First chapter of new story. W00t w00t. It picks up a few weeks after first story ends.
"Jude Harrison, you're free to leave," the teacher said.
"And Speed?" Jude asked.
"Vincent stays here. The note was only for you," the teacher said.
"That's BS. I always leave with Jude. I record with her all the time," Speed said.
"If that's what you wanna call it," Derek said, snickering.
"It's a lot more than you ever did, and she was dating you," Kyle said.
"Oh burn," Speed said.
"Pass for Jude Harrison only. Goodbye Jude," the teacher said.
"I'll see you later Vin," Jude said.
Jude was walking through the school to the entrance where she was sure Tommy was waiting for her, when she was sure she saw Kat.
"Jude," Kat said.
"Kat," Jude said.
"I see you're off to the studio. Having fun with your producer?" Kat asked.
"He's dating my sister," Jude said.
"Well you're good at taking other people's guys," Kat said.
"Speed was never yours to begin with. And hey guess what? Me and Speed aren't together, and you still don't have him. Face it, he doesn't want you and he never did," Jude said.
"You're wrong. Everything was going fine until you came back home. Face it Jude, everyone hates you. Jamie lost out on two best friends, Kyle and Wally have to play the crap that you sing to, Derek and his people all hate you. You have no friends," Kat said.
"She has us," Mason said, walking out of the office with Patsy and Tommy.
"Right. Not when your CD bombs," Kat said, walking into the bathroom.
"Don't listen to her Jude. She's just trying to get to you," Mason said.
"Yeah well, it worked," Jude said.
"Jude, it didn't work. You're gonna nail this song today, I promise," Tommy said.
"No I'm not. It was good that one time, and I need Speed here, and I need Jamie to be here as well," Jude said.
"Well we tried sending for Speed, but they wouldn't let us. So we just texted him and told him to just meet us in the back when the bell rings," Tommy said.
"Are you sure I'm not taking too long?" Jude asked. It's been almost two months since she signed the deal with Darius, and aside from the two songs she'd already recorded, Jude had the music and bad vocals for one song. Her mom didn't want her missing too much school and her dad just suggested a tutor. Jude didn't want to feel like she was different, or better than anyone else.
"Jude, you've barely started the whole process. You've just been sending your demos out to radio stations. You've been working on this song for less than a week, you're doing fine," Tommy said.
"Yeah it takes me at least a month to nail something with so much feeling in it," Patsy said.
"It really does," Tommy said, earning a kick from her. They waited around until the bell rang and then they started walking towards Tommy's car. Speed ran out of the building and dove behind some bushes.
"I love this kid, he's hilarious," Tommy said while they all laughed at Speed's antics.
"Speed, come on, stop being a tard. I wanna get this song done so I'll feel better about myself," Jude said.
"Alright. Only because you called me a tard," Speed said, running out from behind the bushes. He hugged Jude and got into the car.
"I think we should invest in a van," Jude said.
"We as in all of us or we as in you, Speed, Jamie, Wally, and Kyle," Mason said.
"We as in me and SME. That way we could tote equipment and we could have a couch and it could just be a sweet hangout space slash road tripping tool. We can so use it to tour in!" Jude exclaimed.
"Whoa, tour? Don't get ahead of yourself there Jude. We love you, but we have to get everyone else to love you before you go on tour," Tommy said.
"Yeah I mean come on, you just got over your stage fright, and that was just for a tiny bit of people. We're talking massive amounts of people, waiting to find something wrong with you," Speed said.
"This is my back. Thanks for not having it," Jude said.
"We don't mean it like that Jude; I mean yeah it's a great investment. I'm all for getting a van, but you need to think about now, and not think about touring. We have to get people to love you first. And if they love you enough, we won't even need a band. We'll be in a bus," Speed said.
"Spiderman's right," Pasty said.
"So no van?" Jude asked.
"Yes van, no thinking about touring right now," Speed said.
"Alright," Jude said, kissing Speed on the cheek.
When they got to the studio, Mason pulled Jude aside for a little chat.
"Jude, you can't treat Speed like this," Mason said.
"Here we go again," Jude said.
"No I'm serious. Did you ever think of his feelings? Wanting so badly to be yours, but he's not," Mason said.
"Mason, he's fine. We talked about this, we agreed on this. He doesn't seem to mind when I show some sort of affection for him," Jude said.
"Yeah, but what's gonna happen when he meets someone that he likes? Are you gonna be okay with seeing him kiss another girl? I mean come on, you flip out whenever you see him hugging Amelia," Mason said.
Amelia was one of their classmates that had been hanging out with Kyle and Wally a lot lately, and of course, you can't have Kyle and Wally without Speed.
"That girl bugs me. She's too nice," Jude said.
"She's sweet," Mason said.
"She baked me cookies when I was sick. Who does that," Jude said.
"Nice people," Mason said.
"I'm nice. And I don't not like her. She's just weird. And I do not flip when Speed hugs her," Jude said.
"Alright, you say that now," Mason said, smiling his all-knowing smile.
"Dude, come on, we've got song recording to do," Speed said, walking in on her and Mason.
"I'm coming Vin," Jude said. She glared at Mason before jumping on Speed's back.
"Alright, Jude, you remember Liam, right? Well he wants to hear this song. He wants this song to be finished, today," Tommy said.
"Hi Liam," Jude said, shaking his hand.
"Can I have a talk with her really fast?" Tommy asked.
"Alright, I guess I should cancel my plans for today then," Liam said, pulling out his blackberry.
"Jude, I lied, Liam thinks you're taking way to long on one song, he wants it done today. I know the last thing you need is pressure, but we're all under a lot of it right now. So whatever you were thinking about that night when you sang this song, I need you to bring those feelings back, and sing it like you mean it," Tommy said.
"In one take?" Jude asked.
"I'm not asking for that, but if you can, and blow him away, that'd be great," Tommy said.
"Alright. Give me a minute to think. Tell Speed to come in the booth with me," Jude said. Jude walked into the booth and Speed followed her.
"Hey, if we get out early, you think you can drop me off at Amelia's? Her mom invited me over for dinner," Speed asked.
"With what car? You know I don't get my license for another week," Jude said.
"Oh I thought you'd be able to get Tommy's car or something. Okay, I'll ask Kyle or Wally to come get me. They're going over there too," Speed said. Jude felt relieved; Amelia wasn't just inviting Speed over.
"Okay whatever, I need to get this song done in one take anyway, and uh, yeah I need to get back to that place where I was that night, during that song," Jude said.
"One sec, it's Aim," Speed said, walking out of the booth. Great, now Jude didn't even have Speed to rely on for getting her back into that mood she was in that night.
She thought of everything she could, everything she went through in those few weeks. And everything she was going through until then.
When her eyes began to tear up, she knew it was time to start.
"Tommy, I'm ready," Jude choked.
"Are you okay?" Tommy asked.
"Yeah, let's just get this over with, right now," Jude said.
Liam ended his phone call and listened to Jude sing lyric after lyric and become engrossed in the song.
Oh my permission to sing
You might have started my reckoning
I've got a reason now to bury him alive
Another little white lie
After she was done, Jude collapsed into a heap on the floor. She let it all out, every bit of hatred she ever had for Derek, into the song.
"Shit, Jude, are you okay?" Speed asked.
"Yeah. I needed to do that," she said, softly.
"Next time, breathe when you're singing a song," Tommy said, chuckling.
"Tommy, I expect great things from this girl. Jude, you've amazed me. I can't wait to hear your next one," Liam said.
"Wait, I'm done?" Jude asked.
"I'll call you in if I need you. This is the long part where I match your vocals with the music until its perfect. You're free to go," Tommy said.
"Sweet, hey can uh one of you give me a ride home," Jude asked.
"Yeah," Patsy said, grabbing her car keys.
"I guess I can just walk over to her house then," Speed said.
"It's just you, her, Kyle, and Wally?" Jude asked.
"Well Jamie too, but that's all. Why?" Speed asked.
"Oh, never mind then," Jude said.
"What?" Speed asked.
"I didn't know she invited everyone over to her house," Jude said.
"That's not everyone," Speed said.
"Everyone except me. But its okay. I've got a song to write anyway," Jude said.
"Crap she did. Maybe it was just an accident or something," Speed asked.
"Whatever. This is more important anyway," Jude said. It was killing her inside to have not have been included. Normally she didn't care, but normally, all of her friends didn't get invited somewhere without her.
"I'll leave early, and come write the song with you. How's that sound?" Speed asked. Mason rolled his eyes. Speed always had to have Jude happy, even if it was a hassle for him.
"No I'll be fine. No reason why I should interrupt your fun," Jude said.
"Jude, don't be like this," Speed said.
"Jude, really stop," Mason said.
"You know what? Fine, I'll ask Tommy to take me home," Jude said, walking back into the studio. It meant she'd have to be there until he was done, but at least she'd be able to get some work done.
So is Jude turning into some diva who wants it her way or no way?
Or is there another reason for her bizarre behavior?
Since when is Mason so intuitive?
Coming up:
Jude's birthday
Sadie Hawkins Dance (in my khaki pants)
Major drama