Pietra Tiorano
@PietraJTiorano
Teen Star musician. Formerly just a crazy cat girl. Still am.
Joined June 2019
Location LA, California
528 Following  200K Followers
With the Pietra Tiorano thing going on, Bella didn't think her day could get any worse, but as it seemed, it could.
Viola had betrayed her. So much that no other betrayal could be greaterâso she thought.
She stormed out of the cafeteria after giving her best friend an incredulous look, then walked down the hallway, fists balled at her sides. Footsteps followed behind her, but she wasn't interested in knowing who it was. She just wanted to be mad and throw tantrums like a three-year-old who didn't get what she wanted.
The footsteps got closer and, before she could mentally agree to not look over her shoulder, a hand grabbed her wrist and spun her around. Immediately, she went face-to-face with Beau.
Her breath caught in her throat at how close their faces were, then, as if given a slap that delivered composure to her brain, she twisted her hand out of his grip and took a step back. "What?" she snapped.
"What's wrong?"
"None of your business."
"Maybe, but I'm really serious about knowing this time. It's about your friend, isn't it?"
She folded her arms across her chest. "Oh, so you were watching us?"
"I wasn't watching you. You were in my line of sight, and every time I looked up, I saw you guys."
"Hmph. Yeah, right." She turned to leave, but his voice stopped her.
"If you don't want to tell me everything, at least give me a hint. I'm sure I can be of help. A problem shared is a problem half solved." She turned to face him. "Look, I know whatever's going on is bothering you--"
"Bothering who? Me. Me, not you. Leave me alone." It was partly his fault anyway. She spun around to leave again, but he grabbed her arm, and gently lead her to the wall, where he forced her to lean.
He stood directly in front of her. "Chill, Bella. You're rightâit's none of my businessâbut I can't act like I don't care. It's not that easy."
"And why not?"
"I don't know. It's just hard." She didn't say anything, so he continued, "So can you tell me why one minute you're smiling, and the next you're sad and you have this look in your eyes that kills me? I'm ready to listen." Involuntarily, his hand lifted to lightly stroke the side of her face, but the gesture ended just as quickly as it began. "And, before you begin, please take it easy on my ego this time."
Despite herself, she giggled, and his eyes twinkled. It wasn't with amusement, but with happiness.
Suddenly, Bella stopped laughing, then, as if possessed, she pushed him away from her. That was when she noticed a few onlookers. "Why can't you just let me remain mad?"
"Why do you want to remain mad?"
"All of this is your fault!"
"Hey, what do I have to do with this?"
She narrowed her eyes into a glare. "I should've never listened to you about Teen Stars. At least I would've known I didn't try. This is the final week for submissions and she hasn't replied to my email." She folded her arms and pouted. "I feel like an idiot."
He lifted his eyebrows. "Oh, so I did a wrong thing by giving you advice?"
"Like I saidâit's not the greatest I've gotten."
"We agreed there wouldn't be any blows to my ego, didn't we?"
"You agreed, I didn't." She pushed him further away, then started towards the lockers.
"I left you a little something somewhere!" he shouted behind her, and she gave him a look over her shoulder.
"Where?"
"Don't worry. You'll see it." He sent a wink in her direction, and despite the butterflies it created in her stomach, she continued to her locker without a word.
She couldn't help but give him part of the blame for the predicament, though it was stupid and very three-year-old-ish of her. Why would Viola keep something so important from her? They were best friends, and best friends were supposed to tell each other everything. Right?
Ugh! She couldn't believe it. The more she thought about it, the tighter her fists became.
When she opened her locker, a piece of paper fell out, and she squatted to pick it up. She almost smiled when she read the note, but the anger simmering somewhere in her stomach prevented her from doing so.
Just slip your note into my locker, telling me you got this.
She wanted to ignore it, but at the same time, she didn't want to. Beau cared too much to be ignoredâeven though she just ignored him minutes prior. She turned to the last page of one of her notebooks, then wrote, I got it :).
But immediately she put the words down, they felt wrong and boring and just too plain, so she tore that part off, balled it, then tried againâharder this time.
You're an imp, you know that. You just don't want me to feel my anger to its peak. Anyway, yeah, I got your note, and I feel old fashioned enough without my phone. You just completed the mix.
P.S. I'll be around you less so my calculus wish for you will come true :)
She finally smiled, then closed her locker, folded the paper in half, and headed to his locker.
The car was silent on the way back home. Bella refused to look at Viola, Viola refused to look at Cody, and Cody refused to look at either of them. The tension hung above their heads like a blanket ready to fall.
After dropping Viola off with just a grumbled bye as the word of departure, Cody drove home.
Giggles sounded from inside as Bella approached the front door, and she immediately recognized one of them as Adele's. She stepped inside, Cody behind her.
"Hey, Mom. Hey, Adeleâ" She paused when she saw that they weren't alone. Jared Hue sat beside her older sister, slumped in the couch and looking bored.
Adele stood when she saw her, her eyes bright. She walked over to give both her and Cody a big hug. "Hey, guys," she chirped, pulling away. "You came in at the right time. Jared was getting super bored with mother-daughter talk. Oh, that's right. You haven't officially met him yet." She turned to the guy in the couch. "Jar, these are my siblings," she placed a hand on Bella's shoulder, "Bella," then on Cody's, "and Cody."
"Nice to meet you. Adele's told me a lot about you guys."
"She would've told us a lot about you too, but she's mostly in college," Cody finally said.
Jared smiled. "Yeah."
"If they bore you too much, you can come upstairs to my room."
"His room's a lethal weapon," Bella said, focusing on Jared. "So before you go in, say your last organization wishes."
"You're just jealous he doesn't want to hang out with you."
Bella would've said something back like, He never said he wanted to hang out with you, doofus, but she only shrugged, then threw her backpack to the couch, shamefully missingâtalk about terrible aim.
"How was school?" her mom asked, and deep down, Bella didn't want to reply, but she found herself speaking.
"It was the worst!" She walked to the sofa, then plopped down beside Jared, who didn't look like he was getting up anytime soon.
She wasn't going into details and mentioning the senior girls, or Pietra Tiorano, or Viola. School that day was the worst, plain and simple. The only time it was worth waking up that morning was in the hallway with Beau. She had been a bit mad, but it was still worth it.
"High schoolers," Adele commented, and Bella shot her a look.
"Hey, you were once one, you know."
"Yeah. A time of my life I'd like to live all over again."
"I'll go get a drink," Cody said, before disappearing into the kitchen. "Anyone want one?" he asked, peeking at them.
"No," they responded in unison.
Bella's eyes went to settle on Adele's phone beside her, immediately making her hand itch. She missed her phone so much. "Um, Adele." The words were out of her mouth before she could think about talking, and Adele turned to her.
"Yeah?"
"Can I talk to you?" She pointed up. "In my room? Upstairs?"
"Sure."
She jumped to her feet immediately, ignoring her mom's sly look.
"Are you resigning? Please don't resign, I need you," Adele said, a hint of fear in her voice, and Bella turned to the stairs.
"I'm not resigning."
"Is it boy talk?"
"Yes," she answered a bit too soon, and her mom's eyebrows shot up. Adele's eyes glinted with interest. "Now... let's not talk about it here. Ears everywhere."
Immediately they got to her room, she locked the door, then pushed Adele to her bed.
"Okay, so who's the boy?" Adele wiggled her eyebrows teasingly, a huge smile on her face. "I'm honored to be chosen as your love guru, by the way. Where do we start? There are a lotâ"
"It's not a boy!"
Adele's smile gradually vanished, a bit comically. "It's not?"
"No. I just didn't want Mom to be suspicious."
"Aw! And I thought you had a juicy story for me."
Bella mentally swatted her off like a nosy fly. "I need your help with something."
Adele stared up at her. "Why do I have the feeling it's going to be shady?"
"It's won't be, I promise. A bit spy-y, but not shady. Cross my heart."
"All right. Shoot."
* * *
Later in the evening, a knock sounded on her door.
"It's open!"
Her mom opened the door and walked in, her phone in her hand. Bella pretended not to see it as she faked intense interest in her homework. "Hey, Bella, Adele wants to speak with you."
"Oh?"
Her mom gave her a knowing look, a smile on her face, then handed the phone to her. She stood by the door when Bella placed the phone over her ear.
Bella smiled at her when she noticed. "Privacy? Please?"
Her mom gave one last smile before walking out, shutting the door behind her.
"Hey, Adele."
"Gosh! Pietra Tiorano's cake out of the oven with yummy icing," Adele said immediately, and Bella's heart skipped a beat. She saw it coming, but somewhere in her, she hoped it wouldn't be the case. Now even Adele was impressed.
"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath. "From the top, tell me all you found out about her."
"Well, there's a major Twitterstorm. She's, like, the only one anyone can talk about. Some hate her, but most people love her, in uppercase."
Okay, that wasn't so bad, was it?
"Even girls here have watched her video. My roomie has been singing her song all evening."
All right, that stung.
"Andâ" Bella paused, not sure she wanted to ask the question that had been ingrained in her brain since she gave Adele the task. Picking up the pieces of her courage, she finally asked, "How many followers does she have?"
"Combined?"
"Y-yeah," she croaked.
"You don't wanna know."
She drew in a sharp breath. "Because it's bad, or because it's good?"
"Because it's impressive for a rising musician."
"How about her video?"
"It's cool. Her voice is Grammy-worthy, and before the end of this week, the video would be approaching four million views. She's kinda mysterious, too."
"How?"
"Her face is hidden beneath face paintâawesome, by the wayâso you can't tell how she really looks. That's one of the reasons people are so intrigued."
Suck it up, Bella. "And what are people saying about Fashionella?"
Adele went quiet for a moment, making Bella hold her breath. Eventually, she said, "Your fans are mad you're giving them the silent treatment, Linda."
Seriously, suck it up. Lump it. Take it like a man... or woman. No. Like a man. Man up! "Okay, thanks," she whispered, sounding like she was about to break.
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah. Yeah."
The pitch of her voice said she wasn't all right, but if Adele noticed, she didn't say anything about it.
"Don't think too much about it, okay?"
Was it possible? Big, fat no! She couldn't not think about itâit didn't define her existence. But if her fans were mad at her and Pietra was suddenly famous, what could she do to make people love her again?