Can You Manage? (1D Fanfic)

Chapter 9

"Run!" Niall cried, sprinting down the alleyway. We were close behind with fans chasing us at our heels. Niall made a sharp turn into a building, making sure we were all in, then called a cab. We were in an office building, and I noticed that no one else followed us through. Did we lead them off our tracks? I soon found my answer. We were lead into a secured office building. So someone needed to open the door to let people in.

"This way," said a man. "follow me." we followed the man to a back door, and met the taxi there. We quickly filed in, and sped off, with girls chasing us, but not really catching up.

"Oi!" said Niall. "That was crazy."

"So this is how you exercise?" I asked, giggling. "you run from fans?"

"Pret-ty much," said Liam, sounding out the syllables of Pretty.

"there aren't usually this many though."

I sighed for relief. The last thing I wanted was a broken leg from tripping. I was in the finals, and a mess up like that would ruin my ice skating career.

"Did Simon tell you that I have skating competitions to go to?" I asked curiously.

"Like, roller skating?" Niall asked. "What do you do in a roller skating competition?"

"No, you dummy," Said Harry while sighing. "she does competitive ICE skating."

"Ohh, that makes more sense."

"Too much Nando's can take its toll on your brain." said Zayn.

"Niall's brain is slowly turning to mush." said Louis. Niall glared at him, but couldn't keep a straight face for too long.

"Look! Niall can't keep a straight face!" said Harry, pointing to Niall. He imitated Niall's face. "It reminds me of the NO meme!"

Everyone cracked up, and tried to make the same face Niall was making. I scrunched my eyebrows together, and flared up my upper lip, which scrunched my nose up. Harry pointed to me and cracked up even more. I went cross eyed, and he was bending over laughing. The boys all tried to hold their laughter in, but couldn't.

"Ok, I know it's not perfect, but my face doesn't look like THAT!" Niall cried. I rolled my eyes, as the boys calmed themselves.

"It was close." I said.

***************

"Whoa!" I cried, taking in my surroundings. The bare stage, the empty audience, and the under-control lights. It was all so peaceful and quiet. We came to destroy it. However, I guess that was the beauty of auditoriums though. They could go one way or another.

"Pretty cool, right?" Liam said, walking by my side.

I nodded. "I've never seen something this huge be transformed in so little time."

"Well, we've got an impeccable crew." He said, putting his hand on my shoulder. OMG. I could die now, or worse, faint! I stuttered my next sentence.

"W-w-w-what n-n-n-next????" I asked, shaking a bit.

"Oh, are you cold?" Liam asked. He handed me his sweatshirt he was carrying in his hands for a while.

"I'm g-g-g-good." I said, mentally slapping myself. I clamped my jaw shut to not make any more embarrassing sounds.

"Hey guys." said a familiar voice. "Ready to show Hayley what you can do?" Liam and I turned around to see Simon standing behind us.

"Hi, Simon." said Liam. "We made it here alive."

"Glad you did," He said. "because every minute should be spent getting ready."

"Oh, right," said Liam. "gotta run." and he took off down the isles of seats to the stage.

"Where's he going?" I asked.

"He's probably going to find his dressing room." said Simon. "Let's pray it won't be until ten minutes before the show starts that he will."

I gave him a glance. "It's a long story." he said. "Get the boys to tell you later." I nodded. "We're gonna teach you how things run around here for the next few weeks, allright?"

"Yes, sir." I said.

"Good, then, I'll get one of the crew members to-"

"Simon?" I asked, cautiously.

He gave me a look.

"How am I going to do this? I'm only fifteen, and you want me to MANAGE the boys while you're on the X-Factor. They're all nineteen and older!"

Simon was silent for a minute.

"How do you think I will do all this? I'm really not sure. I don't want to put anyone's reputation at stake, and I don't want to let anyone down."

"Well," Said Simon "Just trust yourself. I have faith in you."

"But why?!" I asked, dying to know why he thought I was good enough for the job.

"Because," said Simon. "You have faith in yourself."

"I do?" I asked, confused.

Simon nodded. "And, responsible teenage girls like you have matured more than... THOSE guys." He said, pointing to Harry and Zayn trying to do cartwheels onstage.

"Can you manage?" Simon asked, checking his watch. "I'll have someone to help you with stage and digital set-up, but I've gotta go, and I'm pretty sure the boys'll listen to you. If they give you any grief, report it back to me."

I nodded. "Ok, thanks." I said, and Simon took off.

A crew member with a clip board and headset approached me, and asked, "Are you Hayley Evans?" I nodded. "Here." he said, handing me a headset and clip board. "Follow me."

And I pretty much learned about how the stage worked within the hours we had before the concert.

Five minutes until the boys got onstage, Zayn tapped my shoulder.

I had changed into a black skirt, leggings, combat boots, and blouse to blend into the background. My brown hair was curled and I put on some eye makeup to compliment my blue eyes.

Zayn stared at me.

"What?" I asked, adjusting my headset.

"You look swell." he said.

"Swell?"

"Yes, but anyway, I came to ask if you were nervous."

I nodded.

"Well, don't be."

I raised my eyebrows.

"If you make a mistake, the other crew members can fix it for you. It's your first concert, you're gonna be getting a lot of help."

I nodded.

"Have you ever seen a One Direction concert?" Zayn asked.

I blushed, and shook my head. In the background, I heard someone announcing.

"What's going on here?" Louis asked, while putting his arm around Zayn's neck.

"She's never been to one of our concerts." Zayn told him. The other boys heard, and circled around me.

"You've never been to one of our concerts?!" Niall asked, outraged.

"Hey, when you've got five mouths to feed with a mediocre job, it can be kinda tough to pay for expensive things."

All the boys "ohhed" and laughed.

"You're in for a real treat." Said Harry.

"Please welcome, ONE DIRECTION!" the speakers boomed. Fans screamed so loud I thought my ears would explode. The boys bounced out onstage, and as Harry left, he pointed to me and said, "THIS ONE'S FOR YOU!"

And What Makes You Beautiful started playing.