~Chapter One~
“Are your bags packed?” Mimzy, my older sister, yelled down the hall. “Yes, are yours?” I replied. “Yep, bring em’ downstairs for mom and dad to pack in the morning.” “Kay.” I pulled my larger luggage down the stairs first, then my duffel and tote bag. “Nicki, have you got your bags at the front door?” mother yelled from the kitchen. “Yes mom,” I yelled, looking out the window at the dark front yard. Now all I have to do is sleep. That was going be so hard, how could I sleep on a night like this. Tomorrow my family was going on a two week European/Meditteranean cruise, across the Atlantic to all those countries. I was overly excited. Jessa, my younger sister, had bumped into me on the way up the stairs. “Excited much?” she asked after I ignored hitting her shoulder with mine. “Very,” I replied after shutting my door. My TV was already on and the millionth re-run of Friends was playing.
Instagram was quiet. Nothing really to talk about, a few pictures of One Direction. I checked Yahoo news on my phone but it wouldn’t load so I resorted to checking on my laptop, which I need to pack. Guess I did forget some stuff! There wasn’t anything interesting. Ugh. Politics, Politics. Nothing for a seventeen year old girl to read about. This was my last summer at home. This fall I was heading off to USC, University of Southern California. It was a long way from home, out here in boring old Arkansas, but I had a full scholarship and it had a great Public Relations course, and that was what I wanted to study. After trying to find something interesting on Tumblr, Etsy, Facebook even, I decided I needed to sleep. I put on a pink tanktop and some pajama pants. My parents and sisters were already asleep, so I didn’t need to tell anyone goodnight. I brushed my teeth and climbed under the covers of my warm bed. I wonder what tomorrow would be like........
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“We need all bags with food and water items ma’am,” the security lady said, snapping my mom out of her trance. Jessa was texting some random person, Mimzy was fooling with her purse. My dad was pacing around. The security lady flipped our mini bottles of water over to see if it was filled with vodka. Why the hell would we bring vodka on a Carnival cruise? She checked something off on a piece of paper and sent us on our way to the next security. The buff man put our bags on a cart and said they would be sent to our rooms. Mimzy, Jessa, and I were sharing a room and our parents were on a lower deck. The man gave us cards, my family getting gold cards, then to a picture station. I looked terrible, as did the rest of my family. Ugh. Please, no pictures. The man snapped a picture of us and we headed on to this clear bridge. We walked into the long corridor and then into a giant, turquoise and beige shiny atrium. I looked around in awe, this wasn’t the ship I had been on twice before. “Surprise,” my mom whispered in my ear behind me. There was a bar, countless shops, a bar, oh my gosh it was heaven. And I was going to be here for two weeks. This was crazy. This was luxury. “Go explore! Have fun, just meet us for lunch on the Lido Deck around noon, theres an emergency drill at 1:00 before we leave the dock. “Do you guys want to split up?” I asked Mimzy and Jessa as my parents went off on their own adventure. “Uh, I’ll take Jessa, you can go out on your own.” Mimzy said, placing her hand on Jessa’s shoulder. I began to walk around, looking at the countless areas. I didn’t know where to go, we can’t check into our rooms until four. There were some cute guys, but none I wanted to talk to yet. I grabbed a pamphlet with a map and activities from the main gift shop. There was a like day care, well not day care, but like a hangout for people fifteen to seventeen. I’ll go check that out. I shoved the pamphlet in my pocket and began to head up to the deck it was on. When I walked in there were already people there. A woman scanned my card and told me to head on in! I sat with a group of girls about my age. “What’s your name?” a girl with bright blonde hair asked me. “Nicki,” I replied with a smile. “What’s yours?” “Grace,” the girl with blonde hair replied. “I’m Maddie,” another girl with brown hair said. “Carly, nice to meet you.” “Hey, I’m Adison.” “And I’m Jennifer, but you can call me Jen.” I smiled and told them that it was nice to meet them. The woman came over and got all the kids already here in a circle. I sat down next to Carly, and some guy sat on the other side of me. “Okay, we’re gonna introduce ourselves, so we’re gonna go around the circle and say our name, age, and what state we’re from,” the lady who I guess was the “chaperone” said. From the girl next to her was named Kayla, the next guy was named Carsen, another guy was Preston, who was REALLY cute, a girl named Jordyn, and so on. Finally it got to the guys that were sitting by us. I hadn’t really payed attention until it got to the guy next to me. “Um, I’m Harry, I’m 17, and I’m not from any of the states. I’m from Cheshire, England.” He laughed a little. I looked at him for the first time. Curly hair, green eyes, this was so regular Harry. This was Harry fucking Styles and I was sitting next to him. “Um, Nicki?” Carly poked me. “Wait wuh?” I asked, snapping out of my trance. “You’re next,” she whispered. “Oh,” I choked, “I’m Nicki, I’m 17, and I’m from Arkansas.” “Nice to meet you, Nicki,” Harry whispered to me, his green eyes sparkling. “Uh,” I said nervously, “Salsa!” “Salsa?” “Uh yeah.” “You seem nervous, it’s okay, I know I’m eighteen but what does it matter?” he said, smirking. I nodded, but my mouth was wide open. “What’s wrong?” he giggled. “Sorry,” I said, finally saying some thing that wasn’t weird, “You’re just Harry Styles.” “Yeah, I’m Harry Styles,” he laughed, he had the cutest laugh. “But you’re Harry Styles, the Harry Styles that I write fanfics about. The Harry Styles I stalk every night of my life, the Harry Styles I have sexual thoughts about.” I did NOT just say that. “Sexual thoughts?” he smirked at me. I buried my head into his shoulder. “Oh my God I did not say that,” I said, my laughing muffled by his faded blue v-neck. “Said what?” I heard an Irish accent. “Niall?” I said picking my head up. “Ye?” he said, completely normal. “Hi,” I said nervously again. “You don’t need to be nervous around us love, we’re normal guys,” Harry said. “Normal?” I asked him. “Yes, normal.” “You boys are no where near normal. You’re the hottest, most famous boys on the planet right now, you’re everything BUT normal,” I said. “Whatever you want love,” Harry said. “How’s it going with the cute curly haired boy?” Carly asked me when it was time for us to get up and go to lunch. “Well, he’s really nice, really cute, and he’s in a world-famous boy band,” I replied. “World-famous? Which one?” Carly asked me. “One Direction.” “Oh, I heard about them!” she said, just catching on. We laughed a little bit. “Well, go catch up with yo man!” she said, pushing me towards him. “Hi!” I said excitedly. I was talking to Harry Styles! Louis, Zayn, Niall, and Liam were next to him. “Well who’s this lovely lady?” Liam asked. “Nicki,” Harry replied to Liam, “Weren’t you paying attention?” “Yeah, but I didn’t see her. Nice to meet you Nicki, I’m Liam.” I looked at him like he was crazy. “I know,” I said. “And you’re Zayn, and you’re Niall, obviously, you’re Louis, and you’re Harry!” They all smiled at my intelligence. “So you’re a fan?” Louis said to me. “Who isn’t?” “Well, I’ve met a few who aren’t.” He looked at the ground. “Well, Nicki, want to eat lunch with us?” Zayn asked. “My mom said that I had to eat with my family, but we can meet somewhere later,” I replied. Ugh, I can’t believe I have to eat with my family. “Okay, just text me later, what’s your number?” Harry asked. I wrote it down on his hand and waved goodbye. Right after he left, Jen, Carly, Maddie, and Grace all ran up to me. “So what happened with that cute guy?” Maddie asked. “Well, he’s Harry Styles,” I said. She immediately starting jumping up and down. “Oh my God. Can you guys set me up with Niall?” she asked overly excited. “Um, totally, I’ll talk to them,” I said. She tackled me in a hug. “Did you get his number?” Jen asked. “Well he asked me for mine!” They all squealed. “Oh my God, well call me later!!!” she screamed. They all ran off in different directions, I didn’t even have Jen’s number. I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “Hey,” from some number that obviously wasn’t American. And was obviously Harry’s. “Hi,” I replied. He immediately texted back with a “So where ya wanna meet later?” I began to walk over to where my parents said they were going to be sitting. “Uh, there’s this candy store called Cherry On Top,” I texted back. I sat down where my parent’s where sitting down on the Lido Deck. “The buffet’s through those doors,” my dad said, motioning in that direction. I got up and went inside and put some food on my tray. All of a sudden I felt a pair of hands on my hips from behind. What the fu- “Hello, Nicki,” Harry said seductively from behind. I stopped putting food on my plate turned around, horrified thinking it was someone else. Niall immediately erupted into a roar of laughter at a table somewhere. “Can you pleaseee sit with us?” Harry asked with puppy dog eyes. “Fine,” I said, “I just have to ask my parents real quick.” “Thanks love,” Harry said, and planted a quick kiss on my cheek. What. What just happened. It’s been twenty minutes and he already kissed me on the cheek. Harry Styles kissed me on the cheek. I put my hand up on my cheek and turned around to make sure the boys werenjuy’t staring at my stunned face. I grabbed the rest of my food and ran outside with my tray. “Mom, dad, can I sit with a group of people I met at that teen place?” “Club 02?” “Yeah whatever it’s called.” “Sure, I guess you don’t have to be with us on the first day of vacat-” “Okay thanks!” I ran off to the indoor part of the buffet place. I looked for Harry’s table and finally found a curly haired, cheeky boy talking to his friends. I ran over and Louis made eye contact with me. I lifted one finger up to my lips, telling him to not say anything. He nodded back, but it was very subtle. I held my lunch in one hand and slowly walked up behind Harry. I slapped my hand in front of his mouth. “Say anything and I’ll snap your neck right here.” I said in a secretive tone. Louis nearly started cracking up and Zayn was already looking down to keep himself from laughing. Harry began to lick my hand, a little kid’s secret, and disgusted, I wiped my hand on Harry’s shirt sleeve. “Nicki, that was just weird,” Harry said. “Says the guy that tried to seduce me when I’ve known you for twenty minutes.” “It was Niall’s idea.” “Was not!” Niall said, getting up from his seat. “You guys are just like brothers,” I said, laughing. “Well how would you know?” Niall said. “I have two sisters.” “Well sisters aren’t brothers.” “They’re siblings.” “Ladies, ladies you’re both pretty,” Louis said, “Now shut up and eat.” We all laughed a little. “So Nicki, what brings you on this ship?” Liam asked sweetly. “My family takes an annual cruise every year, what brings you boys here? I thought you were on break from tour, what are you doing in America?” I asked. “Well, we had a lot of people say we should take a cruise and this was the one that we liked the most, so we flew out to Houston and drove to Galveston,” Liam said. “That’s cool, were you guys mobbed by fans?” I asked. “Not really, we made sure to keep it a secret, but by now the paparazzi must have gotten a few pics of us getting on the ship,” Liam replied. “Have you guys met any other fans other me?” “Yeah, a few, but none that stood out like you,” Harry said, smiling at me. I blushed a little. “Well, there’s a mandatory fire drill in twenty minutes, do you need to go with your family love?” Louis asked me. “I’ll ask if I can go with you guys, but my parents will have to meet you first,” I said. Niall hurried up and finished eating and we got up and went outside to my parent’s table. Jessa’s jaw dropped at the sight of the boys. “Mom, Dad, this is Harry, Liam, Louis, Niall, and Zayn,” I said to my parents. “Nice to meet you boys, you look a little old for 17,” my dad said. “Harry’s 18, Louis’ 20, Zayn’s 19, Liam’s 18, and Niall’s 18,” I said. “We didn’t really have anything else to do so we just got into Club 02, they let us in with no problem,” Louis said, smiling. “They’re very responsible mom, can I go with them for the fire drill thing?” I asked politely. “Well, we don’t re-” “Mom they’re One Direction I’ve been stalking them for the past half a year, I know them well enough to know that they’re not going to rape me.” “Well if they’re One Direction okay, have fun,” my mom said unsure about the boys. “Wait, can I just say something?” Jessa said, standing up. “Sure,” I said, rolling my eyes. “How did you find One Direction on this boat?” she asked, eyeing Niall creepily. “Long story, come on boys,” I said, walking and pulling Harry along with me. “You’re sister seems awfully creepy,” Niall said. “You get used to it,” I said. “Well, I think we should get to the theatre before your sister catches up with us,” Niall replied, laughing uncomfortably. Turns out that the boys and I were all in the same section of the ship. Our cabins weren’t on the same decks, but we wee put in the same color section. Once the alarm sounded we had to go to the outside deck. Harry held my hand the entire time, I think loud noises scared him. While were out on the deck, the cruise slowly began to leave the dock.
Goodbye Galveston, hello Europe.
