Tina's Life: A Dancer's Dream Come True

Chapter 18: Social Media Star

" Tina. You're becoming a big star in the entertainment industry, so I'm gonna let you start having some fun with it." Mom says. " I've been waiting for this moment for 3 weeks," Tina says. " But... I do need to enforce some restrictions for your safety." Mom said, which immediately made Tina’s heart sink to her stomach because she didn't like to be watched when she's online, which is what her mom does because of how over-protective she is when Tina's doing anything like cooking. " I promise not to be so protective now that you're this big star. I'm gonna give you some independence from now on." Mom said, firmly shaking Tina's hand." Now that you trust me... what account can I have? Twitter, Discord?" Tina asked. " How about Instagram? All of your favorite stars are on that platform." Mom said. " Yeah! It's the account for superstars and normal people to interact and start live streams... without all of the stigma that comes with people differentiating themselves with how much money is in their bank accounts." Tina said, pulling up the Instagram app to finish making her personal/professional account. " All done. I turned off the parent feature so I can control what I post and who I follow... without you looking over my shoulder all the time. If that's OK." Tina said. " It's fine. I'm letting you continue your journey as a superstar with these socials since you're the person that keeps the family afloat and out of a mountain of debt... financially because those checks have more money than we make at our jobs." Mom said. " I feel like I break my body with these performances and all of the other stuff that I have them do to maintain my status as a popular artist who's very social media savvy when it comes to getting bigger audiences and more songs on my concert setlist that never grows old to the crowd... even if my vocal coach seems to wanna mix it up all the time when it comes to my music and how the audience is gonna take it. Plus, Mom constantly worries about stuff that doesn't require her expertise her advice, or her opinion. But she always finds something bad to point out during my dance rehearsals, but I don't mind it since she does this all the time during practice and after a performance... her judgment gets worse. It makes her an annoying person to be with during my performance weeks because she stresses every hour of rehearsal, and she stresses over the little things the most, like how I don't Mom has to control the rehearsal completely instead of letting the people we let into your life do their jobs instead of you walking into the room and getting Tina frazzled, which means that she's not gonna remember any of the choreography for these exciting and explosive performances." Dad says. " Now that I have lots of people who work for me, you guys can focus on being my parents and not my pretend manager, and pretend choreographer who fusses over every single detail... that's what we have real people for. These people are professionals, and they know what they're doing because you get frazzled, which makes stuff confusing, and it makes me angry because I'm so overcome with emotions." Tina said.
" Alright. I guess I get a little crazy when I come into rehearsals by myself. I'm sorry if I throw everything off." Mom says. " Now that I have a social media account, I can gain more fan-based attraction to my concerts, and I'll have more people buying tickets," Tina said. " Besides the tickets, people experience the love  that Jesus has for the unconditional love that Jesus has for them." Mom said. Tina finally sees that she can be a superstar and make time for her family as well while managing her busy status as a Christian pop star while being a big sister to 2 rambunctious little boys. Tina's journey is complicated, but it's worth it. " The music video is gonna be shot tomorrow, so we have 3 days to get things together. Remember, all of this work is making you become a better famous person than you were before." Mom said. " I know. My manager and I talked about canceling some shows around the busiest time of the year: holiday time, so I have time for my family and my friends. We talked about it 3 weeks ago on your weekly progress check-in, where we see how much progress we've made since the last performance." Tina said. " Now that the situation is out of the way, we can focus on more important matters, like getting ready for these future performing and opening act opportunities with all of these artists who are singing superstars that can produce new songs in 30 seconds that get tons of applause from the crowd when there's a concert happening that features tons of artists that are favored by the crowd because of the impact the songs give to the listener... and the impact is huge," Dad says. " I love when people admit that they're not perfect and they mess up, but God's so good that he took the cross for everyone," Tina says. " Spreading the message of Christ music gets tiring after a while. I mean, you make it so fun that it doesn't seem very hard at all. I sometimes forget that you're a pop star now because of how popular you've become. The salary is amazing and it helps support the family when the parents' money supply runs out... They get lots of money that goes to personal and professional needs like booking venues and buying new makeup for their performances so they can dress their faces in new costumes that go with the music they pick during the first day of choreography to prepare for any upcoming performance... plus you're traveling in a 7-foot limousine that has tons of secret pockets full of candy in the front and back seats." Micah said. Tina laughed at her brother because she knew that he would use her fame as the perfect meal ticket for him and Patrick's easy pass out of school and homework. " Nice try, my sneaky sons. Please brush your teeth and I'll be upstairs to tuck you guys in a minute." Mom said.