Fireworks 1 and 2

Jungle: Chapter Ninety-Seven

    Chicago. Night One.

    Recording session. He'd flown superproducer Vinylz in. Vinylz had worked on a beat for the past several days, and was eager to let them hear it. Once Mia heard it, she was fired up and ready to go. Drake danced near the sound engineering controls while Mia stood in the booth recording. He'd give her a thumbs up when her voice sounded good, and a thumbs down when she needed to go back and re-record.

    In between recording, Drake would give Mia pep talks. "This performance is very important for your career," he reminded her. "This performance is what will set you apart, what will make you much more than a one-hit wonder or two-hit wonder."

    Rehearsals for the performance were pushed back a day just so she could record. In a little less than three hours, recording was complete. Vinylz, a tall well-built Dominican with a caramel complexion and a baby face, played back the track and leaned back in his chair, closing his yes. "Fire," he said, almost to himself. "I like it. There are a few parts I think we should fine tune before calling it a wrap."

    So they fine tuned. And just when Mia was grabbing her jacket, she saw Drake walk into the booth. She walked over to the booth. "What are you doing?"

    "We have the studio for the night," he said, pulling his phone out of the pocket of his gray sweatpants. "So I'm going to record 'Everything to Me.' We're going to release both songs tonight. Midnight."

    Her eyebrows lifted so high, they came close to touching her hairline. "Seriously?"

    "It will be unprecedented. We release the same night, then perform both tomorrow night at the Chicago show." With a grin, he closed the door to the booth.

    She whirled around and stalked over to Vinylz. "Did you know he was recording tonight?"

    Vinylz shrugged, a gesture that was nearly lost in the thick, black jacket he wore. "He said to have a few tracks ready just in case he got the time."

    Her mouth dropped open and she turned to look at Drake.

    Vinylz leaned down and spoke into a microphone mounted into the sound engineering board. "I'm going to cue up the track I think you should go with first. Then I'll play the others."

    Drake gave a thumbs-up gestured and drank from the bottle of water he'd brought in with him.

    The session went late into the night. He had Vinylz play back the recordings, and there was always something he didn't like about it.

    "Babe...that sounded amazing," Mia told him one of the rare times he came out of the booth.

    He shook his head. "This track has to be perfect," he said. "It's for you. It has to be perfect." He raised a hand in the air and made a circular gesture to Vinylz. "Start from the top."

    Mia curled up on the couch at the back of the studio, watching Drake perfect imperfections that only he was able to detect. The final product wound up being a track that was so disarming and beautiful, that it brought tears to her eyes.

    He stood next to Vinylz, bent at the waist while listening to the playback. "Yes," he said. "Yes! That's it. It's a wrap, that's it."

    After the studio session, Drake gave Vinylz a warm hug. "I can't tell you what it means to me that you were willing to just fly out here on short notice."

    "Trust me - you're paying for it," Vinylz said, rising from the chair and stretching his hands over his head. "But honestly, I live for this shit. This is the type of adventure that fuels me. One minute, I'm eating cereal and cartoons and the next, I'm down here with you making magic happen. Not once, but twice, mind you. All in less than a twelve-hour period."