A New Direction - A One Direction Children Fan Fiction

Liam Payne

*Liam Payne*

*Liam's POV*

I've been pacing around my living room for the last hour as my wife, Emily, watched me from the couch. I can't believe she is not as worried as I was. Don't get me wrong, she's worried, but not as worried as she was the day that we found out that Julie ran away. She keeps telling me that she's probably safe and with her friends on some trip they planned before we grounded her. But that obviously didn't help me.

"Liam, stop pacing already. You're making me dizzy." Emily said with slight annoyance.

"Sorry." I mumbled as I took a seat next to her on the couch.

"I understand that you're worried about Julie, but trust me. I have this gut feeling that she is perfectly okay and she is most likely with her friends right now." Emily assured me, but that worried me even more.

"Yeah, well, if she was going on a trip with her friends, wouldn't she have told us?" I asked my wife.

"She probably didn't get a chance to. We grounded her two weeks before she graduated high school. They probably planned it just a few days before and she was waiting to tell us until it got closer to graduation day." Emily explained.

"Yeah, well, she's still grounded when she gets back." I mumbled.

"Would watching TV take your mind off of it? At least for a little bit?" Emily asked.

I just nodded. Emily, then, turned on the TV and started flipping through the channels. As she was flipping through the channels, one channel in particular caught my attention.

"Wait! Go back to that last channel!" I said abruptly, causing Emily to jump slightly.

"Why?" Emily asked in confusion.

"Just do it." I told her.

"Fine." She mumbled.

As soon as she went back to the channel, she realized why I had my sudden outburst. Her jaw dropped to the floor as I sat there furious.

"Hello, how are you?" Ed Sheeran asked.

"A bit nervous. How about yourself?" Julie replied honestly.

"I'm doing great." Ed said with a smile.

"Can you please tell us your name, age, and where you are from?" Simon Cowell said, moving things along.

"My name is Julie Payne, I'm 17 years old, and I am from London, England." Julie replied, which caused Simon and Ed to give each other a quick look before turning their attention back to me.

Yes, she's my daughter. Get over it.

"So, Julie, what will you be singing for us today?" Sam Smith asked.

"I will actually be singing 'Stay With Me' by Sam Smith." Julie replied with a shy smile

"Lovely. I can't wait to hear it." Sam said with a slight smile before motioning for me to continue.

Julie signaled for them to start the song and Julie immediately opened her mouth and started singing.

"Guess it's true, I'm not good at a one-night stand
But I still need love 'cause I'm just a man
These nights never seem to go to plan
I don't want you to leave, will you hold my hand?

Oh, won't you stay with me?
'Cause you're all I need
This ain't love, it's clear to see
But, darling, stay with me"

As Julie continued to sing the song, my wife and I both went wide eyed as our jaws dropped to the floor. All of the anger that I felt inside of me when she first walked out on stage immediately faded away as soon as she started singing. I never knew that she could sing like that. Then again, for as long as she could remember, I didn't like anything to do with music, especially the X Factor. Well, I am now filled with regret because she felt that she needed to hide her incredible talent because of something I didn't like.

As the song ended, the judges were on there feet, as was the audience. They were all giving my daughter a standing ovation, in which caused me to slightly smile.

"Julie, that was incredible. I absolutely loved it. You probably sang that song better than I could. I hope to see you in the next round." Sam said with a wide smile.

"That was absolutely amazing. I loved it. I really hope to see you in the next round. I'm a big fan." Ed said with a smile.

"Julie, you are definitely one of my favorites so far. I have a feeling we're going to be seeing you in the next round. You were amazing. I'm going to start off the vote by giving you a yes." Simon said, which immediately put a smile on my face.

"It's a yes from me. I can't wait to see you perform in the next round." Ed said with a smile.

"And it's an obvious yes from. See you in the next round." Sam said with a big smile on his face.

"Thank you all so much." Julie said before walking off the stage.

As soon as Julie walked off stage, Emily immediately turned off the TV.

"So, that happened." Emily said after a few moments of silence.

"Yup." I said popping the 'p'.

"How do you feel?" Emily asked me.

She's probably expecting me to be furious with Julie and how she went behind our backs to audition for the X Factor. But I was surprised her with my answer.

"To be completely honest, when I first saw her out on stage before she started singing, I was furious. But once she started singing, all of that anger immediately faded away. I kind of understand why she never told us she could sing. Or the fact that she had to run away to compete on the X Factor without telling us. I would have been furious if she told me because of my feelings toward everything that has to do with music. But watching her perform on stage tonight, it looked like that was where she belonged. I can't get mad at her for doing something that she obviously loves so much that she wanted to go share it with the world. I just feel bad that she had to keep it from us just because of my feelings toward music." I explained.

"Well, she obviously had a good reason not to tell us. You definitely would of flipped out on her she told you that she was going to audition for the X Factor let alone the fact that she could sing." Emily told me.

"Definitely." I replied.

"Does this mean we're not grounding her after she's done with the show?" Emily asked curiously.

"How could we? I'm the reason why she had to lie about this whole thing in the first place. I probably led her to sneaking off in the first place." I told her.

"Don't put that on yourself." Emily told me.

"Well, it's true. If I had just not shared my strong feelings towards music in general, than she probably would have told us she wanted to audition for the X Factor." I told her.

"Liam, you have your reasons for not liking anything to do with music. But don't blame yourself for Julie not wanting to share her talent with us. Now why don't we watch the rest of the episode to check out the rest of the competition, shall we?" Emily said and I just nodded.

To be completely honest, I'm really proud of Julie, no matter what she thinks. I really hope she makes it far in this competition. She deserves it.