Chapter 1


The original plan had been to postpone their TV appearance until after they had finished recording their new album, but that wasn't to be: a major weekend talkshow had approached them. Knowing that they would be getting busy with tour preparations, they wanted to make sure to get them on the show before that. As a result, the day before the show, Brian and Stuart, the two managers, had put out a joint press release, which many of the paparazzi had found odd, as normally the four girls would have held a full press conference for such things. The press release did, of course, highlight that the full story would be revealed 'within 48 hours'.

So, tonight, there were 7 of them waiting in the green room: Brian and Stuart, the two managers, Carol, Jenny, Dianne and Linda, along with Fiona. Grayson Malton - the talkshow host - had been told the back-story for the copyright issue, and prior to the rehearsal they had explained to Grayson that getting Fiona onto the show, to give her some exposure, was part of their 'copyright payment'... but that was not to be made public knowledge.

----

"So, did you see the news yesterday? It seems that the girls from CJDL have been a bit naughty, and apparently 'stolen' some words from a song by Fiona Lewis. Oooh, bad girls! You shouldn't steal! So we thought we should find out the REAL story about what happened... would you welcome to the show: Carol, Jenny, Dianne and Linda, the four members of CJDL". The girls were all suitably dressed up for TV, and bounced onto the set, joining the 2 other guests already on the settee.

Of course, they smiled widely!

"Oh my goodness, I'm being blinded" said Grayson, jokingly holding his hand up to stop the 'glare' from the girl's braces. "I mean, all FOUR of you have braces, and they are all shiny and blue too! Now, I remember Jenny getting braces last year, but now you ALL have them! What *IS* going on there?"

"It's called 'providing support for a girl in need'!" replied Linda

"Pardon?"

"Well, Dianne here had a problem: she had braces when she was at school, and ended up with lovely teeth. But her nasty wisdom teeth came along, and started to make her teeth all crooked again. But she was embarrassed about getting braces again, as an adult." explained Carol.

"So, it was no biggie for Jenny to have braces, but it was for Dianne. Ok, go on...."

"So I was having some minor treatment already, and was wearing retainers, so Linda and I suggested that we would get braces to support her..." continued Carol.

"So you and Linda don't actually NEED braces?"

"Actually, I DO need braces" replied Linda. "I have a minor issue which I had decided not to bother doing anything about, but when a band-buddy needs support...."

"So, I guess I'm the only one who doesn't ACTUALLY need these sort of braces." said Carol. "But you have to admit, the matching braces do look good, don't they?"

"I guess so. So there's going to be four of you onstage in braces when you go on tour?"

"No, there will be eight of us! All the four girls in Northern Girls have braces too... same reasoning..."

"Now THAT is going to be a sight to behold!" There was a little laughter from the audience. "Anyway, you were in the news yesterday, for being naughty girls?"

Dianne raised her hand. "Entirely my fault, I can not tell a lie!"

"Oh, ok... so what happened?"

"Well, Jenny had come up with a nice song melody, and asked me to write some words for the song. So I remember relaxing, trying to think up some words. I had already written the first verse when these words came into my head... I mean, they just fitted the song perfectly, they sounded so right. We called the song 'Get Working'... we recorded it as part of our album, and the record company decided to release it as a single."

"And it's your current single that was at number one just a couple of weeks ago!" said Grayson, to applause from the audience.

"Yeah, if you're gonna screw up, you might as well do it with a number 1 hit! Who wants to mess around with anything less?"

"So you had no idea that you had used someone else's words?"

"We always check the lyrics of anything we write" explained Jenny, "there's a couple of big online database with all the song lyrics in. Except it seems that it's NOT quite all: Fiona Lewis' 'Escape the City' wasn't in it. To some extent I can understand that, it was never actually released as a single. But that's still no excuse for what happened. You know how I feel about music copyright."

"Yes, I remember you came on the show some time ago, when someone had used some of your music: it's so refreshing to hear someone being so honest about a mistake..."

"Oh, you should have seen Dianne's face when we found out" said Linda, "she was absolutely gutted!"

"I can imagine. So how DID you find out?"

"We received a letter from Fiona's solicitor, pointing out 'the error of our ways'..." replied Dianne.

"Well, let me just pause you there, and bring on our next guest, it's Fiona Lewis!"

Fiona came out, and the girls made a gap for her in the middle of the four of them, making it very clear that there was no animosity between them.

"Hello Fiona, nice to see you again! So, these ladies 'stole' some of the words from your song. I'm assuming you heard their song, and recognised your words, and took action?"

"To be honest, it wasn't me, it was my manager who had organised the solicitor's letter. The first that I knew about it was when Linda called me."

"Linda called you? She just 'happened to have' your personal phone number?" A few of the audience laughed.

"Oh, Linda and I know each other. Before she joined CJDL, she was a session musician, and she came on a short tour with me. We shared a few meals... and a few drinks too!" Another laugh.

"Ok, so Linda called you. What did she say?"

"Well, after exchanging pleasantries, she passed the phone over to Dianne, and the first thing Dianne did was apologise for what she had done. To be honest, I knew nothing about it at the time, so guessed my manager had done something. But hey, you hear stories about solicitors talking to solicitors, and managers talking to managers when these things happen. But not these girls, they skipped all that, and called me directly!"

"And what then?"

"Well, in a matter of a few sentences, it was clear to me that they wanted to 'put things right'. They could have just offered to give me what was due to me, but they felt they could do more than that... Maybe one of the girls can explain?"

Grayson looked at the girls. "Well" said Jenny, "in this game, money isn't everything. And I had a few instant ideas of things we could do to repay Fiona. So, we invited her and her manager over, and had a chat. And, of course, being musicians, we also went and played music together..."

"So I'm assuming that was a few days later?"

"No, we invited them over the same afternoon. I mean, why waste time?"

"So, am I allowed to ask what sort of an agreement you have reached?"

"Well, whilst much of the detail is clearly confidential..." explained Jenny, "we have acknowledged Fiona as co-writer on the song, and will be paying her suitable copyright fees. But we have also asked Fiona to come and be a guest at some of the performances on our upcoming tour. And you never know what else might happen!"

"That definitely sounds 'above and beyond'. So, Fiona, are you looking forward to joining these girls on stage?"

"Oh, yeah! When I visited them, I quickly discovered not only how much they enjoyed music, but that they are not your normal 'girl band'. They enjoy having fun, and I'm all for that. It's actually been a while since I've played live on stage, plus I've never performed at the O2, so that's going to be quite an experience for me!"

"The O2: isn't that where you are starting your tour?"

"Yes, that's right, we'll be starting with two nights at the O2 - we've never been there either yet - and Fiona, and maybe some others, will join us there!" explained Linda.

"So, what can you tell us about the tour?" asked Grayson.

"Not a lot to be honest, especially in terms of the content. We're about to go into the studios to record our new album, and straight after that, Northern Girls are coming over, and we'll be working out the details of what we'll be doing. But, I can tell you where we're going: we start with 2 nights at the O2, then we're going to be doing something like 20 nights all around England, Wales, Scotland, and I believe we're also going over to Belfast too! Then we're over to France, Germany, Austria, a couple of nights in Milan, Italy. After Poland we're going up to Finland, Sweden and Norway. Finally, we'll be finishing off with two or three performances at Wembley Stadium."

"Any plans for any of the festivals?"

"Yes, we'll definitely be at Glastonbury - I'm looking forward to that, and we're waiting to hear about a couple of others too."

"Sounds like you're going to be busy!"

"Yeah, I'm planning to have a long holiday afterwards, to recover!" said Linda.

"Me too!" added Jenny!

"So, I believe all of you are going to sing for us? So while you go over and get ready, let me just tell you what else we have lined up for you later in the show...."

A minute later, and the four CJDL girls, along with Fiona, were ready, and they started to perform CJDL's recent hit, 'Get Working', with Fiona leading the vocals. They had sung the song the day that Fiona first came to see them, but Fiona had come over earlier in the day, to rehearse for tonight.

As they finished the song, the audience clapped enthusiastically!


"Very well done, girls!" said Brian when they returned to the Green Room. "And Fiona, thank you too!"

"No, I should thank you guys: as Jenny said that first day, it's NOT just about money. I suspect today will help give me a nice boost, and I'll never complain about that. And I'll tell you what, performing with these four just now, that was fun... it's actually the first time I've performed as part of a group, and it felt good. So I'm looking forward to the guest appearances on the tour!"


The TV show was, of course, recorded, so the girls used social media to encourage people to watch, posting pictures of the 5 of them before and after performing.

The response they got after the show was aired was incredibly positive: their fans supported the way they had admitted to their wrong-doing, and thought the joint performance was excellent, with comments like 'I hope my tickets are for the night she's with you!'

Chapter 3

The four girls had been in the recording studios for a couple of days so far: they had booked the studios for 2 weeks, although they reckoned that they could probably be done within the week.

Yu-Eye had come over to England just over a week ago to produce their new album, and had spent some time with them rehearsing at 'the mansion'. Already they had recorded six of their songs, and the girls seemed to be getting on really well with Yu-Eye, liking her ideas: they weren't particularly radical ideas, but her small suggestions had made the songs better.

They had just finished laying down the instruments for their seventh track, and were taking a break before moving on to over-dubbing the vocals. Linda was browsing through her contacts on her personal phone: like the others, she had two phones, one was her 'official CJDL' phone that she had been given whilst in Korea, that she would use to get official band emails, and to post pictures and videos online; the other was the phone she had before joining the band, and it was the one she used to contact family and friends.

There were loads of old and now-irrelevant contacts in there that needed to just be deleted, and that was what she was doing. She had just finished on the 'L's, and had moved to the 'M's, where she found 'Mary Robinson'. It had been several months since Linda had spoken with Mary, one of her friends from back at college. So she broke off from doing the deleting, and called her.

"Hi Linda... it's been a while!"

"Yes, it has, Mary, and I'm sorry that I never managed to return your calls. My life has kinda changed this last year..."

"It has, hasn't it? How's it going for you?"

"Whilst there's a few down-sides, there's a lot more good things happening..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I used to be a session musician, so I was always playing other people music. But I've started writing some of my own stuff now, which I'm really enjoying."

"Oh, that is really cool! Any of your stuff been released yet?"

"Sort of... I helped to write 'Braces Buddies', but there'll be a couple of my songs on our new album."

"CJDL have ANOTHER album on the way already?"

"Yeah, we're atually in the studios right now, recording it, so it should be out soon... and what a surprise, just in time for our European tour."

"Yeah, I saw about that: it looks like it's a long tour."

"It is. I mean the last tour - when I wasn't quite a full band member - was just a UK one, and was about a month, but this one is a bit over three months, all around Europe, with a festival or two thrown in too. Anyway, look, I was going through my contacts, and came across your name, and realised it's been absolutely ages since we got together, so I was wondering if you, and maybe a couple of the others, fancy getting together? A drink, or maybe a meal... my treat of course!"

"Well, funny you should say that: there's a group of us meeting up on Thursday. We're going to start at the pub, then go on for a chinese, why don't you join us?"

"I would absolutely LOVE to!"

"So, I'm guessing you're free then?"

"If I'm not, I'll MAKE myself free! To be honest, shouldn't be a problem. As I said, we're in the studios recording, so I don't think anyone will complain if we have an early day!"

"It's gonna be really good catching up with you! So the plan is to meet at The Ship - you remember that one? - between 6-30 and 7-00, then go on to the restaurant after that."

"Yes, I remember The Ship, we got drunk there far too many times!". Linda and Mary talked a bit more, before ending their call.


[2/627]

The options are endless. Possible choices could be, based on where they are performing:

1) In England: National flag colors for each group, eg. CJDL with red on top and blue on the bottom, with the Northern Girls going with red and white.

2) On the rest of the tour: If they want to keep it semi-professional, they could do one solid color for each group to set the two groups apart.

3) There is also the option of being completely off-the-wall and doing random colors for all of them.

4) Possibly each girl could have her ligatures match the color of the outfits she is performing in, assuming she wears the same color each time.

5) There is also the opportunity to have them changed between cities so that they are different each time they travel. There could be a chance to have their fans choose what colors they get before each show.


I think that is enough ideas for now, though I can think more.

It wouldn't have to be an ortho changing them. All it takes is the right equipment. A ligature gun can be bought online to do it fast and without having to worry about loosening the brackets by pulling on them.

An ortho assistant usually does the ligature changes, so they wouldn't even have to go to an ortho to have them changed. One of their fans could easily do it for them if they have the training.

Chapter 5

When they moved to the Chinese restaurant, Linda made sure she was sat opposite Zac. Once Zac realised that - whilst Linda was indeed now a pretty big pop star - at heart she wasn't THAT different from the rest of them, he was quite relaxed with her.

It had been a while since Linda had been able to simply 'relax with a few friends' (who weren't who she 'worked' with), and she was enjoying the evening. They had just ordered a load of food for everyone to share, when Linda found her mind wandering. She closed her eyes for a moment, then, without thinking, she got a small pad of paper out of her bag, and started writing words on it.... Her mind was miles away, probably somewhere over the Atlantic or Pacific......

"Hello... Earth to Linda... come in please..." said Mary. Linda suddenly snapped out of it. "What you up to there?" asked Mary.

"Umm... sorry... umm, yeah... got ideas and words buzzing in my head... Wow, that sounds so like Jenny!" said Linda, smiling.

"What ideas? What words?"

"Ideas for a song. Something to do with friends and friendship...." Linda showed Mary the pad. "Words related to friends....". The list included words like 'colleagues, companions, partners, chums, mates'. "Got any bright ideas?"

"You missed off 'pals'!"

"Oh, yeah, thanks....."

"Hey guys, Linda is looking for words that mean 'friends', for a song...."

"You got 'classmates'? That's what we are!" suggested Vivian. "And 'schoolfriends' too I guess!"

"What about 'chums'? And bosom buddy'?" added Zac.

The group had fun over the next five minutes whilst waiting for their food to arrive trying to think of words and short phrases that related to friends and friendship: by the end, Linda's list had over 25 words on it. Whether all would be suitable was another matter, but it had been fun working with the group coming up with the list.

"Does this mean we get writing credits when you release the song?" asked Samantha.

"Yeah, why not.....", and on the next sheet, scribbled down everyone's names, lest she forget one.

"So, what's the tune gonna sound like then?" asked Rob.

"Good question! And the answer is that I have no idea. I have lots of words plus a few bits of music in my mind, but nothing 'joined together' yet. Heck, I don't even know what the actual lyrics will be like... I just know it's gonna be about friends and friendship. Tell you what though, want to hear a couple of songs that I've written?"

"Oh, yes please...." replied Rob.

"So, I'm guessing you already know 'Braces Buddies'? Carol sort of started that one off, so whilst I didn't write it all, I did quite a bit of it. Anyway, these are ones that I certainly came up with the initial ideas for the words and music.... This one is called 'On the Plane'... inspired by our rather long trip over to Korea a few months ago...".

They all listened as Linda played them 3 songs from her phone.

"So, is that what you're recording this week then?" asked Mary.

"Yeah, and several others too. We pretty much finished 'On the Plane' and 'Kicking Out' today, I guess we'll be finishing off 'Put that phone down!' tomorrow or maybe next week." Linda explained to them how their songs used to get written, with the music mostly by Jenny, and Carol and Dianne historically doing the words. "But since I started writing, it's been interesting."

"Has it upset the others with you writing stuff?" asked Vivian.

"No, I think it's actually inspired the others."

"I notice that those song you just played us, they sound... how do I describe it? More upbeat than your current stuff?" added Vivian.

"Yeah, my music tastes are a bit different than Jenny, Carol and Dianne. Ben's love of Indie Rock changed the band's music style, but I think my stuff might be taking it up another notch... or three."

"Oh, what sort of stuff do you like then?"

"Heavier rock. Kawaii, all that sort of weird stuff."

"Kawaii?" asked Richard.

"Japanese girl rock" explained Zac. "Like BabyMetal..."

"Who?"

"Hang on..." Zac got his phone out, then played BabyMetal performing 'Gimme Chocolate'.

"I'd love to have a go at playing that with the Kami Band" said Linda

"Kami Band?"

"Sorry, they're the backing band for BabyMetal... Oh, yeah, I forgot, I'm also writing some sort-of rock stuff for an anime..."

"No way! That is so cool!"

"Yeah, but please don't say anything about it, the project is still pretty hush-hush.


After an amazing evening out with her friends, she got an Uber back to 'the mansion'. Jenny and Carol had already gone up to bed, leaving Callum and Dianne watching TV in the small TV room.

"Hey, have a nice evening?" asked Callum.

"Yeah I did. Hey, Callum you're two years younger than Jenny, aren't you, so I'm guessing you were in the year below me?"

"That's right..."

"Ever know a guy called 'Zac'?"

"OMG, Zac... about the same height as me, with curly hair? I think he did art and graphics.... He wasn't one of my close friends, but I certainly remember him. Having a name like Zac probably helps!"

"That sounds like him... He was there tonight, I completely forgot that you were a year younger than us, or I'd have asked him if he remembered you."

"Sounds to me that Linda has a bit of a crush..." said Dianne, teasing. "So, when you seeing him again?"

"We chatted, but I didn't take it any further, but he is rather nice... Hey, I'm gonna get some hot milk, you guys want one?". They both declined, so Linda went and made herself a hot milk. She would normally have grabbed a cookie to go with the milk, but was still feeling full from the meal.

Back in the TV room, they chatted a bit more, then all went to bed. Up in her room, Linda's mind went back to the words she had written earlier on, so got the paper out of her bag. As she stared at the words, she started to get tiny fragments of music popping into her brain again.


It was about 5am when Callum woke up, and needed a drink, so went down to the kitchen to get one. He noticed that the lights that led to the music room were still on, and was going to just turn them off, but decided he should check the music room - maybe one of the girls had come down, and left the lights in there on too.

The music room was silent as he walked in, but then he spotted Linda leaning over the desk (PC to her left, small audio mixer to her right) and fast asleep. He went over to her, and gently nudged her. She grunted.

"Looks like you were planning an all-nighter, but failed!" he said.

"Oh, smeg, what time is it?"

"Just after 5... how long you been asleep?"

"Probably no more than 30 minutes. I couldn't sleep, I had words and music in my head..."

"Yeah, caught Jenny down here a few times with the same problem, although she generally managed to make it through till daylight..." commented Callum, smiling.

"Yeah, but had she been out and eaten a load of Chinese food beforehand?"

"Fair comment... no! So, what's the song about then?"

"It's about friends...." and she explained what had happened at the restaurant.

"You gonna play it to me then?"

"I wish I could... I've kinda written it down, but it's gonna take us all to play it."

"What you mean?"

"Well, the way I'm imagining it right now, it's gonna start of as a solo voice, become an older-style CJD song, move into being a newer CJDL sort of song, then go fully-blown rock... if that makes sense?"

"It does, sort of. I'll look forward to hearing it for real. In the meantime, I'd suggest you might want to get up to bed and get at least 3 hours sleep so you're in a vaguely fit state to get into the studios tomorrow!"



[8/1392]

Chapter 7

Linda had a really good weekend: not only did she manage to catch up on her sleep, but she really enjoyed spending time on the Saturday with her family. She hadn't seen her brother for a while, so she was able to tell him about all the recent changes in her life. It was also rather pleasant to just be able to 'chill out' for a while, forgetting about writing and playing music for a bit.

After having the weekend off, they 4 girls spent the Monday morning working on the new song again whilst in the studios: they only had 4 more tracks to record, and they had all the second week to do that, if they needed it. Yes, earlier I did say they could have probably done it all in just one week, but they had decided to take things a bit more gently, as well as working with Yu-Eye who had helped them 'polish up' what they had written. As 4 girls who enjoyed performing their music, they enjoyed working in a recording studio, if only because they enjoyed seeing what the other people there thought of what they were doing.

For Paula, the cameraman, this was a bit more interesting to film: while they were in the actual recording studio, she had set up several portable cameras in there, but remained with her main camera on a fixed tripod outside the studio. Now she was in the studio with them, with her the camera on her shoulder, and was able to get closer to the girls, without the glass getting in the way.

"How about we start to record 'Friends' while it's in our minds? suggested Linda. "So who wants to do the solo at the start?"

"Why don't you do it, Linda?" suggested Yu-Eye. "Every time I've heard you sing it, it has sounded really good. I'm just wondering, with it starting acapella, quite how to go about recording it though..."

"We could just play it live, and Dave can record just the vocals, then we can use that as a sort of 'index track', and then layer the instruments under it... then finaly re-do all the vocals?"

"Yes, that might work, want to give it a try?". Linda did a countdown, and started to sing, the others joining in a few moments after. Dave recorded just the vocals as they played the song through. Because it wasn't an actual recording, Paula was able to get some great shots of them playing. Then the girls started to lay down the instrumental tracks against the initial vocal track: again, because there were no vocals being recorded, Paula stayed in the studios with the girls. To be honest, she was almost silent, and could probably have remained with them when they actually sang, but it had been agreed that she would be outside during the actual takes...

Before re-recording the vocals properly, they sat in the control room having a short break, while Dave played them what they had so far: instruments plus the original vocal track.

"You know, actually listening to it like that, it doesn't sound too bad. Yu-Eye, you happy with the backing?"

"Generally, yes, although there's a couple of bits we might want to re-do... but let's get the vocals done first. So, how many takes are you going to need today then?" said Yu-Eye smiling, and referring back to when they added their vocals to 'Sexy Yellow Roller Skates' in Korea, in just 2 takes.

"Well, I'm planning on MINE being perfect first time!" joked Linda, "But I can't answer for these three!". This was the way the four girls often worked together - a bit of leg-pulling, a bit of friendly competition - all of which kept the mood light, but more importantly, got them in the sort of mood to play and sing well. In the right sort of relaxed mood, they could indeed record a song in just a couple of takes.

Six takes later, they were happy with the vocals: later on, Clive - the guy driving the recording desk and recording PC, would actually merge the vocals from two or maybe three of the takes, to get a better end result. So now, they worked on tweaking the couple of bits of backing music.




[10/2213 ]

I'm just waiting to see how all four girls use their braces to add some spice to their performances.

My mistake. You are right, all eight girls.

And maybe there might be a few audience members with braces too.

And maybe a couple of crew members.

Chapter 10


Over the next few minutes, several of the punters came over and said 'hello' and took selfies, and they were just organising a picture with the staff when Mary walked in with Ross, Samantha and Richard.

"OMG, you guys look really amazing, I could almost believe that you two are famous pop stars!" said Mary, making Linda smile.

"Help yourselves to the bubbly on the table over there!" called out Linda. With the pictures taken, Linda and Dianne joined them at the table. "I thought it would be simpler and more fun to just get some bubbly for us all, but if you want something else, just put it on my tab at the bar. So, this is Dianne, the 'D' to my being 'L' in the band. Dianne, this is Mary, her other half Ross, and Samantha and Richard!"

Over the next ten minutes the rest of the group arrived. They had all done as asked, and dressed up nicely for the evening.

"Now, Dianne, do you recognise Alex, he was in your year?"

"Yeah, vaguely, but I remember THIS lady pretty well! Hello there, Jane!"

"Hello there, Linda and Foxy!"

"Hey, Jane, nice to see you again! Foxy?" asked Linda.

"Yeah, that what a few of us used to call her at college! OMG, I'm trying to remember your ACTUAL name!"

"Dianne..."

"Ah, yes, of course! Thinking about it, it would need to be one of C, J or D, wouldn't it?" said Jane, smiling... and revealing a lovely set of small metal braces, along with a pair of elastics. Dianne picked up on it first.

"Hey, you're another Braces Buddy! said Dianne with a lovely wide smile, showing off her braces.

"Erm, yes, I guess I am...". It took a moment for her to make the connection. "Oh, yes, your last single, of course!"

"Braces Buddies... Braces Buddies" Linda started to sing. Dianne joined in for a quick chorus, causing a few people to applaud when they stopped.

"Linda, I didn't spot them, but you've got braces too!"

"We all have them, all four of us..."

"Ummm... any particular reason why?"

"Well, we all sort-of need them, but mainly to support Dianne."

"How do you 'sort-of' need braces?

"Well, Jenny already had them. Carol had been wearing her retainers again, to sort out an errant tooth, so I guess she's the one who needs them least. I have a slight problem - sufficiently slight that I hadn't bothered getting them fixed before. And Dianne... well, she had a definite need for them! But was a little apprehensive about getting them. To be honest, we were prompted by the four girls in Northern Girls, they all have braces too, to support Meg, she wasn't keen on having braces either."

"And I spent AGES agonising on whether I should get braces, and what sort... and you guys just get them to 'support a friend'! I'm not sure if that is sad or great! But why are yours so much bigger than mine, and so much more obvious?"

"Well, it wouldn't matter WHAT sort of braces we'd got, the press would have quickly picked up on them... and we're planning on having fun with these..." explained Linda.

Vivian walked over to them. "Umm... Vivian isn't it?" asked Dianne.

"Well remembered, yes, it's been a while, great to see you again, Dianne. You and Jenny and Carol were always the favourites in the music department!" commented Vivian.

"Yeah, sorry about that, but it stood us all in good stead, didn't it?"

Everyone was enjoying chatting as well as drinking the bubbly - and yes, they DID need that third bottle. Linda's phone buzzed: it was Jimmy texting Linda to say he was outside, waiting in the 'taxi'. Linda got up. "Ok everyone, you're on a 2 minute warning to finish your drinks, while I go and pay..." After paying the bar bill, she announced: "Right, so there's a taxi outside waiting for us!"

"That's gonna be a big taxi for all of us!"

"I believe it will be....". With their drinks finished, Linda led the way outside.

"You are KIDDING?" said Mary.

"Wow, that is so cool" added Vivian.

"So, say hello to Jimmy, he's our driver for tonight." Jimmy, dressed as you might expect a chauffeur to be dressed, complete with peaked cap, opened the door, and they all started to get into the rather large limo, saying 'hello' to Jimmy as they did so.

"Linda, what's going on?" asked Mary. "I mean, first the bubbly, now a fancy car....?"

"All will be revealed soon, when we get to the restaurant. While I remember, on the way back later on, Jimmy can either drop you back at the pub, or if there's somewhere else - like home or the car park - that you'd like to be, that's fine, just let him know."

"So, where are we going? I'm guessing it's not in Croydon, if we're needing the 'taxi'?" asked Jane.

"Yeah, it's a bit closer to the West End, it's a little bistro we've been to a couple of times, I hope you like it!". Linda was not letting on, however many questions her friends asked. Whilst Dianne clearly knew what was happening, she was keeping quiet, enjoying watching the fun all of Linda's friends were having. It was very clear that they had no idea quite how 'up-market' the place they were going to was!


[16/3272]

Chapter 12

"So, how is my favourite anti-fan today?" Linda asked Zac as they started to eat their mains. (If you remember, at their previous dinner, Zac had admitted that he wasn't over-keen on girl-bands)

"Well, I've been learning a bit more about you guys, and listening to some of your music. I mean, it used to be very much 'girl-band' stuff, but it suddenly changed... any particular reason for that?". As he spoke, he was looking at Linda.

"Love..."

"Love?"

"Yeah, love. Jenny met Ben, and fell head-over-heels for him. He likes indie-rock and that sort of stuff - his favourite band is Darkest Knights - so she started listening to some of their stuff, and the way she describes it is something like 'my head exploded with ideas!'. That's when they employed me..."

"Employed you? I thought you were a member of the band?"

"I am now, but I used to be a session musician, and they needed another guitar player, so I went to work for them on a one to two week trial... which became three then four weeks... It was near the end of their tour a few months later they asked me to join them..."

"I read they were at our college too, so did you know them when you went to 'work' for them?"

"When my agent first asked me if I was interested, I didn't, but as soon as I met them, and we started talking, I realised exactly who they were, and yeah, who couldn't have been aware of them, the 'blue eyed girls' in the year above us. Ah, of course, you're a year younger, aren't you, so you probably won't have known about them."

"Did that help you at all?"

"I think it did, yeah." Linda and Zac chatted as they ate, and others joined in the conversation too.

"It's odd, but even though we all get on so well, at times I still feel like I'm a bit of a 'fraud', an 'outsider' pushing in..." said Linda.

Dianne paused eating, got up, stood behind Linda, putting her hands on her shoulders.

"Oh, Linda... Linda... Linda... You are definitely NOT an 'outsider' or a 'fraud'. Maybe you were a bit of an outsider for the first few weeks, but not much more than that. You have helped steer us so much: when you first joined us, you were helping us to develop our songs. Then you co-wrote 'Braces Buddies', then you produced it for us: I mean, that one ONLY made number one. And the stuff you've written recently: neither we nor the record company would have wanted to include them on the new album if they were no good, but they all made the album. And that's before I even mention 'Friends'! And an outsider wouldn't have got braces to support a band-mate either!" Dianne paused briefly. "Linda, you are SO MUCH one of us. You're not just a band-mate, or even just a friend, you are family!"

As Dianne had been speaking, tears had started to well up in Linda's eyes. She stood up, and put her arms around Dianne, holding her close, and as she did so, Linda's friends were showing their appreciation too.

"By the way, have you noticed how much less stressed Jenny has been since you started writing stuff? She's so happy that she has someone to share the music writing workload with..."


As they continued eating, they chatted about this and that. Linda and Zac seemed to be getting on well, but I suspect that both were a bit apprehensive about maybe getting together on another occasion. From Zac's perspective, I can see that he was probably a bit apprehensive simply because of who Linda WAS. As for why Linda didn't suggest something.... well, I guess that's just Linda!


So, Dianne and Linda were alone in the Limo, on the way to Dianne's place: Dianne had invited Linda to stay over. They had dropped all of the others off: some wanted a lift home, others got dropped off in town near where they had parked their cars. Everyone had had a really great evening, very much enjoying hearing the new CJDL tracks before anyone else! And also very chuffed that they had actually INSPIRED Linda to write a song about them! Not many people get that happen!

"Here, you probably want this..." said Dianne, passing Linda a piece of paper.

"What's that?"

"It's Zac's phone number, I thought you'd probably need it!"

"You know, I'm not sure if he really likes me all that much."

"Oh, come on, didn't you see how he was always looking at you, and how he was hanging on your every word?". Dianne thought about adding 'actually, looking a lot at your mouth', but thought better of it.

"Oh... ok... so why didn't he say anything to me?"

"Oh come on Linda. you're a STAR now, people get a bit intimidated by stars. Ok, let's imagine some mega-big sexy male pop star jumped into the car with us, how would you feel?"

"Um.. yeah ok... but he seemed ok talking with me..."

"It's a big jump from just chatting where you are both already in the same place, to go to 'would you like to go on a date with me?'. So give him a call, be gentle, and ask him out for a drink or lunch or something. Or go see a movie together..."

Linda had a very content look on her face.



[18/3540]

Chapter 14


Early evening, Linda had a couple of glasses of wine with and after her dinner, then called Zac. "Hi Zac, it's Linda here!"

"Oh, hello Linda, nice to hear from you. I'm guessing Dianne passed my number on."

"Yes, she did.". The wine had indeed relaxed Linda, enabling her to ask: "Hey, I was wondering, would you like to get together sometime? Coffee? Lunch? Go see a movie? Or something like that?"

Zac was also feeling a bit nervous, and hadn't had the advantage of the two glasses of wine. "Umm, yeah, ok. Umm... you doing anything tomorrow? We could meet for lunch...".

Linda thought quickly: she was meeting Trevor at 11am, so would be finished there no later than noon. "That sounds good: I have a short meeting at 11, but I should be able to make it for 12:30, or soon after... Where you thinking? It doesn't need to be anywhere fancy, a place that does sandwiches and coffee will be fine..."

Zac made a suggestion, explaining where it was: whilst she had never actually been there, she vaguely remembered having seen the place.

"Yeah, ok..." Linda's pulse was racing: it had been a while since she had been on anything approaching a 'date', and the thought was a rather nice one. Besides, she was very much looking forward to meeting Zac, but this time one-on-one.

They talked awkwardly for a few more minutes, then said their goodbyes....

Yes, that definitely called for another glass of wine!

[20/4083]

Chapter 16

Linda put the phone into its car holder, and checked the time: good, it was only 11:45. The meeting had been a good one, and they hadn't wasted much time, so she was nicely ahead of schedule. She had already worked out where to park, so put the destination into Google Maps: 17 minutes.

By the time she had actually found a space in the multi-story car park, and walked back to the exit, it was still not even 12:15... meaning that she could have a nice relaxed walk to where she was meeting Zac.

Linda had officially been a 'pop star' for several months now, and was pretty good at dealing with people - like they had at the pub the other evening. So why was she feeling so nervous? As she was walking along, she realised that she had been subconsciously running her tongue over her braces. It was strange: if you had told her even six months ago that she would be wearing braces now, she would have laughed at you. Yes, her teeth weren't actually perfect, but they were well above average, so why would she ever need braces? Yet, she hadn't hesitated to get them to support Dianne.

The experience so far had been quite mixed. On the down side, it took AGES to brush them, and she needed to do that several times a day. Yes, Jenny had suggested she go get a water pik, but for some reason she hadn't done so yet. Also on the down side, they had initially made her cheeks sore, but that was no longer an issue. The TADs had been a lot easier to cope with than she'd thought they might.

On the positive side, she DID like they way she looked with the braces: they didn't make her feel shy or awkward at all. Funnily enough, once Dianne had actually got her braces (and remembering that she had a lip-bumper and a facebow as well), she was ok too. Whilst she would not wear the headgear out in public (or at the recording studios!), she was fine about wearing it when they rehearsed back at 'the mansion'.

Linda had by now got to the place they were having lunch, and she was just looking through the window to see if Zac was there, when a voice slightly surpised her.

"Linda?" asked Zac. She turned to see Zac looking at her, with a smile on his face. She smiled back, with a nice silver smile

"Ah, so that's why I couldn't see you inside!" she replied. Her heart missed a beat as she looked at Zac: he was actually pretty good looking, with nice straight white teeth, and a rather nice haircut too. Not mentioning his lovely warm voice.

"Shall we go in?" he suggested, smiling at Linda's comment about the hoodie. They joined the short queue at the counter. "Don't worry about the prices on the menu, have whatever you want!" said Zac, referring to the menus on Tuesday that had no prices - and would have been rather a lot more than the prices in here, if they HAD had prices!

"Oh, in that case, do they do 30 day hung steak sarnies?" joked Linda.

"I think they might do roast beef!" replied Zac. Zac too had been a bit apprehensive about meeting Linda again, after all, she was pretty much a mega-star in a girl group that had just had yet another number one hit.

They both got sandwiches and a cake, along with a coffee, and sat down. It was strange: whilst she could now afford to go fancy places like they had the other night, Linda actually felt very relaxed sitting and having a sandwich in a simple cafe like this.

She leant towards Zac and said very quietly: "Look a couple of simple ground-rules...". She was thinking about the earlier meeting. "First of all, there's a lot going on, and even more about to go on, planning for our tour and so on: please don't ask about any of it, it's not something we want to get out pre-tour. And second, no talking in public about who I am, and what I actually do..."

"But what about the hoodie?" replied Zac quietly. "It's a bit of a giveaway!"

"What about my hoodie?" said Linda in a more normal voice. "Cost me 45 quid when I saw them up in Wembley! Actually, no, I think it was 47! It was the last night of their tour, the one when Jenny proposed to Ben!". Of course, the joke was that Linda HAD been there, albeit side-stage, when Jenny had serenaded Ben then proposed!

"You were actually THERE that night?" said Zac, playing along. "That must have been fun!". By now, Linda was smiling, giving Zac a close-up of her braces, complete with bits of bread and meat stuck in them.

"Yeah, me and what... twelve thousand other fans! So look, you know about me,  tell me more about you... like what you actually do?...". With the ice broken, Linda was starting to relax, and she hoped that by getting Zac to talk about himself, then he might relax too.

"Well, as I said the other night, I'm a graphic designer. I'm working on an ad campaign for a new brand of makeup."

"Interesting. So are we talking ads for magazines, or videos for TV?"

"Both. We only just started on it, so coming up with general concepts. Is it going to be three hunky guys with a female model? Or something more 'normal'? After that, we design both the static and moving images..."

"So, how far do you get involved with the whole thing? As in... are you there when the do the filming or photos?". Of course, Linda had recently been involved with the cereals adverts, so was aware of the sort of things that happened.

"Sometime, yes, depends on the customer and so on. That's one of the things I like about what I do, Not only do I get to worth with the team on the initial ideas, we get to see it right the way through until we have the videos or pictures."

"Sounds like you really enjoy what you do: you're putting what you learned at college to great use."

"Probably no different from you," replied Zac, watching what he said. "you've used what you did at college too."

"I guess I have, haven't I? So you been where you are for long? And is it a big company?"

"Same place I started working for out of college. It's actually pretty small, there's just over a dozen of us in total... that's including a couple of 'general office people' plus the boss and his wife. Hey, how many people at where you 'work'? Obviously there's the four of you..."

"Well, Jenny's mum and dad are 'the bosses', but her brother also works for us, and two others. Of course, when we run a 'big event' there's a shed-load more!" I think they were both enjoying talking about what Linda did without making it obvious. "Before that I was working more as a 'contractor', often working with a fairly small team, but on a few occasions there would be over 50 people involved" added Linda, referring to her session work.

"So, you working today?" asked Zac.

"No, still on a few days off. We're waiting for the 'Canadian team' to arrive, which is next week: once they get here, we've got a LOT of work to do". Linda had explained at the dinner that their tour would be a joint one, with all 8 of them playing together, so they needed to write some new songs for them all. She paused. "It's nice to finally be able to talk to you alone...".

By now, Linda had become aware that Zac seemed to be quite attentive, looking at her, but as she smiled once more, she spotted his eyes look down briefly, as if he was looking at her mouth. Which made her smile even more, as she realised that he must be looking at her braces. Whilst she could have made a comment, she felt that it could be awkward for both of them in such a public place. So she said nothing. Hopefully there would be an occasion in the future when she could find out more.

"Yes, it was a bit crazy the other night, everyone wanting to talk. Hey, it was nice to meet Dianne by the way, she's pretty chilled too. Do I gather that she's single at the moment? I read that she split up with her last boyfriend..."

"You HAVE been doing your research, haven't you?"

"Well, I need to understand what I might be getting involved with..." That comment sounded good to Linda: not only was he wanting to meet for lunch today, he was looking ahead.

"So, yes, Dianne and I are both single at the moment..."

"So how long since you last dated then?" asked Zac.

"That's a good one. At least before I..." She was about to say 'joined CJD', but thought better about it. ".. before I joined the new company. And a bit before that. Let's say a couple of years. I mean, I've been out on plenty of 'social occasions', just not had someone special."

"And are you ready yet to....?"

"If the right person comes along, maybe..."

They both ate a bit more, and drank their drinks.

"So, would you like to 'get together' again sometime?" suggested Zac.

"That could be fun. What sort of things do you like doing then?" asked Linda.

"Well, I spend too much time watching TV and playing games, but in the summer I like being able to get out on my bike. Hey, you got a bike?"

"I do, but I have no idea what state it's in. It's in my shed, and I haven't used it for a year or more... But, if you're going to suggest going out for a bike ride, I'll make sure it's working!"

"Yes, I was going to suggest a bike ride..."

"But where? I know there's a few parks nearby, but they are all rather small..."

"Yeah... I just tend to throw the bike on the car, and head out somewhere like Addington, there's some nice places out that way. Of if you'd like to start easier, there's always South Norwood Park. You up for it then? I guess the big question is if you can get your bike ready in time?"

"Well, I've seen a couple of bike shops near where I live, and I've got the rest of today and all of tomorrow to get it sorted, that's assuming you're thinking about this weekend.". It had been a while since Linda had been out on her bike: she used to use it a lot before she got her car, for generally getting around, plus occasionally going out for a ride. The idea of going for a bike ride with Zac had two things going for it: the bike ride itself, and spending some quality time with Zac. Linda was finding that she felt quite comfortable talking with Zac, and had decided that she would like to get to know him better.


[22/4592]

Chapter 18

"So, any plans for dinner?" asked Linda.

"Not really."

"In that case, would you like to come back to my place for dinner?"

"What, a take-away?"

"Not at all, I have a load of food in my fridge and freezer, I can cook us something."

"I didn't realise that pop stars ever did their own cooking."

"I wasn't always a pop star, so I needed to learn to live on a tight budget, which meant that cooking for myself was a must. I actually enjoy cooking too... I mean, I'm not a big cooking fanatic, but cooking can be quite relaxing, it's not something that you can hurry. So, want to risk it? You're welcome to tweet about it.... although probably best wait till the world knows about you, if you don't want a big backlash."

"Yeah, ok..."

"Now, Zac... just because I'm inviting you back to mine is NOT an invitation to examine my bedroom, if you know what I mean! You gonna be ok with that?"

"In that case, can we just have a nice snog in the kitchen?" said Zac with a big smile.


Linda and Zac had a very pleasant and relaxing evening together: Zac seemed to like Linda's cooking, then they watched a couple of programs on Notflux.

"You doing anything tomorrow? Fancy going out together for lunch?" suggested Linda.

"You gonna be ok doing that? Won't people recognise you?"

"I have a feeling it's going to be a LOT harder after our tour, but I haven't had too many issues so far. I think loads of people KNOW about me, but not so many are familiar with how I look. Yeah, they've maybe seen the 'on-stage', but less likely they've seen me when I'm normal."

"You? Normal? Is that possible?" joked Zac. "So, yeah, this tour... you looking forward to it? Or does it fill you with dread? Three months you said - that's a long time to be away from home!"

"At the moment I'm quite looking forward to it. Northern Girls arrive on Tuesday, and that's when the hard work starts. We did our album, and specifically took a short break, so hopefully we'll be suitably refreshed. We need to not only work out the details of what the tour's gonna be like, but we'll be playing some stuff with the Northern Girls, so that all needs to be written, which I think is going to be either great fun, or stupidly stressful. I'm kinda hoping that we'll all be suitably chilled about the whole thing... if we start having 'power struggles' now, it will be hell on tour!"

"So what's it like touring? You did a tour with the band last year..."

"It's a mix of fun and boredom, and luckily that was just a short tour. This one is a bit longer, but we have made sure to build in a few 'days off', not just for us, the crew will need some down-time too."

"Hey, you gonna be playing at that new place up in Manchester?"

"Oh, the Co-op Live Arena? Yeah, there's a rumour that we could end up being the opening act!"

"No way, your tour is still months away!"

"And the place is still not open: as I said....". Zac laughed as he realised that Linda was joking.

"Doesn't a tour start to send you a bit... well... 'crazy'?"

"A lot of it's about including some normality. Jenny can get quite stressed: last tour she was struggling towards the end, but then Ben came and joined her, and that gave her back her 'normality'. He'll be with us the whole of this tour... he's going to be working as part of our management team, helping Brian and Lisa."

"I'm guessing you must have quite a big team around you when you go on tour? I'm thinking that you must need people to do your hair and all that?"

"Hairdressers, makeup, people to help us put on our costumes... and that's before we think about the stage crew or our dancers."

"Can't you put your own clothes on then?"

"It's not so bad at the start of the show, but during the show we'll have costume changes, so we need someone to make sure we each have the correct dress, and then hang up the old ones afterward. Anyway, back to tomorrow lunch... fancy a Sunday Roast?"


[24/4915]

This is so much better than the working copy Sparky let me see.

I agree keeping real performers out of the story is a good choice. Referencing them is a good way to get people to think, 'Could it have happened,' without having to try to fit a date into the story.

I have a slightly different problem with the stories I write. Making my stories about other things besides braces is still a challenge for me.

Chapter 21

Not knowing whether the traffic there would be good or bad, the CJDL team, complete with Paula, had arrived at the airport to greet the Northern Girls quite a bit early, to then discover that the flight was running about 45 minutes late.

"Seems to me that we could this extra time we have to let Linda have a word with the press out there," suggested Paige. "I'm sure they'd like to know a bit more... although I did count at least 3 crews."

"Sounds fine by me" replied Linda. Whilst she had done the stream last night, she knew that the press would want to actually speak to her. "... although having to repeat myself 3 or more times isn't so appealing."

"Hmm, I have an idea," suggested Carol, "kinda like what we did in Korea: I'll offer to interview you for all of them. And if they have extra questions, I can put them to you. One good interview, rather than many bored ones. And it's not like I've never interviewed anyone." Carol was referring to the fact that she had not only joined Tom on his show on many occasions now, and effectively interviewed a LOT of callers, she had even sat in for Tom for a couple of days when he had been ill... and taken the opportunities to speak to (or 'interview') several other well known pop stars.

So, Paige, Brian, Carol and Linda walked over to the now 4 waiting camera crews, persuading them to join them in a slightly quieter area. Paula held slightly back, to get more general shots. She had put small audio recorders onto Linda and Brian, to capture extra audio: her own camera would also be recording the audio.

Paige introduced herself. "So, you are all aware of Linda's news last night, and we know you all want to get an interview with her. And whilst those of you who get the first interviews will be happy, the latter ones will be less good, as Linda starts to get a bit bored with it all. So we have an idea. One interview for you all... but that gives you the problem of who would carry out the interview.... Carol, over to you!"

"Hi everyone, always nice to meet you guys, especially when you are good to us! So here's my suggestion: I'll interview Linda for you. I know her story, and will ask the questions in a way that Linda might be much more willing to answer. At the end, if I've missed anything, then you can give me the questions, and I can ask them, and you can edit them in how you like. That way you all get a good fresh interview, and I'm sure your viewers will be happy to see me doing the interviewing. So, what do you think?"

There was a bit of discussion, but in the end the consensus was to go with her suggestion. Carol spent a few minutes with the presenters explaining what she'd be asking Linda about, and a couple of them came up with a couple more good questions. Once again, Paula stood back from the group so that she could film what was happening more generally: they would be able to get the actual news footage form the relevant companies later on.

"Hi everyone," started Carol, "I'm Carol from CJDL, and I'm here with Linda, and we thought that, while we wait for Northern Girls to arrive, I could ask her a few questions about the announcement she made online last night. So, hello there, Linda! Now, let's start at the start: what was your big news last night?"

The cameras were now panning over and zooming in to Linda, who smiled pleasantly for the cameras, shwing off her lovely metallic smile. "Well, I have a new boyfriend. His name is Zac, and he is a graphic designer."

"So, tell us the story about how you met him..."

Linda summarised the story that we all know well now, with Carol asking a couple of questions to get a few more details. Effectively Linda repeated what she and Zac had said the previous evening on the stream.

"So, where's he from? And does he have any brothers or sisters?" One advantage with Carol asking the questions was that she knew that Linda would be ok answering them, so would give good positive answers, rather than trying to evade the question, which never looked good on TV.

"His parents live in Carshalton, and before you ask, no I've not met them yet... and for that matter, he's not met my parents either!" she said with a slight giggle. "And yes, he has a sister, she's about 4 years older than him, and apparently works as a 'retail manager' somewhere in South London, and lives in the wider Croydon area, kinda like us."

"So, last night he met all of us, everyone in the band, plus a few others: how did he feel about that?" Linda explained how, initially he had said he wasn't into girl bands, and how she had jokingly called him her 'anti-fan' on their first meeting... but how, having heard the band's new album, he was a lot more accepting of their music style. "But I think he quite enjoyed meeting everyone last night, by the end of the evening he seemed quite relaxed."

"Oooh, you mentioned the new album there: are we allowed to say anything about that, do you think?" asked Carol. She was definitely into territory where, had this been a normal interview, the response would have been a 'sorry, not something I can really talk about'. But they had decided to talk a bit about it, without really giving too much away.

"Well, in the same way that the last album was a bit of a change from what you guys had been doing before, I think our fans should expect another change, although maybe not QUITE as big a change. I've had a lot of input into this new album, I fully wrote or partly wrote quite a few of the songs, and I think you're seeing my musical tastes come through. But I think they are all still recognisable as being CJDL songs."

"Any idea when it's going to be released? And what news of a new single?" These, again, were a couple of questions that they knew the press would like, and had decided to give them a bit of a teaser.

"I believe the album will be out a few weeks before we go on tour. As for the single, I can't say a lot right now, but it is a song that I wrote, and it's going to be a bit different in terms of the 'pacing' of the song, but everyone who has heard it so far seems to like it. And I guess it will also get released before we go on tour, because I don't know about you Carol, but I want to be able to sing it when we're on tour as our single! So, when it's out, remember to buy it and stream it!"

"Ok, here's an interesting question, it came from one of the TV interviewers over there: as the 'new girl' in the band, do you still feel like you're the new girl?"

Linda smiled. "Yeah, nice question. And the answer is actually very easy: no, I really feel like I'm one of the band now. You guys were always good to me, but while we've been writing and recording the new album, there's never been any feeling that I'm anything but part of CJDL. So, I guess you guys are stuck with me for now!"

"Linda, thank you so much for answering my questions so candidly!"

"My pleasure, Carol, it's been fun." She paused a moment, then turned to the reporters. "Look, Tom and Ben - that's Jenny and Carol's boyfriends - are really appreciative of the privacy you afford them when they aren't with us. Please can I ask you to extend the same courtesy to Zac? I know you'd all have liked to have met Zac today, but he has to work, kinda like the rest of us. But I promise I'll organise a way for you guys to meet him sometime soon! Thanks!". Everyone seemed to be ok with that.

"Can I ask one more simple question?" asked one of the reporters.

"Sure, fire away! replied Carol.

"Well, it's more to do with the tour than with Linda: any ideas yet what the shape of the performances will be like?"

Carol, Linda and Brian had a very quick chat. "I'm afraid it's going to be a bit of a non-answer, but let's do it." Carol and Linda got themselves back into position.

"Linda, a quick question about our tour: do we know yet what's going to happen in the performances?"

"I'm afraid not, that's one of the first things we'll be working on with Northern Girls in the next week or two. However, there's no way it's going to be two separate performances: we've already decided that we want to all perform together, as well as alone, but beyond that we just haven't decided." Linda paused and turned to the reporter who had asked the question. "That a good enough answer for you?"

"Yup, that's fine. I must admit, I'm really looking forward to seeing what you girls all do, I think it's going to be quite interesting!"

The TV crews all went away happy: whilst they had all just recorded the same interview, their questions had all be answered, and in a few cases, in more depth than they might have otherwise been answered.

Carol felt quite chuffed that she had clearly done an acceptable interview: maybe it was something she could do a bit more for the band. In fact, it was something that she repeated less than an hour later... In the meantime, Carol and Linda joined Jenny and Dianne, who were chatting with a small group of fans. After giving some of them their autographs, they too had a chat with them... and yes, Linda got loads of questions about Zac. But Linda didn't mind: unlike the press, these were the people that directly supported the band, by buy concert tickets and merchandise, and paying for their records. People a bit like she had been up until a year ago.


Finally, after a couple of cups of coffee and, and after a 45 minute delay (something to do with the jet-stream winds not being as strong as normal) Northern Girls arrived, and came into the arrivals area. Whilst everyone else was kept back, our four girls went over to Taylor, Kate, Meg and Erin, and hugged them. Paula was nearby, and filmed it all.

"It's great to see you all again!" said Linda.

"And you too... so, we're finally here! The roller-coaster is about to depart!" replied Kate.

"Yeah, but I think it's going to be a lot of fun!"


Having got pictures of the 4 Canadian girls actually arriving, as a result of Carol's earlier help, the TV crews quickly went to a quieter area where our 4 CJDL members brought the 4 Northern Girls. Brian had spoken with their entourage, including their manager, Andre, and they were all keeping themselves slightly out of the way of the cameras: they knew how important this publicity was.

Three of the camera crews had a sound guy, with a boom mic, so Carol just had to hold two radio mics in her hand.

"Hi everyone, I'm Carol, from CJDL, and I'm here with the other three members of my band to welcome the 4 ladies from Northern Girls to England! Hi ladies!" There was a big cheer, not just from the 8 ladies themselves, but also the crowd that had gathered. "I guess the first thing I should do is to get these ladies to introduce themselves...". As the four Canadian ladies introduced themselves, they all smiled, letting everyone see the shiny metalwork on their teeth. Clearly, at some point, they would need to address 'the elephant in the room': why did 8 pop stars all have braces? But Carol had decided that this would NOT be mentioned today: Northern Girls (and CJDL for that matter) needed to have a good, simple, and easily acceptable story. Without a certain level of planning, awkward questions might get asked, and embarrassment caused.

"So you're in England now to prepare for our European tour" Carol asked Taylor, the leader of the 4 ladies.

"That's right. We just finished recording our new album, but I think we've all got a lot of work ahead of us to get ready for this tour!"

"How was the recording?"

"Yeah, a few issues, if only because our producer wanted it to be 'just right', but otherwise it all went ok."

"Any plans to 'pop back home' before the actual tour?"

"I suspect we might, but that would just be for a few days. There's a lot to do, and we're used to being away from home." replied Taylor,.

"Any time for a bit of sightseeing maybe?"

"I hope so! Doing what we do is actually not a lot different from what most people do, we work hard during the days while preparing for a tour, so we need a few days off every so often. And I know there's so much to see here in London and nearby..."

Carol chatted to the other band members for several minutes, then turned to the TV crews: "Any other questions?". There were a couple, and Linda asked them. Again, the TV crews were appreciative of what Carol had done.

"I'm impressed, Carol." commented Andre. "That worked really well, and got it all over with quite quickly!"

"Yeah, I did one with Linda earlier too. But I suspect we'll have a few more interviews to do between now and the start of the tour!"




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Chapter 23


"Hey, Linda, you got anything planned for tonight?" asked Jenny.

"No, why?"

"Well, Ben and I were going to team up with Taylor and Phil, and go out for a nice meal. Just wondering if you and Zac want to join us. I was going to tip Sarah off, let her and her pap friends get some pics, so it would be a great opportunity to introduce Zac to them."

"Good idea! Let me call Zac, see if he's up for it....". She got her phone out and called Zac. "Hey, Zac, would you like to come out with us for dinner tonight?" Linda asked Zac.

"Who's us, then?"

"Jenny and Ben, plus Taylor and her boyfriend Phil. It's actually a good opportunity for you to finally 'meet the press'... because it won't just be you they're interested in!"

"Hmmm..." commented Zac.

"Look, Zac, if you're wanting to go out with me, you're going to have to accept that the press and photographers are part of my life. And our experience is that things always work out better when we're upfront, and proactively give them photo ops."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Doesn't make it any less scary though!"

"Don't worry about it, we've got to know most of them now, especially Sarah's friends, and they are actually nice guys. So, you up for it?"

"Sarah? Who's she?"

"A very friendly photographer: in the same way we give Tom quite a few exclusives for the radio, we  give Sara first dibs on some good photo ops, like tonight. Don't worry, she's very much on our side. Ages ago, Jenny had her long hair cut, ended up being an ambassador for a wigs charity, and Sarah did a load of stuff for the charity for free - big win-win for everyone involved. So, yeah, Sarah's one of the 'good guys'!"

"So, yeah, I guess so. So where, when, and what sort of dress code?"

"Here at the mansion, we'll organise transport from here. Can you make it for say 6-30? And smart casual, what you wore out when I treated everyone would be just right..."

"Can you make it, say, 6-45, give me time to get home and change. I mean, I have my hair and makeup to do too!" he said, pulling Linda's leg.

Linda laughed. "Just trying to imagine you in makeup, to the level we wear on stage..." Linda smiled at the thought. "Ok, 6-45 is fine! See you later.... love you!"

"Umm...."

"Go on, say it, it won't hurt you!"

"I'm at work..."

"Yeah, so am I! Come on...."

"Ok... I love you too...." said Zac softly.



Zac arrived a few minutes early, and Linda introduced him to the Northern Girls. They had organised themselves into small groups of 4 and 6 to go out for meals tonight, in different places.

Jenny had spoken with Sarah, to tip her off about where they would be, so she would be waiting with a small group of paps, ready to take their pictures. Clearly, they would be interested in Taylor, as well as Linda and Zac.

An UberXL arrived soon after, and they all went off to their restaurant. Jenny messaged Sarah on the way, so they could all be waiting for them when they arrived.


Sarah was waiting with 3 other photographers where Jenny had told them they would arrive. The Uber pulled up, and Jenny was the first to get out, along with Ben. They waited a moment to let the small group of paps get ready for them.

"Hi everyone! Nice to see you all." The cameras started clicking. "Ok, so name checks, wouldn't want you getting them wrong, would we? So, you know me and Ben by now, so let me introduce you to Taylor, and her boyfriend Phil: she's the 'frontman' for Northern Girls...".

Taylor got out of the Uber with Phil, and they stood there letting the team take their photos. "Hi guys, nice to meet you. I'll guess you must be Sarah... you're the only lady here!"

"Hi Taylor! Yes, that's me!" replied Sarah.

"And now, the couple I suspect you REALLY want to meet. CJDL member Linda, and her new boyfriend, Zac!". Jenny had got good at introducing people.

Linda and Zac got out, and stood there, letting the team take their photos. "Ok, Zac, we need to give then something worthwhile!" said Linda quietly to Zac. Linda knew that they wanted something a 'bit more interesting than just standing there', so she started by putting her arm around Zac, and giving him a bit of a hug - she could hear the cameras working hard. Next she put her hand up to Zac's face, and smiled. "Go on, give them a nice smile!". Finally, she moved in for a kiss, which she held, to make sure they all got some good pictures.

"So, Zac, say hi to Sarah, she's the one that organised this reception for us. Oh, and that's  Bill, and that's Sanjay... you'll get to know them after a bit!". Linda waved at them all.

"So, you guys gonna be ok with the same 'rules' for Zac as you do for Ben and Tom... so leave him alone when he's not with me?" The team of paps agreed.

"Thanks guys, I'm still very new to all this... so go gently on me, will you?" said Zac, trying to break the ice a little. More clicks.

"Can we have some pics of you three girls, please?" asked Sarah.

"But of course..." They got themselves into position, then had a bit of fun. "Hey, faces together and smile, girls!" suggested Jenny. The three of them smiled, letting the paps see their metallic smiles.

"That's a lot of metal you have there!" said Bill.

"You sound like you understand braces there, Bill..."

"Oh, my teen daughter has them, not over keen on them. So yeah... as I said, a lot of metal."

"If you think we have a lot of metal, wait till you see the other five. We all have braces!"

"Eight girls with braces: that's gonna be quite some sight!" said Bill.

Something clicked in Jenny's mind. She looked at Linda and Taylor. "Eight girls in Braces?... that could be a good name for the band! Thanks for the idea, Bill!"

"It's gonna cost you...."

"Tell you what, how about we do a selfie with you for your daughter? And we'll record you a video message for her too."

Bill smiled. "Oh, she'd LOVE that! She's a big fan....".

"Ok, Sarah, want to take some pics, pass them on to Bill?". The three girls gathered around Bill, so that Sarah - and the others - could take pics. "So, what's your daughter called?" asked Jenny.

"She's called Lily."

"Lily... nice name.... Ok, Bill, ready?". Bill got his camera ready to record video, and nodded. "Ok, so hello there, Lily, I'm Jenny, and this is Linda, and we're half of CJDL. And this lady is Taylor, she's the frontman of Northern Girls, I suspect you'll be seeing a lot more of her in the next month or two. So, your dad - Bill - has come here to take our pics, and he told us that you have braces too, but aren't so keen on them. Well, we're here to tell you that braces are actually very cool, and you should never be ashamed of showing them off, be proud of having them! Besides, they aren't forever, and when you're done, you'll have an amazing smile!" With that, all three of them smiled at the camera, once more showing off their metal smiles, then finished by waving at the camera.

"Thank you, Jenny, she's gonna be amazed when I show that to her! Thanks!"

"Ok, guys, we need to get going, I'm sure we'll be seeing you all again soon! And remember to give Zac his space, will you..."



"So, Ben, you've obviously been through all this: what am I letting myself in for?" asked Zac over dinner.

"Well, for a start, you can expect to see those pictures in the papers and online over the next few days. To be honest, from what I saw, there's nothing there to be ashamed of. If you bump into any of the paps, just be nice to them, and remind them if needed about not taking your picture. I've actually had a couple of nice chats with some of them: at the end of they day, they just need to do their job, same as the girls have to do their job. When you're with Linda, trust Linda: I've seen her handle the press, and she seems to have got pretty good at it."

"Do you ever get people in the street coming up to you?"

"Not all that often. If I've got the time, then I'll maybe have a quick chat to them. If I'm busy, I'll kinda acknowledge them and continue on, but being polite. Oh, by the way, if you get any problems, public or paps, do let us know. Take their picture if you need to. I had a bit of an issue with a photographer from one of the dailies in the early days: Jennifer just kicked him and his reporter out of their next press conference, making it clear why! No real issues since then."

"Yeah, Linda told me about that one. So what sort of stuff can I expect when I'm with Linda?"

"Depends on what she's doing. When they go and 'meet the fans', then the fans are mainly there for them, but may want to take some pics of you as a couple. Be nice to them, make their day, and they'll love you for it. One of the things I often do is to help 'organise' their fans, maybe taking pics with their cameras for them - although Paige tends to do that if she's there."

"If in doubt, just ask me..." said Linda. "As far as official photographers go, we can usually guess where they will be, so we always try to build in a few minutes for them. If we just bump into someone, then we'll give them some time if we can: most of them really appreciate that, take their pics quickly, and let us get on with things. So, yeah, it was weird for me at first, but I'm pretty used to it now. Although, if you need to speak to an expert, then speak to Jenny!"

"When Ben's with me, he just assumes that we will get 'accosted' by someone at some point. If we have time, we'll stop briefly - our fans are important, and without them, we'd have no tour... and without the tour, we'd be pretty poor!"

"Don't you get money from selling CDs and streaming..."

"Yes, now we're more successful, it's better, but is still quite small compared to what a tour can bring in...." explained Jenny.

"This next tour is going to be a big one, the money involved is what you'd expect to see in a medium sized business." explained Ben. "Do the maths: ticket price times size of audience is a BIG number. But there's a LOT of expenditure too. But at the end of it all, the band is going to - hopefully - make some serious money... which will pay for all of our time over the last few months working on their music, plus the next couple of months getting ready before the tour, and the 3 months ON the tour. And I'm sure they are going to need some 'down-time' afterwards... they usually do!"

Linda thought about that: yes, she'd definitely have (more like NEED!) a few weeks off, and then she might be working on 'Singer behind the Mask'... Yes, she really WAS hoping they would let her do that, it would be so different, but the idea of her being solo, no band to work with, well that was actually a bit scary!

"So, yes, your life will be different, but take it in your stride, and you may find you enjoy the experience. At the end of the day, I guess it's all part of the 'going out with Linda' package! By the way, if you need any help, or want to talk, I'm here for you, and I'm sure Tom would be ok too."

"So Taylor, what's it like for you guys over in Canada?" asked Zac

"I get the feeling we do things a bit differently. We don't interact with our fans like these guys do. And watching these two handle the photographers earlier, wow, that was an eye-opener for me! Maybe we four need to get trained up by these girls!"

As they chatted, they exchanged stories about fans, performances, dealing with the press and TV.

"So, Zac, how are you feel about going on TV with Linda then?" asked Ben.

"TV? You kidding me?"

"No. I'm sure they'd love to have you. I've been on TV with Jennifer a couple of times, and it was ok."

"I'm assuming they'll want us to go on TV at some point?" asked Taylor.

"Yes, there was talk about maybe next week, all eight of you, but still waiting to hear. They don't know what they are letting themselves in for, do they? So, by then, we'll need to have a group name, and the name for the tour. We'll probably get Carol to tell the world on Tom's show."

"Ah, yes, he's a DJ on a local station, isn't he?"

"That's right. I know he'd like you four to join him in the studio sometime..." said Ben.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Carol will be there too," explained Linda, "in fact she'll probably be the one talking with you most of the time. She often sits in with Tom during his show, and even did a couple of the shows when he got ill - with a bit of help of course! Probably one of the more relaxed bits of radio you'll get to do!"

"Yeah, we have a good relationship with a couple of the guys at CBKZ, our local station."



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How odd, I thought I had already posted chapter 25, which is the last chapter. That's what happens as you get older, you start to forget things, or miss things!

-----------------

Chapter 25

Zac joined everyone for dinner the following evening: Linda was really trying hard in her relationship with Zac, and would have just gone out with him for the evening, but was rather tired after a busy day.

"So, Linda told me you were trying to decide whether you want to keep or change your logo..."

"Yes, I'm divided right down the middle: part of me want to remain 'loyal' to our existing logo, the other half is thinking that maybe it's time for an upgrade!" commented Carol.

"Well, I hope you don't mind, but I've been thinking about logos for you, and had a word with my boss, with the result that he let me spend the afternoon coming up with some very basic ideas. They are nowhere near finished images... how do I describe it? Well, I guess if you guys are looking to come up with a new song, you'll maybe grab a guitar, and start strumming, see what tunes, what words come into your heads. Or maybe like Linda out for a chinese meal with her friends, and she starts thinking about ideas for a song about her friends. What you have is little ideas, concepts, there's a lot more work to be done before you have an actual finished song. Or logo..."

"Ok, that makes a lot of sense. So I know how I write a song, so how does a graphic designer come up with a logo?" asked Jenny.

"Well, a lot is going to depend on exactly what you are working on. Let's take a sports shoe company: they need a logo that has no relationship to their company name, but gives out the 'ethos' of what that company is about... so we'd probably run a couple of 'brainstorming sessions' with the customer. Find out who their target customer is: young or old. What values do those people have, and that sort of thing..."

"So, I guess you're talking about the 'Nike tick' sort of thing?"

"Yeah, exactly who I was thinking about, I'm sure they spent a LOT of time understanding what their business is about. But for you guys, that's not really so relevant."

"How so?"

"Well, YOU are the product. We KNOW who you are. We KNOW your target audience and so on. You have a band name which really HAS to be part of any logo you use..."

"Ah, yes, right...."

"So, I went back to basics, and just let my mind go wild, tried to come up with a few different ideas. I'm thinking that maybe I can plug a USB stick into your TV after we've finished in here, and walk you through what I did..."

"Hey, Zac, thank you!" said Linda. "It's odd, and I suspect it's like this for all of us, but it's not often I get to see what someone I know actually DOES in their job! So I'm looking forward to see what you have come up with!"


So, maybe an hour later, they have all settled into the lounge, and Callum has set up the usb stick in the TV, and passed the control over to Zac. "Ok, so, do you guys remember what your first band logo was?" asked Zac.

"Well, pretty similar to what we have now, I guess!" replied Dianne.

"Bzzzt! Sorry, wrong answer!" said Zac, smiling. "Think back a bit...."

There was silence as everyone thought. Callum smiled, because he'd already seen the image that Zac was about to show.

"Half a moment, you're not thinking back to when we were 'Just Three Girls' are you?" asked Jenny.

Zac smiled. "Well remembered, Jenny! I did a bit of digging online, and found THIS...". He showed a picture of a an old poster, with a simple logo for 'Just Three Girls'. The next image was a closeup, the last one was an aspect corrected view, that showed the logo nice and square.

"Wow, nice one, Zac! I'd forgotten all about that one..." said Carol.

"It's very simple, only just a logo, rather than simply words. I'm guessing knocked up buy a friend at school or college who could draw a little. But it does it's job! So, why DID you change the name?"

"I think that might have been me" said Brian. "I guess my thinking was that it was a big 'generic' for a band. Needless to say it was Jenny that came up with 'CJD'!"

"Well, I think she did well. Yes, I think you were right Brian, 'Just Three Girls' is a bit generic. Nice, but still generic. Ok, so this is the earliest CJD logo I was able to find, and as you said, Dianne, not THAT different from what you have now, apart form the added 'L' for Linda." The next picture showed the current 'CJDL' logo. "Ok, so I decided to do two things. The first was to play with the current logo, see what simple tweaks I could do. After that, I just went 'blue sky', and let my mind wander. Kinda like Linda at the restaurant!"

The next few images took the existing logo, played with different colours (rather than the simple black currently used). He paused at one where he put the four girls faces into the letters.

"A interesting idea, but doesn't actually work that well... but you never know till you try it, do you?"

"Hey, just like writing a song! Tell you what, I'm looking forward to seeing your new ideas..."

"Well, that's what we're going to next. So, think of these as very raw ideas, concepts. Maybe you like a specific idea. Maybe you think that 2 of the ideas could be merged. Maybe you like the image, but not the colours. I'm kinda hoping that at the end of this, if nothing else, you'll know whether you want to keep your current logo, of do something new: if that's all I do tonight, then this work will have been worth it!"

Zac showed the girls maybe 30 very simple ideas, very quick sketches if you will, all very different. "So, I then looked at those, and chose 4 of them, to go a bit further. Still very raw, but a bit more developed...". Zac showed them more pictures, and was watching the girl's reactions as he displayed the different images.

"So, I took that last idea, and went a bit further...." This time, the logo incorporated their their upper bodies, then a version with just their faces. "Of course, once you HAVE a logo, you can do some silly things, just for one purpose... maybe for a specific tour..." The last image was very similar to the previous one, with their faces in the logo. Except this time they were all smiling, and showing off their braces! There were smiles and giggles all around.

"Hey, Zac, thanks for doing that!" said Ben, "Some VERY different ideas there. Jenny, you weren't sure the other day about the logo, has this helped you in any way?"

"Yeah, Zac, that was very thought provoking, and my thoughts now... yes, I think it IS time for a change. I'd like to go through those again tomorrow, try and work out which bits of what I like..."

"You know, you're right, it DOES feel like the way we create our music, and what you showed us, well, an interesting set of ideas." said Carol. "I'm with Jenny though, it's made me be 100% certain that we need a new logo for the band. Dianne? You were not so sure the other day..."

"So what's the next step then?" asked Ben.

"We need to make it official: I'll get your initial ideas, then get a couple of the other guys to add their ideas in, then get you over to meet everyone and see what they have done. I'm assuming there's no problems with... well, paying us for our work?"

========

So, looks like the band will have a nice new logo for their tour!

With Northern Girls now joining our 4 ladies, I'll end this story about Linda, and move the story over to a new one, called 'CJDL on Tour', which will follow the band's journey through the tour preparations, and into their tour.



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