The Parent Plan » Harry Styles

Chapter 12

– Athena & Jake –

     Quality time with family is said to keep a family close no matter the place, no matter the time. It's a time to connect with family and just have a good time. There is a dreaded time when the kids end up being "too old" to hang out with their parents like this but at a young age, this seems like the best thing ever. Athena loved family time.

     Although she didn't remember anything, Athena has had quality time with her family plenty of times, but this would be her first memory – with only one parent and two friends.

     It's been two weeks since the dinner at Harry's house, and two weeks since Athena's dance lessons had come to an end – Harry had decided that this was just a phase and that she didn't like dance ("no offence, Monica") all that much. This of course, had put a little bump in the road for the kids' plan of having their parents spend more time together. But of course, Jake would find a solution – that solution happened to be a small fair located a few towns away.

     The fair had been mentioned in class by Mrs. Roberts that one would be located away from London; she had mentioned this because each student was given a free ticket to this event.

     After many days of pestering from both Athena and Jake, both parents had agreed. Originally, neither child had told the other about their friend going as well, no, the parents found out themselves during a conversation a few days away from the actual date of the fair. They decided to carpool. Which was part of the plan – they just didn't want their parents to be suspicious.

     So here they were, on a Saturday evening driving to the fair with hopes of a good time.

     Monica sat in the passenger seat as Harry drove, Athena and Jake both sat in their booster seats with excited grins and bobbing heads – of course, to the tune of One Direction humming through the speakers. By now, Athena had learned every word to every song from every album. Jake just liked learning Zayn's parts because, quote, "I want to be just like him! He's cool and has drawings on his arms!" to which Harry pouted and said, "I'm all of those things too, bud." Monica chuckled and patted Harry's arm, "Sorry, Harry but Zayn's got you beat on the cool scale." Harry mumbled something about being rated higher on the 'hot scale'.

     "Does it ever drive you crazy? Just how fast the night changes," Harry sang along to the song, meeting Athena's gaze through the rearview mirror. Jake wanted Harry to sing to Monica – he remembers how 'fangirl'-ish Monica gets about lads who can sing. (He knows this from various romantic comedies, chick flicks and playful talks about how to get girls this way – of course, when he's older. He also knows the word 'fangirl' from Monica mumbling it during those films.)

     "I love that song so much," Monica murmurs after the song comes to an end. Athena nods in agreement before telling Harry to skip to Illusion – one of her favourite songs. It was clear that Harry found this enduring because she sings to every song, not even knowing what most of the words mean from time to time.

     "Of course, Princess."

     The rest of the drive to the fair was like this. Jamming out to One Direction, Athena asking for her favourites to play and repeat, Jake telling everyone to be quiet when Zayn sings, Monica mouthing the words to every song played and Harry simply smiling the whole time, appreciating the good things in life.

 .

     "I wanna go on that one!" Jake shouts, mouth full of cotton candy as he points a sticky finger to the Ferris Wheel. Monica rolls her eyes playfully and uses the napkin in her hand to wipe at the boy's hands. "Mummy, let's go on that one!"