Paisley

Chapter 8

We landed in Minneapolis! Finally! Sometimes small planes give me the creeps. But we finally touched down. Derrin and I grabbed our bags and raced to the limo that was waiting by the plane.

  "You ready to party with Prince?" I said to Derrin as he got in the car.

  "I won't be partying much I'll be working remember? But I bet you'll have a good time." He said.

  "I'm sure he's not a stuffy old dude. He's the party man! He made batdance!" I explained to him.

  "Since when were you a Prince fan?" He asked.

  "I may not have been a huge fan but I have been following his career. And with his release of musicology I'm kinda getting back into him."

  "You know he doesn't get much airtime on the radio though. He's his own label now. So a lot of people don't really dig him anymore because he doesn't have a contract with a major label like he used to."

  "Isn't that why he wrote on his face?"

  "So you do know what's going on! Smart girl!"

  "I told you I've been following him fool! Do you listen?" I said to him angrily.

  "So have you seen his movies?" Derrin asked me.

  "You mean he has more????" I asked.

  "What have you seen them?"

  "Purple rain."

  "What's it about them?"

  "Really dude?"

  "Come one! You said you've been following his stuff so let's hear it!"

Derrin was really starting to work my nerves. At this point I couldn't wait to get to paisley park so he could leave me alone.

  "It's about Prince of course!"

He looked at me with is eyes squinted.

  "Ok I'll give you that one. Now what's graffiti bridge about?"

I let out a deep breath and turned and looked out the window mad that he finally got me.

  "I never saw it." I said in a huff.

  "Your a new fan then!" He said laughing and taunting me.

  "Terrible. You know purple rain but don't know graffiti bridge or under the cherry moon! Prince won't be happy to hear about that at all." He said to me.

  "Stop it! He's not like that!" I said still mad.

We finally pulled up to the property. Paisley park looked like nothing I would dream of. It looks like a huge warehouse.

  "A storage unit.....this is where he lives? In a storage unit?" I said to Derrin.

  "It does look a little strange doesn't it?" He said looking around the parking lot.

We walked up to the door and pushed the buzzer to the door.

  "Yes may I help you?" A woman's voice said over the speaker.

  "Yes hello! My name is Derrin Groves I was sent to assist Prince for the party tonight! I'm the new intern that will be starting tonight!

The was silence for a moment

  "Who is the young lady with you sir?" The voice asked.

  "Whoa she can see me? This place must be covered in surveillance!" I said.

  "This is my cousin Erin. Prince asked her to accompany me for the party as well!"

Another long silence. This time the silence was longer than the first time. Something must be wrong.

  "Do you think he forgot?" I said to Derrin.

Now I was getting nervous. We're not getting anywhere. We're just standing outside.

  "Erin? Did he really invite us here or did you make it up?" Derrin was starting to get mad.

  "What would I do that for????? The proof was in front of you face the car showed up and took us to the red eye and you know it!" I said to him.

  "What happens to my vegetarian pizza Erinalia?" A deep voice said over the speaker.

  "So you were serious about that pizza huh!" I asked

  "Erin what's going on?" Derrin asked me puzzled.

  "So is his royal badness gonna let us in or what? It's a tad bit warm out here." I asked him.

He laughed over the speaker.

  "You have 10 seconds to open the door when the buzzer sounds."

I grabbed the door in my right hand and Derrin's wrist in the left. The lock clicked and the buzzer sounded. I snatched the door open and ran inside dragging Derrin behind me.

  "Score we made it inside!" I shouted loudly.

My voice echoed off of the walls of the lobby.

  "Whoa! This is........" I said in shock

  "It's amazing isn't?" Derrin said.

The lobby was fit for a king. His name may have been Prince but he was king of his castle indeed.

  "This is incredible! I can't believe it!" I said in amazement

  "I think it's better than amazing!"

We both turned at looked up at the second floor. Prince was standing there is a black suit jacket.

  "Good afternoon sir." Derrin said in his business voice.

  "What's shakin P?" I shouted to him with a smile.

Derrin gave me his usual "really?" Face and I just looked at him and shrugged my shoulders.

  "Let's get to work." Prince said.

He walked down the long upstairs hallway. Me and Derrin ran up the steps to keep up with him. We went down the same long hallway and met Prince at a door.

  "Let's go inside my office and go over some thing before we begin." Prince said.

He opened the door and went inside the huge office with this gigantic desk with the epic unpronounceable symbol front and center. The room smelled just like vanilla and whatever cologne he had on. He sat down behind his desk and we sat in the two chairs in front. Prince has on his game face and so did Derrin. This meeting was about to get intense.