Grade 8

Harry was waiting impatiently in a car at the airport, his leg was bouncing uncontrollably. Gemma's plane had just landed any second now and he was be with her. He hoped having her with him on your for a little while would help cute his home sickness and maybe get him out of his mood.

Finally her head of newly blonde hair was heading his way. He didn't wait for her to get any further getting out of the car to run towards her.

"My favorite sister!" He exclaimed wrapping his arms around her.

"I'm your only sister, you knob." Gemma laughed hugging him back. "It's so good to see you."

"I can't believe I missed you!" Harry told her pulling away to give her a funny look. "My annoying older sister, who would have thought."

"Oh shut it." Gemma hit him in the chest. "Grab my bag, will ya?"

Harry did as she asked taking the handle of her suitcase. "How was your flight?"

"Long and boring." Gemma groaned.

Harry laughed shaking his head. "Well welcome to Kansas!"



Harry stormed into the dressing room his face set into a look of absolute rage. "Have you seen those people outside?"

"What people?" Louis asked. He was on the phone with Eleanor but he still gave Harry a confused look.

"The ones with those bloody awful signs?" Harry said eyes ablaze.

Liam got up from where he was sitting to go to the window. He could just barely see people across from the arena holding signs. "What do the signs say?"

"You really don't want to know." Gemma said. She had just came in the door after Harry.

"Gemma!" Louis exclaimed momentarily forgetting about whatever it was that had Harry so upset. "Good to see ya babe!"

"Hi Louis." Gemma greeted.

There was a chorus of greetings thrown at Gemma. Harry was standing by the window glaring at the people across the street. "No one else cares about those fucking wankers?"

"I can not believe those people out there!" Lena stormed into the room much like Harry had. "How do they get away with shit like that?"

"What do these signs say again?" Liam asked looking between Lena and Harry.

"All kinds of shit about how God hates gay people. And you guys are corrupting the minds of young impressionable girls." Lena answered.

"Complete shit." Harry agreed typing on his phone. "They're the ones corrupting minds!"

"Damn right!" Lena cried.

They shared a look for once their anger was focused on something other then each other. "What are we going to do?"

"Absolutely nothing." Paul spoke up giving them both a warming look. "You will leave this alone."

"How can we leave this alone?" Lena exclaimed. "They can't just do that!"

"Yes they can." Paul reasoned. "If there was something we could do I would do it, but there isn't anything."

Harry and Lena both looked at Paul the same fierce intensity in that one look. "I'm not letting our fans think we're ok with this." Harry finally answered going back to his phone.

Lena did the same tweeting a rather angry tweet about how just because those vile people were outside did not mean any of them supported them. She even retweeted Harry's tweet about it as well, although she knew that would cause a few problems for her.

"Excuse me Lena." Gemma, who Lena had finally been introduced to, said. She was tall like her brother and just as beautiful, it had to be something in their English water to make so many gorgeous people. "Can we talk for a second?"

Lena looked shocked for a moment but gave her a nod nonetheless. "Sure, of course."

Gemma took her out of the room silently leading her away from prying ears. Lena was worried she knew next to nothing about Gemma or what she could possibly want to say to her. Gemma turned into an empty room that looked like it was used to store extra chairs.

"Is everything alright?" Lena asked cautiously.

"Not really." Gemma answered her back was to Lena make it hard for her to know what was coming next. "Harry told me what you said to him the other day."

Lena held in a groan, of course this was about Harry, she should have known. "I know it sounds bad."

"It was bad." Gemma turned to look at her, she was carefully calm. "Harry's messed up right now, I think you know that, why would say something like that. Something that could have really messed with his head more."

"It wasn't supposed to come out the way it did." Lena told her. "I never meant to say that, we were fighting and-"

"I know my brother has been hard to deal with lately." Gemma cut across Lena's words. "He's going through something, something that he doesn't know how to deal with."

"I know that." Lena agreed. "I've been trying to be nice and talk to him about it but its obviously easier for him to be rude to everyone then deal with his problems."

"He's trying." Gemma argued. "You have no idea what that girl did to him."

"I've seen what she's done."

They were silent, Gemma was sizing Lena up trying to see how genuine this girl really was. "I don't want to dislike you Lena. You seem like a sweet girl but say anything or do anything that hurts my brother again and there will be consequences. Understood?"

"Yes." Lena gave her a single nod of her head.

"I think we could be on the same team."

"What team is that?"

"The one that's going to get my brother over that slag."



Gemma sat with Lux playing with some dolls while the boys warmed up for their show. After coming back from her talk with Lena she hadn't had a chance to really talk to her brother. She wanted to really know how he was doing, not just hear about it from Lou, or get a lie from Harry. He seemed fine now, he was running around shirtless while Lou tried to keep him still enough to do something with his hair.

"He's doing better." She commented to Louis who sat next to her. "A lot better then the last time I saw him anyway."

"He's getting there." Louis agreed.

"I can't wait for the day he forgets about that damn girl." Gemma shook her head. "She's done nothing but mess with his and Zayn's lives."

"Careful, Gem." Louis laughed. "Both of them are fiercely protective of her."

Gemma didn't say anything. He was right she had seen how protective Harry had become when Alexis was involved. She had seen the fight between their mother and him about it before he left for this tour. She had been there right after it had happened when Lou had called her and begged her for help. Harry was such a mess that night, she was sure he hardly even remembered what happened. He had drank so much she was so worried he would have permanent damage. She would always remember how desperate he sounded asking her why he wasn't good enough; why didn't she want him after everything that happened. The look he gave her when he told her he wanted to end his life that he had hoped to get drunk enough to just go to sleep and never wake up.

"Hey Niall what this tattoo I've been hearing about?" She called out to the Irish boy ready to cast away those thoughts.

She was happy to hear about Niall's tattoo and smiled when he showed her it. It was hard not to notice the sadness in his eyes when she asked how Sam liked it, even though he answered that she liked it of course. Looking around the room from her brother to the four boys she considered her brothers now, she saw that they were all breaking in some way. From their love lives to their fame, they were all suffering in some way.

"Hey Gemma ready to go to side stage?" Lou asked ushering the boys out of the room for the show. "Haven't gotten to watch one with you in a while, yeah?"

Gemma watched from side stage as those broken boys gave their all to the fans that helped them get to where they were. She may get upset with those fans at times but she would forever be grateful for them. Without them Harry would still be in Holmes Chapel reaching for a dream that may have never been his.

"I think having you here will do wonders for him." Lou leaned over to say to Gemma.

"I hope so." Gemma agreed. "Mum's so worried about him she almost came herself."

"We'll get our Harry back." Lou gave her a quick hug. "Don't worry, love."

"Mind if I watch with you?"

Gemma gave Lena a small smile. "Of course."

Lena stood next to her eyes trained on the five boys singing on stage. Even though she tried to keep her attention on all of them she couldn't stop herself from watching Harry. Once again Gemma was able to notice who Lena was watching on stage. If she were in a cartoon a light bulb would have appeared over her head at that moment. Maybe Harry would get over Alexis sooner rather then later.



"I've been thinking." Gemma and Harry were sitting away from everyone after the concert; the first time they had had alone all day.

"That's dangerous." Harry teased.

"Shut up." Gemma gave him a warning look. "I've been thinking that it might be time to put yourself out there again."

The light that had been in Harry's eyes as he teased her was gone they were darker more on edge now. "We are not talking about this."

"You haven't even tried Harry." Gemma sighed.

"I don't want to." Harry growled.

"Why not?" Gemma asked frustrated. "There is an amazing girl that you keep over looking because of Alexis."

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked confused. What girl had he been over looking?

"Are you that blind?" Gemma laughed more to herself then at Harry. "I've barely been here a day and Ive seen how much this girl fancies you."

"Gem, who are you talking about?"

"Lena of course."

Harry gave her a bewildered look his mouth dropping open. He hadn't expected Lena to be who Gemma was talking about. Of course he fancied Lena but it was just a physical attraction to her more then anything. He could barely stand to be around her for more then a few minutes.

"Look Harry, all I'm saying is maybe give her a chance." Gemma continued taking his silence as her cue to keep taking. "Maybe it won't work out but at least you're trying to move on."

The idea of moving on from Alexis gave him a feeling of panic he had never known, but maybe spending time with Lena would at least quell his constant feeling of loneliness. He could never love anyone but Alexis but that didn't mean he couldn't have fun until she came around. Besides maybe seeing him with someone else would make Alexis want him back.

"You're right I haven't even thought about seeing someone else." Harry finally said. "I'll think about it, alright?"

"Alright. I guess that's all I can ask."

Having his sister with him was turning out be better then he had thought it would be. She had yet to really nag him and for the most part just let him do his own thing. Which was a stark contrast to how everyone else was treating him. Always keeping him at arms length giving him side glances accessing how he was doing that day. It was nice to feel semi normal for once. He was still broken but at least having her with him would make him feel almost whole again.