Flash forward to the meetup
"Mom, oh my gosh stop me and you both know it's not like that." Winnie rolled her eyes, frantically preparing for what she felt was the most important day of her life.
"REALLY WINONIA? Because it seems to me that now that you're so famous and everybody loves you, you want to leave your own mother high and dry. That's what I'm reading." Winonia's mother passively aggressively screamed out, speed walking at her only daughter attempting to break the beer bottle over her head.
"MOM, please." Wininoa pleaded, her speed walking turning to running, then sprinting towards her room trying to lock it before her mother got a hold of her.
Ignoring her mother frantically trying to pick the lock on her door, Winnie rushed to get dressed and meet the people she'd be touring the country with. It was 11:37, and it was a 15-minute walk to the sushi place they had agreed to meet up at. She had stayed up till 2:40 in the morning comforting her mother over the loss of her husband, for the second night in a row.
Winnie wanted to be on time, no, more than on time, early. She wanted to make a good impression on the people she'd hopefully grow close to. Winnie was unimaginably grateful for the opportunity to grow her career, but more, she was grateful for the half a year she'd have away from her crazy ass mother.
Her father was a reckless man, borderline abusive, but Winnie wasn't ready to admit that to herself. When her father had left them with her mother's closest friend, her mother found no way to cope, so she turned to what everyone turned to. Substance abuse. Since her mother had touched the first beer bottle, it was like whatever mother figure she had been, had dwindled away. Her mother wasn't her mother anymore, just a shadow of the woman she used to be. No longer Winnies mother, just a woman living in their apartment that Winnie took care of, who just so happened to have given birth to her.
"WINIFRED COOPER, YOU WILL TURN YOUR ASS AROUND AND GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM. I AM YOUR MOTHER, I HAVE THE POWER OVER YOU. DO YOU HEAR ME? I.. I AM YOUR MOTHER" Her mother screamed out with tears flowing down her face, chasing Winnie out the door.
When Winnie slammed the door shut, she was immediately blinded by cameras flashing in her face, and asking her questions that felt way too personal.
"Winnie, what was your mother screaming about?"
"Winonia how do you feel about being the youngest person to ever win album of the year?
"Winnie, why do we never see your parents at events?"
Awkwardly avoiding their questions, Winnie sprinted across the street trying to get away from them, she only had ten minutes till noon and needed fifteen to get there, twelve if she sped walked.
She snapped back to reality when heard a car beep and scream her name, she assumed it was just another pap, until the mystery person in the car told her to "get in" while laughing at her attempt to 'play it cool'
Her head snapped up to see none other than Taylor, riding the front seat while Phoebe Bridgers was riding shotgun, laughing with the window rolled down.
Winnie watched as the car pulled to the side of the curb, and she heard the clicking sound, meaning the door was unlocked, and Phoebe fully rolled down the window.
"Are you sure, I mean, I don't like that far I can just wal-" Winnie started, trying not to burden the two older girls who were clearly having fun
"Get in the damn car dofus" Taylor laughed out, reaching into the back to open the back door
"I mean," Winnie thought out loud, clearly weighing out how this situation could end. "Why not?!" She said, happily skipping into the car and shutting the door behind them
Phoebe rolled up the window while questioning Winnie "What are they asking you about?", a comment that caught her off guard
"Ugh my parents," Winnie said, sinking into her seat
"What's wrong with your parents?" Phoebe asked, slightly prying at the younger girl, now curios for answers
"Phebs.." Taylor said under her breath nudging her, trying to let her know that right here, right now was not the time.
"No, no it's fine, nothing 'wrong' with my parents, people are just annoyingly nosy" She lied, earning a knowing glance from Taylor through the rearview mirror, which Winnie quickly diverted her eyes from.
"God, trust me I know" Phoebe turned around nodding her head knowingly.
--
"So... should we do like icebreakers or something?" Taylor asked the rest of the awkward group
"Damn I thought school started like three months ago, were still doing this?" Winnie joked, earning a laugh from the girls sitting around her
"I just think it's literally crazy that I'm sitting at a table, eating lunch with Phoebe Bridgers, Gracie Abrams, and Taylor Swift. Are you kidding me?"
"I can't believe I'm sitting here with you! Are YOU kidding me? You're like what? 16 and you won album of the year" Phoebe said, with a happy, shocked expression on her face.
"Yeah, you beat me, I used to be the youngest person to win album of the year, my manager might contact yours about that" Taylor joked
"Im actually fifteen, but oh my god, if I got an email from Taylor swifts manager saying I was in trouble I'd start uncontrollably sobbing on the ground" Winnie half-joked while she (hoped) that the statement would never come true if it did, she definitely would be crying on the ground
"Girl me too" Gracie uncontrollably laughed
The rest of their girl's date went off without a hitch, Taylor felt a maternal instinct towards everyone she met, but even more so towards the young singer. Winnie had hit it off with the three girls, who had already been close before their meeting.
Winnie was so nervous to make a good impression, so scared they wouldn't like her. But all three of the girls immediately loved the new singer, and though they had only met her once, they knew that they wouldn't be dreading the next 6 months they'd spend living together
Walking back into her house, Winnie had never been more happy, happy to meet new people, happy to feel like she really belonged in the industry, and happy to be away from her mother.
Pacing up the stairs, and walking past her mother, hungover and passed out on the couch, she jumped onto her bed, slamming her door shut.
Sighing like a little girl having her Disney Channel moment, she pulled her phone out after feeling it buzz, twice.
The one and only, changed the group name to the Beatles on a budget
The one and only sent you a message, "How are you really doing honey? "
BINABASA MO ANG
Someday
Fanfiction"So will you?" "WOULD I?" IN WHICH Winona Cooper, a 15 year old girl new to the singing industry who just so happens to take exorbitant amounts of inspiration from Taylor Swift gets asked to join her as an opener in the U.S leg of the Eras Tour.
