CHAPTER EIGHT: DELIBERATELY SEEING DOUBLE

August 2, 2003

 It’s now August, and No Rules are about to promote their new single, Tonight. As for their previous single, Let Me Go, it did good worldwide, but it charted high in Britain.

 Most of the members were in their dressing room when Ashley angrily entered the room. Edward asked, “What’s the problem?”

 Ashley replied angrily, “You’re not gonna believe this. skate5 are scheduled to perform today on The Saturday Show. Today! Before we perform our new single!”

 The members were shocked. Edward, feeling irritated, asked, “So let me get this straight. skate5 are going to perform here, today, the same time as us?”

 “And that‘s not all. suck5 are premiering a new song, the same day we premiere our new song!”

 The NR members got fed up with this crap, so they stormed out of their dressing room to confront skate5. When they approached them, the NR members saw that the rival band were dressed exactly like NR! Jake was dressed like Edward; Kimmy was dressed like Sophie; Libby was dressed like Ashley; Chelsea was dressed like Hannah; and Matt was dressed like Alex.

 Kimmy said in a mocking tone, “Well, isn’t it More Rules, or should I as say ‘Cloned Rules’?”

 Jake, instead, pleaded, “No Rules, I’m sorry. I didn’t know we were going to dress like you.”

 Kimmy gritted her teeth as she said to Jake, “Shut the f*ck up, Jacob!”

 He said to her angrily, “Stop calling me ‘Jacob’!”

 “Isn’t that your name, Jacob Tisdale?”

 Jake rolled his eyes.

 Edward said angrily to the rival band, “Look, you’re not going out dressed like us!”

 Kimmy said, “Why? Is it cuz, oh I don’t know, our fans will call you ‘skate5 Rip-offs’?”

 Ashley, “Holy shit, you set us up!”

 Kimmy then evilly laughed, “There’ll be no way to explain this away. Oh, and our new song and dance routine are similar to your new song. It’s all strategic. Get ready to fall hard.”

 With that, skate5 walk to the TV stage. The 7 went back to their dressing room. Hannah grabbed a laptop, and went online. Edward asked sternly, “Hannah, what are you doing?”

 Hannah replied, “I’m going on all the No Rules fan-forums to warn our fans about what skate5 are doing to us.”

 With that, Edward put down the laptop screen and pulled out the internet cord. She was irritated by this, so she asked, “Why’d you do that?”

 “One, you don’t have an account on any of the forums. Two, you can’t. No one must know what’s going on between us and skate5.”

 Ashley chimed in, “You know that Kimmy said that skate5’s new song sounds like our new song with a similar dance routine? Like, how would she know about our music, costumes, and dance routines?”

 With that, Alex jumped out of his chair. He said angrily, “I knew it! I knew something was up when our new music sounds like suck5!”

 Charlie then taunted, “You stupid f*ck, you’re paranoid.”

 With that, Alex yelled, “I’M NOT F**CKING PARANIOD!”

 Sophie said sternly, “Look, Alex’s got a point. It looks like Kimmy has something to do with this.”

 Alex exclaimed, “You see what I mean!?”

 With that, Alex and Charlie got into a yelling match. Just when the two boys were about to beat each other up, Edward stopped them. He tried  to stay calm as he said, “L-Look, let’s just perform our new song, and see what happens. Okay? Maybe no one will notice.”

 Alex said, “But-”

 “No buts!”

 Ashley said sternly, “I’m with Edward on this. Let’s just see what happens. For all we know, we could be panicking over nothing.”

 The NR members reluctantly agreed to calm down and perform. In the meantime, they watch skate5’sperformance of their new single, Distracted. They noticed the song did sound similar to NR’s song, Tonight, but it was different. Even the dance routine was similar yet different.

 Then it was time for NR to perform. While they lip-syncing and dancing to Tonight, the audience was confused. They liked NR’s new song, but they weren’t sure why they seemed similar to skate5.

 Then the song was over. The NR members plastered on fake smiles, to hide the fact that there’s drama between them and skate5. When NR got off stage, their smiles quickly turned into frowns.

 The NR members were met with skate5 backstage. Kimmy gave an evil grin. Edward growled, “You’re not gonna get away with this.”

 Kimmy gave an evil laugh as she said, “I already have.”

 Alex said sternly, “You’re behind all of this, are you?”

 Kimmy then taunted, “So you can actually talk! I thought you were mute!”

 “Trying to destroy us, are you not?”

 “Wow, mute metro-sexual jerk has brains! You thought you were just an arrogant airhead!”

 (In public, Alex acts like he’s arrogant and a metro-sexual; but in private he’s really sweet and hates designer anything.)

 Sophie said angrily, “Leave my boyfriend alone! And he’s got a point!”

 Ashley asked suspiciously, “Kimberly, you’re trying to destroy No Rules?”

 Kimmy replied “Oh, why would I do that, More Clones?”

 Edward exclaimed, “You’re gonna pay for this!”

 With that, NR stormed into their dressing room.

 A few minutes later, Hannah and Jake met in another room in the TV studio. She said to him sternly, “Jake, tell me what’s going on. Is Kimmy really trying to destroy No Rules?”

 Jake explained, “I’m still trying to find out, but this is oddly suspicious. I looked into our bank account, and I saw 1000 pounds being withdrawn almost daily back in April. Kimmy was the one withdrawing the money. I hacked into Kimmy’s computer, and I saw some reminders. She was planning to meet with No Rules’ PR team, the band’s record labels, Epic and Sony. I’m guessing Kimmy found out she was hacked cuz whilst I was looking, she erased everything on her computer. From what it looks like, Kimmy was meeting with your people and bribing them to make you seem like you‘re ripping off skate5.” 

 Hannah heavily sighed as Jake said, “I still need to investigate further, but I’m convinced Kimmy is destroying No Rules.”

 She then sadly said, “I feel helpless.”

 “Why?”

 “I want to tell the No Rulers what Kimmy’s doing and save No Rules. But if I tell them, they’ll grill me how I knew. They’ll find out I’ve been talking to you, and they’ll be pissed. But I don’t want to see this band destroyed.”

 “I know how you feel. Let me figure this out, and I’ll do whatever I can to save No Rules. Even if it means saving them secretly.”

 With that, Hannah and Jake hugged.

 At the same time, the other NR members were in their dressing room. Alex was on the laptop, reading the NR fan-forums to read the fans’ reactions. Sophie asked calmly, “So how’s our fans reacting?”

 Alex, irritated by what he read, said, “They’re suspicious. They’re questioning why skate5 dressed like us. Some of them are trashing skate5. Some are fighting with the skate5’s fans. Others are defending us, saying it was skate5 ripping us off.”

 Just then, Kimmy barged into NR’s dressing room. Edward asked angrily, “What do you want, Hudson?”

 Kimmy mocked “Ooo, calling me by my last name, are we?”

 “What do you want?”

 Kimmy, once again, evilly grinned, “I just wanna say that soon More Clones will blurt out that they’re having problems with their record labels.”

 Ashley said sarcastically, “Oh wow, you’re psychic.” Then she said angrily, “Look, we’re not going to ‘blurt’ out that we’re having problems. Besides, how do you know about our problems?”

 Edward added, “Yea, and what makes you think we’ll ’blurt’ our problems, assuming we have some?”

 Kimmy said, “I have my ways, and my sources.”

 With that, Kimmy left the dressing room, and in came Frankie. She asked, “What happen?”

 Edward replied, “Nothing. Just Hudson being mental.”

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IN THE EXTERNAL LINK IS WHAT BOTH NO RULES AND SKATE5 DRESS LIKE. IN THE VIDEO IS SKATE5'S SINGLE, 'DISTRACTED'.>>>