I do not own Lemonade Mouth or any of the products, characters, shows, movies, bands, ETC that I may mention.
Now with that off of my chest...
"What?" the disgruntled shout of an angry Stella Yamada rang through the almost empty room.
"Would you keep your voice down, ma'am? This is a professional office."
"Yeah yeah, whatever, doctor..."
"Dr. Alexander," the middle age gentleman corrected.
"Yeah, Dr. Alexander," Stella rolled her eyes, "But, if it's professional enough of me to ask...how many people in this given circumstance do you actually have that remain calm?!"
"That is beside the point, miss Yamada," Dr. Alexander said as he straightened his tie, "And why is it that I couldn't meet with your mother today?"
"Because, Doctor, my mother is working. She wanted to reschedule and meet with you herself, but you insisted that you couldn't reschedule so here I am," Stella replied.
"Well," the doctor replied, "When life gives you lemons..."
Stella, almost forgetting the urgency of the situation, smirked at the irony of that statement.
"But, as I was saying," Dr. Jones began, "I understand the difficulty your mother is going through to make her sporadic payments, that is why this news was extremely hard for me to break; but I'm afraid, if your family is unable to find a new payment plan, we are going to have to discharge your father and cancel his treatments."
"You can't do that!" Stella yelled, "This is the only hospital we have access to! You can't just turn us out like this! My father! What about him?! He'll...he'll..."
"Relax, Miss Yamada," the doctor said sternly, "You are failing to understand that we are a small business. We cannot afford treatments like this without guaranteed compensation...and besides; it's not like we're just releasing your father immediately... we are giving you twelve weeks. This time period will go into effect next Monday. That gives you and your family the entire weekend to figure something out."
"Bu—"
"Have a wonderful day, Stella, and send the rest of the family my well wishes. Until next time," Dr. Jones said as he closed the door behind him.
The door had barely clicked before Stella was out of her seat kicking down the chair the doctor had been sitting in.
"What kind of a hospital..." she muttered angrily as she stormed out the doors.
*(*(*(
"And why again do I have to do this?!"
"Because, Mr. Beech, you're the perfect face for this idea. If you were planning to have doubts, you should have never accepted. Remember, I did give you the option," Principal Brennigan reasoned with a less than thrilled Ray Beech.
"Trust me, I remember," Ray grunted through his teeth.
"You might want to work on your attitude before this Monday, Ray," suggested the principal, "Remember, without a handsome bachelor, there aren't any contestants, and if there aren't any contestants, there aren't any sponsors...and you know what no sponsors means, right?"
"Yes, actually I do," Ray replied, "But the girls won't even know who I am until after they sign up and get chosen. It could be the Delgado kid and girls would flock to sign up for this."
"Right, but they need to stick around and make things interesting, or, remember those sponsors we talked about? They won't be sticking around either."
"What girl wouldn't stick around for a ten thousand dollar reward? Guy included or not..." Ray asked.
"Well," Principal Brennigan said through a smirk, "There are more reliable things than money."
Ray gave him a questioning look before shrugging.
Ten weeks. Ten weeks until this hell is over.
*(*(*(
Obviously, when Stella found at that Mesa High School was sponsoring it's very own spin off of the Bachelor, she thought that it was probably the most pathetic thing that she had ever heard; but as she turned over the flyer that had just blown into her on her walk home, the ten thousand dollar reward looked pretty appealing.
Snap out of it, she told herself as she thought back to the day that they made the announcement of the school's latest cry for attention from sponsors.
"Are they serious right now?" Stella asked, incredulously.
"I actually think they are," Wen said, matching her shock.
"Who...who in this entire school thinks this is a good idea?" Olivia asked.
"Brennigan," the others replied in sync. They all looked at each other and laughed.
"Mesa will definitely go down in the history books," Mo laughed.
"Oh yeah...Mesa High School...home of the first ever high school, nationally televised, reality, spin off of the bachelor," Stella laughed, "Doesn't really have a nice ring to it."
"I wonder if they'll get me or Wen to be the bachelor," Charlie laughed, "I mean...we are famous and all."
"One small thing you're missing," Stella said.
"And what's that?" Charlie asked, defensively.
"A Letterman's jacket!" Olivia and Mo yelled simultaneously.
"You guys get me," Stella said with a grin.
"Well, it'll be fun to watch at least, right?" Wen asked.
"Oh yeah...It'll be hilarious."
"Quick! Name all 15 contestants!" Charlie challenged.
"Why would we name them?" Stella laughed, "They're all sitting over there at the cheerleader table."
"True that," Charlie said.
"But..." Mo added, "Who will be the bachelor?"
"Mm...no telling. Probably someone like Ray Beech," Olivia said.
"Beech? You really think he'd agree to something like that?" Stella scoffed.
"Mmm...probably not," Olivia said, "Guess we'll have to wait and see."
*(*(*(
Stella balled up the flier. No way. Nada. Not happening. Her friends would never let her live it down...Ray Beech would never let her live it down...she would never let herself live her down...
But then again...she thought about her dad who had been struggling for months now. She knew how much pain he was in, and she knew there was no way they could get the money otherwise. Stella looked up and realized she was in front of her house. She walked in the front door to find her mom sitting at the table.
"Hey mom, what's going on? Why aren't you at work?" Stella asked.
"Just came home to pick up something for a coworker. Decided I may as well have a bite to eat. Are you hungry?" Mrs. Yamada asked her daughter.
"Nah, I grabbed a bite to eat before I left," Stella replied.
"Oh yeah, what did the doctor want to talk about? No more bad news right?" Mrs. Yamada said, half joking, "I think we've had just about all the bad news we can take right now."
you have noooo idea...
"No, mom, just going over the latest treatment they tried," Stella shrugged.
"Again?! I'm telling you, if they try to explain the possible effects to me one more time, I'm going to sue that place for hiring fake doctors."
Stella laughed at her mom's outburst and agreed. She felt bad lying to her mom like that, but had no other choice. Her mom had already been taking on shift after shift at her work, and there was really nothing else she could do. All the news would have done would upset her... Besides, Stella didn't want her brothers to have to miss one more meal.
Stella sat down at the table and talked with her mother for a few minutes before Mrs. Yamada reluctantly had to return to work.
"Seeya tonight, Ma!"
"Bye, Stell, thanks again for meeting at the hospital for me again today. You've been an amazing help with everything."
"Don't mention it!" Stella yelled behind her mom as her mom walked out the door.
Silence.
Stella sighed and unfurled the flier that she had stuffed into her pocket.
just maybe...
And there you have chapter one! I'm sorry if it seemed a bit rushed, I just wanted to hopefully get the story moving, and this is sort of a sneak peak per say. (do normal people say per say? Or is it just me?)
I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did don't forget to leave me a touching review and to favorite/follow this story/me.
Thanks for reading :)