When Love Gets Complicated [ A One Direction fanfiction <3 ]

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – Morgan’s No Sportswoman

"He was this close to my face and then called me Morgan! Crazy, right!?"

Rachel enthusiastically detailed her moment with Harry to her friends Ashley, Natalie, and Niall as she elated her taste buds with the birthday cupcake they had all given her. The four of them had been best friends since the beginning of senior kindergarten and spent every lunch together discussing their crushes, insecurities, and the latest gossip.

Natalie was girly-pretty, with hazel eyes and golden, blonde hair that fell loosely on her shoulders and curled at the ends. She was quite snappy and her tongue and mind didn’t really communicate before she spewed words out from her mouth. Her witty attitude, though, induced a lot of laughter from the group. Ashley’s voice was slightly high-pitched and the sun had gifted her skin with a bronzed glow. She had shiny, brown hair reaching her waist and pupils that hid into her dark, brown eyes. She was much shorter than the rest of her friends but her heart was greater in size than, well, Nat’s. Niall, with his charming Irish accent, had tousled, blonde hair, a sharp, dimpled chin, and eyes that resembled the inside of a blue gem. His stomach was never full and somehow, even though insecurities were often swimming around in his head, he beamed of carefreeness.

"Wow, Rach, you’re sitting here talking about him as if you’ve already gone on a first date together. Meanwhile, he barely knows your first name. You've got to let go of this obsession of yours. It’s starting to get a little unhealthy… and a little creepy." Said Nat, arching an eyebrow and widening her eyes.

"Yeah, I mean, its not like he's a celebrity or anything." Added Niall.

Rachel gritted her teeth, “Nat, it’s not an obsession, it’s – never mind. You wouldn’t understand. I’ve fallen head over heels for him.”

Literally – she pretty much fell when she first met him. 

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It was year two during recess; Rachel was playing on the primary school’s jungle gym with Nat and Ash as the teacher supervisors chatted amongst one another and used recess as a break for themselves as well.

Clocked up in conversation, the teachers hadn’t noticed five boys’ intent on transforming Rachel, Nat, and Ash’s game of hopscotch into a glove game. The boys stood at heights that barely reached 4 feet and used their thumping body masses to instill fear in the girls. They wanted to claim the playground as their sole ‘domain’. Clearly, tantrums had been getting them what they wanted at home because they didn’t have the patience or courtesy to simply ask the girls to move. Instead, they were swinging their arms around in hopes that their fists would meet flesh.

Nat, being the windbag that she is, attempted to ward off the boys by threatening to cut-up their collection of Pokémon cards.

The teachers still hadn’t clued in and Nat’s gremlin-like behaviour didn’t seem to faze the boys. Frustrated, she reached into her backpack and lifted out one of those Barbie’s that propel into the air once a string on their backside is pulled. She drew the string completely and then released it like a slingshot. The Barbie spiraled up and met head-on with the boys nose. He scrunched his nose around and pressed his mouth into a hard line as scalding blood tinted his face crimson. Nat looked up at him with deadlock eyes and stock-still legs. Right as the boy took a step towards her, she let out a shriek, mopped the metal floor with her stomach – as she used her elbows as a second pair of legs to walk under his bridged legs –, and then escaped down the slide.

The 9 year-old boy, weighing about 100 pounds more than normal, knew his size wouldn’t allow him down the slide after Nat, so he turned his attention to Rachel and quickly began covering her footsteps. Running opposite to Rachel was Poopy Payton – both heading towards the jungle gym’s only pole. Unfortunately, him and his filthy hands made it down the pole before Rachel, who stood above it gagging and contemplating on whether to go down. From the corner of her eye she spotted two of the boys running towards her, so she reached her leg out to wrap it around the pole when to hands slammed against her back. Just as she thought the woodchip-filled ground would catch her fall, her eyes caught the green eyes of Harry styles. Back then his hair wasn’t so fluffy. It was quite straight and he sported bangs. Rachel’s head was cuffed gently in his elbow, allowing her to smell watermelon bath soap. A second grader wrapped in the arms of Harry Styles wouldn’t quite have the same deep hormonal reactions of a teenage girl, but he still made her feel like a Disney princess.