Love in Music

I grumbled as Lucinda moved before settling again. She apologised softly as I ignored her and closed my eyes and left my head resting on her shoulder. We were on the way to the studio and I was still dead tired. I hadn’t had enough sleep to get over my jet lag quite yet. Fingers ran through my hair. I smiled softly and had to forcefully stop myself from purring at the feeling.

“We’re here love.” Kate’s voice shook me awake. Sighing I lifted my head off of Lucinda and stumbled my way out of the black van that had been sent for us. I stretched the moment I got out before instantly wrapping my coat tighter around myself. It was freezing outside and my warm clothes weren’t warm enough for a London winter. I rushed into the fancy building in front of us and immediately sighed at the warmth that spread through my body the moment we stepped inside.

I glanced around the fancy area we had stepped into. There were chairs placed in one corner and a desk at the front. Lucinda began to step towards it before we were suddenly approached by an older lady with a thick British accent.

“Girls! So glad you’re all finally here. Your team is so excited to finally meet you all. We’ve been waiting for ages. This project has been high priority for a while. Come with me.” The tall blonde lady in a black pantsuit said with a large smile before walking away briskly. I eyed Gracie wide eyed before we all quickly followed her.

“Oh sorry. I’m Jennifer Lane. You can just call me Jen. I’ll be handling most of your management. For now I’m just looking after you, answering any question you have. Ensuring the team looking after you is working to your best ability. When you start releasing music I’ll be managing public appearances, concerts, really any public functions.” She said smiling at us before leading us through about ten different doors. I was already lost in this fancy place.

“Any questions?” Jen called over her shoulder.

“About 100.” Frankie answered instantly. Jen laughed softly and shot us a fond smile before walking through another door. I think I liked her. She seemed nice and understanding. We arrived at another door that Jen instantly walked through and we appeared in a large area that consisted of comfortable looking chairs placed haphazardly around the room. It looked like an area people would come to to hang out. There were a fair amount of people taking up the chairs already.

“So this is your team. We thought it would be more quaint to meet here.” Jen smiled brightly at us. A silence ensued as all five of us girls stood in front of these strange people as we stared at them and they at us. All five boys from One Direction were here. I could see Louis smiling brightly in the back next to a tired looking Zayn. I tried to ignore the fact that I was pretty sure his eyes kept appearing in my dreams last night.

“These three people will be your vocal trainers. This is Leanna, Derek and Tony.” Jen introduced three people who stood up and approached us. They smiled at us kindly and introduced themselves, shaking each of our hands.

Leanna was extremely short, despite wearing heels, with short black hair. Her outfit was so outrageous that it looked amazing, she looked about her mid 30s. Derek was about average height and completely bald. His head was extremely shiny. He was wearing a pair of casual long pants with a plane black top. He looked like the most casually dressed person in the room. Tony was much closer to our age with his light brown hair styled into a small quiff. His tight black jeans fit him perfectly. He was definitely handsome.

I watched as Gracie stuttered slightly when he introduced himself. I smiled and nudged Kate and nodded in their direction. She smiled widely as Tony smiled warmly at Gracie before moving on to Frankie who was eyeing them both suspiciously, obviously catching the same moment I had.

“This is Jacque Harris. She will be your dancing instructor.” I looked up in surprise as a tall, skinny brown haired lady approached us.

“Simon wanted you to start learning dancing straight away. He would like you five to be different to One Direction by actually knowing how to dance.” She told us, shaking each of our hands.

“Hey!” Was yelled from one of the boys in the back of the room making everyone laugh.

“We didn’t want to overwhelm you too much today so you can meet your back up dancers another day.” She let us know. My eyes widened in surprise. We had our own back up dancers already? It was then that I started to realise how much money and effort Simon was putting into us. The pressure was starting to get heavier.

“This is your two head stylists. Mia and Johnson.” Jen then introduced a couple who were holding hands on the couch. The girl had bright pink hair that had been pulled into a messy but stylish hair do. The guy’s blonde hair was styled neatly on top of his head in a rather impressive quiff.

“It’s great to meet you both. We have a lot of plans for you.” Mia smiled happily. Johnson nodded in agreement.

“Mia will look after your clothes where I’ll decide your hair.” Johnson explained to us politely.

“Our hair?” Lucinda asked, reaching up to tug a bit on her red hair. Mia and Johnson smile softly at us.

“Yes, don’t worry we will consult you before we do anything drastic. If you don’t like the ideas that’s fine, just let us know. Our job here is to take your personality and show it dramatically in the way you dress and how you style your hair. So we want them to be completely you.” Lucinda relaxed a bit and nodded happily.

“So I think that’s everyone for now. There are other people. Like main management which you will meet soon. There’s also the marketing team behind you. From what I’ve heard you met the boys last night.” Jen said waving her hand towards the boys dismissively. I smiled as Louis shot her an annoyed look.

“Now if you follow me, I’ll take you up to Simon’s office where you can sign the contracts and then we’re going to get started.” Jen clapped her hands happily before exiting the room. We all quickly moved to catch up with her. I stifled a yawn as we walked.

“Jet Lagged?” I jumped and turned to see Harry walking next to me smiling softly. I nodded at him and pouted making him chuckle deeply. “You’re going to be jet lagged a lot more if this all goes well.”

“Yeah, if this goes well.” I muttered, emphasising the ‘if’. Harry nudged my shoulder gently with his.

“Hey don’t be like that. You have to stay positive.”

“It’s too early in the morning to stay positive.” I protested to him weakly. “Who on earth is happy at this time of morning.”

“Niall is actually. It’s bloody annoying if you’re not as happy as he is.” Harry gestured behind us to Niall who flipped us both of. I laughed at him.

The eleven of us entered an elevator quite surprisingly. I ended up squished to the side between Louis and Harry with Gracie standing in front of me very closely. It was an awkward couple of seconds before I pulled a face at her. Gracie giggled softly before pulling her eyebrows together and pouting in return. I went cross eyed and stuck my tongue out. We continued to giggle and pull horrible faces at each other.

“Charming.” Louis muttered from his position leaning against the wall. I rolled my eyes and poked his sides.

“Lighten up old man.” I said continuing to poke his side. He wriggled away as best he could before Liam pushed him back into me making him stumble. I held my hands against his chest to stop him from falling onto me.

“At least I’m not immature.” Louis said when he regained his balance, before leaning against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Beg to differ mate.” Zayn supplied from the opposite side of the elevator. Louis shot his friend a glare and his face instantly turned into a pout. The elevator doors dinged and opened, we all quickly piled out. Zayn placed a loud kiss on Louis cheek the moment he could reach him.

“Awe cute.” Frankie squealed, pinching both their cheeks before moving past them. They looked at her shocked for a moment. Laughing I followed along behind her. Linking my arm with Gracie’s as we went.

“Wasn’t Toby cute?” I asked her. A blush lit up her cheeks as she glanced over at me.

“He was, wasn’t he?” She giggled back to me. I laughed.

“I think he thought you were cute too!” I encouraged her. Her face darkened considerably.

“Oh, what’s this? Girl talk? Can I join?” Louis fake squealed appearing on my other side and linking my other arm. I turned to glare at him.

“It’s frightening how much you actually sound like a girl.” I commented seriously. His eyes darkened considerably as he stared back at me. Niall burst out laughing from behind us.

“God mate, she can really give it back to ya.” He commented happily before we arrived in front of a desk. We were ushered into the door behind it instantly.

“So I assume you girls met most of the crew?” Simon asked us as we entered. We nodded instantly before taking the five seats placed in front of his desk. The boys and Jen found other places around the room to sit on. Niall and Harry chose the ground.

“Okay so I’ve got you up here today to sign the contracts.” He said arm waving to the five sheets placed in front of him. My face lit up as I stared at what was my future. Simon’s grin was so large I’m sure this was his favourite part of his job. Telling people that he was about to make their lives. Probably a big ego boost as well.

“All of your parents have checked these contracts and agreed so all we need now is for you five to sign.” We all nodded together making a few laughs fall from our mouths.

Simon gestured towards the pens. I grabbed the lot and handed them out. Squeezing Lucinda’s hand who sat on my left, we all leant forward. My eyes scanned the document quickly before settling on the line at the bottom where I would sign. Biting my lip as my hand shook slightly I instantly placed the pen on the line and scrawled my signature. Dropping the pen, I fell back against the chair I was sitting on debating whether or not that was the most dramatic act I had ever performed.

“Wonderful.” Simon smiled largely collecting all pieces of paper once we were all done and slipped it into a folder. “Now sorry to kick you all out but I’m a busy man. Jen here will explain what you will be doing the next couple of days. Think of Jen as your new mother while here.” Simons winked towards Jen who flushed slightly.

“Thanks Simon.” She commented dryly at the fact that she definitely wasn’t old enough to be all of our parents. I’d assume she was only about ten years older than us.

“So does that make you our dad?” Frankie asked suddenly. I blinked at her surprised at what just fell from her mouth. Simon smiled at her sweetly while Jen’s face turned darker.

“I suppose so.” He mused at us.

“Alright. Time to go girls.” Jen said quickly and loudly before ushering us out the door.

“Bye Dad!” Frankie yelled behind her before Jen could stop her. I laughed loudly and grabbed Frankie’s arm, pulling her out of reach of Jen’s panicked face.

“You two would be so cute together.” Lucinda squealed to Jen.

“Been here a matter of minutes and they’re already trying to play matchmaker.” Harry muttered to Louis.

“It won’t work girls. We’ve been trying to get those two together for ages now.” Louis told us.

“Yes, but you’re boys. Not girls.” Gracie said like it was obvious.

“Well that’s sexist.” Louis defended. Laughing I pulled Gracie away before she replied to Louis comment.

“Okay let’s get down to business!” Jen said loudly, I’m pretty sure her face had become an impossible red. Taking pity on her, I quickly followed behind her not wanting to make extra trouble. The other’s soon followed so we ended up in another room that looked like a meeting room. There was a large table in the middle with about fifty chairs placed around it. The girls and I took seats on one side while the boys sat opposite us.

“First of all we’re going to get you straight into vocal training of course. At the same time we will be perfecting the image we want for each of you. Mia and Johnson already have ideas so tomorrow you are going to be sitting down with them and discussing it all.” Jen grabbed sheets of paper out of her bag and handed them to us girls. It was a plan of the next couple of months.

“Once we have the image set. We are going to focus mostly on your signing and your singing as a group. You’re harmonies, how well you work together, etc. After that we hope to start writing your first single. During this time we’re going to leak information about each of you. We want the public to be excited about you before your first single.”

“This is where we come in.” Liam commented when Jen glanced at them. “We’re going to start talking about an amazing girl band that’s just been signed to Syco records. We’ll use twitter and interviews.”

“So basically you’re using us for our fame.” Louis commented dryly. I shot him a smile.

“What else are you good for?” I commented back. His face turned surprised before a smile slid across it.

“Then, we’re going to make videos with you five. Our video diaries really helped us connect with the public. So we’re going to do that with you five kind of. There’s going to be some camera’s here and there recording your training. Also behind the scenes stuff, mucking around and things you like doing. Just so the public can get to know you all better.”Louis continued like I hadn’t spoken.

“Beware though girls. The One Direction’s fans are going to notice you first. Some of them will hate you on the grounds that you’re hanging out with the boys. So it’s probably best that you don’t flirt with the boys on camera.” Jen commented innocently as all five of us girls went red. I knew this was her payback for the mother and father joke.

“By then your first single should be ready to be released which is when you still start travelling a bit and getting it played on the radio, which will then lead to you making your first music video.” Zayn added in.

“During that time, you will be getting dancing lessons, performance lessons and I will be beginning to book gigs for live performances. After the video is released Simon would like you all to travel to your homes and promote the video and song there.” Jen stated.

“Then the work on your album will begin. During the writing of the first single you will probably be writing other songs at the same time. But after the first song is released you will be focusing on making your first album.” Niall explained.

“And from there it’s small tours, then world tours. Before you know it you’re getting chased down the street by millions of girls or maybe boys in your case and then you’ve become rich and famous.” Harry supplied, cheekily winking at us.

Us five girls stayed quiet for a moment and just stared at the six people in front of us, all who were smiling widely.

“Any questions?” Jen asked sweetly.

“This is all in a matter of months?” Kate asked, frowning.

“You would be surprised how much you can fit in a month.” Jen answered her, nodding.

“I think I’m still stuck on the stylists part. We get our own stylists.” Lucinda said turning to us all wide eyed. We broke out into laughter. This was overwhelming but I had a feeling with these four girls I might just be able to get through it.