Deliver Me
By Zyris De'Lat
Chapter One:
"Thank you, Kimber," Jerrica Benton acknowledged as she and her sister entered Starlight Mansion. Kimber closed the front door while Jerrica carried her bags of clothes into the living room. Kimber just took Jerrica out to some fashion stores and bought her some new clothes.
Jerrica Benton is a business woman who owns the Starlight Foundation, also known as Starlight Mansion, an orphanage for girls. Jerrica is also the owner and executive of Starlight Music, a music company that belonged to her father, Emmett Benton, at one time until he passed away. Jerrica is also the owner of the band, Jem and the Holograms. Jerrica is a very determined and very powerful woman when it comes to business decisions. She carries herself in such a way that the aura of her presence makes heads turn when she enters a room. Her straight shoulder length blond hair, deep purple eyes, and slim form-fitting figure only add to her charm and determination.
Kimber Benton, Jerrica's younger sister, is in some ways similar to her sister, but then completely different from Jerrica in other ways. Kimber has a very passionate side to her that she expresses with her poetry and music that she writes for the band, Jem and the Holograms. Kimber is also the keyboardist for the band. Kimber can be hot headed and tempered, like her sister Jerrica, at times. But she does have a big heart and is very forgiving and thoughtful. Kimber does have trouble with love, but she is still young and has her whole life ahead of her to experiment with. Kimber also has her high-spirited personality that comforts people when they are down. Kimber has deep blue eyes, red shoulder length hair with a lot of body and waves, and a slim fitting figure which attracts guys attention and tends to help her get into trouble with love at times.
"No problem," Kimber replied. "I can always tell when my sister is down and… I always know how to cheer her up," Kimber added with a wink. Jerrica couldn't help but smile. It has only been a month since Jerrica, Jem and the holograms, and the starlight girls threw a farewell party for Ba Nee, and Jerrica's mood was still a bit down. She hated saying good-byes.
Ba Nee was an oriental girl whose family was killed during the Vietnam War. Ba Nee was one of the first girls that Jerrica took in to the Starlight Foundation since she started managing it. Ba Nee had been depressed lately because she missed having her own father and desperately wanted one. She mistakenly took a male band member who participated in the Jem Jam concert hosted at Starlight Mansion as her father. So Jerrica and the holograms searched for Ba Nee's father. They were very successful and did find her father. Ba Nee and her father were reunited once again. Even though Jerrica was still down, she was very happy for Ba Nee.
Jerrica was still deep in thought about Ba Nee when out of the corner of her eye she caught the answering machine flashing. Jerrica gave Kimber a puzzled look wondering who could have left a message. Lately, Starlight Mansion has been quiet. Jem and the Holograms decided to take a month off from touring to collect their thoughts and to just relax. The band has only been apart for three days, but it felt longer for Jerrica.
Jem and the Holograms is a five member female rock band owned by Jerrica Benton.
Kimber Benton plays the Keyboard and writes the music for the band.
Aja Leith, who is an oriental outgoing tomboy, plays the treble guitar. She traveled to London to spend a month with Craig Phillips. Craig is Aja's former lover. He is also the brother to Mary Phillips, who is also known as Stormer and is a member of Jem and the Holograms rivaling band the Misfits.
Shana Elmsford, who is a very quiet and reserved African American, did play the drums for the first year with Jem and the Holograms. She then switched to bass guitar for the second year with the band. Shana and Anthony Julian recently started to spend more time together and decided to travel to Paris for vacation. Shana met Julian during the filming of Jem and the Holograms first movie, Starbright. The trip to Paris was also a chance for Shana to meet some fashion designers and to gather new ideas for future designs for Jem and the Holograms. Shana does a lot of fashion designing on the side of her main carrier as a musician.
Carmen (Raya) Alonso, who is a bright and upbeat Mexican, joined Jem and the Holograms the second year the band was together through the hosted "Talent Search" competition. Raya decided to spend some time with her family during her month off.
Jem is the lead singer for the band, Jem and the Holograms. Jem's past is very closed and personal. Fans do not know where Jem came from and often question who she is. Jem simply stated that her singing is more important than her identity, and this satisfied her listeners.
How was the band formed? Aja Leith, Shana Elmsford, Kimber and Jerrica Benton have been friends since childhood. Jacqui Benton, Jerrica and Kimber's mother, adopted Aja Leith when Jerrica was ten years old. Jacqui wanted to continue her music career, so she and Emmett opened up Starlight Music. They also opened up Starlight Foundation, an orphanage for girls. Starlight Foundation would be supported off of the profits from Starlight Music. Shana Elmsford was the first girl to arrive at the Starlight Foundation. Every moment from this point on was tragic for the girls while growing up. Jacqui Benton died on Flight 909 in an airplane crash while taking off for an out of town concert during a stormy night. Since then, Emmett Benton with drawled from Jerrica and the girls many hours on end to spend time in his laboratory. Emmett needed time to work on his experiment, a visual audio holographic synthesizer that can project basically any holographic image. Emmett was creating this for the girls as a gift.
Seven years after Jacqui's death, Emmett passed away and Emmett's project revealed itself to the girls. Her name was Synergy. Through a pair of red, ruby star, remote micro projector earrings that Emmett created just for Jerrica, Synergy could communicate with Jerrica. This even worked while Jerrica was away from Synergy's computer data base. Along with Synergy where other gifts Emmett bought for the girls, like new band equipment, costumes, and the Rockin' Roadster. This was all a shock to Jerrica, Kimber, Aja, and Shana. After Emmett Benton's death, Starlight Music was in trouble. While Emmett was still alive, he hired Eric Raymond to oversee the affairs at Starlight Music. Eric was a young and aggressive manager. Since Emmett's death, Eric somehow gained half of Starlight Music and was running it into the ground along with Starlight Foundation. Jerrica inherited the other half of the company and was determined to try to save the company by gaining the other half. So this was how Jem was created. Jem was a brilliant idea to save Starlight Music and Starlight Foundation.
"Jerrica? You okay?" Kimber's voice cut through Jerrica's memories. "You have seemed a bit distant lately."
"What? Oh yeah, I am fine," Jerrica replied. "I was just caught in the midst of reminiscing over the past and how our band came to be." Jerrica gave Kimber a warm smile and then walked over to the answering machine and pushed the button.
"One message," the answering machine stated. "Hello Jerrica. I, um, I really don't know how to tell you this, but I am going to leave for Mexico tomorrow morning. I need sometime to myself. I….. I just don't know what's real anymore. Click!
"Rio…" Jerrica uttered under her breath. She looked up at Kimber with helpless eyes. "What should I do?"
"Jerrica, do you love him?" Kimber asked with concern, looking her sister in the eyes.
"I have to tell him, don't I?" Jerrica responded. More to herself than directed to her sister. 'Why do I fear it is already too late? Oh God, Rio…'
Kimber couldn't help but feel sorry for her sister. 'I wish Jerrica could just be happy for once. It breaks my heart to see her so sad lately.'
About an hour later Jerrica placed the receiver of the phone down on the base. "He is willing to meet me tonight," Jerrica said with a quiver in her voice. "Oh, Kimber…"
Kimber gathered the shaking Jerrica in her arms. Jerrica finally let it all out and cried. 'I wish I could tell you Jerrica that it will all be fine, but somehow I fear that it won't,' Kimber thought quietly to herself.
Yes, it is back up. Finally after being down for so long. I did a lot of editing. So hopefully you will enjoy its return.
Jem, and everyone within it, is owned by Hasbro.