Chapter Text
Toni took a dare against Fatin. Toni took a dare and she is now in line at the Los Angeles premiere of a new Disney princess movie with fan merch that is over 10 years old. She can’t believe she is actually doing this, but her friends are nearly bullying her into doing this and even though there are kids all around bugging her she should admit to herself that she is looking forward to the prospect of seeing Shelby Goodkind.
Shelby is Hollywood most famous and prosperous actress. She has been into the star system since she was 6, everyone had immediately been captivated by her energy and her kind green eyes.
Now she is 24, and while she is happy her new movie is coming out, she is looking forward for her contract with Disney to end.
Everything has been decided for her since she was a little girl, every move had been calculated, she couldn’t afford to slip up even once during most of her life, and even more so during her teenagerhood.
And when she did, her career had been about to be over. Her own family had stopped protecting her right after the accident, her management was about to sign her off, and the news about to break. But a deal had been reached, and no one noticed the gap in Shelby’s life in which she went MIA from the Hollywood lifestyle.
Once she came back, Shelby pretended even more for everything to be perfect, for her life to be a real life princess story. But she knew the truth, and now the opportunity to start over was closer than ever. Her contract was about to end, she was about to become her own person for what feels like the first time in her life soon.
In the meantime, she knows this role is one of the biggest of her career yet, and she is ready to face it. She feels a little anxious to step on the Red Carpet, but she has been doing this since she can remember. Smiling at the camera, the fans, the producers, walking liking she owns the place but with a gentle smile plastered on her face.
She is getting ready in the Hotel, or more so all the stylists and make-up artists are getting her ready, while she looks at herself in the mirror and whispers to herself showtime. She gives herself a once over, her long blonde hair, her green eyes, the makeup that enlighten them, the white and pink dress that the management and stylists chose for her. She looks good, like a Princess, because that is what the producers asked.
After looking at herself, she hears Leah, her manager and by now close friend, say “It’s time to leave.” to everyone and she is ushered to the limousine that is waiting for her outside the hotel. Some paparazzi are there, but the guards are blocking them so she is not sure they will manage to take any pictures, but she smiles and weaves at them anyway.
It doesn’t take long to reach the place where they are hosting the red carpet and the premiere.
She knows she is the last one to arrive, the cast is made of major actors but nearly every fan is there for her. They all wish to get an autograph, a picture, and she has been instructed to spend at least 20 minutes doing so on the red carpet.
Shelby engages in a conversation with the driver, asks how his day was, and he is clearly surprised by the attitude and seems to be more at ease after some time. Shelby is a bit nervous, and she is alone in the car, so this is helping her too.
She sees they are getting closer, and hears the chants of the fans getting louder and sees already the photographers near the entrance getting ready because everyone knows it has to be her.
Fatin was having the time of her life, she showed up to Martha and Toni’s house with their friends 7 hours before Shelby expected arrival at the Red Carpet cause “You will have to be in the first line Toni, otherwise how can Shelby see you with your fan merch?” followed by a laugh.
Yeah, Toni was not laughing. Of course, Fatin wasn’t alone in this, they were surrounded by all their friends, sharing a laugh at Toni expenses.
Martha chimed in, saying “She will definitely stop to talk to you Toni, you will be the only grown up there!” she said, cheerfully. This was sweet Martha, it wasn’t said with malice, but this was not helping.
“Yeah, exactly, the only 23 years old idiot standing dear in what’s clearly old merch. This is gonna embarrass me for the rest of my life.” Toni answers, and it was true, all their friends knew that and laughed at it.
Their laughing was so contagious that Toni almost joined it, but now was not the time.
Not all of them would be able to be there, only Martha would. She was actually pretty excited for this new movie, she also got the tickets to see the premier later in the evening.
Toni thinks that if she had to see Shelby than she would have preferred to watch her in silent during the movie, where no one would notice, and not in front of everyone while also standing in front of her.
“She might end up falling in love with you at first sight, what do you know?” Fatin says, smirking. She brings her dark long hair behind her ear while doing so.
“Dude, I have never seen someone looking so straight. I doubt that’s even possible in general for her.” Dot says.
“She is right, she looks like another level of straight.” Rachel says.
“Disney is known for closeting their stars and not letting any drama come out of them. Remember when everyone went crazy simply because Miley Cyrus was smoking? They would never allow for Shelby Goodkind to come out.”
Nora, which is Rachel's twin sister, is a quiet, observant girl, and this shuts everyone up. They know it’s true, there is no way anyone would be able to tell.
“Martha babe, tonight watch for Shelby reaction once she sees our basketball star in the crowd. We will have our answer with that.” Fatin says after a while, throwing a wink at Toni.
Toni scowls at her, knowing it’s not possible, but she has to admit that if the circumstances to knowing the answer would be less embarrassing she would like to know.
“Now let’s go, they have to beat the rush of kids that are going to be there. We don't want for Toni to compete with them to have Shelby attention.”
At this, Toni actually feels like throwing something at her. She doesn’t, but she answers with a simple “Fuck you, Fatin!”.
Martha, Fatin, Dot and the twins start to get out of their apartment, while Toni takes one last look at the mirror near the house door and laughs at herself, she has to admit watching her wearing a Disney princess shirt with Shelby face on it it’s fucking funny. If it was on someone else, she would be laughing her ass off.
They arrive at the venue 5 hours earlier, and while people are starting to gather up, she and Martha are able to get the best spot. Once the car arrives, the actors will go towards this fan area. The duo are located in the middle of it, so they can look in every direction with no one in front of them.
Toni is already starting to be embarrassed for her life, with moms throwing questioning glances at her, and kids trying to engage with her in some damn conversation about a movie she doesn’t even has any intention of seeing.
“Martha, this is the last time I will ever chose dare over truth.” She says, turning her head around so she can watch her best friend, that feels more like a non-biological sister.
Martha would usually say something positive, telling her that is not that bad, but she recognizes that they took the level of the dare to another level and this is, for real, very bad.
She can’t help but let a little laugh escape, and Toni would like to frown at that, but it’s Martha so she can’t. She also knows Martha is actually pretty excited to see the cast.
“C’mon Toni, at least you will see Shelby!” Martha says, she was the one talking about Toni’s oldest crush to all their friends after having one too many drinks a few months ago.
Toni doesn’t have much of a comeback to this, because Martha is right, she at least will see Shelby. On which she has a little crush still now. Shelby is beautiful, how could she not? And Martha has been seeing every shown or movie she is in since they are kids, so she truly couldn’t avoid seeing her face often. And she doesn’t mind it, it is a pretty face after all.
The event starts, with lights being directed to the Red Carpet and Fan Area, and the first clicks of the photographic cameras are heard. The first people arriving are guests and what Toni guesses are Instagram influencers or something like that, but she can feel the atmosphere starting to change and it's making her a bit anxious.
Because under all the snark she is been throwing at her friends since Fatin brought up the dear, she is a little nervous at the idea of possibly speaking to Shelby. It's not only about Shelby being herself, but also about how she has been having a crush on her for the longest time.
Before Shelby is set to arrive, there are around 2 more hours to kill, since as articles online wrote (Fatin had checked) Shelby should be the last one to arrive. Shelby is the star, and she is going to make everyone wait.
Luckily, as usual, Toni and Martha have no problems about killing time, the conversation flows naturally has it had been since they were both 8.
The crowd keeps getting bigger and they suppose there are over 1000 thousand people around and behind them, and the noise keeps growing from the moment the first big actors get out.
Toni is already starting to consider this a good idea the moment she sees Zendaya, because she looks even better that she thought. She is not a huge Marvel fan but she has seen the last Spiderman with Martha and she looked really good in it. This makes her almost giddy at the prospect of seeing Shelby, she would never admit it out loud though. But even without telling so, Martha figures it out and says over the noise “You are actually looking forward to see her, aren’t you?” With a smirk on her face.
Toni would answer yes, but she keeps the thought to herself. She says “I am pretty sure you are the one looking forward to this the most.”
Because Martha has been crushing on another member of the cast, Marcus Bernard, this whole time too.
That is how they figured the differences in their sexuality, Martha was going on at the age of 13 about how cute Marcus would have looked as Florian, the prince in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, while Toni admitted that she had liked Shelby's version of Rapunzel.
Marcus is the one that comes next, and Toni softens at seeing Martha so nervous and happy in front of a guy. It’s not usual for her, and it’s such a rare and nice sight that Toni should have said yes without a dare being involved just for this.
Marcus goes to them, and Martha is able to ask for a selfie and receive one. She allows Marcus to get a few meters away from them before turning around to Toni and silently scream. Her expression is of genuine happiness, with her dark eyes looking joyful.
Toni smiles at her and grins, asking “Feeling giddy?” and Martha starts laughing.
After a few seconds of laughing between themselves, Martha answers “I think that’s how you will feel soon too.” while signaling Toni to turn her gaze towards the cars entrance.
Toni was focused on her sister, so she didn’t notice the sounds of the screams getting higher, the tension changing again, and most of all, she didn’t notice the last black limousine arriving. The first photographers near the entrance for the car were already flashing pictures, more than with everyone else, and this meant what she was starting to feel: Shelby Goodkind had just arrived.
Shelby has done this dozens of times, has been on red carpets and photo calls for over a decade, but this feels different. She has had some major roles, but in this one she had felt how much more promotion and effort Disney put. She felt pressured to shine in this Red Carpet more than ever.
She took a look at her nail polished hands, watched one last time the rear view mirror, and while the car was starting to slow down she started to hear the fans, in unison, already screaming her name “Shelby! Shelby! Shelby!” and she had never heard it being screamed so loudly. She had just a few seconds to recover from it before getting ready for the first photographers that were about to arrive, not that they could do much with pictures while she was only in the car, but she couldn’t allow one single mistake to happen tonight.
Nothing out of the ordinary could come out of it.
She got into position, ready for the assistant to open the limousine door from the outside for her, and waited till the car stopped. She heard the driver saying that everything was set, and after a few seconds the door opened.
This was for her one of the most thrilling part of the Red Carpet. When you step outside of the car, and you get it full force at the same time with the sound of the fans and the dozens of different flashes smacking across your face. At the start, she remembers it not being easy, her eyes getting irritated with all the different lights. Luckily at this venue the spaces were bigger and the photographers weren’t too close.
She smiled at everyone and brought her right hand up for a wave, turning around to every angle to say hello to everyone.
The fans were scattered in every direction, but she had received instructions to only go to a resigned fan area this time. She felt like it was not a great idea, there could easily be around 1000 thousand people but in this way she could speak with only dozens of them, only the ones in the first lines.
She saw Marcus in the last part of the designed fan area, his gray suit complenting his light brown hair and brown eyes. He was ready to say goodbye to them and walk down the Red Carpet.
She stepped inside the area the moment he got out.
Shelby, as a little girl, had not been allowed to live a normal life. She didn’t get to understand how big of a deal she was until her teenagerhood, that’s when she got to meet fans for the first time. They had reached for her, asked for autographs, telling her about tattoos they got related to her. This had left her dealing with anxiety, but with years she understood how it worked and handled the situations better, but the anxiety never fully stopped.
With a second quick look around, she realized that most people were kids with their parents and in some cases some teenagers too. This put her at easy, it was easier when you had to deal with kids. They were innocent, funny, asking for her to admit she was a real life princess, and it always melted her heart seeing them so happy.
She started with the right area of the fan zone, starting to shake hands to little girls and smiling at their parents. She managed to get some pictures with the little girls in the closest line too, since it was allowed.
She stopped to talk a little longer with a kid that she assumed was a boy, but her father quickly explained that even if born a boy they reflected themselves in Shelby’s characters, and seeing a parent being so open to the possibily of his son being queer brought tears to her eyes.
She took a photo with them and took the time to write down a note, saying that they were doing good and she is proud of them. After doing so, Shelby realized how much time she spent on a single fan and started to go on, but it had been worth it.
Toni could have felt embarrassed for a big number of things that evening, but the most embarrassing thing was that when she saw Shelby she dropped her phone on the ground. On the outside of the barricade. And Shelby was the next one that was supposed to come there.
She couldn’t in any way contact a guard, the noise was too loud, and anyway who would have helped her retrieve a phone while hundreds of people were trying to take videos of Shelby Goodkind from her same perspective? The guard would have showed up in all of them.
She felt like she was being mocked at by some greater entity, because this simply wasn’t allowed to happen. Martha was starstruck by Shelby, and had not noticed it yet. Toni hoped she didn’t until she could sneakily ask a guard to take it after the event was over, because how could she explain it to her without making herself more of a fool? She was already wearing a princess shirt with the face of the most beautiful girl she has ever seen on it.
And said girl had started to talk with fans, it seemed like she stopped every few meters and engaged with deep conversations, taking more time with fans that looked out of the ordinary somehow.
She had a feeling she would stop to talk with her and Martha, and god the idea of having Shelby in front of her was making her both want to disappear and want to shudder from excitement. But the idea that Shelby would most likely see her phone on the ground, maybe even step on it, makes embarrassment wash over her.
Because Fatin, for the last and unknown part of her plan, had changed Toni lock screen to a photo of Shelby in an press interview. It wasn’t even a picture of a character Shelby played, no, it was a damn picture of Shelby herself.
And if she was gentle enough to take her phone from the ground, has now Toni thought she might be, she would see it thanks to how her phone lights up automatically.
Toni was going to kill Fatin.
She even tried to change her damn lock screen in the time she waited for the event to start, but Fatin (with Martha’s help) changed the password of her own phone. She told Martha how insane this was, but she replied “How could it possibly be so bad? If we are gonna take a photo we could take it with my phone, it’s not like she will ever see it!” and she left it at that.
If Shelby saw that, she would never recover.
Shelby, the damn Shelby Goodkind she had been crushing for nearly 15 years was now closer and closer to her. She was stunning. Toni couldn’t spot a single damn thing that didn’t look perfect, but what was making her knees buckle were her green eyes. Toni was glad she would never see her again after tonight, because she wouldn’t be able to get over her, ever, in her whole damn life, if she got to look into those gorgeous eyes a second time.
Shelby was talking a few meters away with two little girls dressed as princesses, when she got an elbow hit from Martha, who just smirked at her and mocked her by signaling her to breath. She didn’t realize she had stopped.
She coughed a little, to make sure her voice would be functioning in what she felt like would be more one of the most interesting but embarassing encounter of her life. She had seen Shelby for the past 10 minutes talking with nearly everyone close to the first line, she knew now there was no way she would avoid talking to the only 2 people looking over 20 and with no kids with them.
Shelby got closer, started to look in their general directions, before deciding on the people she should talk to, and smiled brighter than Toni had seen yet. God, why the fuck was she smiling so bright at them? And why the fuck was she talking to them automatically when they hadn’t said a word? She was expecting Martha to talk first at least, but she seemed starstruck as well, and didn’t say anything, so the damn Shelby Goodkind started talking first. Toni was about to have a heart attack from how stunning she looked in this long, white and pink dress. Her blonde hair were mostly kept behind her back, only a part of them adorning her face.
“Didn’t know over 20’s could enter this place on their own today. You sure you are not lost?” She said, smiling and in a clearly teasing mode.
“Oh, yeah, we aren’t. Right place.” Martha shoot a quick glance at Toni, who was hoping that she wasn’t looking as dumb as she was feeling.
But then Martha elbowed her for the second time in a few minutes, and Shelby turned, and her beautiful, beautiful green eyes, settled on Toni this time.
“Right place for her, I mean.” Martha added, smirking.
She knew nothing was gonna come out of this so she went all in on teasing her sister, it was part of the dare after all. And the look on Toni's face was priceless.
She took a glance at the princess shirt Toni was wearing, hoping Shelby would notice it, and Shelby, being curios about every aspect of this interaction, did.
Toni would gladly be anywhere else over doing this now, but she still had to say a word while those two acted like they were besties.
Shelby looked at Toni’s shirt with mirth in her eyes, there was a smile that felt even more genuine than the others, and said “Yeah, she a fan?” while throwing a fucking wink at Toni.
Martha was about to answer for her, but Toni had to stop this whole embarrassing not being able to talk thing, so she swallowed and then managed to spoke.
“My friends made me do this after I accepted a dare.” She said, willing herself to look in those green eyes because she will never get to do this again, so why not making the most of the moment?
Shelby almost looked sad at the answer, like she would have liked for her to be here on her will, so, because she couldn’t keep her mouth shut in front of the most attractive girl ever, she added “But I am glad I did.” with a small smile.
Shelby smiled again at her, Toni reaching for the bar in front of her to make sure she wouldn't do anything else even more embarrassing, like make Shelby notice her knees were about to go down.
“Could you sign her shirt? She has had it since she was 10, you know!” Martha added, and Toni seriously didn’t want to stop to look at Shelby for a second, but she did just to throw a glare at Martha.
This time it didn’t seem like she was saying it to mock Toni, just because she was cheerful about it.
Shelby, even if surrounded by people that were screaming her name, photographers taking pics nearly every second, managed to catch Toni's glare and smirked at that. It seemed like she wanted to say something, perhaps some more funny remark, but she stopped.
She watched around herself and probably realized that this wasn’t a regular conversation between 20’s years old. The small pause in conversation made Toni realize that the conversation wasn’t as long as she thought it was. Probably only 30 seconds had passed, like with every other interaction Shelby has had so far.
Shelby accepted the marker Martha had, and god if Toni wasn’t envious of how close they had been.
But then she understood that Shelby was about to touch her to mark her shirt and god why Toni didn’t think that if Shelby were to accept she would touch her?
So she stood there, unmoving, for what felt like the longest fucking second ever, and then realized that the best way was to turn around and let her sign her shirt on her back.
But her time with Shelby was clearly about to run out, so Shelby reached for her instead, to make things faster, and took her shirt in her hands. This immediately brought Toni closer to her and she let out an embarrassing breath. And if that breath didn't give away her thoughts, the blush that started to form on her cheeks right after it did.
Shelby was about to sign the shirt but her eyes, after that damn breath, moved and stayed on hers for what felt like a second too long.
She seemed to recollect herself and went back to sign her shirt, that had lifted a bit over the barricade to make this easier, and the movement exposed her abs, and Toni could swear she saw Shelby eyes fall on them.
She hoped that if, for some reason, she was able to focus on them she didn’t notice the shivers on her skin, or that she would think it was for the sudden cold. Even if it was fucking LA during summer.
Shelby wrote down shelbee, with an underscore after the last 3 letters. Toni would not notice this until later that evening.
She gave the marker back to Martha and then smiled one last time at both of them, before moving to other fans, and saying “It was nice meeting you”. They were about to smile back, before hearing what was clearly a crack coming from underneath Shelby's shoes.
Shelby had to take one glance at them, just to make sure an emergency wasn’t about to start, like her sponsored Gucci shoes breaking in the middle of the most important Red Carpet of her life so far.
But it wasn’t that, no, the crack was coming from the glass of a phone breaking.
She knew she didn’t have too much time to lose, but her leaning down to take something underneath her new Gucci shoes would do wonders for the company, and it would show how kind she was towards fans too.
She elegantly kneeled down and took the phone. It was cracked but it still worked and the screen flashed, and even if it was broken she was still be able to recognize the lock screen. It was her during her recent Jimmy Fallon interview.
She was about to ask who it belonged to, when she turned her head around and looked back to the girl that had stolen her attention more than anyone else.
She immediately understood, and went back to give it back to her. She knew photographers were watching more closely this time around, they wouldn’t miss her doing something out of the ordinary, so what she said was “I am sorry for the phone.”
And then added “the next path I take” and smiled at the girl, and then took a glance at her signed shirt.
After that, she allowed herself to spend some more seconds to look at her, to take in her brown eyes for what was probably the last time. She heard the girl mutter a soft “Thank you.” while her cheeks were red again.
With that, Shelby signaled with her hand that she was moving forward to the next fans.
If someone were to record video, they would find her charming, in one moment kindly signaling to a fan that she is moving to the next person while also saying one of her most iconic lines, which is a metaphor for saying “I will reach you in whatever way I can.” This line comes from one of her first movies, for some reasons it had a huge resonance and people started quoting it, even going as far as tattooing it.
No one would make a big deal out of this. But for the girls Shelby had just spent the last 90 seconds with could mean something else entirely, if they were able to read between the lines.
With this quick line and the different signature on the girl shirt, Shelby had just given them a way to contact her.
It was there, for them to catch on. Shelby would just need a few hours to set up a fake Instagram account called @bee_ and then she could talk with them, with her.
The girl with wild and wavy brown hair and brown eyes that had captivated her from the moments she moved her gaze on her. And that made her heart beat faster when she actually managed to form a word. And even worse, when she blushed and then smiled at her.
The moment Shelby considered the idea of writing down a fake username she understood how insane it was, but it was all so fast that she just acted with her instinct. It’s such an insane idea that the girl would most likely not notice the difference in the signatures, or she would not know what to do with it.
But something inside her was screaming for her to do it, and after years, Shelby did again something really stupid. She hoped it wouldn’t blow up in her face this time.