ChapterEighteen-He Lost His Mind 

December 20th, 2007

   It's a few weeks later, and back in Boston, Stan was home from Boston College. It was a holiday break. He was switching channels on his TV when he saw UTurn. It was their Christmas special, Breaking Out On Christmas.

   He was impressed with their acting, and storyline was a lot stronger than their web series. He burned with anger as he watched Amanda. Then he turned off his TV, grabbed his jacket, and left his house to find Amanda.

  First he stopped off at the UTurn house. He knocked on the door several times. He looked through the window, and saw it was dark. No one was home.

  Then he drove to Q Division Studios. He went inside to find UTurn. They weren't there. He saw a guy dressed in a suit and trench coat talking with a guy who looked like he needed clean clothes.

   Stan approached them, and asked, "Do you two know where UTurn is?"

  The two guys looked at each other, and then the suit-guy replied with a sly smile, "The name's Ethan Jackson. I was wrongfully kicked out of UTurn by that f*cking Andrew Hawthorne."

   Stan said, "Oh, now I remember you. You bullied me almost as much as Andrew."

   "Don't remember you, but I know exactly where UTurn is."

   With that, Stan smiled.

   It's a few days later, and Stan, Ethan, and Josh arrived at LA. The guys got a rental car, and a cheap hotel. It's evening, and the guys were driving towards Hollywood. Josh drove as Stan asked Ethan, "Do you know what UTurn's doing tonight?"

   Ethan replied as he was looking on his iPhone, "UTurn are on some secret nightclub tour. Their performances are all over YouTube. They're performing under different aliases, most recently, 'The Club,' '8 Starz,' '2.0,' and 'Sundown.' They performed last night at Hollywood, and tonight is the rumored final performance. They've already performed in Beverly Hills."

   Stan asked, "I don't get it. Why would UTurn constantly change their name and do this secret concerts?"

   Josh replied, "I looked into their contract. They're not supposed to do recording sessions, promotions, and concerts without their manager's consent. In effect, they're breaking their contract. They're obviously aware of the consequences, which is why they have a bunch of different names."

   Ethan added, "In case you're wondering, Stan, what the consequences are, UTurn, if caught and reported, could get lowered salaries, reduced album promotions, being dropped from their record labels, and a possible forced termination."

   "That means they would be forced to split up," said Josh.

   Stan was shocked when he heard this. UTurn knew what they were risking, but he wondered if doing these secret concerts were worth it. Then he shook his head, and said, "I need to find Amanda. If it means exposing their plots, then so be it."

   Soon enough, the guys arrived in Hollywood. They went to several nightclubs until they saw one with a sign that said, "Brand new band-tonite!"

  The guys figured that the sign was referring to UTurn as a 'new band.' So they went inside, and saw the crowd was full. The stage was apparently empty, but not for long. An announcer was on stage. He announced, "Here they are! The band to watch, Here We Go!"

   As soon as he ran off, the music started. "Here We Go" ran on stage. The crowd screamed when they realized it was actually UTurn!

   Ethan said to Stan and Josh bitterly as he got on his iPhone, "There they are. I thought they would fail without me. It's that damn Hawthorne! He controls that band with an iron rod."

   Stan rolled his eyes, and screamed out Amanda's name. Then he waded through the crowd to get a little closer, and he, once again, screamed her name.

   At the same UTurn (aka Here We Go) were performing the first song of the night, Hostage. During the performance, Amanda heard her name being called out. Usually her professional name, 'Mandy,' would be called out, but not 'Amanda.' She looked around, and saw Stan!

   She got scared, but she kept dancing and singing. After the song was over, Andrew approached her. He whispered to her, "I saw Stan. Just keep performing, and act like nothing's wrong."

   Amanda realized that Andrew knew, so she nodded. Then it was time to perform the next song, You're My Heaven. She sang the first verse, but while she was performing, she saw Stan walking closer to the stage. He looked like he was about to climb onto the stage!

   Some of the members noticed, including Andrew. Andrew decided to take matters into his own hands. He turned off his microphone, and went downstage towards the screaming audience. He reached out to the audience until he reached Stan.

   He grabbed Stan's shirt, and he told him, "You f*ck off from Amanda! She's out there performing, and we don't have time for your shit!"

  Stan then told Andrew off, "Oh, Amanda doesn't have time for me? She never does! She always blows me off!"

   "It's because we're busy, or are you too dumb to see that?"

   "Just because you were the smartest guy in school doesn't make me dumb!"

   "Get away from the stage!"

   "No! I need to confront Amanda!"

   "Not tonight!"

   "I'll fight you!"

  Just as Andrew was about to be pulled off the stage, he was picked up by Trevor and Justin. Andrew turned on his microphone, and went back to dancing. Stan then backed away from the stage.

   After several songs, UTurn sold their limited amount of copies of their mixtape CD, Rebellion. They went to the back of the building to leave the nightclub. As the were about to walk out, Andrew asked Amanda, "What was Stan doing here?"

   As Amanda was about to answer, the band opened the door. Right then and there, cameras flashed in front of their eyes. It was the paparazzi! The band has gained more attention since they moved to Beverly Hills, but not like this!

   They tried not to look into the cameras as they walked to their large car. Justin was the driver, and he drove recklessly. Some of the paparazzi were chasing the band. He sped through red lights, and kept doing this until he was able to lose them.

   After almost an hour of driving, the band arrived at their new house. Once they entered, Andrew grabbed Justin, and scolded him, "What the f*ck were you doing?! We could've been arrested for speeding through traffic lights!"

   Justin argued, "Oi, I had to! The paparazzi was chasing us! I had to lose them!"

  With that, Andrew and Justin got into a yelling match. Then Amanda yelled, "Can you two boys shut up? We have a more important issue, like why was Stan in the audience?"

   Andrew turned to Amanda as he said, "Yeah, why was he there?"

   Amanda answered, "That's the thing, I don't know, and I'm scared."

   Just then, Bailey spoke up after she looked on her iPhone, "There's even a bigger problem. Riley was with her boyfriend Marcus to watch us perform. She just texted me to tell me that she saw Ethan in the audience."

   That made the members nervous. Alyson responded, "That's not good. If Ethan's there, then he might try to report us to Maurice."

   Trevor asked, "Do you think he was the one who sent those paparazzi to the club?"

   Andrew replied, "Only if he lured them there. I bet he told him that either Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan was in the club."

   Alyson said sternly, "Whatever happens, we must stick together and fight for this band."

   Then surprisingly, Stacie blurted out, "Well, what if we're tired of fighting? What if we can't keep fighting?"

   The members were shocked by this. Alyson told her, "Look, we're not gonna give up. We're all tired, but we must keep defending UTurn."

   With that, Stacie was silent.

   It's morning, and UTurn were asleep in their house. Amanda was dressed semi-dressy as she was about to sneak out. Just as she grabbed the keys to her new car, she heard a guy's voice saying her name.

   She turned, and saw Andrew. He was half-awake in his sweats and messy, black hair. She asked him, "What is it?"

   Andrew replied groggily, "I just got up. Where you going?"

   She replied nervously, "Um, I have to meet someone. That's all."

   Andrew really woke up as he asked, "It's not that dick Stan, is it?"

   "Andrew..."

  "That guy somehow followed you to Hollywood, and he almost climbed onto the stage. He's crazy!"

   "I just need to talk to him," Amanda said as she grew more irritated.

   "You don't deserve to be treated like crap. You need some other guy, one who won't do crazy shit."

   "Oh yeah, who?"

   Then Andrew got extremely close to Amanda's face. He wanted to kiss her so bad, but he didn't. All he did was breathed into her face, and his blue eyes stared into her blue eyes.

   Amanda started to feel uncomfortable, so she asked, "Andrew, what are you doing?"

   Andrew then sadly walked away. She looked at him weirdly as she left the house.

   Several minutes later, Amanda arrived at a posh coffee-shop. She wore sunglasses to try to disguise herself. She saw Stan at a table. She grabbed a chair, and got into his face.

   She said to him sternly, "What you saw last night was something we had to do. Whatever you do, don't report us to our manager. He'll kill us if he found out."

  Stan asked, "Why are you all doing this? Is it really worth risking your contract getting breached some stunt?"

   Amanda got suspicious, so she asked, "How do you know what's on the contract?"

   "That's not important," he said hastily, "what's important is that you are with me and not with that stupid band."

   Stan gave a forced smile while Amanda was disgusted. She grabbed his lukewarm coffee cup, and splashed it on him. He angrily asked, "What the hell did you do that for?!"

   Amanda responded angrily, "UTurn is not a stupid band! You don't know us! Oh sure, you grew up with half the band, but you don't really know them! If you knew what UTurn is going through, you wouldn't be calling and texting me, and you wouldn't resort to stalking me!"

   Stan abruptly got up from his chair as he angrily told her, "Why won't you trust me?"

   "You treated everyone in the band like shit!"

   "You're just like those f*cked up popular people! They're always pretty on the surface, but evil on the inside! Hawthorne has some hold on you, or else you wouldn't ignore me."

   With that, Amanda slapped Stan hard on his face. Then she storm out of the coffee-shop. As she was walking up to her car, her hair was yanked by Stan. She screamed in pain, but then he covered her mouth.

   Then Stan coldly said into her ear, "I'm gonna make sure Hawthorne never controls you."

  Suddenly, out of nowhere, Stan was punched in the face by a guy. Stan let go of Amanda. They both saw who was. It was Andrew! Andrew kept beating up Stan until he was bloodied face and curling on the ground.

  Andrew grabbed Amanda's hand, and ran into his car. He sped off. When the two returned to UTurn's LA home, Amanda was about to speak, but she was stopped. Instead, she was kissed on the lips...by Andrew!

  She was shocked by his lustful kissing, but she kissed him back. He didn't push her away immediately, but after a few seconds, he did. They were both breathless and shocked.

   Amanda asked, "Why'd you kiss me?!"

   Andrew asked, "Why didn't you push me away?!"

   "Answer my question first!"

   Andrew then became quiet for a few seconds, but he spoke up, "Ever since you told me that you were pressured by your friends to disrespect me, I started to have second thoughts about you. Then you told me that you hid most of the gifts I gave you in your closet. I started to realize that maybe you weren't so bad after all.

   "When I saw you kissing Stan, I felt something. I couldn't figure out what it was. It kept getting stronger, and I tried to fight it. I found myself wanting to kiss you just to see what it was, but I kept stopping myself. Now here we are."

   Amanda asked, "What do you feel now?"

  Andrew bit his lip as he looked straight into her eyes. He told her, "I'm in love with you, and I want us to try again. Now, why didn't you push me away?"

  She blushed as she replied, "You never kissed me like that before. You would always give me light kisses, but this was a full-on make-out. Besides, you're a caring yet crazy guy. You saved me from Stan, who I never want to go back to."

   Then the two teens sat in silence for a minute or two. Andrew then told Amanda, "Can we keep us a secret?"

   Amanda asked, "What about Alyson?"

   "Like I said, we keep us a secret."

  Amanda thought for a moment. She always wanted be back with Andrew, but she grew to accept Andyson. Still, she wanted to make things right with Andrew, even if she might ruin her slowly growing friendship with Alyson.

   She replied nervously, "I want us back, too."

   Then the two kissed passionately. This was going to be an interesting relationship. Will it work?

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THIS IS UTURN'S SONG, 'YOU'RE MY HEAVEN', IN THE VID, AND THEIR OTHER SONG, 'ZERO DEGREES', IS IN THE EXTERNAL LINK>>>