Totally Amp'd: Origins

Totally Amp'd: Lexi's Story

Totally Amp'd: Lexi's Video Diary

Written by BrittTheBookSlayer

“The good news is I’d like to manage all of you,” said Zoe, a manager/producer with XMP! Entertainment. “If you’re game.”

As her words sunk in, I fought the urge to jump up and down, and instead kept my composure. This was a technique my mom had taught me to do as I waited for the judges to announce that I’d won yet another pageant. Inside though, my mind was already racing.

Yes! Now I can finally leave those stupid frilly dresses behind and just focus on my real love: music.

But wait…did she just say she wanted to manage all of us? Like, as in a group? Together? That means I’d be singing with these hormone-driven, know-it-all teenagers? How’s that going to work?
I couldn’t seem to control myself any longer and asked the same thing out loud to Zoe (sans snarky comment about the hormones, of course; the last thing I wanted to do was bring that subject up with them).

How could Zoe think this group of randoms could possibly work well together? No matter. It’s still sort of my dream, right? I mean, I’ll be singing on stage instead of competing for Little Miss trophies on the weekends. That’s a step up, at least.

I started to get excited again as I realized what Zoe’s announcement meant for me. Freedom. Fame. Fun. Everything I’d always wanted.

I can’t wait to tell everyone! Jonah’s going to freak out.

And Mom…oh crap. I almost forgot I’ll have to tell her, too.

This time my stomach lurched and I almost felt like I was going to lose my cookies. And being that I was only 11 years old and already so much younger than my soon-to-be band mates, I couldn’t possibly give them any other reasons to think I was just some dumb kid. So, even though I felt awful, I forced myself to swallow the horrible feeling growing inside of me.

Maybe I could just do it all on my own and Mom won’t have to find out?

No, that definitely wouldn’t work, since I was pretty sure they’d need a parent to sign something at some point. And that’s when my mom would happily step in…and ruin everything. It’s not like she’d do it on purpose. No, her heart would be in the right place, but she’d somehow manage to make this all about her. Still, I’d clearly gotten a major recording company interested in me all by myself.

You may think that I’m over exaggerating about this, but I can assure you I’m not. Case in point:
Just last week, I was up in my room doing another one of my video diaries for my YouTube channel when my brother, Jonah, burst into my room with a major frown on his face.

“Uh-oh,” I said as I hit the publish button on the screen. “What did she do now?”

Whenever any of us had that look on our faces, we knew who had put it there: Mom.

“Same old, same old,” Jonah said, collapsing onto my bed with a sigh. “I was down there watching the game when Beckham came onto the screen, and Mom started in with all this stuff about what I could be doing to get endorsement deals like his. I tried explaining that I’m only 13 and am not nearly good enough for anyone to come and watch my games, let alone endorse me for anything, but you know how she is.”

I did know. Mom was a force of nature, the ultimate stage mom. Only, her stage extended past the stage and onto the field, court, television set, anything that could make her children—and her by proximity—rich and famous. With my brothers, Jonah, Adam, Brady and Max, she’d focused mostly on sports. She’d pushed Jonah into soccer because she said he had perfect kicking calves. It didn’t matter that those calf muscles had been built up because he spent so much time at the skate park trying out new tricks and jumps.