Sparks Fly (An Aleheather Story/AU)

Chapter 4

Heather took off her sunglasses and observed the crowd of people gathered around for the Chris McLean Young Business Leaders Development Program. She had checked into her hotel room earlier in the day, and now she was waiting outside with the other attendees to be led into the conference room.

Well, it looks like I don't recognize any of these people here, she thought. Actually... She furrowed her brows as she noticed a somewhat familiar looking figure and then froze in her tracks.

The person turned around revealing a combination of: tall, tan skin, and emerald green eyes. Heather couldn't help but let out an exasperated sigh when she saw it was him. "Are you kidding me?? Not you again," she grumbled.

"Hola Heather, good morning to you too," Alejandro replied. He was surprised to see her there.

"Shove it, Al," Heather snarled. Alejandro grimaced at hearing the word 'Al' but pretended that it didn't affect him. "Oh, don't look too excited to see me, chica," he smirked.

Heather felt her face turning tomato red with anger. She'd only interacted with this Ale-whatever guy three times, and she'd already decided that he'd made into the list of the top 10 people she despised the most.

"I know what you did," she glared at him.

For some reason, Alejandro thought that the way she pursed her lips and how her eyes resembled shooting daggers when she was mad to be quite cute. "You're going to have to be a bit more specific than that, chica, I've done a lot of things," he replied calmly. Actually, Alejandro knew exactly what Heather was referring to, but he chose to play dumb.

Heather took a step closer towards him. "Don't play dumb with me. I. Will. Crush. You."

Alejandro's mind went somewhere else. "Oh? I didn't realize you were so keen to get on top of me," he smirked.

Heather bawled her fists and her mind raced to think of a comeback. Before she could reply, Chris McLean walked up to the front of the crowd, a microphone in his hands. "Alright everybody, please make your way inside," he boomed into his microphone.

"Oh my god, it's Chris!" 

"He looks so much shorter in person than on TV!"

Heather rolled her eyes at the remarks of her fellow attendees and made her way into the conference room, sitting in one of the middle rows. She sat there awkwardly with her hands crossed as people around her were chatting amongst themselves, shaking hands and introducing themselves to one another. She noticed Alejandro who appeared to be flirting with some of the other female attendees in the room. What a surprise, she thought, rolling her eyes. Ugh, why am I even looking at that stupid jerk!

"Alright everyone, please take your seats," Chris said. The room turned silent.

"Welcome to the Chris McLean Young Business Leaders Development Program!" Chris continued, whilst waving his hands in a dramatic up and down motion. "As you know, this program is exclusive, so congrats on being selected this year. Over the next couple of days, you'll learn all the skills and secrets to help you as a young business leader and take your business to the next level!"

Chris continued talking, giving some sort of speech about his life story and journey to becoming a talk show host and entrepreneur. Heather found herself feeling bored, and she blocked out most of the words he said.

"We'll now begin with our first activity. This will be an icebreaker for you guys to get to know each other, as well as test your public speaking skills. You all have 15 minutes to prepare a 5-8 minute pitch about your business for a hypothetical one million dollars. For inspiration, you can talk about your vision, goals, any challenges, opportunities, and what you would do with the one million dollars. Oh, and try to actually make it interesting," Chris smirked.