I woke up early to the sound of knocking. I put my head up. I was in Gumi's dorm with the rest of my friends crowded around me. Except for Kaito, who was in the kitchen, this time with an orange, frilly apron he had found from who knows where. He put down a spatula and went to open the door. His voice and another's carried from the door that was hidden from my view by the couch. The door shut, and two sets of footsteps came back from it.

"Who is it?" I called, pretending that the door hadn't been answered. Whoever the guest was, she had a sense of humor, because she covered her mouth with her hand to pretend she was still outside.

" It's Luka. Can I come In?"

I sigh in false frustration and add a yawn to my words. "Do you know what time it is?"

"10 in the morning."

I got up quickly. "Really?"

Both Luka and Kaito laughed. Kaito answered for her. "No, it's not. It's only 6."

Before my energy could die away, I pulled myself to the table. The smell of cooking bacon was almost unbearable. "Why haven't the others woken up yet?"

"I just put the bacon on," was Kaito's answer. The others were just stirring.

Luka sat down across from me. "So," she started. "Tomorrow's the next concert and it doesn't seem like you have a song ready." I shook my head, already thinking that she now fully understood that we were Vocaloids. "Do you even know what song you're going to do, yet?" I gave my head another shake. "Oh, well you'll think of something." She turned to Kaito. "Where did you find that thing," she said, pointing at the apron.

Kaito shrugged. "It was in Gumi's closet, so I thought might as well use it."

"It used to be mine," Luka said, "But about when I was nine, I decided I was too old for it and gave it to Gumi."

I laughed. "You should have seen him in my pink one." She was about to drop her jaw on the floor, so I continued. "I was planning on throwing it out or donating it, but that was before he wore it." Luka was cracking up at this point. Kaito was looking more and more self-conscious. The smell of frying bacon was starting to rouse the others from their sleep.

Gumi was awake first, or, to be more accurate, half-awake first. "If all of us…*yawn*… went skipping in that crossing." She shook her head. "Hi Miki, Luka, Kai-. Kaito! Where did you get that?"

"Your closet," all three of us said at once.

She blinked a couple more times. "I could have sworn I threw that out. Anyway, hi. We haven't decided on a piece, but we're working on it."

"I can see that," was Luka's response. The smile on her face told me that she was thinking of the words that she had said when she woke up. It wasn't a song I recognized, but Luka did. "You need to decide on one by tonight, or the judges will assign you one."

"What?" Meiko said from the bed. "We never heard of that."

"It's true. They really want this competition over with and their next stars to come forward."

Wow. "We'll think of something," Serena said. "In the meantime, I don't think we want to smell burning bacon." The bacon was starting to get crisp. With an expert flip of the spatula, Kaito launched all ten, yes ten, pieces onto a plate. Well, nine of them landed on the plate; one landed in my hand.

"Hey!" Luka went to snatch it away with an oven-mitted hand. "Don't! It's still hot."

I pulled my hand away from her and whirred my wrist in response. She had already forgotten about my prosthetics. "Oh," was all she said.

Conversation went like that for a while, and with every word Luka said, I could tell that she still didn't fully relate her kid sister and her group of friends to the a capella group she'd been judging. But that didn't last long. My computer started to beep from an incoming message. I opened it up to find that there were four. Three were to the Vocaloid e-mail, one each from Kiyoteru, Professor-san, and Honne-san, and one was to my personal e-mail, also from Professor-san.

"Wow, you're popular!" was the remark that flew across the table form Kaito. That was when his and everyone else's phones beeped from incoming texts. "Make that we're popular."

I laughed dryly at his humor and opened my personal e-mail. Professor-san wanted the Master Choir to sing at graduation on Tuesday. Nothing less than expected, and that was probably what all of us got. I proceeded to the band account. I started with Professor-san's. While reading it, I could feel the smile growing on my face.

"What?" asked Luka.

"The school wants the Master Choir to sing at graduation on Tuesday," Meiko answered.

"Yeah," I agreed, "and they want us to sing Just Be Friends there, too." The reaction was too perfect. Everyone tried to get the first look at my computer screen by crowding behind me. I could see in the reflection all their eyes moving as one down the page, reading Professor-san's eager request for us to sing. They went back to their breakfast, chewing thoughtfully while I opened up my math teacher's email. His was just a sad thank you for being thoughtful enough to warn him of what there was to come. I moved on to Honne's. Now that was a surprise.

"Dell Honne has also sent a request for a song." Another wave of surprise passed through the group. "There is a convention of, well, cyborgs on Wednesday, and they're sort of celebrating a new success in medicinal robotics. They've asked us to sing Imitator on stage." I looked at Piko. "I think you should be the lead."

He looked a bit sour, and I was afraid that he might lose his appetite, but then he recovered.

"I can see why," he responded. "I must be the success. I'll do it."

"But I think we, as in the Vocaloids, shouldn't sing at graduation." Meiko always jumped to the heart of the matter. "Maybe next year at our own graduation. It would be easier to hide our costumes." Her logic always wins.

"Sure," Serena said, and everyone else agreed shortly afterwards. We ate our breakfast quietly, and then continued practicing random songs until evening. Nothing spectacular happened, except maybe Luka joining in around 8-ish, but it didn't matter at that point because we had stopped practicing for the concert and were just singing for the fun of it. Around midnight o'clock, Luka started singing the song Gumi had muttered when she woke up that morning, Gumi joined in, and we all had a glimpse of how close Luka and Gumi had been before Luka became famous. We all crashed by two, and my last thought was that I wished Hiyama-sensei were here. He would have been cheered up by all the music in that room.