CHAPTER 2
An hour later, the girls were running down the halls of the mall toward the fountain. They had lost major track of time looking for their outfits for their next gig, fitting everybody, and paying with money they really didn't have. Now, they looked like prime candidates for the track team. They ran down the escalator, not taking the time to catch the elevator. They reached the fountain one minute late. Everybody stopped, huffing and puffing from running all the way across the mall. D did a hockey stop, just to show off, then joined in on the group breathing exercises. Juliet looked at them, an eyebrow raised.
"I was getting a little worried about you girls," Juliet commented.
"Sorry we're late," Kris said between breaths. "We got a little behind picking out outfits." Juliet nodded.
"So, what's your decision, guys?" Juliet inquired.
"Yes," the girls chorused quickly. A smile spread across Juliet's face.
"This is great. You girls are doing us both a favour. Congratulations, girls, you have yourself a manager! Now, you have to sign these contracts. Have them checked out by lawyers if you want, in fact, I encourage it. All it does, is explains that you are under my father's company, but I will personally manage you. It's no big deal. You have these checked out and back to me, signed, as soon as possible, okay?" The girls all nodded.
"Wait, you haven't even heard us all sing," Ali commented. Juliet shook her head.
"Yes, I have," Juliet informed. "I've been to a few of your gigs before.
In fact, I was going to approach you girls at your next gig at the club, but this seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up."
"Cool," D commented, looking over the contract quickly.
"Aww, our little lawyer," Kris cooed. D looked at her blankly, then looked back at the fifth page of the contract.
"So, Juliet, this says that no matter what, you're our manager correct?"
"Yep, not even my father can take you away from me. If he tries, it'll be a breach of contract and we can sue him for all he's worth."
"Lemme give you a tip?" Erin offered.
"Shoot." Erin began shaking her head before even speaking.
"Don't joke with D when she's doing her little lawyer thing. She doesn't hear it."
"Hmm?" D asked, looking up at Erin. When Erin didn't respond, she looked back at the contract.
"How does she know all this?" Juliet inquired.
"She finished law school ahead of everybody else, including the field work, apprenticing and everything," Julia informed.
"Really, have you gone through for the bar?" Juliet inquired. D looked at her and shook her head.
"My mom thinks I'm too young still."
"But you weren't too young for college?"
"No, they thought it would be a good learning experience." Juliet began to laugh, then Kristin interrupted her.
"D started university when she was 15," Kristin informed.
"15!" Juliet exclaimed. "Your parents let you go to university when you were 15? How could they afford that?"
"Scholarships," D said absently. "Hey, your dad put a loop-hole in here so he could take us over anytime he wanted. I'd get this checked out if I were you." She handed the contract over to Juliet, who started at her dumbfounded.
"I had this checked over, how did you catch that?" D took the contract back, found the clause she wanted, and explained it to her carefully.
"Wow," was all that Juliet could say. "Okay, I guess I have to get the contracts written up again," Juliet informed with a laugh, taking the contracts back. "Thank you very much for catching that."
"No problem," D commented. Juliet turned to the rest of the girls.
"So, Kristin, you must be just finishing, correct?" Kristin nodded.
"Finished last semester."
"And Julia and Heidi, you are still in university I take it?" Heidi and Julia nodded as well. "So that would put you two," she motioned to Erin and Ali, "just starting, correct?"
"No, I finished with D and Kristin," Ali commented.
"But..."Juliet began.
"I started with D and finished. We were the only two that were...like this, so naturally we gravitated toward each other, although some theories would argue that we are going against the norm because we should, in a sense, hate each other, and view each other as competition, but seeing as these are very seldom recognized, let alone used theories, they tend to be ignored, so who the hell cares, right?" Ali shrugged. Juliet was stunned again.
"Ali was a Psychology major," Julia informed with a smile. "She is planning on slowly driving us all nuts so that we have to come to her in the future so she can make us all better." Juliet laughed at this.
"You can't be that old," Kristin commented. "How'd you get so high so fast?"
"I'm not really all that high," Juliet commented. "I learned this business from my dad, I was around it all my life. I was daddy's little secretary until I was out of high school, then I became full time at dad's company, took a few night classes on various things, and became what you see before you today. Dad says I can hook clients because of my confidence. Before I just hooked them, then one of daddy's higher ups took them over, but you guys are the first group that I'm full manager of. I'm so excited about this." The women all smiled at Juliet, impressed. D and Ali on the other hand, were quickly getting sick of the shop talk, and reverting back to the teens that they are.
"Buffy on video," D suddenly exclaimed, even though she didn't like the show all that much.
"You know what that means?" Ali asked.
"Seth!" the girls chorused.
"Let's go!" D exclaimed, grabbing Ali's arm. The two swiftly ditched the group.
"What was that?" Juliet asked, staring after the girls.
"Attack of teenage hormones in charge of lust," Heidi informed her. "Happens frequently, get used to it."