The M&G That Changed It All (a Lauren Jauregui story)

Chapter 3

Jenny took a deep breath. "So, what did you think?" she asked, eagerly. There was a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"WOW!" The five singers breathed. Their mouths fell open in surprise.

"You guys are amazing." Ally added.

"You really mean that?" Jenny asked. Tears sprung to her eyes. She was so happy.

"Yeah." Ally nodded, vigorously. "You guys haven't had any training, have you?"

"No." Isa replied, shaking her head from side-to-side. She wore a grin that stretched from ear-to-ear. Her eyes lit up. "Well only a little bit from our teachers, but they don't know much about singing."

"WOW!" The five singers breathed again, causing everyone, except Anna, to erupt into fits of laughter.

The laughter died down after a minute and the room fell silent.

"Girls, we need to move this along." The man who had ushered the four friends into the room, stuck his head in the door. "You have other fans waiting."

"Okay." The five singers replied.

"We have a surprise for you girls." Dinah added. She left the room and returned moments later with four laminated pieces of paper hanging from chains in her hands.

Charlie, Isa and Jenny squealed with excitement when they saw what was in Dinah's hand.

"Because you guys were the 100th group of fans to come see us, we invite you to join us for an hour after the show backstage." Lauren explained as Dinah handed each fan a backstage pass. She had her eyes on Anna the whole time.

Charlie, Isa and Jenny let out another squeal of excitement. Anna stayed quiet, reluctantly taking the backstage pass from Dinah, who seemed to notice her uneasiness and gave her a warm smile.

"Really?" Jenny asked in disbelief.

"Yeah!" The five singers confirmed.

Yet another squeal of excitement came from Charlie, Jenny and Isa. The five singers erupted into fits of laughter at three of their fans.

Anna eyed the piece of paper in her hands, unsure of what to make of the situation - or if to even believe it. "Maybe this is a dream? I'll wake up in my bed any minute now." She thought.

"Are you alright, Anna? You look a little pale." Lauren's angelic voice brought Anna out of her thoughts.

She looked up at the green-eyed singer and titled her head to the side, racking her brain for the answer. She couldn't quite form the words to make a coherent sentence and when she did open her mouth to speak nothing came out.

The room was now silent and all eyes were on Anna, who stood in silence, staring up at the eight girls in front of her. Concern was written all over their faces as Anna shuffled from one foot to the other, uncomfortably.

"I'm fine," Anna finally managed to answer the green-eyed singer's question, it wasn't as convincing as she had hoped it would be.

Lauren furrowed her eyebrows, not quite convinced by Anna's answer. "Are you sure?" She asked, trying to squeeze the correct answer out of Anna.

Worry crossed Jenny, Charlie and Isa's faces as they watched Lauren and Anna's interactions. They were ready to stop Lauren from going any further. Jenny watched Lauren closely, something was different in her green eyes. There was something new in them. Anna could also sometimes be a bit unpredictable when she was put in an uncomfortable situation and she wouldn't act the way she was supposed to, she'd lash out and someone always got hurt - most of the time it was Anna who got hurt.

Dinah, Ally, Normani and Camila watched Lauren closely too. They recognised the look on the green-eyed girl's face. It was a look of curiosity and fear, she didn't know how Anna would act, but there was also a look of adoration and love. They had only seen Lauren look at one person that way and all made a mental note to ask her when the girls left.

Anna shook her head. "No." She admitted. She hung her head in shame.

"What's wrong?" Lauren moved closer to Anna, lifting her hand and putting it under Anna's chin, forcing Anna to look up at her.

"I don't know whether to believe this or not. Things like this never happen to me." Anna replied. She looked the green-eyed girl in the eye.

A small smile appeared on Lauren's face. She pulled Anna into a hug and whispered. "Well believe it. Its real. This is actually happening, be happy about it." She pulled from the hug and looked Anna in the eye, moving a strand of her blonde hair out of her eyes and wiping away a tear that had slipped from Anna's blue eyes.

Anna nodded. She smiled at Lauren, then looked back into her eyes. She saw Lauren eyes flash down to her lips then move back up to her eyes. Anna bit her lower lip.

"Girls. The next group of fans need to come in." The same man stuck his head in the door. He came in and forced the four friends out of the room.