MY GIRL // Harry Styles

Treehouse

"Thea, would you like to go next?"

Thea Emerson lifted her brown eyes from the pink notebook and looked around to find the whole class staring at her. She saw Melanie George walk back to her desk, cracking a smirk while the other kids were praising her story about the Cinderella themed birthday party. Mrs. Mai called Thea again, this time raising both eyebrows at the nine-year-old who was slowly sinking into her chair.

Before coming to class that day, Thea had wanted to share her story for this week's assignment. She had worked so hard on it and she couldn't be prouder of herself. But after hearing all the other kids talk about cool things like trips to Disneyland, family vacations and massive birthday parties, she was afraid that her story wasn't interesting enough and everyone would make fun of her for it.

"It's okay, Thea. Come up here and don't be shy," the teacher said with a smile, leaving the little girl no choice but to bring her pink notebook to the front, and face her fear of public humiliation.

"I...uh...my...my story is..."

As Thea began to read aloud the words on the page, she could hear the other kids sniggering at her. In fact, it was all she could concentrate on as she wished to disappear from the face of Earth and never return. But she knew it was never that easy. That moment in the classroom was her reality, and she could either face it or tell the teacher she couldn't continue anymore.

Just as Thea was about to go for the latter option, she spotted a pair of blue eyes in the front row. The tiny girl named Celine gave her two thumbs-ups and the brightest smile she had ever seen, and that was all the encouragement she needed at the moment. Even though she didn't believe in herself, now she knew at least one person in that room might.

Mrs. Mai shushed the whole class, telling them to be quiet so Thea could begin. "Go on, Thea," she said. "Tell us, what does true happiness mean to you?"

With a quiet, trembling voice, and eyes on the notebook page, Thea began, "my definition of true happiness...is the boy next door. His name is Harry Styles."

Everyone, including the teacher, were left in shock. They had expected a less interesting version of Melanie George's story, something about tulle skirts and pink tiaras, not a boy. But soon enough, the whole class fell to silence as the little girl, now with confidence, went on about the lovely encounter she'd had in a treehouse.

.

.

.

Thea had met Harry Styles a few weeks ago on a Wednesday night.

Her mum and dad had been fighting again. In fact, she couldn't recall the last time they laughed during dinner, or kissed each other on the cheek like parents should. She used to wonder about that a lot. But now that she was so used to their daily arguments, Thea just took it at face value and accepted that, not all parents were supposed to love each other.

Sometimes they fought about money, sometimes about people whose names she couldn't recognize. But that Wednesday night, from her bedroom, she had heard glass shattered against the wall, and remembered how her mother used to say, "a relationship, just like glass, couldn't be mended once broken."

Thea had abandoned her room that night and run to the backyard, where she could escape from the tension indoors, from reality, from all the broken things she couldn't fix, even if it was just for a little while.

Her mother used to try growing a garden out there, but it had been too long since she watered the plants or mowed the lawn. Now it didn't really look like a garden anymore. But Thea loved it still. She loved how orderly the grass grew without the help of human hands; she loved to spot a few red and yellow wildflowers here and there, like little surprises the neglected garden had for her. Even so, she still couldn't help but fantasize about what was on the other side of the fence.