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Editor Note: The images used for this story were purchased and used under royalty-free license* from Istockphoto.com . ~Sephrena
Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

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Chapter 33 - I'm With the Band

I was still tired the following morning, and I knew that it was going to be a long day. We were scheduled to practice from 9:00 in the morning until about 6:00 that night. Tomorrow would be just as bad. I started with my doctor's appointment at 8:30 in the morning, followed by meeting with Julia at 10:00 and then meeting the band in the studio at noon for more practice until 5:00 in the evening.

After my shower, I stepped into Sarah's room instead of my own to get dressed. I slipped into a pair of jeans and a white tee with a glittery design that Julia considered glam on the front when the doorbell rang. I figured it was either Emily or Ethan, both of whom were coming to the studio with me, but I wasn't going to risk answering it half dressed in Sarah's clothes.

A moment later there was a knock on Sarah's door, and I stepped over to open it. Both Emily and Ethan were standing there, or more specifically, Chloe and Xander.

"Good morning," I told them as they entered the room. "I'm just about ready. Have you had breakfast yet?"

Ethan nodded, but Emily shook her head.

"No," Emily added. "But your mom was making something that smelled really good."

"Well, you can go get some if you'd like, I just need to finish dressing and put on my wig."

"We can wait," Emily said with a smile before she sank down on the couch. Ethan sat down beside her.

"Alright," I said and stepped back over to my closet.

I looked at the many jewelry pieces on display and decided on some bangles for my wrist and a matching necklace. They offset the design on the tee perfectly. I then stepped out of the closet and over to the vanity. With a practiced hand, I pulled my hair up and started pinning it to the top of my head. Once that was done I turned to the armoire, opened it, and retrieved the wig. Turning back to the mirror at the vanity, I placed it on my head and started pinning it into place.

When I first started doing this, I couldn't pin the wig myself. It was hard to see properly while I tried and it was often apparent that I was wearing a wig after I was done. But with the necessity to be able to do it myself, I had practiced enough times that it was starting to become second nature.

I then turned to the makeup spread across the vanity. I heard Emily groan when she realized I still had to do my makeup, but it didn't take me too long to finish and then usher her into the kitchen to get her food. I was hungry myself.

Austin was sitting at the counter when we entered, and he looked surprised when we sat down next to him. I realized then that he hadn't really seen me dressed up as Sarah before.

"You look amazing, Megan," he told me with a smidgen of awe in his voice.

"Thank you," I told him with a grin. "But my name is Sarah."

"Right, Sarah, that's what I meant," he said and then immediately turned red with embarrassment.

"No problem, Austin," I said with a chuckle. "Do you want to come down to the studio with us? I'm sure you could pretend to be hanging out with Dad."

"I can't," he said longingly. "I promised Derek and Andrew I'd go to the beach with them. Besides, I get to see you in concert on Saturday, anyway."

I winced. The last thing Emily and Ethan needed was a reminder that they might not get to see the concert. I'd have to ask Dad if he was able to get them tickets.

After eating and cleaning up, we followed Dad out to his car, and we were off to the studio for Emily and Ethan's first foray into Sarah's life.

*  *  *

"Any luck getting tickets for Emily and Ethan, Dad?" I asked him while he drove us to the studio. I was really hoping he would say yes to my question.

"I'm afraid not," he said while frowning. "I know how much you want them to be there, honey, but it doesn't look like it's going to be possible this time."

I frowned. That wasn’t good news. I turned and looked at my two friends sitting in the back seat of Dad's car. They smiled at me, but I knew inside they were disappointed.

*  *  *

"Good morning, Sarah," Scott greeted us in the reception area of the studio when we walked in. He then nodded to my dad. "Don."

"Morning, Scott," I replied, Dad nodded at him. "I hope you don't mind, I brought a couple of friends today. They were the ones who got me to sing at your party."

"Oh," Scott said with enthusiasm. "Then they are friends of mine."

"This is Chloe Carpenter," I told him while pointing to Emily. I then turned to Ethan. "And this is Xander Dailey."

"It's a pleasure to meet both of you," Scott said while shaking each of their hands in turn. "I am in your debt for bringing such a wonderful singer to my attention."

"I'm just happy you liked her voice," Emily said. Scott smiled back at her.

"If you guys will follow me, I'll introduce you to the band," he said. I nodded and he turned to walk toward one of the studios, with me following right behind him.

I was excited. This was kind of like Christmas. I'd never had my own band before! Granted, it wasn't my band, but they were going to be backing me up, and that was cool.

We entered one of the sound studios, where three guys were in the studio itself and two girls were sitting on the couch in the control room. They all stopped talking when we entered, and looked at me. The three guys walked into the control room a moment later.

"Ladies and gentleman, meet Sarah Carerra," Scott introduced me.

"Hi everyone," I said with a small wave and a friendly smile. There was a chorus of greetings around the room before Scott turned toward the three men.

"Sarah, this is the band 'Pop Fly'. They are the musicians who provided the instrument tracks for your songs."

Scott then pointed at a tall, muscular guy in his early 20's with short, sandy blonde hair and green eyes. He was dressed fashionably and was very good looking. He was also wearing some kind of cologne that was tickling my nose.

"This is Jason Olson," Scott said. "Band leader and lead guitar."

"Pleased to meet you," Jason said with a smile that started to melt my insides. I managed to hold in my giggle and returned his smile.

"The pleasure is mine, I'm sure," I said. But then I started blushing again, which got a chuckle out of the band.

"Connor Christiansen, bass guitar," Scott continued the introductions by pointing to another muscular guy in his early 20's. This one had brown hair and violet eyes. I hadn't ever really noticed guys’ eyes before, but these two men had amazing eyes.

"Hi," Connor said and extended his hand. I took it and he gave my hand a small shake.

"Hi," I replied.

"And last but not least, Stacy Miller, drums," Scott said while pointing at the smaller band member. He was smaller, but it was all relative. He still looked like he worked out a lot and was very fit. Stacy had black hair with piercing, gray eyes. I wasn't sure if I had ever seen gray eyes before, and they looked very exotic.

"Pleased to meet you, Sarah," he said while extending his hand. This time when I went to shake his hand, he instead pulled my hand forward and kissed the back of my hand. He'd also found a way to make me blush, causing another chuckle from the band.

"At least we know you aren't an uptight diva now," Jason said, causing the band to laugh outright. It also got me laughing along with both Ethan and Emily. Scott managed to chuckle before turning toward the couch. I followed him and turned toward the two girls who had been sitting there. They were now standing, and it looked like they had been laughing along with us.

"Sarah," Scott said once our mirth had died down. "This is Sophie Lund and this is Holly Anderson. They will be providing harmony and backing vocals."

"Hi," the two girls said, almost in unison. Both girls appeared to be a couple of years older than me, maybe 18 or 19. Sophie was a beautiful brunette with dark eyes and she was wearing gorgeous clothes. She looked slightly sophisticated, but also down to earth at the same time. Holly was more of a mousy woman. Her brown hair was quite a bit lighter than Sophie's, and looked limp in comparison. But she still looked attractive and had an infectious smile that lit up her entire face.

"Hello," I replied, still smiling. Before I could say anything else, Scott spoke again.

"Good," he said. "Now that everyone has been introduced, shall we get started?"

I heard Ethan grunt from behind me. Scott turned to him and looked surprised for a moment. It was obvious that he had forgotten about him and Emily.

"Oh," I said in Scott's silence. "Everybody, these two are Chloe and Xander, my best friends."

There was another chorus of greetings before Scott spoke again. "Okay, let's run through a couple of the songs and see how we do. Everyone should know their parts. You've all done this before. All you need to do now is work together."

That description made it sound a lot easier than I thought it would be.

"Everybody take your positions," Scott continued. "Chloe and um..."

"Xander," Ethan supplied, frowning slightly.

"Xander," Scott repeated. "You stay out here with me."

"Be good," I said in a warning tone while looking at Emily and Ethan. That got them laughing and put a smile on my face as I followed the rest of the band into the sound studio.

Jason and Connor were picking up their guitars, Stacy was fiddling with his drums, and Sophie and Holly were standing at a couple of microphone stands on one side of the room. That only left one microphone stand sitting in front of the drums and between where the two guitars had been set up.

I stepped over in front of the microphone with butterflies in my stomach. Up until this point in time, it had always been about me. Everything else had been pre-recorded, and I didn't have to worry about anything but singing my part. Theoretically, that was still the case, but I had never really performed with anyone else before. We were going to need to work together if we wanted to pull off this concert.

"Start when you're ready," Scott said over the intercom into the studio. It was at that point, when the first strums of 'Intuition' came from Jason's guitar, that I realized I wasn't nearly as ready for this as the others in the room were. Every single one of them was a professional session musician. They worked in the studio every day to provide the right sound for somebody else's music. They were ready to go at a drop of the hat.

I wasn't.

I was very nervous, I was scared, and I had already missed my cue to start singing!

The music stopped.

"I'm sorry," I told everyone. They were all looking at me. "I haven't done this before."

"It's okay," Jason said from beside me. "It can be a bit intimidating at first."

"Try again," Scott said in a friendly voice. Scott had been so easy to work with over the last few weeks. He'd helped me to find the inner strength that I needed to be able to overcome the negative stigmas I had put on my voice before becoming Megan and then Sarah. The calm and friendly manner that he had shown with me helped put me at ease.

Now, he was doing it again. I looked over at where I could see him through the window between the studio and the control room, and he was smiling at me. It was exactly what I needed at the time.

"Okay," I said. "I'm ready."

This time, when the intro started from Jason's guitar, I counted myself in. I joined in with the band and started singing at the right time. It really wasn't any different than what I had done before, except I was not in the small voice booth this time. With every word I sang I felt a confidence start to build inside of me. I could do this. I could perform this concert. All I had to do was sing.

During the second chorus, one of the guitarists plucked the wrong chord. I think it was Connor, but I couldn't tell for sure. But it did throw me off balance. I missed a couple of words while I tried to get back to where the song should be. The others worked with me. They kept playing and helped me to get back on track. Even the girls were a big help. They continued their background vocals during the chorus, and I easily found my place among them and we continued the song.

As our first attempt at singing together came to a close, I felt the exhilaration start. Lately, whenever I had performed for others, I'd had an overwhelming feeling at the end of a song. It made it all worth it. I could imagine that it was the same type of feeling that an adrenaline junkie felt. It was so good, but oh so short. I needed to do it again. I needed to feel that again.

It was no different this time. My audience was the others performing with me, plus those in the control room, but it still gave me the same rush. I could also see the looks that Ethan and Emily were giving me from the control room. They looked mesmerized while we performed.

"Great work," Scott said. "That was fantastic for a first attempt. There are a few things that we can work on, but you all seemed to connect very well. Good job."

I smiled. This was really going to work. We were really going to be performing a concert!

"Good job, you guys," I said while looking at the band and the girls. They returned my smile.

"Let's try going through each song," Scott continued. "Then we can come back and work on perfecting them. Try 'Pop Princess' next."

A beat from the drums soon signaled the intro, and the rush started anew.

*  *  *

With food in hand, I sat down next to Emily. It was lunch time, and the band, the girls, and I all decided to eat in the cafeteria and get to know each other better. We'd made a lot of progress that morning, and my confidence level at being able to actually sing a concert had been greatly improved.

All of them were great musicians, and I couldn't figure out why they weren't already performing on stage in a band. I definitely wasn't complaining. I was very glad that they were working with me, but they all seemed to be so good at what they did.

Emily and Ethan, however, seemed to be bored. I'd warned them that studio work was really repetitive, but I knew there was no way that they would miss coming with me. Now, after hearing the band and me sing the same song over and over before moving on to the next one and doing the same thing, it had started to take its toll on them.

Dad, who had spent plenty of time in the studio not only with me, but also with other clients, handled the time a lot better. He kept working. He had plenty of things to do to keep his clients happy, and he made full use of the free wireless the studio provided and spent a lot of time on his laptop and cell phone. He'd occasionally get up and watch us through the control room window, smiling the whole time. He and Scott had decided to leave us alone for lunch.

"How did you get your break?" Sophie asked me after we had all settled around the table. I smiled back at her. All five of the people I was now working with had been friendly and kind. I couldn't have asked for a better group to join me on stage.

"These two," I said while pointing to Emily and Ethan. "Took me to one of Scott's karaoke parties and made me sing."

"She had such a good voice," Emily added. "But she would never sing for anybody. She was scared to sing."

"You were scared to sing?" Jason chuckled. I chuckled with him for a second, but I didn't know how to explain myself.

"I guess," I finally said. "I always enjoyed singing, but I didn't want people to make fun of me."

That got all of them laughing.

"I don't think that's something you needed to worry about," Holly said. "You have a beautiful voice."

"Thank you," I said with a smile. "But it didn't always feel that way."

"But it was always true," Emily added.

"So what about you guys?" I asked back. "How did you guys get started?"

"I went to a casting call where they were looking for singers," Sophie said. "I didn't get the part, but one of the people there hooked me up with this job. He said that I had a perfect voice for harmony and background vocals. Not exactly the compliment I was hoping for, but it's pretty good money."

"My story is about the same," Holly said while frowning. "Except it was my uncle who got me the job. He always said I had a nice voice, but the record label didn't quite agree."

This discussion was turning depressive; that wasn't quite what I had been hoping for.

"I'm sorry," I said to both of them.

"Don't worry about it," Holly said. "I get a lot of the perks, and I don't have to worry about the paparazzi. I'm fine with the way it worked out. You, on the other hand, are probably going to become too famous to even step outside."

I laughed at her words. The good thing was that if that ever happened to me, I could always take off the wig.

"I hope not," I replied. "What about you guys?"

The boys had been quietly listening to us while they ate.

"We've been playing together in one form or another since junior high," Jason said. "We'd been friends for years, and Stacy said we should start a band."

"So why am I not the band leader?" Stacy questioned. The other two just laughed.

"You couldn't lead a horse to water!" Connor quipped. Stacy just nodded his head in agreement, causing the rest of us to laugh along with them.

"How did you get the name 'Pop Fly'?" Emily asked.

"We've had about five different names," Jason said.

"Six," Connor corrected.

"Six," Jason amended. "Anyway, we seem to be doing a lot of pop work lately, like your songs. Connor is a big baseball fan, and we kinda came up with the name one night while we were watching a game at his house. It stuck."

"Did you ever want to make your own band?" Ethan inquired.

"Of course," Jason replied. "But none of us can sing very well, and we never found someone who could."

"Until now," Stacy corrected. "After this morning, I'd be happy to be your drummer, Sarah."

I chuckled at his enthusiasm. "So you like the idea of becoming my regular band?"

"Is that on offer?" Jason asked with a look of surprise. Sophie and Holly seemed surprised too. "I thought that we were only filling in for the weekend, and they would be finding someone else to take our place."

"Oh," I said, worried I had said too much. "Scott seemed to think we would only be looking for someone else if you guys didn't do very well on stage, or if we didn't get along or something. But after this morning, I doubt that will be the case."

"Are you saying that you would like us to continue?" Stacy asked for clarification.

I thought about it for a second, but I knew the answer already. "Yes, I would. You're the best band I've ever worked with."

That got them all laughing again, because they all knew I hadn't worked with anyone else.

*  *  *

"I'm exhausted," I said as I flopped down on the loveseat in Sarah's room later that night. "That was a lot of singing, and I don't think I've fully recovered yet from yesterday."

Emily sat down on the larger couch, and Ethan took a seat on the other end.

"Yeah, I thought you guys were never going to stop," Emily said. I laughed lightly.

"I warned you that it was repetitive," I replied. "But you didn't listen."

"Oh, I listened," she said sternly. "But there was no way you were going to keep me away from going with you."

I laughed louder this time. I wouldn't have expected any other answer from her. "Does that mean you aren't coming with me tomorrow?"

"You know I wouldn't miss tomorrow if my life depended on it," she said while laughing along with me. "At least in the morning."

"What's happening tomorrow morning?" Ethan asked with curiosity. I hadn't invited him to come with me to see Julia, because I was pretty sure that he wouldn't want to come.

"I have an appointment with Julia to figure out what I'm going to wear at the concert," I explained. "Do you want to come?"

"No!" he said immediately. "Leave me out of the clothes stuff. That's for you girls."

"Alright," I said. "If that's what you want."

He laughed at that. "It is what I want. I've seen you two shop, and it isn't any fun. Heck, I hated shopping with you even before you became Megan. You haven't really changed all that much."

"Really?" I pondered. That didn't seem right to me.

"Well, maybe you're a tad bit more enthusiastic about it now," he said, causing Emily and me to laugh.

"Okay, what about the practice session? Do you guys want to come to that?" I asked. They both stopped chuckling and looked somber. I could guess their answer.

"It's okay," I replied smiling. "There will be better things to go to in the future."

"I'm sorry, Megan," Emily said. "I didn't realize that it would be so boring."

I laughed. "It's a lot like having a job," I told her.

"That's because it is a job!" she replied while chuckling.

"I guess you're right," I replied, still laughing along with her. "But it's a really fun job."

"For you!" Ethan added, causing us to laugh some more. I really must have been tired. Everything seemed so funny to me.

"I love you guys," I told them. "You're the best friends a girl could have."

*  *  *