Taste of a Poison Paradise

The twenty-two hour flight from Melbourne, Australia to London, England was one long motherfucker of a ride. It was lucky that I was able to fall asleep quickly on flights, otherwise there would have been a huge problem when I got off the airplane.

After I collected my luggage and went through customs and all that jazz, I strolled through the airport, seeing a tall guy in a suit with my full name, Alexandra Mandell, written on it. I hated it when people called me Alexandra but I dismissed the thought quickly, the excitement of having my name on those board things was too much for me to handle.

I was such a kid.

"Hi!" I stuck my hand out excitedly. "I'm Alexandra! But you can call me Alex."

"Jameson," he replied, a thick British accent coming through in his voice, "but you can call me Jeeves." I smiled widely, as we exchanged words while he took my suitcase to the limo. That's right, we were driving in a limousine. Could life get any better?

I bit my lip in anticipation, curious about the other two winners. I just hoped they were nice and easy to get along with so we could all play pranks together. Pranks were the love of my life, after the One Direction boys of course.

I swung open the door. noticing two girls in my view sitting opposite each other. One of them looked younger than me, but holy Jesus she was a looker. She was a ranga, with flaming red hair but a pissy look on her face. The other girl looked nicer, with light brownish skin and dark ringlets. They were so cute.

I approached the nicer girl first, throwing my arms around her in a hug. She awkwardly hugged me back so I moved on to the red head, who seemed very unwilling to hug me. Maybe I should introduce myself first.

"Hey, I'm Alex M!" I chirped, bouncing in my seat as I looked at the two girls.

Ringlets smiled at me shyly, almost hesitantly as she introduced herself to me as "Riley K." I grinned in response, I knew it wasn't going to take long for us to become friends quickly. The ranga however was going to take longer than I thought.

"Reece K," she mumbled. From the looks of her face it didn't seem like she wanted to be here at all, but what was the point in entering a competition if you didn't even want to be in it? Shaking the thought aside, I beamed at the girls as I opened my suitcase that Jeeves had placed in the roomy area.

"Do you guys mind if I change?" I asked, grabbing a blanket out of my suitcase while Reece glared at me and Riley blushed. "Don't worry, I'll put the blanket over me. Just wanna look hot for Simon."

Riley giggled shyly, noticing my joke as I chuckled along with her. "So where are ya from?"

"The US," she answered, "you?"

"Australia, mate!" I didn't think I had an accent, but to others it was clear who sounded like the biggest bogan. I pulled the blanket over my head and began to change into my meeting-Simon outfit, a cute dress with a pair of heels. "Reece, how 'bout you?"

She didn't answer, and I repeated the question again, a little louder so she could hear me. Usually I was very chill, but was this girl really going to be bitchy for the entire trip?

"Ireland."

"From the land of the ever so sexy Niall?" I pulled the blanket off me, now changed into my outfit. "Girl, you are so lucky. The things I would do to that boy.." I trailed off when I noticed Riley's mouth opened slightly. Raising an eyebrow at her I asked, "do you like him?"

She nodded, her cheeks heated up. "He's cute."

I nodded slowly, "I see...Riley calls dibs on Niall!"

"I do not!" I giggled at her response. "I mean, I don't mind.."

"He's all yours babe, I prefer brunettes myself." I winked at her and she blushed again.

I fell silent for a while, pulling my iPhone out of my bag while grabbing the clothes I had previously worn and stuffing it into my suitcase. My eyes scanned the interior of the limousine until I found what I was searching for, a dock to connect my iPhone in.

"What are you doing?" Riley asked curiously as I connected my phone. I smiled and played my One Direction playlist, the first song coming up with a personal favourite of mine.

"One Direction limo party!" I shouted, throwing my hands up in the air as the familiar guitar strums of What Makes You Beautiful streamed through the speakers. As soon as Liam spoke, Riley and I exchanged another look before we burst out singing loudly to the lyrics. I turned the music up at the chorus, yelling along to the words sang by the whole group.

"Baby you light up my world like nobody else!" Riley sang. I had a feeling that all it took for the girls to loosen up was the reason why we entered this competition in the first place, the lovely One Direction boys. Riley seemed alright, closing her eyes as she mouthed the words. I chuckled to myself as I took out my camera from my bag and snapped a quick picture of her. She didn't notice, and I looked at Reece to see if she had noticed.

I wasn't sure, since Reece was glaring at the floor with her arms crossed and a sullen look on her face. My eyes narrowed. What was her problem?

As if she felt my stare, Reece looked up and we locked eyes.

"What's your problem?" I asked, trying not to come across as being rude.

Reece shrugged and rolled her eyes, I could feel myself getting angrier. Turning the music down, I spoke to her again. "Seriously, all you've done is glare at Riley and I and we haven't even done anything wrong." At the sound of her name, Riley's eyes sprung open as she glanced nervously between the two of us. I wanted to get a rise out of Reece, mainly because I wanted to hear her lovely Irish voice speak again and because I wanted her to stop being upset, Goddamnit. The three of us were lucky enough to get chosen for this and Reece was acting like a child. It annoyed me.

"What's it to you?"

I sighed in annoyance. Instead of replying I turned the music up once more where Harry was singing his solo at the end, the moment where he never failed to give me butterflies. I allowed his voice to calm me down and remind myself why I was here in the first place. It wasn't to start fights with someone I knew I was going to have troubles with, but rather to have fun and enjoy myself while meeting a band I had idolised ever since they appeared on the X-Factor.

The One Direction playlist went on while Reece began listening to her own music on her iPod. Riley and I chatted about our growing excitement to meet the boys, Simon Cowell in particular since he was so intimidating, but at the same time seemed like a hardworking man whom I could definitely take pointers on. Everything About You was the last song to play before the limousine suddenly stopped, the playlist finishing as the three of us all looked at each other.

It was time to meet Simon Cowell.