mr. mara

•3•

"What did he say?" Ansley asks.

"Nothing really," I say. "We just talked about karaoke night and his niece."

"It's his niece," Maggie says. "That makes a lot more sense. I thought the man had a whole ass child."

"No," I say. "She's super cute though. She kinda reminds me of him."

"Stop gushing over Mr. Mara," Izzy teases.

"I'm not, losers."

"Ah," Ansley says. "The real losers have arrived."

I look over at the door to see the boys walk in together. They walk back to our table, "Yo!" Brandon says to us.

"Hey, hey," I say.

"What took you so long?" Maggie asks as they all sit down around the table with us.

"Zion over here was watching some video that he needed to finish," Edwin says annoyed.

"It was for school," Zion says.

We all start laughing, "Since when do you do things for school?" I ask.

"Since now," he rolls his eyes. "I'm aloud to do things for school if I want to. Maybe I want to start being better."

I chuckle, "Yea, okay."

"Maybe you should go home," Austin says. "I think you might be a bit sick."

"Shush!" Izzy yells at us. "I think Frank is going to start now."

Frank walks to the small stage and grabs the microphone on the small table, "Hello, everyone! I'm so glad to announce that we are doing karaoke nights again. We haven't done them in for so long and I'm so excited to start them back up again. So bring your singing voices and your song requests. Let's get started!"

Everyone starts clapping and talking again. They turn the music back on and now we wait. We wait until someone is brave enough to go first out of everyone.

"I think you boys should sing together," I say.

"Or you could," Zion says to me. "You always sing in the shower. Your voice is amazing."

"Shush," I say. "You guys should sing. I know it would be funny."

"Hell no," Brandon says.

"Why not?" Maggie asks. "If you do it then we will make Kai do it too."

"Woah, woah, woah," I say holding up my hand, "If I have to go then you guys have to as well. Why did I just get voted?"

"Because we said so," Izzy says.

"Whatever," I say. I look back at the boys, "Will you guys please do it? For us?"

"Ugh," Austin groans, "Fine, but only one song."

"I guess," Edwin says.

"Babe?" Maggie asks Brandon.

He rolls his eyes, "I don't have a choice, do I?"

"Not at all," she says back to him.

"Guess I'm in too," Zion says.

They all stand up and walk to the stage. They start talking to Frank. Probably about what song they want to sing.

"This is going to be good," Izzy says.

"Get the cameras out," I say laughing.

Frank grabs his microphone, "The first contestants of the night. Zion, Brandon, Edwin, and Austin."