Chapter 12
G-day minus 1 – Monday, March 15
He should have followed his first inclination and just pulled the covers over his head when his mother had woken him up two hours ago. But no, he couldn't let his mom believe he'd over booked himself this week and was running out of gas. Instead he'd loaded up on coffee and now he was practically dancing in place waiting to be let in the radio station so he could find the nearest men's room.
The receptionist had recognized him right away, so that wasn't the problem. But, instead of buzzing them right in, she said she had to find Natalie who would show them around. The only place he wanted to see was the men's room!
Laurie had come along for something to do for the morning. She and mom had appointments with their 'personal designers' (whatever that was) later in the day, so she decided that tagging along on Keith's interviews at a couple of local radio stations would be fun. So far, she was having fun – laughing at Keith!
"It can't possibly be that bad." Laurie whispered in Keith's ear as he held back a groan.
Keith just threw her a dirty look and stared at the locked door, willing it to open.
"Hmmmm, that painting on the wall, the one with all the water, makes me think of a trickling stream….or, no, more of a rushing waterfall." As her words caused Keith to squirm even more, she added with a laugh. "You know, on the order of, oh say, Niagara Falls."
"Laurie if you want to live long enough to get your hair done and whatever else you'll be doing today, I suggest you put a sock in it." Keith said with feeling as the door finally opened. He just barely suppressed the urge to push by and explain later.
"Hi, I'm Natalie. I am so pleased to meet you." She gushed as she shook Keith's hand and then glanced around once she could pull her eyes away, finally noticing Laurie and Reuben. "Oh, how wonderful, I see you've brought your sister and you must be Mr. Kincaid, his manager."
"That's right. Sorry we're a little late, but the traffic was worse than I'd expected. Something about a big pile-up on the 101." Reuben shook her hand and tried to explain why they were all of 3 minutes late.
"It's not a problem. Do you need anything before I take you back to the show?" Natalie's eyes had already returned to Keith. She was only a couple of years older. She was the very lucky intern who was only too happy to escort the talent around the studio. Well, to be honest, she wasn't always happy about it, but this time, it was Keith Partridge and she was such a big fan. He was just so cute!
"A restroom?" Keith kept it short and sweet.
"Sure, right this way." Natalie smiled and preceded him back through the door.
"His kingdom for a commode." Laurie said in an aside to Reuben which finally brought a smile to the frazzled manager.
Reuben had left Laurie standing in the hallway outside the men's room to talk to the station manager. Laurie was leaning against the wall glancing around curiously. She'd been in a few radio stations before, but it was always interesting. She had to smile at the old adage – a face for radio. It was often true. The radio personalities had such interesting voices, but their faces were often not conducive to television and thus the switch to radio rather than TV news shows or the like.
She had just seen a man walk by whose scraggly hair and unkempt beard would have had her believing he was a homeless man. Natalie had set her straight when she noticed her look. "He's the late night DJ, Alan Johnson." At Laurie's grin Natalie continued, "He's cleaner than usual today."
The girls were sharing a giggle when Natalie got called away. "I'll be right back." She promised as she headed down the hall and around the corner.
Laurie hadn't been standing there for 15 second after Natalie had disappeared before she heard someone behind her. "Well, well, well, what have we here? Must be my lucky day."
Laurie spun around to see a middle aged man with an ill-fitting toupee approaching her with a leering look.
"Hello." Laurie said politely but coldly.
"Oh, now pretty young thing - don't get your back up before you've given me a chance. I'm Pete. You know, one of the morning DJ's. The ones that make the big bucks and pull in all the morning commuters." Pete said with importance thinking that Laurie would be impressed with his high station in life.
Laurie's look turned slightly colder at his attempt to make himself seem important. As if she'd be impressed with his lofty credentials. Apparently he hadn't recognized her or he'd have known he was trying to proposition an underage teenager.
"So, what brings you here today? Did you sleep with the station manager just so you could get an inside look at big time radio?" Pete continued not even beginning to feel the chill of the frigid temperatures Laurie was projecting.
When Laurie stayed mute in shock, Pete took it as tacit permission to make his move. He slithered closer and put one hand on the wall very near Laurie's head. Laurie had looked down in embarrassment, for him, not for her. Her actions caused him to reach out his other hand and grab her chin to bring her eyes back to his. "Oh, we've got a shy one here, hmmm? How's about I introduce you around? Then, when I'm done here in an hour or so, you can come back to my place with me. I like 'em a little shy." Pete paused for effect. "To begin with."
"Hey, get your hands off my sister!" Keith said as soon as he walked out of the men's room and saw the creep with his hands all over his little sister.
"What?" Pete spun around to look at an enraged Keith advancing quickly. Though he hadn't recognized Laurie at first sight, he did recognize Keith. He'd received a packet of information in advance of the upcoming interview and a picture that his live-in girlfriend had already lifted from him, had been included.
"I said; get your hands off of my sister, mister." Keith said and changed the word to creepo in his head. It was one of Tracy's favorite slurs and Keith decided it fit this guy to a T.
"Your sister, you say. Oh, so you must be Laurie Partridge. Sorry, didn't recognize you." The way he said it made Laurie's skin crawl. She'd been seconds away from emasculating the slimy DJ when Keith's words had caused him to move away from her. She was almost sorry Keith had showed up when he had.
"That's me." Laurie said icily.
"Excuse me; I'm needed 'on air'." Pete said importantly and made a quick get away, cursing his bad luck. She'd been a truly tasty morsel and he'd have loved to have gotten a nibble at least. But, now that he knew she was jail bait, he needed to cut and run quick.
"Who was that?" Keith asked as he walked up next to Laurie, trying to decide whether or not to follow the guy and punch him.
"I believe that is one of your interviewers." Laurie winced at the thought of how difficult the interview would be for Keith while he was so mad at the guy.
"You're kidding. What did he want? And why did he have his hands all over you?" Keith turned back to Laurie.
"Well, he never did say." Laurie lied hoping to keep Keith's anger below volcanic levels.
"You're sure you're ok?" Keith asked just as Natalie and Reuben came back toward them.
"Ok? Why? What happened?" Reuben said immediately.
"Some jerk made a pass at Laurie." Keith wasn't positive, but he was pretty sure of what he'd witnessed the end of.
"Oh yeah? Who was it?" Natalie asked in concern.
"He said his name was Pete." Laurie threw a warning glance at Natalie and then quickly lied through her teeth. "And, he didn't exactly make a pass at me."
Natalie caught Laurie's look and played along. As soon as Laurie had mentioned Pete's name, Natalie knew darn well that Laurie had been propositioned. It had taken Pete exactly 15 minutes after Natalie had been hired as an intern to make a pass at her and Laurie was way prettier than Natalie.
"Well, that's good, because Keith, Pete is one of our morning show hosts. You'll be sitting in the studio with Pete and Joey in just a few minutes. Do you think you can forget about what you thought happened here?" Natalie tried to make it sound like she was giving an inspirational speech before a big sporting event – win one for the Gipper!
"Yeah, fine. So long as Laurie's ok and he didn't make a pass at her, I'm fine." Keith said trying to push his anger down.
"Atta boy!" Reuben's cheer made him the recipient of several odd looks. "What, I'm just trying to help."
"Atta boy?" Keith shook his head at Reuben's choice of words.
"Forget it." Reuben grabbed Keith's arm and pulled him along the hallway. "We need to get you in there."
Natalie and Laurie lagged behind.
"You sure you're alright?" Natalie asked with concern.
"I said I was." Laurie said a bit defensively.
"It's just that Pete's made passes at all the women who work here and well, to be honest, he sometimes doesn't give up real easily. He can be kind of pushy." Natalie tried to explain her concern.
"No, really." Laurie finally understood. At first she'd thought Natalie was just being nosy. "Keith showed up long before anything bad happened. Besides, good old Pete was seconds away from singing soprano."
"You were really going to?" Natalie said in awe.
"Having an older brother can be good for something. Keith taught me all the best moves to get rid of unwanted advances." Laurie giggled. "In fact, that particular one he was loathe to tell me about, but since the record became a hit some not so nice guys have shown an interest in me and Keith felt obligated to give me the best ammunition, so to speak."
"Lucky girl. To have an older brother like Keith." Natalie said with feeling. Not that she wanted Keith as an older brother. She had fantasies about him that would make his being her brother more than inappropriate.
"I think so." Laurie agreed quickly.
xoxo
While a song played on the air, Pete filled Joey in on his most recent escapade. Though not as obvious about his lecherous inclinations, Joey always appreciated hearing about Pete's more active social life.
"So, I see this dish in the hallway. I'm makin' a move on her and she's lapping it up like I'm cream, baby. Anyway, I'm seconds away from leavin' you alone to do the rest of the show by yourself when all of a sudden this guy shoves me away from her." Pete had no qualms about making his story way more sensational than it actually was. In fact, most of the stories he told Joey were taller than some of L.A.'s biggest skyscrapers, but it made him feel like a big man, so who was hurt?
"Who was it?" Joey was expecting to hear that Pete had been hitting on the station manager's daughter or something.
"It was Laurie Partridge and the jerk who ruined my shot with her was none other than Keith, the punk." Pete said with passion. "We need to make him pay. You with me?"
"Well, sure. No guy should ruin another guy's chance at a hot chick like Laurie Partridge, even if she is jail bait." Joey agreed immediately. "What you got in mind?"
"You know, I'll bet the young puke ain't all that talented. I bet he don't even play his own instruments on them albums of theirs. They probably use studio musicians." Pete started to get into his idea. "We still got that old outta tune guitar around here somewhere?"
"Yeah, I think it's behind that shelf of albums over there." Joey waved toward his right. "Hold on, I gotta change the record."
While Joey took care of the important issues, Pete went rummaging around the studio and spied the old guitar sitting behind a box of old albums and a broken chair. Perfect!
Once Joey turned off the studio mics again, Pete grinned at his old school buddy. "We'll do a great interview just like the boss wants us to, but we'll include a little treat for our listeners. How does a live performance by our little Grammy nominee sound?"
"That'll put him in his place for sure. That guitar is so old and out of whack only the best musician has a shot at pulling it off. Pete you are a genius!" Joey crowed and then had to school his features to pleasant welcome as he noticed Keith and some older guy walk into the outer room of the studio.
Joey turned back to Pete and flashed him a wicked grin before turning back and waving Keith and Reuben into the studio.
xoxo
"Hey, Keith, come on in and take a seat. You can pull yourself up real tight to that microphone right over there." Joey waved Keith to a microphone across the table from him. Pete would be sitting just off to the side. "I'm Joey and this is Pete. You are about to be the guest on L.A.'s top rated radio station for your age group. Nervous?"
Keith nodded slightly. He wasn't exactly nervous. In fact, his anger hadn't given way to the case of butterflies that had attacked just before he'd left the men's room. Before they'd had time to settle in, he'd seen Pete, the creepo, with his hands all over Laurie. They hadn't had a chance to come back yet.
"No problem. We'll start off with some easy questions. Just make sure to speak directly into the microphone. If you don't, we won't be able to pick you up." Joey instructed. "We'll be on in about 30 seconds, so make yourself comfortable. You the manager?" Joey said as he turned to Reuben.
"Yes, I am." Reuben answered.
"Well, if you're going to stay in the room make sure you don't make any noise, ok?" Joey reminded him.
Reuben just nodded and leaned against the wall. Having seen Keith's reaction to Joey's partner's advances on Laurie had made Reuben's decision to stay in the room an easy one. Keith didn't often get angry, but he was definitely angry right now. Reuben had no desire to have a door between him and his client when the object of that anger was in the same room with him. Reuben threw a warning glance at the slimy Pete and received a grin that attempted to be innocent but ended up being smarmy.
Before anything else could be said, Joey put up his arm to signal for silence and turned on the microphones. "Well L.A., you are about to get a real treat this morning. We've been warning you for a week now that we had a special guest joining us in the studio this morning and he's here. Now, just a couple of quick station breaks, and we'll start letting him talk. Be right back."
Joey flipped the switch to play the commercials and glanced back at Keith. "Our station manager gave us a list of questions we'll be asking; I assume you had a chance to look them over?"
"Sure thing." Keith said amiably. It was the first interview he'd gotten the questions in advance, but it would make things much easier. It had been a rare treat to have advance notice of the subject matter.
"Ok, once that's done, we'll open the phones. That's when things could get interesting. Our audience has come up with some doozies in the past." Joey started to chuckle at his own memories.
"I'll say." Pete agreed with a wicked laugh. "Our questions will seem like a test in kindergarten compared to the questions you'll get from the listeners."
Keith didn't really care what the fans asked. He just glared his dislike at Pete and turned back to Joey. At least Joey hadn't done anything to piss him off yet.
Joey's hand went up once again and he turned the studio mics back on. "Welcome back! The teasing is officially over guys and gals; let me introduce the best morning show in L.A.'s special guest – Keith Partridge! How are you doing today Keith?"
"I'm just great, Joey, thanks for asking." Keith replied conversationally.
"Alright, we're all just dying to know, when's the next Family album coming out?" Joey started the interview and Keith kept his eyes on him, blocking Pete from his mind.
Joey and Keith 'chatted' amiably for a good fifteen minutes before Joey broke in telling the audience they needed to fit in some more commercials but that they would open the phone lines as soon as they came back so everyone was to call in if they wanted to talk with Keith. Before he could even turn off the mics, the phone lines on the phone sitting near Pete began to light up like a Christmas tree.
"Well, well, well, look at that. It appears that Keith is pretty popular with our fans." Pete said snidely.
Reuben noticed Keith tense and stepped in Keith's line of sight as Keith turned toward Pete to give him a piece of his mind. "Things are going great so far. Just stay focused." Reuben said softly.
Keith's eyes traveled up to meet Reuben's. He caught the warning look in Reuben's eyes, forced himself to relax and threw Reuben a grin. "Focused. I can do that."
"That's all I needed to hear." Reuben went back to take his post against the wall.
Joey's hand went up and he was once again talking to the listeners on the air. They started taking calls. The first few were teenage girls gushing over Keith and how cute he was – none actually ended up asking questions. Keith graciously accepted their praise or brushed it off depending on how sincere or overblown it sounded. He held back a secret smile when he noticed Pete getting disturbed by the obvious popularity of their guest with the females of what he'd previously always thought of as 'his' audience.
As the age of the callers began to mature, the profuse praise continued either based on his looks or his talent, but the calls usually ended in a question. Some asked about his personal life and whether or not he was currently serious about someone, while others just out and out propositioned Keith on the air.
Keith laughingly pushed all of the questions off without actually answering. He had no desire to talk about Carol or any other girl he'd dated on the radio. When it came to the propositions, well, he was in no position to accept any of them so he politely declined each one.
Laurie and Natalie sat outside the room and listened on the speaker on the wall.
"Is it always like that for him?" Natalie asked in awe.
"You mean the girls throwing themselves at him?" Laurie continued at Natalie's absent nod. "Mostly. He's become pretty deft at declining the invitation while still making the girl feel special, don't you think?"
"I'll say. I think every one of our callers today thinks she just got a little something special from him. It's in his voice, I think. He makes them each feel important. He makes them all feel like he's sitting next to them having a conversation instead of being interviewed over the airwaves." Natalie had watched many interviews from this very spot, but never gotten that same impression.
"He's a born flirt. No doubt about it." Laurie laughed. "He can have most any girl he wants prostrate at his feet in under 5 minutes – and that's without really trying. If he lays it on thick, well, just watch out."
"Amazing." Natalie mumbled.
"Another one bites the dust." Laurie winked at Natalie as the stunned girl turned to look at her. "You've fallen under his spell and he's not even talking to you."
Natalie's look of surprise turned into chagrin as she realized Laurie's words were true. She felt her face warming in a blush but all she could do was shake her head in wonder.
As the calls progressed, Keith was eternally grateful that the show was on a 10 second delay as the next caller had been more than explicit in her description of what she wanted to do with Keith in the privacy of her own home. Joey, slightly surprised himself, took a few seconds to disconnect the call and then quickly jumped in to put them into another station break.
"Sorry about that. You just never know what you're going to get." Joey said quickly seeing Keith's look of embarrassment.
"No problem. That wasn't your fault." Keith tried to laugh it off.
Pete, sick of being so upstaged finally couldn't keep himself from putting his two cents in. "Finally a fan that wasn't too young to know what she'd do with you if she ever caught you."
Keith knew that many of the Family's fans were young, but he also knew that there were plenty of fans who were old enough for what Pete had mentioned. He'd met several of them the night before at Faith and Franny's party. He just glared at the older man and didn't respond.
Reuben, standing behind him, had tensed thinking that Keith wouldn't let that one go by and was surprised when he did. Reuben relaxed.
"I'm just sayin', it's not like I wouldn't have done exactly what that woman was suggesting with your sister." Pete didn't have to wait long for Keith's reaction. He was out of his chair and halfway to Pete before Reuben caught him. There was murder glowing in Keith's eyes.
At this point, he was too angry to say anything so he just struggled to be let loose from Reuben's hold. He knew exactly what he would do to the jerk as soon as he got his hands on him. There would be no doubt about that.
"Whoa, the boy has a temper." Pete egged him on. He knew that the angrier Keith got, the less likely he would be able to handle the next portion of this 'interview'. So, he continued to goad him hoping he would be so angry when they went back live that Keith would slip up and slip up badly.
"So, Keith, what's it like to carry your family around on your back?" Pete threw out nonchalantly.
"What did you say?" Keith said, through his teeth.
"Well, isn't it obvious that as the song writer and lead singer, your family is nothing more than a bunch of second rate backup singers?" Pete goaded.
That comment shot Keith back up from his chair, prepared to physically knock the smarmy DJ down several pegs. His advance was stopped by Reuben stepping in front of him once again.
"Sit." Reuben instructed Keith. "Let me handle this."
Reuben threw a quick glance at Joey to see if he would intervene, but noticed he was hiding a smile behind his microphone. So, the two were in on this together. Just great.
"You, shut up." Reuben approached Pete and used every inch of his superior height to intimidate the man while speaking softly yet vehemently. "If one more word comes out of your mouth about my underage client, I'll have you arrested. On what charges, I'm not sure yet, but I'll make something up if I have to. And, don't think I don't have the contacts in this town to make it stick."
Pete looked at the previously mild mannered man with a new respect. He was momentarily cowed and looked it. He threw a nervous look at his partner to see him raise his hand to signal the commercials were coming to an end. He perked up when he noticed Joey wink at him. Maybe all wasn't lost after all.
