N.E Heartbreak

Chapter 5

Chapter 5
Cassandra

1985

We stayed awake for several hours before going to sleep. When we woke up, it was the next day, thankfully. We were relieved to not have skipped ahead in time.

The boys are up watching TV and talking about how hungry they are when we walk out of our room.

"Y'all okay?" Ricky asks when he sees us.

"Yeah. Just adjusting." Steph answers as we enter the kitchen. We start making breakfast for all of us.

"It took us a little minute too. But once you adjust, you'll be fine." Ralph says.

"How's Ze?" I ask Ralph.

"I just got off the phone with her. She's good. Talking about how much she misses me." Ralph says with a smile.

"So you gonna tell her how many girls you've ran through since we got here? Or should I?" Bobby asks and they all laugh.

"That's disgusting, Ralph. You love Zena but you cheat on her?" I shake my head.

"It's not cheating. We're men. We have needs and she's too far away to please her man's needs." Ricky says.

"Right, Slick." Ronnie daps him.

"Real men don't make excuses for cheating. Real men will stay to themselves and wait for their girl. Y'all gon' catch something if you keep fucking these groupies without condoms." Steph says as she flips pancakes.

"Forget catching something. They gon' have a thousand kids running around if they don't strap up." Jacque says.

"Child support gonna be in the millions." I add and they laugh with me.

"Why y'all always gotta be like that?" Bobby frowns.

"We can't even bring girls over here no more with y'all here. They get turned off when they find out we room with girls." Ronnie says as he comes into the kitchen to get some orange juice.

"Nobody told y'all to extend your apartment to us. Y'all did that, remember?" Steph says. "And stop drinking from the carton." She takes the carton out of Ronnie's hand.

He sighs and goes to sit down.

"Y'all need some female presence anyway. Need someone to keep y'all in check. If we told y'all mommas about half the shit y'all do they'd whip y'all asses." I say and they groan because they know I'm right. I start to scramble the eggs as Steph finishes the pancakes. Jacq pulls the bacon out of the oven.

"Y'all want grits?" Jacque asks as she gets a pot to make the grits.

"Yeah." Ricky answers.

"With cheese, please." Mike adds and they start smiling.

"Hungry asses." Steph shakes her head with a smile.

When we finish cooking, we serve them food and we all eat and laugh together. We talk about the upcoming tour, Cool It Now, that we'll be opening for the them.

When we finish, the boys clean up everything because we cooked. Brooke comes in to get me and the girls to go to practice. The boys follow after us. We all get into a limo to go to the practice venue.

"Okay so y'all gon' do Schoolin Life, 1991, Kiss It Better, and a quick Treasure. Those four will be great for opening. That'll get the crowd hype." Brooke tells us as we get on stage.

"Actually can we do Down instead of Kiss It Better?" I ask.

"That'll be two songs you sing, Cassie. You up to that?" Brooke asks.

"Always, but that's not why. Steph has something she wants to do to it and so does Jacque. Just watch, Brooke." I say with my sweet smile.

"Alright. I'll tell the production team. We'll try out Down first." Brooke goes back stage as we stretch.

"You have your pointe shoes?" Jacque asks Steph. Steph opens her bag and pulls out a pair of light pink ballet point shoes.

"Oh shit. We about to do some Nut Cracker shit up in here?" Bobby jokes while standing on his toes and spinning. They all laugh as they take seats in the front row.

"I'll crack your nuts if you don't shut up." Steph snaps and Bobby stops laughing.

"Can you bring a piano up front? And a stool too?" I ask a stage hand as I fix two mics for Jacque and me to use.

Once everything is all set up and Steph has on her pointe shoes, we start practicing. I take a deep breath before I start singing.

"Didn't even really wanna go. But if you get me out, you get a show. There's so many bodies on the floor. So baby we should go and add some more. Are you down, d-d-down, d-d-down, d-d-down, down, down? Down, d-d-down, d-d-down, d-d-down, down, down?" As I sing, Jacque plays the piano and Steph dances beautiful ballet.

"Everywhere I look are peoples' hands. Thrown up in the air to help them dance. Come on, baby, catch me if you can. I know you don't have any other plans. Are you down, d-d-down, d-d-down, d-d-down, down, down? Down, d-d-down, d-d-down, d-d-down, down, down?" Once the beat changes, Steph incorporates some hip hop into the ballet. The lights are flashing to go with the beat's techno feel. This song is better suited for 2017 but it fits into the weird of the 1980's.

Towards the end of the song, I join Steph in her dancing but can hardly keep up with the ballet without having on pointe shoes for myself. Steph ends with a graceful leap across the stage and elegantly drops to the ground.

The boys stand up as they applaud us.

"Girls, to be quite honest, Down was the least liked song on your album, but damn," Brooke smiles. "If no one likes it now they don't have any taste."

We smile before Steph changes into regular shoes and we practice the rest of our set. We watch the boys practice some of their set as we write down bits and pieces for another album.

We turn as Gary wack ass comes running into the venue like a chicken with his cut of. "Hey Ralph!" Gary stops their practice. "Ralph!"

"What, Gary?" Ralph asks, clearly irritated.

"We practicing, man. You always complain that we don't practice enough and here you come interrupting our practice." Bobby rolls his eyes.

"It's Zena. She says it's important. She's crying." Gary says and Ralph jumps off stage to follow Gary.

"What the fuck are we supposed to do now?" Ronnie asks.

"Cass can fill in real quick." Ricky says.

My eyes widen in shock. "Excuse me?" I ask.

"Yeah. She sounds like Rizz anyway. Come on, Cass. Fill in while Rizz is out." Mike pleads. I look at Steph and Jacque. They nod and I get on stage.

"From the top of Cool It Now." Brooke says and the music starts up. I get nervous as hell but the boys cheer me on.

"Everybody's saying silly things without knowing that life brings a change. And they've been checking all the signs. My friends say I'm lovesick cuz I...All I keep thinking about is her in my arms. And I won't be the same until she is mine. And my friends keep telling me to..." I sing like I did the day we were put back in 1985. In the back of Grandpa and Grandma's car. Our first day in this craziness.

"Alright, Cassie," Gary comes back clapping and I frown. "I mean, Cassandra. That was great. Fantastic! If New Edition wanted to do something special one night, I'll have you on stage, eh?"

"Where's Ralph?" I ask, ignoring Gary completely.

"Yeah. Where's Rizzo? He okay?" Mike asks.

"He's fine. He's still on the phone with Zena. Her mother just died and she demanded that she talk to Ralph. She's hysterical. Could barely talk. Ralph should be calming her down," Gary says and everyone gets quiet. "But in the meantime, Cassandra can keep practicing with you boys. Keep going until Ralph gets back."

"You should be able to keep up, Cass. If not just stand there and sing. I'm sure no one will mind." Ronnie winks at me. I roll my eyes and cue the next song.