𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 » 𝘻𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺

🌻27🌻

a few days after the boy's suspension was over, they were back on a regular schedule going to school again. harry felt a little wary going back, but once he realized that the boys were gone and that no one would think of hurting him again, he felt calmer. it didn't take long for him to return to normal and feel more comfortable with attending school. besides, after how his big brother's handled his bullies, a lot of people seemed not to want to mess with him anyway. so, there was no need to worry about that anymore, at least not for now.

since being back, niall has been putting most of his attention into his soccer team. they had several upcoming tournaments and would have a game almost every week, until nationals—that's if they made it to nationals. they would have to win against every team they go up against in order to do that. thankfully, niall wasn't kicked off the team for fighting , but seeing as he was merely defending his brother from bullies, he was not penalized. he had good grades, and a good record for school, so one little thing wasn't going to get him kicked off anyway. as long as he kept at least a b average in all of his classes, he was pretty much safe.

since niall and his team have been preparing for games, they needed a place to go to get in some extra practice. they all decided on niall's house because it was the biggest and most convenient place to go. so, nearly everyday after school, they would all come here and practice outside in the backyard. his team consisted of eleven players, including himself. being the good host he was, he always had drinks and food prepared for them (food that liam made especially for them), and some other stuff set up in case some of them wanted to just hang out afterwards.

they spent most of their time out in the backyard, but sometimes they took a swim in the pool or crowded up in the game room taking turns fighting against one another in mortal combat. during the midst of niall spending a ton of time with his teammates who he'd become very close to over the past weeks, niall did not fail to notice harry lingering around him longer than necessary.

it didn't really grab his attention at first, but now that he's starting to see a pattern, he has definitely noticed harry wanting to linger even when he didn't need to. whenever the guys came over for practice, harry would always ask if he could watch them play—which wasn't too suspicious at first. until he started asking if he could play with them whenever they weren't practicing and off doing other activities. overall, he seemed to want to stick close to the group and be included in their activities.

niall didn't mind it because he knows harry gets lonely sometimes because he doesn't have many friends his own age. but, he's been watching him closely, observing his behavior and he thinks that it may be something deeper than that. he knows the last time he invited his soccer friend over, it turned out very badly and ended up with harry getting hurt, but this time it was different. niall doesn't think harry is in any immediate danger—in fact, it just might be the opposite.

niall kept quiet for now and just observed his little brother suspiciously. he definitely was up to something and after watching him for sometime, niall thinks he's figured it out.

today it was pretty warm outside. so, after practice the guys all decide to take a dip in the pool—a popular activity everyone loved doing at the malik house. they made up a game of pool football, where they got into groups of five and one of them had to be the referee. basically you have to pass the ball off between your teammates and try to make it to the other team's side of the pool before they got to you or stole the ball away. it was pretty entertaining, and the bunch were pretty noisy and rowdy out in the back. there was also music playing through the stereo sitting on the patio with a playlist niall set up.