CLEAN || Taylor Swift Adoption

SEVEN

"It feels like a perfect night..."

~EVERLEIGH~

August 3, 2019

"Hellooooo, Swifties!" Noelle cheered, holding her hairbrush as a microphone as she stood on the hotel couch. Our entire friend group was sitting in the large suite that the Hawthornes were staying in. There was more than enough space for all of us to stay there comfortably, so we were using it as our hangout space for the night, while we tried to stay up as late as we possibly could to then sleep in through half of tomorrow, making sure we didn't have too much time to wait before the Session. "Welcome to the first annual Secret Session Sleepover!"

"Annual?" Madison quirked an eyebrow. "Girl, there is nothing annual about going to Taylor Swift's house to listen to her new album before the rest of the world."

Noelle moved the hairbrush away from her mouth. "Shut up and let me do my thing," she said, swatting her foot in the direction of Madison's shoulder. Madison yelped, leaning back onto Kinsley's lap to avoid Noelle's foot.

"First up on the list of tonight's festivities is the official Junior Jewels T-shirt decorating competition!" Noelle crowed, the hairbrush acting as her fake microphone once again. "This competition is played in my all-time favorite manner, every Swiftie for herself! The rules are simple; design the best Junior Jewels shirt, and then you win bragging rights for the rest of the night and the first round of Truth or Dare."

The rest of us began to scream and cheer in response, playing along with Noelle's little game as we all grabbed a white shirt with our respective size. "Oh, Noelle, y'all got nice shirts," Ryker commented. "These are really soft."

"Well, who wants to get your stereotypical crappy old T-shirts?" Etta asked. "No one's going to want to wear those, and then that would defeat the entire purpose of getting them in the first place.

"She has a point," Azalea remarked, tilting her head in Etta's direction.

"Alright, ladies, less talking and more drawing!" Noelle said. "Please enjoy our finest selection of music this evening during our competition, selected for you by Nashville's own Ryker Kayla Holt!"

"Yeah!" Ryker pumped her fist into the air, a victorious smile on her face. "She's just that bitch, isn't she?"

"Okay," Ava said in response, rolling her eyes as she reached for a blue fabric marker. "Whatever you say, boss."

Ryker laughed. "It is whatever I say, Averie. I don't see your stellar taste in music being the specially selected soundtrack of the evening."

"That's because we all have the same music taste here, duh," Ava replied. "Have we all forgotten why we're here?"

"I still feel like this is some sort of a weird excuse for a fever dream," I said. "Like, I know that it's real and all. I know this is my real life, and I know this is all happening. But it's just so different than anything else that's ever happened in my life, so it just doesn't feel like the kind of thing that should be happening, you know?"

Ryker reached over and gave my hand a squeeze. "But it definitely should be happening. You deserve this, Ev, so much. And you're gonna have the best time ever tomorrow when you get to meet Taylor."

I smiled at Ryker's words, although part of me was far too scared to believe them. Everyone had been telling me that I deserved to be here, in Nashville, whether they meant that I deserved to finally meet my friends and get to live the life of a normal kid, or whether they were talking about Taylor. Either way, I didn't believe it. There just wasn't anything special about me that would make me deserve all of this happening to me. Like, I couldn't even manage to keep a foster family for more than eighteen months. How on Earth was I supposed to be deserving of meeting Taylor Swift, of all people? She donated her money to food banks or to kids with cancer, and I didn't even have any money to donate in the first place. I was too selfish for a world with Taylor Swift in it. I didn't deserve to meet her at all.