Not Your Average Teen Pop Star (DarkDreamer9110 x MsBloom)

[DarkDreamer9110]

Cassie had squealed at Ellie's acceptance of Eric's offer and rushed in to join the hug. Eric had smiled and glanced over at Adri. "This is a father-kids hug, and you're one of my kids, too." He'd said, gesturing for Adri to join them.

---

When Luke dropped Megan off, Cassie had gone out to talk to him. Luke's surprise to see her had been evident as Cassie walked over to the car window and leaned in.

"Cassie, what's this about?"

"You could have been my father, Luke. I'm glad you aren't. I would be ashamed and embarrassed to have a disgrace like you for a sperm donor. I would hate myself for being related to you. I don't know how Ellie doesn't hate herself. Eric has been more of a Dad to a girl who's not even his blood than yo have to the fruit of your loins. She calls him Dad with pride. Just like he calls her his other daughter. Ellie doesn't see you as anything better than a sperm donor. Do better with Alice and Megan, Luke. Make them proud to call you 'Dad' the way Ellie is proud to call mine 'Dad.' You still have a chance with them. Don't do it for me, or Ellie, or Eric or Madison or Joan. Do it for Alice and Megan. Do it for yourself. Do better. Don't disappoint them. Don't disappoint yourself." She'd said, then turned and walked away without another word.

The CPS meeting saw Cassie giving her own testimony about her understanding of Gloria and Alice's relationship, including how Alice had wanted to have her question about kissing members of the same sex answered anonymously during the first livestream interview out of fear her parents, particularly Gloria, might find out she was gay.

Naturally, in the course of the parents' interviews, their complicated, contentious history with Luke was brought up in the context of a potential conflict of interest motivating the Spencer-Clayton clan to try and hurt Luke by questioning his fitness as a parent.

"Has Luke treated Ellie appallingly? Yeah. Always. Even before he and Joan split up. I mean, he missed Ellie's birth. I held her before Luke ever saw her. But the younger girls, we have never heard anything through Ellie that suggests he has been anything besides good to them. Do I have a lot of personal feelings about him? Of course I do. I loved him! He broke my heart and I still care about him. I want nothing but the best for him and his family. I want to make Alice and Megan go back to a home that's safe for them, a father that continues to do what's best for them. Luke is a wonderful man. I want him to have those kids back and to do right by them. We're just trying to make sure that those girls don't get caught in the crossfire as Luke separates from and divorces Gloria." Eric said.

Madison and Joan had recommended a few possible divorce lawyers to Luke and, in the wake of Ellie accepting Eric's offer to adopt her, had started getting all the paperwork together to file for that.

With the upcoming mini-tour (four shows, one each in Pasadena, Anaheim, Long Beach, and San Diego, across four consecutive weekends in September) announced and being promoted, it was only natural that the band, especially with the recent success of the Coming Out set of songs, should do an interview, but even so, the band had been surprised to hear from Andi that she had secured them a prime interview spot on a regional radio show. It would be the band's first time doing an interview with a professional and in an environment they didn't control, and Andi had advised them to be wary of the potential for a hostile interviewer.

And so, with that in mind, the band met at Cassie, Ellie, and Adri's place before heading to the studio, where they met Andi. From there, it was off to the radio station.

When they arrived, they were greeted by a production assistant, who guided the five band members plus Andi through the station to a prep room, where they got set up with mics and were given instructions.

 

[MsBloom]

When being interviewed by the woman from CPS Ellie was asked about her own relationship with Luke and much like everyone else she told her how he had failed her at almost every turn, adding that the few times she had spent with him that were actually good memories had been him trying to buy her affections, she had realised in hindsight. Even the King Crimson farewell concert he had taken her too had been one last attempt at buying her affection ... or had it ... All those moments had been moments without The Bitch ... Had they perhaps been honest attempts at creating some kind of Father/Daughter relationship where the main obstacle for it was excluded? Then again ... what kind of relationship would that have been. She had never really felt like anything but a guest in her father's house, and had it not been for her sisters she would have refused to visit him at all a long time ago. But her sisters, Alice perhaps more than Megan, had needed her, wanted her in their life and they had always made her feel loved. It was them, not Luke, she had gone to visit and it was with them she had spent most of her time in Modesto.

At this point the woman had stopped asking questions of Ellie because the words were just flowing out of her in something that was not entirely unlike a therapeutic rant. Ellie continued to agree that between Gloria's general attitude to anything outside the norm, the cishet norm in particular, she did not feel it would be safe for Alice to return to her birth mother, or to her father for that matter until he had detached himself from the hateful bitch. If he did that then perhaps Alice and Megan might have a chance of actually knowing him as a dad in the way she had not.
"If he doesn't I will file for custody and take them in myself," she had said with firm determination and looked the CPS woman in the eyes.
"If you let Her have them back in any way shaped or form except for supervised and restricted visitations in public that is," she added, still holding the woman's gaze firmly, her arms now crossed over her chest.
"I've got a pair of good lawyers too ..." she concluded the interview by simply standing up and walking away.

---

With Alice and Megan installed in her old room Ellie knew that what she had said to the CPS woman, about potentially filing for custody if Luke and her moms could not prevent Gloria from having any influence whatsoever on them, meant that she had to be more than just a big sister to them. She would perhaps not need to be a parent to them but she would need to act more responsibly with them, enforce bedtimes, school, homework and ... chores around the house. Now however was the summer holidays and she could keep it more casual for the time being.

She had talked it through with Cassie and Adri too. Were they prepared to become co-guardians of her sisters, if it came to that? Adri had looked a bit hesitant but in the end had nodded their agreement.
"I love you El," they had said.
"And want to be with you ... and you too of course Cassie ... If that means suddenly gaining two teenage stepdaughters ... then that is how it is I suppose."
They then chuckled.
"I mean ... this family unit is odd enough as is ... right? Not quite the traditional all american family. What's another twist to it, right?"
They looked first at Ellie and then at Cassie realising how much they loved them both.

It was also in that moment Ellie remembered the present from Cassie and wondered if it would be ok for her to share it with Adri, if they wanted to. Adri wouldn't have to carry the child themself. Ellie would probably be more than happy to act as a surrogate.

---

The world did not stop revolving just because of the changed circumstances. Funhouse Sweethearts had four shows booked over a month that needed to be promoted. This of course was mainly done on their now official channels on social media platforms like Instagram and X, but also on the original YouTube channel where they posted daily, random videos of the band and its individual members doing random things while promoting the tour, but also live clips from rehearsals and mock interviews about how excited they were to finally get out there to meet all of their regional fans. This all culminated in an interview on a popular radioshow where they would also play two songs live, one before the interview and one after.

This would be the first interview where they had no control over the q&a, the first real interest from a major media outlet, and Ellie was nervous as hell. This was getting serious now. This was in many ways what she had dreamed of ever since writing My Best Friend with Cassie but it was also terrifying now that she was there ...

 

[DarkDreamer9110]

With the current situation ensuring that the younger girls were looked after and being allowed to remain at a degree of remove from the ongoing divorce proceedings, it had of course come up about what if further action, such as Ellie taking full legal guardianship of her sisters, was necessary. Cassie had smiled at Adri as they had voiced their support for the idea. When her own opinion was sought, she smiled and gave an enthusiastic nod.

"I'm absolutely fine with it. And yeah, ain't nothing normal about ... all this. I mean, Ellie, you and I are about to legally be sisters and at some point we're probably gonna be wives, three of our four parents are in a polycule that I'm pretty sure has my dad getting routinely cucked by our moms, I have no idea if our dad is screwing your bio mom, and we're probably gonna eventually have babies via the power of SCIENCE!. Oh, and Adri, that offer of having babies with me via SCIENCE! is also available to you if you want my lab-grown sperm fertilizing an egg or two. We can find a surrogate if you want, if you don't like the idea of being pregnant. Hell, with the uterine transplant stuff they're doing these days, I might actually be able to carry one myself. Or Ellie might be happy to be our surrogate. Honestly, if Ellie had yours and my kid, Adri, the kid could kind of have all three of us as parents. Me as the sperm donor, you as the egg donor, and Ellie as the birth mother. And we could all share lactation duties. You and I would have to use other methods to induce lactation, and that's not only possible, but easy compared to the rest of the weird science stuff here, so we could totally do that."

---

The radio show had set up a space for them to perform, and they got set up as the previous show was airing. There would be an introductory lead in from the host and some of the production staff would let them know when they were live.

They had discussed what songs to do, ultimately settling on Heart Of A Dreamer and a song André and Léon had written before joining Funhouse Sweethearts, Dancing on the Edge of a Knife, which was about their experiences exploring sexuality and gender identity. They would be doing Heart first, and then debuting Dancing at the end. The reasoning had been that since Heart was one that Cassie and Ellie had done together before the band's expansion and Dancing was one done by their newest members, the pair of songs together represented the band's growth.

Once they had all their gear set up and had done a sound check, the production manager let them know it was almost time to go live on the air. Cassie glanced around at the others and gave a smile and nod as the production manager started to count them down.