Saviour

Invasion

The microwave started beeping, and I hurriedly snapped out of my disbelief to get my hot chocolate. 

I attempted to think though what I had just seen, but for once my mind was silent, too stunned. 

“Jenna!” 

My mind regained its senses. 

What are they doing here?! I thought, panicked. 

“JENNA!” 

I set down my hot mug before I dropped it. 

“Coming!” I meant for my voice to sound strong, but it broke. I blinked, and slowly walked back to Cecilia. I couldn’t make my muscles work, so Cecilia pulled me down next to her. 

“Watch.” She instructed, and I obeyed. 

The news was showing a view of the outside of our school. 

I’m sure Uncle Jeff will love that, with all the toilet paper and everything. I thought sarcastically. 

The reporter, a pretty red head, was talking now. ‘Cartwright’s School for Girls is celebrating the graduation of the senior students tonight. But it’s not the party that is attracting paparazzi, it’s the guests! Popular British-Irish boy band One Direction is here! We have reports that they just headed inside to escape the paparazzi.’ 

Cecilia and I glanced at each other, then ran towards the door. I flung it open, to hear silence. Huh. Maybe the partiers took Cecilia’s advice. Then someone screamed. Nope. The whole lobby erupted into deafening screams. Cecilia pulled me to the top of the big staircase. My jaw once again fell open in shock. Every girl, every one of our fellow graduates, was pushing towards the door. People were actually climbing over each other, trying to get to whoever had just come in the doorway. I saw a door open to my right and Uncle Jeff came out. I motioned helplessly to him as he stormed over, hands covering his ears. 

“What is this?!” He shouted in my ear. 

“Make it stop!” Cecilia yelled in his. 

I grinned, I had just had a flash of genius. I ran over to the wall, and grabbed the axe kept there from its holder. With a mighty swing, I smashed open the glass of the fire alarm, and pressed the big red button. 

A wailing that beat the screams in volume sounded out throughout the school, and sprinklers doused the lobby with water. People came rushing out of their dorms, and the screaming in the lobby stopped at once. 

I quickly turned the alarm off once Uncle Jeff had everyone’s attention. He stood commandingly at the top of the stairs. 

“Listen up, ladies!” He shouted. “Party is over! Everyone get to bed right this instant, unless you graduates are moving out tonight. About that, everyone who graduated will be expected to have left the premises by next Friday. Now everyone, go to your rooms! We will clean this up in the morning.” Uncle Jeff turned to the large group of younger girls who had come running with the alarm. “I’m sorry we had to wake you up. Go back to bed now.” He turned back to the girls in the lobby who hadn’t moved. “I mean it, ladies! GO!” 

Wow. I had never seen Uncle Jeff so grumpy. He usually didn’t care too much what the seniors did on the night of their graduation, but I think the ear splitting screams was too much. 

The younger girls trudged off down their hallways into bed, as the sodden seniors gathered their stuff from the lobby and filed off to their rooms. Some were complaining about their ruined clothes and make-up, but most were talking about One Direction. A few even gave me funny looks, which I didn’t understand at all. Had Harry been talking about me? 

Oh my gosh. 

Harry. 

The reality sunk in and I could feel myself beginning to blush. Cecilia rushed over and put her arms around me. 

“Babe, what are we going to do? About... them?” She whispered in worried tones. 

“Wait...” I murmured, breaking out of her grip. Uncle Jeff had walked back to his room and was about to close his door. 

“Uncle Jeff!” I called, jogging to his door, completely confused.

“What? Oh. Hi Jenna. Thanks for the alarm. Goodnight now, sweetie.” He said, kissing my forehead. 

My eyebrows knitted together. “Uh, Uncle Jeff, um, what about them?” I said incredulously. 

“Who?” He asked. 

“One Direction!” I cried, pointing to the lobby.

He followed me back to the staircase and peered down at the lobby. 

“Who are they?” He mumbled quietly in my ear. 

I just stared at him. Luckily, Cecilia came to my rescue. 

“Jeff! One Direction are like, the most popular boys like, on this planet!” She stated. 

Uncle Jeff smiled at me. “Oh.” 

I crossed my arms. “Yeah. So, what are you going to do about them?” I glanced at them, they seemed to be picking through the leftover food, completely oblivious to us. 

Uncle Jeff sighed. “I’m sure they have a home. I’ll call a taxi.” 

Cecilia checked her watch. “Jeff, it’s midnight. And there are paparazzi and reporters and stuff outside.”

Uncle Jeff huffed. “Well then they can stay here. I don’t care. I’m going to bed.” He turned to me and smiled sweetly. “Nite, hon.”

“Nite.” I mumbled, mentally rolling my eyes. People and their mood swings!

Uncle Jeff’s door closed with a final-sounding bang. I looked around. There was no one to be seen, except for the five boys of course. The boarders really had cleared out, we took Uncle Jeff seriously, we always did what he told us to do. 

“Come on babe. We need to go talk to them.” Cecilia said gently, grabbing my hand. I shook my head violently, and pulled against her. 

“No.” I whispered fearfully. “I can’t talk to them!” I hissed. 

Cecilia sighed, and tugged on me with all of her strength. Dang, she was stronger than me. “Jenna. Chances are they ran in here, just looking for shelter from the paps. They won’t remember that you live here, and they don’t know what you look like. You don’t even have to give them your name! Trust me, babe. I’ll sort them out for the night, and then you can forget all about Harry... I mean One Direction.”

I gave up. There was no use in acting like a five year old. Cecilia was right. And I was eighteen now, they wouldn’t recognize me. 

He wouldn’t recognize me.

I followed Cecilia down the stairs and walked behind her, trying to hide myself as much as possible. 

We approached the nearest boy, who had his back to us. I immediately recognized the curls.

It was Harry.

I tried to get Cecilia to keep moving but as she wasn’t a fan, she didn’t know one of the boys from the next. She didn’t know that this was the guy I had been strangely addicted to for the past six years, so she just walked until we were right behind him.

I let my hair fall around my face, shielding me. 

Please don’t recognize me. I chanted over and over in my head, my method for calming myself down. 

Cecilia tapped Harry on the shoulder. He turned around, and I saw those green eyes look at me, and then at Cecilia.

She smiled brightly. “Hi.”