Counting the Stars

“Niall, wake up. We slept in the car because you’re lazy,” I said softly, shaking his shoulders. He didn’t wake up and continued to keep on sleeping. I shook his shoulders with more force, “WAKE UP NIALL!”

After a good five minutes of shaking his shoulders and yelling in his ears, Niall finally woke up at the mention of food.

“Why did we fall asleep in the car?” He asked as we walked into my house.

I rolled my eyes at him, “Ask yourself that, sir.”

My mom greeted the both of us with too much enthusiasm for 8 in the morning. She already had entire buffet of food prepared for both mine and Niall’s never ending appetites. My mouth was almost watering at the sight of all the food. Bacon, sausage, pancakes, waffles, eggs, fruit, and toast all lined the island in the middle of the kitchen.

“I think I love you and your cooking, Mrs. Blake,” Niall praised my mom, taking a bite of sausage.

She smiled brightly at him, “Thank you very much. I know you both have a busy day ahead of yourselves and you both eat like pigs. You’re growing teens who need your fuel!”

“Speaking of busy days… What’s on the schedule for today, Niall?” I asked, curious as to how everything was going to play out. I played with the eggs on my plate before shoveling a huge bite into my mouth.

“We have a meeting at 11 with management trying to convince them into letting you stay on tour. If all goes as planned, which I believe it will, we’ll get you all dolled up and back to girl Callista. If we have time, we can go out to dinner or something before we fly back tomorrow morning,” Niall explained. He grinned at me, before cracking up.

“Is there something on my face?” I quickly ran my hand over my face, trying to get anything that was on my face off.

Niall just continued to laugh as he leaned over and pulled a chunk of eggs off of my shirt, “It was on your face but you knocked it off. You’re a classy eater.”

I playfully shoved him and threw a chunk of eggs at him, “Take that back! You’re just as bad!”

He grinned widely at me, “Anything for you, love.”

--

We arrived at the management building 20 minutes early to avoid being late by a single second. I was so beyond nervous, it wasn’t even funny. I personally thought there was no way they were going to allow me to stay on the tour, but Niall thought otherwise.

A secretary led us to a large office. Unlike most offices, this was the size of three of my bedrooms and was elaborately decorated. Two tables sat on opposite sides of the door with large, cushioned chairs surrounding them. In the middle of the office was a giant desk with two of the large chairs in the front of it and an office chair behind it.

“Mrs. McClennan will be with you both in a moment,” She spoke quickly and exited the room even faster.

“She has an actual name that isn’t bitch?” I asked, mocking fake shock and confusion.

“Yes… Now get serious, I hear the clicking of high heels,” Niall whispered into my ear.

Sure enough Prissy Bitch the Monster walked into her incredibly fancy office and sat down in her incredibly fancy, most likely incredibly expensive, office chair in front of us. Her expression was plain as day and was easily readable. It was a look of absolute fury and anger.

“I’d like to start off by saying management isn’t happy about any of this, Callista Blake. When we received a phone call from Mr. Horan saying there was something we needed to discuss, I didn’t think it would be anything of this matter until he told me what we were discussing,” The Monster started her lecture.

My face immediately fell as her voice got louder. It wasn’t to the point where it was considered yelling, but it was louder than a normal inside voice. Anytime someone got upset with me or so much as raised their voice at me, I was instantly sad and scared. Niall immediately noticed the change in my mood and reached his hand over and took mine in his. He rubbed his thumb in circles over the palm of my hand to calm me down.

The Monster just kept talking and talking, but I was no longer paying much attention, “…And like you so obviously have pointed towards almost everyone, you found loopholes in your contract. I’d like you to show me where in your contract that you can get out of this predicament you’ve found yourself in.”

She handed me over the copy of my contract and the top line of it caught my eyes immediately.

‘Male Drummer NEEDED’

My eyes widened in horror, “Oh no, this is most definitely not my contract. I remember my contract specifically said that a male drummer was only wanted,” I sighed and read over some more of the contract. Before each of the guidelines on my contract, it made a specific jab at it needing to be a male, “This is definitely not my contract. This is a joke.”

The Monster smirked at me and took the contract from me and flipped to the last page and handed it back to me, “But there’s your signature, plain as day.”

Niall took the contract from my hands and sat it in front of me. Before I realized what he was doing, he licked his finger and ran it over where my signature was, “The ink didn’t smudge at all. Had this been signed with a pen, like it was, it would have smudged slightly. It’s a copy.”

My eye’s widened in horror quickly, bur narrowed almost immediately after they practically bulged out of my eye sockets, “You wrote an entirely new contract and photocopied my signature onto it so you could get rid of me…”

She shrugged, the evil smirk still playing at her lips, “Sorry, Callista. Looks like we’ll be holding auditions for a new drummer while they’re in New York.”

Niall stood up from his chair and crossed his arms, “That won’t be necessary. This tour won’t continue on unless Callista can come back on tour as our drummer. She’s done two weeks of perfect shows and doesn’t deserve to have this opportunity to be taken away after working so hard to achieve it. The guys and I all love her for who she is and we want her on our tour. Plus, if you don’t let this go through, I know the big man in the even bigger office who is in charge of whether or not you keep your job. He wouldn’t be too happy to hear about what you've done."

I mouthed a thank you to Niall, speechless and not sure what to say.

“What would we tell the fans and the press? Our management company and record label would look like an entire joke if they found out we were so easily tricked by a teenager,” The Monster sighed. She was clearly not liking the fact that Niall wanted me around.

“We’ll get Callista extensions so her hair is long again, and she’ll continue the tour as a girl. We’ll say that “Kyle” got really sick in North Carolina and couldn’t continue the tour so he had to fly back to California. We only had a day to find a replacement drummer before the next show, and we’ll say that “Kyle” told us about his sister being a drummer. Since she’ll look like a girl, it will all work out,” Niall smiled widely; proud of the plan he had come up with.

The Monster sat there quietly for a few moments before sighing once more, “If you can get your PR assistant to go out and announce that, or you announce it on a radio interview and you find a way to execute it all on your own, I don’t have a reason to tell you that you can't do that. We base most of our decisions around what you all want as a band. Just know if any of this backlashes and makes the record label and or management look bad, you’re both in a lot of trouble.”

I couldn’t help but let out a small squeal as I jumped up and hugged Niall tightly in excitement. It was the official okay that allowed me to continue on with the tour, which mean continuing to build a relationship with Niall. Niall hugged be back tightly, wrapping his arms around my waist and holding me there.

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself. I’ll have to write out a new contract and send it out to you while you’re in New York. Callista, if you go against anything that the new contract says, you’re done completely. Other than that, you’re both dismissed. Go celebrate and be love birds somewhere else,” She waved us off, trying to get us to leave her office.

“MAKE OVER TIME!” Niall squealed, imitating a terrible American accented valley girl.

“Shut up, Horan. Let’s go get my weave put in.”

--

“How do I look?” I asked Niall as I stepped into the waiting area of the fancy salon we were in.

I had sat still in a chair for almost three hours while the hair stylist dyed my hair and strategically placed the multiple extensions in my hair. My hair was a much darker brown, almost black, and went to just above the small of my back. It was like I had never cut my hair to go on tour. Except for the fact it was all fake hair.

Niall smiled at me, wrapping me in a hug, “You look absolutely wonderful, love. I never picture you with long hair before, but I’m glad you have it. You’re beautiful.”

My cheeks heated up and flushed red, causing me to look down at the ground. I finally had hair to cover my face, so I used that to an advantage. Niall chuckled at my embarrassment and placed his hand under my chin and lifter my head up.

“No need to be so embarrassed, it’s only anything but the truth,” He encouraged me, continuing to smile.

“You’re just too much for me, Niall.”

“I’m glad. Now we’re taking you back home to pack up a new wardrobe and get ready for the dinner I’m taking you to tonight. We’re going to introduce the whole world to Callista Blake,” He practically shouted as we walked outside to where my car was parked.

I rolled my eyes at him, “I don’t think the whole world needs to know who I am, Niall.”

“Too late. If you continue to hang around me, the whole world plus three other planets of aliens will know you and your beautiful face,” He shot back, getting into the passenger seat.

“Someone’s got a bit of an ego,” I joked as I started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

The entire drive back to my house we joked around, laughing at everything each one of us had said. I was genuinely happy and I didn’t realize that Niall had this kind of impact on me and my life. This feeling of happiness and being content was something I wanted to feel for the rest of my life.

I couldn’t help but wonder if this is how Caroline had felt for that short while she and Niall were dating. I did feel bad that they broke up so early, but it was good for me, so I couldn’t be too upset over it. I made a mental note to get in contact with her soon to talk with her. We left things on a slightly tense note.

The California weather was beautiful once again. It couldn’t be a degree over 75 and the cool breeze that blew the car window made it feel even better. The sun was beating down, but not to the point where it was unbearable. It was a different feeling to be back home and see such familiar places after traveling the State’s for so long.

Halfway through the drive and our in depth discussions, Niall reached over and held my right hand that wasn’t on the wheel. I looked over at him and smiled, quickly returning my attention back to the road. Tingles and tickles ran up my entire arm at the contact of Niall’s hand grabbing my own.

This was definitely something I could get used to.