For a long while after coming home, I perpetually wore the stupidly contented look on my face of someone who was deeply happy with himself. If you saw me, you might think I'd gotten away with a crime or something. My dad didn't notice anything until my mom mentioned it to him. The first thing he suspected was that I'd found a girlfriend. -/- University was a world apart from high school. In the first two months, despite being unrealistically content with myself, I still had enough leftover pessimism (although mostly buried) to register that everything I thought was true and important in high school amounted to not much more than dust in university. Which got me thinking, would that be the case with university once I graduated and got out into the real world? And what difference would it make when my "real world" will involve going on tour, signing autographs, and wearing sunglasses for most of the daylight hours? School wasn't going to matter much in about six months. In the real world, it was who you knew that mattered more than anything else. Then one day, Rupert called. It was a little surprising because, for one reason or another, I never expected to get anything more than a couple paragraphs on regular notebook paper in terms of correspondence from him. Guys just didn't really talk on the phone as far as I was concerned. Or maybe it was just me, I don't know. Anyway, Rupe called and I picked up the phone on the second ring. He didn't even say hello, he just started with, "Dude, guess what?" And just like that, I knew I was going to be in school for the next few years just like a regular kid. No more daydreams of shopping for sunglasses. I said, "Elton?" Rupe replied, "Elton." "He won the contest?" "Not exactly. They threatened to tank him, actually." I scowled. "What?" Rupert took an excited but deep breath. "He was into the fourth or fifth round when the guys from Rock Records contacted him and wanted him to sign with them or else they were going to cut him at the next round." "WHAT?!" I exclaimed. "That's so... so..."—I shook my head—"that's so fucking CORRUPT, man. Shit." A pause. "But wait," I said, "that doesn't make any sense. So you're saying he didn't get a contract?" Hope glimmered on my end of the phone. "Well, no, he did." "With who?" I cried. I was a mixture of being excited for my friend but crestfallen for myself. And Rupe, of course. But mostly for myself. :P "With BMG." I blinked. Well, that's unexpected, I thought. "Uh, okay..." I said. "Um..." "Did Elton ever tell you his uncle was a singer?" "What?" I asked. "I mean—wait, what? Who? When? What?" This was all going far too quickly. I'd gone from a being soon-to-be rich-but-easily-forgettable member of a surefire boy band to just a regular guy in about ten seconds and it was all because my buddy had a whole convoluted background filled with politics and intrigue that we didn't even know about. It was almost too much to wrap my head around. "Well, I don't know WHO, exactly," Rupe explained. "Elton just told me that his uncle was pretty big back in the seventies and eighties. He had a few big hits. Elton said you probably even know a couple of his songs." "Really." "Yeah. So, this uncle of his wanted to hook him up, right? But Elton refused because he wanted to try to do it on his own. He wanted to make it on his own talent and ability, not because he knew a guy who knew a guy." "I see. And this is where BMG comes in?" "Elton's uncle's old producer has gone independent, but has some kind of distribution thing going on with BMG, so Elton figures he'll be releasing his first album with them." "Oh. Well, that's awesome, man." "Yeah, it is. He asked me if I'm going back this summer, maybe we can hang out again." "Yeah, I think I'll be going to tutor in Hualien again," I said. "My old boss promised to keep a spot for me if my parents will let me go." "Cool. If I can get a job there, I'll be back too." "Sounds good, man," I said. "Hey, keep me posted on everything eh?" "Will do. I'll talk to you later, dude." "Yeah, talk later, Rupe." ...tbc. | 
