"They're so annoying!" I groaned. I looked to my left and saw the 'populars' sitting around the fountain at lunch. Against my better judgment, I looked to the center of the mass and saw of flash of gorgeous dyed red hair. Alaina Johanson. Golden skin, red lips, long legs – the picture of perfection. And the most evil person on the East Coast. Alaina leaned in to kiss her 'king-of-the-school' boyfriend. Queue dreamy sigh. Niall Horan – Golden Boy. He moved here from Mullingar, Ireland half way through freshman year. His accent, spiky blonde hair, and flawless blue eyes quickly earned him a spot among high school royalty. His soccer star status kept him there. When I was younger, like most girls, I was slightly obsessed with him. I learned everything about him. For example: his hair was naturally brown, he had an older brother named Greg, and his best friends are and always have been Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson (who was a senior for the second time), Zayn Malik, and Liam Payne. Anyway, as much as I wished I could blame my misery on Alaina, I couldn't. I was not the first girl to fall for Niall, nor was I the last. But he had been dating Alaina since sophomore year.
"Si. Si? Sienna!" I turned to see my best and only friend, Harper Gold, staring at me. She looked slightly angry.
"Sorry, Harp. I guess I zoned out again." We were getting ready for spring break of our junior year and I had spent the last two weeks in a haze. My life had been taken over by late-night cram sessions, fights with the neighbor boys, and weird family dinners.
"It's fine. While you're mooning over Niall, it gives me ample time to plan my date with Harry." Harper was the kind of person that said 'mooning' and 'ample'. She was also a total fan girl, and was president of the Harry Styles fan club. Okay, not really, but if he had a fan club she would totally be the president. I actually wouldn't be surprised if Harry started his own fan club one day. He and Louis were egomaniacs with a God complex, and Zayn was almost that bad. Liam, thankfully, was level-headed and responsible. Sometimes I wondered why he was friends with the others – but they all called him 'Daddy'. Niall, being the bone-head he is, was weirdly insecure and rarely took his shirt off even to swim or scrimmage.
"Harper, you and Harry don't have a date. He doesn't know who you are." At first, I had hated bumming her out by saying that, but after two years of 'mooning' over Harry, I didn't even think before I said it anymore.
"Don't be such a party pooper, Sienna." She pouted.
"I'm not, but if we're late for math again, Mr. Simmons will poop all over your party." She giggled, and we ran inside just as the bell rang.
"Mom! Harper's spending the night!" I yelled as I threw my bag down and jumped up on the counter. Harper made herself at home, stretching across the kitchen table. I fished around for two pudding cups and tossed one to her.
"So… what are the neighbors doing tonight?"
"No. No way, Harp! We are not spying on them again!" I need a new best friend.
"We don't 'spy'. We observe." I rolled my eyes.
"Whatever. We're still not doing it." She pouted and I gave in.
"Fine. We'll spy." I headed towards my room and I heard her jump up and follow me.
"Observe. Not spy. Observe."
Once up in my room, we raised all the blinds, opened the window, and set up two chairs facing the old, two-story Victorian I'd been living next to all my life. We peered (semi creepily) out the window. Liam Payne sat outside in his front yard, staring up at the sky. He was shirtless and had a soccer ball by his head, so I figured he was just practicing for the big game soon. He saw us and waved. I waved back and blushed. Liam and I used to be fairly good friends, back in grade school. That was before Harry moved to town in seventh grade and introduced the concept of 'popularity'.
"So are they coming? They're coming right?" Harper nagged.
"Yes, Harper. They're coming. They always come." Liam, Zayn, Harry, Niall, and Louis formed a band a few months ago that practiced at Liam's house every Wednesday. Coincidentally, Harper's been spending the night every other Wednesday since she found that out. We looked back outside to see that Danielle, Liam's girlfriend, had joined him.
"Hey, Sienna!" She yelled. I waved back. Danielle was actually pretty nice. Although she never talked to me at school, she always made me feel welcome at parties or the boys' concerts. Hannah and Alaina, however, had cleverly dubbed me 'Sienderella' and played the ugly step sisters as often as they could.
"Are you going to listen to us tonight?" Liam yelled. I decided to actually speak for once.
"If that's okay with you?" Great, Sienna. Clever, you're really cut out for popularity.
"It's perfect. We'll be extra loud for your parents!" Liam joked. His garage was like 10 feet away from my house, and my parents frequently called him to complain about the noise. I actually liked their music. It gives me something to listen to while I do my homework.
"Oh, great! They love pop!" Liam might have answered, but Alaina and Hannah, Louis' girlfriend, pulled up in Hannah's yellow bug. Liam painted on a fake smile, and Danielle seemed to deflate a little as the girls walked towards them. She'd actually told me that she'd rather talk to me than her 'friends', but the only way to be popular was to be friends with Alaina.
"I can't believe Louis would date someone like Hannah." Harper cried. I could. Hannah hadn't gone to grade school with the rest of us so when she moved to town and immediatley threatened Alaina's rule, it was do or die. Give her what she wanted or be overrun in a major high school coup. And right away, Hannah wanted Louis. So Hannah got Louis. I didn't think he was the kind of guy that would date her just to protect Alaina's popularity - he wasn't that stupid - but it was a pretty one-sided relationship. As they moved inside, Zayn and Niall pulled up in Mrs. Malik's light blue Beamer. They got out and I swear the whole world switched to slow motion. Somewhere a fan blew back their hair and it was like a movie scene. Zayn walked towards Liam, sliding off his aviators in the process. Niall slid across the hood Dukes-of-Hazard style. He walked (still in slomo) towards Liam for a man-hug thing and Zayn got a high five. Niall hugged Danielle and barely glanced at Hannah as he headed towards his girlfriend, and Zayn yelled 'vas happenin?'. And with that, everything switched back to normal. Harper and I stared at each other.
"What… just happened?" She stuttered.
"Stress – induced hallucination?" It seemed like the best excuse, so we moved on. As they all moved inside, Louis and Harry pulled up with a big red Hummer and a cloud of dust. They moved towards the garage and Hannah rushed out and practically started eating Louis' face off. Harper and I looked away, grimacing. Seriously, EW. Alaina marched out of the garage, and everyone expected it to look pretty much like Hanna and Louis. But we were all surprised. She stormed up to Niall and let loose.
"What the heck was up with you today? You were zoned out all day!" What? We all held our breath, waiting to see what would happen. Niall was really sensitive, and usually just shuts down when Alaina gets pissed, as if trying to stay out of her way as much as possible. "Seriously, Niall. If you're not 'here' it could totally hurt my rep! Get it together!" I started to feel really, really bad for Niall, and really, really pissed at Alaina.
"Sorry." Niall muttered, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Alaina caught my eyes and got that evil look on her face. She stepped closer to Niall and made him look up at her.
"It's okay, babe." She kissed him… passionately. What kind of witch does that? You couldn't just play with someone's emotions like that to make someone else jealous! I rolled my eyes and looked away as Harper distracted me.
"Zayn, you're up!" We heard Savan Kotecha, Zayn's cousin and the boys' voice coach yelled ten minutes later.
"Go fish." I said as Zayn launched into a cover of 'Let Me Love You'. Usually, their rehearsals took forever because they started out with individual practice, then group practice, and then started talking about songs. It was ridiculous.
"Um… That was good, Zayn…" Savan sounded like he was trying to decide who should go next while Liam and Zayn worked on their dancing.
"Harry." Harper and I muttered together. Harry was always second, unless he was first. Harper said it was the dimples. I said it was the hair.
"Harry." Told you. "You're going to sing 'Isn't She Lovely', correct?" Savan knew that – he had helped Harry learn the song. I think he just like to sound professional.
"Uh… yeah." Harry sounded confused. Which was pretty normal - he usually either spoke in his 'confused' voice, his 'serious' voice or his 'pussy magnet' voice. As Harry started to sing, Zayn and Liam moved outside to practice a dance.
"Hey, Sienna." Liam said. Zayn finally spared a gflance and a half smile in our general direction before looking away again. Suddenly Harry stopped and Niall and Alaina stormed out of Liam's garage. She looked disturbingly calm.
"Look, Ni, you're great and all, but did you really think I'd leave for spring break still dating you?" She paused momentarily. Niall didn't say anything, which obviously meant 'yes, I did'. "Oh, that's sweet. But I am flying down to Miami. I can't have a boyfriend up here - I'm too beautiful." Okay, seriously, who does this?
"I'm so going to be the first to tweet about the Nalaina fight!" Harp muttered. I almost didn't catch that she said 'Nalaina'.
"Who gives high schoolers couple names?" I asked incredulously. Seriously, these guys weren't celebrities.
"Shut up, losers!" Alaina yelled. I hadn't thought we were being that loud, but the Queen had given an order and I would be a fool not to obey. I could be banished from the Kingdom. I really hope you're getting all the sarcasm I poured into to that because there was a lot.
"Listen, Niall, you don't even have to worry about Prom. I mean, we said we'd go together even if it was just as friends, right? Okay, thanks for being so cool about this." I couldn't see Niall's face clearly, but I was pretty sure he was not at all 'cool about this'. Hannah walked out of the garage, followed by a shell-shocked Louis, so I assumed the same thing had just happened. The two girls jumped back in the punch buggy and sped away. Louis stood there before he hit his kness and yelled "I'm free!". Zayn ran over to celebrate with him and Harry came up to Niall, stifling giggles.
"Did that just happen? Did Alaina Johanson just dump you?" He laughed.
"That was harsh." I liked Niall, but I couldn't help the little laugh that escaped my lips as I watched Harry giggle. Apparently I was being loud because the three boys looked up at me. I smiled, blushed, and slammed the window shut.
"Hey! I wanted to listen!" Harper whined.
"Just go to bed. My cousins are coming tomorrow."
Harry POV
"I'm sorry, man." Liam said quietly, giving Niall a side hug. I was sorry too, but in so much shock I couldn't stop laughing about it. It was pretty legendary, though. Niall shrugged Liam off.
"Its fine."
"No, man. Its not." I said. "The prom queen just dumped you three weeks before prom!" Not only could that dent a guy's ego, but it could seriously hurt his rep.
"True... but what if... Alaina wasn't the prom queen?" Was he broken?
"Dude... she's gonna be prom queen. She's basically running unopposed. That means she has to win." Louis said slowly. Niall shook his head.
"What if some other girl beat her?" Lou and I actually laughed out loud at that one.
"Who? Hannah? She's only running so that Laney doesn't win by default." Zayn chimed in. But Niall had that look on his face - he had a plan.
"Nah. I could take any girl and turn her into Alaina Johanson. With the right look, the right boyfriend - bam. Instant popularity." This was getting interesting...
"That sounds like a challenge." He looked me in the eye.
"Oh, it was, Styles. I have three weeks 'til prom. If I can't take a girl and make her queen by then, you win." I smiled.
"You're on, Horan." We reached out to shake, but Liam stopped us.
"No way. As the responsible one I cannot let Niall do this. His head's not right, he just got publicly dumped."
"I'm fine, Liam!"
"Yeah, Li, he's a big boy. He knows what he's doing!" Louis laughed.
"C'mon, Daddy, don't protect him." Zayn taunted. "Who knows? Maybe he'll get lucky!" Yes, that was sarcastic.
"Fine. Shake." Liam sighed. We shook, and looked back at Liam.
"Get the yearbook. Begin the search."
"I like her... Sarah Goad." Zayn pointed to a picture of some girl I have never seen before.
"Not her!" Niall cried. I agreed. She just wasn't...right.
"Um... Her?" Louis pointed to a picture of Harper Gold, that cute, geeky girl from my Spanish class. For some reason, having her be Niall's girl gave me a weird feeling.
"No." I said. We turned the page, and Louis immediately pointed to a picture of a familiar looking girl with big classes and messy hair. I think it was a picture from last year.
"I like her." Zayn agreed.
"Sienna doesn't look like that anymore, guys!" Liam warned. That was her name! Sienna Jones, Liam's neighbor. Zayn looked closer.
"Oh yeah. She's not ugly."
"But... isn't she..." I smiled. "Scary and unapproachable?" Niall looked a little scared.
"No. Bad breath, ugly, weird habits - I can handle that. But not 'scary'." It was brilliant. No way could Niall get her to trust him in time.
"You seemed pretty confident in your little theory, Nialler." I pointed out. He took a deep breath.
"Fine. Sienna Jones. Done." He choked out. Perfect. Zayn, Lou, and I got up to get our stuff and I saw Liam pull Niall a little closer.
"Listen. In order for this to work, you cannot... fall in love." I almost laughed out loud. Niall did.
"I don't think that'll be a problem."
"Fine. If you don't think so, then it won't. But seriously, I'm warning you. Don't fall in love." And that was the end of that.