Chapter 265: Fan’s surprise! (Patreon)

[General POV]

In Texas, Cece Cooper– Sheldon Cooper’s 14 years old niece, was glued in front of the laptop, sitting on the living room floor with the laptop placed on top of the coffee table. Georgie Cooper Junior, Sheldon’s older brother, walked to the living room and said with a thick Texan accent, “What are you looking at Cece?”

The girl didn’t even bother to reply to him. “Still hate me for not lettin’ you fly to California huh?” Georgie shook his head and then walked away.

Ding

“It’s up!” Cece received a notification on the Entertain website, and clicked on the music video immediately. Not only her, but most members of Edward’s fan club clicked on the notification at the same time the second the video was uploaded. 

Lily, the fan club president, giggled as she saw the notification. “He works…really really fast!”

The fan club members knew about Edward just filming the music video in the evening, and had to hire his friends to act in it as it was a last minute whim. They felt included when they were notified by the staff members, and had been eagerly anticipating the video to be finished. 

Most of them thought that Edward would upload the video tomorrow. None of them thought that he would upload it after people usually finished their dinner. 

[Billionaire- Travie McCoy + Bruno Mars]

The video started with a short scene of Luke and Manny sitting inside the mansion, talking with each other, accompanied by violin music.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kob5aHgi_-U&ab_channel=CristinaKiseleffViolin -Violin cover]

♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ 

Manny: “Last week I was so bored, I bought 200 Lego sets. It didn't help, so I called the Lego company itself, and made them build me a giant Lego Castle in Norway.”

Luke: “Last week, I was so bored, I bought the LEGO company.” 

“Pfft-” Cece chuckled after she saw the short skit. Immediately after the butler left the duo with the drink that turned out to be a grape soda, a warm feeling of wholesomeness gushed into the audience’s heart.

♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ 

Suddenly, the scene cuts to Luke sitting on a sofa with his ordinary clothes, watching the movie ‘The Dark Knight’. His imagination was disrupted when his father called him, “Edward! Come on! You need to go to school!”

“Coming!” Luke, who played a young Edward Newgate in the music video, grabbed his bag and rushed to the door after pausing the TV. Slowly, the music morphed from a violin into a guitar. The scene cuts into the teenage Edward sitting on top of a skateboard ramp, strumming his guitar as he sang. 

“♫♪ I wanna be a billionaire so fucking bad~ Buy all of the things I never had♫♪”

His soulful voice transported the listeners, especially the adults in a tough spot in life. A feeling of nostalgia arises within them, which makes them remember their childhood before they understood how the world works.

“♫♪I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine♫♪” Edward picked the guitar again, and the scene cuts to Luke waiting for a bus to go to school while carrying a violin case with him, where he met Manny in the bus.

“♫♪ Smilin' next to Oprah and the Queen♫♪”

As Edward crooned, the audience was mesmerized, “♫♪ Oh, every time I close my eyes!! I see my name in shiny lights, yeah ♫♪!!”

“♫♪A different city every night, oh, I swear!! The world better prepare for when I'm a billionaire♫♪”

A rap bridge occurs in the melody, transitioning the song from vocal melody to a rapped verse. 

♫♪ Yeah, I would have a show like Oprah, I would be the host of

Every Day Christmas, give Eddie your wish list

I'd probably pull a "Angelina and Brad Pitt"

And adopt a bunch of babies that ain't never had shit♫♪

The scene moved quickly from a snippet of a mustached Luke becoming a tv host and giving a giant teddy bear to Enid who's dressed like a woman in the 70s. 

Edward walked by the skateboard park and threw a few keys to the people while lip syncing the song. 

“♫♪Give away a few Mercedes, like, "Here, lady, have this"

And last but not least, grant somebody their last wish.”

He chuckled as he said that and continued, “It's been a couple months that I've been single, so– You can call me Eddie Claus, minus the "Ho, ho"♫♪”

Taylor who was watching the music video with Selena fumed. Abby in New York was also irritated. Both of them have similar thoughts about the line. 

“Did he just call me a hoe?”

The music video continued with a scene of Luke who was going to school to meet up with Enid inside the bus. He looked bashfully at her before the scene cuts into Edward rapping again. 

“♫♪ Get it? I'd probably visit where Katrina hit.  And damn sure do a lot more than FEMA did. Yeah, can't forget about me!  Everywhere I go, I'ma have my own theme music! ♫♪”

“What does that mean?” Jenna asked as she watched the show. Pepper who was nearby sighed and said, “He’s criticizing the relief organization who was really late in helping the victim. They even did it half-assedly when the tragedy hit.”

“Oh cool.” Jenna’s eyes twinkled in admiration as she heard it. 

The music video continued with snippets of Luke imagining to be at a dance ball for the rich elites with Enid as his partner, and suddenly, in the real world inside the bus, Jenna teased him– bullied and made fun of him a little. 

The song transitioned back to the vocals. 

“♫♪ Oh, every time I close my eyes!! ♫♪”

Phil bopped his head along as he listened to the song.

“ ♫♪I see my name in shiny lights oh, yeah, yeah! ~ A different city every night , oh, I swear !!The world better prepare~  for when I'm a billionaire~♫♪”

“Oh, oh ,oh, when I'm a billionaire! Oh, oh!”

The scene that played over the vocal was Luke practicing with the violin before he was lost in his imagination again. This time, Jenna became the villain attacking the city, so Luke had to turn into a superhero to stop her. 

Abraham and Jacob watched the music video together in the football field with the other football players, and they grinned. Jacob said, “So Ed DO wants to be Batman since he was young!”

As Edward transitioned back into rapping, so did the scene. It focused more on him helping the people around him, with a couple of shots of him singing directly to the camera. 

“♫♪ I'll be playing basketball with the president, dunkin' on his delegates

Then I'll compliment him on his political etiquette 

Toss a couple milli' in the air just for the heck of it 

But keep the fives, twenties, tens, and Bens completely separate♫♪”

The President chuckled when he heard the lyric. He needed that little laugh after cleaning up the government bodies after his assassination attempt. He tweeted, quoting the tweet of the music video lyric and said, “He did, in fact, dunked on me.”

The tweet got a lot of reactions from thousands of people, which turned the obscure music video launch as it was uploaded abruptly without time to market it, into something a lot of people talked about.

The song continued, “♫♪ And yeah, I'll be in a whole new tax bracket, We in recession, but let me take a crack at it, I'll probably take whatever's left and just split it up, So everybody that I love can have a couple bucks ♫♪”

Ted smiled softly and said, “I think that’s the most accurate verse of him I’ve ever heard.”

Pepper also smiled and said, “The entire verse is Edward Newgate’s essence.”

“♫♪And not a single tummy around me, Would know what hungry was, eatin' good, sleepin' soundly♫♪”

Without everyone in the set realizing it, they all have a smile on their face as they watch the music video. 

“♫♪I know we all have a similar dream! Go in your pocket, pull out your wallet, put it in the air and sing! ♫♪”

“♫♪I wanna be a billionaire so fucking bad!

Buy all of the things I never had

I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine

Smilin' next to Oprah and the Queen ♫♪”

The music video continued with Luke taking down Jenna the villain, but in real life, Jenna pinched both of his cheeks to tease him.

“♫♪Oh, every time I close my eyes!  I see my name in shiny lights , oh, yeah, yeah ♫♪”

The scene cuts to where Edward sang the song near a beach where people were partying.

“♫♪A different city every night , oh, I swear~

The world better prepare for when I'm a billionaire!!♫♪”

Enid, Jenna, Elsa, were all dancing in the background of the shot together with numerous party goers. 

♫♪Oh, oh , when I'm a billionaire♫♪

♫♪Oh, oh ♫♪”

The music suddenly stopped, leaving only Edward’s vocal as he sang the last verse.

“♫♪I wanna be a billionaire….so fucking bad!♫♪”

In the music video, the song came to an end, but there was a brief clip that continued playing even after the music finished.

Luke, in his superhero costume, walked over to Edward as he sat down on the wave breaker, looking at the sea. Luke sat down next to him without talking. They smiled as they saw each other, and they shared a fist bump.

But in the next, same scene setting, Edward was alone, closing his eyes as he felt the sea breeze. 

Lily, the fan club president, waved her hands to her eyes, trying to prevent her tears from coming out. “The song is so good, but why did I feel like I wanted to cry?” She asked herself. 

Alex and Haley, were watching the music video together after they had a temporary truce. Haley muttered with a smile, “He never grew up.”

“Excuse me?” Alex asked with confusion.

“That last scene.” Haley rewind the video back a little bit. “He and the little one, both have the same habit of imagining what his life would be like. The ending shows that.” 

“Oh.” Alex exclaimed flatly. “I can’t believe I missed that… And I really can’t believe you were the one who caught it.”

“EXCUSE ME!? Are you saying I’m stupid!”

“Well you’re not smart!”

“I can’t believe you! You think you’re better than everyone else…”

The sisters fought with each other again, until they couldn’t bear to stay in the same room together. Phil, who was downstairs, was feeling so proud.

“Both of my boys were really great!” Phil said before his expression turned into a sob. “I can’t meet with one of them anymore.” His sobs turned into a wail, and he started singing the Johnny Cash song again.

The reaction countrywide for the song was mostly great, with some mixed reactions. Some media outlets connected the FEMA lines in Edward’s song instantly, supporting Edward in bashing the organization. While some other news site told Edward he was too young to understand how the world works and just kept his business in the music industry. 

Well, to attack a global artist with a HUGE following and cult-like fan club behind him, was basically a career suicide for those journalists. 

Eminem focused on Edward’s rap part as he listened to the song. “It’s good, but not that great.”

Dre scoffed and said, “You put too much pressure on him.”

Eminem smirked and said, “I’m just saying. I heard him spitting bars before. His level can be so much higher than this.”

Just 2 hours before the song's release, it hit 1 million views on the Entertain website from fans worldwide, and the numbers were climbing upwards rapidly. #Billionaire were trending on social media immediately, however it still couldn’t beat up the #PresidentVSRocketLauncher and #ObamaAssassination.

The Entertain website had slowly made Youtube obsolete with its fast video playback, and higher quality option for the videos. A lot of artists had been working with Entertain to upload their music videos there, and the numbers of people moving toward the website and the mobile apps has been rising steadily in the last couple of months.

Taylor shook her legs nervously as she sat on her couch, just finishing watching the music video. She then mumbled to herself, “If he gets a music video, then I can get a music video too!”

Without taking a moment to think, she immediately grabbed her phone and called Pepper. 

…

[Edward POV]

After uploading the music video, I brought my friends to a laser tag place where we enjoyed ourselves playing. I even asked Jacob and Abraham to come to. We played a round of laser tag, ate chicken wings and drank soda, before we continued on playing the game again. 

Robin notified me about the music video surpassing 1 million views, and we celebrated its success there. Their parents picked them up later on, and I left alone to go back to the company. After handling a few affairs, I received a call again from RDJ, telling me that the meeting was postponed to tomorrow.

“Hmm…” as I was driving in the convertible, I thought about what I should do now that my evening had opened up. “Alright, time to keep my promise.”

After I made a U-turn, I drove back to my old neighborhood, and parked my car in front of the Dunphy’s house. Walking to the front porch, I hesitated before I could press the doorbell, and walked a few steps back to the front yard again.

Seeing that the window on Haley and Alex’s room were open, I jumped on their minivan, and hopped onto the roof of the house. I heard bickering as I reached the window, and without any warning, I jumped through the window, into the room.

“AHHHHH!!!” Both girls screamed in horror after they were surprised by my sudden visit.

“Hi, you really shouldn’t keep your window open all the time at night. Someone might break in.” I said casually as I stood up from the ground. Both of them grabbed the object closest to them, and threw it at me a few times in panic.

“Wait! STOP!” I held my hands up to stop the flying object. Phil kicked open the door and entered with a wooden bat in his hand. “AHHH! STAY AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTERS!” He shouted before he stopped abruptly. “Oh, it’s Ed.”

Claire and Luke rushed into the room too, both had a weapon in their arm. Claire, a spatula. Luke, a plastic bat.

“Oh, it’s you.” Claire breathed in relief after seeing me. Her knees weakened, and she had to lean on the door to keep standing. That’s where she saw Luke and became confused. “Luke, I told you to stay downstairs!” She scolded.

“I thought I could beat someone up.” Luke replied.

“With a plastic bat? It won’t even hurt.” I interjected. Claire chuckled and asked seriously, “Edward. Why are you here?”

“I’m breaking into your house since I can’t do it the normal way.” I replied before I turned to Haley who was desperately trying to fix her hair to look prettier. 

Phil said casually, “So you climb up the window?”

Claire joked, “I thought we have a few years before we get to this point. Should I arrange the intervention now?”

I snickered and said, “How about, for now, can you give me some space to talk with your daughter? Cause when I broke in here, I didn’t think that I would have to meet with the whole family. And you're kinda disrupting my plans.”

“Oh, right!” Phil quickly grabbed Claire, and Luke and dragged them from outside of the room.

“Dad! Are you really leaving your daughter alone with a boy in her room?” Haley asked with disbelief.

“Edward’s a good boy! I trust him.” Phil said as he grabbed Alex too. 

“Hey It’s my room!” Alex tried to protest.

“Thanks for your understanding Alex.” I shouted to her. After everyone else left the room, I turned to Haley who was worried, yet with a tinge of anger in her face.

“Why did you come–”

“I miss you.” I said, interjecting her question, making her fall in disbelief. “What?” She muttered, her eyes shook.

“Yeah…That’s why I used the window. I really want to see you.” I said honestly, which made her stunned. Her anger dissipated and she said, “You really shouldn’t climb up here.”

“You climbed into my window. There’s no difference in what I’m doing here.” I smiled as I sat on the edge of her bed. “We should talk.” I patted the mattress, gesturing for her to sit down.

Haley sighed and relented, sitting slowly right next to me. After a while, I asked, “So I hear you’ve been fighting with your sister a lot?” 

Haley snapped, “She’s so condescending! She kept poking at me the whole time—” Stopping herself, she rolled her eyes and said, “So you come here for Alex’s sake?”

“Nah. It’s for my sake honestly. I just had that one question about that.” I smiled before I asked, “So, you’ve listened to my new song?”

“Yeah. It’s pretty great.” Haley finally smiled, but then she tried to cover it up again. 

“You don’t have to stop yourself from smiling. That made me really sad.” I said with a sad smile. She said apologetically, “Sorry.”

“Well, you should be sorry.” I teased.

She gasped with a smile, “You know what? I’m not really sorry.”

“Eh, too late. I already accepted your apologies.”

“Then I’ll hit your head, make you lose your memories.”

“With a pan?” I asked with confusion.

“Of course, with what else?” She replied teasingly.

We caught each other's eyes, and both of us burst into laughter. As we calmed down, she said, “I miss you too. But–”

“Uh, why must there be a but?” I groaned as I turned my head away from her. 

“But… you know…” She trailed off, not finishing her words. Both of us were silent for a while before I spoke up, “You know what, if you’re not ready, we can come to another arrangement.”

“What?” She asked, intrigued. “Well, you don’t want us to see each other, but you know your family is just crazy about me.” I said smugly, which made her burst into laughter.

“Yeah, they love you more than me.” She said sarcastically.

“You got that right.” I agreed with her, which made her giggle again. “So, you know, why don’t we come to some sort of an arrangement. Because not seeing each other, it pushed them to think about me more. It’s like when you were kid and your dad won’t get you the toy you want, and you think about them every day.”

“I always get the toys I want.” Haley said.

“Right, so we have a very different childhood.” I said playfully. “So like a married couple getting divorce, I can have them on the weekends, and you can have them on weekdays.” I added.

“Why do I get them on the weekdays!? We don’t do anything on weekdays!? All the fun is on the weekends!” Haley complained.

“You live here, so it makes perfect sense that you have them on a weekday.” I argued back. “No thank you!” She rejected it. “Why don’t you take them Sunday and Monday, and I get them Saturday and the rest of the week.” She negotiated.

I heard some murmuring from outside of the door, and realized that the family was eavesdropping on our conversation.

“Alright then. That works for me. So I can come here on Monday and Sunday.” I agreed.

“No, they need to go out.” Haley added. “Why should I leave the house?” She said playfully. “Where would I go?”

“Excuse me Miss Popular girl in Highschool? You really don’t have anywhere to go on a Sunday? It seems like you’re not as popular as you might think.” 

Scrunching her brows together, Haley said, “Enough about that. You’ll give them back before dinner time, right?”

“No. We’ll have dinner outside.”

“Then I have to eat alone?!”

“Yeah!”

We argued for a while before we finally came to an agreement. “Alright, that settled it. I can get them on Sunday and Monday, also I can come to a special occasion.”

“But, you need to tell me about it first.” She interjected. “The ban is lifted between…you and my family…”

“So I can text you again?” I asked with a smile, which made her flustered. 

She thought about it before replying, “Fine! You can, but if it becomes weird again between us, then we have to stop it immediately.”

“Weird? Like how?” I asked as I moved closer towards her. Her eyes were fixated on my lips, which made her have to escape and stand up from the bed.

 “Well, weird!” She explained. “If we become close again, and you start to date someone else, that is going to break me, even if we are just friends right then.”

I sighed in frustration and said, “That goes both ways.”

“So, you understand.” She said as she crossed her arms. 

Slowly, I moved up from the bed and stood in front of her, asking casually, “Alright then. Wait, what about conjugal visits? Do we have those or not?”

“Hmm?” Haley was confused. “What’s that?” She asked.

“Do you not know them?” I asked with a fake surprised expression. She became flustered and said immediately, “I know! Umm…”

“So, how many times a week?” I asked, urging her.

“1 time per week!” Haley replied seriously even though she was greatly confused on the inside.

 Alex burst into the room and grabbed Haley’s hand, pulling her away from me. “YOU PERVERT!” Alex snapped at me before whispering to Haley what I meant. Haley’s face turned angry and embarrassed.

“GET OUT OF YOU YOU PERV!” She grabbed a pillow and started beating me with it. I laughed out loud, before I jumped out of the window again. Haley grunted and said, “Use the door!”

“NO!” I replied mischievously before I left the room, shouting, “ONE TIME PER WEEK!”

“THAT’S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!” Haley shouted through the window before she slammed it shut and locked it. Feeling happy inside, I hopped back onto the car seat before driving back to my house on the seaside. 

“Vader!” I picked up the cat that was running towards  me with excitement as soon as I got into the house. “You’re not a dog.” I chuckled seeing her so happy to see me.

Leading her to her cat bowl, I squatted as I filled up her bowl with some treats, “Vader, I’ll share this secret, just with you..” I said to the cat as I petted her fur. I whispered to her, “Don’t tell this to anyone else, but, I was happier when I go to their house compared to when my music video was released.” 

“You realized that I can hear you right, Sir?” Robin appeared and asked as her holographic projection crouched next to me, smiling as she  placed her hands underneath her chin.

“Top secret Robin. Top secret.” I chuckled.