章 72: Chapter 72: Music Video Production.
[Edward POV]
We both sat on the bed, frozen by the current situation. Haley's disheveled hair and messy clothing was evidence to anyone that might see us right now that she had spent the night here.
And to be honest, no one would believe a teenager when they say they were just sleeping inside the room together. Point of evidence, my sniggering dad who was happily making coffee downstairs.
"Argh! What am I supposed to do now?!" Haley screamed in frustration as she grabbed my shoulders and vigorously shook me back and forth. "MOM WILL KILL ME!"
It had been 15 minutes since we were both woken up by my dad's morning call. I understood that I am currently in a precarious situation and something needed to be done to make sure this accident didn't turn into something bigger than it was.
I helped Haley's arm to stop her, and said, "When did your mom usually wake up on a Sunday?"
"Ummm….I don't know." Haley replied with a forlorn and defeated face. She was usually the last one to wake up in the house, therefore she didn't know everyone else's schedule.
"No. We still have a chance. I'm looking at your mom's schedule online, and she usually sleeps in on a Sunday, and wakes up at seven thirty. So, we just need to find a way to sneak you back into the house before she even notices you are gone."
"But. Alex-"
"I'll tell Alex the truth. She's trustworthy enough for this, she won't sell us out. Even though she likes it when you get in trouble, she won't falsely accuse you of doing it just to see you suffer."
I hoped. If Alex wouldn't do it, then I'll use my last betting prize with her to convince her to do it. Despite my plans, I still have confidence that she would have my back.
"Let's go. I will help you climb to the roof. You can sneak back in by yourself after that. If the window is locked, just call Alex." I muttered.
I remember that she had skillfully climbed through the house to get into an open window in one episode, but her proficiency in parkour was still low at this time. I hurriedly put on a shirt and followed her from behind as we sneaked toward her house.
Grabbing her soft ass, I helped her to climb up onto her roof before the sun fully rose.
"Hurry Haley!" I said while gritting my teeth. Luckily for me, she was tiny.
"Waa-watch where you're grabbing!" Haley said as my fingers dug deep into her ass cheeks.
"But I need to grab this. Otherwise you'll fall." I said as I propelled her up even further. She rolled into the small roof on top of the front door. Some leaves were caught on her hair, and as she tried to remove them, I said, "Leave it. The window is unlocked."
Haley saw Alex gesturing to her to hurry while turning her head toward her bedroom door a few times. Alex yelled with a whisper, "MOM IS KNOCKING ON THE DOOR! HURRY!"
Haley widened her eyes and did a ninja roll before she ran toward the open window. As I watched her enter the house, I decided to help her by ringing the doorbell to distract Claire.
[3rd Person POV]
"Honey. Are you up yet? Dad and I have a surprise for you girls." Claire said in a sweet tone as she tried to open her daughter's bedroom door, only to find it locked.
"Alex. Haley. I know it's still early. But wake up sweethearts… Your dad is bringing us somewhere special. Guys?!" Claire knocked on the door, but the girls still weren't answering her.
Phil suddenly appeared behind Claire and said, "Honey. I forgot to text Ed last night."
Claire was confused, "Why are you texting him?"
"I was thinking of inviting him to the amusement park together. It'll be an hour ride, so we need to get moving before traffic-"
*Ding Dong*
Suddenly the doorbell rang. A loud thud resounded from Haley's room as she fell to the floor as she snuck into the house, but luckily her parents were distracted by the person coming to their house so early in the morning.
Claire and Phil walked to the door, only to find Edward with disheveled hair standing outside.
"I knew it! I sent the text last night! Ed, are you ready to go to the amusement park?" Phil said in excitement.
Inside the teenagers' room, Alex helped Haley to pick the leaves on her hair as she admonished her, "ARE YOU CRAZY!? WITH ED- OF ALL PEOPLE?!"
"I'M NOT! And we didn't do anything. He just didn't want to go to sleep, but he has a mv shoot today, so I forced him to sleep. Then, I fell asleep too." Haley explained, although she didn't have any hope that anyone would believe her.
Alex's angry expression disappeared. "Oh. That's okay then."
"..."
Haley looked at her sister with a confused expression, but she didn't say anything lest her sister would change her mind and thought she was sleeping with Ed last night.
Suddenly, Alex said, "I know you're a virgin. If you really had sex with him last night, you would've come back in a hurry. The only reason I think that you stayed over is because…you guys didn't have sex-"
"STOP SAYING SEX!" Haley screamed in embarrassment as Alex could read her behavior perfectly. She hurriedly took off her clothes and said, "Get me a robe."
Alex rushed to their closet and grabbed the robe while Haley stood in the middle of the room–stark naked.
"You didn't wear a bra again?" Alex asked while rolling her eyes as she threw the robe to her sister.
"No. I think I need to change it. My breasts got larger again." Haley said as she wore the robe. Her chest had finally grown up to the perfect B cup size.
Alex looked down on her tiny bump and said, "This is the last time I'll be helping you."
[Edward POV]
"I knew it! I sent the text last night! Ed, are you ready to go to the amusement park?" Phil said in excitement. He then realized something, "Shoot. I'm not supposed to say that. Uhhh…Ed, are you ready to go somewhere special?"
"Too Late." I muttered, making Phil slumped his shoulders in disappointment. As the golden opportunity prevented themselves, I didn't waste the chance and said, "Sadly. I'll not be joining you today. I have the music video thing in Pasadena."
The only reason we didn't have a shoot in Hollywood was because of finance. Pepper had gotten a permit from the Pasadena Train Station to shoot the video there, therefore we were renting a film studio nearby for the rest of the shooting to save some time.
"Owhh…" Phil let out a grunt as he couldn't spend some time with me today.
"Ed. Did you just come here, just to tell us that?" Claire said to me with a touched face. Her expression ate away at my guilty conscience, but I still needed to protect myself, "Yeah."
Claire hugged me and said, "Oww…You're too polite-"
She stopped her words abruptly as she smelled a familiar scent coming from my body. She removed her arms and asked me, "Why do you smell like vanilla extract?"
"I baked a cake last night-"
"That's the perfume Haley used right?" Phil interjected – his voice drowning out my excuse. I gulped my saliva as Claire turned to look behind. Haley and Alex just come out of their room, and Claire's thought process stopped as she saw Haley's face.
"Haley- Remove your makeup before sleeping! You'll ruin your face!" Claire said as she rushed toward Haley. I turned to Phil and said, "I'll go now. Enjoy your outing!"
"I'll make sure to plan it when you're free next time." Phil said as he waved me away. Luke suddenly appeared out of nowhere and asked Phil, "Why is Haley barrel rolling on the roof like a ninja?"
"Honey. You're dreaming. Also, did the ninja wear black clothes?" Phil asked Luke as I was having cold sweats next to him.
"I guess?" Luke replied innocently.
"Then how did you know the ninja was Haley?" Phil asked before laughing. Luke shrugged and went away to have breakfast after greeting me, and I rushed to my house to get ready as it was almost time for my driver to arrive.
Although the 'scandal' was almost covered, I still have one last hole to tie up before the matter could be over.
"DAD!" I shouted at the smirking man in the captain uniform standing behind the kitchen counter.
"You sent your little lover home safely?" Dad asked as he shot me the knowing look.
"We're not lover-"
"Don't worry about it, I'll keep your secret " Dad said before I could concoct some story to convince him. "You will?" I asked him in confusion.
He nodded and said, "Yeah. I know what it's like to date in secret. I won't tell anyone about it as it's not my place to intervene. But Ed, don't hurt her okay."
"We're not dating." I said before I huffed away. Dad nodded in understanding, which made me want to hit him.
'I'll make sure to give him the most egregious sailing schedule after this.'
But I wouldn't actually pursue that thought.
…
"Aunt Camila, thank you for driving me today." I said to the short-haired woman in sunglasses driving the 1971 Plymouth Hemi Cuda. She nodded slightly while flashing a proud smile.
"Ed. You don't need to say thank you to your family." Aunt Camila said as her hair fluttered in the wind. (E/N: This needs the Dom meme 😂 )
I hadn't changed into my outfit yet and was just in a simple jeans and t-shirt – which actually matched Aunt Camila's outfit today. With me wearing sunglasses just like her, we were currently looking more like a couple than Auntie and Nephew today.
"But, I have a question. You don't have a job, nor are you married. So how can you afford this car again?" I asked her casually.
Aunt Camila almost swayed the car to another lane as she was surprised by the question. The truck behind us blared their horn before Aunt Camila snapped out of it and returned to the original lane again.
"Phew." I let out a sigh as we're finally not going to die today.
"Sorry." Aunt Camila said before taking a deep breath. She then replied robotically, "It's a family car."
"Hmm…the family must be rich to let you drive a 200 grand car around. I wonder if I secretly have a giant inheritance waiting for me." I joked around as I mused myself with that thought. But, Aunt Camila looked at me with an excited expression instead.
"Maybe." She said ambiguously. She had actually bought a junk car and restored it herself, but was too embarrassed to share her hobby with me.
I turned to her and asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Me no hablo english."
"¿Que se supone que significa eso? (What's that supposed to mean?)"
"Me no…speak Spanish." Aunt Camila said with a smirk before she pressed the pedal to accelerate the car. The momentum made my body jerk forcefully into my seat. I gave her a side eye as she laughed and changed the topic.
We arrived at the location in less than 15 minutes, and I was shoved directly into my waiting room to change clothes.
"Ed. You're here. Also, you look good." Pepper said as he looked at me up and down. The black suit fits my body perfectly, and I made it so that I would look a bit more muscular than I was wearing it.
With my hands in my pockets, I said, "Thanks. We're taking promotional pictures first right? And for posters?"
"Yeah. You have to change into various outfits. I can't wait to see what you have brought with you." Pepper said before he went to yell at a staff member for putting flowers facing the wrong direction.
The photoshoot went on for 2 whole hours, as the photographer wouldn't let me go.
"Yes. Yes. Gorgeous. You're by far the fastest artist that learned to pose correctly from me." The photographer in flamboyant clothes said.
Her short hair was styled t0 look as if there was a cat sitting on top of her head, and she kept jumping around, rolling on the floor, and sliding left and right, while she was taking the photos. Despite her frivolousness, my pictures turned out breathtaking, thirst-trapping, and totally gave the "would-definitely-be-bought-by-teenage girls" vibe we were looking for.
There was a bubbly image where I stood in a field of flowers, looking like a golden-retriever-boy, and one where I looked like a devilish CEO with slicked back hair, a cross chain on my neck, wearing only a jacket but no shirt inside– granting the fans who bought the poster to see the silhouette of my abs, and many more versions of me, enough for the fans to make a calendar from my images.
'Even Justin cannot fight against Ed's marketing strategy.' Pepper thought in shock as he saw the files I gave him. 'The kid is a true money making monster.'
Although USA's image management depends more on the artist being their true self, I had used the Korean Boy Band and artist strategies instead to drive the woman crazy.
Despite some criticism from the industry 'old timers' , the feedback from the 'new' strategies would make my debut one of the most successful debuts in all of history.
"That's enough North. He still needs to record the video." Pepper slapped her in the face to wake him up after she had snapped thousands of photos of me and wouldn't stop working.
"No. GIVE ME ANOTHER HOUR- I'LL DO THIS FREE OF CHARG-"
The photographer tried to convince Pepper, but he had already sent the security to drag her out of the studio.
"Sorry about that. She's not a bad guy. Just very obsessive." Pepper said to me while my aunt helped me wipe the sweat on my forehead.
"She's… passionate. So I guess I can leave the photo selection to you guys." I said as I opened up a bottle of water and gulped it all down.
"Sure." Pepper said with a wide smile as he felt relieved that I wasn't taking all of the responsibility for my album success on my own.
"Let's go shoot the first scene. Is everyone ready?" I asked.
"The main heroine- Oh she's here. You're LATE!" Pepper scolded the blonde woman that was running hurriedly toward where we were standing.
"SORRY. MY CAR BROKE DOWN!" Penny bowed her head 90 degrees toward Pepper, shocking everyone there.
"Honey. We're not in Asia. Calm down." Pepper said while raising Penny's head up as he felt guilty for yelling at the girl. Although he did it playfully, he felt bad regardless.
Two men followed Penny from behind with some hurrying in their footsteps. One of them was short and was wearing spectacles, while the other one was tall and looked like a humanoid version of C-3PO. The tall one was also wearing a Flash superhero t-shirt and was dressed like a 10 years old boy.
'Leonard and Sheldon?' I thought as I saw Leonard grabbed Sheldon's hand and forced him to run faster.
"I can vouch for her. Her car broke down on the highway." Leonard said as he finally approached us.
"What's wrong Penny, did you ignore your check engine light?" I joked as I saw Penny's teary face. This was the first job she had in months as an actress. She thought everything was over for her the moment her car broke down before this.
"She did, even though I had told her to check her engine at a certified mechanic…or ask an engineer to do it. There's no difference between them anyway." Sheldon said condescendingly before Leonard glared at him and made him close his mouth reluctantly.
"I-" Penny opened her mouth, but I said reassuringly, "It's fine Penny. You aren't late. We just finished the photo session."
Penny breathes a sigh of relief, and Leonard did the same thing too. I turned to Leonard and held my hands out for a handshake.
"You must be Dr. Leonard Hofstader. The cute guy next door that Penny was telling me about."
"What?!-" Leonard turned to the surprised Penny. She snapped and said, "When did I tell you about him?!"
"Oh. So you admit he's cute." I said to Penny, making her lost for words. I turned back to Leonard and said, "I'm just kidding. Although you have a chance there, use it wisely. I read your paper about index refraction before while I was studying about lenses."
Leonard was impressed, then Sheldon said, "Yes yes. That's Leonard's research for you, so simple that even a 9th grader could understand. Quite literally in this case"
"And the condescending crazy person must be Dr Sheldon Cooper. Dr Leonard's Hoffstader's roommate. I've read about you too, you've been delving into string theory for so many years as a theoretical physicist yet no actual breakthrough has ever been made." I said while smiling.
Penny and Leonard widened my eyes at my jab towards Sheldon. To be honest, I had no plans to create a good relationship with Sheldon, nor did I want to go out of my way to tend to him. That was what masochistic people do.
"Listen here. String theory had been researched for decade-"
"Please leave the premises. We need to catch up with the schedule." I said to Sheldon before turning to Leonard and spoke to him kindly, not comparable to the way I treated Sheldon at all, "Thank you for driving Penny here. You're a good man. May I email you if I have any questions about the research I'm doing right now?"
"Ummm…Sure…" Leonard replied while fidgeting. Sheldon didn't know about me yet as he hates all kinds of music, therefore he behaved in his usual way around me.
"How do you know that he was driving and not me?" Sheldon asked. I turned to him and asked, "Were you?"
"No.."
He went silent afterward as he couldn't refute my words, nor could he lie about it.
Before Sheldon could interject again, I exchanged my contact information with Leonard before sending both of them away.
Pepper said hurriedly, "Penny. Change into these clothes." He pointed at an outfit hanging on a rack nearby us. "We need to take a photo."
"O-Okay." Penny said before following the instructions hurriedly. Now, the music video shooting has officially started.
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