World Instant Star: The New Generation Chapter 1, an instant star fanfic

Producer's Note: To all my loyal readers/reviewers, welcome back! To all my new readers/reviewers welcome! I hope if you're new to my work you take the time to check out the two completed stories on my profile. To everyone reading I hope you enjoy this story and feel inclined to leave a comment! I love hearing what my reader's think, it let's me know that my story is being read which helps me fight through the mess of every day life to take the time to write new chapters and post them for all of you to enjoy!

This format is a bit different than my previous two stories, I hope you guys like it. This story is set a little over twenty years after the end of the Instant Star series though I have kept many of the original characters in this story there will be plenty of new ones that I hope you fall in love with the way we all did the original cast! So sit back, relax, grab a soda and a bowl of popcorn and enjoy the show!

World Instant Star: The New Generation

Episode 101

The Beginning

Opening Credits… Jude Harrison.. Tom Quincy.. Kwest.. Sadie Harrison.. Vincent Speiderman.. Karma Speiderman.. Wally Robbins.. Kyle Bateman.. Jamie Andrews.. Zeppelin..

Don't you wonder what happened to the very first instant star at the end of her contract under the reign of Darius? London came calling and she answered, leaving behind all the things that kept her grounded and all the things she loved most in the world. She decided she needed to spread her wings and try life on her own for a change. In her wake she left behind a devastated ex produce/ex fiancé, heart broken friends, and me; and a very lonely older sister. I pretended to be strong when she called to check in, or when she called crying because she missed him and couldn't say it to him, though they spoke every day. After the first year her calls to me became less frequent, but still working for G-Major alongside Tom I knew their calls hadn't lessened since the day she'd left.

Back when Jude first won Instant Star and discovered Little Tommy Q was to be her producer I don't think anyone then would have believed he'd be the man he is today. I have watched their story unfold and I still have trouble believing this is the same playboy heartthrob I fawned over in my high school days. During the first year he was an utter wreck after she'd moved to London. Most days he came in unshaven and most likely hung over with his big dark glasses and hoodies. Some how he managed to not kill his clients despite his short fuse, and over time he stopped coming to work hung over and slowly started to take care of himself. Though he was still emotionally a wreck the new acts couldn't pick up on it as easily now. Kwest and I both knew he missed her and how badly and I think she did too, but they're both stubborn people and it took three years before things finally started to come together again…

Jude Harrison left Toronto for London at the age of eighteen, leaving behind the love of her life; Tom Quincy. She wanted to face the next big phase of her life on her own, without her crutch as she had confided in her childhood friend; Jamie Andrews. So for almost three years she pursued her dreams in London rising higher and higher in fame and on the charts, but not a day went by she didn't think of him. Not a day went by he didn't call her just to hear her voice and talk about their days, their lives of which neither had so much as looked at someone else. But two days before her twenty-first birthday he stopped calling and she could feel her heart shattering as she feared the worst, that he had finally moved on.

She tried calling her sister Sadie and even Kwest, who had eventually manned up and fought for the woman he loved, to see if they knew what was going on with Tommy. But neither answered their phones, for fear of the inquisition they would face if they did and the likelihood of having to lie to her. Neither of them had the heart to lie to her no matter what the reason. So she sits alone on the balcony of her second floor penthouse apartment as Big Ben chimes announcing the time, midnight, officially her twenty-first birthday. She pulls her legs to her chest her feet resting on the chair she's on, the blanket wrapped around her as she sits in only her pajamas, her hair has grown out just past her shoulders and has become about half copper red and half platinum blond.

At exactly 12:05 am she hears a piano being played below her, and after a moment she realizes the melody it cries is familiar. Then a soothing voice takes flight and she's off her chair in an instant leaning over the railing.

You never lied to me not once
Its not your fault that I cant trust
Its in my past, its in my path and I can't go there
Making a mess out of this game
To see it all go up in flames
So tired of being ruthless and reckless

Just as he's beginning the chorus she runs out the door of her apartment and down the stairs, not taking the time to wait for the elevator, and rushes out the front doors of the building around the side to where he stands in front of a keyboard. She comes to a halt a few feet from him leaning against the side of her building watching him. Her hair is fluttering around her in the light breeze, and she's forgotten that the only thing covering her body is a thigh length baby doll nightie.

He sees her and smiles softly as he continues to sing to her.

Time to be your only one
To almost be you're way too young
Time to crash into the sun
Time to be your 21
Time to dream that love with last
Time to drive my car too fast
Time to walk before I run
Time to be
Ohh time to be your 21

I don't believe in love and I
I pull it to the wall
I tasted sweetness there to laugh so hard as it falls
And I could push you there if you don't stop me
Push you there if you don't stop me
Please stop me

Its gut wrenching sometimes
Its life threatening sometimes
Seems like nothing can wash it all away

As the last notes fade from his lips and the keys beneath his fingers he closes the short distance between them and wraps his arms around her waist while hers wrap around his neck. He lifts her up and spins her around once before setting her back down on the ground and releasing her to go down in front of her, on one knee. He breaks the silence before she has a chance to, "Jude, I've loved you since you were sixteen and no matter what odds were against us nothing has ever been strong enough to change it even when I tried to delude myself, distract myself when you were younger. You left me in Toronto so that you could have your own adventures and grow as an artist without my help. But it was never you who needed me; it was me who needed you. But I waited, until today. I asked you three years ago to be mine, because I thought it was the only way to keep from losing you, but I loved you enough to let you go when you made it clear it's what you needed. Today I'm doing this right and I'm asking you again." He pauses taking a deep breath to calm his nerves; his hands are shaking slightly as he pulls a small black velvet box from the pocket of his pants. He opens the box holding it up where she can see it as he continues with the speech he's practiced many times since she left. "I love you more than anything in this world and I would do anything for you, to make you happy. You taught me things at sixteen that no one twice your age had ever been capable of, and you believed in me when no one else would. You've made me the man I am today, helped me to become someone even I can be proud of. You are everything to me Girl. I know today is your day but just the same, will you grant me one wish? Will you marry me?"

Tears are spilling down her pale cheeks making wet trails along her flawless skin, her right hand lifts covering her mouth for a moment as she tries to find her voice while staring down at him and the ring he's holding. The ring is a simple silver band encrusted with tiny diamonds, the band curves in such a way it looks as though it's only half of something more and the heart in the center indicates the same. The heart on this ring is her birthstone.

When she sees his courage starting to fade due to her silence she starts nodding, yes, while she tries to find her voice. As a smile starts to form upon his ever so kissable lips she's finally able to find it. "Of course I'll marry you Tommy…" She sucks in a breath and holds it as he slides the ring onto her finger and stands in front of her. She's quick to throw her arms around his neck, his wrapping around her waist as he spins her again and her lips capture his in a kiss that could quite possibly melt the entire North Pole.

Commercial: Deep Movie announcer voice over… "In a world engulfed in darkness, where demons run free, the fate of the planet rests with one man; the man with the power of flowers!" Cut to war scene…Gun fire Soldier one says, "Come on we've gotta move!" Explosion! "I-I-I-E-E-E-E-E!" He screams as he dies in a fountain of blood and entrails.

Soldier two leaps into the foxhole from over the wall and exclaims, "Sir what are your orders!" Cut to man standing in pink and yellow fatigues with pedals emanating from his helmet

The man says, "Quickly stand in the field and smell pretty!"

Soldier two responds, "What the F-"Explosion!

Voice over… "Flower man, half soldier half daisy all worthless. Rated-R for scenes and intense flower violence; in theatres February 14th 2013."

Now back to our show!

It's strange to look back on the events of all of our lives from the time Jude won the contest and where we are now. I never thought my baby sister would travel the world or marry the guy of my teenage dreams, or be the first between us to get married. Of course sadly neither of our parents are around for such important events in our lives and it wasn't until a year after Jude left and Darius was fully involved World Instant Star that he finally came back down to earth and realized what family really means even amongst the label. He actually regretted the way he'd treated Jude in the end and the problems he'd caused between Kwest and I. By the second year he'd even calmed down about NBR and spoke to Andrews on an almost regular basis. In a way they combined efforts without one label getting in the way of the other. Sure Big D still loved money but with his sister still dealing with her sentence in the wake of the Angie incident and being stuck a single father to a little girl he realized there was more to life than money and power. He finally realized that those of us who are with him or have been with him from the beginning are family too in more ways than he'd realized. Sure he'd said G-Major was a family but he'd never truly treated it that way until after Jude was gone and he was left with the people you usually find in this business, people more shallow and money hungry than him! So when Jude came home and announced her engagement and impending marriage to Tom Darius welcomed her home properly, in the same high class and gushing fashion he'd handled things when she was still under his management. So two months before her wedding she asked him to play the role of the father and walk her down the isle, to put aside the bad that had ever been between them and start fresh in this new chapter in all of our lives.

On June 21st they were married and ten months later Jude gave birth to a beautiful baby boy and the three of them returned to Toronto to start their lives amongst their friends and family. They invest their time and money into NBR, helping Jamie and Zeppelin expand the company and slowly gain more artists.

When Jude is forty-three and Tommy is fifty, their son is grown and their daughter half way there, Jamie and Zeppelin ask the Quincy's to partner with them as they buy out G-Major from Darius when the man prepares to retire from the music business. Of course they rename it NBR to remind all of them where they started and what they has become because of the loyalty and hard work of friends. Sadie at age forty-four is still the head of PR, though now for NBR and Kwest is one of their top engineers and producers, though still second to Tom. Jude still records but she also produces with Tom, still making a dynamic pair in everything that they do.

I was truly surprised when Darius approached all of us to buy the company from knowing the name would change as would a lot of the methods used to run the company. But despite what most think of Darius Mills he bowed out gracefully and took to retirement far better than some might have guessed. Retirement allowed him the time to enjoy being the grandfather to all the children now in his life, not just the grandchildren Maya bore for him but the children all of us had over the years. By the time he retired just from all of us alone he had fourteen grandchildren, not to mention the four Maya had and Shay's kid. Darius even accepted the changes we announced we were making when we bought him out, the one thing he had asked was that we keep an open mind about the ages, after all if someone had put an age limit on the original contest and stuck to it none of us would be where we are because Jude would have never won.

During the buy out and in all the changes the group made they chose to keep the World Instant Star contest going with a few changes. They rose the age minimum to eighteen though there's always a loophole or an exception to the rule in this business. They decided to only hold the contest every two years to give the winner a fair chance in the spotlight before someone new is brought in by only bringing in someone new during the final year of the last winner's contract. The contest under Darius found many talented artists spanning across the globe, so far there had been at least one winner in every country, except for the US, and no one who blew them away and set the bar the way Jude had done when she won the original contest almost thirty years prior.

That is until the competition held in the states in 2031 Sadie is over seeing the entries and sees something a little off about one of the contestants. She digs around as she is known for doing to discover the girl has charmed her way into the competition, the officials figuring she won't win so it won't matter that she isn't old enough to compete in the final competition in Toronto. She watches the girl closely and is beyond blown away when she sees her perform, watches as she wipes the floor with her competition without batting an eye. Listening to the girl sing and watching her perform Sadie feels as if she's gone back in time, as though she's watching Jude during the original contest all over again. The girl looks nothing like her; it's just her presence on stage and the raw emotional power of her voice that captivates her.

As soon as she wins the US competition, by the rules earning herself a spot in the final competition in Toronto Sadie is on the phone to Andrews and the others convincing them to make an exception to the rules and let this one compete. She sends an audio recording of the girl's final performance to them to seal the deal on allowing her to continue on to the final competition.

That brings us to where our story truly begins the final competition for this year's World Instant Star in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It's the final night and they are now witnessing the final two performances...

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Now back to our show!

It's a good thing Darius convinced all of us to keep an open mind as I sit here in the audience with the rest of the board watching the final two performances. For me it's like de ja vu given the two final acts we're witnessing, but this time we even have Darius in the audience. When he found out we were making an exception to the rules he had to see for himself why. After all he never thought we'd take his words to heart, that we would keep things eighteen and over especially considering the winner will most likely be from another country and minors made that complicated. I can't help grinning and nearly laughing as I catch the expression on D's face during the first performance…

A blond woman in her early twenties is prancing around the stage as she finishes up her final performance for the judges, unaware that the owners of the label are in the audience tonight. Her voice is powerful, strong, but when she tries too hard to hit notes her voice isn't designed for she cracks and reminds some of nails on a chalk board.

You used to say that I was special
Everything was right
But now you think I'm wearing too much make-up
That my dress is too tight
You got no reasons to be jealous
I've never been untrue
So does it really matter if they're looking
I'm only looking at you
You should never try to change me
I can be nobody else
And I like the way I am

What you see is what you get
This is me, hey you
If you want me, don't forget
You should take me as I am
'Cause I can promise you
Baby, what you see is what you get

I know you watch me when I'm dancin'
When I party with my friends
I can feel your eyes on my back, baby
I can't have no chains around me, baby can't you see
I could be anything you dream of, but I gotta feel free
You should never try to change me
I can be nobody else
And I like the way I am

Jude leans towards Jamie half way through the woman's song, "Sort of reminds you of Eden doesn't it?"

"In a very de ja vu sort of way, and isn't her name Eva?" Jamie questions as he tries to keep a stoic expression during their little whispered conversation.

"I think she might be worse than Eden… If it's possible I think she's even more fake!" Shay whispers to the pair with a slight chuckle and a sheepish expression thinking back to their teens.

What you see is what you get
This is me, hey you
If you want me, don't forget
You should take me as I am
'Cause I can promise you
Baby, what you see is what you get

You should never try to change me
I can be nobody else
Believe me, you'll be looking for trouble if you hurt me
I can promise you, you'll be looking for trouble
Believe me, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

"Once again that was Eva ladies and gentleman! Now this next artist has been a crowd favorite from the beginning and is also the youngest in our line up, but she's more than earned her right to be here tonight! Now performing a cover from our original Instant Star Jude Harrison, here is Butterfly!" The young man claps as he steps towards stage right as the lights fade.

As the lights set about changing I can't help being taken back to the moment my baby sister took the stage the night of the final performance of the original competition. It was almost as if I could feel the change in the air again just like I had that night. I knew things were going to change with this contest and this performance, our very lives would change, and I am the only one who knows it…

When the lights slowly brighten again bathing the stage in soft shades of blue and green and a thin girl sits on a stool in the center of the stage with a guitar in her hand that has something carved in the bottom. Her thick strawberry blond hair is pulled back in a messy bun behind her leaving her pale features fully exposed as she stares out at the audience. On her right cheek is a beautifully tattooed butterfly with wings of sapphire blue, the long tail curling under her eye as well as beside it as it tilts down facing towards her ear, her lips painted a dark red. She's wearing a blue plaid skirt that comes half way down her thighs and fits loosely but isn't pleated, a baby blue fitted t-shirt, and a pair of black vans. When she begins to play the members of NBR in the audience instantly recognize the chords, but what truly shocks them is the raw pure emotion that wraps itself around the words falling from those dark painted lips.

I drift away to a place
Another kind of life
Take away the pain
I create my paradise

Everything I've held
Has hit the wall
What used to be yours
Isn't yours at all

Falling apart, and all that I'm asking
Is it a crime, am I overreacting

Oh, he's under my skin
Just give me something to get rid of him
I've got a reason now to bury this alive
Another little white lie

Sadie turns to Jude, "It's like watching you all over again."

"It's like looking in a mirror almost. You said she's fifteen didn't you?" Jude questions her sister, who nods while they both continue to watch the performance in complete awe.

So what you had didn't fit
Among the pretty things
Never fear, never fear
I now know where you've been

Braids have been un-tied
As ribbons fall away
Leave the consequence
But my tears you'll taste

Falling apart and all that I question
Is this a dream or is this my lesson

Oh, he's under my skin
Just give me something to get rid of him
I've got a reason now to bury this alive
Another little white lie

I don't believe I'll be alright
I don't believe I'll be OK
I don't believe how you've thrown me away
I do believe you didn't try
I do blame you for every lie
When I look in your eyes, I don't see mine

Her ability to hit the notes is unbelievable, but more so is the emotion pouring out of the girl and through her fingers as they pluck the chords of her guitar. Jamie leans in towards Tommy, "It reminds you why you fell in love with her doesn't it?"

"Also reminds me of how lucky I am to have her with all the mistakes I made. She wrote that partially about me, though thankfully mostly about Stuart." Tommy whispers back.

Oh, he's under my skin
Just give me something to get rid of him
I've got a reason now to bury this alive
Another little white lie

Oh my permission to sin
You might have started my reckoning
I've got a reason now to bury him alive
Another little white lie

When the last note fades from her lips and the last chord silences itself from her guitar she stands and the audience's reaction is thunderous. The other final contestant is called up as the votes are electronically tallied, the station going to commercial of course while the two finalists stand there in anticipation waiting to find out which of them will be it. They wait with bated breath for the host to announce the winner.

"And the winner is…"

Today's episode was brought to you by American Mom studios of California. In association with Space Monkey productions and sponsored by Space Monkey Inc.

On the next episode World Instant Star: The New Generation

"More like times two."

"Make that times three." Sadie chimes in as she enters the studio with the soft click of her heels, "Which is going to make my news difficult to hear."

"Uh-oh, why do I not like the sound of this…" He groans rhetorically.

"Well I do have good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?"