Another Chance Book I of III

Book III-Chapter 17, The Rain Begins

Bella got up leaving Prince on clean up duty and went to dress.  She asked Prince to knock on Carlos's door as she had not heard them moving around yet and time was flying.  Prince knocked on the door and Carlos answered right away.  Prince laughed and said "just checking man"!  While Bella dressed, Prince rinsed their dishes and put them in the dishwasher.  Carlos and Elaine emerged from their room dressed , hungry and excited.  They fixed their plates and Prince went into the living room to check that he had everything needed in his Valise...he did.  Carlos joined him shortly as did Bella and Elaine finished clearing the rest of morning dishes and was 5 minutes behind Carlos.  They made their way to the BMW Aircar with Melvin traveling with them and Frank and Larry driving the SUV in front of them.  Since they were aware that Jimmy Sanders knew where they lived,  Phil would stay with the house today.  They took to the air and arrived at the 5:45 AM to see that most of the band was already there and setting up their instruments.  Prince pulled everyone together in a circle and they prayed for God's will to be done in this their first Cloud Stream Performance.  The costumers arrived within minutes and the girls began their warm-up stretches. The Set director welcomed them at 6:00 gave them instructions as to what the cue lights on the set meant, and wished them luck.  Where they would have normally been in the Green Room as regular guests,  since they were all performing or assisting performers...they were all allowed to be in the wings of the set when/if not in front of the camera.  The bodyguards did their sweep and settled into strategic places on the soundstage doing what great bodyguards do...fading into the woodwork, ever watchful and prepared to move with lightening speed if needed. 

At 6:30 AM on the button, Prince began the sound check starting with each musician checking the tuning of his instrument against the Piano key tones.  Once satisfied with that, Prince began the first song.  As the chords of If I Love You began, Bella and Elaine blocked out the movement of the dance.  The dimensions of the sound stage they had been given and used in the rehearsal hall were perfect and the choreography  fit beautifully.  The check moved on to When 2 R In Love and that went equally as well. One of the leaps into a pirouette in I Love You Still had to be contained some but that was easily accomplished.  Finally Bella's Eyes chords sounded and Bella blocked that piece without any needed modifications.  Prince wanted to do Bella's Eyes again musically, which they did and when completed the second time was musical perfection.  It was 7:10 AM and it was time for this sound stage to go dark behind the curtain as the audience would begin to be admitted at 7:20 AM and would be allowed to continue to enter until 7:45 AM when the entry doors would be closed.  The show began at 8:00 straight up!  The musicians sat silently in place and Prince was upfront with his guitar right near the microphone.  The girls were on a sofa to the side of the stage and would enter and take their places at 7:55 AM  when directed to by the Set Director.  Prince would be interviewed briefly on the air in between the two performance segments by one of the shows anchors,  Britt Jenson.  He felt comfortable enough with that...but wanted to get it over with. 

The house lights went down and the familiar theme song of LA Morning began to play.  The announcer said the LA Morning trademark..."Welcome to another LA Morning.  Here's Britt and Kyle".   The show had begun.  The show followed the normal morning format, a little joking around between the anchors,  some brief local stuff about traffic and morning drive times with some shots of the sky as the sun came up a little earlier this morning from the LA Morning Helicopter and then to a commercial.  When they returned, Kyle said, "we have a real treat for you this morning LA.  You may have heard the buzz around town about a band called Royal and the World Changers...as they have been performing at a few of the more intimate venues  in town for some time. There were a few shouts and whistles and some stray clapping.  Well they are about to drop their first album Titled If I Love You and it will be available for streaming in about 4 weeks on the Arista Stream...they are also appearing tomorrow on our competitor's show...Good Morning LA, yes I can say that, (the audience laughed) and will be on  Late Night Cloud Stream on both networks on Thursday and Friday of this week. They will be in concert on Saturday for the Pan Hellenic Council.  All proceeds from the concert will go to The Pan Hellenic Scholarship Fund. The concert will be at the Largo at the Coronet on Saturday night at 7:00 PM.  Tickets will be available only to the Greek community through Noon today and then will be open to the public though the Arista Ticket Network or the ticket booth at the Largo at the Coronet.    Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Royal and the World Changers doing the title song, If I Love You!