presdbtwnpages.

Yes, I'm *still* posting fandom_stocking fic, even though it's damn near March. This is what happens when the universe decides your life isn't interesting enough already, and decides to through ALL THE THINGS at you at once. So, I'll be playing catch-up this week, and hopefully will get my train back on its tracks soon enough =)

But now, for the Instant Star goodness. I've been playing with the ideas of this show for pretty much as long as I've been in fandom, so it was high time I actually wrote something for it directly. And, since I wanted to write for

presdbtwnpages last year (the 2011 edition) and somehow never got around to it, this was one of my top priority presents.

First, some background: Instant Star premiered on The-N (now TeenNick) in 2004, and ran for four seasons. It's from the same rockstar production team as the various Degrassi series, and ran in conjunction on the American cable channel with Degrassi: The Next Generation. Both shows were Canadian imports, and both shows were HUGELY popular. Unfortunately, funding for IS was pulled after four seasons, and production declined to go on even after The-N offered to pay for it. It really sucked, and left the writers scrambling to write a series finale when they'd been expecting to go for at least one more season, and the whole thing just ended badly.

But it started beautifully.

This series has one of the strongest first seasons I've ever seen - solid writing, very engaging, just enough drama to keep things on the right side of the whole teen-soap-opera genre ;) And the music was flat-out spectacular. It MADE the series.

The basic premise was this: Jude Harrison, a punk-rock fifteen-year-old singer-songwriter, won the first edition of "Instant Star" (which is basically Canadian Idol) and with that, a contract to release a full-length album at G-Major. The next day, she takes her BFF Jamie Andrews with her to meet the head of the studio, and the producer said head has selected for her record: Tommy Quincy, a former boyband idol. This touches off the love triangle that will last for the entire series, but plays out in a rather refreshing way in S1.

The first season is all about the making of Jude's first album, and what it takes to break into the music business and then succeed. She's fighting on a lot of fronts: her attraction to Tommy, her new-found fame (and all the kids at school resenting her for it), her family woes (jealous sister, her dad having a secret affair), and of course the cattiness of the music business (producers, kingmakers, shallow, backstabbing fellow artists). All along she has her two best friends, Jamie and Kat, to cheer her on - and cheer her up. They don't escape the drama and chaos, though, as they secretly start dating behind Jude's back and then struggle with telling her.

Here's a nice little S1 wrap-up, in pic/vid form:

Got it? Good :)

presdbtwnpages request was fairly simple, and unchanged from last year:

'Ships (slash, het, and femslash): Instant Star - Jamie/Jude, Jamie/Jude/Tommy.
Fic Likes: hurt/comfort, happy endings,
Fic Dislikes: Non-con. Otherwise I'm mostly good.

This story takes place about halfway through the season. The events of 1x08 "Unsweet Sixteen" have just happened the night before:

G-Major threw Jude a huge Sweet Sixteen party to coincide with the release of her hit single with megastar rapper (and boyfriend) Shay. Unfortunately, it all goes to hell: Shay admits to Jude that he's been cheating on her while he's been on tour with Eden (the Instant Star runner-up who hates Jude and is jealous of her success); Tommy tries to comfort Jude but ends up giving in to temptation and kissing her instead; Jamie and Kat spend the evening alternatively making out and hiding it from Jude, and angsting about how to tell her that they're together.

And, of course, the whole thing was caught on live TV, including the huge fight Jude & Shay had after he dropped the bombshell of his cheating. It's replayed that evening and all the next day on the entertainment news shows, and splashed all over the tabloids. Jude has stayed home from school, but she can't quite escape the constant replay of her total humiliation of being dumped. Her mother is (reluctantly) leaving for a business trip but offers to stay home, which Jude turns down. They say goodbye at their front door, only to open it and find Jamie digging through their morning paper, trying to hide the entertainment section and spare Jude's feelings.

In the episode, this scene ends here, with Jude's mom rushing off to her taxi and Jamie very reluctantly leaving the Harrison residence for school. Jude closes the door and sinks down to the floor, thinking the now-infamous line that opens the piece:

“Every time you give a guy your heart, there’s a chance he’ll hand it back to you in pieces.”

She's thinking not only of the explosive breakup with Shay, but also of "the kiss that didn't happen" with Tommy.

For this little ficlet, I decided to write a missing scene, where Jamie stays behind and offers what comfort he can to his best friend. It's difficult for him, because he's in love with her, and those feelings are clouding his judgment in a big way. He feels awful about hiding his relationship with Kat, but knows this isn't the time to tell Jude about it, as it'll only make her feel more abandoned and alone. Then he learns about The Kiss with Tommy, which just cuts him to the core - he knows that Jude has a huge crush on him, and he also knows he can't compete with any of the glamorous people she meets in the music biz. He can feel his chances slipping away, but he can't bring himself to leave. At this point, he'd rather have Jude's friendship than not have her at all, but it will cause problems as the season progresses.

I tried to capture a snapshot of how they were both feeling, and yet, how isolated they were as well. Jude needs the comfort and security of her age-old best friendship; she has an inkling of an idea of Jamie's deeper feelings for her, but he's never acted on them so they're easy to dismiss. She needs a friend and he's there for her, and that's enough. He's the one guy who isn't trying to trounce on her heart at the moment ~ at least, that she knows of.

He is also full of angst - over keeping secrets from her, over his own feelings for her. He knows he isn't being fair to Kat, but he can't help the way he feels about Jude, either. He's stuck, and doing the best he can with what he has. He's walking the fine line of temptation and despair, and just sort of takes the sorrow that Jude piles on him in stride. She breaks his heart over and over again, but he can't hate her for it.

The relationship dynamics are pretty sophisticated, given its a teen drama, and the first season moves at the perfect pace to explore all of them. And, since I have this thing for friendships that evolve into romance, and this was the first ship (of sorts) in the canon, I totally shipped these two. HARD. I was so happy when they got together at the end of the season - only for everything to go to hell almost immediately in S2. *sigh* I enjoyed the UST between Tommy & Jude, too, but it was nice to see the "nice guy" finish first for a change.

It was fun to take these characters out and play, instead of just sifting through the plot (for my failed crossover with IY) or gleaning the gold from the soundtrack (for...well, everything I've ever written, LOL). Perhaps I'll try my hand at it again - I'm definitely due for a rewatch!

Instant Star | Oneshot: Friends Forever