Imagine [UNEDITED, ON HOLD]

Chapter 3: Jade

Soon I began to miss Niall more than ever. He said that I wouldn't need him anymore, but that was far from the truth. A few months after my tenth birthday, my father demanded to see me again. I agreed.
He showed up promptly every time, and soon I was allowed to spend the night and even weekends. Once he even took me to Disneyland.
Once.
We had an arrangement. Ever since Karl had seen how happy I was spending time with him, he decided to start going with me. Every Friday mum would drive us and dad would pick us up from school and drop us off at school on Monday, where mum would pick us up.
That way, my mum and dad didn't have to see each other because if they didn't, mum would rip his head off(if he didn't get her first).
When I was thirteen he stopped coming. It had been a month without seeing him when he picked us up again, getting there before mum so we'd go with him.
We were so happy he'd come back we didn't notice the beer cans littering the floor. Only until he swerved off the road did we realise he was drunk. We realised too late, the car skidding and smashing into a tree. All of us were wearing our seat belts, but all three of us were still knocked unconscious.
When I woke up, my father asked to see me so he could apologise, but instead, he began to start yelling at me, screaming that it was my fault the accident had happened and that I should be punished. He even went as far as to turn off the oxygen machine I needed before the nurses pulled him away and swiftly switched it back on.
My mum got a restraining order placed, forcing him to not be able to even see me, much less talk to me. Also, I'd blocked him in my phone contacts and all communication was shut out and away.
I started focusing on what I wanted more than anything: to be a singer. I had a newfound love for an old wish from singing Colours of the Wind from Pocahontas at a school event. People seemed to like it.
I auditioned for the X-Factor in 2008 but didn't make it because I lacked confidence.
I tried again I'm 2010 and was sent back after boot camp, again, due to lack of confidence.
Additionally, I stopped watching the X-Factor, previously one of my favourite shows. I didn't want to know who the contestants were and I didn't want to know who the judges were.
Until I auditioned again in 2011.

"Next!" one of the judges called from the stage. I bit my lip nervously but then brushed it off. Nerves is what failed me the last two times.
I'd decided to audition for the X-Factor again. Three times is the charm, right?
I took a deep breath and trotted out to the big X and smiled, trying to appear more confident.
"What's your name?" Tulisa asked me, a warm look in her eyes.
"Jade," I said. "Thirlwall."
"And why are you here?"
"I just want to be a singer," I admitted truthfully. "That's all I've ever wanted my whole life, and I figured if I truly deserve to be one, this is a place that can make it happen."
"What're you going to sing for us today?" Louis asked.
"I Want to Hold Your Hand by the Beatles," I said. I'd chosen an "older" song to stand out as different. If I sang a generic pop song, they wouldn't look twice at me.
I began singing and ignored everything else, pretending I was in my shower practicing.
"You know," Kelly said, "I could see you in a girl group."
Oh, God, no. I would never fit in. My nose unconsciously scrunched up in disgust. Oops. But they let me go on to boot camp.
After a long ordeal of being put in a group and then taken out and then being put in another, after singing our way to Tulisa's house, we--Perrie, Leigh-Anne, and Jesy(also known as Rythmix)--finally were given the good news of being sent on to the live shows.
The contract was signed, and we began practicing immediately. It was clear from the start we sounded amazing together.
And then, it came all too quickly, the final. That boyband from last year's X-Factor had come, but the only one I knew was Liam and Harry from the 2008 and 2010 X-Factor. I hadn't watched last year's so I had no idea who was in One Direction.

We still couldn't believe it. We'd won the X-Factor. The first group. The first girlband. The first a lot of things. We went back to our dressing room to start preparing for a long night of celebrating.
"Hey, guys?" Perrie asked.
"Yeah?"
"One Direction said they'd come back in a few minutes, is that okay with you all?" she asked.
We nodded. I'd only spoken with Louis, Harry, and Liam before, but I figured all would be nice. "Got a soft spot for Zayn, eh?" I smirked. "You'd go out with him, wouldn't you?"
She rolled her eyes and shoved me away, shaking her head, but the light blush that had settled on her cheeks was basically confirming everything I'd said as true.
I wiped off all the makeup and scrubbed my face three times to rid myself of the heavy face of makeup I'd had painted on, and rubbed in a light moisturizer. I applied a couple coats of mascara, a caramel eye shadow, and clear lip gloss, but that was it.
I slid out of my gold dress and after wiping my arms and legs down with a towel filled with ice. I dressed in skinny jeans and a v-neck lavender shirt. I straightened my hair pulled on black converse.
I went into the bathroom again to find a hairband to tie my newly straight hair into a ponytail. I found a clear one, wrapped it around four times and pulled the ends to tighten it and hold it in place.
An irritating lock of hair was pushed back and forced in place by a bit of hair gel and a bobby pin.
Voices of laughing and talking were audible through the door, as One Direction had arrived. I opened the door and scanned the floor for my sweatshirt. "Pez?"
"Yeah?"
"Have you seen my sweatshirt? I can't find...," I trailed off as I saw a blond haired blue eyed boy watching me curiously.
It looked a lot like...no. I hadn't thought of him for months. I hadn't said his name in years. This was a coincidence, and that was it, some people just look alike.
"Which one?" she came up behind me and rested her chin on my shoulder.
"Never mind," I said.
She shrugged and kissed me on the cheek before walking back over to Zayn, and Leigh-Anne.
I fished a vitamin water out of the ice bucket and sat next to Louis, in between him and Liam. The blond stayed standing until Louis gestured for him to sit. He wouldn't stop looking at me.
I twisted open the bottle and took a long drink.
"Congrats on your win, Jadey!" Liam smiled at me.
"Awe, thanks, Li. I haven't seen you in forever," I said. "We gotta hang soon, maybe catch a drink?"
"Yeah, definitely. The lads--"
"You know each other?" the blue-eyed boy asked in a frighteningly familiar accent and voice.
"Yep," Liam said, ignoring any hostility that might have been traced in the mystery guy's voice. "We've known each other since the 2008 X-Factor."
I grinned. "We're old friends."
"Well, I wasn't the one who was asked out by the one and only Harry Styles," Liam teased.
"That was for camera," I said dismissively.
"Anyway, which members of One Direction do you not know?" Liam asked me.
"Well, I know Louis 'cos me and him had a chat today, I know you 'cos the X-Factor, I know Harry from the X-Factor thing, and I know Zayn from Perrie." I rolled my eyes.
"So the only one you don't know is this lucky Irish lad. I can't believe I haven't introduced you yet," Liam said to me. "Jade, meet--wait, didn't you watch the 2010? How do you not know?"
"Uh, no. I was really busy with school. And stuff," I lied. To not make it so obvious I was lying, I said with a light laugh, "I've been living under a rock for the past year."
"Oh, alright. Well, I hope it was a lovely rock. Jade, this--" Liam broke off as he realised the other boy had walked over to Harry. "Oi! Horan! Get over here!"
The blond warily and slowly walked back over to us.
"Liam?" he asked. "Do ya need something?"
His Irish accent was more pronounced on certain words, like "you" and "something."
"Nah, I just wanted to introduce you to Jade," Liam said. "Jade, this is Niall Horan."
"What?" I sat up, eyes wide. Because my voice had come out louder than intended, everyone seemed to be staring at me now. "Niall?"
"Yeah, is that a problem?" Liam looked confused.
"No, not at all," I said. "Sorry. It just...I'll be right back."
I pushed past Leigh-Anne into the bathroom and locked myself in one of the cubicles.
Niall? Could it be just a small coincidence or something like that maybe? I doubted it. Irish, Niall, looked the perfect age for when he left me...but he wasn't real. How could he be here?
Or maybe he wasn't. Maybe it was just someone who had the same name and looked like him. Did I want it to be Niall?
I didn't know.

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The video of Jade singing Colours of the Wind is attached. :) I don't know exactly what year she was in, but I think it was in the beginning of secondary school so 13 is a good guess. She sounds AMAZING. She had a really developed vibrato quite early omg, I can't believe she didn't get through the first two times tbh.

Also I sort of made up small parts of her audition because the full tape was never released.