When You Die You Become A Star

Hearing her phone's alarm, Tatyana put down her pen and dismissed it before stretching. It was now time to convince her mother so that she could gain an ally against her stubborn father. This would be her first time spending the night at a friend's house and her first night out if things go well. Thinking about this, Tatyana couldn't help but smile a little bit. Stretching, Tatyana got up from her desk and went to find her mother, Natasha.

Natasha was a young clothing designer in Russia that showed promise back when she first met Tatyana's father, Yuri Sokolov. The two started off as business partners and Yuri's clothing store quickly became famous once they started making clothes based on her designs. Noticing that their designs were more popular in the west, Yuri and Natasha decided that it'd be best to base their company in the United States. It is in the United States where the two grew close, got married, and gave birth to their beautiful baby girl; in their eyes it was truly the land of opportunities.

Natasha's studio wasn't that far from Tatyana's bedroom so it didn't take long for Tatyana to arrive at her destination. "Mother, are you there?" Tatyana knocked on the door and spoke quietly so as not to disturb her mother if she was truly busy but loud enough so that she could still be heard through the thick wooden door.

After a few seconds of the sounds of papers being shuffled around, a chair being moved on a hardwood floor, and then brisk footsteps--the door was finally opened and Natasha's head popped out. "There's my pretty little model. You came just in time." Natasha grabbed Tatyana by the shoulders and pulled her into the studio before closing the door behind her. "I came up with a few new designs and I want your opinion on them. Don't pull any punches. I'll be submitting a few of my designs for a contest and if you don't tell me what's wrong with them now then the judges will when I submit them."

Being handed a stack of papers, Tatyana took her time to look at the topmost design since she knew her mother would always put her favorite on the top. Although she wanted to go forward with her plan to scam her mother, it still wasn't time to bring up the sleepover. "I like this design. Although the pattern doesn't look good on a shirt like this it still looks nice. If you made the shirt a solid color and then added this pattern to a shawl then I think it'd look a lot better." Tatyana grabbed a blank white sheet and traced over the previous design before drawing the pattern onto a shawl that hanged off to one side--although her art skills were clearly lower than her mother's she could still manage to make something presentable if she had a good base to start with. "As for the rest of the designs, I'll look at those after we've finished making the prototype for this one.

Natasha took her time looking at Tatyana's design, comparing it to her own. "You're right, this small change made a huge difference in the overall look of the design." Natasha hugged Tatyana tightly to the point where Tatyana found it difficult to breathe just before letting go. "My little Tatyana knows best. One day you'll be designing your own clothes from scratch and you'll put your father and I out of business." Although Natasha's words seemed serious, the big grin on her face showed that she was just joking. "So, should we get started on the prototype?"

Tatyana always found this part of working with her mother embarrassing ever since she became a teenager but it gave her the perfect opportunity to talk to her mother about the sleepover. First she'd need to set her phone down on the table next to the designs so that when her mother asked which friend she was going to stay with she could just allow her mother to unlock the phone and view her gallery. Tatyana's current home screen was a picture of one of her mother's more famous designs and changing it to a picture of her and her friends would likely allow her mother to figure out what she was planning.

Tatyana undressed before putting on a tight skin-colored suit. The suit itself would prevent Tatyana from being nude in front of the camera but would also allow Natasha to take pictures of what the clothes would look after someone was wearing them. "Ready." Tatyana called out to her mother after she was dressed which was used as a sign to turn on the camera. Although Tatyana trusted her mother not to take any photos of her being n.a.k.e.d it was still best to be safe about it. Especially since it was against the law.

The beginning of all of the modelling sessions would start the same way. Natasha would take Tatyana's measurements before marking them down on a piece of paper. Then the two of them would compare the different bolts of cloth to figure out which fabric and color would work best for the design. Any embroidering would be done only after the basic shape of the clothes were already finished so they didn't have to worry about the thread just yet. After selecting the cloth the two would work together to cut it into the shapes needed to create a prototype of Natasha's design. Since Tatyana's modification used the same basic shape as Natasha's original design they could still use the blueprints that Natasha drew up. The only difference was making a shawl but that would be simple for Natasha to make on her own.

With the cloth cut to the exact shapes and sizes required to make a set for someone Tatyana's size, Tatyana stepped up onto the platform and spread her arms out slightly. Most people would find this part of the job to be draining since it'd require staying still for more than an hour while working on adjustments to the clothing but Tatyana was long used to it. From before she could stand, Tatyana had been her modeling her mother's clothes and as soon as she was big enough to stand still she had helped her mother create the prototypes. If someone were to look at all of Natasha's original prototypes for the past 10 years then they'd be able to calculate Tatyana's growth.

Standing still, Tatyana waited for her mother to start sewing the clothes around her. Natasha's hands moved quickly without losing any accuracy and quickly the first few pieces were sewn together. "Mom, can I ask you a question?"

Natasha took a small pause to look at her daughter's face before returning to her work. "Sure, little angel, ask me as many questions as you like. Just don't move or else I might end up poking you with a needle."

"My friend is going to have a sleepover tomorrow and invited her friends, including myself. Do you think that I can spend the night over at her place?" While standing still, Tatyana made sure to casually ask her mother about the sleepover.

Natasha continued sewing as if doing it by instinct while partially closing her eyes and thinking about it. "Which friend are you talking about? You haven't brought one home in a long time. The last person I remember you bringing over is Deborah but her family moved two years ago."

"Her name is Aria. We've been hanging out since the beginning of the school year. I haven't brought her over here yet but I've gone shopping with her and the rest of our friends before. That was when I bought my new backpack." Although Tatyana did buy a new backpack recently she didn't actually buy it with Aria or the rest of her friends. Their group usually hanged out at an arcade or went to the movies but it wouldn't be good to tell her mother that when trying to raise her mother's impression of her friends. "I'm not sure if you've seen her before. I've got a picture of my friends in my phone if you want to see if you know them."

"I don't mind letting you go over to spend the night but you know how your father is. Will there be any boys there?" Natasha ignored the comment about the phone since she didn't really feel that it was necessary to look. She was usually good with names and faces and didn't have any impression of anybody named Aria. Although this slightly changed Tatyana's plan, Tatyana knew that the photos would at least be able to be used when her father came home.

"No. No boys will be there. Although Aria has a brother he's currently 19 years old and is living in his own apartment. I remember hearing Aria say that his old room was turned into a guest room and that two of us would be staying in there if I stayed the night." Tatyana wasn't lying about this. Arsenio spent a lot of time at home but was aware of his sister's plan on inviting some of her friends over so he wasn't going to bother them. Although interested in finding out what his sister's friends looked like Arsenio knew that they'd be making an appearance at his gig so he didn't need to hang out at his old home to see them.

"I've got no problems with it but in the end it's up to your father. As long as he agrees then you can stay over at their place tomorrow." Natasha went back to focusing on the prototype. Although Natasha agreed to the sleepover she was sure that her husband would say no. On a normal day she'd be correct but, unfortunately for Natasha, her daughter knew her father's weaknesses. She didn't actually want to give her daughter permission to sleep over at someone's house and instead was going to tell Tatyana to bring her friends over to her place to stay the night after Yuri said no. In the end, it was Natasha's fault for not seeing through Tatyana's plan. Who told her to play the good parent?