NM
I walked into the dance studio that would become my home over the next couple months with a sunglasses on to hide my hangover.
My tour would be kicking off in a couple months and I had to learn all the choreography before then. My manager Wayne told me he got the "best of the best." I had no idea who she was so I didn't know how good she really could've been.
I was late. But I was always late, everyone knew so nobody cared anymore.
It took me a minute to find the studio she was in which made me even later. I finally found in and walked in. A lady wearing sweatpants and a t shirt that was cutting off was in the room stretching on the floor. She stood up when she heard the door open. "You're late."
"Um... okay?" What was I supposed to say to that? "Are you Be- uh." I had no idea how to say this lady's name.
"Beyoncé. Beyoncé Knowles." She walked over to me and shook my hand. "It's nice to meet you."
"You too." She wasn't wearing any makeup so I could see that she had freckles all over her face. Her hair was a honey blonde color that matched her skin color a little bit. Pretty girl.
"So..." She started walking to a corner of the room where all her stuff was. She waited until she grabbed a clipboard to finish the rest of the her sentence. "I just want to go over all the information today so we won't be doing a lot."
I mumbled, "Thank God."
"Follow me, please." She led me to this other room that was basically an office. I sat down at the table and waited for her to continue. "Let me know if I'm ever moving too fast, but your manager already has all this and should be emailing this to you if he hasn't already."
I nodded. "Okay." I was already half asleep.
"So first, I want to talk about your diet. I'm not saying you have to go vegan or anything- even though that would be nice, but you're about to be going on tour so you have to watch what you eat." She handed me a piece of paper from her clipboard. "I'd like you to follow this."
I took the piece of paper and started to read some of the rules she had for me. It didn't take long for me to shake my head and try to slide it back to her. "Yeah, no."
No more than 10.5 ounces of liquor a week or one glass of wine a day. I could have one low calorie fast food meal a week, then she put in parentheses "if you must." I had to eat a certain number of grams of protein and all the other things, and I had to keep track of all of it. She was genuinely out of her mind.
She inched the paper back over to me. "It might be a little difficult at first, but it doesn't heve to be hard unless you make it hard. "I can help you with meal prepping if you'd like."
I slid it back. "I'm still not doing all this. I can watch my diet or whatever, but I'm not following your fifty rules."
"Okay. I'm guessing however you're going to continue to eat is going to have you feeling like death itself after rehearsing with me, but we'll see." She passive aggressively smiled. "You'll be getting it to your email anyway."
"Okay. What else?"
She handed me another paper. "This is the schedule. With times, so being late isn't acceptable. We will also be picking backup dancers together with your manager later this week. My contact information is at the top just incase you ever need to reach me." She handed me another piece of paper and I sighed. "This is the dress code-"
"Dress code?" Was I fifteen?
"Calm down, princess, please." Passive aggressive, once again. "You didn't even look at it. It just basically says no jeans and close toes shoes until we move up to heels, once we get the choreography down. I'm sure you already know but I just wanted it all the be on paper."
"Okay." I didn't say anything else, that was reasonable.
She went on and on about different stupid rules and regulations. It took an hour because I argued with basically everything she was saying. I had a problem with authority and she had a problem thinking she was the boss when she wasn't. I was.
As soon as I left, I called Wayne as I drove back to my house in the hills. "Hey, how was it?"
"Terrible. She needs to go." I wouldn't be able to handle her for months.
"What? Why? She'll take you to a whole other level." He talked her up a lot, I don't know why he liked her so much.
"She's so strict and... bitchy. We're not going to get along and I don't need to be stressing right now." I would probably be late every day, I knew that alone would cause problems.
"Just wait it out a little bit longer and then let me know if you still want her gone, I guess. I had her fully in advance so.... think about that. Alright?"
"Okay." I would probably still want her gone in a week but I would say okay. "I'll talk to you later. Bye." I waited for him to say it back and then hung up.
I crumbled up all her stupid papers except for the schedule while I was stopped at a red light. I wouldn't be needing them.
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Bey?
Nicki?
Wayne?
Bey and Nicki ready not getting along?
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