The Time Is Now (Princess Kitty Sequel)

            “What in the world?” Val laughed as she showed me a DVD entitled Kay Bee’s Mathematics Musical Monopoly Movie. I cracked up at the title, but had absolutely no interest in watching it! It was definitely something Val’s parents would buy!     

            “What about this?” I asked after we had both stopped laughing, holding up a box set of the all four seasons of a show called Instant Star.

            “It was my mom and Aunt Lulu’s favorite show when they were our age,” Val answered as she took the first disk out of the case and popped it into the DVD player.

            The first episode started and we were instantly captivated. It was a show about a girl who won a reality singing competition and was thrust into the world of music. We were about halfway through the season when one of the songs caught my attention.

            I closed my eyes and just listened to the lyrics Jude sang.

 

            When it was over I couldn’t move, it had taken me by complete surprise. I wasn’t expecting to feel like this, like ever. But sitting there with my eyes closed, the final chords still playing softly the only thing I could see were Derek’s green eyes.

            I opened my eyes and tried to focus on the show again, but I couldn’t concentrate.

            “You okay?” Val asked turning a couple minutes later when the credits started rolling and the song started up again.

            I shook my head slowly, “I don’t know…”

            She grabbed the remote and stopped the DVD from starting the next episode. Then looked at me intently and said, “Speak.”

            “You know the first thing I noticed about him were his eyes,” I said quietly, not wanting to admit it out loud yet.

            “Derek?”

            I nodded, “Yeah, when I went to give him the football back his eyes were the only thing I saw. Val…” I wasn’t sure what to say, but she knew me better than anyone else and had already understood everything I wasn’t saying.

            “Awe! I knew this was going to happen! Heck, everyone knew, we were just waiting for you to realize it!” she laughed. “When I heard that rumor, that you started,” she rolled her eyes then continued on with her thought. “I thought, that you had realized it, but then you said it was fake and you really didn’t like him, but--”

            “That’s not true,” I said wincing a little bit. “I like him, Val, a lot.”

            “Ha! I knew it!” she bounced a little beside me then calmed back down. “Okay, so what are you gonna do now?”

            “I don’t know,” I slumped back into the couch. “Why don’t we watch and see what happens between Jude and Little Tommy Q,” I said with a smile. Even though Jude said she wrote the song for her boyfriend at the time, Shay, we knew that she clearly wrote it for Tommy. She nodded, not wanting to push me, and hit the play button so the next episode started playing.

 

Val’s POV

           

            We dozed off sometime after two, somewhere in the middle of the second season of Instant Star. Suddenly a shrill ringing made me jerk awake.

            “What do you want?” I pretty much yelled into the phone, once I found it.

            “Val?” hearing my mom’s voice woke me up a little bit, I was able to look at the time on my phone.

            “Mom, it’s 4:18 in the morning!” I groaned.

            “Oh, sorry, I just finished filming, I didn’t realize the time. I was going to call earlier…” she was talking fast, something she did when she had something to say but didn’t want to say it. She was an actress and was frequently calling at odd times of the day, but whenever she called late she had something to tell me. “Anyway I wanted to make sure Jace got home okay.”

            “When was he coming home?” I asked listening attentively. Jace was my baby brother, whom I hardly ever got to see since he stayed with mom, working on different movies with her. She had gotten her start on a soap opera called Hostel Liaisons but quit when I was fourteen since Aunt Lulu needed her. Now she did movies, some of which that Aunt Lulu directed.

            “He was filming today too, he finished earlier than me and told me he wanted to be home for the weekend.”

            “Mom, he’s nine!”

            “Val,” she said my name in the tone. The one she used with me whenever we talked about Jace acting at such a young age. “You know it’s his choice.” she said her voice closing, clearly exasperated with me and this old fight. It was the only thing that really made us fight, unfortunately it was a pretty big issue.

            “Mom--”

            “Please, Val just go make sure he’s home.” I did as she asked and climbed off the couch and went to my brother’s room. I opened the door and saw him in his bed, still in his clothes, dead asleep.

            “He’s here, sleeping.” I told her then changed my tone and the conversation. “Dad called his morning, he asked about you,” I had been trying to get them to get over their differences for a few years now. They weren’t separated or anything, but they might as well be. Dad was always working or flying to New York City for work, and mom was always in LA or on location somewhere. They were barely home, and most of the time when they were home it was at two different times.

            “And?” she asked after an extended silence. I read into the tone of her voice again, and could hear what she wouldn’t admit. That the time apart was killing her, she just wasn’t sure how to get past it and get back with my dad.

            “He wondered where you were, he’s coming home on Monday…maybe you could be here too…he hasn’t seen Jace in awhile you know.” I said softening my voice trying to get her to agree with me. It was a tactic I learned from Savannah, Aunt Lulu’s younger sister. She was like an older sister to me since Mom and I lived with the Aunt Lulu and her parents until I was like five.

            “I know he hasn’t, it’s because he agrees with you and thinks he’s too young to be acting.” Her tone was filled with frustration, but slowly sighed and spoke again, calmly. “When will he be home?”

            “Monday, will you come home? Let Jace stay for the weekend with me.”

            “I guess, your father and I really do need to talk,” she sighed again, a sign that told me she was ready to get off the phone. 

            “Hey Mom,” I said quickly before she could say goodbye.

            “Yeah Sweetie?” she asked, her voice sounding more tired then I had almost ever heard before. 

            “I was wondering how Instant Star ended…” I asked remembering the talk I had with Kat the night before while watching the show.

            “Where did that come from?” she asked with a laugh.

            “Kat and I were watching it last night, but didn’t get all the way through. I was hoping you could tell me how it ended between Jude and Tommy.”

            “A show like Instant Star isn’t one I can spoil the ending to,” she must’ve heard me groan because she paused and changed direction on her words. “She decides she wants to try being a real rock star, without the help of Tommy. It was one of the saddest endings to a show ever, Lulu and I cried for days.”

            “What does Tommy have to say about that?”

            “He lets her go because that’s what love is.”