A Place in This World - A Taylor Swift Adoption Story

And strength in this now

April 26, 2023

Rose's POV

~~~

I went and ate, my omelette still a little warm. Taylor went over to the piano after making sure I took a couple bites, and 15 minutes later, once I ate it all, I put my dishes in the sink and joined her. She was playing a couple of different songs, humming along to see if the key could fit her vocal range. I also hummed along. I could see Taylor smile out of the corner of my eye. She finished not soon after. Taylor turned to me, checking her watch. "I have rehearsals today. What would you like to do?" I realized Taylor was jus as nervous as me. She was trying her hand at parenting. Kudos. I thought about her question. What else could I do? It's not like I could just go out and tour Atlanta. Maybe I could stay and learn piano. Again, what else could I do?

"I guess I can go with you?" I say, putting my fingers over the keys. They were the higher ones, I knew that. Taylor moved more towards her left, and I scooched more to the middle. I played a melody, putting the notes together like pieces in a puzzle. I'd never played an instrument, let alone a piano before, but somehow I found the notes that played "Marry You" by Bruno Mars easily. I decided to play all the notes to hear them all, including the black keys. Taylor just watched, surprised.

"I didn't know you could play," she said, fascinated. I shook my head.

"This is my first time touching a piano. I know the note names and where they are, but never played and instrument. I just... knew."

"Wait. Turn around." I did so. Taylor played a note. "What pitch?" I don't know how I knew, but I did.

"G flat," I said, surprised at myself. Taylor played another. "E." 3 more, separately. "A flat, C, E flat."

"How- Rose, do you have perfect pitch? Have you ever tried this?" Taylor asked, and I turned around, shrugging but also surprised at myself. I'd never had music experience, besides singing. "Here, try to play this." She pulled up "New Year's Day" on her phone, and I was able to pinpoint the chords. I played them once I heard the notes of the piano again, playing three notes on one hand while trying to play the melody with my right. Taylor stared, in awe. "I think I know what we're going to do."

~~~

Taylor stepped back for a bit to make some calls. She pushed back rehearsals to 4 o'clock, meaning we had more time to do whatever she wanted us to do. She sat down next to me. "Okay. We're going to write a song." I looked at her, eyes wide open, chuckling nervously. "I'm serious. You don't have to do anything with it, but you need a healthier way to get it all out. Emotions are great sources of writing."

"I can't write them, I sing them," I rebutted, not complaining. I was more nervous than anything. Taylor guided my hands to the keys.

"Here. Play something. Anything." I played a set of 7 notes, step-to-step. "That's called an arpeggio. Good start." She copied the melody, this time adding sets of three notes at the same time.

"That's a chord, right?" I asked, using the one bit of information I knew about music. She nodded. She repeated the melody so far, and I started singing. "I was in my new house, thinking daydreams," I sang, and Taylor stopped. "Did I mess up?"

"No, not at all. I just had an idea. There's this greek myth. I read it fairly recently. Have you heard of Cassandra, a priestess with a curse?" I shook my head. She pulled out her phone and showed me.

" 'Cassandra was a Trojan princess and priestess who was gifted with the ability to foretell the future, but was cursed so that no one would believe her.' Oh, interesting," I said, but not seeing where Taylor was going with this. "So, I know you know, but I went through a tough time during reputation. I was going to use her as a way to tap into some unreleased rage from back then, but I think you could use it more." I smiled and nodded.

"Let's do this."

~~~

The song was almost done. It had taken a lot of tweaking of lyrics and a couple of new different "block chords", as Taylor called them. When we were finishing the bridge, a call buzzed through. "Oh, it's Kam!" Taylor said, and answered. "Hey!... Oh, hold on." She put him on speakerphone. "Go ahead!"

"So me and the others were thinking-" he started, before Taylor cut him off.

"Oh, well that's not good," Taylor joked, and I snickered.

"Girl, be quiet," Kam said, laughing. "We were wondering if Rose could come to rehearsals and learn the dances. I would love to teach her and bring her on stage." I widened my eyes at the mention of dancing, but looked away at the mention of being on stage. Still, dancing was exciting.

"Sorry, Kam. Rose can't do anything with me until the drama around her stops or at least slows down. Tree's probably gonna kill me when she finds out about her."

"She doesn't know about her?!" Kam basically yelled. Taylor's phone buzzed.

"About that. Lemme call you back." She hung up, and called Tree. "Hi, Tree!" She put her on speakerphone too.

"Don't 'hi, tree!" me! Photographed with a kid? Who's is she? Who is she? Why don't I know about this?"

"Calm down. It's my daughter."

"Daughter?! I leave you for two weeks to go on a vacation with my family and you give birth to a 13 year old?"

"16, actually," I whisper, and Taylor repeats it.

"Say hi to Rose, Tree."

"Hi, Ros- ROSE? Is this the daughte- I'm going to Atlanta. We're going to have a nice talk over some wine. And grape juice for the kid. Bye, Taylor." The three tones sounded, and we both burst out cackling.

"Oh, God, I love working with Tree. Here, lemme call Kam back." She dialed the number. "Hi, I just got yelled about Rose, so probably an even bigger no-no."

"What, you're just gonna leave her alone in the hotel?" 

"God, no," Taylor said. "I have a couple friends here." I hesitated, opening my mouth, the closing it. Taylor looked at me and raised her eyebrow.

"Please?" I whispered, and I could see Taylor's gears turning. 

"Fine. But Kam, you're going to be in charge for teaching her off  of out rehearsal time." I squaled and jumped, and I could hear Kam's laugh over the phone. I took that as a sign he heard me.

"Alright. I'll see you in a bit guys." I looked at the clock. 3:21. Songwriting took up a chunk of our time...

I got up from the piano, going to my suitcase and picking out a crop top and sweatpants. I changed, put my hair up in a bun, and grabbed some water. "Ready!" Taylor turned to look at me, dressed in a tank top and legging. 

"Good! Let's go. I think you're going to like what today's rehearsal is."