AFewNewDirectionsataTime
London, England, the last week of October
"You're going to America."
The four words just fell off their manager's lips, and the five boys of One Direction were already whooping and cheering.
1D was the one of the most popular bands in Europe and was slowly gaining a sizable U.S. fanbase. Everyday, their twitter mention would have one or seventy fans proclaiming "America Luvs 1D! Come 2 the US soon! XO". Man, those American girlies were going to shit themselves at this.
"So when are we going?" Harry Styles had calmed down from his cheering fit (he was screaming something unintelligible about "American mammaries") and looked at the manager expectedly.
"February," the manager said. Louis Tomlinson moaned.
"But that's too long," Louis pouted. "We wanted to go next month."
"You have a tour here in the next 2 months," the manager sighed. "But, you should know it's not your own show you're doing in America."
"Well then, what are we doing?" Zayn Malik asked.
"You're an opening act," the manager started. "You don't have a sizable base there yet, it's best to start out small."
"Who are we opening for?" Niall Horan had returned to the group, a bag of crisps in hand.
"You may have heard of them," the manager nervously smiled. "Big Time Rush."
Vancouver,Canada,thelastweekofOctober
It was pretty much the same setup on the west coast.
Kendall Schmidt sighed, exasperated. First week on set of their movie and he already wanted to throttle the set manager, Sarah something, and throw her into the Pacific Ocean. A pair of arms wrapped around Kendall's middle gently, head coming to rest on his shoulder.
"Hi, James," Kendall smiled gently.
"Hiya," James Maslow grinned back. "The manager wants us. Something involving the upcoming tour."
Ah, yes. The Better With U tour, the first arena tour they were to embark on and start making names for themselves. They booked Radio City Music Hall for God's sake. This was going to be huge, and they were doing a damn good job of keeping the fans in the dark. This was going to be a hell of a surprise, they all thought when the management announced the plans. The two walked back to the trailers, where castmates and fellow best friends, Carlos Pena and Logan Henderson, were waiting.
"Hello boys," the manager smiled.
"Hi," they all chirped back.
"So," the manager opened a binder. "We booked your opening act."
"Okay," James raised an eyebrow. "Why couldn't have this have waited...?"
"Because," the manager formed a tight smile. "We managed to get you a huge European act."
"European..." Carlos repeated as if he couldn't understand the word. "They're not gonna sing, like, Bulgarian, are they?"
"No Carlos," the manager gave him a look. "They agreed to this because they're going to be on your label. Guys, congratulations, you're touring with One Direction, the biggest British act since The Beatles."
James sat up in his bed. The biggest band from the U.K. since The Beatles...his head was spinning. How was he going to handle this? The manager said they'd do their best to keep quiet about the opening act business, the "Directioners" were known to be insane. But to be in the same room as eighteen year old megastars? He already felt intimidated.
Kendall shifted beside him, muttering something in his sleep. Kendall didn't like to sleep alone, and James offered himself up for the job. Yes, James had Halston, but she just...didn't have that spark he craved. She was a lovely girl, a bit pushy and bitchy at times, but she just wasn't what he wanted.
He wanted Kendall. Bad.
Kendall and him had quite the flirtatious relationship. Touches here, light cheek kisses there, arms around each other at any given point, compliments thrown at each other, yeah, they were falling for each other. James smiled at the man next to him, running his fingers through dirty blonde hair. Kendall shifted away from him, leaving James cold and wondering what else he could do. His mind wandered to One Direction again, wanting to know more about them and who they were, why they were so popular, and how good they really were. He reached for his iPad, pulling up YouTube. He was definitely going to find out more about this One Direction band.
Makeup and wardrobe gave him the worst scolding ever the next morning, when he showed up disheveled. Okay, maybe James had lost track of time and spent the night giggling and singing along to One Direction like a teenage girl. Kendall smirked when he walked past, as if he knew what James had been doing the whole night. James sighed and made his way to craft services, where Logan sat silently, deep in thought.
"Hey buddy," James said quietly. Logan looked up and smiled.
"Hi James," Logan was happy to finally have company. It hurt to have Carlos blowing him off all the time for his bitchy girlfriend, Samantha. God, he hated her and Logan didn't hate anyone.
"You look lonely lately," James commented.
"Yeah," Logan sighed. "It blows to have your best friend blow you off for a bitch of a girlfriend." It wasn't hard to tell Logan was sad. Hell, they all were sad about it. Not wanting to upset him further, James quickly changed subjects.
"So I looked up that One Direction band we're touring with," James said.
"Oh?" Logan looked up at James. "What are they like?"
"Teenage versions of us," James responded truthfully. They really did remind him of what he was like at eighteen.
"You serious?" Logan looked taken aback.
"Yeah man," James nodded. "One even kind of looks like you, his name is Zayn or something. They seem like cool kids."
"Well, this is gonna be an interesting tour," Logan commented. James silently agreed.
London,England
"Louis, give me the remote," Niall pouted.
"No," Louis clutched the remote to his chest. "I want to watch this."
"But it's boring," Niall whined. "I wanted to watch something fun."
"Oi," Liam walked in, guitar in hand. "What are you two morons arguing about now?"
"I want to watch something fun," Niall frowned. "But Louis won't give me the remote."
"Louis, give me the remote," Liam held out a hand, stern look on his face. "Now."
Louis grumbled something unintelligible under his breath and ruefully handed over the remote. Liam smiled gratefully and began to flip through the channels before stopping on a children's network.
"Why are you stopping here?" Louis complained loudly. "This isn't interesting."
"No, watch," Liam shushed him. "I think this is the Big Time Rush band we're touring with."
"Oh? They have their own show?" Niall sat up, suddenly interested. "How come we don't have our own?"
"Be quiet, we were on the X Factor, I think that counts," Liam shot a look at Niall, and focused his attention on the screen.
The episode wasn't horrible, in fact, it was kind of funny. The four on the screen seemed like they had great senses of humour and that made Liam all the more excited for the tour.
"They seem like good fellows, don't they?" Niall commented, sastified that he had got to watch something entertaining.
"They do," Louis sat up and stretched. "If you'll excuse me, boys, I'm off on a date with Eleanor."
With that, Louis stepped out of the room, and Niall went to the kitchen. Liam sat, deep in thought. Big Time Rush really looked fun and happy to do what they did. They almost seemed like they could be great older brother figures to the five of them. Liam smiled a little, and decided to call the manager.
"Hey," he started. "Do you have any contact information for Big Time Rush?"
Vancouver,Canada
Surfing the Internet wasn't what James had in mind for tonight. Halston and Samantha decided to have girl time and went off shopping for stupid things. James huffed, this was supposed to be a date weekend for him and Halston. He opened his email, sighing, predicting spam from Facebook and Twitter.
The first letter's address caught his eye, and he had to do a double take.
'1DHQx'
He opened the email, curious to see what this meant.
'Hithere.:)I'mLiamPaynefromOneDirection,yourtourmatesforFebruary?I'minterestedingettingtoknowyoubetterbeforewetour.Ifyoudon'twanttorespondthat'sokay.I'mlookingforwardtothetour.
LiamPaynexx'