Fireworks 1 and 2

Jungle: Chapter Twenty-Two

    Nicki's text messages encouraged Mia to dress very casually for their time in the studio. By now, Mia was used to working in the studio, thanks to her time working with Drake. She donned sweatpants, a hoodie, and sneakers. Her curly hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

    Tank escorted her to the studio and made the appropriate introductions to Nicki's team. Mia had met Nicki before, so no introductions were needed there.

    The minute Nicki saw her, her eyes lit up and she jumped up from her chair. She wore jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers. Her hair was long, black, and curly. Her brown skin glowed, even below the dim studio lighting. "My twin! There you are, oh my gawd." She wrapped her arms around Mia and rocked her from side to side. "How was your flight here? Was your flight here okay? Did you go out last night, or did you keep it chill? Do you need any recommendations for anything? Restaurants, clubs, anything? Bitch, I got you. Just let me know."

    Mia laughed and returned the embrace. "The flight was okay, and I just kept it low key last night. I didn't have the energy to do much else."

    "You and I definitely need to go out while you're here," Nicki told her, pulling back. She spread her arms out. "But this is le studio. Welcome to Jungle City."

    Music was playing already, and a brown-skinned man was seated at the studio controls, bobbing his head.

    "This is the legendary Boi-1da," Nicki introduced, hugging him from behind. "Music producer extraordinaire. He's dropping some nice beats, some nice fire for us. Just so you know, writing with me is really chill. Really laid back. At first, I like to just...toss around ideas, right? I have some stuff written already and I'm going to run it past you so you get a feel for what I'm trying to do."

    Writing with Nicki was much like New York City: beautiful chaos. She spoke really fast and gestured a lot with her hands. With the way her nails were designed, the hand gestures were a bit distracting at first, but over time, Mia got the hang of focusing on what the hip hop queen was saying. A lot of different things tended to pull Nicki's attention: her phone, Boi-1da or one of the production assistants asking for her feedback, or her team poking their head into the studio to inform her of something or ask her questions. She was a pro at juggling multiple tasks.

    Mia sat on the couch in the back of the studio with one leg tucked beneath her, holding a notepad in her hands. With her brows furrowed, she sang out the lyrics that were written on the notepad.

    Nicki, standing near Boi-1da, turned her head and stared at Mia. "Your vocals. Oh my God."

    Mia stopped singing and nervously ran a hand over her hair. "My vocals are all right."

    "All right?" Nicki crossed the studio and sat down beside her. "I have a song. It's already written, so I don't need help with that one. Not on the writing end. But...you could provide vocals for it. It would set the whole track off. Your voice is perfect for it."

    Mia's brows drew together. "Singing isn't really what I'm trying to be known for..."

    Nicki tilted her head to the side. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to make it sound like I was asking for your permission to use your vocals. I should have said, 'You are going to provide vocals for this track, bitch.'"

    Nicki had Boi-1da cue up the track she was referring to. It was one of her more introspective tracks, a song she'd titled "Lie to Me." She raised a hand to her hip while leaning over the control board and explained to Mia, "If you've heard my song 'I Lied,' this song is pretty much a part two to that song."

    Not only had Mia heard it - it was one of her favorite Nicki Minaj songs of all time. As she listened to the song and Nicki's flow over the beat, she could understand why Nicki felt that it needed a singer's vocals on the track. Not that I should be that singer, she thought. While she continued to shout to the world that singing wasn't her forte or what she wanted to be remembered for, it seemed that the world had another plan for her. Before Nicki's insistent request, it was Drake and his friend and producer, Noah "40" Shebib, pressuring her to sing. She helped Drake write some of his album, and he sprung a surprise on her towards the end of recording. He wanted her to sing on the track she'd written and sung with him at OVOFest shortly after their first meeting.

    Once his album was released, people gained an interest in her. She'd already had her own follower base, thanks to her YouTube channel, but the interest garnered from her collaboration with Drake quadrupled her follower count. Her Instagram followers more than quadrupled, and that was most likely because most of the new followers wanted to check her account to see if she posted photos of Drake. She didn't. Not often. The negative comments were already on her posts in abundance. She didn't want to devastate any of the Drake fans who were following her.

    When he was feeling obnoxious, he would post a photo of them. He didn't understand why she wasn't more open about their relationship on her Instagram page. "I get why you would want to make sure you're not upsetting my fans, but you and I are together. At some point, they're going to have to accept that. And in the meantime, we should live our lives however we want to."

    The comments on her posts that weren't negative were either regarding her beauty or how much the commenter loved the song she had recorded with Drake. Her growing fanbase cheered her on, but Drake was by far her biggest cheerleader. He offered to help cultivate her singing career if she ever wanted to start one.

    In the back of my mind, I always thought that he was just being nice. Asking me to help him write just for the sake of being nice. Most people know he doesn't need help writing lyrics. When he featured my song on the album, I thought he was being nice. When he asked me to sing on the track, I thought he was being nice. Because he loved me. But now that Nicki is here, telling me that I should sing on one of her tracks...maybe I can accept that my voice is better than I think it is. She bit on her bottom lip while listening to the music.

    The track ended, and Nicki looked back at her expectantly. "Well?"

    "It sounds amazing," Mia told her.

    Both of Nicki's eyebrows arched. "Aaaand?"

    "Aaaand..." Mia hesitated, because once the words were out of her mouth, there would be no taking them back. "Aaaaand...I'd be honored to work with you."

    Nicki ran across the studio and jumped on Mia's lap, squealing at the top of her lungs. "Yes!"