Limelight

Chapter Nineteen

~~Adoration~~

Aaliyah's first single was being released today.

The last few weeks recording hidden in the studio and having to juggle her school work and practicing for The Winter Showcase whilst also working with Blair and the board to figure out her set for The Sound of Bachata had been completely insane. She barely had enough time to sleep and instead had to sneak in naptimes during some of her free periods and had to sneak some of her rehearsal and private lesson times during her lunchtimes.

She was glad when she had finally finished recording, but she knew that her busy schedule wasn't about to alleviate any time soon. She still had to record the rest of her album and Blair, her new manager of three weeks, was already setting up guest appearances on loads of talk shows including Morning Manhattan with Yvonne Pembrooke.

Blair was unsurprisingly good at being a manager. The second Aaliyah had agreed, she already had a contract drawn and a slideshow prepared for the board of directors to explain why Blair was the perfect choice as a manager. Obviously, this hadn't done anything to sway their decision, and had only agreed for her to be an interim manager whilst they actively looked for someone more suitable. Aaliyah wondered if the board were only inclined to let Blair manage her because they thought she would fail, and if she failed it could give them reason to drop Aaliyah from the Label. 

Blair wasn't deterred though. She was ready to take what she could get and prove that anyone else was a waste of time. So far, Aaliyah was impressed.

This had been the first day in almost a month that Aaliyah was able to stay in the cafeteria for lunch since Aaliyah had decided that she would perform hidden at The sound of Bachata happening the next day and that they would have to release it before then. She smiled when she got to her table, all her friends had been there already.

Christian had been the first to notice her. "Hey! So I was right, she didn't fall off the face of the earth!" He said with a shocked expression, and then he looked over to Jacks with a smug grin, "You owe me twenty bucks."

Aaliyah raised a brow. "Why would you bet that I've fallen off the face of the earth?" She asked slightly amused taking her usual seat between Jacks and Blair, who had been busy on her phone. She didn't have any food in front of her either, "It's not like you haven't seen me around, we share classes."

"Ah, but how many classes have you missed in the last three weeks," Jacks argued, pressing a kiss to her temple when she settled into her seat, "And Chris was just looking for a dumb way to get twenty bucks."

Aaliyah pressed her lips together smiling sheepishly. "Good point," She replied. She looked down at her tray of food and then at Blair who still hadn't said anything and rolled her eyes. She put a pot of yogurt in front of her with a loud tap, gaining her attention. She looked up from her phone to the yogurt pot to Aaliyah with squinted eyes, "Eat up. You can't be that good at being a manager if you don't eat. And don't worry, it's fat-free."

Blair rolled her eyes, picking up the yogurt pot delicately like it was an alien object before analyzing its content. "What do you expect me to eat this with? My tongue?"

Jacks snorted. "That's typically the used organ to consume food, yes. I know you said you had been on a master cleanse for a week, but it hasn't been that long."

Blair made a face at him before she snatched the spoon on her tray and peeling open the yogurt pot. "I also sent you a revised version of your setlist for tomorrow. Madison and her manager finally cracked and let you sing cursing so long as we make acceptable promotion for her album and pending tour, so I switched some songs around.