Ladies First (Zayn Malik) Book 4

Chapter 9

The next couple of weeks flew by. We watched Hannah’s audition, where she did a beautiful rendition of Skinny Love. She had tears in her eyes by the end of her performance and every clip they showed of the audience was people wiping away tears. Even watching it, I felt myself choking up just watching it through the TV. We practiced almost everyday, trying to figure out harmonies and what type of music we’d want to sing. We also finally decided on our name. We’d completely forgotten about that part until one night when I was on Skype with Chris. I was lying on my bed, Hannah and Carmen on either side of me as we talked with Chris, Nathan, and Ben.

“So how’s Next Generation doing?” I’d asked.

“Pretty good. We’re gonna kill it” Chris replied with a grin. “You guys better bring you’re A game”

“Oh we will, don’t you worry” Carmen said with a laugh.

“What about you guys? What did you decide to call yourselves?” Ben asked. My eyes widened and I’d looked guiltily over at Carmen whose face mirrored my expression.

“Uhhhh” I’d groped for a response. Nathan burst out into laughter as he realized our hesitancy.

“You don’t have a name yet do you?” he’d accused. “You do know that the judge’s house is in a week right?

“We’re just taking our time. We want to pick a good name” I retorted.

“Yea, not something stupid like Next Generation” Carmen added jokingly.

“Hey, hey, hey watch the insults” Chris said, a smile on his face as he held his hands up in surrender. Nathan started snickering to himself and I raised an eyebrow at him.

“I’ve got a name for you” he’d said, an innocent expression on his face.

“What” I’d asked suspiciously, my eyes narrowing.

“Santa's Girls. Because there’s three of you so, Ho, Ho, Ho,” he’d finally said. The boys had all burst out in laughter. I’d stuck my tongue out at them, while Carmen jokingly flipped them off.

“We want to be classy,” I’d said.

“Yea, because we’re ladies” Hannah piped up.

“Yea, because ladies stick out their tongue and flip people off” Nathan retorted.

“Well maybe if there were gentlemen around we’d be ladies” Carmen answered.

“Hey! I’m a gentleman!” Ben had said quickly. “I always open the doors for girls, and let them go first” And it was true. Ben was a very polite boy. My mind had clicked then, and I’d shut my computer quickly, probably leaving the boys wondering what had happened.

“I’ve got it” I’d said when I’d seen Hannah and Carmen’s confused faces.

“What?” Carmen had asked excitedly.

“Ladies First. Because we still believe in chivalry and we’ll be number one so everyone will be following us”

“Yes!” Carmen replied tackling me onto the bed. And with that we’d gotten our name.

Now, a week later, we were at the airport waiting for the other groups to arrive so we could find out where we were going. There were a few groups here already along with some of their family that had been let through to see them off.  Finally I see the band I’d been waiting for round the corner and with a scream I run down the path, throwing myself at the boys, wrapping my arms around as many as I could reach as I pull them into a group hug.