ChapterThree:Replaced

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Alex stared at his laptop, trying to pick a university to apply to. He was trying to rush through his decisions as he was about to start guest-teaching a dance class. It was one way to earn money, a way to keep his name afloat. A way to build his resume if he wanted to become a choreographer.

He felt his phone buzz next to him. He saw it was Seth calling him. So far, Seth had done a better job of keeping contact with everyone.

Diana and Jerrod had been attending meetings with Seth they had set up. They were trying to convince him that would be better if juniorConnect gets rebranded as a four-piece band instead, but to no avail. Seth was adamant on keeping the band as an eight-piece. Why? Alex was thinking about asking that, but he wasn't sure.

He flipped open his phone, and said, "Yes?"

"Alex!" his now-reinstated manager greeted excitedly. "I need you to come to the meeting tomorrow morning!"

"I have a performance tomorrow afternoon," Alex said.

"You're in a band now. Besides, the meeting will be in the morning."

"Okay, but I doubt we'll start recording as soon as tomorrow."

"You're not, but you need to be ready."

Alex sighed, already feeling exhausted from all of this. "Fine, I'll be there for the meeting tomorrow morning."

"Nine am sharp!" Seth exclaimed, followed by a dial tone.

Alex closed his phone. He stared at his laptop screen. He wondered if it would be worth it to apply for colleges and universities when he was about to back on everyone's television sets and YouTube. He could just get a normal degree, take online courses while traveling all over Britain.

Or he could close out of the tab on his web browser. Forget about college, at least until further notice.

>>>>>>>>>>

Alex sat down in the boardroom with Diana, Jerrod, and Sarah. He could tell they were tired. He knew Sarah was living with Diana in Essex since it would've been a long drive from her hometown of Carlisle. He noticed both Jerrod and Diana seemed like they were over this. Why did any of them agree to this? Did they do this for him?

He wanted to talk to them, but nothing came out of his mouth. He didn't even open it. Maybe he was just tired. Maybe he was scared. So many "maybes" ran inside his head.

He turned to the door the moment he heard it being opened. Seth walked in, holding briefcase. Seth said, "Good, you're all early."

Alex watched Seth sit in front of the group. He opened his briefcase, and said, "So this is one of many upcoming meetings we'll be having. We're going to talk about first are your new bandmates."

Alex noticed everyone staring at Seth, clearly waiting to hear what he had to say. Seth said as he pulled out some papers, "I'll be adding three people from Dare2Dream, Amber, Mason, and Lori. They agreed to join as long as they get to keep their flats in London."

"Who's the fourth member?" Diana asked drily.

"Glad you asked!" he exclaimed. "Lauren Henderson from juniorUS! The first American to become part of the Connect brand."

Alex was surprised to hear this. He knew she had an amazing voice. He could see her going somewhere eventually. He just didn't think she would become an official member of the Connect brand.

Diana asked, seemingly annoyed, "And when do we all get to record with the new people?"

Seth replied, "Well, definitely not now! We got work to do! For one, I need to hire songwriters and producers to make the songs. Second, I have to rearrange on who gets to be who?"

"What do you mean?" Jerrod asked.

"I mean Connect8 is missing lead singers," Seth answered. "I guess I can make Sarah the new female lead singer. As for the male lead, I'm not quite sure yet."

"So you're gonna push two more people to the front? Is this gonna be another Dare2Dream situation?"

Seth said with a slightly stern tone, "I just said we won't be doing any more of this Dare2Dream stuff. I'll get back to you all in a few days about this."

Alex looked at Jerrod, who seemed upset. He knew he didn't like it when Faye and Caleb were pushed to the front of the band; so much so they got to be a duet for their TV series. It would be hard to replace them. He just hoped he himself wouldn't be the one to replace Caleb.

Seth continued: "Now, you're all probably wondering why I decided to bring this band back."

"You're just realizing this now?" Diana asked, clearly more annoyed than ever.

He rolled his eyes as he handed out more papers. Alex got his own copy, which was a photo of a group of people. It looked like a magazine scan that was printed out. They were all smiling, grins filling out their faces. They all looked like teenagers, somewhere between sixteen and eighteen. He saw at the bottom of the scan what seemed to be the name of this group of people, "UTurn."

"Who is this?" Diana asked. "And why do they look like our band?"

"Well, they don't really look like you," said Seth. "This is UTurn. They're a new pop group from America. This was a photoshoot from their local music magazine."

"Local?"

"They're based in Boston. I would highly suggest you all do your research on them. They're very fascinating. They could very well become the next big thing."

Diana said flatly, "But they're from America. They'll be lucky if they end up on TRL."

"Well, that's what I need you all to do whilst I get everything set up. Meeting is adjourned."

>>>>>>>>>

Alex sat on his bed, cross-legged in front of his laptop and the print-out of UTurn's magazine scan. He examined the photo, wanting to study their faces before searching them up on Google.

There were clearly modeled after juniorConnect. Three guys and five girls inside what looked to be a passenger train. Unlike his band, this group seemed different. They didn't look like they were trying to appease the kids. No, they seemed to be made to cater to their own age group.

Alex studied their grins, analyzing whether or not they were fake. The guy with the red hair seemed like he didn't want to be there. Why? It didn't make any sense. Maybe he was another Caleb in the making.

He noticed one of the blonde girls with a hand on her hip. She had a vibe that she was large and in charge. She was clearly the diva in the group with her flipped hair. The other girls seemed excited yet chill. The one blonde guy seemed also happy.

Then he saw the guy with black hair. He had a grin that seemed like he was trying to achieve. His hair was messy with flat spikes all over; blue eyes that could probably pierce into someone's soul. He seemed he could be nice; yet could put fear into anyone who would dare to cross him.

There was something about that boy. Alex couldn't quite figure it out. Sure, he shared similar features to himself, but he was different. He was like the diva next to him, standing like he was also the leader.

Alex went online to look up UTurn. He came across several pages, from fan websites to their official website and MySpace account. He went on their website; it only said coming soon, so he went to their fan pages. They were clearly brand new; but had a lot more information.

He clicked on the band profiles, finally giving the names to these people. The red-head guy was Derrick Armstrong; the diva was Alyson Bauer; and the strange guy was Andrew Hawthorne.

He clicked on the gallery page, looking at the photos of the band. UTurn seemed to have been a four-piece for a while before adding four more people. There were photos of Derrick and one of the blonde girls in another band; the black-haired girl in a girl group competing against UTurn; and the darker girl in selfies made in her school's hallways.

Alex went back to the UTurn photos, zoning in on Andrew. He wasn't sure why he was drawn to the American guy. He just kept staring at Andrew, wanting more photos of him.

Maybe it was something he didn't want to acknowledge it. He was sure what he was feeling wasn't real. No, it was the stuff written in fanfictions with Caleb. It was the on-going topic on both fan-forums and chat-boxes.

No, he had a girlfriend. He was sure he loved her. He had girlfriends during and before his juniorConnect days. So why couldn't he get his mind off of this guy he who probably doesn't know he exists?

Alex shook his head as he closed out of the browser. He looked at his phone, seeing it was lit up with texts from Mallory. Time to act everything was fine.