Descendants.

“Harold!” Nicola brightened up, spotting the boy standing slightly behind me for the first time. I heard him groan in frustration.

“Nicola, you know that’s not my name.” I noticed that his voice was much deeper than Liam’s, and it held a certain rasp to it that usually only came from decades of smoking too many cigarettes.

“Harry,” Karen cooed. “You look lovely, dear. Although, you could use a haircut.”

“Mom!” Nicola said, in horror. I laughed, my eyes catching Harry’s. He winked, before pulling Nicola and Ruth into a group hug. The girls giggled, his charm apparent on everyone. Letting go of the girls, he pulled Karen into his side before nodding in agreement with her.

“You’re right, Mrs. P. I’m a mess.”

I could feel eyes burning into the side of my face. I had nearly forgotten that Nicola had interrupted my first meeting with an obviously hesitant little brother. Turning my face to the right towards him, I tried to smile. Terrified of being rejected before I even stood a chance.

“Why do we look so much alike?” He whispered. I shrugged, following the curve of his face, to his dark chocolate brown eyes, over the day old stubble on his face. “Nicola and Ruth, they look like the perfect mix of our parents. I’ve always been the odd one out. I don’t much look like anyone in my family.”

“You look like my grandfather.” Geoff chimed in. He was a quiet man most of the time, but I’d quickly learned that when he did say something, it was always something of importance. There was no idle small talk with that man, and it was a trait I admired. I tended to babble on when I got even the smallest bit uncomfortable. “You both do.” He continued.

Everyone stood in silence, watching the two of us take each other in. He stood a few inches taller than I did, his broad shoulders making him seem so much bigger.

“Thankfully,” Harry broke the silence, a cheeky grin showing off a prominent dimple on the right side of his face. “She’s much prettier than you are, Liam.” Everyone laughed, cracking through the tension that had previously held the room hostage.

“How – when – how did this happen?” Liam spat out. His thoughts were clearly a jumbled mess and I instantly felt bad about his family’s decision to spring this on him. Especially when anyone could see how exhausted he was. I’d had years to get used to the fact that I had an entire family out there I didn’t know about. His parents and sisters had had a few months, from what I had gathered. He had only a few minutes before we were standing face-to-face. No one could be angry with him for having to find a way to process this new information. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t get any of his answers then. The library door flung back open, a loud, energetic, blonde tornado rushing in.

“’Eh guys! Tour video’s going on in just a few. Oh, hey Paynes!” He waved to each person individually, before getting to me. “Hey girl I don’t know. Let’s go!” And just as quickly as he’d entered the room, he was gone. Ruth and Nicola followed first, followed by Karen and Geoff who had wrapped their arms around Liam, whispering something in his ear. I imagined the apologies were rolling off their tongues in massive amounts. I turned around, taking in the library once more. I wasn’t sure if, or when, I would be back here and I wanted to remember this impressive room.

“I’m glad someone else finds my library as fascinating as I do.” Harry grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the comforting space as he closed the door behind us.

“This is your house?”

“It is. Now, we have a tour video to watch. It’s the only part of these ‘welcome back’ parties I find tolerable. I’m not much for big crowds when I’m home.” He dropped my hand, but motioned for me to continue following him towards what looked to be a very spacious entertaining room. The TV on the wall was obscenely large, but with the amount of people currently gathered around it, that was probably a good thing.

“Wait, tour video?” I had no idea what he was talking about. He shook his head in disbelief.

“I thought maybe you were just acting oblivious to who we were. You really don’t know, do you?” I shook my head, waiting for him to continue. “Have you ever heard of One Direction?”

I nodded. “Boy band, right? Teenage girls go bat shit crazy for them, from what I’ve heard. Never paid much attention, though. I’m 28 years old, the only boy bands I know are the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, and they’re both rather irrelevant at the moment.” I was rambling. But why was this kid asking me if I’d heard of One Direction? I wasn’t sure a 20 something year old male fan was all that uncommon, but this seemed like a weird time to bring up his music tastes.

“Just sit down and watch.” He directed me to an empty spot on one of the couches towards the front, next to Ruth. She grabbed my left hand in both of hers, practically jumping up and down in anticipation. Harry squeezed in on my right, between me and Nicola, who judging by the smile on her face, didn’t mind one bit. Grabbing the remote in his hand, the blonde one from earlier stood in the middle of the living room, bouncing back and forth on the balls of his feet.

“Ladies and gentlemen, family, friends.” He looked at me. “Strangers,” he grinned. I rolled my eyes. “We hope you enjoy our journey over the past eight and a half months.” Hitting the play button, the lights automatically dimmed and the deafening sound of high pitched screaming took over the television. I had never been unfortunate enough to experience squealing in surround sound before, and I never wanted to again. I could feel Ruth and Harry both chuckle at my reaction. I stuck my tongue out at them and returned my attention to the screen in front of me.

And then it all made sense. The girls outside the house. The fact that my brother hadn’t been home in almost a year. The car sent to the train station. The amount of time it took for the agency to connect me with my family. All the hoops I had to jump through just to get here. The hostess at the Bistro. The reason Liam was pissed he didn’t know anything about me. My brother and his friends weren’t just ordinary guys…

They were One Direction.

Notes

Chapter Title lyrics: "Don't Forget Where You Belong" by One Direction.