Chapter 22

"Ah! Miss Francesca right?" Mr. Jakob asked as he smiled at her.

"Yes." Francesca said meekly as she greeted the choreographer.

"Don't be shy, come over." Mr. Jakob said as he waved her over.

"Go on." Alvin said as he nudged her gently, he looked like a proud father with his daughter finally joining the elite group.

Francesca walked over and smiled at the boys and the choreographer, she was nervous. She knew that K2D was one of Ver Industries' largest talents. They had become extremely famous and famous people tend to have an air about them.

"Francesca I'm Jakob and these boys are K2D, Ron, CJ, Jon, Jordan, and Rich." Mr. Jakob said as he shook Francesca's hand.

"You're the new artist?" Rich asked in a somewhat distant tone.

Francesca was not surprised or offended about how Rich spoke to her, she knew that many people tried to get close with people like them. May wanted to use them or just wanted to befriend them for their fame, so she didn't blame Rich at all.

"Rich, don't be so harsh on her." CJ teased as he walked up to Francesca. "Elegant, high strung, determined look. She's definitely a rebel." CJ said with a laugh as he eyed Francesca.

"How can you tell by just looking at her?" Ron asked as he crossed his arms on his chest, he was the resident bad boy and it seemed his personality was not just a front.

"She looks high born, but she doesn't seem like those brats that walk in the door." CJ said with a shrug. No one corrected him when he called the daughters of rich families brats, he was right, and on top of that he belonged to that social circle so he knew a lot of them. "If Mr. Edward sent her here then it means she has talent, he even dragged Alvin out of retirement and Alvin agreed. In short, she has talent."

"Hmmm, talent." Jordan said as he looked at Francesca. "That's something many new artists now don't have."

"Stop eyeing her like a piece of meat boys." A man said with a laugh. "Francesca, hi, I'm Paolo Javier. I'm the manager of K2D. Edward and Alvin told me you would be joining us today. Ignore the boys, they are overly cautious of newcomers."

"I can't blame them." Francesca said with a smile. "I'm sure a lot of people approach them for unsavory reasons." Francesca said quite frankly, shocking everyone in the room.

"She's frank!" CJ said with a laugh. "I'm going to enjoy this."

"Okay, enough chatting. Let's go back." Mr. Jakob said as he called them back on the dance floor.

"Francesca, try to join in, I want to know what level you are at. Edward mentioned that you may have taken up lessons in the past." Mr. Jakob said as he gave Francesca a quick glance.

Francesca simply nodded and did as he asked.

The dance routine for K2D was a little bit more complicated than what Francesca was used to but she tried her best to catch up. She noticed that the boys had also suddenly become serious as Mr. Jakob had them repeat the steps over and over again.

"Not bad." Mr. Jakob said when he asked them to take a break. "You didn't just take lessons did you? All those dance moves were quite advanced."

"They were just lessons Mr. Jakob." Francesca wasn't lying, they were lessons, but they were at least three years of lessons.

"Well I think you did great today. We'll call it a day and practice again tomorrow." Mr. Jakob said with a satisfied smile.

"Thank you." Francesca said with a smile as she walked back to Alvin and Karen.

"There are showers and a dressing room at the end of the hall. We'll wait for you here." Alvin told Francesca as he opened the door to let her out.

The shower rooms of Ver Industries were quite luxurious, each room had its own dressing area with a vanity and a couch. Francesca was surprised as there were at least ten rooms within the shower area.

Francesca didn't want the others to wait too long for her so she decided to take a quick shower and opted out of applying makeup.

When she stepped out she found Alvin and Karen happily chatting with Paolo and Ching.

"Wow, you're faster than the boys!" Ching said as she noticed Francesca stepping out of the shower area.

"Well, I didn't want anyone to wait." Francesca said with a shrug as she walked over to them.

"Paolo and the boys invited us to lunch." Alvin told Francesca as Karen took her bag from her.

"Karen, I can carry these." Francesca said as she stopped Karen from taking the gym bag she bought for her clothes.

"Francesca, it's my job." Karen scolded. "I'll take these to your car." Karen said as she stretched her hand out asking for Francesca's keys.

Francesca wanted to argue but Alvin placed a hand on her shoulder and simply nodded, telling her to do as Karen asked.

Francesca sighed and fished out her keys from her other bag and gave it to Karen.

"So lunch?" Alvina asked Francesca as soon as he managed to get her attention back.

"Sure. Yes, I have nothing planned." Francesca said with a nod.

While they were talking Francesca's phone began to ring so she excused herself to take the call. It was Edward.

"Hey." Francesca smiled as she heard his soothing voice.

"Hi." Francesca said back.

"Are you at the office?" Edward asked.

"Yeah. I just finished dance lessons with Mr. Jakob. You didn't need to arrange someone so important for me." Francesca scolded playfully. She didn't want people thinking that she was getting special treatment from Edward.

"I would have done it for any artist that I believed had the talent." Edward said proudly over the phone. "Are you free for lunch?" He asked.

Francesca frowned, she had just accepted lunch with the boys. "The boys and Paolo invited us to lunch. I already accepted. But I can cancel." Francesca said, she wanted to have lunch with Edward.

"It's okay. I'll see you at lunch." Edward said with a laugh as he dropped the call.

Francesca was puzzled but ignored his last statement as she walked back to the group.