"Does it really look that bad?" I groaned as I made my way across the school field to the others watching them all bit their bottom lips obviously trying to contain their laughter. Of course none of them responded but I could tell what they were thinking.
"…Well, they're not that bad" Bex said leaning back a little to observe the hideous wreck of a bird nest that was on top of my head, I let out another dramatic groan and slumped down in-between Bex and Teah. I'd had Art the previous lesson and kind of got into a fight with the squirty paint, when it wouldn't come out of the tube I 'cleverly' decided to shake it around in the air which made it eventually came out but of course because I'm such a lucky person…it came out all over my head, making it look like a frog had thrown up in my hair.
"You could always say you were going for the Hulk look" Helen scoffed and laughed as the other three cackled along, I looked blankly at them, not amused. It was fair to say I was certainly the clumsiest of the five of us, also the ditsiest, the smallest and obviously the punch line of my friends' jokes. Speaking of my friends, I should probably get this out the way and introduce them…
Bex: The most creative of us five. She was also there when the whole paint issue happened and assured me that it just looked like I'd dip-dyed my hair…but should still probably consider tying it up to make it look less noticeable.
Helen: Pretty sarcastic…or should I say, when it comes to me, very sarcastic. There's definitely nothing embarrassing that I've done that she's let me live down, like the first time I kissed a guy at a house party in Year 8, it all went really well until I found out he was my second cousin. Yeah, I thought everyone had forgot about it until she brought it up again at parents evening…awkward.
Teah: The cleverest one out of all of us, she's not a nerdy clever but she's got a better IQ than most of us and a lot of the time uses it against me without me knowing, like insulting me in French, Spanish, German and not forgetting basic Chinese. Oh and she also uses her cleverness to get out of class whenever she wants…its quite amazing really.
Phoebe: The pretty one and the big sister of the group, oh and did I mention she's the pretty one? She's kind of the complete opposite of Brad Pitt but exactly the same; every girl in the world loves Brad while every boy in our year loves Phoebe but Brad is taken by Angelina Jolie, so the rest of us have no chance where as Phoebe is completely single but the guys in or year still have no chance because let's face it, they're sleazes.
"Anyway! I have some good, no wait, amazing news for you girls!" Bex announced, like the rest of us not bothering to participate in the PE lesson that was happening around us.
"What is it?" Teach and Helen asked in sync, they always did have a weird habit of doing that,
"well…I was listening to the Radio last week and they were giving away front row X-Factor Tour tickets for free, so of course I entered and won. Which means we're going to the concert tonight!" she squealed and not before long the other three joined in and yet again I just sat there with my head down as everyone else in the class gave our little circle weird and disgusted looks.
"That means we'll see One Direction up close in the flesh!" Phoebe gasped dreamily before they all started squealing like baby piglets.
Wow, that was a surprise…Not. My friends lived, breathed and dreamed One Direction, not a day went past where we wouldn't have to discuss the curliness of Harrys' hair, the funniness of Louis, the beauty of Zayn, the amazing quality of Liams voice or the Irishness of Niall…Is Irishness even a word? Whatever, the point was that I wasn't exactly a big fan. Actually I don't think it'd even be fair to class me as a fan. I didn't hate or dislike them but didn't like or love them, nothing more and nothing less.
"Bex, it's sweet of you to invite me but maybe the ticket would go to better use if you gave it to someone else" I suggested feeling kind of guilty that there were millions of X-Factor fans out there that didn't have tickets to the show and wanted go,
"you're coming" she replied bluntly
"but I don't even like any of the acts that much this year" I tried to explain,
"we don't care. You're coming" Teah responded, echoing Bexs' blunt tone,
"I'm not going to scream when One Direction come on" I threatened…not that, that was threatening at all,
"good. That means there's more chance of them noticing us, you're coming" Phoebe said trying to look at my face instead of my awful hair,
"Really?" I whined,
"Really." Helen confirmed.
Yay, four friends against one! Why wasn't I surprised?
We stepped off onto the Greenwich platform where we just five amongst thousands of people all heading to the same building,
"wow Kate, you actually look nice for once" Helen teased "too nice for someone that 'isn't in to One Direction'…is someone trying to make an effort?" she teased again, elbowing me in the side,
"no. I was making an effort for the people on the train and everyone else that has to look at me, would you go out in public with green hair?" I backfired as went through the train ticket barrier and up the second lot of escalators.
I looked up the escalators at the group of girls in-front of us and wondered how they'd already got tops with Cher Lloyds face on it even though the real merchandise was sold inside the O2 Arena,
"Oh my god, we should each put the initials of one of the boys on our cheeks!" Bex gasped proudly as if she'd just found the cure to cancer,
"LT is going on mine!" Helen cheered,
"NH on mine!" Bex followed after Helens cheer,
"I'm having LP!" Phoebe called jumping on the bandwagon,
"ZM!" Teah smiled, catching onto the conversation. I looked at the four of them in pure confusion;
"I'll have…ABC" I shrugged. I already knew that I was going to get slaughtered for not knowing their initials,
"HS!" Phoebe gasped pushing my head, "how can you not know that?" Teah added shocked.
Whatever, all I knew is I wanted to get in there and then out of there and get a Starbucks which would then be the highlight to my night.
"This isn't a ticket, it's just a receipt" the doorman scoffed as we went to walk through into the arena. As much as I didn't want to be there and I was attempting to throw a strop, I couldn't help but feel bad for Bex – she'd been the one who entered the competition in the first place and now she wasn't allowed into the concert? Pure Fuckery, in my own words.
"Here Bex, take mine…" I sighed walking back through the turnstiles and handing her my ticket,
"no Katie, that isn't fair. What are you suppose to do for a whole hour?" she asked sympathetically as I placed the ticket into her hand and shrugged,
"spend hours upon hours in Starbucks…maybe see you during the interval…and then wait until you come out, don't worry I'll be fine…I'll find someone on BBM to bug" I reassured as I watched the four of them walk into the stadium.
I sighed and traipsed over to one of the tables outside the inside Starbucks and aimlessly scrolled through my phone, one minute down, one hour and fifty nine minutes to go…This was going to be a long, long night.
