Jackson Dynasty

Chapter 8 (In the Making)

Zeena's Pov

Date: August 19th , 1986

Place: Amateur Sony practice room, Sony Entertainment

Time: 9: 00 pm

"I wanna rock with youuuu. All nightttttt. Dance--"

I pull the microphone away from my mouth, quickly turning off the music to our boombox.

"What the hell are we doing guys?" I ask somewhat out of breath from all the dis-coordinated singing.

Sol lays on the floor chugging on a bottle of water while Zara leans against the wall and with out a second, she pulls out her compact mirror to check herself. I walk over to both of them, waving my hands in their faces to get their attention.

"Hello? Did you guys hear me? We're supposed to prepare for this performance together. I shouldn't be the only one busting my ass to get this right. I'm can't b--"

I cut myself off, realizing that my voice was drowned out by the annoying cackle of my sister.

"Oh, so this is funny to you?"

"No, you are what's funny to me." Zara points her stiletto pointed nails in my face causing me to backup in reflex. "And don't worry about me, when the time comes I'll most def' show out." She sashays her thin body around to make her way to the door. The sound of the wooden door closing behind her, only added more fuel to my fire. Although, it was best if I had just let it go and ignore it like I always do just to prevent me from killing her. But one day people, one day.

"Gosh, Zee don't forget to breathe..." Sol is now making her way over to where I was, with a worried look on her face. Then I realized that I was holding a breath this whole time with out me knowing. My balance was fading off was I leaned against the mirror for support.

"I'm sorry, I'm just so stressed right now. This performance means so much to the label, to me. This is going to be our first broadcast and it's a tribut to--to o-oh my God."
I felt myself getting worked up again as my breathing quickened and chest risen profusingly. Just the thought of performing in front of the idol himself, not to mention a tribut to him for his birthday, it makes me question why I was even born.

"No, no, Dongsaeng. I practically can see those thoughts in your mind, spelling out 'Give up'. But I know that's not what we're finna do, okay? I'm gonna be right here with you the whole time." Her hands on my shoulders guided us towards the mirror, where her 5'7 frame towered over my 5'0 body. "We got this." She finished, giving my shoulders a quick squeeze, allowing me to cringe at the nickname she gave me.

"Pft." I scoff, turning my attention to her. "Oh, 'we'?" My body turns to face hers. I was honestly so surprised that she chose the word, "we" as if she really thought that all three of us could get it together and pretend like we were one big sisterhood, when in reality I only dream of killing one bitch and mentally muting the other. It was just funny choice of words.

Her smiled only widened, "Yes, we. And Zee keep in mind, we're performing for the company. It's not like we're performing for the King of Pop himself." She said as she started to laugh horridly, causing her eyes to disappear in her high cheeks. I waited a while to hear her say that she was kidding but it never came, showing that she was deadass serious. I just calmly pat her back and move back to where the speaker was.

"Oh Sol, we've got some serious work to do."

Michael's POV

Smoke rushed into my nostrils as we took our steps around the underground subway. I contemplated on if I wanted to hold my breath to refrain from choking or breathe in every inch of it to embrace the everyday life of a common New Yorker.

"Is this good enough for the shoot, Michael?" Martin, the director asked making his way over to my spot near the tracks.

"Yes, this is amazing. The set would go perfect with the theme and message we're trying to convey." I reply hesitantly stroking this white column growing out the ground.

Martin only chuckles and pulls my hand fully to hit the column. "Oh Mike, this isn't a set. This is the real deal. Welcome to the Hoyt-Schermerhorn city train station, it was here years before we got here and I'm pretty sure it's gonna be here years after we leave." He rests his large hands on his hips and looked at the pole from the side.

"Oh boy forget amazing, This is perfect! I was afraid that it would come across as mockery if we used a set to symbolize the common life of urban youth, but this only makes the product appear more authentic. In fact, it will be." I was getting more excited as the thought of how the video was going to turn out, flow in my head.

"Uh—yeah sure whatever you say Mike. I'm gonna go get the equipment." He replied, leaving me to my thoughts and this white column. Speaking of which, I noticed all of the cracks in the platform. So many cracks that it probably couldn't hold itself up no longer than a second.  But that's what makes this process beautiful, everything is in it's truest form and if that means that it's ugly as dirt than so be it.

"Hey Mike, when do you plan to start shooting?" The producers waved me down.

Which is why I had the vision of making this more successful than Thriller. Thriller was well...thrilling but the route I want to go in with this is more of a testimonial than anything.

"Tonight would be perfect."
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Okay guys I know this chapter was super duper short and I'm sorry for that but I really just needed a filler chapter tbh😂 but I promise the next chapter will be longer and way more interesting.

So how do y'all think this performance is gonna go? Are they going to completely bomb it or are they going to appropriately represent their company—or Michael?

And as far as Bad, even though it wasn't as successful as Thriller, it was still a major bop and one of his best albums‼️ I mean, comment if you agree.

Anyways catch you the Bad side🖤💜