So the "CJDL Story" now switches from Dianne over to Linda.

There was a short "Linda story" a bit ago, not quite sure which storyverse that happened in. It might have been this one, either sometime between the past and now, or maybe it's in the future, I'm not sure. It was a very short relationship with a guy that Linda had met at the supermarket, so doesn't have a major effect on this story..

So, the four members of CJDL are all now braced: they just got their ligs changed, and are currently sporting some bright neon-blue ones. The girls are working hard on songs for the new album, and Linda's story will follow them whilst recording the new album, plus working with Northern Girls, preparing for their big European tour.

The first thing the new story will be covering will be their copyright issue with Fiona Lewis... if you remember, Dianne 'stole' several lines of lyrics for Fiona's song, and as well as simply recompensing her, have suggested some 'joint ventures' to boost Fiona's singing career.

Chapter 2

So, the tour dates have been pretty much fully worked out, and the tickets for the UK, being the first of the dates, already went on sale. As promised, the fan club members had tickets reserved for them, allowing any of them who wanted to go (and could afford it, tickets weren't cheap!) to go. It goes without saying that there has recently been a large number of new fan club members!

It's a couple of days later, and they've all just had breakfast together.

"Linda can you spare a minute?" asked Brian.

"Sure...". Linda went with Brian into his office.

"I've actually got a few bits to chat with you about."

"You sound like the headmaster, about to tell me, one of your pupils, off!".

Brian laughed. "No, nothing bad. It's probably closer to an 'informal annual appraisal'." he replied, smiling. "So why don't I start by asking  how thing are with you, the girls, the band, the rest of us...."

Linda thought a moment. "You know, things are actually pretty good! We all still seem to get on well, despite how much time we spend together. There's no nastiness, and I really feel part of the group, and not like a 'new girl'."

"I think they feel good about you too: you've definitely contributed your share over the last few months. So, you should have got your 'back-pay' from the girls by now, is that all ok?"

"Very much so, it's actually quite a bit more than I expected!"

"Yes, we did quite well on the last tour, despite it being a short one. By the way, if you need help with finding suitable 'wealth management' consultants, then do ask. To be honest, you need to look after whet you earn now carefully, it may need to last you a while. Got any plans for it yet?"

"Yes, I'm seriously looking for a new flat, or maybe even a house. Where I am now is rented, and while it's nice, I could do with a slightly bigger place."

"Well, again, if you need recommendations for solicitors and so on, ask. Which actually brings us nicely to the thing I really need to talk to you about..."

"Oh yeah, what's that?"

"Well, as you know, this house is jointly owned by Jenny, Carol and Dianne, along with me and Lisa. We were wondering if you were at all interested in 'investing' in the house too?"

"You think I'm THAT rich?"

"No, not yet, but this next tour is going to bring in quite a bit of money, for all of you, probably more than you realise. And I'm not suggesting a massive lump sum. Whilst we own this house outright, the girls actually have mortgages on their own houses."

"So what you proposing then?"

"Well, as you know, we currently use one of the bedrooms as an office for Callum and Paige. We'd like to turn it back into a bedroom again, so we'd like to build an outside extension, with office space, plus some storage space. If you're interested, then you would pay for that work, and use that as your first investment. In addition, the fund we have for property maintenance is getting a bit low, so you can also contribute to that..."

"And how much would you be talking about?"

"Not really sure yet, for now I'm just asking if you're interested. Clearly we'll need to get the place valued, so we can fairly decide what your share will be, but we'll get that all checked by a solicitor, and we can be very open about all the costs. There's no real rush, I'm not really going to have time to pursue it properly till after the tour, but if you're interested, then I can get the ball rolling on getting the new offices designed and then costed. So take your time, think about it. Maybe have a chat with the others."

"Yeah ok. In principle I do like the idea, but I do need to have a proper think about it."

"Sure. Hey, by the way, thank you for your help with that copyright issue: your knowing Fiona was so useful!"

"Yeah, I feel really bad for Dianne, it's a writer's worst nightmare! You know, Fiona made a comment on the show, about solicitors and managers speaking, almost ignoring the artists: in so many cases it feels like the only people who REALLY make money out of copyright issues are the lawyers. Ok, yes, I can understand that sometimes things can be very 'grey', but when you've simply screwed up, why don't more people just admit to it, and work out a solution. Dianne had a lot of guts to own up on the chat show you know, with so many people looking on - she has my respect for that!"

"Couldn't agree more! So, you looking forward to the tour? I know there's still a lot to do!"

"Yes, it's gonna be a lot more work than the last tour. I'm really looking forward to working with Northern Girls again. And, of course, Yu-Eye arrives tomorrow. It will be interesting working with someone new, but we got on well over in Korea, and we've exchanged a few emails since too. I think she'll do us a lot of good. Is anyone going to collecting her?"

"Callum was going to go. Join him if you like!"

"Sure, that could be fun, as long as I don't get spotted."

"If noone is expecting you to be there, then you're less likely to be seen! Just don't smile too much, or you might give the game away: there can't be THAT many people with blue braces!"


So the following afternoon, Linda and Callum went up to Heathrow late afternoon to meet Yu-Eye. She was staying at 'the mansion' with the girls for the next two to three weeks, while they worked on then recorded their new material. After that, she was planning on being a tourist for a couple of weeks!


[1/487]

So far, the 4 CJDL girls have had pink and now blue ligatures. When they go on tour, there will be EIGHT of them in braces.

The big question is: how will they do their ligs?

- everyone in the same, single, colour?
- each has a single colour, 8 different colours for 8 different girls?
- some sort of mix of colours?
- rainbow?

Whilst they are performing, there will be cameras able to do great closeups, so they clearly want to show off their braces to their fans.

(Of course, they'll be in England for a couple of weeks at the start of their tour, giving them a chance to visit their ortho and change their ligs before moving on to Europe)

It's interesting that we would often think "you must go back to your own ortho to get your ligs changed", but when you are in their situation (ie money is not REALLY a big problem!), it would be VERY possible to organise local ortho visits, especially as you're not asking those ortho's to do any actual treatment, but just swap out some little bits of rubber!

Maybe they need an ortho as part of their tour entourage, and change the ligs during the show!!!!

Yes, very good point. Maybe they can get Ben to do it for them....



Chapter 4


Thursday: Linda was actually quite excited, as it had been a while since she had actually managed to meet up with some of the people she was at college with: yes, she HAD been busy the last 6 months, but her whole life had changed - mainly for the better - and she had been doing so many other things. Like flying off to Korea. Or going up to Birmingham at a moment's notice! And writing new songs, including the first OST for that new anime.

"Guys, I hope you won't mind, but we'll need to finish a bit early tonight."

"Oh, some secret fella you've not told us about asked you out on a date?".

Linda smiled. "No, not quite as exciting, I'm meeting up with a group of friends from college I've not seen for a bit."

"Oh, ok... nothing wrong with that! Anyone we'd remember?"

"I doubt it, they're from my year, and who ever remembers kids from 'the year below'?

"Yeah, that's so true!"

So, that afternoon Linda had specifically asked the girls to take a slight break from recording, and quickly run through HER songs, so she could record them, and play them to Mary and the others that evening. After they finished for the day, she had gone home, back to her own place, to get some different clothes, then organised an Uber to get her to The Ship. The Ship is a pub, and that means they sell alcohol. And she intended to drink some. And you can't drive if you've been drinking. So the taxi was an obvious choice.

In terms of her looks, she had very specifically made sure she wasn't too 'glam' tonight, which was actually reasonably easy. The problem was that, if she dressed up too much, she might attract attention, and might get noticed as being who she was in her 'daytime job'. Yes, she would be very open with her college friends about who she was - to be honest, they all knew she was Linda Jacobson anyway, they all knew she used to do music at college, so if they had heard any pop news, they would know that she was now a member of a very big pop group.

So, I realise that I've never really described Linda, have I? Linda is 5ft 7in tall, the tallest of the four of the girls by a whole inch! Her hair is a pretty non-descript brown colour, to a little below her shoulders, which allows her to do various things with it. Typically, when she was 'on show', she would have her hair down, maybe clipped back at the sides a bit to keep it out of her face, which meant that by simply putting it up in some way, it could help to stop people instantly recognise her. When she was at college, her hair was a lot shorter, and she had been thinking recently whether to have it cut.... that was a decision for another day, for now she had simply tied it up in a 'messy bun'. She added a simple pair of blue earrings, to match the rather bright blue ligatures she had on her braces.

Again, when she was 'on show' she tended to wear quite a bit of fairly bold makeup: she had learned from the others that this worked a lot better for pictures and videos. When at 'The Mansion' working, she would wear very little makeup. Tonight she had a bit of a goth look about her, with dark eye makeup - definitely not something that a member of a girl band would want to wear!

Linda's wardrobe still consisted mainly of her older, pre-CJDL clothes: for the last tour, she was not a band member, so didn't need anything especially fancy, and although she had bought a few more 'upmarket' outfits since, she knew that she would need to go out and get quite a few more before they went on tour. Linda specifically chose some of her older clothes tonight, to help her 'blend in': an old Iron Maiden tour t-shirt and jeans. She left her 'band phone' at home, and almost forgot to take her 'braces kit' with her - which went into a fairly plain shoulder bag. She checked herself in the mirror before leaving: yes, hopefully she wasn't TOO recognisable.

A message popped up on her phone, to tell her that her taxi was nearly there, so she went out to meet it. Twelve minutes later it dropped her off outside 'The Ship'.

She was a little apprehensive as she went in: whilst she probably knew everyone who would be there tonight, she'd not actually met up with any of them since... well, since she had become a member of a certain very well known girl band. She just hoped that they would remember the Linda they used to know, and not get silly because of who she had become.

She walked into the pub, looking around to see who was there: she had specifically NOT come too early, so that hopefully she would easily spot the group. As she looked around, she saw someone wave, a face she recognised, so walked over.

"Hey there, Vivian!" Another couple of faces turned around. "Samantha! It's great to see you all. Mary's obviously not here yet?" There were also two guys with them.

"Linda! Mary said you'd be coming tonight, it's so good to see you!"

"I guess I'd better go get a drink... anyone need another yet? No? Ok, I'll be back in a moment!". She went over to the bar, where she had to wait a few minutes to get served. As she was getting her drink, Mary arrived, and came over to the bar. "What you fancy?" Linda asked her.

"You sure?". Linda nodded. "Oh, thanks... a half of Poreni lager for me, and a pint of the 'Old Oak' for Ross." Mary had been going out with Ross now for a couple of years, and Linda was surprised that he STILL hadn't proposed to Mary. With the drinks paid for, they returned to the table.

"So, who is everyone?" asked Linda.

"Well, this is my boyfriend Alex" said Vivian, "and that's Sam's fiance, Richard".

"Oh, Sam, congrats on that! So guys, I'm Linda, I was at college with these guys. Alex, why do you look familiar?"

"Oh, I was in the year above you guys."

"Ah, ok, so did you know Jenny Stevens, Dianne Fox or Carol Danvers then?"

Alex smiled. "Yes, vaguely."

"Ah, ok..."

"So, I hear you have joined them?" said Alex.

"Yes. I started by simply 'working' for them, as a session musician, and after going into the studios with them, and then touring with them, they asked me to join them as a full member."

"So, what's it like being a mega pop-star then?" asked Vivian. Clearly they all knew about Linda having joined CJDL, but were still talking to her like 'the Linda they all knew'.

"To be brutally honest, I don't really know yet. Since I've joined them, we've not actually done a lot of stuff publicly. Ok, so we went to Korea as CJDL, that was fun, and we played support for Darkest Knights for 3 nights... Oh, yeah, we were on TV just recently too..."

"I just love the way you just throw out the name 'Darkest Knights' as if they are some sort of local South London band" commented Vivian.

"They are actually really nice guys... So, anyone else coming to join us?" asked Linda.

"Yes, Terry, Rob and Zac should be here soon.... Hey, did I just see braces in your mouth there?"

Linda smiled, showing off her silver smile. Well, more of a blue and silver smile! "Yep, I got braces a few weeks ago, partly because I need them, and partly to support Dianne."

"To support Dianne?"

"Yeah, she had braces when she was at school, but her teeth got screwed up by her wisdom teeth, and she was unsure about getting them again, so we all got them to support her!"

"Uh?"

"Well, Dianne was feeling a bit unsure... hey, scrub that... a LOT unsure about getting braces. Of course, Jenny already had braces, and Carol was wearing a retainer again, so it was easy for her to switch back to braces. I actually borderline need them too, so got these, and between us we persuaded Dianne to get herself into braces too."

"I DO like the blue, it's very bold! So there'll be four of you on stage in braces for your tour?"

"No, there'll actually be EIGHT of us...", and Linda explained about the joint tour, and how Northern Girls all had braces too.

"Oh, look, Terry's here..." said Mary, as one girl and two guys came over to them and said hello. Two of them sat down, the other went to the bar.

"Hi Linda, nice to see you again" said Terry. Linda recognised Rob and Terry (a girl), but didn't know the other guy.

"Hey Terry. So I recognise Rob, but who is this handsome fellow?" asked Linda.

"Linda, meet Zac, he's a friend of Rob's" replied Terry.

"Hi Zac! How do you know these guys then?"

"Oh, I was in the year below at the college... Rob and I were in a couple of the college clubs together."

"Ah, right. So what do you do now then?" asked Linda.

"I'm a graphic artist..."

"Oh, ok, so what sort of graphic artist stuff do you do then?"

"I started off doing stuff for web sites, but I also do stuff for corporate advertising, in all sorts of media. What about you then?".

"Oh, I'm a musician and singer, I'm in a band and perform and write songs" replied Linda, deciding to have a bit of fun: it was clear that, from his question, noone had told him anything about Linda, and what she did now.

"Oh, what sort of music do you do?"

"What sort of music do you like?"

"I'm into all sorts of indi-rock, and a few other types. Went and saw BabyMetal a few months ago, they were good!"

"BabyMetal, I'm SOOO jealous: I was hoping to see them, but I wasn't around at the right time. Any music you don't like?" Linda omitted to say that the reason she couldn't watch BabyMetal was because she was actually halfway around the world in Korea at the time!

"Hmmm, not too keen on girl bands, I guess. So what sort of band is yours then?"

"Oh..." Linda turned to Mary. "Would you call the band I'm in a 'girl band'?"

"Yes, I think so.... Sorry!" replied Mary.

"It's a girl band. Although their music style did get a bit 'rockier' just before I started working with them... in fact, it was part of the reason I did."

Zac was looking slightly awkward. "Erm, should I know the band you're with?"

"Good question... Mary?"

"Oh, I should hope he does. I mean, you guys don't exactly hide from the press! And especially after what happened a couple of weeks ago." Mary was referring to their appearance on a primetime TV chat show with Fiona, where they had talked about their copyright issues, then sung together.

"Seems like you should know us then....". Linda was enjoying having a bit of fun with Zac, and all the others were watching on with big smile, not giving the game away.

Zac had spotted the smiles, and realised that Linda was playing with him. "Ok, so which girl band are you with then?"

Linda smiled, showing off her silver brackets on her lovely teeth. "So, I'm Linda Jacobson, and I'm the 'L' of 'CJDL'.... Alex over there knew the other three when they were at Croydon College: they were in the year above most of us."

"You're kidding me, aren't you?" Zac was clearly a bit surprised.

"No, not at all... I did music when I was at college, then another year at Music School. After that I was a session musician, did all sorts of stuff like films, adverts, as well as doing backing guitars and vocals for a few well known artists. Then one day I got a call from my agent, asking if I would like to work with a girl band for a few weeks: I ended up working for CJD for about 6 months, went into the studios with them, then toured with them... I only properly joined the band at the end of that tour. So I am indeed now a full member of CJDL!"

"In that case, what is a girl from a band like CJDL doing out with us here tonight?"

"Because I wanted to have an evening out with a few friends I've been neglecting for the last few months!" Linda smiled at Zac.



[7/1194]

Chapter 6

So, they were in the studios again on the Friday, before taking the weekend off. Whilst they managed to record one more song in the morning, Linda had told the others about her new song, and despite Linda's lack of sleep, they actually spent some time in the afternoon working on it. The others had really liked the idea of how the song started off gentle, and ended up full-on rock, and wanted to record it while they were in the studios.

Also with them in the studios was a camera-lady (Paula) and her assistant (Sanjay) who worked for BD Media Production: that was the company which had taken all the video they had recorded when in Korea, and made the 3 programs out of it. This time, whilst the girls would be taking bits of video too, BD Media had provided a cameraman - in fact a lady - who would be filming them not only on tour, but also in the lead up to the tour. And while actually ON tour, there may well be a second cameraman working with them too!

So, our cameraman had been filming the girls in the recording studios, and the assistant had been coordinating getting audio recordings of what they did in the studios, as well as making sure the camera's remote mic was in a useful place at all times. He also had a couple of portable audio recorders to use as well.

Whilst our girls were used to Paige and Callum filming them, it had taken them a day or two to get used to Paula and Sanjay: the good news is that they had both done something similar before, and were very good at keeping out of the way!


By the time they eventually finished on the Friday, Linda was a bit exhausted, and she was glad to finally get back home again. And when I say home, I mean her own flat. Her lovely cleaning lady had been and tidied up, as well as making sure there was some fresh milk in the fridge, and a few other bits. For the last several weeks, she had been spending the weekdays at 'the mansion', and just the weekends at her flat, so having someone who could come in to keep an eye on things was so essential. Maybe next week, when they were again going to be in the recording studios, she might decide to spend a few more nights in her own bed. The good news is that the week after, when they finished recording, they were all taking a week off. One of the many things Linda needed to do was to go shopping for some new clothes, for when they were on tour. While they were rehearsing & recording, it didn't really matter what they wore. She had a few 'decent' clothes: she's worn those for example over in Korea, and when they were up in Birmingham and Leicester, and on TV, but if they were going to be on the road for 3 months plus, she needed a load more!

Anyway, back to tonight... Linda was really pleased with her new song: created on Thursday night, mainly written in the early hours this morning, and worked on during the day, it had come together well. Yu-Eye's input had been very positive too: in a very short time, the four girls had come to trust Yu-Eye's abilities. They would need to work on the song a bit more next week, and they would hopefully record it ... so from first ideas to recorded in under a week - not bad going!

Linda was in her lounge, drinking a cup of hot milk - and to be honest, about ready to fall asleep - when her phone rang: it was her mum.

"Hi Mum!"

"Hi Sweetheart! Just thought I'd double-check that you were still planning on coming over for lunch tomorrow?"

"Oh, 100% definitely, assuming I can get up in time!" She quickly explained that they had been recording all week, plus she's had close to no sleep last night. "I'll call you just before I leave, but I'm definitely coming. It's gonna be nice to have a tiny break, and do something a bit different. Is Tommy going to be there?" Tommy, or Thomas to give him his full name, was Linda's elder brother.

Hmm, maybe time to tell you (= invent!!) a bit more about Linda. So, she's currently 24, a year younger that the others in the band, her brother is 3 years older, at 27. They used to live in Sutton (so it was easy to get to college over in Croydon), but her parents had moved out to the Epsom area 4 years ago. Tommy had left home the year before they moved: he works in Brighton, so it's not that hard for him to travel back home to visit their parents. Oh, and has a girlfriend.

Linda's rented apartment was down in Purley, just a couple of miles from Croydon: with a good train service to London, it was a good (and relatively cheap) place to be to get into London and other places when she was a session musician. As we discovered earlier, Linda would like to buy a place, slightly bigger, maybe even a house (to be honest, she rather likes the place that Jenny lives, and would be happy to find something similar!), but she hasn't really had the time to start looking. She doesn't even know yet where she wants to live.

When Linda finally fell asleep, she felt pretty good about life: there was absolutely no doubt left in her mind that she really WAS a member of CJDL, and no longer 'the new girl'. Choosing Yu-Eye to produce their album had been absolutely the correct decision. And she had just written a song that EVERYONE seemed to like. And tomorrow, she's be seeing her mum, dad, and brother.!


[9/1830]

Chapter 8

They finished recording their last track late on the Wednesday evening, which gave Yu-Eye 2 days of full studio time that she and the recording engineer could use to edit down their recordings. Whilst the studio wouldn't free after that, the engineer was booked to spend up to another week working elsewhere on the editting with Yu-Eye.

Linda had slept at her own place for the last few nights: it was good to be at her own place. But, whilst the recording was now all done, there were many other things to discuss, so they had agreed to all stay at the house on the Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Thursday morning - so a week after the evening out with her friends - Linda called up Mary, to see if she, and any of the others, would like to meet up again, completely on Linda. They decided that the following Tuesday could be a good evening to meet up, and that Mary would ring around the others, and persuade them to come. Linda didn't say anything about recording the 'Friends' song as she wanted to surprise them all by playing them the final version when they were all together.

Amongst the many things that happened on the Thursday was meeting with the couple who would both be dancing and working out the choreography for the dance group. Whilst much of the time, the four (or eight) girls would be playing instruments, and thus unable to dance, there would be two or three opportunities when they could get Northern Girls to be their 'backing band' allowing them to sing... and possibly dance along with the dancers.

They had cleared part of the music room, and had spent a couple of hours demonstrating their abilities: the two weeks of dance training over in Korea had been so worth it!


Friday morning, as Linda awoke, she remembered having a strange dream: she was standing next to a large and beautiful horse: mainly chestnut, but with a few small white patches on it's face. It was being a bit feisty, and despite knowing close to nothing about horses, she went over to it, said a few gentle words and stroked it, and it calmed right down.

Someone then helped her to get up onto the horse, which she did surprisingly easily. Then someone got on behind her. Putting their hands gently around her, their voice said "Don't worry, I'm with you all the way. Now, today, you're going to lead the others..." She looked around, and saw a group of other riders on horse... they looked vaguely familiar. She gently picked up the reins, and shook them: the horse seemed to know exactly what she wanted, and rode off, leading the others. After riding down a path through some woods, they came out into a field, with a path leading across it. They soon came to the far edge of the field, where there was a hedge, and the horse wasn't slowing down: if anything, it was going faster! "It's ok, just trust your ride....." said the voice behind her. The horse effortlessly jumped over the hedge, landing smoothly. Next, Linda saw a small stream ahead: without being told this time, she decided to just 'trust her ride', and with almost no effort, they were over the stream. After that was open country, and she shook the reins, telling the horse to speed up, which it did.... it was one of those glorious sunny days, with her hair streaming behind her in the breeze.... and that was when she had woken up.

She remembered that she'd had another very similar dream a bit ago, except that time she hadn't felt brave enough to talk to the horse... she had felt decidedly nervous. But, like today, someone else was with her, behind her, encouraging her. That time one of the other riders had led the group, with Linda at the back of the group, but with the encouragement of the voice behind her, she managed to control her ride, having a nice time, and ended up feeling good about herself.

She wondered why she had had these two similar dreams, and realised that on both times, the night before she had been feeling quite worried and apprehensive about the upcoming tour. This tour was different in many ways from the previous tour. For a start, she was now actually part of the group, so she would be very much more 'on public view'. And it was going to be quite a long tour, more specifically, she was going to be away from home, away from England, for some time. Away from familiarity. And, of couse, they would be playing several of the songs she had written. Including 'Friends', which she would be starting off, completely unaccompanied: mix in a few stage nerves, and it was a disaster asking to happen.

Linda felt that the dream was trying to say something to her, if only 'don't worry, you'll be ok!'. If nothing else, her worries from last night had gone, and she was feeling a load more positive about the upcoming tour, even though there was still so much to work out.


Mary called back on the Friday, mid-afternoon. Almost everyone was up for getting together again...

"Terry says she's not going to be able make it on Tuesday. However, last time Jane wasn't able to come along, so would it be ok to invite her? I'm sure she'd love to see you again!"

"No problem with that, sure, invite her along!"

"So, how's the recording going?" asked Mary.

"We've actually finished: the whole new album is done. I'll tell you all more about it next week....". of course, Linda gave nothing away, wanting to keep it all - including playing them 'Friends', which they had inspired - a secret and a surprise.

Whilst 'Northern Girls' weren't due to arrive for another week or so, there was still a lot to be done, so they were all doing stuff at the 'mansion' on the Saturday, then on Sunday morning, they all went along to Jenny's church.

The following week they had decided to have a bit of time off: 'the calm before the storm' if you like. So Linda was actually at home on the Monday. Mid-morning, Brian had received a call from David in A&R at their record company, so Brian had arranged a conference call for them all: Yu-Eye had sent David early mixes of their recording sessions, and he had some feedback. For a start, he felt that there were too many tracks for the album, and that two of the tracks didn't really 'fit' with the others, so would they be ok with them not being included? And if they were, would they be interested in letting another of their artists use one of those songs?

With that agreed, Linda got a bit of a shock...

"So, that 'Friends' track - absolutely love it! How would you feel about it being the group's next single?" asked David.

"You kidding me?" replied Linda.

"Not at all... why?"

"Well, I only wrote it the week before last..."

"And it sounds like it was written with a LOT of feeling... Plus it has a very 'fresh' feeling to it's style, and we all think it will do well."

Ok, let's be realistic, this is CJDL we're talking about: it would be a MAJOR shock to everyone if it didn't at least chart in the top 5, and it would most likely hit number 1. From Linda's perspective, she would earn the same whether it was her song, or whether one of the others had written it - all royaties were split 4 ways. But this was the first song that SHE had written for the group completely on her own. It would be HER number one!

So, it was agreed that it would be their next single, and it would be released the week before their tour started. They could video one of their rehearsals as the initial video, but then replace it with a live performance from their tour.


With the conference call finished, Linda realised that this bit of news rather changed what she'd be telling her friends on Tuesday. In fact, she felt it should be a fancier celebration completely. Linda remembered a while ago when they all went out for a meal at a nice restaurant, where they had their own dining room upstairs: it wasn't cheap, but it was rather nice.

She called Dianne. "Hey, Dianne, remember a few months ago we all went out to that nice French restaurant... can you remember its name?"

"Wasn't it 'Le Pavillion Bistro', or similar?"

"Yes, I think you're right!"

"Looking to take a fella there, are you?"

"Actually, no... I was going to take my friends out, to kinda thank them for inspiring me to write 'Friends', and was thinking that taking them out for an Indian meal wasn't really good enough... so decided it would be nice to give them a REAL treat. Hey, what you doing tomorrow night, want to come along too?"

"Well, I'm not doing anything.... you sure you want me along?"

"Of course, and I have no doubt the others will enjoy meeting you. Hey, do remember a guy called... erm... Alex? He was in your year at college."

"Name's not instantly ringing a bell, but maybe I'll recognise him when I see him. So, if we're going to 'Le Pavillion', I'm assuming we're dressing up a bit?"

Good point, and yes! I'd better let Mary know, so she can tell everyone. Of course, I need to confirm if they have space for us first! Do you think I should organise taxis to get us there... we'll be meeting in Croydon again."

"If you REALLY want to impress them, why not see if you can get a Limo? It's a Tuesday, so they probably won't charge you all that much..."

Linda smiled: yes, a limo WOULD be fun!


[11/2582]

All EIGHT girls, don't you mean?