As soon as I walked past the gate, I felt lonely. Very lonely. There was chaos everywhere. People were dashing past me from all sides, babies crying, mothers trying to control their screaming children, people arguing. Well this is a great start.

I sighed and decided it’d be best if I looked for my gate now rather than later. I looked down at my ticket and saw that it said ‘B-23.’ I groaned inwardly as I looked overhead at the signs, I have to walk all the way down to the other side of the airport.

On my way down to my designated gate, I saw a small food court so I decided to stop and get something to eat. Starbucks or McDonald’s? Hm…I hadn’t had McDonald’s breakfast for a while so I settled on a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel and an orange juice.

After paying and getting my order, I continued my trek to my designated gate. Upon finding it, I let out a sigh of relief and slumped down on one of the chairs. As I started taking my food out of the bag, I felt a presence next to me.

I looked over and saw a person wearing sunglasses and their hoodie over their head.
I gave them a strange look.

After a few moments of just staring at each other, I raised an eyebrow and spoke up. “Can I help you?”

“Oh, I’m just sittin’” I instantly knew who it was by their accent.

“Nia-“ He stopped me by placing his hand over my mouth.

“Shh..” he whispered, “I’m incognito.”

I nodded slowly and went right back to what I was doing, taking my food out of my bag. “Riiiiiiight. Where are the rest of the guys?” I asked.

He shot several glances around our gates’ seating area and I followed his gaze. Oh, clever. The boys were all separated and ‘incognito’ just like Niall was.

He removed his hand from over my mouth and smiled at me. I shifted in my seat and self-consciously ate my food. Why is he staring at me while I eat? I looked at him again and asked, “Did you end up eating after we saw each other earlier?”

He nodded.

“Would you like my hash brown?” I offered, seeing as to how he kept eyeing it.

‘’Are ya sure? Ya gotta eat, you’re a growin’ gal.”

I chuckled and handed him my hash brown. I watched him as he chomped down the potato. I don’t know why but I had this weird fascination with watching people eat.

I continued eating my bagel and rolled up the wrapper into a ball and tossed it into the trash can. “SCORE!” I thought I said in my mind, I actually ended up yelling it out. I got stares from a couple of people but I just shrugged it off.

Niall started laughing, mostly to himself, and I shifted in my seat to face him, glaring.

“What’s so funny?”

“You are one weird gal,” He said.

Uh..thanks? Or is this not a compliment…

I raised an eyebrow and took out my iPod. I was shocked when he took the music device out of my hand and started going through my playlists.

“Cobra Starship, A Rocket To The Moon, Walk The Moon..,,are you into bands from space?” He said with a laugh.

I shook my head, laughing a bit. “Hey, they’re pretty good. You should check them out!”

He continued scrolling through my playlists until he stumbled upon something, I assume by the look on his eyes, that he liked. A smirk appeared on his face and I started questioning what he could’ve found that was so intriguing.

“One Direction, love? You like our band!” He said, showing me the picture of the Up All Night cd cover on my iPod screen. He was smiling brightly.

I nodded.

“Who’s your favorite in the band?”

“ I can’t say! I feel that it will be used against me in the future!”

“THAT WAS A TRICK QUESTION. So you do fancy someone in the band..” He winked.

I started blushing so I covered my face. I felt a sudden weight on my lap so I uncovered my face to find none other than another so-called incognito One Direction member. I could tell it was Harry by his curly locks.

“You fancy someone in the band, love?’’ He was grinning too.

“Uh..no..” I turned a deeper shade of red and saw the rest of the boys coming over toward us. Oh boy..

“What’s going on here? You guys are starting a raucous.” Liam said.

Then Louis spoke up, “You guys are having fun without me?!” He fake gasped and that made me laugh a little, despite the fact that I was in an uncomfortable situation.

Zayn just stood there, looking around and making sure no one was paying any attention to us. They were.

“Kayla here fancies one of us! Who’s the lucky lad, love?” Harry spoke, still sitting on my lap. His proximity made me nervous and I just knew the red would not leave my face. I bet I looked as red as a tomato!

I shook my head no but the boys still pestered me with questions.

“Is it me?”

“No it’s clearly me!”

“I’m prettier!”

They were half-yelling by now and if people hadn’t been staring before, they most definitely were now.

Some girls were smart enough to notice who the boys were and they resorted to screaming, “OMG IT’S ONE DIRECTION!” They pointed toward our direction (haha), and all our eyes instantly went wide. A mob of girls, and a handful of boys and parents, started running toward us. Security acted immediately and made sure we could board the plane early since it was already here and ready to go anyway.

As we boarded the plane, the boys each took their seats toward the front of the plane, first class. I was riding coach and my seat was all the way in the back. I excused myself from the boys and they all looked at me with a confused look on their faces.

“You’re not riding first class with us?” Liam asked.

“Uh no…I guess Ms. Novak got me a coach seat.”

Liam scrunched his nose and thought for a moment. “I’ll trade in my ticket,” he said. “I’ll ride with you so you won’t be all alone.”

I smiled, I can see why they call him ‘Daddy Direction.’
“No, it’s fine. I’m a big girl.”

“No, no. I can do it. It’s no big deal, really.”

I shook my head and thanked him again as I headed toward the back of the plane.

Once I found my seat all the way in the back, literally..I was seated on the last row of the airplane, I put my carry-on bag in the bag compartment and sat down. I took out my phone because I had nothing better to do and I could here the boys laughing all the way over here. They were so loud! It sounded like they were having a lot of fun. The truth is, I did want Liam to sit with me. It would’ve been nice, but it’s better if he sits with his friends up in first class.

I was so deep in thought that I was majorly startled by a poke on my side.

“AH!” I squealed and looked over to my left.

“I changed my seat so I could sit with you.”

I smiled. “Louis, you didn’t have to.”

“I wanted to, I don’t want our stylist to get bored!”

“Wellll. I’m technically not really your stylist. I’m just the stylist’s assistant.”

“But the stylist, oh I forgot her name, she said you were also the stylist. We hired two.”

So typical of her. She was going to make me do the work and take all the credit for it.

I sighed and he looked at me.

“Is something wrong, love?” Louis asked.

I shook my head. “No, it’s just. I know what’s ahead for me.”

“What?”

“Well, Ms. Novak is going to make me do all the work. I don’t mind the styling, I love it. But all the designing and stuff…and the little things like ordering the clothes, she’s going to make me do it and take all the credit for it. She always does it. I swear, she hates me.”

“Is this why you’re flying coach? She likes making your life miserable?”

I nodded and started laughing a bit. “Joke’s on her because I don’t mind flying coach.” I winked.

Louis smiled and looked ahead when noises started filling the background. People were starting to board.

“I hope they don’t find out we’re back here.”

“How about you take the window seat? I’m sure if you go incognito..” I said, putting air quotes around ‘incognito,’ “People won’t even notice that you are sitting here.

“That’s a great idea, love!” He said.

I was sitting in the middle and he was sitting by the aisle so he practically climbed over me to get to the window seat. He nearly hit me with his ass. Oh dear.

Once he sat down and buckled his seatbelt I let out the breath I had been holding. Louis put his hoodie over his head and his glasses on.

A couple of the fan girls who had noticed us, well..them, earlier were sitting on the seats directly in front of us. Uh-oh. I motioned to Louis toward their direction and his eyes went wide.

We decided we wouldn’t talk so they wouldn’t hear his voice and recognize him. Well this was a bummer. I had Louis Tomlinson sitting right next to me and I couldn’t even talk to him. There really wasn’t much I could do for the rest of the plane ride so I decided to sleep.

**Four and a half hours later**

I woke up to a nudge on my side. “Erggghh..” I grunted.

“Wake up, love. We’re here!” That voice alarmed me and I opened my eyes quickly. I realized I had been resting my head on his shoulder and sat straight up immediately.

“I’m sorry”

“It’s alright, love. Are you ready for California? Have you ever been here?” California? I hadn’t even checked my boarding pass to see where we were going.

I shook my head. “No actually, I haven’t. But I’ve always wanted to visit!”

We kept up small talk and he told me stories of their previous adventures in California while we waited for everyone else to get off the plane. When it seemed like almost everyone had gotten off, Louis helped me get my bag from the overhead compartment and he insisted that he carry it until we got to baggage claim. What a gentleman.

The boys hadn’t waited for us, RUDE, so we had to make our way to baggage claim by ourselves. Louis managed to get by without getting trampled due to him not being with the rest of the boys so we were able to quickly get our bags and head to the van that would take us around town.

The boys eventually showed up at the van with Ms. Novak (yuck!) and Paul. Ms. Novak didn’t even bother saying ‘hi’ to me or bother with acknowledging my existence at all. What a bitch.

When we got to the hotel, Ms. Novak and Paul got off first to check us in and get our room keys. The boys were telling Louis and I a story about some guy who was in first class who was ‘a real laugh’ or something. I don’t know, I wasn’t really paying attention. I was being fairly quiet.

Paul and IT returned and started distributing the room keys. Each of the boys started heading toward the hotel once they were given it and eventually it was only Ms. Novak and I left in the van.

“Well?” I asked. “Where’s MY room key?”

“Oh..did you not get a reservation before flying here? Tsk tsk.” She said, smirking.

I grinded my teeth. “You. Didn’t. Get. Me. A. Room.” I said this out loud mostly to confirm and she nodded, still smirking.

“Why would you do that if you knew I was coming too?! YOU were supposed to get the room for me, I didn’t even know we were coming until yesterday!!!!!!” I was visibly upset and I knew she was proud. This is what she wanted.

I stormed out of the van and walked into the hotel. It was really nice. Once I spotted the concierge desk, I went over to it and asked for a room.

“I’m sorry…” This doesn’t sound good.

“But we’re all booked.” The receptionist stated.

Ms. Novak passed by and grinned. This is what she wanted. You want to play? Game on!

I followed her to her floor and I could tell the boys were on this floor too because there was a lot of noise coming from the rooms.

Niall poked his head out and smiled widely when he saw me. “KAYLA!”

I stood there, emotionless.

“What’s wrong?” He asked worriedly.

Ms. Novak disappeared into her room and I sighed.

“I have no place to stay.”

“But—“ He started, pointing toward Ms. Novak’s now closed door and I stopped him.

“She didn’t get me a room.” I said, pursing my lips.

“Ya can stay with me!”

I was a little taken aback by his offer. Was this really a good offer? I’m sure Paul wouldn’t approve, and MS. NOVAK– Ms. Novak…..

On second thought..

“I’d love to stay with you, Niall! Are you sure it’s ok?”

“Ya love, come in!” He helped me with my bags and when I walked into his room, I saw Louis sitting on the couch.

“Kayla, fancy seeing you here!” He smiled.

I smiled back and set my tote bag down on the coffee table.

Niall came back and sat next to Louis on the couch.

“Kayla’s goin’ to be ma roomie!” Niall said excitedly.

Louis looked from Niall to me and nodded, there was a certain emotion radiating off his face but I couldn’t quite tell what it was.

“That’s…great.” He said, almost in a mumble.