N.E Heartbreak

Chapter 36

Chapter 36
Jacqueline

2005

It had to be the best BET Awards show in its short history. All six members of New Edition performed together for the first time in five years. We also performed for the first time in over a year. We won Best Group, Best Collaboration for My Boo with the guys, and Video for the Year for 7/11. As much flack as our family gave us for the song, it become one our most liked songs in such a short amount of time.

BET was an amazing experience especially with the kids enjoying themselves. BGT also won the Viewer's Choice Award. That was a tough category that both groups were nominated for. We thought it worked out because the girls won the Grammy and the boys didn't.

What was really the great moment for Cassie, Steph, and I was the kids getting to watch their uncles and dads perform together. The last time they say them actually perform they were little babies. Now they're teenagers and it is always something to aspire to to see your parents do their craft.

"I got it, Mike!" I sit upright in our bed. I was jerked out of my sleep from a memory from my previous life as a 21st Century teen.

"What's going on?" Mike jumps up. He looks around and starts to reach for the gun in his bedside table drawer.

"Oh. Put that away, Michael," I wave my hand. I turn on my table lamp with a big smile. "I got an idea."

He sighs and puts the gun away. "Goddamn, Jacqueline Lucile. You had me fucking scared."

"Sorry, babe, but I have an idea." I smile. I get out bed to get pen and paper.

"What's your idea, Mrs. Bivins?" He asks, still upset, from the bed.

I start to write my idea on paper before I talk to him. "We do a tour. A big tour. Back when, you guys did a tour called All Six. Real big tour where, obviously, all six of you performed. But this time, we're here and so are the kids. So it can be the All Six, SJC, and the Kids tour. It's a family affair," I stop to think. "Ooh. By the way, no one can call this A Family Affair. That's for a later tour in 2017."

"Baby, slow down," Mike get out of bed and stops my excited pacing. "You need to calm down. Stop telling me about the future, okay? You almost gave me a big piece. Why would we call a tour A Family Affair in 2017? What's so important in 2017 anyway?"

"You just told me not to tell you the future," I smile in his face. I kiss him quickly. "I need to call Steph and Cassie. We all need to meet up. Oh and Brooke. We need our choreographer."

I grab my iPhone 7 and start calling up everyone. It's not early. It's only seven in the morning so everyone was getting up anyway. Within an hour, everyone is at our house eating breakfast– that I made– together.

"So what's the big idea that caused us all to be here?" Brooke asks as he wipes his mouth. "Not that I can ever complain about a family breakfast."

I smile at Brooke before looking at the girls. "All Six," is all I tell them and they smile.

"All Six, SJC, and the Kids." Steph and Cassie say as if they could read my mind.

"I really hate how creepy you three are." Mike rolls his eyes.

"Ma, are we going on tour?" Wally asks. The kids start to get excited.

"We haven't toured together in years," I look at the guys who were giving each small, nervous smiles. "I know last tour didn't go...as planned, but this time is different. You wouldn't mess this up for the kids."

The guys look at our kids. "You're right. So Biv, Mrs. Biv, when can we talk to the co-CEOs of our label to get started?" Ronnie asks with a smirk.

"Oh your CEOs say it's already started. It's about getting the appropriate funds from our parent label, Motown," Mike smiles. New Edition finally moved over to Biv 10 Records and so did Bobby. We let go Destiny's Child after their first album with us. We still had Boyz II Men and ABC so our East Coast family was pretty big. Mike and I were working on getting detached from Motown so that Biv10 was solely us. "They won't say no. The kids will turn in all kinds of profit. They're Grammy winners and just won a BET award. You three just dropped an album that is currently number one in the world. And our NE 4 Lifers don't play games."

"Don't forget all of my Ronis, Ralph's Love Thangs, JG's Fairweather Friends and all of the ladies that still want BBD to Do them." Bobby says and we all roll our eyes.

"This could be a world tour that we take in legs. All fifty states, multiple cities in each state. That's one year. Take a few months, next year we go to Europe. Spend months on months out there performing." Ricky says.

"We come home for a while. Then we go to South America. Did you know we have a big following out there?" Bobby says then smirks. "Well, Bobby Brown does."

"Shut up, Uncle Bob." Tre rolls his eyes at his godfather. Bobby grabs his godson and rubs his head forcibly yet playfully.

"Then we can go to Africa, Asia, and Australia. Ma, Dad," Jackson smiles, ignoring Bobby and Tre. "This could be the way to expose us to the world and the world to us. We can meet and affect so many lives."

"Oh yeah. While we're touring, we'll need to do service in all of these places. We can't leave a city or country without performing some type of service to better the people and community." Kim says and the kids start talking about ways to help different parts of the world.

"They're going to be philanthropists," Johnny smiles. "Humanitarians."

"Better than any of us," Brooke says. "I'll start thinking of choreography for everything. It will take a few months, of course, but every song that is a hit will have a dance for it. I promise you that."

"We don't doubt you, Unc." I smile at Brooke.

"Wait," Steph rubs her forehead. "It's July."

"Yeah. My birthday month," Jackson smiles. "Almost thirteen."

"Kids, go upstairs, please. We need to talk." Steph waves them off. They don't question her. They just leave.

"What's wrong?" Cassie asks once the kids are gone.

"It's July 2005." Steph answers simply and we frown.

"How could we forget?" I gasp.

"What's going on?" Johnny asks. "What's going to happen?"

"Hurricane Katrina," Cassie whispers. "It wrecks all of New Orleans on 29 August 2005. It's the worst natural disaster to ever hit the city— category five. The city is completely damaged. It was the worst experience of our lives. Families were torn apart, people died, the city's population never recovered from it."

"But the city came back. Oh my God. We had Mardi Gras the next year in such fucked up conditions." Steph smiles with slight tears.

"We went to the OP with our moms to stay for a while. They didn't want to enroll us in school there in case we got attached. We stayed two months then we went back. It was horrible. We had to rebuild our homes. We had good money of course. Our moms are all in some type of science-medical related field so it's not hard to find work. Everyone needs doctors," I shrug. "But nothing was the same."

"So what can we do?" Ralph asks.

"We're donating all of the money from our album directly to people. Every cent will go to benefit the people of New Orleans." Cassie says and we nod.

"We'll donate money. Go build houses." Johnny says.

"Shit, I'm about to get fit." Bobby looks down at the potbelly he's developed.

"I told yo ass you get fat, but did you listen? No." Steph rolls her eyes.

"We have some time. Just make sure your cousins get up North before it's too late. And don't make it seem like you knew it would happen," Brooke says as he gets up. "I'm going to start working. Call me if you need anything."

Brooke leaves the house and the kids peak around the opening to the kitchen. "Are we allowed back down?" Kim asks.

"Yes." I roll my eyes playfully and they bound into the kitchen to finish eating.