December 24th [COMPLETED]

Chapter 7: Twenty-Six

Christmas in New York was completely lost on George that year. Sights people from all over the world flew in to see, George barely noticed.

George was grounded. Well, maybe more like stuck, in New York for the holiday season. It felt like she was grounded. The person who had sent her to New York to hide out in her apartment while contracts were being negotiated with Concept was her mother so that didn't help. It was weird, having Vivian take an active role in George's career. This new development was the biggest change in George's life over the past year, when she stopped to think about it. Well, that and the complete and utter absence of Felix. But George didn't like to think about that.

Vivian had found out about the two very specific stipulations in George's contract early on in the year. It would have been hard to miss. Vivian was at the Grammy's and George was not. Vivian watched as Julien ascended the stairs and took the golden record player in place of George when the award for Producer of the Year was announced. Vivian called George called immediately after the show and demanded an explanation. Julien had already given her one, George found out later, but Vivian was the kind of person who needed to know things directly from the source.

So George told her. George Briggs was legally intellectual property of Concept Records. Georgiana Burns was prohibited from ever publicly taking credit or seeking recognition for any of the work she did as George Briggs.

For the first time in her life that George could remember, Vivian was rendered speechless. After a long pause, Vivian started speaking rapidly and without pausing to take a breath. Luckily Sydney was also listening so George didn't have to try and understand everything Vivian was saying. Bottom line, Vivian was taking on George's case, whatever that meant.

Turns out it meant Vivian was going to be George's agent from then on out and she was determined to find a way to get George the recognition she deserved.

It felt nice, for about a week, having someone in George's corner, fighting for her, actively trying to go against a system that had taken so much from her. But after the third conference call with Vivian, Sydney, Julien, and Lionel, George was starting to wonder if having her mother invested so heavily in her career was a good idea.

It was, in the long run, and as George's car came to a stop outside the Brooklyn hotel the morning of the twenty-fourth, the morning of her twenty-sixth birthday, George knew she was only there because of Vivian.

It was a brunch of some kind. George wasn't totally certain about the details. She had learned over the years to tune out most of what Vivian said, knowing Sydney would keep track of the details, and George could tune back in when Vivian said exactly what George needed to know. It was a skill she had developed over many long-distance phone calls with her mother. Over the last year, George had talked to Vivian more than Julien, in a weird twist of fate.

The brunch was being held in a large banquet hall on the top story of the Brooklyn hotel. A chill wind ripped past George as she raced out of the car and headed for the revolving doors, Sydney right on her heels. The view was supposed to be spectacular but its location right on the banks of the river reminded everyone it was winter.

George and Sydney rode up with a few other people, George's long wool coat coming off as soon as they hit the elevators. From what she could see from the people she rode up with and then from a cursory glance out at the crowd that appeared when the elevator doors opened, George was dressed twice as nice as almost everyone here.

That was a nice little perk of having Vivian in her corner. George had gone to more social events in the past year than she had her entire career, (to build up brand recognition for the Georgiana Burns name as Vivian described it), and every time, Vivian had a pair of makeup and hairstylists at George's door bright and early, a garment bag slung over one of their shoulders, ready to do their magic.