Chapter One: Dream Deferred
"Closing Time's in 15 minutes Garibaldi, let's get those tables clean."
"Yes Ma'am." Reluctantly Galleria grabbed the spray bottle and dingy gray rag that she kept under the counter register and headed out towards the small dinning room area of Katy's cupcakes. The dinning room had six pink square plastic tables each with four white and polka-dotted chairs, which gave the small quirky specialty store the look and feel of a Barbie doll play set.
Galleria hummed a little as she starting cleaning the tables. Lately there had been a little melody that was stuck in her head and would start playing when she was alone. A few years ago when she would get a new tune stuck in her head she'd write it down quickly in her song book so that she could play with the notes on her keyboard and brainstorm lyrics. But those days were long gone. It had been years since she'd written a song or even played a riff on the piano, the desire to create music was gone.
As a teenager Galleria had belonged to a popular self-made singing group called the Cheetah girls. Besides herself there were three other girls; her best friends Chanel "chuchie" Simmons, Texas native Aquanette "Aqua" Walker, and dancing prodigy Dorinda "Do" Thomas. Together the four of them had formed into a formidable girl group that was destined for stardom. By the time the girls had reached senior year, fame seemed only a reach away. Fresh from winning an international singing contest in Barcelona, Spain, The Cheetah's were flying high and nothing could stop them, or so it seemed. But then Galleria's mother had forced her to take a break from the Cheetah's so she could attend university. Dorothea was adament about her daughter getting an education.
"But mom..." Galleria had whined like a toddler.
"Galleria."Dorothea began. " You promised me last summer that if i let you go to Spain you would focus more on your studies, and against my better judgement I agreed to let you go. It's time for you to leave the singing behind for now and prepare for the real world."
"I can't leave the girls behind." Galleria protested. "This is our dream. I can't let them down."
"If they are truly your friends they will understand." Dorothea said calmly "They will support you."
Her mother was wrong.
By the end of her first year in college the Cheetah girls were over. Chanel, Dorinda, and Aqua had spent the spring in India filming a Bollywood movie. Galleria had been hurt when she realized she wasn't invited or that the girls hadn't even bothered to call her to talk about it. When she finally got Chanel on the line to ask about the trip, Chanel acted as if cutting her out of the Cheetah Girls latest gig was no big deal. "Geez, it was just one movie...You need to chill out bubbles." For Galleria however it was a big deal. She was the founder of the group. She'd written all the songs, composed all the music, made sure that they rehearsed regularly when the others didn't want to. How dare they cut her out! So Galleria did the only thing that made sense to her. She quit. This wasn't her first time quitting the group, so naturally no one believed her at first. Chanel and the other girls just figured she was being dramatic, and that if they gave her time she come back around.
She didn't.
"Garibaldi! Almost done with those tables?"
Galleria snapped out of the past. Time to focus on the future. Her future. A future she had never planned. Working eight to twelve-hour days, serving up cupcakes, cleaning bathrooms and tables wasn't apart of the plan she had carefully crafted seven years ago. She was supposed to be playing sold out concerts, winning Grammy's, and jet setting all across the world. Why had her life become so drastically different from the one she dreamed of?