A Place in This World - A Taylor Swift Adoption Story

Welcome to New York

May 26, 2023

Rose's POV

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"Alright! Welcome to New York!"

Okay, maybe I wasn't actually in New York, but it felt close enough to home to call it that. I had practiced for about three weeks, and Taylor finally signed off on me being able to go on stage and dance with her. Kam said that he would be like my chaperone. and Someone compared me and Taylor to Beyoncé and Blue Ivy, so I liked how that felt.

Not only that, right after I started practicing, I met this girl. She said her name was Harley, and she was my neighbor. Taylor said she was the one who checked in on the cats after school and during the weekends, and I would most likely go to school with her. We exchanged numbers. Taylor told me not to tell anyone about what we were doing today.

Not only that, that weekend, Taylor announced Speak Now(Taylor's Version). I freaked out. You could hear the audience from the room. So much had happened in the two weeks she had me. And now, a month later, we were falling into a rhythm,  one where we could just be trying. new things. I had a good mom, and she would get a kid in return. Win-win.

I made my way into the stadium, following very closely behind Taylor. Colin had my back. I could hear the chatter of the dancers in their respective dressing rooms. Taylor and I agreed to share one.  "You scared?"

"A little," I replied, looking at the outfit I would wear. I had agreed to come on during 1989 and dance with Taylor, next to her so I didn't get overwhelmed.  "Are you?"

"Same. Touring all your life helps but with everything, things can always get a little scarier. Here," she said, opening her dressing room, which had her outfits for the day lined up. I thought about filling out Swiftball, but realized that could be considered cheating. I sat down as Taylor reached for her makeup to see what I could do. She picked up a lipstick and showed it to me. It was a nice red. She had two, one unopened. I grabbed the unopened one and swatched it.

"This is really pretty," I said.

"We should soundcheck soon," Taylor said, pulling out something from her bag. I gasped. The other day she took me to an ENT and put some weird clay thing in my ears, but now she was getting me in-ears. I was surprised and took them. "That's so you can hear the 8-count in your ears." I popped them off and all I heard was music, the pre-show playlist. "And you'll hear me singing so you can stay with the lyrics." I just listened for a bit. Taylor let me take in the information and the songs before she grabbed a white microphone and pointed to the door. One thing I liked about her was that she barely touched me, just the occasional hugs. I walked out with her, in-ears still on, and Taylor popped hers in. When we got on stage, I realized it was a lot more huge than the livestreams. I hadn't been out in the audience yet, just backstage.

"This is cool," I mustered out, trying to find my spot like Kam said. Taylor saw me and gestured  to the middle.  "Is that where you come out?"

"Yup. You'll be there with me, dancing." she said, loud enough for me to hear through the insulation of the in-ears.

"Alright, ready to soundcheck," a voice boomed in my in-ears, and I yelped. Taylor chuckled.

"That's our music director. He helps with cues. Thanks!" she said into her mic, sitting on the edge of the stage as I heard the 8-count start and an instrumental. I couldn't hear anything outside, if there was even anything. I listened and realized that the instrumental was for Girl at Home. Was this the song she was going to play tonight?

"Chorus, 2, 3, 4."

"Don't look at me, you've got a girl at home and everybody knows that, everybody knows that,"Taylor started after the countdown, and I was getting used to the metronome helping keep time. I realized I was just standing in the middle of the stage, so I walked over to Taylor and sat down next to her. We were in an
instrumental break, so she handed me the mic and walked over to her guitar. I held the mic waiting for her to return, but the guitar sound flooded my ears and Taylor was nodding to the mic. I couldn't hear her, but I could read her lips and she said, "You sing!"