Week 13 Story: "stan"

 

Harry Styles on tour in Nashville

In the city of Nashville where country music reigns supreme, there was a girl by the name of Olivia. Olivia, despite her peers' affinity for the sound of the south, was not a fan. She quite actually despised it. She found herself in her room listening to the sound of alternative rock most often. There was only one artist that could take her away from the continuous loop of guitar riffs and snare drums in her head. That was Harry Styles. She had been a devoted fan of his since the days of One Direction. And her love for the singer only grew throughout his solo career. 

On the day of Harry Styles' newest album release, Olivia found herself singing along to the new tracks while she walked through Downtown Nashville to go to his concert. As she passed by a nearby bar multiple men found themselves distracted by her head bobbing and singing. Enraged by their own prejudices against the artist they quickly banded together to teach the girl a lesson, even though she was doing nothing wrong. The men quickly left their table and followed the girl. Due to her headphones and being completely enveloped in the music she had no idea they were anywhere near her.

The men were finally able to circle around her and started to yell and criticize her taste in music and insult her favorite artist. Because she was one girl in the presence of a group of men she felt very vulnerable and scared. 

Olivia couldn't breathe. No words could escape her lips nor could she escape the situation itself. She feared for what might happen next with this group of drunken men until she heard a voice shout, "Hey!".

The group of men turned to see a swarm of girls flocking around them. Screaming at them the same way they had done to Olivia. Olivia felt a pair of arms grab her and pull her away from the men. She looked up to see a kind face looking down on her. Olivia joined the group of girls in efforts to scare away her tormentors. With victory, the squad of girls was able to scare away the drunken country fans.  

"Thank you so much for that I don't know what would've happened if you all didn't show up," Olivia breathed out a sigh.

"No worries, we would never let a fellow Harry stan get into trouble. It's just like he says, 'Treat People With Kindness'," The girl that had helped her escape winked back at her. 

Olivia's heart swelled at the thought that a mutual interest in a musical artist could have saved her that day. She went to the concert and felt an even bigger sense of community than she had felt only a few hours prior. Olivia had never been more grateful to be a Harry stan. 

Author's Note:

This story is surrounded by fan culture terminology. If you don't know, "stan" is a word that was created to describe someone who is a fan of something. But not just a usual fan, "stans" are completely enveloped by the content. Whether it be a musical artist, actor, or even a book series. Because this could be loosely related to religion I decided to use it in my retelling for "The Prioress' Tale: Little Hugh". Originally written by Chaucer but retold by Eva March Tappan in The Chaucer Story Book written in 1908. In the original a boy named Hugh is killed on behalf of Satan for his public singing of a hymn about the Virgin Mary. His body was left hidden but the VIrgin Mary allowed him to be found by placing a grain on his tongue that allowed his voice to carry even in death. For my retelling I decided to change the ending and not have my protagonist die. But to use the person my character looks up to and have a way for them to save her life. (p.s. Yes, I understand that I basically wrote a Harry Styles fanfiction, let's just pretend it didn't happen.)