Stuck in The Moment with You [Niall Horan]

Chapter Four

“Can you girls handle yourselves for a few minutes? We’ve gotta meet with Marie before you guys do,” Jacob asked when we all gathered in Anna, Emma, and Laura’s room. “We’ll be fine. Go away.” Em said from the bed where she was sprawled out with her phone in hand. “Okay, bye!” Hallie said before closing the door. “Sorry you got your single room taken away.” Laura said looking at me. When we had gotten to the hotel, Hallie told me that there wasn’t to be a single room anymore, so me, Em, and Sarah now have one together. “It’s fine. I really didn’t see the point of putting two in one room, three in another, and one alone,” I said shrugging as my phone started ringing. “I’m gonna step out,” I said. It was my Mom calling. I stepped into the hallway and answered it. “Hello?” I said. “Wow… You’re up early!” She said. “Yeah… Had to get to the airport again,” I said. It was 11am, not that early, but early for me, I guess. “Ohhh!! Well me and Adam are about to go to lunch, I was just going to call and check in with you,” she said. “I’m fine. A bit tired, but fine,” I said as a door slammed down the hallway. “Adam says hi, well I gotta go. I’ll take to you soon. Love you!” She said before clicking off as I heard voices coming from the hallway. “Hi, what time do you close tomorrow?” I heard a girl ask, talking on a phone. “What are you doing?” I heard a guys voice ask, his accent didn’t make it hard for me to place who it was. 

“Shhh! She’s calling the tattoo parlor!” Another guy said as the girl continued to talk. “Are we going tonight?” The other guy asked. “Tomorrow..” I felt bad for eavesdropping on Harry, Zayn, and Nicole’s conversation so I went back into our room. An hour later Jacob came and got us to go to the ballroom downstairs to meet with Marie, and hopefully the boys. Marie was sitting at a table, a guy beside her, they were both talking, and when they both looked up when we entered, I instantly recognized the guy as Paul Higgins. “Hi, girls!” Marie said standing up. Her light blonde hair was cropped up to her chin and she was thin, her red lipstick made her blue eyes brighter than they normally would be. “Hi…” Laura and Anna said, but the rest of us stayed quiet. Em had come along, even though she didn’t have to, and she was plopping down in a chair behind the table beside Marie’s chair. “Well you look like a very talented group of kids,” Marie said coming around the table as I saw Jacob go sit in a chair beside Hallie, who I hadn’t noticed, in the corner. “You can sit down.” Marie said gesturing to the five chairs that were in front of us. I took the seat on the end and the others took the rest. “So you all obviously know that you have been selected to photograph the boy band One Direction. Am I correct?” Everyone nodded, but me. I just sat there staring at the woman. “This is their manager, Paul. He has agreed to give you girls the chance to become professional photographers. But only one of you. I assume you all know the rules?” We all stared at her so she continued.

“You are all who to challenge each other on who is the best photographer. It will be the beginning of April in a couple of days, and at the end of it, one of you will be sent home. None of us know who that is yet, because we won’t find out until then. At the end of May another one of you will be sent home. June, you will return home to visit with your family for a few weeks, you will come back in July. At the end of July another will be sent home. Then the two left standing will be challenged for two months on who can get the best photographs. At the end of September, we will choose the winner. By ‘we’ I mean, Hallie, Jacob, and myself. In October the winner will be sent home to see her family again and then she will get to come back for her retrieval of the ultimate prize. Any questions?” I waited for Anna and Laura to start laughing, but they didn’t. “You didn’t say the rules… Only the facts.” Emma said, and Anna giggled under her breath.

“Yes. The rules are: no stealing your photos, neither from each other nor the Internet, you will be eliminated. You will obey Hallie and Jacob like they are your parents, for they will be for the months to come. You will only take pictures of your assigned project. No one else’s. No illegal doings. No smoking. No drinking. No out late after lights out, 10pm. And last, but not least, me and Paul have arranged our own rule. No dating. Especially the boys from the band. You need to focus on your photography, and nothing but.” As if on cue, the door behind us burst open and the boys paraded in, talking loudly, laughing. I could hear Niall’s laugh over all the other noises. Marie cleared her throat, but they only got louder as they got closer. “Boys!” Paul shouted making me jump and the room went silent. I still had my back to them, so I hadn’t seen them, but I could hear Niall trying to silence his laughing, but it only got louder over the few seconds Paul has silenced them. “I hope you are all ready to meet your new paparazzi!” Marie said as one of them cleared their cleared. I heard Niall snort and then someone else started laughing, and it was like a chain reaction as the rest of the boys starting laughing again. “Boys! Paul said to be quiet!” I was startled to hear Nicole’s voice among their laughing. “Oh and girls, the no dating rule is especially applied to the boys who have a girlfriend.” I heard Nicole giggle at Marie’s comment as Harry came around the chairs to talk to Paul. He was towing Nicole behind him, his hand tightly wound around hers. 

Em was looking at me from her chair at the table. I raised my eyebrows and she grinned, shaking her head. ” Okay. Here are your papers. The rules are also printed on there, in case you forget. Paul has already told the boys who will be photographing them and—-” Niall interrupted Marie, “Not me!” he said. “Because you were sleeping when he told us all, Niall!” Louis’ familiar voice rang through the ballroom. “Ohh….” Niall said quietly and Marie went back to talking. “Tomorrow you will start our photographing. You need at least two hundred and fifty pictures by the end of the month. You will then be judged by it’s quality and someone will be eliminated. Hallie, Jacob, I need to talk to you two again. Kids, you’re dismissed.” As everyone else stood up, Em jumped from her chair and ran to me. “Do you think they recognize us?” She asked smiling. “I don’t know… Niall remembered me in the airport… That was only a few hours ago.. I’m sure they do,” I said as the other girls were greeted by laughing and loud talking as they exited. “Come on, let’s go.” I said turning towards the door. “I’m jealous you had met Niall before..” Em said quietly as the door shut when the others left. “It was just an accident,” I said opening to the door. “We should all eat lunch together!” I heard Liam say when me and Em got out to the hallway. “Did she call us kids?” Harry asked. “Where are we eating?” Niall asked. “Is everyone up for it?” Louis asked as he grabbed Eleanor’s hand. I didn’t know if she had been in the ballroom with us, but I hadn’t heard her talk so I guessed she hadn’t. “Em, Michaela, you guys wanna go to lunch with all of us?” Sarah asked turning to look at us as we came down the hall. I was looking down at the paper in my hands. Em answered yes as I read the line at the bottom of the page.

“You will photographing Niall Horan, of One Direction.”

When I looked up, Niall was looking straight at me, not even paying attention when Harry poked him in the arm.