The First

Chapter One

Ali, Becky and Clara had been best friends for years. Ali loved business, she wanted to be a manager to the biggest names she could, Clara wanted to work as a music executive and Becky had goals to be a producer. They met at an industry party celebrating Ricky Martin's new album. Becky had just turned nineteen and was sitting bored while everyone else was drinking. Ali and Clara walked over to her, noticing her young age and expecting that she was here with her parents.

"Why are you alone?" Ali asked, settling in next to her. Clara on the opposite side.

Surprised Becky smiled, "I want to be a producer and my dad has some friends in the industry that invited me here. They thought it would be good for networking but everyone's drunk."

"So why don't you get drunk?" Clara questions.

"I'm only nineteen."

Ali and Clara were surprised that she wasn't even legal but the conversation continued to flow until the early hours of the morning. At this point, Clara and Ali were already working with CNCO but the boys had just formed on La Banda and had only had a few meetings with the girls. The girls exchanged numbers and caught up every day for three weeks. They would go for walks, coffee, out to the movies but as CNCO rose in fame, Ali and Clara had less time to catch up. Becky was an only child, meeting Ali and Clara made her feel like she had two older sisters.

"You know everyone thinks it's weird that one of my best friends is fifteen years younger than me." Ali mentioned one day when they were cooking together in Clara's kitchen.

"It is weird," Becky jokes, "You're both weird."

Clara rolled her eyes in response. "You love us!" she hit her hips against Becky.

"Mmhmm." she hummed.

It wasn't that Becky didn't have a lot of friends her own age, she was just more mature than most people her age. Ali and Clara were so much more similar to Becky than her other friends.

When Becky turned twenty, she moved to Australia to finish her degree. She graduated just before her twenty second birthday. Even though they hadn't seen each other every day, they facetimed as much as they could. Ali and Clara wanted to help Becky break into the industry as soon as she finished college. When Becky moved back to Los Angeles Ali and Clara picked her up from the airport. They ran into each other's arms as excited as ever but Becky knew that there was more to it than just excitement to see their best friend.

"What's going on?" she questioned.

Becky, Ali and Clara had smiles so large their eyes were almost closed. Ali and Clara turned to each other, smiled just a little bit more than Becky thought possible.

"You tell her," Ali nudged Clara.

"Tell me what?"

"CNCO are just about to start their second album. We've told the boys about you a few times and when we started talking about which producers we should try work with-"

Ali cuts her off, "we brought your name up and-"

"They want to work with you!" Clara interrupts.

"No way! They've never even heard something I've produced, why would they want to work with me?"

"Well that's not entirely true."

"We've shown them some of your work."

Becky was so excited that she was jumping. The three of them in the middle of the airport smiling and bouncing. The girls all drove to Ali's place, Becky was moving in for a few weeks while she looked for an apartment. They sat in a circle with tv playing in the background while they discussed working with the boys.

A week went past before Becky was able to meet with the boys, the eight of them went out for dinner. The boys thought it was important to get to know Becky before they went into the studio and started pouring their hearts out into their music. Becky sat between Ali and Clara but it didn't take long for Chris to swap seats with Clara and flirt with Becky. Embarrassed, Becky tried her best to ignore his advances. This opportunity was too good for Becky to pass up on just so she could hook up with one of the boys.

"Stop harassing her!" Joel commented, when he saw Becky's reaction.

"She likes me." Chris shrugs, smirking at Becky, "Don't you mami?"

Ali rolled her eyes. "She prefers younger boys." Clara winks at Becky at the inside joke. Becky blushes immediately.

When the girls first met, Clara showed Becky a photo of the boys. Becky immediately took a liking to Joel, "he's so cute." she gushed.

"He's single!" Ali clapped excitedly.

"He's also three years younger than you." Clara warned.

"I prefer younger boys." Becky winked, "Well at least now I do."

The dinner lasted hours, most of it the boys tried their best to make the girls tell them who Becky's favourite was but Becky just shrugged claiming that she didn't even know all of them by name yet because she had been in Australia for a few years.

In the first year that Becky knew the boys, they had produced close to twenty songs together. Usually after a writing session, they would all go home, sleep and then they would celebrate making the song the next night. Celebrating usually involved too much alcohol and lots of dancing. Ali and Clara would never join them for their writing sessions or their celebrations but they were just as close to Becky as they had always been.

Becky often found herself dancing with Chris or Joel the most but it was usually because after a few hours of dancing the other boys would wander off back to their places with a girl they had just met. Becky wouldn't classify herself as one of their closest friends but they were definitely friends. Ali and Clara would often make comments that Becky should try and flirt with one of the boys. "Take your pick! All of them want you." She would often comment. Becky usually rolled her eyes ignoring their comments.

From the first time, Becky mentioned that she thought Joel was cute, Ali and Clara would often make side comments about them dating. Becky was so embarrassed every time the girls made comments in front of Joel that she made them promise to stop. They did but they only stopped in front of Joel.