Shine On

Being in a band isn’t all that great, and being in a band with complete strangers is just as amazing. My name is Kingsley, or Jenna if you will. My friends prefer to call me by my last name, because there were two girls in my year that was attached to that name, and my last name stuck after that. But, my friends aren’t the ordinary kids you spot running down the streets of Birmingham; we were far from ordinary, but far from anything like what’s happening to me these days.

My friends and I would hang around the town and just enjoy ourselves. We didn’t try to worry about the calories we were consuming, or how many bench presses our ex-boyfriends were doing to impress us. Life was simple back then, but now, I’m here in a high chair, being powdered with makeup and forced to keep my head from leaning back. Back in the UK, I was still an ordinary girl that was daring enough to dye her hair blue, but after tonight, I was no longer just Jenna Kingsley, but the embodiment of my country for simple idea of a band.

“C’mon girl!” The high pitched voice of the hairdresser screeched out my name, “Keep your head still. I need to brush out your hair!” I rolled my eyes at the gay man that stood behind me from the reflection of the makeup booth’s mirror. I wasn’t thrilled with all these people touching me, and I just thought I looked completely fine when I walked in.

“Jen,” The soft voice of the Australian accent suddenly crept out from the door. It showed itself as my partner in crime, Amelia, who resided from Sydney. She was the quieter one in the group. Management had named her the “cute” one, while I was dubbed the “edgy” one. It wasn’t a bad thing of course.

“Yeah, Ahm?” I turned to her quickly, yanking the hairdresser away from my hair. He began to make a fit about how hard I was to work with, which I found very ironic because I’ve been sitting in the dressing chair for an hour. I ignored him as Amelia stumbled with her words again, telling me that the group was going to meet the people we were touring with. I looked at the two “artists” and nodded at them that I was going to leave. They looked at me oddly before Amelia led me to the meeting room.

Our band has been together for five months now, and we’re worked long and hard on everything from singing alone, singing in harmony, dancing together, and of course, my favorite, media training. We were all fitted into stereotypes, which all complimented either our personality or image. Amelia and I reached the meeting room, where we found the other half of our band already sitting down.

“Ow,” Lindsey pretended to cringed at my new hairdo, “what did they do to you? You look like a scene queen gone mainstream.” I looked at her with a glare before letting go. Lindsey was from Ontario, Canada, and was suppose to the “Flirt” of the group. I sighed, shaking off the attitude, “I know! I was in there for a whole hour hearing about Jeffery’s sex life. Last thing I want to hear is about gay sex.” Amelia and I sat ourselves next to the other two, noticing we were the only four in the room.

“Gah,” Kailee blurted out, “just stop talking, Jenna. Last think I want is to imagine that hairy man in a 69 position.”

“Really?” Lindsey perked up in interest as Amelia began text away as usual, “I would definitely ship that.” Her tone was sarcastic, although to anyone else she would sound dead serious.

“Girls,” The low crusty sound of our manager echoed in the room, making us all quiet, “it’s good to see you.”

“Hello Arnold.” We all cooed in unison, readjusting ourselves in our seats.

“Today’s an important day.” He pulled his briefcase onto the table and opened it to pull out some papers. He ruffled through the packets as he disturbed them to five empty seats in front of us before actually giving us the papers.

“No way,” Lindsey screamed out loud, “We’re touring with THE WANTED!?!”

“We aren’t the Wanted!” A voice from the hallway declared.

“That’s Louis Tomlinson.” Kailee whispered to us with a nod before Arnold shook his head and yelled for the guys to “come out”.

“…of the closet.” I added at the end with the same hushed tone and watched the boys walk in. The three other girls tried to cover their laughs before our plan was caught.

“You’re going to tour with One Direction on their new World Tour.” Arnold explained, sighing and excusing himself for a moment because of his phone that started to ring to Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”.

“Well,” The voice from before began, “I’m Louis Tomlinson.”

“And I’m Harry Styles.” The curly haired boy continued.

“I’m Liam.” The guy with the buzzcut chirped.

“Niall.” The Irish Blonde added.

“and I’m Zayn Malik.” The dark haired pierced his eyes into mine with a cheeky smile.

“Gahy. Mahnhore. Borring, Justin Beeba, and Luung canser.” Kailee leaned in with her arms crossed. Her attempt of a British accent was well off, mostly just off but it was a good try.

“C’mon, Kailee.” Lindsey looked at her with seriousness, “This here is One Die-rection. Hav’ some class gurl!” Her American southern accent was hard on the ends of her words, hopefully they bought it.

“What is all this aboot?” Amelia cried, “So sovry abooot them. They’d be like this all the time.”

“Don’ apologize fo dem, ay.” My Aussie accent was the worst, “They can do that dem selves…ay.”

The five boys looked at us with disbelief; the blond then looked at Kailee and smiled. “Well, at least you’re honest. What part of the UK are you from?” This ignited the other members of One Direction to start talking to the rest of us, all except Zayn, who was busy playing with his phone.

“Birmin-ham. Itssa small place.” She lied before I stomped on her foot, “Off, I mean, the rregion of Birmin-ham I’m from of course.”

“You guys are terrible at accents.” The dark haired boy added into the conversation finally. The room got quiet again before I added my two-sense.

“Vell, maybe butt it onlee counts if you caan tall us who’s who.” I smirked at him and then down the line of the British lads. The five boys suddenly were huddled as if they were strategizing in a football game as the four of us sat in our chairs, looking at each other in amusement.

“You’re the British one.” Louis pointed at Amelia.

“You’re Canadian.” Harry pointed at Kailee.

“You’re an Aussie.” Liam looked at Lindsey.

“And you,” Zayn and Niall said in unison, “are American!”

The room has silent again for the third time before the four of us began to laugh hysterically. The laughter traveled far through the hallways, since Arnold pranced back into the room as if he heard gunshots fire.

“Is everyone alright?” He panicked before sighing at the sight of us laughing. He knew we were planning on pranking whoever we were touring with, and he didn’t have to ask. “Well, boys. These are the ‘lovely’ girls you’ll be touring with. Let me FORMALLY introduce them.”

“Kailee Web, from Nashville, Tennesee. Untied States.”

“Hey ya’ll.” Her grinned widened as she waved at the five. Niall cursed something under his breath about him “knowing it all along”.

“Lindsey Smiths, from Ontario, Canada.”

“Hello boys.” She nodded with her infamous flirty smile.

“Amelia Sorensen-“

“P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney.” She blurted out quickly and nodded at them. Louis chuckled at her Finding Nemo reference.

“and Jenna Kingsley from Birmingham of the UK.” Arnold said as he looked at the packet instead of my face. I simply waved to the five guys before realizing how pissed off Zayn Malik was. This guy had something stuck in his ass today, I just knew it.

“People can’t take a joke, can they?” I looked over at Amelia, who immediately shrugged, feeling the tension around the table.