What The Heart Wants (Stereo Kicks/ James Graham)

Chapter 17

"There's a lighting in your eyes I can't deny. Then there's me inside a sinking boat, running out of time..."

I sat up and turned off my alarm. It was 9am. We had to meet with the vocal coach in an hour and all the boys were still asleep. I shook my head and did my best to get out of the bed without killing myself, or someone else. Once I finally reached solid ground, I walked to the bathroom and brushed my teeth, then I pulled my hair back into a ponytail. When I came back into the room, Chris and Barclay were awake. Barclay was digging through his suitcase trying to find an outfit to wear for today and Chris went into the bathroom as soon as he saw me. "Good morning." He said as he passed me. "Morning." I smiled and got out of his way. Deciding I should get dressed, I went to my suitcase and pulled out a nude color bra, a pair of light blue Victoria's Secret underwear, a pair of white shorts and a ruffled cheetah tank top. Simple, comfortable, and cute enough for TV. I waited for Chris to get out of the bathroom then went and got dressed. This time when I came back, Charlie was awake. "Morning Charlie." I smiled. "Mornin' Aria." He smiled back and got out of bed. "What the fuck..." I mumbled. "What?" Charlie looked at me. "Oh nothing, I'm just curious as to why you, a fourteen year old boy, have the body of an eighteen year old." I said. He just smiled and grabbed the first shirt he came to contact with from his bag and put it on. "I suppose we should wake the rest of the boys huh?" Charlie asked me. "I suppose." I smiled back and went over to my bunk with James, Jake, and Casey. "Hey. Guys, wake up. We meet with the vocal coach in thirty minutes." I pounded on the bed frame. The only one who moved was Reece and I wasn't even trying to wake him up. I sighed. "James." I put my hand on his shoulder and shook him. His eyes fluttered open and he smiled when he seen me. "You're a terrible person, you know that?" He joked. I rolled my eyes, smiled and said, "I know. Now wake Jake up. You guys have half an hour to get ready." I then stood up straight and put my hand on Casey's back. "Casey. Wake up. You need to get ready." I tapped his shoulder. Nothing. "Good God. He could probably sleep through a tornado." I complained before climbing up the ladder and getting in the bed with him. He was knocked out. I put my hand on his arm, squeezed, and shook. He finally began to move. "Mmm.." he groaned. I smiled. "Hey, come on. You need to get up and get ready." I said, still holding his arm. He finally opened his eyes and looked up at me. "This is the best wake up call I've ever gotten." He mumbled, causing me to smile. "That's great. Now get up, we can't be late." I said before crawling out of the bed again. Pretty soon, all the boys were awake and ready for the day with seven minutes to spare. After a few minutes of checking our phones, we finally left for vocal rehearsal.

We reached the room at exactly 9:59am. When we walked inside, there were just a few instruments and a laptop with a printer in the corner. There was also a man. "You guys must be the new band." He asked when we walked in. "Yes sir. That's us." I said, confirming his assumption. "Excellent. Since there's so many of you, we need to get started right away." He grabbed a stack of papers and handed each of us a piece. "What's this?" Casey asked when he seen the paper. I had to admit, I was confused too. "It's your sheet music for Saturday." The man said. "I'm sorry. There must be a mistake, you see, we haven't picked a song yet. And if we did, it definitely wouldn't be 'The Heart Wants What It Wants' by Selena Gomez." I protested. The boys agreed and the vocal coach looked shocked. "I'm sorry. But I'm here to help you and I think this song will do just fine." He said. "It might. You're right. But you don't know our voices. You don't know how we sound together or separate. So I find it rather unprofessional that you would prematurely pick a song for us." I debated. He just stared at me. "Listen here missy. I don't know who you think you are, but I can assure you that disrespecting me is a mistake you're going to regret." He stood up and looked down at me. "And I can assure you I wasn't trying to disrespect you, but this is our future, and I fully expect us to have a say in what we sing. That's not asking too much." I said, staring right into his eyes. He took a deep breath. "Fine. What would you like to sing?" He asked. Tom began to say something but the rude vocal coach cut him off. "Uh uh. She doesn't want you guys to sing this song, so I'll let her pick the new one. Just her. But after the choice is made, there will be no changing, and if you guys don't get through, you get to blame her." He smiled crudely at me. "Fine." I thought for a few seconds, when I suddenly remembered our jam session at Tom's house after we got put together as a band. "We want to sing Mirrors by Justin Timberlake." I smiled confidently back at him. I heard a few chuckles from behind me. "Yeah, uh, I don't think we'll have any trouble getting through." Casey smirked at the rude vocal coach. "Actually, I think we can handle this ourselves. We can hand out our own parts, but thank you for your time." Tom set his sheet music down on the desk and walked out of the room. The rest of us gladly followed suit. When we got back to the room, we all had a second to think about what just happened. What did I do? We need a vocal coach for this competition. We can't get through it without one. I just ruined our chances of going through to the live shows.

ANYBODY READING FROM THE UK, PLEASE VOTE FOR STEREO KICKS THIS WEEKEND! IT'S A DOUBLE ELIMINATION AND THEY HAVE TO STAY!! I CAN'T VOTE CAUSE I'M FROM AMERICA, BUT YOU CAN! SO PLEASE VOTE A TON!! ♥♥ OH YEAH, HOPE YOU LIKED THE CHAPTER LOL