The Dreamscape (Liam Payne)

7.<3

Stella bellowed with laughter, her arms wrapped around her stomach as she sat in a chair meant for a 5 year old. She looked on as five of her favorite girls were all dressed up like their favorite member of One Direction and were putting on a full concert for her in the multi-purpose room at the daycare. They were all singing loudly to every song that Stella played on the little speaker that she had hooked her iPod to.

Once she regained her composure, Stella reached for her cellphone in her pocket and encouraged all the girls to pose together. “Girls, I’m going to tweet this to the boys, okay? Maybe they’ll see it and you’ll become famous!” She told them excitedly as she readied her camera on her phone.

“Are you schending it to Lee-yam?” One girl asked with a bit of a slur since her two front teeth were missing.

“Yes, and Harry, and Louis, and Niall, and Zayn!” Stella assured them, watching as the girls lined up once again into somewhat of a formation. Once the picture was taken, Stella uploaded it to her twitter and sent a quick message; she included everyone as promised.

“@Real_Liam_Payne @Harry_Styles @Louis_Tomlinson @ZaynMalik @NiallOfficial Lookit my girls giving their best 1D performance <3 Sunny Daycare!”

Stella sent off the tweet with the picture attached and then showed all the girls the picture she took, including the tweet to prove to them she wasn’t lying about sending it to the boys. The girls all squealed as they looked over the picture before they started talking about the boys in the way that only young school-aged girls can.

“I’m gonna marry Harry and we’re gonna live in Disneyland!” One announced.

“Well I want to be best friends with Louis. We’re gonna play dress up together!” The other replied.

“And Miss Stella is going to marry Liam and we will have sleepovers with all the boys!” Another squealed.

Stella felt her face grow slightly red at the last declaration and gently coaxed the girl over with her finger. Leaning forward, she rested her head in her hand and looked curiously at the small child.

“Now why do you say that I’ll marry Liam?” Stella asked quietly as she watched the little girl swayed back and forth on her feet.

“Because, Miss Stella and Liam are friends and my sister said that you are secretly boyfriend and girlfriend.” The girl looked down the rings Stella wore on her fingers before looking up bashfully at her.

Stella laughed and cupped her hands to the little girl’s face. “Oh, Emmy. Liam likes to read my stories is all. He’s a fan of what I write, the same way we’re a fan of the way he sings.” She explained tenderly, “But maybe one day we’ll be good friends and I’ll bring him here to Sunny and we’ll have loads of fun!” She finished, her eyes sparkling down at the young girl.

“You promise, Miss Stella?” The child asked sweetly.

“Cross my heart, baby girl.” She promised back.

Satisfied with the answer, the young girl ran off to her group of friends and didn’t miss a beat as a new song came on rotation. She struck a pose and sang out loudly with the rest of the group.

Stella watched on with a large smile on her face, her hands flipping the phone back and forth nervously. She wondered if she was getting in too deep with Liam, especially after that conversation with one of her students. She had been dreaming about him more frequently since she first saw the tweet earlier in the week. He plagued her dreams; both at night and during the day. She didn’t realize how intertwined the dreams were becoming; sometimes she had full control over them, other times it was all Liam.

She had never experienced anything like this before.

Sure, she had gone through her fair share of déjà vu and reoccurring dreams, but this was different. They were connecting; Stella was sure of it. Letting her mind wander back to her job, Stella let her eyes scan the room and each of the children’s faces before she landed on her phone once again, seeing that a notification had popped up.

“@Real_Liam_Payne: They’re too cute! Tell them I want a concert & autographs! RT @Stella_McB my girls giving their best 1D performance!”

Stella gasped slightly before pausing the music, causing the performing girls to give her a set of dirty looks that almost seemed too adorable to be threatening.

“Miss Stella that was my solo!” One girl said grumpily as she crossed her arms.

“I know, Tess, but come here. Liam replied! He saw your picture!” Stella said happily as she held out her phone for the girls to see.

Stella wasn’t prepared for the barrage of little girls who nearly knocked her over as they all clamored to see the tweet.

“That’s him!” One squealed.

“Liam likes us!” Another yelled.

“You think he’ll show it to all of One Direction?” A girl gasped.

Stella let the girls all giggle and squeal with delight before calming them down by putting the device away.

“I am sure all the boys saw it, plus all their followers. He did retweet it with the picture after all. I wouldn’t be completely shocked if the world knew who you all were by tomorrow!” Stella told them, watching as all their eyes lit up like lights on a Christmas tree, twinkling with hope that there was more to their life than make-believe and pretend.

“Now, if you’re going to be famous,” Stella lectured, “You must keep practicing!” She finished as she let the music play on. The girls immediately nodded and moved back into their formation and began singing along to the music.

Stella sat back and scanned the room once again before taking her phone out and quickly typing a response.

“@Real_Liam_Payne thanks for the RT the girls are so excited! They love you & the boys. They can’t wait to perform for you one day!”

Stella sent the tweet and tucked her phone away quickly as she heard the yell from a boy who seemed to have gotten into a fist fight with another boy about a video game. After that little fight the day seemed to roll right along. It wasn’t until much later in the day that Stella looked at her phone again, and what she saw literally stopped her heart for a moment.

There on the screen was a reply to her tweet.

“@Stella_McB Well it looks like we’ll be seeing the girls perform soon. The boys and I are coming to San Diego for a quick vacation. Can we meet up?”