<div class="floatleft">(http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j480/Erion2451/m-TULISA-CONTOSTAVLOS-620x930c.jpg)</div>Rachel Ransom had always dreamed of making it big.  She'd moved to the L.A. area two years ago, now, and had worked hard to be noticed.  No less than a month ago, she'd considered quitting, returning to her parent's ranch outside of Dallas, and possibly enrolling into college for real.  She'd been taking classes at a local community college for the last eight months, but it had been something to do with her time.  School had never been a primary focus.  Only two weeks ago, she'd been sitting in the back of the class of thirty, staring at the clock, as the professor droned on about someone who had done something some hundreds of years ago.  Aside from school, she had held two jobs.  One as a sale's associate at an American Eagle in a mall, and the other as a Barista at a StarBucks, one of several dozen located in the area.  Neither job had been glamorous, exciting, or even unique.<br/><br/>Rachel liked to believe it was fate that had brought her to that club which had happened to have had an open-mic that one of D'lo's Saxton's assistants had been attending.   It had been luck that she'd been able to convince the owner to allow her to take that final open slot, and it had been years of training, along with no shortage of raw talent, which had caused that very same assistant to approach her after her set.  Rachel hadn't believed the offer genuine at first.  Too many guys had tried to pick her up by pretending to be something they weren't.  He'd given her his card though, and she'd called it first thing after waking the next day.  A mix of surprise, disbelief, and utter exhilaration had filled her when the woman's voice had said "FATE Entertainment".  Rachel had promptly asked for the assistant who'd given her the card and began talking about an audition for D'lo Saxton, himself.<br/><br/>It had been a whirlwind trip since then.  Now, here she was, in FATE Entertainment's L.A. headquarters.  She was being led by a man in a coat and tie to the conference room where she'd meet D'lo, for the third time this week, and the rest of the group, for the very first time.  The butterflies in her belly were fluttering fiercely and it was a wonder, with how she felt she was trembling from excitement, that she hadn't fallen in her inch high heels.  She was wearing a white blouse and a blue, knee length skirt.  The assemble was trendy, it had been picked out and modified by one of FATE's fashion directors and it had cost as much as two months worth of tips and salary at her previous two jobs.  All of that was behind her, she'd been assured and reassured.<br/><br/>She thanked her escort, after he opened the door to the conference room, in a voice nearly too quiet to be heard, her southern accent as thick as her nerves.  Her smile, though, a mix of wonder and shock, lit up her face.<strong>"Hi, y'all,"</strong>she managed as a greeting to Olly and D'lo.