Title: What if – Emmett's Will.
Author: Beth Brownell
Rating: PG
Feedback: Desired.
Summary: AU. Emmett's Will is read, Jerrica and Kimber learn that they are the true owners of Starlight Music.
Disclaimer: All characters used belong to Hasbro and done without permission. This is a fan written story.
Archive: If you wish to archive this story, please e-mail me first for permission.
Notes: This is a fan written story. I said that I wouldn't do another Jem story but this story came to me in a dream. I decided to alter the original story a bit and this is the result. Please read and review. Thanks.
What if – Emmett's Will.
Jerrica stood at her father's grave as Eric Raymond spoke to her about if she needed anything from the music company while he's taking care of it, just ask and she'll get it. Jerrica thanked him and watched as he walked away from her and her red haired sister without another word except for a smirk on his lips.
Rio, her boyfriend stood by the lone tree in the graveyard with an umbrella and dashed towards the pair to cover them up with the umbrella and started to coax them to head home. He drove them both to Starlight House. Rio looked over at Jerrica and asked, "Do you want me to stay the night, Jerrica? Just to give you comfort?"
"I like that, Rio." Jerrica replied, her eyes glazed with tears.
Rio smiled softly as he parked the jeep in the drive way and got out. He went to help Jerrica out when he found her already out and walking up the steps. He noticed the tears that fell from her eyes as he wrapped his arm around her as they walked up the steps together. Just before they reached the door, Jerrica's grief overcame her and she started to cry. Rio held her as Kimber her younger sister stood watching at the top of the stairs. "Go on in, Kimber, I'll bring her in after she's done crying."
Kimber wanted to complain but she knew she overruled by Rio being her older sister's boyfriend, she turned and walked into the house to meet up with the orphaned girls who lived in Starlight House. They all knew what happened to the founder's husband and they wanted to know where Jerrica was. "Jerrica is outside crying, girls. Give her a few moments. Okay?"
The girls nodded as they headed for their rooms knowing that Jerrica would come in soon. Some of the girls watched from the living room window Rio and Jerrica on the front steps, him holding her and she in his arms crying in the rain.
It was about half an hour later, Rio and Jerrica entered the house. The girls who were downstairs immediately went to Jerrica's side and hugged her telling them how sorry they were for her loss that they all knew how she felt.
The comforting words from the girls made Jerrica smile as she realized that she was now on their level being an orphan even though she was an adult but yet they knew how it felt. It was something that she knew bonded them even tighter with the girls. She smiled towards the girls as she returned their hugs individually thanking them at the same time. She looked at the clock and saw that it was seven thirty pm, time for them to start getting ready for school in the morning.
"Okay girls. Its' time for you to get ready for sleep, school is tomorrow." Jerrica reminded them.
"Okay Jerrica. Good night." came the replies from the girls as the sounds of several feet headed up the stairs till there was no more sounds at all as doors were closed.
Jerrica moved into the living room as Rio came into the room with some towels to dry her off with. She smiled at him as she took one for her short blond hair. "Thank you, Rio."
"So what are you going to do now, Jerrica?" asked Rio, as he sat down next to her.
"I'm not sure, I have to keep tending to the girls, keep the house going and stuff like that. I know dad's will, will be read two days from now, so we'll know what's going to happen with the music company and what happens to Starlight house." Jerrica said, as she started to dry off her arms and legs.
Rio smiled as he looked at her. "I'll be here to help out with any repairs that might be needed."
"Thank you Rio," Jerrica kissed him.
Rio responded to the kiss as he started to pull her closer to him. His eye flickered to the doorway to see Kimber standing there with the other two women who lived there with Jerrica and Kimber. He pulled away smiling as he looked at Jerrica. "Hey ladies,"
Aja rolled her eyes as she looked at him. "So what's next, Jerrica?"
"The reading of the will should be done in two days." Jerrica replied, as she looked at them all.
They nodded as they knew it would reveal what happens to the house and to the girls that lived there as they were the only all girls foster home in town. They also knew that the house needed repairs even though Rio said that there wasn't too many and that he could to fix them up before they got out of hand for him to be able to fix them.
Jerrica headed to the linen closet and brought out a spare pillow and a blanket and gave them to Rio as he started to make the couch into his bed for the night.
Aja smiled as he started to put the blanket onto the couch. "So you're spending the night here, Rio?"
"Yes, just so you gals can sleep without worrying about anything." Rio said, as he looked up at her. "It shouldn't be that strange that I'm spending the night again."
Aja and Shana shook their heads before they turned to Jerrica and Kimber. "We're going to do a last bed check and call for lights' out for the girls. See you in the morning."
They headed up the stairs and went to each room and checked on the three girls who lived in each room before telling them to close up their books and turn off the lights. Aja and Shane headed to the room that they shared since there wasn't much room for single room use. They got ready for bed and headed to their bunk beds and fell asleep in their beds.
The next morning, was a rush of activity as the girls were rushing about getting their breakfast done and out to meet the bus for school. After the last girl boarded the bus and the doors closed before it drove away from the house to pick up another kid down the street, Jerrica felt totally alone standing there at the street. She knew she had to go check the list for the grocery shopping that she planned on doing that morning, she looked up and then down the street before she walked back into the house locking it as she did so. Jerrica noticed that Rio was pouring himself a glass of milk. "Morning, hope the kids didn't wake you up too early,"
Rio smiled as he shook his head. "Nope, was up already, Jerrica." As he washed out the glass in the sink and put it in the dishwasher. "I heard you singing in the shower this morning. You sure do have a nice singing voice, Jerrica."
"Thank you, flatterer," Jerrica smiled, as she looked at him. "My sister is more the songwriter and she plays a pretty good piano."
"So what is your plan for today?"
"Well, I have to tend to the groceries this morning, so I'll be hitting the local grocery store for food. That is going to run me about three hundred dollars. I'll have to use the van for this trip."
"Want me to come along and help load the van up?" He asked.
"Sure, we can go after we have our breakfast. I didn't even eat yet." Jerrica said, as she pulled out a bowl and the box of Corn Pops and poured herself some cereal. She grabbed her check book, scanned the balance to see that she had five hundred dollars in the account. "I'll need to get some money from Starlight Music to keep the check book in the black. So I'll head over to Starlight Music to get some money."
About forty minutes later, they were at Samantha's Club which was a grocery warehouse, where they went to each week to buy their groceries in bulk. They took two carts as they would need two carts. They went to the aisles that they needed and grabbed four of each item that they needed and it took them about two hours before they were all done with the shopping and started to get the items paid for. The total rang up to be four hundred and fifty dollars. Jerrica cringed at the total but she had to pay it as it was for the house.
As they headed to the van to load it up, Jerrica looked at Rio. "I'm going to have to go see Eric at Starlight Music to get five hundred dollars for the house."
"I don't like him, Jerrica. He doesn't give me a good feeling when I am around him." Rio replied, as he opened the back of the van up to get the food in.
"Neither do I, but I have no choice for now. I have to get money from the music company. Dad always made sure that we could get money from the company for Starlight House at any time." Jerrica said, as she helped load the van.
Rio grabbed the last of the food and stacked it on top, closing the van's back doors before he put the carts away and heading for the driver's side and starting the van up. They drove towards Starlight Music. He looked at her. "Shall I come in with you?"
"Nah, it shouldn't be too long. You can wait in the parking garage." Jerrica said, as she looked at him after she had climbed out.
"Okay, meet me there when you get the check." Rio replied, as she nodded.
She watched him drive off to the parking garage before walking into the building and heading to the top floor to where her dad's office was located at. When she got to the office, her father's name was now removed and Eric's name had replaced it. She looked at it puzzled before she walked into the office. "Eric, what are you doing in my dad's office?"
"It's my office now. I'm taking over the company to make sure it doesn't go under." Eric said, as he looked at her.
"Eric, I need funds for Starlight House." Jerrica asked.
"There are no more funds that I can afford to give to that worthless project. You will have to find a way to get money for that project, Jerrica. All the money that I can spare is in the band that I just signed onto Starlight Music and this new group is going to take this company to the top of the charts."
"What group?" Jerrica demanded. She heard a roar of a motorcycle in the hallway but ignored it to look at Eric still.
"Us, we're the Misfits." Spoke a female voice coming from behind Jerrica. Jerrica turned to see three women riding motorcycles shaped as a guitar. One woman had white hair, another had blue hair and the one in front had green hair. "I'm Pizzazz," spoke the woman with the green hair.
"I'm Roxy," the white haired woman said.
"And I'm Stormer, nice to meet you," the blue haired woman said, with a smile on her face, which after glancing over at the other two ladies, her smile faded into a frown, which got smiles from the other two ladies.
"I'm not impressed." Jerrica replied, turning away from the three ladies to look at Eric. "What about their demo tape?"
"Didn't even need to listen to one, they are the best band around." Eric replied, as he held up a tape cassette.
Jerrica yanked it out of his hand and placed it in the cassette player and pushed play. Within half a minute, she pushed stop and turned to Eric. "I have heard worse before, Eric. So how are you going to make them great?"
"I'm going to hold a Battle of The Bands, with the worst bands around leaving only my band The Misfits as the best of the worst bands that I gathered to play that day." Eric said, smugly.
"So when is this Battle of The Bands?" asked Jerrica, looking at him with her arms crossed in front of her.
"In one month from now. The prelims are held this weekend Saturday at noon. If you are coming to witness the glorious rise of The Misfits, please do. I would love to have the co-owner of the company there to bear witness." Eric said. To which he smiled as he thought to himself. 'To the end of your ownership, Jerrica.'
"I need the funds for Starlight House, Eric!" snapped Jerrica. "This company has always helped Starlight House!"
"Fine, fine, fine, I'll transfer money into the checking account for Starlight House." Eric snapped, glaring at her.
"Good. I'll be checking on the amount tomorrow," Jerrica said, as she walked out of the office past the three women and to the elevator.
"Eric! That money is supposed to go to us!" Pizzazz whined as she turned her gaze at him.
"Don't worry; I have no intentions to put money into that worthless project of hers. I got rid of her father and now all I need to do is get rid of her and this company will be all . . . mine," Eric chuckled. He thought that his plan on killing Emmett with a slow poison was brilliant but now he had to off Emmett's two daughters to get full control of the company. But to do that, first things need to be found out about Emmett's will that he did, he knew that he had one drawn up but wasn't sure if he was in it as Emmett had given him money and had him sign some papers. He said something about getting him life insurance but he signed it anyways believing that Emmett was unaware of what he was doing to him.
Stormer asked. "You got rid of her father, Eric, how?"
"I just overworked the man," Eric said. He swore to himself that the truth behind Emmett's death would never come out.
Jerrica stormed out of the elevator when the doors opened at the garage level. She scanned the rows of cars before spying Rio leaning against the van. She headed for the van and looked at him. "Let's go home and unpack the groceries, I'll tell you about the visit later."
Rio nodded as he climbed into the still running van and drove out of the parking garage towards home. As they neared Starlight House, he asked, "What happened up there?"
"Eric . . . refused to give me any money for Starlight House." Jerrica said.
"That bastard, he knows Starlight Music has always supported Starlight House!" Rio snapped, as he glanced over at her as he took his eyes off the red light in front of them.
"I know! He's having the prelims of a Battle of The Bands and he invited the worst bands around to make his favored band . . . an all girl band called The Misfits to the best band and win the prelim to go onto the finals." Jerrica said. As she put her hand to her chin as she looked out the passenger window. "That band happens to be one of the worse bands that I have ever heard and that says a lot!"
"So what are you going to do about it, Jerrica?" asked Rio, as they pulled up into the driveway.
"I'm not sure, Rio. I have no recourse in the matter; I don't have a band to compete against his so called great band." Jerrica stated, as they started to unload the groceries from the van.
"I'm sure you will come up with something, Jerrica. An idea will come to you," Rio said, as they placed the groceries on the counter and went to get more.
It took them about fifteen minutes before they got all of the groceries into the house. Jerrica looked at Rio. "I just hope that dad's Will being read in two days from now will give me some leeway over Eric."
"I hope so, Jerrica." Rio said, as he started to put them into the pantry.
The next chapter is coming.