Fly Girl | [Novel] (Wattpad Version)

Interlude #3 : A Review With Leann

"If Torii was still there for you, why aren't you on speaking terms now?"

"Because, people get fed up with dealing with the same shit, no matter how nice they are." Leann shrugged, clearing her throat. "Even knowing she was there, I still felt like I felt before; like I had nobody. And that's how I continued acting, in spite of her trying her best to help me when she felt the need to. She ain't gotta ever talk to me again, I don't blame her. I have a strong 'fuck it' and 'I don't care' attitude, and that's what's still with me right now. If she wants to be cool, fine. If not, fine. I simply do not care."

Andrea nodded, jotting down her notes before she moved on to the next question. "Okay, so you all take the hiatus in what June of 1998?"

"Somewhere around that time, yeah. June or July."

"What happened? Troy said she told Brandy to have them look for a replacement. I mean, obviously, there was a bit of a regroup between you all somewhere. But during that hiatus, was there ever any changes?"

Leann nodded. "MCA still wanted that third album, because it had already been promised. They spent money on it; paid for sessions, promotion, tours and all that other stuff and they wanted to recoup their money before they cut Fly Girl loose altogether. I think, at that point, whether we had another number one album again or not, something was going to go down. Either we were going to become a secondary or third option group for the label, or they were going to drop and move us. Their thinking was... Troy wants to leave, Ava's causing problems, so let's finish the album, find someone who sounds nearly identical to Troy, and move on. Ava's replacement could lip-sync during the live shows, and Torii and I would just have to be cool and deal with it because the option to leave by choice was only for two. She and I would have to be kicked out."

"That's dumb."

"Very, but early on, that was how Chauncey assured himself that he'd always have some form of Fly Girl going. His assumption was, in the end, Troy and Torii would both leave and he could replace them with two more powerhouses, while collecting off of their solo endeavors. OR, he could kick Ava and I out and replace us with other irrelevant backup to appease Troy and Torii if they got diva attitudes. Either way, there was going to always be some incarnation of Fly Girl, and he was always going to make money off it. If we wanted to change that contract, much like the small struggle it took to get rid of Chauncey, we would have to deal with court and lawyers, and time away from singing and touring which meant huge loss of money."

"So what happened?"

"They tried to find another Troy and another Ava, while giving Torii and I solo projects and appearances on TV on the side. There's a million other versions of Ava. Just like there's a million other versions of me. There might be another Torii or two. But, the struggle to find another Troy... it was real."

"Difficult?"

"Impossible. There is no other singer like Troy. She's like Whitney, and Ella, and even someone as young as us, like Brandy. She's in a class of her own, literally. And her being that special and having always been the glue for our specific group, for our voices to fit and flow around, it wouldn't have worked out. And, she always felt we were hyping her up, to boost her confidence because she always had a fear of singing. She loved it, but sometimes it scared her. Nah, that girl could sing her face off if she really wanted to; slipping in and out of registers, up and down octaves, imitating artists with the most unique tones and voices and styles of singing. And doing the shit as if it was simple. At the snap of a finger she could go from singing like Phyllis Hyman to sounding like a black Judy Garland, to singing like Anita or Toni, to singing like Minnie Riperton or Denise Williams. She could sound like Diana Ross with an airy tone, Claudette Robinson from The Miracles where you hear her just enough in the background and it's a sweet and soft tone. The girl could sound like a male artist if she really wanted to. Shit, play some Temptations for her and bet she won't sound just like Eddie Kendricks if you cut the music off and catch her singing a capella, and those were in her moments of joking around. When her sister was sick during one recording, Troy went in and did Torii's verse. To this day, people think they're hearing Torii, and Torii sings the verse live. But on the album, it's Troy. The girl could just do all of these amazing things with her voice. Riffs, runs, scatting... and yet... what fans got on those albums, that wasn't even the half of it."

"You're saying Troy held back, and y'all were still highly successful?"

"I'm saying, if you don't know the magnitude of Troy's talent alone, and why people were so damn hard up for her to go solo, then you caught the wrong live shows."

Leann cleared her throat. "Anyway, no one wanted to step into Ava's shadow, to be looked at as another possible troublemaker. And, they couldn't find a replacement for Troy. And they begged and pleaded for her to come back. We were only supposed to be gone until March of '99."

"I think I remember. Fans started doing Where Are They Now and Missing Artist type campaigns behind y'all, because you promised us you'd be back in 1999. Ava said 1999."

"Right."

"So, what happened?"

"We lost Troy. She meant that she was done, and she didn't want to sing at all. Every now and then, fans would catch her singing background on Marliss' stuff, and that pissed y'all off. No one could get in contact with her, except for Torii, and Torii wasn't telling anybody a damn thing when it came to her sister. She wasn't living in California, so it wasn't like they could pop up at her apartment, and nobody was crazy enough to drop in on Marliss because he had these big ass, wild ass dogs that would bite anybody they didn't see regularly. The executives at MCA had to beg and plead to get Troy back to finish the third album. And they were thinking she was going to pay them back for all the time lost and things they had to work around, but they still haven't seen a penny. They don't bother her about it either, because when we got her back finally, they knew she was worth all of the trouble and stress. Had it been me or Ava, they would've said fuck it and moved on swiftly. But they waited that out. June or July of 1998, all the way to April of 2000, they waited for Troy to come back. Matter of fact, it was her twentieth birthday, and they had this huge party to celebrate."

"Were things different, better?"

Leann sighed, thinking about it for a few moments. "Yeah, things were very different. For starters, we still weren't friends. There was no going back to being friends. Like I said, Torii was still there when she felt the absolute need to be there for me, and that wasn't often. Troy was cordial, professional, and she didn't bash or talk down or speak badly of anybody. We rebuilt a little bit of camaraderie, but, it wasn't a sisterhood anymore. No real bond, just business and tolerance. Troy, she wasn't naïve anymore. She wasn't as afraid anymore; not to be herself, not to sing, or be alone. Torii, even more vocal than before. Very opinionated, very real in her approach, and a very deep no bullshit attitude. Ava, Ava was just Ava, and that's the nicest thing I have to say about her."

"And what about you?"

Leann shrugged her shoulders before sitting back in her seat. "Couldn't shake my demons fast enough, and I'll leave it at that."