“I’m coming, I’m coming!” I yell down the stairs, packing up my backpack, unplugging my phone, and fixing my hair one last time before bursting downstairs. My mom is waiting with my lunch downstairs in the kitchen. “My god mom, I’m 17, I do not need to have you pack my lunch, thank you very much” I say, grabbing it and shoving it in my backpack. “Have a good day,” she says, completely ignoring my last remark. I head out the door to my friend Jaycee waiting outside on the street for me. “Hey,” I say, opening the door and getting inside. “My god you’re late, alarm didn’t go off?” She asks, “yep,” I reply as she guns down the street to get to school on time. Monday morning, and I have music. Oh joy. I just loved getting yelled at in the morning by my teacher who doesn’t seem to understand that I like listening to music, not making it. We run through the doors, shove our book bags into our lockers, and head off together to music class just as the bell rings.
“We’re gonna do something a little different today, guys” the music teacher, Ms. Ron, speaks in her monotone voice. “We have a special guest that’s going to teach us about music today, I think you’ll all enjoy his time here” Let me guess, a famous composer nobody but her knows about? No thank you, I’ll pass. “He’ll be here in a few minutes, and I want some of you to go up and sing with him, so go practice some exercises before he gets here” Jaycee and I head off to practice vocal scales, and all the sudden our teacher interrupts us, no more than five minutes later. “Class, I think you’ll all recognize our guest today” she gestures away from the door, as Niall walks into the room.
“Ahhh!” Screams from all over the room fill my ears, and I just stand their, shocked, with Jaycee. Jaycee jumps up and down, grabbing my arm so hard that I wonder if I’m going to lose circulation in it. “PENNY, DO YOU NOT SEE NIALL JAMES FRICKEN HORAN IN FRONT OF YOU?” She asks excitedly. Of course I see him, and I’m hoping to god that he won’t see me, but of course, just as my luck goes, he walks right over to me.
“Eep!” Jaycee beside me makes a nonhuman noise, and I quickly elbow her to get her to shut up. I hide my face from him, facing the other way, but he taps me on the shoulder and grins at me. Crap. Why am I so nervous to talk to him, when we’re hanging out on Friday and I talked to him fine yesterday. It’s because everyone’s going to get mad at me because Niall James Horan talked to me instead of them. “Hey” he says with his gorgeous voice, with his hands in his pockets. “Oh, hi! I can’t believe you’re, here… In my class… Talking to me at school…” I trail off, and his smile fades “Sorry, am I embarrassing you? Do you want me to pretend I don’t know you?” He begins walking away, but I stop him, grabbing his arm, then quickly regretting it, feeling the awkwardness of it. “No, please talk to me, it’s just that everyone loves you and I’m afraid they’ll get jealous, I mean, you live pretty far away, and so do I, so nobody else is, like ever gonna see you besides now” I say, half lying. “It’ll be fine, they can talk to me, if they want to say hi, then they can come up and say it” He says, his smile returning, as he whispers in my ear, his hot breathe tingling down my spine “But you can talk to me whenever you want too” he pulls away, with a smirk and winks at me. I try to act natural, but fail. Butterflies fill my stomach and my heart races. Is Niall Horan, flirting with me? Surely he isn’t, he always sounds seductive and flirty, doesn’t he? My friend interrupts my thoughts by yelling at me “Penny!” She says. The whole class is staring at me, well, at Niall, but my teacher, she stares at me, giving me daggers.
Everyone had taken their seats 30 seconds ago, and me and Niall were awkwardly standing in the middle of the room together. “Penny, if you’d like to sit down so Mr. Horan can start teaching us…” She says sternly. “Yes, Ms. Ron” I say shyly. I head to my seat, ready to sit down, when she makes a hand gesture to stop where I am “Actually, Penny, if you and Niall are such good friends, how about you sing together?” She says. Yes. It’s official. She’s trying to ruin my life. How am I supposed to sound good next to Niall Horan? It’s like putting a bullhorn in your ear, compared to having angels literally singing to you. As much as I want it to be true, I speak up to save myself “Ms. Ron, I honestly don’t know him that well, we just live kind of close…”All the girls in the room gasp and fangirl right in front of Niall, who is still, just awkwardly, standing in the middle of the room.
