Planning Your Future

You Matter To Me (Part 2)

October 12, 1992

Veronica's POV

"So do you think he'll say yes?" Owen asks as we all stand outside Mr. Donovan's office. "Of course he'll say yes. A gig is a gig. He's going to hear about it and immediately call the lady to confirm." There's not a reason I can think of for him to say no.

"No." He says after we tell him. "What? Why?" This is unexpected. "You do not want to play at some rich person's birthday party. Those are people with high standards and the last thing I want is some spoiled teens booing my clients off the stage." He shakes his head. "Who says we'll get booed off the stage? Didn't you sign us because we had talent?" JD asks. "You do have talent. But in those people's eyes, if you're not TLC or Aerosmith good, you're not worth their time. It's just a sad truth." He sits at his desk. "The people that'll be at this party are the same kids who loved our performance at the dance." I lean against his desk. "Miles will tell you. He was there wasn't he?" I didn't see him, but maybe he was on the dance floor watching. "Miles unfortunately had to leave town for a family emergency, so he missed it. But why are we arguing about this? I am your agent, and I know the industry much better than you." He crosses his arms. "Fine. But we know we can do it." I motion for the guys to leave. I follow them out, closing the door on the way out.

"That went well." Owen sits at his drums. "So looks like we need to wait for Mr. Donovan to find us a gig he deems 'better' than the one we already had." I roll my eyes. "Well let's just work on some music. I think we should teach the guys 'Edge of Great.'" JD says. It completely slipped my mind that they weren't there for that song. "Definitely." I nod, taking the song out of my folder. "Luckily for you guys, I have the sheet music for all of you. Perks to having worked on this with another band." I hand out the papers to them.

Halfway through rehearsal, Miles comes in. "Hey, I am so sorry I missed the dance. My grandfather got really sick and I had to fly to Virginia. How did it go? Get any offers?" He leaned against the doorframe. "It went great. We got an offer to sing at a Halloween party." I tell him. "Awesome! What are you going to sing? Are you singing something original or did they give you songs to sing?" He smiles. "We're not going to sing anything. Mr. Donovan told us no." JD says. "What? Why?" Miles stands up straight. "He said we would get booed off the stage because it's for a rich person." Owen sighs. Which still is such a stupid reason. "Hold on." Miles leaves the room.

We continue working on "Edge of Great" for the rest of the day. Right as we're about to dismiss, Miles walks in with a piece of paper. "I convinced him. He called that woman and got all the information about the party." He slides the paper across the piano. JD picks it up and looks through it. "How did you do it?" I ask. "He listens to me. I told him I know you guys are good enough to not get booed off the stage." So he said the same thing we did, but it works for him? "She's sending over a list of songs they want to be played. She did say that you could play a few of your songs." JD puts the paper down, "Thanks Miles." He smiles. "You're welcome. But I'm off tomorrow and on Wednesday so I'll have my assistant give you the list." Oh God. Why does his assistant have to do it?

October 14, 1992

We all get to the studio. "So we should obviously sing 'Edge of Great' but what else?" Sam asks. "We could honestly sing all the songs we've done. Parties tend to last a while." Heather's parties lasted hours. "Well I agree." Owen shrugs, sitting at the drums.

There's a knock at the door. "Hey, Miles asked me to give you this." Alyssa walks in and holds out a stack of paper. I step forward and take it. "Thanks." I say. "You're welcome. Do you need anything?" She asks. "I think we're good." I nod. She turns and walks out. "That was awkward." Owen says under his breath.

"Okay. So let's look through these songs." A lot of them were fairly popular. I could probably find the music to them rather easily. "So I'll try to get the music for some of these. For now, let's continue to work on 'Edge of Great' and the others." I suggest. "Sounds good." JD picks up his guitar.