"Wow!"
Sylvina Martescu, synth player for up and coming music act Jewel stepped out of the big black limousine, gazing around her in approval of the press reception. "Wow, girls, get a load of this! The whole of California's press have come to see us off!"
"There are a lot of people." Elizabeth Santiago, or 'Copper', the group's percussionist nodded her head as she followed her friend out of the vehicle, with the final member of the trio, guitarist Nancy Pelligrini bringing up the rear. "I didn't imagine that we'd be having our first tour so soon, or that so many people would be interested."
"Two weeks in Canada, then the northern states of America, and then home." Sylva said contentedly. "I always wanted to travel!"
"Me too." Nancy agreed. She surveyed the reporters with some amusement.. "Do you think they'll get out of the way, or will we have to shove through a wall of reporters to get to our plane?"
"Leave that to me." Phyllis Gabor, owner of Misfit Music, to which the girls were signed put in her piece, taking control of the situation and commanding instant obedience from the intimidated reporters.
There was no messing with Phyllis Gabor. Daughter of a billionaire and a former member of eighties rock outfit the Misfits, she had always known how to get her own way, and her business partnership with Nancy's mother, another former Misfit known as Jetta had proved successful. Both were women with determined characters and an ability to be both ruthless and charming where the need arose.
Jetta would not accompany the group on their tour, for one of the pair had to stay to keep the company ticking over, and Phyllis had elected to travel this time with her young protegees. Never fond of the office, Phyllis preferred to leave it and its paperwork as often as was possible.
The plane, a private jet chartered for the journey by Phyllis herself some days before awaited them, and the three girls were suitably impressed by the luxury.
"This is the life." Sylva took a seat, stretching contentedly. "Phyllis, are we gonna fly on these things all the time?"
"Where possible." Phyllis agreed. "Much better than fighting the crowds on service jets. Strap yourself in, Sylva, and quit chattering. We wanna take off today, you know!"
Sylva blushed, doing as she was told. After ascertaining that Copper and Nancy were also secured, Phyllis took her own seat.
Though she had elected to come on the tour, she had her own misgivings about travelling north. She knew only too well that Jewel's tour dates clashed rather awkwardly with those of the group's fierce rival Sirena, and her new supporting act Blade. Phyllis knew little of the young r&b star yet, but she knew enough of Sirena to wish her miles away from Jewel. She was well aware that circumstances had found them booked into the same hotel for some nights of the tour, and it made her blood run cold to think about it.
Though it was a well kept secret, Sirena was Phyllis' own daughter, and there was not much love lost in the relationship. Phyllis knew Sirena to be capable of publically humiliating her mother, and greatly suspected that she had pushed for the tour dates she had in order they they might meet in Canada.
"Nowt I can do now, though." she told herself with a frown. "'Cept take care of these three and let her do whatever the hell she chooses."
The flight was not a particularly long one, but it was still wearing on the three young stars, who were only too glad to escape the waiting press reception at the other end and climb into their waiting car to take them to their hotel.
"I've never been to Canada before." Nancy observed. "What do you reckon our status is here, anyway? Does anyone know who we are, Aunt Phyl, or did you just pay the press to turn up?"
"Watch your lip, you." Phyllis warned, though there was little real reproach in her tone. "Your music videos for Beauty Queen and Angel have been playing on Canadian television, so people know who Jewel are. Before we leave the country, you'll have made your mark. Concerts, radio and tv interviews - Jewel are going to be as big a hit here as in the States."
"Our last single was only number 3 in the American charts." Sylva observed. "Beauty Queen was number one."
"You can't always have number ones." Phyllis told her unsympathetically. "Besides, here in Canada it barely scraped into the top thirty. Without the PR work we've done in America, you have a long way to go north of the border, so cool out. It doesn't hurt you to not have every single in at number one, so long as they sell well, promote the album and get you well hyped. That's the aim, after all - making you girls a success." She smiled slightly. "It'll stop you getting complacent."
"How far is the hotel?" Copper wondered.
"Not far." Phyllis told her. "You girls better make the most of today, because from tomorrow you're gonna be working your guts out. And here we are. You're booked in your own individual rooms, at least for this part of the tour, though don't expect it always. We'll be a week here in Toronto, so make yourself at home, right?"
"I thought we were touring Canada." Sylva objected. "Visiting Toronto is hardly a tour."
"You'll do as you're told, so pipe down." Phyllis snapped. "You're spending a week here, then the following week you have appearances in Winnipeg, Montreal and across the border in Alaska. After that we got the northern states - starting with Washington - so you'll get your tour. Don't fret about that!"
Sylva pouted, but made no further demur as the car drew up outside the hotel. Soon they were checked into their rooms, and Phyllis secluded herself in hers, her patience having been tried enough by the enforced company of the three teens. The girls themselves, once their cases had been dumped in their own respective rooms, headed down to the hotel pool to swim and enjoy their day of freedom.
"What do you reckon it's gonna be like, playing abroad like this?" Copper wondered as they headed out to the water. Nancy shrugged.
"Not much different, I reckon." She replied. "It's quite nice actually, being here and not having a bevy of reporters in your face. I know that it's part of the business we're in, but sometimes they're so damn nosey about things."
"What gets me is the questions that they ask you in TV or magazine interviews."  Sylva rolled her eyes. "It's so cheeky! You remember that Cool Trash spread we did a few weeks back, when we were upping the promotion of the new song? That sleazy reporter guy kept asking all kinds of personal and suggestive questions about my love life!"
"Did he have enough paper to write it all down?" Nancy demanded.
"Like I told him any details." Sylva said witheringly. "And then there was that radio DJ at KBST who had the nerve to chat me up. Like he's even in my league! He had to be at least thirty!"
"Wow, practically ancient." Copper giggled. "I think interviews are fun, Syl. You don't have to tell them things if you don't want to."
"Sure. Interviews are fine, because we've nothing to hide." Nancy observed. "We're too new in this business to be wrapped in scandal and far as I know none of us have any skeletons in the closet."
"Nope, none here." Copper shook her head. "Syl?"
"Uh-uh." Sylva shook her head. "Nothing that would stop the presses. Maybe you're right. They are intrusive, though, for sure. I mean, how many people in the world care how old I was when I had my first kiss, or what my first boyfriend was called?"
"Mine was called Michael Stuart and I was fourteen." Copper dimpled. "Proper boyfriend, I mean. I had friends who were guys before that, but I didn't get seriously interested in any of them till I met him. We used to share our lunches and sit together in homeroom - that kinda stuff. It was quite sweet, but very kiddy, really."
"Cute." Sylva grinned, perching on the side of the pool and dangling her legs in the water as she waited for her companions to join her. "I was thirteen and it was truth or dare." A mischievous look entered her blue eyes. "We used to play it a lot at recess, and I always took the dare option. I had to ask out this guy, Lee Blake...he was an eight grader and the coolest guy in school. But I did it, and he said yes...he was also my first kiss. We dated a couple of weeks - it was kinda fun. It was neat to be dating the guy all the rest of the girls in the school wanted."
"You are terrible, Syl." Copper giggled. "Truth or dare is an original way to get a guy!"
"What about you, Nance?" Sylva asked. Nancy frowned.
"You know full well that I don't do dating or relationships." She spoke both words with clear disdain. "I've never dated a guy or kissed one, and I'm proud of it, too. Love's a dumb thing and I don't have time for it. All you do is embarrass yourself and lose your self-control."
"No need to bite my head off." Sylva retorted. "Fine, have your sheltered little life. See if I care."
"You know, Sirena and that new singer Rebel Records have signed will be here in a day or two." Copper put in hurriedly, seeing a storm brewing between her two companions. Same hotel, according to Phyllis."
"Not really? Ugh." Sylva grimaced. "That's all we need. Sirena and her games."
"She's such a copycat." Nancy rolled her eyes. "Hasn't she learnt yet that she can't get the better of Jewel?"