Finding My Voice

~12~

//A/N//: lord i have the worst memory. apologies for lying about updating over my winter break:P. i feel like this story is going by a tad bit slow, but oh whale. ig we'll see where it goes. btw i hope this is a good time to mention how much i love adele. :)

the second floor of my high school smells like a broke starbucks... x - s

...

The next day of rehearsal went by fairly easily. Niall had decided that he absolutely adored us singing When We Were Young, so there was no way we weren't going to sing that for the actual performance. Now he's just helping us find the right harmonies for the chorus since I haven't sung in a group before.

"Okay, Pyper! I want you to be doing the main melody so it's easier for you. But I also don't want that to mean for you to settle, I wanna see you add some runs and kind of jazz it up okay? This is a Battle, I need to see your strengths." Niall said.

We didn't get that much time to hang out or get to know each other more, because Niall had us singing practically the whole time. I understand why, but it also sucked. By the time rehearsal was almost over, Niall finally stopped our singing so he could talk to us.

"Guys, gather around. I just want to tell you guys that you are doing phenomenal. This is only your second practice together, and you guys sound like you were meant to sing with each other. I can already say, and I'm not ashamed to tell you guys, that this is going to be my hardest decision out of them all. I seriously am just considering pulling a Simon Cowell and making you guys a group." He laughed. "Is that possible?" He continued quietly to himself. "Anyways, amazing job all of you, and I'll see you here on Sunday for the final rehearsal! Remember you can ask for a private rehearsal with me if you feel like you need it! Good job everyone!" He finished, waving both hands at us.

I walked over to my bag and grabbed my phone out of there, quickly sending Casey a text asking her to pick me up. Then I hear someone clear their throat behind me.

"Hey, Pyper?"

I turn, and I am shocked to find Alex standing there. "Uhh hi, what's up?" I ask.

"The rest of the group wanted to know if you wanted to come get lunch with us." He said, avoiding my eyes and looking uncomfortable.

I look over his shoulder to see Jamie smiling at me. I smile back and look back to Alex, "Yeah why not?" I agree. I then sent another text to Casey telling her that never mind I don't need a ride.

I follow Alex to the rest of the group. "So where are we going to go?" I ask.

Claire turns to me, "There's a pizza shop right across the street, we were thinking of going there. What do you think?"

"Oh absolutely, I am okay with that idea." I laugh.

"Great! Let's go!" Jamie says, putting an arm around my shoulders.

...

A few minutes later we were all sitting down in a booth, chowing down on some pizza.

"So, how did you guys start singing together?" I ask, curious.

"Oh, it's not that grand of a story." Arthur laughs. "Shush, I'm still going to tell her," Claire says lightly hitting her boyfriend.

"Okay so, this all started last year. Arthur and I had been dating for at least six months at the time, and our school had announced a battle of the bands sort of thing. Alex came up to us, saying that he wanted to do it so he and Arthur started looking for people to sing with. They eventually found Jamie, but they couldn't find someone else so they asked me. I didn't want to originally because at the time I hadn't ever sung in front of anyone, but they convinced me and we joined. We won, and we started playing gigs together in our city, and now we're here." Claire explained.

I smile, "Oh how fun, who came up with the name?"

They all point to Jamie. Who looks somewhat embarrassed. "Look I know it's not the best name, but it's the best that we came up with. Believe me, there were some weird suggestions." He said smirking.

"Oh, I thought it was a good name," I said laughing.

"Why thank you," Arthur said while chewing on his pizza. "Hey, I've been meaning to ask you, what made you audition?"

They all turn to me, convincing me that this is a story they all want to know. "Well to make a long story short, my older sister Casey was supposed to audition. Not me. She's always been the singer out of the two of us, so I feel really bad that she couldn't. She had vocal nodes and had the surgery but her voice hasn't been the same. So she asked me to go instead of her, and here we are now." I explain.

"Oh that sucks, I bet she's really proud of you though," Claire says, rubbing my shoulder.

"Yeah, I hope so. I just feel so bad, because this was supposed to be her. She had such an amazing voice, I bet you anything she would have won this whole thing."

Jamie scoots closer to me on the other side, "Well, I guess you could just win it for her."

"But I'm competing against you guys!" I respond.

"So? You're really good, I bet you $100 Niall's going to choose you." Alex mumbles. Well, that was unexpected from him.

"Ugh, I wish he could just make it so that we all go through." I groan, laying my head on the table.

"I mean he did say he wanted to just take all of us as a group." Arthur trails off.

We all look up at him. "Is that even possible in The Voice?" Claire asks.

"I don't know, but we can hope right?" Arthur continues, stuffing his face with his fourth slice of pizza.

We all kind of sit there silently. This is going to be a really stressful week.

"This is giving some One Direction shit," Jamie says, breaking the silence.

...