Finding, Finding... Found.

Chapter 1

He loved Alyssa, but she could not provide him with that feeling only a family could provide.

“I think… she’s here to bring me away,” Niall whispered, hating how weak he sounded. Where was the usually defiant Niall? The one who would tell Alyssa that the world was just as beautiful as she thought it was, and that he would defend and protect her from anything that proved her vision of the world wrong?

Alyssa’s eyes widened as she placed her little hands over her mouth. She began to shake her head violently, protesting what she already knew would come true. She had always known, at the back of her mind, that one of them would leave the other. After all, both of them were in an orphanage. What was she to expect?

“Will you forget me?” her tiny voice broke off at the end of the sentence.

“I won’t… and I swear even if I move to another country, I’ll find you.” His eyes were filled with so much conviction that it would have been hard for any other person to believe he was just eleven.

“Promise?” Alyssa held out her pinky.

“Promi-” Before Niall could hook his pinky with Alyssa’s, he was dragged out by his collar with a disapproving sigh and thrown into a whole new world.

A world where he had a family who loved him… A world without the girl he promised he would look for. And just a few years later, a world where he would become a global superstar.

2012, Streets of London

“Damn Alyssa, you’re pretty much throwing the money you need away,” Karla said. “You haven’t even paid the rent for this month and you just gave that homeless guy ten bucks?”

“That ten bucks will mean more to him than it would to me,” Alyssa replied easily with a dismissive wave.

Karla shook her head disapprovingly, but she knew that Alyssa’s compassion came from the years she spent in an orphanage. When she had signed a letter just two months ago that said she would be responsible for her own well-being after the orphanage released her, it was Karla who had helped her find a flat and it was Karla who had helped find her a job. She had met Karla at a pre-school where she was trying to find a job as a temporary teacher, and the two had instantly clicked.

 “So how much more do you need this month?” Karla inquired curiously. Alyssa had been complaining to her about the lack of tips this month, after all.

“Just two hundred more for my rent, I’m sure I’ll find some odd jobs here in London,” Alyssa said with a casual shrug of her shoulders, though the frown between her eyebrows showed her true emotions. She was worried that she wouldn’t be able to pay the rent, and she would get chased out… again.

“You need to borrow some cash?” Karla offered generously, but Alyssa shook her head. To say that she disliked borrowing money was an understatement. She hated it, and her unstable income made it harder for her to accept financial help of any form.

“But, Aly, I-” Karla started, but abruptly stopped talking when Alyssa threw her a steely gaze.

“Don’t call me Aly,” Alyssa sighed as memories she had tried to forget appeared in her mind once more. “Please. It brings back bad memories.”

Karla simply nodded understandingly before the both of them hurried into a coffee shop to get their daily dose of caffeine, but not before they heard someone announcing something about a music video filming in London.

“One pumpkin spice latte and an espresso please,” Karla told the woman working at the cashier, who nodded and went to work on their orders. Alyssa and Karla then sat on the stools provided, looking outside the glass windows at the mob of females surrounding a red bus. Karla gave Alyssa a curious gaze, and the both of them went out to take a look after getting and paying for their drinks.

“Hi, I’m Louis!” Alyssa heard someone speak into the megaphone, and she immediately recognized the voice. It was that boy band, One Direction. That explains the crazy number of teenage girls here, she thought.

The reply to those three words was enormous. Girls started screaming, yelling, and some were even crying. Louis didn’t look surprised though. It was as if he was used to it. Well, he must be, Alyssa decided. After all, they were pretty huge all around the world. She turned over to look at Karla, who looked mesmerized by Louis. She nudged Karla on the shoulder and grinned teasingly.

“See something you like?” she laughed.

“Yeah, definitely,” Karla replied with an easy laughter. “I mean, he’s pretty cute.”

Alyssa couldn’t deny that. As she sipped on her latte, she couldn’t contain her curiosity.

“Karla, isn’t there like five members in this boy band?” she asked. That seemed to get a reaction out of the teenage girls around her, who looked shocked. It was kind of funny, but she managed to stifle the laughter that was escaping her lips.

“Yeah, there are five! Which planet have you been living on?”

“There’s Harry, Liam, Louis, Za-”

“Do you know something called Google Sear-”

It was pure hell listening to them rant about their idols. She dragged Karla away from the crowd and looked at her watch.

“Erm, we have approximately twenty minutes before we start work,” she said to Karla, who immediately threw both their drinks into the nearest trash can and grabbed Alyssa’s arm, before running all the way to the elementary school where they were working at.

“I’m tired and sweaty and I probably smell,” Alyssa groaned as she used some napkins to wipe off the sweat that was glistening on her forehead.

“You don’t smell, and at least we weren’t late!” Karla replied with a clap of her hands as she walked into her classroom. “See you later!”

Alyssa waved as she walked into her classroom, where among the kids, there were five teenage boys.

One of them included Louis, the guy she had seen filming a music video earlier. How did he go from filming to being in an elementary school?

“Erm, hey. We just need to hide in your classroom for approximately an hour,” a guy with curly hair spoke up. “Please.”

What the hell?