Rise To Stardom - Chapter 183

Chapter 183: Meet Cute
BEST NEW ARTIST, RECORD OF THE YEAR, SONG OF THE YEAR: HOLLYWOOD’S HOTTEST STAR KYLE KESTIS, DOMINATES THE GRAMMY NOMINATIONS!

A TRIPLE THREAT AND POSSIBLY, A QUADRUPLE THREAT IN THE MAKING, KYLE KESTIS, JUST A FEW DAYS AWAY FROM THE DANCE MOVIE HE’S STARRING IN HITTING CINEMAS, EARNS THREE GRAMMIE NODS!

KYLE KESTIS’S FIRST GRAMMIE NOMINATIONS AND IT’S IN THREE, MAJOR BRACKETS! IS THIS THE RISE OF THE NEXT SUPERSTAR?!

No sooner had the news been let out to the general public, the internet was immediately bombarded with articles online about the Kyle’s Grammie nods.

Added to that were various TicToc influencers, Hollywood-based ViewTube channels and Mediagram handles, sharing and making multiple video clips about the announcement!

However, the most watched amongst those clips, was the one from a small Hollywood Publication ViewTube Channel whose reporters had been the first to ask Kyle on the street his thoughts on being nominated, the shock on the young star’s and what seemed to be his assistant’s face, evident beyond measure!

Similarly, his fans, especially those in the fan group, were losing their shit and so were the rest Kyle’s team who were obviously, just as shocked as Kyle and Owen themselves had been in the video!

Typically, a Grammie nomination for a young star like Kyle, shouldn’t have garnered this much reception.

However, considering for his very first nominations, he was in three different categories, contending against even more popular artists in one of the two most sought after brackets; Record of The Year and Song of The Year, made the craze for it, that much more pronounced.

At the same time, due to the Hollywood Star Awards Debacle and also, Justin’s rude comments last year, the news only got amplified by the minute with the entire thing, slowly coming back into the light.

In fact, a few netizens were already mocking Justin since he hadn’t been nominated for a single bracket in the Grammies.

Still, all these was on the low-key, almost as if everyone was actually waiting to see the outcome of Kyle’s Grammie nominations before going full-out mockery on him.

Interestingly, what most of the denizens hadn’t realized just yet, was that, before the news of Kyle’s Grammie Awards Nominations was even announced, a few unsavory articles about Justin, were already dancing in the background of the mainstream media, with his record label, keeping it all from coming into light.

JUSTIN KING – THE ARTIST WHO HAS NEVER LIFTED A FINGER TO GET TO WHERE HE IS… OR MAYBE HE HAS, BUT JUST NOT AS HE SHOULD’VE.

This was one of such articles, released on the 1st of February by a very small Hollywood Publication, one that went into extensive detail about how Justin had used his family’s wealth and connections to step over more deserving artists and robbing them of opportunities that were rightfully theirs.

The second article, released on the 4th of February, was even more detailed, pulling out some frowned upon industry practices that Justin and his record label had done to ensure that Justin won the Hollywood Star Awards last year;

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WIDESCOPE RECORDS AND THEIR GOLDEN BOY, JUSTIN KING.

Yes, that same Widescope Records. The same record label that had pulled strings to prevent Kyle from even getting nominated for an Award during his first major, breakout year in the industry.

As for the third article, which was released on the 9th of February… it had taken off the training wheels!

A LESSON IN HUMILITY? JUSTIN KING CERTAINLY ISN’T THE ONE TO BE CALLING A FELLOW ARTIST OUT, CONSIDERING HIS SELFISH ACTIONS ON THE SET OF [LEVEL UP 2].

This article especially, had been quite hard for Widescope Records to completely bury as it had been more unreservedly direct, forceful and had gossip and scandals, written all over it.

The kind that Hollywood loved to see…

Not that Gwen hadn’t done it on purpose.

The Social Media and PR manager had ultimately been testing the waters to see how Justin’s Record Label would react and she had adapted each blessed time she dropped the next article for another small-sized Hollywood publication.

At the same time, this article, did a good job of influencing a good chunk of the internet to become a bit more interested in [Level Up 2] before it got wiped off the internet.

That said, even Gwen herself, couldn’t have expected Kyle to get nominated for this year’s Grammies.

And this, was why, instead of dropping her Magnum Opus on the art of driving Justin’s name into the mud on Feb. 13, just before Valentines, she had held herself back and waited.

If before she had been doing it so that Kyle would get more exposure while Justin would be his stepping stone, hence garnering more attention towards [Level Up 2] in the process, she didn’t need to anymore.

Kyle’s Grammie nods already gave the upcoming movie, far more exposure than even the Marketing and PR team at Silver-Line Studios could’ve expected, so very close to the movie’s release date.

As a result, Danny, Sean and the Execs at the mid-sized Film Studio, became hopeful that they could, in fact, make back their returns and then some at the very least.

But for Gwen, this just meant that she could polish out her article on ridiculing and humiliating Justin to absolute perfection in preparation for after the movie had aired in cinemas.

* * *

[14th of February, 2021]

The day had come.

Finally, [Prom Perfect 3] and [Level Up 2] were going to clash in real-time at various cinemas around the world.

Currently though, at a well-known cinema in Toronto, Canada, was a dressed-up Sarah who stood outside the cinema as various people behind her, queued in line to buy their tickets, their chatter audible.

“I’m telling you babe, [Prom Perfect 3] is a fantastic watch!” a girlfriend tried to cajole her boyfriend into watching the teen rom-com with her, her movie ticket flailing in her hands.

“No thank you, sweetie. Kyle just got nominated for the Grammies so I’d like to see him in this movie.” her boyfriend declined respectfully as he showed her his own ticket to [Level Up 2].

“That doesn’t even make sense! What’s the Grammies got to do with Kyle being a dancer or not?” the girlfriend retorted with a slight frown.

“Well, it doesn’t have to, really. Kyle got nominated, I got interested, I’m gonna watch the movie.” the boyfriend stood his ground, the couple drawing the curious gazes of a few people around.

Despite finding the argument behind her interesting, Sarah simply glanced at her wristwatch instead, watching as the time struck 7:50pm.

Her date was already late but she kept waiting patiently, believing that maybe he was stuck in traffic or possibly something important came up.

Considering they had hoped to meet earlier so they could at least get to know each other better, kind of like a small date before the actual movie date, Sarah had even come earlier by 7:00pm as most of her previous dates, typically arrived ten to twenty minutes before her.

And just like that, the pretty introvert kept waiting, the cold winter’s breeze, ruffling her long, shiny black hair as a few snowflakes, landed on it.

At the same time, the noise and chatter behind her was getting quieter by the minute, indicating that most people were already in the cinema, ready for the movie to start.

Soon though, after waiting for a few more minutes without a single call from her date, Sarah whipped out her phone to call him… only to realize that he had already unmatched her about thirty minutes ago.

“I got stood up…” the lady blankly muttered.

Quite shocked by the sight of it, Sarah kept staring at her phone for what seemed to be a minute or two, after which she then let out a sad, disappointed sigh… one that was aimed at herself for getting her hopes up.

Turning around, the lady was about to walk into the cinema all by her lonesome…

… only to watch as three individuals, ran over to the ticket counter, one of them commenting after they had gotten their tickets;

“Gwen, you’re such a Mama Bear! The article doesn’t even need to be that brutal, you know?! We almost missed the movie on the first viewing because you kept re-editing it!”

“Oh it needs to be Stuart! That little shit’s gonna get what’s coming to him! Karma’s rated E for everyone and I’ll take in pride being its enforcer!”

“Guys. Guys. Can we just forget about Justin and go watch the movie?!” Owen gestured as he spoke, after which he then walked in almost immediately, Stuart and Gwen following after.

And just like that, all the tickets to [Level Up 2] were sold out.

A bit taken aback by the interaction of the three strangers, Sarah soon brushed her thoughts aside and proceeded to walk in, only to hear a vehicle come to a screech behind her!

Not a few seconds had passed when a young man in his early thirties, briskly walked past her, only to let out a dejected sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair while muttering;

“Well that’s what happens when you have emergencies…”

Noticing that it was because the ticket counter was closed, Sarah glanced over at the two tickets in her hands.

Anxious beyond measure, the lady, already knowing the other ticket would end up going to waste regardless, summoned up the courage after a few more seconds.

Walking over to him, she gently tapped the dejected guy on the shoulder and spoke quietly;

“Um… would you, like to see the movie? I have a spare ticket, if you don’t mind…”

Turning around, Andrew, a young, recently employed doctor who was quite the looker, widened his eyes in disbelief and then appreciation, after which he then responded;

“S-Sure! Yes! I’d… I’d love to!”

To that, Sarah smiled warmly, handing over the spare ticket to an enamored Andrew who was dazzled by her smile.

And with that, both individuals walked into the movie theatre, ready to watch [Level Up 2] alongside many others.

Shuffling their way over into the theatre just before the movie started, Sarah and Andrew, were just in time to watch the opening credits of the movie, Silver-Line Studio’s logo, currently fading off from the screen.

At the same time, Andrew whom had managed to grab a popcorn bucket, informed Sarah that it was for both of them, earning an honestly surprised yet genuinely grateful smile from her.

A few seconds later, both were seated on the last rows, same as Owen, Gwen and Stuart whom Sarah recognized to be the strange trio.

That said, Sarah’s attention was soon focused on the screen as the movie’s first scene opened up with Luke and Rose, coming in second place at the dance competition in their tweens.

‘Final Jam: Legends In Motion huh… cool name.’ Owen, munching on his popcorn, inwardly commented as the main competition of the movie was introduced as the siblings, now in their tweens, danced in sync to the beat that was playing.

Dance movies usually had quite the simple plotlines so everyone in the theatres could more or less guess what the Luke and Roses’ goals were from the first few minutes of their intro.

It must’ve definitely had something to do with their father who was now, possibly, late.

That said, they were quite entertained by the execution of it when the movie showed that the siblings, asides, wanting to buy back their father’s dance hall after their step mom sold it off, also had personal goals of their own linked to it.

At the same time, they both seemed to genuinely love dancing and the audience could feel it from the way they talked about it.

This especially became evident when Luke, after finding out Veronica, the ballet dancer who always rented the same dance hall as theirs for practice was a great dancer, tried to cajole her into joining he and his sister’s troupe with a few interesting choice words;

–

“Dance can change things, y’know.”

“One move, and you can set a whole generation free.”

“One move, can make you believe that you’re something more…”

“And some moves, will give a lady – that’s you – who just wants to dance, a way to go against the norm and truly, be herself.”

–

Having heard that, the audience was intrigued, making Luke’s and Veronica’s character quite interesting to them.

‘Huh… guess they really did put a lot of thought into the script. That’s nice.’ Gwen thought to herself as she angled her popcorn towards Stuart who took a handful.

This aspect of the movie, did a good job, if not anything else of keeping the audience invested, their gazes focused on the screen.

The same happened when Rose, tried to get Baby, B-box and Bones, to join their dance crew and just like that, typical dance movie characters that didn’t really provide much for the audience to relate with, actually became people that the current audience, did in fact, really wanted to root for.

‘Rose, Veronica and Baby are so cool … wish I had half their confidence…’ Sarah inwardly stated, hands reaching out to grab a handful of popcorn… only for her fingers to land on Andrews who was also reaching for it.

About to apologize for the contact, Sarah was stunned to see Andrew’s black irises, staring at her in interest, a light smile on his lips.

Swiftly, the lady flicked her head forward, a furious blush forming on her cheeks, her attention thankfully whisked away by The Deviant’s very first dance battle against their oppositions, The Mob.

Like that, the movie went on, The Deviant’s making their mark in the competition as The Syndicates and Xander, were eventually introduced as the movie’s main antagonists.

A few minutes later, the audience whom had completely forgotten that Catherine was also an antagonist in her own right, were treated to a curveball when she leaked their dance routines for the semi-finals.

‘That’s dirty…’ Stuart slightly frowned as he sipped on his soda.

Although he, just like everyone else had been wondering when the typical setbacks in this kind of predictable storyline would happen, they hadn’t expected it to be from her at all.

Sure Xander had instigated it but still, it made for quite the surprise to the audience as the movie went on with The Deviant’s, already believing they had lost.

Still, despite the gloomy atmosphere that the movie currently had, that one singular thought which had been lingering in a good chunk of people’s mind since the movie had begun, only burned brighter after each scene.

And for Gwen, Owen and Stuart, they probably were the most curious as the next scene of the movie, played out in the kitchen of the restaurant The Deviants were in.