Harry Styles Ate My Hamster (One Direction fan fiction)

Chapter Two

I was suddenly conscious of my swollen eyelids and I hoped she wouldn’t think I’d been punched in the face as that wasn’t the look I was going for.

If my best mate Emily were around she’d have said. “It’s not as bad as you think it is.”

My Mum on the other hand would have opted for. “Ooh, yes they are a bit.” Like on my sister’s wedding day when she was just about to walk down the aisle and my Mum said. “Is there anything you can do about your moustache?”

The girl stopped in front of me, looked me straight in the eye for a couple of slightly awkward seconds then stretched out her hand. A wide smile spread over her face and her eyes came to life as she shook my hand enthusiastically.

“So, you’re Amber? Great to finally meet you. I’m Brooke. I’m one of the senior reporters here and I’m going to be mentoring you for the first few weeks. Let me give you the tour.”

She seemed lovely, very friendly.

As we walked into the huge open plan office, I felt a rush of excitement. It was so quirky, the atmosphere was buzzing. I loved it.

All the desks in the main area and the walls surrounding them were full of pictures, signed posters, photos of them with various boy bands, fashion articles and all kinds of weird, goofy mascots.

Over in the communal areas there were huge, round, neon coloured arm chairs positioned in little circles with coffee tables in the middle piled with magazines. People were curled up on them with lattes and hot chocolates talking ten to the dozen.

This was no ordinary office. No suits or ties. Everyone was in bright, trendy stuff, sporting their brightly coloured Converse trainers and their Superdry t-shirts with Big Time Rush pumping out of a sound stereo over in the space-age style kitchen area. It was too cool.

Brooke led me over to a group of six desks, the people at them all busily thumping away on their laptop keyboards.

“Everyone? This is Amber, our newbie. Amber, these are our other junior reporters; Jess, Claire, Dan, Angela and Rory, but you don’t need to speak to Rory if you don’t want to, he’s not that interesting.”

Rory smiled sarcastically. “Hang on a minute, I just have to go pick up my head. It actually fell off while I was laughing so much.”

I raised my hand to say. “Hi,” and got a friendly. “Hi,” back from everyone except for Rory who ignored me completely.

As I turned round to go I heard him mutter. "We need another gossip girl in this office like I need a hole in the head."

Nice. Lovely guy. A hole in the head could be arranged. I made a mental note to not like Rory. Actually, I just added him to my growing list of men that I didn't like, it's latest two members being Josh and my Dad!

Brooke turned to me. “You’ll enjoy the banter.”

"Not with him, I won't," I mumbled. "Pleb."

I turned to give him my best evil stare but failed miserably and almost walked into a pillar. 

Brooke lead me away across the office and over to a separate, more corporate looking office that was sectioned off in the corner. She paused at the closed door. “Ok, this is Max’s office, our Editor. You have to bear with him, he’s not exactly the happiest person on the planet. In fact his usual disposition is one of general depression, bordering on suicidal. With Max, the glass is not only half-empty, it’s actually smashed on the floor and he’s trodden on it.”

“Great,” I said, smiling. “I’ll hide my paracetamols.”

She knocked on the door and opened it, inviting me to go in first.