Jen's POV
"Hey Jen, do you have your computer and stuff ready to go?"
I yawned, "Uh, yeah. Do you have your stuff?"
She gave me a look, "Well, yeah. But why are you so tired?"
"I was up half the night. I couldn't sleep."
"Are you okay?"
I nodded as I yawned again. "Yeah, I think it's just the nerves. I can't believe this is really happening."
She grinned like the Cheshire Cat, "Me neither, bae."
I yawned again as we headed toward the door, "Damn it! God, I need some coffee."
"If we hurry we can stop by Starbucks on the way."
I pushed her out the door, "Then what are we waiting for? I'm dying here!"
We laughed as I shut the door and we headed out.
When we arrived at the address Niall gave to Kat, I was suddenly speechless. We were at Soldier Field. The nerves were back. I felt Kat's hand around mine.
"You okay?"
I nodded slowly.
"Just take a deep breath bae. Remember, one problem at a time, one emotion at a time."
I took a deep breath, "Okay. Let's go."
We walked inside and found the information desk.
"Hello, we're here to meet with Niall Horan." Kat told the lady.
"Um, Kat and Jen right? KJ?"
We both nodded, "That's us."
She smiled and stood, "Alright, right this way."
We followed her down a long hallway to a doorway at the end.
"Go ahead and go in when you're ready. They're waiting for you." She said before walking back in the direction we came from.
Kat and I looked at each other. "Are you ready for this?" I asked her.
"Yes. Are you?"
I took a deep breath and nodded, "Yes."
We walked in and there were about ten people in the room. I recognized six of them.
Niall stood up from his chair and walked over to us, "Hi girls."
"Hi." We both responded.
He looked a little shocked at our synchronization.
"Yes, that happens quite a lot." Kat said.
"We're basically one person."
Niall chuckled and nodded, "Alright, well all of us boys are excited to see how you two work. We brought some of our team. You probably recognize Mark Jarvis and Ben Winston."
We nodded.
"Okay, so go ahead and sit there." He pointed to two empty chairs closest to us. "And we'll get started."
"Thanks." I said quietly. Niall went back to his seat in between Harry and Liam.
Kat took one of the chairs and I sat down in the other. We both pulled out our necessary items and then looked at Niall.
"Okay!" Niall got everyone's attention. "So this is Kat and Jen, also known as KJ. Jen does management stuff and Kat designs clothes and such."
"Okay." The man sitting in the middle said suddenly. "How about you tell us why we should hire you."
I looked to Kat, mentally telling her to talk first.
"Well, like I told Niall yesterday. We're really good at what we do. We hate to toot our own horns, but it's true. Jen booked a last minute banquet for my father's company. She got food, decorations, everything at the last minute. And my old dance studio needed costumes for fifteen girls last minute last spring. I had them done in one night. We promise you won't regret it."
He nodded, "Alright. Jen? How about you tell us what you would do if we asked you, right now, to put together a last minute show for the lads here, at Soldier Field, tonight."
I took a deep breath, "Well, first I'd ask you if you had stage designs and if they were ready. If you said yes, then I'd ask for those to be priority shipped right now. If you said no, then I'd call my good friends back in Iowa to whip up something according to design plans that either you, or Kat have. Second thing I'd work on would be publicity. Obviously, if you used your sources of Twitter and Facebook, it could be sold out in just seconds, so we'd have to make sure that what ever system we use for tickets can hold that many cookies all at once. The third thing I'd do, is work with the guys and get a music playlist and a video roll going for the screens. Obviously we'd also have to work with the sound people here and get all of that worked out. But I have no doubt that the people here at Soldier Field would complain of them having a concert. It's more publicity for everyone; especially last minute."
I looked around at everyone at the table. They all had shocked looks on their faces. I smiled as I looked over at Kat. "Sounds good, yeah?"
She nodded, "As always."
"Uh, um, okay. Well um, Kat, how about you tell us what you'd have the boys wear for a last minute show." The man stuttered out.
"Okay." She pondered a minute, before pulling out a couple of sketches I'd seen her working on yesterday at the coffee shop. She laid them out on the table facing everyone else. "I'd put them in something simple and casual. I'd put Harry in a black or gray tee and black skinnies with tan suede boots. I'd put Liam in a white tee with a blue plaid shirt; opened; with light wash bootcuts and combat boots. I'd have Louis wear black skinnies and his black Rolling Stones cutoff tee and black and white striped Adidas. And last but not least I'd have Niall wear black ripped skinnies with a black tee and his black Nikes."
I looked over at the boys as she finished. They were all nodding in agreement with what she said. The man in the middle nodded.
"Very good. Okay, so, you can have all that done and ready by five o'clock tomorrow right?"
We both looked at him as he stood.
"Wh-what?" I stuttered out.
"We want a last minute concert, here at Soldier Field for tomorrow beginning at 8pm. We also want an opening act. Can you do everything you said?"
We looked at each other and nodded. "Yes sir. Absolutely."
"Thank you ladies." He and the others, minus the boys stood and left the room.
I took a deep breath, "Holy shit."
"Yeah." Kat chuckled out.
It was quiet for a few moments before Liam spoke up. "I'm impressed!"
"Thanks." We both replied.
"How old are you girls?" Harry asked.
"I'm 18. Jen is 21."
"Really? That's it?" Louis chimed in.
We nodded.
"So, lads? You think we should give the girls some time to work their magic?" Niall asked.
They all nodded.
"Alright," Liam said. "We'll let you girls get to work."
They stood.
"Oh!" Louis said before they left the room. "Come on over to our hotel tonight. We'll celebrate."
"Okay." Kat said.
"What hotel are you at?" I asked.
Niall pulled out a room key from his back pocket. "Hilton. Two blocks over. Room 638. That's mine and Harry's room."
"Thanks." I replied as I took the key from him.
"No problem. See you girls later. Good luck."
And they left too.
I looked at Kat. "Okay. That was officially the most nerve-wracking half hour of my life, Kat! Can we seriously get all of this done?"
She grabbed my hand. "Yes, we can. Now, go stop one of them and get to work."
I scrambled to stand up, "Right! Okay, see you later!"
I ran towards the door.
"Call me if you need anything." Kat called after me.
"Got it!" I yelled.
I was halfway down the hall as I ran past the boys. "Oooh, sorry!" I said after swiping past Harry and hitting his arm.
He just chuckled, "It's okay, love."
I suddenly stopped a few feet in front of them and turned around. "Who do I ask about your stage designs?"
They looked around at each other.
"Um," Harry said. "Well I'm not sure. But I'll go with you to look. Everyone is around here somewhere."
I nodded, "Oh! Alrighty. Thanks!"
He caught up to me and we walked away from the others. I followed him around the stadium and tried to memorize every thing as much as I could.
"Damn, this stadium is huge!" I mumbled to myself.
Harry turned around suddenly and I crashed into his chest.
He chuckled as his hands grabbed my arms. "You alright, love? I didn't mean for you to run into me. I just couldn't hear what you said."
I looked up into his green eyes, "Yea I-I'm fine. Um, I just said that this stadium is really big."
"That it is. Have you ever been here before?"
I shook my head. "No. I've been to Kinnick Stadium in Iowa, but that's about it."
"Ahh. Well this is definitely one of our favorites."
"I can tell. You seem very comfortable here."
"You can tell that by looking at me?"
I nodded. "Yeah. You're not nervous at all."
He pulled away and turned around again and I heard him mumble to himself before continuing to walk. I followed behind him again.
We walked a few more feet before his pace became faster. "Hey Paul!" He yelled.
A man, a few yards ahead stopped and turned around. It was Paul, the choreographer.
"Yeah, Harry?"
"I have someone for you to meet."
I caught up to them.
"Paul, this is Jen. She's organizing the concert for tomorrow."
I held out my hand and Paul shook it.
"Hello." I said confidently. "Nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too. How'd we find you? With Stacey and Lou both leaving we thought we were done for."
"Um, Kat overheard Niall on the phone at Starbucks yesterday. She introduced herself and here we are."
"Who's Kat?"
"Oh! She's my best friend. She designs and makes clothes. She's around here somewhere."
Paul looked over at Harry, "Well I'm impressed."
"As am I." Harry said. "So? I think Jen has a question for you."
I nodded, "Yes. I'm wondering about stage designs."
"Oh, well if you'd like to follow me, I can show you. Harry here probably could have done it, though."
I looked back at Harry who just shrugged his shoulders and walked away.
I turned back to Paul, "Alright, let's go."
I followed Paul through to the back stage area. We walked over to the end where there were large doors. He opened one and I noticed it was the back of a trailer truck. "These are the ones from the On The Road Again Tour. They're a little dusty."
"These are the teal, purple and yellow ones?"
He nodded. "Yeah. And the other truck." He opened a second door. "These are the yellow and black ones from the Where We Are Tour."
I pondered a moment. "Who usually designed these?"
"Stacey."
"Damn, okay. Well, I think we need to assemble a team. I have an idea and we'll use the Where We Are design."
Paul nodded toward a large set of double doors, "Everyone is in there. Would you like to meet everyone?"
"Everyone?"
"Yeah, the whole back stage team is in a meeting right now. That's where I was headed actually when Harry spotted me."
I shrugged, "Alright, sure! Would they be available to help?"
"Jen, it's there job to do what you ask."
"What I ask?"
"Yeah, you're the tour manager right?"
I shrugged, "I suppose that's me, yeah."
"Okay, then yes, they're available at your beckoned call."
I got that nervous feeling again. I balanced my stuff in my hands again as I turned and once again followed Paul.
When we reached the doors, he pushed one open and suddenly there were over fifty people looking at me.
"Hello everyone. This is Jen, she's organizing the concert for tomorrow."
I waved. "Hello."
There was a chorus of hello's.
"Jen is going to need a lot of help today." Paul said. "But I'll let her tell you what all she needs."
I set my stuff down on a table in the corner and turned toward the group of people. "So, first off I'd like to just say hello and I hope you are well, because after I start talking, some of my manners go out the window."
A few people chuckled.
"We're going to re-do the old Where We Are stage designs. I'll come up with a sketch, but I need a couple of other pieces of information."
A woman approached me and held out her hand, "My name is Kayla."
"Hi Kayla. What is your job title around here?"
"I work with Modest! actually. So I can probably tell you what you need to know."
"Okay. Well for starts, I'm going to need Twitter, Facebook and Ticketmaster information. I need to set up a website for tickets first and then I'll put a massive message to fans. We're going to do it for Midwest GPS found fans first just to keep it centralized, but my goal is to have it sell out; and quickly. I'm going to round up the boys again and have them do a video for it."
Kayla looked surprised, "You're kidding, right? You really think you can do all of this in one day?"
It stung a little but I didn't let it show, "I'm very good at what I do, Kayla. This isn't the first time I've done something last minute. It wasn't this large of a venue, but it was still last minute and I rocked it. So, either you help me or I find someone else to do it."
My phone began to buzz in my back pocket. Kayla walked away as I pulled it out and answered.
"Hello?"
"Hey Jen!"
I didn't recognize the voice, "Hi? Who is this?"
"It's Harry."
"Oh! Of course. Hello!"
"Kat is looking for you and I pointed her in the direction of the stage but I didn't know where Paul took you exactly."
"Why didn't she just call me?"
"I don't know."
"Hmm, okay, well since I have you on the phone. I don't know how, but I do. I need you and the boys to make a video for me."
"Like for the concert?"
"Yes. Can we meet on stage in twenty minutes?"
"Uh, yeah! Of course. See ya then."
"See ya."
I hung up and looked at the screen. I rolled my eyes.
Unknown.
"Of course." I mumbled.
Suddenly there was a slam on the table. "Here." Kayla said.
I looked down and there was a stack of notecards.
"Every username, password and contact phone number you'll need. There is also every name and phone number for every crew member we have. Stacey left those with me when she quit. I hope you have what you need. I'm needed back in London so I'll leave you to it. Good luck."
"Thank you, Kayla."
She nodded and walked out of the room. I sat down and quickly sketched out what I wanted on the stage designs. It was rough, my drawing skills are about 2% of what Kat's are. I texted Kat and let her know where I was.
Once I was done I stood up and cleared my throat. "Um, hello again!"
Everyone turned to look at me again.
"How about we go around the room and introduce ourselves and what you do?"
The door flung open, "Damn, this place is confusing." Kat mumbled as she walked over to me.
"Hey. You alright?"
She nodded. "Yeah, just can't find anything. I just walked into a men's restroom."
"Of course you did." I laughed.
"Oh, shut up and let's get on with these introductions. I have a lot to do but I can't do it by myself. You're my motivation."
"Alright, alright. You go first then."
She smiled and faced everyone. "I'm Kat. I'm doing wardrobe designs."
"I'm Jen. I'm running all of this." I flailed my arms a bit.
I pointed to the next person and we went around the room. I tried to memorize a few faces so that I knew who to go to. Everyone knew what they were in charge of, which was nice.
Once we were done, I found who I needed to and gave them the design. Apparently there were credit cards floating around for paint runs and such. I just asked that everyone let me know their status about every hour.
I turned around and looked at Kat who had sat down and begun to go through pictures.
"What are those?" I asked.
"Well, these are the items they have. I can write down anything I want and it can be expedited here in three hours."
"Wow! That's incredible."
"Yeah, it is. I still feel like destressing the jeans myself though. Except for Niall's black skinnies. I like that design. But Liam's are too simple."-
I chuckled, "Crazy how life changed in a second isn't it?"
She nodded, "Yeah. What are you doing now?"
"Meeting the boys on stage to do a video for the concert. Wanna come?"
She smiled, "Of course."
After far too many phone calls and too much running around. Kat and I felt comfortable leaving for the night.
The stage was done. The light and sound crews were set up. Outfits were labeled and hung up backstage. Videos were posted. And just like I planned; the concert sold out in five minutes.
The boys were ecstatic when I called them to let them know. Helena, their vocal coach had pulled them away for rehearsal shortly after we filmed the video. But they were ready too.
