To Sign or Not to Sign (An Emblem3 Fan Fiction)

The Contract

After the breakfast dishes were done we were sitting in the living room. Wes looked at me, "maybe we should go over this contract." 

I threw my head back. "Ugh, can't it wait?"

"No,' Drew interrupted while grabbing a copy and throwing a third to Keaton. The three of them started reviewing. Drew looked up with his mouth wide open. 

"What?" I asked with a screwed up face grabbing the last copy of the contract to see what the issue was.

"Wes, Keaton, are you reading this?" Drew questioned.

"Is it not offering enough?' I said immediately panicking, did Jarett screw up when I specifically wrote down what to put in the contract if there was any chance in hell of getting them to sign.

 Wes looked at me, "You're joking right? Did you watch every interview on us during X Factor? Keanna you have everything in here we wanted and then some, way more then what is being offered by Syco, and they are the ones behind X Factor."

"Oh," I smiled.

"No way!" Keaton exclaimed, "Brazil by July? That is only like 4 months away. Holy! We will be around the world within 8 months. Keanna! This is awesome.' At the exact same time all three went to the last page.

"WHAT!" All three yelled in unison, I flipped the page and saw what they were looking at. It was the money side of things. It read "Emblem 3 (Wesley Stromberg, Keaton Stromberg, and Drew Chadwick) will be paid 3 million (1million each) for production of 4 audios over 3 years, receiving 1/4 of this after the release of the debut album. They will also receive a profit of 35% of all merchandise being sold with their personal or band name on it and 35% of profits from any monies received in the distribution of the 4 audios." Keaton jumped up and ran over to hug me! "Dudes, everything we have worked for is just a signature away!' he yelled. 

I was in as much shock as they were that all of this was approved. There was no musician signed with the Agency right now getting this kind of money!  I had thrown out the figures just to see how much Ernie and Jarett wanted them under the label. I guess this proves that they are actually serious. 

'There is one thing missing though for me and Drew, and we aren't signing until it is added in!" Wes pointed out. I thought to myself, are you serious? My mouth dropped and looked at him.

"Wes," I had to watch what I said, "You don' t understand. Take this offer and run! There is no negotiating this. You are an idiot if you think that you are going to get anything else out of them. There is no other artist with the label who is even close to this."

"Oh stop," he said, "None of this means anything to me if what I want in the contract doesn't get added."

"Well I am sorry this is already typed and I am not about to change it!" I was getting pissed to be honest. 

"But you will change it," Drew added, "or your label can say bye, bye to Emblem3!" he winked at Wes.

"No there is no way!" I stood up and grabbed my crotches and was going to storm to my bedroom when Keaton jumped up and pulled the crotches from underneath me, causing me to sit right back down.

"I think you should listen to them." he smiled.

"Fine! What else could you want besides basically getting set for life with this deal." I said extremely anger at this point.

"Keanna, you obviously don't understand how much I care for you, because if you did you would realize that all the money in the world means nothing if you don't have love and happiness." Wes started.  I saw where this was going. I smiled at him. "Wes..' I said. 

"Shh," Keaton cut me off, "I want to hear this. I have never seen Wes like this before." He started laughing.

"Shut up fool." Wes gave Keaton a dirty look and took my hand, "Come with me.' he said as he led me into the bedroom.

"No fair, I want to witness this, it doesn't happen everyday that Wes actually admits his feelings." I heard Keaton say to Drew in a whiny voice.

Wes closed the door behind us and wrapped his arms around me. "I already lost you 8 months ago and I have been kicking my ass over it ever since." he started, "I am not losing you again because of some stupid policy with your company. I have been thinking, MDC would be stupid to think that they can dictate your personal life. If we demand that nothing is done concerning your career and Chloe's career when we sign, it is a win, win situation. Clearly they want us to sign bad by the looks of the contract and will do anything to get us to sign it.'

I took in what he was saying, "but, that shouldn't be included in your contract. I can hear the legal department now when they go through it, and the media when it gets out that part of your contract is that you and Drew can date employees of the record label you are signing with. No it is not happening. I will not tell Jarett to include it in the contract."

"Fine,"he said throwing his hands in the air. "What's the plan then because I am telling you, Drew and I are not losing you guys and this has to be decided quick because we have a meeting with Syco in 24 hours."

"I don't know. Let's just get your contract signed for now and then we will work out the details of our personal lives afterwords,' I finally said after thinking for a few minutes.

"Okay, fine," he suddenly got a confused look on his face. "I am new to this though. Now what do we do call Simon and tell him deals off."

"The appropriate thing to do would be to go meet with him and explain what is going on," I laughed,  "Who knows, maybe he will offer you more then what MDC is offering. You didn't hear this from me and I will deny it if it ever gets back to Jarett or Ernie, but it doesn't hurt to shop around alittle. Especially now that you know that two labels are dying to sign you, why not take all you can get?" I laughed.

"I like the way you are thinking, I do, but to be honest, the most appealing part of signing with MDC Records is that you would be our AL. I mean seriously Keanna, you are the must have AL that has taken artist to the top quickly. I don't even want to play around here. Even if there was nothing between you and I, I would want to sign with MDC if it meant having you as a AL. So let's get those papers signed, get Chloe to deliver them and get this final then I will deal with Simon." Wes said.

"Alright, but Simon needs to know that in no way did MDC Records bribe you on this. It was all you guys."

"For sure. Now let's get the papers signed." with that I followed Wes out to the living room where Drew and Keaton were waiting anxiously to see what was decided. "Hand me the pen!" he exclaimed. Drew and Keaton jumped up with excitement and yelled, "YES!" Two minutes later all signatures were done. All that needed to be done is for Chloe to deliver them to Jarett.