Chapter 1 ~ Darcy
Several months later…

“Oh, how I wish that was me!” My little sister sings as she dances around the house, overly excited. I smile as I finish picking up our things so we can set off to the music shop.

Lizzie, my little sister, is my whole life. I love her more than anyone or anything in this life and seeing her this happy always makes me smile. This is all that I want for her: happiness, smiles and her little heart beating like the wings of a butterfly.

She’s nine years old and the nicest girl on Earth, with her light dirty blond hair falling to her middle back in soft curls, her rosy cheeks, her adorable smile with the little space between her two front teeth, and her long eyelashes framing those adorable green eyes. There’s no cuter girl.

I have to take care of her as Mum is almost never here due to her work. She’s a geologist, so normally she has to go somewhere else for weeks, sometimes months. She adores what she does, but at the same time she hates it since we can’t spend much time together. We barely see her and since our father left us when Lizzie was born, my sister and I only have each other.

We have a good life in the sense that we do not have any kind of material necessity. Despite Mum not being here, Lizzie and I have each other and we are happy with that. I should be in uni, but this year is more hectic for Mum and her work. Because of this I decided to postpone it for a year to take care of Lizzie a bit better. I don’t trust anyone else to look after her, so I’d rather miss one year than leave her at someone else’s care. After all I’m still young; I’m only eighteen.

“Ah! I can’t believe I’m going to meet them! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!” She says in a sing-song voice hugging me, her face buried in my belly.

“You have to say thanks to Carter as he was the one who helped us to get there,” I tell her, kneeling so we can be at the same height. Lizzie smiles adorably while chewing her lower lip.

“Let’s go, Darcy! I can’t wait to meet Liam. I can’t make my future husband wait!” She says dramatically, holding my hand and I laugh.

Yes, my name is Darcy as in Pride and Prejudice, the same reason why my sister’s name is Elizabeth. That’s our mum’s favourite book ever written.

We walk out of the house and get in the car to head off for the music shop where my best friend, Carter, must be waiting for us already. I’m taking Lizzie to a signing of her favourite band: One Direction. They are okay, I quite like their music. I didn’t have an option, it’s all Lizzie has listened to for three months. Eventually she decided she liked other artists as well, but One Direction is still her favourite one.

They are signing their new album and for the first time, they are doing it in Carter’s family’s shop. That means we can actually be there this time. I’m so excited for Lizzie, but I’m sure my excitement can’t compare to hers. She really loves those five cute boys. Her favourite is Liam Payne, the one with adorable brown eyes and hair, cute smile, thick eyebrows and kind look. Lizzie is convinced she’s going to marry that boy, she doesn’t care that they have an age gap of ten years.

During our ride, we listen to One Direction, of course. I know all their songs by heart and I know many things about them as I have to do research for Lizzie. I don’t want her to surf the Internet without supervision. Even though she doesn’t know much, just basic and official things. What she likes the most is to watch funny videos of them on YouTube.

We get to the music shop, and inside there is already an uncountable number of girls. It’s hard for me to find Carter in the sea of people, plus I can’t let go of Lizzie’s hand. So many teenage girls are there, at the verge of tears, practically hyperventilating. There are some guys who seem as excited as the girls.

“Carter!” I exclaim once I finally see my best friend trying to put some order in the shop. Poor lad, he seems about to freak out and kill everyone. Carter isn’t the patient type.

“Darcy!” He calls me back and I see relief showing in his features. It must be nice to see a familiar face in such a chaotic crowd. “Thank God you’re here already. Sadly, you’ll have to wait ‘till the end. If I put you first, I’m sure these girls will kill me and it won’t be fast,” he trails, off giving me a hug and then kneeling to pick up Lizzie in his arms to give her a tight hug. “How are you, princess? Excited for today?” He asks my little sister and I smile.

Carter is actually the only one I trust enough to look after my sister when I can’t do it, which doesn’t happen often. We have been friends forever, we grew up together as neighbours and went to school together as well. Just now that I decided to leave uni for later we are separated as he’s already taking a major in music engineer.  The music shop belongs to his family, so music has been always in his life.

“Yes! Thank you so much, Carter! I love you even more now,” Lizzie tells him and Carter chuckles.

“More than you love Darcy?” He asks and it’s my turn to chuckle. He always asks the same, and the answer never changes.

Giggling, Lizzie shakes her head. “That’s impossible. I’ll never love anyone more than I love Darcy!” She states and I smile, full of myself, at Carter. He sticks his tongue out at me.

“Not even Liam? I’ve heard he’s looking for a girlfriend and he might pick you today. What happens then?” Carter asks Lizzie with big eyes and I can’t quit smiling. She opens her eyes as the mere idea overwhelms her with excitement.

“But I’m too young to marry yet. He will have to wait for me, right, Darcy?” Lizzie inquires looking at me and I just nod with a solemn attitude. “See?”

Carter laughs but he doesn’t put her down. I know my best friend adores Lizzie almost as much as I do. For him, my little sister is his, too.

The moment the van arrives with the five members of One Direction, the sea of teenage fans goes crazy and I have to take Lizzie away because I’m scared someone might hurt her. I try to help Carter to keep the crowd quiet, but it’s useless so we leave that job to security.

I can’t see the boys, all I see is tall men trying to keep overly excited fans away and making space for the band to pass. Soon the signing starts and it’s incredible the amount of people waiting there for an autograph. Lizzie is bouncing on her little feet, but she’s patient. She knows that her turn will come eventually.

I take her in my arms so we can see what’s happening and after an hour we are finally able to see the boys. They are all as cute as they look in the pictures and videos, and Lizzie lets a little squeal leave her lips when she sees Liam at the left end of the table. After that, we amused ourselves looking at the fans going crazy, bursting out crying right there in front of the lads. That alone calls Lizzie’s attention.

“What’s wrong with them, Darcy?” She asks me and I look at her a bit confused so she can expand her idea. “Why are they crying? Don’t they know they look ugly when they cry? They won’t make One Direction like them that way,” she muses and I burst into a fit of laughter.

There is a girl close to us and even she’s laughing. Lizzie looks confused, like she doesn’t understand why it’s so funny for us. But I can’t help it, that a nine-year-old girl can control herself better in that kind of situation so she doesn’t ruin her image in front of her favourite musicians is incredible.

“She’s a clever girl, isn’t she?” Asks the girl next to us and I smile proud of my sister. “I’m Nicole, by the way, and I won’t cry when it’s my turn. Thanks for that piece of advice–” She leaves the sentence incomplete so my sister can finish for her.

“I’m Lizzie!” She replies happily. “Remember to smile so they can fall in love with you,” she advises Nicole innocently and I laugh again.

“Will do, love,” the girl replies, walking over to the table where the five of them are still smiling and signing copies.

I look at them and I can see how tired they are, but there are still loads of fans dying for their turn. I try to imagine how it must be to be that famous, to always be surrounded by hysterical, screaming fans trying to get a piece of them. Always being nice with those fans who were full out crying in front of them, or even in front of those who were rude.

It has to be exhausting! And they do all that for us, to give girls like my little sister a second of happiness.

I kind of feel sorry for them, though. This is the price of their fame and I can’t imagine coping with that for so long. If I were any of them, I would’ve quit by now. It has to be a really hard job to be in One Direction.

After many hours, it’s finally our turn and Lizzie is so excited that she gets me excited as well. By the time we walk towards the table with our copies in hand, I have this grin from ear to ear.

Lizzie goes first and I stop a couple of seconds to really see them. They are cuter than what I thought at first. Every single one of them has something special and I can understand why so many girls fall for them without really knowing them. Harry has this adorable smile with perfect dimples and wonderful eyes. Niall smiles in a way that makes you believe the world is a perfect place. Zayn has this special aura around him that makes you want to know him better, to find out his secrets. Louis has this mischievous look in his eyes that promise you a lot of fun. And Liam… When I stop to look at him I feel an irregularity in the normal speed of my heart. He’s beyond cute, his adorable smile and the way his eyes smile as well as they get smaller is incredible. There’s something special surrounding him, something I can’t put my finger on.

They are all nice towards Lizzie, who behaves perfectly in front of them. I see all of them falling under her charm, even the guards are smiling. Though they are probably smiling because we are the last ones, and that means they are finally over here.

I hand my copy and one by one they sign it, not paying much attention to my presence there. Lizzie is the one who gets all the attention from the people there, and I can’t stop smiling. That’s my sister. When I get to Liam, Harry asks my sister to sing them a song, so Liam stops from signing my copy and we all pay attention to Lizzie. I steal a glimpse of the brunet boy and I can see the bags under his eyes and his tired body posture. Everything around him says how exhausted he is and I feel somehow responsible for keeping him longer than expected.

“I’m sorry,” I say without thinking.

“I love y– Excuse me?” He says finally looking up at me and for the first time, our eyes meet. I see confusion and surprise in his; I just try to smile.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. You must be really tired and doing this can’t be easy. I’m sorry that us, fans, demand so much of your time and energy,” I explain and he keeps looking at me impressed, like he has never heard something like this.

“Uh– It’s okay, we love our fans and we do this gladly,” he replies.

“Yeah, but even though you do, you must end up dead on your feet every time. Like now, you look so tired yet you’re being so nice to my little sister. It’s incredible what you all do.”

Lizzie keeps singing and dancing for the other four boys who are not paying us a little bit of attention. Liam keeps looking at me impressed and after a couple of seconds he smiles back at me. This time is different, it’s not just the polite smile he gives to all his fans, this one has something personal and I think it’s gratitude.

Lizzie ends her performance and all the boys are clapping, including Carter and the security men. I break eye contact with Liam and smile at my little sister, whose cheeks are even rosier. I don’t pay attention to the moment when Liam signs my copy and hands it back to me, because I have to take care of my sister who can’t stop smiling.

The guards tell us is time to leave so Lizzie and I wave saying our last goodbye to her favourite band as we walk out of there.

Little I know what Liam has signed on my copy and how much that will change my life.

-:-:-:-

Did you like it? I hope so! Isn't Lizzie adorable? I love her and this story is very cute, Darcy is very different from all my other characters but she will grow up a lot in this story. You'll see.

Dedication goes to Nicole because she's in this chapter and she's a lovely friend.

Bel, xx