Off Key

"Are you ready?"

(Blaire POV)

We all dropped our bags off at luggage and began to board the airplane, quicker than the first time we were here. Kenzie was on her phone, no doubt texting Luke since she was blushing. Eva was talking to Ashton on her phone about how she couldn't wait to start training with her new gymnastics team and Kristen was listening to her music, going through steps in a dance she was learning as her audition into a dance academy in London.

I checked through my text messages quickly before they made us turn off our phones at the front of the line. I laughed quietly to myself at the horde of congratulations texts, all from Calum, Luke, Ashton and Mikey. I clicked on each of their names to send a quick thank you, but when I clicked Michael's name his last few messages were slightly different.

Again CONGRATS

But...can I ask you something

something kinda sorta important.

well really important

its about kristen

call me as soon as you can please

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and pressed call, putting the phone to my ear.

"Hey Blaire."

"Hey!" I greeted. "What's wrong?"

"Uhhh...I just wanted to know....I mean it's just a question but..."

The line began to inch forward, and the hallway became quieter, making mine and Eva's voices sound louder than we both meant to.

"Mike, spit it out, the flight attendants are giving me dirty looks..." I warned.

"Do you think Kristen likes me?" He finally blurted and I smirked.

"Do you like her?" I asked tauntingly.

"Yeah. I mean sure, she's a great girl and...yeah."

I laughed and opened my mouth to respond but we had finally reached the front of the line, where the employee made Eva turn off her phone and was making me turn off mine. I sighed.

"I gotta go. But...I think so." I said, and hung up, not waiting for his response. I showed the employee that my phone was off and he nodded, allowing us on the plane. We made our way on and we took our seats, all of us excited.

Kristen pulled out her headphones and pointed towards my phone.

"Who were you talking to??"

"Mike...he uhm..." I stalled, wondering how to throw her off. "He wanted to know the name of the pizza place we always go to. You know, since we can't buy it for them anymore?" I improvised and she nodded and smiled, putting her headphones back in without another question. I sighed in relief and looked out the window. I began to hum one of my favorite songs, Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran, and I leaned my head back, already slowly dozing off.

*******

"Blaire. BLAIRE!"

"What...what, I'm awake. I swear. What?" I mumbled drowsily, rubbing my eyes and trying to remember where I was.

Someone laughed and grabbed my hands, pulling me out of my seat.

"Blaire the plane landed like 10 minutes ago."

Based on the voice I knew it was Kenzie and I remembered that I was on a plane to London, apparently already here. I nodded and groaned, wishing I had gotten a few more hours of sleep in. I groggily followed the girls off the plane and towards luggage where all of our suitcases waited. Eva called a cab to pick us up and take us to a hotel. The cab arrived in 20 minutes, and we were at our hotel with another 10. We checked in and found our room, which was ginormous, with 3 beds, 2 bathrooms, a TV and a full kitchen. When we walked in Eva giddily ran to the largest bed and flopped on, already claiming it as hers. We all laughed and put our suitcases away. After talking about it for a bit, and persuading Eva longer, we decided that Kristen and Eva would share the big bed while me and Kenzie got our own smaller beds. We made ourselves some food and sat around talking about how quickly our lives had been turned upside down. During the conversation, Kristen, I noticed, was very stand offish, listening to her music more intently than us.

"Hey Kris...are you okay?" Kenzie asked, pulling Kristen out of her trance.

"Hmm?" She looked up and pressed pause on her iPhone.

"You've been pretty quiet since we left Aussie." Eva added and Kenzie and I nodded in agreement.

"Oh I'm sorry guys. It's just this dance...the audition is tomorrow and I just..." She paused trying to look for the right words to say and Kenzie smiled.

"It's fine Kris."

Kristen smiled in return and stood up. "I'm gonna go to sleep...there's a studio not too far from here that opens at 6. If I get there early enough, I can get the floor all to myself."

"It's only 8!" Eva pouted.

Kristen shrugged. "Night guys."

We all said goodnight and she made her way to her side of the bed, and put her headphones back in.

After a couple more hours, we all decided to hit the hay as well.

Before I fell asleep though, I checked through my emails and saw a new one from The X-Factor. My heart began to hammer in my chest as I clicked to read it.

To: Blaire Ortiz

From: The X-Factor

Cc:

Subject: Are you ready?

If you've received this email, congratulations! Our judges, Simon, Kelly, Louis, and Nicole, have deemed you worthy of participating in the challenge of a lifetime...to prove your talent and win a record deal with Simon Cowell's label. If you think you've got the X-Factor, don't forget to check in tomorrow at 12:00 PM at Sun Hill Studios, with your ticket in hand, where bootcamp will begin. There, you will be tested on how well you can sing, your star potential, and your personality on a stage in front of a potential audience. At the end of bootcamp, if you have not been sent home, you will perform at the judges houses, and if you've proved your worth, you will be a live shows after that.

Oh and also...there will be a new twist this season. And trust us when we say this...you are not going to want to mess up an opportunity like this one.

The question is...are you ready?

Hope to see you there and good luck!

******