"Perfect. This was an easy recording session. Having a good singer makes it easy. Give me a couple of hours to mix it up and hopefully you'll get to hear it."

"You were great!" said Deena, hugging me. Even Edna had to admit, I was good. And more surprisingly, after Deena finished hugging me, Corey came and gave me another one, lifting my feet up off the floor.

"We're saved!"

"Not quite," I gasped, fighting to catch my breath. "Clive still has to hear it."

"He'll say 'yes,'" said Mr. Grier, standing like a shadow in the mixer studio's doorway. "Because it's a definite yes from me."







"Besides, we're one of the biggest labels at Fight Records. Dropping us would cost way too much," said Edna.

"And rumors of a new lead will definitely create a lot of positive hype,"said Deena.

Corey yawned and stretched his long arms. "You all can talk about the music biz as much as you want, but I'm going upstairs to eat those snacks you brought."

"There's no way we're going to let you be around food without us there to supervise you," said Edna.

"Yeah, you're not going to eat everything like you did at that after party at the VMA's."

"Ugh...I got so sick."

"And then you had to go puke on some model's dress..."

"And you knew that was going to happen."

"But the food looked super good."

"How can you eat so much and stay so thin?"

"High metabolism."

"I hate you."

"I hate you too."

"Wow. The love in this room is overwhelming."

We all were riding on like, a wave of this crazy energetic high. Deena linked arms with me. "We put together a little meal upstairs to celebrate you joining the band. Ready to go?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm going to beat all y'all there!" said Corey, running out the studio door.

"Oh, no way!" Edna ran down the hall after him. Deena and I chased them, running and laughing arm and arm like second graders.

Upstairs is like a whole other house. It has bedrooms, a den with a flat screen TV and stereo system, a cozy mini kitchen, and dining area.

Food was already on the table, and it was more like a buffet than a snack. A colorful salad, sushi, wild rice, seasoned potatoes, hot chicken fillets, a marble cake, a lemon cake, brownies...all for only four people?

Corey picked up a plate.

"These brownies-they look like my grandma's."

Edna grabbed one and took a bite.

"They are. She dropped them off just before you and Allena came."

Deena took up a glass plate. "Allena, you're our special guest. What do you want?"

"It's okay, I can fix it myself."

"No way," she said, slapping my hand away when I reached out for the plate. I couldn't talk her out of it, so I pointed to what I wanted, and she spooned it out.

"Want rice?"

"Uh huh."

"Want potatoes?"

"Yeah."

"Want sushi?"

'Uh..." I squirmed. They were so weird, wrapped up in green seaweed. It it even safe to eat seaweed?

"I've never had it before."

"Then you gotta try it," she said, lumping the little green rolls on my plate. "We got them from the best sushi chef. And they taste great with some soy sauce."

"But you have to eat them with chopsticks," said Edna.

Corey got some sushi for himself. "I didn't think it'd make a difference if you eat them with your fingers," he said.

"It does. Now let me find those chopsticks." She went into the kitchen and searched through the drawers.

"Anything else you want?" Deena asked.

"What's here to--" I was about to ask, "What's here to drink?" but then I spotted two tall dark glass bottles standing out on the table.

"Is that WINE?!"

I frantically picked up a bottle and read the label to make sure. I absolutely cannot return home drunk.

Deena laughed at me. "No, it's sparkling grape juice."

"Oh."

Corey set his heaping plate down and took the bottle out my hands. He peeled the golden foil off the top, twisted open the cap and poured it out into a narrow glass.

"Here. It's yours."

I could barely tell my hands to take it from him. Not when we was studying my reaction with an alluring smirk as the fizzy pink bubbles rose to the top.

"It's a really bad idea to drink on a school night," said Edna. "Believe me, if you drink too much, it's no fun getting up in the morning."

"Enough confessions of a party girl," said Corey. "Give me my chopsticks."

Edna handed them out. They weren't the disposable wooden ones like they throw in with Chinese takeout, but were made of yellow glass with green swirls at the handle end. I didn't want to eat with them. They were too beautiful.

Since the food took up all the dining room table space, we ate in the den, sitting on the floor at the coffee table instead.

Although it was simple, the meal tasted delicious. I almost forgot that this was a once in a lifetime experience. I'm celebrating with celebrities-they're rich and beautiful and I don't deserve being invited to live in the same world as them. I'm definitely not rich; I'm not exactly popular in school, and beauty-the makeover did help, but compared to Deena and Edna, I've got work to do. Impossible work. So I was deeply grateful for the turn my life was about to take.