A Place in This World - A Taylor Swift Adoption Story

Gossip

Arc: Gossip

Summary- The group home girls find out about Rose's brush with fame. Rumors spread about who will be the one to leave with Taylor. Rose finds out some news about her family. Rose gets to meet with Taylor again. We find out who gets to leave with Taylor.

Special notes:
- Gossip is the title of the ARC and the CHAPTER you are currently on
- I aim for 1k+ words but if I feel inspired we might get longer ones

~~

April 16th, 2023

Rose's head spun. She knew this lady. In fact, some of her songs had gotten her through the entirety of the pandemic, especially after leaving home. "Um, yeah," Rose said, trying to avoid looking like a total fool. "If you want, you can wait for Juliette to come back? She's on her lunch."

"Perfect. Thank you! Is it okay if I sit here?" Taylor asked, pointing at a chair.

"Um, yeah, I guess. Just be careful if you get up, I mopped fairly recently," Rose said, wringing her mop out on the bucket. She went to put it away before analyzing her choices. She could go strike up a conversation with Taylor, or she could leave the lady alone. After all, she didn't want to draw that much attention to herself. Or maybe she did. What would happen if Rose was able to go with her?

"Rose?" a voice said, and Rose snapped out of her thoughts. "Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine, Juliette. There's someone waiting in the front." Juliette smiled and nodded, the same reassuring smile from two and a half years ago. As Juliette turned, Rose hesitated but decided to speak up. "Hey, really quickly." Juliette inched closer. "It's Taylor Swift." Juliette nodded, her eyes perking up.

"So, serious, or?" she asked, and Rose chuckled.

"Be a normal receptionist. I'll right behind you." Juliette went back to her desk, and from the cleaning closet, Rose heard the two start a conversation. Rose put up the rest of the stuff, took off her gloves, then made her way to the seat where she sat and talked with Juliette when she wasn't doing anything.

"Hey kid. What's for dinner tonight?" Juliette asked, and attempt to seem chill in front of Taylor. She was humming a song while filling out the paperwork.

"I think today's Mac and Cheese night. Kids get here in an hour from summer camp, and they start cooking around then," Rose replied. A small beat of silence filled the air as Taylor stopped humming, and the two girls stopped talking. Then, Taylor started humming again, this time a song that Rose had a special attachment to. The humming continued, and Rose decided to hum shyly along with her, a harmony. Taylor looked up and offered a gentle smile as they both continued humming.

"From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes, I gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this," Taylor started her bridge, grin growing bigger by the second.

"I hosted parties and starved my body like I'd be saved by a perfect kiss," Rose sung quietly, afraid of the judgement that could happen.

"The jokes weren't funny, I took the money, my friends from home don't know what to say," Taylor offered to continue. The two girls laughed as they finished the song, and Taylor got up, handing the paperwork to Juliette. "You were here earlier, cleaning," Taylor said to Rose. She nodded gently. On the outside, Rose might've seemed normal. but internally, she was kind of freaking out.

"Yeah! I help out around here. I'm Rose, I'm one of the kids here," Rose said, hesitating to extend a hand. Taylor shook it with a smile.

"You have a lovely voice, kid. Nobody should tell you otherwise." Rose blushed at the compliment and Juliette had to do some more talking with Taylor, so Rose excused herself, saying good-bye to Taylor, and running up to the room she now shared with 3 other girls.

~~

An hour passed, and everyone was pretty much back in the home. The girls were all on their phones or laptops, but Rose cleared her throat, trying to say something. "What's up, Rose?" Danielle said, a girl who got there two weeks after Rose.

"Someone applied for a license today. I met her."

"Her?" Alice asked, sitting up and looking at Rose. "Just one person?"

"Yeah. Here's the thing though. It was Taylor frickin' Swift."

"No shot," Ellie said, perking up immediately. "Taylor Swift. Like, the Taylor Swift that we watch on a grainy livestream? Killed me with The Great War literally two days ago?"

"Yes, Ellie," Rose chuckled. "That Taylor Swift. She came in, filled out an app for a license, complimented my voice..."

"Are you serious?!" Danielle started, and all the girls asked similar things. "Wait, did you just randomly start singing in front of her?"

"Calm down. I didn't just go up to her and start singing. She was humming, I hummed a harmony, and she started singing so I sung back. Nothing much."

"And she complimented your voice." Alice rolled her eyes, fake-pouting.

"Jealous much?" Ellie taunted, giggling. The four girls laughed as they headed to the cafeteria to set up the tables for dinner.