California
"Will!" Gina Darcy yelled as she sock slided into his office on the hardwood floors that ran throughout the Estate. William was willing to bet she had sock slided from her room in the east wing to his room which was in the west wing. "I have something you've GOT to see!"
Will sighed as he glanced up at his baby sister. He wasn't exactly upset at the interruption, he had been wading through fiscal reports of his Aunt's company, Rosings, for a good 2 hours and welcomed a break. "What is it G?" he questioned, not unused to being interrupted in such a manner, apparently there was something that he HAD to see around once a week.
"Move over, I need the computer." She said as she pushed him out of the way with surprising strength for someone her size and leaning over her laptop. He watched in amusement from almost halfway across the room as she brought up a search engine and typed something in. "Well, get over here!" She exclaimed, annoyed he hadn't already done so. He rolled back over and pulled her into his lap, like he has been doing since she was a toddler.
The browser was opened up in YouTube and what looked like a music video was open and ready to play. "Are you ready to see someone awesome?" Gina asked, as she wriggled in anticipation. This was Gina's MO. Even though she did not have control of the music label their family owned yet, she still had say in the artists that were signed on to it, and was notorious for bounding into Will or Charlie or Fitz's offices claiming to have the "next greatest artist". Most of the time, they gave into her demands and had a listen, but when actually taken to the venue where the musician was playing and heard them live, they would be terrible. She had had some great finds, but with every aspiring artist putting videos up on the internet and hoping to be discovered, as well as the availability of AutoTune, they were few and far between.
This led him to his next question, pausing her before she pressed the play button. "Gina, the last time you said someone was 'awesome' they sounded like a badly played oboe."
Gina rolled her eyes, used to her brother pessimism. "This one has a lot of live shows on her channel, as well. She has a regular gig at a club in Manhattan, as well as almost 2,ooo subscribers! This is the real deal, Will!" She hit the play button.
From the moment that the opening guitar was strummed (obviously a pre-recorded track) on the home made music video, Will was hooked. The music was peppy and upbeat, and though it was a cliché topic, a breakup, it was well written and different enough to catch people's attention. The first time Will watches a video, he closes his eyes and listens to just the music and the voice. This girl had an interesting tone to her voice, caught somewhere between country and pop, as well as being a little bit raspy. Gina, knowing her brother's ritual of never looking at the artist so as to not judge them due to their appearance (remember Susan Boyle! He would always exclaimed when teased about it) played it again to let Will see it.
The music video was rough, obviously done by someone at home with above average computer skills, but well done. The singer's friends seemed to be involved in making it, as he could only see one singer, but could not tell what they all truly looked like, due to the fact that they were all wearing copious amounts of makeup. The intent was to make themselves look as ridiculous as possible, obviously. He scrolled down to read comments posted by other viewers, and noticed that the video had received a LOT of likes, as well as many positive comments, most of them wondering when will this person get a record deal.
"Well?" Gina said after the second viewing, "Does she pass the test?" She could tell her brother was thinking, he had a little T shape in between his eyebrows and was rubbing his nose. "She definitely has potential. We'll have to see her actually perform to truly gauge her ability." Her older brother responded.
"Well, luckily for you, she has regular gig at this club in Manhattan. Her next one falls on the day after you fly into Manhattan to visit Charlie! It's fate!" With this Gina stood up and blew a kiss to her brother as she pranced out the door. "I'll email you all the details about where and when!"
"Wait, Gina!" Will called out and his sister stopped in the doorway. "What is this girls name?"
"Wren Bennet."
New York City
Wren Elizabeth Bennet was not a happy girl. Her baby sister was moving to California, her best friend was moaning about how she's never getting a boyfriend, her baby step-sister was shrieking about something and the middle sister was playing the piano endlessly.
There was way too much noise in this house and she could not concentrate!
Okay Wren. Deal with the easiest problem first. The easiest was her best friend, who was currently on FaceTime on her phone, sobbing. She had been carrying it around, cajoling Carlie as best she could while getting on with her life, but now that had to end. "Okay Carlie," she said finally interrupting her sobbing tirade, tired of waiting for a breaking in the crying. "I love you, and after my show tonight we will find you a hotter man, but right now I have to warm up, okay love you, bye!" She said, ending the call despite her friend's protests. She turned off the ringer and to the next problem.
She could ignore the one about her baby sister moving to California for now, she decided. Katie wasn't moving until the end of August, and it was currently April, so she had a while to deal with that. She thought for a moment before dealing with the easier of the harder problems.
Which was her middle sister and her piano. "MAREN!" Wren screamed, from the doorway of the den where the piano lived, easily accessible to the four musically adept children of the family and hidden from the musically challenged other one.
Maren turned around, glaring as she cut off her sonata. "What, Wren, I am practicing!" Wren closed her eyes and took a deep breath, counting to 14, just like she did before all performances and all dealings with her siblings. "You have been practicing the same piece, for three hours and at forte. I need one hour, with the piano, to warm up, and I needed it 15 minutes ago." She said as calmly as she could.
"I am auditioning for a concert series tomorrow, I need the piano." Maren said as she turned back and started all over again. Wren grit her teeth and moved on, she would come back to that problem. With reinforcements.
Maybe not the easier of the two remaining ones. She thought, while searching for the one person who could fix things, her step-sister, Willow.
Willow Jane Bennet was easily the most beautiful girl in the world. It didn't hurt that she was also the nicest. Ever since they had been introduced at the age of five, 3 months before their parents' wedding, they had been inseparable best friends. They were also the biggest case of opposite's attract. Wren was small, dark and scrappy, like the bird she was named for. Willow on the other hand, was tall, blonde and literally the nicest person ever. Birds helped her dress in the morning and she made all the Disney Princesses look cruel. Whereas Wren preferred to fight first, talk later, Willow had perfected non-confrontational methods of communication. It was like she was Anakin, Willow her Obi-Wan.
"Willow!" Wren burst into her sister's room. Their blended family of seven, three daughters from Mr. Bennet and two daughters from Mrs. Bennet, somehow fit into their five bedroom house. Willow gracefully volunteered to share with Liddy, the youngest, mostly because when they moved in, Wren was just getting started songwriting and needed privacy, Maren talks in her sleep loud enough to wake an elephant, and Katie was, quite frankly, a little scared of Liddy, even though she was a year and a half older.
The story of the Bennet family coming together wasn't the most romantic, but it was still nice. Thomas Bennet had had three children with his first wife. Wren was the oldest, followed by Maren and then Katie was the baby. When Katie was 4 months old, Ainsley, his wife, was involved in a car accident and was killed instantly, leaving Mr. Bennet a widower. When Wren turned six, 2 years after the accident, she invited a girl from her class, Willow to her birthday party because she had the same birthday as her, but had told Wren that she couldn't have a party because they were too expensive. Willow's parents had recently divorced, a few months before Willow's baby sister Liddy was born. Willow's mom, Faye, had come with her to the party with Baby Liddy. Thomas caught her eye across the crowded backyard, holding a screaming baby (little did they know that that screaming would not stop with infancy), offered to hold her to give her a break, then ended up asking her to dinner the next day. They were married 3 months later.
"Yes, darling sister?" Willow asked in her soft, musical voice from her desk on the neat, organized, clutter free side of the room. Almost like there was a line drawn down the middle, the opposite half was utterly destroyed. Willow had to be on the side with door so that people could physically enter. Liddy was not known for her organizational skills. More for her lack of them.
"Will you help me warm up?" Wren begged, throwing herself across her sisters neatly made bed. Willow looked confused, "how on earth could I help you, Wren? I don't sing remember?" This is true. Willow, though lovely and perfect, could play the piano perfectly, rocked the cello for 3 years and had a brief affair with the flute, could not sing a single note.
"Very true. However, you have magical sister wrangling skills that I require. Pretty pretty please?" Wren leaned off the end of the bed with her head titled to her sister and gave her the best puppy dog eyes she could manage. "Which sisters?" Willow asked, well used to this request.
"I need you to get Maren off the piano and Liddy to shut the freak up. Carlie told me that a big A&R guy from Pemberley Records was coming tonight, he called ahead to reserve a booth with a good vantage point of the stage." Wren told Willow. An A&R person, or Artists and Repertoire people, were basically the way you got a record deal. Wren was desperate for a record deal. Carlie's parents owned the club that Wren sang at, so she always knew about these things in advance, especially since she finished her business degree and started managing it.
"Okay, let's go." Willow stood up and straightened her clothes. 4 minutes later, Maren was sulking in her room, Liddy was sent to the store to buy ice cream and Wren was happily practicing for what might be the most important show of her life so far.
Please R&R, I'm trying something new. This is my first P&P fanfiction and I'm really open to contructive criticsm. If you don't like Taylor Swift Songs, please don't read or if you do, keep your opinions about them to yourself.
