As Alex, Reggie, and Luke walked into the auditorium for vocal performance the next day, Luke's eyes immediately found Julie. She was curled up next to Flynn again, looking just as small as she had the day before, but she smiled at him, and he tried to ignore the little answering skip in his chest.

Ms. Harrison called them to attention. "Alright, we're going to have ensembles today, but first we'll finish up with our remaining soloist from yesterday. Julie?"

Julie rose from her seat shakily. The look of cold dread on her face couldn't have been more opposite to the focused joy she had worn the night before when they had workshopped "Bright." She perched behind the piano and glanced nervously at the crowd again. She flinched, the exact same way she had the day before, and the fact that this was playing out like a carbon copy of yesterday brought Luke to his feet.

"Sorry, Ms. Harrison, I was supposed to email you about the ensemble change—Julie's performing with us. I completely forgot. My bad." Luke smiled, giving the instructor the giant puppy dog eyes that occasionally seemed to convince adults to just go along with him. He turned to the guys, nodding for them to come with him to the stage. To Alex and Reggie's eternal credit, they gave him only the subtlest of confused glances before following him.

Luke jogged across the stage to Julie, pulled his journal out of his back pocket, and opened it to the right page. He set it in front of her on the piano's music stand.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"Just go with it." She shook her head very slightly. She didn't seem to be rejecting the idea of performing with them, but the idea of performing at all. "Don't look out there. Look at the music while you play the intro and then come sing to each of us. Look at us, not them. We gotchu, I promise. You're gonna rock this."

She nodded, still shaky, but turned her attention to the journal. She took a deep, steadying breath and began to play.

Sometimes I think I'm falling down
I wanna cry, I'm callin' out
For one more try to feel alive
And when I feel lost and alone
I know that I can make it home

He glanced at the guys, who were struggling to hide their shock behind a façade of "oh, yeah, we've definitely rehearsed and heard her voice before."

Fight through the dark
And find the spark

Julie caught his eye and he grinned encouragingly. She smiled back, and began to ramp up the power in her voice.

Life is a risk but I will take it
Close my eyes and jump
Together I think that we can make it
Come on, let's run

The band began to play and she jumped up from the bench to join them in the middle of the stage, slowly starting to let her body dance along to the song.

And rise through the night, you and I
We will fight to shine together
Bright forever
And rise through the night, you and I
We will fight to shine together
Bright forever

As Luke took over the second verse, Reggie invited Julie to join him with a nod of his head. Alex managed to quickly wave at her without missing a beat.

In times that I doubted myself
I felt likе I needed some help
Stuck in my hеad with nothing left
I feel something around me now
So unclear, lifting me out
I found the ground I'm marching on

Reggie joined Luke for their pre-chorus duet, while Julie danced towards Alex, taking a moment of respite from having to face the audience.

Life is a risk but we will take it
Close my eyes and jump
Together I think that we can make it
Come on, let's run

As they burst into the second chorus, Julie turned back to the crowd, keeping her eyes shut in what to the audience might just look like intense focus on her vocals.

And rise through the night, you and I
We will fight to shine together
Bright forever
And rise through the night, you and I
We will fight to shine together
Bright forever

Luke began walking towards her as he sang his half of the bridge, performing with his full focus on her.

In times that I doubted myself
I felt like I needed some help
Stuck in my head, with nothing left

She grinned as she started singing her half and for the first time, he saw some of that happiness from the practice room sneak through the terror and pain.

And when I feel lost and alone
I know that I can make it home
Fight through the dark and find the spark

As the final chorus started, she turned towards the crowd and, caught up in their performance, opened her eyes. She trembled—he was sure no one but him noticed—and snapped her eyes shut, but continued to belt it out.

And rise through the night, you and I
We will fight to shine together
Bright forever
And rise through the night, you and I
We will fight to shine together
Bright forever

As her final, perfect high note faded out, she whipped her head away from the crowd and looked at him. The beam on her face, the glee, the adrenaline, he knew—she was hooked. And as his heart fluttered at that look on his face, he realized he might be a bit as well.

The other vocal students burst into shocked applause. Luke almost jumped—he'd mostly forgotten that they were there. More than that, as he looked out at the crowd about to give him feedback, he honestly had no idea what he thought they'd say. Normally the music channel of his brain was hyper aware when he performed, searching for weaknesses and ways to improve, evaluating how effective different musical choices had been. And part of him was always searching for that missing sound, trying to pinpoint what it was and how it could be incorporated. But that part of his brain had been silent for the entire song.

It wasn't that he thought it had been a perfect performance. He'd sung "Bright" through a couple times with Julie the night before, but never with the intention of performing it and never with the guys. Today's performance had definitely been, as Reggie would say, "rough AF," but underneath it was the core of something that felt more solid than anything he'd done before, a sense of rightness he couldn't deny.

He clearly wasn't the only one who was feeling it. Ms. Harrison grinned up at them from her seat. "Finally found your missing sound, Mr. Patterson?" His grin couldn't be contained.

Luke wouldn't have pegged Julie as being particularly strong, but she was steering him firmly through the hallway by the neck of his muscle tee. Alex and Reggie were jogging to keep up, looking very grateful that her rage was only tangentially directed at them.

She pulled him into an empty stairwell, the guys joining them apprehensively, and opened her mouth to start in on him. He beat her to the punch.

"I'm sorry. To you guys, too. I didn't ask any of you beforehand and that wasn't cool."

It seemed to somewhat take the wind out her sails. "I didn't ask for a knight in sleeveless armor."

"I wasn't trying to be a knight. I didn't plan it, I swear." He glanced at the guys, realizing they were missing some context. "We ran into each other in the practice room last night and she helped me on 'Bright.'" He turned back to her. "I wasn't trying to save you or anything. I just… it seemed like you were … having a hard time being on stage by yourself, and we're down a member and there's been something missing from our sound for ages and as soon as I heard you, I realized it was you."

Julie seemed to follow his run-on sentence better than he had. "So… you weren't trying to play savior. You were being selfish?"

"Why not both?" he chuckled weakly.

She cocked her head at the three of them, thoughtful. "Missing sound?"

Reggie jumped in. "He's been going on about this for years. He thinks that our sound is on 'the edge of great' and there's something missing that he's never been able to explain in a way that makes any sense."

Alex nodded along. "He keeps having us test out a bunch of different instruments and styles, but nothing's stuck. He once had us try Mongolian throat singing."

"The Hu pulled it off!"

"Luke, we're not heavy metal artists or classically trained in traditional Mongolian music, so I still don't understand why you think the Hu was ever an appropriate reference point for Sunset Curve."

Reggie rested his elbow on Alex's shoulder, nodding emphatically. "Also, cultural appropriation—get woke, dude."

Luke raised his hands defensively. "Reggie tried to turn us into a country band that one time. We've all made mistakes."

Alex gestured at himself. "I haven't made mistakes." He stuck out his hand to Julie. "Alex.'

She shook his hand, amused by their banter. "Julie."

"Reggie."

"Still Julie." She turned her sharp gaze back to Luke. "So, to recap: you have a savior complex, you're selfish, and you've 'made mistakes?'"

"I'm also very honest?"

She smiled in spite of herself and it was like a goddamn beam of light being shone in his heart. Luke found himself temporarily unable to speak. Shooting the dumbstruck Luke an amused look, Alex stepped in. "To be fair to this ridiculous person on my left, I didn't get the 'missing sound' thing until that performance, but I do now. I know Luke and Reggie are questionable, but that was…"

"Killer," Reggie supplied.

"It has the potential to be killer." Luke didn't want anyone thinking he thought that was the best they could do. The other three shot him exasperated looks. "That was unrehearsed. We can definitely do better, but the bones of it, man. The bones of Sunset Curve were never that good. This could be big. Not just an ensemble at LFCM, but an actual band touring the world and slaying stadiums." He turned back to Julie. "You're a musician, here in your soul." He thumped a fist over his heart. "You had to feel that, right?"

Her hesitation answered for her. Of course she had felt it. But, "I'm just… not good at being onstage at the moment."

"We've all got stuff we're working on," Reggie smiled gently.

Alex nodded. "Even me."

Luke caught her eye, speaking as sincerely as he could. "You joining our band would make it something really special."

"Maybe you'd be joining my band."

"Oh, what's your band?"

"Julie and the Mistakes, apparently."

"Can we workshop it?"

"Sorry, the name is non-negotiable." She smirked at him. This girl… he had no idea what his face was doing in response to her sass, but Reggie and Alex were definitely exchanging an amused glance at his expense.

Luke stuck out his hand, palm down. "Okay, so we're all good with that? The four of us, one killer sound, one collective wrecking ball of talent tearing up that showcase in August? Band name TBD?"

"Good by me." Reggie and Alex put their hands on top of his. He met Julie's gaze, raising a questioning eyebrow. A smile slid across her face and she added her hand to the pile.

"What's the worst that could happen?"

Songs/musical references in this chapter:
• "Bright"
• The HU (if you're not familiar with the Hu, I strongly recommend "Yuve Yuve Yu" and "Wolf Totem" as a starting place)