Counting the Stars

The only thing that kept me going this morning was the giant Starbucks I picked up on my way to the production meeting. Normally, I wouldn't get Starbucks because I found it too expensive, but today was an exception. I had to leave my house by seven in the morning, which wasn’t on the top of my “Things to Do” list. Leaving the house this morning was a lot easier that it normally was. Not having to put on makeup or do my hair was one plus, it let me wake up at least half an hour later and not have to worry about getting ready. It was definitely something I could get used to and enjoy.

The nerves really started to hit me once I arrived to the warehouse where the production meeting was being held. According to the email Paul had sent me last night, we’d sit in a meeting for two hours or so to meet everyone in the crew and go over official business matters. After that everyone would go off and work on what needed to be done. The band and I were having our first practice today, so I’d have to learn all of the music and get a feel of how the other guys played.

To say I was nervous would have been the understatement of the century. Every bad thought that could possibly run through my mind did as I walked through the building to the meeting room. What if I ended up talking and I sounded like a girl? Or something slipped that would lead to them believing I wasn’t a guy? I was worried that no one would like me and I wouldn’t fit in with any of the guys, which would make the entire tour uncomfortable for not only me, but everyone else.

I took a deep breath in through my nose and out through my mouth and walked into the meeting room. What I expected to see was everyone sitting in their chairs with perfect posture, lamely discussing topics such as British politics and the weather until the meeting started. What I expected was not what I saw. Instead of the proper, official looking vision I saw in my mind, everyone under the age of 25 was running around the room screaming profanities and shooting each other with foam darts from Nerf guns. Anyone over the age of 25 were all lounging around in chairs, routing on different people in the Nerf gun battle.

“KYLE! WELCOME TO THE MEETING!” Curly shouted as he ran past me, tossing a Nerf gun my way, “You, me and little ol’ Niall over there are on a team against Liam, Zayn, and Louis! Jon, Sandy, and Dan are on their own team! Be prepared, they’re pretty good.”

I stood there, clutching the gun to my chest. I looked around at all of the guys with guns, trying to put a name to their face. Curly laughed at me, “Oh right, you probably don’t know who any of us are. We’ll skip the proper introductions for now. I’m Harry, and the blonde one is Niall. Don’t shoot us. Shoot everyone else and you’ll be good.”

I nodded slowly, still trying to take everyone in. I brushed it off and ran behind Harry, knowing that a guy would have jumped right into the game. We all ran around shooting each other four at least ten minutes before a tall, prissy looking lady walked into the room. She had on a woman’s suit and heels that were at least 6 inches. She walked like she had a stick shoved up her ass and her lips seemed to be in a permanent scowl. T

Once she walked in the door it became eerily quiet. Everyone had turned to look at her, and once they saw who it was, all quickly grabbed a chair around the large table. I took a seat next to the blonde who I learned was Niall, trying to avoid the death glare of Prissy Bitch.

“Good morning, crew. Good to see you all on this… lovely morning,” She spoke slowly. Even the way she spoke made her seem evil. She could have been any sort of monster or villain, “We’re going to get down to business now. So listen up. We have a big tour on our hands. Four months across the States, Canada, and Mexico. 52 shows in the span of 4 months. I want to make sure everything operates as smooth as possible. To have this happen, you're going to listen to what I say and you're going to do just that”

After 10 minutes of Prissy Bitch the Monster talking, you could tell everyone was completely bored and wasn’t paying attention. Niall, who was sitting to my right, tapped my knee and handed me his phone. It was opened up to a text message where he had begun typing.

‘this mtg is so boring :P’ The message said. Simple and straight to the point.

I quickly typed back a response, handing him the phone, ‘You can say that again’

Almost as quickly as I had replied, he had, too, ‘this mtg is so boring… lol’

I rolled my eyes at his lame sense of humor. For the rest of the meeting, we continued to type messages back and forth to each other. We had begun a game of 20 questions, where we each shared facts about each other. Some of them were things I had to make up and make sure I remember. Things like my new favorite color and movie. There weren’t too many major changes to my personality, but I had to make sure to keep tabs on what I was saying.

The meeting lasted for three hours, when it was only supposed to be two. It had been three hours too long. It could have been the longest meeting of my entire life. Prissy Bitch the Monster talked more than any person I had ever had the misfortune of meeting. Every time a new subject was brought up, she always found a way to bring it back to her and one of her many successes. Niall always found a way to make fun of her when she decided to discuss her personal life. In the short time I knew the blonde kid; I could tell we were going to be close friends.

The Monster finally released us, telling us all that we needed practice so we would be perfect for the very first show of the tour. Apparently, if we weren't perfect, we'd ruin her entire image and that wouldn't look good on The Monster's resume. My other three band mates I learned were Jon, Sandy, and Dan. Jon played the keyboard, Sandy was the bassist, and Dan was the guitarist. They went through and played a couple songs, giving me a feel of how they played. They were all really good and that made me quite a bit nervous to be playing alongside of them. They all told me about the other drummer, Josh, who apparently they were all close to and was an incredible drummer.

I got to work on learning the songs quickly, making sure I knew what I was doing. I wanted to impress them all more than anything, making sure everyone here knew they had made the right choice in choosing me. The rest of the band made sure I was learning everything properly, taking each song one at a time and piece by piece. I had learned the entire set in a little over four hours. By the time we had finished, we were all cranky, tired, and hungry.

“Kyle and company, do you all want to come get some dinner with us?” Niall asked as him and Harry walked over to us.

We all agreed right away, eager to get food in our famished stomachs. The rest of One Direction followed suit behind Niall and Harry. I had finally taken the time to put a face to a name, so I knew who everyone was.

I was shocked that today had gone by almost flawlessly. Not once did I slip up and almost talk in a girly voice or make some sort of girly comment. I was surprised out how well I was handling everything.

After a large debate on where we should eat, we decided to eat at a small diner that was around the corner from the place where we were currently at. The logic behind the decision was brought to us by Liam. Apparently by choosing a smaller place, there was less of a chance of any fans spotting us, which meant being able to consume our food smoothly. I didn’t comment on this, not knowing how bad the fans actually got. Harry had made a comment on how I’d soon learn and understand their reasoning for eating in such an odd place.

We arrived at the diner without being spotted by a single fan, which had to be some kind of accomplishment in my books seeing as the guys couldn’t shut up and were yelling to each other. It’s not every day you see a group of 9 guys walking down the street, yelling at each other in British and Irish accents.

“So, Kyle… None of us really know you… Tell us about yourself,” Liam started the conversation once we were all seated at a table.

I laughed awkwardly, not knowing what to say, “Well, my name is Kyle. I’m 18 years old and I’m a drummer… Obviously. I’ve been playing the drums since I was 8 and I eat more food than any other person I know.”

Niall grinned widely, “You like food?”

“Like food? I eat, sleep, and breathe food," I laughed, knowing for sure that Niall and I would be close.

Dinner went smoothly in my opinion. It was just all of the guys getting to know me more. Between bites of food, they each asked a question and I gladly answered. A few of the questions I had to take a moment to think before answering, and they noticed my hesitation but never said anything about it. Niall had also taken the time to set me up a Twitter, telling me it was a necessity to have while on tour. Overall, it was a good start to what I could tell was going to be a good four months.