Dreaming Is for the Free

Twenty

Classes roll on by. Practices happen. Decisions have been made. Clothes have been bought. Songs have been written. Guards are still up. But somehow we make it to the end of week two. It's now Friday. Today's the day that we'll be filming our video for the #MyDreamsChallenge.

There's a children's park going towards downtown Ansa Hills, and that's going to be our location. We decided on this because it goes along with our natural and chill aesthetic.

After class, we decide we would drive to the park. The laptop is charged, and KJ is letting us borrow his camera. It took us all of yesterday to convince him. He didn't even want us going to the park alone. And he can't come with us because he's going to San Francisco for a DJing job for a rapper named Twisted. He worked with him over the summer. But we told him that we would go to the park as soon as all of our classes were done, and we would only take an hour and come right back to campus. He was still hesitant but he knows how much we want this type of setup for our video.

Nobody's going to be more careful than me.

We meet up at our dorm to get ready. We have to look cute. This may be the first time Apollo and his team lays eyes on us. We have to look like we've been a group for years, not just two weeks.

We already picked out our outfits the day before. Each of us has a pair of white forces, and denim looks amazing with them.

Maya is going to wear denim shorts and a cropped white tank top. She has a denim bucket hat that matches perfectly with her shorts. Kiara has a white off the shoulder top with some baggy ripped jeans. I wanted to wear something similar, but we all thought that we needed my look to be different. That's why I'm wearing a denim romper that I borrowed from Maya. It has two pockets on the front that are white. It was too cute to pass on.

We put on some makeup. It's not too much at first but as we ride to the park, Maya and I keep adding more as time passes. Kiara, on the other hand, reiterates how we want to look natural so in return, we redo our makeup just for it to look how it did in the first place.

After arriving at the park, we canvas the area and we're super excited. We see one couple towards the picnic area but other than that, there's no one else here. It's after two, so most of the kids are still in school. We can probably get done in an hour without any distractions or interruptions.

We brought a blanket to spread out on the grass so that we won't get any grass stains on our jeans. Then we pull up the "My Dreams" beat and practice for a few minutes to make sure that our harmonies are locked in and tight. I've been doing the vocal exercises that Kiara taught us. And I also downloaded an app that helps vocalists strengthen their voices just like Kiara suggested. I can already tell a difference in my tone and in my breathing.

We have positioned ourselves in the places we'll be while we're filming. I'm sitting in the middle. Kiara is on my left, and Maya is on my right. Of course, we had to take a couple of photos per Maya's request. So we snap a few so that she can post them later.

"We never came up with a group name, and we need to because I'm gonna create a QuickPic page for us." Maya says while going through her phone trying to choose the best pics to post.

"I thought of a few names, but of course we all need to decide together. We said our overall vibe is natural, genuine, and chill. We wanna be a safe space for people so I feel like our name should also represent that." Maya continues speaking.

She sounds like she's doing a presentation for class.

"I was thinking the same thing. We have to audition to even be able to perform in front of Apollo. We need a name asap. The auditions are tomorrow. So what did you come up with?" Kiara asks.