"Emma," Sarah intoned, and the girl fell out of her own state of dumbfound grinning. "It's time for you to tell me about your truth. What is the biggest thing stopping you from being a cheerleader?"
Emma wasn't as cowed as Gladys was, but felt a little uneasy nonetheless. Out of her element. Like she had just woken up in the middle of a dream, and wasn't entirely sure what was real and what wasn't.
"Well?" Sarah prodded.
Emma shook off her drowsiness and turned her attention to Sarah.
"Hey, I can't make things different if I don't know where to start," Sarah almost lectured. "Why do you think you can't be a cheerleader?"
Now it clicked. "I don't have time," Emma shook her head. "My mom works three jobs, so I have to leave school as soon as I can to get home and help out."
"Well," Sarah shifted her weight from one foot to the other, "that's simple enough. Why does it have to be you?"
"I mean, I'm the oldest. And Dad isn't around." Emma averted her gaze.
"Tch. That doesn't mean it has to be you doing it, right?"
"But who else is there?" Emma's face grew desperate. "I mean, my YouTube channel helps a bit, but it only pulls in like $500 a month. My mom still has to work two jobs, and she doesn't have time to pick up my siblings from school, or to cook dinner, or..."
"You're only on YouTube?" Sarah interrupted.
"No. I mean, I started on YouTube, sure. But you have to diversify. All the platforms keep changing their payout formulas," Emma's cheeks began to flush as she realized she was about to geek out over algorithms, "and YouTube is still the best for long-form video but I've been seeing some real success with 60-second clips on TikTok and even Facebook. And obviously I'm sharing my revenues with my family, but mom still works full-time. And that's on top of her helping with my video editing. It's become a lot to manage, and I can't do it all on my own."
"Sounds like a busy family. So your videos take up all of your time?"
Emma was taken aback. "Of course! They're my top priority! The first month that I broke $10k across all my revenue streams? It let my mom quit her job completely. Now she manages all my platforms for me, does all my editing, and I just spend all my spare time creating content."
Sarah smiled. "Busy, indeed. So that's why you don't have time for cheerleading."
Emma gave a look as though Sarah had just said the sky was green. "Of course I have time for cheerleading. That's what my videos are about, silly. That's where I get my appeal from. I'm a cheerleader. If I wasn't a cheerleader, I probably wouldn't even have half of my subscriber base and I wouldn't be pulling down $50k per month or have my sponsorship deals or..."
Sarah snapped her fingers, cutting off Emma's rant. And the young influencer's face became porcelain once again.
