We Found Love in A Hopeless Place

Chapter 2

I laid on my bed thinking about how crazy my life has changed in less than a year all thanks to X Factor. It’s been five months since the show ended and four months since we’ve been signed which means it’s been four months since we’ve been living together. We all moved in together for our album process. Simon rented a condo in Los Angeles for us to live during this time.  We thought recording our album was all we needed to do but that was far from what we thought was planned. We were informed that we needed some more vocal training and he wanted us to also learn some choreography.  We also needed some training on how to present ourselves in front of the media.

He said what we were doing was fine, being ourselves and showing our personalities but some of us needed help talking more in front of the camera, which he basically meant me. I usually don’t talk whenever we are being interviewed because Lauren, Ally & Camila are always doing the talking and they pretty much handle it all. They basically say everything that needs to be said so there really isn’t any need for me to say anything but just smile and listen. I thought that was fine but I guess I was wrong.

Simon wanted us all to contribute in interviews. We were told that the media wants to get to know all of us and they are not getting that if I continue to just stand there and not speak. So yep, I had speech classes. Well me and Normani has speech classes because she too needed to speak more in interviews but yeah, that’s what we’ve been doing the last four months, oh and traveling. We thought we would record all our songs in Los Angeles but no, we had to fly to New York as well to do some recording and work with some big producers there. I was so excited about traveling because I never really travel far out.

New York was insane but beautiful nonetheless. I prefer my California sun over New York any day though. Traveling was great and exciting but it had its lonely moments. I missed my family and friends so much. I couldn’t depend on my family being with me anymore. I was a big girl now. Simon didn’t sign me and my family. He only signed me and the girls so none of our families were with us anymore. We were on our own in other words. It was scary but a lesson to learn. Eventhough I missed my family, I still had my four other sisters with me. They filled the lonesome gap; I felt whenever I started to miss them, like now.

Here I was laying on my bed in our hotel suite in London, England. Yes, we also flew out to London. We had to do some promotion for X Factor USA since they were showing it out here and we have several meetings with Simon and some execs for Syco Music. Since the main headquarters is in London, we had to come out. This was our first time here so we were excited to explore but after a day I had, exploring London was the last thing on my mind.

We’ve arrived in London four days ago and since the moment we landed, it has been meetings and recording, with a couple of interviews but nothing serious yet. Our first meeting I was given bombshell news and was not happy with it. The girls tried their best in comforting me. I was gonna do it regardless because I had no choice but that didn’t mean I had to like it. Simon gave me a couple of days to settle it but I had to do it before the week was to end so that we can start putting the plan in motion. I was lost in my thoughts when Camila found me. 

She jumped on my bed, shaking me out of my trance. “Look at this?” she said as she handed me the Suns newspaper.

“What am I looking at?” I asked.

“Not the cover but the entertainment section” she said as she turned the paper to the section she wanted me to see. I saw the picture and read the news. There it was the plan was already being put into motion. The rest of the girls came walking into the room.

“Did you show her the paper already?” Lauren asked as she joined Mila and me on the bed. She was lying on the other side of me. Normani and Ally sat at the foot of the bed looking at me for a reaction.