So we have another brand new chapter compared to my original version of this story so here it is. If you like the story, please leave a review and let me know. It would me a lot to hear some feedback!

Chapter 21:

As I sit getting my hair and makeup ready for filming with James next to me, I can't help but think about how great things have been with us. We've had no problems since we got back together two and a half weeks ago, and if anything, we get along better than we did before. I guess losing something really does make you realize how much you need it. When the guys and Rachel all found out that things in the park went well, they were all ecstatic that we were together again and things wouldn't be awkward in our friend group anymore. Then the next day we went to Rocque Records together to tell my uncle and let's just say his reaction was not very good. He at least didn't have a stroke so I say that's an accomplishment. But he was furious that we were back together at first and I thought for sure that he would end up hitting James. So we came prepared with the other guys present in their hockey gear and ready to protect James. After Kelly held him back for a couple minutes and he calmed down, he strangely accepted it.

Once my uncle was okay with us dating again, he got excited that I would be able to record Crazy In Love for the album. Then when I had James sing Confetti Falling for Gustavo, he immediately started working on the music for it because he was so impressed by the song the guys had written. Our lives were then busy with catching up on missed rehearsal time and getting prepared for the tour. And now, we get to film my first music video. My uncle let me pick the song but said he knew I would pick the same song as him. Sure enough, here we are today filming for Sparks Fly. I had to convince my uncle to let James be in it with me and not an actor they hired. He was the inspiration for the song so it only makes sense for him to be in the video.

I look over at James and take in his appearance. They've put him in a white, billowing white button up and it looks almost like a pirate but he looks hot in it. And I'll have to thank the wardrobe department for the tight black pants he has on. James is smirking with me and I know he caught me staring at him. "Are you excited about filming the video?"

"Of course," I respond as the makeup artist finishes. I look in the mirror and I'm happy with the look they've given me. They put me in a long, flowing dress that has almost a mystical feel to it and I know it's going to relate to the set we have being a large, old castle. I don't know how my uncle found this place a few hours from LA but it's perfect. "Well if we're done, let's get going."

James stands up and holds out a hand for me. I take it and he pulls me up, starting to lead me out of the dressing room and towards where we will be filming. When we get to the area that's surrounded by crew and has so many lights and cameras ready to go, I start feeling excited. This is so similar to acting and while I like doing the singing, acting is my real passion. My uncle walks up to us and I can see him briefly glare at us holding hands before looking at me. "Alright dogs, are you ready to start filming?"

"Yes," I say smiling and look up at James who nods his head in agreement. "What part are we going to be filming first?"

My uncle looks at the clipboard he's holding to figure out the schedule. "First is some individual stuff. James is going to film some scenes where we see you falling for him. Then we'll get you two together for filming parts for the choruses. Next we'll get you on that elaborate staircase in the front foyer for the bridge. And last we have an outdoor set for having some rain fall on you and can have him meet you in the pouring rain."

"No way!" I scream at my uncle and get a few weird looks from the crew as I hug him. "That's so awesome!"

"Sure, now get off me," he says and I listen to him. He gives us a stern look before continuing. "Now this is going to be a very busy day. We need to get the entire video filmed today which is why we're all here and ready to go at 6 am. So for the individual stuff, you both will go off with different film crews to maximize our time. And I want no goofing off today."

"We promise we'll behave," James says and puts an arm around my waist. But by the way he squeezes me closer I can tell that he doesn't really mean that.

"Good, then let's get started. A-team!" My uncle says and one group of crew comes over. "You will be filming with Lauren. B-team!" A second crew walks over to us. "You'll be filming James. Now get to work!"

I get dragged away from James by my team and I look over my shoulder to see the same thing happening to him. He smiles and gives me a thumbs up, telling me that filming will be great. I'm led over to an elaborate bedroom and I wonder what they have planned. The team leader starts speaking to me. "Okay, I'm Janette, I'm going to be directing the stuff for this camera crew. We want to get the first verse filmed in here. Most of it will be singing to the camera but there will be some stuff of you acting. Let's start with you sitting on the bed, singing the whole verse."

I move over to the bed and wait five minutes while crew adjusts my hair and dress and makes sure I look perfect. Once they're done, Janette starts playing the song and I try getting into this character I imagine in my head based on the set and my outfit of a princess meeting this dangerous boy who she can't marry because he's not in her class. When I start singing, I fall into the roll and feel at ease behind the camera. They have me do this a few times before moving me in front of a gorgeous vanity mirror to sing the line 'And you stood there in front of me just close enough to touch'. I act out this part and hold my hand out towards the mirror, pretending that James was there. This part only takes a couple takes and they have me sing the following line there before we move on.

Next they have me run down the hallway with my dress flowing behind me and I try to be dramatic as I do this. Once Janette is satisfied with this, she leads me to a new room where they've built a house of cards, although I'm disappointed when I find out it is glued together. But they want to film me touching it and are going to edit it in as falling down. Once that is filmed, we go to meet up with James and his team to film stuff for the choruses and second verse.

When I see James he is still filming the last thing for his part and he looks so handsome leaning against the wall. They just have him turning his head and looking into the camera with a smoldering look but wow does it makes me want to make out with him so badly.

When his team is satisfied with the shot, James walks up to me and kisses me on the cheek. "Are you having fun?" I ask him as I put an arm around his waist as we start walking with a crew to a new location.

"Of course, but I'm more excited to film these scenes with you," he responds as we walk into a beautiful indoor garden. "Wow."

"This is so perfect," I say as the crew moves us into place.

Janette walks over to us. "Okay you two. Time for some of the fun stuff. We're going to have you pretend you're meeting up for a secret rendezvous here and be worried that you'll get caught but still happy to see each other. And James, you need to be smiling a lot. Think you can handle that?"

I nod and she gives me a thumbs up before we move into places. I have fun filming one scene where I run across to James and he spins me around. I then get to lead him around the garden while singing to him and he keeps smiling at me and it starts getting hard for me to stay in my character. My favorite parts are when they let me kiss James although it's kept short because they want it to seem like we're in a forbidden love story.

Janette eventually tells us that we have enough filmed for inside the greenhouse and we're taken back to wardrobe to have touch ups before continuing filming. I barely get to talk to James in-between takes but it will be worth it to have an amazing video at the end of this. And soon enough, we're taken away to the next location. This time we get to be outside for the next verse and I can't help but get a little excited about being out in the sun. We've been having such a warm September and I haven't gotten to take advantage of it with rehearsals lately.

Janette has us acting out walking through the gardens and beautiful water fountains. We have to repeatedly film the part where James runs his hand up my arm when I sing the line 'You touch me once and it's really something, you find I'm even better than you imagined I would be' because one of us will get distracted by touching each other and mess up. But I also get to kiss James a lot for this verse so I'm pretty happy with messing up. At one point my uncle comes over to watch what we're doing and question why we aren't done with this part yet so we have to start being a bit more serious about it.

We finally get a lunch break and I'm excited to spend some time with James where we can actually talk. But my hopes for some alone time with him are quickly ruined because we have to have a fast lunch and the whole time is spent with Janette going over what we are going to be filming next. "For the second chorus, I want to film you two doing cute things around the castle. Things like running after each other down a hallway, playing chess but ending up throwing the board aside to kiss each other, and also have a cute dinner together. Basically doing all these things in secret that she won't have for long because can't be together."

"I like it," James says and I raise an eyebrow at him. "It's a cool idea and you even have a lyric that says 'Give me something that will haunt you when I'm not around' so why not show that in the video?"

"Have I told you recently that I love you?" I say in response because I love the fact that he is so into filming this video with me and that he probably knows all of the lyrics to my song.

"No, but you've been singing to me all day a song that basically says it so close enough," he chuckles before leaning over and kissing me.

"Dogs, we have a schedule!" My uncle yells at us and I roll my eyes as James and I pull apart. "You can kiss when we're actually filming."

"He's right," Janette adds and I want to be mad at her for siding with my uncle but she's been so nice to us all day and is only trying to do her job. "And if you two are done eating, we'll continue."

I look over at James and can tell he's thinking the same thing as me. I sigh as I turn back to Janette. "Alright, let's get going."

"Great," she says and stands up, waving at us to follow her out of the room. She leads us towards an elaborate dining room that has been set up with food and silver platters. Her film crew is already waiting for us. "Okay you two sit down in the two chairs there," she points out the chairs, "and basically you need to pretend to eat, feed each other, be laughing with each other. Basically look like you're in love."

"That will be easy," James says as he pulls out the chair for me and I sit down.

"I don't know, that might be pretty tough," I say sarcastically as he sits down next to me. We both start laughing at this before James leans over to kiss me on the cheek. When he moves away, I take his hand and kiss the back of it, slightly aware that we're being filmed right now but just enjoying doing cute things with him. He then feeds me a strawberry and keeps smiling at me. Soon enough, we've done enough cute things that Janette is satisfied and moves us on.

We're taken to a long hallway and instructed to run down it, chasing each other while smiling and laughing at each other. This seems easy enough to do and several times I take off running while holding up the skirt of my dress as James follows me. I look over my shoulder a couple times and laugh at how much fun I'm having while filming this video. James seems to be having just as much fun because a couple times he will catch up to me and pick me up and spin me around.

Soon we're directing to a library where they have a table set up with a chessboard. We get to sit down and look like we're deep in thought over the game before I get to throw the board to the side. Sending the pieces flying is one of my favorite things I've gotten to do so far and I'm pretty happy when we have to film this part several times because I get to keep kissing James. And one look at James shows that he's having as much fun with this as I am.

Janette decides we have enough shots for the second chorus. As we get led out to the main foyer, I grab James' hand and smile up at him. "We get to film my favorite part of the song next."

"I overheard earlier what they have planned for this part and it's not going to disappoint you," James says to me as we enter the main foyer and we both pause in awe at how elegant and fancy it looks.

"I still can't believe my uncle got this location for us," I say as I look around at the beautiful room. The main staircase is perfect and I know they're going to have us filming on it for this part of the song.

Janette approaches us. "Alright the big part of the song now. We're going to have you start at the bottom of the stairs with Lauren singing. I want you basically to follow what the song is saying. I trust at this point you can do well."

We nod at her and are moved into place by the crew. I put my arm around James' neck as we get ready to film, enjoying being close to him and getting to look into his eyes. We get the queue that they've started filming and the music starts playing. As I sing to James the line 'I run my fingers through your hair and watch the lights go wild' I do just that and play with his hair, getting a smile from him. He leans his forehead against mine for the next line before moving away to start walking up the staircase for the line 'And lead me up the staircase won't you whisper soft and slow'. We have to keep filming us walking up the stairs because when James leans in to whisper to me, he'll say stupid things like 'I just farted down there' or 'Gustavo has spinach in his teeth' and he keeps making me start laughing. It's only the threat from my uncle that gets him to stop doing this and whisper normal things like 'I love you'.

Janette decides we have this part done and calls us over. "So Lauren, are you satisfied with all of the footage we've done so far? Once we film this next part, we're not going to be able to go back because we have rain machines."

I think about it for a minute but I know that we have everything so far. "I think we're good."

"Then let's go get you in the pouring rain."

We walk outside to the front of the castle which has been transformed by the crew. They have machines set up to make it rain over us and sheets to block the setting sun so that it looks overcast. I'm instructed to wait on the front steps and to have James wait at the bottom of them. We only had one chance to get me walking out to him in the rain right so Janette is being very careful to make sure we have everything ready. She has me sing through the final chorus once from the dry part in the doorway while James is standing in the rain and smiling at me. Then I finally get to go kiss him in the pouring rain, running down the stairs to him and kissing him as soon as I reach him. I sing to him some of the lines but mostly it is us kissing or looking at each other while getting rained on. It's totally romantic and this is what I had pictured in my fantasies when I was writing the song. And now I get to do this multiple times and have it be in a music video that I can watch all the time.

"Okay, that's a wrap!" Janette yells after one final take and everyone starts cheering in excitement over this. James and I are given towels and we wrap them around ourselves as we go over to Janette and my uncle. "You two did great today. This video is going to look really great once we have everything put together."

"I can't wait to see it. Thank you," I say and shake her hand and James does the same. She heads over to her crew packing up and I turn to my uncle. "So what do you think? You stayed out of filming for the most part."

"Well I've learned over the years that it's usually a good idea for me to just let the directors do their thing," he says and shrugs at me. "And I just don't really like seeing my niece kissing one of the dogs that much."

James chuckles and I raise an eyebrow at this. "You also wanted me to film this song. What did you expect?"

"I don't know!" Gustavo yells at me before calming down. "It's not that big of a deal as long as the video turns out well. And I've worked with Janette a few times before so I know it will."

"Great, I can't wait to see it," James says and I look over to see him smiling as I take his hand in mine.

"Me too," I look over at my uncle. "When are we going to see it?"

"In a few weeks when we have your album release party," he responds and crosses his arms at me. "Are you sure you're ready to handle the craziness that's going to be the next couple of weeks with an album and music video coming out?"

"I know I can handle it," I say and squeeze James' hand before looking up at him. He smiles at me and I know that as long as I have him by my side, I'll be able to handle all of the crazy things that are about to happen.