Hollywood Arts, Here I Am

Chapter 17: Teenagers

"But mom! I wanna be like you and attend Hollywood Arts!" Calli whined at me for the umpteenth time.

"And I keep telling you no. I don't want you getting an ego because of who your parents are and demanding special treatment. I also don't want it to be people there giving you special treatment cause they know who I am and who your father is."

"But that's not fair! You got to go!"

"Calli," I sighed, putting down the bowl of fruit I was working on for lunch, "I didn't even want to go. I only attended cause I got an offer after taking Nadia's place in the showcase. Even then, that's not a solid way to get into any school."

My daughter huffed and crossed her arms, annoyed that I was still denying her attending Hollywood Arts, "This isn't fair."

"Life isn't supposed to be, kiddo. We all don't get what we want." I turned to face her more, "Wanna know a secret? I didn't want to be a singer, I was studying for an Animal Science degree."

She made a face, "Why?"

"Because I had a passion for caring for animals. My parents didn't let your late aunt and I have pets, but your great grandparents had four cats and a couple dogs. They taught me how to feed and take care of them, and I grew to love them."

"And that's why you wanted to study that?" she uncrossed her arms.

"Yup, I wanted to be a research technician so I could help the science world with curing diseases in animals, while also giving an opportunity to help humans too."

She looked confused, so I sat us down at the table to explain.

"When it comes to animals and humans, we can share the same diseases like cancer and diabetes. When we research and study to cure these diseases, we're helping animals and humans."

Calli and I had this discussion for quite some time, with her speaking up to ask questions and me answering them easily. Truth be told, I missed what I previously studied, and while singing was a hobby of mine, getting to do it full time is also just as nice.

But she's fifteen, she's in high school. Her brother's off at a private school that he worked hard to get in to, and Calli now feels like she needs to be just as good. I just want her to graduate, I don't care what school she's in.

I also know that she's tagged along on studio visits and tours when she was younger, and seeing the stage life may have changed her perspective on a reliable career. Again, I know I'm in the field, but I had a fulfilling career ahead of me if I continued to study animal science. Calli may want the stage life, but it's harder than it looks. There's constant pressure to make something good because of record sales, and that ties into the investments of the record label. If you make something and nobody wants it, you lose money.

Calli doesn't understand that concept yet.

"I'm home!" Andre stumbled in the door, clearly exhausted.

"Hi dad!" Calli immediately hopped up and dashed over to him, "Can I attend Hollywood Arts?"

"Calli!" I exclaimed, "We just talked about this."

"And I want to hear Dad's answer." she gave him a look, "Pleeeeeeeeeease?"

"Calli, let your momma and I talk about this, go upstairs to your room. We'll call you down when dinner's ready." Andre knew Calliope had him wrapped around his finger, but he and I talked about it and he was done enabling her.

Calli huffed and stomped up to her room, Hades, our only pup left after Artemis and Athena passed on from old age, lifted his head and stood, stretching and following after.

He was also getting old, his muzzle was all grey and he was struggling to keep up on long walks. Our vet says he's just getting old, and that he's perfectly healthy.

Andre turned to look at me, "I know you're upset."

"I'm far from upset, she was practically throwing a temper tantrum at fifteen years old. You know we raised her better than this."

"I know," he rubbed the back of his neck, "so I made some calls."

"To where?"

"To Hollywood Arts-"

"WHAT?!"

"Sky hear me out!"

"You went behind my back, Andre!"

"I did not! I called the school to see if Calli could shadow a couple classes, get a feel for how different they are from other schools in the district."

I put my face in my hands, "Why didn't you discuss this with me?"

"I was going to, but I was worried you would say no."

"So going behind my back was the better option?" I looked up at him with a look of complete bafflement, "Really, Andre?"

He opened his mouth and shut it again, then replied, "Okay yeah, I see where I may have fucked up."

"No shit." I stood up, walking over to the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Andre called after me, "Sky, I don't want this to be a fight."

"I'm going to head to the studio for a bit." I simply replied, "Don't wait up if I'm home late."

"Too late for that," Andre grumbled, "I know I just got home from my busy ass day, but we ain't done with this."

"I'm not leaving Calli alone at home."

"She's fifteen, Sky! She can watch after herself! You taught her important life skills like cooking and cleaning her dishes after, I taught her how to take care of the dog, what more is there to be worried about?"

I whirled around at him and got in his face, "You know damn well what else she has to be worried about. Did you forget who we are to the outside world? Our status? If we both leave, Calli's alone and a potential victim."

"We have security."

"They won't do anything, they don't listen to her."

"Because they work under us?"

"No! Because they think she's some stupid kid with famous parents! If she feels unsafe and tries to call them, they won't help her."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because she told me herself, she got a text from an unfamiliar number with a picture from outside this house. She tried to call our head of security, he said they'll take care of it, and what happened?"

Andre's face softened, "We had that break in."

I nodded, "All because they didn't take her seriously."

"Why don't we just hire better security? We can't take her everywhere we go, she needs to breathe and have her own space."

"And you're right," I sighed, "I think we need to run background checks on future staff we hire, I don't want to risk another break in, or worse."

Andre nodded, "You're right. Let's start searching for better security tonight, maybe invest in some cameras too."

"Already thought of that. I have a few getting delivered as we speak."

He smiled, reaching for my hand, "That's my wife, always thinking ahead."

His smile made me melt, I couldn't help but to smile back.

We spent the next couple of hours looking for better security staff to hire, we ran background checks on all our candidates and once we were satisfied with who we hired, we decided to wait until tomorrow to fire our current staff. We went to bed after checking in on Calli.

But I couldn't sleep, I kept having nightmares about our current staff coming back to harm us. Nightmares about our current staff kidnapping Calli. I ended up staying up all night outside Calli's door, just to make sure she was okay. I emailed Odin's school to ask how he was doing, knowing I wouldn't get an answer til later tomorrow morning.

I was growing paranoid, and I shouldn't be. My teenagers would be fine. I was sure of it. But my gut told me that something was incredibly wrong.