A/N: I don't own Instant Star or any of the songs from the show.

I really needed this change. When Georgia from G Major called and asked me to produce their Instant Star winner, Jude Harrison, I accepted mostly because I was burnt out at my old label. Now I'm up on this balcony listening to this punk ass, red haired fifteen year old girl trash my name. "Little Tommy Q from Boyz Attack?! He's pop and retro and really lame! You can't be serious!" I remind myself that this is a much needed break and it's only for a song or two, after that, I'm going to Montreal for a vacation. Smirking I reply "First, I'm here because Georgia is a friend, I'd care less about you or your whack contest. Second, the name is Tom Quincy, don't you ever call me Little Tommy Q again." Looking into her embarrassed eyes I figured I'd talked her down enough "Why don't you show me what you've got." I led her into studio one.

Sitting in the sound booth, I expected something better than what I was hearing. I couldn't take it anymore. I called over the intercom "Could you stop, 'cause you're hurting my ears?" I got up and stalked into the recording booth. "You won a contest with that? You're singing like it's a funeral dirge. It's boring. You've got to pick up the tempo, straight quarters on the bottom, watch." I picked up the guitar, show her what I mean and she's looking at me like I'm stupid. "Sing, sing" I tell her. She sings "At least I've got my trusted friend." "Faster" I say. "We're on the road alone again." I sighed, this is crap. "All right these lyrics. We're on the road, we're tired of giving in, we've made it here. Who's we?" She smiles and looks at Jamie, a tall, skinny boy with black hair and glasses, in the sound booth "It's about me and my best friend." I look at her "We don't care about your friend Jude, we care about you. Your song's too bland; you've got to make it personal." "Well, I like it the way it is." "Your song it served its purpose, it won you the contest, but it's not ready, at least not until we rewrite the lyrics." She just looked at me with her mouth slightly agape, like I was ripping out her heart. Jamie opened the door and cut in "Uh Jude, we got to go to that thing." Looking at her and Jamie, I knew she would follow him where ever he led. Georgia saved her from making a choice by telling her she could go for the day. I knew if we were going to rewrite the song, it'd have to be away from Jamie.

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Leaning against my blue Viper at Jude's school I waited for her to leave school for the day. The doors opened and the waiting marching band and cheerleaders launched into a rendition of her winning song. I couldn't get over how cheesy they make her song sound. I watched her taking it all in and waited for her to see me. She looked my way, mouth agape. I give a little wave in return. Walking over she asked "What are you doing here?" I looked at the marching band to make my point. "Rescuing you." Confused, "What?" "That was great by the way, loved the tubas." I said sarcastically. "Yeah" she replied softly. I took off my sunglasses. "Georgia scored you an appearance at the Vinyl Palace." The hottest place for new artists to perform. "Seriously, the Vinyl Palace? I nodded. "That leaves us just two days to work on your song." I was hoping it would be done in time. It needed a lot of work to be ready for recording. "Where are we gonna go?" I smirked, I had her complete attention. "I figured somewhere where you couldn't walk out on me again. Get in." I walked around to the driver side and jumped in. Tires squealing, we took off.

At the lake, I sat against the hood of my car while she messed with the song. We've been here for almost an hour and she just doesn't get it. I watch her for a moment, seeing the slight breeze play with her hair. That shade of red is cute, but I wonder what her natural hair color was; probably blonde. I laughed; she looked up from her guitar "What?" "That's like the tenth chord variation, but you haven't touched the lyrics." "Well, I'm just trying to get it right." I took of my sunglasses "You want to get it right or you want to get it right now?" She glared at me, "That's funny." I pushed away from the car, walking towards her. "You do everything in a hurry?" "Just my music, I'm on a time line." I walk behind the bench she's sitting on. "Right now your job is to get ready to kill at the Vinyl palace." I reached around behind her and placed my fingers over hers on the guitar and showed her what I'm talking about. "Look, the chords you want are in the guitar, they're hiding, they want to come out, but you keep scaring them back in. You want to coax them out gently." She turns her head toward mine and there's a moment when I feel like we connected on a deeper level. I shook my head and moved away from her. I remind myself that she's just fifteen.

I gave her another thirty minutes to see what she'd come up with. I could see she had potential as an artist; she just needed to be willing to reach inside her and bring it out for the world to see. She wasn't touching the lyrics still so I called a halt to the practice session. "We're done here Jude; I can't help you if you won't accept it." She looked up at me. "I'm trying Tommy, I just don't think I need to change the lyrics, they're fine the way they are." I sighed and stared at her. I thought for a moment before replying, "Jude, you have great potential in you, you wouldn't have won the contest if the judges hadn't seen it in you, but you have to let go of your fear of failure. Don't hide behind safe lyrics, bring out what you're really feeling, what you feel, not your best friend. You're not going to get anywhere until you are ready to show the world the real you. People will be able to tell if you're not putting yourself into your music one hundred percent. Trust me, I know." She swallowed hard and put her guitar in its case. "I'll think about it."

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Thursday morning I showed up at the studio. Georgia pulled me into her office to talk about Jude. "So, how'd it go yesterday?" I leaned back in my chair, trying to get comfortable. "It went okay, we had a little heart to heart about the lyrics, I don't know if she plans on changing them for tomorrow or not." She nodded and reached under a folder on her desk and pulled out a tabloid. "So, this picture of you and Jude getting cozy is nothing, right?" I looked at the picture of me standing behind Jude with my arms around her, hands on the guitar. It definitely looked like something else. "Yup, I was just showing her how to bring out her sound. She's got talent but it's raw at this point. Eventually she'll be great, but she needs practice." She dropped the paper in the waste basket beside her desk. "Good, I'm glad we cleared up that issue. I've got a group for you to work with before Jude gets here later. They're the Salads, a garage band EJ found out west. Show me some good stuff tomorrow and I just might keep you on Tommy." I stood up and shook hands with her. "Will do Georgia."

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Jude walked in while I was mixing the last take the Salads' laid down earlier. She sat down next to me and watched me for a moment. "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday. I know you're trying to help me and I'm being stupid about it, but it's always been Jamie there with me and it's hard to cut him out of the song." I looked up from the mixing board and saw her chewing on her bottom lip. "I know its hard Jude, but when you open up, you'll feel the difference and it'll feel like you're soaring. We'll work on the lyrics today, but you need to make the choice to change them. I can't make that choice for you." I backed up the mixed song to a hard drive before hooking up the one I was using for Jude. I looked at her, "Well, get in there and show me what you've got Harrison."

I sat back and watched Jude try out different lyrics. It wasn't working; she seemed to stumble over any change. I left the sound booth and walked into the recording booth, dragging a bar stool next to hers. I laid my hand over hers, stilling the guitar strings. "Take a break Jude, let's just talk for awhile." She set her guitar down and turned to me. "Okay, what do you want to talk about?" "Well, where do you want this song to go? A song is a story and this one has a start, it just needs to be fleshed out some more." She stood up and started pacing. "Well, it's about me reaching for what I want. People keep telling me that I'm too young to be thinking about starting up a music career. It's really driving me crazy." I laughed. "Yeah, I had the same problem; I was twelve when I joined Boyz Attack so I know where you're coming from." She stopped pacing and looked at me. "How'd you deal with it? With everyone telling you what you should and shouldn't be doing?" I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly. "I was a wild child, I didn't let anyone tell me what to do, it's probably one of the reasons I was always getting into trouble."

She sat down next to me and picked up her guitar. "Yeah, I'm a push over sometimes, but it's mostly with just my family. I love them, but my mom and sister don't understand my love of music. My dad get's it, he's got a whole collection of vinyls." Yeah, I could relate, my family didn't understand why I tried so hard for the audition for Boyz Attack. They thought I was just trying to leave them and the town behind. Before we could talk further, her cell phone rang. "Hey mom." I walked back into the sound booth, not wanting to eavesdrop. She finished her call and walked in with her guitar in hand. "I've got to go; Sadie has some big event that I have to be present for, sorry to cut today short." I wrote my cell number on a scrap piece of paper and handed it to her. "That's okay, family's important. Keep working on that song, Jude. If you have any problems with it or just want someone to talk to who'll understand, just give me a call, okay?" She put the paper in her back pocket and nodded before leaving.

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Friday evening I knocked on the door of Jude's dressing room. Someone had made a little sign with Jude's name on it and decorated it with little pink hearts. How cute, not. I poked my head in the door, "Can I have your autograph?" She was sitting on a pink leather couch with her head in her hands. She looked up and wiped tears from her face. I caught my breath; I can't stand seeing a female cry. I walked over to her, not sure what to say. "Hey, I um rewrote the lyrics and there's a new hook and everything so…" She handed me her journal and took a few steps back. "So, you took my advice huh?" I looked down and read the new lyrics. "This…this is really good Jude." I looked over at her; she still had tears in her eyes. "You know, you should be happy about this." She had written an amazing song.

She wiped the rest of the tears away. "I am." Yeah, and I'm the Easter bunny. "What's going on?" She looked down at the floor. "It's Jamie, he's not coming tonight." I sighed, I barely talked to the guy, but so far he's been a pain in the ass. "For what it's worth, back in the day I went through the same thing with my best friend. It's brutal." I stepped forward and put my hand on her shoulder. "Look, if you ever need to talk anytime about anything, I'm here for you, its part of the job." I knew she hadn't lost my number because we talked for awhile last night.

"I know, before I met you I thought you were going to suck huge." Yeah, okay, I didn't need reminding of the ego bashing I received earlier this week. Before I could say anything she licked her lips and rose up on her toes to kiss me. Totally shocked, yet on some level… I couldn't even go there. "Jude, you're fifteen." She hit herself on the forehead. "I'm, such an idiot!" EJ knocked on the door "Jude, come on, it's time." Jude glared at me, tears in her eyes. "How could I even begin to like someone like you. You're everything I hate about music!" Okay, I don't need an over emotional Jude going up on stage. "Easy." I try to calm her down. "You made me change my song." I shook my head at her. "Don't give me that 'cause your song is a thousand times better since we worked on it and you know it." EJ called from the other room "Jude we need you." She looked at me and grabbed her guitar before storming out of the room. I took a calming breath before following her.

I stood in the middle of the audience and watched Jude come on stage. I wanted to see her from the audience's point of view as well as see if I could overhear any comments they made. As she walked up to the mike and swung her guitar around to the front I could see a transformation taking place. Gone was the crying fifteen year old girl and in her place was a punk, rock vixen.

I've been sitting in the dirt (for 24 hours)
I've forgotten what I'm worth (for 24 hours)
Said that you'd be here last night

I'm trying to shake you from my skin (for 48 hours)
Clean up this mess I've been put in (for 48 hours)
I'm guessing you can't always win
I'm guessing you can't always win

I saw Jamie walk in and waded through the crowd to talk to him. I wanted to settle this thing now for good. He was messing with Jude's head and I had to deal with the fallout. "You couldn't stay away, could you? I mean look at her, she was born for this." We both looked at her on stage, then Jamie turned to me "Back when you were shaking your butt with your little boy band, Jude and I were locked in her bedroom writing songs that could save the world." I motioned to the stage "Does that look like her bedroom to you?" Jamie just looked at me and walked away.

Jude finished the song and the crowd went wild. She really rocked the crowd tonight. She walked off the stage and headed my way. I smiled as she came closer. "Jude that was awesome, you tore the roof off!" She smiled at me and handed me her guitar. "Thanks, but I quit." I turned and called after her as she walked away, but she didn't look back, just walked out the door. I looked over at EJ and Georgia across the room. Great, I'm going to have to explain that Jude just threw a diva fit. I walked over to them and shook my head at Georgia's look. "She took off; I'll talk to her tonight and see what's up. She really did a great job of it though." Georgia took a sip of her drink and smiled. "Yeah, she really did, thanks for pulling through Tommy." I shook my head, "She rewrote the song on her own and I just held her hand when she needed it. I'm going to grab a cd and head over to talk to her." She nodded and walked with me to the back. EJ was flirting with a guy in leather pants, no need to bother her.

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I pulled up in front of Jude's house. She was sitting on the front porch steps, chin resting on her hand. She looked up at me as I got out of my Viper. I wonder what's going on in her head, but before I get down to business, I have to clear up the mess with the kiss. "Jude, if I led you on…" She shook her head no, "Let's just skip this, cool?" I sat down next to her. "Cool. Look, working on a song, it's like falling in love." She looked over at me, obviously wondering where I was going with this. "At first, it's a rush but then it gets painful and sometimes you have to walk away. But sometimes you come out of it with something beautiful like that song. I mean, change can be good Jude, you want proof, just listen." I handed her the cd from tonight's performance. I stood up and looked down at her. "Don't quit, 'cause you're it girl, you're the real thing, you're even better." I walked to my car and turned back before getting in. "Be at the studio Monday afternoon at three."

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I poured another cup of coffee for myself and waited for Jude to show. She had five minutes before she was late. She came rushing into the reception area, "Sorry, Mom and Dad are at it again and just as I was leaving, Jamie showed up wanting to talk." I took a sip of my coffee, mmh, perfect. I nailed her with a glance, "Look, you walk in this door; you leave that stuff outside and concentrate on laying down this new track. Hear me?" She looked at me and gulped. "Yeah." It's not that I don't care, I do. It's just that this has no business in the recording booth today and I just don't want to deal with it right now.

I motioned her into the recording booth and I took my place behind the glass. I had already set everything up earlier. I sat back and watched her play her guitar for the backing tracks. She had called me Saturday night with an idea for a new song. The conversation started off about the song, but the next thing I knew, we were talking about everything and anything. I like that she sees me, not 'Tommy Q'. After she finished the guitar tracks, I set her up on the mike. I looked at her, she was nervous. I called over the intercom. "Jude, relax, you're just digging deep inside for your feelings." She laughed and shook her head. "That's easy for you to say, you're not about to open your heart for the whole world to see." "Yeah, but that's what music is all about girl." I keyed the track and listened to her sing.

A few hours later, I let Jude come into the sound booth and hear what she just finished. I watched her face as she listened to the song, I couldn't get over how mature she was right this moment. She wasn't the high school girl crying over teenage angst from earlier. She was now a mature killer punk rock star and it showed on the song.

"I feel chained, chained down
You shoved me to the ground
I can't run, I can't shout
Just let me out

So heartless, this couldn't mean less
Gonna push it in your face
I'm only human
And I've got something to say

Let me rise, let me fall
Let me breathe
I wanna lose control, I'm not afraid to lose it all
Let me break, let me crawl
Cause I'll get back up again if you let me fall…"

She looked at me and just grinned. "It's better than I ever thought I could do. Thanks Tommy!" She leaned over and hugged me tight. As I felt her arms close around me I had to remind myself that she's just fifteen. I pulled back from her and smiled. "Well, we're a good team Jude. You keep letting me help you and we'll have a killer album." She smiled at me again and I glanced at the time. "You'd better go or you'll be late for Georgia." She grinned and left for Georgia's office.

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Wednesday night, I was hanging out with my buddy Kwest. We were at the bar by the studio and were attracting enough female attention that our conversation kept moving to the back burner. After dissuading one blonde in a nice tight black dress, I waited for Kwest to return from the dance floor. "T, what's up with you? You haven't accepted one dance request all night. If I didn't know you better, I'd have thought there was a woman on your mind!" I laughed, he did know me, but it wasn't what he thought. I just couldn't get Jude off my mind. She called me last night with a new song she was working on. One thing led to another and we were talking for at least two hours, and not just about the song. Her dad and mom have been fighting a lot lately and she's concerned. Her sister is just ignoring it all, not wanting to talk about it with Jude. "Kwest, man, if it was a woman, I'd probably be over at her place showing her a great time, not watching you make it on the dance floor."