"Oh my god, is that Little Tommy Q?!" screeched the girly voice of Sadie Harrison.

"Hey, Sadie," Tommy said. "I-"

"Oh my god, you know my name! This is so awesome, Tom Quincy is here to see me!"

"Sadie-" Tommy tried again.

"So, I bet you could stay for dinner, and then we could maybe go to the movies or something-"

"SADIE!" Jude yelled. "Listen for five friggin seconds!" She gestured towards Tommy. "This is Thomas DuTois. Remember him? You know, the guy who was my best friend seven or so years ago?"

"Jude, are you blind? That is so Tom Quincy!" Sadie squealed.

"Sadie, ever heard of stage names?" Jude asked, sighing impatiently.

"Wait, you mean… THEY'RE THE SAME?!"

"Yes. Now if you'll excuse us, we've got seven years to catch up on…" Sadie ran out the door, blushing furiously. Jude shut the door behind her. "So, where were we?"

"When did Sadie become an airhead?" Tommy asked, amused.

"To her credit, she's only an airhead when in the presence of celebrities." Jude said. "So, where were we?"

"What happened after I left," Tommy said.

"Right," Jude sighed, deflating a little. "Well, as you know, my dad was cheating on my mom, so they got a divorce. Mom had kicked Dad out of the house, so Dad was just gone for a while. It turns out that Mom was out when you came to say goodbye." She cleared her throat awkwardly. "Out on a date. With her divorce lawyer."

Tommy winced. "Oh," he said softly.

"Yeah. Well, in a nutshell, a month later Mom and Don, the lawyer, got married and left Sadie and I at home. We still haven't seen them since then."

Tommy's eyes widened. "Wait, you and Sadie were living home alone? You were eight, and Sadie wasn't much older!"

Jude ignored him and just kept going. "Sadie and I were living at home for a month when Dad came over. Turns out, he was supposed to be able to see us, as agreed upon in the divorce, and Mom wasn't letting him. So, Dad turned up, pissed as hell, on our doorstep, to find Sadie and I out of food. He's been taking care of us ever since, and we've forgiven him for cheating."

"So, your mom just… left you guys at home? Just packed up and left?" Tommy asked, incredulous.

"Sadie won't even talk about her anymore. If she absolutely must utter her name, she calls her the Whore, not Mom." Jude bit her lip, and Tommy could tell there was something else she wanted to say.

"What is it?"

"Nothing important," she said. "So, anyways, Dad moved us as soon as he was sure nothing was tying me or Sadie there, so here we are." She gestured at their surroundings.

Tommy hugged her. "I'm sorry Jude."

"Me too," she said, starting to cry. "It sucked not having you around, Tommy. Sadie and I were desperate, but it was summer, and all of our other friends were either on vacation or lived too far away. We had nowhere to go."

"I'm sorry Jude," he repeated, not letting go of her. "I fucked up and I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," she said, voice thick with tears. "And you didn't fuck up. You did exactly what you should've done." She just broke down then, bawling, and Tommy just held her. Finally, her dad came up.

"Hey guys, it's time for dinner," he said, staring at his daughter and her friend. Stuart had treated Tommy like his own, so he trusted him completely. "You gonna make it down?"

Jude wiped her eyes and smiled. "Yeah. Wouldn't miss crepes for the world."

--

About a month after Jude won Instant Star, she and Tommy had fallen asleep at the studio after a particularly long night. They were both lying on the couch, Jude splayed out on top of Tommy. Although some might look at this arrangement and find it odd, Tommy and Jude thought nothing of it. They had fallen asleep like this many times when they were kids.

Of course, G-Major was up and running, so the employees had all seen the scene, but no one had had the heart to wake them, and since it was a Saturday and Jude had no school, they didn't have to.

At least, no one did until Shay walked in.

He strutted in like he owned the place, posse and Georgia flanking him, and stopped when he saw the occupants of the couch. "Whoa," he said loudly. "Do I really see Tom Quincy sleeping with a girl in the middle of the lobby? I didn't think you were that kind of boss, G."

Georgia resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and set to waking the two up. "Jude, Tom, wake up." Tommy started to stretch and Jude groaned, causing him to laugh.

"Girl, it's" –he checked his watch- "eight o'clock. Time to get up." She groaned again.

"She looks a little young for you, T," Shay said, staring at Jude. At Shay's comment Tommy frowned, and he snapped his head over to look at the source.

"Shay-Shay!" he said, surprised, Jude still half-asleep on top of him. "Good to see you." He suddenly remembered Shay's prior comment. "Get your mind out of the gutter, man."

"You're talking too loud," Jude complained.

Tommy chuckled and slid out from under her. He walked over to Hospitality, Shay following. "You see," he said, pouring two cups of coffee. "Jude and I were friends when we were little. We used to live in the same neighborhood." He walked back over to Jude and put one of the cups of black coffee underneath her nose. "Jude, if you want coffee, you have to get up."

"You're evil," she groaned. She attempted to hit him but ended up swatting at empty air. She eventually gave up, sighing, and sat up, eyes still half-closed. "Coffee," she demanded. He gave it to her, grinning.

"Well," Shay said, watching them. "A person who knows about Tom Quincy's past. Let me introduce myself…"

"My lips are sealed," Jude said, perking up a bit after coffee. "He's got just as much blackmail on me as I've got on him."

"One thing?" Shay pleaded. "And I already know his real name."

She grinned. "Ah, but do you know how he chose his stage name?"

"No," he grinned. "Tell me."

"Nope. I just wanted to see if you knew," she said cheerfully. She took another sip of coffee and held out her hand. "Jude Harrison. You?"

"Shay," he said, surprised that she didn't recognize him.

"Shay who? I gave you a last name, so I get one too," Jude said. Shay's posse laughed.

"Shorty, I'm the Shay. S to the H to the A to the Y."

"Oh," she said, looking surprised. "Nice to meet you. Your music sucks." He gaped at her. "Well, actually, your first album was okay-ish, but your second one sucked ass."

"Thanks," he said sarcastically. He turned away, no longer interested in her. "Georgia, who's my producer?"

"Well, we were thinking Tommy, but if you want to work with Greg again-"

"Hold up; Tommy's producing?"

"What the hell do you think I've been doing since Boyz Attack?" he asked. "So, what do you say? Want to give it a go?"

"Sure. It's always nice to hang with old friends," Shay said.

"Wait! What the hell am I supposed to do?" Jude asked.

"Go work on that song in Studio C. We'll see if we can do our session later today," Tommy said.

"Did you call your parents?" Georgia asked. Jude winced slightly at the word 'parents' but only Tommy noticed. He gave her a sympathetic glance.

"I called last night," Jude said. "I said it was going to be a late night."

"And they were okay with that?" Georgia asked, shocked. Tommy and Jude looked at her as if she was mad.

"Of course. Tommy was there." Georgia still looked confused, so Jude continued. "Tommy and I had a lot of late nights when we were kids. As long as we were together, our parents were fine with us crashing together. There was an abandoned building a couple blocks away from my house where we'd work on music together."

"Ah, the good old days," Tommy said. Of course, neither would mention that Tommy's mom didn't give a shit what he did, and that they had often gone to the building, which they had named Fatigue for the many nights spent there, mainly when Tommy wanted to get away from his mom. They had found the building far enough into their friendship that Jude didn't question why exactly Tommy wanted to get away from his mom. For, Jude had known that Tommy was verbally abused on a daily basis, but not that he was physically abused. If she had known sooner, she would've gone after Tommy's mom a long time ago…

Georgia blinked a few more times before sighing. "I'm still not used to the idea that you two had a past. Tommy, Shay, get to work. Jude, you're welcome to go home if you want. We can call you back later."

"Nah. I'll just wait around in Studio C."

--

Jude strummed a chord on her acoustic, sighing in frustration once again. An hour she had been working on this song, and an hour she had been distracted by the loud, repetitive bass riff coming from Studio A, which was adjacent to the not-quite-soundproofed Studio C.

The song finished and she started the chord progression once again. About halfway through, the music started up again and Jude yelled "Screw it!" She turned on the amp and plugged it into her Telly, turning both amp and guitar up all the way, with a loud bass level. She started playing the chord progression, liking the rock vibe the heavy bass gave.

--

"That better be Jimmy Paige in there," Shay said on the other side of the wall.

"It's Jude," Tommy said. "I'll tell her to turn it down."

"No. I'll handle this. Turn the beat up!" After a cheer from his wingman, T Bone, Shay started free styling.

--

Jude grinned and stopped playing as the back beat drowned her guitar out once again. She turned the speaker towards the wall and put it up against the wall. She started playing once again.

--

Shay frowned when Jude stopped, thinking he had won too easily. He smiled when Jude started playing again, louder this time. He started up again.

"Cute girl on the other side of the wall,

I love the way you move your body and if you fall…"

--

Jude stood in Hospitality, pouring herself another cup of coffee after her bout with Shay. It had ended when Tommy turned the beat off, deciding the two artists had had enough fun.

T Bone approached, beckoning her to him. She walked over to him and looked at him questioningly.

"Shay wanted me to let you know that you two are on for dinner tonight," he said. "Pick you up at seven. Oh, and wear something fuchsia. He'd like that." T Bone walked back into the studio, and Jude put down her coffee cup and followed, stomping behind him angrily.

She pushed the door open and crossed her arms. "You had your entourage ask me out," she said angrily. The least he could do was ask himself.

"Wait, you asked her out?" Tommy said, looking none too happy.

"I thought you'd like to have a date with me. What's your problem, don't think you can handle the Big Shay?"

Jude rolled her eyes. "You think just because you are a famous rapper you can date whoever you want. Well, newsflash! Not everyone likes your music, or your snobby attitude. Go fuck yourself." And then she stormed over to Studio C, picking up her coffee cup on the way. She could've sworn she heard Tommy mutter "that's my girl," before she left.

--

Okay, so there was some Shay stuff in there, because You Can't Always Get What You Want is one of my favorite episodes of all time, but I hate Shay and the drama he caused, plus, I want this story to go in a different direction than that of the show. I think that's kind of appropriate to the plot, too, so, yeah… No Shay, no Eden. The runner-up for Instant Star was one very nice, but mediocre, Valerie Lars (a random, generic name I made up two seconds ago). Oh, and no Kat or Jamie. Jude and Sadie ended up being very good friends, after all that happened in that month they were alone- but more about that later… Sorry, but I don't think they'll fit in with the plot I have in mind. I'm going to try to work Jamie in later, but we'll see… Damn, I feel like I'm cutting corners, which seems so cheap… I hope you guys don't mind.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed.

Cheers,
breezy