Brent
I can't believe this is real! The other day at a house party, my dad's cousin caught John and me singing a karaoke duet. Normally, that wouldn't be a big deal, but this guy happens to own a record label! Dad explained to me that meant he produces music instead of sticky labels talking about world records. Why not just call it a music production company then?
Anyway, John and I are here to talk to him for serious. He's already talked to our parents. Mine were okay with it. I might become famous! Our family's kinda used to that, so it was no big deal to them. However, John's parents weren't so hot on the idea of him becoming famous. I had to do some serious begging in order for him to be here. Part of the draw for this group Dad's cousin is making is that cousins are going to be in it!
Then Dad's cousin said something like John would help draw attention because he's cute. Wait. That's my shtick, right? I'm going to be the cute one. Because, obviously, I'm doing this for the girls.
ANYway, the guy promised high security, and eventually, Aunt Lottie and Uncle Jarvis caved. Yay!
A lady at a desk greets us when we walk in. "Hi, boys. Welcome to Goth Records. I'll let Mr. Goth know you're here."
"Thanks." I grin. I'm going to be famous. Then I notice a really muscular dude with an earpiece standing in the corner. He doesn't smile, and I wonder if the lady in front of me finds that weird. Then I wonder if the two of them flirt when 'Mr. Goth' isn't looking. Probably.
I like him. He's like thirty or something, but he's still cool. "Hi!" I say. Crap, I forgot his first name!
John saves me. "Hi, Alaric."
Alaric motions for us to join him in his office, and we follow him in there before he tells the pretty older lady to hold his calls. Really? If someone calls, she's supposed to have them holding on the line the whole time? People must really want to talk to him in order to put up with that.
Looking to my left, I see he has a picture, kind of a promotional picture, of my cousin-somehow-I-don't-know-how Benjamin. Oh yeah. Ben's in the music biz too. He's only kinda famous. I guess to myself that this other cousin-no-idea-don't-ask of mine represents him.
The guy starts talking, "I'll have you meet the other guys in a minute, but first, I wanted to talk to you both alone." He means without our parents, I'm guessing. "I've gotten your parents' signatures, but I wanted to talk to you about what all this will entail. If everything goes to plan, your lives are about to change significantly."
"We're going to be famous, you mean," I finish/translate for him.
He laughs in a good way. "Yes, that's the plan. I mean, your parents are, so that really helps. The public has been curious about you for ages now." He turns to John. "And you can really sing. Where have you been hiding that?"
John blushes like a tomato. "I... I don't know. I didn't really know I could."
"Well, you have a natural talent."
I speak up. "Do I have a natural talent?"
The guy shrugs. (I think I forgot his name again!) "Well, that remains to be seen." John lightly chuckles next to me. I huff. Translation: No, but we can work on that.
"Back to what I was saying earlier," the guy continues. "You know you're withdrawing from school, right?" We nod. "You'll have a private tutor; although, your 'school calendar' will be greatly different from what a normal teen's would be, but your academic requirements will be met." He looks particularly at John because he knows I don't care about that. The only thing I'll miss about school is girls, but hopefully, being famous means I can expand my girl horizons.
John asks, "You said this was a band. Will we play instruments?" He can kind of play the piano.
The guy ?Albrecht? smiles. "It's not that kind of band. There are three other guys waiting to meet you in the living room. Ben is one of them."
"He is?" I ask with a note of surprise.
"Sure is. He decided to put his solo career on hold for this." He clears his throat. "Anyway, ready to go meet them or do you have any more questions?"
"Nope! Where do I sign?" I grin.
John and I slap down our signatures, and we exit the office. The office building is actually more like a house that's been converted. I like it. This is my new boss man's more comfy smaller building.
We walk down a small hallway (the muscle dude adjusts his position in the front room so he can watch us--creepy!), and ?Almeric? introduces the other guys. We know Ben, of course, but there's a blond dude named Carrick and another guy named Jake. Jake has earrings and painted fingernails. They both look older than Ben, but Ben's really only like eighteen or something.
"Fellas, this is Brent and John, who will finish out the group."
Jake sizes us up. "Aw, they're babies!"
I scowl, and he laughs. We all have a seat. I have to pull over a stool from the kitchen counter.
Jake turns to Carrick. "Because 5 Ever is longer than FORever."
Carrick giggles. "I'll love you 5 Ever, Jake!"
The two of them crack up laughing now, but ?Alduin? keeps a straight face. "Precisely, and in fact, I have a crew working on a song with just that title, minus the Jake part, of course."
John smiles. "I like it."
Boss-man smiles back. "Good because a large part of our target demographic is teens about your age or younger."
Jake asks how old John is. Fifteen. Then he finds out he, Ben, and I are cousins. Well, Ben is not a first cousin (?or he is?).
"Right," he replies. "We got in on pure talent."
Ben's voice sounds stern. "Guys, they're going to think you're serious, so stop trying to look like a jerk." He looks at the two of us. "They think they're comedians."
Carrick folds his arms, pretending to be outraged. "That's because we are!"
"Cool it," boss man says, and everyone looks at him again.
Yay! That means me too! I smile.
Then ?Akeem? explains our upcoming schedule. He wants to work with us individually before having us work as a group so that he can plan ahead for parts. This is really happening! We get issued a preliminary schedule, subject to change as needed. I glance at it and notice something that makes me smile: photo shoot. Now that's something I have a natural aptitude for. I close my eyes and imagine my face plastered all over a hot girl's bedroom walls. She takes her clothes off in front of my pictures every night. She--
"Brent," boss man interrupts my fantasy, "would you and Ben come upstairs for a few? I want to work on something right now, if you don't mind."
"Sure, boss." I smile.
He smirks. "Just Alaric is fine."
Um, maybe I don't have a natural talent for singing. I'm actually kind of wishing I could go hide in a hole somewhere right now, and I stop singing.
"What is it?" Boss man asks.
"I suck."
Ben turns to me. "Let's do it again. This time, close your eyes."
I roll my eyes. "Sure."
If I can't sing, why did this guy want me in the band? And Ben now knows how I can't sing, but I don't think he'd rat me out.
Then it occurs to me: my parents. My dad is a supermodel, and my mom is a well-known actress. And there's the cousin thing. I'm the lowest common denominator or whatever to mean I'm just a missing piece in whatever kind of scheme boss man has come up with in his head. At the same time, I'm just 'the challenge.' It bums me out.
Ben suddenly switches the song, something with a faster tempo, and I catch on quickly. I come in with a verse of the song I know, and it's not bad.
In an interlude, Ben smiles and says, "That's it. Just sing with your voice. Don't try to sound like someone else, and don't push your voice."
Ben chuckles. "It never does. That's because what we hear is literally in our own heads. This is what people hear."
"Okay."
Later, boss man schedules me some voice lessons in addition to the group lessons. I'm going to have to work harder than anyone else. I just hope it's worth it.
I'm going to be famous. Of course it'll be.
John
"Let's go make a snowperson," Jake recommends.
"Okay." I momentarily worry about security outside, but then I remind myself that nobody knows me. Yet.
With the way Brent talks, we're going to be mobbed by girls everywhere we go. The thought of that terrifies me. It's not like I don't want to do this. I do, but only as long as all the focus isn't on me. I like to sing, and I don't think I have stage fright. But I don't want the crazy that comes with being famous. I watch Uncle Mike and Aunt Ivy deal with it, and they always act annoyed. In essence, I'm a bit torn by it all, but here I go!
"What are you going to do with your first paycheck, Carrick?" Jake asks.
"The first one? What else? Pay off all this debt I have. Eventually, I want to buy a house in the country."
Jake chuckles. "A country boy, huh?" He's from Mt. Komorebi, and his parents run a hotel there. "I'm over that. I want a nice apartment right in the city center of somewhere happening. It's got to be ultra-modern. And I want a sports car of some kind. I can't decide. Maybe I'll buy one of everything."
"Well, I hope we're as big a hit as Alaric says we're going to be." Pause. "Hey, John, what about you?"
"Huh? Oh, you mean what am I going to do?" I sigh. "I have no idea."
Jake smiles. "That's okay. You're just a kid anyway."
Carrick mutters, "Jail-bait." He clears his throat, "But you're the right age for this target whatever Alaric mentioned."
I smile. "I'm sure women your age will like us too, and it's good that there's a range of ages, right?"
Jake giggles. "Carrick doesn't care if women are interested in him."
"So you two know each other from before?" I ask then find out they used to have a band. Jake can play the guitar, and Carrick played the bass guitar. Their drummer went and got married, and the band fell apart.
"But we were never very successful. I have a good feeling with this label, though. Alaric is smart. You can just see it. There hasn't been a successful, new boy band in about twenty years, so we'll be slapping the market in the face and giving it a re-awakening." Jake finishes off the snowperson, giving her a hat and stuff. "And we'll be the ones leading the way for this generation."
Carrick speaks up. "Gonna be weird just singing, though."
Jake smiles. "And dancing."
He rolls his eyes. "Don't remind me."
Jake giggles. "Not unless he's trying to impersonate a zombie. He flops around like a doll."
Carrick gives him a kind of smirking glare. "Thanks, asshole."
"You know you love me." He grins. "And watch your mouth around the children."
I smirk. "Say whatever the plum you want."
They both crack up. Jake holds his stomach and cries out, "I like him!"
Carrick sighs. "We really need a chance to get to know all of us. Like that Ben. What's his deal, anyway?"
Jake doesn't answer, but a look comes across his face.
I watch him. "What about that schedule we just got handed to us?"
"Oh, come on! What's a week? Carrick's right. We need to get to know each other. We could use my family's vacation home!" He smiles. "It couldn't hurt to ask, could it?"
To my surprise, Alaric likes Jake's idea, so the five of us travel to Mt. Komorebi.
"Hey, Brent," Ben says with a laugh, "stay there. It looks like I'm punching you in the head."
"Is the sun ever going to rise?" Carrick asks, looking wistfully out the windows. We arrived about four a.m. local time, and most things don't open up to the public until later.
"Oh you're so funny," he replies sarcastically.
We go inside.
Jake looks at Brent's socks. "I guess with a sweater like that, having crazy socks shouldn't surprise me."
Brent smiles. "Hey, at least they match!"
Jake's idea was brilliant. The five of us spend time doing things on our own and together. I think it's important that we gel before we hit the studio for real.
I relax even though I was unaware I was tense about this. I guess it makes sense: I'm about to spend a lot of time with these guys.
However, the next day, Jake storms into the house in a real mood. He'd told us in the morning that he'd planned on visiting his parents.
Eventually, Ben gets him to open up.
Crap. Just when we're getting started, we get thrown this curve ball.
"I told them to kiss my ass! Yes! Those exact words! I'm not even thinking about that at this point in my life! Let's go back to Eden. I want to get as far away from them as possible."
"But this is only our third day," Ben reasons. "Look, they can't force you down the aisle during the week. Just steer clear of them."
He takes a deep breath, closing his eyes. "Fine."
The rest of the week, he spends a lot of time on the phone arguing with his father, but eventually, he wins the argument. I'm not happy his relationship with his parents has soured, but I'm happy he stood up for himself.
Because I want this to happen. I'm excited. Oh, I'm not going nuts about girls like Brent is, like how Brent's always been, but I'm looking forward to the next phase in my life's journey.
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Phew! Wow, it's fun to write Brent's pov. It really reminds me of how Ethan felt as a teen. Anyway, to answer some of his musings, he and John are first cousins, obviously. He and Alaric are first cousins once removed, with the same being true of he and Ben since Mike, Alaric, and Ben are first cousins and he's Mike's son. (same is all true of John too btw)
And yes, I used that house in Windenburg that the I-can't-remember-their-names music people live in. I just obviously changed a few bits to suit me. (because anything I can do to make less work for myself is preferred cuz "ugh, effort." :D ) (did anyone recognize Marco's cousin? I love re-using extras.)
Towards the end of this chapter, it feels like how someone might do it if the expansion pack is new. It isn't, obviously, and it's not even new to me. I just don't get to do that stuff much since I focus on my stories.
I'll also say that other chapters shouldn't be as long as this one. I just wanted to include as much as I possibly could to get things rolling with 5 Ever.
Because John and Brent aren't the only ones excited!
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