Opposites Attract

A week after moving into our amazing new apartment I learned a very important lesson. Always set your alarm clock. I learned that the hard way. Really, I could blame Kevin if I wanted, but I’m more mature than that. At least, I like to think I am.

Kevin started talking on the phone a lot after I moved. By a lot I mean we tied up the phone for a good four hours a day. What can I say? I missed having him right next to me. In any case, Kev and I were on the phone until almost three in the morning and the girls and I were supposed to be in the studio at six. I didn’t set my alarm. I also told Dani and JT that I’d wake them up. You can see where this is going, can’t you?

Dani came into my bedroom, in hysterics, around six thirty. She was screaming about how we were late and going to get fired. I was still half asleep and didn’t really realize what was going on until she came in again fifteen minutes later and pointed me in the direction of a clock. That woke me up.

“We are so damn late! Why didn’t you get me up earlier?” I hollered from the bathroom with the toothbrush sticking out of my mouth.

“You were supposed to get us up, you loser,” JT said as she finished applying a little make-up.

“Oops,” I muttered.

I sped from the apartment to the studio and as luck would have it, I got pulled over. The cop was young and good looking, but I had a boyfriend, and I was extremely late.

“License and registration,” he said and winked.

I groaned and handed him the papers and my license. He walked back to his cruiser with them and took his sweet ass time coming back. He handed them back to me with a wink and a smile.

“I’m going to let you off with a warning, but don’t let it happen again. The next officer who pulls you over might not think you’re so attractive,” he crooned.

I gagged and rolled up the window, and continued on my way to the studio. Of course, I couldn’t find a parking spot once we got there so I had to drive around for another twenty minutes looking for one. I had a feeling this was not going to go over well with John.

“You are two hours late!” he bellowed as we entered his office.

“It was my fault,” I confessed, “sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it,” John said, “and what are you wearing?”

I looked down. I was wearing jeans and t-shirt with a pair of Converse. I had on my glasses because I hadn’t had time to put in my contacts. I didn’t see anything wrong, but John obviously did.

“I told you to take out the lip ring! This is Disney. Disney doesn’t do lip rings!” he yelled.

“Oops,” I mumbled.

“Oops,” John repeated angrily.

“Chill out. I forgot. It’s not a big deal,” I sighed and took the barbell out right there.

John seemed really stressed out, probably because we were super extremely late for our first day of recording. I don’t blame him for being mad, but he was taking it a little over the top.

“And your hair,” he continued, “I told you to get rid of the pink.”

“I’ll make an appointment,” I promised.

“Good,” John said, a little more calmly.

He took a deep breath and sat behind his desk. He flipped through some papers, and opened and closed some folders. Dani, JT, and I watched patiently. John took out his cell phone, pushed a few buttons, and mumbled into it. Then he looked up at us.

“Since you were late, Miley Cyrus is currently using your studio. She won’t be done for a while so you’re going down to hair and make up and getting ready to shoot a cover for the album. Emma, your hair will be taken care of there,” John told us.

I felt sort of weird as the hair and make up people hustled and bustled around me. JT and Dani were having the same experience. There wasn’t even a mirror, so I couldn’t see what they were doing. If I had, I probably would have had a fit. Well, I did have a fit. But not until after. I looked in the mirror and I didn’t see me.



I mean, it was me but it wasn’t really. If that makes any sense. I immediately called John. He didn’t come for another couple of minutes but when he did he had this huge grin on his face. He looked me up and down once and nodded in approval.

“What’s wrong Emma? You look great,” he commented.

“I don’t look great. I look horrible. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I like dark eye shadow, lip rings, and straight pink hair. I do not like pink lip gloss, mascara, and blonde ringlets,” I screamed.

“Well get used to it. This is the new you,” John smiled and walked away.

I wanted to scream. I almost did but some lady grabbed me and took me to wardrobe. They dressed me up like a doll and put me in front of a camera, snapping pictures left and right until I couldn’t see straight. Then the photographer disappeared for a while. I tried to talk to Dani and JT but they thought I looked really pretty, and didn’t see why I was upset.

A little while later we were back in John’s office. He was blabbering about something that I wasn’t paying attention to. I was too busy winding my blonde curls around my finger. Curls, gag me. John turned his computer screen towards us and clicked a couple of things before a picture came up on the screen.



Our album cover. It would have been cooler if my hair was pink and straight. I was going to point that to John but I decided against it. Instead I just smiled and pretended I thought I looked good. John proceeded to tell us that Miley Cyrus was going to be in our studio for the rest of the day, which pissed me off. We were going to start recording next week, he told us.

We drove home and I didn’t get pulled over, thank the Lord. The message machine was beeping and flashing a red light so I hit the play button. It was Kevin, with a little bit of Joe and Nick in the background. They wanted to come over; they’d finished filming for the day. I called Kevin back right away.

“You can come over, but don’t freak out,” I told him.

“Why would I freak out?” Kevin asked warily.

“Because I look a little different than the last time you saw me,” I said nervously, wondering if he’d care.

“I’m sure you look beautiful, Em,” he reassured me, “We’ll be over in a few minutes.”

A few minutes ended up being an hour but, hey, whose counting? Nick came in first and went right to Dani. Then Joe sauntered in, and stopped abruptly in front of the couch.

“M and M, what did you do?” he asked rather loudly.

I didn’t say anything and when Kevin came he had a similar reaction to Joe’s.

“Don’t leave her hanging,” JT giggled, “Tell she looks drop dead gorgeous.”

“You do,” Joe said quickly, “It’s just different. It’s less edgy than usual and a bit more … Eva.”

“Eva?” I screeched, “I look like Eva! I knew it was bad but I didn’t think it was that bad!”

Kevin wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me to face him.

“You look fine. Don’t listen to Joe,” he smiled.

“I look like Eva,” I whined and buried my head in his shoulder.

Kevin laughed. “You don’t look like Eva, I promise. You look absolutely stunning. Although, I am going to miss that lip ring.”

“Why?” I asked, pulling my head back up to look at him.

Kevin laughed again. “It’s makes kissing you more fun,” he said and pressed his lips against mine.