by Nikki Carter
“When did you get to be so mean, Sunday? We’ve been best friends since we were little.”
“Since your hormones kicked in and you went boy crazy, that’s when. Do me a favor and leave me alone on this tour, Bethany.”
I grab my pool towel and storm out of the room. I meet Sam, Truth, and a few other guys at the elevator.
“Where’s the rest of the girls?” Truth asks.
“I don’t know. They’re coming, I guess.”
One of Truth’s homeboys looks me up and down. “Have we met? I’m Chauncey.”
“Yes, we have met. Several times! I’m Sunday, remember…?”
“Oh, right. You’re Sam’s girl.”
I lift an eyebrow at Sam, and he looks at his feet. Sounds like he’s been running his mouth.
“Sam and I are cool….” I decide not to put him on blast, but he’s gonna feel the pain later. I do not roll like this!
All the guys burst out laughing and give Sam fist pounds and chest bumps. Sam is blushing a little bit, but managing to look hard at the same time.
“Man, if a square like you can pull a hottie like this,” Chauncey says, “it must be a shortage of black dudes.”
“Yeah, most of y’all too busy chasing beckys,” Bethany says as she sashays to the front of the group, giving all the boys a view of her bottom.
Chauncey high-fives a few other dudes. “That’s what I’m talking ’bout.”
As Bethany walks by, I see that her face is streaked with tears. What does she have to cry about? I find myself feeling a little bit sad that we’re not friends anymore, but not enough to make me shed any tears. She brought it on herself anyway.
When we get to the pool, Dreya; her makeup artist, Regina; and the hairstylist, Monie, are already there, lounging on the pool chairs.
“Don’t even think about doing no cannonballs by me!” Dreya shouts at the boys. “I am not trying to get my hair wet.”
“How you gonna come to the pool and expect to stay dry?” Truth asks. “You shoulda stayed in the room.”
Dreya rolls her eyes. “That’s what you wanted, right? For me to stay upstairs so you could get your flirt on?”
“Who am I flirting with?” Truth asks.
“Anyone? How about that fourteen-year-old at the mall? How about her?”
Truth laughs and splashes water over in Dreya’s direction. “You’re not serious, are you? That was a fan. Did you see me getting mad when you were shaking your booty in front of all those guys at Club Pyramids? Shoot, I shoulda been mad, seeing that we knew half the people in the crowd!”
Dreya rolls her eyes. “Whatever! I was performing. I didn’t tell any of them that I loved them.”
Sam yells, “Can y’all chill with that? I know your name is Drama, but dang, can the rest of us get a vacation?”
Everyone bursts into a flurry of laughter and splashes. I guess everyone is tired of Dreya and her mess, not just me. Before I get into the pool, I take a few pictures of everyone with my digital camera. Later, I’ll upload them to Twitter. The girls will like these shirtless photos of Truth, and Dreya sitting by the pool looking stank. I deliberately don’t take any pictures of Bethany. I refuse to give her any publicity at all.
After I’m done with the pictures, I take a flying leap into the pool. I come up from the water, right in front of Truth. He takes this as his opportunity and lifts me up by my legs and tosses me.
Sam doesn’t look too thrilled when I finally pop up from underneath the water, but he doesn’t say anything. I quickly swim away from Truth before he touches me again. Number one, I don’t like being dunked, and number two, I swear he tried to get a free feel.
“You running, Sunday?” Truth yells. “You a sucka!”
Nobody laughs at this, probably because they see what I see. Sam is sneaking up behind Truth. Before Truth realizes Sam is back there, Sam lifts Truth into the air and slams him head first into the water.
Truth comes back up with a quickness. “It’s on now!”
Truth chases Sam through the water and tries to dunk him, but he can’t get the job done. So some of Truth’s boys help him, and they all slam Sam into the water.
“Get off of him!” I scream from my safe position outside of the pool.
When Sam comes up for air, everyone is laughing and having a good time. Everyone except Dreya, who, in the crossfire, got completely drenched.
“I told y’all not to get my hair wet!” she screams.
Truth lifts his eyebrows over in Dreya’s direction. “Well, y’all, she is already wet.”
As if on cue, all the boys jump out of the pool and run toward Dreya. The hairstylist and makeup artist get away, but Dreya isn’t fast enough. They all lift her in the air like a bunch of men carrying a queen through the village. Except they aren’t taking her to somewhere glorious, they’re body-slamming her in some chlorine-filled water.
Dreya comes up sputtering and mad! “I hate y’all!” she yells.
Everyone stands there quietly, waiting to see what else Dreya will do. But she looks down and sees her evil-looking reflection in the water and bursts out laughing. We join her in laughing, because she really does look ridiculous.
“I still hate y’all,” she says between snorts.
“But we all love you, Drama.” Truth jumps in the water, scoops Dreya into his arms, and gives her a kiss.
23
I think everybody needed the break we got at our pool party. The Orlando show went much better than the Birmingham show. There were about two hundred teenagers in the crowd and they were screaming their heads off for Truth and Drama.
Everybody kind of crashed back at the hotel. We didn’t do much partying, because we have a long ride today. We’ve got nine hours until we get to Charlotte.
“Hey!” Bethany yells as the bus pulls out of the hotel parking lot. “There are pictures from the Atlanta show up on Sandrarose.com!”
Sandra Rose is like one of the top gossip mavens in Atlanta! Anything that goes down in the A, she knows about it, and she is quick to put a celebrity on blast. The stars take off running when they see Sandra with that camera around her neck. I’m surprised that she’s putting something up about Truth and Dreya already. They’re newcomers to the game and she usually doesn’t give too much press to any up-and-comers.
Dreya squeals, “Let me see! What does the article say?”
Bethany reads out loud. “Atlanta artists Truth and Drama gave a concert at Club Pyramids on Thanksgiving night. There’s a lot of buzz about this new duo, and their song sounds like a hit. But sources tell me that the romance is manufactured and that Truth is really more interested in Drama’s cousin and assistant, Sunday. The last pic in this spread just might prove this rumor to be true. Time will tell.”
“What!” Dreya screams. “Let me see the picture.”
I pull up Sandrarose.com on my own phone so that I can see for myself. The picture is completely innocent, I think. I’m standing in the hallway behind the dressing room, doing something with my phone. Oh, that’s when I was putting up Dreya’s Twitter messages. Truth is standing behind me, and he seems to be staring at my booty, and he’s biting his bottom lip.
Dreya throws Bethany’s phone at Truth and storms to the back of the bus. He laughs, picks up the phone, and looks at the picture. Then he laughs some more.
“Dreya, stop tripping! I wasn’t even thinking about Sunday! I was practicing my lyrics in my head. I don’t even think I knew she was out there!”
“So what!” Dreya yells. “Everyone thinks that you want her now! Everyone is laughing at me.”
“Do you think people believe half the stuff Sandra Rose says? She gets her stories from sources. Come on now! I bet some of the stuff she just makes up off the top of her head.”
I don’t say anything, because I don’t want to be in the middle of their argument. But I read Sandra Rose all the time, and for the most part her stuff is accurate. Every now and then she gets it wrong, but usually she’s right on targ
et. I wonder who her source was on this story.
Sam’s face is real tight. “You okay?” I ask.
“Yeah, I’m good. I just feel like I’m getting played sometimes.”
“By who? Not by me, I hope? I’m not thinking about Truth.”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I just feel played.”
“Well, what do you mean? Tell me what you mean.”
“Come on, Sunday. Truth is staring at you in that picture like he wants to get it in.”
“You saw the blog post?”
“Yeah, I saw it. Truth thinks he can have it all. Record deal, Drama, and you, too?”
“He doesn’t have me.”
“Right. You keep saying that. But you sure are hesitating about being my girl, like you’re waiting for something else to pop off.”
“You’re tripping, Sam, you know that—right?”
“Whatever.”
It’s a tense nine hours to Charlotte. Dreya stays in her secluded area the whole time, sometimes crying, sometimes yelling at Truth. Big D can’t even calm her down by telling her that all of it is publicity that will help blow up her album sales.
By the time we get to Charlotte, Dreya’s voice is hoarse from all of the crying and hollering she’s done on the bus. Sam doesn’t even sit next to me on the bus. He goes to the front with the crew and pretends that he needs to talk about stage logistics and whatnot. He’s mad, too, but for totally no reason. I don’t know how many times I have to say the same thing before he’s convinced.
It’s five o’clock now and the show is at seven, in a teen nightclub. When we get to the hotel, Bethany tries making Dreya some tea, but she refuses to drink it.
Big D bursts into Dreya’s hotel room and says, “Drama, you need to get that tea down your throat. The show is in less than two hours. I need you to get your voice right.”
“No. They’re not going to make fun of me,” Dreya whispers. “Let them see what they’ll do without Drama.”
Big D looks like he’s about to blow up. “Sunday, put on the flyest outfit you have. You’re gonna perform in Drama’s place tonight.”
“No, she isn’t! She can’t replace me!” Dreya squeaks.
“I told you to stop tripping about that blogger, but you wanted to act a fool,” Big D says. “Now you’ve lost your voice. I’ve got paper to stack, and that means the show must go on.”
“But I don’t know the choreography,” I say, trying to think of anything that will get me off the hook.
Big D shrugs. “Neither does Dreya. You can do whatever you want to do out there—just sing that hook.”
I take one look at Dreya before I leave the room, and she is throwing me some serious evil eye. She can’t be mad at me, though. It’s her own fault. She knows that I don’t want Truth, so that blog article shouldn’t have even bothered her.
I go up to my room and pull out the cutest outfit I have. A jean skirt, baby tee, and some Ugg boots. It’s not like Drama’s style, but it’ll have to do.
There’s a knock on my hotel room door. I open it to Monie and Regina, Dreya’s hairstylist and makeup artist.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Big D said to come up here and hook you up,” Monie says.
“But won’t Dreya be mad?”
Regina shrugs. “Big D is the one who cuts our checks, so we do what he says.”
Monie pulls the ponytail holder out of my hair. “Now what are we gonna do with this?”
In less than an hour, Monie and Regina have me looking like true diva material. I’ve never been so gelled, glossy, and glittery in my life.
“This girl is a masterpiece!” Regina says.
“You got that right,” Monie replies with a giggle. “If Truth didn’t want her before, he might be checking for her now.”
“Y’all stop that,” I say. “That’s what started all this mess to begin with.”
“Sorry,” Regina says. “We just think it’s cute that y’all got a little teenage love triangle going on.”
“We don’t!” I say.
They leave, but they’re giggling the entire way down the hall. I don’t think they believe a word I’m saying about not liking Truth.
When I hear a knock on my door, I think it’s them coming back. I swing it open to fuss some more, but it’s Sam.
“Well, look at you. You look good, girl,” he says.
At least he doesn’t seem mad at me, nor is he making any jokes about Truth. “Regina and Monie threw something together, but it’ll have to do.”
“They did a good job, and so will you at the show. Good luck.”
“Do you mean that? You aren’t still mad about the Sandra Rose thing, are you?”
He shakes his head. “Nah. All of this is just gonna end up making you a star. And that’s the goal, right?”
I nod. “Yeah, that’s the goal.”
I decide not to spend Truth’s entire set out on the stage like Dreya does. They only need me on the one song, and I don’t like the spotlight enough to stay out there the whole time. Luckily, we’re doing “What Ya Gonna Do” first, so I can hurry up and get it over with.
I stand backstage until I get my cue. Dreya and Bethany stand behind me, both giving me evil glares. Dreya is finally sipping on her tea, but it’s too late now. I think she’s learned her lesson. Big D doesn’t play.
“You’re not gonna take my spot,” Dreya hisses.
“I don’t want your spot,” I hiss back. “Plus, you’ve already signed a record deal. What are you worried about?”
“Just make sure you don’t forget it.”
I roll my eyes as the music comes on. Next I’m running out on stage with Truth and doing my own little dance moves. They are nowhere near as seductive as Dreya’s, but that’s not my style.
I get pumped that the audience knows the words to the hook and they’re singing with me. This is my music they’re getting pumped about, which, of course, makes me pumped, too!
At the end of the song, I jog off the stage, still feeling the rush of adrenaline pumping through my body.
“You did great,” Big D says. “You were getting them hyped out there.”
“I wasn’t doing all that booty popping like Dreya does, though.”
“That’s unnecessary, and it’s her, not you. You did fine. I bet she’ll get that voice in order now, won’t she?”
I laugh. “Yeah, she will. She thinks I’m trying to take her place.”
Big D replies, “A little healthy competition ain’t ever hurt nobody.”
24
The stops in Chicago, Detroit, and Boston were all the same. Cold! I’m so glad to live in Atlanta that I don’t know what to do. Dreya made sure she got her voice together and she sang and danced her butt off in all three cities. She and Truth made up, too, because Sandra Rose printed something else about them that was more favorable to Dreya. Sandra even called Dreya a goddess. I’m not sure what she meant by that, but hey, it made Dreya happy again.
That’s a good thing, because Dreya being hateful was making the tour the opposite of fun. Bethany took the brunt of her anger, though, and had to do all kinds of ridiculous errands. It’s almost a shame that Bethany isn’t getting a dime for being on this tour with us. She’s just rolling groupie-style, wishing, hoping, and praying for a come-up of her own.
But now we’re at the last city on the tour. New York, baby! At the courtesy of BET and Mystique, we’re staying at the Ritz-Carlton, and we’ll be in the city for three whole days. Dreya and Truth have to do some radio interviews and contests to get people hyped about the episode of 106 & Park.
I need to go shopping, because Big D told me and Bethany to look hot. We’re going on stage with Dreya and Truth. He doesn’t want to take a chance of Dreya’s voice giving out on her because she’s been singing all week.
Monie and Regina take me to Barneys. I don’t have Barneys money, but Big D gave me a credit card and told me to listen to Monie and Regina. I’m thinking that one of them must be Big
D’s woman on the side, because it is kind of odd that Shelly isn’t on this trip.
When we get to Barneys, Regina drags me to the junior section. In minutes they’ve put together a Juicy Couture ensemble. It’s a pink half sweater, gray wool skirt, and sparkly pink tights. Then they find some designer boots that have an ungodly price tag.
“At least they’re not Louboutins,” Regina says. “They’re pretty reasonable, actually.”
“I guess. If six hundred dollars is reasonable,” I say.
“Trust me, these are the cheapest boots in the store,” Monie adds.
“I’ve got to hurry, y’all. Big D set up a meeting this afternoon for me, Sam, and Mystique.”
Regina says, “Well, let’s get you out of here. We’ve got to get you fly for that meeting!”
I meet Sam and Big D in the hotel lobby at 12:45 p.m. sharp. Our meeting is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. in the hotel restaurant, although Big D doesn’t expect Mystique to show up until 2:00 p.m. Stars never show up on time.
“You’ve got the music, right?” I ask Sam.
He smiles and holds up an MP3 player, an iPod Shuffle, and a CD. “I’ve got every listening medium. She said she wanted to take a listen at lunch.”
“I’m nervous! What if she doesn’t like it?” I ask.
My nerves are shot, thinking about how Mystique is going to react to my music. I didn’t start getting nervous until I let Regina and Monie help me get dressed. They kept talking about how this is my big break and how I can’t afford to mess this up.
They got all the way inside my head and made little butterflies dance a jig in my stomach.
“She’ll love it,” Big D says. “Trust me when I say, that track sounds like something Ne-Yo did.”
“I love Ne-Yo!” I exclaim.
“Well, it’s just that original and current. Relax, she’s going to want you on her team. Spelman, here you come!”
After Big D’s pep talk, I’m a little bit calmer, but I still feel my leg shaking under the table.
Mystique surprises us by showing up right after we sit down! She’s not only on time, but early. It’s only one o’clock! Her bodyguard walks her into the restaurant and stands behind her, looking like a WWE wrestler in a suit.