Camera Ready ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚
PAIRING: Sabrina Carpenter x Popstar OC
SYNOPSIS: nova sinclair didn’t think much about sabrina carpenter. at least, not until she started showing up in every conversation, every set, and every room she walked into. by the time sabrina even looks at nova, nova already knows too much about her. sabrina hardly knows anything about nova. that feels like a problem.
CONTENT: potential smut in the future, fluff, smoking, future drinking, depression, potential tw for slight mention of body dysmorphia, internalized homophobia, partying, parental issues. most of these are going to be in later chapters.
a/n <3 this is my first work ever, my dear friend has been helping me proofread, and making my tumblr layouts for me so i could even post this. this oc is very dear to me and i enjoyed writing this first chapter.
CHAPTER ONE: double booked
The first time Sabrina Carpenter heard Nova Sinclair’s name, it was attached to something she didn’t ask to be a part of.
An article she didn’t ask to come onto her feed. A brief glance at someone's phone that had been discarded, angled perfectly with the screen unlocked like it was asking for Sabrina to see, on a table at some photoshoot. It's half-read by Sabrina, half-ignored. until she noticed her name caught in the same sentence.
Not as a comparison yet, just on the brink of it.
She didn’t look twice at first. She was used to names floating through the industry like that, half of the people she’d probably never meet. all in an orbit, but never any contact. She’d ignore it, going back to what she was doing, and let it disappear.
But later, it showed up again. and again. this time, in a meeting she's actually in.
“We’re seeing a lot of overlap in audience engagement between Sabrina and Nova Sinclair.” someone said, like its data instead of people they’re talking about. “Different styles, same fanbase.”
Nova Sinclair was the name that had been bothering her as of late, always in an interview, always next to hers, she ignored it for awhile, while she could.
..But of course, here she was in a meeting, and it's now inevitably “a problem.” for her image, and for her management.
She zones back in as soon as her brain seems to comprehend what had been said, “different styles.” it stuck.
Sabrina was known for control, precision and the type of presence that felt edited and poised even when it wasn’t.
She also built things carefully in the industry, broke nothing unless she absolutely had to.
Nova, from what she had heard, and seen in passing, is the opposite of that. louder in ways that don’t look planned, like she hadn’t set up a game plan with her management before any event or interview, and if she did, she sure as hell hadn’t listened to whatever it was.
There was no real similarity between them. that was what irritated sabrina,
And maybe thats what fueled the internet's need for competition.
She’d be lying if she said she hasn’t read what people say online. It usually was something along the lines of,
“nova’s lyrics are deeper and actually have meaning.”
“sabrina just seems..fake as fuck lol. nova is always real, especially in her interviews.”
She could just scroll everytime she saw something like that. It was a waste of her time. She had better things to do.
But she never scrolled.
“Sabrina, are you listening?” her media manager confirms from across the table where Sabrina’s sitting.
She blinks, then nods,
“Yeah, I have a shoot later today with Felix, got it.” She mumbles, her hands lacing together under the table.
Nova hears Sabrina's name in a different kind of room. not a meeting, not a board table. somewhere where she doesn’t really have time to process what was being said and why, as at least 3 different stylists sprayed hairspray that definitely got into her mouth more than she would’ve liked, and pressed powder puffs into her skin lined with translucent powder.
She listens silently, scrolling on her phone as the stylists worked, part of her team could be heard in the background as they had their phones out. clips playing without sound, talking louder than they thought they were.
Someone laughs, “They’re pushing Sabrina hard recently, did you see she’s headlining for Coachella?” it leaves a sour taste in Nova’s mouth, because recently, she hasn’t been able to escape the name, “Sabrina Carpenter.” no matter where she was. not even in the comfort of her own home.
Another voice responds without thinking, as if they were immune to anybody else hearing them, let alone Nova.
“Well, Nova’s right there with her too, they almost considered her, but they ended up giving it to Sabrina, it’s like they want to pit them against eachother.”
She crinkles her nose at that, not immediately.
But she’s seen Sabrina's work, god who hadn’t? you don’t avoid people at that level, you just don’t have reason to look too closely unless someone told you to.
What she’s noticed, if anything, is that Sabrina doesn’t do much that feels accidental, much like everyone in the industry, but it bothered Nova more than she would like.
Everything involving Sabrina Carpenter was composed, intentional, and almost distant if you looked hard enough, like she was always slightly removed from the noise that was the industry.
Nova wasn’t like that. she never had been. it’s not like she was gonna shave her head and go full ‘Britney Spears, circa 2007.’ but she took what her management said as a suggestion more than a demand when she could.
She scrolls past another clip of Sabrina without watching it fully, pauses for half a second, then locks her phone with a click. setting it down on the vanity in front of her.
Nova chooses, instead, to continue watching the stylist work on her hair in the mirror, she shifts slightly, playing with the silver rings that line her fingers.
She wasn’t irritated, more so aware.
Because the strange part wasn’t sabrina herself, sabrina was known in the industry and already famous.
It was how often she was being placed next to someone who she had literally nothing to do with, or, had even met, like the industry was forcing some kind of connection neither of them had agreed to.
Nova is halfway through a photoshoot that she doesn’t even want to be at. It's loud, fast and overlit, the lights give her more of a headache then she already has, she adjusts the skirt she’s wearing, covering less then she would like it to, she ignores the itchiness of the sheer tights that accompany it, though her nose crinkles in disdain at the feeling. She listens to the photographer telling her,
“Turn slightly, hold.. don’t move, perfect!” the camera flash goes off, and he smiles brightly at Nova, “That was perfect, we’ll take about 3 more shots of you in this outfit if all goes well.”
She meets his gaze with a small, polite smile of her own, it didn’t quite meet her eyes, but the response seemed enough to satisfy him.
“Could you turn your head slightly more to the side? I want one of you slightly more… neutral.”
She does what the photographers tell her to do every photoshoot despite her reputation.
She nods and moves back into position, turns her head slightly to the side, with her lips pouting perfectly. This time with the angle her head is at, Nova’s eyes lock onto a collage of photos on the wall of previous people the photographer has shot for, Sabrina Carpenter being one of them.
She immediately loses focus, her lips falling out of the trained pouty expression they had been in and she hears the photographer yelling, “Cut!”, often meaning, “Regroup and we’ll try again when you can focus.”
Shit, what was with her today?
She snaps back into focus as her manager, Hannah, yells, “Take 5!” , somewhere amidst the crowd of people circling the shoot, more-so around the photographer, who is now picking through the photos he deems satisfactory.
Nova nods, now just standing in the middle of the shoot like a deer in headlights, and stiffly retreats back into the hair and makeup area.
Unfortunately, before she has time to spiral more into the enigma that is sabrina carpenter’s and her’s imaginary relationship, Madison Beer, Nova’s best friend, appears beside her, and she had almost forgotten Madison had been allowed to come along with her.
Madison leans in, close enough for nova to smell the perfume she’d become familiar with as they grew closer over the past couple of years, something sweet, spicy, and expensive.
“Hey.” Madison says quietly, not too loud, because Nova’s still technically on set, but her tone’s warm enough for nova to just focus on her for a moment.
Madison glances at Nova for a second, makeup perfect, hair styled just so, face unreadable as always, but Nova can tell Madison knows the look that appears on the her face, the one where she crinkles her nose like she’s smelling something that died.
So without asking if everything was okay (she knew better than to assume), she holds out a half drunken latte, that was mostly watered down with ice at this point.
In retrospect it was a sweet gesture. and was a universal peace offering between two best friends who don’t talk about feelings unless they were drunk or crying.
She gives Madison a sheepish smile, it fully meeting her eyes, and she takes it, taking a sip, and furrowing her brows as the liquid hits her tongue.
“Ew what the fuck is this!?” She basically fights to swallow the liquid instead of spitting it directly onto Madison’s lethal facecard, her voice is loud enough to discard Madison’s earlier attempt of respecting the fact they’re on set.
Madison immediately rolls her eyes at the girl, taking the latte back with aggression that she didn’t really mean.
“God forbid I try to make you less miserable then you so obviously are right now.” she murmurs, her tone mock-offended.
Nova rolls her eyes in return, “That tastes like straight ass.” she huffs, almost a laugh, before continuing, no longer making fun of Madison’s poor taste in expensive L.A coffee, a small glint in her eye.
“Since we’re taking 5… bathroom break with me?” She tilts her head at the girl, her voice dropping an octave as soon as the words come out of her mouth, the implication written between the lines.
Madison nods, linking arms with Nova. And as they walk down corridors, dodging stylists and makeup artists around them, she asks what she had already asked earlier by offering Nova the latte, this time with words.
“Is Sabrina still on your mind?” Her voice a mindless hum as they enter the bathroom, the door not staying open behind them, closing with a loud slam. The bathroom is small, too white, harsh fluorescent lights that make everyone look slightly ill and too pale, Nova leans against the sink, one hand gripping the edge the other going to pull a vape from her bra, taking a long drag, exhaling the fruity smoke into Madison’s face, she crinkles her nose at it, but is used to it at this point.
Nova fights the urge to run her fingers through her hair, which multiple stylists just spent at least an hour with to get her black, pin straight hair to curl in just the right way as she opens her mouth to answer.
“I’m just so caught off guard with all the made-up competition shit between me and her. Our music is so different, I mean– it took me so long to even sign with my current label, which mind you, literally partnered with her label.” Nova’s hands seem to fly dramatically in the air as she talks, something she always did when she was frustrated.
She takes another puff of her vape blowing another cloud out, this time not blowing the smoke directly into Madison’s face, before adding, in a small almost jealous murmur,
“And of course she was signed with her label way earlier.” , she runs her fingertips against the smooth plastic of her vape, like it was some fidget that soothed her.
Madison blows air through her teeth, “Yikes.”
Nova immediately shoots the girl a glare, before leaning back on the cool stone of the counter she had been gripping.
She knew she was overreacting in some kind of way, but when she worked so hard, only to be compared to some girl she’d only heard of briefly, stripped of her own individuality and grouped as “Sabrina Carpenter's Upcoming Rival!” It was hard not to.
She sighs and shoves the vape into her bra again, her frustration showing through her fumbling hands as she adjusts her shirt in a way you couldn’t tell she had anything in it at all.
Nova could almost sense that Madison never knew what to say when she got like this, all rambles and pent-up frustration, she could just see that in the way Madison pursed her lips and nodded along with her words. She never expected anything from the girl, but she needs someone other than her management to vent her frustrations to.
Madison breaks the silence after Nova finishes adjusting her shirt,
“Ready?” Madison says simply, her tone light but careful, like Nova could snap any moment.
She hated that, being looked at like she was fragile and could break any minute.
But she nods, pushing the bathroom door open and instantly being met by people everywhere again.
She guides herself and Madison through the crowd, she doesn’t understand how this isn’t a health code violation with how many people could be packed into a studio this fucking small, she just internally scoffs and heads back to brief with the photographer, leaving Madison to fend for herself somewhere admist the crowd.
The photographer was someone she had never worked with, she had heard many good things about his name in the industry. Through her management, saying that if she was able to get a shoot with him, it’d boost her name in the industry.
His name was Felix, a small, very obviously gay man, with light facial hair and a round build, who obviously had passion for what he did, not only that but he was damn good at what he did.
Nova approaches Felix, a small smile plastered on her lips, almost scaring him as he was clearly looking through potential photos that they had shot earlier.
“Hey.” She greets, her hands clasping behind her back,
“I’m so sorry for zoning out earlier, I'm ready to continue shooting the outfit whenever you’re ready.” she apologizes, her smile remaining on her face as she speaks.
He’s a nice man, and everyone was no-nonsense in their own way, she respects that. It’s not like it’s his fault he’s good at his job and was able to shoot for other well-known celebrities.
It’s also not like he knew Sabrina Carpenter was driving her absolutely fucking crazy recently, and not in a good way.
Felix seems to recover from the startle she’d apparently given him and looks up at her with a nod,
“Great. We just really need you to focus on this shoot Nova.” He says, his tone is still polite, but she still can tell he’s slightly annoyed.
“These shots are great but you just don’t seem as in it as we’d like.”
He picks up his laptop which was resting on a table nearby a cup of the same brand of coffee Madison had offered her earlier and opens a file, he settles on a picture, clicking on it twice. And zooms in on Nova’s face as it opens.
“In this picture, the pose is great, but you’re not even looking at the camera, the shot would’ve been a hundred times better if you had been, you feel me?” He glances at Nova, he's pointing at her face in the picture, mainly at her eyes.
Right.
Nova nods, “No yeah, I totally get that.” She pauses, and a brief moment of awkward silence comes over them.
She hesitates slightly before speaking, like Felix could suddenly read her thoughts and knew she was going slightly insane over something.
“ I couldn’t help but notice you’ve shot for Sabrina Carpenter?”
It was a rhetorical question, obviously, and his reaction shows, that he could not suddenly read her thoughts.
Felix’s eyes light up not noticing the hesitation in Nova’s voice. He immediately opens a different folder on his laptop, which by the way, was horrifically unorganized, it makes Nova squirm.
But she looks at what he shows her, nonetheless.
It’s pictures that he had shot of Sabrina.
And she looked flawless. Like literally gorgeous.
It was kind of unfair. But she remembers seeing this shoot pop up on her instagram feed at some point in her life.
“Oh wow.” she muses as he continues showing her the photos, trying to hide the smidge of envy that laces her voice.
He nods in agreement, though Nova wasn’t really sure what there was to agree to in what she had just said.
“Amazing person to shoot for.” He boasts.
She nods, smiling politely as he rambles on about the outfits he picked and how he had special stylists work on set with her.
“That’s amazing, what an accomplishment to shoot for someone so popular in the industry, it must’ve been hard to get to work with her.”
Her voice is too calm as she speaks, her hands tighten in the clasp that she still holds behind her back.
Felix throws his head back in an exaggerated laugh, before shaking his head, “Oh god no, her team and her are amazing, they actually reached out to me, said they loved my work, she was a dream to work with.” he says proudly, still clicking through pictures in the folder.
As much as she doesn’t want to admit it, that was not the answer she was looking for.
What was wrong with her?
Her jaw tightens as her eyes flick away from the photos he’s showing her to a random spot on the wall, then back to the photos, forcing a tight smile.
“Right, yeah that makes sense,” she says shaking her head just slightly, like she already agrees, even though she clearly doesn’t.
Of course she wasn’t hard to work with.
He continues, not seeming to notice Nova’s shift in tone.
“She was actually really natural in front of the camera. Didn’t need much direction, she's actually coming back today.”
Nova’s jaw tenses before she can stop it.
She wants to disappear.
She shouldn’t even have asked about Sabrina, it was dumb. But the words bubble out of her like bile.
“Oh, really? When?” she says lightly, too quickly, her head tilting slightly.
Felix’s eyes visibly glance to the time in the corner of his laptop. Then almost in the same motion toward the studio door.
It opens.
Light spills in for a second before it shuts again.
“Seems like now.” he says, groaning, like he’s already regretting the schedule.
What the fuck?
Nova doesn’t move at first.
She just stares at him.
“...Now?” She repeats after Felix, quietly, as if she doesn’t quite understand.
She still had to continue her shoot, so why the hell was Sabrina Carpenter here?
Her brows furrow shamelessly, not enough to be quite visible, as she bites her lip unconsciously.
Felix is already setting his laptop down, apologizing under his breath, talking about timing and overlap and how he’ll fix it immediately.
Nova hears him, but it doesn’t fully register.
“I promise we can finish your shoot immediately, the double-booking is on me completely.”
Her face is blank for a moment, like she's still processing, but then she smiles at him, shaking her head, before speaking,
“Please, don’t worry, I completely understand, we can start shooting as soon as you’re ready, I already took five awhile ago.” she says, squeezing his hands in her own, but she lets them go.
Felix nods, murmuring another apology and something about, ‘let me set up for you again’ and walks away, leaving Nova by the table with the laptop.
She stands there, she’s not mad, she wasn’t an asshole who was about to blame everything on Felix, his schedule was busy as hell.
Still, she finds herself playing with her rings again, idly, nervously, like she’s waiting for something, anything.
Her eyes tear away from her rings, finding herself looking across the studio now, near the edge of the setup,
Sabrina Carpenter is there.
She hasn’t seen Nova yet.
She’s talking to someone, likely her manager, half-turned, half relaxed, like she belongs in the space already.
And Sabrina’s all blonde, soft, blown out waves, extensions, presumably, (according to the internet, not Nova.) makeup already done, and she looks like Felix could take a picture from where Nova stood across the studio right now, and be done with the shoot.
Camera ready without trying.
Like she walked into a shoot that was already waiting for her.
Nova’s expression doesn’t change. But something in her body goes still, her hands dropping to her sides again.
Nova doesn’t mean to stare, but it’s kind of hard not to, and it’s kind of hard to look away when she catches sight of the blonde.
She watches as Sabrina nods, like she's half-listening to something her manager is saying, as her fingers brush over a hanger on a rack of clothes someone must’ve half-haspheredly wheeled into the studio.
Then Sabrina looks up.
And it happens so simply, Nova doesn’t register it at first.
Sabrina’s gaze lands on Nova. It's unreadable. It’s not a glare, or anything like that.
It’s just there, and there's an uncomfortable, at least for Nova, moment that neither of them look away, and Nova feels it immediately. Like she's being noticed.
Sabrina’s expression seems to change, just slightly. Not a smile, or a frown. More like recognition of something she didn’t expect either.
Nova’s eyes flick to the camera nearby, then they quickly flick back to Sabrina, who's still looking.
And Nova really wants to try and not look at Sabrina, but you know when your friends talk on and on about someone and you have no idea who they are, you can’t help but be curious when you see them in person for the first time?
That’s how Nova felt except with the media’s constant comparison on who did what better and Sabrina Carpenter.
This time, Sabrina smiles, it's more like a slight curve in her lips, as if she's acknowledging that Nova is also here, right here right now, it's polite, not flashy, or what Nova expected at all really. And then Sabrina gives her a small nod.
Nova seems to automatically nod back, a second too late, before Sabrina can see, and Sabrina’s attention has visibly shifted already, pulled back into the conversation with her manager, like that interaction didn’t bother her in the slightest.
Did Nova look like a complete dumbass who was gawking now?
She’s pulled from her thoughts, back into reality as Felix calls her name from the camera, she hadn’t even noticed Felix had come back to wherever he had run off to.
Hannah and Madison are by his side too now. Both looking at Nova like they can read exactly what she’s thinking.
“Nova! Ready?” He says, snapping at her from the camera with his fingers, his eyes meeting hers, before they flick somewhere else, then in the same motion back to Nova.
Nova nods, speaking mindlessly, “Yeah.. yeah.” her eyes want to look back to where Sabrina was, but she looks at Felix instead, who’s impatiently waiting near the camera, probably stressed about his scheduling mishap.
She adjusts her rings and hair once, before heading to the front of the camera, back on set.