“You are not in school anymore and this is not a project, these are peoples lives and reputations. You are here to work and if you are not ready to work I suggest you leave. Be prepared to work hard people because by the end of the week I promise that many of you will want to go home and approximately three of you will leave. “


My legs shuffled as me and seven other girls followed behind the loud clicking heels of our boss. Her hair was pulled in a secure ponytail, her skirt was brushed out, perfectly in line and all her facial features were properly placed.

“You are not here to make relationships as it may be tempting, so I warn you but if it does happen you will be in charge of keeping your private life private and be a professional. These boys will entice you and will mess around with you, they are teenage boys and that is what they do. It is your job to make sure they are in line and if they are to step out you are responsible of keeping all there slip ups out of the media. This is a business people, these are there jobs and these are there lives.”

We continued to follow her down a narrow office hallway. I knew coming into this industry that it was cut throat but as her voice buzzed I felt my chest tighten up and a knot form in my throat.

I was finally here. Right where I wanted to be. Following my dream — yet it didn’t feel like much of a dream and it definitely didn’t feel as glamorous as I once expected it to be.
We followed the stern brunette into a large office. I watched as she made her way to her desk as the remaining interns piled in the room and formed a sort of line behind the desk.
“8 girls, 5 boys. Some of the boys will be ‘lucky’ enough to have two of you and some only one. As some of you leave, some of you will be switched around and whatnot.”


I forced down the knot in my throat and quietly attempted to clear it. I strained myself from looking around the room at the seven other girls placed next to me—partly because I didn’t want to see what I was up against and partly because I was afraid their upheld faces of confidence would only make me feel more insecure.


“Again, my name is Angela and I am your boss. You report to me but if you piss off to many people you will deal with the top dog down the hallway.
Now assignments.”


Angela slammed a stack of folders on the desk causing a loud crack. My gaze wavered between the stack and Angela.

“Layne.”
My chest tightened at the sound of my last name resonating through the room.
Angela’s tightly pulled pony flipped up from her clipboard.

“Y-Yes?” I cracked out hesitantly.

There was no doubt her 6 foot stature intimidated me especially as her crude eyes pierced through my skull. “Malik.” She handed me a folder, which I allowed my shaking arm to reach for and take from her perfectly manicured fingers.

She continued down the line handing each a folder and telling them the boy they would be responsible for.Most of my attention wavered on the folder I was now vigorously clutching in my hands. I gently flipped the black folder open. The first thing my eyes were drawn to was the blown up picture of a dark skinned and dark eyed boy. His hair was a bit messy and a five o’clock shadow grazed his beautifully sculpted jaw line.


“You have the rest of the day to do any research you find necessary. I expect you to be basic experts on these boys by tomorrow morning, 8 am when you will be meeting them. Now you are free to leave. Do not be late tomorrow”


I watched as her high heels clicked out of the room. I shut the folder and let my legs lead me out of the office.


I glided down the hallway, feeling confident.

I had a pretty good amount of time to learn everything about this boy. I figured that the best strategy would be to return to my small apartment that I was sharing with one of the girls in the internship program and get studying.

I hadn’t yet met the girl I was staying with because she had placed her things in the room and disappeared before I had even arrived.

“Hey!” My confident strides became a little bit less confident as a little blonde headed girl caught up to me and transfixed herself in front of me. “I’m Emerson.” Her perky voice echoed through the hallway and her hand extended towards me.

I gently shook it and before I could answer her squeaky voice reverberated. “You can call me M&M though, that’s what most people call me… I know it kind of sounds like a boy name, which makes me slightly spite my parents so M&M would probably be easiest for you. But I don’t LIKE M&M’s so don’t buy me any if you are planning on getting me a gift ” She spoke with utter confidence and it took me a second to process because she spoke at great speed.
“You’re Spencer. Spencer Layne right?” She boggled out, popping her head to the side as a small smile played on her face.

How did she know my name?

I gave her a look of confusion, which processed quickly in her mind. “I learned all the girls names before coming. Got to know what you’re up against right?” She giggled a bit as she situated herself to the side of me and we both walked down the hallway.
“Yea, I guess.” I let out as we walked slowly.

“So, What do you think of Zayn?” She took no time to breath, she just talked and talked and talked. It wasn’t really all annoying as you would think— it was more comforting than annoying to have someone talking to me on my first day.

My biggest fear coming into this was being alone and not making any friends.


“I..um.. I don’t know, I just looked at the picture.” I forced out shyly.

“Well, I think he’s a complete ass.” She blurted out after my small reply. “He definitely has a cockiness about him and you know, its sexy and all but the guy gets around, if you know what I mean?”

“Did the folder say all of that?” I asked in confusion. She seemed to have gathered a lot from the little information we were handed in our thin black folders.

She let out a small girlish giggle as I opened the door connecting our office building to a small building containing our small apartments. “You’re funny. You know as we sat there in that nasty little office I was hopping and pleading inside that I wouldn’t get Zayn but I guess now we’re both stuck with him.”

I then pieced together the reasons she had taken such an interest in my boring, dull appearance. It wasn’t because she was trying to be my friend, she was simply checking out the competition, just as she had remembered all the girls names before her arrival, she had wanted to get to know the girl she had to share with.


“How do you know so much about him?” I dared to ask as we neared my apartment room.
Another small snicker escaped her lips. As I stopped in my tracks she took a moment to realize I had stopped.


Her tiny little laughs died out as she noticed I had stopped. “Wait you were serious?” She raised an eyebrow as she turned towards me and crossed her arms in amusement.
She let out another little laugh setting me on edge. “Oh sweetie. They’re world famous pop stars, every girl in that room knows who they are….except… well I guess, you.”
My heart skipped a beat and my face flushed a bright pink color.
So much for confidence and having the rest of the night to learn and be able to show how hard of a worker I was.


I quickly looked through my bag I had thrown around my shoulder in search for my key. I felt Emerson’ eyes pierce me as I searched in a panic. I couldn’t help but think I was already at a disadvantage. I was already a step behind everyone.

They all knew who these boys where and I was completely and utterly clueless.
As I continued in my search Emerson’s small hands reached towards the door. My eyes followed as her nimble fingers inserted a key in the door and unlocked it.


My hand fell from my purse as she pranced inside the apartment. “Nice to meet you roomy!” She yelled out as she made her way towards the small compacted kitchen.
I forced my feet into the apartment. My legs felt weak so I quickly made my way towards a chair.


“Looks like I’m going to need to do some shopping.” Emerson’s voice filled the room as she walked towards me. She grabbed a set of the keys from where her bags where situated in the corner. “Feel free to pick your bedroom, I’ve taken a look at both of them and they both seem relatively similar. Do you want to go with me?”


I nodded my head quickly. I was tired and out of energy, definitely in no mood to go shopping. I had studying to do.

“Okay, well I’ll pick you up some stuff.” Her bouncy voice said as she slid out of my sight and back outside.

I took a great big sigh as I rest for a minute longer on the chair. After taking a second to calm my nerves I forced myself on my feet.My suitcases were heavy but I lugged them into the nearest room.

The tiny room defiantly had character. I noticed the door creaked as I opened it—the bed was a queen taking up most of the room—there were four white cabinets above the bed I figured would be where I could store things—the window let in a significant amount of light reminding me I should buy some curtains.

After lugging my stuff further in the door I hastily unzipped the portion containing my laptop. As I slipped it out I made my way towards my bed, throwing the black folder with very little information about Zayn Malik on it then I got to work.

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=72721969

Notes

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