Normani's POV
I am suited, booted and ready to go. The girls and I have had many conversations about the state of the group and today we're acting on it. We called Simon and asked for a meeting with him and everyone on our team at Epic to get to the bottom of everything. We even asked for Lauren to be present at this meeting because we have some things we'd like to share with her.
Like Y/N said in order for people to take you seriously you gotta look the part. So the girls and I decided to wear pant suits, I have to admit my booty looks hella round in these pants and I'm here for it. The girls and I woke up extra early to get a workout in while the guys were a sleep, then after we showered I took the time to straighten my hair with a hot comb. It takes a very skilled hand to use a hot comb because one wrong move and your scalp, neck, and or edges is gonna be nice and crispy.
"Alright girls the van is here so let's move out!" Marcus yelled from downstairs.
We got a van today because it's gonna be a lot of us going to the office. Y/N, Marcus, Bri, Dinah, Ally, Tex, Bama, and myself. The guys are just there for moral support..and in case a certain someone decides to show up and be disrespectful to us.
Everyone piled into the van and we took off, I slid over to Y/N and laid my head on his shoulder. He intertwined my fingers with mine and kissed my forehead. "You look handsome today." I said.
"Thank you, I love your pantsuit, I like the whole blazer and crop top combination." Y/N said.
"I gotta show off my new abs baby." I said.
"Ooh look papi, I got abs too. Go ahead and kiss em for good luck." Ally said.
Everyone turned around and looked at Marally in the backseat being that weird cute couple. Marcus was literally kissing Ally's abs. Dinah rolled her eyes and put on her sunglasses. "Couples, eww." She said bitterly.
"And speaking of couples, Breezy, when are we gonna meet your new bae?" I asked.
"Yeah when are we gonna meet the mysterious Ashley?" Y/N asked.
I don't know who this girl is but she must be someone special to have Bri smiling the way she does. Bri just licked over her lips and smiled, "I'll bring her by soon, I just don't want you guys to be weird around her." She said.
"Umm Bri, weird is normal for us so I don't know what you'd expect us to do." Marcus said.
"Just don't be unusually weird okay." Bri said.
"Can't make any promises on that one." Y/N said.
The van stopped in front of the building and we took a minute to get ourselves together. "So you girls ready to go take care of business?" I asked.
"Yes." Dinah and Ally said.
"Let's get it." I said.
We climbed out of the van and headed inside the building. The guys stayed in the lobby while we went into the boardroom, Bri went with us because she had a track that she wanted to present to Simon. We walked in a Simon along with the rest of our team looked at us in awe.
"Wow girls you look amazing." Simon said.
"Thanks boss." Dinah said.
"Are we waiting for Lauren or nah?" Ally asked.
"No let's get started and we'll catch her up when she arrives. So ladies what is on your mind?" Simon asked.
"We're tired of being treated like a side project around here. We've sold a lot of records and we've made this company a lot of money in the last five years. We're the biggest girl group in the world but lately we've been looking like a group that's struggling to get their careers off the grounds. You guys are spoiling Camila, giving her everything she wants but we're over here getting the scraps and they don't add up to much." Dinah said.
"So here's what we want. We want you to let us work again. We don't wanna tour or anything, we just wanna write, record, and just become better versions of ourselves. Bri gave us a dope ass track and we'd like to release it and donate twenty five percent of the proceeds to the March of Dimes." I explained.
"You guys can't release the track, anything you create is property of Epic Records and if you release it we could sue you." Simon said.
"We know that Simon, that's why we came to you first, we don't want any static. We want you to hear the track first and then you release it." Dinah said.
Simon raised an eyebrow, "Well let me hear it." He said.
Bri hooked up her phone up to the stereo that was in the room and turned it up. As soon as it came on the girls and I started giving to it. To promised us a dope track and she delivered. It has the smooth 90s R&B feel with a dope ass beat under the melody, and we laid down some dope ass harmonies over it. The song can be done in three part harmony or four part harmony, if you catch what I'm saying. We looked around the table and a few members of our team were nodding their head to the song while her sat there straight faced.
Simon gave Bri a round of applause and she took a bow. "That was an amazing track, job well done Bri." Simon said.
"Thank you sir, I just wanted to give the girl a little flavor that's all. Something they can take to the Apollo one day." Bri said.
"If you give us the means to work with better writers and producers to work we could reach a broader audience, our black audience specially. With a new sound that we could grow our fan base which equals more money for everybody." I said.
Simon smirked and nodded his head, "Looks like you girls have been doing a little research on the music business, I like it."
"So are you gonna release the track?" Ally asked.
"I would love to release the track but there's in little problem, Lauren. Since the last debacle the fans wanna know what's gonna happen, is she in or out? Talk to me ladies." Simon said.
"To be honest Simon we're tired of her behavior. While we're out here trying to be the best that we can be she's over here with boyfriend being straight up reckless. And if you really look at the situation it's like Camila all over again. She's doing all this shit outside of the group, gaining all this exposure, and when the time comes she's gonna leave us." Dinah said.
"And we've reached out to her on numerous occasions but she ignores us. We done a lot of great things since you put us on hiatus. We met TLC, we saw SWV live and they gave us words of wisdom, Jennifer Hudson gives us vocal lessons sometimes, and we have two of the best personal trainers in the business who's helping us get our bodies right." I said.
"In multiple ways." Ally said on the sly.
Dinah and I gave her high fives because it was the truth. Marcus and Y/N got us looking right and feeling even better.
"I'm here." Lauren said as she walked into the room.
Lauren walked in and she had her boyfriend right behind her. This meeting was specifically for the members of Fifth Harmony, not Fifth Harmony and friends. Yes Ally and I's boyfriends are here but they're out in the hallway while we're in here trying to take care of business.
"Tyrone you need to leave." Simon said.
"Hell no, wherever my queen goes I go with her." Ty said.
Simon groaned, "That's it I've had enough. Lauren this past few months your behavior has been anything but acceptable, your making me look bad, the girls, and most of all yourself. We've given you chance after chance to get your act together but it's no use, you do what you want and don't think about the consequences. So I'm done with you." Simon said.
Lauren scoffed and Ty literally lit a blunt in the office with his disrespectful ass. "Okay Simon that was cute, you had your moment. I'm here and ready to work so let's do business." Lauren said.
"Okay let's do business, ladies, is Lauren still in the group, yes or no?" Simon asked.
"The answer is yes so let's move on to the real business. Let's talk about the tour, the next album, I'm ready." Lauren said excitedly.
"Ladies what's your decision? If she stays keep your hand down if she's gone raise your hand." Simon said.
The girls and I looked at each other and Ally gab a reassuring nod, ever so slowly the three of us raised our hands.
"Then it's settled, Lauren you are no longer a member of this group. I'll have the lawyer draw up the paperwork and you're free to go." Simon said.
"Y'all are really gonna dump my baby after all she did for this damn group! You bitches ain't shit without her." Ty said.
"Whoa slow your damn potna. You got a lot of nerve rolling in a meeting that has nothing to do with you and disrespecting my girls. If they aren't shit without Lauren neither are you because the only reason you're relevant is because of her overprivileged non singing, non dancing ass!" Bri said loudly.
"Bitch mind your fucking business before I put your ass on silent." Ty said.
Bri grabbed the bottle of champagne of the table and broke it, she charged at Ty but Lauren got in the way and as a result Lauren got knocked the hell out. Tex came in and got us out the room and Y/N went in to get Bri away from Ty. All you could hear was furniture getting moved around and Bri roasting Ty.
"You say you blood but you ain't shit nigga. A grown 30 something year old man dating a 21 year old girl because his shitty ass career ain't going nowhere! You fucking creep!" Bri yelled.
"Bit.."
Ty didn't even get the chance to finish that word because all you heard was punched being thrown. Next thing you know Tex and Bama was carrying Ty and Lauren out. Ty looked tore up from the floor up and Lauren was out like a light. Everyone went back into the room and Bri was putting the chairs and tables back where they were before it got chaotic in the room. We sat down and so did the rest of our team, it was kinda funny because they weren't trying to get close to Bri.
"I'm done here, see you all later." Bri said politely.
"Take care of yourself Bri." Simon said.
"Stay pimpin, pimpin!" Bri said loudly.
"Fo sho..." Simon said.
Bri chuckled up the deuces and walked out.
"Now where were we ladies?" Simon asked calmly.
"Our demands." Dinah said as she slide the paper over to him.
Our list of demands were pretty simple and we had a backup plan in case Simon couldn't agree.
"Ladies I love you but I don't think I can do these demands." Simon said.
Ally sighed, "Well Simon, I guess we'll take those meetings with Capitol Records, Warner, and Republic Records and I'm sure they'd be willing to make things work." She said.
"W-What? You've been talking to other labels?" Simon asked.
"Yes sir and they are very interested in working with us." I said.
Simon nervously chuckled and looked at the list of demands again, he looked up at our team, "You're fired, please leave quietly." He said.
Our forever team workers left and the renegotiations began. We explained why we wanted these different things and after hearing our reasoning Simon was more than happy to oblige. But we before we left the building we had Simon sign a contract too, in case he goes back on his promises we'll have legal documentation stating he agreed to everything.
We shook hands and went back out to the van, Bri and the guys were in the back shooting dice.
"Really guys?" I asked.
"What? We had to do something to pass the time." Bri said.
"How'd it go baby?" Y/N asked.
"We running shit now baby!" I said excitedly.
"That's what I'm talking about baby, come here." Y/N said.
I walked over to Y/N and kissed him on the lips, he grabbed a nice healthy handful of my ass but I don't even care.
"Okay everybody calm down, we have to go out and celebrate tonight." Y/N said.
"No let's stay in and have dinner at the house. Then we can have movie night in the theater." Ally said.
"As long as there's food, I'm good." Dinah said.
"Bet. Bri, Y/N and myself will do all the cooking while you ladies relax." Marcus said.
"Call up Freckles because it ain't a party without him." Bri said.
Y/N wrapped his arm around me and kisses my forehead, "Matter of fact you ladies chill for the rest of the day, go shopping, go to spa on me and we're gonna go straighten the house up a little bit." He said.
"Yeah, Mani can get a head massage to reduce some of the swelling in that big ass head of hers." Bri said.
I looked at Bri and squinted my eyes, "I was just about to say something nice but I'm gonna keep it to myself." I said.
Bri sat in my lap and put me in a headlock, "Look milk dud spit it out or I'm gonna wet your weave up." She said.
Bri broke out the spray bottle and sprayed me right in my face. "Bri thank you for kicking Ty's ass when he got out of line with us. And thank you for the dope ass track too." I said.
"You're welcome Normanny. I'm actually starting to like you a little bit." Bri said.
"Really?" I asked.
"I said a little bit don't press your luck with me sis." Bri said.
Bri likes me a little bit, I feel so loved.
(A/N)
Well I think that meeting went well...☕️🐸
Did DNA make the right decision?
Thanks for reading, tell me what you think 😌