Chapter One: Pain, Perseverance and Passion

"You made the choice, you decided to go, I plead and I cried, but you still said no, but now I realize that I just don't need you, don't return beggin please, 'cause it's done-"

"Love, try softening that up in a little. Alright?" Rodney Jerkins asked into the microphone, echoing his voice into my headphones.

"Yeah Rodney, sure" I replied, re-adjusting the headphones on my head. The music kicked up, and I started singing the song over.

"So don't come beggin' me..." I finished. I looked up at the crowd of people in the recording studio.

"That good?" I asked once the music stopped.

"Great! You can go now," Rodney smiled. I smiled back and took off my headphones. Grabbing the lyrics for "Beggin' Me" and walking out of the pure glass room into the rest of the recording studio.

"So Heather, once we have 'Skin Deep' finalized, we'll call you," Max said to my manager, Heather.

"Sounds good," She responded, "Come on Love, were going to Eric's studio next."

"Ok, let's go bye Max, bye Rodney!" I said grabbing my water bottle off the desk, and getting my sweatshirt. Wrapping it around my waist, I fallowed Heather to her silver Escalade. She unlocked the doors, and I opened the passenger's side. I stepped up into it, and crawled into the seat, and put on my seatbelt.

"What is Eric rehearsing with me?" I asked, running my fingers through my medium length blonde hair. It had recently been permed, and was curlier then to what I normally am used to, but it looked great.

"Remember To Forget," Heather replied, putting the key in the ignition and starting her SUV up.

"Cool. Are the dancers going to be there?" I asked, changing the radio station channel. Stopping on the local radio station for mixed music. 101.3.

"Hey! This is Don Bleu from Star 101.3, today's BEST music. It's currently 8:32 AM, time to get up, get your day started with a little bit of Drift Away by Uncle Kracker..." I turned up the radio louder, and started jamming to it.

"Day after day I'm more confused, but I look for the light through the pourin' rain, you know, that's a game, that I hate to loose, I'm feelin' the strain, ain't it a shame," I sang along. Heather looked at me and frowned, turning the radio down.

"AWWWWW!!!" I pouted. Heather turned into the parking lot for the dance studio. She parked in the first available spot, and turned off the car.

"Here we go," I said, undoing my seatbelt, and opening the car door. We walked into the brick building, and went up two flights of stairs, coming to dance studio 3 which had 'Reserved for Eric Mitchell' printed on a white sheet of paper. Heather opened the door, and I fallowed her into the room. It had baby blue covered concrete walls, and the floor was polished wood.

"Hey Eric!" I smiled, running over to him, and giving him a big hug.

"I missed you!!!" He said, in our hug. We parted and I smiled again.

"Were going to dance to 'Remember To Forget,' ok?" He asked, calling all the background dancers together. I nodded and sat down. We started stretching, and Kayla took my hands, we started pulling on each other's arms, and leaning forward.

"So, what's going on with you and Brian?" I asked Kayla. She pulled her hand out of mine, and showed me the rock on her middle finger.

"He proposed?!" I asked, shocked. Kayla nodded happily, and put her hand back in mine. We then stood up and started stretching our legs. When I stood up, Eric told me to get into starting position.

"Sometimes I really really miss you, and when I really really start to, I stop myself from doing something that I might regret..." I started walking forward with my back-up dancers behind me. On my eighth step, I stopped and spread my legs shoulder-with apart. "Like picking up the phone to call you, like hanging out and dreaming of you, like thinking back to the very first moment we met."

I did the dance for the rest of the song, and Eric showed me what was being changed. I spent 5 hours sweating until Heather walked into the studio.

"Lunch time, let's go Love," She stated. Thank god. I said good bye to all the dancers and Eric, and left the studio, sipping on my water bottle.

"Can we have Jack in the Box?" I asked. Heather looked at me awkwardly.

"You know what that's going to do to your girlish figure? No," She said strictly. I pouted.

"Were going to go have tofu, and maybe a little sushi if your lucky," She said walking down a flight of stairs. The life of an up-coming star.

"Beauty takes pain, perseverance and passion," Heather mumbled, opening the building's front door.