My First | Harry Styles

Chapter Thirty Three

Tessa POV

I don't know how it happened, but it did and very quickly. The boys had kicked it off surprisingly well. Even Liam was welcomed by most of the boys, Louis holding a certain tone of reluctance or caution towards him. But besides that, this ship was smoothing sailing into rewarding waters. 

They began to cover a new song which they all agreed on, 'One Way Or Another'. It's a good song and it suites them rather convincingly. They all play different parts of the song, but without which it would not sound the same. It was very interesting to watch the boys rehearse. They all had so many ideas about their music styles and even though they all come from different genres, it all comes together wonderfully. 

One Saturday night while they were rehearsing and I was sitting on the couch near the back, I realised that these boys still hadn't chosen a name for their musical unit. The on going track that they were playing was too loud for them to hear my voice if I attempted to yell, so I waited until they finished. 

"Have you guys chosen a name yet?" I asked once Niall plugged out his guitar from the amp. 

They all looked at me at once, lips pursed to the side and their heads hanging.

A combination of mumbles and sighs were leaked into the room after the pending question had been repeated. 

"Really?" 

It has been two weeks since they've been joint, it was about time that they found themselves a proper name.

"It's a lot harder than it sounds." Harry reasoned from his microphone stand. 

"Rubbish, all you need is creativity, which I know all of you have." 

They all looked a bit uncomfortable and I think that's when I learnt what the real issue was here. Of course they had all thought of names for the band, but they were all too nervous to bring them to the table. The though of being ridiculed by their choice or disregarded haunted them in the back of their heads.They needed to speak up.

"Here's an idea." I said, stretching my arm to the desk next to me and retrieving a piece of paper. "Each of you write down your ideal name for the band on these little papers. We'll scramble them up, I'll read them aloud and the one which gets the most likes will be your name." 

It was the best suggestion I could give them without intervening entirely. Harry quickly agreed, then Louis, Niall, Zayn and of course Liam was the last, because god forbid I come up with a reasonable idea. 

I passed around the bits of paper I had torn apart, the pencil being rotated around the room rapidly. Confirming my thoughts about them already having their own ideas. 

Once they all finished, the bits of paper were placed in the palms of my hands and then hidden away in a fist. I carefully unfolded the first one, reading it aloud and getting a few nods to read the next. So forth and so forth, until the last paper was read and all the boys began to think. It must have been a very difficult decision, even more so to agree on. I imagined picking a name would be the easy part, but coming to terms with four other boys must be complicated. 

After a few moments of silence I cleared my throat to get their attention. 

"So what's it going to be?" I asked.

Without a single stroke of hesitation they all said in unison.

"One Direction." 

***

Next Day

Avoiding Harry's gaze was nearly impossible dew to our current seating arrangements at our lunch table. Sat squarely across from me, I was beginning to get the feeling his change in spots had been something intentional. I tried to distract myself by fishing out the last bit of my chocolate pudding, but I kept on getting drawn to look back up. Meeting his already pinned gaze in my direction.