Contract ↠ Camila Cabello

( iv ) angsty auditions and familiar faces

ONE YEAR LATER

"Please, Mama? I don't ask for much, you know that! All I want is to audition! Just an audition, Mama!" Camila pleaded as she followed her mother around their suburban home like a lost puppy.

"What about school, Karla? I always told you to finish your school before even trying to apply for a job. You're only fifteen, Karla!" Sinuhe exclaimed tiredly. Tired of the fact that her eldest daughter has been asking to audition for this talent show ever since she turned fifteen. Even willing to give up her quinceañera to audition for the X-Factor.

"It's not like it's going to turn into anything big anyway! I just want to try, Mama. Por favor, Mama, I'm begging you."

Sinu sighed, tired of her daughter's pleading. "For all I know, you probably just want to follow in Y/N's footsteps!" She snapped.

The words of her mother made Camila's eyes widen at the mention of the older girl who she hasn't seen in a year. Apparently, according to everyone in Miami, Y/N and the rest of Yours Truly had been signed to Atlantic Records for a five-year contract deal. The quartet moved to Los Angeles to pursue their music career and was actually doing amazingly well.

Camila would be lying if she said she didn't keep tabs on Y/N. She knew all about the rock star life she currently lived. Opening for One Direction and Justin Bieber, two artists that they had conversed about in the past, made their fame skyrocket. They managed to break several records with their debut single, Girl Next Door, even without a debut album.

"N-No, of course not, Mama. What Y/N does is none of my concerns anymore. Not since she left a year ago without saying goodbye. She probably doesn't even remember who I am anyway, so why should I care about what she does?" Camila would also be lying if she said didn't feel hurt and betrayed that the older girl left her without saying goodbye because Camila knew that she would never leave Y/N without saying goodbye. "I want to do this for me. Not for Y/N. For me. Please, mama."

"And how do you suggest we get to Greensboro, Karla? Don't you understand that North Carolina is eleven hours away?" Sinuhe sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, looking at her daughter expectingly. Camila's eyebrows raised in the slightest, her chestnut brown eyes widening too. Camila could feel her mother caving so she crossed her fingers and mentally prayed that her plan would work.

"Well, since I didn't have a quinceañera and I didn't get a birthday present... I was thinking that maybe you and papa could drive me up to Greensboro?" The oldest Cabello sibling asked hopefully, practically on the verge of getting on her knees to beg.

Sinuhe sighed once more, looking all over her oldest daughter's face. "Karla, you haven't even performed in front of an audience before! How do you expect to perform in front of a thousand people? Maybe even more!"

"I can do it, mama. I know I can. Please, I really want this."

Sinuhe looked Camila dead in the eyes.Her persistence was something Sinu loved (and hated) about the older Cabello sister. She knew that Camila never asked for things unless it was important and she really wanted it as bad as she wanted to audition for this reality TV talent show. The foreign sparkle that was present in her eyes while she talked about auditioning made Sinu smile inwardly. She hasn't seen this passionate about anything in the girl's fifteen years of life.

It was one question. One question that made Camila squeal in excitement, that made her latch onto her mother to give her the tightest high in the entire world, that made her dream become one step closer to her reality. "So, when do we leave for North Carolina?"

***

SIX MONTHS LATER

Camila paced back and forth backstage, nervously awaiting her call. You would think that the small Latina would have gotten all of the nerves out of her system by the time the eleven-hour trip concluded, but it wasn't until Camila stepped backstage when reality settled and her nerves started kicking in. This was it. She was really going to play in front of Simon Cowell and two thousand other people. This was it.