New York, New Ariana (Ariana Grande, Nathan Sykes, & Jai Brooks)

Chapter 6

    Five minutes later, I was hugging Mom before pushing through the door of my vocal coach’s office. The interior was all black and silver, like the inside of a sci-fi spaceship. The door, whose bell went off as I entered, opened up into a sitting area with guitars everywhere. There was one little girl sitting on the longest of the black leather couches, scribbling down in a fuzzy pink notebook.

    “Right on time,” I looked up at a woman, whose top matched her bright blue eyes exactly and short platinum hair, walking over to me in six-inch heels. “Ariana Grande, yes?”

    “That’s me!” I smiled brightly.

        “Oh, I like y’all already, you’re like a cute little button,” She spoke with a Southern accent, and settled into her hip before holding her hand out for me to shake. “I’m Jane Gregor, your vocal coach!”

        I shook her hand twice, her long fake nails scratching my palm slightly. “Nice to meet you, I’m so excited!” I jumped up slightly.

        “I am too,” Jane squealed along with me. “What we’re going to do to get started is I want to see what Ariana is all about. C’mon Button-- that’s your new name now by the way.” She said and I laughed as Jane lead me into one of the recording booth whose doors were lining the back wall. Jane was really… eccentric, but I knew already that she was funny and I would like working with her.

“Okay, Button,” Jane patted the seat across from her which I sat in, tucking my feet up on the bar by the legs. “I want you to tell me why you like to sing and where you want your singing to take you.”

“I love to sing because… oh gosh this is hard,” I felt nerves getting to me.

“You’re holding something back, I can tell,” Jane leaned forward in her chair. “Spill, girl, spill.”

“Before I moved here-- in Florida, I wasn’t really that ya know ‘popular.’ I kinda just had my couple of friends and stuck with them, and I first loved to sing because I could express myself like that without people thinking I’m weird or anything,” I admitted and Jane nodded saying ‘thank you.’ “And my dream is to be on broadway because I love acting too.”

“Lovely, I can definitely see you on Broadway you’ve got that Old Hollywood glam,” Jane complimented with a big smile which I returned. “Now, your momma tells me you’ve been working on this song, Put Your Hearts Up?”

“Mhm, I brought it with me too,” I pulled my notebook out of my bag and opened it to the song before handing it to her. Her eyes moved back and forth over the page reading the music. I was nervous having her read it, and rubbed the heels of my palms down my jeans to get the sweat off them.

“I like it; it’s sweet,” Jane set the notebook down on her legs. “You’re makin’ a face, Button. What’s going on? Don’t you like it?”

“No, no, I like it I just don’t know if it’s… who I am as a singer?” I said and pushed my hair back over my shoulder in nervous habit.

“I can see this, the message, being you,” Jane agreed. “But it’s not completely you. I don’t see all of the… love I see in you in this song. Tell me what you want your music to say.”

“I want it to be more personal to me, I guess. So when you listen to the music you know me better.” I voiced.

“I wanna see what your pipes can do in a second, but let’s try something first,” Jane sat up straighter in her seat and spread her hands out on the fabric of your skirt. “Think of a boy-- oh, come on you’re a pretty girl I know there’s a boy, or just a friend and I want you to describe how you feel when you’re around them.”