Hi, how are you? This idea came to my mind while I was listening to random songs on youtube. Initially I wrote it in Spanish (it's my native language) and after talking to LilyTimbers, she encouraged me to try to translate this fic into English and, with her help, the translation errors were corrected and this is the final result.
So this English version was made possible thanks to all the help and patience that LilyTimbers had with me while she helped me correct the errors. If you don't know who I'm talking about, I invite you to read her fics "Nevermore Records" and "Sex Ed". Both are very good stories written by a talented writer.
Things to keep in mind:
1) The songs that appear here are cover versions made by a group called Pomplamoose that I recently discovered.
2) It wouldn't be a bad idea for you to listen to those covers when the songs appear, because that way you'll be able to know what the voices of the characters are like.
3) These are the covers:
Digital Love | Daft Punk | Pomplamoose.
Daft Punk | Something About Us | Pomplamoose.
Sweet Dreams + Withe Stripes Mashup | Pomplamoose ft. Sarah Dugas.
Bad Day | Daniel Powter | Pomplamoose ft. Johan Baker.
(copying this will help you find them quickly).
4) Yes, there will be explicit scenes, that's why the Summary's rating.
I hope you enjoy this little story.
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Chapter I: let's start then...
If there was one thing Rachel Roth (or Raven, as she preferred to be called) never imagined she would be doing at 25 years of age, it was that she would have to go back to working part-time after being unfairly fired. She used to work at an animation studio as an artist, screenwriter and animator. Raven lost her job because she assaulted her jackass of a supervisor. He tried to make a move on her one night when they stayed late to finish a project they had been working on together with another studio. But that wasn't the worst of it. After that incident in which she had obviously been the victim, that scumbag proposed that she avoid being fired if she apologized on her knees and from now on, did him favors to satisfy certain "male needs". She responded in the way she thought was best suited to the situation.
She kicked him hard in the crotch with her beloved black metal-toed leather biker boots.
"Fuck you, asshole..."
She left him lying on the floor crying and breathing as if he were in labor... He deserved it, that and much more, but she didn't feel like going to jail for a worthless idiot who wasn't even worth her time.
However, that idiot had influence in their field and was responsible for closing the doors to many other workplaces in their area. Worst of all, his words carried a lot of weight because she only had work experience under his studio, which to top it off was one of the most recognized. Although several colleagues and acquaintances were doing everything possible to help her get a job, the other studios did not want to risk their reputations by hiring Raven because of her violent image. And this false, exaggerated impression was all because of the pathetic man who ruined her career.
After six months without being able to get a job in her area, Raven resigned herself to being a part-time employee delivering newspapers, walking dogs, working in cafeterias, construction and in mechanical workshops. These were the only things she could do well besides being an artist. It was really depressing to feel this stagnation and it was all because she did not accept being that asshole's bitch. However, she did not regret having kept her dignity. She would never lower herself in this way for a simple job. And although it hurt her not to be able to dedicate herself to what she really loved, Raven would persevere until she managed to emerge again.
After all, she had always used her own strength to get ahead...
During all of this time, her best friend and roommate, Kory Anders, was a great support for her. She always tried to encourage her with her seemingly inexhaustible enthusiasm and positivity. Although this was sometimes overwhelming, it also managed to steal some smiles. Raven could never be annoyed with Kory for long since all she was trying to do was help her. In addition, Kory was the main financial support they had at this time thanks to her work as a back-up singer in a recording studio. She and her group made covers of well-known songs for almost ten years and now they were famous enough to give concerts. They also had several original songs that had been almost as successful as the covers. They were not superstars, but their fame only continued to rise over the years and that had allowed them to dedicate themselves to music seriously.
At least Kory was doing well. Her life was about to get better as Raven knew from a good source, the original source, in fact. Her other best friend, Richard John Grayson or Dick Grayson as they called him, had finally decided to propose to her after almost six years of their relationship. However, there was only one problem. For some reason, Dick insisted that he wanted everything to be perfect when he proposed to her and in preparing all this, he had procrastinated for the last three months.
Four months later after starting her part-time jobs, "desperate" was the perfect word to define the state Raven was in at the moment. The two jobs where she earned the most money, construction and the mechanic's shop, had suddenly closed. One was because of lack of funds and the other because the owner had simply decided to close and sell the space for personal reasons.
"Cheer up, friend" said Kory, lying next to her on the bed and stroking her hair carefully, "I'm sure you'll soon find another job that pays as much as those other two."
"There would be no problem if it was just one of the two, or one of the others with less pay," she sighed heavily as she turned around to look at her friend's face, "but getting them was difficult because you don't usually see women in that kind of work."
"What if..." Kory seemed to be debating whether to say what she had in mind or not, Raven just kept looking at and urged her to continue. "Would you like to come with me to the studio?"
"For what?" Raven asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at her friend inquisitively, "If it's just to watch, you know I can't afford to waste time like this, especially now that my financial situation is so unstable."
"I know, but right now we need some extra help and the director was considering hiring someone" Kory was quick to say, feeling her friend's intense gaze crushing her unrelentingly, "Plus, it's a simple job that anyone can do and best of all you'll get paid for it. In the meantime, you have the opportunity to enjoy good music live. So what do you say?"
Raven knew that Kory wouldn't offer her any work if she wasn't completely sure it was good for her and if it was something simple, even better. She was also attracted to the idea of watching some live sessions since she secretly followed the group when Kory showed her their first single five years ago. The question was, how much would they pay her for it?
"Fine, but if the pay is low, I won't commit myself or devote much time to it since I have to look for another job again," Raven answered by raising her hands to stop Kory before she jumped on top of her happiness. The red-haired woman did it anyway, but Raven managed to stop it in time.
"Oh Raven, you don't know how happy I am to hear you say that." Kory celebrated by trying wrestling her Gothic friend into her arms, but Raven was much stronger than she appeared at first glance. In the end Kory was forced to give up and get out of bed. "Well, since you won't let me express the joy I feel, come with me to the studio."
"Now?" said Raven.
Kory just nodded as she walked into the living room followed closely by Raven.
"Don't you think it's wrong to just show up suddenly?" asked Raven.
"No," Kory answered simply while taking the pink helmet she had bought so she could ride with Raven on her motorcycle, "as I told you before, we need help and in the afternoon we have to record together with a guest singer, So the sooner you learn what you have to do, the better."
"Good," she said resignedly, taking her black helmet and the keys of her beautiful custom bike. It was a Harley-Davidson CVO Pro Street Breakout, in its darkest version with limited edition dragster touches. It was her most precious possession and the first thing she had bought after her first big successful project, "Just do me a favor and this time try to hold on tightly to me, I don't want a scare like the last time."
"But I couldn't help raising my hands, it was like I was flying," Kory tried uselessly to excuse herself while receiving an accusing glance from her friend.
"And I remind you that you did indeed fly away, Kory," she remarked as she put on her black leather jacket and grabbed her black gloves. "Dick and I thought you wouldn't make it after such a fall. You're lucky you didn't suffer more than a couple of minor fractures, with several bruises and scrapes."
Although Kory hadn't tried to do something like this again, Raven wouldn't stop reminding her every time she gave her a ride on her bike. Her friend's safety came before anything else.
When they finally arrived at the studio, Kory went ahead and talked to her colleagues while Raven secured her bike and protected it from the weather with the blanket she always carried with her. Lately, it had been raining suddenly and she didn't like her baby getting wet when she left it on the street. When she had finished, she went into the old building and went up the stairs to the second floor where the famous studio was located. She waited outside the door for Kory to finish talking to a young man who was a little taller than her friend. He was slightly tanned, with short, bushy blond hair and the body of an athlete. He was muscled, but not overly so. He wore dark blue jeans and a white flannel with a long sleeved shirt on top. The fabric had a gray and black plaid pattern, and sleeves were rolled up to just above the elbows. Finally, a pair of dark grey and black steel-toed boots complemented the man's attire.
"Not bad," she thought after inspecting him with her eyes while she opened the door after Kory indicated that she could pass. "Good morning."
"Hey, what's up?" the guy greeted her casually with a big smile on his face and he reached out to her in a very friendly way, "I guess you're Raven, right? Kory always talks about you a lot."
"My name is Rachel Roth, but my friends call me Raven," she cleared up by shaking the nice guy's hand.
"Oops, sorry I forgot to introduce myself," he said scratching his neck in embarrassment, "Garfield Mark Logan, but everyone calls me Gar. I'm in charge of arranging the covers we make and composing the songs. You could say I'm sort of the band's director."
"Gar, don't sell yourself short!" Kory berated him, surprising Raven who never thought she'd live long enough to see her friend this upset about anything. "Raven, he's not just the bandleader, he's the one who brought us all together and shaped our group. He would be your direct boss here."
"I don't care, just tell me what I have to do and I'll do it," she said, playing down the importance of the matter. She wasn't planning to stay there long enough to have to care about the hierarchy of that place.
After this, Gar took her to the control booth and the recording room, where he explained what
equipment they used and where they kept things. He then explained how to manipulate the cameras, which would be her main task in the studio. She would also help with whatever was needed like buying the meals and snacks they used to eat during long sessions, etc. In short, she would help record the sessions and play the role of a temporary assistant when needed.
She spent a good time practicing with Gar what would be the different camera angles they used to focus on the band and vocals separately, as well as together. Interestingly, several hours passed without her noticing until the rest of the group members started to arrive for the session that day. Gar and Kory were in charge of introducing her to the others and everyone except the lead singer received her in the same friendly way their leader had done. The lead singer just ignored her and refused to shake her hand. Later, Raven and Kory went outside to take a break. They sat on the steps outside of the studio.
"Someone seems to have a diva complex," she whispered to Kory after the rejection of the light blue-eyed blonde. She was quite attractive, but definitely not on par with Kory whom she saw as superiorly beautiful.
"She's Tara Markov and..." Kory seemed to think hard on what she was about to say, "she's a little difficult to deal with. She thinks she's above all of us and only Gar can deal with her. After all, they're a couple."
"How the hell did that happen?!" Raven had a hard time keeping her voice down because she was so surprised. Those two had totally contrasting personalities. With the girl's attitude, she could only imagine that relationship working if Gar chose to be complacent and completely submissive to her.
Disappointing... she had honestly expected more from Gar after the first impression he had made and from the wonders Kory always told her about since she had known him. Raven had always been curious and wanted to meet him, but now she felt her original image of Gar was being shattered into a thousand pieces.
"They started the group, being first a duo in which she sang and he was in charge of all the instrumental parts, the arrangement and so on" explained Kory, taking advantage of their privacy, "When they started making money with their videos, Gar wanted to go further and they expanded. Then, he invited me to do the second voice and Tara did not take it well. But since she would be highlighted more, she did not object for long. The same thing happened with the other members, but Gar made it work somehow and here we are."
No doubt, this Gar was impressive to have dealt with that annoying problem of a woman and still managed to get the group out there. He had kept them going for so long, with so little change despite his partner's counterproductive attitude. It must have been very difficult for him and who knows what poor Gar had to go through to get there. But Raven was still a little disappointed that he was so complacent about someone like Tara... he didn't deserve that treatment and Tara didn't deserve to have someone like him by her side.
However, what little she had seen of Tara was far from being even a measly 1% of how big her diva complex could be. When the guest singer Donna Troy finally arrived, the blonde simply exploded. It was worse than an erupting volcano when Gar reaffirmed that Tara would be the second voice on this occasion. This started a strong argument with him not caring in the least about the ruckus she was making or the bad impression she made in front of Donna.
"For the last time, Gar, I'm not going to accept it. If you don't change the roles, I refuse to continue singing with this group of bums!" she shouted, making Gar's expression change for the first time from neutral to totally angry. This made him seem even more imposing than his 6"4 height and his wiry body made him look.
"Then leave," he said bluntly, taking everyone present by surprise. This was the first time he had spoken to Tara so loudly, "the group does not revolve around you and it is time you understood that."
The severity in his look and the coldness in his words were so unusual that he simply looked like a completely different man. Raven knew from everyone's reaction that she was not the only one surprised by Gar's sudden change in attitude.
"I knew it!" She screamed hysterically, scaring everyone except Gar, who just kept looking at her sternly as if she were a spoiled child. "That's why you brought her here! You were thinking of replacing me from the start, weren't you?!"
"No," he replied instantly, "I have never thought of replacing you, but I will if you continue with that childish attitude."
Raven could only look on in amazement as the cheerful fellow she had met only a few hours earlier seemed to have disappeared completely, leaving in his place a cold and impassive man who did not beat about the bush.
"You have something going on with her, right? Or do you want to have something with her?" Tara asked in a low voice while clenching her fists tightly. "That's why you haven't touched me or kissed me for months... all because you're only thinking about that woman."
"No," he replied sharply, holding his girlfriend's angry gaze immutably and impassively. "I stopped when you started cheating on me with your friend Tommy." Tara's jaw dropped at that revelation and on her face you could see clearly that she thought he didn't know, "I always knew Tara, but I wanted to give you a chance to tell me so we could work it out somehow. But I see that I was naive to expect anything from you, because you can't even behave like a professional in this situation."
"Shut up!" she screamed hysterically, suddenly throwing the microphone that she held in her hand straight into Donna's face.
The terrified singer felt Raven suddenly pull her by the arm as she stood in the way of the microphone and grabbed it in the air in an impressive manner. She then turned around as if nothing had happened and handed it over to Donna carefully before giving Tara a scornful look, who angrily glared at her.
"Enough!" Gar raised his voice for the first time since the discussion had started. He scared Tara and everyone in the room with the loud, commanding, authoritative and serious sound of that sentence, "this is the last straw, Tara, so just leave and stop humiliating yourself more than you already have."
"I hate you!" She screamed furiously as she left, but Garfield grabbed her by the wrist. "What do you want, Logan? Have you changed your mind?"
"No. I just want you to give me the keys to the studio and the house before you go." The coldness in his words made it clear that he had no objections.
"Sure," she said, taking the keys out of her wallet, staring at them for a moment as a disturbing smile formed on her lips.
Suddenly she turned quickly, ready to strike Gar in the face with the keys in her hand. But he saw through her ruse and stopped her weak attack by grabbing her by the wrist before she could reach his face. Holding back his anger as best he could, he applied enough force to his grip, which forced her to drop the keys before releasing her.
"We don't have anything to do with each other anymore," Gar said, taking his ex-girlfriend's wallet and placing it in her hands, "now go away and never show your face here again."
With tears in her eyes, the blonde ran out of the studio and slammed the door as she left, plunging the studio into a deep silence after her departure. Gar sighed heavily and then approached Donna and Raven who were visibly concerned.
"I'm really sorry about everything that happened." Suddenly, that frightening person had disappeared to reveal the same nice young man Raven had met in the morning, who now had a deeply worried expression on his face. "Are you both okay?"
"Of course... don't worry," Raven answered simply, playing down the matter. Although she had been quite scared when she had inadvertently stepped between the microphone and Donna, everything had ended up okay in the end. She didn't want to show her fear now because it didn't make sense and because between the two of them, Donna was definitely the one who was most upset.
"And... and I'm fine too," Donna barely answered with a smile, "Thanks to you, Raven.
"Yeah... that was great," said Gar trying to smile, but he just couldn't do it because Tara's departure not only hurt him a lot, but also put everyone in serious trouble, "but now I don't know where I'm going to get another singer to match Donna's voice... Kory, you want to try?"
"I could do it if there's no other alternative, but I have a better idea." A little smile formed on the redhead's lips as she looked at Raven with complicity, who couldn't help but have a bad feeling about that look ."Why don't you try Raven?"
"What? No!" Gar and Raven said in unison, equally alarmed. "What the hell are you thinking, Kory?!"
"Oh come on, my dear friend, we both know you have a beautiful voice," she said looking at her pleadingly and then turning in the same way and with the same look to Gar, "Besides Gar, that's why I brought her in the first place. Remember, I had asked you to give her a trial at the end of the day."
Raven knew it! She thought it was too weird that Kory was so insistent on going to the studio today. From the beginning, she planned to make her try out as a singer. Kory probably did it with the idea that Raven could help her with the background vocals. But now, the situation was much more delicate and it didn't make sense that she would go ahead with such a crazy and ridiculous idea. She used to sing with Kory in her free time or to help her practice the songs that she would record later with the group. But that didn't take away from the fact that Raven was still just an amateur and nothing more.
"Kory! You know I can't afford to do this like you," Raven reproached her, "I remind you that I still have to look for another job." She felt foolish for not suspecting that her friend might try something like this. Kory had already suggested it several times before she was fired.
"Exactly, plus she's a complete amateur!" Gar remarked in alarm, not realizing the way Raven turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow, "I trust your judgment Kory, but we can't take a chance with someone who might not even know how to tune properly among other things. So no, I'm sorry, but the answer is no."
While everything the musician had said was true, there was one thing Raven couldn't stand. She hated it when she was looked down on without even being given a chance to find out whether she really sucked at something or not.
"Hey, even if I agree with you, at least try me before you judge me," she said, challenging him with her eyes, to which Gar flashed a slightly amused smile while raising an intentionally provoking eyebrow. "If I turn out to be terrible, I'll accept it without question, but otherwise you'll have to let me kick you in the crotch for underestimating me."
All the men in the studio made the same gesture by closing their legs and covering their parts when they saw the boots the girl was wearing. Gar only laughed loudly at the witty comment of the woman who still looked at him defiantly.
"I think it's a good idea," Donna nodded with a slight laugh, "I'm still too upset to sing so I can use the time to try to calm down. If Raven fails, at least I'll be calm enough to practice with Kory later."
Gar turned to questioning her with his eyes, to which Donna only smiled sweetly "plus I owe her for the microphone and... I admit it would be fun to see her kick you."
"Wow, I can see all the love you have for me, dear," he joked, clutching his chest, pretending to be in pain before turning his attention to Raven again. "All right, you win, I'll give you the trial and take the bet. After all, it's a good way to try to lighten the mood," he added, while still seeing Raven, who was still watching him defiantly. "I want you to listen to the covers we did of Digital Love and Something About Us by Daft Punk. That makes a little more than seven minutes plus the time it takes you to prepare. Keep in mind that I don't want you to imitate Tara. I want you to make each song your own and sing it your way. Did you get that all or do you want me to repeat it? "
"Thanks to Kory, I know those songs very well, so you can save the speech buddy. Let's start at once." At this moment it wasn't Raven who was speaking but her pride, which wasn't willing to be belittled like that anymore.
Gar stared at her for a couple of minutes straight to see if she would chicken out, but this wasn't the case. He flashed a funny smile at the audacity of that woman who seemed unaffected by anything that had happened in the studio with Tara just now. To top it off, her defiant attitude was starting to influence the other band members, who apparently also had a strong desire to see the new girl kick him in the genitals... They were all bastards, but to follow through with this could be a good change of scenery. After all, when they started doing this they were also complete amateurs. At the time, they just wanted to see how far they could go with their videos, and after ten years they were still here.
"Well, let's start then..."
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Well, I hope you liked this first chapter. If so, then we'll see you next Sunday with the 2nd chapter of this little story.
Don't hesitate to leave me reviews, comments, questions, suggestions, critiques, observations, recommendations, etc. I will read everything and try to answer in the best way possible when I publish the next chapter, unless you would prefer that I answer you by PM, if so, please let me know in your reviews.
That's all for now. See you next week. Until then take care of yourselves and stay safe at home.
