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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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Sarah Carerra Book 2: Summer Medley

Chapter 2.37 - All Aboard the Crazy Train

Convincing my mom that I wasn't upset about the photo album had been a hard thing to do. But eventually she seemed to accept that I had come to terms with what that album meant to my life. When she tucked me into bed that evening, something she hadn't done for ages, I knew just how much she loved me and had been worried about me.

The next day, I was still holding onto that feeling, as I stared at all the people around the table. I didn't know who half of the people in the room were, yet they were all talking and clamoring and trying to figure out what to do next. Where was Scott? I really wished he would show up and take control. Only the calm peaceful feeling of the previous night kept me from going insane.

Dad and I had just arrived at the studio for the 'Concert Kickoff Meeting', but when we walked into the same room that we had used to decide on the songs last week, I found these people yelling at each other as they tried to figure out everything that was involved in putting on a concert.

I took a seat next to Holly and the rest of the band, who were looking at the proceedings with the same confused look that was plastered on my face. None of us really understood what was going on. Rosemary, the events coordinator, seemed to be running the meeting. She was discussing each of the venues and what we could expect on the technical side. All of it was going directly over my head, and I wondered why I was being included in this meeting. All I needed to do was show up and sing. I didn't care how big the stage was or where the sound connections were located.

It quickly became apparent that this was not the meeting I had been invited to. Scott had been delayed for some reason, and Rosemary had taken it upon herself to conduct her first staff meeting to fill the time. She had stopped the meeting only long enough for her to introduce me to the many people I didn't know before she returned to the chaos. Unfortunately, there were too many names for me to remember. I made Dad promise to get me a book or something with each of their names and pictures so that I could learn who they were before the tour. I wanted to be able to call each of them by their names when I saw them at the venues.

The band and I suffered through the staff meeting for most of the morning. At first I tried to start up my own meeting with them and talk about the new song I had written. I couldn’t tell them what it was about since Dad was sitting next to me, but Rosemary was not happy with me. She wouldn't tell me to stop, since keeping me happy was one of her main priorities, but I knew she felt I was disrupting everyone else. Instead, I asked the band to move to the other side of the room with me, where we could quietly talk about it in more detail. Dad stayed with the others at Rosemary's meeting, so I was even able to describe what it was about.

Sophie and Holly loved my idea of giving Mom the song for her birthday. The guys thought it was cool too, but they didn't understand completely why it would be perfect. Boys. We set up a time to meet next Sunday to finish the song, since that was the only free day we had in the next two weeks. Kate would probably want to choreograph it, but I didn't want this song to have much. This was one of the few songs where I would get to play the guitar, so I figured that I'd be standing or sitting at the microphone as I played and sang. Kate wouldn't be happy about it, but she knew that I had been asked to write another song.

Rosemary then pulled us back into her meeting, since she thought the things she was discussing with the others had an impact on us. Unfortunately, they didn't. I quickly became bored while I wondered once again where Scott was. I had a feeling that we were going to be here late now.

It was with a great relief that a catered lunch was brought in. Discussion turned away from the staff meeting and more toward small talk. I tried to get to know the people around the table as well as I could, because these were the people who would make my time on stage shine.

Scott finally showed up just before Rosemary was about to start up again. He had a young woman with him who looked slightly out of place, but who also had an excited and awestruck quality about her.

"Sarah, can I have a moment of your time?" he asked. I nodded and stood up, and Dad followed me. I'd do anything to get out of this meeting! I saw the longing in the eyes of the band members, and I knew that they hoped that I would take them with me. I tried to give them a reassuring smile before stepping toward the door and Scott.

Scott directed me back out into the hallway and we walked down the hall. The young woman and Dad followed behind us while we talked.

"Busy morning?" he asked with a smirk on his face.

"More like boring," I replied, which got him laughing. I couldn't contain a laugh myself.

"I'm sorry about that. I had something come up last minute that I needed to take care of," he said as he pointed to one of the doors that we were approaching. We shifted our direction toward the door.

"I wrote another song," I told him as we entered the room. I looked back as he entered behind me and watched his smile grow larger. I knew that news would make him happy.

"That's great!" he exclaimed while motioning back to the room. "I knew you could do it!"

I smiled myself while looking around. It was a small green room with a couple of couches around a small coffee table. Scott directed me to sit in one and I complied. Dad sat down next to me and Scott and the woman sat down on one across from us.

I took another look at the girl. She looked rather familiar, but I couldn't place where I had seen her before. She appeared to be in her early twenties. She was quite pretty with long blonde hair that cascaded down her shoulders in waves and piercing icy blue eyes that had a kindness in them that I fell into immediately. She was dressed in a conservative business suit that looked too formal on her. But best of all, she was wearing a large smile that showed the same excitement I had first seen when she had walked into the other room with Scott.

"Sarah, I'd like you to meet Amy Martin," he said while gesturing to the young woman beside him.

"It's nice to meet you, Amy," I greeted her while trying to return the excited smile that she was giving me. I didn't believe it was possible, but her smile grew even wider.

"Oh, we've met before," Amy replied, but extended her hand anyway. I reached over the table and shook it.

"Amy is one of my most trusted employees," Dad replied. It was at that moment that I recognized her. I had seen her at Dad's office every once in a while and I had been introduced to her a couple of weeks ago when I had been in Dad's office as Sarah. "I have asked her to be your personal assistant. She has agreed to take on the job, assuming that it is okay with you."

"Oh," I said, surprised. I didn't know that I needed a personal assistant. Dad was always there to fill that role.

Dad noticed my look immediately. "I can't do this alone, Sarah," he explained. "I've been doing a lot of what she will do for you, but I have other clients whom I need to work with too. I will still be there for you, but Amy will handle most of the details."

"Okay," I said, not sure what that really meant. I turned back to Amy. If I was going to say yes to her, I'd need to know her better. "Tell me a bit about yourself."

Her smile had faltered a bit when I didn't say yes immediately, but it grew again when I didn't outright reject her as a candidate either.

"I've been working for your father for two years as an intern," she said. Her statement also clued me into the fact that she already knew my secret. If Dad had already told her, then I knew he felt certain I would agree to allow her to be my personal assistant. "I just graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor's degree in business administration. I'm single and I'm a very big fan of your music."

I smiled. I didn't really care about her school qualifications, even though they were nice to hear. But the friendliness, and the way she seemed to know exactly what to say to me was definitely something that scored points in my mind. We continued to get to know each other for a few more minutes, but it didn't take me very long to make my decision. She had already been approved by my dad, and Scott had met with her over lunch and approved of her too. There was only one person left.

I reached my own hand out to her across the table. She took it excitedly.

"Welcome aboard, Amy," I said while giving her a bright smile. Her own face lit up immediately and she shrieked excitedly before calming down. I knew that she was going to be fun to work with.

*  *  *

The rest of the day was better. Being in a meeting until dinnertime wasn't what I really wanted to do, but at least the information that we covered was relevant to me this time. We talked about schedules, expectations, and the desires that everyone wanted to get out of the concert tour.

I had managed to win the battle to get time to sightsee in each city, but I still had to make my appearances and interviews for each city too. I knew that was part of the deal, so I agreed to that.

School was going to be tricky until the concert tour was over, because I would have to miss some to make my tour dates. However, it wouldn't be too much, although anything that got me out of school was a bonus in my book.

Before we left for the day, Dad started to talk to Scott while I went to the restroom. When I returned, they seemed to be arguing. I stood back to prevent them from seeing me. I had never seen the two of them disagree on anything before, and I was curious what it was.

"We never should have set up the concert tour before releasing her album!" Dad argued.

"I agree, Don," Scott said. There had to be more to it if they were arguing, though. "But we've already committed to the tour and she's nearly sold out every venue. It's too late to change it now."

I stood there, stunned at Scott's words for a moment! Most of the shows were already sold out?

"But she could be filling places like the Staples Center, and we have her performing in places that only hold 6,000 fans or less," Dad said. "We only have one venue on the tour that even comes close to holding the number of people she should be performing for."

"And it isn't sold out," Scott pointed out.

"That's because it's out in the middle of nowhere," Dad replied angrily. "If it was in a major city and not in the wilds of Washington, it wouldn't be a problem."

Scott sighed, and I knew that Dad was preaching to the choir. Scott completely agreed with what Dad was telling him.

"There's no way we could have predicted her popularity," Scott finally said. "I mean, I've never had somebody take off like she has before. If we would have known how the fans would react, we could have done things differently. But now we are stuck with the schedule."

"I don't like it," my dad replied. He looked kind of angry. It was his ‘angry agent’ face, so I knew he was frustrated about the business side of this instead of being mad at anyone in particular.

"I know, Don. I don't like it either," Scott replied. "That's why we are looking at the mini-tour at the beginning of the year. We can give her the audience she deserves then."

Scott caught sight of me then and motioned to my dad to let him know I was there. Dad turned and smiled at me, but it was obvious he was still upset.

I was just happy to be performing a tour. I didn't care how many people were there. I knew that Dad was proud of me, and I knew he only wanted to give me the best. I already knew that the budget far exceeded what would normally go into a tour of this size. I tried to explain all of this to him on the way home, but he wasn't listening to me. He'd sometimes get that way about his work, and this was the first time it had involved me. I knew that he'd be more rational in the morning. But the rest of the car ride home was pretty quiet.

*  *  *

The following morning was the beginning of a much better day. Instead of meeting in the room at the record company like the day before, we met in Kate Abernathy's dance studio for choreography work. Learning and perfecting the choreography was the most important thing we had to do before the concert tour began. It would take up the majority of the two weeks we had left before we made our way up to Paso Robles for the debut concert.

"Try again!" Kate screamed at one of the dancers who was going to join me on stage. The poor girl looked scared to death at the way that Kate was yelling at her, but it seemed to have the effect she wanted because each time Kate yelled at her, the girl improved greatly.

I lined up for another attempt. Many of the songs that I would be singing would involve only the band and me onstage, but there were a few songs where additional dancers would accompany us. Kate had decided that we would learn those songs first.

"That was much better," Kate said once we had finished the attempt. "Take five minutes."

I sighed in relief and walked over to the bench where my water bottle was. Uncapping it, I took a long drink and then I sat down. I didn't realize that the choreography would be so intense. When Kate had worked with me before my first concert the choreography had been minimal compared to what she was throwing at us now.

"I'm sorry," I heard someone say nervously from nearby. I looked up to see the girl whom Kate had been yelling at standing nearby. The look on her face told me that she felt she was letting everyone down. I tried to give her a confident smile, and then patted the bench next to me.

"Don't worry about it, Kerri," I said while she walked over and sat down next to me. I noticed a small smile creep across her face when I called her by name, but it quickly disappeared.

"But I don't want to..." she started to say before I interrupted her by holding up my hand. She quietly trailed off before she could finish her sentence.

"You're doing great," I told her. She opened her mouth again to argue, but I smiled and continued before she could. "You’ve improved with every attempt. Kate is just picking on you because you are setting a good example for everyone else."

I saw confusion cross her eyes for a moment while I took another sip of my water. The slight shake of her head told me that she didn't believe me. I continued to talk to her during the short break, trying to instill some confidence into her. She truly was one of the more gifted dancers in the room, and I had told her the truth. I knew that Kate was yelling at her to keep the rest of the group in line. It seemed to be working.

"Alright, Sarah," Kate said to indicate that the break was over. "You're getting it down pretty well. I want you to start singing during each attempt now. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes," I replied. But now I felt nervous. Kate had told me a number of times by this point just how natural I was as a dancer, but I still wasn't sure I believed her. Trying to combine the sometimes complex choreography with singing was something that I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do easily.

We lined up once more, and when the music started I fell into the moves that were starting to become second nature now. When it came time to sing, I launched into the song, and stumbled immediately. If it hadn't been for a quick sidestep, I would have toppled to the ground.

"Whoa," I said while catching myself. This was going to take some getting used to! I normally only had my music to concentrate on. Now I had more things to worry about while up on the stage.

"That's okay, Sarah," Kate said with a smile. Her reaction was so different than how she treated the dancers, and I wondered if she was giving me more leeway. "I know it can be hard at first, but that is just because you are trying to concentrate on both singing and dancing. Once you've had some practice, both will be second nature to you."

I nodded and took my place for another attempt. This one was better, and I was able to sing while dancing, but it didn't take me long to realize what the new problem was.

I was gasping for breath by the time the song was over, and I knew it hadn't sounded very good. The last thing I wanted to do was get up on that stage and sound raspy because I was exerting too much energy dancing.

I bent over with my hands on my knees, trying to get more oxygen into my lungs. I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to do this.

"And you thought you were in good shape, huh?" Kate half-said, half-laughed next to me. It made me laugh too, which didn't help my lack of oxygen at all. "Don't worry, by the end of next week we'll have you belting out the lyrics and dancing at the same time. Just you wait."

I sighed while standing up straight. I wasn't looking forward to choreography anymore.

*  *  *

That was how the rest of my week went. I would get up and get ready for the day, drive down to Kate's studio, dance all day, and then come home and collapse into bed. Then I'd have to do the same thing the next day.

But it became easier. Each day I was able to sing more and more of each song in key and in tune, while I danced the way that Kate wanted me to dance. Each time I'd be gasping less and less after each song. It was a lot of hard work, but it was starting to pay off. I began to realize that a recording artist had to be in great shape to perform a concert. Then again, not every recording artist employed the type of choreography that Kate was having me learn. She kept telling me that I was a natural dancer, and she seemed to be using that talent to its potential.

By the end of each day I yearned for the chance to practice the slow songs or the ones that involved me and my guitar. They would give me the chance to rest between the high octane songs that got Kate revved up each morning. But I didn't get to practice them much, since their choreography was fairly limited. I knew that I was going to sleep well each night after performing. I'd be too exhausted to stay up and enjoy the rush all night like I had in Salt Lake City. Kate was making sure of that.

When I went to bed Friday night, I was thankful for the fact that I had an appointment with Mary in the morning. Not only would I get the chance to talk to her about the photo album that I had found on Sunday, but the appointment gave me the excuse I needed to take half a day off from learning the choreography.

After four straight days of long hours in Kate's studio, I wasn't sure that I would EVER be able to forget the choreography that she had come up with. It was ingrained into my soul now. All of the dancers, plus Sophie, Holly, and I had done an excellent job learning the choreography. I knew that we were almost ready for the first concert. Saturday afternoon would mean one last run through of each song at Kate's studio before we took the stage on Monday to practice dress rehearsals.

This next week would allow us to learn our positioning while on a stage, and also it would give us the chance to learn how to take off and put on each outfit backstage. There were a total of 12 dancers and 4 backup dancers who would be appearing on stage with me; two groups that would alternate between songs to help give the other group the chance they needed to change. I envied them for the amount of time they would have, because I would have less than a minute to change my own clothes, but they also had a lot more wardrobe changes to contend with than I did.

I was the only person who had to learn choreography for each song. Granted, my choreography wasn't as complex as the dancers’, because I was singing and had a microphone in my hand, but I still felt that I was taking on the brunt of the work. Yet my name was also the only one listed on the headline. People were coming to see ME, and they expected a good show. Kate was only giving me the tools I needed to give a good show to my fans.

And despite how tired I was as I laid there waiting for sleep to claim me, I knew one thing for sure: I was having fun. I couldn't deny that one fact. When I had first signed the contract that brought Sarah Carerra's career into being, I had no idea it would be this much work. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

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