Planning Your Future

Everything Changes (Part 2)

November 25, 1993

Veronica's POV

At about noon, JD tells me to go home. I do as he says. It was a long night. "Hey, how is Jill?" My dad asks when I walk in. "She's good. She gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Katherine Rose McNamara. She's obviously still there. So is everyone else." I say. "Katherine? That's a pretty name. Is it because of... you?" He seems nervous about asking that. But I was too. I didn't want to assume that and be wrong. "It is." I nod. "That's sweet." He smiles.

JD comes over later on in the day. "Hey. How's your mom?" I ask as we sit on the couch. "She's tired. But that's a given." He leans back. "I would say it's been a rather eventful Thanksgiving." He laughs. I smile, "I agree." I put my head on his shoulder. "Do you have any plans today?" He asks. "Nope." I say. "So are you and Alyssa good? I know you had lunch with her mom yesterday." He looks at me. "Yeah we're okay. But her mom spent the entire time talking about her church group. And it felt deliberate." I sigh. "Yikes." He holds in a laugh.

We hang out for a few hours before we meet Alyssa, Heather, and James at a restaurant out of town for dinner. "Hi." I kiss Alyssa on the cheek. We all sit down. "Happy Thanksgiving." I raise my glass. They all say it back. We all talk about school and life in general. Heather and James ask a lot of questions about the recording contract.

After we eat, we go to the McNamara house. I sit on the edge of the pool. I hear quiet footsteps behind me. I turn around and JD stops in his tracks. "If you think you can push me in and get away with it, you are mistaken." I glare at him. JD takes a step, a grin on his face. "JD I swear to God. I'll bring you down with me!" I put my hand out. "I'm kidding." JD holds his hand out for me to stand up. "I don't trust you!" I shake my head at him. "Fine." He shrugs and begins to walk away. "Okay, okay." I sigh. I let him pull me up. "Thank you." I say. Then that smirk comes back. "No! Don't you dare!" I yell as he picks me up and tosses me into the pool. The cold water hits me all at once. After a few seconds, the warmth comes back. I come out of the water as quickly as I can. "JD! You mother-" I stop as JD jumps in, splashing me. The second he emerges, I put my hand on his head and push down. I only keep him down for a few seconds, since he's stronger than me. "Fuck you." I shove him when he pushes against my hand and comes up. He just laughs at me like a crazy person.

Heather's POV

Alyssa and I sit at the steps of the pool. She tells me about her job and I tell her about college. We stop talking when there's shouting. JD is trying to push Veronica into the pool. Eventually she gets pushed in and she yells at him. I'm surprised when I see Alyssa with a smile on her face. "What are you smiling at?" Maybe I'm the only one, but I'd be jealous if that was James and someone else. "What? They're funny. To be honest, they remind me of Ryan and I." She says. "Oh yeah. Have you talked to him since camp?" I ask. "Yeah. I sent him a letter in August." She nods. "Did he respond?" I put my arm on the edge of the pool. "Yeah. He was being typical Ryan. Telling me that he knew I'd get back with Veronica." She laughs.  "That is typical Ryan." I smirk.

Veronica continues to fight with JD, JD trying to mess with her the whole time. "I'm surprised you're not jealous. Especially since they used to date." I say.  "I trust her. She chose me twice. And I know they don't think of each other like that anymore." She shrugs. "I guess." Maybe it's because I'm used to JD constantly being weird about Veronica talking to other people. I hope he's not like that with his new girlfriend. It could be something he only did with Veronica. Who knows? But also, who cares?

"Hey. What did I miss?" James comes back outside. "Where the hell have you been?" I ask as he sits on the edge of the pool. "Bathroom. I wasn't gone that long," James laughs, "right?" He adds, looking at Alyssa for backup. Alyssa doesn't say anything, she just laughs. "Whatever." James shrugs, looking over at JD and Veronica. They've stopped fighting, and they were talking about something. They were most likely talking about their album.

Veronica's POV

"So are you ready for that press release concert Mr. Donovan is planning?" JD asks me. "I think so." I don't know, to be honest. These past couple days have been so refreshing. "I'm just excited for this album to be out. Then we can start working on new music." He leans against the edge of the pool. "Yeah, I'd love that if we would agree on anything." I smirk. "I'll try to be better about that. We really do need to write new songs." He sighs. "Not to get super deep, but it's so weird how our life was one way, and then everything changes and now we have a successful band and an album to prove it?" I look over at him. "Yeah, it's really weird." He laughs.

After it gets super dark, Alyssa, James and I leave. Since I told her I would, I drive Alyssa home. I kiss her before she gets out of the car. "Bye." I wave as she approaches the door.

November 27, 1993

After I get back to Boston, I put my stuff down and immediately lie down. This week was exhausting. Erika comes in later and just says hi. She must be equally tired.

The next morning, I wake up to JD shaking me. "What?" I groan. He turns up the volume on the radio. It takes me a minute to register what song is playing. Then I realized it's "Edge of Great." The song, not the band in general. "What?" I say again, this time is in a more excited tone. I jump up. "Did you tell Owen?" I ask. I doubt he told Sam since he's not at Harvard. "I yelled the radio station at him as I ran here." He says. Then there's a knock at the door. I open it and Owen comes in, freaking out. "Oh my God!" He exclaims. "I know." JD smiles. I'm glad Erika already left. She would wake up the entire building with her yelling.

November 29, 1997

We come into the studio, excited over the song being on the radio. "So I'm assuming you listened to the radio yesterday." Mr. Donovan walks in, seeing our smiles. "Yeah." I nod. "Miles called me as soon as he heard it." He says. "Well, get to work." He leaves us.

We start thinking of song ideas, trying not to fight anymore. Every time we start to fight, Owen loudly clears his throat. "Sorry." We say each time. The weird things is that we only fight over songs now. When we were dating, we fought constantly but now songwriting is the only thing that gets us going.

After rehearsal is over, we only have two lines done. Even when JD disagrees with me on a line, I write it down anyways and keep it for myself. I still write songs for me, so I'll keep it if he doesn't like it.

Alyssa comes out of Miles' office and puts her arm around me. "Hey. I heard your song on the radio!" She grins. "I know! It's really cool." I say. "Well I'll see you later." She kisses me on the cheek and goes to her car.

Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait. School and the musical I was in have both been exhausting. But now I'll be working on this a bit more now. We are coming closer to the conclusion now that we're in their senior year. I might write a third book, I might not. Who knows. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that it was at least somewhat worth the wait. Bye!