when the notes sound W R O N G ;;, -zara-

[+ Jason Force]

Enough. A break. I just need a break! I have to get out of here. My keys...where are my keys? Shit, did TJ take them again? I'm gonna kill hi- oh, wait, here they are. Thank God. Alright...grab a jacket and I'm out of here. Aw, damn it, my leather one's still at the cleaner's. Will anything go right today? I guess I'll settle for the tan one. Alright. Fresh air, fresh credit card, fresh mind. Calm down, man, you can do it. Go to the mall, walk around a little, and cool the heck off. Chill. Phew. Man, Mom still didn't get my car cleaned. Didn't she tell me she did that yesterday? I should know by now not to believe anything she says. I guess I'll swing by the car wash on my way back. She's paying me back, though. And wasn't Dad supposed to remind her? Why I trust him with that, I don't know. He's losing it worse than she is. It's a wonder Katherine gets dressed in the morning with those two in charge. Speaking of which, where is she? Oh, right. Angel's house. God, this is like, the third day she's been there. It's like she lives with the little brat. Augh, calm down, Jay. You know Katherine hates it when you bash on her friends. Well, maybe if Angel said something to me other than "you're so hott" I'd like her a little bit more. Come on, man, temper. Geez, and I going to hit every red light on the way there? I haven't gone forty feet yet! Damn. I wonder if there's anything good on the radio? My song. Of course. Couldn't they at least play something off the new album? My God, it's no wonder it's not selling as well as Can't Stop Now. This song was released a year ago! Could they do a little something to help me out? Maybe if I schedule an in-studio appearance, that'd help. Psht, yea right. Like I want to spend another hour in a stuffy room with those assholes. Jesus Christ! Dude just freaking cut me off. God damn it! Well, hey. You'd be stressed too if you were Jason Force.

At first, Jason had been happy to be home. He liked his Hollywood home. His mother and siblings had finally moved in, and they were together as a family again. As if. Charlotte Force, Jason's scatter-brained mother, was constantly out with her new 'celebrity' friends. She had met a bunch of retired wanna-be actresses at one of Jason's photo shoots, and acted as though they were the greatest people in the world. If she wasn't out shopping with Mary DiFerdinando, she was spending a day at the spa with Andrea Lovett. Jason rarely saw her anymore. Gregory Force, the business man of the family, was the same way. When he wasn't co-managing Jason's band, he was a financial advisor. Actually, Jason wasn't sure what he was doing anymore. He disappeared for sometimes days on end, spending hours upon hours in his office. Jason had a feeling that he had become a lawyer or something like that. The twin terrors, John and Emma, were at daycare almost 24-7. Thankfully, they liked it. Jason often felt himself wanting to feel bad for them. They were six years old, and scarcely saw his parents. That must suck. But then he remembered the other insane children at the day care worshiped them and their prankin skills. They were mini celebrities of their own, and they loved it. Katherine was always out, too. She had made a lot of friends at her new school, and had once spent four nights in a row at Angel's house. Jason missed her the most. She had always been around him, whether it was going with him to a premiere or hanging around in the recording studio. Now she was all grown up and spending time with girls her own age. He was happy for her, but sometimes it made him miss the old days in London.

In a desperate attempt to escape the boredom of a dull weekend morning, Jason had spent the first three hours of that Saturday trying to write a song. Ever since he had come home from his West coast tour, he had been suffering from major writer's block. He could only write well when he was on the road anymore. That was the only time anything exciting happened, the only time he got inspired. But his next tour wasn't scheduled for another two months, so he decided to give it a shot in his bedroom. Big mistake. When he wouldn't even think of a simple opening lyric, his bad temper had taken over. He got frustrated easily, and often ended up in his shiny silver Saturn Sky driving to nowhere in particular. Today, he decided to take a trip to the L.A. mall. He hadn't gone shopping in a while, and he could use a few more pairs of jeans. Alright, so he had enough pairs of jeans to cloth a third world country. Shopping just calmed him down a lot when he was upset, and let him relax. Besides, the more clothes he bought, the more he could donate the charity. The more he donated to charity, the more the press loved him. It wasn't only that, of course. Jason liked helping out others. But something about donating an unworn pair of $1000 Guess brand jeans seemed like a bit much. Only a few days before, Shout Out Records, Jason's always dependable lable, had given him his annual paycheck. His credit card was never exactly running low, but the extra bit of cash was giving something to look forward to. He felt less guilty about spending a lot of money on overly priced clothes when he had a lot of it. Not to mention it was early on a Saturday morning. With any luck, the group of fangirls that scoped the mall for stars would still be asleep. It wasn't unusual to spot a celebrity shopping, but there was always the surprised tourist or obsessive fan.

By the time Jason arrived at the mall, it was nine twenty three. Still early. He shoved his keys in his pocket, making a mental note of where he put them, and pulled the roof up on his car. No way he was leaving an unprotected convertible in a parking lot in Los Angeles. He had made the mistake of leaving his top down for all of five minutes while he went into a 7-11, and came out to find some guy who worked at the gas station trying to jump start it. The man got caught by the police, but Jason did have to put out a decent amount of money to get the wires in his car reassembled. As he walked into the mall, he saw that it was relitively empty. This cheered him even more. The less people, the less distractons. He made a beeline for Urban Outfitters, one of his top favorite stores. Other than the occasional pair of jeans or fancy jacket, Jason wasn't big on lables. He would shop at Sears and not care. The L.A. mall had a bunch of famous stores, though, so it was hard to avoid. Jason didn't mind either way. As long as the clothes looked good, he was fine with it. He went to the shoe section first, intent on finding a new pair of sneakers. He had enough dress shoes to last him through the end of the world, but he only had two ratty pairs of 'chill' shoes. He found a nice pair almost immediatly and put it aside before moving on to the shirts. He browsed for a while, trying a blue collared shirt on, but didn't get anything. Nothing really caught his eye, so he moved on to the pants. He was even less interested there, so he paid for his shoes and left. No big deal; there were plenty of other stores to try.

An hour later, Jason was stormed out of American Eagle, more frustrated than he had been when he'd arrived. He had found nothing in any of his favorite stores. Never, NEVER had he come up empty on a shopping spree. Song writing was one thing. His simple pair of sneakers seemed to mock him as he veered down the elevator, spotting the dreaded group of teenage stalkers a few doors down. The shoes meant nothing. He had only bought them because they were comfortable, not because they looked nice. He probably wouldn't wear them now. Confused and pissed off, Jason decided to check one more store and then leave. If he came up emtpy again, he'd go to the outlet mall a few miles away. He didn't really like their stuff, but maybe he'd strike lucky. Yea right. He shuffled into Pac Sun, looking around with mild interest. This was a little better. He found two shirts and a pair of jeans to try on, not to mention a nice pair of sunglasses. He ended up buying one of the shirts and the jeans, and left feeling better. This is pathetic, he thought after buying a smoothie and sitting down on the bench. I need shopping to cool off. This is so not good. His mother had warned him of this when they were back in England. He had always gone to the market when he was upset, even as a child. He hadn't listened to her until now. Deciding it was well past time to go home, he threw the rest of his drink in the trash and headed back up to the third floor. Keys...shit, now where did I put them? Sticking his hand in his left pocket, he scowled angrily at his pants, as if they were hiding his keys as a joke. Naturally, he wasn't watching where he was going and walked right into someone. With a slight 'oof' he took a step back, dropping his two bags on the floor. "Er, sorry," he said awkwardly, bending down to pick up his purchases. He didn't look up to see who the person was; he wasn't a people person at all. Still, he couldn't just walk away after totally running someone over. He didn't say anything else, but stood there waiting for the person to say something. With any luck they'd give him the okay and he'd be out of there.

[+ Zara Sandro]

As per usual, all the a-listers who were known to party had recived a text message that morning. The message had read, 'Party at Tiffiany's manor!' That was the hot spot for the night. The text messages were a frequent occurance amoung the rich and famous partiers. These parties were not quite as lavish as the Oscars or any award shows but an unspoken rule did dictate that all party goers must be in a new outfit. Hence shopping. One of these party goers who had recived the text on her brand new Blackberry Bold that morning was Zara Sandro. Zara was well known for her love of parties and had been on the papparazzi, 'watch until she screws up' list for quite a while. They had all seemed content to make sure that those who were likely to cause a scandal always had extra tabs on them. Thank heavens there was a large party with underage drinking and property damage that had run late and cause most of the papparazzi to be in bed still. This was the opertune time for Zara to hit a few stores before the mall became crowded by fans who were hoping to catch a glimpse of the their faveorite celebrity. It was always a bit strange to Zara, why people wasted their time staring at others. But hey it paid the biss and kept her rich and happy. That was all that mattered to Zara and she was glad to be photographed as long as it kept her fans intrested and the money in the bank. That was what she was intrested in right now. Money. Drinking and ahopping needed to be bankrolled somehow and her parents sure weren't going to pay. So Zara had used her own money to get what she wanted.

Zara was usualy one of those stars you found at Fred Segal on rodeo but today she had decided on a bit of a change. Today she had decided to head to the L.A. Mall instead. At nine am that morning, Zara ha slipped into her black Bentley Continental GT and headed across town. She had decided to take the more 'practical' car instead of her father's Porsche Camaro. It was nice to be able to drive herself around. It gave Zara the freedom that she had not had when her parents had always insisted that she have a driver take her everywhere. It was nice to be able to control the car and feel the power surging underneath her. It like playing with fire in a way and driving as much over the speed limit as the cops allowed gave Zara a bit of a rush. She also loved to hit the gas when she was on the backroads that no one took. Speeding along those was great. Zara had arrived at the mall at around nine thirty and immeaditly headed into the Starbucks to grab herself a mocha latte to get herself going. The clerk behind the counter looked to be about her age and Zara gave him her winning smile. The poor boy almost dropped her beverage as he was making it and Zara paied him with a wink and the money she owed. That was the best part about stardom. You could leave teenage boys with the starstuck loko in their eyes and they would be thinking about you all day for sure.

Zara had headed off into the mall to do her shopping and was quite content doing so for a while until her agent called. "ZARA,ZARA, WHERE ARE YOU?!?!" The annoying squeaky voice of the five foot nothing shiny hair supermodel thin called over the line. "YOU HAVE TO GO HOME! YOUR CRIBS INTERVIEW IS TOMMOROW AND YOUR PARENTS WANT YOU TO FINALIZE THE DETAILS!" Rolling her eyes, Zara began to walk with her phone, listening to the woman go on about how the world would come to an end if Cribs didn't like her house. Zara was ninety percent sure that her career would not end if she let her parents handle something for once. "Heidi, listen. I'm out today. They can take care of the interview prep. Relax. You'll get wrinkles." Zara said, she was near where the escelators, stairs, and elevators all exited onto the third floor, her back to the oncomming traffic. "I'll be home, afterall I have to get ready for tonight." Zara said, the smirk sliding onto her face. "TONIGHT WHATS TONIGHT? ZARA NO MORE...." Before Heidi could finsih her sentence, Zara pressed the end button on her phone. There dealt with. Of course Heidi would be pipping mad when she got hold of Zara again but that didn't bother her. For now she was free and had all the time in the world. Zara was just about to head off again when something slammed into the back of her. Zara's phone flew out of her hand and she scooped it up from ther floor, her turn to be pipping mad. "Hey! Learn to walk!" She said wheeling around to see who had bumped into her. As Zara turned her expression changed. "Jason!" She exclaimed and jumped up to wrap her arms around her friends next. "Hi! I didn't know it was you, I mean that changes nothing but hi! How are you?" Zara said grinning as she released the boy. It was good to see her friends espically when her schedule had been so crazy lately.