April 2021 Update: This chapter has been re-edited and more detail has been added. No important content has changed.
Here is another chapter for everyone! Starting to finally get further into the storyline! I hope you enjoy!
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*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
I jolt up in a very sleepy state, "come in," I groggily reply, and Liam opens my bedroom door abruptly.
"Good, you're awake, time to go." He says and slams the door closed. Being confused, I turn around and grab my phone off the bedside table and notice that its 8:50 and we are supposed to be meeting Simon in the lobby at 9 to take us to the venue.
"Do I have time to get change?" I yell, hoping to get a response from someone.
"No, just grab clothes, and whatever you need, we gotta go." Louis franticly replies.
I quickly get off my ass, throw my hair into a bun, grab my camera bag, shove jeans, a white tee, an oversize quarter-zip sweater and my makeup bag into my backpack. I throw on a pair of sweats and my converse and rush out of my bedroom. Once my foot hits the hallway I remember I forgot my tooth brush and face wash in my bathroom. I hectically spin around mid step and run back into my room to collect the items I have missed and sprint out of my room again.
When I reach the living room, I find Mia sitting fully dressed, makeup already on, ready for the day, "Damn girl, you clean up good." I say, smiling at her.
"And you are running behind," she replies giving me a cocky grin as she takes a sip of her Starbucks coffee, and I just shake my head.
"Shhh, this is what I planned the whole time, " I jokingly reply, "We won't be doing much anyway until the concert starts, so I'll be fine," I explain and join her on the couch as we watch the boys rush around the hotel room getting ready. "Should I order breakfast the venue, so you guys still get to eat?"
"You would be a lifesaver if you did that," I hear Niall say from the other room. I walked over to check with Paul if that was alright, and he agreed only if I got something for him as well, which I was happy to apply with.
"What do people want?" I go back and join Mia on the couch, "I know you need something that's vegan friendly, so what do you suggest?"
"Oh, I woke up early enough that I was able to grab Starbucks and breakfast, so I am good," she replies, giving me a little smirk, "thanks for the offer, though."
"Marie Blachère is a good bakery that delivers through UberEats," Liam suggests as he enters the bathroom and closes the door.
I pull out my phone and search it and find a variety of options, "Okay, first question, Coffee or tea?"
"Tea!" Everyone replies, I forgot I am surrounded by people from Europe, of course, they want tea. "Wait no I want coffee please!" I hear a sweet Irish accent yell from his room.
"Alright and no worries Niall I'll get you a coffee. Other then caffeinated drinks the easiest thing to get is a croissant sandwich, anyone want Salmon and Avocado?" I ask after making sure I put 4 teas down for the three boys, Paul and a coffee for Niall.
"One for me, please!" Liam screams from the bathroom.
"Turkey and Cheese?"
"Harry and I want one each, please!" Niall says as he walks out of his bedroom and joins us in the living room, and I make a note of that on my phone.
"Okay, Louis, you get to choose between egg or chicken parm."
"Egg pretty please," he says, walking down the hall and joining us as well.
"I will have an egg one too, and you might as well get one for Simon too," Paul suggests, I add that to the order.
I get myself a turkey and cheese along with an iced latte and sent the order in. "Okay, it should be there after we get there." I see Paul tapping his finger to his wrist, giving the signal that it is time to go. "Boys, let's go!" I say as Mia and I get up off the couch and join Paul in the hallway. The boys slowly fall behind us, Niall carrying one of his guitar cases and the rest of them not carrying anything.
We get to the lobby, and Simon looks me up and down as we approach him. "Don't worry I will be changing out of this, we were running late, and I decided to order breakfast instead of getting changed because it would benefit me more to not have to deal with four hangry young men," I explain to Simon and he laughs. "I also got you an egg sandwich."
"Perfect, alright, everyone lets go; the van is waiting for us out back." He says as we follow him out the back of the hotel, so no one sees the boys.
Eventually, we get to the venue, Madison Square Garden, one of the biggest venues I have ever been in. I hop out of the van behind Niall, everyone follows Simon into the side entrance and down to the dressing room. The rest of their crew are there to help them get ready.
"Alright, you guys got an hour to chill here before we need you on stage for soundcheck," Simon explains before leaving the room.
I collapse onto the comfiest couch I have ever sat on. Looking around the room I see lights set up around the room setting the mood and everything that the boys could need or want. All of their clothes for the concert, their hair products, and drinks Galore. I grab my backpack off the ground and begin to pull my clothes out of my bag to finally go get changed. "Breakfast is here," Paul says, coming into the room with my order.
"Oui," Louis yells, running towards Paul.
"If you spill my tea Louis, you are gonna get it." Liam aggressively says, standing up to calmly walk towards Paul. Louis immediately backs off and sits like a sad puppy on the couch. Liam walks over and hands Louis his tea and sandwich, "good boy."
"Charlie thanks again for getting breakfast, we seriously appreciate it," Niall says as he hands me my food and sits down next to me.
"Wouldn't want to deal with hangry boys, so it's my pleasure." I jokingly reply, and he gives me a cute smile.
Mia is just looking around the dressing room when Harry decides it an excellent time to change into his outfit he was actually going to wear today, "can any of you actually keep clothes on?"
"What, I like these pants better," Harry replies, sounding offended, Mia just rolls her eyes and goes to talk to Liam.
Niall and I talk as we enjoy our breakfast and soon after, I finally decide to get changed out of my pyjamas. I walk into the bathroom, quickly put my clothes on, along with my sweater, since it was a bit chilly in the dressing room. I brush my teeth and rinse my face with a bit of water and join the boys back in the room. "That's much better," I say as I sit back down next to Niall to put a bit of mascara one and fix my eyebrows up, out of the corner of my eye I can see Louis and Niall just watching me, "can I help you two?"
They quickly look away like they weren't just watching me, and Niall begins whistling, I just shake my head, smirk, and go back to finishing up my makeup. I put everything away and pull out my camera to put my memory card back into it and make sure its all set for tonight's challenge.
"Hey, mind if I see the photos you took last night?" Mia asks, walking over to us.
"Sure, I have the edited versions back at the hotel that I can show you later if you want," I reply, handing her my camera.
While she is doing that, the guys and I just continue talking about how their performance was going to go and how long things took to set up. Eventually, it was time for them to head to soundcheck, Paul told Mia and me, it was okay to stay down here, but Mia wanted to go up and see them warming up. I told them I would just say and chill here, Paul said it should be about 45 minutes, but with them, it could take an hour if they don't behave. I laughed, and they headed up to the stage.
Niall left his work phone, so I could listen to music because it happened to be connected to the speakers in the dressing room, and I just listened to his solo music while they were gone. Before I know it, my phone was ringing, it was Gabriella.
"Hey, girl!" I hear as I answer the phone.
"Hey Gabs, how are you?"
"No, this conversation is not about me," she replies aggressively, "tell me everything! Who are you working with? Is the other competitor nice? Are you staying in a nice hotel?"
"The other competitor is alright, she is hmm, how do I put this nicely, a bit bitchy, I guess. The hotel is quite nice, I can see Central Park from my bedroom window..." I reply, dancing around her first question.
"That's all cool and dandy, but you know the real reason I called, tell me who you are working with!" She says, I can tell she is getting annoyed with me.
"What if I said I couldn't tell you."
"Charlotte."
"Gabriella."
"You better spill the beans, or I am gonna have to..."
She continues to rant and just quietly under my breath, I say, "One direction."
"Excuse me?! Did you say One Direction?!" She screams in shock, I can hear her begin to hyperventilate.
"You are correct," I say, laughing, "Niall, Liam, Harry and Louis."
"Oh my god.." she says, trailing off, I can tell she is fangirling.
I continue my conversations with Gabs, say goodbye, and five mins later, everyone comes back.
"Ooo, so you are a fan of Niall's solo stuff?" Louis says, giving me a cheeky grin, he is the first one to enter the room.
"Oh shhh Lou," I say, glaring at him as Niall walks in and hears himself singing.
"You got good taste," he smiles at me and joins me back on the couch, I laugh and smile at him as I feel his hand brush mine as he sits next to me. He has always been my favourite since I was first introduced to their music but I never would have thought I would get to be in the same room with him and have him walk in to hear me listening to his music. A surreal moment.
"How did everything go? All set for the show tonight?" I ask, as the rest enter the room and join us in the sitting area.
"Yes, we have a meet and greet coming up that Mia offered to take pictures for, but Simon told her no because she would not be allowed to give them the pictures until after the contest, so she's a bit moody," Liam warns as Mia come in the room and sits down with her arms crossed.
"Mia, it's okay; you will get to take pictures of the concert, it will be your turn soon," I say, smiling at her and trying to make her feel better. All she does is roll her eyes and go on her phone. I look at the boys, and they shrug their shoulders and continue talking.
"What did you do while we were gone besides listening to my music?" Niall asks, being a noise bugger as he readjusts himself on the couch, I was sat crossed legged and he was so close to me that my knee had to be overlapping his thigh. Honestly, not mad about it.
"Not too much," I reply trying to ignore the butterflies that were filling my stomach, "my best friend called me, so we talked the majority of the time, thanks, by the way." I reply, handing his phone back to him, "I didn't go through it, don't worry."
"I didn't think you would, which is why I leant it to you," Niall smiled and got up to get a bottle of water from the dressing rooms fridge. "Want anything?"
"Have Pepsi?" He nods and begins to bring one over for me.
"Nialler, can you grab me water, too, please?" Liam calls over to him from the couches, Niall stops, turns around and goes back to the fridge before coming back to sit down next to me.
"So Charlotte, besides Niall's Solo music, what other music do you listen to?" Liam asks as he opens his water bottle.
"I actually enjoy, and frequently listen to all of your solo albums, Zayn's is the only one that I pick and choose which songs I enjoy," I explain taking a sip of my drink. "I mainly like to listen to folk, indie, pop stuff. But with a touch of classics like Beatles, Elton John, Queen, I am kinda all over the place with music."
"We all live in a Yellow Submarine!" Louis yells from his seat and goes back to playing on his phone. Liam looks at me, shocked and then quickly looks away.
"What's your favourite Harry Styles song?" Harry asks, pretending to interview me as he holds up an imaginary microphone towards me.
I play along, "hmmm, either your cover of Girl Crush, or Kiwi honestly."
"Girl Crush is about me!" Louis jokes as he runs to another room to get changed into his stage clothes. I look over at Harry, Liam and Niall for clarification.
All of a sudden, I hear, "I KNEW IT," from Mia as she stands up and runs after Louis.
"Someone care to explain what is going on...?" I quietly say.
Niall leans over and whispers in my ear, "there's a theory that Harry and Louis are in love, the fans call them Larry Stylinson." I look at Niall, then Liam and then to Harry, still confused.
"It's all a rumour, Louis' still dating Eleanor and is very happy with her," Harry explains, trying to clear up the confusion. "We are just extremely close, that's all."
I sit there stunned still until I hear over the PA system, "2 hours until VIP soundcheck."
"VIP soundcheck?" I ask.
Liam looks up from his phone, "Yes, people who have paid extra, come in early to see us do a soundcheck for the second time, and we do a mini meet and greet before the concert."
"Oh, okay, damn 2 hours, you guys still got a bit of time," I check my phone, 12 pm. "What are we doing for lunch? I am getting hungry again."
Niall looks over to me and smiles, "my type of girl," he laughs and walks over to talk to Paul about lunch plans.
An hour goes by, and pizza shows up at the door, "finally, I am starving!" I scream and run towards the pizza boxes. I grab two pizzas of cheese, and I hear Mia complaining under her breath that she can't eat it.
She continues to complain until Paul walks into the room with a cauliflower pizza for her, and she instantly feels horrible, "oh, thank you." She immediately shuts up and enjoys her pizza in silence.
As time ticks away, and the concert draws closer, the boys begin the process of getting warmed up and tuning instruments. Niall plays some of the boy's songs along with his own as he warms up, and I record a bit on my phone. During the video, he looks up at me and smiles, honestly perfect timing. I see a sparkle in his eyes as he looks at me before quickly looking away.
I can hear Harry warming up in the corner singing funny, warm-up songs and making strange noises. Soon enough, the others join in with him. "Boys, VIP soundcheck is in 5 minutes," Paul says, walking into the dressing room. They line up and pump each other up; honestly, it is quite cute. I take a few pictures on my phone, not wanting to use up space on my camera, and eventually, they leave the room, but not before Niall gives me a little wink.
Mia watches this happen and walks over to me, "what did I just witness?"
Me acting oblivious, "what do you mean?" She gives me a 'really bitch' look, and I laugh, "Niall didn't wink at you too when he walked out the door?" I jokingly ask.
"No, what is going on between you two?" she questions and here begins the rapid questions.
"Nothing, pretty sure we are just messing around," I reply because, honestly, I have no clue what my relationship with Niall is, we have basically been flirting, I guess back and forth with one another since we met and I get butterflies in my stomach whenever he is close by. However that could still be from being in a room with my idols so my emotions are mixed.
"Mhmm, sure, alright, nothing," she replies, rolling her eyes, "you two have been all over each other since you met."
"I have no clue what you are talking about, Niall, and I have not been 'all over each other' pretty sure you are seeing things."
She rolls her eyes again and begins to walk away, but not before saying, "better not be, it could ruin your chances at winning."
I stare at her, watching her walk out of the room, who the fuck does this bitch think she is, threatening me. I can get into a relationship with whoever the fuck I want to. It was not my intention to come here and fall for Niall, I came here to win this contest if I win and happen to fall for Niall too, then it's a win-win situation. Plus no where in the god damn contract did it say that I could not get into a relationship with one of them, so fuck her.
I begin to gather all my supplies for the challenge, putting my Canon camera out on the table, phone in my back pocket, and just for good measures grabbed my polaroid camera and put it with my camera. I made sure all the settings were proper on my camera, I did check them last night, but you can never be too safe.
I walk out of the dressing room to go adventure around the venue because I was bored and met Simon in the hallway, "Hello there, Simon, how are things going?"
"Charlotte, hello! I was just about to come to find you guys. Things are looking good, boys are doing their meet and greet now and will be going on stage for the concert in about 2 hours." He says as I follow him down the hallway that was lined with all the pictures of past performers, "They are all backstage, so if you wanted to scope out some good spots to take pictures, right now would be a good time because they will be letting people into the venue in 30 minutes.
"Thanks, I will take advantage of this time!"
"Do you know where Mia is so I can let her know too?" He asks pulling out his phone.
I shrug my shoulders, "No, she walked out of the dressing room probably 30 minutes ago and never came back. I am not sure where she went."
"Alright thanks, I'll try to find her, but if I can't shit out of luck for her." He replies and I laugh as I walk off with a security guard back to the dressing room to grab my camera before going to the front of the stage.
He leads me through big doors on the side of the stage and through the barricade right in front of the stage, "All the security guards will be standing in between the barricades and the stage, so you and Mia will be safe here, and if you need help at all for whatever reason, someone will be there to help."
"Thank you!" I exclaim and begin walking up and down the side of the stage to figure out the best places to take pictures.
Tonight is portraits, so the objective is to get good close-ups of each of the boys. My goal is to get some awesome candid shots of them singing or ones that look in the perspective of the camera that they are interacting with fans. I am glad I am taking this time to survey the stage, I now have an idea of good places to get incredible pictures. I took some pictures, pretending the guys were on stage, even got the lighting guys to put all the lights on and dim the venue lights so I could make sure the light exposure was accurate. I was well prepared for tonight.
"Ms. Carter, it is time to head backstage again, fans will be coming back into the venue soon," one of the security guards warn me, and I follow her back to the dressing room where the boys are again fucking around in and Mia is just sitting on the couch on her phone. Does this girl know that she is surrounded by the biggest boy band and she is spending it on her phone? What is her problem? I thought she loved them?
"Charlotte! We thought we lost you!" Louis exclaims as I walk into the room, coming over and giving me a huge hug.
"Nah, I am all good, Simon just told me I could go look at the stage to find good places for pictures for the challenge tonight," I explain joining Mia on the couch.
"Are you serious? When did this happen? That is so unfair," she complains and begins to get mad.
"If you had have been in the dressing room for a bit longer, Simon came and tell us we had time to do it, I didn't know where you went to tell him." I explained and shrugged my shoulders, "Sorry."
"This is bullshit." She says as she goes back to texting on her phone.
I left my camera on the table in front of the couch and went to see what the guys were doing. Louis had just gone into a separate room to get changed into his stage clothes, and they were going to scare him when he came back into the room. Liam, Niall and Harry stood on either side of the door, I sat in front of the door to record his reaction on my phone.
We hear Louis struggling to unlock the door; finally, it opens, and the boys scream, Louis jumps like a foot into the air and lands on his ass on the ground. "OUI! What the fuck!" Niall collapses over in laughter, Liam, and Harry stand over both of them laughing. "I about had a heart attack."
Liam and Harry sing in unison, "OW, you're giving me a heart attack, looking like you do." I die laughing at this, and Louis begins to crack up a bit. Niall, who was in the midst of getting up, falls over again with belly laughs.
"I am so happy I recorded that," I say, stopping the camera and watching it again.
"You have to send that to me," Harry says as he continues to laugh as he walks over to watch it with me.
"Me too!" Niall says, finally getting up.
Louis is still sitting on his ass in shock at what happened, "mind helping me up?" He says, looking up at Liam, who is still dying of laughter. He helps Louis upright as Simon walks in.
"Ah Mia there you are, I guess Charlotte already told you that you could have gone to survey the stage for picture locations, but it's a bit too late for that now, so next time you can do that with her," Simon explains, and Mia rolls her eyes.
"Yes, she told me," being very moody with Simon.
"Good!" he says, ignoring how to she respond to him, he turns to face the rest of us, "what is happening over here?" The boys and I rewatched the video again, and everyone was laughing for a second time at the situation. Niall had fallen over again and landed in my lap, and Liam was the one on the ground this time.
"We scared Louis and Charlie recorded it on her phone," Harry says between laughs. He takes my phone over to Simon to show him.
Simon begins to laugh and especially likes the comment Harry and Liam made after Louis said that he almost had a heart attack. "Just remember, Charlotte, you can not post that."
"If she sends it to one of us since you have seen the video, can one of us post it?" Niall asks.
"Yes, I want to post it," Harry comments giving Simon the puppy dog eyes. "The fans will think it's hilarious."
"Okay, that's fine. But just that video, nothing else," Simon replies and everyone cheers.
I send it to Harry, and he posts it to his Instagram story. The fans immediately start freaking out over it.
"I did come in here for a reason, not just to watch you goof off," Simon says, having us all sit down on the couches. I sit back down in front of my stuff and notice my camera is on, I don't think anything of it, I could have accidentally left it turned it on, I just turned it off and gave Simon my full attention. "How is everyone feeling about tonight, boys first?"
"I think we are well prepared and ready to work out arses off, Mr. Simon, sir." Louis goofily replies with a big smile on his face. The rest of the boys agree.
"Girls, how you feeling about tonight's challenge?"
"I feel like Charlotte has a big advantage over me because she got to go see the stage and set up, and I didn't," Mia says, I mean, she has a good point, but it was her fault not being around the dressing room when Simon came around. But then again, how was she supposed to know he was going to come to tell us that.
"I am aware I should have probably warned you both that you would get that opportunity, but now you will know for the future. When I judge your photos, I will take that into consideration." Simon says, making Mia feel a bit better, I think.
"I am ready for tonight," I tell Simon, and he smiles at me.
"Alright, good, now that I know everyone is prepared and ready, you can head backstage and to the doors to the first barricade and get ready. Boys make sure you are warming up your voices," the boys give him thumbs-up, and he leaves the room, "Break a leg, boys and good luck girls."