one night

"Have you met the new girl?" Johnny said as he finished applying the hair dye on Ariana's hair. He wrapped each string in aluminum foil and lets it sit for a moment before watching it.

"There's a new girl?"

"Yeah, girl! I heard she was signed a couple days ago. This is her first professional shoot, supposedly."

"Where is she?" Ariana said. Now she wanted to meet the girl. Maybe give her friendly advice on how to be a professional model and how it feels to get in front of a camera. Learn how to love the camera.

"I don't think she has arrived yet. But, we have to wash that hair girl because you're up soon."

"Do you know her name?"

"Normani Kordei Hamilton but she goes by Normani. She's a African-American, she's a dancer, she's been dancing since she was a toddler. Then around her teenage years she got into modeling and been doing both ever since. She lives in Houston, Texas but now she's in New York. Her friend Blair is like, her personal photographer or whatever. The girl is classy, girl."

Ariana don't know how Johnny gathered so much information about someone he never met. But then again, he is Johnny. She wouldn't be surprised if he knows her ancestors too. Ariana just laughed. They went back to the regular after exchanging rumors they've heard from others, to each other. Gossiping is part of their bond, actually.

The rest of the day should be interesting.

-

"Much of luck, Miss Hamilton." The lady behind the front desk said, delivering a warm smile which Normani returned. Normani stepped into the building with one goal; to make it her bitch. She walked in the room with lots of confidence, her mindset was right, she was carrying herself the way every woman should. Despite this being her first professional photo-shoot, she was ready. She knew she was ready. How different Blair's camera is from the camera she was about to get in front of?

Normani followed every sign that was up in the walls, making sure that she read every word right and followed the arrows. It's not a good luck to get lost on your first day of work and she wasn't going for that, never.

When Normani heard the sound of cameras clicking, she knew she was going the right way. It got louder and louder, she was able to see the flash even, her heart began beating with excitement. She felt her world change already as she got closer to the room. She peaked her head behind the wall, cringing at the flash when it hurt her eyes.

The room was everything she pictured while she was on the road; big, full of cameras, people walking everywhere, people talking loud and over each other. Normani eyes paused when they landed on the wide white backdrop and the model that was posing on a bed before the backdrop. She was laying on her stomach as she stared into the camera's eye. Normani could tell that she was in the industry for while, her face expressions didn't crack as she looked directly into the camera's eye (not even blinking because of the flash), her poses were firm. She loved the camera and the camera loved her right back, or more.

She already saw herself there, making love to the camera.

"What are you doing?" Normani heard. She moved away from the wall quickly, her eyes widen when she saw someone stand in front of the entrance. How she did get there? How long has she been watching Normani watch someone else? Normani didn't know, but the lady didn't look friendly at all. Her eyes were lazy and her hair was all over the place, her outfit looked like it was thrown on her body without seconding looking. Her eyebrows were furrowed as she observed Normani.

"Normani." Normani said, trying not to sound scared. She wasn't but she was still shook, she was pretty sure the lady could hear her heart beat against her chest.