12: t h e b e s t d a y

I didn't know if you knewSo I'm taking this chance to sayThat I had the best day with you today

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Amerie was sat in her Grandma's house, she was finally back in Nashville, but it still didn't feel right. The absence of her Mom made her feel like they was a missing piece to her.

Sure her Mom was touring and she knew exactly where she was, but Amerie still felt lost.

"Ri-Ri I was thinking we could head out to the market, there's a new clothing store I think you would like, it has lots of beautiful summer dresses" Andrea said.

"Yeah" Amerie said stirring her spoon round her cereal.

"What's got you all down for?" Andrea said sympathetically.

"Just missing Mom" Amerie sighed.

"I'm sure she will FaceTime you soon, for now eat up and get dressed" Andrea said pointing to Amerie's cereal.

Amerie finished up her cereal and headed to the bedroom that was once her Mom's.

Amerie changed into her overalls and a white shirt, she left her hair in her natural state of blonde curls.

"Oh you look lovely, you're exactly like your mother, extremely beautiful" Andrea said smiling at the teenager.

"Thank you" Amerie said with a shade of pink blush appearing on her cheeks.

"Let's get going then" Andrea said.

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Walking through the fields and pathway was an excellent idea, Amerie was able to see so much mature and farms.

"This is the market, there is some stores I think you will like" Andrea said leading the teenager into a clothing store.

Amerie looked at the store, it was no brandy melville or hollister, but the clothes were cute.

"What about this" Andrea said holding up a floral dress.

"I like it" Amerie said studying the dress.

"Great then we should definitely get you this, anything else you like?" Andrea said.

"I'm not sure" Amerie shrugged her shoulders.

"Okay well there are some other shops, and there's a farmers market we can definitely get some fresh ingredients from." Andrea said.

The two Swift's walked through the market, buying any treasures and treats they could find. They had a beautiful collection accumulating, they also found some pottery figures of cats that were perfectly glazed into coats of greys and whites, they almost resembled Meredith, Olivia and benji. Amerie just had to buy those for her Mom, they would add to the collection of random cat things scattering each of their homes.

"I think we have a great selection of trinkets and ingredients for dinner here, why don't we head back." Andrea said softly.

"Mhm" The teenager replied skipping away.

"Mommy look look it's Amerie Swift!" A little girl wearing ear defenders spoke.

"Hi sorry my daughter and me are a big from of your mother, but also you as your an inspiration to my daughter she was diagnosed with autism last year and has trouble understanding herself and ever since you've opened up you've been her biggest inspiration so thank you so much for making her feel braver about herself" The young girl's mother spoke.

"That's so sweet, what's your name?" Amerie asked bending down to the girl's height.

Andrea Swift was secretly recording this moment, it was truly magical and adorable.

"I'm Quinni!" The girl said excitedly.

"Nice to meet you Quinni, here" Amerie said taking out the flower clip that pinned back her hair. "Take this it will look lovely in your brown curls" Amerie said placing the flower clip in the girl's hair.

"Thank you! Bye bye Amerie" The girl said.

"Wait would you like a hug?" Amerie asked.

"A hug? I'm not great with them but I will because your Amerie and I will be brave for you" Leila said running to hug Amerie.

"You are so sweet, keep embracing your true self and be a boss!" Amerie said.

The girl and her Mom skipped off and Amerie was left with a smile.

"That was very sweet of you" Andrea said.

"Yeah" Amerie smiled.

"You're great with kids, patient and understanding and you talk to them maturely, you could go into a job as a psychologist or working with autistic children" Andrea said.

"Maybe, I haven't really thought about careers yet, and I haven't really spoken to it to Mom or anyone" Amerie sighed.

"Maybe you should, I'm sure she will be proud of anything you do." Andrea said pulling the teenager into a side hug.

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"Hey Mom, how is it?" Amerie asked propping her phone up against the dressing table so her Mom could see her face.

"It's going great, how are you. Your Nana sent me that video, adorable your so sweet"

"I'm doing good, but I actually have something to talk about" Amerie said

"Mhm"

"So I was talking to Nana about careers, I mean I have to think about them and she suggested doing something with autistic children, like a support teacher or psychologist" Amerie said.

"That sounds wonderful, you have a lot of talent, you have so many talents. You could be anything you wanted, go for it"

"So you won't be disappointed, that I don't do anything with music, like I waste my talent in it." Amerie said.

"Disappointed? No! Your allowed to be anything you want to be, you don't have to follow in my footsteps, and if you want to do more with music I'm sure I can help with that, but that can also just be a hobby."

"Thanks, I've have to go help Nana with dinner now, hopefully we can FaceTime later" Amerie said ending the call.

Amerie walked through the hall way to see her Nana sat in the kitchen with her glasses on reading her cook book and recipes.

"Hi Ri-Ri I'm thinking of making homemade chicken nuggets, we have fresh bread from the bakery we could use for the coating, flour, fresh eggs, peas, and potatoes we could use to make our own fries. Does that sound good?" Andrea said.

"Mhm that sounds great!" Amerie said.

"I'll call you when it's ready!" Andrea said.

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Amerie sat filming a TikTok, she had her guitar and notebook out.

"So I thought I would share something that I wrote, erm it's called Shadows Lurking. I finished it a bit ago" Amerie said into the camera.

"I laid in bed, watching the sunset, scrolling through the endless Wattpad stories.Must of crossed my mind, another sleepless night.Spent hours and hours staring at the ceiling, feeling like nothing is healing.

Then my Mom shouts my name to get up for the day, the shadow of school is lurking.Feels like I'm pulling off weights, feels like my body is draining, the life it's burning.I've lost my spark, don't know where you are.

My eyes don't light up when I'm watching what I call home. Another episode of the firefighter show, I spent hours of my night binging through the episodes, trying to find some light in the shits of my life.

Shadows lurking, people talking, I'm just walking tryna' get a sense of life.Feels like I'm running on a battery, you read about it in the books of psychology, but when it's you, you don't notice the shadows lurking.

The shadows lurking, people talking, I'm just walking tryna' get a sense of life.The blurred faces as I try to come to my senses, the world that surrounds me suddenly is caving in.The shadows lurking, I'm trapped in an endless mind trick that's running on repeat.

I walk through the corridors of my school, last night was another sleepless one, I'm dragging out my feet, drinking pints of coffee, scrounging for amounts of energy.Shadows lurk, I keep trying to work, but I can't help but feel the pressure to put on a face and pretend every day.

Shadows lurk when the mask slips, you hear the voices of the snarky comments.Then the world is suddenly all against ya'."

Amerie sang beautifully strumming gently.

What she didn't notice was the presence of her Grandma who was stood in the doorway.

"That was beautiful, did you write that." Andrea said.

"Oh I didn't notice that you were there, erm yeah I wrote it" Amerie said shyly.

"Sorry, I was going to tell you that I put dinner on to cook, it should be done in about 20 minutes" Andrea said.

"Alright thankyou." Amerie said.

Amerie quickly edited the TikTok and posted it straight away.

She sat through watching the quick notifications, from comments, likes, reposts and saves. It was a lot.

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Meanwhile Taylor was performing in front of a massive crowd.

The crowd kept screaming "AMERIE POSTED"

Taylor sat down at the piano for champagne problems, she opened with her speech.

"People have been screaming Amerie posted, I'm honestly so curious about why it's being screamed at me" Taylor chuckled.

A fan near  the front in Taylor's vision held up their phone.

"Hold up I'm coming over, I have terrible vision even with contacts in" Taylor chuckled.

Taylor walked over to the fan, the fan handed her the phone.

Taylor's eyes lit up and she smiled.

"Amerie isn't here today, but if anyone is recording this moment and decides to post it. This is such a proud Mamma moment for me, I want to thank a lot of my fans who have been incredibly supportive and kind to Amerie, it's really helped her confidence. Just seeing her post this a song she has been stuck on writing for some time now, gosh I'm just so proud of my baby" Taylor said

The crowd cheered and awed, it was a heartwarming moment.