We arrived in California utterly exhausted. The time change plus sleeping on a plane for so long nearly did us in…not to mention being emotionally drained. I was staring at the new background on my phone…it was me and the boys in our big group hug. They are such dorks I thought as I noticed Liam grabbing Harry’s butt in the picture. Anne had sent the picture to me. Me and mum nearly slept for two whole days straight…occasionally getting up to eat or use the toilet. I had talked to Harry each night for a couple of hours, only ending the call when I would fall asleep on him. School started tomorrow for me…evidently it had already been going for a couple of weeks now. Great…now I really would be the new girl…the new foreign girl with no friends. I’m sure I could easily make a bunch of new ‘friends’…all I would have to do is tell them I’m best friends with Harry Styles, and that I know every member of One Direction including their band, Lux, Lou, Paul, and basically everyone else other girls only dreamed of meeting. I even knew Ed Sheeran for heaven’s sake! I even had the proof…but no. I wanted real friends who would like me for me. Not a bunch of girls who would use me to get to them. So…I was going to hide it. It wouldn’t be that hard…nobody knew who I was. Harry had kept me hidden and safe from the paparazzi…so nobody really knew who I was. There were only a few glimpses of me in pictures and videos from the X-Factor days…so I was pretty safe, and I was going to keep it that way.
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I woke up super early the next morning from nerves. So I decided to curl my red hair into small bouncy ringlets. I put on a small amount of make-up, only some mascara and eyeliner with a touch of lip gloss like usual before going to pick out my outfit. I chose some dark silver pinstriped skinny jeans and threw on a white Beatles shirt over it with gold lettering. Then I put on my dark grey cardigan and the new TOMS Louis had bought me. Last, I carefully put on my necklace from Harry. I didn’t wear it to bed for fear of breaking it. I looked at myself in the mirror…it would have to be good enough. Then I walked downstairs to grab something to eat before I had to leave.
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My mom dropped me off at the school since it was my first day. “Have a good day sweetheart.” She kissed me on the cheek. “Love you mum.” I watched her drive off before looking around at the campus. It was so different compared to back home…I pulled out my schedule to see what I had for my first class. Math…great. I started walking to try and find it, although the bell hadn’t rung yet. It gave me some time in case I decided to get lost. I was extremely good at doing that…one of my many talents. Luck, however, was with me today. I found the class a whole 2 minutes before the bell rang. I chose a seat near the windows in the middle of the room. The class quickly filled up, and as soon as the final bell rang signaling for class to start, the instructor walked to the front of the classroom ready to begin. “Good morning class. Before we start, I would like to introduce you to a new student. Aiden, will you please stand up and introduce yourself?” He addressed me. I groaned inwardly. I had already gotten several curious stares, and I knew my accent wasn’t going to help my case. I slowly stood and cleared my throat before saying, “Hello, my name is Aiden Hemenway and I’m from Cheshire.” Murmurs sprung up all around me the second I began to speak, but after I said I was from Cheshire a small gasp sounded from behind me. I turned my head towards the noise and saw two girls gaping at me. One had long red hair with bright green eyes, while the other was blonde hair and blue eyes. As soon as she saw me look at them the redhead elbowed the blonde. They both quickly looked down and began to whisper excitedly. “Thank you Aiden! We hope you feel welcome here.” He then cleared his throat and looked to the girls behind me. “Darcy,” The girl with red hair quickly looked up, “Liz,” The blonde reacted the same way. “Is there something you would like to share with the class??” They both quickly shook their heads no and apologized. He smiled happy with himself and the began a long boring lecture on who-knows-what. When the class had only a few minutes left, I pulled out my new iPod. I turned on ‘Moments’…I missed Harry so badly. I scrolled through all the pictures I had of the boys, but had to stop before I began to cry. I put it away and packed up my bag. “HELLO!” I jumped at the loud voice that was suddenly next to me. I turned around to see the two girls that had been gawking at me earlier. “Oh…hello.” I said quietly back to them. The redhead wasted no time and began to speak, “I’m Darcy Fairbourne, and this is…” She was interrupted by the blonde girl, “And I am Elizabeth Malik!...Ow! I mean…uhh Liz Bennett.” She said sheepishly. The redhead, Darcy, had stomped on her foot. Malik…ohhh…I get it. They are fans…big fans from the looks of it. “So…we just happened to notice you were listening to One Direction just now…” The Darcy began. “YEAH! Actually we looked over your shoulder and saw. You have a TON of picture of them!!” Liz finished. “One even I haven’t seen before! Where on earth did you get them?!” Well this was awkward…this was my moment. I could use my friendship with Harry to make ‘new friends’ or…I could keep my secret and hope for the best. “Oh…you know…just this one website.” I answered vaguely. Lies. Lies. Lies. Lies. Lies. I had taken some of those pictures, and Zayn Malik had put them on my iPod. “Sooo…you…you’re a Directioner then??” Darcy asked tentatively. Am I a say what now?? Directioner…Directioner…ah yes! That was the name of their fanbase. I had never paid much attention. “Yes! Yes I am!” I smiled at them. The two girls squealed happily. “Would you like to have lunch with us?” Liz squealed happily. “Yes! Of course! That would be fantastic.” I replied to them extremely relieved. “Yay! We will find you, ok?” Liz said before happily skipping away. I smiled to myself…I think I may have just made two new friends. Wait until Harry hears of this…