Courtney’s POV

Eight days. We had eight days left now.

Besides the fact that Ana had been counting down the days on the calendar so we could make the most of the time we had left, I knew it anyway because this was normally one of the best times of the summer. Why, you ask? It was State Fair season. Twelve days of absolute amazing fun, including thrilling midway rides, amazing giveaways, and everything you could ever imagine on a stick. I’ve gone every year. It had started on the 22nd, but we hadn’t had the opportunity to come, with everything happening up to the big four person birthday party yesterday.

I sat up in my bed and stretched out, still partially asleep. I had just started using my alarm clock to make sure I was ready to get up for school on time (my Mom’s idea and also one that I was not happy with) so I was still groggy. I had already decided today that I would be going to the fair, and the rest of the group was coming with me. I grabbed my phone off of my bedside table, where I had left it to charge, and sent out a text to everyone.

Meet @ my house in 15 min. Boys, wear disguises. Girls, bring tons of tote bags. Explain later.

I got a few responses, all saying stuff about how they would do it, but they didn’t exactly understand what was going on. I laughed at that, and ignored it to let them draw their own conclusions. I then actually got myself out of bed and put on a sparkly blue tank top, and also a pair of denim shorts. It was perfect for the fair.

I walked into the bathroom, brushed out my long hair, and then pulled it into a bun so it wouldn’t stick to my neck later at the fair. In the past it’s been quite hot, and I knew it’d be uncomfortable. I quickly finished up in the bathroom (brushing my teeth, washing my face, you get the picture) and then hurried downstairs.

“Someone’s in a hurry,” my dad said from the table. He had gotten back from his business trip a few days before.

“Yeah,” I said, slipping my favorite pair of flip flops on. I grabbed a small breakfast, which to a normal person wouldn’t really be a small breakfast. But, I really wanted to save my main appetite for the fair, where I could get even more to eat for breakfast.

“Don’t you want pancakes or something?” Dad asked, probably surprised that he didn’t see me grab my normal breakfast.

“There’s the breakfast of champions waiting somewhere for me,” I told him, smiling. On these kinds of days, there was only one breakfast: junk food from the State Fair. I could have mini donuts, or I could buy a whole bucket overflowing with chocolate chip cookies. That’s called the breakfast of champions, right there.

“Ah, State Fair?” Dad asked.

“Yup. Can I take the van? You don’t need it, do you?” I asked.

Dad shook his head. “No, we don’t need it. Your brother and I are taking my car down to the college. Your brother needs to move into his dorm room today. So you may want to say goodbye to your brother,” he told me.

“On it right now,” I said; running right back up the stairs in a hurry. I had enough time, or so I thought.

“Kyle,” I called. “I heard it’s that day…”

Kyle nodded. “Yup,” he said with a sigh.

I said, “I’m really going to miss you,” I admitted. “So is everyone else,” I added.

“I’m going to miss you too, sis,” Kyle admitted, “and everyone else too.”

“If I had known you were leaving today, I would have possibly planned on going to the fair, like, yesterday or something,” I said.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’ve had a great summer. I think I can skip the fair once,” he told me, giving me a reassuring smile.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Yeah, positive,” Kyle said. I threw my arms around him in a hug, one of the only ones I’ve actually given him that I will actually admit to. He hugged me back and smiled, laughing a tiny bit. “You’re actually hugging me? I’m kind of shocked.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s a one-time thing though,” I told him, smirking a bit.

Kyle laughed and nodded. “I see,” he said. We hugged a little while longer, and then he spoke again. “I kinda feel bad about something,” he said.

“What?” I asked him.

“I always made fun of you for liking One Direction, but now I realize they’re actually really nice guys,” Kyle said. “So, sorry,” he added.

“Hey, it’s okay,” I said. “I’m over it."

“Because you’ve been too distracted with hanging out with Mr. Liam Payne,” Kyle joked.

“Shut up,” I let go of him and punched his arm lightly.

“Like it’s not true,” Kyle said, smirking.

“Shut up,” I repeated, doing the same thing.

“Okay, okay. I’m done,” he said, holding his hands up in defeat. “Get me a bucket of Sweet Martha’s, okay?”

“I’ll buy you a bucket,” I told him. “I can’t promise that we won’t eat them all on the way home,” I added.

“Should have seen that coming,” Kyle mumbled as the doorbell rang. “I guess that’s your cue,” he added.

“Yeah, I guess so. See you later,” I said, hugging him quickly again.

“You hugged me again? Whoa,” Kyle said.

“Shut up…” I said. “Bye, Kyle.”

“Bye Courtney,” he said, and then I walked out of the room and down the stairs to meet the rest of the group for the trip to the fair.

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“Oh my gosh! Look, Train is performing tonight at the Grandstand! We have to see them!”

“Mom, can I get a Pronto Pup? Please, please, please?"

“I wanna ride the Giant Slide!”

I heard little kids, teenagers and adults alike yelling out things like that, all excited about these kinds of things. It really was the Great Minnesota Get-Together, like the ads all said. Kids, parents, and grandparents, they all were enjoying themselves here.

That’s the main reason I love it here so much. It’s insanely crazy here, just like me. I feel like I belong here. It’s one of the best times I have here in this state.

“So, where to next?” Liam asked, as we all sat on the low wall outside the Grandstand. The girls all had plenty of things already in their tote bags, since tons of giveaways were happening every second, it seemed like.

“We’ve already been to the midway, gotten breakfast and tons of other foods, and ridden the River Raft Ride,” I said, thinking about what else we could do. “Let’s go on the Space Tower!”

"Sounds good to me,” Louis smiled. Choruses of, “Same here” s and “I love that” s were given as well.

“Perfect. Let’s go,” I said with a smile. We all got up off the low wall and picked up any bags we had. We all made our ways down the road, staying together the best we could in the sea of people trying to get food or go shop. If it was just the girls and I, we’d probably be spending the whole day in the food building, getting stuffed with food, or going to the merchandise mart to get plenty of things to bring home.

“This is pretty cool,” Harry mused as we all walked together. “We haven’t gotten the opportunity to go do something like this in a while,” he added.

“The fans would overwhelm you, probably,” Lucy mumbled.

“Exactly,” Harry said, nodding.

We all kept walking, and then we passed by none other than the cookie house itself. “Must…resist…” Ana mumbled, walking past.

“I have to get cookies for Kyle anyway,” I said. “You can get yourself a cone if you want.”

“But the cones are for wimps!” Ana said, causing us all to laugh a bit. “What?” she asked, looking around at all of us. “It’s true. You have to get a bucket of the cookies, or it’s no fun. Plus, it’s a souvenir,” she added.

“She has a point,” Kelly said.

“Then let’s get cookies!” Ana exclaimed, smiling. “We can all share a bucket…or maybe two, to be safe,” she mused.

“Two,” Lizzie said. “We’ve got to get two,” she said.

“Then two it is,” I said. “Come on, everyone. Let’s get cookies.” We all got in line and got our huge buckets of cookies. You see, here they don’t just fill the bucket and stop, they over fill it. They give you an extra mountain of cookies half the height of the bucket.

“Wow…” Niall mumbled, in awe. “That’s a lot of cookies,” he said.

“I know, right?” Simone said. “It’s the best,” she said, taking one bucket of cookies. Niall took the other, and we all kept walking. We ate cookies along the way, smiling to ourselves. Freshly baked cookies at a fair…people may think it’s strange, but if you experience it, you’ll understand it perfectly. For some reason, the cookies just taste better at the fair.

We worked both buckets down to the point that we could actually put the lid on just as we reached the space needle. “Come on,” I said, leading the way to the ticket counter.

“Here, I’ll buy,” Zayn said.

“No, I’ve got it,” I said.

“Courtney, I can get it,” Liam said with a smile.

“I’ve seriously got it,” I told them. “I can pay. Don’t even try to change my mind,” I added. All of them knew by now that if you tried to change my mind, you’d have a hard time. When none of them spoke I smirked a bit, and started off to the ticket counter, buying tickets for eleven. I came back and passed them out. “Let’s go, people!” I said.

Everyone followed me into the line. We all got in as the first people on the next ride, all sitting together on the top level. “The view from up here is great,” I told them with a smile.

“It really is,” the girls agreed with me.

“Well, we’ll see about that,” Louis said, looking over at me with a smile. I was sitting between Liam and Louis as we waited.

Liam’s hand found mine and I couldn’t help smiling a bit. I intertwined our fingers and looked out the window, holding onto his hand. The space needle finally began to start up, and it slowly spun around in a circle to give us full view of the entire fair.

It really was a great view. You could see tons of things from up there, all the buildings. Everything was lit up, since it was so dark. It was a beautiful sight. I laid my head on Liam’s shoulder, smiling a bit more as I looked out the window.

Liam smiled, and let me stay there, just laying on his shoulder. Once we reached the top, Liam said softly to me, "It really is a great view."

"I told you," I said, looking up at him with the tiniest hint of a smirk on my lips.

Liam laughed a tiny bit and smiled, and we both looked out the window again. After a while, the space needle started to descend, and we all slowly neared the ground.

"Aw, it's over," Simone mumbled with a sigh.

"I want to do this again," Kelly said. "Maybe this can be a yearly thing, if it works with your busy schedules and all," she said, looking at the boys.

"If it works, we'll come back to come to the fair with you girls," Zayn said with a smile. I saw Kelly's lips curve into a smile, which made me smile. It looked like Kelly was starting to forgive Zayn for the incident, which I couldn't be happier to see. I hoped everything would work out, but it looked like it would.

"Plus it's getting late," Lucy said. "If we all want to be able to do things on the way back to the car, we'd better hurry," she said.

"She's right. Come on," Harry said, getting up once the ride came to a stop. Everyone else got up too, and walked off the ride and down the big blue ramp to the ground.

"We parked over that way," Lucy said, pointing in that direction. "Come on," she said, leading the way. Everyone followed her away towards the parking lot and exit.

On the way, we talked about everything we had done. We brought up the river raft ride, space needle, and a few midway rides that some of us enjoyed, while the rest of us were scared as heck. We also brought up food, like the cookies, cheese curds, and deep fried practically everything on a stick.

I felt my stomach begin to growl again, but nobody heard over the noise of everyone else. "Can we stop talking about food before I start eating Li's arm?" I asked, motioning to my boyfriend as we walked.

"Here, have a cookie," Niall said, opening the bucket of cookies. Instead of me being the only one to grab one, everyone did, causing a cookie free-for-all in the group of us. We all laughed, and kept walking down the street together towards the exit.

We neared the exit, and were about to go. But, we noticed a big brown box standing on the lawn nearby, and couldn't help stopping.

It was the Giant Sing Along.

The temptation was overwhelming. The girls and I all shared a look. "Can we do it?" we asked, at the same time. "Pretty please?"

The boys now shared a look, deciding whether to say yes or not. Finally, Louis spoke up. "Why not?" he said.

The girls and I cheered, smiling. "Yes!" we said, and hurried to get mics all together. We saw the countdown wind to a end as we reached mics, which worked out pretty well. The last song had been something called The Fair, or whatever, but we didn't know what song this one would be.

Then, we heard the opening notes to Best Song Ever, and the girls and I all started to laugh, looking back at the boys. They were exchanging nervous looks, but didn't look like they were going to ditch.

I smiled, and pulled out my phone. "Get your phone, girls. We're getting a great video of this," I told them, starting the video. I got all of them in the screen as the music began, and Harry started to sing. The rest of the girls caught this part of it too. Harry was trying to make sure that nobody realized it was really him singing, which was kind of funny to see.

Then, Zayn came in, singing his part of the song. He had the same look of nervousness that Harry had, trying to make sure nobody realized it was them. But, they were enjoying themselves, and I could tell.

Then, all the boys came in for the chorus. I smiled, watching them sing and filming it. A few other people were singing, but didn't realize it was really One Direction singing with them, and thought it was mainly a CD. That was the best part, that nobody realized it was them.

Then it was Liam's turn. He sang his solo perfectly, if I do say so myself. He was wonderful. He glanced around to make sure nobody didn't realize that it was them. But, once he got past that fact, he sang the rest of his solo and then let Harry back in.

Once Niall got his solo, he wasn't as nervous as the rest of the boys, just enjoying himself. He was smiling as he sang his part.

The chorus came around again, and they all sang perfectly. Then, Louis came in. He stuck his arms out a bit and kind of hit Harry and Niall, which caused the girls and I to laugh. Louis just shook it off with a laugh and a smile, continuing to sing.

Zayn did his little solo and the song continued, ending a minute or so later. I stopped the video and smiled. "Now that was awesome," I said.

"A live performance of Best Song Ever by One Direction," Lizzie said, smiling. "And seriously Louis?" she asked him.

"I didn't mean to!" Louis said.

"Really?" Niall asked.

"I didn't," Louis said, holding his hands in the air. "I swear," he said.

"Alright then. Let's go, before you guys get mobbed," Lucy said with a smile. I could tell she was only half joking.

We all nodded and left the fair, smiling about how great a day we had together. It almost made up for the fact that we now had a week.

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A/N I am so so so sorry! I feel terrible for not updating! I know it's been a month or so, so I'm very sorry. I've been trying to focus on my NaNoWriMo novel.

On the bright side, I finished it two days early, so that's good. But now I'm leaving on a trip, and my mom's not bringing the laptop. But I'll work on the next chapter on the trip, I promise.

Anyway, we have a lot to talk about, so there'll be three questions. Some of them are a bit old, but bear with me, I was gone for a month, and I kind of want to talk about them. Answer them in the comments, please? Possibly with something about the chapter? Pretty please?

1. What do you think of Story of My Life? Absolute perfection. That's all I can say.

2. 1D Day? What did you all think? I loved it. I watched the whole thing while I was working. It was hilarious.

3. Midnight Memories? Oh my gosh, don't get me started. I'm listening to it right now. I love it!

Video of the Chapter: One Direction - Story of My Life

Picture of the Chapter: One Direction at the AMAs

Please vote and comment on this chapter! Sorry again. I'll try to update quicker this time, I promise.