Chapter eight – high school

Harry's POV

I looked over at Louis during the song and saw pain in his eyes. I wondered if he had finally spoken to Eleanor and if things didn't go as planned. I needed to talk to him about it, but this with neither the time nor the place. As it came up to my solo, I thought of Sydney and her take on this portion of the song. This portion was honestly the reason we chose her and Theresa. When we were watching the video it slowly zoomed into her face. First her eyes, smiling on their own as she slowly blinked. Then her mouth, her perfect smile forming at the end of every word like she honestly believed every word coming out her mouth. She was sincere throughout the entire thing, and that's why we picked them. They were also extremely talented, and that was a plus. But this sincerity, it gave them potential, it gave them a power over everyone as they listened to their songs and saw them perform.

I thought of her voice. Her range was spectacular. From the video I thought she was a nice low soprano, but watching her in CATS, it was quite the contrary. I envied her raw talent, especially after learning she had never had honest voice lessons in her life. This was all complimented even more by how beautiful she was. When he got back to the hotel last night, the only thing any of us could talk about was how beautiful she was. It was kind of surreal, actually. Liam was the only one who kept knocking her off her pedestal, saying that she must have her faults as well. I felt a little guilty that none of us really mentioned Theresa, but she was just so quiet.

I obviously had wondered how the fans were going to respond to them joining us and spending so much time with us. It was obvious that there was going to be the media as a factor, trying to stir up drama in order to make sales. Our fans, however, were a bit possessive.

We finished the song and started our announcement. When everything was over, we started down the hallway. We had spoken to all of the teachers beforehand about our little surprise, and were actually okay with us interrupting their classes.

"So, who's going where?" Niall asked, anxious to get the day started.

"Well, Zayn and I decided to go with Theresa today," Liam spoke up, nodding with Zayn.

"Then Harry, Louis, and I will go with Sydney," Niall responding. We agreed and headed off in separate directions. Sydney was in chemistry right now, a class that seemed somewhat important. We opened the door and waltzed through the door, spotting Sydney in the far back corner. She was looking down, writing. Her hair dropped beside her in flowing waves as she pushed it out of the way with her hand. I was just staring at her when I heard a squeal. Right next to her was a small Indian girl jumping up and down. Sydney then looked up and noticed our presence.

She glared at us and mouthed, "I'm going to murder you." This only made us laugh more as we took seats right next to her and didn't speak a word.

The day was over and we had all regrouped around Sydney's car.

"I can't believe you guys did that," Theresa said, looking at the ground. She was upset because we had caused a riot in the hallway and used them as human shields. Today was more fun then I had expected, as I was not looking forward to being back in school. Sydney was so quiet in class it was strange, though. She didn't talk to anyone and no one really spoke to her.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," she said, reaching for her keys.

"Where are you guys going?" I asked, wondering what we could do to keep ourselves occupied.

"We're going prom dress shopping," Theresa replied.

"Well, Theresa is going shopping, I'm just helping." Sydney stated.

"Do you already have your dress, then?" Zayn asked.

"No, I'm, uhhh, not going to prom." She responded, looking at the ground.

"Why not," he asked, arching his eyebrow.

"It's really embarrassing, but, umm, because no one asked and I refuse to go without a date." She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. I could see a tear start to well up inside of her eyes. She quickly turned around and got inside of her car. Theresa shot us an apologetic look and climbed in the car as well.

They pulled away just in time for me to see the tears start flowing out of her eyes.

"So," I turned to the boys. "Which one of us is asking her?"