Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:25:02 -0600 From: Retta Michaels Subject: Beginnings - Jordan - Chapter 7 Jordan By Retta Michaels Disclaimer: If you are under the age of eighteen, or live in a locale which doesn't allow you to read these sorts of stories legally, then please don't. Come back when it's legal for you to do so and it will be great with us who are here legally. In fact, we'll support you and in the right circumstances help get you laid. Now, skedaddle and shut the door on your way out! Now, for the rest of you who are supposed to be adults, act like it! Chapter 7: "When the plane hit the air, Chad turned his seat around and said, "Guys, we need everyone to face each other. We're going to have a meeting and there's a specific reason I asked you to bring your contracts with you." Jill looked surprised and said, "What's going on Chad?" "Jordy and I got to wondering what would happen to Wend, so we went to our contract to see. I didn't have mine, so I looked at Jordy's. When I read it, I found several irregularities in it which are neither fair, nor will they be approved after this meeting." She said, "What's not right with them?" "Well, are you aware that based upon his contract, Jordy's the sole recipient of the royalties of the recordings and all the merchandising after the group breaks up?" Jill said, "What?!" "Yeah, and he's also the one that's going to receive them in he and I's duo. So, I asked everyone to bring their contract so we could look over everyone's and we'd see for ourselves who's contracts are similar." Chad had my contract and handed it to Jill. "Read clause nine and read clause twenty seven a ,b ,and d. C says should he pass, or the group should go on without him, he'd still receive those royalties and residuals or his estate would." She read them and said, "Guys, let me see your contracts." They handed them to her and she took a look at them and said, "They're not the same! The clauses aren't even in their contracts." "No, and Jordy wasn't aware his stated such. So, what I'm thinking is someone used his contract as the master and all the others are add-ons." Jill looked at Matt and said, "Read these and see the differences. I've never seen anything like it." Matt looked at them and said, "What they did was they used a soloists contract and added the others on legally by leaving the clauses out of the contracts. Is it legal if everyone thinks they're equal partners?" Jill said, "I don't know, but guys let me tell you I didn't know about this and I'm sure RJ doesn't know about this. His contract he had when he worked for me looked like Jordy's, so I'm sure he's not familiar with the group contracts. He'll see this and shit." "Yeah, because all this would have invited once the group broke up would have been Jordy getting the checks and us others suing the hell out of the company. The bearer of proof would have been us and the company wouldn't have been liable because it was done when a different President was at head." "The company's liable but I don't think RJ would be. I'm sure he doesn't know he's liable for every contract that's being drawn since he took over. He'll have some lawyer's job over this.." "No, he'll be the one that's supposed to make everything right and RJ is the type he'd pay them and keep things on an even keel until things could be made right." Jill looked at Bandy's contract and said, "Oh my god. Band, your contract is the add-on." Band said, "Jill, make it right and get the control from Wend." "I think you'll have to sue him and the company in order to get it." "Jill, if I do that, the company will come down on the group. So, how do I only sue Wend when he probably didn't know and not hold the company accountable?" "Let me get to RJ with this. Guys, I'm so sorry. I didn't even look at the contracts. I just took them from legal and handed them to you guys and had you sign them." Band said, "Jill, tell the company, I'm not going to put any more effort into our duo. They can get the contract changed and I'll record solo, but I'm not going to do a thing about any songs until I know I'm going to receiving royalties and what my rights state I should." She looked at me and at the group and said, "Guys, we're going to have to have a renegotiation of your contracts. What I'm thinking is the company is going to have to swallow some pride and call everyone's contracts back in to be renegotiated. That's going to cost them some money because I'm sure you guys are all going to want equal shares, right?" Niles, Bandy, and Red all said, "Yes." Chad said, "Then everyone's contracts will be the same?" Jill smiled and said, "Yes." I said, "Jill, you going to get them the same as mine?" "Well, they'll be the same as yours except the royalty and residual part. In that aspect, everyone will be treated in equal shares." "Then, I agree." She looked at us and said, "Guys, what I'm going to do as your manager is I'm going to get each of you another five percent on the residuals and royalties which you are receiving now. What's up to this date will stay the same, but after today, you'll have a raise. Then, for your fourth and after releases, the rates will be that you get your cut after the bills are paid and you are to be made aware of what the bills are with full accounting. Most of the time, a star isn't made aware of the accounting and I'll tell you now, they take a severe screwing. RJ didn't and that's because I demanded an accounting for him. They knew they couldn't slip any other bills in on him. What I'll do is have an outside auditing firm make sure things are on the up and up." "Jill, what happens when we get down here to this guy and we can't give him a contract to sign?" "Oh hell, I never thought of that. I've got one for him here." She pulled it out and read it. When she got to the clauses, she found they were in his. She said, "Guys, they have the clauses in this one." So, he'd get rights to our work all the way back to the beginning and would split them with Jordy, or would the company have found the slip up and made things right? Or, would they have fucked Jordy?" "I don't know guys, but I can't have him sign this contract because it's not fair to anyone." Chad said, "What we'll do is we'll show his people the contract and tell him we can't have him sign the contract because it's not legal and you need to get an error you found corrected, but this is what the contract would look like. Now, what I think we should do is offer the guy a signing bonus to get on the plane with us and to not give KFC a two week notice because if he does that guys, we're so screwed I can't even tell you." Band said, "Guys, it's common knowledge people who were in school with us and our friends and families all know we're famous. Us arriving and offering the guy a job is going to be a bit overwhelming, but it's not like we're a bunch of unknowns. Sheesh his sister's having a conniption on the phone just talking to me." "Well, he might be aware you're now wanting to talk with him, but what if he thinks you're wanting to date him now that the group is known to be gay?" Matt asked. "Well, we're offering him a job and we'll tell him we'll respect him as long as he respects us." Chad said. "We're not expecting him to bed Bandy down." "O.k., Band, what's the guy look like. He's not hugely fat is he?" "No, he's rather plain looking and wears glasses, but he's tall and thin. He's rather geekish, but I think a make over will pull him into the look." "What's his family like?" "I don't know. It's not like we were friends or anything. We were in choir together and I remember his voice because as soon as I heard Wend sing, I thought, "Man, they have the same voice." " "O.k., we'll work with what we've got. We do need the same voice as it will make our sound totally different if we don't have it. It's just that he's going to have a hard time with any of the stage performances and choreography until we get him up to speed." Chad said, "Guys, for Saturday night's performance, I'd say it's going to be safer to have us all dress in tuxes and go out and don't do the dance routines. The audience will feel slighted, but some of the routines depended upon Wend being there and we can't throw someone and not have the guy be in the right spot and not catch him." Jill was sitting up and said, "Guys, What we'll do is we'll go out and explain to the audience we've got a new member and ask them to please bear with us. We'll offer a five dollar discount to anyone who wishes to take it and then go on with the show. What we're not going to do is make that statement until after the show starts. We don't want a stampede to the ticket booths to have people cash in tickets for full refunds." "Why not? I think if we're upfront, then we'll be honest with the fans and they'll be stupid to cash in the tickets because we can then advertise the tickets for full price to people waiting and are aware of the new guy being in." Jill smiled and said, "Jordy, you're honest and I love it. That's a plan and I'm liking the sound of it. The press probably wouldn't go well with us being dishonest, so I'm thinking if we issue press releases, they'll be praising our honesty. It'll be a plus for us and it will give the group some integrity. Now, Band, what's the guy's name so we can get billing for him and get credit cards and placards made to advertise who he is. It's also going to be such that he'll have a press conference so he'll be introduced to the media. Now, what I'm thinking is if he's geeky that we use it from the beginning as hope for the average teenage boy. Those guys will look at him and say, "Wow, they're hiring someone who I think I look better" and they'll also be saying, "if that guy's straight, I really pity him because he's in with a bunch of gay guys." BUT, then we do the make over magic and they'll see him redone and it will probably have straight guys going to Glamor Shots to be made over which will be a hoot." We all laughed and I said, "Jill, I'm nothing to look at, but the stylists did a lot with me and made me look good, so I think they'll do good with him. It's just my hope he doesn't have two left feet and can dance his ass off." "Well, we'll probably have to work a lot with him and do what we did with you guys at first. The plus of it is that the old dance routine is now out the window. We can redo the show's line up and get your new material into it and we can get the less than hits out of it. What do you think?" "So, it's a fresh start for everyone!" "Yeah" "Can we get him on all the billing for the Summer concerts, or will we have to redo all the media promotions?" "We're up until May. I decided to wait on the new stage with the media promotions so we'd have photos of it." "This is going to be better than we thought. The new guy will be in those shots and we'll have all that merchandise to get rid or and the merchandise to reshoot photos for. This is going to be a lot of work on everyone." "Yes" said Jill, "But, I think it's better we do it now than later. The advantage of it is the cost of merchandising with him will be the same and the only difference is we'll have to redo some of the album art." "You mean Wend's name will be off Risque'?" "I don't know. We might have to go back into the studio and re-record it." "Oh man, this is going to suck." "No, look at it that you'll have a new chance to do some of your work over to the way you'd like to had it the first time. There's a lot of things which are pluses here." "Man, it's like a rollercoaster though. It's up and it's down and I know it's a whole new thing, but it's having to start over and I'm not sure I'm liking it all." "Well, just think about it that you won't be going head to head with Wend over little shit anymore Jord, " Chad said. "O.k., I do like the sound of that." Band smiled and said, "What I like is it will give me a whole new chance to come up with some different material. I'm really liking the sound of that song you guys found for me." Chad said, "Yeah, and starting now, we're going to be having new material for the other guys too. The groups going to grow from this and we're going to be making a lot of changes. What I think is that we can add to Risque or we can put out a new album and have it showcasing everyone's talent." Jill said, "Yeah, I've been wanting to ask you if you guys would consider a double album set and if we let you all have three tracks, then we could put one out." "O.k." everyone said in unison. Chad said, "Jord and I were thinking about doing some remakes of older songs. We can either do it on our duo album or let the group share it, but that's up to everyone to decide." Niles said, "I'd like to redo some of the old songs too. I find myself singing old songs by several people, so that'd be cool." Chad looked at Jill and said, "Jill, would you look into finding out where Bananarama is now and if they'd like to do some shows with us so Bandy can get that song done?" "O.k., but I'll have to see about rights on all the songs you guys are wanting to sing." "O.k." Soon enough, the plane landed and Bandy's parents met us at the airport with a van they'd gotten from their church. As soon as I saw the van, I said, "Chad, we need to think about Christmas music and we need to think about the group doing some spiritual music." "Yeah, like that would go over." "No, we could do it in support of MCC. My aunt's a lesbian minister in Texas, so I'm sure she could give us some direction with it." "If you think, but what's the desire to do that?" "Well, I don't know exactly why, but I'm being drawn into it. Maybe we can donate the proceeds to building a church somewhere for a disaster or maybe we can use the money to give to a church that's in need of some funds." "Why don't you ask your aunt what her church needs? Then, if we can help someone we know, then we'll know the money went somewhere we knew it would do some good. Where's her church?" "I don't know. I'm thinking it's in San Antonio. I've not seen her like forever." "She you mom's sister or your dad's?" "My mom's." "Oh, now I understand why you've not seen her. With your mom being so against it, she's probably not been comfortable to be around her." "I don't know if my aunt feels that way, or not. What I do know is I've not been the best nephew either. Heck, I could've contacted her but didn't." "Well, when we get down there to perform, we can look her up. That would be cool. Besides, they have a big latin community there and I'll feel welcome." We got on the van and Bandy's mom gave everyone hugs and kisses. I really liked her and wished we'd gotten to know them better when we were all starting off. But, I guess Chad and I closed ourselves off from everyone and made that obvious from the beginning." "When we got to the KFC, we pulled into the parking lot and all went inside. The girl at the front counter saw us and instantly let out a shriek. My first thought so help me was, "Girl if I had to work here, I'd feel the same way." Her shriek made everyone instantly take notice and thankfully, there weren't but three customers in the place. Jill was up by Chad and I and said, "Jesus Christ, I didn't bring a thing to give these people. All we can do is autograph napkins." "Well, Chad, grab some napkins before we're wearing chicken bones." He started laughing and said, "Babe, I might want some leftover mashed potatoes. All I get is chicken?" I started chuckling and said, "I'll give you mashed potatoes if you give me the gravy." Jill said, "Guys, get a room!" "Jill, I thought this was going to be our KFC, we can do it here!" When the girl decided to wait on us, Band said, "We'll take a bucket of extra crispy, a bucket of regular, a bucket of cobbets, a bucket of mashed potatoes and gravy and a bucket of beans. I'll take some gizzards and while you're at it, would you ask Kurt to come over?" She stumbled and said, "You want Kurt?" "Yeah, Kurt's here isn't he?" "Yeah, one moment, he's in the back breading up chicken." She looked at us like we were insane for wanting Kurt and for a moment I was seriously wondering what Bandy had gotten us into. Soon, she came back and said, "He said he'll be up here in a minute. His sister called him and said Bandy was looking for him, but he didn't believe her. Since you ordered so much, he's got to bread it all." "Oh, well that's just my order, I don't know what they're having said Bandy." I looked at him and said, "Hungry Bandy?" "Well, I figured since we flew to Florida just to come to this KFC, we could take some back to Tennessee with us." The girl looked at us and said, "You guys came from Tennessee just to this store? Don't they have KFC's in Tennessee?" Instantly, I thought, "this girl has been too close to a deep fryer" And so help me, the first thing I said was, "You dye your hair? Because I swear I think you'd look better as a blond." Chad snickered and Band swallowed and said, "Dammit Jordy." He took off to the bathroom and I could hear him laughing his ass off in the hallway. She said, "You think I'd look better as a blond?" "Sure, don't you?" "Well, I never thought about it." Jill came up and said, "Girl, he's always giving me hair advice. I think he's going to be a beutician when he's done with the group." She looked at me and said, "Who does your hair?" "Oh this! I just dyed it this morning and ran a comb through it." Chad bent over howling with laughter and I said, "Look at his. He was blond this morning and I ran a rinse through it. Don't you think it looks natural?" She looked at him and said, "I thought he had his hair that color anyway." "Oh no girl, he's a blond and this is just so he can look latin." A guy came up behind her and said, "You wanted to see me Bandy?" As soon as I realized it was Kurt, I was instantly doing him over in my head. Yup, the guy would be a sizzler. His eyes were what was his feature that drew you in, but with some champagne hair tones and blonde highlights, the guy would be a babe." Bandy said, "Kurt, the group was wondering if we could talk with you." "Uh sure, I think I could get the manager to let me have a break." Now, so help me, the manager came over and took a look at us and said, "Don't I know you from somewhere?" "Who me?" "Yeah, you live around here?" "No, I'm from down in Miami, but you probably recognize Bandy. He's from around here." "No, you look familiar to me." "Oh, well I have one of those faces. I'm always being told I look like someone's mother's brother's sister's boyfriend." "Well, that could be it. So, what you want to talk to Kurt for? I seen that church van outside. You're not one of them cults are you?" "No maam, We're just hard working guys just like yourselves. Occassionally, we get out and decide to come to KFC for some chicken." "Well, you should try our bowl menu." "Oh, I'm not interesting in a bowl. What I've got in mind is a whole bucket of them gizzards." "Gizzards don't come in a bucket." "Oh, I swore I got some gizzards in a bucket once. How many of them boxes will fit in a bucket?" "One if you put it in it, why?" "I like you. You're a regular smart gal. Could I get a bucket and a box of those gizzards." "No, I can't give you the bucket." "Well, then can I buy a bucket of those gizzards." "No, we don't sell gizzards by the bucket." Chad came up and said, "Maam, he'll be here all night, can I get a breast or two and some mashed potatoes." She looked at him and said, "You look familiar too. You two go to the same church?" Chad looked at her and the first thing out of his mouth was, "No, but could I get a bucket of them gizzards." We don't sell gizzards by the bucket. I walked off thinking to myself. "Man, something's got to be toxic in this place to kill off brain cell like these people have." When we I got over the table, I heard Kurt and Jill talking. Kurt was saying he didn't think his parent's would let him go out on the road with us and Jill told him she'd talk with his parents. Kurt looked at us and said, "It's not often we get people who are famous in here." "You'll be famous too if you go out on the road with us." "You think I'm that good?" "Bandy said you are, and I'm hoping you are.". "Bandy sings good, but me, I can't sing all that good. I just took chorus so I could graduate." "What did you was your grade in chorus?" "OH, I got an A." "So, I got a C in chorus and I'm a famous star and you got an A and you don't think you can sing that good. Bandy, what'd you get in chorus?" "I got a B-, why?" "See, Bandy got a B- and he's famous. And, he says you sing just like the guy we fired tonight. So, you want to give it a shot?" "It's not that I don't want to give it a shot, it's that I don't think my parents will let me go out on the road." "Oh, well, how about if we talk with your parents and see. I bet they'd be willing to let you if they knew you'd be famous." "You think?" "Well, My parents let me go out with them." Bandy smiled and said, "So'd mine and look where I am now." Kurt looked at us and said, "You guys gay?" "Yeah, but you don't got to be to be in the band." "Oh, well, I was wondering." "What were you wondering. If I was gay, or if you had to be to be in the band." "If you were gay." "Well, I am and Bandy is, but you don't have to be." He turned to Bandy and said ,"You're gay!" "Yeah, I didn't let anyone know in school though." "Well, I'll be." "Gay:?!" I said Kurt looked at me and Jill snickered and said, "Jordy! Go get some napkins. You're going to make me spit out my drink." Niles came over and said, "Kurt, you know you want to be in the group. When do you get off work?" "Oh, I get off work at ten, but I bet I could get off sooner if I asked." Niles said "Well, how about a thousand dollars if you go ask if you can get off work early. We're in a hurry." He got up to go ask and Niles said, "Jordy, the guys hot for you, so be careful. Bandy, you need to put the move on him. He's giving you the eye when you're not looking. He'll go, but his parent's are going to have to have the money laid out to them. Something is telling me he's a source of their income." Jill looked at me and said, "Jordy, go get you some more gizzards and why don't you take Matt with you. I'm going to talk with Kurt on the way to his parent's house if he drove." Matt gave me a look and said, "Jordan, how many times you get yourself into trouble?" "I don't know, why? You offering?" "What's that mean." "Oh nothing. I'm having fun with life." Chad came by and said, "Getting pretty lonesome sitting alone, how about someone like you coming over and looking familiar sitting by someone like me." "O.k., but you can't touch my gizzards. That girl wouldn't know how to pour them out of a bucket if the directions were written on the bottom of it." "Well blondie over there wouldn't either. I'm thinking it's something in this restaurant. I'd say you're safe eatting the gizzard though." I looked at the gizzard I was eatting and he started smiling. "You're cruel." "Yeah, but that girl knew I wasn't blonde, so she knew what I looked like." "Well, she should have known I'm blond already." "Well, she's not the best piece of chicken in the place." "No, the manager is...how many times did you have to repeat your order?" "Well, twice but it flew right by her the first time." "I bet Kurt's going to be o.k., to come with us, but Niles thinks he's got the hots for me." "Niles thinks everyone's gay." "Well, I think the stylists are going to have a field day with Kurt. He's got a surfer boy look about him that would pull him out to looking identical to Pauley Shore." "You think?" "Yeah, he's a hunk with those eyes, but he needs to take a lot of tanning treatments. He's rather pastey looking and Niles thinks he's looking at Bandy like he's what's on for dessert." "That'd be cool if Bandy could be happy in a relationship." "Yeah, I'm glad Wend's out of his life. From what Band said, Wend was doing a lot of threatening behind closed doors and although he didn't say it, I think Wend was real close to abusing him if he'd not already laid his hands on him." "The second I'd ever seen a bruise on Bandy, I would have snapped." Chad said with a sneer. "Well, that's why I got involved right away. Bandy had a look in his eye that told me he was feeling really depressed." Kurt came out with his jacket on. He smiled and Chad said, "I see what you're meaning. He's going to be the poster boy for the group." "Yup, now if he can sing as much as he looks, we're in for a real nice ride." "Let's hope he can dance." "I think he will. He's got a way of walking that says he hasn't tripped over many shoelaces." "He probably hasn't worked here long enough. The reason he was breading chicken, I bet, was because no one could figure out what was the breading or the chicken." I laughed and said, "I was thinking something's toxic in here that kills brain cells." "Probably." We left and Kurt let Jill and Matt ride with him. He yelled and asked Bandy to ride with him too. Chad tapped my arm and said, "You think he did that because Bandy's comfortable to him? Or, do you think he did that because he's attracted to him?" "I don't know. I'm hoping his parents don't know who we are. Or, his mom does and she's real sweet." We rode in the van and Bandy's parents were asking us how we were liking it. We told them the truth and then his mom said, "Bandy wasn't liking it a whole lot. He was sounding depressed and like he couldn't talk on the phone the last few times we talked." "Well, we're thinking it was Wend. Wend wasn't a real nice guy." His mom said "Yeah, Bandy said one time Wend did something which should have gotten him fired, but didn't say what it was." "Well, we're finding out there were a lot of those times. Finally, he did something he shouldn't have and by the grace of God, he's not going to go to prison over it." "It wasn't anything illegal was it?" "Well, he stabbed the President of the company." "Oh my!" "Yeah, so he got fired." "Well, I'm glad he didn't do anything like that to Bandy." "Us too. But, we're hoping Kurt can be Wend's replacement." "Kurt's parent's are rather hard up for cash. His dad's business was really damaged by a hurricane and since then, things haven't picked up like they needed them to do." "Oh, well, if Kurt goes to work with us, he'll definitely make money." "Yeah, Bandy's making quite a bit. He says he's made a lot." "Yeah, it wasn't until tonight we had a clue as to how much we're making." "How much is that honey?" "Oh, we're figuring by the end of the year it'll be a hundred or so." "Well, you're young, a hundred sounds like a lot, but in today's day and age, it doesn't go far." "Maam, that's million." "Oh my! Bandy's made that much?" "Well, we all have. So, I imagine Bandy's made that much." "Where's he putting his money if he's made that much? He's only sent us a few thousand dollars." "Well, maybe he's having them invest it for him." "Oh, well, maybe that's what he's doing with it." I looked at Chad and he rolled his eyes. From what it sounded like, Bandy hadn't told his parents he had a house or a new Rolls Royce, or much money. I began to wonder why. When we got to Kurt's house, his sister threw open the door and his parent's greeted us at the door. His sister clearly knew who we were and showed us all of her different things of ours she had. She was probably twelve. Kurt's dad looked like an older version of his son and I could tell he was a hunk if he'd stand up straighter and would put a smile on his face Jill went into the kitchen with Kurt's parents and Kurt went to take a shower. The whole house smelled of KFC, so I imagine it was his clothing. His sister was left to entertain us and she was definitely relishing the moment. Chad said, "You want me to autograph that for you?": "Would you!" "Sure, but you might want your brother to autograph it because we're trying to get him to be a member of the group." "Really!" "Yeah, Bandy said he sings like Wend does." "Kurt's got a great voice. He's forever singing." "Oh really?" "Yeah, here's one of his videos he's made." She put on the video and what was ironic was the video showed Kurt dancing around the living room of their house singing to one of our songs. The voice coming out of him was awesome. As soon as Chad heard it, he said, "We've got to have him." "Yeah, he sounds better than Wend did." "Yeah, I'm thinking of material for him now." Kurt's sister said, "You guys think he can sing too!" "Yeah, he's good." "I keep telling him he's good, but he wouldn't believe me. He said he'd never get anywhere with it if he tried." "Well, we're glad Bandy remembered him." "Me too." Not one time did Kurt's sister ever bring up anything about us being gay. It was like a subject in which she'd get up to the edge of mentioning, but when she caught herself, it was like she'd switch subjects. It got to the point it made me nervous because I was beginning to be afraid the subject was something she knew better not to mention in front of her parents. The deciding moment came when she invited us to her bedroom to show it to us. When we entered, we saw she had all of our posters all over the walls. She said, "See, I've got them all up like you are together. So, where's Kurt's poster going to be?" "Well, the one you have of Wend is where Kurt's will go." "Good, because you two are good together and Niles and Red are good together. Bandy is someone he knows, so Kurt will be good with him. That's the one that Kurt looks at first when he comes in here." "Oh really." "Yeah, Kurt said to me once he wished he'd gotten to talk to Bandy more when they were in school." "Well, he's going to have that opportunity if your parents let him go with us." "I think they will. They don't know your group though. When I answered the phone earlier, mom asked who it was and I told her it was Bandy from your group and then told her Bandy used to go to school with Kurt. I brought mom in here and showed her you guys and played her my cds and she said some of the music was good, but some of it didn't make sense. She really likes your love songs though." "What are you going to think if your brother is singing the love songs on the cds and you hear him on the radio?" "I'll be the most popular girl in school! Everyone will see him and instantly want to be friends with me in hopes to see him." "Well, it's likely he'll be working with us a lot." "Yeah, but I'll get to see him on television and talk with him on the phone." "Well, you'll be able to go see him too." "Really?" "Yeah, that'd be no problem. If you'd like, we can send the jet for you all and it could bring you to see him." "You guys got a jet?" "Yeah, it's bright red." "Cool, will Kurt be able to afford a jet?" "He'll probably be able to afford one real soon." "That'd be great." She brought a keyboard out of the closet and asked us if we could play her a song. Chad started playing his love song for me and began singing. I began singing too and then Niles and Red came in and started singing. What was cool was a few moments later, Band's voice started and about three stanzas later, we heard Kurt pick in. The tones he was adding were different that Wend's and yet, in so many ways, they added to the group sound. Chad looked at me and nodded. When we got to the end, he said, "Band, you and Kurt come in and I want to try some of you and Wend's stuff. Kurt, you'll be singing your own work with Band, or by yourself too, but this will give us an idea if you'll work good." Band came in and the second I took a look at him, I knew he had eyes on Kurt. Kurt came in and was nervous. He said, "Which song you want?" Chad said, "Band, how about "Love Another Day" Kurt smiled and said, "I know that one, so it will be good." Chad started playing and then Band started. Kurt kicked in and the sound in the little bedroom was filled better than Wend. Kurt turned to sing to Band and I swear the spark that happened everyone could see. Niles tapped me on the shoulder and said, "If his parent's don't let him, plan B is kidnapping him." "I'll have the motors running on the jet so when we ride up we can get on fast." Niles said, "He's blowing me away. He's going to be a star." "Yeah, we're all thinking it. I hope they're getting it all hashed out in the kitchen." "What we need to do is get to the living room so his parents can hear how he fits in." "O.k., I'll get Chad to take it in there." When they neared the end, I touched Chad and made a motion towards the living room. Chad nodded and then at the end, he said, "Guys, let's take it to the living room so we can get a good idea of the stage presence we'll have." Somewhere, Kurt's sister found a digital camera and when we all got into the living room, Chad put the first cd into the stereo and said, "Kurt, you just sing along and we'll stand here singing and you'll get a feel for what it will be like to be on stage with us." We all began singing and Kurt's sister snapped a photo. Then another and then another. By the time I figured she should be running low on shots, she started putting Kurt with Chad, Kurt with Me, Kurt with Niles, Kurt with Red, Kurt with Bandy and then a special shot of Kurt with his arms around Bandy face to face. And that folks is how a twelve year old little girl scooped the entire news organization of the western hemisphere. . Notes From Retta: In the last chapter, I gave a huge shout out to Daniel, my ex, for his help with Entertainment Law. I'll once again give him a shout out for his help in this chapter. We've now got Kurt into the story, so it will pick up speed. Think about the band that replaced one of it's guys and you'll see where I got the inspiration on this part of the story. Yeah, there are a lot of them, but boy band should giive a better hint. In answer to questions about Daniel, he's a sweetheart and we're exes. It is possible to split up and not have any ill feelings. It was simply a bad relationship which nearly ended a friendship. He now know and I know we couldn't be more than friends. Wisely, we ended things.He's now an entertainment lawyer for Columbia Tri-Star or whatever it all is now Pictures. Being a lawyer to this company, he knows the tricks the company makes and the ways to get the most out of a contract. He advises the clients on how to hire a lawyer to go up against him which is smooth. A lot of you have asked me about my knowledge in law. A large part of it comes from Daniel and the other part comes from Kevin who is a paralegal. Both are knowledgable in their own areas. Once again, Thanks for writing the letters of appreciation with your thought to the story. From My Keyboard To Your Heart, Retta RettaMichaels@Gmail.com Copyright Notice - Copyright © December 2007 by RettaMichaels The author, RettaMichaels copyrights this story and retain all rights. This work may not be changed or duplicated in any form, media, ( known or unknown) without the author's expressed permission. All applicable copyright laws apply. Disclaimer: All individuals depicted are fictional, and any resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental -- From My Keyboard To Your Heart Rhett Here is a list of stories I've written and where to find them: With Love - Nifty - Beginnings Section Rural Love - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com Write Me A Love Story - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com To Love Him - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com Military Zone - Nifty - Military Section Evan - Nifty - Beginnings Section Jordan - DeweyWriter.com If I Could Give It All Back - DeweyWriter.com