A/N: Oh my sweet Lord, you guys love me! I haven't been on for a while, but my summer vacation starts today! And to celebrate, here's a little taste of what's soon to come… *insert evil laugh here* But seriously, I'm flattered that so many of you read my stories. So enjoy!

I sat in my car, headed towards school on a dreary Thursday morning. I looked out the windshield, watching the swooshing of my wipers and the rain pelting the windows. It was one of the only things that could soothe me on a bad day, and I was grateful for it. Driving through the English countryside was always one of my favorite things to do. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a bumming factor because of my heading to school.

I pulled into the parking lot and parked my car. I attempted running through the rain and balancing all of my stuff at the same time. I got into the school building and greeted a few passing students that I knew. I hustled myself to my locker and threw everything into it. I didn't really have time to organize anything, as I was late.

The bell rang and my friend Austin and I went through the first half of our day. It was pretty much just your normal high school morning. Soon, we found ourselves at lunch. We walked into the cafeteria and stood in line, waiting for our lunch, same as every other day. Another person came up and stood behind us. He looked rather nervous and jittery.

"Hi!" I said, being my usual friendly self. "I haven't seen you around before. What's your name?"

"Niall," he replied.

"Hi Niall, I'm Austin," Austin said with a smile. "And this is Christina."

I waved and ushered him into our conversation.

"So, are you a new student here?"

"Yeah…" Niall trailed off.

Austin and I looked at each other. Communicating through our eyes, we told each other that we should show Niall around the school and introduce him to some people.

"Great, we love new students!" Austin said cheerily.

"R… Really?" Niall asked timidly.

"Sure!" I replied. "We don't love anything more than making new friends. So tell me Niall, what do you like to do? What tickles your peach?"

"Wh- what?"

"Nothing, it's just an expression. What do you like to do in your spare time?"

"Well, at my old school, I was in the drama club."

"Perfect!" Austin chimed in. "You'll love drama here."

We both noticed that Niall was kind of distracted by something. We followed his gaze to find our eyes resting on the most popular boy in the school, Harry Styles. With that surfer's body and lovely smile, who wouldn't? Surrounded by a gaggle of girls, as usual, Harry was laughing and smiling, making all of the girls swoon.

"Who… Who's that?" Niall asked quietly.

"Oh, that's Harry. He's probably the most popular guy around here," Austin said with a smirk.

"Oh, cool…" Niall trailed off.

"Yeah," I continued. "He's pretty awesome at football, but that's a known fact. Just your typical buff jock that swoons all of the girls."

Niall got a rather disappointed look on his face when I finished talking. I looked over at Austin with a confused face and he shot me a confused look back.

"What's wrong, Niall?" I asked him.

"Oh, nothing…"

"Niall, do you think Harry is cute?" Austin asked. I couldn't help but let a giggle pass my lips.

"Wh- What?" Niall replied, shocked into refraining from saying anything intelligent.

"Don't worry about it. I think he's cute, but he's nothing compared to Jason." The slightest color of pink had started to cross his cheeks when I giggled again. Niall gave me a confused look and I told him,

"Don't ask. I'll explain everything later."

We grabbed our lunch trays and sat at a nearby table. Almost immediately, we were joined by Jason. Austin looked at him and smiled while a slight blush crept across his face once more. I giggled again, but fate had its hand on me, as my girlfriend Georgia came and sat down next to me. Austin smirked at me and I stuck my tongue out at him. Niall also sat down with us, looking a little uneasy.

"So, you want to know some stuff about this place?" I asked him.

"That would be nice, yes," he replied.

"Well, as you've probably figured out, Harry is the most popular guy here. He's got a girlfriend named Hailey, and no one wants to admit it, but she's probably one of the most, if not the most, annoying girl in the school. No one can really see exactly what he sees in her, but if he can put up with her then the rest of the school can.

"He's pretty much made this entire school's football reputation. If he wasn't on the team, we wouldn't really be known for anything around here. The thing is, Hailey is always telling him that he needs to quit the team and spend more time with her. They're going through a pretty rocky area right now, and it looks like they might not come out of it.

"If you're wondering exactly why I know all of this, it's because I'm tuned into gossip. I've got a few popular friends, so they've got all the gossip. And, yeah, that's about it."

"Alright," Niall said, still looking rather disappointed. Jason and Austin were rather involved with each other, and since I had been talking for a while, Georgia wanted to talk to me. The rest of the lunch period, rather regrettably, was spent with our others, leaving Niall out of a lot.

Towards the end of the period, I asked Niall,

"So, do you think you would want to come to the drama meeting after school today?"

"Sure, sounds fine," Niall replied rather distractedly. The rest of the day went rather uneventfully, what with classes and whatnot. We soon found ourselves in Mrs. Hunt's room. She was our drama instructor along with being a teacher at the school.

"Hey, who's that staring at me?" Niall whispered to both Austin and I. He pointed at a rather lanky teenager with greasy hair and the body of a twelve year old.

"Oh, that's Sam," Austin replied, smiling. "He's always like that. Now it seems that he's found someone else to stalk. Congrats."

Niall gave the both of us a weird look, then just shook his head and turned around, as Mrs. Hunt was speaking.

"Alright, now all of you know what you have to do." She caught sight of Niall and then went back on herself. "But just in case some of you weren't paying attention, the auditions for our next play are in two days. Actors—" One of the girls cleared her throat. "—and actresses—" The girl smiled. "are expected to have a minute to minute and a half monologue memorized. You'll present this to myself and your stage manager.

"In other news, money for tee shirts is due next week. If anyone else wants one, be sure to turn your money into Christina by the end of this week. We need to see exactly how many shirts to order." I smiled at the group when she mentioned my name.

"Well, I think that's about all we need to talk about. You're free to go now. Thanks!"

Austin, Niall and I stood up and went to our lockers. After we got all of our stuff, we walked down the hallway together, talking about a lot of different things, but mostly Harry.

"I heard he and Hailey had another fallout today," Austin said.

"Yeah," I said and sighed. "Things just don't seem to be going right for that boy…"

Niall seemed pretty distracted the whole time we were talking. He was staring at the ground now, staying silent. We kept walking and talking until we got outside. Since we all drove ourselves, our cars were parked out back. We had been silent for a while because Austin and I had run out of things to say. Niall still wasn't saying anything, so we fell into an awkward quiet walk.

We heard a whistle blaring in the distance and turned. I could see that football practice was going on, and Harry was right in the middle of it. Since he was the team captain, why shouldn't he be? It was obvious that he was in his own world. I looked over at Niall and could tell that he was intrigued by Harry as well.

As if reading my mind, Austin turned and said, "Oh, look, it's football practice." He then said teasingly, "I bet Niall wants to go down there and get in that action."

A visible blush crossed Niall's face again. "Shut up!" he said, but then laughed with us. Niall was ignoring us as time went by, however. Whenever he had a moment like this, there were only a few words that went through his head. He couldn't really explain it, but whenever he felt like this, there were just a few words that ran through his head…

Close the door… Throw the key…

"See you later Niall!" Austin yelled as he slammed his car door shut. Niall shook his head, trying to rid the words from his mind so he could think clearly. He climbed into his car and rushed out of the school's parking lot, attempting desperately to get anything but Harry into his mind.

"This is bad… very bad…"