a sound she hadn't heard before

one.

"Alya, can you smile for Mommy to take a picture?" Taylor asks her daughter, who shows off her teeth for the camera- minus the two front ones that fell out last week. Taylor can't help but smile right back at her little girl. She couldn't think of anything cuter than Ayla starting kindergarten with her two front teeth missing.

"Mommy," Ayla complains after around a minute of pictures, "my face hurts. Can I stop smiling?"

"I suppose I got a good one," Taylor laughs. She takes the chalkboard that Ayla was holding, reading "FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN" in pink bubble letters, and sets it inside of the house, exchanging the sign for her purse and keys. "Now, give Mommy a big hug before we get in the car."

Taylor can't believe that this day is finally here. For the last five years, it has been her and Ayla against the world. Ayla's dad walked out on them pretty much as soon as Taylor told him that she was pregnant with his baby. He made it abundantly clear on her first birthday that he wants nothing to do with either of them and she hasn't heard from him since then. He doesn't even send child support checks- not that Taylor needs it, but it would be the right thing to do anyway.

When he walked out, Taylor gave up most of her life as she knew it. She knew that she had to give the baby that she was going to be raising by herself the best life that she possibly could, and that didn't include the spotlight that she had lived in since she was sixteen.

Before Ayla, she was Taylor Swift. International Superstar. America's Sweetheart. The Voice of a Generation. Now, she's just Taylor. In her third trimester, she packed up and moved from New York City, across the river to northern New Jersey. Lots of factors went into that decision. They have some of the best public schools in the country, they're open-minded and will accept Ayla for whoever she turns out to be, there is still easy access to the city, but most importantly, in New Jersey, it's a lot easier to just disappear.

Taylor kept writing songs. That wasn't something she was willing to give up, no matter what. She has released two albums since Ayla was born, folklore and evermore, but hasn't done any promotion or given a single concert since reputation. She hasn't made a public appearance since the closing night of that tour, and when the public does hear from her, it's on her own terms, probably through a fan interaction on social media. It truly broke her heart to leave the fans in the way that she did, without a word of goodbye, but Taylor knew that it was the only way to give Ayla anything even close to a normal childhood.

She's even sending Ayla to her neighborhood public school. A prestigious private school in New York City isn't completely out of the picture, especially once high school comes around and it's time to start looking at shaping up her records for colleges, but right now, Taylor wants to try public school for her little girl. She went to public school for all of elementary, middle, and most of high school. She knows how valuable the resources can be if it's a good school- and she knows that Ayla's school is top notch. She was so pleased with the orientation that she attended a few months ago. She got to meet Ayla's teacher, who assured Taylor that Ayla would be completely safe.

As Taylor pulls her Toyota into the parking lot of the elementary school, it suddenly hits her. It's really time to let her sweet little girl go. To loosen the reigns and give her the freedom to fly. There's no doubt that she's ready. She's an incredibly clever little girl who was reading by the time that she was 4, can count to 100 without any help at all, and is even starting to write words and small sentences. She tells wonderful, vibrant stories that she comes up with in her own little imagination, and Taylor's friends all insist that Ayla's large vocabulary takes after her mama. She'll be just fine in kindergarten, there's no doubt about it. Taylor just isn't sure if she'll be fine herself.

"Okay Ayla, are you all ready?" Taylor asks, putting the car into park. "Mommy will be back at 3:00 to pick you up at the end of the day. I know you're going to have so much fun."