"5 Mics: Rock, Rock On!"

[Sweet Meat aka CC]

“I’m tellin’ ya, that n!gga be hittin’ high notes that would freak Mariah out!”, Shawntae’ laughed as she and Deja carried a few refreshments inside Dru’s headquarters. They were having a get together to watch the Roy vs. Lennox match.

“Now, you know you need to stop!”, Deja laughed as she wiped one of her eyes that had watered up from laughing so hard. “If Sco’ heard what you were tellin’ me about him, he would go off fo’ real!”

“I’m sayin’ though. The first time he hit one o’ those notes, my pits and rotts started howlin’ like crazy!”, Shawntae’ replied.

By this time, both she and Deja were holding on to the kitchen table and countertop as they laughed uncontrollably.

“Damn! I hope it’s funny!!! We heard yall all the way down the otha’ end of the hall!”, Scola chuckled as he and Sisqo came walking into the kitchen. Scola came up behind Shawntae to give her a kiss, but she was laughing too hard to turn around and look at him. Deja ran over to Sisqo and buried her head in his shoulder as she laughed even harder when she saw Scola.

“You aight?”, Sisqo laughed as he patted her on the back. Deja could only shake her head from side to side as her body continued to shake with laughter.

He looked at Scola and Shawntae and shrugged his shoulders. “Here, girl! Take some o’ these napkins and dry yo’ eyes. You wettin’ me all up and sh!t!”, he teased.

“Woo lawdy! Thanks, man!”, she replied while dabbing her eyes. Then she began to walk over to the kitchen door to head up to the rec room.

Reaching into a bag of chips, Scola shook his head and said, “I wonda’ about Jill- Scott-Not sometimes.” He always called her that or Jill’s broke-ass twin whenever she rocked her curly ‘fro.

Deja turned back around in the doorway and glared at Scola. “So you wanna take it there, huh? Aight, you asked fo’ it!”

While Shawntae’ was behind him putting her finger up to her mouth to signal Deja to be quiet, Deja cleared her throat and hit a series of off-key but high notes mimicking Jill.

Scola’s whole facial expression changed from one of surprise to one of embarrassment, and finally anger although he chuckled.

“Now, my brotha’, can you top that?! Oh…wait a minute, I heard that you could!”, Deja giggled as she bowed and walked out of the kitchen.

Shawntae’ burst out laughing but turned her back to Scola when he turned around to look at her. He glanced at Sisqo who was trying his best to hold in his laughter after getting an idea of what the inside joke was about. All of a sudden, Scola scooped Shawntae’ up by her waist and shouted for Sisqo to help him catch Deja.

“Look out, Deja!!!!”, Shawntae’ shouted as Scola ran out of the kitchen holding her across his shoulder.

Deja was halfway down the hall when she turned around and saw Sisqo and Scola running down in behind her.

“Oh sh!t!”, she laughed. She took off running and thought she would make a clean getaway but she ran into Jazz as he was coming out of his room to head upstairs. She shouted for him to move out of the way, but it was too late. They both fell to the floor which caused the others to fall along with them.

“Damn, Day!”, Jazz snapped as he began to get up off the floor. “Yall need to cut that sh!t out!” He looked down at his hand to make sure it was okay since he had landed on it when he fell.

Laughing hysterically, Deja and Shawntae’ tried crawling away. However, Scola and Sisqo grabbed them by their ankles and pulled them back towards them. While they kicked and hit at Sisqo and Scola, Scola shouted for Jazz to help them hold the girls down. Jazz grinned knowing this would be the perfect payback to Deja for making him fall. He ran back over to where they were, grabbed Deja from behind, and held her while Sisqo lay across Shawntae’s side.

The next few minutes were filled with a series of laughs, screams, and squeals as Scola snatched Shawntae’s and Deja’s shoes off and began tickling their feet as punishment for discussing his private singing sessions while the guys pinned them to the floor.

Woody and Nokio were on their way down in the elevator from the studio to see what the girls had brought in from the store when they heard all of the commotion.

“What in tha’ world…?!”, Woody laughed when he and Nokio arrived in the hallway and witnessed the shenanigans between the girls and guys.

“Noke, help meeeeeee!!!”, Deja shouted with laughter as she looked back and reached her hand out towards him.

Nokio was about to run to her rescue when Scola snatched one of her socks off, while having a stank look on his face. Then he passed it to Jazz who proceeded to swing it in the air. “Come any closer and this goes right in yo’ face!”, he threatened with an evil grin.

Nokio and Woody held their hands out in front of them while backing up.

“Okay…juss drop the weapon and we’ll do anything you want!”, Nokio laughed.

“Yall think yall so damn funny!”, Deja breathlessly stated after swinging at Jazz when he finally let her go. When she had stood all the way up, she turned around and stomped Scola on the butt while he was lying on the floor across Shawntae’.

“You betta’ gon’ with that!”, he laughed as he hit at her. Then he hit Shawntae’ on the side of her thigh before pulling her up with him.

“Think befo’ you speak about me next time or it’ll be a lot worse!”, he laughed sarcastically as he put his arm around her neck and gave her a peck on the cheek.

“Whateva, n!gga!”, she laughed as she squirmed out of his embrace and hit him as hard as she could on the arm. Then she took off running with Deja towards the elevator.

“See, I told ya we had two of ‘em now!!”, Sisqo laughed as he and the guys also headed towards the elevator.

[Sweet Meat aka CC]

“Stick and move, Roy! Stick and move!”, Deja shouted as she swung her fists in the air while watching the fight. Not only was she a boxing fan, but she was a Roy Jones fanatic.

“Will you calm down?! Damn!!!”, Nokio frowned as he moved away from her as they sat together on the sofa. Her elbow had almost taken him out.

“I’m sayin’! Roy gotta represent so I won’t lose my bet!”, she replied with excitement. She and Nokio had made a bet that if Roy won, Nokio would have to keep her home clean for a whole week. But if Roy lost, Nokio made a bet that whenever the urge, well…he made a bet that Deja wouldn’t complain about if she lost. The way he saw it, she would still get something out of the deal one way or another. And on that note, we’ll leave it at that.

“She know Roy ain’t gonna win with his lil’ self!”, Woody laughed.

“Hey ey eyyyyyy! Hold up!!!”, Sisqo shouted glaring at Woody. “Don’t get it twisted, man!”

Woody laughed. “All I’m sayin’ is look at Lennox and then look at Roy! Ain’t no competition there!”

“Whateva, man!”, Sisqo chuckled. “He representin’ all the way!!!”, he shouted as he pumped his fist in the air.

“That’s what I’m sayin’!”, Deja agreed as she reached across Nokio to give Sisqo a pound.

“Mmmmm hmmmm…he sho’nuff is representin’! Baby baybuuuuuhhhhh!!!”, Shawntae’ shouted as she leaned on Scola’s shoulder as they sat together on the floor. She was admiring Roy in his boxing trunks. “The way that n!gga move, he look like he works it in mo’ ways than one!” She looked back at Deja and winked with a devilish grin.

Without warning, Scola moved away from Shawntae’ causing her to lose her balance and fall onto the floor.

“I’m sorry, boo! You know you my one and only!”, she chuckled as she crawled up behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Yeah, whateva!”, he smiled as he turned around to give her a quick kiss.

“Yall females get on my nerves always gawkin’ at men though! But don’t let Halle Berry come on the screen; yall be ready to cut a n!gga!”, Jazz laughed.

“Ya know!”, Nokio replied as he watched Deja damn near drooling every time Roy danced across the screen.

Without taking her eyes away from the tv, she replied, “We do not! And Noke I’ono why you agreein’ with him for. Every time a Toni Braxton video come on, I gotta make up fo’ it lata’ on anyway!”

“Do you mind?! We didn’t ask fo’ all yo damn information!”, Jazz replied with a roll of his eyes.

“Well, you started…oh man! Get up Roy!” Deja was going off when Lennox knocked Roy onto the mat for a third time.

“Awww snap! C’mon baby! Get up, don’t let him punk yo ass out like that!”, Shawntae’ shouted as Deja ran over and joined her on the floor.

Scola turned around and looked at the guys and they all shook their heads in pity.

“They juss don’t know!”, Woody grinned.

Just then, Nokio received a 2-way from The Legend. He and the guys had made an agreement that on the night of the fight, he would 2-way Nokio instead of showing up on the monitor so he wouldn’t interrupt anything in case he had some news to share with them. He would wait until the fight was over if he needed to inform them of anything. Anyway, the message stated that although they’re always called on to complete the most important mission of their lives, this one was truly the most important one.

“What a crock!”, Deja pouted as she jumped up from the floor to join Nokio back on the sofa. Roy had been given a technical knockout.

“Awww, don’t feel bad! You still gonna be a winner lata on!”, Nokio laughed as he put his arm around her shoulder. Then he leaned over and whispered, “The weatherman said it’s ‘sposed to rain lata on tonight”. He knew that rain always did something to her.

“Don’t start nothin’ up in here!”, she huffed as she folded her arms and looked around the room at all of the litter that had piled up from their cups, bottles, and paper and plastic dinnerware.

“Anyway, befo’ we get into that, I gotta two-way Legend back to let him know the fight is ova. He has one of THE most important missions for us to complete.”, Nokio stated as his facial expression changed from one of amusement to one of seriousness.

“Awww man! I wonda’ who we gotta deal with this time!”, Sisqo replied as he laid back on the sofa and placed a throw pillow over his head.

“It’s fo’ damn sho’ it’ll be somebody worth dealin’ with if it means takin’ ‘em down for good. Music is really goin’ down the drain now-a-days.”, Jazz replied as he shook his head.

“Yeah, it’s a shame.”, Woody sighed as he leaned forward in his chair placing his hands on top of his head.

Meanwhile, Nokio gave Scola a look to let him know that he had to quickly think of a way to get rid of Shawntae’. All missions that The Legend went over with them were classified as “top secret”.

“Look boo, I’ma stay back here and help clean up. I’ll be by lata on after I’m finished. You go and get thangs ready.”, Scola told Shawntae’ with a sexy smile that even made Deja think “damn!”.

“Aight, baby!”, Shawntae’ grinned as Scola put his arm around her shoulder and walked her downstairs.

“Playa playa from the Himalayas is what they call him.”, Deja chuckled with a roll of her eyes as she got up and straightened up a little bit to kill time until his return.

A few minutes later after Scola came back upstairs, The Legend appeared on the security monitor.

“Good evening, everyone. As Nokio may have already explained to you all, there’s a mission that needs to be completed asap. A former award-winning artist who has become a washed up nobody has brought some disturbing news to my attention and is willing to do whatever needs to be done to help us out. He explained that the reason for his popularity back in his heyday stemmed from his paying the President of ScanSounds, Mr. Rongdewing, to put his songs on top of the charts. He went on to say that Rongdewing was also responsible for him always winning at the award shows along with countless other that didn’t deserve to win or be on top.

Now your job is to go in the underground world of buying billboard spots and take Rongdewing and his entire operation down. It’s time to bring raw, uncut talent back to the forefront. Although I’m counting on all of you to make this happen, I’m calling on two of you in particular to get the ball rolling. This means that you’ll have to work closely together for a few days, Scola…and Deja.”

“What?!”, they both shouted at once while glaring at one another. The rest of the guys started chuckling while Nokio rolled his eyes and mumbled, “oh sh!t!”.

“Yes, you both heard just what I said.”, The Legend stated. “Now here’s what you two will have to do. Scola, since you’re the new cat on the block, I want you to call Rongdewing first thing Monday morning to set up an appointment for you and Deja to meet with him. Deja will have to play the role of your girl, which I will explain in just a second. Rongdewing won’t be as suspecting of you simply because he really won’t know what your motive is. Besides, I’m pretty sure that he knows the others wouldn’t want to see him under normal circumstances of wanting to buy their way to the top even though he and some of his people have come at them in the past. But we all know that this is a no-no when it comes to true artists who want to earn their success the right way. But when you talk with him, Scola, just convince him that you have convinced the guys to see what he has to offer. After that, the rest will be easy.

Of course the guys, including Scola, didn’t want to have to stoop this low just to bring an enemy down. But after a few minutes of thinking things over, they agreed to The Legend’s request since he obviously knew what he was doing.

[Sweet Meat aka CC]

The Legend then gave Deja instructions on what she had to do.

“Now, the reason why you’ll have to play the role of Scola’s girl is to win over Rongdewing. He’s a sucker for women that already belong to someone else which means he’ll stop at nothing to have you on his arm. Once this takes place, all you gotta do is butter him up enough to get information out of him in order to reveal his dirty and underhanded ways. I know this is asking a bit much considering the type of relationship that you and Scola have, but this is the only way the game can be played.”

Deja was far beyond being pissed with what she had to do even though she knew this was a part of her job.

“Mannnn…! There’s no other way to go about handlin’ this then, huh?!!!”, she demanded as she shook her head while looking at Scola in disgust. He threw her a kiss which made her even more pissed. She rolled her eyes and sucked her teeth at him.

“Unfortunately, there isn’t. But these type of things happen from time to time. It’s called life.”, The Legend nonchalantly replied.

Deja was about to throw him an offensive gesture with her finger, but Nokio came up behind her and grabbed her hands as he held her.

“What the he!! is wrong wit’chu?!”, Nokio whispered into her ear. “Legend is not to be disrespected.”

“Well, he betta’…”, Deja started before The Legend asked if there was a problem.

“Nah, Legend. Deja was juss about to say how she’ll do her best to carry out her duties.”, Nokio smiled as he kissed her on the cheek.

“Brown-noser!”, she mumbled as she chuckled. Nokio slapped her on the hip. “Be quiet!”, he warned.

The Legend cleared his throat and began to speak again. “Now all of you need to get together asap to get things underway. And remember, real music fans everywhere are counting on you all. Good night.” The Legend vanished from the screen.

“I say we all get togetha’ on Monday morning after Scola makes his call.”, Woody suggested. Everybody agreed with him. Then Scola told Deja to be up on time. She was always the last one to wake up whenever she stayed overnight with them.

“Fo’get yo’ ass!”, she snapped at him as she began to make her way downstairs.

“Well, if yall will excuse me, I have somethin’ to take care of.”, Nokio grinned as he followed her out.

“Yeah, me too!”, Scola chuckled as he left to go to Shawntae’s place to spend the rest of the weekend.
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“ScanSounds, Inc. How may I help you?”, a nasally female voice asked when the phone was answered on the third ring.

“G’mornin’. This is Mr. Waller of Dru Hill, and I’d like to speak with Mr. Rongdewing in regards to setting up an appointment to see him at his earliest convenience.”

“I’m sorry, but Mr. Rongdewing just went into a meeting. If you’d like, I could transfer you to his voicemail line so you can leave a message for him.”, the receptionist stated.

“That will be fine. Thank you.”, Scola replied.

After leaving a detailed message, Scola hung up his celly and climbed out of his ride to head inside to meet with the others over breakfast. When he walked inside, he ran into Jazz who was on his way to the kitchen. They both thought it was strange that they smelled breakfast already cooking. Not to mention that the closer they got to the kitchen, the louder Anita Baker’s “No One in the World” seemed to be playing.

“Is it really her, dawg?!”, Scola jokingly asked Jazz when they saw Deja standing at the stove cooking.

“G’mornin’ to you too, foo’!”, she stated as she gave him half a peace sign without turning around to look at him.

“I didn’t know you could burn like this, girl!”, Jazz chuckled as he walked up beside her while rubbing his stomach. “I won’t say nothin’ outta the way to ya until after I’ve finished eatin’!”, he joked.

“Anyway!”, Deja laughed as she pulled her famous “mama’s biscuits” out of the oven.

“Man, we wouldn’t have known jack ‘bout her burnin’ nothin’ if it wasn’t fo’ Noke handlin’ his!”, Scola said with a sly grin as he looked at Jazz. Jazz smiled and gave Scola a head nod of agreement.

“Lemme tell ya a thang or two!”, Deja started as she turned around and pointed the spatula that she was using at Scola. “I’ono what makes yall think that the only time a female wanna fix breakfast is if yall THINK yall have represented! Why can’t I juss do somethin’ nice fo’ my fam every once in a while?!”

“Please! You been down with us fo’ quite sometime now and haven’t done as much as fix us a bowl of cereal and now all of a sudden you wanna wake up this early in the mornin’ to do somethin’ nice! Besides, it’s obvious why you’re doin’ it. Just listen to what’chu playin’!”, Scola laughed as he pulled out a chair to sit down at the table. Jazz joined in with his laughter.

Deja suddenly blushed because she knew that everything Scola had just finished saying was the truth. However, she was going to play it off until the end even though she was having a hard time doing so.

“Look at her! She can’t even stop smilin’!”, Jazz teased as he made his special brew.

“Look…I can’t help if one o’ yall left this CD in the CD player. I felt like hearin’ some music and nothin’ was on the radio, and yall know that Anita’s my girl. And anyway, if that’s what’chall wanna think, then I wonda’ why Sco’ is sittin’ down ready to eat what I’ve cooked. Shawntae’ shoulda already made him a nice, big ol’ breakfast this mornin’!”, Deja stated as she looked at Scola who was about to put one of her biscuits up to his lips. “Or maybe she didn’t feel the need to fix him a damn thang!”, she chuckled.

Jazz threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh.

Pointing his finger at her and winking, Scola told her that Shawntae’ was too weak to get up and make breakfast for him.

“Oh whateva!”, Deja laughed as the other guys came walking into the kitchen.

“Now this is what I’m talkin’ ‘bout!”, Sisqo exclaimed as he watched Deja setting the table with the food she had just finished cooking. She had made scrambled eggs, toast, pancakes, grits, and hashbrowns. She also had a jar of molasses on the table to go along with her mama’s biscuits and strawberry syrup for the pancakes.

“What’s the occasion?”, Woody laughed as he walked to the fridge to pour himself a glass of apple juice.

“Ask Nokio.”, Jazz chuckled as he put his arm around Deja’s shoulder.

“I thought you said you were gonna shut up until after you finish eatin’!”, she shouted as she reached up and elbowed him in the chest.

“Aight, damn! I’ll keep quiet!”, he frowned as he rubbed his chest.

“What they talkin’ ‘bout Day?”, Nokio asked with a sly grin as he looked around at the guys as they made their way to the table to join Scola.

“I’ono! Yo’ guess is as good as mine!”, she replied with a roll of her eyes as she removed her apron and began walking over to the kitchen table to join the others with Nokio following close behind her.

While she wasn’t looking, Nokio gave them a head nod to let them know that he knew what was up with her going through the trouble of fixing them breakfast. Then he made a spanking gesture. Sisqo burst out laughing followed by the rest of the fellas’ laughter. Deja stopped in her tracks and asked them what was so damn funny before turning around to see what Nokio was doing. When she did turn around, he quickly played it off by leaning up against a counter while taking a big swig of orange juice.

“Mmmmmmm, this orange juice is on point! You really outdid yo’self today, boo-bear!”, he grinned as he made a toast to her.

“It’s too early in the mornin’ to try and play me!”, she chuckled as she walked over and began slap boxing with him.

“Do you need a hug, ma? I mean, you have so much violence pent up in you always hittin’ on somebody!”, Sisqo joked when she came back to the table to sit down to eat.

“Whateva!”, she responded with a wave of her hand.

For the next hour or so they went over their plan on how they were going to take Rongdewing down asap.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a bodyguard/homey and a scantily clad redhead sat on either side of his desk, Rondewing listened to Scola’s message from earlier in the morning on his speakerphone. When he was done listening to it, he leaned back in his large, leather recliner.

“Hmmmm…this is very interesting. This new guy must have a way with words because Dru Hill have never wanted to go this route; not even when I had some of my people come up to them at different shows in the past to offer them a piece of the dream. I definitely want to hear what he has to say.”

Rongdewing leaned back up in his chair and returned Scola’s call.
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[Sweet Meat aka CC]

“I gotta run down to the mall to find a few outfits to wear. I wanna look as trashy as possible since I’ma have to be on Sco’s arm for a while.”, Deja joked as she and the guys were almost finished with their meeting.

“You know you can’t wait to walk up in there with me!”, Scola replied as he winked at her.

Immediately afterwards, his phone began to ring. When he looked at his screen, it showed that it was Rongdewing calling him.

“Hold up a sec! It’s him!”, he stated putting a finger up to his mouth to tell everybody to be quiet.

“Hello.”, Scola answered.

“Yes, Rongdewing here. Is this Waller?”

“Yes it is. Thank you for returning my call. I’ve been talking with the guys lately, and I think it’s about time that we really put ourselves out there, ya know. And I was wondering if just the two of us could meet at first so I can give the guys an accurate overview of why we should all come down to meet with you at another time when your schedule permits it.”

“Oh most definitely! There’s nothing more that I would like to do than to help you all out. I have a million and one things I would like go over with all of you. Let’s say you stop by my office tomorrow morning at 10 sharp. We can talk about all of these things then.”

Scola looked at everyone and put his thumb up to let them know that things were going as planned. “Aight. Ten it is! Talk with you tomorrow.”

“Good work, man!”, Sisqo replied giving Scola a pound.

“Well, I’d betta’ get goin’.”, Deja replied as she got up from the table. “I’ll let yall handle the dishes. I did my part!”, she laughed as she ran out of the kitchen to head to the mall.
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“You don’t see anything wrong with this picture?”, Rongdewing’s right-hand man, Big Louis asked.

“No, I don’t!”, Rongdewing replied. “I see Dru Hill as being my money-maker now. They already have a set fan-base which will pull in more money for me once I get them signed to do commercials, comic books, tv shows, and the like. I see it as they have finally come to their senses.”

“If you say so, but somethin’s not settin’ right with me!”, Big Louis stated as he shook his head. “Aren’t these the same dudes who took down your biggest money makers a few months back?” He was referring to D-Pimp, Up2NoGood, The Supreme Ones, and the entire WeStink record company. However, there was no talking any sense into Rongdewing once he saw an easy way to make money for himself.

“Who’s in charge, Lou? Me or you?”, Rongdewing barked as he pointed to Louis and then himself.

“You are.”, Big Louis said as he looked downward.

“Good answer, and don’t you forget it! Now, if you don’t mind, take Mimi here out on a shopping spree. I always love to shower her with the best.”, he stated as he swatted her on the butt when she got up to leave with Lou.

“Stop it, silly!”, she giggled knowing good and well that she loved the attention that she got from Rongdewing. She was a sexy redhead with an IQ of 4 below 0. But that didn’t matter to him. All that mattered was that he had stolen her away from one of his former associates.
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“Day! Will you c’mon?! We don’t have all mornin’ to wait on ya!”, Sisqo shouted as he pounded on Nokio’s bedroom door.

“Look, I like to look my best when I’m goin’ out somewhere. So go sit yo’ ass down and stop rushin’ me! I’ll be out when I’m out!”, she shouted back.

“Noke, you need to come and get yo' girl!”, Sisqo hollered as he headed towards the kitchen where the others were waiting.

“I’ono why you callin’ him for? Like I said, I’ll be out when I’m done!”, Deja shouted as she did some last minute adjusting to her outfit, not knowing that Sisqo had already left from the door.

“Man, yall don’t have the magic touch that I have when it comes to Day!”, Nokio winked at them as he got up from the table to go handle the situation.

“Betta you than me, though!”, Sisqo laughed as he leaned up against a counter.

“All I know is she’s got 10 seconds to come outta there or else!”, Scola huffed as he jumped up from the table like he was going to do something.

Just then Deja came walking into the kitchen holding Nokio’s hand. He had a big grin plastered on his face letting them know that he was running thangs when it came to her.

“You the man!”, Jazz stated as he stared at Deja. He and the others, with the exception of Nokio who had actually seen her new look the night before, were surprised with the female standing in front of them.

She was dressed in a blue denim corset that laced up in the front and a pair of blue denim jeans. She was also wearing a dark blue crochet duster along with a pair of dark blue spike heeled, open-toed mules to show off her pedicured toes that were freshly painted in a shade of dark-blue polish. And sitting on top of her head was a blue denim hat with a large and floppy brim that came down over one of her eyes. Under her hat, she was wearing a straight, shoulder-length, blonde wig. And last but not least, her face was heavily made up. The guys knew that she must’ve meant business with carrying out this mission because wearing more than lip gloss and eyeliner was something that Deja never did. She didn’t have time fo’ all the drama of looking overdressed when it came to her face.

“Damn, ma! I’m lovin’ yo’ new look, but what’s with the hair?!”, Jazz asked with a wide grin as he walked up to her and twirled a piece of the wig through his fingers.

“You didn’t know?”, Scola asked him. “She likes to go from one extreme to anotha’ of lookin’ like a broke-ass somebody! First Jill, then Alicia, and now Blu!”, he laughed.

Walking over to Scola and standing with her back to him, she quickly elbowed him in his abdomen before answering Jazz’s question.

“Lemme move!”, Sisqo chuckled so that he wouldn’t be next since he had laughed along with Scola.

“Shoo’! I figure there’s room for one mo’ blonde bombshell besides Eve and Mary! Anyway, I figure that this’ll grab Rongdewing’s attention even more if I bust up in his office wearing it.”, Deja replied as she turned away from the guys to adjust her corset. “Whoa! My dawgs were ‘bout to run away from me, there!”, she said in frustration.

“Need any help?”, Scola joked as he walked back up to her and placed his arm around her shoulder.

“No thank ya! We can handle it ourselves!”, Nokio chuckled as he came up and playfully pushed Scola out of the way.

“Hey! Might as well get used to this, man, since she gotta pretend to be my girl!”, he stated with a devilish grin and wink.

“Yeah, well try to help them out if you want to and they’ll bite the sh!t outta yo’ hands!”, she threatened him as she headed to the door to leave. “Besides, they’d rather their owner handle them.”

“My point exactly!”, Nokio laughed as he walked up to her pretending to help her out anyway.

“Get away from us!”, she giggled as she swatted his hand.

“Aight, now that you two have had yo’ fun, it’s time for us to be out. The sooner we can push ol’ girl off on Rongdewing and away from me, the betta’!”, Scola stated with a sour look.

“You juss don’t know when to shut yo’ mouf do ya?!”, Deja stated as she turned around and slapped him on the shoulder.

“Do yall two have some pent-up tension fo’ each otha’ that I don’t know about?!”, Nokio joked as he glared at Scola.

“Man, please!”, Scola laughed as he gave him a pound. “You know you can truss me with…her!”

Deja responded to Scola’s statement with an “ummmppphhhh” while rolling her eyes at him.

“Whateva!”, Nokio smiled as he and the rest of the guys climbed into his ride while Deja and Scola climbed into his.

A plan had been made that while Scola and Deja were in the meeting, Nokio and the rest of the gang would park across the street and be on the lookout in case anything happened.
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Scola and Deja were going over what he was going to say in the meeting as they rode an elevator to the 23rd floor of ScanSounds, Inc.

“And remember, don’t say nothin’ unless you’re asked! And even then, don’t say too much ‘cuz I know how yo’ mouf can get!”, he warned her as the doors slid open.

Deja never uttered a word. Instead she folded her arms and sucked her teeth as she rushed out of the elevator ahead of him to make her way to the receptionist’s desk.

“Whoa, girl! Remember? I gotta play yo’…man!”, he stated through clenched teeth as he forced the word “man” out.

“Lawd, help me get through this!”, she hissed as they placed their arms around each other’s waist and walked up to the receptionist’s desk to be directed on where to go next.

Once they reached the conference room, Scola went and sat in a chair near a window to look at the city’s skyline. Deja went all the way down to the opposite end of the conference room and sat on the table while flipping through the latest issue of “GQ” magazine as they waited for things to get underway.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your 10:00 appt. is here, Mr. Rongdewing”, the receptionist stated through his speakerphone.

He looked over at his clock that read 9:45. “Sharp and early. Something tells me I’m gonna like this kid!”, he thought to himself. Then he leaned up in his leather recliner and thanked the receptionist for sharing this info with him.

“Let’s go!”, he commanded Big Lou and Mimi as they headed up to the conference room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Sweet Meat aka CC]

Nokio and the guys were watching people walking up and down the sidewalk of the busy street.

Sisqo and Woody noticed an extremely sexy woman dressed in a formfitting pantsuit walking by their ride and they proceeded to tell Jazz and Nokio to look. Sisqo flashed a wide grin when she gave them a smile as she walked by after she noticed them staring.

“Damn! She’s hot like fiya!”, Sisqo said with a devilish grin as he turned his head and continued to look at her walk away through the back window.

“She was aight.”, Nokio stated as he turned his head back around to glance at the oncoming traffic.

“What?!”, Sisqo shouted as he flung his head back around to look at Nokio from the passenger seat.

Jazz and Woody chuckled at Sisqo’s reaction.

“You aight, Noke?”, Woody asked as he reached from the backseat and playfully swatted Nokio on the arm with the back of his hand.

“Yeah, I’m coo’.”, Nokio smiled as he thought about Deja.

“I neva’ eva’ thought I’d see the day when you didn’t want to say somethin’ more about anotha’ female except she looks aight!”, Sisqo said as he slowly took his cap off of his head and placed it over his heart. Then he shook his head and pretended to wipe away tears with his free hand.

“Man, shut up!”, Nokio laughed as he looked at Sisqo.

“C’mon, man! You can tell us, we yo’ boys…she definitely handle hers, right?!”, Jazz leaned forward and asked in reference to Deja.

Nokio didn’t respond with words, but with a wide smile that slowly spread across his face.

“Well, at least yall got rid of that tension head on! Yall were hatin’ on each otha’ like a mug in the beginning!”, Sisqo laughed.

“I know and that’s what’s worryin’ me about her and Sco’ and this whole Rongdewing deal!”, Nokio chuckled with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Now, man, you know her betta than that!”, Woody stated with a disagreeing shake of his head. “Day is juss doin’ what she’s been told to do!”

“True, but you can’t blame a n!gga for worryin’ anyway.”, Nokio sighed. But deep in his heart, he knew that Woody was right. She was just doing what she had to do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“He should be up here in a few minutes.”, Scola stated as he glanced at the clock on the wall. It read 9:55. “C’mon.”, he stated as he waved his hand at Deja in a come here gesture.

“What?”, she asked as she looked at him with questioning eyes.

He rolled his eyes while patting his lap to let her know that’s where she was going to have to sit. “Look, I don’t like this anymore than you do, but remember, we gotta get Rongdewing to come on strong to ya. And the only way for this to happen is for us to appear to be all up on each otha. Juss keep in mind that the sooner he falls for ya, the betta’ it’ll be for the both of us.”

Deja slowly rose up from the table and put her hands together as if she was saying a silent prayer while looking up towards the ceiling. Then she strolled over to him and took a deep breath.

“You can do this, girl!”, she said aloud to herself.

“Whateva, yo! Juss be careful with these when you sit down!”, he joked as he swatted her on the hip.

She looked at him with a warm smile and a light chuckle and then she flopped down across his lap as hard as she could. He took a deep sigh and cursed under his breath so Rongdewing wouldn’t hear him as he came walking in with Big Lou and Mimi.

When Deja took one look at Rongdewing, the only world she could think of to describe him was “damn!”. The man was like some sort of Greek God, in her opinion. If she didn’t know any better, she would’ve sworn that he was Johnny Depp’s character from the movie, “Blow”. His long, brown hair was pulled behind one of his ears while the rest of his hair fell down over one of his eyes. Not to mention that he was dressed in a handsome, crème colored Italian suit. But Big Lou was the exact opposite. He could have easily passed for the monster baby from “The Goonies” even if he was dressed just as nice as his boss. And she didn’t even notice Mimi at all.

Although he was thinking that it was a part of Deja’s act, Scola noticed how Deja was staring at Rongdewing and he had to nudge her to bring her back from lala land. She immediately stood up as they all said good morning to one another. Mimi gave Deja an icy hello, but was all up in Scola’s grill. But when Rongdewing kissed Deja’s hand, she felt like she would melt where she was standing.

“Dammit! Now I feel so guilty knowin’ I gotta woo this man, here!”, she thought to herself.

Scola went right into playing his role. When he saw the way Rongdewing was staring back at Deja, he tightly wrapped his arms around her when they sat back down and gave Rongdewing a look that said, “Back off! This is mine!” But in his thoughts, he was thinking how easy it was going to be for Deja to handle him.

During the entire meeting, Deja would give Rongdewing a smile here and a wink there while continuously rubbing the top of Scola’s head. At one point, Mimi caught Rongdewing making eye contact with Deja. Frustrated and filled with anger, she jumped up and ran out of the room crying.

“I never should have left him! I knew ending up with Rongdewing would catch up with me!”, Mimi sobbed as she looked at herself in front of the restroom mirror.

Scola and Deja looked at each other with small grins and they both read each other’s minds. “Our plan is working! He’s falling fast!”

“Is she okay?!”, Deja asked with a look of concern on her face as she glanced at Rongdewing.

“Don’t worry about her. She’ll be fine! She pulls a temper tantrum here and there when I don’t give her enough attention.”, he replied with a sexy smile.
Deja was about to say okay when she noticed Big Lou staring at her with a big, foolish grin on his face.

“Oh hellz naw!”, she thought to herself. “I gotta remember not to look his way no mo’!”

At the conclusion of their meeting, Scola and Deja stood up to leave. Scola was in agony because his legs had fallen asleep but he kept a big smile on his face anyway as he shook Rongdewing’s hand. They had made an agreement to have the rest of the guys come to meet with him at the end of the week. But if things went as planned, Dru wouldn’t even have to show up.

As Deja was holding Scola’s hand and following him out of the room, she went old school and pulled a piece of paper from her corset with her name and number scribbled on it and mouthed to Rongdewing to call her. He responded by kissing the piece of paper.