Alive
"This is the cafeteria," Liam says, gesturing around the large room containing plastic bench table lined across it. "This is Niall's favorite place."
"You betcha! While we are here, I am gonna grab a muffin," Niall comments as he walks over to the table filled with a variety of snacks.
"I think this is the last of it. You've seen it all! You are officially part of the 1D family!" Harry announces.
As Harry goes to hug me, Louis steps in front of him, blocking him from coming closer.
"Now, now, now. You may have seen the place, but no newcomer is official until a little hazing," he says, smiling devilishly.
Zayn steps over beside Louis, crossing his arms and matching his mate's evil smirk. "Lou is absolutely right. New meat must be welcomed properly to the inside of One Direction. That means, seeing all that it is and has to offer."
I roll my eyes, trying to hide the grin at their attempts to be intimidating. "What do you boys have in mind?"
Their smiles widen and I begin to worry about what I have gotten myself into.
"Follow us," Louis says, quickly turning on his heels and walking the opposite direction to the exit.
I look up to Liam with my eyebrows raised, silently asking if I should be worried.
He only purses his lips and walks ahead of me, chuckling quietly to himself. I was in trouble.
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"You want me to WHAT?!" I ask, confused if they are actually suggesting I do what they had said.
Louis sighs, frustrated that he has to explain the plan a second time. "You are going to stand up here in the rafting with this paintball gun. In about 10 minutes when we go down below to rehearse choreography with our choreographer, Paul, you are going to use that paintball gun to shoot Paul. Got it?"
"I am not shooting your choreographer with a paintball gun on my first day of my new job! NOT HAPPENING!" I protest. There is no way I am going to do something as stupid as this that can risk the job I've worked for my entire life and hardly started.
"Don't worry about it. We will take all the heat for it!" Zayn assures me.
"I don't know guys. If I go along with this it doesn't make me not responsible if you take the fall for it. I will still be agreeing to it. I can't loose this job," I plead, hoping they will be responsible and see the ludicrousy of the position they have put me in.
"Hey, it's alright. Just for tonight, don't look back. Live spontaneously! This is your opportunity to do something stupid with five idiots to fall back on to take the blame! It'll be fun!" Harry argues.
God dammit. Maybe it isn't be such a bad idea to just have fun and do something wild... no matter how random and weird it may be. I sigh in frustration for allowing myself to be peer pressured into something so stupid and reckless.
"Fine! I will do it!"
All the boys cheer and give me a few more words of encouragement before rushing down before Paul gets here. I roll my eyes and practice aiming the plastic gun. I focus the gun's marker on Louis, just to see how to line up the target. I grip the handle harder as I practice how I stand to shoot. As I tighten my hand around the gun, I feel it jolt back with a bang.
"OW! HEY! What was that for?!" Louis yells up at me, while trying to turn around to peer at the yellow paint splattered across his back. The rest of the boys double over in laughter.
"Sorry! I was practicing my aim! I didn't mean to pull the trigger!" I says, hardly able to control my laughter.
"I'm gonna get you back for this Aves!" he says pointedly, but with a smirk across his lips, showing me he isn't too mad. Although, his apparent new nickname does not go unnoticed in the scuffle, and brings a slight redness to my cheeks at the thought that the boys are already warming up to me.
"Dude, get rid of that shirt so Paul doesn't see it!" Harry tells Louis as he recovers from his laughing hysterics.
"Damn, that actually really hurt. Watch your back Avery!" Louis yells back to me once again as he pulls his now yellow and black t-shirt over his head. I chuckle at his threat, seeing as he was smiling when he made it, I'm not too worried.
That's when I notice his now-exposed six pack. I knew he was fit, but damn! That boy could grate cheese against those things! Luckily, before I'm caught staring at Louis chest, the anticipated Paul Roberts walks through the main doors.
"Afternoon boys! Are you guys ready? We need to finish the routine for 'Alive' today, so I would like if you all tried your hardest to pay attention today?" He looks to the boys hopefully.
They all give each other a quick look before looking back at Paul, replying in unison, "Yes sir!"
"No need to be snarky, boys."
Paul starts walking them through the positioning and different transitions. It takes about five minutes to go over the beginning positions. These boys really don't take this seriously. I can only imagine how they are going to feel when I have to dress them up!
As Paul guides them through the first transition, I see Zayn look up at me while pulling on his ear--the sign we had agreed upon to signal it's time for me to shoot.
I quickly nod to him in response and aim the gun up to Paul's leg. The guys wanted to shoot his chest, but I don't want to risk injuring the guy too bad, so they settled on letting me shoot his leg.
Once I have the target lined up, I wait a few seconds, before pulling the trigger. I look up to see Paul clutching his foot, curled into a ball on the ground. The rest of the boys are laughing hysterically.
After a few seconds of howling from the guys, Louis looks up to me.
"Seriously? His foot? You could hit me square in the back and you can't shoot his leg!" he says while trying to get his laughter under control.
"Your back is a bigger target!"
"That's why we said shoot his chest!"
"Hey! I got him didn't I?!" I say, chuckling.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on down here, would ya?" he says, still laughing a little.
I roll my eyes without losing the smile on my face. "Coming!"
Once I reach the ground, Paul has gotten up to at least be sitting up properly on one of the amps.
"Hi, I'm Avery," I say approaching him timidly, still unable to remove my smile, however. These boys' energy is simply contagious!
"So are you the marksman in the group?" he asks, his tone light however stern he tries to sound. I'm sure he is used to the boys' antics. This must be nothing new to him.
"Guilty," I say, still feeling hesitant. However familiar he is with the boys' pranks, I have no idea how he will feel about me aiding them in one.
"I don't recognize you. Who are you?"
"I'm, uh, Caroline's new assistant. Just started today."
Instead of yelling at me that I should be smart or responsible enough to not get sucked into the boys' games, like I had expected him to, he simply looks over to Louis and Zayn who are standing beside each other, obviously doing their best to contain their obnoxious grins.
"Seriously? Hazing the new guy? I thought you learned your lesson when your antics on the new security guard ended in hospitalization... and the resignation of the new security guard?"
"Hospitalization? What did you guys do?! After that you hazed me?!" I yell at them.
"Hey, it's not our fault that the golf cart's breaks were broken! And we made sure not to do anything that would put you in physical danger! All you had to do was point and shoot!" Louis defends.
I look at them as if they were speaking Mandarin. "You guys are idiots!"
The rest of them just laugh, while Zayn and Louis look at each other with a look of pride, as if their pranks are worth commendation.
I turn to Paul for some help.
He smirks up at me. "Welcome to One Direction."