Scarlett

“Boys, meet your new co-stars. Girls…meet One Direction,” said Erick, standing in between us. I noticed that he looked nervous. I bet he was worried that we were going to say something stupid and ruin this whole shindig.
Harry stuck out his hand at me.
“Nice to finally meet you,” he said, taking my hand. It was warm and soft, and I felt instantly suspicious of my raging hormones. I’d heard Harry was the womanizer of the group, but I’d never believed it until now. Just the way he acted made me want to swoon. Maybe it was the dazzling green eyes or the curly hair….
“Scar?” I heard Piper say in the background. I realized I was staring at Harry and holding his hand without shaking it.
“Er…sorry,” I said, shaking his hand violently. “Nice to meet you too.”
He laughed, as did the others, and I heard Erick let out a sigh of relief. I had nearly blown the entire thing in less than five seconds. I would be worried too if I were Erick.
We sort of broke off into groups. Zayn, Niall, Skylar, and I were in the same group, while Lucy, Harry, Piper, and Louis were together. I hid my grin as I saw Reagan with Liam. He seemed already fascinated by her, and she looked already bored with him. I guessed that it wouldn’t be hard for those two to follow the script.
Erick excused himself to take a phone call, so we were left alone for a bit. We were sitting on some couches in the corner when I brought up the script.
“Yeah, our management talked to us about it,” said Niall, making a face. “Can’t believe they’d make us do that. It’s so fucking stupid.”
Zayn nodded.
“Perrie and I are still going to secretly see each other, but as far as the public is concerned, we’re broken up,” he said. “It’s so stupid that I have to hide my relationship while Louis can keep on seeing Eleanor.”
I nodded along. I didn’t really want to tell them our plan, because who knows? They might tattle, and we weren’t really sure about the whole sabotaging thing yet. Piper had texted us in a group message that she would discuss the entire plan tonight. Until then, she had said, make yourselves acquainted with the boys.
“Are any of you girls seeing anyone?” asked Niall out of the blue. He looked from me to Skylar, then back to me.
I blushed, not meaning to get so flustered.
“No, I mean, maybe. I don’t know. I think Reagan is still seeing her ex-boyfriend, am I right Sky?” I asked, turning to Skylar. She’d been rather quiet this entire time. She can be shy at first, but once you get to know her, she’s very outgoing.
She nodded slowly.
“Yeah, she and Ethan are ‘dating’, I guess you can say,” she said in a low voice. “But he’s being a total jerk with her, and I don’t know why she doesn’t just break up with him.”
We all turned to look at Reagan, who was lazily nodding her head as Liam ranted about something. He looked enthusiastic. She looked bored. It would have been funny if I didn’t feel bad for Liam. He had no idea what he was getting into with that girl.
“Is she your sister? You guys share a last name…right?” asked Zayn, turning to Skylar.
She nodded.
“Yeah, she’s my older sister. We’re a year apart,” she said. She picked at her hair, not looking at Zayn.
“You guys sort of look alike,” mused Niall. “Are you two close?”
I glanced at Skylar. Interviewers had asked Skylar the same question a few days ago, and she had a hard time answering them. It wasn’t like Reagan and her weren’t close – they were closer than some sisters – but they could by closer. Reagan just never tried to get to know her sister.
“Um…we’re in a band together,” said Skylar carefully. “Why wouldn’t we be?”
Niall nodded.
“True,” he said. He seemed to accept her answer, but Zayn was still staring at Skylar with an intense look on his face.
“You guys aren’t close, are you?” he asked in a low voice. “I can tell.”
Skylar was taken aback. She opened her mouth, closed it, then looked away.
“You barely know me,” she said, her voice quivering. She was scared, and I jumped in to save her.
“Reagan’s just going through a phase at the moment, that’s all,” I said. “She’s…not really taking the whole fame thing well.”
“What do you mean?” asked Niall. I mentally kicked myself in the head. I shouldn’t have brought her problems up at all.
I shrugged.
“Well, she’s doing crazy things, giving her number away to random guys, partying all night, and we’ve noticed she hasn’t been eating…” I said, not knowing why I was adding this in. It really wasn’t One Direction’s business, and to be honest, it wasn’t even my business.
“Really?” asked Niall, turning to look at her again. She looked even more bored than before, if that was possible, and she yawned ostentatiously as Liam rattled on. “Why?”
I shrugged.
“It’s not like she’s fat…she’s always felt that she’s overweight…I don’t know. But don’t bother her about it, we’re taking care of it,” I said, not sure why I added that last part in. It sounded almost like a warning, telling them not to get involved almost.
Zayn took a hint.
“Yeah, it’s not really our business,” he said kindly. “That’s just too bad that she’s going through all that.”
I nodded sadly. It was too bad. Before we got famous, Reagan had been so much happier, and a lot less crazy. We were supposed to keep an image going, but with her recent exploits – caught drinking underage in a club, flirting shamelessly with random guys, secretly seeing Ethan – it was making it harder on all of us to maintain it.
I glanced at Reagan. She looked like she wanted to kill Liam, but she was actually talking to him now. I saw a glimmer of a smile at one point. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all for her.
Zayn followed my gaze back to Reagan.
“Don’t worry, Liam’s a great guy. He’ll take care of her,” he reassured me.
“Yeah, Liam’s really down-to-earth. And he can put up with divas,” added Niall, a glint in his eye.
“She’s not a diva!” exclaimed Skylar haughtily.
Niall and Zayn laughed, and I began to wonder what they were getting at.
“When we were flying over here, we were talking about what you guys were going to be like,” began Zayn.
“Zayn was so sure that Reagan was going to be the diva of the group, you have no idea,” laughed Niall.
Skylar paused. So did I. We exchanged a look before Sky said, “What about the rest of us?”
Niall’s smile slowly disappeared as he thought about it.
“Um…Harry thought you’d be the cute one…and Scarlett would be the moody one. Louis thought Piper would be secretly outgoing once you got to know her, and Lucy would be really outgoing.”
Skylar and I looked at each other for a split second before laughing. They had gotten us two right, but Lucy? Outgoing? Those two words didn’t really go together.
“Yeah, I’m the ‘cute’ one, you could say, and Scar’s the rebel, but Piper…I don’t know she’s super reserved, even with us. And Lucy…well she’s super shy. Not outgoing at all,” Skylar said.
“Well, at least we got some of you guys right,” laughed Niall.
I nodded, and then glanced at Piper. She was staring at me, trying to catch my eye. When she did, she widened her eyes and grit her teeth.
I knew that look. It said, We have more than we bargained for.