Just A Dream...

A Gabor Legacy
 

Chapter Two: Nancy's Heart

"The press is full of Sirena and Blade again."
Sylvina Martescu tossed the magazine down onto the table top in disgust. "Aren't people sick of her and her fling yet? Makes me mad that she's getting all this publicity!"
"What can we do?" Elizabeth Santiago, or 'Copper' demanded. "It is big news in music circles. Blade's apparently every girl's dream and Sirena makes flirting and living wild part of her act."
"Not this girl's dream." Nancy Pelligrini said firmly. "Blade's a no good waste of space."
"Yeah, he seems that way." The final member of the group, Canadian singer Aurora Stapleton, better known to Jewel's fans as Topaz agreed. "But the press always hype things. I know he was awful to you, Nance, but maybe he's in love with Sirena."
"A more loveless couple could never exist." Nancy shook her head. "It's all for publicity, Topaz, and the press are lapping it up."
"It's disgusting." Sylva, who herself preferred to be the centre of attention pouted.
Copper laughed.
"We're not doing so bad ourselves." She reminded her friend. "You forget that our debut album went platinum and that we've had four hit singles from it." She indicated the magazine. "It's cheap, trashy gossip anyway."
"But it sells." Nancy replied. "It sells papers, magaizines, cds, Copper! Sirena's record sales have never been so high, and the stories are that her next album is going to outsell ours by a mile. We just can't sit back and let her in!"
"Woah, time out." Topaz held up her hands. "Jewel rock, remember? In any case, we don't have any hot gossip of our own to leak to the press, do we?" She indicated Copper. "You and Aaron are - no offence - old news now, and noone's gonna care that I met a guy I liked when we were in England, even if I did learn how to use e-mail just to stay in touch with him. That leaves you and Syl, Nancy."
"Syl's a mad flirt who couldn't settle for one guy if her life depended on it." Nancy rolled her eyes heavenwards. Sylva scowled.
"You, on the other hand are pushed so far back in your shell you might as well be a nun!" She retorted. "You wouldn't know love if it jumped up and bit you!"
"Nor would you!"
"Quit it, both of you." Copper ordered. "Noone has to have a torrid love affair, anyway. All this talk of trying to oust Sirena by gossip is crazy! All we'll do in the long run is damage our own image, and this situation isn't going to go on forever!"
"Copper's right." Topaz agreed. "I'm all for Jewel coming out on top, but tacky gossip columns are not the way to go about it." She rolled her eyes. "God only knows they've done enough prying into my life before the band to last a lifetime. I swear they're still looking to find some criminal offence to pin on me...which, just for the record, doesn't exist."
"Okay, so tabloid baiting is out." Copper said firmly. "Got that, Syl?"
"Me? Why me?" Sylva looked offended. "In any case, we wouldn't need to bait them at all if Nancy wasn't so repressed."
"What do you mean by that?" Nancy exclaimed.
"Only that you could have a guy for the taking if you just opened your eyes and realised it!" Sylva snapped.
Nancy stared at her.
"What on earth are you babbling about now?" She demanded.
Sylva rolled her eyes.
"Hell, how stupid are you?" She retorted. "Don't you know that Dean Stacey's madly in love with you and has been for months? Heaven knows what he sees in you."
"Dean?" It was not possible for Nancy to look any more stunned. Then, "Impossible."
"Come off it. It's so obvious." Sylva responded. "Only you're too dense to see it!"
Dean Stacey, a popular and eligible young TV presenter had befriended the group almost from the off and they had played his show many times. Dean was a firm favourite with them all, but his attentions had often seemed slightly more defined when dealing with the youngest member of the band, a fact of which Nancy had remained entirely ignorant, for, though perceptive, she was awkward when it came to the opposite sex and tended to guard herself against them, even more since her unpleasant experiences with Blade.
"Nance, are you okay?" Copper sounded concerned, for her friend had gone ashen at Sylva's words.
"Dean?" she reoeated. "God no, Syl...he can't be! We're just friends..."
"I've noticed it too." Topaz owned. "He seems to like you a lot, Nance. What's the problem? He's your friend - you trust him, don't you?"
"I trusted him because he was my friend and I thought..." Nancy trailed off, shaking her head. "No, he isn't. You're winding me up!"
"Calm down!" Copper exclaimed. "Whether he is or he isn't, he's not going to pounce on you unawares! He cares about you, we all know that. Whether he cares as a friend or as something more only he knows for sure."
Nancy was silent for a moment. Then,
"He'd better not dare." She muttered. "I don't have time for that kind of setup. I don't want it! Not from him or from anyone, and not ever. Music is my life - hell, he knows that!"
"Repressed, you see?" Sylva observed.
"Syl, shut up." Topaz scolded. "Nancy's upset!"
"I'd've thought that she'd be happy that someone's crazy enough to fancy her." Sylva shrugged. Nancy scowled.
"Mind your own business." She snapped, getting to her feet. "I'm going to my room - I don't want to be disturbed."
And before anyone could respond she was gone, banging the door behind her.
The three girls exchanged looks.
"What's with that?" Topaz was the one to break the silence. Copper frowned.
"You shouldn't've teased her, Syl." She said at length. "Nancy's shy of men, you know that."
"She's practically a recluse." Sylva protested.
"Maybe, maybe not." Copper sighed. "She's a very...intense person and I think that the idea of love scares her because it's not within her control. You know how much the Blade thing shook her up. To one of us it might not have been such a big deal, but Nancy's different that way. Things...sometimes I think she reads far deeper into everything than we do."
"She's a musical genius. Comes with the territory." Topaz observed idly. "You think she's all right?"
"Yeah. I think she needs time alone to think." Copper agreed. She paused, then, "Don't say it to her, because she'd kill me if she knew I was talking like this, but I wonder sometimes about her own feelings where Dean is concerned. I almost think she's trying to prevent it happening between them and you've thrown a major spanner in the works, Syl."
"How was I to know?" Sylva demanded.
"You weren't." Copper replied. "Guess all we can do is not mention it again and see what happens. Okay?"
In the safety of her room, Nancy had dropped down onto her bed, hugging a pillow to her chest as she contemplated Sylva's words. Finally she tossed the thing aside with a groan of frustration. bumping her head in her bedcover.
"In love with me?" She asked out loud to noone in particular. "How could he be? Dean Stacey...everyone's pinup. How could he be in love with me? And God, what do I do if he is?"

PART SIX: A GABOR LEGACY
Prologue: Twenty One Years Ago
Chapter One: Sirena And Blade
Chapter Two: Nancy's Heart
Chapter Three: Coup D'Etat
Chapter Four: The Reaction
Chapter Five: Nancy Finds Out
Chapter Six: Dilemma
Chapter Seven: Facing Phyllis
Chapter Eight: Scandal!
Chapter Nine: An Unexpected Shock
Chapter Ten: A Revelation
Chapter Eleven: Harvey Takes A Hand
Chapter Twelve: Sirena vs Pizzazz
Chapter Thirteen: Settling Rory
Chapter Fourteen: At Misfit Music
Epilogue: A New Beginning
JEWELFIC MAIN PAGE:
Copper, Nancy, Sylvie, Anna, Blade, Sirena, Topaz, Aaron, Sophie, Justin, Elliot, Rosita, Luis and any other characters in this fiction which do not appear in the animated Jem series are copyrighted to me (E.A Woolley) as of January 2002 <unless otherwise specified> and are not to be reproduced without permission ANYWHERE. Jetta, Pizzazz, Stormer, Roxy, Raya and all other original Jem characters are the copyright of Hasbro Inc, Sunbow, Christy Marx and the other writers of the Jem series.