𝟬𝟯. ❛ THE NEW EDITION ❜

          𝓣HE day had finally come. Clara finally had Brooke Payne as her manager. She was sure that he would lead her down a bigger path than she could've ever imagined. That man had connections, experience, and he knew his way around the business.

          The overly excited girl met up with the boys and they all walked to the rec center together. Brooke was already there as they arrived, sitting down.

"Now, I don't know what y'all heard about me, but I ain't promising that I'm gone make y'all into no stars. That ain't what I do. But if you put in the hard work and listen to what I tell you, I'll make you into professionals." The man admitted.

           The five kids looked at each other nervously, not knowing what they got themselves into.

           "Let me be clear. Y'all are a group. You do everything as one. Everybody is equal, whether it's the Untouchables or the Transitions. All my groups work the same way." Brooke lectured them.

           "So if you thinking about getting your little ass up on stage tryna outshine everybody else. . .you can forget about it, or you can go home right now, cause I don't play that. Y'all about to work hard. It's about to be real hard work. Harder than y'all ever worked before." The man finished his speech, starting the cassette tape and lining the group of kids up.

❛ Holding On When Love Is Gone ❜ played in the rec center, that being one of the few songs that Clara had randomly suggested to their manager.

They began to practice to that song. Brooke pulled Clara from their lineup while they practiced. He decided that the youngest Monet would have a slightly different routine, being the only girl in the group.

He danced with her, snapping or making her restart every time she missed a step.

           Clara was the fastest learner in the group. It only took her half an hour to get her steps memorized and performed them perfectly. The boys had a lot less luck, with their punishment being push ups.

The girl watched with quiet giggles escaping her lips at their misfortune. Ralph was the only one doing proper push ups and the rest of them looked like an embarrassment, in Clara's opinion.

           It made her wonder if all that kicking the boy did everyday really paid off. He noticed her staring and got nervous, falling on his face as she laughed.

"Clara, stop all that giggling and give me wall squats, holding this!" Brooke handed the girl two big school books. It was the boys turn to tease and laugh at the girl as she frowned and did as told.

           "Why y'all laughing? Join her." Brooke gave each of the kids two books each. They all squatted on the wall, holding one book in each hands.

The boys were all sweating while Clara didn't break a sweat. It was pretty hot but she couldn't bring herself to complain and get punished.

           After their wall squats, Brooke made them run multiple laps around the small space.

           "Man, it's hot in here!" Bobby was the first to let out a complaint, tired of keeping quiet.

           "If you can't perform when it's hot then you can't perform." Brooke shrugged, moving towards the fan to unplug it. If they thought it was hot while the fan was on, imagine how hot it was without it.

            Clara clenched her fists as she rushed at Bobby. The girl was close to hitting him when Mike saw and grabbed her by the waist, stopping her.

            Their training continued after that. Eventually, Brooke's timer went off meaning they were done. The kids collapsed onto the floor, exhausted.

            "I came up with a name for you guys. See, your name ain't just who you are, it's what you're all about. When you hear names like Temptations or Stylistics, or my favorite Blue Magic. It's letting you know where they come from, you dig?" Brooke noted.

"So what's our name?" Bobby took a sip from the cup of water Clara gave him. She had passed them out to each of the boys after their practice.

           "That's a good question, Bobby. I'll write it down for you, cause if I tell it to you, it's different when you see something rather than hearing it." Brooke stated, writing down the name before showing them.

"New Edition," Ricky read what was written out loud while the rest of them stared.

"This let everybody know what the next big thing coming out of Boston is. They know about The Jackson 5, they know about The Untouchables, but they about to know about The New Edition." He grinned.

           "Say it!" The man insisted. "New Edition," The kids called out in sync. Brooke made them repeat it a few more times until they got it right.

           And with that, he ended their practice. The kids hung out for a little until the man left.

❪ 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟏 ❫

           𝓣HE time went by in a flash. Their days were filled with practices and talent show after talent show, getting their name out there. In little to no time, New Edition was indeed, the next big thing.

           Clara was now blossoming into a woman. The girl had recently turned fifteen. She had this terrible thing called a period now, and it came back to haunt her once a month. Sounds terrifying, right?

The brown skinned teenager matured in more ways than one. She had breasts now, which often were always sore since they weren't done growing.

The girl even grew a couple inches taller, but she was still the shortest in the group.

Clara huffed as she pulled the door open to the rec, realizing she was the last one.

The four boys sat there instigating, making a
❛ ouuuuu ❜ noise at the girl, knowing she was about to get in trouble for showing up late.

Brooke hadn't acknowledged the teens yet, though. He was busy reading something.

"Damn, you look good." Mike was the first to talk to her as she sat down next to him.

"Thanks, Mike," The girl smiled, leaning towards him to hear Ralph's conversation.

             "Why you lying? You ain't get none from Zena." Ricky scoffed at whatever Ralph said.

              "I'm telling you, I got some tongue." Ralph stated, earning a disgusted look from Clara.

             To be honest, he would've liked to have his first kiss with her. The other guys felt the same. They all liked Clara. But she showed no interest in boys.

             "That don't count. You had to kiss her through the window screen." Ricky denied.

            "Tongue is tongue, as far as I'm concerned." It was Bobby who dapped Ralph up, talking about how it still counted. Mike and Clara gave each other side eyes, wondering if they were actually serious.

"This dude kissed her through the window screen and you talking bout it counts?" Mike jested, earning a soft chuckle from Clara as she leaned on his shoulder, trying to hide her laughs.

"Aye, her mom wouldn't let her come outside. That's all I could get." Ralph explained.

"Alright, enough with the pillow talk. Especially since y'all don't know what the hell y'all talking about. Let's discuss some business. And Ralph, that's nasty as hell, man. Don't do that no more." Brooke announced, causing all five teens to laugh.

             "Y'all know who Maurice Starr is?" Brooke asked the group of teens, approaching them. They all nodded at his question, having heard of him.

              "He putting on a talent show." He informed them and they all smiled at the info.

             "How much is the first prize?" Clara was the one to speak this time, her eyebrows raised.

             "I don't know. No money this time." The manger shrugged, causing her to feel confused.

             "No money? Then what's the point?" Mike gave the man an incredulous look.

             "Girls, man! Females here from all over the city!" Ricky grinned along with Bobby and Ralph. "And boys too, for our lovely Clara over there!" Ricky tried to include the girl and she grinned at him.

"Dude, you know she curves anybody that even tries to talk to her." Bobby chuckled.

"If we're not getting money then what do we get?" Ralph changed the subject, not even wanting to talk about that. He told the boys how she curved him a year ago and they clowned him for months.

"Well, the winner gets to record a demo in his studio and I'm telling you that mean a lot. You get to make a song. The song do good enough, you might end up having a record deal." Brooke implied.

"How much money is that?" Bobby inquired, a bit intrigued by this whole thing.

"Shoot, now you talking a lot. Could be a whole lot. Type of money that'll change everything. Move you right out the projects." Brooke assured.

             That was enough to make Clara jump up from her seat, screaming, which scared Mike.

"Calm down, y'all haven't won yet." Brooke told the girl, but she ignored him. The boys laughed as Clara danced around them, used to her antics.

             "What if we don't want to leave the projects?" Mike asked, his hand on his chin as he stared at the roof, thinking about the hood lifestyle he loved.

             "You don't want to be a star?" Clara stopped dancing, turning to stare at Mike as if he had insulted her mother's cooking or something.

             "I never said that." The boy retaliated, returning her stare with a more irritated look.

             "Man, I know I do," Bobby told the girl, dapping her up when she reached her hand out.

             "Anyway, the show gone be at the Strand Theater Downtown. That place seats like five hundred people. So we need to get our act together, right?" Brooke droned on and on, quite serious.

           "Yeah, well how much time we got, B?" Ralph stared at the man, clearly excited.

            "Well, we have just one week. So, I need y'all to take y'all coats off and get ready. Get focused. Play time is over. Come on. Let's go." He asserted.

             The five teens took their coats off obediently, getting into their positions for practice.

𝒐𝒐𝒐. AUTHORS NOTE * 𖤐 ༘ミ
so a time skip has been made and a lot has happened during that time skip that y'all will find out about soon lmao, plus they bout to meet ronnie in a bit!!!