Description: Jude meets and falls for Tommy's childhood friend, Hunter Jones, who is in the music industry himself. Hunter is brought in to G-Major as a Producer to work alongside his friend. Tommy is thrown off by the budding romance since he has feelings for Jude himself, and knows the kind of guy Hunter really is.

You can view the video trailer for the story over at youtube, my username over there is the same as on here.

Basic Background info:

Jude is 17 going on 18

Tommy and Hunter are 24

Sadie and Tommy did date, totally irrelevant now though

Angie never died; but her and Tommy still used to be together

Portia and Tommy were never married but did date

Sadie and Kwest aren't together yet

The 16th and 17th bday incidents did occur as well

Everything else aside from those events from the show will be entirely made up or changed a bit to fit along with the plot of the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Instant Star or any of it's character's. I may borrow some of the ideas and/or lines from the show, but other than that, this is completely fictional. The other character's ages are more or less irrelevant.

Chapter One: Raining on My Parade

--
Who ever loved
that loved not at first sight?

-Christopher Marlowe
--

Headphones hanging loosely on the side of her ears, Jude stands in front of the microphone with her body shifted slightly to the side. Tommy gazes through the thick layer of glass separating the two of them with a look of frustration on his face as Jude half-heartedly belts out the lyrics to her song. Feedback suddenly shoots through Jude's ears forcing her to shove them angrily down and around her neck.

"What the hell?" She screams frantically into the microphone as her hands instinctively fall and bunch into fists at her side.

"Do you mind singing the song with a little more feeling," Tommy replies into the intercom.

"More feeling, huh…how about this for more feeling," Jude shoots back angrily as she extends her middle finger towards him.

Tommy slaps a hand to his chest and feigns hurt, "Oh, that breaks my heart Jude," Jude rolls her eyes and removes the headphones from around her neck, places them around the microphone and mutters a quick, "Screw you Tommy," before exiting the sound booth.

"I can't work with him!" She declares to no one in particular as she steps out of the sound booth and stomps into the main lobby of G-Major. The girl certainly knew how to make an entrance.

Across the lobby Sadie sits behind the Receptionist's desk chatting away with Kwest, both of them ignoring the all too familiar outburst.

"I told him he was going to mess things up," Kwest manages to mutter in between the conversation he and Sadie are having. "I refuse to get sucked into this mess again," Sadie replies with a soft laugh before getting back into the topic she and Kwest were previously discussing.

Tommy steps out of Studio C, glares over in Jude's direction, and quickly walks out of G-Major.

"Stupid prick—"Jude trails off as she strides backwards, her foot making contact with a box in the process, and she looses her balance.

"Whoa!" She shouts out in alarm as she falls backwards and lands, twisted, into someone's arms, her back falling hard against their chest. "Whoa," She mutters again in a lower, less alarmed tone as she gazes up and her eyes meet with a mysterious set of dark brown orbs.

She stumbles around and out of his arms quickly and allows him to hold onto her waist for support as she tries to regain her balance.

"Hi," He says smoothly, flashing a wide grin in her direction. "Hey," She begins, trying to catch her breath that she hadn't even noticed she had momentarily lost until that moment, "you always come out of nowhere like that?"

"That's kind of my game," He responds slyly as he slides his hands inside the pockets of his leather jacket. "Your game," She asks intrigued, subtly eyeing him up and down, "who do you play for?" She sinks her teeth into her bottom lip as she continues to take him in; tall, dark and handsome.

With a shrug of his shoulders and a flash of his teeth again the man replies with a swift, "Say I'm a free agent."

Jude nods her head as her smile slowly falters into a smirk of embarrassment, "And I'm officially lost in my own sports metaphor," She laughs and swiftly attempts to recover herself as she extends her hand out to the man, "I'm Jude."

"Hi," He smiles and extends his hand to take hers, a faint laugh leaving his lips before continuing with an introduction, "I'm Hunter."

"You here to see Darius?" Jude asks as she cocks her head in the direction of Darius' office. "Yeah…and well I'm also hoping he could hook me up with an old buddy…uh Tommy Quincy"

"Oh, how do you know Tommy?" She asks while lifting a hand to her hair and running her fingers through it.

"We grew up together,"

"Huh, well it's nice to meet you. He's uh…around here somewhere" Jude mumbles, not bothering to shift her gaze from the man in front of her.

Tommy was closer than Jude knew, but he had not been looking forward to a reunion with Hunter; not right now, it's been years. Nor did he like the interaction that was going on between the two of them.

"So you uh, want me to show you to Darius' office?" Jude offers politely while shooting a wide smile Hunter's way. "I'd like that," Hunter replies.

Tommy slipped back into Studio C unnoticed and decided to wait out Jude's diva fit. She'd come back into the studio when she calmed down; if she ever would calm down.

I guess it's not everyday a guy finds a new way to break a girls heart.

Darius was on his way out of his office when he spotted Jude and Hunter heading towards him and instantly stopped in the doorway.

"Well, look what we have here, Hunter Jones. Good to see you again man," Darius shoots his hand out between himself and Hunter and slaps his palm against the other mans.

"Good to see you too D…good to be able to produce again," Hunter says in return as he shoves his hands back inside of his pockets.

"Hunter Jones?" Jude quizzes out loud, her brain trying to register why his name now sounds vaguely familiar. "The Producer," Darius says slowly, trying to help her out.

"Oh yes! And your sister is Angie Jones…used to sing back-up for Boyz Attack," She spits out as the horrible knowledge that stupid jerk Tommy has fed to her registers in her head.

"Yeah that's me. I told you Tom and I grew up together," Jude nods and smiles at the man. She starts to subconsciously feel like an idiot because that's all she's been doing since she stumbled into his arms.

"That's old news," Tommy says appearing out of the doorway of Studio C. He couldn't stand to leave Jude out in the lobby with Hunter for another second.

"Well if it isn't Tom Quincy," Hunter exclaims, his enthusiasm slightly lacking, however, he steps forwards and pulls Tommy into a quick hug anyways.

"Hey man, what brings you by?" Tommy's jaw tightens as soon as the question leaves his mouth as he pulls out of Hunter's arms. "D offered me a job here…I'll be Producing like the great Quincy," Tommy rolls his eyes, I doubt that.

Interrupting the reunion Darius begins to speak, "Speaking of, Hunter, why don't you step into my office so we can discuss a few things…and catch up," "Absolutely," Hunter responds and soon he and Darius are behind closed doors, out of earshot.

"God Jude, why didn't you just do him in the middle of the lobby?" He snaps bitterly and he slowly turns to face Jude, who is already staring over at him with her head cocked to the side.

"Hmm, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were jealous, Quincy," She says while plastering a huge grin on her face.

"Don't be ridiculous, I'm embarrassed for you,"

"Ha, okay…call it what you will...jealous," She coughs as she narrows her eyes at him. "Can't you ever make up your mind about me Tommy?"

"You're so seventeen. So damn naïve," His says with a roll of his eyes.

"Eighteen in a few months…and please, sometimes you act more childish than I do old man." She shoots back while crossing her arms over her chest and flinging a few strands of her blond locks from her face.

"Jude, you don't know the type of guy he is—"

Jude cuts him off, "Well there's nothing like finding out for myself right? Besides," she pauses for a moment and moves in closer to Tommy and brings her lips closely against his ear, "He's kind of cute." She steps away from him then, winks, and then turns on her heel to move into the sound booth.

"We have a song to finish, Quincy,"