Stop the World

Three.

"Sonny, what are you getting?" Natalie, her very own personal assistant, questioned from the front seat as Max pulled into the Starbucks parking lot. On what she thought would be a chill day with Chad had turned into a whirlwind. Natalie had stormed into their room before Sonny could even get decent and started spewing stuff about a label meeting. Sonny didn't know what they could possibly need to meet about since everything had been finalized last week but she had learned very early on not to say no to her label.

"Venti matcha with oat milk and two pumps of vanilla," Sonny said. Chad had gotten her hooked to matcha a month ago and she hadn't stopped drinking it since.

"No," her manager Dave hissed as Sonny furrowed her eyebrows. "We have fittings scheduled all this week and you're going to drink that much sugar? Absolutely not. Natalie, get her a black coffee."

Natalie turned in her seat, looking between Sonny and Dave. Technically Sonny was her boss but Dave was her employer. He could get her fired and she literally just got this job. But then she looked at Sonny who was so young and ripe and looked entirely heartbroken at Dave's comment. Hollywood was bad enough on its own. Who needed enemies when you had a manager making comments like that?

"A black coffee is fine. I didn't really want matcha anyway," Sonny reassured her before burying her face in her phone.

Sonny had no idea what time this super important, last minute label meeting was supposed to start but when they entered one of the conference rooms in the shiny Capitol Records building and she saw everyone that she had been authorized to play her first single for...she knew some super important decision was about to be made. Sonny still had that Wisconsin charm so when she went around the room greeting everyone, some of their grimaces turned into actual smiles and the room had been brightened up considerably by the time she took her seat. And that was why people loved her.

"I know you're wondering why we called you here so I'm not going to beat around the bush. We don't like the first single. We're going to scrap it and have you record this demo that we just received. For the music video, we'll keep it simple. You're still doing Fallon this week but we need you to record the song ASAP. The video shoot will take place tomorrow. You'll rehearse the day after that. Any questions?" Sonny didn't even know the name of the man talking and suddenly he had completely flipped her release plan on its head.

"Why?" Is all that Sonny could ask, and she heard Dave grumble in displeasure next to her. But Sonny deserved an explanation. She was new to the business but Chad had explained the numbers to her. The label had earned millions since they signed her. The least they could do was explain their decision making.

"Excuse me?"

"Why are you changing it? Everyone just loved and approved jealousy,  jealousy last week. You sent Joe Jonas there to help me finish it. Why is it suddenly not good enough?"

"The 'I'm not like other girls' trope gets tired quickly. It's part of the reason why you had a hate train after the last album. We need something new." This time a woman spoke, and she seemed like she was trying to be gentle in her delivery but there was disdain in her voice.

Sonny pressed her back against the seat as she felt herself frown. A trope? Her music wasn't about tropes or anything else. She always considered her music to be a true reflection of herself. She wrote songs when she felt something and that's why her first album had done so well. For them to belittle it to nothing more than a trope stung in a way that she couldn't describe.

"We know this is a big change but it happens all of the time. That's why we made it easy for you and there's already a demo for you to follow. I know you're new to this but this is how things work. If we're wrong, we'll try something else for the next single. But right now, this is the plan," the first man stated, jamming his finger against the conference table as Sonny slowly nodded her head. She was already trying to spin this in her head, convince herself that it really wasn't a big deal and that people sang songs that they didn't write all of the time. But it wasn't working. And Sonny wasn't sure that she could force herself to be okay with this.