Chapter 6: Ana Chats With StarWars

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A/N Hey, I know I said I probably wouldn't update today, but I was able to get the chapter done! Here's chapter six! Hope you enjoy!

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Ana’s POV

Harry and I had just dropped off the tube when we looked back towards Lizzie and Louis and noticed that they were holding hands. I smiled to myself; Lizzie seemed to be feeling great about this.

Harry seemed to notice this too. He whispered in my ear, “I guess that they’re happy,” he said with a smile. I nodded in response, still smiling. “What are we supposed to do now?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, to be honest. I guess we wait for the others to finish their rides and come down here,” I answered.

He nodded. “Alright,” he said as we walked back over to the couple. I tapped Lizzie on the shoulder. “Come on, Lizzie. Let’s go get the others,” I said with a smile.

Lizzie nodded. “Okay,” she said, not letting go of Louis’s hand. We all walked back to the exit pool of the ride together.

Harry then spoke up again, and asked me, “So, why did you look nervous when you were riding the waterslide?” He asked me with an expression of slight curiosity in his bright green eyes.

“Oh, that’s a long story from a birthday party I went to in second grade or something,” I said carefully and slowly.

Lizzie turned around and faced me. “Oh, are you talking about Kelsey Parker’s birthday party where you and Jocelyn Carter went down the toilet bowl backwards?” She asked with a smile.

I smiled slightly. “I guess it wasn’t as long as I thought,” I laughed.

Harry nodded. “Ah, that makes sense,” he said with a smile.

I pouted slightly. “Hey, I wasn’t as terrified as Lizzie was!” I protested.

“I was pretending to be Veruca Salt!” She defended herself, causing us all to laugh. “What? I was!”

“If you’re Veruca Salt, I want to be Violet Beauregard,” I said with a smile.

“But then you’ll become a big blue blueberry!” Louis exclaimed. “You’ll be a big blueberry that we can roll around the whole hotel!”

“I was kidding, Louis!” I laughed, and said, “Besides, I think I would prefer just to be me.”

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If only I actually could do that. If only I actually could be myself.

Not even the girls knew about what my problems were. I was being pressured everywhere I went. I had been pressured in the halls at school to drink, smoke, and do a whole bunch of other things I obviously wasn’t willing to do. But the worst part is that my own mother doesn’t even stay out of this. She is the one who pressures me the most, actually.

You see, when my mom married my dad, the two of them decided that Mom would stay home to take care of me and my dad would continue to go to work. My mom was a lawyer, and had a fairly decent salary. My dad was a special type of engineer, and he made more money than Mom, so dad continued to work.

But when I got older, my mom came up to me. I was about fifteen when this happened, only a year or so ago…

“Anastasia Maria Reynolds,” she said as she came into my room. I was sitting in my room, working on my homework at my desk. My ear buds were in, and I was listening to the Up All Night album. I didn’t hear my mom at first, even when she used my full name.

She walked over to me and gently pushed the pause button on my iPod that was laying on the desk surface next to me. “Anastasia Maria Reynolds,” she repeated.

I turned around in my swivel chair to face her. “Yes, mother?” I asked politely, trying to hide my irritation that she had pressed pause on my music in the middle of Harry’s solo of What Makes You Beautiful, of all places.

“I think it’s time that you start thinking about your future. College is only a few years away, after all,” she told me.

I nodded. “I already know what I want to do in the future. I’m going to go to Harvard and study to be a college professor, and write novels in my free time.” Then I decided to joke around a bit. “Of course, I’ll marry a handsome prince and I will never have to work again once we get married, and we’ll run away together to have a happily ever after!” Then I smiled, realizing that could work as a new story plot, with a bit of revision.

“Anastasia, this isn’t funny!” she told me with a stern expression. I was taken aback slightly. My dad had given me this sense of humor, and she didn’t go after him when he used it on her.

“Mom, I told you to call me Ana, remember?”

“Anastasia is much more formal, especially when you take your classes at Harvard Law,” she told me.

My jaw dropped. “What are you talking about, Mother? I already told you that I wanted to be an author. That’s what I’ve always wanted to be since I was in kindergarten! And I’ve wanted to be a teacher since then as well! I never said I wanted to be a lawyer!”

My mother responded, “You’re going to go to Harvard, like you want, but you’ll be at Harvard Law. Authors make no money when you have writers block, and teachers do not have a good pay grade either, in my opinion. Lawyers, on the other hand, do great with their pay.”

“But that’s not what I want!” I exclaimed.

“It’s what’s best for you, Anastasia. Now get back to work. You won’t get into that school without fabulous grades.” She turned on her heel and strolled out of my room, leaving me sitting there in shock.

That was the day I had lost my freedom to choose my own future. I hated it. I don’t mean that I disliked it, I hated it. I had just lost my freedom to choose my own future in just a few minutes, thanks to my mother giving up her job. It was stupid.

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Harry must have noticed that I had zoned out slightly. He paused in front of me and looked down at me with those bright green eyes. Oh gosh, those eyes made me melt...

Shut up, Ana, I thought, knowing that what I thought was stupid. It wouldn’t happen anyway.

“Ana, is everything alright?” He asked me, his eyes meeting mine.

I nodded. “Of course, Harry. Everything’s fine. Let’s just keep going,” I told him, forcing a smile. I motioned towards Louis and Lizzie, who had continued to hold hands as they walked away from us to the edge of the exit pool.

Harry looked at me with a slight expression of uncertainty, but he said nothing. The two of us continued to walk to the pool in silence.

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I had decided to take a break later on in the day, so I went up to the room and sat on the couch with my laptop on my lap. I planned on typing up a section of my story into a Word document. Instead, I got sidetracked and logged onto a website that I had become a fan of.

It was a message board website, and I loved being on there just to talk with my friends on there. They had been there for me a lot lately with the pressure I had been dealing with. I just was too scared to tell the girls, because I didn’t want to tell them that I had lost my freedom. Maybe they might lose theirs too, but I didn’t know.

On the site, I found a topic that was titled with my name on the site: ForeverADirectioner. I clicked on the topic, and found that it was started by a friend of mine on the site. Her username was StarWars, and she was a close friend on the site, even though I knew she was a few years younger or so.

ForeverADirectioner has logged on.

StarWars posted: Hey Directioner! How’s life going?

ForeverADirectioner posted: Good. I’m still nervous about what my mom’s pressuring me to do.

StarWars posted: You know that she just wants the best for you. Why are you freaking out about this anyway?

ForeverADirectioner posted: This is my last summer before senior year starts. If I don’t convince her to let me choose my future, I’ll never get the chance!

StarWars posted: Don’t worry about it. Just take your time and prove to her that you know what is best for you. I may not know much about high school, I’m still younger than you and all, but doesn’t the school year seem longer for you that year?

ForeverADirectioner posted: Eh, I don’t know. It’s not like I’m repeating it or something. Maybe I’ll ask Melody’s brother later or something like that.

Melody was the name I used for Courtney on the site. I never liked telling people on the site my real name; it made me feel a bit self-conscious. Plus, I don’t think I should use her real name anyway.

StarWars posted: Okay, that’ll work, I think. He’s in college, then?

ForeverADirectioner posted: Yup. He’s a year older than me, a freshman in college when the year starts.

StarWars posted: Ah, okay.

ForeverADirectioner posted: Hey, StarWars? Could I ask you something?

StarWars posted: Of course! What’s up?

ForeverADirectioner posted: Well, now that my mom has kind of limited my freedoms, I don’t feel like the real me. I don’t think I can ever be the real me again. But now there’s this guy, and I really want to impress him and show him the real me, not the girl that my mom wants me to be. What should I do?

StarWars posted: Well, just be you! Maybe by being you, you’ll show your mom that this is who you should be! Besides, I know you’re a smart girl, and maybe he likes the smart girls. I think I read somewhere that Harry Styles likes smart girls, right? Sorry, I’m new to the One Direction fandom!

ForeverADirectioner posted: Yeah, I think he said that. I’ll ask him.

StarWars posted: How? Are you going to Tweet him or something?

Shoot. I really hope she doesn’t figure this out.

ForeverADirectioner posted: Probably. I have to go. See you around, StarWars!

StarWars posted: Later Directioner.

StarWars has logged off.

ForeverADirectioner has logged off.

After logging off, I shut my laptop down and thought about what StarWars told me. Just be myself around Harry? How could I do that with all the pressure?

I guess I’ll just have to figure it out somehow.

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Later on in the day, after I had gone back down and found the group again, we decided to go back upstairs. We had decided to play Truth or Dare in our room, but we made a few rules just to be safe. Nothing too crazy for dares, as well as a couple of chickens so you didn’t have to do something you really didn’t want to do. Yeah, we’re way too safe sometimes. But that’s easier for us.

All of us had changed out of our swimsuits before we started the game. I had brushed my hair down so it wouldn’t tangle before braiding it over the shoulder. I now wore a plain light violet tank top and jean shorts instead of my swimsuit. I had even put on my cursive “A” necklace that I had gotten for my birthday years before. It had become something I wore all the time that I could

We had all crowded into the cabin area of our suite, for some reason, instead of the larger area with the bigger bed and couch. Simone had said, “I think it’d be fun in there! Please?” She gave us a puppy dog face that nobody could resist, no matter how hard you tried.

The eleven of us were all sitting on the ends of the three beds in the room. Liam, Courtney, and Simone were on the top bunk. Kelly, Zayn, Louis, and Lizzie were sitting on the bottom bunk, and Niall, Lucy, Harry, and I were on the single bed on the opposite side of the room.

“Okay, who wants to start?” Liam asked us.

Niall smiled. “I’ll start,” he said as he sat up in the bed. He scanned the room for someone to ask. Finally, he decided on Louis. “Hey, Louis, truth or dare?” He asked him.

“Dare, of course!” Louis grinned, and said, “What else would I pick?”

“Truth was another option…” Lizzie muttered with a laugh.

Niall grinned, and said, “Well, I dare you,” then he looked at Liam, Lizzie, and Lucy as well, “as well as you three, to run around the halls yelling, ‘I’m a potato’ at the top of your lungs! All the people who have names that start with “L” have to do it!”

We all stared at him. What kind of dare was that? Liam finally spoke up. “Are you serious, Niall?” He asked.

“Of course I am. How could I not be?” Niall responded. “Now go on!”

“But we’re in a hotel! There are people in here, who may be trying to sleep!” Lucy protested, eyeing him nervously.

“So? You’ll put on disguises and hide when you’re done!” Niall explained. “Now go!”

Louis stood up, and walked to the door, putting on a beanie and sunglasses. Liam and Lucy followed behind him, shaking their heads. Lizzie, on the other hand, stayed behind. Niall motioned toward the door. “You too, Lizzie,” he said.

Lizzie shook her head. “There is no way I’m doing that, Niall. I’m using a chicken on this one.”

Really? She was going to use up a chicken on such a simple dare? I’m not saying I would do it, but using one up?

Before I could ask her why, I heard Louis’s voice outside of the room, yelling, “I’M A POTATO!” I heard the same thing being yelled out by Liam and Lucy.

I stood up and slipped out the door, wanting to watch them. Harry followed me and stood behind me, craning his neck around the door next to mine to see what was happening.

Liam and Lucy were sprinting down the halls, probably trying to get this done as quickly as possible. Louis, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying this. Lizzie, the last “L” in the group, who had used the chicken, was leaning against the wall, laughing her head off at the sight. “This is classic!” She grinned, and pulled out her phone to record it. “Who else is thinking of blackmail?”

I rolled my eyes, and playfully slapped her shoulder lightly, kind of like Ariana and Justine earlier. “Be nice, Lizzie. What if you got an embarrassing dare and I chose to record it?”

Lizzie stared at me. “I would tell you to put it on YouTube,” she said with a grin.

“You are crazy,” I said with an eye roll as I watched Liam and Lucy finish the round. Louis, on the other hand, was only halfway done.

When Liam and Lucy walked back into the room, Lucy paused by Niall, and said, “That was probably the strangest thing I’ve ever done.” Niall only grinned in response as the ten of us all filed back to our spots in the kid cabin.

We all sat down in our places on the beds and waited for Louis to finish his round. After a minute or two, Louis ran in with a grin on his face. “Now that’s a dare!” He laughed. “It’s my turn now!” He flopped down on the bed and began to choose his next victim. “Liam, truth or dare?”

“Um, I’ll choose a dare,” Liam said after a little pause, deciding his choice. His choice surprised me. I wouldn’t expect that from Liam.

Louis grinned. “I dare you to kiss Courtney on the cheek,” he said to him.

Liam said, “Alright,” as he leaned over to kiss Courtney, who was sitting next to him. His lips brushed her cheek quickly before he pulled away.

But what I couldn’t help but notice was that Courtney seemed to almost flinch when Liam came closer. Why would she do that? Courtney liked Liam a lot! Liam was her favorite member since forever, and now she was scared for him to kiss her?

I shrugged it off as Liam looked straight at me. “Ana, truth or dare?” he asked me.

“Um, truth,” I said, deciding to follow StarWars’s advice and stay true to myself.

Liam nodded, and asked, “What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever done?”

The girls giggled before I answered, and I glared at them slightly. They knew the strangest thing I have ever done; in fact, they’ve heard this story from my dad many times. “The strangest thing I’ve ever done was probably when I was playing the Just Dance game, except it was Just Dance 3. I was trying to set a high score for them to beat on Hey Ya!, and I was doing this one dance move, where you have to shake, like, a lot, and it was really embarrassing because I got a perfect every time.” I looked down at my feet. That had been really weird and complicated, and the girls all knew it, for crying out loud, they were there!

The boys had kind of gone silent, and I said, “Exactly. I’m going to grab a glass of water.” I stood up and walked over to the sink outside, filling a complimentary plastic cup about half full of tap water.

“But it’s your turn, Ana!” Simone complained.

“I’ll be back in a minute, Simone. Just give me time to even take a sip, please!” I rolled my eyes as I faced the mirror. The tap was still running, so I splashed some water on my face. I don’t really understand why, since I had just been in the water around an hour or two ago.

Then, I stared at myself in the mirror. I looked straight into my eyes in the surface, and thought, this is me. But how am I supposed to convince my mom? How am I supposed to be me? The only place I can be me is when I’m with my friends. They know my quirks, my strengths, my weaknesses, they know the real me.

That’s when I figured it out. That’s it! Maybe my friends can help convince her, if I tell them about it! They would help me! Maybe the boys might be able to do that too, and I can be me again!

I smiled at my reflection in the mirror, and decided, then and there, I would do it. But then another thought hit me. But, what if the real person I am isn’t the person that my friends like anymore? What if it’s not who the boys like? What if it’s not who Harry likes? I sighed. I can’t afford to think like that. I just need to be me!

That was when Kelly came out of the kid cabin and walked over to me. “Ana?” She asked me.

“Yeah, Kelly?” I asked, looking back towards her, picking up my glass of water.

“Aren’t you coming?” She asked. “It’s still your turn. You need to ask someone a truth or a dare.”

“Yeah, I’m coming,” I told her, taking one last sip of water before putting the empty glass back on the counter. “I just wanted to finish the drink up.”

“Then come on. We’re all waiting for you,” Kelly smiled, tugging on my arm and pulling me back into the room. They all smiled at me as I entered.

“Okay, your turn. Who’s the victim this time?” Courtney asked me curiously, looking at me with her big blue eyes.

“Um…” I began, scanning the room, “how about you, Courtney? Truth or dare?” I took the seat on the bed next to Harry again as I waited for her response.

But, before she answered, I thought about how they all had waited for me. They hadn’t chosen to continue on after I left because I said I would just be a minute, even though it was longer when I began to start thinking about other things. Maybe they would accept the real me. And maybe, just maybe, I could be me and still impress him.

I’ll just have to wait and see.

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A/N Hey everyone, I really hope you liked this chapter! Please comment, vote, and fan! I really want to hear what you all think! Thanks!

Video of the chapter: One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful

Picture of the chapter: Victoria Justice as Ana

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