Balance (A One Direction Fanfiction)

Chapter 3

Niall? My Niall? No way.

I quickly burst through the door of the shop, the bell releasing a high pitched “ding”. I headed straight for the rack of posters. There must’ve been at least five different posters. Looking around I also noticed a variety of other merchandise, all with either his name or his face on them. From pencils to notebooks to stickers to pencil cases.

What in the world…

Then I noticed a CD. It had all five boys on the cover, all with genuine smiles on their faces. They looked as if they were actually laughing. Examining the CD closer, I noticed they called themselves “One Direction”. Hmm. It almost sounds vaguely familiar. This couldn’t be Niall… could it?

But the sparkling blue eyes on one of the posters confirmed my suspicions.

It was indeed Niall.

How could he not have told me about something so big?

This boy is getting more and more mysterious by the second.

And it’s kind of intriguing.

I had to get out of there. This was just too much. I threw the CD with the five boys smiling at me on the cover back  on the shelf and ran as fast as I could out of the store. After about two blocks I realized I shouldn’t be exerting so much energy (the Olympics were only 2 weeks away!) and began walking. The thoughts still buzzed through my head:

Why didn’t he tell me?

Could it really be him?

What if the paparazzi saw us?

What would my father think of me gallivanting around town with some strange boy?

What even IS One Direction??????

…And then it hit me. The lyrics quickly sang around in my head.

“You don’t know, oh oh. You don’t know you’re beautiful!”

OF COURSE!!! I remember hearing the song on the radio about a month ago! But, that’s NIALL? My NIALL? I just couldn’t believe it.

I walked into my room located in the Olympic village (eep!) and threw my backpack onto my bed. I looked around at where I would be spending the next few weeks of my life. I couldn’t believe it. I made it. I was in London. For the Olympics. Which I was actually COMPETING in. And best of all, there was no dad there to nag me or boss me around. I could finally make my own decisions. I was all by myself. Well, with the exception of my roommate, Liz, who also happened to be a gymnast. Liz was also 17 and it was her first time at the Olympics, too, so we were told to watch out for each other and help each other. I didn’t really know her that well, but she seemed nice enough during training, so we should be ok.

Oh crap. I only had two minutes to get to the stadium now.

I threw on a leotard and ran out the door.

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Three hours later, I swung the door to my room open and walked inside. I sat down. I stood up again. I paced back and forth across the room. I sat back down on the bed. I laid down. I sat back up. I’m already so bored! I wished I had a friend so I wouldn’t be so lonely. I wonder what Niall’s doing… Looking around the room and realizing there was actually nothing to do in there, I decided to go exploring. I hopped down the steps and followed the concrete pathway through the Olympic village square.

 It was truly incredible. There was everything a person could ever need here. There was a post office, restaurants, doctor, convenience store, clubs (with no alcohol), and stores, among other things. It was absolutely insane how much work they put into building a new one of these for the summer games every four years.