A/N - This is the first feature of a famous musician within in this story. I've decided I'm going to keep celebrities detached from their IRL counterparts if they're an active character within the story. I'll do this by changing their names. It'll still be pretty obvious who they're meant to be, like I may mention how they rose to fame / have a similar enough name / or I'll include their songs. I'm doing this to keep all fiction away from reality- as it felt wrong to write certain actions into characters while referring to them as the IRL celeb.

Also In this story I'm making it as if TheSlap is the main social platform used, think of it like replacement for Twitter. Fuck Twitter man. And no I'll never call it X.

Cat arrived at Radius Records for her test session, feeling a little more confident than she had the first time. She was led to a dimly lit studio filled with soundboards, guitars hanging on the wall, and a sleek piano pushed to one corner. Behind the console was a producer, a friendly guy named Sam, who looked to be in his early-thirties, with a warm, easygoing presence that made Cat feel instantly comfortable. His hair was pulled back into braids, and had these brown eyes that sparkled with his smile, giving him a relaxed, approachable look despite the intense energy of the studio around him.

"Hey, Cat! Great to finally meet you," he greeted, gesturing for her to sit in the chair opposite him. "I've heard a lot of good things about you already."

Cat blushed, sitting down and fidgeting with her fingers. "Thanks," she said quietly, still taking in the room.

"So," Sam began, leaning back in his chair, "tell me a little about the music you've written before. I've heard the songs that you and your friend Andre have been working together?"

Cat nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, Andre's produced all of our stuff. He's amazing—he does all the music and beats, and I sing. We fell into the RnB mixed with Pop kinda style with them all- thats my favourite to sing."

"Thats exactly what I got from it all- and Tattoo Heart also has a 50s kinda feel to it- but doesn't feel too in-your-face with it." He nodded to the song that started playing in his head. "Its tight."

"T..thank you." Cat stuttered, not out of nerves this time but out of slight taken-aback ness. It was nice to talk music with someone other than Andre. "Yeah we went with a doo-wop vibe with it like-."

But before Cat could continue, the door burst open, and a man in a sharp suit stormed in, clearly frustrated. He looked like he was used to getting his way, and Sam immediately tensed up, sitting straighter in his chair.

"Sam," the man said sharply, barely glancing at Cat. "Do you know what happened with Alessia?"

Sam looked at him, confused. "Uh… no, Mike. What happened?"

"Pulled her contract," Mike snapped, waving his phone. "Her parents decided they didn't want her in the industry anymore. After months of us pumping money into her brand—photoshoots, promo deals, styling—gone. This is exactly why we don't work with new talent. Who the hell am I supposed to send on those promo spots now? And that single- the one with Myles."

Sam glanced at Cat, hesitating for a second. Then, as if realising something, he looked back at Mike, his gaze shifting meaningfully. "Well, Cat's here, and she's pretty solid. We're about to start a test session. Actually... she might be able to work with Alessia's track."

Mike turned to Cat, looking her over like he was assessing a product on a shelf. "What can you do, Cat? Any recording experience?"

Cat blinked, caught off-guard. "Uh… I've done some stuff with my friend Andre. He's a songwriter and producer. We made a few songs", she explained.

"Play one," Mike ordered Sam, who quickly found the demo Andre had sent over.

You'll Never Know filled the room, Cat's voice and melodic over Andre's beats. Mike listened intently, nodding along on as he absorbed the song's vibe. When it ended, he raised an eyebrow, looking impressed.

"Do we own this track?" he asked.

"No, it's all Cat's," Sam said, glancing at Cat.

"Andre produced it." Cat corrected, not entirely sure if that meant he 'owned' it or not.

Mike reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a business card. He handed it to her. "Tell him to give me a call. We'll see about getting him involved—maybe we can make him an offer for the song or set him up with a contract for production work. But for now, I want to see what you can do with Alessia's single. Trial her on The Way—that's what it's called, right?"

Sam nodded. "Got it."

"Send me the demo once it's recorded," Mike said, glancing back at Cat. "If you can pull it off, we'll do a straight swap. All the leftover resources we had for Alessia? We'll pump them into building you up instead. But you don't have any overbearing parents, do you, Cat? Anyone who's going to come in and tell us how to do our jobs?"

Cat shook her head, a little surprised by the question. "Nope. My parents live in Idaho. I haven't even told them I'm here yet."

Mike gave her a satisfied nod. "Perfect. Let's get this moving."

As soon as he left, Sam let out a breath he'd been holding. He looked at Cat, giving her an encouraging smile.

"What was all of that about?" Cat asked, genuinely confused.

"You were just in the right place at the right time and may have saved my arse on a problem I didn't know I had." Sam summarised, still trying to take it all in himself, giving her a smile.

Cat smiled back, "You're welcome... I think."

Sam spun around closing a tab on his laptop and pulled up another, moving the mouse around to click in a few places. "This is-" He explained, a few more clicks later. "Alessia's song with a rapper we have in our books, Myles Mason." He started to play it out loud a few moments later and Cat gasped, making Sam pause it.

"Wait, this is Alessia Pinero!" Cat squealed, recognising the voice but not the song. "I follow her on TheSlap! She's like - famous online!"

"I'm gonna put it plainly Cat." Sam replied quickly. "Alessia has those followers because of the contract with us, she was built from nothing and, well people will tell you more about that if Mike likes your demo of this." He stopped himself from telling her all this. "But if she's dissolved her contract, this song is free rein now."

"Oh." Cat replied plainly. She'd learnt enough about the music industry in her classes to know about contracts and artists often not owning their music - but. Alessia had apparently only just left and they were already trialing her song on someone else? It didn't feel right. "I can't sing her song."

Sam looked sympathetic. "I get it. But that's just the business, Cat. Songs get reassigned all the time—it's how things work. This was meant to be her first single, but she threw that away and we need someone to fill it. This could be big for you, if Mike likes it then- you've just found a once in a lifetime opportunity to speed-run your first single. And this one has the potential to be big. Come on, listen to it."

She nodded, taking a deep breath. She knew Sam was right, but part of her felt guilty for stepping into Alessia's place. Still, with the way things were happening, maybe it was her chance to give this a try, even if it felt like she was borrowing someone else's song and dream.

"Alright," Sam said, playing the song again.

It was good- it was really good. Alessia sounded so amazing and the rap in it was nice and catchy too. She was sure she'd heard his music somewhere before, but she couldn't be 100% sure where. Sam handed her a piece of paper with the lyrics typed up for her to follow along as it continued to play. It was slightly different to anything she'd recorded before- she'd never sung along side a rap before, but Alessia sounded like a natural to it. It was a little more... raunchy than anything she'd sung, but that was hardly a high bar at all. As the song finished, she instantly had ideas to fill the gaps at the end of it- it seemed unfinished there but maybe that's because it was.

"So, what do you think?" Sam asked, "Think you could give it a shot?"

Cat's brain was already swimming with ideas. "Play the last bit again for me?" She asked, not really replying to Sam's question, but he complied. As he played the final chorus she freestyled some notes to lay under the track, more to satisfy her urge to complete it rather than to show off at all. She of course, used her higher register to do this, adding some near whistle tones in a run that added exactly what the piece was missing at the end.

"Fuckin hell Cat lets get you in that booth!" Sam encouraged her up quickly, standing up himself and opening the door to the booth behind them.

After a brief vocal warmup, he got Cat to do it again- adding it onto the pre-mixed track, looking back at the redhead in awe. "Okay okay." He said, trying to not get ahead of himself with it. "Okay lets put a pin in that and just record the main vocal track first- we need to swap your voices in before we can start fully playing around."

"Kay kay!" Cat replied from the booth, suddenly buzzing with excitement. She'd sung live for a professional and he liked it! Sure, she'd been told 101 times that she had a good voice but this was someone whose job it was to know music.

"You got the lyrics?" He asked and she nodded. "Okay let's take this section by section- you don't have to copy exactly what you heard Alessia do- just let the beat pull the melody out of you."

A few hours later they had something good definitely enough for a demo. It still needed a bit of neatening, and a lot more vocal blocking - but the base was there along with a little bit of melisma adlib that Cat insisted on playing around with. Sometimes an idea came to her that she wouldn't be able to move on without trying. Still, it was a lot done for a day that had started out being just a test session.

As Sam said goodbye to Cat he promised he'd pass the demo onto Mike, which reminded her she needed to give Andre the business card from him. He would be buzzing to know they wanted to talk to him.