Close to Christmas, Aiden had stopped most of his work to celebrate the Holiday season with Uncle Sam and his cousins. Wade and the other team members were also on holidays.
At the same time, one more thing related to Aiden was happening. The commercial that he shot with David Sylvester was finally going to air on television.
"Haha, this is so funny."
A girl who looked to be 15 laughed as her eyes were focused on the television screen in which a small child was fighting with two robbers that had broken up in his house.
It was a Christmas movie that would often be broadcasted around the holiday season.
It has already become a tradition for the girl to watch the movie while waiting for her mom to return home.
She was having a lot of fun while watching the scenes that she already knew about but there was still an innocence in her eyes that was making her feel the same way she had felt when she had watched the movie for the first time.
It was then that the movie suddenly stopped as the commercial came up. Seeing that, the girl frowned.
'Ah, I should have really watched it on Dream + instead of TV. I don't like ads.'
She thought and picked up her phone to pass time till the commercials ended.
But at that moment, she saw a face that she hadn't expected on the TV screen. She nearly dropped her phone due to the shock.
"Aiden is in a commercial?"
She said out loud as her eyes glued to the screen. She was someone who was following Aiden after watching [Black Saints] at the beginning of the year but she hadn't expected him to appear in a commercial so soon.
On the TV screen, Aiden was running to get the last can of Spirit in the refrigerator. When he finally reached it and took it out, David Sylvester suddenly appeared out of nowhere and tried to grab the last can of Spirit.
"Kid, give me that." He said, trying to pull the can towards him.
"No, I got it first."
"You can't compete against me. Who even are you?"
As David asked, Aiden would put down the can and pull out a poster and the album of [30 days of Happiness].
"I got a hit movie on myself. Something you didn't have for years now."
The girl laughed hearing that. David was a big action star but was struggling to land a hit these days as action roles don't suit him now with age. It was a clear dig at him.
"Oh really? Looks like these days anyone could be a star. Do you even have fans?"
As soon as he said that, several girls appeared behind Aiden cheering him on and he smirked in a mocking manner. The very next second, a big burly man appeared behind David.
The girl had to admit that at least the commercial was at least creative.
After that, David and Aiden had a verbal fight until Aiden mentioned something that picked up David's interest.
"How about it? You let me take the Spirit and I would get you a song with me. Teenage fans are useful to sell the movie these days."
"Oh, that's a good idea."
David throws the Spirit can to Aiden and then, the commercial cuts to show both of them on the stage trying to sing a song. The Spirit logo appeared on the screen with both David and Aiden drinking it.
Like that, the commercial ended.
'That's actually not a bad commercial. I can't believe Aiden who no one knew a year ago is in a commercial with David Sylvester now. Life really changes quickly.'
Thinking that, she opened up the fan group of Aiden. It seemed like other members had also watched the commercial.
***
"You should eat with us more, Aiden. You only come home on the holiday season and I know you visit the restaurant but it's just to visit that old fool."
An older woman that looked to be in her 50s said as she smiled towards Aiden. Despite her age, she had kept herself up in shape and looked younger than most people in their 50s.
She was Uncle Sam's wife, Sally Silvereye.
Behind her, the whole house was decorated and a Christmas tree could be seen too. Uncle Sam's house was pretty big as he had bought it when he was still running his studio.
"I would love to but I don't get a lot of time."
"Ah, I know how hard you work."
As they were talking Uncle Sam came out of his room and found Aiden there. Smiling, he walked towards him.
"You are finally here. I thought you were going to miss dinner today because you got busy working on some song. Lisa already left to celebrate it with her husband and in-laws."
Hearing that, Aunt Sally glared at him.
"Don't talk to him like that, old fool."
"Hey, stop calling me that. You do know I'm the one paying for your yoga classes, right?"
"When your movies were failing, I was one who financed them, remember. I'm pretty sure I could live fine without you."
For the record, Aunt Sally was a pretty famous painter whose painting would be shown in exhibitions. Aiden was pretty sure she was richer than him.
He just stood there as both his uncle and aunt argued. Eventually, Uncle Sam pulled him to sit by the heart and Aunt Sally went to the kitchen to cook dinner.
"So, how's it going with you? Don't miss home now?"
He asked, looking at him.
"I do. Home has a peace to it that I don't really find here, so I would always miss it but my career is here and I want to do something in Hollywood."
"I think you have already done a lot in Hollywood. I just watched your commercial on TV. You are going places for someone who is not white, is from America or UK and didn't start off as someone with money. It's hard to survive without those here."
As Hollywood was based in LA and New York, people needed a lot of money just to live in those places and then, open auditions were very rare, so one needed to have a great agent or be influential enough to attend the parties where directors and studio executives appear.
Then, there was discrimination based on colour.
"I got lucky. If I had not been in X-Star, I don't know what would have happened."
"I still think you would have gotten a movie and would eventually make your way up. It's in our blood. Even if we start at the bottom, we know how to go up."
Uncle Sam laughed as he said that. They talked like that for a while, just discussing things that were going on in their lives and in general.
Aiden felt a bit of peace as he talked with Uncle Sam.
As he lived a hectic life, it was hard for him to get moments of peace where he's not thinking about work or his next project.
After a while, his aunt appeared, calling them to come for dinner.
It was easy to say that his Christmas went very well.
***
In a practice room, a girl was sweating as she panted, taking deep breaths. After a while, she calmed down and again started practising.
There was no one else other than her in the whole room.
Even if it was Christmas, she was here practicing.
The girl had silky blonde hair that was tied up in a ponytail. Determination was evident in her eyes as she practiced her dance steps.
The girl was Rachel.
For the past two months, she had been giving her all to dancing because a lot of people online felt that her steps felt robotic, so she was trying to put effort in it to get better as a performer.
[You can't dance. Just try to be a proper musician who doesn't dance instead of being a performer.]
[Your singing is way better than dancing. It looks like you are some toy. So robotic.]
[Just give up trying to dance. You should save some face for yourself.]
Those comments had really hurt her ego, so after that, she had gotten very serious about dancing, even getting praise from her cruel instructor Karen.
It was only after a while that Rachel stopped and dropped on her knees, taking deep breaths and drinking water.
Wiping the sweat off her forehead, she picked up her phone and found out that there were a few messages in it.
'Must be from mom.'
She felt and checked them up. Indeed, it was texts from her mom. Like every time, she had scolded her for missing Christmas and ranted about being a singer had ruined her.
Even now, her mom had not understood her.
"I'm anyway used to it."
She thought and at that moment, she got another text but this time, it was not from her mom. It was from Emily Jung.
She was the only one who she had stayed in contact with after X-Star.
[Emily: Rachel, did you watch Aiden's commercial on TV? I saw it on the internet. He's really hitting it big, coming in a commercial with David Sylvester.]
Reading that, surprise appeared on her face briefly.
She hadn't heard from Aiden for over a year now. He had gotten famous with his songs while she felt like she was far behind.
'I wonder how he's doing?'
She thought silently and stood up again to practice.
...
