Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 21:10:11 -0600
From: Retta Michaels <rettamichaels@gmail.com>
Subject: Beginnings - Jordan - Chapter 1

Jordan

By

RettaMichaels

Disclaimer:

This story is fiction. Any person, place, or event depicted in it is
fiction, so get over yourself if you think otherwise.

If you are below the age of consent and are reading this story, then
please know your doing so jeopardizes everyone's opportunity to do so.
Please come back when you can do so legally, and we'll be happy to
welcome you.

Chapter 1


Hi, My name's Jordan. It's Jordan Johns to be specific, but who's paying
attention. Well, to be specific, a lot of people are paying attention,
but I'm not complaining.

See, I'm a singer, songwriter, actor, musician, and just an all around
nice guy. I'm in a band and recently, it's taken off. Our first song has
hit number one and our second release is heading up the top twenty. Heck,
we just released our second c.d. and it's soaring up the charts and is
surely going to bypass our first which is in the top ten.

It's nice, but that's not what is really on my mind.

The other day, I was walking down the street. Yes, I can still walk down
the street, but our management and publicists tell us to get out while we
can because it's not going to be possible much longer.

For me, that's a huge problem. I have a few issues I need to deal with
and one of them is I'm gay. The other is I'm kind of beginning to like
someone. I'll tell you a little about him and then you'll see what I
mean.

The very first day I met Chad, I was instantly captivated by his looks.
We were in the hotel where we were all to meet for the first time and I
was lost. Somewhere, I had taken a wrong turn and I was in an entirely
different area of the hotel than where I was supposed to be.

The bad thing about it, is in south Florida, when you ask someone
directions, you don't always get the best directions and they're not
always in the best English.

As I said, I was walking down this hallway and I saw someone walking
towards me. He was to die for good looking and was hispanic. My first
impression was he worked at the hotel and could help me find where I was
heading.

I couldn't have been much more wrong. As it turned out, I told him the
meeting room number I was looking for and found out he was going to be in
the group too. He'd apparently gotten the directions from the same woman,
and now we were both lost.

Being lost with him made it fun. It made it an adventure. We laughed
about it and the whole time, I was catching glimpses of him and thinking
to myself how cute he was but in so many ways, he was beautiful. It was
that instant I created a new word, "Cutiful". It described him to a tee.

We eventually found our way to the meeting room, but along the way, I
found out his age, and enough about him that I found myself really
lusting over him more. The advantage of it was when we reached the room,
no one else in the room compared to him in looks. Maybe I'm partial, but
I still think that to this day.

From that first day, we worked hard. It's not easy being in a boy band.
There's a lot of singing practice. Then there's a lot of recording
practice. Yes, we had to practice recording as it's expensive to go into
a recording studio and they want us to do it in as few cuts as
possible...which makes sense.

One of the things I discovered during this time was Chad and I had
several duets we got to sing together. It wasn't intended to be that way,
but our voices were such, the managers thought it'd be best for us to
sing them together. If you should know anything about me, I'm an
opportunist and I'm also a perfectionist, so I definitely decided Chad
and I had to practice together.

What was nicest about it was we'd gotten to know each other better and we
had much the same interests. We both liked to ride bikes and play hoops.
The only disadvantage at that time was we lived on different sides of the
city.

What was cool was our parents were really pulling for us to make it in
the group. His mom saw it as an opportunity for him to make something of
his life and mine saw it as a way for me to get a career in all the
things they wanted me to do...singing, acting, and being a star.

My dad came up with the solution we didn't see ourselves. I had an extra
bike and one day, we took it over to Chad's house. That way, I could ride
the Metro and go over there to practice and get to be better friends with
him. Then, my dad went out and bought another bike for him to use over at
our house.

The first few months of the band practice were exhausting. There was very
little time for us to be by ourselves and there definitely wasn't any
time to be alone with him except for the practicing.

We came up with the plan of practicing together in hopes we could cut
down on the amount of time we had in practice. It didn't work out that
way. The managers acted like they were being paid by someone to be slave
drivers and they used every available second to have us doing something
else. That led up to us finally getting the recordings done, and then we
thought we were home free. All I can say is one word...wrong.

After recording, we then had choreography. We had to learn dance steps
and to do it over and over while singing so we weren't out of breath
while we were doing them.

What most of you don't know is we had three different sorts of
choreography. We had stage choreography. We had video choreography. And,
we had stadium choreography.

I'll tell you the difference. With stage choreography, it's like what you
see on the interview shows. It's a smaller stage and the space is
limited. The video choreography is used in the video. Usually it's done
in front of a blue screen on a sound stage and it's lip sinking. It's
really noisy on a soundstage, so using our voices there wouldn't be good.
Lastly is the hardest choreography of all...stadium. That's where we go
out on stage in a huge arena and put on shows. Everything in those events
is down to the second and is practiced thousands of times. It's to the
point I found myself sleeping and dreaming the choreography it was
drilled into us so much.

The good thing about the time there, Chad and I got to sing together. No,
it wasn't all the time, but it was enough I looked over all the rest of
it and looked forward to those times. When we finally were through with
the choreography training, then we had to practice interviewing. Our
release had been scheduled and we'd gotten a green light from the company
they were pushing us for main billing.

Now here's something you probably didn't know. There are
mainline/headline acts and there's secondary acts. Mainline acts get lots
of money and they get lots of promotions. Secondary acts don't get squat.
We got lucky and got mainline. We were told it was because our team was
so talented. I can tell you now it was because we had our backs broken to
get it done.

Interviewing practice is nothing but someone else putting words in your
mouth to the point you think it and say it without even so much as giving
a facial gesture it's nothing but hogwash. Here's a few examples.

Chad is latino. He comes from a good home in a quiet neighborhood and his
mom really loves him. The way they spun him, he became a kid that was in
a gang and his home was broken and his life was really shitty until the
group. The implication even got made several times he would have been
headed for prison if it hadn't been for the group. The actual fact was
Chad had already been accepted into a major school in New York city to
perform vocal arts.

Me. I was their blond haired blue eyed all American kid. I was the one
they wanted standing out in front of the group in photo shoots and
saying, "Hey America, I'm white bread...gobble me up!"

The other members of the group were just as exploited. There was some
grumbling about it, but the alternative was we wouldn't be anywhere
without them and we knew it. So, we said our lines and our personnas got
spun.

The main thing which bugged me the most was the management saw Chad and I
hanging around with each other so much they probably realized it was
puppy love...at least on my part. That even got spun into me being such a
nice guy and looking out for him so that he would have good moral values.
My family even got into the mix on the family values kick. Pure hogwash
because we spent most of our time at his house because there was no
privacy at mine.

As I said, having a private life wasn't easy. There were a few off days
but those were caused by management meetings, scheduling meetings, or
something. Those days were few and far between and compared to the
sixteen hour days of practices, the time we had off...no one really
wanted to spend more time with the other members of the group.

When we were off from the group, Chad and I quickly learned we didn't
want to spend it at my house. My parents were so off into the thorough
brain washing, they wouldn't let up on us when we were home. Home time
was like going through another interview practice and there was one time
we couldn't even order a pizza because it wasn't "healthy enough". That
night, Chad and I looked at each other and about fifteen minutes later,
we were on the Metro heading to his house.

It was during one of those nights before everything hit, Chad played me a
song on the piano and sang to me. I didn't know it then, but he had just
as many feelings for me as I did him. What I do know is my first reaction
was that puppy love sensation turning into complete and total adoration
of him on my part.

Switching gears for a second, I'll tell you, it was hard. I knew I was
falling in love with him and I thought he was straight. What I do confess
is we spent so much time together, every jack off fantasy I had was of
him.

When we finally burst on the scene, the comments from the media was a
full blown frenzy. Everyone was calling us "overnight sensations" and our
thoughts were they were totally wrong. We'd been working every waking
hour for the past ten months so there was nothing overnight about it.
Most of the time, the media people were like us...using words someone
else put into their mouths. We'd walk into an interview and the
personality wouldn't know us from Adam. He'd read the press release and
suddenly, he's knowing everything about us and has heard all our music.
It sounds good on a radio, but let me tell you...the guy was reading
directly from the piece of paper.

The good thing I can say about all the practicing and spending time with
the rest of the band was it prepared us for the grind. The interview
promotion tour we had scheduled had us working our small stage
performance, but in the background, the arena choreography was still
being practiced. The arena tour was being booked, so it was a matter of
time.

Our interviews would be two, three, or more a day and sometimes it was in
different cities. I began to wonder how we could be such big stars and
little town America couldn't figure out how they snagged us for the
interviews. The real truth was when we went out on the road, we hadn't
sold a thousand units...which is what cds are called in the business.

Once we hit the road and started doing interviews in the various markets.
We did big markets like New York, Boston, and New Haven. And then we went
on down the seaboard and hit anything which had a population and a radio
station. By D.C., one of the guys overheard the management team talking
and said if we hadn't hit a hundred thousand units by Savannah they had
orders to take us on home and shut everything off. Believe me, that had
me scared.

Why would I be scared? Let's see...can you even comprehend being a wash
out and a failure at the age of being 14? Yeah, overwhelming. We were
scared and had no idea what to do to even begin to make things better.

Fortunately, somewhere outside of D.C., we were in a van going to
someplace in Maryland, when one of the managers saw Chad and I sitting
next to each other. Apparently a sparkle hit his eye and at the next
hotel, we got called in to their suite. Yeah, you read that right...they
got suites and we got one bedroom units.

Anyways, Chad called to tell me he thought we were getting fired as he
got a call. I'd just hung up from getting my call when he called. I began
to worry when he said he thought we were getting fired. I thought about
calling my parents, but then decided to wait and see if anyone else got
the calls.

When we went to the manager's suite, we were the only ones there. Chad
looked at me and I thought, "Either the other guys are getting fired, or
we are". ..once again, I was wrong.

The management team sat us down and said, "Boys, things aren't looking
good. If sales don't improve, we'll be cancelling the tour."

We looked at each other and basicly asked at the same time, "What do you
want us to do?"

One of the women by the name of Jill said, "We were wondering if you two
would be up to creating a little controversy?"

The first thing out of my mouth was, "If I try beating someone up, I'd
end up getting the bejezus beaten out of me!"

She smiled and said, "No, we noticed you and Chad spend a lot of time
together and we were wondering if ummm..... ummm.... you two would mind
if we leaked it out you two were boyfriends."

Chad looked at me and I just sat there and smiled. He said, "Well, we are
boys and we are friends, so that'd be o.k.."

She said, "No, we were meaning like you two were together....ummm....like
boyfriends in uh..... uh... uh.... like you'd be gay."

Chad spoke up, "O.k., if I go along with this, what you're telling me is
we're going to go out there and we're going to put our reputations out as
being gay. You all clean up financially if we succeed in getting the
public behind this...but, the rest of the band still gets the same as us.
Are they going to be gay too?"

"Ummm.....no"

"Why not!"

"Ummm...because they're not going to like it and that's where the
controversy comes in to play. Everyone will wonder if the band is
breaking up and if it does, then we'll see you two get a hundred grand
extra."

I was wondering to myself if Chad didn't like me. I wasn't saying
anything because I didn't want to think about that rejection. Parts of me
were wondering if Chad would pull away from my friendship over this and
that really worried me.

The whole time I'm sitting there like a bump on a log, Chad was over
there talking a mile a minute getting them to give us concessions. He
said, "I think if the band breaks up, and we're still going to be sitting
with the ten year no recording agreement in our contract, then that's
stupid for us to even consider. What you're telling me is I
agree...everyone benefits....and I'm to walk out of here with hopes of a
hundred grand. I'm not in it."

He got up to walk out and my hopes just sank. He looked at me and said,
"Jordy, I'll see you in your room. I'll be using your phone to call home
and get bus fair for us."

He made it to the door and had it open when Jill said, "Chad, come back
over and we'll agree to some things."

Chad said, "He gets the same thing. First of all, we get a bigger cut.
After all, it's most likely us they'll be asking all the questions to in
interviews. And, it most likely will be us who gets eggs thrown at us on
stage."

"She said, "O.k., right now, the band gets fifty percent. You each get a
sixth of that. What if we can get you an extra five percent?" she paused
looking pleased with herself. "That's almost 12%"

Chad gambled and said, "Give us an extra 10% and we'll gamble away the
hundred grand if the group fails." He looked at me and said, "You in for
that, Jordy?"

"I'll be in for it, but these people aren't going to go for it." I looked
at him and was feeling really sad. It was a lot for me right then. I knew
they'd not go for it, and then our hopes of fame would be gone.

Jill said, "Guys, you're asking for almost 18% a piece!"

Chad said, "Yeah, and you're asking me to go out and say I'm a booty
bandit. Would you do it for 12% of possibly nothing?"

"Well, ummm....ummm.... no."

"So, what we're saying is this....you spin us off as being queer and you
get to clean up if it works. We face the crowds and we get to face a band
that will supposedly hate us and we're going to do it for 5%. That's
nothing."

She looked panicked. "If I can get the company to go for it, will you do
it?"

Chad looked at me and said, "If you do this to us, we get a suite
together....not a double room, but a suite. The rest of the band can do
whatever they want, but my main concern is that 10 year non-recording
agreement in that contract. Get it gone and the rest of the things I'm
asking for besides the suite with Jordy are negotiable."

I saw a light at the end of the tunnel and said, "I agree to everything
as long as Chad gets equal billing. If anything gets leaked out, I want
it to be me that came onto him and not the other way around. You've
already messed up his reputation enough with the gangster stuff you put
on him. And, if we fail, the record company has to agree we have a
standing contract to record as a group with just us two."

Parts of me knew if I threw that in, they'd not take it, but I figured
while we were asking for the moon and gambling away our reputations and
futures, we may as well have something from it."

Chad smiled and said, "I agree with that."

Jill said, "We'll have a meeting, but what we need from you two now is
you won't go tell the other guys a thing about this meeting. They may not
go with it and we might have to close this tour down. If they don't go
for it, we'll still get you that hundred grand."

Chad and I agreed and we left the room. As we walked down the hallway to
the elevator, I looked at Chad and said, "We are sooo sunk."

"I don't think so. They probably know something we don't and they'll
probably knew it before we asked. They know we're the stars up on that
stage and that's why they came to us."

I looked at him and said, "Chad, if they go with it, when this is over
and we're recording as a duo, I want one of our first songs to be that
song you sang to me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I really like it. It's a great love song and I think if we're
going to be boyfriends, it'd tell the world how we felt for each other."

"I do mean it, Jordy." He paused and looked down.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I felt it the first day we were together as soon as I saw you in
that hallway. Since then, I've grown to like you a lot. So, if you hate
me now, please know I'm finally admitting it to you."

"No"

"What! Please don't do this Jordy!"

"Chad! No, I'm not hating you. I felt the same way. I didn't know how to
say it, but now the way I see it if you'll be my real boyfriend instead
of pretend, I'll really like it."

Chad had tears running down his cheeks. "Jordy, promise me however bad it
gets you won't turn your back on me."

"Chad, I couldn't ever do that. We've already been through so much
together."

"Let's go back and tell them we'll be in your room waitting on their
phone call. I don't want them to think I took off."

We went back to the suite and told the management team. Jill was on her
cell phone and had her laptop open. She was talking fast and telling the
company what we wanted. She motioned for us to sit down and we sat.

Chad sat next to me on the sofa and leaned over to me. "Don't do a thing
until they say they've got it approved, but just follow my lead."

"O.k."

"When we get back out of here, you want to move over to my room or me to
yours?"

"It doesn't matter much, we've basicly got the same thing."

"How are you going to tell your parents?"

The question took me out of the water. I really didn't know how to tell
them. What I figured was my parents would probably have to agree the
contract we'd told them, so they'd get told that way. "Let the management
team tell them. That way my parents know that way. They'll accept it
eventually."

"I'm not worried about my mom. She already knows how I feel for you."

"You told her but you couldn't tell me?!"

"Yeah, I knew I couldn't lose mom if I told her, but I could you."

"Oh Chad, I'm so sorry. I wish I'd said something sooner."

"It's out in the open now, so don't worry."

Jill got off the phone and said, "I just spoke with the company and they
had me on conference with the promoters. They'll draw up all the
contracts this afternoon and have it on the next jet to Norfolk. I got
you everything you wanted and then some."

"What's the "and then some"?"

"I told them I wanted to be your personal manager for the rest of this
contract and the next contract too if that's o.k with you two."

Chad looked at me and then at her. "Jill, could you please have these
other guys leave the room so we can talk with you?"

"Sure, one second." She turned to the other two guys and said, "Guys, we
need privacy. Could you give us a moment?"

They left the room and she pulled a chair over and sat in front of us.
"What's on your minds?"

Chad said, "Jill, just a few moments ago, when we were out in the
hallway, we spoke about this and found out we do have feelings for each
other and want to be boyfriends anyways."

She smiled. "Well good! Let me call down to the front desk and get your
stuff moved into a suite."

I said, "We have one other thing to ask and you can tell us no now, and
we can wait, but Chad wrote me a song in Florida that I think would
really be great for us to record."

"Really!"

Chad smiled and I said, "Yeah, I didn't know it then, but when I heard
that song, I knew what I was feeling was more than having a crush on
him."

"Would you play it for me Chad?"

He went over to the Casio keyboard and said, "Jordy, would you stand over
here so I can look into your eyes when I sing it?"

I went over and stood by the piano. He began to play and when the first
words started to come out, his eyes misted up as did mine. As he sang,
the tears started to slide down his cheeks and so did mine. I reached
over and wiped them off his cheeks. He continued to sing and it was
interesting because that's when the words in the song were, "Don't cry
out and say my name because I'll be the one to blame." A chill went
through me and instantly, I remembered the next line. I started to sing
it, "I've loved you just the same, standing in the rain. My tears are all
a part of my shame."

When we were done singing. The room was silent. He stood up and I went
into his arms. We hugged and just stood there crying.

Jill came over and said, "Guys, I've got to make a phone call. We've
absolutely got to get into a studio. That's songs going to make you two
immortal."

I looked up at her and she had tear stains on her cheeks from where her
eyeliner had ran. She smiled and said, "I want you two to sing that at
the end of the next concert exactly like that. And, if possible, just as
soon as we can get those contracts signed, I'm going to push them to
release you two to go ahead and record that as a duo. It's not been done
before, but I think they'll do it. I'd like for you to perform it in
front of the management team and the studio brass tomorrow. Keep it to
yourselves and what ever you do, try to think of more songs like that
Chad."

She ran out of the room mumbling to herself, "Oh my God....oh my
God....oh my God!"

We stood there hugging. He looked down at me and said, "This feels so
good, I don't want to stop. Can I kiss you?"

I reached up and gently kissed his lips.

Apparently Jill had come back into the room as she'd forgotten her phone.
She said, "Oh my God guys, you've got to do that too. That after that
song is just going to be the icing on the cake. That will have girls
crying, boys talking, and everyone out running to buy records. I think
that'll be your video too."

I thought to myself, "Man, that woman never stops thinking." But, at the
same time, I was really happy about Chad's song being so accepted by her.

Chad said, "Jordy, I've got another song I'd like to play you. It's
something I've been thinking of in my mind and I'd like your help. Do you
mind it we work on it together?"

"Sure, I'm not good with music, but I'm good with words. What you need
filled in, I can do."

He started to play and the chatter in the background ceased. At first, I
thought Jill had shut the door. Chad began to sing again and play. The
melody was different, but the words spoke of such love it chilled me. He
got to the chorus and said, "Here's where I need some words. What I'm
wanting to say is how much I want to love you and how much I want to have
the same returned."

I looked at him and instantly, I said, "The song's not a duet. What would
be more impacting there is you don't sing, but pause and have your voice
break like your too choked up to sing and just speak the words."

He began to play again and when he got to the point, he did it and the
catch of his voice like he was choked up sounded like he was crying. When
he went into the speaking of the words, he did a sniff and then went back
into the singing, but softer like he was singing to himself.

In back of us I heard a sob and turned. Jill was standing there bawling.
She said, "Guys....guys....guys....that's a pullover song. There's your
second number one."

"What's a pull over song."

"It's a song which makes you pull over you're crying too hard when you're
hearing it on the radio. Every song I've heard like that goes to number
one. I forgot my cell phone. Keep working, but Chad, we need that song
too."

Chad smiled and as Jill was walking out the door, "That's fifty percent a
piece Jill!"

She kept walking, "You got it...give me at least four more songs like
that and we'll have the first three records sown up on the contract. All
the rest can be filler."

Chad smiled and said, "She must really like them."

"She'd be a fool not to..."

"You think they're that good?"

"They're better than good. They're in that "Oh my God!" category like she
said Each one of them would instantly get you album of the year if you
recorded them as a solo."

"You're not just telling me that, are you?"

"No, as much as I like you, I respect you too much to tell you something
like that if I didn't really really like them."

"Good, because I don't want to be known as the crying Latino."

I laughed and said, "Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and
the whole world buys your albums. They should have thought of that before
they asked us to be gay."

"It would have been over just as soon as I sang because everyone would
know who I was referring to when I sung them. The next one, I want to be
something everyone can dance to."

"Yeah, like Madonna's Holiday song. As soon as the first notes of that
song get played, everyone's running to the dance floor."

He played the first few notes of it.

"Yeah something like that."

"We need something which is in that style, but has a different upbeat
melody. Everything else has been tried."

"Let's see...we could do something which has swing in it, or we can do
something which has that music from Louisiana in it..."

"Zydeco?"

"Yeah, something which would have people tapping out a beat on their
desks at work, or their steering wheel in their cars...but, I think we
need a song which is an anthem to being young and being gay. Something
which tells young gays it's cool and tells other people a message of
acceptance for them."

Chad began to work with the first few notes of "Holiday" and when he got
to the first beat, he put in a zydeco rhythm...slower than zydeco, but
something which felt good to be a toe tapper. As he was doing this, I
began to sing what came to my mind. "They say it's Pride..."

I stopped and looked at him, "That it! That's the name of the song!"

"What?"

"That's the name I think it should be called!"

To say I was excited was an understatement. As soon as I said the words,
everything just clicked. Pride to me equals Gay and everything about it
and I just knew we had it when I said the word.

"I'm sorry, as soon as I said that word, a chill went through me and I
just knew this song was going to be special...like it was going to be a
number one at the top of the charts for a long time."

"Wow! You think?"

"Oh, I'm sure, give it another go and I'll try to contain myself, but you
won't believe how I feel now."

"I'm not feeling it, but I know you're sure excited, so it has to be
good."

"Oh, it is!"

He began to play again, and somehow, I just knew he changed it somehow.
It was a bit sexier and I could see a dance floor full of people dancing
to it. I could feel the vibes and I just knew it was good. The words came
out and from where they came, I don't know. If he'd asked me to say them
over, I wouldn't have had a clue what I said. What I know was he started
singing along and it was like we were picking it up off each other.

When he finished playing, he looked at me and said, "That's going to be
good. I didn't believe it at first, but when you were singing, I could
pick it up off you and if it was that easy for me, I could imagine a
whole stadium of people singing along. It's catchy and it's got that beat
that makes people want to rub up against each other."

"Yeah, it's coming from somewhere within me, but I'm glad you took the
words because I had no clue what all I just sang."

"Well, I got it, but what I think we need to do is get a tape recorder in
here so we can get it all down. If we forget something sometime, then
we'll have it and then I can mimic the piano part again."

"I don't know what you did that second time, but it seemed sexier."

"I just looked at you while you sang."

"Wow!"

"Yeah, that's the way I feel when I see you sing. Your voice touches me
and I just react."

He reached over and kissed me.

Jill came back in and said, "Guys, I've got your suite with a piano in
it, what else do you need?"

"We need a recorder....ummm, something so when we sing and play, we can
remember the words."

"O.k., what is it you were working on?"

Chad began to play again and I began to sing, he put the same effort into
it again and what I know is it was coming a lot smoother. Jill came over
and put her cell phone on the piano. "That's recording directly into my
voice mail box. That way we'll have the words down so they won't be
forgotten."

"Great."

As soon as we were done, she said, "That's going to be a great song. I
can see a lot of people going for that song. It's not exactly gay, but
it's definitely there. It's straight enough everyone will think it's
telling everyone to have pride in who you are and not in what the world
expects you to be."

"Yeah, that's what I'm trying to tell everyone."

"Well, that's definitely going to come across. The dance beat is going to
catch on too. That's three boys, now I need three more!"

"You're a slave driver."

"No, I'm just the one that's going to be driving your asses to the bank
to fill it with the money you're making. Those percentages are fucking
them good. I'm glad I'm in for ten percent off the top."

We laughed and said, "Get yourself twelve percent or fifteen."

"If I do that, they'll hang me."

I looked at her and said, "Colonel Parker got twenty five percent of
everything Elvis put out."

"Elvis also got a lot less than you two are making. And, he sold more
records. You two sell me a hundred million records and I think I can
renegotiate my contract."

"Make that twenty million and I'll go in and get you the percentages for
you."

"I think they'd do it for that."

"I know they will! Otherwise, I'll have us out of the contract at the end
of the three record deal and have us down the street in someone else's
company getting you that much."

"Well, let's not put the horse before the cart. You get me those songs
and I'll get them on the records."

"Jill, tell them when we come in to lay down the tracks, we're doing the
songs for all three records at once. No one else has had three records at
once, and I think we can get all three into the top ten for them. That
definitely would get us airplay and it'd get us a lot of publicity."

"That's a helluva idea, get me the songs and we'll get you guys in
there!"

Chad looked at me, "Have you gone insane!"

"No, I just feel we've got it Chad. Don't ask me to tell you how I know
we've got it, but I just feel it. Now, what I want is a dance rap song,
give me a beat that's like the one we had when we were playing hoops up
in New York."

"Oh, that's the one like this..."

He played I and it came out a lot better than what I remembered. I
started rapping and the words were flowing smooth. It was a love song
which if one listened to it, they'd know I was singing about a guy, but
girls would hear it and they'd think it was about them. When we got done,
I motioned to him to continue to play the beats....

He looked at me and continued to play and then I went over to his
keyboard and made it so it was us playing it together. The way it went,
it made it go from a rhythm to a honky tonk piano. He looked at me and I
went right into another song.

"Wow! I like this!"

"You too, I think it's great. It'll be the first two part number one in
history."

"No, I think Richard Marx had it with Hazard."

"No, this one's got two different beats and sounds."

"You're right there. This is cool, we could perform this so easy."

"That's what I'm thinking. The next song I want to do is going to be a
high electronic sound like the Pet Shop Boys."

"I've got just the sound for you. I was thinking of it the other day."

He went into the song and I began to do some beat box to it. He began to
do it in a different sound and the harmony of it was really good. He
looked at me and said, "Man, that's good. I like it. It's going to have
guys and guys and guys and girls and girls and girls all doing it
together in order to get it right. It's going to be so cool. The only way
I can see someone pulling it off better is if they record themselves and
then play it and then do it with themselves in a mirror."

"That's amazing, as soon as you said that, I instantly thought of us
doing that in a video. It's going to be hell to perform that way, but we
can get it done if we have the rest of the group all dressed up like each
other."

"Yeah, we need to think of some songs so the rest of the group can
perform with us. Some of the songs they've had us do have been nothing
but crap. I think that's the reason the record's not selling like it
should."

"Yeah, but they're supposed to know everything."

"I bet if we talked with the guys, they could come up with some other
songs. Let's save our songs for us and then come up with the ones for the
entire group with them. Let them earn their percentages if they're going
to benefit from it."

"O.k., but we need to help them out too. I don't want us going mainline
and the rest of the group going secondary."

"That would suck, let's go get them together and get the session called
to order."

We got up and Jill came in. "Remember, I need three more songs."

"We've already got them. They're on your voice mail. We'll have more as
we've got some good ideas, but we want to get the rest of the guys
together to have a jam session to get their input on some songs for the
entire group."

"O.k., but we've got to get the first album to sell more before they'll
allow another to be recorded."

"Oh, they'll have another album recorded. I imagine by the time we hit
Orlando, we'll be over a million units."

"Get that done, and I'll have you studio time."

"Get it scheduled because you forget we're going into the heart of our
own country and once they hear us down there with the new stuff,
everyone's going to be out buying the old record looking for the new
stuff."

She smiled, "You didn't like the songs the almighty's picked out for
you!"

"It's not that, but some of the songs are crap."

"I told them, but they know it all. Now, you're telling me and I really
think that's why the record's not going over."

"Well, we agree then. We're going to go get the guys together to get the
new material together. We'll call your voice mail, you just pay the cell
phone bill."

"Don't worry about that, the company's covering it."

We left and went to get the guys together. It wasn't hard as they were
all in the same room. As soon as they saw us, they said, "Hey, you hear
the shit they're trying to make us do?"

"Yeah, and we're o.k, with it. It's going to be o.k, guys."

"Well, how do you feel about it?" Jason asked.

"I feel fine, to be honest, it's true."

"Oh, well, we hate the part about not liking you guys over it because if
the truth needs to be told, us four are couples too."

"Wow!" You could have knocked me over with a feather on that one. Maybe
if we'd spent more time with them, we'd have known, but we hadn't. Now,
we're together, the truth's coming out.

"Cool!"

Chad looked at the guys, "Guys, the reason we're here is we want to ask
you guys to jam with us so we can get the group some more material. To be
honest, the songs they're having us do suck."

"You telling us! Man, we've been talking about it for weeks!"

"Well, what we're thinking is if we get new material together and start
performing it, then the powers that be will get us into the studio to get
it so we can sell it."

"They won't go for it."

"Well, we kind of already have a deal with them to perform it. So, what
we need is to get some songs. Our deal is if we perform it and can get
them a million units sold by Orlando, they'll get us the studio time."

"Great!" Niles said, "I've got some songs I think would be cool. Let me
play some for you and then you all can give me you opinion."

He went over to a piano and sat down. He began to play a few ballads and
as soon as I heard two of them, I thought they were great. Chad went over
with him on one and said, "Put in a tone of a music box rather than that
guitar."

Niles did and as soon as he did, it went from being a song which was
so-so to being a great song. It made it seem like a guy was singing to
his baby girl instead of a teenage girl.

I looked at them, "The video for that song should be filmed from a crib
showing a guy looking in and singing that song to his daughter. Have him
dressed in a uniform telling her he's going to be gone. There won't be a
dry eye in the place."

"Wow! That sent chills through me!"

"Yeah, and at the end of the video, have a shot of the guy going up the
steps of a troop transporter and the final shot being of the baby's point
of view watching her daddy fly off."

"Oooh, that's awesome!"

"Yeah, I never had that thought when I wrote that song, but as soon as
you said it, I know that's way out of this world."

"Do any of you guys have a video camera?"
"I do!" Bandy said. "What'cha going to do?"

"The next stop, I want us to go out and find someone who has a baby and
get the shots filmed. Then, at the next concert, they're giving us time
at the end of our songs to do the new stuff. That's when I want to have
the jumbotrons showing the video we filmed."

"That won't look professional."

"No, the non-professional quality will make it look like that baby picked
up the camera herself and that's her memory of her daddy. It doesn't have
to look professional!"

"Wow! You're right! Let's go get the video filmed now!"

"If you've not looked outside, it's dark and tomorrow, we're off to
another city...Norfolk which happens to be a Navy port."

"Where's the next Air Force stop going to be?"

"I don't know, maybe North Carolina, or South Carolina. We've got to have
it before then, because I want to get enough buzz about this to have a
special segment on CNN. Let's say we need it by Myrtle Beach, so make
some calls and see what we can come up with."

The guys all thought amongst ourselves and Bandy said, "I've got a cousin
in the Air Force, in Illinois who happens to have a baby. I don't know if
it's a girl or not, but that's the best I can come up with."

"Call him and see where the closest base is to us. If not, we'll fly
there and get some shots. It doesn't have to be his kid. All we need is a
soldier getting on a plane."

"O.k, let me get him on the line. I'll have to call home to get the
number. We're not real close."

"We'll wait, and while we do, we'll come up with some other songs."

The rest of us went over and got close to the keyboard. Wendell said,
"I've been thinking about a song, but all I can come up with are the
words. If someone can figure it out, I'll sing the words."

Chad said, "Give us a shot, I'm sure we can get it done."

He began to hum and then Chad toned in the keyboard. While he was doing
that, I was immediately thinking of words I'd use on the tune. Wend began
to sing and it was amazing the words he used as they were much what I'd
been thinking. When he ran out of words, I stepped in and began to put in
mine. He looked at me and said, "Wow! That's what I'm thinking! How'd you
do that!"

"As soon as you hummed the melody, I started coming up with words. What
was cool was you started singing and it was the same words I was
thinking!"

He began to sing them again and I stepped in to harmonize. The sound was
awesome. The guys all stepped in and instantly, I knew the group was
pulling together better than we had in all those months of practice.
Chills went down my spine and I looked over at Chad. I think he felt it
too.

When we were done, Wend said, "Man, that's way better than the stuff
they've been having us sing."

"Yeah, I'm feeling like the group is a whole lot closer than we've ever
been. We should've done this a long time ago."

"Well, everyone's been busy doing their own things. Now, we're getting it
done, so that's what matters."

"Guys, what we need are some songs that are going to be enough for two
more albums. We need at least two solid hits for each album and the rest
as filler. If we can get ourselves four on an album, it can insure the
album's going to get a lot of airplay."

"We've got three now, and I've got a few more." Wend said.

"I've just thought of a song which I think would be good. Chad, take the
keyboard and follow me on this."

I began to sing again and when he hit the beat it was in a swing or jazz
melody sort of like the old songs out of the forties. He looked at me and
said, "We need some horns and we need to up the tempo. It's too sad like
it is now."

"O.k., up the tempo and put in a trumpet."

"I can't do it right now. If someone else has a keyboard and can follow
me, then come in and see what we can do."

"I don't have a keyboard, but I've got a trumpet in the next room. Do you
think the other guest will be pissed off if we play it in here?"

I looked at Chad, he said, "Let's go to our room and we'll play it
there."

They looked at us and said, "What makes your room special? It's right
down the hall."

"No, they just gave us a suite so us two can share to make the gay thing
look more real."

"Then we want suites too."

"We'll talk to Jill. I think she'll arrange it since there's only going
to be three suites instead of each having their own. She's going to shit.
Do you guys have any songs you've been working on together as duets you'd
like to sing together?"

Wend blushed and said, "I have a song I was wanting to sing to Bandy."

"Well then come on over and Bandy, you come over here and have him sing
it to you. If there's a part of it in which Bandy can sing all the
better, but this is going to blow her out of the water."

As soon as Wend began to play, I was blown out of the water myself. He
started off with a spiritual song I sang as a kid and then paused a bit
and turned it into a sort of country song. It started off with the song,
"Deep and Wide" and then went into how his heart was a fountain flowing
for Bandy and the love coming from his soul was never ending.

As he sang, the love between them was felt by me and Chad came over and
put his hand in the small of my back. I turned and looked at him and he
nodded. My arm went around him and when I looked over at the other
couple, they were the same way. We all stood watching Wend sing to Bandy
and Bandy was visibly moved. Tears were flowing and as soon as the song
was over, he reached over and kissed Wend.

Chad spoke out, "Guys, we got us another great song!"

"Yeah, but they're not going to let us sing that to each other. We're
supposed to hate gays." said Niles.

"Well, if you don't mind, we'll sing that on stage to each other and you
two can know it's your song." Chad offered.

"That'd be cool."

I paused and then said, "Guys, that's bullshit. We're letting the
management dictate to us what we should hate and if we stand up for that,
then we're promoting hate within the group, and that flows out to the
world. I personally am not going to go for it. Let Wend sing it to Bandy
and fuck the management. If there's more than one gay couple in the
group, so be it."

Chad looked at me, "They won't go for it. They're already spinning it the
way they want to."

"And we have to go for it?"

"Well, let's talk to Jill and see what she says."

"Give her a call and see if she'll give us all an appointment."

"Chad called her room and she said she'd be over."

A few minutes later, she came to the room and we let her in.

I stood up for the group and said, "Jill, there's a problem you need to
know about."

"What's up guys?"

"You might not know it, but the other four guys besides Chad and I are
couples too. We're having a problem with it being spun off they're
supposed to hate gays when they're gay too. Is there a way we can get
around it?"

She paused and said, "I don't know. I think they're already putting out
the press releases as to what they want."

"Well, can they tone it down, or can they get it so they can come around,
or something?"

"I don't know. We sure didn't think about this happening."

"Jill, we didn't think about it happening either, but it did."

"This is going to give us a different dimension."

"The reason we're having the problem is we've got a great song that Wend
just sang to Bandy and it's their song. Why don't you listen to it and
see what you think."

Wend began to sing it again and when he did, Jill really listened. When
he was done, she looked at us and said, "Wow! I never thought of it, but
that'd be a way to spin you two off as a couple. Can you get me some more
of that sound so I can approach the company with it?"

Wend smiled and said, "I've got a bunch of them."

She said, "I'm all ears and besides, I'm bored to death there in my
suite. All the other managers want to do is talk business!"

Wend began to play and sing. Bandy began to harmonize like they'd worked
on the songs together for quite some time. Together, they sounded a lot
like a major country recording act. When they were done, I just knew they
had themselves a contract.

"Guys, here's what I'm going to say. You may not like it, but I've got to
lay it on the line with you."

Bandy said, "O.k., if it's bad news, let me sit down first."

"No, it's not altogether bad. So, hear me out o.k.?"

She then said, "Guys, country music has a whole audience which isn't
going to go for the gay slant. I'll be up front with you on that. The
segment of gays who like country is rather small and although you can get
units sold, you'll starve to death before you ever get big. What I
propose is you look straight forward to the audience when you sing and
you'll be accepted like a country act. Two guys can sing together that
way and it's not gay. They'll buy your albums and no one will be the
wiser. You two have a great sound together and I can see a lot of people
going for it. You've got enough material, I can get you a contract. I'll
get that done, but what I want from you is to be your manager on this and
I'll get it done so we can get you time to perform together. Is it a go?"

They looked at each other and nodded.

Chad stepped in and said, "Get them the same percentages and cut that to
ten million each Jill."

She smiled and said, "I think I can get the percentage now Chad. We're
handing them a gold mine and if they won't go for it, then I'll shop it
elsewhere."

Chad smiled and said, "The group has a lot of new material for you to
listen to and we need your help on filming a video."

We began to play the one song and I gave a description of the video I
envisioned. Jill listened and when we were done, she was up and talking a
mile a minute into her cell phone. She nodded to us and said, "We've got
a crew and we'll get you that video shot. We've got to get that song
released and I don't care how we've got to do it, but we've got to get
you all back into the studio. You guys are going to be megastars!"

I put my hand on her arm and said, "Jill, there's more."

"What do you mean?"

"We've got about four more songs that are that caliber."

"Oh sheeeit!" She yelled.

Whomever she was talking with on her cell phone got hung up on. She
looked at us and said, "Play it for me, I've got you studio time, now
let's hear it!"

She was so excited she was dancing around the room. We began to play the
songs and as we played them, the group came together into our own and
sang in a sound I'd not heard up until then. As soon as we were done, her
eyes were huge and she said, "Guys, I'm soooo sorry. We've went about
this wrong. You've got it figured out and now, it's up to us to listen to
you. You've got all your records you need and now we've got to get them
down to be released. This is huge. This is so fucking huge, you'll be
touring for the next five years off just what you've played for me here.

She looked at Niles and Red. "Guys, do you have something you would like
to do, because they've got contracts and I'd like to get you yours."

Niles smiled at Red and said, "Go for it babe."

Red went over to the keyboard and began to play. The sound he was playing
was like show tunes. The first thought which went through my mind was
like Mickey Rooney or the old Judy Garland sound. He sang and Red kicked
in. Red looked over and said, "This is from a play Niles and I came up
with which is sort of like a cross between Oklahoma and Fiddler on the
Roof. It may not sound like it completely, but it's got to have a big
concert hall sound to it in order to be completely appreciated."

We all listened and then something instantly came to me. The parts were
all for guys and the number of parts were the same number in our group!

I looked at Jill and said, "The group could do the play!" It's perfect!
We could do it as a long video and we could sell it on DVD and the
profits could go to them!"

She looked at me and said, "Would you all be up for it?"

Everyone nodded and she said, "Guys, I'll get on this. I have no clue how
I'm going to get this one done, but I promise you that if I can't get it
done, I'll get someone to get it done even if I've got to go to Disney to
get it done."

She smiled and said, "This day's been great. I thought it was going to
turn into a bunch of shit and this is just outstanding!"

She gave us all hugs and said to Red and Niles, "I'll be back with you
all on it."

Chad stopped her and said, "Jill, talk to the company and get the guys
suites too. They know we've got one and they'd like them for each couple
too."

"I'll get it done. We've got hope now and I'll swing it financially."

Chad smiled and said, "Guys, how about if we all take it to our suite and
then we'll have it to share tonight. I don't want to have it and you all
not feel what it's like."

I smiled at him as I too felt like the group was now more whole.

Notes from Retta:

This here is my Christmas present to you the reader. It's more than one
Chapter...well, it's seven chapters so far and growing. For me, it's a
release as it's so uplifting and cheerful instead of being depressing
like my other stories have been thus far.

I've not been into the boy band craze, and I've really never read any boy
band stories, but this one just jumped out at me. For too long, they've
had boy bands acting like they're not gay and having their careers in the
crapper when someone does come out to be gay. Well, how about a new slant
of one band whose career gets made because they're gay! So fuck the
establishment and know there are some people out there who are so
prejudicial they won't buy just because someone's gay. Heck, look at all
of them who are either gay, or are reported to be gay...and then think to
yourself, "How much bigger would their career have been if they had and
the rest of the group had embraced the person because of their being
different!"

So, with that said and done, I'm getting this sent out to you...my
faithful readers. Thanks for a great year and may there be many more
coming in the future!

--
From My Keyboard To Your Heart
Rhett

Here is a list of stories I've written and where to find them:

With Love - Nifty - Beginnings Section
Rural Love - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com
Write Me A Love Story - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com
To Love Him - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com
Military Zone - Nifty - Military Section
Evan - Nifty - Beginnings Section