Ugly Duckling [ Harry Styles/One Direction Fanfiction ]

Chapter 1 : Chaos

Author's note: Basically the first couple of chapters are just gonna be setting the scene and introducing the main characters, so please bare with me and enjoy it. Comments and feedbacks are most certainly welcomed :)

Chapter 1 : Chaos

Lauren Davis was about to land at Luton Airport. She was incredibly tired from her 20-hour flight from Uganda. She had to take a four hours transit at Milan airport. She was excited to come home to her family and ecstatic that she was going finally meet her new-born nephew, William. Her sister, Julia and her husband, John lived in London and the rest of Lauren’s family travelled down from Holmes Chapel to greet Lauren at Luton Airport and to welcome her home. It was a surprise for their hard-working girl, Lauren. In the past year and a half, Lauren had courageously volunteered herself as a young helper for a famous charity. The charity, Hope for Hopeful Children had allowed Lauren to work under supervision as she was still classified as an underage at the beginning of her volunteering job. But due to Lauren’s amazing commitment to the charity and her consistent dedication to the cause, the charity allowed to be a leader in one of their famous project, in Uganda. She had received plenty of financial pledges to support her for her mission and charity work. The aim of the project was to help the young mothers and teenagers who had been attacked or victimised physically, mentally and in health and mind. The charity had instructed Lauren to take some recording equipment to record the development that Lauren and her team of ten other volunteers made in Uganda.

When Lauren’s plane landed at Luton Airport, she looked outside her window and there were several police cars. She wondered why the police had turned up. When the pilot announced that they had arrived in Luton Airport, passengers cheered and whooped. Lauren took off her seat belt and got out her seat, and opened the top drawer to take out her hand luggage. She carried her large back pack which as surprisingly light and she followed the queue of people, leaving the plane. She followed the airport signs leading her out of the boarding area and to the baggage collection. Lauren and a few of her volunteers walked to the conveyor belt and collected their luggage. They hugged and waved each other goodbyes as some had to take another flight back home. She walked through the glass doors, and there was a great crowd of girls and the occasional awkward-looking boy standing there. They caused great chaos when a couple of boys entered and exited the airport quickly. The chaos made Lauren’s mood annoyed. She did not understand why there were so many girls at the airport. All she wanted was to see her family but the large group of girls made that almost impossible. She walked past them quickly, dragging her three luggages and one back pack. Lauren had been gone from home for such a long time, and she was barely recognised by her own family.

Vera and her husband, Jim and a couple of their family members were all waiting for their baby daughter to come through those glass doors. They had moved away from the large group of girls. Jim could no longer take their screaming and crying for some band. They waited, and William, Vera’s first grandson held a poster which read “WELCOME HOME, AUNTIE!” whilst sitting in his buggy. He was only one years old and today was his birthday. William was completely awake due to the noise caused by the girls, unlike Jim who was growing sleepier by the minute. Lauren was searching for her parents, and she almost walked past them until her sister, Julie screamed at her.

“LAUREEEEEEEEEN! Oh my goodness, is that really you?” Julia shrieked at her baby sister. Before Lauren volunteered herself as a helper, she was chubby and was heading into the wrong direction in her life. She had suffered from a terrible heartbreak. It was her sister that had suggested her to sign up for the charity after receiving a leaflet through the letterbox. And in the past year or so, Lauren had lost a lot of weight due to the constant activities she was doing daily in Uganda. She had developed a natural tan too. And she grew her hair. It wasn’t really planned, she just never had the time to cut it due to being busy all the time at the charity centre that she was setting up.