N.E Heartbreak

Chapter 10

Chapter 10
Stephanie

1988

In the morning, we all get up early to do the promo we need to do for the tour. We go to BET again but this time we're on Video Soul.

"And now we have two of the biggest music groups of all time, if you ask me. Both have released albums that have gone multiplatinum within short periods of release. They top the charts and are about to go on a world tour that they are co-headlining. If you don't know who I'm talking about let's bring them out. Please welcome, New Edition and SJC!" Donnie Simpson introduces us.

We walk out and the boys follow after us. We take seats around Donnie.

"Let me start off by saying, ladies, I absolutely adore each one of you. You have become a household name all over the world because of how you're changing the music industry." Donnie says.

"Aw thank you, Donnie. We adore you too." Cassie smiles sweetly.

"Yeah, thank you for saying that," Mike says. "But remember these two," he puts his hands on Jacque and Cassie. "Are taken."

Donnie laughs. "Ah man. I'm not trying to steal y'all ladies," Everyone laughs with him. "So you all started as best friends, correct?"

"Uh, yes. Steph, Jacque, and Cassie would visit their aunt and uncle every summer in the OP– Orchard Park– and we'd hang out all summer. We stayed in touch during the school year and just became the best of friends." Ralph answers.

"So like all of you are best friends or three of you are specific best friends with the girls?" Donnie asks.

"We're all best friends but I do claim Jacque as my best friend. Ralph claims Cassie and Bobby claims Steph. But we're all really best friends." Mike answers.

"Even J.G. He's become great friends with us and he has that best friend claim." I say with a smile.

"Now, going back to the household name. Ladies, tell me, how do you come up with the ideas that you do? By that I mean, how did you decide that breaking off from what has become the normal for girl groups was the right thing? That it would work?" Donnie asks.

"Well, we were raised to believe that women were created equal to man. Whatever a man can do, we can do just as good, if not better. So we wanted our music to reflect that. The past groups have paved a way for us because they are legends but there has to come a time where women can wear anything– not just dresses– in order to make music." I answer.

"And our sound is what we like to think of as futuristic. If you listen to our music, there's nothing else out there like it. Not even New Edition. We have a different sound that people obviously like. We appeal to a lot of different people because we are creating different-sounding music." Jacque answers.

"You said not even New Edition has music like you, but, come on, Heartbreak was an amazing album." Donnie says with a smile.

"We aren't saying it isn't. I could listen to Heartbreak all day and never get tired of it, but we sound different than them. Not because we are girls but because we just have a different sound." Cassie smiles. She makes the rest of us smile.

"So how do you guys feel about going on tour together?" Donnie asks.

"We've been on tour before. SJC opened for us during the Cool It Now tour. We spend a lot of our days together now it won't be much different than before." Ricky answers.

"Right. Like Rick said, we spend a lot of time together so it'll just be like our everyday routine. The only difference is we'll be performing every day and it isn't just our tour, we're co-headlining even though the tour is called the Heartbreak tour, ladies." Ronnie says with a playful smile.