Zayn
Waking up early was not on my list of 'exciting things in life', but unfortunately it was a requirement of the job. The whole ride to the radio station for our first interview of the day was spent dozing and listening to Niall complain. It had started off with him uttering under his breath on how 'un-fun' it was to get woken up at six am and then it broadened to how unfair it was that if you drank a pint before noon it was 'weird'. It was easy to tell that he was homesick, as he often felt the need to compare Mullingar to London.
Finally, Louis reached his hand from where he was sitting in the middle to the back and slapped Niall blindlessly. "If you don't shut up, I will throw you out of this vehicle."
"Oy!" Niall whined before slumping down with his arms crossed and pouting. I patted his knee in sympathy before letting my head hit the window. Fatigue plagued me and I was starting to think that no matter how much sleep I got every night, I would still be tired.
"It's ten am, you guys should be awake by now." Paul chided as he pulled the door open. I could hear the faint screams of girls in the background. Had I not been exhausted beyond belief, I'm sure I would have found myself wondering how the heck they always knew where we were. It seemed as though they had special homing devices glued to us so they could keep tabs on us all the time.
"We had to be at Modest! at seven am, then got to listen to everyone argue for two hours straight. We have the right to be tired." Harry spoke for the first time I heard all morning. He had a faint smile across his lips as he climbed out of the van first.
Immediately after our feet touched the pavement, we started slapping each other on the backs. It might be strange to people watching on, but it had kind of become our tradition in the morning. After the first few mornings where we had to be up early, we learned that having the others pumping us up really wakes us up. Almost like the slap brought us into our 'working' modes. I don't know, I guess the only thing that could really describe it is 'we're teenage males'.
No one in our 'entourage' looked strangely at us, since we had been doing it from the beginning - they knew it was a tradition. Something they could not explain, nor would they try to. Describing any of us from One Direction would be impossible, we were as normal and weird as they come. I'm sure the words 'normal' and 'weird' aren't usually paired together, but for us it just seemed to make sense. Everything we did was weird; there was really no way around it. But when it came to the differences between 'celebrity' and 'normal person', we were probably leaning towards 'normal'. We had money from work, and we didn't pretend we didn't, but we didn't let that really change who we are. Plus if someone got a big head, the rest of us would bully him into regretting it.
"Get inside. Louis, please don't break anything today? That's our goal for the day!" Jenna advised and it made me laugh, because she was our interview coordinator. Don't ask me what that means because I wouldn't be able to tell you. She was usually around when we went anywhere, always trying to keep us from making a fool of ourselves. It didn't really work.
"So it only applies to Louis, right?" Niall asked, a mischievous glint taking place in his eyes. "The rest of us can break stuff?"
Jenna groaned. "It applies to all of you. You break something, I'll have Paul slap you silly. You hear?"
"Yes, Jen." We all chorused, not really listening to the words she said. She lectured us every time we saw her so it wasn't anything new.
After getting our lecture, Jenna ushered us into the building. It looked exactly like all the other radio stations we had been to over the years and I think I recognized being here before. It wouldn't surprise me at all, we had been to quite a few radio stations in our time together as a band. New people were added into the mix, asking if we needed anything and telling us where to go. None of us really listened, because we'd only get overwhelmed if we tried to hear what they were saying. Jenna asked one of the people if they wouldn't mind grabbing us tea, except for Harry who requested coffee.
"Thank you, you're a lifesaver!" I called out to the girl who hurried off to where I assume their break room was. The boys followed my lead, each shooting out a 'thanks'. Considering it was younger girl, probably around seventeen, she turned around and started mumbling and I saw a blush sprouting on her cheeks. Honestly, it was quite adorable.
"We're waiting for Joelle to finish up this hour's music. Then we'll get you set up and let you meet her, she came in last minute since our main DJ got food poisoning. Joelle is great, though, I think you'll enjoy talking with her. If you have any questions, just let me know!" The girl who introduced herself as Carrie rambled off, while grinning.
I faltered a step when I heard the name 'Joelle', the familiar face of a curly haired, greenish eyed girl popped into my mind. Louis looked at me with raised eyebrows, wordlessly questioning my actions. I shook my head, to ward him off the multitude of questions that were bound to start if I told him that I met a girl. Since that night, I found myself constantly remembering our short conversations and the way she looked at me. I just hoped that this Joelle would be the same one who stole my attention at the club. The likeliness of that happening was probably as low as could be, but there was a sliver of hope that it was the same girl.
"Why do you look like you just accidentally kicked your cat?" Niall asked, hitting my arm with his elbow and laughing.
"Shut up, mate." I muttered while giving him a look which he simply cackled at. It was almost crazy how awake Niall can be in the morning; once he was fully aware of his surroundings, it didn't matter how many of hours of sleep he had gotten the night before. After his initial complaining in the van, he had woken up completely and was now annoyingly chipper.
"Isn't that the name of the girl at the club?" Harry leaned over to say it quietly to me and I was amazed that he could remember her at all, considering how plastered he was. I shrugged back at him, not bothering to reply. "You alright?"
Before I had a chance to reply, Carrie brought our attention to her while she pulled the DJ into the area with her. With those curls, it was hard to not recognize her. My heart fell into my stomach almost instantly on seeing her and by the look on her face, she remembered me. "This is Joelle! She'll be heading up the interview with you all in just a few. You all can go ahead and follow her into the studio! Sit on any of the swivel chairs!"
Other than offering a smile to all of us, Joelle stayed silent as she led us into the nice sized studio, the blue walls brightening up the place. It was the first time I had been in a radio station and the walls not being white, off-white or a subtle color. Instead the walls resembled the color of the Twitter bird. There were six swivel chairs, five on the left side of the table full of buttons and switches and then one on the right side. Assuming that Joelle's hand wave meant to sit down, the five of us all grabbed the chair closest to us and settled in.
"I have four teas and one coffee!" The girl who scurried off earlier declared as she set the five cups in front of us. We then had a shuffling of drinks as we tried to find our own. "Have a great interview and let me know if you need anything!"
Joelle didn't bother looking up from flipping through her stack of papers and the longer she ignored me, the more I wanted to yell at her to look at me. Pretending as though she didn't know me was enough to drive me nuts. Liam and Harry shared a few looks, as though pondering whether or not we should say something or wait for them to speak. As if sensing our thoughts, Joelle finally looked up and smiled. "How are you today?"
A chorus of 'Good's went around the room, and I struggled to think of something else to say. Something to urge her to acknowledge the other day.
"We're going on air in about twenty seconds. We also have that little camera up there broadcasting it to our online viewers. So picking your nose is looked down upon, for the most part." She said, her voice softer than I remembered it being that night in the club. I almost had to strain to be able to hear her over the chatter of Jen talking to the radio people out in the hall. Joelle then looked at the guy next to her, giving him a hand motion and he immediately yelled out for everyone to shut up. He then winked at her while she grinned. I forced my eyes downward, because being jealous of someone I just met was stupid.
"Three, two, one. On air!" The guy announced and Joelle started rambling off an introduction, telling the listeners to turn on their computers to watch. Hearing her talk for a long period was strange, especially since she was so energetic about what she was saying.
"I'm here with One Direction, the biggest boy band in the world!" She said, sounding thoroughly more excited than she looked. "I'm pretty sure I could hear your screams from here. Why don't I have them introduce themselves."
After she motioned for us to talk, Louis took charge. "This is Louis, the handsome one."
"I'm the Irish one!" Niall cracked up, obviously finding Louis' introduction quite funny.
"Liam speaking."
"Hiii, this is Harry!"
"And I'm Zayn." I said, not once looking away from the girl in front of me. She was quite good at keeping her eyes trained on the papers. It was almost as though it was the most fascinating thing in the world.
"It's great having you guys here! To get us started, I have a Twitter question from Rachel. She wants to know what the hardest part of touring is."
"Being away from home is, for me, the hardest part. As amazing as it is to travel the world and see all these amazing places, there always feels like there is a piece missing being away from home." Liam spoke up, looking at the rest of us as if asking for agreement. We nodded accordingly and I really did agree 100% with what he said. Not being there for my mum, or watch my sisters grow up was hard. I never knew what was going on back home unless I called to ask.
"To even it out, what's the best part about touring? Any special memories?" She finally looked up, a half smile taking over her lips as she waited for our answer. I grinned when she made eye contact with me, but she looked away almost immediately. My grin fell as I dealt with this strange feeling of rejection.
"The fans are bloody amazing." Louis said immediately. "Every time we step onto that stage, we all feel like it's a bit surreal. We're all just five normal lads."
"Yeah! Like, they're there for us. Some of these girls have these incredible stories and just listening to them tell us gives me chicken skin." Niall added, bouncing up in his seat a bit.
"Do you get up to any tricks or pranks on tour? What's the weirdest thing you've ever seen one of your bandmates do?" Joelle cocked her head to the side, tapping her black pen against her lip as she waited for our answer.
"Not pranks, per-say… We usually mess around a lot." Harry answered.
"Harry makes these crazy Vines, and tries to get us to be apart of them. If you didn't know what he was doing, I'm sure you'd think he was mental." Liam laughed, as he looked at Harry to watch his reaction. Harry shrugged with a smile.
"What about you, Zayn? Weirdest things your bandmates do?"
I widened my eyes a bit when I realized she was talking to me and then I had to recall what the question was. Biting my lip, I looked at them. "Everything they do is pretty weird. You get used to it after a while."
"We'll be right back with One Direction, including a listen to their brand new single Best Song Ever! Stay tuned to 95.6 Mess!"