Chapter 3:
A Change Has Got To Come
After hanging out with the guys for a few more hours, the girls headed down to the lobby to be picked up for their meeting.
"James is so fine!" Cecilia said, "Gosh…"
"Kendall is more than anything I ever dreamed, man…" Elizabeth smiled.
"Logan's pretty cool." Kaity half smiled.
"Carlos is cute. He's kind of annoying, but cute." Trista said.
Suddenly, a large man stepped out of a large black SUV and walked into the hotel.
"Cecilia, Elizabeth, Kaity, and Trista?" he asked.
The girls all nodded, "Come with me."
They walked into the SUV, looking around the huge backseat as they pulled off.
"Does this still feel surreal to you guys as it does to me?" Elizabeth said.
Kaity nodded, "Think about it. Yesterday, we were singing NSYNC on the steps at school. Now, we're going to record a test single and do whatever else it takes to record a demo."
"We're so gonna be famous!" Trista exclaimed.
"Do you wanna be famous?" Elizabeth sang.
"You wanna be the one who's living the life?" Cecilia sang.
Kaity rolled her eyes as the girls kept singing. She knew deep down she was going to have to conquer her fears of singing, but until that day came, she wasn't going to worry about it. Little did she know, that day was today.
The SUV pulled up in front of Rocque Records a few minutes later. The girls got out and stared in awe of the large building just like they had the Palm Woods much earlier.
"Follow me, ladies." Freight Trane gestured for them to follow him into the building. The traveled up to an elevator that ended up stopping them at the top of the building on a long red, white, and black hallway. The girls walked down the long hallway until Kelly walked out of a room and gestured for them to come in.
They were brought into an office where famous record producer, Gustavo Rocque was sitting behind a large desk.
"Gustavo, meet your new project." Kelly said, shutting the door.
"Girls, you brought me girls?" he exclaimed, causing the four girls to jump a little closer together in fear.
"Well, I liked their style, and they're so talented. Cecilia has an amazing voice and Kaity is the best white b-girl you could ask for." Kelly smiled, earning a laugh from the girls.
"I have NEVER worked with a girl project before!"
"There were girls in…"
"THEY FAILED!" Gustavo yelled, "They better prove themselves to me!"
"Oh, we will, sir. You better believe it." Cecilia smiled.
"Okay, so, the blonde in the center, that's Kaity. To her left, that's Elizabeth. To Kaity's right, that's Trista. Towards the back, that's Cecilia." Kelly said.
"You, Blondie in the center. You're too plain." He said, pointing to Kaity.
Kaity looked down at her clothes. Maybe he was right. A tight fitted black polo, a denim mini skirt, red and black plaid leggings and Converse didn't exactly scream "rock star".
"You," he pointed to Elizabeth, "Are you aware that your clothes don't match?"
Elizabeth looked down. White matched with everything, right? She tugged at her white v-neck, looking down at black and gray cheetah print skinny jeans.
"In the back, ditch the hippie stuff. I've already dealt with one hippie issue. I don't need another."
"It just says…" Cecilia looked down at her black "One Love" t-shirt.
"I don't care! The only one that looks like she could pass as a pop singer is you." He pointed to Trista.
"Hey, you know how we've always made fun of Trista for being so well kept…maybe we should have done the same. I'm just saying." Kaity put her hands up in defense.
"Before we change your style, I wanna see what you've got." He said, "To the booth, let's move it!"
The girls exchanged scared and sort of agitated glances as they headed to the large recording booth. There were four headsets on holders already in there. The headset Kaity went to had a sweatshirt draped over the holder. She picked it up slowly, between two fingers, eyeing in curiously.
"Minnesota Wilds Hockey?" she read.
"Oh my God, put that down!" Elizabeth said, causing Kaity to drop it to the ground quickly.
"One of the dogs…Kendall…left his junk in there again!" Gustavo said from behind the glass separating the recording booth from the listening area.
"Oh my God!" Kaity said, staring down at the sweatshirt in the floor.
"STOP FREAKING OUT ABOUT THE SHIRT, GET YOUR HEADSET ON AND TRY TO SING THE SONG ON THE MUSIC STAND!" he exclaimed.
"Aye, aye, captain!" Elizabeth saluted fearfully.
They picked the headphones up and stared at the music as the demo played in the background. Cecilia sang along to the track, matching the pitch perfectly as always. Elizabeth studied the music like she would a script, silently, determined to master it. Trista sang along with the track, ignoring the sheet music, dancing around to the song. Kaity stayed quiet, mouthing the lyrics, hoping that she'd be able to get some of these notes out.
When the song ended Kelly walked into the booth and handed the girls new music, this time divided out into parts. Kaity's breath caught in her throat as she looked over it. She had the very first part in the song.If she ever doubted her abilities, nothing compared to the way she felt at that moment. The song was starting over in the headphones, and she knew the track wasn't going to be playing in the back. It was just going to be them. Her part came up on her fast. She took a deep breath before starting.
Kaity:
Just give me a beat
That's all I need is a beat
Nothing more than a beat
She paused as the beat kept going. She knew something was just dying to go here, so she waited until it got closer to the chorus.
"Yeah, let's go."
All:
La da dada da la da da dadadada ooooo
Trista:
It's something like a party
All:
La da dada da la da da dadadada ooooo
Trista:
I'm inviting everybody
All:
DJ keep it comin'
DJ keep it keep it comin'
When the speakers starts to thumpin
Everybody starts to jump in
Cuz we all up in here
Our hands up in the air a-singing
La da da dadadada ooooo
Elizabeth:
I know you think
This song is about ya
It's all about me myself
And I'm coming out a
Where my people at
You in the front and in the back
Stop the beat lemme get a clap
That's what I'm talkin bout yeahh
Kaity:
I'm gunna give you what you been missing
And I know I'm the thing that you really need (oh woah oh oh)
As the song kept playing, Kaity got more and more comfortable with the song. She knew she probably didn't sound wonderful, but it was better than before, and this was Hollywood…she wouldn't mind a bit of auto tune if it meant the girls got to keep their record deal.
I wanna know if you're ready for what
I've got in store
If you know the words then sing
All:
La da dada da la da da dadadada ooooo
Trista:
I's something like a party
All:
La da dada da la da da dadadada ooooo
Trista:
I'm inviting everybody
All:
DJ keep it comin'
DJ keep it keep it comin'
When the speakers starts to thumpin
Everybody starts to jump in
Cuz we all up in here
Our hands up in the air a-singing
La da da dadadada ooooo
Cecilia:
Now 8 and up above is coming out on the floor
That's why I decided to give yall what you want
Just a little more
People say they want some more
They're sick of this
Well I'm the cure
That's what I'm talkin bout yeah
Kaity:
I'm gunna give you what you been missing
And I know I'm the thing that you really need (oh woah oh oh)
I wanna know if you're all ready for what
I've got in store
If you know the words then sing
All:
La da dada da la da da dadadada ooooo
Trista:
I's something like a party
All:
La da dada da la da da dadadada ooooo
Trista:
I'm inviting everybody
All:
DJ keep it comin'
DJ keep it keep it comin'
When the speakers starts to thumpin
Everybody starts to jump in
Cuz we all up in here
Our hands up in the air a-singing
La da da dadadada ooooo
Trista:
This song is never ending
So stop pretending
Like you've forgotten any of the words
Get a clue
So easy to do
Now I want everyone to sing
You should all know my melody
Kaity:
Goes a little something like…
All:
La da dada da la da da dadadada ooooo
Trista:
I's something like a party
All:
La da dada da la da da dadadada ooooo
Trista:
I'm inviting everybody
All:
DJ keep it comin'
DJ keep it keep it comin'
When the speakers starts to thumpin
Everybody starts to jump in
Cuz we all up in here
Our hands up in the air a-singing
La da da dadadada ooooo
When the song finished, the girls all looked at each other excitedly. It didn't sound half bad.
"Kaity, that was incredible! Oh, and you were scared? Psh, yeah right!" Cecilia said.
Kaity bit her lip and smiled, "Well, your part kicked ass too!"
"My part's too slow!" Trista said, earning an eye roll from the other three girls.
"Oh my gosh, I hope they thought that was just as epic as we did!" Elizabeth said.
"Hey, QUIET!" Gustavo yelled, filling their headphones loudly.
They all turned to face him nervously, "That was…decent. Kaity, why can you talk to the tune of music but not sing? It makes NO SENSE! Elizabeth, you annunciate your words too much! This is NOT BROADWAY! It's 'lemme get a clap' not 'let me get a clap'! Trista, you're pitchy and you're singing through your nose! Cecilia, you're the better one of the group. You're the only one I could find less fault in."
"Really?" she asked, "Thanks a bunch. I mean, I wouldn't have picked me. Wow, thanks!"
"Now, I'm giving you the same deal I made with Big Time Rush. You can stay, but we have to get you all cleaned up and ready. You go before Griffin, who has the final say, in a week. If he likes you, you're here to make a demo. If the demo gets picked, you make an album, tour, and…"
"Become famous?" Cecilia said excitedly.
"Yes, but you aren't even halfway there! You're about a third of the way there, or a fifth!" he said, "Now, Kelly just called in my hair, makeup, and wardrobe staff, and while you're with them, I'll be editing this…track…if it can even be called that. Then, you'll spend time with X."
"X?" Elizabeth asked.
"Choreography!" he shouted, "Welcome to boy…er…girl band…girl group BOOT CAMP!"
"I'm scared!" she said, eyeing the other girls.
Cecilia nodded in return as they were ushered from the recording booth to another room across the hall. There were four hair and makeup stations set up and four racks of differently styled clothes. As soon as they walked in, they each had someone pull them to a different area.
Kaity went straight to having her hair done. Cecilia went straight to getting her makeup fixed. Elizabeth got taken off to wardrobe, and Trista was taken to the hair station too.
After a long hour and a half of being pushed and pulled everywhere, they were taken into another room, a dance studio…where they could take the first looks at the new them.
"Woah, Kaity, you look amazing!" Elizabeth said.
Kaity looked in the mirror, feeling like she could burst into tears. Her medium length blonde hair had been cut to right below her jaw, and multicolored extensions were braided into her hair. She ran her hands through it. There was a pink and a green streak in the front and a blue and an orange streak in the back in the under layer of her hair.
They'd given her a whole pack of contacts and taken her dark rimmed glasses away, applied tons of makeup, and put huge hoop earrings in her ears.
Her clothes were completely different too. She had a black v-neck on with a pink neck tie with "K-RAE", one of her nicknames, airbrushed on it. Her skirt was high waisted and a green and black plaid design, pink tulle sticking out the bottom. Her outfit was completed by a pair of tall white and black knee high socks and pink Nike dunks.
She didn't even recognize the girl in the mirror. It definitely wasn't Kaitlin Rae Vaughan, the smart little trouble maker from Virginia that had no intention to become a pop singer.
She looked over at Cecilia, who was totally freaking out about how James was going to think she looked "so hot" when he saw her.
There was no way a collected guy like Logan would think this false, "wild child" appearance was anything close to cute.
Cecilia had knee high black converse tucked into skin tight black skinny jeans and a purple off the shoulder sweat shirt on top. Her normally curly hair was straightened and cut into layers.
"What's wrong, K-Rae?" Elizabeth asked.
Elizabeth also looked really pretty in comparison to her. Her wavy dirty blonde hair had blonde streaks in it and was curled loosely. She had a white tank top on with multi colored layered pearls on top. She also had on holy, light blue denim capris with killer silver Air Maxes on.
"This isn't me." She said, still staring in the mirror.
"I think you look great." Trista said, "Maybe this is what you needed to break out of that shell of yours anyway."
Trista didn't honestly look much different. Her hair was cut a tad bit shorter and she had on a tight silver and gold striped mini dress with gold leggings underneath and silver converse on the bottom. She really looked put together, in Kaity's eyes.
"I guess."
"Girls," Kelly said, walking back into the room, "Do you want to hear your track?"
"Yeah, for sure!" Cecilia spoke up.
The girls followed Kelly back into the other room.
"Well, X isn't going to be able to be here until tomorrow. He's working with some kids from Hollywood Arts…whatever! We'll play your track and then you can head back to the Palm Woods." Gustavo said.
The new version of the song began to play. They all were smiling widely, proud of themselves. Kaity's voice poured through the speakers.
"Just gimme a beat! 'Cause all I need is a beat!"
"Woah, girl, you do have some pipes!" Trista said.
Kaity bit her lip, "Thanks."
Okay, so maybe she would mind auto tune after all. The girl singing on the track sounded a lot different than her actual voice. It was about a pitch higher with impeccable tone quality and balance. Everyone else sounded normal too….it was just her.
As the track stopped, Gustavo handed out CDs, sheet music and lyrics to the song, "I would advise you, if you want to stay in LA, to practice this song! Kaity, can I speak with you please?"
"Uh, sure." She said, playing with the pink piece of hair.
"The rest of you can leave." He said.
"Yes, sir?" Kaity asked as the other girls walked out, leaving her and Kelly and Gustavo in the room.
"Well, after listening back to the original track, comparing it to the original, when we go before Griffin, I'm giving you three options. You can either, A, completely lip synch the song, B, we'll fuse your voice on the headset in with the track, mixing the two sounds, or you can work a little harder at rehearsals, and at home and prove you have the voice, not just the talking voice to sing the song." He said, "I really do not want a lip syncher in my group. I thought Carlos was going to have to lip synch in BTR, but I prepared him…because I'm amazing! I have no doubt…well just a little, that you can do it."
"Uh, thanks." She said, "Uh, I'm going to try and sing it. I really want to." She said, hanging her head.
"You better do it right!" He said.
"Got it!" She saluted him.
As she walked out of the studio, led by Kelly down to the car, she debated her options. Then, a great idea struck her.
"Hmm, that could have double potential."
When she got in the car, she was automatically interrogated by the other girls.
"What'd Gustavo want?"
"Are you going to be the lead singer?"
"Is it about dance rehearsal?"
"Nah," Kaity said, "It's no big deal. To the Palm Woods!"
Songs
Something Like A Party: School Gyrls