Ch 1 Kjirsten's POV Let me start this off just by telling you a few things about myself. See, I am nothing extraordinary. I am completely ordinary. I'm not the "pretty, everyone loves me" type. I'm more of the "quiet, no one notices" type. I am really short, have blue eyes, red hair, and I'm really pale. I love music. Just like any other girl, I dream of meeting my music idols, any and all of them. Mostly I dream about meeting One Direction, though—well along with Ed Sheeran. I sound completely normal, right? Just like any other teenage girl. Here's the catch—I'm hard-of-hearing, pretty much legally deaf. So what are the chances that I would ever meet any of my music idols? And if I ever did, what are the chances that I would even make an impression on them? Besides, I'm not of those fans who can actually afford to go to concerts or meet-and-greets. I'm not crazy enough to stalk them at the hotels and crap, either. I sit behind my headphones and dream of a day that will never come. I listen to their music and think about how those five idiots have saved my life countless times. I cry because they saved me; I cry because they will never know. I listen to the songs, imagining that the boys are singing to me personally—one in particular. The perfectly adorable, Irish blonde—Niall. I always imagine meeting him, and him saying that he had finally found his princess. Not that it would ever happen, but a girl can dream, can't she? Anyway, I should get to the story now, shouldn't I? - I am sitting at the table with my headphones on, when suddenly, there is a hand snapping in front of my face. I slip off my headphones and look at my roommate, Audrey. "Hey, do you want to go longboarding? You seem like you need some cheering up, and that usually seems to work," she said, kind of smirking at me. I nod my head and we grab our boards, heading out to the parking lot. We ride for a bit, not talking and just enjoying the sensation of flying—wheels rolling on pavement, wind in your hair, nothing but you and the board. That's how it feels for me, anyway; I don't know about her. After a bit, we stop and sit down to rest. She looks at me and asks me what's wrong. At first, I think about telling her, but then decide against it. Audrey doesn't know about the things I deal with. I usually just hide it from her. So I just shake my head and tell her that it's nothing serious. She stares at me for a moment, then decides to let it go. "So what are your plans for Easter?" she asks. "Ah, not much, just hanging out with the family and doing a little birthday thing while I am home. What about you?" She smiles and says, "Easter egg hunt with my little sisters." I know that Audrey loves her little sisters, and I envy her sometimes. "What time are you leaving tomorrow? Do you know what time you will be getting back Sunday?" I ask her. "Um, since we don't have class tomorrow, I was planning on leaving as soon as I wake up in the morning. As far as Sunday, I will probably be getting back sometime that evening. What about you?" "Oh, I will be leaving as soon as I get up in the morning. Sunday I will probably be getting back around 8 pm or so." She nods her head, and we talk and board for a bit longer before heading back to the dorm. Audrey cooks some dinner and we get some studying done. When our other roommates, Shauna and Phoebe get back to the dorm, we stay up for a bit talking, but Audrey and Shauna go to bed early. I head to my room and just sit on the bed. I know I won't be able to sleep, so I am trying to decide what I should do. I don't really feel like digging up my sketchbook to draw, so I get my computer, and go one YouTube, looking up One Direction videos. Some of the videos make me laugh, but then others just make me cry. Not necessarily because they are sad—though a few are—but just because they give me so many feels! After a few hours of that, I finally decide to try to get some sleep. I check my phone to make sure my alarms are on, and fall asleep. When I get up in the morning, it is around 9:30. I go out to the kitchen to see if anyone is still here. Out of the window, I see that all three of my roommates are gone. Well, they sure left out early. I go ahead and take a shower, then load all my stuff up in my truck. I set my music playing and turn on my GPS. After double checking to make sure that I have everything, I finally head home for the weekend. I usually dread going home, but I was trying to be positive about this weekend. Hopefully my 19th birthday will go fairly well. As I pull into my driveway, I see that my brothers are standing outside. I sigh and think, "Don't they ever actually go home? They do have their own houses and families!" I park and go to grab my bags. They look over at me and I stare at them. "Well, neither of you are getting hugs or brownies until you help me take my stuff inside!" They hurry over and help me unload my stuff. They grin cheekily at me and take my stuff inside. Haha I knew that bribery would work. It always does. As I walk into my house, my niece, Lindsey, tackles me. I see my nephew Caiden in the living room, babbling to whoever would pay attention to him. I bend down to give Lindsey a hug. She hates it that I am not here everytime she comes over. She doesn't really understand the concept of college yet. She takes my hand and leads me into the living room where everyone else was already gathered. I hug my sisters-in-law and finally hug my brothers and my parents. As soon as I sit down to play with Caiden, my brothers grab my arms and pull me back up. I look at them like they have lost their minds and they just smile at each other. They drag me into the kitchen and just grin at me. "Well, get to cooking those brownies, woman!" they say, cackling like two five year olds. I swear, sometimes I question if they are actually in their twenties. I agree and set to work on my brownies. They love them because I always either put caramel or cheesecake filling in my brownies. A few minutes later, Lindsey comes around the corner with Caiden latched on her hands. He is still learning to walk, and everyone wants to help. I wipe my hand on my cooking rag, and kneel down. I hold my hands out, telling Caiden to walk towards me. Lindsey lets go of one of his hands until he starts walking to me. When he finally makes his way over to me, I scoop him up in my arms and kiss his cheek. He tries to put his hand in the brownie mix, but I stop him. I take Caiden and Lindsey back into the living room, then return to making brownies for my brothers. I am alone in the kitchen and I sigh. Everyone is in the living room, and I can hear them laughing. I wonder what they are all laughing about, but decide not to dwell on it. I turn the music on my phone on—of course to One Direction. No on in my house can stand them, but I don't care. After the brownies are done, I go back to the living and join in the conversation. After a while, I notice that my family is staring at me weirdly. I stop talking and my dad says gruffly, "Look at you, talking like them damn Yankees." My brothers and sisters-in-law nod, agreeing with him. I sigh and just keep talking. I don't really care about their opinions of me. My family is really redneck and southern and they are very typical southerners. So what if I sound like a "Yankee"? At least I can still talk. I mean, seriously. Sometimes I just get really mad when talking to my family. That's why I usually dread coming home. After a while, I notice that it is dinner time, so I go into the kitchen to start some dinner cooking. No one offers to help, no one cares that I am cooking. That's just the way it is. Before I went off to college that was my job pretty much, being "mom" to everyone in my house. Sometimes I wonder if they even eat when I am not here. After making everyone's plates and drinks and taking them to everyone, I sit down and feed Caiden while Liz and Cody eat. Lindsey is old enough to feed herself, so I don't have to worry about that. Caiden eats quietly, and eventually falls asleep. By the time that happens, I am just not hungry, so I head to bed. I hug Lindsey goodnight and go to my room. Once there, I take my hearing aids off and just lay down. Tomorrow, I would be hanging out with some friends, and man was I ready for it. - The next day, as I was getting ready to head into town, my mom walks into my room. I kind of look at her for a moment, wondering what she needed. After a minute of looking around my room with a very unhappy look on her face, she just says, "Make sure to clean the house when you get back," then walks out. I sigh and sit down as I put my shoes on. I grab my keys and head out the door, not even caring that my parents were saying something. After getting to town, I head to my friend Alexis' house. I don't even knock, I just walk in and go straight to her room. When she sees me, she pauses her game and throws her hands up. "Dude! It has been forever since I've seen you! How are you, man?" I laugh and hug her. We talk for a bit as she plays her game. She asks me how life is. "Shit. Complete and total shit!" I say, laughing. "Ha you are the only person that I can actually be straight with, dude. Because I know that you won't judge me! Ugh, if I didn't have to drive home, I would totally ask you for some Smirnoff, dude." Alexis just looks at me, nodding her head. "Dude, if you didn't have to drive home, I would totally offer you some Smirnoff, you wouldn't even have to ask! So, tell me about the shit life has been throwing you." So we play some video games as we talk, and I just tell her everything, and she totally listens. After a while, we clean up and go to meet some of our other friends. When we pull up at the apartment, I tell her I will be there in a moment. I check my make-up and all the girly stuff that I only do when out in public. I walk up the stairs and as I open the door, I notice that there aren't any lights on. "Well, that's weird," I mutter and flip the light switch. As soon as I do, my friends jump up, screaming "Surprise!" I scream like a five year old girl and back up against the door. They all start laughing and come to hug me. After I calm down, I hit the nearest person to me. They saw ow, and I just glare. They get me into the kitchen where I see a cake and one box. I look around the room, staring at each person, trying to gauge whether it was a trick or not. After a moment, my cousin pushes me toward the chair in front of the cake. I sit down, and someone lights the candles. After I blow them out, making a wish, they shove the small box towards me. "What is this? What is all of this, you freaks?" I say, laughing. "You won't be calling us freaks after you see what's in that box, you freak," Alexis says. I take a deep breath and open the box, fully expecting something to pop out. When nothing does, I actually look inside the box. Inside are two tickets and a few other pieces of paper. I take them out of the box, and literally almost faint. My friends got me two One Direction tickets, with V.I.P. backstage passes and a paper that say that I apparently get to spend a full day with them. I look at Alexis and my cousin, trying to breathe. "Oh God, someone get her inhaler, or she's gonna pass out!" Kaylan, my cousin, screams. They all scramble, trying to find my purse. As I am trying to get my lungs back working, my cousin and Alexis speak up. "We all chipped in for this. We know how much you love them," Kaylan says "And we know how shitty your home life is," Alexis says "And we know you could never afford this on your own." I grab both of them in a gigantic hug. "Just don't you dare think about taking any of us to that concert! Now, it if were a Pierce the Veil, Sleeping With Sirens, Black Veil Brides concert or something like that, then we would be fighting to the death to go with you," they said, laughing. I literally had to words for this amazing gift that they had gotten me. It took all I had not to cry. Now I just had to figure out who to take with me!