One thing about having a baby is that you gain your own personal alarm clock.
They had a routine, Niall and Stella. Every morning – six a.m. right on the dot – Stella would begin to cry, demanding to be fed.
Today was no different, of course.
“Shh,” Niall whispers to his little girl as she whimpers around the bottle he’s trying to feed her. “It’s okay, drink up. Daddy’s got you.”
Niall happens to catch his reflection in his closet mirror across from him where he’s sat on his bed. He looks exhausted. He can see the dark rings under his eyes just from where he’s sat.
Just thinking about how tired he is makes him yawn.
When Stella is finished with her bottle, he walks around their small, shared room, trying to burp her and trying to keep himself awake.
“Can’t fall back asleep again today, can I?” Niall says out loud.
Stella makes a content-sounding noise in reply and Niall smiles.
“Nope, daddy’s going to school,” Niall says with pretend excitement.

He doesn’t really want to go back but at least he’ll be a new school this year and not his last one. The Christian all-boys school that he had attended hadn’t exactly been pleased when they had found out about his pregnancy. They wanted to kick Niall out but his father defended his honor and raised hell about the matter. He got to stay, unfortunately.
“And you’re going to daycare,” Niall continues. “That’ll be fun, right?”
Stella finally burps but accidently spits up down Niall’s back.
Niall sighs. At least he had learned over time to feed and burp her shirtless.
He cleans her up, puts on a cute new outfit for her to wear for her first day at her new daycare, and then lays her back down in her crib so that he can have a quick shower.
Another thing about having a baby is that you really learn to conserve water. Niall could hardly leave the room without Stella noticing when she was a newborn. It was like she could sense him trying to leave so she would cry to make sure that Niall stayed there with her.
Niall showers in record time as per usual and throws on his new school uniform. He grabs his school bag and Stella’s diaper bag and then gets Stella so they can head downstairs.

Niall laughs.
They had only just moved to England a few months ago.
Bobby had told Niall that he had gotten a job offer in England and Niall begged him to let him and Stella move with him.
It’s not that he hated living in Ireland because Niall ****ing loved Ireland. He just needed to get away from all the stupid lads from school. He and Stella needed a fresh start.
“I made you some toast,” Bobby tells him, pushing a plate towards Niall.
Niall shakes his head. “Don’t got time but thanks.”
Bobby shrugs and takes the piece of toast for himself.
Niall makes his way out the door, sets up Stella in her carseat, and then sets off to the new daycare.
-&-
“So I’ve got her diapers and stuff in here,” Niall says, handing over Stella’s diaper bag. “Her favourite teddy bear is in there. She likes to sleep with it.” He was starting to ramble. He doesn’t want to leave her.

“Alright love,” Lou, the daycare owner, smiles at him. She takes the bag but Niall doesn’t give her Stella just yet.
“She sleeps a lot, eats a lot, um, poops a lot..” Niall continues. “Normal baby things I guess.”
Lou nods. “Nothing I can’t handle my dear.”
Niall bites his lip, supposes he should probably say goodbye so that he isn’t late for his first day of classes.
“You’re gonna be a good girl?” Niall says to his sleepy daughter. She is so much like him, such a laidback baby. “You’re not gonna spit up on Lou, right? No, you wouldn’t do that. You’ll save that for daddy.”
Niall kisses her on the cheek and she giggles.
“I’m gonna miss you,” Niall says to her with a big smile. “Gonna be thinking about you all day.”
He finally passes her over to Lou. She doesn’t cry, thankfully. If she had started, Niall probably would’ve started crying right there too. He really doesn’t want to leave her.
“I promise you that she’s safe here,” Lou says to him with a reassuring smile. “Now you go off and get to class.”

Niall nods. “I love you baby girl,” he tells Stella before making himself leave the daycare.
He cries on the way to school.
He doesn’t want to go. He’d much rather spend the day at home with Stella.
His eyes are red-rimmed by the time he gets there. He looks like he’s been smoking up.
“Fantastic,” Niall mutters to his reflection in his rearview mirror.
He finally hauls himself out of his car and makes his way inside the school.
Niall sits quietly through his first class. He gets a few stares. He hopes it’s because he’s new and not because of the bit of baby weight he’s still trying to lose.
It’s weird being around so many people again. He literally spent the past few months cooped up at home with Stella. He had no friends. She was all that he had.

His next class is going to be torture. Physical education. He sighs to himself.
Niall makes his way towards the change room.
He used to love PE back in Ireland. Loved playing football, loved running around. Loved giving head to other lads in the showers after class…
Niall’s too lost in his thoughts and accidently bumps into someone.
“Shit, sorry mate,” he says quickly. He looks to see who he’s collided with. Fuck.
Tall, curly brown hair, big green eyes, those lips…
“S’alright,” the boy smiles at him. “I don’t think we’ve met before? I’m Harry.”
“Wow,” is what accidently slips out of Niall’s mouth. His eyes widen and usually pink cheeks go even pinker. “I mean, um..” He is mentally slapping himself right now. “Niall. I’m Niall.”
Harry smiles brightly. “Irish?”

Niall nods.
“Cute,” Harry whispers. He turns around to open the change room door.
Niall doesn’t know what just happened but his heart is racing. He follows Harry through the door anyway.
The room is loud and full of half naked teenage boys, including Harry who has started to strip himself of his jumper. Niall swallows hard and heads to the toilets to change.
He doesn’t want anyone to see the stretch marks on his stomach. His mother hadn’t been kidding when she told him that he should really be using some lotion to prevent them. Of course he didn’t listen.
It’s not that Niall hates how his body looks…
Okay, he knows that’s a lie. He does.
Stella was worth it though. He just wished that he had listened to his mother a bit more. He hates when his parents are right about things.
The class all heads outside to the field. Niall watches Harry walking with two other lads.

The teacher tells them to grab a partner and practice passing a football between them.
Niall just stands there.
Back in Ireland, everyone wanted to be Niall’s partner. He was one of the best football players in his class.
He doesn’t know anyone here though and he’s hasn’t played footie in so long now. He couldn’t play while he was pregnant and he didn’t have the time or effort after he gave birth.
“Hey mate,” Harry says, walking over to him. “Partners?”
Niall smiles shyly. “Okay.”
Harry grabs them a ball and leads them over to a free spot on the field.
They start to kick the ball to each other. Niall learns quickly that Harry is uncoordinated and just utterly terrible at football. He finds it endearing.
“So are you from Ireland then?” Harry asks after a while.

Niall nods. “Just moved here.”
Don’t ask why. Don’t ask why.
“Why here?”
Niall bites the inside of his cheek.
“Um, my dad just got a new job here is all.”
Harry nods. He doesn’t ask any more questions.
“You’re quite good at this by the way. I’m shit at football.”

“You’re not too bad,” Niall tells him.
“I am,” Harry laughs.
“He really is.” Niall hears a voice laughing behind him.
He turns around to see the two lads that Harry was walking with earlier. He assumes they’re Harry’s friends.
“Heeeey,” Harry says with a pout.
“So who’s your friend Harry?”
Harry pout turns into a bright smile.
“This is Niall. He’s Irish,” Harry tells them. “And Niall, these are two of my arsehole friends.”
“Watch it, mate,” the smaller lad says. “I’m Louis.”
“Liam,” the taller one pipes up. “You’re pretty good at footie, huh?”

Niall face flushes a bit. “Er, not really.”
“Sure ya are. You play in Ireland?”
Niall shrugs. “A little bit.”
“You should join our team.”
Niall bites his lip. “Don’t think I can mate.”
“Why not?” Louis asks with a frown.
“At least try out,” Liam pleads. “We could really use someone like you.”
“Um, I’ll think about it,” Niall tells them.
The teacher blows his whistle and tells them that class is over.
Niall changes back into his uniform in the toilets again.
Harry invites Niall to eat lunch with him and the lads.
-&-
Niall’s been in school for a month now. Things are going alright.

He’s got his and Stella’s morning routine perfected then he goes to school all day while she is at daycare and then he picks her up after classes and they both have a nice, long nap together before he makes dinner for himself and his dad and then he’s in bed by eight. He does this every day, even on weekends since he was able to get a part-time job at Tesco’s.
It’s not the typical life for a seventeen year old, Niall knows that very much.
“Come on, you have to come,” Louis whines.
“You can’t miss out on another party,” Liam tells him.
This conversation happens every Friday at lunch. Louis has a girlfriend named Eleanor who throws a party every weekend because her parents are rich and go away a lot so she gets the house to herself all the time.
Apparently everyone goes to her parties. All of his new friends. Their girlfriends. Harry.
Niall shakes his head again. “I told you, I’ve got to work the next day.”
He wants to go, mainly so that he can spend time with Harry. He knows that he can’t though. He asked his dad the first time. He ended up getting a scolding about ‘responsibility’ and ‘being a parent’.

“You don’t have to drink. You can still come and be good the next day.”
“Or you could just, you know, not go to work,” Zayn adds.
“Sophia says that Barbara is gonna be there,” Liam says, waggling his eyebrows at him as if that’s supposed to be encouraging.
Harry makes a strangled noise. Niall looks up to see that he’s choked on some water. He has a frown on his face.
Perrie told Zayn that Barbara told her that she thinks Niall is cute, and when Zayn told him that, he just kind of shrugged and said ‘yeah, I guess she’s nice’, so now all the lads think that he fancies Barbara too so they’re trying to set Niall up with her so that he can shag her.
Well not all the lads at least. Harry stays quiet whenever they bring her up.
Niall just shrugs.
“You seriously want to stay home on a Friday night instead of getting some pussy?” Louis asks him.
“Umm.” Yes?