"How old are you again, Ailey?" Simon Cowell, for a rare moment, looked stunned.

I blushed, giving Simon a small smile. "I'm fifteen."

Ronan Keating leant forward on his elbows, eyebrows raised. "And with a voice like that? You are exactly why we lowered the age limit last year. You are the X Factor."

I bit down on my lip, blushing as I tried to contain my grin. "Thankyou" I murmured before resuming my silent wait to see if I had gotten through. My nails were digging into the back of my hand, leaving small, red, crescent shaped marks in my skin.

"Well, I think it's time for us to vote." Ronan leant back in his seat, studying me for a second. "It's a yes from me."

I couldn't contain my grin this time, thanking him and giving him one of my best smiles.

Mel B smiled, winking at me. "The world's not gonna know what hit 'em. Hell yes!"

After thanking Mel, I looked over at Guy Sebastian, silently praying that he would say yes. "I don't know. I'm not sure you're ready. Give me a minute."

I tried not to show how much that hurt, nodding my head. There was silence for a minute, with the exception of a few small boos from the crowd, until Simon hit his hand down on the table.

"Well, I think you're ready." He leant forward in his seat. "There's something about you, Ailey, which I can't quite describe. I think that you yourself don't quite know what you're capable of. It's a yes from me."

I sucked in a breath, clasping my hand over my mouth. I had a yes from three of the judges, that was all I needed. But I waited to hear Guy's decision.

Guy looked at me, pursing his lips in thought. "Well, there's no denying you've got something. I guess time will tell if that something is the X Factor. It's a yes from me, Ailey."

I couldn't contain the tiny squeal that erupted from my mouth. "Thank you so much!" I gushed, jumping up and down.

I rushed off the stage to where my parents and best friend, Lucie were. Lucie looked up from her snack sized jar of nutella as I burst in. "I got in!" I squealed.

She practically threw the nutella aside, something very out of character for her, and wrapped her arms around me, followed by my parents.

"You're going to bootcamp!" Lucie gushed. "You're going to meet celebrities and everything!"

I wiped tears away, unable to stop smiling.

A few weeks later in Sydney, bootcamp began and we were all gathered into our groups to await further information.

The noise coming from the under 25 girls that had gotten into bootcamp was absolutely deafening. The room where we had been shoved was crowded, with girls sprawled out on the floor, the few chairs provided and each other.

I sat on the floor with three other girls I'd met, Andrea, Charlotte and Jessica. Lottie was currently playing with a lock of her wavy brown hair, her bright blue eyes fixated on it, searching for non-existent split ends while Jessie was dancing along to a song that was blasting from someone's speakers. Andy leant against me, her head on my shoulder.

"How much longer do you think we have to wait?" She asked, yawning and pulling the cuffs of her red sweater over her knuckles.

We were waiting to find out who our mentor was. And, even better, who the guest celebrity judge would be. The general consensus was that we wanted Mel B as a mentor, but I wasn't so sure. Simon had created the show, and seemed to know more about managing and producing an act that the other judges.

I shrugged in response just as the lights turned on above the main door, instantly silencing the room. We all got to our feet, waiting. Slowly the door opened to reveal…

Simon Cowell.

One thing I've learnt through X Factor so far: Girls under the age of 25 really know how to scream.

As everyone screamed, Simon looked around the room and laughed. He stopped for a few seconds on me, seeing that I wasn't going absolutely mental, and winked.

"Okay, girls. Now you know that I'm your mentor I bet you're all quite curious as to who our celebrity guests will be. Well…"

He gestured towards the door again as the handle turned once more before being thrown open.

My mouth dropped open. Screams filled the air. Jessie grabbed a hold of my shoulders, jumping up and down excitedly.

In front of us stood none other than One Direction.

"Hello, ladies." Louis smiled, his hands in his pockets. Next to him, Niall looked utterly bewildered by the screaming girls. On Louis' other side, Harry looked absolutely euphoric that he had found himself in a room full of girls. Next to him, Zayn was calm and collected, looking intently at all the girls. Last through the door was Liam, who stood smiling, giving everyone a small wave.

Simon gestured to the boys. "Our guest judges, One Direction."