It's Complicated {One Direction}

Chapter 1

Aleka Ortega

“Come on… Come on…” I muttered as I stared at the text messages between Talia and me on my white iPhone. She would be arriving here, in Madrid, Spain, to fly with me to London. The three dots on the text messaging box indicated that she was still typing. Finally, after a few seconds, she responded with ‘Gate B.’

Wow, after a few minutes of leaving me hanging, she responds with two words. Not even two words, a word and a letter. I picked up my carry-on backpack and slung it over my shoulder before pushing past people to get to Gate B. The airport was crowded, as usual, but not as crowded as I had expected. As soon as I got to Gate B, I looked all over the place for one of my four best friends. She was nowhere to be found.

In exasperation, I slumped in a nearby chair and threw my backpack on the one next to it. Suddenly, someone put their hands on my shoulders in such force that I was pushed down in my seat. I looked up to find none other than Talia, with her wavy hair in a ponytail.

“Ugh, come here,” I replied, as she jumped over the row of chairs to give me a hug. “I haven’t seen you in ages!” Talia laughed and sat next to me in the chairs by Gate B.

“How’s life, deary?” she asked, sighing. I sighed as well, telling her about my six year old younger sister, Athena, who was born during our first term at Haberstock back in the first year of secondary school. Just then, I heard the airport intercom roar Flight46 at Gate B is now boarding in Spanish. I motioned for Talia to get up, and we boarded the plane.

Our seats weren’t too far from first class, and luckily, it was only an hour and a half ride. As we sat down, Talia pulled out a magazine from her carry-on. She also pulled out a pack of gum, handing me a piece so that our eardrums wouldn’t pop during the takeoff. On the magazine were five boys, all with their hands on their shoulders. One had curly, brown hair that was swept to the side and green eyes. Another had blonde hair and bluish eyes. The third had brown hair that was messily flipped to one side and blue eyes. The fourth had short light brown hair that was neatly swept to the side and chocolate colored eyes. The fifth, however, had the darkest skin and the darkest brown hair, his eyes the same shade as mine – brown.

“Who’re they?” I asked, thinking about the dark skinned one. “He’s cute.”

“Oh, them?” Talia asked, motioning to the five boys. I nodded. “I dunno. I picked up the magazine a few minutes before I scared you. It was last minute.”

“Well,” I told her. “Open it up and tell me who he is!” I pointed at the dark skinned one’s face. He had earrings, which I usually found odd on a boy, but it looked fitting on him. Talia quickly flipped to a page that explained who they were.

“Well, the curly haired one’s name is Harry Styles. The blonde one’s Niall Horan, the one in the striped shirt’s Louis, the one wearing the plaid shirt is Liam, and the one with the stupid earring is-“

“It’s not stupid!” I protested, making Talia give me an odd look. “I mean, what’s his name?”

“Zayn. Zayn Malik,” Talia replied. “It says they are the band One Direction.”

“Oh,” I said, and looked out the window. I could see the London Eye already. “Look, we’re here.”

I continued to chew on my gum as the plane landed, sending the passengers into jolts and jumps in their seats. Talia smiled, knowing we were back where we had met each other. What I was excited about was not school, but that we had about a month of vacation left before it started. That meant that Mackenzie, Monica, Aleka, Liana, and I could have loads of fun before our studies.

“Aleka,” Talia said, shaking my shoulder. I looked up and saw that the aisle was filled with people, eagerly pulling their carry-ons out of the top bins and rushing to get out of the plane. Talia struggled with hers, and a flight attendant helped her get it out. I pulled mine out from under the chair, glad that I hadn’t placed it in the bin on top. We slowly made our way out from the plane and to the baggage claim, where we waited in the meeting spot to find Mackenzie, Liana, and Monica already there.

They were scanning around the airport, probably looking for us. Monica suddenly saw us and pointed at us, yelling to the other two. They came sprinting at us and nearly knocked us down. I laughed as Liana went on and on about how excited she was, not about school, but about the month we had off.

“I mean,” Liana said. “What could be better? We’re in London for a month with nothing to do until stupid school!”

“School’s not stupid,” Mackenzie replied, sending Liana into fits of laughter. She snorted, making us all laugh. We grabbed our tons of luggage and boarded a shuttle that would take us to the hotel, since the boarding school wasn’t open yet, even for the rooms. Monica checked in for us, as Talia continued to read the magazine.

“He’s cute,” Mackenzie suddenly said, looking over Talia’s shoulder. She pointed at the brown haired and blue eyed one wearing stripes, or Louis. “What’s his name? Louis?”

“Yup,” Talia said. She pointed at the boy wearing plaid, or Liam. “He looks-“

“Ravishing,” Monica answered, suddenly back from the front desk. “The curly haired one looks ravishing.”

“His name’s Harry,” Talia stated in a matter-of-fact tone. Monica scowled at her and rolled her luggage to the elevators, where we all followed doing the same.

“Ooh. Who’s the sexy blonde?” Liana asked, pointing at Niall’s picture.

“Niall,” Talia said. We continued talking about the five boys in the magazine until we got to the suite, which had two rooms, one with three beds and one with two. I quickly buddied with Mackenzie, knowing she was as much of a clean freak as I was. That left Monica, Liana, and Talia in one room.

“And I’ll take that,” I said, snatching the magazine out of Talia’s hands. I flipped to another page, where there was a close up of that Zayn boy. I ripped it out and handed the magazine back to Talia, walking back to the bedroom I shared with Mackenzie in silence. Mackenzie soon joined me, holding a picture of Louis.

“Honestly? I think we all have a problem,” Mackenzie said, sitting on her bed with Louis’s picture in hand. “This is ridiculous. We haven’t even listened to their music yet.

Just then, a song came blasting in through the hallway. Mackenzie and I ran to the other girls’ room, to see Talia trying to cover her ears and Liana dancing to the foreign song. Monica was trying to reduce the volume.

“And there you have it,” Monica said. I looked over her shoulder at the computer screen, that read, “What Makes You Beautiful,” above the lyric video.

“Figures…” Mackenzie said, shaking her head.