“Isn’t the album enough work?” Rose said. “We busted our asses getting here. Now isn’t it time for us to be on TRL? Well, we busted our asses. Cassidy here just hopped on at the last minute.”

I took my time spreading my cloth napkin across my lap. I could simultaneously believe and not believe that Rose would say something like this in front of Emma Jake, and our new mentor, Lucy Bowen, who busied herself by tearing Sweet’N Low packets.

“Oh?” Emma Jake said archly. “She hopped in, did she?”

“Well, yeah. We worked so hard to get the attention of the label and finally did. Then they just added her on after she lost Sing It.”

If Emma Jake had a stern face, she didn’t show it. But her voice lost some of its lilt and there was some flint to it. “The label did what was best for the group,” she explained slowly. “Heaven knows I don’t always agree with them on things, but they knew what they were doing. I listened to your record: it would not have worked without Cassidy. Whether you like it or not, and whether you agree with the way that she was brought on or not, the four of you are a team now. You can’t have in-fighting. You can’t act like you resent one another in front of the press. You must get along and you must support one another.” She paused. “You may not be friends after all of this, but you will be like family. And you will have to learn to trust one another, because the rest of the world will love you and hate you and support you and then turn on you. You can rely only on one another. Do you understand?”

Meredith, Yumi, and I nodded. Rose was still, her eyes flickering on the water glasses. She probably wasn’t used to being spoken to like this.

“Rose,” Emma said, and the flowery tone was back. She touched one of Rose’s hands.

Rose jerked her arm a little but not away. “Yeah.”

“I don’t mean to lecture you, especially here. This was supposed to be a celebratory meal.”

As if summoned at the perfect moment, Jerome placed our dishes in front of us. I ate as slowly as I could with half-bites to make the food last longer, and I noticed the rest of the table did the same, picking gently at plates and eating around any oil spots. Only Emma Jake ate with gusto.

When the check arrived, Emma said, “Cassidy, dear, please stay a moment.” The others excused themselves and I waited, wondering what Emma wanted to tell me alone.

“Listen, sweetheart.” She straightened up after signing the check with a flourish. “I can see you’re going to have a little bear of a time with Rose. It’s not easy being the odd one out, but I know you are good for the group. Rose is very headstrong and she’s in it for the long haul. Be careful not to get hurt. I don’t think she means everything she says, but keep your guard up just in case.”

“I know,” I said. “I will.”

Emma Jake walked me to the door, patted my arm like a doting grandmother, then, to my confusion, she meandered back inside. I stepped into the sun, blinking brightly, and rejoined the others.

Lucy smiled as a shiny silver Jag was pulled forward by the valet. “Who wants to sightsee in Malibu?”

9.

May 2001

NYC

Cassidy

Would you like a drink before takeoff, Ms. Holmes?” A flight attendant hovered by my elbow. I accepted a sparkling water and glanced over at my companions in our private jet, courtesy of Big Disc for landing The Sunrise Show. Our tour manager, Ian, messed with his PalmPilot; Merry was asleep, head lolling off to one side, blond curls bobbing. Yumi was flipping through in-flight entertainment, and Rose surprised me by pulling out a Sudoku book and filling in one of the grids with a pen.

Rose saw me looking at her and a faint tint of red appeared on her cheeks. I wondered if she was still upset with me after the talk with Emma Jake. We’d barely exchanged two words after our lunch at the Ivy, not since Lucy had driven us, somewhat jerkily, toward the lowering sun. The road had gotten narrower, a little twisty. We’d popped out on the coast, and she’d made a right turn on the PCH, which ran parallel to the beach. I had sat on the right rear side, having been squashed on the edge with Yumi in the middle seat as buffer. Meredith had claimed the front passenger seat, chattering away with Lucy about boys.

We’d made it all the way to Malibu, where the Jag climbed another twisty road and stopped near a wrought-iron gate at the end of a cul-de-sac. “This totally hot A-lister lives here,” Lucy said, waggling her brows. “He won’t mind if we park in front of his house.”

We got out and stretched. It’d been at least an hour crammed into the back seat of the car. Rose walked away from all of us, facing the ocean, which we could see through a small smattering of trees among the manicured lawns. The horizon line was a gray smudge in the distance, perfectly bisecting the sky and water.

Meredith whistled. “Gorgeous. I’m going to have to buy a place over here.”

“It’s prettier down by the water, but if you’ve never seen the houses up here, you don’t know what you’ve missed out on coveting.” Lucy laughed.

“You don’t live out here?” Yumi said, sounding surprised.

“Ha! I wish. I’m still a minor, remember? I live with my parents in a boring old ranch house in Sherman Oaks. But once I’m eighteen . . .” She clapped her hands together forcefully. “I’m going to buy myself a nice birthday present with a pretty chunk of my Jet-Setters money.”

Rose, I noticed, kept her distance. Yumi stood next to me and murmured, “Ignore her. She’s in one of her moods.”

“I don’t get her,” I said fiercely.

Yumi touched my elbow. “I’ll explain later, okay?”

Lucy was still waxing poetic about real estate as Meredith loudly agreed. We returned to the car, drove down to the beach, and began to dig our heels into the sand with wind whipping our hair. Yumi motioned me over to her. She glanced over at the other girls, but with the wind they wouldn’t be able to hear us anyway. “I wish you’d be a little more patient with Rose,” she began. She held up a hand when I started to protest. “It’s still hard on her that Viv isn’t with us.”

“Oh.” I looked at Rose, who hadn’t joined us down on the strip of beach. She was still leaning against Lucy’s car. I had so many questions, but could never bring up Vivian without feeling like I was intruding on something personal. “What’s she like?”

“Beautiful voice. Same register as yours, but different. And pretty. In an unconventional way.” Yumi touched her cheek with a finger, remembering. “Dark hair, curly, kinda wild. We all kind of grew up together, but Rose and Viv knew each other the longest. It was Rose’s idea that we become a singing group. She saw a music video on MTV and decided we should do that.” She smiled. “Rose said it was important that we blend. That none of us overpowered the other. We were all equals in the group, she said.” She was hugging herself against the wind.

“And then what?” I asked.

“We were pretty good. I mean, without a band, singing along to karaoke a lot. We made a tape of ourselves singing a blended version of different covers and sent them to a bunch of companies. Big Disc actually wrote back.”