Serendipity 2.0

HARRY POV
It was now Sunday, in the late afternoon. I had spent the morning completing some school work before relaxing in the sun in Mya’s backyard. I hadn’t really spoken to her since the phone call at Stewarts, she was always off doing something and I didn’t want to annoy her. We hadn’t seen Libby in a while either, last I saw her was the night before, I think she was preoccupied with work. This left Mya and me to this big house.

“You’re always working late”, I heard Mya speaking, well yelling. I turned my face towards the sliding deck doors, I could hear her speaking to someone quite loudly. I slowly stood up from my spot and walked closer to the doors. “You know, it’s not just the fact that you’ve been working late, imagine what Harry thinks?! You’re supposed to be looking after him, not me!” There was silence. “I know mum but I didn’t sign up for this! You know how upset I was when Jess left. How do you expect me to look after the house, go to school - functioning and be responsible for a twenty-four-seven guest for the next six months!” I could here Mya getting really upset.

I decided to slide the door open, heading towards the lounge room to find Mya, back facing me, lightly petting Ginger, who was fast asleep.

“Mum I just want you to be around more often. Ever since Dad left for England-” She began but cut off, “Yeah it’s fine, I’ll talk to you later.” She rushed and ended the phone call. I don’t even think Mya let Libby reply.

“Are you okay?” I asked concerned, walking towards her.

“Um,” She turned to look at me, quickly wiping a tear from her cheek, “Yeah totally all good.” She fake smiled.

I sat down next to her, not quite sure what to say, “You hungry?” I asked.

She let out a laugh, “Sure am-” She sniffed but smiled, “Let’s see what’s in the fridge.”

We both got up and walked towards the kitchen. I took a seat on top of the island, watching her search for ingredients to use.

“Look-” I finally said, desperately wanting her to feel better, “I think you’re doing a great job,” I said with a half smile.

“Huh?” She asked confused, grabbing something out of the fridge.

“You know, the whole hospitality thing,” I confirmed.

“You heard that conversation didn’t you?” Mya asked sighing, leaning her head on the cupboard above her before turning around to face me.

“Yeah...” I frowned, slightly regretting eavesdropping on that clearly private conversation.

“I bet you were expecting some sort of a perfectly happy family. You know, the ones that would go on family outings on the weekends, sit down at the dinner table to discuss what they did that day and just be - normal.” Mya spoke, avoiding any eye contact whilst playing with the hem of her shirt.

“No family is perfect Mya,” I told her truthfully, hopping down from the island, “Even though we have our moments...” I trailed off, getting a smirk from her, “I wouldn’t want any other family to stay with, honestly.” Standing in front of her now.

I made her smile, which I loved, “Really?” She asked, looking at me now.

“Yeah, I mean, who would I fight with if you weren’t here?” I laughed and winked.

“Dick,” She playfully slapped me.

I looked over to the meat Mya had gotten out of the fridge, “Um, Mya-” I scratched the back of my head.

“Yeah?” She looked at me.

“I think that meat expired, like a week ago,” I tried not to laugh.

“What?” She turned around, “No!” She said as she checked the packaging, seeing it was expired and throwing it in the bin near the stove, “What are we going to do?” She looked at me defeated.

“We could get take out?” I suggested.

“Of course, why didn’t I think of that?” Mya relaxed, walking over to the pantry and grabbing out a plastic folder that was filled with takeaway menus.

“I say we get Thai?” I leaned on the table.

“Done.” She smiled, grabbing a few menus and the landline phone.

...

MYA POV
Great. It’s Monday.

I woke up around seven o’clock by the sound of my annoyingly loud alarm. I reluctantly got out of my bed and headed downstairs, still half asleep. I was up half of the night doing last minute homework and a little bit of procrastinating through watching youtube videos. I walked into the kitchen and sat down on one of the island stools, resting my head on the cold marble. It was actually kinda soothing, the cool touch waking me up a little.

“Morning!” Harry cheerfully announced from behind me, turning on the television to the news channel.

“Why are you so happy?!” I frowned, head still on the marble.

“Cause I slept amazingly” He replied from somewhere near me.

“Yeah well, I didn’t.” I half laughed.

“Did you want toast?” Harry asked as I heard the rustling of the bread bin open.

“No-” I said as I sleepy looked up, my eyes becoming large as I saw him.

Harry was shirtless. Oh my god.

“What?” Harry smirked, noticing I hadn’t finished my sentence - the staring probably didn’t help either.

I cleared my throat and covered my eyes with the nearest tea towel, “Did you wanna put on a shirt?” Thankfully the cloth covered the little blush I had on my face.

“Why?” Harry replied, probably loving this.

“It’s distracting...” I admitted, but before he could reply, I headed back to my bedroom, still not looking at him, “Be ready in twenty minutes Styles, that includes a shirt!”

…

Coraline had to drop something off at the post office this morning before school, so it left Harry and I by ourselves. Surprisingly, we had no arguments on the way there, we shared an earphone each and talked about teachers we didn’t like. Once there, Harry and I made our way to the lockers, wanting to grab our books earlier so we could sit with our friends before first period. Harry was telling me something about Gemma when I accidentally bumped into someone as I was turning away from the locker door.

“Sorry-” I said picking up the folder and pens I had dropped, eventually looking up to those gorgeous hazel eyes I had missed dearly.

“Mya-” He smiled sweetly, the only dimple on his right cheek showing.

“Hey.” I smiled weakly.

“Who this?” He asked quickly looking at Harry, a slight rush of hurt in his eyes.

“Um-” I awkwardly began, “Bradley, this is Harry, he is part of that exchange program,” I replied with a half smile, holding my folder against my chest.

“Hey mate.” Harry smiled, shaking Bradley’s hand.

“We better get going...” I said quickly, looking up at Harry.

I could tell Harry was confused as to why I was so unlike myself around Bradley, but luckily he saw I didn’t want to talk about it, “Yeah, nice meeting you Bradley...” Harry replied to him.

“You too Harry.” He gave us a look and walked off, looking back at me for a split second.

“What was that about?” Harry asked curiously, still staring at Bradley.

“Nothing.” I shook my head, brushing it off and urging Harry to walk with me to find the girls/boys.

“Mya! Harry!” We heard a yell coming from a distance.

We turned to find Coraline rushing towards us with two takeaway coffees in her hand. Classic Coraline.

“This one is for you hun-” She smiled, handing me a mocha.

“Where’s mine?” Harry asked acting hurt.

“I know you only drink tea idiot.” Coraline told him, Harry sticking out his tongue in response, “So, how has your morning been so far?”

We continued to our table, “I ran into Bradley, I didn’t know he was back from America already-” I sighed.

“Ohhhhh,” Coraline clicked on, “Should have gotten you a stronger coffee.” She side hugged me.

…

“Hey Coraline...” I smiled and batted my eyelashes. It was the end of the day and we were at Coraline’s locker, grabbing her school bag.

“What do you want?” Coraline got to the point.

“Could you maybe like walk home with Harry this afternoon?” I asked, leaning against the lockers next to hers.

“Why can’t you? Where do you have to be?” She replied frowning, trying to find her charger.

“Cause I have netball training with the under nine’s.” I pleaded.

“You’re lucky I love you” Coraline huffed, looking at me quickly.

“Thank you!” I smiled, giving her a massive hug.

“Okay-” Coraline stiffened, “you’re killing me girl” She choked, my hug being too tight.

“Sorry!” I laughed, fixing her blazer, “I better get going, tell Harry I’ll be home around four-ish.” I waved as I rushed towards the p.e change rooms near the school’s netball courts. Sometimes the school rents outs the courts for various teams to use for training, but since I go to this school they let my girls off the hook. I used to play netball as a child but I stopped due to a knee injury and school became a higher priority. So now I coach under nine’s team, as the saying goes, those who can’t do, teach.

I got changed and ran to the courts with the netball bag, where I found my adorable players.

“Okay girls! Let’s start with a warm-up!” I smiled, “Run around the court twice then we’ll do some stretching.”

…

“Sarah, is your mum picking you up today?” I asked and bent down to her. Sarah was my shyest players, she was always last to be picked up and often I ended up taking her home after training, “Or is Alex picking you up?”

She smiled, “Alex should be here soon...”

“How about we walk to the front of the school and wait for him?” I smiled back.

Sarah nodded her head in response. I picked up the netball bag, walking beside her and asked her about she was liking school. She was telling me that she was happy there and that she had a great group of friends who were all in her class. She also mentions that Liam had been staying with them, that he was their exchange student. I asked her if Alex and Liam got along and she confirmed they did, saying it’s as if they had been friends forever - which I had to admit, is kind of cute. She was asking me about the latest gossip when we got interrupted but a car door closing, or rather two.

“Sarbear,” Alex smiled from the school gate, causing her to run up to him, giving him a massive hug. It was a cute sight.

“Hey M!” Alex smiled, breaking his hug with his sister to give me a one. You could say Alec and I are close-ish friends.

“Hey Alex, I-” I smiled, but the vision of Liam came into my sight as he started to approach us, “Oh hi Liam.”

“Hey,” Liam smiled, putting his hands in his pockets.

“Oh no!” Sarah exclaimed suddenly.

“What’s wrong?” Alex and I said in unison.

“I forgot my water bottle at the courts,” She replied with a huff, “Alex-” She whined, “Come with me to get it?”

“Okay, but we gotta be quick.” He replied, grabbing her hand and walking back to the courts.

“So...” I said.

“So...” Liam imitated with a laugh,“You must really love children?” He questioned.

“What makes you think that?” I questioned.

“Well, from what I’ve heard, you train an under nine’s netball team, you babysit pretty much all the children on your street and you want to become a teacher?” He answered.

“How-” I stared at him.

“Alex told me.” He smiled, accomplished with himself.

“Well the first two are true,” I admitted, “but the last one, well, I’m not sure.”

“How do you mean?” He asked curiously.

“I’m-” I was about to say but got interrupted by Sarah running up and hopping on my back.

“Rahhh!” She screamed.

“Argh-” I laughed, holding onto her, “You scared me!”

“Come on Sarah, stop tormenting Mya, we gotta get going.” Alex smiled, holding out his hand for her to follow him.

“See you soon Sarah,” I hugged her, “Bye Alex,” I smiled as they started to walk back to the car.

Liam lingered behind, “You seem like a nice girl when your not around Coraline or Harry-”

“Hey!” I playfully shoved him. I gotta admit, it’s hard not to like Liam.

“What I’m trying to say is, would you like to grab a tea or something sometime?” He asked innocently.

I started to laugh, “In Australia, we don’t go out for tea, we get coffee.”

“Oh-” He frowned, “Coffee then?” He smiled.

“Like a date?” I questioned, not sure if he was just friendly.

“No!” He said quickly, “Just to hang out?”

“Sure Liam,” I replied, giving him my number, “I’m looking forward to it.”

“Me too.” Liam smiled sweetly and ran off to catch up with Alex and Sarah.

How was this boy so adorable?

…

CORALINE POV
I had so kindly walked Harry home after school, Mya still probably afraid he would get lost and end up wondering the streets alone. I mostly listened to him gabber on, not really contributing to the conversation. This seemed to benefit us both though, he kept talking and talking and I just pretended to listen for the fifteen-minute walk. I did notice he had talked a lot about Mya, mostly with a stupid smile on his face. I noted this, knowing to bring it up with Mya tomorrow.

Now I’m currently at work, waiting for customers to come tell me their order. I worked at this fast food place near my house, my boss can be a bit of a dick but money is money and I’m sticking it out until I can find another job. Something else that I hated about this job is working at the counter; dealing with angry people that I didn’t know.
I served a lady who had ordered quite a few items off the menu, turning my back for a split second to tell my co-worker.

“Hey, can I have-” An Irish voice said from behind me, “what are you doing here?” He asked suddenly, causing me to turn around abruptly.

It was Niall. Looking surprised, “Um, you know, this is where I like to spend my free time after school” I replied, sarcasm lacing my voice. He gave me a weird look in response, not catching on to my joke, “No!” I added, “I’m not being serious Niall. I work here, unfortunately,” I whispered that last part, “Now,” I fake smiled, “is there anything I can get you or are you just gonna stand there looking blankly at me?”

“Sorry!” He finally replied, shaking his head, “I just didn’t expect to see you here that’s all. Anyways, I’ll have five pieces of chicken, large chips, a potato gravy and... a coke please!” He said to me, still smiling at the fact that he now knew where I worked.

“Right, that will be ten dollars fifty,” I totaled, holding out my hand for the money.

He gave took a while to gather the coins/notes, still not use to our Australian money. Eventually, he handed me the correct change and I told him to step to the side. After serving five more people, I was notified to collect Niall’s order and as I did, a thought entered my mind. I turned subtly to see he wasn’t looking in my direction, I collected the rest of his food and rusted the packaging a little, “Here is your food Niall.” I smiled, holding the bag out to him.

“Thanks!” He said excitedly, looking down at the bag as if he had never seen food before.

He turned to leave when I said to him, “I really hope you enjoy your food!” Giving him a sick, weird smile, making him paranoid.

He turned back to look me, “What is that supposed to mean?” He asked, slightly nervous.

“Nothing...just I hope you like it,” I told him shrugging my shoulders.

He left looking very nervous and unsure, slightly scared of what I was going on about. I smiled to myself like an idiot after he left, knowing that I had freaked him out - even though I didn’t do anything at all to his food. That was possibly the highlight of my night, nothing could top the look on his face.

The rest of the night passed with no hiccups, thank god. I wasn’t closing, so I headed out of this place at quarter to ten, texting my mum that I would be home soon.

…

Notes

Hey everyone! Another chapter is up! I know this one was a bit choppy with all the time cuts but I really wanted to explore new characters and possible friendships :) Please rate and subscribe to know when I update!

xxx 'carrie' (aka maddie)