Enjoying their breakfast, Kenneth and Theo watched the morning news with Dot on t.v. There was a report on the previous day's expedition for the colonies and the five island protectorate. It was going on for a few minutes before her shrill alarm went off. It startled them until Dot got up. She cursed under her breath as she went down the hallway to her room to turn it off. When she returned, she was frowning.
"You two have to go now. I have a long day of recording ahead of me."
Theo nodded and said "We have a photo shoot."
Dot rolled her eyes and said "Yep. You did one you did them all as long as the photographer isn't a creep. Look out for them."
Before either of them could respond, Dot was pulling them to their feet and pushing them towards the door. "Shoo! I have things to do and you gotta go!" she said as she kicked them out and shut the door in their faces.
"She didn't have to do all that. Let's come back here tomorrow." Kenneth said in disappointment as she stretched out his arms. Theo just shrugged and followed Kenneth back down to their apartment.
Jeff was walking toward their door as they left the stairwell on their floor. Jeff called out for them and smiled. "There you two are. Good thing you are already dressed. Come with me. Everyone is already in the car. We're going to go to the photo shoot now." he said.
They nodded and followed him. Like Jeff had said, Jack, Lisa and Sam were in the waiting van. They got in the van and they were all taken to a studio on the outskirts of the city.
"They're really the best guys you could find?" Lisa asked as they looked at the rusty garage door and the dirty, faded sign above the store. "Clicky Studios" it read.
Jeff had an uneasy smile and said "They were the best we could afford at the moment for newcomers."
That was the end of the conversation. When they went inside, they were met by a lackadaisical Drak.
"Hey. Welcome to Clicky Studios. I am the photographer, Johnny." He then limply pointed at a white screen with a stool. Jeff shrugged and he gestured for the band to go forward. Each of them took several shots before Johnny said "I'll get it to you in about a week or so."
When that was done they were brought to the agency. When they were inside, Jeff told them to jam together for band cohesion. Kenneth and Theo vocalized while the others played. Jack and Lisa were already pretty on sync because of their relationship. Sam began to layer his guitar over them. It took some time getting used to, but they were able to work it out by the end of the day. When they were done, they were taken to the apartments to get some rest before the would do more jamming the next day. This repeated for four days before the found a writer. He was a Drak named Kyle.
"Hello. I'm glad to be working with you" he said softly.
He was a shy boy with a garish look. He had an eyebrow stud, a tongue stud, two lip rings on the bottom left corner of his mouth. His left ear had two rings at the top of the ear. The right had a matching set with an additional black cross hanging from the earlobe. He wore a cat collar with a bell and had long tattoos of roses on a vine snake down his arms. The rest of his body was covered up with all black clothes.
"Hypno Tails, this is your new writer. Please, get along with him." Jeff instructed.
He watched us jam silently with a notebook on his lap for a couple days. Every so often, he would scribble something down. After that, he stopped coming to the agency for a while.
"Hmm. I guess we will have to rely on our in house talent, meaning you guys for the songs." Jeff said after the third day. He looked a bit annoyed himself. It was unprofessional.
Sam smirked and said "I already came up with a song I was writing when I was down in development. It's called Spirit of the Wind."
He played it and it was acceptable. Lisa and Jack had a couple as well. They were called "Sour and Powerful" and "Party Crashers".
Jeff clapped and said "Right now, the ideal is to be out there. We will start learning and recording the songs tomorrow."
It was the next day that the pictures came in and they were immediately used in advertising. "Grape Entertainment is small, so don't be surprised if you don't get called on for anything major."
On the fifth day since they last seen Kyle, he ran into the agency with three songs written. "Here. I had to work for on them to get them right!" he wheezed.
