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Editor Note: The images used for this story were purchased and used under royalty-free license* from Istockphoto.com . ~Sephrena
Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

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Sarah Carerra Book 2: Summer Medley

Chapter 2.11 - It's Just a Job

Around 7:00 PM there was a knock on our front door. I got up from where I had been reading on the couch and opened it to find Emily standing there.

"'Bout time," I said with a goofy smile. She smiled back at me. I stepped aside and she came in. I thought that Emily was going to visit earlier this morning to watch us practice, but she had not showed. Then I noticed the guilty look on her face, and I knew that she was up to something.

"I'm sorry," she tried to explain. "I had something that I needed to do today."

"That's okay," I told her. "Sarah dominates my life, but you are welcome in it anytime you want to come. I don't expect you to be there all the time."

I saw Emily sigh in relief, and I began to worry. Why had she been so concerned that she thought I wouldn't understand?

"What is it?" I asked. She immediately looked nervous again at my question. I didn't know what she was so worried about, but I became even more concerned.

"Don't be mad, okay?" she asked. That didn't make me feel any better about whatever she was hiding.

"Emily, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I got a job," she blurted out. For a second I didn't think that I had heard her correctly.

"A what?" I asked. A job?

"I got a job," she repeated. "My parents wanted me to get a summer job. I started today."

"And you didn't tell me before?" I asked. I was hurt that she felt she had to hide this from me.

"You didn't tell me about Sarah!" she argued back. I jolted at those words. I didn't know why her having a job seemed to be such a big deal! It's not like I thought any less of her or anything! I just thought that we were close enough that we shared everything!

"That was completely different," I yelled back. "I wanted to tell you! But you hid this from me because you didn't want me to know!"

She slumped over at my pronouncement. "It's just that..." she started. "I mean, you have this wonderful new life as your job. I work for slightly more than minimum wage at the music store in the mall. It doesn't quite compare."

I sighed. She WAS worried about what I thought. "Emily, I don't care where you work. I understand why you felt you should get a job. There's nothing wrong with working at the music store. I'm just sad that you felt you had to keep it a secret until now."

She sighed again, and we stood there in silence for a moment. "I'm sorry, Megan," she finally said. "It's just that I didn't want you to think that I was abandoning you or anything."

I choked out a short laugh at her logic. She wasn't abandoning me! She was doing what she needed to do for her own life. I immediately wrapped my arms around her.

"Emily!" I exclaimed. "You AREN’T abandoning me. We're sisters now, remember? We made that pact the night of the concert. And sisters don't have to spend every single moment with each other. So you got a job - big deal. I'm gone most days at my own job anyway. No, you aren't abandoning me, you're abandoning Ethan."

She tensed up in my arms, but when she stepped back in surprise at my words, she finally saw the lopsided grin on my face. Then she broke out in laughter. I joined in easily. We moved over to the couch and sat down.

"Tell me all about it," I said. She rolled her eyes at me.

"Thanks for being nice," she replied. "But you seriously don't want to hear about my day, do you?"

"Why not?" I asked. "This is an important day in your life. Your first job! How was it?"

She smiled, which surprised me. I didn't think that she would have enjoyed her first day of work, but she was surprising me.

"It was actually pretty fun," she said. "I think that going with you to Sarah's stuff really opened my eyes to the music industry. I found it fun to be surrounded by people who were looking for a certain song, and helping them to locate it. I thought I was going to hate it, and it isn't necessarily the best job in the world, but it could be worse. I certainly won't mind going back all summer."

"Good," I said, returning her smile with one of my own. It was nice to see her happy.

"So how was your work day?" she asked. I smiled. I was pretty sure that my work was a lot more fun than her work was.

"It was pretty good," I told her. "I played them all of my new songs, and we ended up working on 'You Can't Hurt Me'--"

"Megan," my dad interrupted us from the hallway. I looked over toward where he was standing. He was looking down at a folder. When he looked up at me, he looked surprised to see I had company. "Oh, hi, Emily."

"Hi, Mr. Campbell," she replied.

Dad looked back down at the folder before turning back to me. "Do you want to go over the endorsements?"

"Sure," I replied. Emily might have missed most of the day, but this was something that she probably would like to be a part of.

"What endorsements?" Emily asked. I grinned at her.

"Dad has a big list of people who want to have Sarah endorse their products," I explained. I took the folder from my dad and placed it on the table in front of the couch. Emily leaned in closer. I could tell she had already been hooked. "Let's see what we've got."

There were all kinds of products waiting for my approval. Makeup, clothes, and skin care companies seemed to make up the majority of the requests, but there were also plenty from drink companies, food companies, a few cell phone companies, even a car company had submitted a request.

"Ooh!" Emily said when we turned the page to another makeup company. "You gotta do this one! They have amazing lip gloss."

I looked at the page. Starlight Cosmetics was the name of the company. The name did sound somewhat familiar, but I couldn't be sure I'd ever heard of them.

"I don't know," I replied. "I'd want to talk to Stephanie about any makeup endorsements. She's the one who would have to use the products on me. We'd probably want to ask Julia about any clothes."

"Give Stephanie a call," my dad suggested. "There are plenty of makeup endorsements here. I bet there's one here from whatever she's been using on you."

"Okay," I replied. She had given me a bunch of makeup to use myself, but I didn't think that they were all from one company. I pulled out my cell phone and scrolled through my contacts until I found Stephanie's name. The phone rang twice before she answered.

"Hello?" Stephanie answered the call.

"Hi, Stephanie, it's Sarah," I said.

"Hi, Sarah," she replied. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well," I said. Then I remembered that the last time I had seen her was when I left the studio in tears a few days ago. "Much better than Saturday," I added.

"That's good to hear," she said, and I could almost hear the smile in her voice. I knew she had been worried about me after that reaction. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm looking through some endorsement requests with my dad," I told her. "There are a lot of makeup requests, and Emily thinks that I should take one. But I didn't want to do anything without talking to you first."

"Oh!" she said in surprise. I immediately understood that she wasn’t usually consulted before someone took an endorsement deal.

"Well, there are a lot of good brands available these days," she continued. "I've been using one called Starlight for most of what I've used on you. They have a young, teen look to them that really complements your skin."

"Really?" I asked excitedly. "Because that's the one I'm holding in my hand right now!"

She laughed. I laughed. Dad and Emily even laughed, even though they had no idea what we were talking about.

"Yes," she said. "If you've got an endorsement from them, I'd accept it. We're already using many of their products. It would only make sense."

"Okay," I replied. "We're just going over our options, but I'll definitely keep that in mind."

"Alright, Sarah," she said. "And thank you for consulting me. Most people just tell me what they want me to use on them. It's nice to get a say for once."

This time I laughed. Stephanie was a master when it came to makeup. I wouldn't dream of telling her what to do. I might give her an idea of what type of look that I wanted, but I'd always trusted her ideas.

"You're welcome," I told her. "I'll see you in the morning, right?"

"Of course," she said. "You've got me for the whole photo shoot. We'll make sure that you look fabulous, and I'll bring lots of Starlight with me."

I chuckled. "Alright, Stephanie. I'll see you then."

"Bye, Sarah," she said, and I could hear the chuckle returned in her voice.

"Bye, Stephanie," I replied before hanging up the phone.

"What did she say?" Emily asked immediately. I knew she wanted me to take the Starlight contract.

"Starlight it is," I replied. "That's what she's been using on me, so it makes total sense."

"Good," Dad interjected before Emily could say something else. "That makes one. I'd like to start with three for now, and we can branch out when you have some more time. Sound good?"

"Yeah," I replied and smiled back at him. I didn't know exactly what my schedule was supposed to be like this summer, but I had a pretty good feeling that I was going to be busy all the way until the time school started again.

We returned to going through the endorsements. I couldn't believe some of the things that people wanted Sarah to endorse! For example, why on earth would Sarah care about what type of fertilizer was used on her lawn? I had absolutely no idea what we used at our house, and I really couldn't care less.

"What's this thing?" Emily asked a while later. I looked over to where she was staring at one of the papers. There was a picture of something that looked vaguely like a cross between a phone and an iPod.

"The Jive?" I asked, reading the name off the paper.

"Oh!" Dad responded excitedly. "That would be a good one." He reached his hand out, and Emily passed him the paper.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"It's an MP3 player," he replied. "It's from a new technology company that is hoping to compete with the iPod. It actually looks like it might have a chance. It'll be an uphill struggle, though. But this thing is really cool. One of their advertising guys came by the office the other day with one."

"Do you think it's worth having Sarah endorse it?" I asked him. He seemed really excited about this endorsement, which made me think that it would probably be a good one to go after.

"Yes," he replied. "It fits well with your music, and if I remember right..." He looked back down at the paper. "Yes, they want an appearance from you at the unveiling in August in New York. That's the same weekend that you are performing there, so it would work out really well."

"Wait," I replied, sidetracked by his knowledge of my tour dates. "Do you know where I'm going to be performing already?"

"Some," he replied. "Scott is setting up a concert here at the end of July, and I've been working on setting one up in New York. You'll have more concerts before school starts, but we aren't quite sure where yet."

I'd always wanted to go to New York! I hoped that I would have a chance to see some of the sights while we were there.

"What else do I have going?" I asked him. Dad had tried to keep me in the loop, but I got the impression that there were events set up that I didn't even know about yet.

"Nothing you aren't already aware of," he said. "I wanted to set up a small concert and CD signing somewhere on the day your album is released, but I haven't been able to find a good place yet. It may be too late by now anyway."

"You might be able to do it at the mall," Emily said. "I'm sure that my boss would love to have you signing CDs at the store. And the mall is always doing stuff like that."

"Hmm," Dad said. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea. But where do you work? I didn't know that you had a job."

"She started today," I offered before allowing Emily to continue.

"I work at 'The Treble with Music' in the mall," she said.

"Alright," Dad said. "If you think that your boss would be up for it, I'll give him a call tomorrow. The sooner we get working on this, the better."

I smiled. I'd been going to that store for years. It would be a fitting place to have my first CD signing!

"Anyway," Dad turned us back toward what we had been doing. "Do you want me to look into the Jive?"

"Yes," I replied. I couldn't imagine using something other than my iPod, but I couldn't say no when he was that excited about it. “But I’d like to see it first. Is that possible?”

“I’m sure they’d be willing to let you use one before you agree to be their spokesperson,” Dad replied. “Let me give them a call and see what we can set up.”

“Sounds good,” I replied. I was interested in seeing if it was better than my iPod.

"That just leaves one more," he continued. "You've selected two that wanted commercials. I think we should only look at the ones that want print ads for the third. You've already got so much going this summer."

"Okay," Emily and I replied before turning back to the folder.

It took us another two hours to narrow down the endorsement opportunities to one that we were happy with. None of the others stood out as ‘must haves’, or at least none of the ones that fit Dad's description of being print-only. There were a few that I would have liked to take if it hadn't been for their desire to have me appear somewhere for them or have a commercial made. But in the end, I think it all worked out.

We ended up selecting a perfume called 'Stardom' to endorse for the print ads. Emily loved how two out of three of my endorsements had the word ‘star’ in their names. I was just happy to have the chance to endorse anything.

The 'Stardom' endorsement deal was contingent on how the perfume actually smelled. They hadn't provided us with a sample, so we didn't have anything other than the name to base our decision off of. Dad said that he would set up a meeting where we could see what it smelled like and come to a formal agreement if we liked it. If we didn't, there were plenty of other things that I could endorse.

By the time that Emily returned home and I had gotten ready for bed that night, I was excited to take the next step in Sarah's life. I knew that I had to get back out there in front of the public. I was still nervous about it, but I was also starting to feel something else that I hadn't felt since waking up in the hospital.

It was a longing; a craving for something that I knew all too well. I wanted to feel the rush again. I wanted to get up on a stage and sing until I was overwhelmed by the wonderful feelings that it brought to me. I couldn't wait for that chance!

But sadly, it would have to wait for a few more days. I would feel that rush Friday morning when I once again appeared on 'Wake Up!' to sing. But until then, I still had work to do. I was really interested to see what was in store for me at the photo shoot tomorrow.

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Have you been to see Sarah Carerra perform?
While it will still be some time before Sarah Carerra takes the stage on her concert tour, I am looking for information about any of the venues that she will be performing at. If you've had a chance to go to one of the venues listed on the next page or at www.sarahcarerra.com, I invite you to private message me or email me at angeljedigirl (at) gmail.com a short description of your experiences.

I'm looking for information on what you thought made the event so exciting. What did you enjoy most? If it was a fair, were there other attractions that were fun to see and experience?

I can only craft a story that is as good as my experiences, but I have not been to many of the places that Sarah will visit. There is a lot of information online to help write the story the way I want it, but your experience may make it memorable.

Thanks in advance,
Megan