Chapter 1
A woman lay in her bed with her black hair spread out upon her pillow. She woke from the sunlight that was streaming in from her seventh floor apartment. She heard the distant honking of the traffic below her apartment.
"Another morning in L.A.," she said to herself with a smile as she tried to find a comfortable spot in her bed.
Melissa Wu has lived in Los Angeles, California for practically all of her life. But she felt like she had a new life in L.A. now since she had finally moved into her new apartment and was beginning to start a life by supporting herself. Her life-long goal was to become a doctor. Nothing like the surgery kind of doctors. She didn't think she could handle the stress. She wanted to become a pediatrician since she loved kids and the work didn't require her to cut open a person.
Melissa just wanted to absorb everything around her. She was really proud of herself. She was supposed to start her first day of internship.
"Oh, I almost forgot I gotta get to work."
She looked over at the clock and it read 8:45 A.M.
"SHIT!" she screamed out loud and literally jumped out of bed. "I'M LATE FOR MY FIRST DAY!"
She started to run to the bathroom to brush her teeth while she put on her scrubs. She just tied her hair hastily without combing it. She grabbed a cold muffin from the fridge and dashed out the door with her purse. She didn't even know if she locked the door. In fact, she didn't even know if she closed it.
She ran down her seventh floor hall toward the elevators. She was pushing the down button multiple times but the elevator doors never responded.
"Come on. Open up!" she said as she continuously tapped the down button. "This is so useless!"
She decided that going down the flight of stairs was faster than waiting for the elevator.
She panted as she made her way down.
000
He heard something as he was sleeping. He wanted to drift back to sleep, but that almost inaudible sound disturbed him and his mind started to take in all the noises around him.
By now, his attempts to fall back into dreamland were futile.
"Wake up, Cody Jackson," he heard a female voice say.
He didn't want to get out of bed so he just put his blanket over his face hoping that it would act as a barrier to make the voice go away.
"Come on, Cody," the voice said again.
"Daley, I'm tired. I just got back at 3:00 A.M. from performing yesterday. I have no energy."
"Well, you better have energy by the time I get you out of bed. As your agent, I have to make sure you do all your celebrity activities," Daley said as she pulled the covers off of Jackson. She had always been aggressive, but she was a good agent.
The cold air hit Jackson once his warm blanket was taken away. "What time is it?"
"It's eight right now and you have to get to the conference for your CD release by 9:15 sharp. I have never been known to have my clients arrive late at meetings and you better not dare to be the first," she said seriously. "I have a reputation in the music world, too, you know."
"All right, all right. Enough of the speech. I'm out of bed," Cody said as he skulked his way to his bathroom.
Cody Jackson was a new music icon. After just a day of his CD release, he already sold millions throughout the U.S. He lived his life luxuriously in Los Angeles with a nice house on a hilltop. He had expensive taste, especially for cars. As far as he could remember, he had a total of ten cars. Five were Lamborghinis. He believed that because he worked hard for his money, he had the right to treat himself with new toys.
He was often the subject of magazines nowadays since he just became a popular singer. They portrayed him as a party boy with multiple girlfriends. The party boy image wasn't true, but Cody couldn't deny the girlfriends part. It's true he has been with at least fourteen different girls and broke up with them. He didn't date them to fool around with them until a new girl came into the scene. He just didn't feel that the relationships led to anything serious, like marriage.
Daley Marin was his agent and has always been there for him. She was bossy and wanted everything to go her way. But, Cody admits, she was good. Really good. If he didn't like any of the terms of conditions in a contract with a music label, Daley would fight so hard to make it suitable for him. Companies were usually afraid of her because once you get her started, she doesn't stop.
By 8:45, Cody had eaten a full breakfast of eggs and bacon, taken a shower, and gotten his makeup done. He was now waiting in the backseat of a car with his personal chauffer.
They were waiting for Daley to come. Ironically, she prepared everyone on time for the conference and she was the last one to enter the small car.
They rode in the small car because it blended in with the rest of the cars in L.A. If Cody had taken a limo, it would have attracted too much attention and people would know there was a celebrity inside.
"So are you ready to answer some questions?" Daley asked with a smile as she looked behind her from the passenger seat. The driver was now on the road into the city.
"I'll try for this early morning," he said in a sleepy voice. "How are you so happy and awake?"
"Well, I like waking up early. I get up around 5 A.M. every morning."
"I swear you're like a robot or something."
"Well, you shou-"
Daley was cut off by the sudden halt of the car in the middle of traffic. Cody didn't have a seatbelt on so he thought that he was going to go through the windshield. In front of the car stood an Asian chick, who looked like she just got out of bed, with a muffin in her hand. She looked really irritated and angry.
"WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO? KILL ME? DON'T YOU SEE ME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PEDESTRIAN WALKWAY? UGGHH... I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!"
Then she ran to the sidewalk and Cody was pretty shocked. Everyone in the car didn't know how to react or what to do. They just stared silently at the spot where the woman stood. Then the cars behind them honked with annoyance and the driver snapped out of his shock and drove on.
"You know, I think I'm totally awake now," Cody said with a shaky voice.