Impact | h.s | complete

1. Slowly

Victoria Melbourne sat at the expansive glass reception desk of her Uncle's record label flipping through papers, separating them into groups and stapling them together. One of the more mundane tasks of her otherwise incredible job. The phone rang, cracking through the otherwise silent room. She tore her headphones (an illicit object, if caught on the job) out of her ear and lifted the receiver.

"Tor, will you bring refreshments in for the boys?" Her uncle Matt asked, boy's voices hollering and laughing in the background.

"On it!" she chirped, hanging up the phone, sliding her chair back and heading to the kitchen.

Victoria worked in her uncle's label as his assistant. There were a ton of great things about working at Impact Management, the company her uncle had started with Victoria's father before he had passed away. She got to work in LA, meet some really cool people, and make music. Three things that she enjoyed more than anything. Her uncle was a successful producer, a great manager and an over all entertainment extraordinaire. He was a family man, happily married with two kids. He produced some major tracks and albums ranging from Disney hits to some classic rock comebacks. He was a talented musician and often played on the tracks that he produced. Matt really did it all, also managing many of the bands and artist that he worked with.

In his biggest contract yet, Matt was working with the British boy band One Direction. After Modest! had dropped them six months ago, Matt was making some changes to the band's image. He was working with them to clean up the mess they had made in the past few months after a ton of negative media attention, but in a way that lay as little fault as possible on the boys.

Tori had been working closely with the boys who, in the midst of all of the drama, were laying down some amazing tracks for their newest album, due out later that year. She was musically inclined, hoping to follow in the footsteps of her father and uncle, who had started ImpactMGMT together only for her father to be unable to work after being diagnosed with leukemia six years ago. He had passed away three years later, leaving behind Victoria, her mother Audra and her younger sister Allegra. Audra resented Tori for leaving them back in New York, but Tori and her uncle worked hard to be able to provide for the lavish lifestyle of private schools, fancy penthouses and incredible wardrobes that her mother insisted upon. Tori felt immense guilt at first, leaving her mother and sister behind where the company had originally began to live her dreams in LA, but came to terms with the fact that it would be what her father would have wanted. So, packing up her entire life, she had moved to Los Angeles with her uncle and his then fiancée Ashley, to expand the company there.

They had been met with massive success. Tori had never felt happier as she settled into beautiful California. She needn't pay any extremely high rent, as her uncle had a sizeable guesthouse built for her at his house in the Pacific Palisades, amongst the stars. She had met her boyfriend Tanner a few months into her time in LA and couldn't be happier. Tanner's father was a director and their family had lived in Los Angeles since he hit it big with his first Hollywood Blockbuster. Tanner himself didn't do much, spending his days in bed, shopping, dining with other famous kids, and his evenings at exclusive parties and night clubs with Tori by his side and with the likes of Kylie Jenner, Jayden Smith and other priveledged youth of California. He was an executive member of the Hollywood Brat Pack.

That day at work, One Direction was in for a think-tank style meeting with management. They needed to come up with their final moves, creating the new and improved One Direction, a more mature, edgier band that would please fans, new and old. Tori filled three plastic cups with mango smoothie for Louis, Niall and Zayn, one with a green apple and spinach concoction for Liam, and one with plain carrot juice for Harry. She placed them carefully on a tray, carrying them down the glass-walled hall with the Impact insignia on each door, stopping when she reached the large meeting room. Although there were only seven people, tops, in the room, they needed the largest space due to the large personalities of the five boys. She pushed the door open, greeted by smiling faces as she placed the smoothies in front of each of the boys.