Chapter Two.
It was that afternoon, when Kimber arrived home from school. The red head placed her school bag down at the table, went to the fridge and got out the orange juice. She shook it hard before she grabbed herself a glass and poured herself eight ounces. She noticed Jerrica standing at the frame of the door. "Afternoon, Jerrica."
"Did you do okay at school?" asked Jerrica, as she entered the kitchen to grab an apple from the fruit bowl.
"Yes, but I do have home work as usual. I just wish they wouldn't put so much on us each night. It goes into the time I set aside in the evening for writing music. Aja and Shana are practicing with their instruments in the garage and they're sounding really good. They even love the lyrics that I wrote, sis. I think if you got up to the microphone and sang . . . I believe we could even have ourselves a band of our own!" Kimber said, as she rinsed out her glass and put it in the dishwasher.
Jerrica watched as her sister grabbed her school bag and headed out of the kitchen. She stood there thinking about what her sister said. She had to really consider this very seriously as being a singer would mean traveling everywhere for tours, she knew Mrs. Bailey could handle the girls but it would mean taking Kimber out of her last year in high school to go on tour. "I couldn't do that to Kimber."
"Do what to Kimber?" asked Aja, as she entered the kitchen with Shana behind her.
Jerrica blushed knowing that she was overheard by them. "It's nothing, Aja."
Shana smiled. "It's nothing right. You were thinking about forming a band, weren't you, Jerrica?"
She looked at them both and sighed. "Yes, but right now it is not the time for it. Kimber is still in school and I couldn't yank her out of school for a tour, Shana."
"I'm sure she'll be able to handle it since there is no school on the weekends, Jerrica." Aja informed her.
"Well, I'll have to think about it. It's also my life too." Jerrica replied.
"Well, do think about it and think hard about it. Come on, Shana, we got to practice." Aja said, as she and Shana went to the garage to practice leaving Jerrica alone in the kitchen.
Jerrica knew she could do it but she didn't have the confidence to sing in front of people. She didn't have the courage to get up there and sing only to have people boo her off the stage. She headed for her office to get the paper work done and she jotted down a note to remind herself to call the bank tomorrow morning to see about the money that Eric promised her to put into Starlight House's checking account. She glanced over at the frame of a blond haired woman and a brown haired man with two girls sitting in front of them. 'Dad, should I form a band to help out with the finances for Starlight House or depend on Starlight Music to help us? I do not know what to do, dad. I wish you were here, now, dad I need your wisdom.'
She didn't notice the small box that was on her desk as she looked at the picture frame. She heard the sound of the bus pulling up to the house. She scooted out of the chair and headed for the front door as the girls arrived home from school.
The girls hurried into the house and greeted her before they headed off to the kitchen to greet Mrs. Bailey who was fixing an afternoon snack for the girls to eat before they got to work on their homework.
The rest of the night went off without a problem as Jerrica gazed towards the night sky before she headed off to bed like the rest of the house.
The next morning after sending the girls off to school, Jerrica sat down in her chair and looked at all the bills that she had to tend to. She called the bank and gave the teller the bank account to make sure that she had enough funds to pay them all. She looked at the phone in shock. "Can you repeat that please?"
"The checking account for Starlight House is one hundred and fifty dollars. I'm sorry but there was no transfer of funds from Starlight Music at all." Spoke the teller.
"Thank you." Jerrica was pissed as she hung up the phone. Eric had promised her to put money into Starlight House's checking account and now he didn't? She picked up the phone and dialed the number to Starlight Music.
"Starlight Music, can I help you?" asked a female voice.
"Yes, Eric Raymond please, this is Jerrica Benton," Jerrica said. She hoped that he just forgot to put the money into their account.
"I'm sorry, but he's busy with a reporter. Can I take a message for him?" she asked.
"Yes, tell him to please put money into Starlight House's checking account. We need five hundred dollars, please. Thank you," Jerrica said.
"I will," she said, as she wrote it down before hanging up with her. She got out of her chair and walked into the office, she handed the message to him. "That's from Jerrica Benton, she request five hundred dollars to be put into the Starlight House checking account today."
"She won't get anything from us anymore. Her project is no longer a concern for this company. They'll have to handle it themselves now." Eric said, as he placed the message into the shredder and turned it on.
"You mean you are not going to give her the money?" Looking at him shocked.
"Yep, we cannot spare any money for Ms. Benton's project no more. If she calls back, just let her know it will be done ASAP and don't come to me about it, it is a closed project." Eric stated firmly.
"Yes . . . sir." The woman said, as she walked out of his office and sat back down in her chair and resumed her duties. She had known that both companies worked side by side with each other for many years, as she had donated a little of her paycheck to them one year and got a thank you note from both companies, she didn't understand why the change of action after she was hired by Eric a year ago.
Jerrica waited after lunch to call the bank again only to find that there was still no transfer of money from Starlight Music to their account. She called Starlight Music up again and told the secretary to make sure that Eric puts five hundred dollars into their account. She got reassurances from the woman that it would be done ASAP. Jerrica knew that they needed the funds now. She glanced at the clock before she went on with her work on getting some of the bills paid off but the amount was not enough to pay for them all till she got money into the checking account.
It was about five-thirty when Deidre knocked on the open door and spoke, "Jerrica, I need some help with my homework,"
Jerrica looked at her and smiled as she motioned the girl to come into office. She spent the next thirty minutes helping her with her homework till the girl figured out where her problem was and solved it.
"Thanks Jerrica!" Deidre said, as she hurried out of her room towards her bedroom.
Jerrica went back to thinking about the bills that were due in one week from now. If she got the money for the higher amount bills by tomorrow, she'll be able to pay the bills the same day and be able to not worry about it for another month. She went to the garage where Aja and Shana were practicing to listen to them practice and they were really good. They were way better then the Misfits that she heard the other day. "You two are really good."
"You should see Kimber in here too, Jerrica, she's been practicing." Aja smiled, as she looked at her.
"Sorry, I'm late!" Kimber said, as she raced into the garage to the keyboard. "Shall we get practicing now?"
They nodded as they started to practice the new song that Kimber had written with Kimber singing the lead. Jerrica sat there listening to them play. After the song was done, she smiled.
"I didn't think you gals were this good. You were great!" Jerrica said, as she looked at them.
"Yeah, well, we would do better with a proper lead singer. I'm not that good at singing the lead, Jerrica." Kimber said, as she looked at her older sister.
Shana looked at Jerrica. "You could easily be our lead singer, Jerrica. You do have a good singing voice,"
"Well, I don't know." Jerrica replied, looking at them.
"Oh come on sis, you don't know until you try it." Kimber said, her eyes pleading with her to step up and sing the song with them.
"Well, alright." Jerrica read the lyrics that her sister wrote and memorized them.
Soon, the band was playing and Jerrica was singing. After it was over, the girls all smiled.
Shana smiled. "You have the same talent that your mom did, Jerrica."
Aja spoke, "I think we have found our lead singer for our band!"
Jerrica smiled as she blushed. "Well, I'm not comfortable doing this. But I'll do my best. Think we can compete against Eric's so called great band?"
"What band?" Aja and Shana asked.
Jerrica told them what was happening with the music company and that for some reason, they were refusing to help fund Starlight House like her dad did before.
"But isn't Starlight House and Starlight Music belong to both you and Kimber, Jerrica?" asked Shana.
"Yes, but till the Will is read, it is unknown." Jerrica replied.
"So when will it be read?" asked Kimber.
"Tomorrow morning at 9am, I'm going to be there to hear it. From what the lawyer told me that Eric refused to be there, so I'll be getting the info on the Will before he even knows it." Jerrica said.
"But why," Aja asked.
"That way, I can use it to oust him from the company and manage it myself." Jerrica replied. "And plus, I can give money to Starlight House when it needs it. Instead of waiting on Eric to give us the money, I can put it into the account myself. But I need something to disguise myself."
"Disguise, but why, Jerrica?" asked Aja, looking at her.
"Do you think Eric would even allow the daughter of the late owner and founder to play in his so called Battle of the Bands?" asked Jerrica, looking at them firmly.
"We could get you a wig to hide your hair and add some make-up to your face and it will be hard to tell who you really were under it, Jerrica." Shana said, as she looked at Jerrica's face.
"What color of wig should we get?" Kimber asked, excitedly.
"Blue, nah. Oh, I know, I'll be right back!" Aja said, as she raced to the Starlight House van and drove off in it. They all shrugged and went into the house after they closed up the garage.
Aja went walking into the adult store; she looked at the wigs that were there. She knew that Jerrica had to have a wig that screamed a new person as she scanned over the wigs. She scratched her head as she tried to figure out which wig to get for her.
The lady, who watched her come in, walked over and asked. "Can I help you with something, miss?"
"Yes, I'm looking for a wig for my friend and I'm not sure what color she should go for." Aja replied, looking at her.
"What about red hair, this wig is shoulder length and really nice," the lady said, as she pointed to the red hair.
"No, we have a red head already." Aja said.
The lady showed her other wigs in different style and colors. Aja didn't like any of them. The lady smiled as she looked at Aja. "This just came in this morning and I hadn't had a chance to take a good look at it. Let me see if this might work for your friend," She started to head for the back, turned and motioned for Aja to come with her. There was a moderate size box on the desk. "Here, this should work for your friend. They called it Gem pink."
Aja looked at the wig that was in the box. "It's perfect, I'll take it!"
The lady put it into a medium small box and took it to the cash register. "That's thirty dollars even, please."
Aja paid for it and hurried out of the store with the box in hand as she hurried back to Starlight House. Aja headed into the house and locked the door behind her before she headed for Jerrica's room where the others would hang out at before they retired to bed. She knocked and entered the room to see Shana putting make-up on Jerrica's face. "I got the perfect wig for Jerrica to wear."
"Okay, let's see it," Jerrica said, as Aja pulled it out and showed it to them. Jerrica looked at it. "Okay, let's try it on."
A minute later, Jerrica looked herself in the mirror and saw a totally different person sitting there. She turned to look at the others to see what their reaction was.
"Oh wow!" Shana said.
"Outrageous!" Kimber replied, as she held her hands to her cheeks.
"You look good in it, Jerrica." Aja said.
"So you like it?" Jerrica asked.
"Yeah, oh Jerrica, that box came for you before I went off to school this morning." Kimber said, as she pointed to the box on Jerrica's dresser.
"Oh," Jerrica pulled the box out of the wrapper and opened it to reveal two red star earrings. She smiled as she put them on. "How do I look?"
"You look . . ." Kimber started to say when the windows blew open and blew out the candle that was on the dresser.
The three ladies closed the window and turned to look at Jerrica, but a ghost like woman with purple hair and skin was standing there.
'Jerrica Benton, I have come for you.' spoke the ghost. She motioned towards the box. 'Follow the instructions in the box and come tonight.' And without another word, she vanished from view.
All four of them looked at each other and all shrugged. Jerrica removed the pink wig from her head as they headed for the van and drove towards the address that was in the box where they got to an old drive-in movie theatre. The ghostly woman stood by the screen telling them to drive into the wall.
Aja was not going to drive into the wall, but at the instance of Jerrica, she did only to find that they were inside and there sat a large computer like device at the far end. They climbed out and headed towards it.
After they found out from the woman whose name was Synergy, that Jerrica and Kimber's dad Emmett had built her for them and that how she appeared in their home was of the chips in Jerrica's earrings. They found band equipment, clothes and a new car with the name Jem on the hood.
Jerrica looked over at the girls and smiled. "I think I know exactly how to beat Eric's so called great band. We will form our own band and enter in his contest."
"But how, Jerrica?" asked Shana.
"By holograms," Jerrica said. "My real persona will be of Jerrica but my rock and roll singer . . ." She didn't even think of a name for her alter ego till she spied the name on the hood of the roadster. "Jem will be my alter ego."
"Who's Jem?" they all asked.
Jerrica had already turned to Synergy. "Can you transform me into a woman with long light pink hair and beautiful?"
"Yes, I can." Synergy stated, as a bright light shown over Jerrica as a new person appeared over her form. "And when you wish the show to be over, just say shows over, Synergy and the hologram of Jem will be gone."
"I am Jem." Jerrica said, as she turned to look at the others. "We may have an ace in our sleeves, ladies. Eric won't know what hit him,"
"Jerrica, the reading of dad's will is tomorrow. You need to show up the lawyer's office and hear it being read." Kimber said.
"And hopefully, Eric won't be there or if he is, I hope he gets a shock." Jerrica smiled, as she looked at them. She turned to Synergy and spoke, "Shows over, Synergy." The hologram of Jem faded from around her.
The next chapter is coming.