Stephanie’s P.O.V.
“We’re here,” Harry announced, untangling himself from me.
The fact that he had never moved and he was still living in the same house made me cry even more. This whole day has been so emotional, and this jeg lag was not making it any better.
Rachel and Niall got out first, then me, Elijah, and Harry. Rachel and I walked to the front door while Gemma, Anne, and the boys helped unload our luggage and carry it to the door.
“Surprise!” voices shouted the instant we walked in. I recognized the 3 boys standing in front of me from the few video chats we had.
“Liam? Louis? Zayn?” I declared, giving them hugs.
“Oh, my God, hey guys!” Rachel exclaimed from behind me, embracing them, too.
“A little help here?” Niall asked, under the pressure of our bags.
“Sorry,” I laughed. I stepped over to him and assisted him with the luggage, setting it at the foot of the stairs. Everyone else helped and we piled into the living room.
“So, are you done crying, Steph?” Elijah asked me.
“For now, who knows what’ll happen next?” I answered.
“How does it feel being back in your hometown?” Louis questioned.
“Weird, but a good weird,” I said.
“Is anybody hungry?” Anne asked us.
“Yeah,” we all chimed at her.
“Gemma, would you help me prepare dinner?” she asked Gemma, and both of them disappeared into the kitchen.
“So, Rachel, what would you like to see here?” Liam interrogated.
“Uh, I don’t know. I mean, the only things I know are in London, but…” Rachel replied.
“We can take a day trip to London,” Zayn responded.
“Yeah, or we could stay there for a few days. London’s big, I still haven’t seen everything I want,” Niall spoke.
As they planned the trip to London, Elijah poked me and asked to see me alone. He led me to a small family room and got comfortable on the couch.
“It was getting too loud in there and I just wanted to bond with my sister,” he explained cheekily.
“Aw,” I said, giggling and sitting down next to him.
“So, tell me about yourself! What do you like to do?” he asked.
“Um, well, I hate school, I’m in love with boybands, and I love glitter,” I responded in a completely straight expression.
Elijah bursted out laughing and I smiled. He had a hearty laugh, one that comes deep within the chest. It made it feel more homey in the room.
“I’m serious though!” I added.
“Well, now I know you’ve got a good sense of humor,” he replied, grinning.
“Me, funny?” I delivered, surprised.
“Yeah!” he responded. “Okay, what else do you like to do?”
“Um, I really love music. I’m hoping one day to become a singer. I’ve actually written a couple of songs,” I revealed. Oh, my God, I’d never told anyone that I’d written songs before. Rachel and Harry didn’t even know.
“Just like mother,” Elijah whispered.
“What?”
“By the way, dad really wants to see you,” he added. “Dad’s told me lots of stories of mum, and she wanted to be a singer, too. He swears she had the most beautiful voice in the world. She began writing songs after she met him, songs about romance and freedom. Dad believes they were the most amazing songs ever, but she passed before she could get them recorded. It’s no wonder you have that talent and passion.”
“Really?” I breathed, smiling.
“Yeah,” he said, and grinned at me.
“Are you like that, too?” I asked him.
“Somewhat, I mean, I like music, but I can’t write songs. I’m more like dad. We both like football and I used to play all the time in school, from kindergarten until a few years ago. We still go to games all the time, though.”
“Wait, football as in…”
“Oh, that’s right, you lived in America. Football as in soccer. We don’t have ‘American football’ here,” he explained.
“I figured,” I replied.
“Dinner’s ready!” Anne shouted from the kitchen.
“Let’s go eat, I’m starving,” Elijah voiced, standing up.
I followed him into the dining room and sat down next to Harry, who revealed his dimples as he smiled wide. Everyone else slowly came in and settled down, and then Anne and Gemma brought the dishes out and set them in the middle of the table, seating themselves in the last 2 spots afterwards.
“Okay, everyone, dig in!” Anne exclaimed.
Hands started going everywhere as everyone took what they could fit on their plates. There was so much food that I was surprised Anne and Gemma made all of this, especially in a short time.
Dinner went by very quickly and it caused Harry, Rachel and I to start falling asleep. It was only about 8:30, but jetlag is a pain and all I wanted to do was crash. But before I could do that, we had to move our luggage into the small cottage we would be staying in.
Basically, all of us were in the cottage (except for Anne and Gemma, obviously). Elijah told our dad that he would be staying the night here with us, and of course my dad was okay with it.
The cottage wasn’t as small as I was expecting. There was a living room, 2 bedrooms, and a bathroom, enough living space for all 8 of us. We divided it up and Louis and Zayn would take one bedroom, Elijah and Liam in the other, and Niall, Rachel, Harry and I in the living room.
“How is that going to work?” I asked.
“You girls get the 2 couches and we’ll sleep on the floor,” Harry explained.
“But isn’t that uncomfortable?” Rachel questioned, and I nodded.
“I asked the boys if they could help set this all up for us, and they brought extra mattresses down here,” Harry said. “We’ll be in here for the whole summer, so we wanted to make sure it was comfortable in here before we actually begin living in here.”
“Ah, gotcha,” I replied, yawning.
After a while, everyone was in their pajamas and ready for bed. I climbed on the couch and underneath the covers and attempted to fall asleep.

For the next few hours, I was tossing and turning on the couch. I could not fall asleep at all. The couch was comfortable, so it wasn’t that, but my mind was still awake and it would not shut down. I checked my iPod and it read 2:02am. There was only one thing I could do that could suppress this.
I threw back the covers and sat up, my eyes opening to the darkness. I walked over to Harry and tapped his shoulder, hoping he would wake up.
“Harry?” I whispered. “Harry, wake up.”
“Hmm?” he answered, not opening up his eyes.
“Harry,” I whispered again, a little louder and shaking his shoulders this time.
He popped open his eyes to see me and immediately turned his attention towards me.
“Steph, what’s wrong?!”
“I-I can’t sleep,” I admitted.
He blinked twice before smiling and pulling the covers to make space for me. I climbed under the warm blankets and he put his arms around me, cuddling me safe.
“Better?” he asked.
“Yes,” I whispered, before instantly falling asleep.

The next morning, I woke up with the sun shining beautifully in through the windows. I opened my eyes and felt heat from behind me, so I turned around to see Harry sleeping peacefully next to me. I reached over to find my iPod, but then I remembered it was on the table by the couch. I was going to use it to figure out the time, but I must have been pretty stupid because there was a clock hanging on the wall right in front of my face. It was just past 10:00.
I slowly got up and made my way into the bathroom. I didn’t want to leave Harry’s side, but I was hungry and wanted to wake up. Showering quickly, I got ready and by the time I was finished, mostly everyone else was awake. I padded back into the living room and sat down on my couch.
Elijah, Louis, Liam, and Harry were the ones who were up and talking quietly, but opened up their circle for me.
“So what’s the plan for today?” I asked.
“Well, us boys have a writing session from noon until 3,” Liam said, clearly the one who’s organized in this teenage mess.
“I was thinking of showing Steph around the city after that,” Harry butted in. I smiled.
“Well, for the rest of us, why don’t we go bowling?” Louis suggested.
“Aw, I wanna go bowling,” I pouted.
“How about you guys come back here after your writing session and we go once Harry and Steph are back?” Elijah offered.
“Sure, I like that,” Liam agreed. Louis and Harry nodded.
“Don’t make it too long, then, Harry,” Elijah warned.
“I won’t, it’ll probably be about an hour. That ok?” Harry asked.
“Yeah, that should be fine,” Liam said.
“Pizza and movies after that, then?” Louis proposed.
“Yeah!” Harry shouted.
“Ssshh, people are still sleeping,” Elijah shushed, looking over at Rachel and Niall.
I peered over at them too and the sight was actually pretty cute. Rachel was on the couch and Niall on the floor, but their hands were only inches apart, as if they were intertwined but it fell apart throughout the night. It’s kind of like what you see in the movies.
“Don’t forget Zayn. You know how that boy can sleep for days,” Louis added.
“Anyways, is that okay for today?” Elijah asked us.
“Yeah,” we agreed.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry,” Harry said.
“Did your mum make breakfast?” I questioned him.
“I don’t know, we’ll see,” he answered, and all 5 of us exited the cottage and headed up the short path to the house.

Notes

It seems as though I'm updating every week...I don't know if that will stay the same, though

Thanks so much for reading and please check out my other fanfic, "Drama" here and on Wattpad, too! :)

Rachel and Stephanie :)