Noah sat on a couch in the recording studio and watched the Drama Brothers record their third album. They'd been working hard for the past few weeks, and this was the first time Noah had come to see them in action. He observed as three producers and their band manager stared at the boys intently through the glass on the other side. Right in the middle of the song, Trent yelled cut, and not for the first time today. The producer stopped the track, and everyone involved sighed, even the other band members.
"What now?" Greg, their manager, said over the intercom. Greg was tall, had buzz-cut blonde hair, and wore a white long sleeve dress shirt with a red tie. He'd been working with the boys since the beginning.
"I think one of us is flat." Trent said.
"He just wants to make this song perfect because he wrote it about his girlfriend." Harold teased.
"That's not true!" Trent exclaimed as he crossed his arm. "I mean, yeah. I did write this for my girl. But, I also just want this whole album to be awesome! I did write most of the songs." Greg sighed deeply as he ran his hand over his forehead.
"Trent. Before I began working for you, I had no wrinkles on my forehead. I don't make enough to justify botox!" He exclaimed, circling his forehead. "First it's the tempo, then it's the style, now someone is flat. Can you all please figure this out amongst ourselves so we can finish this song?"
"Let's take five." A man at the soundboard turned the 'recording in session' light off, and the boys walked over to the couch. Noah handed the boys their water bottles, and they began drinking.
"Seriously, Trent, I know I was a little off the first time, but it's not me." Harold said.
"It's not me either." Cody said.
"Then it's gotta be Justin." Everyone looked over to him, and he gasped as he put his hand over his chest, offended by the idea.
Justin stopped to think about it, then lowered his hands. "You know what, it probably is me." Trent sighed.
"Do you want to run that one part one more time?" Trent asked.
"Sure. But I've got an appointment at 4, so we gotta wrap this up." Justin said.
"Meeting a girl you're about to hook up with from Tinder is not an appointment." Cody told him. Noah looked at the gang, trying not to laugh.
"Calling it an appointment sounds much more appropriate than 'I'm about to go get some pussy'. Am I right, gentlemen?" Justin said, raising his hand to get a high-five. Cody took Justin's hand and raised it down, feeling disgusted by him.
"He makes a good point." Harold whispered.
"You're gross." Noah said under his breath.
"Focus!" Trent and the boys walked back into the recording studio, then Trent played a note on the piano for them to match pitch, which they did.
"All right, that's our starting pitch. So let's run that line one more time. This-" Trent played an A2 note on the piano. "-is you, Justin. Got it?"
"I got it." Justin said, rolling his eyes. The boys took a breath and began to sing.
"I haven't found my heart since we met that night, cause it ran off and brought itself right to you." Trent raised his hands in excitement as heard it all come together, and the harmonies blending together perfectly. Noah smiled in awe as the boys rushed back into the booth, and the producers with Greg sighed a breath of relief.
"All right. If we do this right, we can finally move on to the next songs. No pressure or anything." Greg said. He cued for the boys to get into position, then pointed to the producers to begin the song where they left off. They crossed all the fingers they had until they got to the final line.
"I haven't found my heart since we met that night, cause it ran off and brought itself to you." The boys held their breath as they waited for the signal to stop, then took their headphones off and cheered, hugging each other.
"And that's a wrap on song one!" Greg said into the microphone. Noah watched as Cody motioned for him to come inside the booth. He made a questioning face and pointed to his chest, and Cody nodded his head, indicating he was pointing to him. He stood up as he walked into the recording booth, and Cody began to hug him.
"We did it." Harold cheered.
"Great job, guys." Noah said, smiling. As everyone packed their instruments up, Greg spoke to them from outside the booth and they all looked.
"We finally finished the first song. Let's regroup tomorrow to rehearse and we'll get right into recording the next few songs. I want to be able to finish more than one in a few days." Greg referred to Trent, who had a tendency of wanting to re-do lines and take up time in the booth because of it. He turned the microphone off and looked over to the sound mixing editor next to him.
"Fat chance of that happening." He whispered. With Greg letting them go, Justin immediately ran out of the recording booth, heading to the car to see his 'appointment'. The other guys shrugged.
"See you guys tomorrow." Cody said, grabbing the case holding his keyboard, and wearing it like a backpack. Harold looked over at Noah, who was trailing behind Cody.
"It was good to see you again, Noah! It's fun having you around. I'm gonna stay behind for a bit, you guys go ahead." Noah smiled at his words. He had never been kind to Harold in Total Drama, and it was something he hoped he could make up for.
"Thanks, Harold." He said nonchalantly. Trent, with his guitar in tow, began following Noah and Cody out of the recording booth. They walked over to the elevator and pressed the 'down' button, then entered the empty elevator as it came for them.
"Do you think Nicole will like the song?" Trent said, looking at Noah.
"She's going to be a little shy at first, but after a few listens on her own, I guarantee you she'll be caught singing it to herself." Trent smiled at the thought, and they stepped out as the elevator came down to the lobby level.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Cody. Good seeing you, Noah." Trent said to the guys, giving both a high-five as he left. Cody looked to Noah as it was just the two of them. They began to open the doors of the recording studio lobby and headed into Noah's car. Cody looked over to Noah and smiled as they both buckled their seatbelts. After Noah pulled out of the parking lot, Cody turned over to Noah.
"So, what did you think?" Cody asked.
"You guys were awesome in there. It was a little intimidating being there, though."
"Why?" Cody asked, tilting his head confused.
"I guess I'm not used to being around people from Total Drama anymore. Sure we spent the last few years being tortured on a show together, but I thought of everyone as an obligation. I didn't hang out with anyone or get to know anyone outside of the show. Besides Owen, I guess."
"And me." Cody joked. Noah gave a short chuckle. "I wish you had a better experience with Total Drama."
"I didn't want to make friends. I just wanted to float through and win the money for Nicole and I." Noah said, taking a quick glance at Cody. "But seeing you with the Drama Brothers, I sometimes wish I did make an effort." Cody paused as he thought about what Noah said, feeling sorry for him. Noah put his eyes back on the road.
Noah and Cody had arrived home around 6pm after grabbing a bite to eat, and then spent the rest of the night with Hannah and Spencer. Later on, around 9pm, Noah and Cody got under the covers to head to bed. Noah looked over to Cody as he noticed him staring in awe.
"Can I ask you a question?" Cody asked.
"Sure."
"When did you know you liked me?" Noah began to blush at his question.
"Oh jeez, I spent so long denying it that I can't pinpoint the exact time. I think I always had a crush on you. That one night in the Awake-a-Thon, I was dreaming about you. Which is how I think we got into that predicament where I was cuddling you and kissing your cheek. But my first time realizing my feelings for you was after the… incident that took place in Wawanakwa. When you caught me singing." Cody smiled at the memory.
"What were you singing, anyway?" Cody asked.
"It was a song that my mom used to sing to me. Maybe one day I'll sing it again for you. I'm just not ready for that yet." He looked down in shame, remembering how badly he treated Cody that night.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Of course."
"How are you always so positive? I mean, you have parents who clearly don't care about you. They don't even remember your birthday! Then you went through everything with Sierra being… well, Sierra. I don't know how you do it." Cody thought about his question before answering.
"I don't know. I guess I just try to distract myself with positive things. When my parents left me alone in our big house, I started streaming video games, and it felt like I was playing video games with 50,000 of my closest friends. Then, when I was with Sierra… well, I couldn't really find any positives with her. But somehow, the feeling that there was a girl out there who found everything about me so attractive was enough for me to start ignoring every creepy thing about Sierra. It sounds weird, I know."
"It doesn't sound weird. It just means you stayed optimistic. You turned bad situations into good ones." He began to yawn. "You never told me when you first started crushing on me."
"I don't know what it was, but seeing you with Emma… it did something to me. It made me feel jealous. I guess you could say I used Ridonculous Race as a way to talk to you."
"And I wanted to talk about anything but Ridonculous Race." Noah chuckled.
"What ever happened to you and Emma, by the way?" Noah began to yawn again.
"That is a story for another time." Noah took the covers and pulled them more in towards him. "Goodnight, Cody."
"Goodnight, Noah." Cody smiled as he ran his hand through Noah's hair, then kissed his head. They both turned themselves to one another and slowly began drifting to sleep.
A/N: Over the past few months I've exclusively only been writing ahead. I wasn't sure how to write in the gaps for this story, and I still don't really think I am, tbh. Thank you for those of you who have been sticking around, and if you're new, welcome!