Fly Girl | [Novel] (Wattpad Version)

16| First Successes

August 1995 :

Troy –

Before we knew it, the summer was over. Torii, Ava, and I had all officially been pulled out of school and given private tutors for our upcoming sophomore, junior, and senior years.

Since she'd been out in California with us at the end of her school year, Leann graduated at the end of July after completing a summer course for one final class she'd missed while working to take care of her brother and trying to focus on what we had going for Fly Girl. Realizing she'd have no one, aside from her brother and her friend Jay to watch her walk across the stage; we all took the trip, with Brandy, to Louisiana to see her big day. That was the first time, since meeting, that any of us had seen a real emotional side of Leann.

Usually, she had her wall built up, real defensive. Or, almost always quiet and reserved until she was spoken to. She was tough, rarely showed any type of feeling; but that day she cried, thanked us all for supporting her. We also got to meet her little brother, and it truly hit us all why Fly Girl had become so important to her so quickly. She was doing it all for him and we commended her for that, celebrated and magnified her personal successes because she would have blown it off as if it was nothing. It was major, and then spending time in her hometown had brought us all a lot closer.

As far as things went for Fly Girl; we worked day and night as the weeks passed, getting our looks, styles, sound, and everything in between together for our official debut. Even Chauncey had trouble denying how polished we were as an act, how perfect we gelled together once we finally began to focus, exceeding what was expected of the four of us.

We'd finally gotten our perfect crew together as well. From our tutors, to our hair and clothing stylists and makeup artists, personal trainers, a second bodyguard for whenever Kyrie needed time off. We had our own band, producers we would work with exclusively, a choreographer, vocal coach, and a media trainer that worked with all of Chauncey's acts on and off. We'd all taken time to get to know one another, and they'd all grown especially protective over the four of us.

Brandy let us know that no matter what happened, there would always be an adult around that we could turn to, to voice our concerns or opinions. Most importantly, she'd be there for us whenever we needed; said she'd grown to love us all as the daughters she didn't have. Her sons even called us sisters, and had become some of our first, and most vocal supporters.

The only drastic change, with either group, was the fact that Chauncey had brought in a fifth guy for Xclusive, having been told that something about their group was incomplete. And once we saw their final fit, with their new member Keith, we all agreed that they sounded so much greater with five-part harmonies as opposed to the original four. Not only that, they'd all have the chance to sing leads, and they all had voices out of this world when they weren't goofing off or trying to prove why they belonged in the background.

Things were flowing perfectly, and the official 'reign' of Fly Girl and Xclusive, as Chauncey deemed our first era, had begun.

Much like our brother group, we'd had a couple of impromptu performances for label owners, executives, producers, promoters, and other artists that were well established. Non-stop work; not that any of us were complaining since it'd landed us all the most amazing deal, that newcomers could get, with MCA records. Just the thought of some of who our larger label mates were had us excited, but that signing bonus was what really let us know that the moment was real.

Of course, Brandy kept us in complete control and helped us think rationally about what to do with the money. We were kids, had never even dreamed of seeing that much money, and she refused to let anyone take advantage of that. She most definitely refused to let us mess ourselves up. So, we all opened bank accounts. While Torii and I already had one, started by our parents, our father agreed with Brandy that it might be better to keep the two separate. The money we would earn was just that, ours. And while what our parents had invested into our accounts at home was ours as well, if anything needed to be recouped by the labels, at any point, they'd have no reason to dip into what we had before we even signed the deals. We had our choice, if we felt we couldn't control our impulses to overspend, to control our own accounts, with limitations from our parental figures or guardians, or to take a stipend. I'm not sure what everyone else went with, but knowing food was my only bad habit, I chose to go with the stipend until the checks from sales started rolling in. I personally would never go over what I was given weekly, biweekly, or monthly. The frugal and stingy side of me wouldn't allow it.