Jem…Chapter 143

*Before…

Adam says. “Well now we are actually here for something so let’s get to work okay?”

“Definitely I’m actually interested a little bit, it was kind of good seeing you having other artists signed and things it means that this is all real….and…”

We’re walking together now towards the sound booth and he looks at me. “And?”

“You’re a Marshal dude you were raised in business and stuff. I like being on the winning side.”

He actually looks both mollified and stroked and he has a light behind those eyes that is already working and I know he’s going to use me and the band and I’m going to use him right back.

But I think as long as I can get that fire going then he’ll leave Hannah alone for the most part. He’s not the only one that can play folks and I learned from the best actually.

My Mother.

*And Now…

It’s a lot of the technical stuff going on with I think us linking up to various radios stations over in Europe where Adam has some ties and favors and that’s going to get us some airtime with me doing somethings on Skype and stuff too.

It’s into make-up and there’s some girl I recognize from the mall there with two other girls I don’t know and we’re all getting sort of done up and glammed up but actually not in that glam-rock way.

I’ve got good hair and they style it and I cringe as they lift up some of my long hair and they give me a shave all the way around and my top length will cover it of course but I can side toss my hair and show a bit of punk that I usually don’t have going on.

A really nice bra, something lacy and French and really sheer and actually really friggin nice and I have faded old jeans but their real jeans and not the jeggings and I have a studded belt and I have a hazel green faux gator skin jacket and I have several new piercings.

Some I actually wanted like the two matching snakebites but a few more in my ears for three each and I’m all set.

Then I’m getting pictures done and in various states of undress and sexy shots and with roses too on some shots with me holding a bunch of them and my fingers are bleeding. It’s that stage blood and stuff and there’s some with me smashing the bunches of roses against a door? I get it’s like symbolic and stuff. Me on a piano, me with my guitar, me doing several rock poses doing the devil horns and then I’m sent into one of the side offices to learn my lines.

I have stuff to say in Dutch and German and Finnish and Italian and it all reads like me saying for the best rock in whatever country listen to whatever.

It’s actually pretty cool that they have a recorded voice for me to copy tones and all for like getting the inflections right and stuff.

The rest are getting made over too Gary is getting basically a clothing make-over and they give him a trim from his long hair to a shoulder length mop that they perm in a little curl and pull it out to like make waves and a hooded but sleeveless weightlifters shirt and black jeans and heavy biker boots.

Gary did a few pictures too with drums and there was a specially lit set that had smoke and stage lighting and veg oil so there was photogenic stage sweat splashes and they took shots of him drumming and the whole spray and stuff.

And Gary is like the only one of us that works out and stuff so there’s some shots of him all sexy and sweaty lifting weights and hitting the heavy bag like in boxing.

I’ll have to admit even though I haven’t fucked Gary because of his really dark nature and temper and stuff he’s fucking pretty hot with all those scars and tats he’s got and that kind of dark complected skin he’s pretty hot usually all sweaty and oiled and glistening and stuff they did a good job taking it to the next level.

Which is good since that sort of makes him the opposite of Muzzle.

Muzz as a guy is as pale and a floppy and kind of smells like a raw slice of bacon…tossed in an ashtray.

Muzz actually went for it and he had his sides shaved and then all the length kept on top but it’s really wavy anyways so they actually made him a ginger and dyed it red, like normal red and stuff and that’s actually it they didn’t even get him to shave and the shots were all like candid and him just being the jackass that he is.

Though still some of the shots with him playing guitar in his union jack red t-shirt and his grey combat pants were just pretty great and him playing while smoking or the smoke tucked up into the wires for the tuning keys.

Tara went totally sort of stand out with her getting a trim and a bit of a styled perm but she had her hair dyed blonde with lots of orange in it like that sort of club way with the feathered dyed ends and everything. It actually looks good and it brightens her up and she really looks a lot better too with someone doing her make-up so it’s not like slathered on and the right shades too.

They play up her doing sexy poses and stuff and they do some rose things for her too but yellow roses and she is wearing a revealing low cut peach dress and they’re almost giving her this sweet sort of punker look for some of the fancy shots and her stage stuff is actually better too with a buckskin demi jacket and a Poison band tee-shirt in white under it and rust colored jeans and boots.

Then there’s Dee and she goes all out with her getting snakebites too and a nose ring and she dyes her hair a bright deep blue and has it all styled nicely but with a side shave like mine has and she has blue roses with her and they do her fancy shots with her in this almost gypsy like off the shoulder dress with one of those roll out keyboards and then there’s one with her in a tube top and a skirt of her knees and she’s playing a Schroder piano from like that Peanuts thing and then there’s her stage stuff with her in this blue denim and black lace push up corset top that shows off her boobs and Dee has bigger tits than me.

She’s like chunkier than me but she has like tit’s for miles, like an EEE or something and she corset cinches her in and stuff and add that to a mini-skirt and fishnets and then the very blur themed make-up and she’s actually pretty smoking hot.

Well neither Tara or Dee are me and that’s kinda on purpose too and stuff but they look good and when we get together for the band shots we look good.

Then Adam’s with the whole graphics team he has in like this big computer room place with like all these geek squad people and the band and I are going over our lines again and after like an hour Adam comes in with this shiny sheet and it’s us all together on a poster and it’s like raining rose petals and there’s like all the different roses on this stage and we’re lit up and there’s like this writing that says.

Exiled…

“Exiled?”

Adam nods. “It’s the title of your first album and I’m going right for the play that you left SLB in the bio and some of the other stuff from the rest of you like Gary’s police record and some other things so it gives the right representation of a fuck you life we’re still going.”

I look at the others and Gary says. “Don’t matter to me he like wanted to know some shit and as far as I’m concerned if they don’t like me they can kiss my ass.”

Tara says. “We like all gave him some bio stuff and it’s like pretty good and everything we’re like getting a page each in our CD picture fold out.”

I look at Adam. “We’re doing a CD?”

“Definitely.”

“You have like manufacturing control?”

“Of course I do why?”

“Because the anti-theft strips get put on the paper and wreck the inserts for collectors and fans and there needs to be the plastic wrapping too on all of them because there’s stores that put the stickers right on the plastic of the CD case.”

Adam looks at me. “That’s a big deal?”

I look at him. “I’ve not bought CD’s for that and I’ve been pissed as hell at the anti-theft strip wrecking the art. People don’t have to buy CD’s these days you have to actually make it a thing of why to buy the CD’s.”

He chews his lip and then he takes out his smartphone and a stylus. “So what would get people to buy a CD versus a download?”

I shrug. “Stuff and it can be like just wall posters and maybe even like guitar picks.”

Hannah’s like there now. “How about cutting a deal with I-tunes that you have some I-tunes cash like a buck or two when they buy the CD.”

He looks at her. “That’s a good idea thank you.”

She nods. “The food’s ready that’s why I’m out here, I spent most of the cash you gave me getting paper plates and what-not to serve everyone.”

She offers him the change and the slips and he takes it and he’s looking it over and frowning. “I don’t see anything different here are you making the same thing?”

“I bought my secret ingredients out of pocket buster.”

Adam looks a little pleased but actually more interested in the list we said and he took down. “I actually might take all of these under advisement.”

He heads off to tell folks that there’s real non-take-out food in the kitchen and that they’re more than welcome to it.

I head into the kitchen and it’s small but there’s a counter to the sort of living room or lounge space and she has those foil trays set out on it and piles of dished and plastic cutlery and there’s this whole smell that is actually incredible coming out of the pot and I look at some of the stuff there and I don’t recognize half of it.

“What’s all this?”

She points at the trays. “Fried dirty rice with black eyed peas and a little trinity and some garlic.”

“Trinity?”

“Cajun mix of green bells, celery and onions.”

“Oh and you went down south?”

“Nope, but I worked at a few places that stole Cajun and Creole recipes and passed them off as being cultural up her…well in Quebec You normally don’t fry the rice but I had lots of oil and fat off the sausage so that just was a no brainer.”

I nod a few times. “Suuuuure it was.” I’m not a cook.

Then she points out to another tray. “Blackened spiced and fried lake bass.” And there’s the last tray with what just looks like cornbread.

“Cornbread?”

“Yep no point in doing any of this without lots of cornbread and I have desert too in fridge setting up.”

“What’s dessert?”

“Coconut cream pies.”

I kiss her. “I fucking love those.”

Hannah smiles and we kiss getting a few looks from the working people her but not too much although I think the look that Justin is giving us is one that says he doesn’t like lesbians.

“I’ll definitely have to keep that in mind, I’m not a serious baker but I can do stuff like that pretty well.”

“Oh wow so you’re being really good about this.”

“Oh fuck that I want the fact that I can cook like this and that he won’t know how I made the shrimp stew to bug the hell out of his country club ass.”

“Don’t provoke him okay? I just got his ass set in another direction like as in away from Us.”

She looks at me. “Okay, okay fine but the next time he grabs food in my kitchen he’s getting a wooden spoon catheter.”

I smile and help her dish out the food, not because I like waiting on people but I’m spending time with Hannah and I’m looking good and helpful doing it as well.

And for all of Adam’s shit he’s really stepping up with the studio and label so right now I actually don’t feel like poisoning his food.

And the food is… it’s good but holy shit it’s hot and not just right there burn you heat like hot sauce or something but this like builds and builds and it’s that shrimp stew.

There’s tomato in it and a lot of it and that trinity I think too and sausage and that’s actually my favorite part since it’s cooked super hard and crispy and then that hardness is being soaked away by the stew. It’s kind of thick but it’s not gloopy and I have no idea what the rest of the stuff is that she has in there except for the jumbo shrimp and lots of those I mean like those are obvious but the rest is like some kind of freaky magic.

Adam has thirds and the first two were just bowls of the stew and I know he was puzzling it out or trying to and then the last was him loading up on the rice and then he puts the little plastic soup bowl on the plate with the rice and he sets some of the fish in the soup but standing on its edge.

And he eats like he’s just actually enjoying it and he definitely has a method too like spoon of rice and then a dip in the broth before he eats it and he just dips the fish in the broth too. He took a saucer of cornbread and Hannah has butter there too and it’s odd because there’s just little lulls of people eating.

I think she’s pleased because there’s nothing left and she had a really big couple of pots of this stuff.

Okay it’s kind of cool that the foreign people that are here are saying thanks and stuff to her in their languages and then we have coconut cream pie and coffee.

Adam actually makes everyone coffee with his big copper fancy coffee house machine and he actually knows how to use it and he’s…he’s almost and creepily seeming human doing that.

He’s not, it’s just he’s like in torpor for assholes at the moment.

God that pie was so freaking amazing and I have never/ever had one that good before and Muzz went up to Hanners and picked her up and hugged her and spun her around.

“Touch of home that was could taste the birds there in between all the coconut, that was a right proper bit of pudding Hanners love.”

Dee’s like. “Uhm Muzzle you’re like still baked we had pie, it was like pudding but it was pie.”

I laugh. “Dee a lot of English people call dessert pudding.”

“Oh…” She shrugs which does impressive things with her boobs in the corset top and there’s more than a few guys watching that.

Best of all though; No dishes.

We all go have a sit down and a smoke break for those of us that do and then it’s waiting and practicing for our interviews about our album and our backstory’s for the album on Skype for the web stuff for us and the sites for those radio stations and doing the sound bites for those stations and it’s kind of fun and it’s also a little bit whoa this is actually happening and while we’re not dropping the CD yet we’re letting loose a bootleg of us playing at Lucky’s of *Edge of My Seat.* By Kisses and Thorns.

It’s just getting our feet wet but it eats up all the rest of the day and into the night by the time we’re done those spots and it’s all out there and we’re done.

I look at Hanners and the others. “Well we’re all dressed up so what should we do?”

Tara’s looking at her phone. “Pine Tree Café? They’re having a second show and like SLB’s all over Twitter and Facebook here in town today.”

I look at her phone and then mine and holy fucking shit she’s right she pulled some charity thing and people have been hyping it and her all day like ever since we went and were doing our thing.

Worst…that Jem chick did this whole video for like this shelter in town and she sang and did like two different videos and like they were totally like on the fly and still didn’t suck and now people were talking about that and the show.

Someone posted up this link of Jem and Kim or Roxy whatever that fuck she’s calling herself and they’re tossing out free shit and they rev the crowd right up with this “Pointer’s rock” think which is freaking fantastic and I really wish that I had thought of it.

I look at them and I take a breath and nod. “Yeah let’s go and see what the popular kids are doing.”

We get in our cars and we pull out and head over to catch the second show.