Summer Ménage III

by AnniKay

Commune experiences their first summer as KAMA the Summer between Freshman & Sophomore year of college.

3. Works Hard 4 da Money & SemiCharmed Life

Summer Menage III

AnniKay

Sam/Mercedes/Puck

Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them

*****PLEASE NOTE: If I am using an actor or musician as a face claim, they do not exist as their famous persona in this universe. IE: Darcy Lewis is a person so Kat Dennings doesn't exist. Or Hiram Berry is a person so Jeff Goldblum is not.*****

****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****
Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories:
This Chapter Dedicated to MyKroft & love-orthelack-thereof, two very encouraging Learning French Series reviewers.
I appreciate all of you.

Boredom Busting Fic Reread Rec
Prom Night by Kaybee80

Isis Aurora Tomoe You are the most awesome Beta ever. Thank you for being such a help in my time of need! Princess 976 Welcome to the LF Beta Team!

French Lesson Series Timeline
April 2012-Junior Prom (Learning French)
May 2012-First Nationals Title (Learning French)
June - August 2012 Summer after Junior year(Summer Menagé)
August 2012-May 2013 Senior Year (Grandissions Together)
June -August 2013 Summer before College (Summer Menagé II)
September 2013-May 2014 Freshman Year of College (Les Ames Soeurs, Si Cela Est Noel)
May-September 2014 Summer before Sophomore year (Summer Menagé III)

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She Works Hard For the Money (Donna Summers)
Hudson PoV

I will admit that when I answered the rather vague ad for the personal assistant position, I hadn't expected much. When one job hunts, they reach a level of ennui that can mess with their minds. I was no different. By that point, it had been three months since I'd been out of any semblance of work. I was just a few months away from the end of my lease in an apartment that was actually student housing. In all reality, I was sending curricula vitae to any add that seemed like it was an actual job and completely legal. If I wasn't compelled to keep a log of all the ads I answered, it may have escaped me when I was called in for an interview a little more than a week after I'd found the posting.

"Ms. Friedman, this is Deborah Jergens with Warner Music Group. I would like to schedule you to meet with your prospective employer on Monday, March twenty-fourth." I immediately accepted. In the moment, I didn't even remember which position she was referring to. But beggars couldn't be choosy and if I got too choosy about a job at that point I would end up a beggar. Unlike my classmates, I had no parents to fall back on in the event that all my college degrees proved unmarketable. My mother had died of cancer when I was four and my father had followed her by the time I was eight. I spent the next nine and half years in the overtaxed foster care system of the state of New York. Fortunately I'd never had a truly bad placement. Unfortunately, each less than good placement had only made me more shy and more reclusive. I fell into books and after managing to earn a full scholarship to Binghamton University I escaped my final foster home right before I turned eighteen. In my five years there, I managed to earn four bachelor degrees and an associates.

After graduation, I had exhausted the scholarship and was determined not to take on any more debt than absolutely necessary, I found a job in a small bookstore. However, bookstores, especially the small, boutique ones die quick deaths in poor economies. So I applied for a master's program and the scholarships I would need to secure the masters in computer science from CUNY that I had completed while working at the campus library. Once I graduated from the master's program, I was left jobless and with a short amount of time before I would be homeless. Had I realized exactly what would happen, I'd have stretched my thesis out a little and graduated in May rather than December. So it was with a very glad heart that I accepted the invitation to interview with the unnamed Warner Music Group artist as a personal assistant. I spent the time between the phone call and the actual interview reading articles that talked about what personal assistants did on a day to day basis and how that differed from what was usually asked of a celebrity personal assistant.

After meeting with KAMA for lunch, I was shocked to realize that while they were very young, they weren't immature. They knew what they wanted and I found that I desperately wanted to take the journey with them. After we finished having lunch and answering a plethora of the psychological based interview questions, they didn't ask any of the usual and expected skill set based queries, we were all told that they would let us know by Friday afternoon who they had selected and asked that we keep Friday evening dinner open. If we were the candidate selected we'd need to be available for a dinner meeting that same night. I was more than happy to do so. It had been weeks since I'd had more than bag salads for dinner and scrambled eggs for breakfast. The interview lunch was the first time I'd had lunch since my money situation had gotten uncomfortably tight.

I was exceedingly happy when I got the call early Friday afternoon inviting me to dinner at the Warner Music Group's Midtown offices. I was told to dress professionally, but to remain comfortable since the meeting could take quite a while. That was even better because they had already seen the best of my interview outfits. I was able to pull together the pretty blue wrap dress I'd worn for my master's graduation and a pair of nude pumps. Naturally, my hair was very reminiscent of Merida's from Disney's Brave so I took the rest of the afternoon to wash, blow dry and straighten the mass. I arrived at Warner's offices a scant fifteen minutes early. An intern showed me up to a well-appointed conference room where Deborah Jergens was waiting along with several others and a teleconference all ready to go.

Once KAMA got there, Ms. Jergens took the time to introduce everyone to each other. "We've met each of you, however, tonight is the first time that the four of you who will comprise the management and administrative team of KAMA have met. Haja Johnston," a tall, well-built black man with shoulder length blond locs smiled and waved as Ms. Jergens gave us his background, "is being offered the position of talent manager. Brantley Clayton," he was younger than Mr. Johnston, and had lighter skin though they were both African Americans. He was being offered the job of the new group's agent. He would see to all their booking and tours. "Now, after interviewing for a personal assistant, Mercedes, Sam and Noah were faced with a conundrum. They had two candidates who seemed to be a perfect fit for the position. The only differences between the two was that one is related to one of their close personal friends and the other speaks a multitude of languages. Our triad was very concerned with nepotism keeping them from hiring the linguist, and yet they were also worried that in trying not to appear as if they were only hiring the girl who was related to their friend, they would miss out on an incredible candidate as well. They were arguing the point for almost an hour when I pointed out that one candidate was supremely qualified to take a position that we would eventually need to fill but hadn't looked to fill for a few more months. Darcy, you are being offered the position of social media marketing manager. Hudson, Mercedes, Sam and Noah would like to offer you the personal assistant position."

Then Mr. Zizes spoke up from the display on the wall. "Before we moved forward, I need each of you to verbally accept your positions." He said firmly.

"Hell yeah, I accept Uncle Ben…" Darcy laughed. "I'm being offered the chance to be paid for one of my favorite parts of life. You know that I am all over this job."

"So am I sir." Brantley agreed. "This is exactly what I've wanted to do with my life for the last six years, and the chance to do it for people who seem to value the loyalty that I give. That gives me life."

Haja smiled. "I have considered this job mine since the interview." He returned simply.

All eyes, those physically present and those digitally there turned to look at me. "I am happy to accept this opportunity."

Deborah's intern passed us each our offer letters and nondisclosure agreements. I read mine over and got totally held up by the salary. "This is…" I caught myself. I'd read more than enough articles during my job search to know that employers tend not to like it when you discuss your salary around other people in the firm.

Darcy had no such compunction. "Is this serious? You're gonna pay us sixty-five grand a year…and give us a rent free apartment."

"Yes. Combined that brings you two up to almost the same base salary as all our other employees." Sam said carefully.

Puck continued for him. "There will be bonuses for the management and probably gifts for the administrative staff."

"Wait, gifts?" I asked quietly.

Mercedes took that one. "As I understand it, you will probably end up attending events with us. I'm not going to ask you to buy clothes that you wouldn't have to purchase if not for the fact that you work for us on your own."

"I can help you with getting the girls outfitted." Haja pipped in. Something told me that he would really enjoy taking us shopping. I wouldn't mind. I wasn't very good at the whole shopping thing.

From there the meeting progressed quickly. They had us covered with full group medical, dental, short and long term disability and even vision. We got everything handled paperwork wise. My start date was the first of April and I got a signing bonus and everything. I also got my first assignment. I was to set up the flights and lodging for KAMA's trip to the MTV Movie Awards and their summer festival tour. By the end of April I felt like I had really cemented my place in my new position. I had created a database to manage my knowledge of their likes and dislikes. I worked with Kurt to create a database that will allow us to keep track of what they wore to which events…that would make it easier once the offers for her to wear specific designers or whatever started to come in as they gained more fame and notoriety. I also created a database of their likes and dislikes when it came to things like their favorite brands of toilet paper and toothpaste and any of the other kinds of things that I might eventually need to know to stock their home when they began to live on their own.

I tried to fill my down time with things that would ultimately help me perform my duties better. I found and linked to all the important music industry sites, Billboard being the very first of those. I also took time to email and Skype with Darcy so that she and I could revamp KAMA's online presence, including their website and their online store. Noah Puckerman had done a really good job picking their original offerings, but Darcy and I worked with the group to expand them. We found better vendors who would be able to handle the shipping as well without undercutting the bottom line. We also expanded the selection to include things that sold well without costing much, like widening the selection of bumper stickers and car magnets, BPA free water bottles, fit bit bracelets, and even KAMA cellphone, tablet and iPad covers. I'd never realized how big the markup on those kinds of things were. The water bottles cost like fifty cents each to make, less than a dollar to ship and yet we charged almost twenty bucks plus pretty arbitrarily set 'shipping and handling' fees…and people bought them in droves. The online store broke such a large profit that first full month, Sam and Noah insisted that Mercedes make time to take Darcy and me shopping as a bonus. Once he saw the swag, Haja immediately made arrangements to have vendors making sales of the lower end, fifty dollars and less, items at each festival stop. We wouldn't make quite as much profit from the boots on the ground sales as we did the internet sales, but it was a great way to get more people interested in the group and overall both the online swag sales and the record sales went up quickly.

Every month there was a meeting, via skype of Gwen Adams, Antwan Berry and Saul Mayzer to discuss any pertinent details about Sam, Puck and Mercedes' financials. That was immediately followed by another meeting of Antwan Berry, Ethan Harris, Haja, Brantley and myself about career and legal details. In addition to those meetings, Haja, Brantley and I, along with Darcy via Skype, met with Ms. Jergens, Ms. Rawlins and Mr. Hamilton once a week for several weeks. Those meetings were just to bring us fully on board and teach us what we needed to know about the band to do our jobs. After each of the meetings, I'd bring the notes and go over everything with the trio. It was fairly intensive, but it helped me to get a deeper understanding of the three of them. Ultimately, the trip to LA for the Movie Awards was definitely an eye opener and I learned even more. Mercedes, Sam and Noah were very serious about treating their band and me very well. I was to always book everyone on the same flights and in the same hotel. They didn't want to make anyone double up. They wouldn't ask anyone to do anything they weren't comfortable doing. By the time we returned to New York, I had enough knowledge to make booking for the festival tour a breeze. The rest of the school year and summer was a flurry of activity. I learned more about my bosses and my job. I found myself fully integrated into their lives, as much as I needed to be anyway.

By the time we were nearing the end of the tour and working on recording their Christmas/Hanukah album, there was nothing they could throw at me that I couldn't handle. I was comfortable with their personalities and comfortable enough to start peaking my head out of my own shell. It was nice. I didn't have very many friends, but Darcy had almost immediately adopted me and Haja and Brantley seemed determined to make me feel as comfortable with them as I did with Darcy and Mercedes. By the time we all met up in LA for the VMAs, the four of us were as thick as thieves and we were going to do everything in our power to ensure that KAMA reached the highest of heights.

Haja, Brantley and Darcy were waiting on us near baggage claim when we arrived at LAX. They helped us gather all of the bags. Everyone had garment bags that held their performance and/or red carpet wear. Ruth Mayzer had done an incredible job tailoring Mercedes' red carpet dress and she and Kurt had Puck and Sam's suits looking custom made rather than off the rack. The fact that they had gotten it all done over the course of one activity packed weekend just showed how good both of them were with their needles. We were checked into the Ritz Carlton in a fairly quick process. We had rented a total of ten single 'deluxe guest rooms', which were booked under the name Gene Stark, four double 'marina terrace guest rooms', booked under the name Joe Kerr, an ACA accessible 'club level guest room' for Brittany, Santana and Artie and the executive suite for KAMA both reserved under the pseudonym Michelle Franks. We got the keys all handed out and the amazing concierge and Ritz staff got every single bag taken to the correct rooms.

Mercedes, Sam, Puck, and Rainbow were due to meet with set designers by two. I had them changed, assembled and at the designers' studio near the venue by one thirty-seven. Brantley and Haja accompanied us. Primarily because the tour the following summer would be larger and call for stage sets and such. The meeting was not quick, but it was efficient. The designers, Florian Wielder and Richard Finkelstein and their lighting designer LeRoy Bennett came into the meeting with more questions than ideas as first. But as we answered things like 'stage costumes', still the twenties, speak easy looks. 'How many dancers and band?' six dancers, four background singers and five band members…I included Artie since Sam and Noah wouldn't be playing for this performance. "Our lead guitarist for the evening is disabled. Please keep the band on stage level."

"Easily done." Mr. Wielder said with a nod. He had started sketching a moment ago, his hands almost a blur of movement.

Mr. Finkelstein leaned over, "open up the front there and the five piece band can play under there." He looked up from the sketch. "None of you are afraid of heights, right?" thankfully they weren't. He pointed to something and smirked. "We can make those retractable. I already have a set that we can alter to make this work."

"Scarlet Pimpernel?" Mr. Bennett asked him. When Finkelstein nodded, Mr. Bennett looked down at the colors I'd given him that everyone was wearing. "Ivory or palest pink, lavender and blue gels for the spots…and silver gels to create moonlight for the main lighting theme." The three of them barely seemed to realize that we were there as they disintegrated into industry specific speech that went over our head.

Suddenly they turned their sketch around. "Now, given the nature of the song, I'm going to put you in contact with the conductor of the orchestra that will be available to the other artists and will be doing the live music for the night. I didn't think to ask…were you using live music or canned. Since you will have your band on stage, I assumed."

"We don't lip sync. I know it can cause problems for the producers, but I can't do it." Mercedes told him honestly. He probably thought she meant that it was a low road she refused to travel. But I had been to enough of her live performances to know that Mercedes often let the music take her. She never knew exactly what would come out of her mouth on the chorus and harmony parts. Puck and Sam seemed completely used to letting her have her head as she improvised to her hearts content.

"Great…your band backed up by the swell of the orchestra during the second chorus through the end of the song. It will sound amazing." Mr. Wielder said with a smile. "Richard, can we have this ready for them to have rehearsals…"

"It's altering an existing set, I can have it ready for you guys to get in here with your band by Wednesday evening…Thursday morning at the latest." Richard Finkelstein assured us.

I quickly rearranged the schedule blocking out chunks of Wednesday evening, Thursday and Friday for their rehearsals and sound checks. The changes wouldn't affect their time to get ready on Sunday. The performers were scheduled for their spa visits on Saturday, and hair and makeup would begin at ten Sunday morning. Once I had the whole calendar rearranged and reset, I sent everyone the needed updates and catalogued the replies to make sure that they would all know exactly what was going on and when.

We spent another hour learning what the set designers had planned, and I had to say it was going to be spectacular. As per the usual arrangement, KAMA fed us one meal a day and we were on our own for the others…though we could get room service for breakfast and, in Puck's words… "We're going to, you might as well do it too". I had made arrangements for the entire entourage to have dinner at a fun waterfront 'sport's bar' and dockside grill called Tony P's. There was a car service to transport everyone over. The place seemed very nice, but very Cali meets Middle America. They were very professional and ready for us when we arrived. I had rented the Dockside Private Room for the evening. Since the space sat thirty-six to fifty, I believed that we would be well and truly fine. Sam, Mercedes, and Puck had called and invited their LA real estate agent and she was bringing a date…a chef that was in town from New York who was out visiting her. The couple had been introduced by Mrs. Mayzer. She was exceedingly happy when I let her know that her match making had been successful. Ms. Mann was also invited to join us, but she had other plans. That still only brought us up to twenty seven, so we were golden.

The restaurant had assigned us four waiters, three men and one lady. The lady kept geeking out, but she wasn't obnoxious about it. She had my quarter of the table, and she gave us recommendations as to her favorites and outlined the specials. Ultimately, Darcy and I decided to take a note from our bosses' hand book and share two appetizers. She ordered the calamari and I went with the crab and shrimp stuffed mushrooms. Both where quite enjoyable. I noticed that Blaine, sitting across from us, was noticing and working up his nerve to ask about it. I smiled. "No, we aren't dating. I think Darcy has officially adopted me. I'm not really one for dating…either gender."

"Oh, I read an article online about people who identify as asexual and aromantic." Kurt piped in. "Science has really only scratched the surface of gender and sexuality in the last ten years. Before that they really only looked at gender from a hetero-normative standpoint. Now, they are finally starting to look into the science of gender from the standpoint of the entire human experience. The current prevailing theory is that asexual people actually make up about one percent of the world's population."

I nodded. I had done some research…and by some I meant I had read everything I could get my hands on to try to understand why I'd never felt even the beginnings of sexual attraction. As I read more and more, I came to so many conclusions. I had no problem with the thought of sex. I didn't frown on others who enjoyed the pursuit of sexual relationships. I didn't fear sexual interaction, I just didn't want to interact with others that way. I wasn't gay, I wasn't straight, I wasn't bisexual. I wasn't pansexual. I wasn't sexual at all. In the earlier determinations of people like me, our lack of desire was considered a disorder. They assumed because we didn't experience sexual desire there must have been something physiologically wrong. While the desire for sex was never present, the desire to categorize myself, to understand myself was. So I had allowed a younger, tenured professor with a reputation for liking coeds 'seduce' me…up to a certain point. My body parts responded correctly to the physical stimulation. My nipples hardened in response to thumbs and tongues. My vaginal canal moistened appropriately to manual stimulation, but I never got any emotional or psychological stimulation. Mr. Professor Man hadn't liked that and it had made it easier for me to pull back and discontinue the association. But it definitely answered a whole host of questions I'd had at that point.

Since then, just knowing what I felt, or didn't feel, as the case may have been…knowing that it had a name, that there were others like me…it made it easier to live my life. I determined that I was both asexual and aromantic…though I had no romantic experience so that one was still a little bit up in the air. Though, since becoming a part of KAMA's team, I had discovered that while I had no interest in sex, I did like hugs. They were a very huggy bunch. Mercedes, Sam and Darcy were the worst, though Brittany did deserve an honorable mention. I had also become completely comfortable with my self diagnosis. I was around some of the most objectively beautiful people I'd ever encountered in real life and there was absolutely no sexual desire for any of them. I looked up at Kurt and Blaine and smiled. "Yes, I am asexual…and Sam, Puck, Santana and Brittany are pansexual…though Santana and Brittany may simply be bisexual. I am not sure on them."

"Pansexuality…that's when gender is not the point right? Where the person is more important than the plumbing?" Darcy asked in her own irreverent way.

"Yes." I told her with a grin.

Kurt smiled as well. "That would definitely seem to categorize Sam…Sam's father likes to say that Sam never saw Noah coming, that he hit him like a bolt out of the blue."

"Bet he sees Noah cumming all the time now." Darcy chortled.

Thankfully before anyone had to think of a response to that horrifically bad joke that she absolutely loved, our waitress arrived with the entrees. I had ordered the Seafood Pasta which had fresh fish, shrimp, calamari, Prince Edward Island mussels, clams, garlic, fresh basil, marinara cream sauce, over a big bed of linguini pasta. Darcy had gone for another region's food altogether. Her Stir Fry Teriyaki Bowl was entirely too large to call it a 'bowl'. It was resplendent with shrimp big enough to be called prawns, ten different vegetables, peanuts, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, the restaurant's signature stir fry sauce and brown rice. I looked around and saw that Kurt had gotten the healthiest thing on the menu a healthy char-broiled ten ounce chicken breast, but had substituted the rice dish for extra sautéed fresh vegetables. Blaine, however, decided to enjoy the garlic shrimp pasta, which was a dozen large shrimp, spinach, mushrooms, garlic, marinara cream sauce served with al dente spaghettini.

I glanced up the table. I wanted to know what a chef would order in another person's restaurant…from another chef's kitchen. Roman Manoso had ordered the restaurant's specialty. Sweet Italian sausage, cappacola, meatballs, mushrooms, spinach, ricotta, mozzarella & Parmesan cheeses, marinara, over a bed of rigatoni that they called 'Tony's Special Pasta'. He seemed to approve of the meal, finishing the rather large portion. The room was quiet for several long minutes as everyone dug in. Darcy was pretty quick to return us to our original conversation. "So we have gay." She gestured at Kurt and Blaine. "Pan," she gestured at the male two thirds of our bosses. "Asexual…" she gestured at me. "Bi…" her head nodded towards Brittany and Santana. "Jeez, I feel kind of boring just loving dick. Maybe I should expand my horizons. Nah…I tried the whole lezzie experience in college. Chicks be crazy man. Plus, considering what I was bringing to the table I don't think it was unreasonable to want any girl I dated to be at least a C-cup. The Lesbos on campus all got really offended when I said that."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "My Ga-ga…you are certainly related to our Lauren." He chuckled. "I'm not sure that Harlem is ready for you and Puck to reside so close together."

Darcy gave a Kanye shrug and returned to devouring her meal. The food was delicious and when our waitress asked if we wanted anything for dessert, I was tempted. But when I considered that I wouldn't have to buy lunch the next day, simply because I had about half of the meal left, I decided that I really didn't need that lovely looking All-American hot fudge brownie sundae after all. Puck handled the payment. Sam made sure to leave a hundred dollar bill within each of the wait-staff zones. So we left full and happy. By the time I'd returned to the room I was sharing with Darcy, the local news had picked up the slightly ridiculous tip amounts. "And in lighter news, with all the bad behavior often associated with young Hollywood and the under twenty one set of the music industry it is always nice to be able to say something good about a famous young person. The music group KAMA is in town with their band, background singers and entourage for the VMAs. Tonight they had dinner at a local area restaurant and rather than the usual reports of out of control behavior or even the occasional dine and dash, the staff at Tony P's Dockside Grill posted this to their social media. 'KAMA and their crew are the most mature and kind group of celebrities we've had eat in our restaurant for a long time. Not only was the room completely neat and clean with the dishes stacked neatly ready for our busboys to take away. They paid their bill which exceeded our minimum for the room and left a forty percent gratuity, doubling the required tip. Then at each different zone for the waiters, they left a crisp, new hundred dollar bill. This is the first under twenty-one celebrity clique I can truly say is welcome back anytime'." The picture attached to the Facebook post shows the four waiters we'd had serving us each holding up one of the hundreds. The news anchor came back on the screen. "The post has already been viewed over a million times and it joins several other posts from restaurants around the country. I have to say…it is quite lovely not to have to tell another story about Beiber peeing in a bucket."

"Given that Sam Evans worked for a time as a pizza delivery guy, I guess he understands the importance of tips. Well, as a former waitress myself, I have to say Kudos to KAMA. No matter how a person may feel about their private lives, they are living their professional ones with grace and maturity." The late evening news co-anchor said with a bright toothed smile.

Darcy immediately whipped her Mac Book pro from her ever present messenger bag and followed the restaurant, dropping them a very quick KAMA thank you note and arranging to have them sent a signed photo of the group. As she went to work, I took a moment to look around the room. Despite having come up earlier, I hadn't really taken an opportunity to check the room out. The room was really beautiful with a personal balcony that allowed one to really appreciate the views of the marina and city. The two double beds were draped in handcrafted Egyptian and Italian bedding and the bathroom was full on marble bathrooms with a combo bathtub and shower and a signature terry cloth robes for each guest.

I wanted to take a long bath. It had been so long since I had had the luxury. The dorm bathtubs hadn't been worth sanitizing. None of the off campus apartments I'd lived in had had a tub, just stand up showers. My bathroom in our apartment in Harlem did have a nice soaker tub, but I'd barely been there since we moved me in. Further investigation showed that the bubble bath they provided was a very sweet scent, not anything that I could see myself using, so I made a note to get myself some bubble bath when the group went shopping. I felt Darcy come up behind me. "Ohhh look at that tub. I so call dibs on some serious bath time this week." She chuckled wickedly.

"I was just thinking something similar…but it will have to wait until I get some different bubble bath. I couldn't walk around smelling like honeysuckle all day." I told her honestly.

"We should go half on some of the really good shit." Darcy postulated. "I mean, they are dragging us to the mall…we can definitely find something there that appeals to both of us and cost more than we'd spend individually. I actually thought that it was a sound premise, so we agreed to it. However that would be another day. I took a long hot shower and knew that I would just have to wear my hair curly for the week. The southern California humidity played havoc with my self straightened hair. Darcy's hair was looking very curly as well…but she was the epitome of 'just go with it' so I doubted that she was concerned.

After my shower and my Hummel and Jones approved moisturizing routine was complete I donned my blue floral scroll pajamas I'd gotten especially for on the road travel and shoved my feet into the matching slippers. I laid out my clothes for the next day as my hair went from wet to damp in the confines of the thick, plush hotel towel. When I was fairly sure that I wouldn't soak the bed with water from my head, I grabbed my brush, settled down and brushed every discernible tangle from my abundant curls. Once that chore was done…and I had finished the episode of Bones that was playing…I braided it down in two French braids. I checked Mercedes, Sam and Puck's KAMA emails and forwarded anything that needed their attention to their personal emails. I was quite happy that we'd culled out some time the day before to hold our monthly meeting with Mrs. Abrams, Mr. Mayzer and Attorney Berry, and Attorney Harris mostly in person; the only one who had needed to Skype in was Mr. Harris. So I wouldn't need to wake up early to deal with that.

I called down to the front desk and arranged wakeup calls for myself, Haja, Kurt and of course KAMA. Then I made myself comfortable in the opulent covers and immediately went to sleep. When my phone rang at six thirty, I'd been up for a few minutes just luxuriating in the bed. I answered on the very first ring so that Darcy would be undisturbed. I would realize later that Darcy Lewis could sleep through any matter of loud and/or obnoxious sounds. I changed into some workout clothes, found the fitness center and did thirty minutes on the elliptical machine. It was with a grin that I noticed that Puck, Sam and Mercedes were there when I walked in and they were just starting their cooldown when I got ready to leave. Better them than me, I was not one for exercise, preferring to spend my time in more intellectual pursuits. But I had eaten a lot of food over the weekend and the night before. The Jones, Evans, Altman-Puckermans and Mayzers all seemed to share a decided need to feed people as much as they could eat…and then try and cajole them into eating even more. After a quick shower, I dressed in very comfortable business casual clothes. A pair of khaki colored high waisted, wide leg slacks, a jewel tone green collared shirt with long tabs at the waist that tied just for detail or to act as a belt. The flat sandals I wore matched the shirt. I shoved my necessities, iPad, my smart phone, KAMA's iPhone, and my wallet into an ivory and black stripped tote bag. Grabbed my ivory and black stripped sweater…Puck and Sam insisted on AC for every single drive...and headed to the elevator. On the way to the lobby, I emailed the contractor for the office and asked for a status report, texted Darcy all the things I needed her to check on or information I needed her to pull for me for the day reminded her about the makeup rehearsal that afternoon, and confirmed with Ms. Mann that we were on schedule to meet at the house located in nearby Mar Vista.

Sam and Mercedes were helping Puck to a seat in the restaurant area so I joined them as we waited on Haja and Kurt. I noted that Mercedes was dressed in a pretty purple plaid scoop neck, wide strap sundress and open toe wedges. Sam looked very Abercrombie and Finch, wearing khaki colored board shorts and a Superman graphic tee, while Puck looked more like a rebel in a pair of desert camo shorts and tight tank. All six of us had a simple bagel and cream cheese or fruit and coffee…lots of coffee…breakfast before the car service arrived. I gave them the address and we were under way. It was only about a twenty minute drive with traffic from the hotel to the lovely French Country style house. As we exited the car, Puck looked at the house, then over at Sam and Mercedes. "I thought we'd gotten a condo."

Sam shrugged looking just as confused, but it was Mercedes who put the answer into words. "The condo fell through. They wanted to do everything through the banks and they didn't want to cover closing costs which we wouldn't have had to incur the same way with the system we've been using to pay for our personal real estate purchases. When Madeline had this one fall into her lap in the same price range as the condo and tons closer to the beach…she called me and I told her to move on it."

"Wow…so we got a house? For the same as the condo…cool." Sam chuckled.

Puck leered at Mercedes. "At least we won't have to worry about the neighbors getting mad at us for your scream of fertility knocking them up every few months."

"Shut it, Noah." she said poking him in the solar plex. She crossed to Kendra Mann, who was looking pretty Chicago in a black, half sleeved, hemp, twist dress and low heeled sandals. "Ms. Mann. Thank you so much for agreeing to take on this project."

"It's Kendra, please and I am excited. The home is a little older, but it has incredible bones. According to the appraisal, we should be able to complete your remodel in just a couple of months." She said quickly. Kendra Mann reminded me very much of the woman with the eight kids who had the reality TV show…but with a more genuine smile. "This is my LA contractor Bill Becks." He was a tall, wiry man who moved a lot like Mr. Altman did.

There was room for all eight of us on the covered porch as Mercedes let us in with the key Madeline had given her the night before. I made a note to have a copy made for Ms. Mann and another to have the locks changed when the renovations were completed. We entered and the foyer was a nice size but had truly magnificent high ceilings. The big brass chandelier would have to go. I made a note. There was a large courtyard to our right and Kendra made a note that it would need the attention of a landscaper. An arched entry way lead into an even more magnificent entry. The entry way had a clear sight line through to the family room and out to the back yard. "There is a pool…how were we able to afford a pool?" Sam asked.

Kendra answered his question. "It is an older house. Built in the later seventies, and only updated in the late nineties or very early two thousands. We are going to need to modernize a lot of the finishings on the first floor, I can tell that already…though I see that they scraped the popcorn from the ceilings and this entry way and staircase were done in a classic marble. We won't touch that…even the wrought iron banisters are a classical look that is basically timeless."

We saw the large study and gorgeous master suite. There was another bedroom on the first floor along with a large kitchen, breakfast room, formal dining room, laundry and butler's pantry, a second bathroom, a powder room and the entrance to the four bay garage. All the rooms had nice, high ceilings and plenty of space. The Master Bedroom was a gut job, but the master bathroom had been upgraded with timeless materials like the front entry. As long as they could live with the room's layout, they would be fine just replacing the dated brass fixtures and adding a third sink. "The current trend is to do away with Jacuzzi tubs and have expanded steam showers." But Mercedes nipped that in the bud. She was fine with upgrading the tub and the shower, but she wanted a big enough to fit all three of them soaker tub, if not just a new Jacuzzi. The room had two adjacent walk in closets, one had been updated as a full on dressing room the other had a great organizer system, but it was significantly smaller. While there were plenty of avenues to work with the current setup in the first floor powder and bath rooms, Mercedes took one look at the kitchen and immediately declared it a gut job. I could see her point. The cabinets were very dated and everything was shiny white…except for the carefully stenciled ivy that had been painted along the wall above the low back splash and around the windows.

However, if we thought the kitchen was bad…it was nothing compared to the state of things upstairs. There was ugly dusty rose carpet everywhere…even in the fripping bathrooms…two toned, bold damask wallpaper, the game room was further abused with big, hopefully fake, rustic beams that made no sense with the rest of the design and finished off with a hunter green 'faux finish' accent wall. The two upstairs bedrooms hadn't suffered the same fate. But they were not happy rooms despite the good bones. "The home appraiser was shocked to find that the house actually met all the current earthquake zone building codes. The foundation doesn't have a single crack or separation between it and the house well other than the crawl space. The concrete support posts are actually reinforcing steel girders, not simply concrete, which is the current codes. They used the perfect placement of steel reinforcement and connections. That is of prime importance to provide sufficient ductility in concrete structures." Bill went on and on about the changes that wouldn't need to be made.

Then Kendra went in on discussing everything from purpose to color palettes. The walk through was more intensive, or at least it lasted longer than the one in Chicago with their final pick for their designer. But I quickly realized that was because the condo in Chicago was less than half the size of this house that would act as the KAMA showcase home. It was also because the LA house would be the showcase house. Haja and Kurt were going in hard with Mercedes working with Kendra to make sure that everything would be perfect. I took notes on everything they said, each decision made as well as the second choices just in case. The work would start on the second floor, gutting it to the studs and building out from there. The layout of one of the bathrooms would be completely re worked so that the unfinished storage space could become a fifth bedroom which shared the redesigned bathroom. The bathrooms would all be done in the same materials as the ones downstairs, or as close as could be found.

We had arrived at 12333 Culver Blvd at eight thirty, and left there having locked up behind us at one. It took us almost an hour to get to Albert Westwood's salon. We didn't manage to get lunch, but we made the two o'clock appointment time. The rest of the girls had made it too and Artie and Darcy were already taking pictures for the site. Darcy was doing a whole side page with bios of all the singers and dancers and band members. She was going to start with time elapsed video of their transformations that were made that day. She did the same for Mercedes once she arrived. Albert had staff there and he introduced Catherine Briggs. She had worked on filming a twenties period piece and Albert had brought her and her team in to do the women's hair. Most of the men were either wearing hats, or they didn't have hair long enough to worry with. There were four makeup and four hair stations. The first thing that Albert and Mercedes did was decide on her evening arrival makeup look. Then he cleaned her face completely and Ms. Briggs worked Mercedes twenties performance hair look. The hair stylist then handed her off to Albert where he turned her face into the epitome of a nineteen twenties speak easy goddess. Catherine had created a vintage pin curl look, which started as finger waves. I was shocked by how quickly she had turned the almost waist length wealth of hair into the twenties look. "We'll go with long, looser finger waves…sleek and shiny, for your arrival look…that way we won't have so much trouble with the transformation." Ms. Briggs said with a smile. The rest of the crew would be backstage the whole night for this event, so they didn't have to worry with transitioning between looks. I made notes on everything that I could, from the names and pictures of the hairstyles to the colors of their lipsticks so that we'd be able to have them the day of the VMAs if needed.

We spent three hours there and I sent the payment for the afternoons work and the deposit for Sunday to their accounts once I had the needed information. We headed to our dinner date at Musso and Frank's Grill. We had a similar set up as the night before, a rented room for our entire party. Ms. Briggs and Mr. Westwood were kind enough to join us. So we had a lovely evening. The drive back to the hotel was long and meandering as we kind of sis a little tour of LA. It was nice.

The next morning we were up early for a meeting with the set designers. Everything wasn't finished. But they were well on track to be finished that night. After that we got the whole crew together and drove the thirty minutes to the Santa Monica Place Mall. It had taken quite a bit of research to figure out which of the five malls we were in a five mile radius of and found one that had a Barneys, a Bloomingdales, a Nordstroms and a plethora of designer stores like Michael Kors and Emporio Armani. We were supposed to be getting things that were needed for the performance…but, while everyone made sure they had what they needed, it was very easy to see that everyone was pretty much just enjoying shopping with friends. It was a rather weird feeling for me. I'd never experienced it before.

Darcy, Haja and I had a blast. Darcy and I found a great bubble bath and split the almost forty dollar cost of the Antica Farmacista 'orange blossom, lilac & jasmine' bubble bath. For myself, when we get home, I got the Antica Farmacista 'bergamot & ocean aria' bubble bath. I smirked when I noticed that Darcy had gotten herself a bottle of the Damascena rose, orris & oud' bubble bath from the same company. While we were all tramping through the mall I confirmed the spa services for all the guys and dolls I was in charge of as well as Kurt and Blaine. We stayed at the mall so long we had to go directly to our dinner at 'Killer Shrimp' a restaurant near our hotel. I had made arrangements for us to have the Marilyn Lounge to ourselves so that Sam, Mercedes and Puck could have their dinner in peace. They'd signed autographs whenever asked at the mall…eventually having to separate so they could actually get some shopping done. Even separated the guys still got asked for autographs, which they gave without a problem…and they had to field the 'Where is Mercedes' questions. Haja had been kind enough to go with Sam and Blaine and several other of the group…Brantley and Darcy hung out with Puck and crew and I stayed with Mercedes. Kurt and I were both rather annoyed by the fact that Mercedes by herself didn't get recognized as often…even though she had broken through the 'fame' barrier first.

As I placed my order for my Killer shrimp shelled appetizer, I made a note to start speaking with Team KAMA about finding the group a PR manager. I don't think anyone had considered it a necessity yet, but the train was certainly fast approaching that station. During dinner I had a lovely conversation with Xena and Simeon. I learned more about the singer and dancer as people. I found out how much they were loving working with KAMA and that the band and Brantley had made bets as to how many awards would be won by our bosses. When the waitress brought out my Killer Paella, which was a delicious amalgamation of saffron rice, andouille sausage, chicken, clams, mussels, calamari, and, of course, shrimp. As I was trying to decide if I had left enough room to try the New York cheesecake, Mercedes, Sam and Noah got a notification from the scene designers that they had set up the scene for them to practice at a soundstage on their lot and that it was ready for them to begin practicing on it the next morning. I texted them back to let them know that we would be there by eight to begin rehearsal. By the time we headed back to the hotel, we were all full and sleepy. For the band, dancers, KAMA and I the next morning started with a six o'clock. I made arrangements to have lunch delivered to the soundstage, we all had breakfast and got to the studio by a quarter of eight.

Thursday and Friday were both spent in practice. Much time was spent reworking the choreography to fit and make the most of the new set. Once the dance routine was completely reworked, then they all strapped on the shoes they would be wearing on Sunday evening and I couldn't help but notice that Mercedes' peep toe black satin ankle strap sexy d'orsay pumps were a couple of inches higher than the dancer's more modest, and time period correct, two inch heels. But it didn't seem to matter. Even when she had to quickly climb the stairs to the upper platform, she did it in four inch stilettos, like she was walking across a level floor. Sam and Noah were doing very well. Rainbow only had to spend an hour teaching them the new moves. They started practicing and dancing after lunch once they had everything sorted with what they were doing. They practiced until eight that evening. Over the course of the day, I had pushed back our original dinner reservations and gotten several other things accomplished as I sat available to KAMA, but checking in with the contractors in Manhattan, the decorator in Chicago, Mr. Altman in Lima and the construction company in Atlanta. I made a quick trip to a hardware store I found online and then took the extra key to Kendra, but other than that I was available for everything Sam, Mercedes and Puck could possibly need. After all that was my job and I was more than determined to excel at it.

Semi Charmed Life (Third Eye Blind)
Darcy PoV

I had to admit as much as I freaking loved my job. I never thought that I would be working for anyone in the music industry…let alone actual recording artist and freaking celebrities. It needed to be said that I was not that girl. I just wasn't usually that lucky. My life had been a series of unfortunate events until I was seven. My mother was the poster child for a good kid gone bad. Both Amelia and her younger sister Laura, had grown up in a good middle class, military, family. Both had excelled in school. At least until Mom was in high school and Aunt Laura was in middle and the family moved to a military base in the south. There dear old Mom had 'fallen in love' with a douchebag, borderline pedo, situational druggie asshole. Dear old dad had been twenty five and Mom was sixteen…in most states that was a felony…unfortunately PopPop had been stationed at a base in Georgia at the time.

They dated in secret for almost a year before he finally took her virginity. He'd done a bang-up job convincing her that the decade worth of age difference was okay because they were 'in love'. Dude was good at what he did. He even had Mom convinced that she had all the power in their relationship that he would do whatever she asked because he loved her just so much. Oh, and he did a great job getting her addicted to half of everything. According to the DA's file which I managed to get my hands on shortly after my sixteenth birthday…Ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies…they had only been together sexually for about three or four months before Grandma caught on and PopPop went hunting for them and caught them with their pants down. He'd called the cops. But my sperm donor hadn't been a fool. He'd culled Mom from the herd and started getting her dependent, on him and drugs, at fifteen, but he had waited until she was over the age of consent for the state before he had taken the final step. Before the DA could decide if there was enough evidence to press actual rape charges; Mom was pretty much high as a kite every time they had sex, after all; the sperm donor had dipped to the left. From the file I learned his name was Rich…well Richard, Richard Deal. He probably would have beaten the wrap; Dude guy's family was loaded. By the time they moved to Ohio, Mom had been forced through an intensive six week rehab…and I was a known entity.

Mom managed to stay clean until I was born. She even managed to graduate high school. But when she took me and moved into off campus housing while she attended the University of Georgia, she fell off the wagon so hard she fucking bounced. By the time I was three I could make a mean sandwich and use the microwave like a pro. If it wasn't for me, Mom probably would have died an early death of a massive overdose. I managed to keep her fed and alive. She even managed not to flunk out of school…not sure how she managed that, but she did. When the Grandparents would come and visit, she would straighten up and we'd fake it for the weekend or week…but then she went right back into the pill bottles or the alcohol bottles. Unfortunately PopPop's last duty station before he finally got out for good was Okinawa. They only made it to see us once a year. With all the drugs and drinking and partying, it took her five years to earn an English bachelor's degree…but she managed. However, that time, even with Grandma, PopPop and Aunt Laura in town for her graduation, she still went partying. Suffice it to say they sure as hell weren't leaving me there with her once they knew that she was unfit. It took them less than a week to get guardianship of me. When Mom was finally found, two weeks later, she was busted in a meth den not too far from campus; they stuck her into the most restrictive rehab they could find. When I was old enough, I had to know what had set her off…why she had wrecked everything. So I may or may not have hacked a few dozen files to find out the whole story. Apparently she'd seen Dear Old Dad's engagement picture in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. His thirty three year old ass was engaged to the reigning Miss Georgia who wasn't even old enough to drink.

She had always believed that he was looking for her, waiting for her. That when he found us we'd be a family. Seeing that he'd moved on to the next big breasted young chickie he could find…this one a lot more in line with his family's level of influence…had broken her. I lived with PopPop and Grandma for two years before the courts and doctors decided that I could be returned to my mother's care. Problem with that was Mom was better…but I had pretty much grown to hate her face. I'd taken care of her for my whole childhood because she was so weak that she was pining after a man who didn't want her. I vowed never to be that weak and stupid. Granted, I didn't want kids in the first place. I mean, not to be funny, but after raising my mother…I didn't need kids. The only thing that kept me there was the fact that my mother's second attempt at picking a dude actually turned out to be pretty fucking fabulous.

Dennis Lewis was a mechanical engineer and a tech head. Even though I was a ten year old with a chip on my shoulder the size of the state of Rhode Island, he never made me feel unwanted or like he only dealt with me to be with Mom. He got me counseling for everything that I'd been through…though when I first started going I swore up and down that I was totally fine…he got me the help that he saw I needed. We even did counseling as a family. I started to love my Mom again, even if I still found it hard to like her very much. The day Dennis asked Mom to marry him, he gave her a ring and me an iPod filled with the best examples of nineties alterna-rock known to man. Dennis gave me his last name, he taught me everything he knew about computers and computer aided drafting. He even taught me how to find information online, which got me into hacking…but he never needed to know that. He helped me find my niche, he made me feel that I could still be a kid even though I thought Mom had stolen my childhood. PopPop and Grandma loved him too. Aunt Laura and Uncle Ben were cooler with him than they were my mom by that point too.

The rest of growing up was pretty awesome. Don't get me wrong I developed early and the chicks at school hated me because they weren't me, but the truth was that at home life was boss. My mom had been off the stuff for the better part of ten years. She and Dennis had been married for eight. I was in all AP classes and I spent two weeks every summer with Aunt Laura, Uncle Ben and Lauren. PopPop had been sick when he and Grandma made the decision to return me to my mother's custody. Probably it was the only reason they had made that choice. He did get to see Mom and Dennis get married and the three of us become a real family before he passed away, so that was something. Grandma had lasted a while without him, but once she was sure that her girls were going to be okay, she joined PopPop in the next great adventure. There were days when I wondered what would have happened to me if Mom had overdosed and I'd ended up in foster care…sometimes those kids got lost in the system even when they had relatives who would have wanted them.

It was because of PopPop, Uncle Ben and Dennis that I had any faith at all in men. Because the bio-pater and the dudes I'd dated in high school and college really should have killed it completely. It was also because of Uncle Ben and Dennis, well their connections anyway, that I was able to go to MIT. I got in on my own merit, but we were not balling out of control enough for me to go, and I'd only gotten enough scholarships to cover about two thirds of the tuition and fees. It was Uncle Ben and Dennis that trolled every single connection they had in the STEM community to find me other scholarships that would cover the cost of books and the balance of my tuition. With their help I managed to graduate from a seriously expensive college with two bachelor's and an associates and only eighteen grand and some change in debt to my name and none to Mom's or Dennis'.

It was a few weeks before Spring Break that my little cousin, and pseudo-little sister, Lauren called me to tell me that her friends, the music group that had hit and hit hard around the world shortly after they all graduated together. Hell, I had met them when Mom, Dennis and I had traveled to Lauren's high school graduation, and now she was telling me that their record company wanted them to find a PA for the group, though eventually they would probably need one for each individual member. I wasn't sure that I wanted to waste my degrees working as a wrangler for three rock stars. But then Uncle Ben called me and told me that if I gave them my resume, he didn't think I would regret it. Besides…how many people ever got to even submit a resume to a group of globally known musicians. I took the train down to the city and met them for a second time. I loved the questions they asked. When they asked me who my hero was…I accidentally spilled my emotions all over them. I wanted to say something flippant, but not so flip that it irritated them. Instead I opened my mouth and out came all the feels about Dennis.

I was so shocked when they asked me to join them for dinner that night. I knew from what they said that getting that invite meant I was in. It was later that I realized that they had created a position that was tailored to my skill set and they had done so partially because they thought I was just that damn good and partially because Puck understood more than most people ever could. Within weeks of me starting for them, Puck was like the little brother I never had. We got along like gas and oil. Everyone else seemed kind of worried that we would end up burning down something so that seemed like a good simile. I got along with Mercedes the best of the other two. Sam was cool, but he was just so inherently earnest and genuine…I think that my inherent snark and sarcasm had an allergic reaction to him.

Once I graduated, I spent a week with the family figuring out what to take with me to my rent free abode. Then there was the time spent forcing Uncle Ben, Dennis and Lauren's adopted bro Vince and her boytoy Finn to help me load that frigging UHaul. I made the drive to NYC all by myself. And Haja and Brantley and one of the guys who rented the unit under KAMA's primary domicile, Jon, who was only still in town because he was taking summer classes. He was hot like fire and we had a great time breaking in my new bed after it came. Jon Scully was so well endowed it was hard to believe that he was like eighty percent Irish. He was cool with the just being friends after the fact. I wasn't looking for anything more than that until I got my debt paid off and could afford an apartment like the big ass ones upstairs from where I had so recently moved in.

My first few weeks I worked from said apartment, on my brand new Mac Book Pro that I had gotten as my graduation gift from my brand new bosses. I tweaked the KAMA site and created their online store, after sourcing the swag with Hudson. I took over their professional social media presence, they still had their locked up tight, only for their family and friends, accounts, that they handled, but the ones their fans and miscellaneous other humans could access were my kingdom and I prided myself on my dominion over them. I'd written a new algorithm and some new code that allowed me to better approximate when the flow would be heaviest…what twitterpations they would each want to chime in on…and their appropriate side on the issues. I used that to help me build their follower count. Between my algorithm and their festival tour, KAMA's group account and individual public pages had over a million followers by the end of July. I was hella-proud of that.

When the nominations came down, Mercedes and the crew decided that we'd all be going out to LA. Okay, so maybe it was my idea. I had a great idea to post some serious KAMA behind the VMAs videos to the site. We got to LA on Monday before the awards show and for the first few days there wasn't much for me to do, I had to corral some, thankfully positive press online. But I began to realize that even though they were still really young and lived their lives in the digital world, they were still getting constant attention in the real world and that wasn't my purview at all. They needed a real PR person too. I mentioned it to Hudson, so that she could tell the crew and get the ball rolling on that search. But I did what I could and rolled on through. During the first dinner, I'd sat with Hudson, mainly because I knew how she was about new people. She and I hadn't spent much physical time together since she travels with our bosses and I stick close to home for the most part…but we had bonded over a billion minutes of phone time, a million texts and thousands of emails since that first meeting at the contract signing. She was one of my people…I took care of my people.

Tuesday, I decided that I was going to go to the makeup practice thingy and start getting tons of shots for the behinds the scenes videos and the band bio pages. Wednesday we were all at the mall for way too much time. But I ended up having fun, and finding some boss bubble bath so I could take advantage of the seriously sexy soaker tub in my bathroom. Plus I found some great gadgets, both Art-man and I had. That was another bonded mine now kid. Him and his girl Brittany…I hadn't managed to bond with Santana at that point though sometimes I wondered when I had bonded with Brittany. I think she just decided that I was one of her people, and I was just along for the ride. I had found a cool new digital camera, which pleased me greatly since it was on sale and everything. Unfortunately, I didn't escape Mercedes and Kurt's need to make people over. They dragged Hudson and I around the mall for an hour getting us outfitted. "You are both representing the KAMA brand that we are all working so hard to build. You've gotta look tight, even if you are stuck in darker colors and everything." Mercedes told us the fifth time I asked why we had to get dressed up too. Actually it didn't take us long at all to have Hudson taken care of. LA shopping was meant for her tiny, skinny self. Kurt and Mercedes found her a cute but fashionable black MICHAEL by Michael Kors petite gold stud-trim side-slit dress. Getting her to agree that Mercedes was covering the bill was a harder sell than getting her to agree to wear the dress. They found her some cool shoes too. The pair of MICHAEL by Michael Kors Carla dress sandals that I joked had been expressly designed to be worn with her dress.

I had to admit that I had a streak of good luck though. Mercedes had big boobs…even bigger than mine. She knew what I could and couldn't wear comfortably. It was awesome. She rejected stuff for me before Kurt could gay-Jedi mind trick me into just letting him see me in it. We ended up in Nordstroms when they started agreeing on what I could try on. In the end, I only ended up trying on like four dresses and getting the second one I'd tried on. The Adrianna Papell pleated jersey blouson dress hugged my curves, but didn't even give a peak at the girls so I was pretty comfortable in it. It was formal enough for what I needed it to be, but not shiny, look at me level formal. I found my own shoes. A pair of burgundy leather 'Dylan' cutout, low heeled, pointy toe booties by Bella Vita, I loved them and they kept me from being all monochromatic like Hudson was and honestly preferred. I also found a cool pair of Nadri curved bar drop earrings that had dark pink hematite stones to finish me off and a pair of pave stud earrings by the same designer in gold and black for Hudson. Both pairs of earrings and the booties were on sale. It didn't matter that I wasn't the one paying, I was way proud of my sale finds… I fucking rocked the Kasbah.

When Thursday rolled around, I let the bosses and the band practice unmolested, while I stayed in the hotel and broke in my new shoes, but I got tons of great footage for the site with my bomb ass new camera on Friday. Then the next morning, I went with them to their sound check and got to get a great picture of my three bosses meeting Macklemore. They told him the story about them doing his song 'Same Love' for an exhibition piece at the show choir nationals' competition the year before. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were cool. They tweeted about having just met them and how cool KAMA was. So, of course, I had to have Mercedes and the guys talk Macklemore and Ryan Lewis up big too. It was pretty awesome. But then they got to work. The set had been brought over from the other studio so they used the hour they had for their sound check to get in some practice time on the stage they would be performing on for real on Sunday. After sound check and practice, KAMA met up with Brantley and Haja and went to meet Brantley's friend Patrick Hayes to find out more information on a movie they might be doing a soundtrack song for. I headed back to the hotel and uploaded the video to my Mac then sent it all to Artie and Lauren. They were going to work together and get all the footage and stills edited into a cohesive video.

Friday night, we met up with the missing members of our big ass entourage and had dinner a cool fusion place in Marina Del Ray called Yard House. After dinner, we were all told that we needed to get up early the next morning. Every single one of us were due at the spa the next day at half past eight. They would provide breakfast and lunch, because we were going to be there all day. The next morning Hudson forced me away an extra hour early and dragged me down to the gym. We only did half an hour, even though our bosses were there way more time than we were, they still managed to beat us down to lobby. Mercedes looked really cute in a honeydew colored, hemp twist, Henley tank maxi-dress that would have made anyone with lighter skin looked totally jaundiced and an incredible pair of leather lace-up espadrille sandal wedges with an ivory upper part and 'green tea' stripes down the actual wedge. Puck and Sam had thrown on shorts and tee shirts with man flip flops. I knew in an instant that Sam had gotten Puck his shirt…because if Puck had brought it himself, the best part of the story I created in my head was lost. The shirt read 'I Shaved My Balls for This'. My head canon read that Sam had found it and gotten it despite the crass nature of the shirt, just for the play on the old Deana Carter song.

Hudson looked the most 'dressed'…and Mercedes noticed that too. "You made the arrangements for the services that I wanted for everyone that I stipulated, right?" Hudson looked resigned but nodded. "Including yourself…right?" again a slightly sullen nod from Hudson. "Okay…I'm just checking because you really look like you are about to spend all day making calls rather than getting Pampered."

Hudson kind of rolled her eyes but smiled none the less. "Nope…all ready for the pampering. In fact you will notice that I have a paper printout of the services requested, our confirmation and receipt of prepayment all printed out so that I didn't even have to bring my phone. Darcy, Haja, Brantley and I are scheduled for the O2 Reboot facial, we can then pick between the vortex fusion extraction or the brow shaping wax. Then we have the Zents mani-pedi with gel polish in the color of our choice for each of us." Brantley threw her a concerned look. "Just get clear or black, you'll be fine." She turned back to Mercedes and continued. "Then we can each have either the scrub bar or the detox marine algae wrap body treatment with the scalp quench…sorry Brantley, but the other three of us have hair…and we'll finish off the day with the Zentsory Massage with revitalized feet. I am actually looking forward to the foot treatment, though I will admit I find myself uncomfortable with the level of disrobing Noah is fine with." She finished cheekily.

Mercedes threw back her head and her boisterous laughter filled the lobby. "Everyone but Puck is uncomfortable with total nudity under their robes…And if they aren't that falls under too much information and I don't think I need to know about it." She assured her PA.

I was looking forward to everything. I had never been to a spa, and despite Lauren's Brazilian waxing horror story, I was anticipating the experience for serious. I'd thrown on a comfy summer weight tunic top, some leggings and flip flops so that I wouldn't have too much to remove. Looking around it looked like most of the others had done the same. In fact, in the time I spent working with him and Haja to get the design for my office down and cemented, I had never seen Kurt Hummel in less than two hundred bucks worth of apparel, my estimate…probably not very reliable…but the boi could dress, that day he was dressed down in Targét couture. Blaine was wearing a tank top and shorts…he looked like he was heading to the beach. I bit back a laugh at how different those two seemed from the outside looking in…it amused me.

We headed to the Spa del Ray and checked in. We were each given fluffy, terry cloth robes…that I kind of wanted to steal…a pair of matching terry cloth flip flops that again, I kind of wanted to reappropriate but didn't because the markup on those types of thing were cray-cray…and directed to the locker rooms to change into them. We were advised that we could disrobe as much as we were comfortable with, so I stripped down to my bra and panties…because the girls hated being allowed to roam free… and headed to the meet with the others in the room we were having breakfast in. Breakfast was what you'd expect in a spa, lots of fruits and good quality protein…I kind of wanted to marry that bacon…and a decent selections of ridiculously priced bottled water and trendy juices. Once everyone had filled their plates and decided among all the non-caffeinated beverage choices, the prettiest of all bosses ever stood up and gathered our attention. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, once again you will be broken down into groups so that all twenty five of us don't have to try and fit into a treatment room at one time." Mercedes said with authority. "Please pay attention to our wonderful Hudson…she has your group assignments and treatment schedules."

We all turned our attention to Hudson, who looked like a little girl playing dress up in even the smallest of the robe sizes. "Okay, the first group is gonna be Brittany, Baebe, Cassidy, Elena, Erica and Rainbow. Your group's attendant is Charis," a small Filipino woman stepped forward and waved. "She will escort you to your treatment rooms and back here for your lunch, then on to the afternoon treatment. You six will have your body treatments first. Each of you will choose between either the scrub bar or the detox marine algae wrap body treatment either of which will come with the scalp quench hair and scalp treatment. Then you go for the clarifying facials followed by the athlete's choice massage with hot stone focus. Your massage will be followed by the waxing treatment of your choice and your last treatment will be the athlete's choice pedicure…I didn't add the gel polish, because I know that dancer's feet are more important than polish lasting extra time." Rainbow just nodded with a smile. The jury was still out on the use of the gel polishes on toe nails, so for the dancers it was definitely better safe than sorry. "Now, if you prefer to not bother with the pedicure at all speak with Charis, you can change the athletes choice pedicure and have the Spa del Ray signature manicure with gel polish instead. Erica and Cassidy, I assumed you wouldn't want a manicure since your hands are you lively hood." They both looked like they agreed. It made sense since their calluses were important to them…a sign of their long hours of hard work.

Hudson continued. "Next group…Artie, Dave, Jacks, Justin, and Simeon…Malinda is your attendant." A short, buxom black woman stepped forward and gave them a flirty wave. "She'll take care of you all. You five start with the citrus drench body treatment with a scalp quench. Then you have a choice between the Athlete's choice or zentsory massage with hot stone focus…Artie, they have assured me that you can have either and they will concentrate where you want their attention. After your massage you are scheduled for the gentlemen's facial, followed by the athlete's choice pedicure or the zents manicure as per your choice. You guys will end the day with the waxing treatment of your choice. Dave, Ms. Rawlins asks that if you insist on playing sans shirt…you should please get the chest and back wax, and she will pay for it herself, if needs be, to make sure that it is maintained." Dave was a furry bear…and he did follow the tradition of most drummers and play in as little as he could get away with.

She turned to the background singers next. "The four of you are together and Stephan will attend to your needs." I wonder if she realizes how dirty her last couple of attendant introductions have sounded. Stephan looked like a surfer dude...he easily could have stepped out of an old episode of Baywatch. His smile was as dirty as Hudson's introduction. "You four start with the Spa del Ray custom massage with either the scalp quench treatment or the revitalized hands and feet…I'm assuming that Santana and Xena will go for the hair and scalp treatment and Dam-Dam you two would rather have the hands and feet treatment."

Adam shook his head as if moving a wealth of hair to challenge Xena's or mine. "What ever are you talking about? You don't think my long, luxurious millimeters of hair deserve to be pampered?" he teased.

It took us all forever to quiet our laughter. "Okay…well go for which ever you want. It will be followed by the Ultimate Zen body treatment and then the O2 Reboot or gentleman's facial, you pick which you prefer. Your last two treatments are your hands and feet, the citrus splash pedicure with either the gel polish or the callus cure and finishing off with the Zents manicure with or without gel polish." Hudson was finally able to get out. "The last two groups are the smallest. Sam, Puck and Blaine, you three are together. Your attendant is Jesus," he was just as Latin as his name implied and even shorter than Blaine his smile was big and bright though. "You three will start with the Spa del Ray custom massage with both the hot stone focus and the aroma body balm. Then you'll move on to the Ultimate Zen body treatment. After that you'll get the gentleman's facial with the scalp quench…Blaine thank you for not coming down with product in your hair. I know it was hard but I really appreciate it. Your day will end with the Athlete's choice pedicure with the callus cure treatment."

"Last but never least. Mercedes and Kurt…you two will have Brenda." Whoa, their attendant looked just like Janet Jackson from Poetic Justice. "You will start with the detox marine algae wrap, followed by the Bright and tight body treatment for your thighs Ms. Jones and your upper arms, Mr. Hummel." She teased. "That is followed by the bright and tight facial the diamond manicure and pedicure; both with the gel polish color of your choice…or Kurt's choice as the case may be. Then you will finish the day off with the Spa del Ray custom massage again with both the hot stone focus and the aroma body balm. We are all scheduled to begin our first treatments by nine fifteen. The last treatment should be completed five. We have reservations here at the Cast and Plow restaurant for dinner at seven. Ms. Briggs and Mr. Westwood's teams will be here at ten in the morning and we will all need to be ready when they arrive."

I was so happy to get started on the pampering that I rushed through eating before I turned myself over to, I shit you not, Sven, our attendant to be directed to our treatment rooms. The facial was totally awesome. The brow shaping hurt like a son of a bitch, but made my eyes look incredible. I loved the mani-pedi experience, and went with a sexy and I knew it bright ass, red gel polish for both to match my signature lipstick. We had lunch after the manicures; during the pedicures…I never would have ever thought I would find a salad a full and complete lunch, but that chopped salad al tonno was one bomb ass salad. Since my dress was very fitted around my hips ass and thighs, I decided on the detox marine algae wrap over the scrub bar. The scalp quench was billed as a warm vitamin E and jojoba enriched oil is drizzled onto the hair, followed by an invigorating scalp massage for super soft, shiny tresses. It was even better than it sounded and I swear to whatever deity is out there, it tamed the monster the humidity had turned my hair into. By the end of the zentsory massage and revitalizing foot rub, I was putty…just a pool of flesh.

When I went up to the room, I was definitely not ready to look slubbish again. I was feeling all feminine and sexy and wanted to run with it, so I poured the girls into a black satin and silver lace bra with nice wide straps and pulled up the matching panties. I threw on the Free People asymmetrical lace slip dress I'd brought with me to wear to the event, before Mercedes and Kurt decided that I would need to have something fancier. I topped the dress off with a long ass, double layer, fringe pendant gold necklace and some simple gold hoop earrings. No matter how sexy I felt no way was I wearing heels two night in a row, so instead I wore a pair of scallop edge pointed toe flats. My skin was so glowy, I was not covering it with makeup, except my lipstick…never left home without that. I sat on the bed and watched some TV while Hudson finished getting dressed. There was a piece on 'the Insider' about all that the stars went through to prepare for awards show red carpets. None of that sounded like what I'd been seeing Mercedes, and the guys eating all week. I felt bad for those other stars. It sounded like hell to be so deprived.

Finally Hudson was ready. Her marigold yellow dress was lovely against her pale skin and flaming hair. The stretch crepe sheath dress had a thin black patent leather belt that nipped in her tiny waist. Her classic and classy patent leather, low heeled pumps and tiny black stud earrings finished her look. Her face was bare too, though all she had put on was some nude gloss. She really didn't like drawing attention to herself. When the group assembled in the lobby for the second time that day, it was easy to see that everyone had felt like Hudson and I. Boss Lady was looking quite fetch in a curve hugging, faux wrap, purple midi dress, and black, peep toe, glittery, red bottoms with cute criss-cross straps over her feet. Her purple lips looked hot like fire and I made sure to grab a quick pic of her making a sarcastic kissy face at Sam for their Instagram. The other ladies were just as well dressed, though our Boss Lady was the only one in red bottoms.

The restaurant staff was very professional and we were all seated quickly. Within minutes the waiters and waitresses serving us had not only taken our drink orders but returned with the drinks and large platters of the five tasters; herb brioche slathered with organic butter and sprinkled with truffle salt, kale chips seasoned with sumac and Monterey bay sea salt, frites, which were different from regular fries because they were dusted with provençal herbs and drizzled with duck fat hollandaise, a selection of cheeses served with purple haze, salted date bread crisps, market condiments, and brussels sprouts toasted with marcona almonds and served alongside romesco sauce. As a serious farm to table restaurant, their menu was a lot more limited than other types of restaurants. They offered a total of seven entrees, and the sides were predetermined by the nature of the dish. With twenty-five of us, every one of those seven was represented. Somehow I'd ended up across from the three bosses with Haja on one side of me and Brantley on the other. So I noticed what each of them had picked. Mercedes had ordered the Baja scallops with parsnip purée, Brussels sprouts and sea urchin cream. Haja had gotten the organic salmon alongside the beluga lentils, quail egg, mission fig chutney, and ham hock broth. Puck had surprised me by ordering the local halibut with caramelized cauliflower, romanesco, hazelnut butter. Brantley had long ago said that whenever he went to a super fancy place, he went with the chicken. He figured they couldn't frou-frou it too much. He had stuck to his usual MO and gotten the Petaluma chicken breast that came to the table alongside white bean stew, pickled radish and fennel. Sam, too, had stuck to type getting the thirty-two days aged smoked ribeye that was served with asiago cheese potato purée and herb salsa verde. As for me…I went with the Cast & Plow burger which was so good I felt like I was kind of wrong for wishing that the all-natural prime beef, provolone cheese, grilled onion, ciabatta bun, and arugula pesto was accompanied by some of the bacon from breakfast. The mizuna salad was pretty okay too…for a salad. It took looking around the table to find the person who had gotten the last menu offering. There were twenty-five of us. Statistically someone had to be a vegetarian. Finally, I found it in front of Rainbow. The Duley's thyme tagliatelle…pasta tossed with spinach, preserved Meyer lemon and parmesan cream.

The vibe at dinner was pretty nifty. We were all seriously pumped and excited. The portions were such that most of the dudes had room for dessert. As they were eating their desserts, Haja stood up. "Alright everyone. Tomorrow is D-Day…or at least VMA day. You'll need to get a lot of rest tonight, because in the morning, you will need to be up, have done everything you need to do, be showered and meet us down in the Director's Room for hair and makeup no later than eleven thirty. Band, dancers and background singers need to be out the door with your costumes and everything you need by two thirty. Brantley and Blaine will be going over with you to make sure that you have people who can get you whatever you need. Darcy will be going with you too because if she isn't in place by three she'll be too far back to get the shots and everything that she wants. Hudson, Kurt and I will ride over with KAMA. We're going to be the newest kids on the block, so we're going to let them underestimate us…but we're going to show them how it can be done when you have the perfect blend of artists, support and management. And guys, I'm not blowing smoke up your asses when I say that Mercedes, Puck and Sam have brought together the best team this industry has ever seen. Tomorrow…we're going to prove that to the world." Fancy-schmancy restaurant or not…that was one epic pep talk…we may have cheered.

It was hard as hell getting to sleep that night, but I managed. The next morning when Hudson dragged my sleepy ass to the fitness center, it was full of all of us. Come to find out everyone else had been working out every day. Who knew? By the time we showered, shampooed our hair, threw on some button front shirt over our lingerie for the event and got down to the Director's Room…one of the hotel's meeting rooms, Ms. Briggs and Mr. Westwood had gotten everything set up and were ready to go. I wasn't worried about my own look. So I just told Ms. Briggs to have fun. In the end she gave me pompadour bangs, two asymmetrical victory rolls, and then allowed the rest of my hair to wave down my back. Then she turned me over to Hector, one of Mr. Westwood's protégés for makeup. He matched my hair by going glam rockabilly on the makeup. My skin was pale ivory and looked flawless. My eyes were big and looked almost liquid they were so blue. My lips ended up a shade of red that almost made me pause for a second. Hell, I had to force myself away from the mirror so that I wouldn't keep staring at myself.

Once I got up to the room I was even more grateful that I had shoved myself into my lingerie and shaper slip before I went down. I was not ruining this look by sweating it off forcing my curves into submission. I got into my sexy, but not ostentatious dress and heels and made it to the lobby to see that our band and backup singers were all looking awesome. It was time and we were freaking awesome.

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Here it is...your update...A whole day early in honor of Friday the 13th.

So come on my lovely readers...Celebrate by giving me 13 reviews.

Pretty PLEASE! With naked Puck on top. (LOL)

Please & Thank You.
TTFN,
AnniKay