One Direction: Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction (13 page)

We had such a good time. We’d go to country pubs and have lunch and go and get ice cream from the local farm. We used to walk for miles as well; it was all very laid-back.

One night we were sitting around a fire in the garden when we heard this cry from the field. It was pitch black and we couldn’t see a thing out there, but Liam all of a sudden turned into Superman. Zayn went into the bungalow and got a stick and wrapped a rag around it to make one of those fiery torches—it was like Braveheart!—and then they headed off to try and find the person who was shouting out to us. It wasn’t until our hero had climbed over the fence and seen this great horse running towards him that we realized Liam wasn’t as hard as we first thought! He came pounding back and jumped back over the fence as quickly as he could—we were all in stitches.

We did do some rehearsing, though, honestly. Liam and I both had our guitars and we’d take random songs like “Crawl” by Chris Brown, “She’s the One” by Robbie Williams and “Fix You” by Coldplay and sing them together as well as we could with what limited group knowledge we had.

We really didn’t have a clue what we were doing, so we basically headed out to Marbella hoping for the best but with no idea how we would do. Spain gave us more time to get to know each other and see what people are like in different situations. We took everything really seriously, but we also made sure we had fun. We wanted to make the most of it. We were probably the loudest band there—at any rate people were often telling us to be quiet!

On the day we were due to hear whether or not we were through to the live finals everyone was up really early for breakfast and the atmosphere was incredibly tense. We didn’t find out our fate until late in the afternoon, and the boys and I spent all day talking through how we thought we’d done, while also trying to have a laugh to take our minds off things.

When we were first put together as a band Simon had told us that he’d given us a lifeline and he expected a lot in return, so not only were we doing this for ourselves, but we felt like we owed him something too. He’d given us another chance and we needed to prove to him that he’d made the right decision and we’d been a risk worth taking. (Hopefully we have so far!)

Standing there waiting for the verdict was one of the longest moments of my life. Hearing a “yes” would change things forever, and my mind kept going back to the performance—replaying it in my head and wondering if we could have done it better. It’s so hard to read Simon’s face, so it could have gone either way, and when he said he was putting us through I wanted to leap about ten feet in the air.

The first thing we did when we got through, apart from hugging each other, was to phone our parents. We were over the moon but we kept things quiet on the way home because everyone else was on the same plane, including all of the acts that didn’t get through.

I flew to London and then on to Dublin. We’d been told we could tell our family we’d got through, but no one else. Somehow it was all over the internet so people kept asking me about it and I kept saying, “You’ll just have to wait and watch the show.”

I had about two or three weeks back home before we moved into the contestants’ house, and it was strange packing up all my things and heading off, but I couldn’t wait to get to London. As I didn’t know how long we’d be away for, I took my whole life with me! My bedroom was literally empty when I left.

When we arrived in London we stayed in hotels for a couple of days while they finished getting the house ready. Then we moved in, and when I saw our room I wondered how we’d all fit in there. I’m very clean and I don’t like a mess or
my things being out of place, but Louis is the messiest person I’ve ever met. He’d just leave everything on the floor and I used to have to clean up after him. (Looking back, I do wonder why I did that!)

Our room was so bad that one day when we all went out for work, Esther from Belle Amie cleaned it for us because she found it so horrific. It was really clean when she finished, but it didn’t stay like that for long.

Michael Bublé was without a doubt the best celebrity I met on the show. I am a massive fan, and I even made it on to his documentary, so I’ll always have that as a reminder. He’s an absolute genius, and when he heard that I was a massive fan he came over to me and introduced himself. I was freaking out. Sometimes people say it’s a bad thing to meet your idols, but not in my case—he was so cool!

He was so normal and easy to chat with that I heard myself saying to him, “I spent £200 on tickets for your concert in Dublin and I had to give them up because of
The X Factor
.” He replied, “Oh man, any time you want tickets for my show just let me know and I’ll get them for you,” but I turned around and said, “No Michael, I just want my £200 back.” He started cracking up and then I got to go to his sound check, so I can’t have offended him too much.

Katy Perry remembered me from my audition too, which was so nice. And throughout the competition we had a good laugh with Cheryl. Louis was always exchanging banter with Cheryl and she loved it. She could take the banter and give it back. She’s so natural. She’s like your normal girl from your area, but a hundred times more beautiful.

CHRISTMAS CRAZINESS

We moved out of the
X Factor
house the morning after the final and it was a strange atmosphere. Our room was such a mess and there was stuff absolutely everywhere, and we basically had to pack three months of clothes in an hour. There were some Mercedes vans waiting outside for us, and I was like “This is the life! I could get used to this.”

We headed over to West London and checked into a hotel and then had a meeting with our management company to find out what was going to happen in the future. We heard some amazing plans and we couldn’t wait to get started. That night we had the wrap party, and it was a great laugh, but we had to be up at 5 am the next morning so we didn’t go too crazy.

We had a few gigs, and then four days before Christmas I headed home to see my family. And sleep a lot. I completely chilled out at home, but because I hadn’t had time to do any Christmas shopping I had to go out and get all of that done beforehand. People kept stopping me in the street to say congratulations, and all over the place there were posters of me saying “Best of luck Niall” and “Good luck One Direction.” It was so surreal.

It was a weird Christmas in a way. It almost didn’t feel like Christmas because I felt like I’d missed the build-up through being so busy. On the day itself I was so tired I stayed in bed until 11 o’clock, which I never usually do. I’m always the first up. My friends and family didn’t treat me any differently. I got the usual presents I always got from them, but I was grateful to be home, because it was all about to go a bit crazy.

I live with my dad in town because my parents are separated, so I went and had lunch at my mom’s house in the country first. Then I went back home for a second dinner and all of my family came over. As it turned out this wasn’t the best idea as it was so cold that all the pipes were frozen, so we couldn’t
even flush the toilet (ha ha, bad times!). In the end we had to move over to my cousin’s house across the road and continue the party there.

The funny thing is that
The X Factor
brought my parents closer. My mom has remarried now and I get on really well with her husband Chris, but my dad didn’t know him very well. Because they were talking all the time I was in the show and all traveling to London to see me, they started to get along really well. I remember my stepdad being in my house, putting the kettle on and chatting to my dad, and I was saying to my brother Greg, “Is this really happening?” In fact my dad and brother didn’t always get on, but they too are now getting on much better, so the show has kind of brought everyone together. My dad and Matt’s dad have also become good friends, and all of the band’s parents text each other or chat on the phone. It’s the 1D family!

I stayed in touch with all of the boys over Christmas, and I remember calling Louis up on his birthday on Christmas Eve. I was expecting him to be out partying, but it sounded fairly quiet around him. I think he was just so tired he wanted to chill out like the rest of us.