Getting Caught in the Rain

“I know something you don’t,” Olivia sing-songs one night, just after Halloween (she’d gone as a cat and had looked adorable, by the way). Caroline left a while ago and Harry’s sitting on the couch, watching the news.

“Oh?” Harry says, not looking up. “And what would that be?”

She comes over so she’s standing directly in front of him and presents him with a pink piece of paper. Request for parent-teacher conference on November 6th, 7:30 PM it reads. Name: Olivia Styles; Teacher: Heather Campbell; Room: 25.

Harry nearly chokes on his own saliva. “Olivia!” he nearly shouts, grabbing his phone and checking the date. It’s the fourth. “When were you planning on showing me this?”

“Dunno,” Olivia says cheerfully.

“When is the deadline for this? Do I have to let her know I can come by a certain day?” he asks.

“Today,” she answers after a moment of thinking.

“Today? Jesus Christ, Olivia, why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“Today’s not over yet,” she says, confused.

Harry closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “Kid, by ‘today’, Miss Campbell meant she wanted you to bring this paper in with my signature on it. This lets her know if I can or can’t go. Didn’t you notice other kids doing that?”

“I was reading,” Olivia answers, as if she’d been engrossed in her book the entire school day. She furrows her eyebrows when Harry sighs again, and then it dawns on her. “I did it bad?” she asks, her eyes widening.

“No, no,” Harry says quickly. “It’s okay. I’ll just email Miss Campbell and explain what happened. Why don’t you go get ready for bed, okay? Did you do your homework?” Olivia nods slowly. “Need me to check it?”

“No. Caroline already did.”

“Good. Go put your pajamas on and brush your teeth, alright? I’ll be there in a second.” Olivia leaves, and Harry opens his laptop and composes a new email.

Hi Miss Campbell,

My daughter Olivia is in your class, and she just brought parent-teacher conferences to my attention. She also informed me that permission slips were due today. So, while I know this is late, I was wondering if I could still meet with you on the designated time and day? I am very interested in discussing her progress and work ethics in your class.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Harry Styles

After Harry tucks Olivia in and changes out of his his work clothes, he checks his email again and is surprised to find one from Miss Campbell.

Hello Mr. Styles,

Thank you for emailing me. I did find it strange when Olivia never brought in her permission slip, but now I understand. I look forward to meeting with you on Friday.

Well, that’s sorted. Harry feels marginally better as he gets into bed.

* * *

On Friday, Harry comes home from work in time to see Caroline checking Olivia’s homework. “Hey,” he says. To Olivia, he asks, “Is Miss Campbell gonna say nice things about you to me tonight?”

“Yes,” Olivia answers with a roll of her eyes, definitely something she picked up when she was with her mother.

“Well, we’ll see about that,” Harry says, raising his eyebrows. He can’t decide what he wants to wear, so he just settles for taking his tie off and going in his work shirt and pants. They eat dinner, and then he pays Caroline and she leaves, wishing them luck.

“Who’s gonna stay with me?” Olivia asks, watching Harry put his shoes on as he gets ready to leave too.

“Uncle Zayn and Aunt Perrie are coming soon,” he says. “Why don’t you get in your pajamas so when they get here, the three of you can watch movies until bedtime?”

“Movies?” Olivia’s eyes widen comically. Harry nods, and she runs off to her bedroom to go get dressed.

Harry waits until he hears a knock at the door. He opens it and his greeted by Perrie, who comes in like a storm, hugging and kissing and calling out to Olivia, and Zayn, who just smiles softly and shakes his hand.

While Olivia is preoccupied, sitting on Perrie’s lap and chattering away, Harry says, “Okay, so we know that eight o’clock is bedtime, yes?”

“Nooooooo,” Olivia shouts. “Bedtime is never.”

“Lies,” Perrie says with a laugh. “Yes, H, we know the rules: bed by eight, no sweets, no scary films, etc., etc., etc.”

“Just making sure,” Harry says, holding up his hands. “I’ll be off now. Goodnight, you,” he says to his daughter, bending so he can kiss her. “I’ll give you the full report in the morning.”

He drives to the school and sits outside Olivia’s classroom, waiting until the door opens and two parents a few years older than him exit, nodding to him. He waits a little more until Miss Campbell calls, “Mr. Styles? You can come in now.”

The classroom is decorated with autumn leaves and pumpkins since Halloween was only a few days ago. A poster with the alphabet is above the whiteboard, and a number sequence up to 20 is right below that. The class rules are listed next to Miss Campbell’s desk, and in front of the whiteboard is another smaller table with a chair behind it and a chair in front of it.

Miss Campbell is sitting at said table. “Hello, Mr. Styles,” she says when he walks in. “Please have a seat.”

So he does, awkwardly bunching up his legs to fit in the kiddie chair. Miss Campbell digs through a file next to her before pulling out one that says STYLES, OLIVIA ROSE on the front. “This is some of Olivia’s work,” she says, sliding it around so he can see.

Olivia’s handwriting isn’t too sloppy, albeit a little big, but she appears to be a good student. Most of her papers have stickers and smileys on them, along with a Good job! or Great work! written on top .

“Olivia is a very good student,” Miss Campbell says. “She needs a little work with her math, but her reading skills are very advanced. Have you been reading with her already?”

Harry nods. “Yeah. I taught her how to read when she turned four, and we read almost every night together.”

“That’s good,” Miss Campbell nods approvingly. “She also seems to be having no trouble making friends in class. She’s very sweet and polite and gets along with everyone.” Miss Campbell sits back in her seat. “I must say, Mr. Styles, she is a joy to have in class.”

“Thank you,” Harry says, pleased.

“Now, I understand it is just you raising her?”

“Yes. Well, I mean, we have a nanny who watches her during the day, and four of my best friends from school help out a lot, but in technical terms I am her guardian.”

“She did mention her uncles.”

“Yeah. They’re not her real uncles, obviously, but they’ve helped me raise her since she was born. So she has a lot of . . . male influences.”

“And is her mother in the picture at all?”

“Sometimes,” Harry says, shifting uncomfortably, “she has a very . . . er . . . demanding . . . job, and it requires her to travel a lot. Olivia used to stay with her two weekends a month and just go everywhere with her, but then it got to be too much, so we decided she’d just stay with me. She visits when she can, but it’s pretty much just me.”

“I see. And how old were you when Olivia was born?”

“Nineteen.”

“And may I ask what you do for a living?”

“I finished school, and now I work at a law firm,” Harry answers, a little defensively. They’re not rich, that’s for sure, but they’re pretty well-off, if he does say so himself. Plus, Cara contributes when she can. He refuses to let her pay his rent or anything crazy like that, but he does allow her to buy Olivia new clothes and toys. Overall, though, Harry and Olivia are doing just fine.

“I can support both of us, if that’s what you’re asking,” he adds.

“I’m not trying to be invasive, Mr. Styles,” Miss Campbell says gently. “I just make it a priority to find out if my students are in safe and healthy homes, and it looks like Olivia is.”

“Yes,” Harry says stubbornly. “I would give up anything for her.”

“I can tell,” Miss Campbell says, sounding amused. “You love her a lot.”

“I do,” he agrees. “More than anything.”

“Okay, well, I think that’s really it. Thank you for raising such a wonderful girl, Mr. Styles. She’s an excellent student. You did a great job.”

“Thanks,” Harry says with a smile. He shakes her hand when they stand up before leaving.

When he gets home, he finds Zayn, Olivia, and Perrie sitting on the couch watching a movie. Zayn is fast asleep, but he’s got his head in Olivia’s lap and she’s happily playing with his hair. “I thought we agreed bedtime was eight o’clock?”

“Oh yeah,” Perrie says. “Yeah, we might’ve.”

Harry sighs, exasperated.

Olivia carefully slides out from under Zayn and runs over to him, holding her arms out. When he picks her up, she demands, “What did Miss Campbell say? Did she say I’m good? Tell me everything.”

“She said you were terrible,” Harry says seriously. “Always disruptive, mean to the other kids, never listens.”

Olivia’s eyes widen comically. “She’s lying,” Olivia declares. “Why would she say that?”

Harry laughs. “I’m just kidding,” he tells her. “She said the opposite. She showed me some of your work and told me how smart and lovely you are.”

His daughter preens. “Really?”

“Yeah. She said nothing but good things. I’m very proud of you, kid.”

“Well, we knew she would,” Perrie says. “Livvy is the best child in the entire universe.”

“I agree,” Harry says. Olivia buries her face in Harry’s neck, bashful at all the attention, and he kisses her hair. He’s grateful that despite all the obstacles in their lives, she turned out to be a great kid. Well, he did have some pretty good help too.

He puts Olivia to bed, promising to buy her ice cream tomorrow, before going back out to see Perrie and Zayn, who is just waking up. Harry relays the report Miss Campbell gave him, going a bit more in depth than he did before.

“She said I did a great job,” he says, looking at them almost questioningly.

Perrie and Zayn are smiling. “You did, Hazza,” Perrie says softly. “You did an amazing job.”

“With our help of course,” Zayn adds.

Harry laughs. “Of course.”

“But seriously,” Zayn continues. “Olivia is the way she is because of you. You sacrificed all this time to raise her, you taught her to read, to tie her shoes, to love everything. Not me, or Lou, or Niall, or Liam, or even Cara. You, H.”

Harry smiles. “Thanks, guys. I don’t know where I’d be without all of you.”

“You’d be okay,” Perrie says, kissing his cheek. “I have no doubt about that.”

He stays up long after they leave, thinking about the conference and his conversation with his two friends. He’s never really thought about the way he raised Olivia or the person he taught her to be. He always just tried to make sure she respected everyone and treated everyone with love and then hope it worked.

He thinks about what Miss Campbell said before: You did a great job. Apparently, it did.