Elodie's POV
I’m awoken at 6 in the morning as one of the staff comes in to take my suitcase out to my ride.
“You have to get up Miss Nicholeson,” he says with a frown seeing me still in bed. “Just laying around isn’t going to keep you from going.” I let out a groan, throwing my pillow over my head until he leaves. Eventually though, some huge dude comes in and literally pulls me out of bed.
“Hey let me go,” I complain, trying to squirm out of his grasp as he literally tosses me over a shoulder and carries me out.
“Thanks Paul,” I hear my dad say as the massive man sets me down. Damn military men. I couldn’t believe my dad had one of them here to escort me to that stupid place.
“We run on a tight schedule. I figured she’d better get used to it if she’ll be with us,” he says simply.
“What?” a group of surprised voices arises and I look over towards the door to see the entire band standing there.
“What?” I repeat as I start grasping what’s going on here.
“Dad, what does he mean I’ll have to get used to their schedule?”
“I asked Paul to do me a favor and take you with them. Obviously sending you off to other schools hasn’t worked, so I thought we’d try something different.
“So you’re sending me on tour with a bus full of boys…” I say slowly, hardly believing what I’m hearing.
“You wish,” he says with a chuckle. “You’ll be staying in one of the other buses with the styling team. You’ll finish out the school year with the other band, doing your work on the bus. And hopefully, you’ll learn some manners from them all.” It’s everything I can do not to start grinning. He thinks this was a punishment? Sending me off on a cross-country adventure with minimal supervision? I knew how bands were. I’d hooked up with enough of them at clubs after their shows to know they liked to party.
“Are you serious? This isn’t just some ploy to get me to go quietly and in a couple hours I’m going to find myself in front of barbed wire fences is it?” I ask, not quite believing this.
“The only way you’ll end up facing barbed wire fences is if Paul decides he’s tired of dealing with you, so I expect you to be on your best behavior,” he warns.
“Wait hang on, is she seriously going with us?” Liam asks, stepping forward and I shoot him a glare. He better not mess this up for me.
“Is there a problem?” Paul asks, looking over at the boys.
“I uhh no. But what about the fans? Is bringing her along really going to be good for the band? She’s got a reputation you know…” he says, not meeting my eyes. I couldn’t believe it. Last night he’d been so nice and now he was stabbing me in the back? Typical.
“This is the best thing for both of us. It’ll be much more smooth traveling and we’ll be getting a couple extra guards.” Paul replies, avoiding answering the question directly. Great, it was nice to know what they all think of me.
“Look, if you don’t want me a long just say it,” I snap at the group of boys who were looking amongst themselves. They’re quiet for another moment before Cheekbones finally speaks up.
“It’s fine with me,” he says with a shrug. The other’s all mumble agreements and I look over at Cheekbones, silently thanking him. I couldn’t actually say it aloud, but he seems to understand that as he holds my gaze.
“Well if that’s sorted, we really need to go,” Paul says. “We’ll leave you to your goodbyes.” With that, he begins herding the boys out the door to where their buses were idling. I turn to face my dad, crossing my arms over my chest. Just because I wasn’t going to military camp, didn’t mean he wasn’t shipping me off. It didn’t mean we were suddenly going to get along and act like some storybook family.
“Where are mom and Varshitha?” I ask. I would’ve at least expected to see my little sister here to wish off her beloved boy band.
“Your mother left early for ambassador work in Texas and Varshitha is in her room pouting. She’s mad at you.”
“Of course she is,” I scoff. When wasn’t she?
“I’ll tell them you said goodbye,” he says. I nod my head and he hesitates a moment before stepping forward and giving me a stiff, unreciprocated hug. “Behave,” he orders as I turn around and head out the doors to the buses. I pause for a moment when I see multiple busses all lined up. How was I supposed to know which I was going on to? Someone loading up the busses notices me standing there and directs me to the third in line.
“Hi!” I’m greeted enthusiastically when I step on. A lady with bleach blond hair smiles at me from the kitchen area as she tries to feed a toddler sat on the counter. That was a surprise. I didn’t realize there were babies on this tour. “I’m Lou and this is Lux, my daughter.”
“Elodie,” I say carefully, eyeing the two. Was she like the babysitter of the tour? Was she meant to be in charge of me for this?
“I’m the boy’s main stylist. I guess you’re staying with us right? The others will be along shortly. They’re always slow to wake up.” Well I guess that explains that. Lux looks over at me and grins, waving both her hands causing me to smile.
“Hi,” I coo at the little girl as I walk over. Her smile widens and her hands come down on the corner of her bowl, tipping it over and I can’t help but laugh.
“You’re just making a big mess aren’t you,” I tease with a smile. I look back up at her mom who’s watching me and the smile falls from my lips. “Where am I supposed to be sleeping?” I ask.
“The bunks are in back. Feel free to look around,” she tells me, still smiling. I nod before turning away from the mother-daughter pair and heading towards the back. The bus really is impressive. Everything was shiny and high tech. There even was a door separating the sleeping area where you had to press a button to get it to open. Sure enough, there was a line of bunks and, after a little digging, I found out where my clothes were stored. As I was exploring, I hear noise come from the front but I ignore it, figuring it was just the others that Lou mentioned coming in. I debate on whether or not to change into actual clothes instead of the pajamas I currently had on, but decide against it. What was the point of looking nice if I was going to be spending the whole day on the bus? When I’ve found the bathroom, some huge couch at the back of the bus, and anything else interesting I could find, I debate on whether just to try and go back to sleep or to go out and meet everyone else. I finally decide on the latter. I might as well get it over with now. When I emerge into the main room, I pause seeing the group on the couches. Curls was sitting on one playing with Lux with a group of other people around him. Everyone pauses when I emerge and I tense under their scrutiny.
“Elodie, you already know Harry,” Lou says from her seat across the bus. “But this is my fiancé Tom, Cal who does a lot of the photography, Hannah who helps me with the boy’s hair, Sarah is their cook, and Mark who’s their fitness coach. The bus starts forward with a jolt and I have to grab onto the counter to keep from falling over. It’s embarrassing because not even the baby falls. Granted, she’s already holding onto Curls, but still.
“Why are you on this bus?” I ask him as the others pick up their conversation again. He chuckles, shrugging his shoulders.
“I’m on this one a lot. They’re my friends. Besides, the lads all went to sleep so I figured I’d come on this one and hang out with everyone.
“Ok…” I trail off uncertainly, not sure why a teenage boy would want to hang out with a bunch of 30+ year olds. “Well I think I’m going to go back to bed also then.” I say turning back towards the bunks.
When I wake up again I find the bus parked and no one inside. What was going on? I open the door and look around, realizing I was in a parking garage. We must’ve gotten to the hotel sometime while I was asleep. How long had we been here? How long had I been sleeping in an empty bus?
“Elodie!” a voice shouts and I see Lou emerging from a door a couple yards away. “I was just coming out to get you,” she continues. “We got to the hotel and got everyone situated. Are you planning on sleeping in the hotel or would you prefer the bus?” she asks.
“Why would I want to stay on the bus?” I ask in confusion. Sure it was a nice bus, but it was still a bus. And this was a 5 star hotel. She shrugs slightly.
“Some of the boys prefer to sleep on the buses. It becomes like a home.”
“Well that’s stupid,” I mutter under my breath. She doesn’t hear what I say, but her smile falters as if she can tell what I said wasn’t positive.
“Ok well come with me and I’ll take you to your room,” she says, smiling again. She had to be the most positive person I’d ever met. I follow her through the door she’d come from, realizing it was a tunnel connecting the parking garage to the hotel. Smart. Probably helped a lot with paparazzi. She talks with the front desk for a couple minutes before walking back over to where I was loitering and hands me a key card. The two of us head up an elevator and pass by some security. One of the doors is left ajar and I can hear some of the boys talking and then Irish burst into laughter. I end up getting put in a room a couple doors down. It’s a single, but it’s still huge. There was a sitting room, a mini kitchen area, a full bathroom including a Jacuzzi and the bedroom had a king size bed. Why would anyone prefer the bus to this? Lou leaves to go check on Lux and I see my suitcase has already been brought up. Opening it up, I grab a book I’d buried deep under my clothes. I’m only a page or two in when there’s a knock on my door. I roll my eyes annoyed and don’t make any move to get it. We just got here. I should have time to relax. The person is persistent though and finally I roll out of bed and answer.
“What?” I snap at the lady standing there. She immediately frowns at my reaction.
“I’m Liz, Luke’s mom and your teacher for the tour. The boys are just gathering their schoolwork for today and I thought we could figure out where you’re at class-wise.
“I’m a senior, I have a semester left.” I deadpan, moving to close the door.
“I realize that,” she says, sticking out her hand and stopping the door from closing. “But I’d like to see where you are with your classes. Have you taken Calculus? US. History? Physics?” My jaw clenches. I really was hoping the whole school thing would’ve been forgotten. “I’ve got some proficiency tests I’d like you to take and we can go from there.”
“Thanks, but I’m not feeling it right now.” I say attempting to close the door again, but her hand is blocking the way. I can tell I’m not going to win this battle.
“Now,” she says with a very commanding tone. I sigh, releasing my hold on the door handle and she steps aside so I can exit my room. She leads me down the hall to a room on the other side of the 1D boys and when we get inside I see 4 new boys. Man this tour was a sausage fest. I recognize one of them as Michael, the guy at the club with us. This must be his band. They glance up from where they’re spread all over the floor, their schoolwork littered all around.
“Boys, introduce yourselves.” Liz orders.
“Ashton,”
“Luke,”
“Calum,”
“Michael,”
They all chirp one right after another.
“Yea I remember you,” I say with a wink when Michael gives his name. His cheeks turn pink and the others look at him in surprise. We hadn’t actually done anything that night, but judging from that reaction he’d thought about it. Good to know. Liz makes a noise of disapproval before motioning me over to the empty table. Why they were all over the floor when there was an open table didn’t make sense. She lays out 4 sealed envelopes, each labeled with a different class subject.
“Each one is 45 minutes. The questions will get harder as they continue so you won’t want to skip around too much. We’re going to start with maths. Luke can she borrow your calculator for a bit?” Liz says, turning towards her son with the last question.
He grimaces slightly, looking up from his work.
“I need it for finance.”
“Here, take mine. I’m doing music theory,” Michael says, reaching over to grab his calculator before tossing it at me. I let out a squeak of surprise, causing them all to laugh when I fumble with catching it, ultimately dropping it on the floor.
“Oh fuck off,” I snap in embarrassment at their laughter. They quickly stop, the smiles sliding from their faces. Liz doesn’t say anything, but I can tell she’s not pleased.
“You can open the first envelope and your time starts now,” she says. I scoff, rolling my eyes. I wasn’t doing some stupid proficiency test. Why did I even need to take math? I wasn’t going to use it. I tap the pencil against the counter, leaning back in my seat as I let my mind drift off. Liz had left me alone as she goes over to check on the boys. Twenty-five minutes later, when she comes over to check on my progress and sees my blank paper I can practically feel the frustration radiating off her.
“Do you not know any of it?” she asks tensely.
“Haven’t checked,” I retort with a shrug.
“You’re going to run out of time,”
I shrug, not even bothering to respond this time.
“If you don’t take these, you’re going to have to stay here instead of going to the show tonight,” she tries to threaten. Like I really cared if I went to their show?
“Sounds great. Do you want to just take them back now or should we pretend that I’m considering doing them and sit here for the next 3 hours?”
“How about I just take them back and I’ll give Paul a call about your transfer to Christian Military?” she asks. Well damn.
“Fine,” I say through gritted teeth, taking a hold of my pencil again and letting the four chair legs hit the floor.
“We’ll restart your time,” she says as I finally start the test.