CHAPTER 66

"Listen up, contestants. I have just received the theme for the First live show from the man himself, Simon Cowell." Nicole announced to the 12 acts as they all sat in the hotel restaurant and ate breakfast. Finn was sitting with the rest of One Direction, as well as Little Mix, and their heads all shot up when Nicole spoke. The 12 acts had been wondering about the first theme for weeks now, and now was finally the time when they found out.

"Well, what is it?" Lucy asked.

"It is… Rock."

Everyone either cheered, gasped or clapped. Rock was such a vague topic, and they could sing almost anything.

After breakfast, Live Show prep officially started. The next two weeks were a whirlwind of meetings with Simon, rehearsals in the studio, and occasionally, rehearsals in the arena for soundchecks. Life couldn't have changed more for Finn. He was literally living his dream, and Simon couldn't be happier for him. A fair bit of Finn's reservations were about the way that he looked - he wasn't very well-kept before coming onto the show - so the preening stuff definitely was like a fish out of water. Although it might not look like it as Finn was famously bad at smiling, he could feel himself getting happier by the day.

Soon, it was 48 hours until the first live show, and nerves were as thick as concrete. To take their minds off of the upcoming event, Simon and the groups had an interview with a national radio station and TV channel. Finn was starting to get used to his new life. It mainly consisted of singing, interacting with the public/press via social media or in person, and finally, having hair and makeup done in the studio in preparation for the live shows.

One Direction, MK1 and Little Mix gathered at the TV set at 10 am that morning, and they were bustled onto stage opposite the two presenters pretty quickly. The four of them sat on a long couch, and the presenters sat on two armchairs opposite them. Finn heard one of the producers say…

"Three, two, one and we're live!"

Suddenly, the camera started rolling, and everyone jumped into action.

"The countdown has started to the first live show on Saturday, and so far we've met Gary with the over 28s, and Tulisa with the girls and Nicole and the boys." The female host, Sarah, said.

"Well…" The male host, Daniel, added. "Today it's the turn of Simon and the groups. Last year, the groups were a relatively quiet and understated bunch, but this year, it's definitely the opposite. Here they are. MK1, Little Mix and One Direction, along with their mentor, the legendary Simon Cowell." Daniel said.

"Welcome to all of you. Thank you for being here today. Are you okay? Are you ready? Are you prepared for Saturday?" She asked.

"Yeah, we're getting there." Jesy from Little Mix replied. "Just about, anyways."

"And how confident do you feel, Simon?" Daniel asked.

"I feel great!" He said. "They're three very unique individual groups and they're amazing."

"Um… from what I've read, you would have actually preferred to mentor the Over 28s." Daniel stated. The groups raised their eyebrows.

"Excuse me?" Liam laughed, glaring playfully at Simon.

"Um… no. I mean, when I did the show last year, I wanted the overs as well. It's just because it's easier to work with the overs because I'm so much older than these groups. But um… I have full confidence in these guys. I feel like all of them have what it takes to make it to the finals."

"Okay. So, Little Mix, how are you feeling about Saturday? Because I remember in judges' houses, you kinda lost it slightly. I mean, Perrie, you had to have medical attention! Your nerves really got the better of you there."

Basically, during bootcamp, Perrie started to have a nervous breakdown, to the extent that she was pulled from the backstage area by medical staff right before she was meant to perform, and when she performed half an hour later, it was not nearly as good as the rest of her performances.

"I think there's a lot the show doesn't show. Like I was actually really ill that day, but I just got caught being nervous. Everyone gets nervous before the audition; I was just the one who was caught and ostracized because of it. But I think the traumatic part is over. It's the final 12." Perrie replied.

"How are you coping now?" Daniel asked.

"Well it's fun now. We're just singing 100% the way it should be." Little Mix relied.

"Yeah, that's true." Sarah said. "And you always said singing is actually the best way you are able to express yourself."

"Yeah, it is. So this is our chance to prove ourselves."

"And MK1. How are you? Because you're kind of like marmite now. People either absolutely love you, or they seem to hate you. How do you deal with that? And I know you've received some unkind words over social media."

"I mean, it just doesn't feel great. We've been through exactly the same process as everyone else in the competition, and we're so grateful to be part of the show and we're lucky to get as far as we did. Sure I had a bit of a bad week last week, with all of the anonymous twitter insults, but we had a lovely chat with Simon, and he just said: 'you know what, rise above it. You're here for a reason.'"

"So, we've been looking at the moment Simon revealed to you that you're through, and I have to say, it was pretty funny."

The story behind that was that after Simon had revealed that MK1 were through to live shows, Charlie and Raheem started sobbing hysterically.

"Oh god. Not this!" Raheem exclaimed, and they laughed.

"Are you the kind of people who react like this normally?"

"I mean, all I can say is that these people live with me, they know exactly what I'm like off camera. And the sobbing during my reveal probably went on for an hour after we had gotten on the plane." MK1 stated, looking at 1D and Little Mix.

Suddenly, on the screen in front of them, the video of MK1's reveal played, and they watched as MK1 broke down and fell onto the ground in sobs. One Direction and Little Mix were laughing hysterically as they watched back the video, but MK1 blushed furiously.

"I just want to point something out." Simon said. "Did you see when Raheem took the really expensive silk pillow and wiped his face with it?"

Everyone nodded and exclaimed in agreement.

"You know." MK1 added. "The hotel actually treated me last night and said that 'we have a cushion here for you. Can we have your address? We're going to send it to you. We can't use it anymore.' I thought they were going to send me the bill, but…"

"I just want to say that I'm really proud about how my duo are handling all of the hate they're receiving on twitter, because some people are just being bullies, and everybody knows that it doesn't feel good to be bullied." Simon piped in.

"Yeah, we're all very happy for you. So, One Direction… I heard something the other day. Liam, is it true, and I don't know whether this might be too traumatic for you, but were you once mugged by a fox?" Daniel asked, forcing himself to keep a straight face, but Finn, Niall, Louis and Zayn were cracking up laughing.

"Yeah, you know what, it was my birthday, and I was walking home to my neighborhood in North Carolina, and I had my wallet in my hand. Don't get me wrong, I had had a couple to drink, but there was this fox on the wall. And I'm a bit scared of foxes, so I just hissed at it so that it would go away like they normally do, but this one pounced at me. It jumped at me, and I dropped my wallet, and it grabbed my wallet in its mouth and ran! And that was it. It was gone." Liam replied.

"Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" Finn interrupted. "The other day, when you said that you had been mugged, it was by a fox, not a human?"

Liam nodded.

"Wooooow!" Finn said, sarcastically, slowly clapping his hands. "You know, I thought when you said you were mugged, it was like when I used to get mugged when I was homeless in Bangladesh, and it would be a scary dude with a gun!"

"How many had you had to drink, Liam?" Sarah asked. "Are you sure it wasn't…"

"No, it was definitely a fox. It wasn't a small man in a fur jacket. I literally rang my credit card people and told them I have to cancel my card because I've been mugged. They said that I had to get a crime reference number first because I said I was mugged, so I called the police. They asked me to describe the assailant. I felt like such an idiot, and I could just hear all of the police laughing at me over the phone!"

Everyone laughed and then the reporters turned to Finn.

"Finn, if you and the boys hadn't gotten through, I would've been absolutely furious." Daniel said. Finn smiled.

"Thank you, man."

"One Direction are definitely one of my favourites. And how did it feel for you?"

"Um… it was a huge relief. Because as you saw on the video, Simon and basically stated reasons for going home, as well as reasons for going through, and I had really just resigned myself to, you know, 'I'm going home.'"

"You know, for someone your caliber of an artist, you seem constantly surprised, all the way through this process. That you keep getting through and keep getting yeses."

"Yeah, um… I think I've just got the right level of insecurity to keep my feet on the ground. And the competition just keeps surprising me. I grew up in pretty bad conditions, some of the stuff you guys know, but there's a lot you don't, and it's just incredible to be able to have this opportunity, and I don't want it to be taken away because of a big head."

"Well you've certainly lived a life. It's been pretty well published. The difficulties you had during your childhood, and during the military, and then in prison. But that in itself, I would have thought, has really given you that level of understanding, certainly how lucky you are to be where you are now, but also the emotion needed to perform."

"Yeah, absolutely. It's the ultimate sense of achievement, and I know that a lot of people in this country, particularly young kids, go through hard times, and that's what I represent as an artist. I want to relate to those people."

"So, with a group like One Direction, when you have themed weeks, how is that going to work with such a unique group, who very much have their own style. Are you going to still let them do their own thing?"

"Well, what's so great about having someone like Finn in our group is that even though he loves playing, you know, acoustic songs with his guitar, he's probably the most versatile out of the five of us." Niall replied. "He doesn't really have a single kind of music he sticks with - he can sing anything we decide on, and do a damn good job at it."

"So it won't hold him down?"

"Absolutely not." Simon added. "Nothing can hold him down. He's undeniable and unbelievable. I mean I've seen stuff that you guys haven't, and he's just such an incredible, versatile performer. But even better than Finn singing solos are the harmonies of these five guys."

"Oh, I can't wait!" Sarah exclaimed. "Louis, what can you tell us about your first performance?"

"Um… I need to keep it as vague as possible, but when we were looking at songs, we were chatting to the other contestants and listening to their song choices. Most of them went with 60s, 70s, 80s covers. We went the opposite. All I'm gonna say is that you have no idea what's in store for Saturday."

"Well, thank you so much for coming in guys. We here at NBC wish all of you the best of luck."

"Thank you."