Mommy's Little Star

Do you think that Mom's gonna like her present?

Oh, she'll love it, sweetie.

Can I help you?

I'm here to see my mom. It's her birthday.

Oh, how nice! What's your mom's name?

Lauren Carrington.

This is my second day.

I don't have all the patients memorized yet.

Oh!

Everything OK?

It looks like Lauren Carrington checked herself out last night.

No! It's her birthday! She knew I was coming!

She wouldn't leave!

Sweetie...

Uh, maybe I made a mistake. I can go check.

It's OK. It wouldn't be the first time that she...

You understand.

Dad, why doesn't Mom want to see me?

She does, honey.

Your mom is just having a hard time right now.

Morning, Hope.

Morning.

No Olivia yet?

She won't come out of her room again.

I'll go get her.

I wanna stay with you, Mom.

Olivia? Open up!

Come on, Olivia.

You're gonna be late for day camp.

You OK, honey?

Yeah, I'm fine.

What's wrong?

I always ask Mom if I could stay over at her house,

and she keeps on saying no.

Oh, sweetie, we talked about this.

Your mom just needs a little more time.

And as soon as she's ready,

you can be there as much as you want.

Does Mom not want to spend time with me?

Oh, of course she does. She loves you very much.

I know you miss her.

Oh, Hope made waffles.

And, uh, the next time she knocks on the door,

open up, please.

Hope makes me feel stupid.

She's always telling me that I need to get better

at reading and writing and... everything.

She's just trying to help. I'll talk to her.

Hm. Senior art director, Philadelphia Society Magazine.

Please send resume, references, and a cover letter.

Explain any employment gaps in detail.

Hey, Felicity.

Lauren?

Where are you? I can come pick you up.

No, no. I'll get a cab. I just need someone to talk to.

Take the cab straight to my house, OK?

Thank you. Thank you.

Hope: Right after camp, we'll get started

on your summer reading project, OK?

Oh, I bought some fun new school supplies

I think you'll really like.

Olivia, you know, you're a smart girl.

If you just put in a little extra effort,

I know you'll pull up those grades. OK?

Sure.

All right. Let's go.

Hey, girl! I have to show you something.

One of my friends told me about this new app called Sparxy.

It's so awesome. There are all these kids that have

been getting super famous on here.

And companies pay them a bunch of money just to make videos.

This is Chloe. She just joined last week

and already went viral.

She got fifty thousand likes on her last post.

What did she do?

Just danced in the park.

She must be a really talented.

Mm. Her moves are kinda basic.

But this other influencer shared it,

and now she's blowing up. And her mom is in here too.

Sometimes they make videos together.

Chloe's always saying how her mom is her number-one fan.

Really?

Girls, you know the rules. Put the phones away!

Call Lauren.

Well, you know how it is, reuniting with family

after they've seen you at your worst. And now I'm travelling

all the way to Europe to spend two weeks with them.

I'm so sorry. It'll just take me a couple of minutes.

I just have to take this.

Of course. Go ahead.

OK. Hey, um...

Sorry, Brad.

Now's not really a good time. Can I call you back?

Is everything OK over there?

Yeah. I'm just with somebody from my recovery group.

I won't keep you. I was just calling about Olivia.

She's been asking to stay over at your place.

Well, you know I want that, too.

It's just I need a little more time in recovery.

I... I don't want her to ever see me like that again.

Ah, I understand.

I'm just trying to bridge things until then.

Maybe we can all have dinner together this week.

Yeah, I'd love that.

Um, how about Thursday?

Perfect.

OK, good. I'm really glad

you're spending time with friends again.

Yeah, it's the first time in a while.

I also was looking at jobs this morning.

That's great, Lauren. I'm really proud of you.

Thanks. I should, uh, I should really go.

OK. We'll talk soon.

Sorry.

Thanks for listening to me.

Anytime.

Dealing with family in early recovery is so difficult.

Especially since the last time I saw them, I wasn't sober.

You've been clean for how long?

Four months.

Does it get easier?

It gets a little bit easier.

And then, uh, in my experience, you hit a bump,

but they say that's normal.

Do you want to talk about what's going on with you?

It's just I'm...

I'm scared to have my daughter Olivia, stay with me.

You know, I'm terrified of relapsing.

It's just I don't wanna get her hopes up

just to disappoint her again.

Because of what happened?

When you're drunk and you leave something on the stove

and almost burn the house down with your kid inside...

that image stays with you forever.

I really wanna make videos for Sparxy!

Maybe we can do something together.

You can come over to my house today.

Hope wants me to finish my summer reading.

She'll never let me!

What if I come over to your place instead?

She won't like that either.

If I say that I'm studying with you, she might.

That's genius!

Hey, look! This song is trending.

Maybe we can make up a dance to it.

I bet we can get some good views.

Hope will get mad if we're not studying.

Let's go to the other end of the pool

where she can't see us.

So how 'bout... One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Oh, I love that! OK, and how 'bout we add a shoulder pop?

Yeah, that's awesome!

Should I just press record?

Girls, you're supposed to be reading!

Olivia, that was our deal.

Sydney could come over as long as you did your homework.

I'm sorry, Hope. We were just taking a quick break.

Do you wanna dance with us?

You wanna dance with me?

Yeah. It's for this really fun social media app.

Lots of kids on there complain about their nannies,

but we can show you how cool you are.

I kinda have two left feet.

Don't worry. We'll show you the moves. It's super easy!

OK.

Ready? Five, six, seven, eight...

And... done! It looks so good.

You should caption it with "my nanny's cooler than yours".

I thought you said Hope was the worst.

I mean, I don't hate her.

I just don't like how she's always picking on me

about school.

I just wish I could be with my mom like before.

Didn't your mom used to work though?

Yeah, but she designs magazines and ads and stuff,

so she always did work from home.

That's cool. I mean, if you were an influencer

like those really popular girls on Sparxy,

you would totally need to live with your mom.

What do you mean?

Well, they get paid to work with all of these

awesome brands, like fashion and jewelry.

But you can't just take regular photos and videos.

I mean, it has to be good if you're gonna get paid.

Your mom could probably help with that.

OK. I'm texting you the edited video.

We can both upload it to our accounts at the same time.

K. Ready?

Mm hm. Yeah.

I already got a like.

I got one, too!

And comments! And more likes!

I'm not getting as many as you.

They like me.

You mean they like us.

I'm not good at school, or sports, or even theater stuff.

But what if I can get awesome at this?

I mean, what if I can get... famous?

Liv, it's just one video.