Finding My Voice

~23~

//A/N//: oh sweet baby jesus i literally cannot comprehend that this is at 5k reads :O what the actual flip. thank you sm for lending your eyeballs to read this story. also i swear to God this is just a filler chapter, please please please be kind. 

mwahhhhh!!  x   -   s

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"I'm telling you I think we should sing 'Take Me to Church' by Hozier!" Anthony says, "We've been singing a lot of upbeat songs and I feel like we should do a powerful ballad next! Y'know just to show that we can do more than fun, poppy tunes." 

Jamie clapped him on the back and started chanting, "Hozier! Hozier! Hozier! Hozier! Hozier!"

Claire rolls her eyes with a smile on her face, "I mean it's not like any of us were going to argue with you anyway Anthony. Right?"

I shrug, "I'm never going to say no to Hozier."

"Yeah, whatever." Alex says. 

Jamie jumps up and cheers before running around his chair to tackle Anthony onto the floor. "Yesss!!!" 

"Aagh! Get off of me you fool!"

"Never!"

Of course as they start wrestling on the floor, Niall decides this is the perfect moment to walk back in the room. He stops in the door and looks down at the two boys before completely disregarding it and stepping over them. 

"Nothing I'm not used to. A few years ago it would've been me down there. Anyways, have you guys thought of a song idea?" 

The three of us that are still functioning like normal humans nod. 

Niall smiles, "Yeah? Come on, don't leave me in suspense." 

"Well, Anthony really wanted to sing 'Take Me to Church' by Hozier, and no one had any arguments so would you be okay if we sang that?" Claire asked.

Niall nudged Anthony with his foot as he nodded. (As the two boys have just decided to lay on the floor.) "Good choice, lad. Nope, I wouldn't have any problems if you guys sang that. Honestly, I think it'd sound amazing. So I'll go ahead and plan out an arrangement, but of course I'll let you all have your say on how it sounds. As for what you lot need to plan is what you want your performance to look like. What color your costumes will be, what you want the stage to look like, the whole shebang. Sounds good?"

We all mutter agreements. "Perfect, I'll leave you all here to do that. Good job everyone! I'll see you for your first rehearsal of the week!" Niall cheers before stepping over the boys again to walk out the door. 

"You know, Niall really looks good from all angles. Even down here from the floor, bro looked like a God." Jamie's voice came from the ground. 

Anthony sighed and shoved him off of him before heaving himself up. "Great, now that we've made a fool out of ourselves in front of our coach," he says as he kicks Jamie in the side, completely out of love I swear, "What should we do now?" 

"Well, Niall did say to plan what we want our costumes and the stage to look like." Alex says. 

Jamie groans as he stands up and puts an arm over Anthony, "But that's so boring! We should go bowling again! Or film a TikTok; I just learned a new dance."

I chuckle as everyone else sighs. "See! Pyper agrees with me!" 

"I mean, I wouldn't mind if we wore green." I say, changing the subject. Jamie gasps, "Traitor!"

Claire points at me, "Oh my goshhh, I so want to wear green! Like a dark emerald color, oh my it would match my eyes! I love you for suggesting that Pyper!" 

"Okay okay cool, we're going to wear green. Now let's go do something fun." 

<TiMe JuMp>

"Guys guys guys! You are all sounding a bit flat on those notes; Jamie and Claire those harmonies need to hit. Come on guys! I know we've been going at this for hours, but you have to prove it to not only me, but the audience as well that you guys can be the winners of The Voice!" Niall says exasperatedly. 

We all nod half-heartedly. Niall looks at all of us, "Water break, 5 minutes," before he walks back to the musicians. 

"I swear, every time. Niall's for sure done with us guys. We need to lock in, we can't keep pissing him off during rehearsals." Anthony says.

"I mean it's not like we're trying to make him angry, we've just been here for hours. And I wouldn't say he's angry at us. More like, annoyed/disappointed." Jamie defends. 

Alex sighed, "You know, crazy as it sounds, that doesn't really do much to make us feel better buddy." 

Jamie raises his hands, "Hey, all I'm trying to say is that it could be much worse." 

I pat him on the shoulder, "Yeah, how about we just focus on getting the song right, before we decide if Niall hates us or not." 

"Lovely idea, Pyper." Claire says as she and the other two start walking away. 

Jamie sighs before turning to look at me. "I'm just trying to stay positive. You can't blame me for that, right?" 

I shake my head, "I think that it's admirable, but to be honest it's not really helpful right now. Right now, they're all just stressed out and I don't think they want to hear about how at least Niall doesn't hate us." 

"Well it's true, he doesn't." Jamie mumbles. 

"Yeah, we all know he doesn't. I don't think he's capable of that." I say as I side-hug him. 

We both walked over to meet with Niall and the rest of our group. 

Niall looks at all of us before clapping his hands. "Are you guys ready? If there's anything anyone wants to say or ask, feel free. I just want to make sure we're all on the same page." 

After about a minute of silence and shaking heads, Niall motions to the musicians to get ready. "Don't overthink it too much guys. You all know your parts, you know this song - just show me that you got this." 

...