Disclaimer: I don't own anything, only in my dreams :(

Four Is A Crowd

Chapter 1

Never having known the tension the unknown brought with it, Nate was anxiously pacing the room.

The label or rather their manager, Shane's uncle Brown, had called them in for a meeting at the label headquarters. Them, meaning Shane, Jason and Nate himself, more precisely Connect 3, today's most famous and, according to a lot of magazines, also the hottest band out there, consisting of three friends since High School.

But anyway, there was a difference to their previous meetings. Never before had Brown kept them in the shadows, the dark of the unknown. Never before had Brown kept quiet. Never before had he not told them what a meeting would be about. And that was exactly what made Nate anxious and queasy to the core. Feeling every sort of emotion making him fidget every few seconds, slowly tracing marks into the carpeted floor of their usual meeting room. He didn't like the situation one bit, making him feel young and inexperienced once again. How could he not sit still for a second, but be tired at the same time? It just didn't make sense, for Nate anyway.

He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, trying to figure out what the label could possibly want. What could be possibly wrong.

Being the business man of the group, he wouldn't get any rest until the issue was out in the open. That much he knew, nothing more. He was utterly clueless at the moment. Was that how Jason felt most of the time? He started to wonder. Yes, he loved his older, but definately not wiser friend, but he was clueless to the situation around him most of the time, that was just his charm.

Following Nate with his eyes, being seated in a small love seat in the corner of the room, Shane felt the need to pace with his best friend. The room was soaring with all sorts of emotions all emitting from the youngest boy. The anxiety, most prominent among all, was contagious and it made the raven haired boy more restless than he would have imagined possible. He felt the need to do something, anything. He couldn't just sit around like an utter fool, awaiting his uncle. Not that he thought there was seriously something up with his mother's brother's secrecy. He knew Brown better than that, right? Or was he wrong after all and maybe this meeting meant a drastic change?

Contemplating, he moved to stand by the window, but not before tracing his eyes over to a very peaceful sleeping Jason, oblivious to the tension coursing around. Like always, he was oblivious. That was Jason's talent. He could rest and not care about what was going on around him in the most odd situations. That was Jason for you. Not the airhead he was in High School, but never the one to pass a possibility to rest some more.

Looking at the people passing by the tall building, he was aware of the fact, that most of them would never imagine that someone like him could be watching their daily routine. Granted, he would have never guessed it himself until this day. He wasn't the kind of guy to observe too much, but little did he know that that was about to change, when he saw someone specific down in front of the building.

Snapping his head around, facing the room, he looked at a still pacing Nate. Needing to speak to him and slowly getting aggravated by his motions as well he decided to halt the boy's actions by catching his attention.

"Hell, Nate. Stop pacing and get over here!" Shane exclaimed, immediately having the curly haired boy's eyes on him, halting mid pace. Curiosity was shimmering through as he made his way to the already occupied window.

"What's up, Shane?" The boy asked curiously.

Instead of answering his buddy, Shane kept staring down at the ground floor, still. There, a girl, well rather a young woman, got off her black, sleek motorbike, letting her head of dark brown, almost black, silk hair loose of her helmet, shaking it. She was definately oblivious to the watching eyes of the celebrity. She unzipped her black leather jacket quickly, revealing her flowing cream top underneath, perfectly accentuating her dark skinny jeans and black leather boots.

Shane didn't know why, but he was mesmerized. Mesmerized by her obvious beauty, her blazing confidence. She was a simple looking hispanic, but to his eyes, she was perfect.

No sooner was he shaken out of his dream state, than Nate shaking him.

"Yo, dude. You still there? What did you want?" Nate was staring at his band mate with a confused gaze upon his face.
What was wrong with the guy?, he thought. One second he demanded him over, the next he's zoning out on him.

Trying to get a grip on himself, Shane shook his head, attempting to shake off all these confusing feelings and thoughts of the mystery girl.

Focusing on Nate standing before him, he nodded out to the ground floor, to where the girl was slowly walking towards the entrance of their building, being greeted by quite a few people strolling by or coming from important meetings.

"Do you know her?" Shane asked his curly haired companion rather impatient.

Knitting his eyebrows together, Nate looked out the window trying to find the person Shane was talking about, but soon started to frown.

"Who? Do I know who, Shane?"

Looking out the window instead of at Nate again, Shane sighed with disappointment, realizing the girl was no longer in view.

"No one, Nate. Forget it," said Shane, sighing dejectedly.

It's not like he'd ever meet her personally anyway, Shane realized. She could be anyone. What did a name matter today anyway? It's not like she'd casually stroll into the room and greet them with a heartfelt smile. Only in Shane's dreams, she would.

But, oh, if he only knew how wrong these thoughts were. Shane was in for a big surprise and with him his fellow band mates. If only they knew.

Nate didn't get a chance to answer to Shane's ramble anyway, wanting to know what was up with his usually so collected friend. What had gotten into Shane that would shake him so bad that he would zone out? Who was the mystery girl that Shane had been watching?

Well, Nate wouldn't get to know this specific information, that much he knew, when the door to the room swung open and their badly awaited manager, Brown, entered the room, waking up a startled Jason and bringing him to his feet.

Brown looked timid, to say the least. This fact and the one that he greeted the three of them in a way too cheery way, his ever prominent British accent heavy, made Nate sick to his stomach. This wasn't good.

"Hey, boys. How ya'll doing?" Brown just smiled, trying to ignore the tension flowing around the room already.

Adjusting his eyes to the scene in front of him, Jason was the first to speak.

"Whoa there, uncle Brown. You on drugs?" The oldest said, rubbing his eyes.

Nate looked at his friend weirdly, but decided to just ignore his pointless ramble and spoke up.

"Morning, Brown," cutting straight to the case, he spoke some more. "What are we here for today?"

Moving to stand beside his mate, Shane walked over, looking at his uncle expectantly, watching him sweat under their heavy gazes.

"You alright, uncle B? You look rather sick," Shane asked rather concerned.

"No worries, boys. I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" Brown asked, smiling a little unsure at them, sitting down beside the still tired looking Jason.

Ignoring the former conversation, Nate sat down also.

"Well, what's up with the unusual meeting? You never told us what it was about," Nate raised an eyebrow while talking.

"Alright. Straight to the case then," Brown laughed humorlessly, before speaking up again, rather quietly. "I really don't know how to tell you this, boys."

Standing by the back of the couch Nate was sitting on, Shane had a worried look on his face. Why was his uncle so afraid of telling them something?

"Just tell us," Shane urged.

Brown took a deep breath before starting to talk once more. "Well, the label decided that it was time to change up some things."

"What things?" Nate asked, listening intently and with worry edge onto his handsome face.

"Connect 3 things?" Shane asked confused.

Sighing, Brown nodded. "Exactly. They think that it's time for a change in your music. To show your fans that you can be more than they have seen so far. To make the critics of you simplicity vanish."

Before he could do anything to control it, Shane's temper came to the surface. "Who do they think they are? Haven't we made it clear that we play our music? Our music only?"

Shooting Shane a stern look, Nate quieted his friend. "Don't jump to conclusions, Shane. Maybe it's not that bad," Nate turned to Brown smiling hopefully. "Right, Brown?"

Brown just smiled back, sadly. "I've tried my best, guys. But the bosses are set on sending you a co-writer to improve your songs."

"You've got to be kidding me!" And that was one of the first and only times that Jason said what they all felt deep within. They were utterly shocked to say the least.

"Sadly, no," Brown answered shrugging. "But on the bright side, I managed to convince them to let you work with one of my people. Get the best out of the worst, boys. She's really not that bad."

"She?" Shane asked incredulously.

Brown nodded. "She's one of my former campers, now an instructor. She's one of the best song writers I have ever known."

"Do we have to?" Nate pleaded.

"Give her a chance, Nate," Brown said, turning to face the boy. "Not only is she a friend of mine, but she's also the record label head's daughter. You don't want to piss her off."

His eyes widening with cognition, Nate spoke up. "Michaela Torres?"

"Exactly," answered a grinning manager.

Shane just rolled his eyes. "Oh no, another goody-two-shoe."

A/N: Want to burn me alive for taking so long? Well, go ahead, I deserve it, but as a treat I made this chapter longer than it was supposed to be.

Well, I hope you like it and I really have to thank you guys if you stood by me throughout this really long wait, but I've been really busy with school (my last year!) and life in general.

You know, so far you've been some amazing readers. I never imagined that I would get this much response to this story, but here I am, only having released the prologue and now the first chapter, with 18 story alerts, 8 favs, 489 hits and a total of 17 reviews!

Keep on reviewing please and tell me what you think!

30+ reviews for the next chapter? And I'll try to get it out sooner this time. Promise!

xx Corinna