"Horan, wake up!" I heard a voice yell, demandingly, screaming at the top of my lungs at the sound of the voice.

"This is no time for naps." said Coach Terrence, walking a away from me, continuing to talk about nonsense to me about sleep. Sleep. all that Layla talked about of the curly haired boy and him being Mackenzie's dad was just a dream? My Dad was never in a boy band? Oh my gosh, I knew I'd wake up to reality in a while! I knew that was all just creative shit I dreamt about!

"Horan! Did you here me?' said Coach, nodding my head in a agreement, pretending to listen.

"Good, now I'll be back in a while, you kids better not be asleep or-"

"Go anywhere! We get it!" Layla finished his sentence, rolling her eyes at him. He gave an evil glare to Layla and then quickly left the library, rushing to the next class he had. I am so glad that this was all just a dream! I mean, having a famous dad would be pretty cool, no debts, no more shortage on money, no more being poor. But, I'm really glad that it was just a dream, Dad would never lie to me about being in a boy band, if he was ever in one per say.

"Oh my god!" sighed Greg, the rest of the people in the room worried.

"What?" I asked them, wanting to know why they were like that.

"Dude, I had to carry you across the library just so that we wouldn't be in deep shit!" Greg explained, confused on why he had to carry me.

"If you didn't faint, then we wouldn't have to be worried about anything right now." Mackenzie said, stressed.

"Well, except for that band." Sonny said, my eyes widening, hoping that she didn't mean what I think she meant.

"What band?"

"You know, that boy band?" Layla said, still dumbfounded at her answer.

"The fucking boy band that our dad's are in!" scowled Greg, getting back the same feeling I had again, wanting to hurl.

"I still can't believe that Mr. Malik was once famous! It makes sense now how he met my mum..." Layla began to think as I tried to catch my breath.

"So that band is really, like real?" I muttered, not making sense to anything that I've said.

"Well that's what the computer says," Sonny responded not knowing how to react to all this! Layla seemed happy and excited, Greg seemed dumbfounded and confused, Sonny seemed regretful and sad, Mackenzie seemed to be in disbelief and unaware, and I, I didn't know how to react about this. Should I be happy, sad, confused, angry? I don't know if having a famous father would be good or bad. We could pay everything we had that was in debt, like the rented apartment, the adjustments to the house, I could go to Juliarts! It's stupid to think I could go, I mean I'll never get in to Juliarts, but at least I have a chance. Yet, Daddy wouldn't be here as much as he is now, he wouldn't help me practice football, he wouldn't sing Bobby and I to sleep at night, the three of us couldn't watch a scary movie on Friday night, and like Daddy's friend Ellie, we couldn't go out as much as we do now. What am I supposed to do?

"Okay, um quick question, who's happy about this?" I asked the four people curiously.

"Well, I'm pretty happy about it, I mean I have two famous parents! Isn't that awesome!" Okay, Layla's opinion doesn't count in this vote.

"Uh, cool I guess? Maybe having a singer as my father wouldn't be so bad, and torturing." Greg shrugged, trying to sound glad about it.

"Yeah, I mean that's really awesome to have a famous father." Two votes from Sonny and Greg, now we need Mackenzie's vote.

"No." that was all Mackenzie had to say. No.

"No reason?" I asked her.

"Well, it's a bit complicated and personal to say. For example, my dad's been rejected just too many times because of his "background", which I now understand why. He doesn't have much friends and only stays home which is quite depressing, and we rarely go out to restaurants as a family. Makes sense why he's like that!" That's actually not a bad reason. My dad's sort of like that which I can relate to her a lot. We don't go out much either, we only do take out and leave. Dad hasn't put himself back in the whole dating game possibly because of that, or worse reasons which worry the most. Yet, if we let this opportunity down, things would be the same like they are now, and a change is sort of needed in this family, in my life.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think we could put this stupid, old boy band back together. " I said out loud, looking at their reaction.

"Hahahahahahahahahahaha! That's funny, yeah and you know while we're at it, let's ask David Beckham to help us out too!" Greg laughed while the others looked at me oddly.

"What?"'

"If you thought that was gonna make us laugh, then well done for making Greg laugh his head off." Said Sonny, clapping her hands as Greg continued to die of laughter.

"But it wasn't a joke, I'm serious about this." I said, their jaws dropping and eyes widening.

"You are a genius Jade! This is so gonna shut Marisa up about her mum being the superintendent and her dad being an American business man. Talk about having a boring life!" Layla overreacted, her mind finally making sense now, well a bit.

"Yes! This is going to be awesome!" Sonny said with excitement, trying not to scream just yet.

"Absolutely not! Besides, how are going to plan this whole set up anyway!" Mackenzie demanded, knowing that there was no way we could pull it off.

"Well..." I drifted off, not knowing what else to think. How could we pull this off?

"We could do this! With Mack's intelligence, Greg's mischievous ways, Layla's demanding skills, Jade's knowledge in the studio and music business, and my...well I don't know what I could do but I'll find out soon. We do have what it takes to do this!" Sonny said encouragingly. It's true, we can do this with a bit of help from a few more people but other than that, we do have a chance to put the band back together. It's a long shot but it's better trying than not doing anything.

"Who's in?" Sonny said, putting her hand into the middle of the people.

"I'm in," Layla responded putting her hand on top of Sonny.

"I'll do it," said Greg, putting his hand in.

"Fuck yeah," I said doing the same as them.

"Mack?" questioned Sonny hopefully, Mackenzie or "Mack" thinking about this.

"I'll do it, under one condition."

"What?" I asked curiously.

"If we do put the band back together and they all say yes to the singing career, you guys better not change!" Mack said as we all nodded our heads in agreement.

"Alright, I'm in." she sighed, agreeing to the plan.

"Great! So what do we do?" Asked Greg as we all sat down on the floor in the middle of the library to talk.

"Well, we first have to see where to began with this plan." Mack said, taking out a notebook and pencil.

"So, I've made some things we need to figure out and some things we need for the set up." she said, concentrating on what she was writing. I never knew she would want to be involved in this so much.

"Who's gonna know about this?" she asked, the four of us shrugging at her question.

"Well, the less people know, the better chance we have to keep it a secret a bit longer. So I say that only us five should know about this. Who agrees?" Well, I want to tell Bobby and Theo about it, I mean they need to know about Dad's singing career! Looking at the rest of the people, they all raised their hand in agreement, so I decided to go along with it.

"Good. Next is, where to start. Any ideas?" Many. I have like my mind full of ideas right now, good ones, and I'm not even joking! Dad works at Mercury Records, so I could just casually ask somebody who works there if I could get an appointment with somebody famous or from their record label. I don't know the details about this plan very well, but there'll be more to come.

"How about we try sneak into the band's old record label or try to speak to somebody who is capable of putting the band back together." Once I spoke, they all looked at me surprised.

"And how are we supposed to do that? We could get caught and be punished and worse yet, we could go to jail." Sonny said, doubting me.

"I know my ways in Mercury Records, my dad works there as a sound engineer, and since we've been here in the UK for a month, the people over there kind of trust me. I was my dad's little messenger before school started." I said, laughing at the memories of the past month, happy, hoping the memories would last. That was until Layla asked a stupid question, and my heart broke into pieces.

"That's pretty cool, and your mum works as?" I wanted to start crying, I wanted to run away, hide, do something, but then I'd look foolish and desperate. I can't do that.

"She, uh, was a waitress." I said with a fake smile on my face, trying to hold back tears. I didn't want them to know about my personal life and issues, who knows what they could do. I don't want them to treat me any different than before.

"A waitress. Hey, why haven't you mentioned your mum before?" Sonny questioned me.

"Oh well, it's complicated." I didn't how to break it to them. Even if I just told them about her passing, I would start bawling my eyes out.

"You must get like free food at the place where your mum works at. I don't get anything from my parents." sighed Layla, letting out the smoke between her lips.

"I mean I have like a famous mum who takes me everywhere, well used to, and she'd get like little souvenirs every where we went. Yet, the souvenirs we're terrible! She got me a charms! It's ridiculous!" No it isn't! They're gifts that are supposed to be remembered and loved, not abused and mistreated!

"Oh, and Mr. Malik, yeah I'm moving in with him and his two kids today! Stupid right? Just because he 'Saved' me from being lost in the city. He's stupid and ignorant and if he thinks that he could just barge into my life like that it'll never mean I'll ever treat him like father."

"Stop!" I let out, angered by her attitude and horrid comments.

"He's your dad! He's the man that will protect you at night, tuck you in, hug you with all his strength. He's the first boy that you'll ever love, and that love is for eternity. He's there for you and he'll always be even though you're millions of miles apart from each other." I spoke out, letting tears running down my checks.

"Excuse me, but he was never there for me! Where was he when I got dumped by Danny?" Layla screamed, seeing in her eyes fury.

"See, here's the thing about you, you only care about the material, not about the things that really matter! That boy must've been like the love of your life for you, but there's a lot more people out there in the world!" I felt strong and powerful, yet weak and helpless. She had to know the truth about how she was acting, because it was just sad to see her be such a brat.

"Listen here Horan, I had to grow up quick when I was 10, my parents got separated, and I chose to go with my mum. Mr. Malik isn't my father anymore, he never was, he's a dick! He never gave me a present for my birthday, he never gave me a gift while I was away, and he's desperate to get my attention! What do you know about growing up?" Layla snapped at me, feeling abused and embarrassed. Reacting to her comment, I bitch slapped her right across her face, angered by her.

"I know everything about growing up! You didn't have to deal with an alcoholic father when you were 4 now did you? You didn't have to deal with the feeling of sadness and depression when you were little, am I right? You didn't have to deal with a father who went to all kinds of different places for weeks now did you? You didn't have to deal with the fact that something bad could've happened to your dad while he was away. No more tucking in, lullabies, fun, those were the things I had to sacrifice when I was little because my dad was never home! He was off working his ass off for me and my little brother! He needed the money for us to get into collage, for food, for all kinds of things people need just to take care of their kids! You didn't have to hush your father almost every fucking night to sleep just so that he'd stop crying! You didn't have to see your mum take her last breath before she left when you were 4 now did you!" Tears were now streaming down my cheeks, constantly falling down my chin and onto my shirt. Sonny's, Mack's, Greg's, and even Layla's face seemed hurt. They seemed sorry and awful for me, and I couldn't stand their reaction, it only made me angrier.

"I-I'm so sorry Jade. I-I never knew-"

"No! Just...leave me alone!" I huffed, cutting off Layla before she said another fucking word. I walked away from them, taking my backpack, iPhone from the basket, and leaving this fucking library, furious and confused and awful. It hurts me how stupid people who don't cherish things and take everything for granted. It sickens me! I kept thinking about it, about all those memories, all those nights I was wrapped around Dad's arms as he bawled his eyes out on my shoulder, squeezing me tightly. All those weekends he left the house, drinking himself away at a pub near the house, then coming home to see him angry and depressed, cussing at everything, drinking bottles of beer then suddenly smashing them on the floor. Hearing all those whimpers and cries coming from downstairs, apologizing at everything he's ever done. Then the memory that hurt me the most hit me, falling down to the floor in the halls, letting out everything. The week after mum's death was the breaking point for Dad, he had enough with it. He was ready to leave the world, to leave his kids and family for his wife, with just a handful of pills, he could've died in the blink of an eye, but he didn't. I remember everything that happened. He was in the bathroom, sobbing, ready to kill himself, until I showed up, watery eyes and a tear stained shirt. He just took one glance at me and he broke down, kneeling down and squeezing the life out of me. Hearing him say "I'm sorry, I'm sorry", and it was that day where I decided that it was time for me to grow up, to protect my family, to protect him.

"Jade?" I heard a familiar voice say, looking up from my wet hands to see Mack rushing towards me, kneeling down onto the floor.

"What do you want?" I snapped at her, jerking my shoulder away from her.

"I just wanted to know if you were okay?"

"Well I'm not okay, now get out of here." I said, drying my eyes with my sweater's sleeves.

"Come here," she said, wrapping her arms around me, feeling a bit awkward about this.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to make you feel better. You need the hug." she laughed, rubbing my head.

"I've had a really rough time too, not like your experience, but I've had my own trouble too." Mack said, beginning to wonder what she meant.

"What's that?" I sniffed, taking away strands of hair from my face. She sighed, biting her lower lip before she lifted up her sleeve that was covered in white bandages, wincing while she took off the bandage, revealing cuts that reached all the way to her elbow. Scars overlapping scars, fresh cuts dripping blood down to the floor.

"Why do you do that?" I asked her, observing her cuts.

"Because, it's easier to do this and feel the pain than doing nothing while being constantly hurt by other people, hating on yourself, wanting to suicide yourself every minute of the day."

"But why do you hate yourself?"

"Why not? It's not like people already like me! They disgust me and think that I'm weird." she said, wrapping the bandage back onto her arms.

"You're not weird, you're just different that people can't handle your awesomeness!" I laughed as she shook her head.

"Not like that kind of different or weird..." she sighed, feeling bad for her. I never knew people hurt themselves just to calm them down from the world around them. I don't get why she would think of suiciding herself, life is precious and beautiful to just die suddenly at a young age. My dad could've left this lovely world, but he didn't because he knew he had a purpose here. I only have one life, and I don't wanna waste one minute of it, I wanna live it.

Notes