the door with the boys behind me as I was greeted with their 8-year-old lab and 4-year-old pug. I told the boys to make themselves at home even though it wasn’t my house and took the envelope with my name on it filled with my instructions and my pay for the week. I still had my music with me so I decided I’d let the dogs outside to run around as I worked on my song, so I told the guys how to turn on their television and to ask me if they needed anything and I would do my best to help them. It didn’t actually sink in that I was just hanging out with One Direction. I stepped outside with the dogs and slid the screen door shut behind me. I knew the boys couldn’t hear me so I took a seat on the steps and started singing my song as I watched the dogs play.
