The Bachelor

Eight

All of that happens in a matter of seconds but I'm quickly snapped out of my trance.

"Well come sit down!" someone says, excitedly. I smile and follow their instructions. I find a spot on one of the couches. Everyone looks at me expectantly and I realize they want me to introduce myself.

"I'm Caroline," I say finally. They proceed to go around and introduce themselves, I don't retain any of their names though. After about five minutes, Sarah enters. She gets the same greeting and introduces herself. This cycle continues until the room is full. Mixed in with that is me trying to sneak looks at the camera operator.

Suddenly we are interrupted by the host, who I know is Chris Harrison, coming in.

"Good evening ladies!" He greets. We all echo his words, "I hope you have had a chance to meet each other. But now it's time to once again introduce you to the bachelor- Shawn!" Right on cue, Shawn walks out from behind him. He smiles stands next to Chris.

"So, tonight you all have a chance to talk to him, try to make a great first impression, this is your only chance. Have a good night!" He says. With that he turns and walks out of the room, and Shawn turns to us. Almost immediately a girl that I don't know stands up,

"Can I talk to you first?" she asks.

"Of course," he says. Pretty soon they're gone and I can feel the tension lift slightly. I notice that Michelle is standing off to the side of the room when she speaks for the first time since I entered,

"Niall, is Pete out there?" she says, and I don't know who she's talking to until he responds. The boy I have been staring at answers,

"Yeah he's got it." He has an accent- Irish I think. So his name is Niall. I've never heard it before. After he says that he looks over at me and I see a small smile before he turns back to his camera. He angles it towards the kitchen and I notice that most of the girls have gotten up. They're all milling about the area, most of them already have a drink in hand, which they appear to have gotten off a tray that's sitting on the counter. I walk over and pick one up myself. Olivia is standing off to the side of the living room with some other girls. She seemed really nice earlier so I walk over. I try to stand next to them and Olivia looks at me, laughs, and then turns her back on me. I'm taken aback by her sudden change in demeanour. But then I remember that she's probably an acress, and it might just be part of her character. So I brush it off and walk across the room to where Sarah is standing with a few other girls. I join them and they're talking about what they do. One of them turns to me,

"How about you?"

"I'm a student," I say.

"Wait, how old are you then?" she asks, looking confused.

"Twenty-two." Her mouths falls open slightly.

"Wow you're so young," another girl says.

"I guess," I say, laughing, "How old are all of you?" They answer in turn. Most of them are around twenty seven or twenty eight. It's really only a five year gap but it seems like more. I see out of the corner of my eye that Olivia is walking out of the room, to where Shawn and the other girl had gone.

"Where's she going?" a girl asks.

"Probably going to steal Shawn away," someone else answers. I turn back and I continue talking to my little group. Other than Sarah, I learn their names to be Bella, Mackenzie and Miranda. A few moments later, the girl that had talked to him first comes back in, and she doesn't look pleased.

"I can't believe she interrupted us like that," she huffs, picking up a drink. Some people nod in agreement but I hear Chloe from across the room say something about the girl not standing a chance anyway.