(This is also a post on my Tumblr. Follow me on Tumblr if you want to see me reblogging Fifth Harmony, Attack on Titan, and random shit. I also post original posts.)

It all started with an S Club 8 fanfiction that never saw the light of day.

Based on the date of a particular Word document, it was modified on "Wednesday, ‎February ‎18, ‎2004, ‏‎11:53:41 AM." So yeah, it was modified back then, meaning it was written around that time. I remember I was planning on submitting it to an S Club 8 fansite. I never did, unfortunately. Why? I don't remember. I must've been busy reading other SC8 fanfics at the time.

So basically this story was called "English 8 Meets American 5." I only wrote the first two chapters, which helped jogged my memory up. So the story was going to be about S Club 8 meeting with a slightly younger, American counterpart pop band. Think American Juniors, but not them. This group had three guys and two girls, and they were roughly ten-years-old. At the time, the former members of SC8 were between the ages of 13-16. This band was called S Club 5, and if memory serves me, they were not formed by S Club 8′s management. They were their own band, but somewhat related to the S Club franchise, at least in terms in music and image. The two pop bands were to go on tour across America. That was basically the story. Just two tween/teen bands going on tour. There was no actual drama. No villains. No juicy ships and stans. That was it. Yeah, keep in mind I was also 14 at the time. This was a few years before writing my true attempt of writing a Young Adult Soap Opera, albeit fanfiction, "S Club 8:The ShowStoppers."

Another thing to add to this was I was also in the Arthur fandom. Yeah, I probably I should've moved past Arthur at the time, but it still appealed to me, just as early-mid 2000s Disney shows appealed to me at the time. I guess it was an odd mix of me being deep in the S Club 8 while hanging on to Arthur. Once again, I was 14. Yeah. Anyway, I based this S Club 5 band after certain Arthur characters. I even named some of them based off of the Arthur characters, and some of the SC8 members. The band itself was loosely based off of an Arthur band from that awesome special, "Arthur, It's Only Rock N Roll," U*Stink. It was that combined with, well, both American Juniors and S Club 8. The members of S Club 5 were Frankie, Staci, Aaron, Calvin, and Jay. So original! There wasn't much personality in those characters, other than they were fans of SC8: Frankie Frensky (yeah, I went there) had a crush on SC8′s Calvin; and that SC5′s Aaron Barnes was trained in ballet. There probably would've been more character development had I continued the story, but oh well.

Then this happen later that year:

(^^My photoshopping skills were on fleek for a 15-year-old in 2004.)

Later in 2004, most likely inspired by S Club 8′s TV show "I Dream" and S Club 7′s TV series, I created what was going to be a series. Based on my files, I didn't actually have a name for this particular series, but there were going to be three sets of series: "Popstars:2004," "Freedom Means Famous" (don't ask why thought of this title), and "Malibu Juniors". I actually wrote the first story of that entire series, "I Dream of Being A Popstar." I actually made a bunch of these types of posters for a total of 13 stories for two of the three series. I don't remember where I was going to share my stuff at the time. I probably wasn't going to. Anyway, I clearly kept the original cast of S Club 5 from that failed SC8 fanfic, and added a bit more personality to them. Based on the posters I made for both series:

Frankie was the girl who formed S Club 5. Staci was the typical Regina George. Calvin a popular guy who was arrogant and insecure of himself. Jay was the lazy ass. Aaron was something. I think if I remember correctly, he was being paired with Frankie. He didn't have much of anything compared to everyone else.

I eventually added more characters. For instance, I had a Hannah character who worked at coffee-shop with her family. I also created characters based off of some of my experiences with mean girls at the time. In "Freedom Means Famous," S Club 5 added three more people, and became S Club 8 2.0 (aka S Club Juniors). Yeah. I don't have much for Malibu Juniors. If I remember correctly, I think it was some summer vacation for the band and their classmates. I think that was inspired by "Zoey 101." S Club 5/Juniors' music was going to be something like SC8′s music combined with the A-Teens. I didn't pursue these works any further. Based on my files, I went back to writing S Club 8 fanfiction, never to look back at these characters again.

That is, until 2010:

At this point, I was about 20/21. By then I was writing YA/New Adult Soap Opera fanfiction on both La Nueva Banda Timbiriche and S Club 8. I was pursuing performing arts in college. So I don't exactly remember how I came up with this series. I might've been inspired by my old "S Club 5″ stuff.

This story, "Press Pause," pretty much laid more foundation onto what would become "The One Series." So to summarize:

The setting was Boston, and at an elementary school. A guy and a girl (the main ones in that poster) were both school bullies. They hated each other, but they secretly liked each other. Then the girl insulted the guy, and the two were seemingly forever separated. Yet they weren't. Years later, they (aptly named Aaron and Eliza (Frensky, of course)) were reunited at an all-arts school in New York City. They, along with many other former friends from elementary school, were attending the same college. I never finished the story, and I think I was going to share it on some forum. I remember most of the cast, including Aaron and Eliza, eventually formed a pop band. Aaron and Eliza eventually became an actual couple. I think Aaron was revealed to be bisexual? I don't remember. So here's the info on these characters:

Eliza (originally Frankie) and Stacey (originally Staci) were besties all the way to college. Aaron (he was still Aaron Barnes) was a dance major. Edward (originally Calvin) was a British guy who grew up in America. Jake (originally Jay) was emo. Once again, there were several other characters, including a Hannah character.

Then a year later, 2011, this finally happened:

^^The original cast from 2011-2017 and...

^^The new cast of 2017.

"The One Series" was initially written in 2011, at age 22. By then, I was a member of Wattpad. I was still writing S Club 8 fanfiction, but I was also beginning to write original character stories. I was going through major shit in college at the time. So my escapes where "Glee," Tumblr, and writing. I, once again, came back to those five characters. After being inspired by another real pop group, Savvy, and "Glee," "The One Series" was officially born. I wrote a total of ten Wattpad books, and the series is not even done yet. I do have the ending in my mind, but I have yet to write it. The span of writing this series was from 2011-2014.

As of this post, I'm now rewriting the entire series, starting with the first book, "Let Me Be The One." Because of this, there had been some character development changes and new characters was added. The plot itself has become much bigger, and way more batshit crazy.

So here's the character evolution of the five characters:

Francine>>Eliza>>Alyson Bauer: The antiheroic protagonist who's seemingly the typical popular mean girl, but she's much more complicated than that. Forms UTurn/7th Anthem.

Staci>>Stacey>>Bailey Richardson: The reasonable one. Libby Middleton: Alyson's brunette rival. Stacey Morales: Just sharing the first name of the second incarnation.

Aaron>>Aaron>>Andrew Hawthorne: The school bully who's a rising Broadway star. All sorts of complications and secrets.

Calvin>>Edward>>Justin Harrison: The British guy living in America since 1999/age 10. Actually quite mysterious.

Jay>>Jake>>Ethan Jackson: Seemingly lazy, but a major asshole. Derrick Armstrong: Rocker against society.

I find it amazing how I've kept these particular character and their stories for so long. Maybe it means something. Maybe there's a reason for always coming back to them. Regardless, they've got a story to tell. I hope that once this series is officially published, the readers will love these characters as much as I do. And to think, it all started with an S Club 8 fanfiction that never saw the light of day back on a possibly cold February day in 2004.

(I'll be posting excerpts of the early incarnations of "The One Series" whenever I get the chance. Be warned that my writing at the time was kind of shitty. I was 14/15 at the time. Chill.)