One Year.

A lot can change in one year. Well it did certainly for the 'Gray Family' – lots of things changed.

Jason and Ella got married in a beautiful church with just close family and friends, it really was wonderful. Jason stood there for most of the ceremony with a goofy grin on his face which Carly teased him about for about a month.

They moved out of their shared house, which the media thought meant the band was splitting up but it wasn't. With everyone's family growing they thought it would be better to have separate houses but they lived in the houses next to each other.

Grace was starting to walk and talk although she couldn't say full sentences yet, It was cute.

Carly had changed record labels, from Lava to Hollywood Records and her producer, Nathan well he had a plan and that plan was to completely change Carly into this 'good-girl-bubblegum-pop-star' – which, Carly didn't really see that happening. He wanted to change everything, the way she looked, acted, sang. Everything, but Carly wasn't going to put up with that.

Carly turned 16 just after the world tour and she got the most adorable border terrier puppy you can image, she broke down in tears when she saw what she got because it was the best present ever. She named the puppy, Brighton. He had soft fur, big brown eyes and she grew attached to him, well so did Shane.

"Carly!" Shane said barging into his daughter's room. "As much as I love Brighton. He thinks it's appropriate to lick my face at 4 in the morning."

Carly groaned as she pulled her face out of her pillow. "Just place him on the bed." She grumbled before falling back into her pillow. Shane did as told and placed Brighton down on Carly's bed. The puppy bounced up to Carly's head and she lifted up the covers for Brighton to get under, he snuggled down into the bed and nuzzled against Carly's head. "How does that not annoy you?"

"I love him, that's how." Shane rolled his eyes and left the room.

Later, Carly woke up with Brighton still sleeping under the covers with her. "Brighton, up. Go wake up Dad!" She giggled as Brighton went from being fast asleep to racing down the hallway to wake Shane up.

Throwing back her covers she rubbed her eyes and opened her curtains letting the bright sunshine wash into her room. She pulled on a loose pink dressing gown and slowly made her way downstairs, she walked into the kitchen to see Caitlyn and Grace sitting at the counter. "Hey guys."

"Car-lee" Grace squealed. "Hi Grace." She cooed while getting some milk out.

"So what brings you here at this time in the morning?"

"Morning? It's 10 o'clock." Carly stopped dead in her tracks. "Well that is morning for you and Shane." She laughed. Carly quickly ran and got her blackberry off the desk in the study. "Oh CRAP!" She exclaimed.

"What?" Caitlyn asked placing some more food in front of Grace.

"I'm meant to meet Nathan at 10!" She said before quickly rushing upstairs to quickly get ready. She came back down in a white summer dress and shades before finding Shane. "Yes, yes. Get in the car." They got into the car and started to drive towards the offices. "You know, you really need to get your license." Shane told her.

"I know but -"

"You tried and failed 4 times. We know." Carly huffed and crossed her arms. "It's hard."

Shane laughed at her and pulled up in front of Hollywood Records offices. "Call me when you're done." He said placing a kiss on her head. "Thanks Dad. Bye."

She climbed out of the car and rushed into the office. "Hi I-"

"Go straight in. He's not happy though." The receptionist warned. "Is he ever?" Carly mumbled walking into his office. "I know, I'm late. Yada yada yada, blah blah blah."

"Attitude is not the way forward, Miss Torres." Nathan boomed.

She scoffed. "Well working with you isn't either."

"Look, you have a photo shoot and interview today for 'Cosmo Girl' and you need to answer appropriately."

Carly took out her blackberry and scrolled down her appointments. "I don't have a photo shoot today."

"You do now." Nathan said, "I'll drive you." He stood up and grabbed his car keys. "Since you can't drive." He scoffed.

Carly's jaw dropped as she followed him out of the room. "I can drive it's just-"

"Yada yada yada, blah blah blah."

-x-

Shane was sat on the sofa in the living room, Brighton sitting by his feet. "You'll be good right?" He asked the dog. "Or should I put you in Carly's room?"

Just then the doorbell rang making Shane jumped to his feet and Brighton wagging his tail about, he liked visitors.

He went over to the door and pulled it open. A women with dark blonde hair which hung in loose curls down at her shoulders, she had sparkling blue eyes and her smile was shy yet full of life. "Hey Tasha." He said kissing her gently on the lips. "You alright?"

"Yeah, to be honest I'm a bit nervous."

Shane chuckled as he lead her into the house and into the living room. "Why?"

"What if she doesn't like me?" Natasha said worried running her hand through her hair as she sat down with Shane. "She will." He told her taking her hands and looking her dead in the eyes. She smiled and blushed slightly, Shane smiled at her and closed the gap between them, kissing her softly again but for longer and with meaning. Just then Brighton hoped up on Shane's lap and put his paws on his chest, begging for attention. Shane pulled away and looked down at Brighton, Natasha laughed. "This is Brighton." He introduced, laughing slightly. Natasha stroked the pup's head, Brighton turned around to face her and wagged his tail at her. "He's so cute. Is he Carly's?"

"Yeah, I got him for her 16th birthday." He explained and Natasha cooed, he watched as Natasha – his new girlfriend if you hadn't already caught on to that – played with Brighton, she was so delicate but at the same time strong. Her blue eyes sparkled as she tickled his belly. Shane had completely fallen head first for her in the pass 2 months. She had a great personality, yeah her and Shane had there little tiffs but what couple hasn't? "What?" She asked when she saw Sane starting at her.

"Huh? Oh, nothing." He lied. "Carly, should be home soon. I can't wait for her to meet you." Shane grinned at Natasha.

"Well, I can't wait to meet her." She smiled back and Shane gave her a light peck on the lips.

As if on queue, Carly came through the front door and stormed into the living room. "Dad! Look what they did to my hair!" She whined pointing at her now bleach blonde hair. "Oh my god, they did that?"

She nodded. "I sat down in the chair and I thought they were just doing something to my hair for the photo shoot. Turns out the label thought it would be better for my image to have blonde hair."

Shane stood up and walked over to her as she pouted. "It looks nice." Natasha said.

Carly looked up at her, then to Shane with a confused look. "Oh, uh. This is Natasha, my girlfriend and Natasha this is Carly, my daughter. Who is now.... Blonde." He said the last part laughing a bit.

"Dad! It's not funny!" She whined.

"Oh, come on. It is a little bit." He said but Carly frowned at him. "No, it's not. I was so mad I just stormed out the photo shoot, a pulled 'Shane Gray' according to Nathan. He said 'It must run in the family.'"

Shane licked his bottom lip trying to figure out something but he couldn't. Nothing could be done, Brighton ran over to Carly and she scooped him up, sitting him on her lap. "I hate Nathan." She spat. "But you know what. I have a plan." She got up with Brighton. "Love-birds, I'll see you later." She winked.

"Carly, don't do anything stupid!" Shane yelled. "Why would I do that?"

-x-

"Jez, do you even know what you are doing?" Carly asked as Jez pulled out some black hair dye. "Not really, I got it from the shop."

She grabbed it off of him and read the back. "OK, I have school tomorrow and homework to do. So, night." He kissed her on the cheek and she waved him off. "Night Jez!"

She sat up on her bed and continued to read the dye. There was a light tap at the door, "Come in." Natasha poked her head through the door. "Hey, uh. Shane's gone to get Chinese food. He said that you would want -"

"Just egg fried rice." They said together then laughed after it. "So what are you doing?"

Carly threw her the hair dye. "You're dying your hair black?"

"No, does it look like I have a death wish. Only parts, so when Nathan sees it, it'll show that I still have control of my life not him."

"Who's Nathan?"

Carly scoffed. "My manager."

"Oh." Natasha mumbled. "Thing is, I dunno how to dye my hair. My mum used to do mine but..." She trailed off.

"I can do it." Natasha exclaimed. Carly begged Natasha to do it and she finally gave in and dyed her hair, she had black streaks underneath and a few on top, it turned out really well.

"Thank you, so much!" Carly said as she hugged Natasha, she was taken off guard by this and hugged her back nervously.

"Shane? Carly?" A voice called out from downstairs. Carly rushed down the stairs to see Jason and Ella standing in the hallway. "Jeez, Carly! What did you do to your hair?" Jason asked.

"Long story. Dad's out getting Chinese for us."

"Us?" Ella questioned. "Oh, yeah. He-"Just as Carly was about to tell them about Natasha, Shane came through the front door. "Hey Guys- Carly! Too many hair changes in one day." She glared at him and he placed the food on the side. Natasha came down the stairs and smiled brightly at the guests. "Hi."

Jason and Ella waved back at her and turned to Shane, "Shane, Kitchen."

As the exited the room, Natasha looked at Carly, confused. "Don't ask me, I'm still trying to work out these stupid codes."

-x-

"Carly, When I said that blonde hair would be better I meant keep it that way!" Nathan boomed as Carly sat there with a smirk on her face. "I did, it's still blonde just with a few adjustments."

Nathan shook his head and paced around his office. "The image is meant to portray a teenage girl who follows the rules but still has fun."

"But you see, I have fun and don't really follow the rules. That's just me." She explained.

Nathan showed her all the songs on her album, they weren't stupid bubble-gum-pop songs, she hated. "And?"

He made her read the titles and all the songs were about 'having fun but still following the rules'. "I'm out." She growled as she slammed the door shut behind her.

"Leaving already?" The receptionist, Jane asked. Carly shot her a cold look, she didn't mean it in a horrible way she just hated it. She hated 'Hollywood Records'. She wanted to go back to Lava, back to Philip. Back to how it was a year ago, singing songs she wrote about her and her life. She sighed and walked back to the house. Over the pass year she had faded into the background and the press wasn't on her as much because they thought she was some good girl now. She hated that.

Shane kissed Natasha hard on the mouth and slowly pushed her down on the sofa, she lay on her back as Shane made his way on top, his arms out either side of her small frame. Natasha grabbed onto his tie and tried to pull him down but he wouldn't. He smirked into the kiss and his hands started to move up her thigh when someone in the doorway cleared their throat. Shane and Natasha quickly turned to see Carly standing there with Brighton in her arms. "You know, you have a room for that kind of stuff because now you just ruined a perfectly good sofa." She spat, still angry. She turned on her heel and made her way up to her bedroom.

"What's up with her?" Natasha asked propping herself up with her elbows as Shane moved off of her and shrugged.

"Well, now I've really got to go." Natasha said. "You're little plan to get me to stay longer, failed." She teased as Shane rolled his eyes.

"Bye." He said kissing her on the lips. She smiled and grabbed her bag before headed out the door. Shane quickly went up and changed into some work out clothes before going into the gym – yes, Shane had got himself a gym. Carly called around the house for him, "I'm in the gym." He replied and Carly sat down on the floor as Shane went on the treadmill. "What's up?"

"I'm fed up with Nathan and Hollywood Records, I want out."

Shane laughed as he started up the machine. "You can't quit. If you leave they could sue you."

"What?!"

"You signed a contract." He reminded her. "You can't leave they could – and most likely will sue you."

Carly huffed and folded her arms. "Well, what can I do?"

"You could try to meet Nathan in the middle. Like he wants pop music, so do some music with a pop influence."

"Or, the easier option..." Carly prompted.

Shane shook his head while gently jogging on the treadmill. "I'm not saying because you should at least try." Carly got up and scoffed at him, "Fine." She went to walk away but then quickly ran over to him and turned up the running pace on the machine which made Shane suddenly start to run. She laughed and ran away.

Meet him in the middle. How was she going to do that? Nathan would never let her book a recording session especially if the music was about her and written by her. He thought her music exposed too much of her personal life to the media but she didn't care, she wanted people to hear her stories. She tapped her pen on her songbook as she tried to think of some words. She flicked back through her book and looked at all the songs she a written in the pass years. It was full, there was only a few pages left in the book, there was numerous scrap paper shoved into the book where Carly had had a random inspiration.

She laughed seeing all they different songs, her moods going from happy to sad and mad to excited she flicked through the book and landed on a song called 'Guilty Pleasure'. She looked at the lyrics and remembered the tune. It was kinda a pop song... She could make it work. Carly, sitting on her windowsill smiled as she looked across the blue sea. The view was amazing, the sun danced across the water as the calm waves swept into the coast. She grinned and looked down at the song lyrics before taking out the paper. She had a plan.

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I'm back :D

OK, so basically this chapter is just introducing the characters and what has happened in the past year.

Hope you liked it.

My updates on my other stories are going to be quite slow as I more focused on this story (my main story) and as the end of the school year is approaching I have loads of coursework deadlines.

For example, In my geography coursework I got a D – and my target is a C so I have to improve it.

I can't believe Michael Jackson has died. I was – and still am – in shock. He was a music legend. Me and my friend went shopping and she brought this top with MJ on it. It's amaze! Check it out on my twitter (LuckyxxStar)

RIP.

Review Please! :D

- Charlotte xox