The Quest for Forgiveness: Brianna Begins Her Rise to Fame

Last time, Brianna went into the meeting after Harry creepily hit on her a bunch, he's sarcastic with the opposing lawyers for no reason, and then everyone fights.

We jump back into the action this week with Sonya trying to convince them that Brianna will be a profitable artist for them, which is probably the best tactic, even if it does involve her referencing Brianna's beauty for the thousandth time. Just as she suggests this, Judd Stevens (the guy who's singing "Time" from Time at the awards show) calls and is really mad about the cease-and-desist he just got.

“Settle down, Judd, settle down. I’ll take care of everything. It’s a little misunderstanding.” Burns turned off the speakerphone, and slowly backed toward the door.

LOL, smooth. That's very cartoony. I can still imagine the voice screaming from the phone, just quieter now, as the guy on the other end just sneaks out the door.

The other people in the room are like, "Uh, no, stay here and listen to him," so Burns does.

Judd continues to rant:

“I’ve been summoned and have to appear in court at some Podunk town in Tennessee.”

That "Podunk town," by the way, is Nashville.

CEO Barbara Evans takes the phone, tells Judd Brianna will be singing the song, that she "makes you look like the nobody" (which can only be referring to her physical beauty AGAIN because she's never heard Brianna sing or seen her perform), and that Barbara Evans herself will be suing Judd for... some unknown reason. Then she hangs up, fires Burns, and screams at him to get out of the building.

Evans studied her from head to toe and motioned Brianna to turn around. “Wow!” She exclaimed. “Young lady, if you can sing half as good as you look, you are going to be famous... and very rich.”

OH MY GOSH.

This is really getting to me this time around. The CEO of a music company is examining Brianna like a piece of meat. And I'm not sure it's any less creepy when it's a woman doing it than when Harry is doing it, although Evans has a more legitimate reason, perhaps -- it's a sad but true fact that a lot of pop stars are made on their looks alone. But it continues to distress me how often Brianna's self-worth is tied into her looks. Everything else is an afterthought. So there's a lesson for you young girls out there: No matter how talented you are, you will never be better than Brianna Bays because she is talented AND beautiful, and therefore she is better than you.

Brianna has two weeks to prepare to sing her "Time Time Time" song at the Motion Picture Awards. Evans says, "I don’t know if we can keep this from the media," which, uh, no, they can't, They're going to need to explain why the person who performed the song in the movie and in the record stores isn't performing at the awards show. It'd be like if some random person nobody had ever heard of sang "Happy" at the Oscars last year and nobody questioned it.

As the next chapter begins, we find Sonya starting to be a manager for no reason when she was a lawyer just a few minutes ago:

Preparing Brianna for the Motion Picture Awards (MPA) was Sonya’s highest priority. She knew this was a make it or break it chance, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the teen. Her singing and voice were flawless, but Sonya was not as confident in Brianna’s choreography. Sonya concluded that she needed professional help with that skill.

How does Sonya know? Did her law school have a special course in Pop Star Choreography? How did it somehow become Sonya's job to get her ready for the MPAs? Wouldn't it be smarter to go with, say, an actual music manager or a director or a producer, rather than a copyright lawyer? At least Sonya hasn't decided to choreograph this big moment herself.

Instead, she flies in a Las Vegas choreographer.

“Can you have her ready for the Motion Picture Awards?” 

“MPA? That’s less than two weeks.” 

“Yes, it is.” Sonya replied, batting her eyelashes.

I can't decide whether Sonya is flirting with the choreographer because she's suddenly interested in him despite no indication up until this point or in order to persuade him to get Brianna ready in time, which... he shouldn't need. This is his job. He also has already said Brianna is one of the most talented dancers he's ever seen (of course she is). So there's no need for Sonya to apply awkward feminine charms to get him to do his job.

Whether due to the eyelash batting or not, the choreographer agrees.

“You will be compensated well!” Her tone was reassuring.

"Don't worry, we'll pay you and stuff!"

I actually think I'm going to break here, since I'm somewhat running out of time to post this. So this was just a short update. But on the bright side, we're almost halfway through this book! 46%. Whooooo! And tune in next week to find out all the other things Brianna turns out to be good at. (The answer: Everything.)