"Oh my god. I heard about your interview," Jess said as she entered our dorm dramatically. "Have you done it? Was it okay? Did you get the internship?"

The phone call had ended a few minutes ago and I was still staring at my phone in my hand. I was sort of in shock. "The interview... it went... it went really well," I said honestly, putting my phone on the desk and collapsing on my bed.

"Seriously? How do you know?" Jess sat at the foot of my bed with wide eyes. "Did they say you got it?"

"Not exactly. The interviewer, whose name was Mark, asked some questions, I answered, it all went pretty smoothly, then at the end they kind of said something like, 'I think you'll do really well here' and they said they would get in contact soon." A grin stretched across my face. "That sounds pretty good to me."

"It does sound likely you'll get the internship," Jess agreed. "And with Capitol Records? That is just so cool."

"I know. How long do you think it will be before I hear from them?"

"I literally know nothing about the music industry, so don't ask me that. Maybe it'll be tomorrow. Maybe in a few days. Do you know when the internship actually starts?" she asked me.

"I think it's pretty soon," I told her. "I think my interview was kind of a last minute thing."

Over dinner, I told George what Mark had said and he was very excited. Nathan sat next to me, not saying a word. Tristan had really cheered up since breakfast and congratulated me in advance with Jess smiling lovingly at him. I caught George frowning at Nathan who didn't even seem to notice, but appeared to be very engrossed in his food. I felt a stab of annoyance but did my best to ignore my not-so-supportive boyfriend.

When Nathan had finished his food, he got up as if to leave, but I placed my hand on his arm.

"Where are you going?"

"To bed," he said shortly, shrugging off my hand and walking off.

"What's up with him?" Jess said in confusion.

I sighed. "Who knows. I'm going to go after him." I saw George giving me a disapproving glance, but I avoided his gaze as I made my way after Nathan.

When I caught up with him, I grabbed his hand and spun him round to face me. "Nathan, what's wrong? Are you mad?"

"No, I'm not mad." He looked down on me a little condescendingly.

"Is this about the internship?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I just think that's not you. You could do better. I really think you should join the one I'm doing."

I stepped back a little. "Nathan, as my boyfriend, you're supposed to be supportive of me. Can't you see I'm excited about this?"

"No," he said bluntly. "I think this is what your dad wants, not you."

"Then you clearly don't know me very well," I responded, stung. "Why can't you just be happy for me for once?"

Nathan watched me for a moment, then smiled a bit. "You're right. I'm sorry. If this is what you want, then who am I to criticize you?"

I furrowed my eyebrows in surprise at his sudden change in attitude, but I wasn't going to complain. So instead I smiled back at him. "Thank you." I reached up and kissed him, and he wrapped his arms around my waist, kissing me back. When we broke apart, he rested his forehead on mine and said quietly, "My roommate's out tonight. You want to come over?"

I bit my lip and nodded. We walked back to his room and I shut the door behind me.

~ ~ ~

The next morning when I went back to my dorm, Jess raised her eyebrows but didn't comment on the fact that I wasn't here last night. Instead, she said, "They might call you today."

"Who?" I said distractedly as I rummaged through our chest of drawers to pull on some sweatpants and a t-shirt since I didn't have a class until late afternoon.

"Capitol Records, of course."

I froze. I had completely forgotten about that. "You think they might?"

"Yep. You know what, I bet they will, and I bet you'll have got the internship."

I groaned. "Please don't get my hopes up."

"I'm not. I'm telling the truth." Jess shrugged.

Sure enough, later on in the day, my phone began to ring and when I glanced at the number I saw it was the same one the interviewer had rung on. With slightly shaking hands and Jess beaming at me, I answered.

"Hello?"

"Noelle Torres?" It was a different voice from the Mark, who had interviewed me. This was a woman's voice.

"Yes, that's me." I winced at my slightly high-pitched voice.

"This is Kate, your father's cousin. I was calling to let you know we would like to offer you the internship and we were wondering if you could come down to the Capitol Records building now so we could sort out timings?"

I almost dropped my phone and attempted to keep my breathing steady. "Wow, um, thank you so much. And yes, of course. Do you think you could give me the address?"

"Sure." Kate quickly told me and I scribbled it down on some paper.

Recognizing the place, I said, "Cool, I can probably be there in half an hour. And thank you again."

"No problem. See you in a bit." She hung up and I glanced up at Jess, who was grinning widely at me.

"You got it!" she said excitedly, hugging me. "This is so great. You have to tell George."

I smiled back at her. "I would, but I kind of need to go there now, to sort out timings and stuff." I glanced down at my clothes. "I need to change. What should I wear? Something smart, or maybe not smart because I haven't actually started the internship yet, but then again everyone working there will be smart so if I don't go smart I'll feel so out of place, but then again what if the people who work there aren't dressed smart, oh god, what am I going to do–"

"Noelle. Breathe." Jess placed her hands on my shoulders. "It's just an outfit."

"They will judge me based on my outfit," I stated.

"No, they won't. I'll pick something for you," Jess offered, and without waiting for a reply she foraged through my clothes and threw at me some black pants and a plain white shirt. "Wear this. It's kind of smart but kind of casual. And wear your black heels," she instructed. I smiled at her gratefully and quickly changed. I then grabbed a bag to put my phone and keys in and exited the dorm, waving goodbye to Jess. I was lucky enough that I was allowed to have my car on campus, so I made my way to it and got in before setting off.

The whole way there I had butterflies in my stomach, and I kept tapping my fingers against the wheel whenever I was at traffic lights or anything. I was so nervous that I was getting really hot, so I had to have the air conditioning on full blast to keep me from overheating.

Eventually I got there, and I stared in wonder at the building in front of me. The famous Capitol Records building. I took a deep breath and entered the lobby.

I ignored the intimidation I felt at the modern, sleek reception area but marched straight up to the desk and plastered a smile on my face.

"Hi, my name is Noelle Torres, I'm here to see Kate?" I said confidently, when really I didn't feel confident at all.

"Noelle Torres?" the receptionist – whose name I discovered when I looked at her nametag was Rachel – repeated and smiled. "Here to see Kate? Of course. If you could make your way up to the third floor. She'll be waiting for you there."

"Thank you." I beamed at her and went over to the elevators, pressing the up button. I hadn't gotten thrown out, which was something I admit I was worried about. So far so good. But what if Kate wasn't on the third floor? What if I couldn't find her? Oh god, I was stressing again. A sharp ding showed the elevator's arrival, and the doors slid open. I nervously stepped in and pressed the number for the third floor. The doors closed and it started moving upwards. A few seconds later we reached the third floor and I stepped out into a hallway. There was no one around. I knew this would happen. But I couldn't just leave, so I began to walk down the hall, looking around curiously. There were a lot of closed doors, but I soon came across a window where I could see a recording studio. There were some people in there, sitting around and talking, but before I could get a closer look, I heard my name.

"Noelle? Noelle Torres?" I turned around to see a woman who I assumed was Kate rushing over to me.

"Yeah, that's me. You must be Kate," I said with a smile, offering my hand. She shook it firmly.

"That would be me. Thanks for turning up at short notice, I just wanted to introduce you to the people you'll be working with. And by working with, if I'm going to be honest, I mean fetching coffee and all that." She gave me an apologetic look.

"Sure, that's what I thought it would be." I smiled.

"Great. I have to warn you very quickly, the boys will probably try and hit on you since you're very pretty–"

I frowned, ignoring the compliment. "The boys?"

Kate glanced at me quickly. "Did Mark not tell you? You're working with the band 5 Seconds of Summer."

My eyes widened and my mouth dropped, my nerves going into overdrive. "5 Seconds of Summer? The band? Luke Hemmings, Calum Hood and all that?"

"Yes." She gave me a slightly amused smile. "Sorry, if I'd have thought you didn't know that I would have told you. They're actually here now, so you can meet them."

I was going to meet 5 Seconds of Summer. I was going to be working with 5 Seconds of Summer. This was so not what I imagined. I was still processing as I followed Kate into the recording studio and indeed saw the whole of the band glance up as I walked in. 5 Seconds of Summer were looking at me. I felt my cheeks heat as Kate introduced me.

"Hey guys, this is Noelle. She's going to be one of the interns working with you next week. Noelle, this is Luke, Calum, Ashton and Michael," she announced, gesturing to the teenage boys. They all muttered a 'hi', and I noticed Luke looking me up and down before smirking a little. My eyes widened even more and I glanced away quickly. I was pretty sure Luke Hemmings had just checked me out.

Kate then pointed to the other three older men. "This is John, Matt and Zakk. They're helping the band write their new album."

I cleared my throat, and stuck out my hand. "Nice to meet you." All three shook my hand with a smile.

"Why don't we all sit down and we can talk about what times you can do?" Kate said briskly and led me over to the sitting area, and I perched awkwardly on the edge of the couch trying desperately not to just stare at the band with my mouth open. This was so surreal for me. I was sitting opposite one of the hottest bands and everyone else was so cool about it while I was kind of freaking out inside. Oh my god, I couldn't wait to see Jess's face when I told her whom I was working with.

"So, Noelle, could you give us a rough idea of what days you can do?" Kate asked me while the boys stopped paying attention and began to talk among themselves. I really tried to ignore them but I was finding it very difficult.

I began to tell her when all my lectures were, and she nodded along as we chatted, noting everything down in a notebook. She managed to get me in for at least a few hours everyday, warning me that although I would be here a lot, there might be quite a bit of sitting around.

"What about weekends?" Kate asked when we'd sorted out the schedule for during the week.

"I can't do Saturday mornings," I apologized. "But apart from that, yeah, I'm free."

"Well, we won't always need you, but be prepared to come in at short notice," she told me, and I nodded. "Well. Now that's sorted, do you want to have a look around?"

"Yeah, of course," I agreed. As I stood up, the band stood up too, and Ashton – I was not going to get used to calling them by their first names – said to John, "We're going to head off. We'll be back tomorrow." I practically melted at the Australian accent.

Luke turned to me. "We'll see you soon, Noelle." Michael rolled his eyes at Luke and shoved him out of the room while I just stood there gaping like a fish. Once the band had gone, Kate let out a laugh.

"They were pretty well behaved. Usually they're much more flirty," she commented.

"They're probably still hung over," John said with a chuckle. "They were partying last night."

I couldn't help but say, "Aren't they all underage?"

"Oh, yeah," he replied cheerfully. "Doesn't stop them."

Well, I couldn't exactly blame them.

The whole time I was being shown round, I could not get the fact that I was working with a famous band out of my head. I still felt like the whole thing didn't even happen. But according to Kate, I was going to have to get used to it because I would be seeing a lot more of them.