𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄, star¹

TWO.

❝ shake my ass for some cash ! ❞

━ PILOT ★彡★

━━━━━━━━━━

Xandra leaned against the doorframe of her aunt's old wax room which was now occupied by Simone, Star, and Alex. She watched as Star and Simone practiced while Alex was grabbing them some food. "So you guys really trynna be a girl group, huh?" Xandra voiced, making her presence known to the girls.

Simone and Star turned to face the girl. "Where do I know you from?" Star squinted. Xandra smirked, simply shrugging. Simone immediately stood up, "Wait a minute.." She trailed, before nudging Star. "That's Xan!" Simone exclaimed, causing Star's eyes to widen.

"Oh my God, you are Xan," Star shouted. "Alex, she's Xan. That's where we know her from." She told her friend, who had just walked back into the room. "Oh," Alex cooly replied, before tossing an apple pie to Simone. Xandra scoffed, while Alex slipped into a chair.

"Whatever happened to you? You had a hit EP." Star inquired, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. "I used to listen to 'Tummy Hurts' about twenty times a day."

"Well thank you for that. I'm still waiting for that check to clear." Xandra chuckled to herself. "And I got dropped from my label because I got pregnant." She explained, making the three girls look at her in shock. "Pregnant?" They yelped, while Xandra slowly nodded her head.

"I had an abortion." She spoke in a soft tone. Xandra tried to push her tears back as she remembered that day. Simone, who noticed that she was growing upset, ran over to the girl giving her a hug. Xandra smiled as she melted into Simone's arms.

"Was Derek the father?" Alexandra chimed in. Xandra looked at the girl before rolling her eyes, "Wouldn't you like to know."

"Who the father was, doesn't matter. Just know he was given a choice and chose his music over me." Xandra explained. "Now enough with all this sappy shit, I wanna see y'all rehearse."

━

After watching the girl's rehearsal, Miss Bruce called everyone downstairs for some help in the beauty salon. "You work at the club tonight?" Xandra asked her cousin, referring to her job at the strip club that her aunt knew nothing about. "Yeah, why?" Cotton inquired, briefly looking up from the Check-In Sheet she had in front of her. "Good, I might come down and shake my ass for some cash."

Cotton jokingly rolled her eyes, "Girl, you are a mess." She chuckled.

"I want to do something nice for Derek, take him somewhere special," Xandra said. "That's why I need the money. I'm following your advice. I want to reconcile with him and have a more mature, less toxic relationship," she admitted, causing Cotton to smile. "That's really great, Xan," she said, playfully nudging her cousin who was grinning from ear to ear.

"Miss Bruce, I am loving this splash of color," Danielle commented, motioning towards Miss Bruce's hair, which had blonde highlights in them "What's the inspiration?" She inquired, shuffling through her magazine. "Girl, Rihanna, Charlize Theron mixed with Lupita Nyong'o, honey," Bruce replied.

"I got a taste for some grits," Carlotta announced as she made her way downstairs. "Morning, Miss Carlotta." Everyone from the clients to the employees greeted. "Titi, can you make me some too?" Xandra called out to her aunt, who was making her way to the kitchen. "Xan, please. It's too early for you to be pissing me off."

Xandra, who was following behind Carlotta, rolled her eyes, before taking a seat in one of the empty salon chairs. She furrowed her eyebrows at Star struggling to wash Roberta, a client's, hair. "You got some kind of problem, Star?" Xandra inquired.

Simone, who was currently sweeping, chuckled. "Star don't feel like working." She smiled, obviously high. "Star will get past that," Carlotta replied, opening up her mail.

Star finally was able to get the sink to work but burned her hand in the process, causing her to let out a squeal. "Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" She exclaimed, grabbing her hand. Xandra got up, coming closer to the girl. "What happened?" She inquired, examining her hand. "I just burned myself on this busted-ass sink," Star replied, trying to shake off the pain.

"What's wrong with you, girl?" Roberta growled, sitting up. "Carlotta, you got a white girl in here messing up my hair."

"Really?" Star spoke. "Your hair is fried, Roberta. Nobody can mess it up more than you already have." Xandra sassed. Roberta rolled her eyes before stomping off, "I'm out of here." She hollered. "Roberta." Carlotta tried to coo. "Hey, Roberta, you still got to pay," Cotton exclaimed, chasing after her.

"Carlotta, I don't know why you let that little Caucasian to work in here." Bruce voiced. "Miss Bruce, please," Xandra spoke, not wanting to have to here Star and Bruce go at it for the 5th time in two weeks. "No. She can't even work a shampoo ball, nasty attitude. Always something wrong with her." Bruce ranted, causing Danielle to laugh.

"What did you just say, bitch?" Star spat, stepping closer to Miss Bruce. "Say it one more time for me." She challenged. "I'm really, really tired of you two Bible-thumping whores..." Star exclaimed, motioning between Bruce and Danielle, who looked up at the girl in shock. "Yes, you... Coming in here and talking about me every single day." 

"See, that's my cue," Danielle announced before getting up to leave. "Bye." Star spat. "Why is that you think you know anything about me, where I was raised, who raised me, who was good to me, black or white?"

"Star." Xandra cooed, tugging at the girl's arm. "'Cause of what I look like?" Star continued to shout at Miss Bruce, disregarding Xandra's effort to calm her down. 

"Come on upstairs. Let's talk." Xandra suggested once she finally grabbed Star's attention. Star turned to leave, but halted, wanting to say one last thing. "You're a racist... bitch." She concluded before following Xandra upstairs. 

"And now that you finished, bitch your little ass right on out the door," Bruce called out. "Miss Bruce, you did not eat that up," Xandra hollered. 

━

JAZZY'S CORNER !

short and horrible, i know... it'll get better, i swear.