***

"Are you serious?"

It was going on nine o'clock when Lance and Melissa, followed by the ever present Mike, stepped into the lyric room of the WEG compound; the one room where upcoming Jive and FreeLance artists frequently went to in hopes of finding a song that would make it into their upcoming unreleased albums--and the one room that Mike briefly noted Lance and the rest of the guys visited regularly--when they had no idea what the hell they were doing--something he said, that was more than ninety percent of the time.

"This is...."

"Amazing?" Lance offered, pushing Mike aside, before making his way in behind Melissa; all the while, absentmindedly paying more attention to the excitement on his client's face, than the growing stacks of paper that were laid out before them.

"That's not even the word." Melissa said, as she made her way further into the room, stepping carefully in between boxes filled with, not only, sheet music, but also boxes covered with descriptions of what kinds of lyrics laid inside; most of them being either lovey dovey types or anguishy break up sorts. "This is unbelievable. I wouldn't even know where to begin."

Smiling at her statement, Lance adverted his eyes from in Melissa's direction, and quickly sweeped them around the room; silently telling himself the same thing. He really didn't know where to begin either.

"The first single...it should be fresh and new, something the public hasn't seen before. But at the same time, it should be you...but judging by what I know so far, I'm not exactly sure what you is."

Taking her eyes away from the loads of boxes on the floor, Melissa met Lance's eyes, and couldn't help but laugh a little at the look of confusion that was placed on his face--a look which she couldn't help but find strangely enough appealing. "Well, I can say for starters I'm not trying to be an artist who sings about fighting over a man or letting people bring me down. I don't really want to go that route."

"Understandable." Lance said, nodding as he moved his eyes away from the box labeled Doing me wrong, and moved them onto the next box in front of him; one which interestingly enough read Fed up female music. "Do you have anything against male bashing?"

Shooting Lance an amused look, before arching an eyebrow in response, Melissa shook her head slightly, "I don't want to be labeled as a feminist, but then again I don't want to be labeled as a push over either. So, I'm guessing: No."

Once again, Lance nodded his head in understanding, before pushing the box in front of him, with his foot; kicking it towards Melissa's legs. Afterwards, silently asking her to take a look inside and see if their was anything in there she liked or hopefully loved.

After about forty minutes of reading through sheet after sheet of pissed off music, Melissa stopped abruptly as she found what she hoped she was looking for. "I think I found something."

Surprised by the words, Lance looked up from his spot on the floor, across from her, and stretched a hand out to Melissa; silently asking her if he could see the paper.

Handing it to him, Melissa bit her lower lip slightly. The song she had picked was called, Take the rain away, and it was more than straight up her alley. It being about a girl who was tired of fighting with her boyfriend and tired of having to deal with the bad stuff in their relationship; just wanting one night away from it all where it could be just him, her, and nothing else. A song which she really hoped Lance would approve for her to use.

"So, what do you think?" Melissa asked, nervously, after watching first excitement, than bemusement, flash across Lance's face, "Think I could make it work?"

The slight chuckle that came out of Lance made her furrow her eyebrows in confusion, and at seeing this, Lance immediately stopped laughing. "Do I think you could make it work is not the question. I know you could make it work. It's just..this song. It sort of holds meaning to our group..or rather to someone particular in our group."

Raising an eyebrow in interest, Melissa opened her mouth to ask who that said person was. But as the door to the lyric room opened and Justin, Chris, and Joey came in--followed by the ever sullen JC--she quickly shut her mouth; figuring this probably wasn't an appropriate time to ask and if the guys really wanted her to know, they'd eventually tell her, sooner or later.

"Ahh, their you are. We've been looking for you two every where." Justin exclaimed, before plopping his tail down on the floor next to Lance. Afterwards rolling his eyes as he met JC's. "Well, some of us have...the rest of us have just been too busy complaining."

"Fu-"

Knowing what the younger man was about to say, Chris cut him off, "That's okay. Been there, done that, got a picture. Any of you want to see it?"

While the rest of the group, sans her, Lance and JC, uneasily chuckled at the words, Melissa began placing the stacks of lyrics, she'd already read, back into their boxes.

"So, you two find anything yet?" Joey asked while carefully taking a seat beside Melissa; causing her to look towards Lance before answering, "Sort of. I'm just waiting for Lance's opinion on it."

Noticing that Melissa's eyes were now resting on the pink sheet of paper in her manager's hands, Chris smirked slightly to himself before quickly bending down and grabbing the lyrics from his friend's grasp.

"Hey!" Lance exclaimed, but unfortunately enough the older man was too quick and was already on the other side of the room before Lance even had a chance to protest. "Give it back, Chris!"

"No can do, Bass, I've already started to read." Chris said; afterwards making his point clearer by reading the words, on the paper, out loud. "I'm tired of waiting for things to change. I've exhausted all the patience I've had.."

As if he knew what was going to happen, before it even happened, Lance covered his ears and just as soon as he did, Justin screamed, "WHAT THE FUCK?"

Widening her eyes in surprise, Melissa watched as the younger male stood up quickly from the floor and practically ripped the paper away from Chris once he was in front of the older man.

"It's not even twenty-four hours yet, and you're already creating tension around here. That's gotta be something to write home about." Preferring not to acknowledge JC's malicious words, Melissa adverted her eyes from the two men, who were now being joined by Joey, and instead chose to focus her attention on Lance; who was still seated across from her, but now, at the moment, was shaking his head slightly. "Let me guess, the songs about Justin?"

Before Lance could even open his mouth to confirm her suspicions, Justin made his way back towards them; glaring at his friend as he gestured towards the paper. "You showed her this?"

Displaying an I surrender pose, Lance shook his head once again. "She found it herself. It was in the box marked Fed up Female Music."

Clenching his hands into a fist, Justin mumbled a couple of curse words underneath his breath. Afterwards, while looking at Melissa, who at the moment was staring at him and Lance confused, he sighed; realizing he was going to have to risk his pride once again in order to make someone else happy. "Fine. You can do the song."

Adverting her eyes from Lance's shocked expression, Melissa raised both eyebrows at Justin, before asking if he was sure.

Nodding, Justin said that he was indeed sure, before moving his eyes back down to the paper in his hands, and sighing once again. Afterwards narrowing his eyes slightly at Lance as he handed the pink sheet of lyrics back to his friend. "I want part of this single, and I don't care what it is. It could be coming up with choreography for it or it could be making up a beat for it. I just want a part in it. You understand?"

Nodding his head, Lance agreed to Justin's terms before turning towards Melissa and smiling slightly, "Looks like we've found ourselves a winner."

Returning his smile, Melissa thanked Justin once again, with her eyes, before inwardly saying to herself, What a way to end the day.

Tuesday, March 14, 2000

If someone had come up to Melissa a month ago and told her that she'd soon find herself recording the first single off her upcoming album, in a studio, that had once been used by Michael Bolton, she would've looked at them like they were crazy. But that was exactly what she was doing today.

After having a quick breakfast with Mike and a couple of the guys, Melissa had been practically hurried out of the hotel by Lance, and had gotten to the compound just in time to meet Giloh Morgan; the man who would be producing: Take the rain away.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Morgan."

"None of that. The name's Giloh. And the pleasures all mine, m'dear." The older man replied, before swiveling his chair back around; facing the music board in front of him.

"So, have you started tinkering with any ideas for the song yet, or should we come back later?"

Watching as Giloh rolled his eyes, before saying "Ha, ha, very funny" to her manager, Melissa could tell the two had an interesting relationship with one another. One that wasn't as interesting as Mike's and Lance's relationship, but interesting, nonetheless. "You know me better than that, Bass. For you and the lovely lady, I came in extra early and made up a hot little beat which is kind've old school meets new school; with a lot of piano and drum tones thrown in for good measure."

"Sounds great. How about a sneak peek?" Lance asked, causing Giloh to respond with, "Your wish is my command" before flipping a switch on the board; causing piano notes to fill the room.

Hmm, not too fast, but not too slow. I like it. I hope this guy produces all my songs.

"I think you've struck gold again." Lance admitted to Giloh, before turning towards Melissa; throwing a questioning eyebrow her way, "What do you think?"

Silently humming a few bars of the song to herself, Melissa nodded her head in approval, "I think it's good. I'd like to try it out."

Grinning in satisfaction, Giloh stopped the song and flipped another button on the board; rewinding the track back to it's very beginning. "Well, there's no time like the present, so why don't you hop into the booth and we can get started, okay?"

Not having known they'd be jumping straight into this once she'd got there, Melissa met Lance's eye and gave him a slightly nervous smile.

"Don't worry. You'll blow his socks off."

Nodding, Melissa hesitantly made her way past the two men and into the room in front of them; one which was only filled with a single microphone, a stand, where the lyrics she'd be singing, were placed on, and a pair of headphones. A singer's dream.

"She's never been in a studio before, has she?"

Watching as Melissa carefully situated the headphones on her head, Lance inwardly had to rake his brain; wondering to himself if she'd told him she'd ever had. "I'm not sure...I don't think so."

Nodding mutely, Giloh pressed a button on the board; causing his voice to echo into the room that Melissa was in. "Ready when you are."

Not prepared for what was about to come from the small girl's mouth, Giloh flipped the music back on as Melissa gave him the thumbs up signal.

Baby, take the rain away
make it come again some other day
Let's pretend everything's OK
Baby....take the rain away

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh, baby, take the rain away

Just for tonight, let's leave our problems behind, yea uh-huh
Let's lose ourselves in passion for one night
So baby when you come home tonight, let's pretend everything's all right
Baby, come and take the rain away

Baby take the rain away
make it come again some other day
Let's pretend everything's OK
Baby take the rain away

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh, baby, take the rain away

Kiss the rain drops on my face
Only you can take me from this place
On a cloud let's ride away
We can disagree another day

Not bothering to wait until the chorus was over, Giloh cut off the music and stared through the two way mirror, at Melissa, as she bit her lip, noticeably, in worry.

"Did I sound bad?"

Absentmindedly pushing the talk button on his board, Giloh said, "No, you sounded good, surprisingly good. You impressed the hell outta me."

Interesting.

"And now, I'm going to record it and I want you to do, what you just did, once more. But this time in a more confidant tone, no nervousness applied."

Nodding her head, Melissa met Lance's eye in the mirror and smiled slightly; causing him to wink in approval.

"All right, here we go." Turning up the music, Giloh cued Melissa when to start, this time. And as soon as she did, just like that, she was music to his ears once again. "Perfect."

"You think so?" Lance asked, causing Giloh to glare at him for a second before nodding his response, "Then why are you looking at me like my dog just peed on your furniture?"

Chuckling, Giloh waited until Melissa had started on the chorus to the song before narrowing his eyes at Lance once again, and replying: "Maybe because you found her before I did."