★ Warning Mature Content ★
Asher Kells is a Rock Star and Rapper, complete with tattoos on nearly every inch of his thickly muscled body. He has a badass ability to play the guitar, and he sang like crush diamonds, amber whiskey, and smoke. While I...
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"rrggguuushhpss you're ittttttttttttttt," screams the little boy at the top of his lungs. The Lora Music and Arts Center was in the middle of free play. The kind, thoughtful kids that I teach music to three days a week disappear into complete bedlam. Quiet kids go into the spaces on the side of the workshop. Loud ones lose their minds and play their hearts out. My mother always thought that sometimes kids just need to be loud. It teaches them places where they get to be loud and times when they don't. School uniforms and school as a job have become commonplace. The problem with that is little kids are little kids. Things have to happen in steps. They can't instantly be what you might want them to be. They have to have fun and develop as people. In this place, my mother built, there's a sense of home and community to it. Where you can dream big dreams and sing about it to the world and dance like no one looking. If perchance someone sees your kid dancing it up, they will dance with you. I might not be able to be here every day, but the center director has that message and someday I will get to work here as well and carry that forward.
"Ade, wait for me!" His older sister yelled. The little girl that so reminded me of my brother Marice and me that it hurt to look at. She chased after her little brother. Two of the newest students were at the center. We hired a personal assistant to help with the day-to-day of all the YouTube channel stuff. It's helped a lot to finally get an editor and someone to keep everything straight. She has two kids and is a single mother and reminds me of my mom. More kids split into different groups for free play.
The buzz of the lens focus is so annoying. I clench my teeth, then release my jaw. I've been able to go to the hotel enough, and this crew followed me from college to my job. It's their job, really I understand, but it's annoying. Checking my messages on my phone while not showing them what I am looking at is hard. The run down from Tari, the personal assistant I share with Zoey, Noah, and Maurice didn't look good. We share a YouTube Channel with Noah, as well as Zoey and me having our own. I've been watching the clips, and it's not good at all. The actual live show clips are interesting to look at. But the events aren't the way I remember them, very dramatized. The interviews with the judges who also act as our team leaders. There's one comment that gave me the giggles. It started out about how much Team Rock let us down with the first contest performance flop. He left out how much we caught up last night. Jerk.
I have no plans to feed the reality TV beast. With a vibration against my thigh along with the music clip, I smiled at the song Kells song from the first demo. Not long enough for anyone to know it, but long enough just for me. Asher called after last night. I got a peek at the message this morning and sent him something back so he's not backsliding. We aren't avoiding each other. Woot!! The mental jumping up and down dance that goes with it.
He's leaving messages and texting me about ordinary stuff. Like waking up and taking a picture of what he's eating. It's regular, but it isn't like the simple business stuff he sent me from time to time. His music changes. It's more like this is a look inside my life. He asks me more questions about myself, but I had to go to class than work. As soon as I got to class, the cameras were waiting for me and there was no more texting back to Asher after that. Another buzz from the camera as the two-man team positioned to get another shot of me. Isn't that a bit boring? I'm just on a break? This must be because I haven't been staying at the hotel that much.
I take out my phone and carefully don't open any notifications. Then I open up the YouTube app for the TV show. I pull up episode one and set it for 2x times the speed. The singing isn't good when you do that, it sounds like high pitch whining. I had to skip the singing contest stuff and only watched episodes to do with the backstage stuff.
Watching all the hotel and backstage stuff in fast-forward was super weird. I couldn't help the frown that spread across my expression. It was a mix of the streaming clips and reality tv stuff. It wasn't a total lie, but it was a glamorized and demonized truth. Filled with all the stupid reality TV show tropes. Everyone was cast. The cool girls were Team Pop. Kyle was the golden boy. They even had a slow-motion camera shot of Kyle that went into him singing at a studio session. They really push the idea of how hard he was working at the hotel practicing and creating new music. He's thinking about an album. They made it seem like Zoey and Asher were dating. Then Lucia and I were made out to be the bad guys, black bitch, and angry Latina woman. Whenever we were on screen, they changed the music out to be that way and took minor things and blew it up. She's in school still the same as me. So, when they have us sitting by ourselves doing things most of the time, we are doing our homework. But can't let that get in the way of the storyline.
I'm glad I looked at this, but a part of me wished I'd never taken a look at it. It's like I can't win. They make it seem like I'm ignoring my hard-working teammate Zoey. When in fact I'm really just going to my college classes. Real black bitch just wheelz going to college. It's kind of too boring. Reality isn't as addictive as reality tv.
A/n: As always remember to comment, star, and share.
