Hope walked into the kitchen looking for food to bite. She saw Jocie who was baking cheesecake. Jocie was good at cooking, especially baking cake. She looked up and saw Hope, “Good morning, girlie.” She greeted.
“CHEESECAKE. That’s my favorite.” Hope jumped up and down.
Jocie looked at her and started laughing, “You look so silly. Stop that!”
Hope couldn’t stop feeling so excited. She loved cheesecake and she doesn’t even mind eating the whole cake even if she put on weight.
After getting so crazy over the cake, she suddenly turned serious and asked, “How was JC?”
Jocie placed the cake into the oven and turned around, “He is fine but he doesn’t want to talk about them to me.”
There was some silent moment before Hope asked, “Do you think I should be by his side?”
Jocie smiled, “Yeah. He need someone as caring as you. ”
Hope blushed, “Stop making fun of me. I know I’m just a little sister to him.”
Jocie walked towards her and placed her arm around her shoulder, “He will know about your feeling one day.” She said.
Hope looked at her and wondered when would this day arrive.
Jocie walked towards the living room and said, “So I’m leaving JC with you today. I’ve got to meet Lance and that new girl from his label later in the afternoon.”
Lance slumped into his office feeling drained though the day had just began. He'd only had four hours of sleep after having a sleepless night regretting about what he and the guys had done to JC.
However, he knew what he was doing. He was getting tired about singing and wanted to spend more time on his label. He looked through his file with the particulars of all his artists. There were Meredith Edwards, Ryan Tedder and Lucy Madison Wilkes, the newest singer to be signed to his label. Lucy was the youngest act Lance had signed. She was 15 years old and was 5'2, but she had powerful voice.
A knock on the door broke through Lances thoughts.
"Come in." he called.
"Mr. Bass, Lucy is here.” The clerk said.
Lucy walked in and smiled, “Hi Lance.”
“Hi Lucy. You are early. Jocie will be here in about 10mins.” He said, “Have a sit and make yourself comfortable.” Lance said and picked up his phone and started dialing.
“Beth.” He said to the person over the phone, “Get Colleen to give me a call. I just heard the demo tape from these 3 girls and I’m interested to know more about them.” He said and listened carefully. He nodded his head, “Yeah. Get her to call me before 7pm, I want to make an arrangement to meet up with the girls.” He said and then hang up the phone.
Lance pulled his swivel chair up to his computer. He pulled out a file from the tray and started typing. After about 5 minutes, he closed the file and placed it back to the tray. He looked up and saw Lucy.
“I’m sorry to keep you waiting.”
“That’s fine with me.” Lucy replied back.
“So how is life after you signed with us?” He asked.
Lance felt that it was his duty to make sure that all his artists were comfortable with everything.
Lucy smiled, “It is great. I always wanted to sing and signing with you makes me realize that my dream is finally becoming real. And my family and friends are totally supportive.”
Lance smiled, “This is just the beginning of your career. Whether you can be a big star depending on your determination.”
He turned around and walked towards the window, and pointed at the beach below. “Being a singer, you won’t have the time to be like them.” He said as he was referring to the people at the beach.”
“I know what I want.” Lucy said in determination.
“Good. I know you are you confident, and this is one of the reasons why I signed you.”
Someone knocked on the door. “Come in.” Lance said.
“Hey!” Jocie smiled.
Lance walked over and gave her a hug. “This is Lucy. And Lucy, this is Jocie.” Lance introduced.
“Hi Jocie. It’s my honor to meet you.” Lucy said.
Jocie smiled and looked at Lucy, “So this is the girl.” She thought.
Lance wanted Jocie to help writing some songs to Lucy and he felt that if they were to meet up with each other, it would be much easy for Jocie to compose the best song for her.
Jocie sat down and looked at Lucy and said, “Lucy, I need to you to tell me more about yourself so that I can roughly have an idea what type of music suits you.”
Lucy agreed and started talking about herself to Jocie. Jocie was listening attentively but Lance was not. He knew everything about her and he had his whole mind thinking about JC and Jocie. He knew that JC was very upset and moody for the past few weeks. And he knew that Jocie was very close with him and he was worried that Jocie would be angry with him about leaving the group.
“Lucy, I heard that you have a powerful voice just like Christina Aguilera.”
“Thanks, that’s a nice compliment.” Lucy said.
Jocie looked at Lance who was in the world of his own.
“HEY!” Jocie said and waved at him at the same time.
“Oops! You guys are done?” Lance was embarrassed.
Jocie and Lucy laughed at him. “Alright, so let’s go for lunch?” He asked.
Jocie stood up and said, “Let go to Pizza House.”
