A Match

Ten

The next morning, Harry's parents were up early. Whether it was an accident or not, they woke us up, so come nine o'clock, everyone was in the kitchen eating breakfast.

"What're we doing today Mum?" Gemma asked, cutting up a sausage.

"Well I thought we could go to the zoo." She said, and the three of us grinned in excitement.

"Yes!!" Harry and Gemma chorused, and Anne and Robin chuckled.

"Great. We'll leave after breakfast." Robin said.

Two hours later, and we were parked outside Chester Zoo. The car journey was possibly the worst hour of my life; we all went together in one car, and being the smallest, I sat in the middle, so I was squished in between Gemma and Harry.

I breathed a deep sigh of relief when I stepped out the car, my claustrophobia melting away. I smiled at Harry and took his hand, before we walked through the entrance.

In the discovery centre bit, they had a green-screen set up, and we paid the £4 to have our photo taken, before we stood in front of it. Robin and I stood on the ends, with Harry next to me, and Anne next to Robin, and Gemma went in the middle. Harry's arm wrapped around my waist, and mine went around his as we all smiled and the picture was taken. It was emailed to Anne, and we all crowded around to see it. On getting everyone's approval, Anne posted it on Instagram, even tagging me in it as well as Harry and Gemma.

With the photo out the way, we walked into the actual zoo, passing by meerkats, rhinos, and elephants, before we got to a big building that housed all the reptiles and amphibians.

Reptile houses are the second worst thing about zoos, the first being the bat caves. Unfortunately, the Styles family disagreed. Not wanting to admit I was scared, I let Harry pull me right over to the snakes and the horrible lizard.

My secret was out in the bat cave however, as I gripped onto Harry's hand so hard it must have been painful, whimpering every time I heard a bat, and muttering curse words every time one flew over me. Harry found the whole thing absolutely hilarious, teasing me about it for the rest of the day, and possibly the rest of my life.

When the whole thing was finally over, we stopped at one of the several cafes for lunch, sitting together at a table at the back and praying no one would notice us. I ate my melted cheese and tomato panini whilst Harry recounted everything I did in the bat cave, bringing Anne, Gemma and Robin to hysterics.

After lunch we found the lions and tigers, and we stopped for ages to watch them, marvelling at how they moved.

"Harry looks like a lion in the morning." I said, ruffling his mane-slash-hair as we walked away from the lions and towards what looked like an indoor rope course, but was actually where the monkeys lived. Harry smiled, and did an adorably pathetic roar, making me giggle.

We reached the final section of the zoo at about four o'clock: the girraffes and camels and butterfly emporium. The butterflies were drawn to the funky shirt Harry was wearing, and I took a million and one photos, because Harry Styles with a butterfly on his nose is art that could put Monet's selling prices to shame. He had to brush them all off before he left, and pouted, missing his little gossamer friends as I rolled my eyes playfully and pulled him out before he could attract any more.

We ordered a Chinese take-away on the way home, and Harry swears he didn't eat any chips in the car, but I was in the middle again, and therefore literally half on top of him, so I saw everything he did, including stealing chips. We sat down around the dining table to eat, Harry and I sharing my sweet and sour battered prawns and Harry's chicken noodles.

For no reason the next morning, Harry and I were up early. We dressed quietly, not wanting to wake up everyone else, and then walked downstairs and out of the house. I took Harry's hand as we strolled down the quiet streets of Holmes Chapel, listening to Harry as he gave me a tour like I had done when he was in my village. He pointed subtly to several houses, giving me gossip on the people who lived inside, some which were so outrageous I laughed out loud. We walked past his secondary school, and his primary school, until we arrived outside the bakery where he worked every day.

It was nice, homely, and literally dedicated to Harry; from the canvas pictures of him with various members of staff on the walls, to the paper photo of foetus One Direction here, to the cardboard cut out of foetus Harry in his uniform behind the counter. Evidently, this was Holmes Chapel's main tourist attraction.

"Well well well, the prodigal baker returns... And he's not alone." A dark haired man said, and Harry smiled.

"Yeah, this is my Match, Tasie." He introduced me, and I smiled, whilst the man's eyebrows shot up.

"Your Match? Wow, Harry! Congratulations!" He said, and Harry and I both smiled.

"Cheers mate." He said. He paused. "Anyway! We've actually come for breakfast, so can we have an eclair, and Tasie what d'you want?" He asked, turning to me.

"Oh, I'll have a red jam tart please." I said, pointing to it. The two paper bags were passed over to us, and Harry gave the man the money, before we walked out the shop. We ate the cakes on the way back to Harry's house, and by the time we opened the front door, everyone was up and drinking coffee in the kitchen.

"Morning." Harry and I said simultaneously, and everyone smiled at us.

"Nice walk?" Robin asked, and we both nodded.

"Yeah. Gave Tasie a tour of Holmes Chapel, and then we went to the bakery." He said.

"Have you had breakfast then?" Anne asked, and Harry and I both nodded.

"When're you leaving today?" She asked. Harry and I turned to each other, and when no one gave an answer, Harry shrugged.

"Dunno. Not too late because it'll take us a good four hours to get home and I'm writing for the next few days so need a good night's sleep." Harry said.

"Can you stay for Sunday lunch?" Anne asked, and Harry nodded.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll leave after lunch." He said, and Anne smiled.

"Great. I'll start cooking it in a minute so it won't be ready too late." She said.

"Would you like me to help, Anne?" I volunteered, deciding some bonding time with my Match's Mum couldn't be a bad thing. She smiled widely at me and nodded.

"That'd be lovely." She said.

I was put on potato prepping duty, a task I could actually do, so wasn't upset about. I washed and peeled the potatoes, and then cut them into quarters and put them on a baking try for roasting.

"Tasie?" Anne asked from where she was chopping carrots.

"Hmmm?" I hummed back.

"I'm really pleased you're Harry's Match." She said, and my heart warmed.

"Thank you." I said softly. "I promise I'll look after him."

"I know you will love." She said, reaching over me to grab a saucepan from the cupboard and squeezing my shoulder.

"And listen, I know sometimes it can get a bit lonely when he's touring- trust me I know. But you're welcome here any time." She said, and I beamed.

"Thanks, Anne." I said. I paused. "I might arrange a dinner at some point, so you three and my family could meet. You and my Mum have a lot in common. I reckon you'd be good friends." I suggested, and Anne smiled.

"That sounds like a lovely idea!" She said, and I smiled triumphantly.

"Great! I'll sort it out when I get home." I said, and Anne and I smiled at each other.