My Judgements Clouded ♥

CHAPTER ONE

One month until Christmas. Two days until One Direction’s album Up All Night was released in New Zealand. That’s what I was waiting for now. Not the end of November, not the last day of school or the ending of spring. No, instead of anticipating the days when school was let out, summer was in full swing and my favourite month of the year came around, I was more excited for the fact that my parents were going out to buy me Up All Night for one of my Christmas present. Yesterday, I had arrived home to our house done up in Christmas decorations. The fake tree was a tangle of silver tinsel, twinkling lights that were meant to represent icicles and white, silver and pale blue decorations; this year my mum decided that we would deck the tree in white, to represent snow. “You’re typical and traditional snowy Christmas card Christmas tree” she sang as she danced around to ‘White Christmas’ as she replaced china ornaments, school photographs and birthday cards on the bookshelf with fat Santa’s, photos of my siblings and I on bored looking mall Santa’s knees and Christmas cards we have received. She even went so far as to place cotton balls and white polystyrene on the bookshelf around the Christmas ornaments, as if it snowed inside. But right now, it was a Sunday afternoon and the weather was the complete opposite of typical English white snow and dull grey clouds. The sky was a frightening bright blue and the sun was hot and strong as it shone down from its place in the sky. Sail boats bobbed peacefully on the clear blue water and the green hills in the background looked quite picturesque. Summer was here, even though it was only November. I was sitting out on the deck, my legs and arms turning a nice healthy brown and my favourite boy band playing on my iPod. If I had one weakness, it would be my love for One Direction. My four friends, Molly, Emma, Tayla and Moana and I adored that band! We had seen every XFactor video, all the video diaries, we knew every inside joke, we stayed up all night to listen to new songs and watch new music videos and we read their tweets like the daily newspaper. There were no one at our school who were bigger Directioners then my friends and I.
I was reading the tweets from the boys, saving Niall Horan’s twitter page for last. I loved all of the boys equally as they were all amazing but I had a wee soft spot for our Irish boy Nialler. As I read through Harry’s tweets, I noticed something which made me nearly squeal in delight. ‘Kiwi fans, prepare for a 1D invasion! Can’t wait to get to NZ next week! .x’ I was nearly crying. They were coming to New Zealand! The other boys had tweeted about the trip to New Zealand, so I immediately called up Molly.
“Guess what!?” I squealed, looking through all the tweets on my computer. “If it is to do with the boys coming to New Zealand, then I know! Moana rang me!” Molly was smiling down the phone and I could tell, without even looking at her. She was just that type of person that was always genuinely happy, always put you before herself and knew how to make you feel better. She had strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes and was so beautiful. She absolutely loved Liam.
I called Emma and Tayla, each of them excited as me. I was now looking forward to school tomorrow. I was now looking forward to something other than Christmas Day.

***
My name is Emily Collins and I am seventeen years old. I live in a small town in New Zealand and have great friends and family. If there was one thing I could change about my life, it would be about where I am now. I was still in school, of course and I would be year 13 next year. Of course I was going to finish the year, but sometimes, like tonight, when it was late at night and all that was running through my mind was answers for maths equations, dates from various world wars from our History revision sheet and a story for my next blog entry in Journalism, I realised I needed to do something with myself. I was tossing and turning in my sleep, trying to figure out what I needed to do. What I really needed was a break. I needed to get out of my day-to-day routine of school and sport. I needed to do something interesting and exciting, rather than waking up, going to school, going swim training, homework and bed and then doing the same thing all over again. I wanted to travel and explore, try something new. I mean, the One Direction boys did something extraordinary and auditioned for the XFactor and look at them now. I mean, I was the same age as Harry so why can’t I do something amazing? Okay, I can’t sing, or play an instrument or even dance. I have no interest in modelling and I’m not really a talented sports woman who can get scholarships into high-end sports academies. So what can I do?
I pulled out my laptop and sat up in bed, deciding to settle my frazzled mind by writing down my thoughts on my online blog. And that’s when it hit me. I am a talented writer and I love to jot things down on my blog. I could study some place oversees, while having people read my blog on what I do every day while I’m there. I could get a Tourism company to pay for me and it could be like a place people could come to if they needed some ideas on what to do and were to go.
I started to look through an online atlas before deciding, in a true Directioner way, to go to London.

***
“And that’s why I’m applying for London’s School of English Academics!” I had just finished explaining my plan to my friends, on a warm November day. It was Monday and we were sitting on the field, enjoying the sun and the year 13 boys game of rugby, a bit further along. “London! Maybe you will see our boys!?” Molly said, nudging me slightly. I laughed and nodded. We had tried to steer off the topic of Harry, Louis, Niall, Zayn and Liam coming to New Zealand many a time, but we always came back around to it, eventually. “I can’t believe they are coming next week! I so want Harry to fall in love with me…” Emma giggled and flopped onto her back, fantasising. In both physical and mental ways, I was a lot like Emma. She was long legged and tall, with long brown hair and brown eyes. She was quite shy when you first got to know her, but in the end she was crazy and out-going. We were even born only a few days apart, in August. The only real difference between us, was that she had braces (which really suited her) and I didn’t. Tayla and Moana were tanning, lying down with their school uniform skirts tucked up by the shorts they wore underneath. “Harry’s mine!” Moana shot back, grinning. “HE’S MINE!” Tayla cried and we all laughed. We all knew Moana was like Louis. She was crazy and wild, full of dreams and ambitions. Mo was determined and happy, the kind of person who had several bucket lists for different circumstances. She had long blonde hair and hazel eyes and a bubbly personality. Tayla had Zayn’s laidback personality. She was chilled but crazy, relaxed but always buzzing with adventurous energy. That was the only way I could describe her. Tayla had shoulder length brown hair and big brown eyes. My friends were absolutely beautiful, if only they believed it.
The week flew by, a blur of more homework, school routines and swim trainings. More lunchtimes sitting on the field and sleepless nights of tossing and turning, but as each day came to a close, less time till One Direction were on New Zealand soil. It was now a Friday evening and One Direction was doing a gig and a signing tomorrow! They had landed in New Zealand over three hours ago and no one knew where they had landed or where they were staying. I was in the city, which was about a 25 minute train ride from where I live. I had just come out of the swim shop, where I was getting some new training togs. It was a beautiful evening, with the sun setting low over the beach across the swim shop. The water was calm, the light shining onto it and the colours danced from orange, to yellow to a deep navy blue. Usually the parade walk was busy with people talking strolls, kids on bikes and teenagers daring late night dips in the ocean, but tonight the parade was empty except a teenage boy in a red snapback, sitting on the bench enjoying the peacefulness of the gorgeous summer view. I was meeting the girls when I got home, so we could stay the night at mine and wake up early to go wait for the boys’ signing tomorrow morning. We had scarified a mate’s party to do so, but in all truth, we didn’t care. We weren’t girls that liked to drink and stay out late. It was why I loved them so much! I was overwhelmed by the quietness, so I stuck in my iPod headphones and walked absentmindedly along the parade. I wasn’t looking where I was going, letting my jandals guide me home. Of course, being me, it wasn’t that simple. I was walking, before suddenly I realised I was walking in the direction of the bench the boy was sitting at. The only bench, on the whole parade, which had someone sitting at it. And before I could change direction, I had stubbed my toe on that very bench, which hurt quite a lot. I swore and collapsed on the seat, tears pricking at my eyes. “Are you okay!?” said a voice – probably from the boy in the red snapback – which sounded concerned. It also sounded Irish. “Hey, are you alright?” the Voice asked again. Yes, it was definitely Irish. I turned my head to face the Irish boy in the red cap, to answer him, but suddenly I couldn’t speak. My words of ‘no, I am not alright’ stuck to the edges of my dry throat and I knew I was starting to look like a fish, my mouth gaping and my eyes wide. The Irish teenager in the red cap wasn’t just any old Irish teenager in a red cap – I was staring into the concerned and surprised aqua blue eyes, of Niall Horan.