Copyright ✘ One Direction [EDITING]

T H R E E

“Oh, uh, he’s good…” Liam said, a hint of hesitation in his voice. I smiled to myself and leaned closer to the curtain, trying to pick up more of their conversation.

“You really had us scared for a second, mate.” One of them seemed to move a chair and push it closer to the bed. “But we have good news-”

“Diana is soaring off the charts!” I heard an Irish accent say. “Pretty soon we could be number one on the Billboard!”

“The fans love it too,” another said, “I’m sort of glad Iris bailed.”

“Er, guys,” Liam whined. “You really, really should rethink this.”

“And why?” I really wished I could recognize the voices. “It’s doing the job we wanted it to, right?”

I finally heard hushed voices, but I couldn’t make out the words. Finally, several gasps sounded around the room.

“No way! They – they’re on the other side of that curtain?!”

“You’re joking with me.”

“Holy…”

“We’ve fucked up, lads.”

I rolled my eyes. “My name is Carter,” I called out.

All talking ceased and I could tell that they were all staring at that curtain as if it had a face. I huffed and finally pulled it aside, revealing five nervous boys and a man passed out on the bed.

“Oh.” The raven-haired one said. The other ones only looked at me with wide eyes.

“But…h-how do we know you’re really the…uh…writer?” The shorter brunette asked. He had a pair of piercing blue eyes that were staring intently at me.

“What? You don’t want to believe me?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I mean, we just want to know so-”

“I can head to a court right now and sue you all. I can take all the money you’re making from that song.” I chuckled dryly. “Imagine what would happen to your careers. Shame, really.”

“No!” the curly haired one protested. “Please, please don’t sue us!”

I scowled. “What else am I supposed to do? You took my song and you’re claiming you wrote it. I’m not just going to let it happen.”

“Please?” Liam begged. “We’ll do anything!”

I glanced back at my father before stepping away from his bed. “You should’ve really thought this all out before you stole my song.”

“We know, we’re really sorry!” said the blonde one.

“I know, and I’m really sorry that I want to follow the law!” I replied in the same tone as him.

“We’ll…” the bloke with the curly hair looked frantically around the room. “We’ll pay you!”

I stopped what I was doing and looked at him, obvious confusion written on my face. Don’t call me a golddigger or desperate for money, but when you’re father could possibly be dying and the guy who’s the cause of it is running around not getting charged for it, your ears are gonna perk up at any opportunity for justice.

“Really?” I narrowed my eyes.

He nodded quickly. “Yeah! You-” he glanced at his bandmates, “You could get a lot of the money we make off of Diana! You could use it for anything, as long as you don’t tell!”

‘As long as you don’t tell’? How old was this guy, anyway? Was this the nineteen year old Miranda was talking about?

I shuffled my feet as I thought about it. I could use the money for important things…and I could finally pay off my September dues. That money could last me a while…maybe not only my September dues, but all the way to…let’s say, the end of the school year.

“That’s actually not a bad idea, Harry,” the blue-eyed-brunette-boy said.

“We’ll pay you straight out of our own bank accounts,” said the black-haired bloke.

“Please?” said Liam.

“Better yet…” the Irish lad began. “Why don’t you become our songwriter? Our other one left us when we were due for a single and that’s sorta why…you know…but if you stay working with us you could get big money every time we release a song!”

My eyes widened at his words. “Songwriter?”

“But Niall,” said Harry, “That wouldn’t work. Management can’t know that Iris left or else they’ll figure out about Diana, and if we make her official songwriter we’ll have to tell everyone the truth about Diana, and plus they’ll never let us keep her as one.” He turned to me. “Have you ever written songs professionally?”

“Erm, no,” I blushed. “Only on Writer’s Choice.”

Harry turned back to Niall. “See? They’ll never.”

Niall frowned and looked at the other blue eyed guy. “Louis…”

Louis sighed, “Have you ever had a job?”

“Ten,” I perked up. “But simple things. Nothing as professional as songwriting.”

“She has a resume,” the black haired boy - I think his name was Zayn, if I heard their conversations right – noted.

“Okay,” said Liam. “How old are you…Carter?”

I nodded. “I’m eighteen. I’m in uni and I just got fired from my old job this afternoon.”

“She’s younger than us, too!” Harry groaned in frustration. “We could never pull this-”

“Yeah, we could…” Louis stated, a smile growing on his face. “But it’s risky…only if Carter agrees to it.”

“Okay…” I replied, slowly, a bit scared of what he would say next.

“You write the songs…we sing them, and call them our own. We can just say Iris went on a hiatus. If we say the right things, we can get management to not look into it. You’ll get a lot of the money we make from them, from our own personal bank accounts. A check in the mail every week.”

Niall bounced on his feet. “Ooh! Ooh, that’s a really good idea, Lou! And she can come to the studio with us to work on the songs!”

I frowned. It didn’t seem like too bad of an idea. I could pay my dues, get things for school without worrying, and a ton of extra stuff, too.

But then these five boys would be getting credit for my work. I wasn’t sure if I was too set on this idea.

“You can also use the money you make to pay for a lawyer…” Liam gestured to my father who was still lying soundlessly in his bed. I followed his gaze and sighed, taking a deep breath for looking back to the five lads in front of me.

“Okay,” I said, “I’ll do it. I’ll be your secret songwriter.”

“Wooh!” said Zayn. “Problem solved!”

“Welcome to the team, Carter,” Harry smiled and held out his hand to me. I gladly shook it and turned back to dad. I leaned down close to his ear and patted his chest.

“Guess what, dad?” I whispered. “I just found another job! Aren’t you proud?”

I’ll always be proud of my favorite stepdaughter.

A/N Ugh this chapter is so short. Sorry loves :P But remember the italics are what she imagines her dad saying! And sorry if you think its moving too fast? I dunnoo... :/

And I guess I make the boys sound like bad people but they're not! You'll learn more on later! And why did Iris ditch them? You'll have to wait...till next time...time to update S.O.S now haha :P

-Chi x