"Wow, I am hyped about this week!" Jack says as they re-enter the house, shocked at how messy they'd already made it after only a few days.

"You totally have the right to be, you get a mentoring session with THE Nami Cooper, one of the hottest bitches on glee!" Pierce wined, falling back onto the couch, legs stretched out in front of him, taking up the whole couch.

"Budge up!" Jaia insisted, playfully battling his leg. Pierce grinned, shaking his head.

"No can do, I need my personally space!" He exclaims, stretching out ot his full capacity. In an instant, Jaia, Ollie, Jenna and Jack attack him, pulling hard at his legs, trying to make space. "Get out ma bubble!" Pierce screamed, arms flailing. In the end, they used all their strength to throw Pierce onto the floor, seizing the chance to leap onto the couch. The brown eyed boy pulls himself off the floor, rubbing his forehead.

"Alright," he says, getting to his feet. "Budge up,"

"No can do," Jaia mimicks, stretching her legs over the other boys,

"We need our personal space!" They chorus in unison, smiling, satisfied.

"Step away from the bubble!" Ollie shreaks, motioning for Pierce to leave.

"Hate you guys," He grumbles, turning away.

"Love you to!" They reply, pleased with themselves. Pierce heads for the doorway, occasionally glancing back to see them waving mockingly.

"Now you know how I feel!" Cindy empathized, patting him lightly on the shoulder.

"Karmas a bitch, isn't it?"

"Right, favourite Brittany S. Pierce quote, go!" Emily ordered, pointing directly at Jason with her breadstick. It was that evening, and West took it upon himself to make Italian. Everyone sat round the table, chatting excitedly about their lives and the coming weeks, except Max and Chesney who stayed quiet.

"Ooh, that's a hard one! Probably: 'Is this real life?'" Jason impersinates, making everyone laugh hysterically.

"What, as in from David after the dentist?" Penny splutters, dabbing her eyes with a tissue at his horrendous impression.

"Okay, Max, go," Emily says, making Max jump. He waits for a second and clears his throat, sipping his glass of sparkling water.

"Are you a cat?" Max drawls, making everyone cackle like a pack of rabid hyenas.

"That was so good!" Jaia exclaims, her voice high pitched like she's swallowed helium. After that, Jenna did an impression of Brittany's 'It's Brittany, Bitch!' while Jack mimicked her saying 'I was pretty sure that Dr Pepper was a dentist'.

"Did you guys know that Dolphins are just gay sharks?... yeah." Cindy said flatly, her voice almost exactly like Brittany's.

"Well, that was fun!" Chesney summarises, making everyone nod.

"Okay guys, I'm gonna turn in, don't miss me too much!" Jenna winks, leaving the group and heading up to the girls dorm.

"Me to, sleep tight guys!" Ollie stated, kissing the girls on their foreheads and following Jenna upstairs. Eventually, everyone was sleeping soundly and the house was silent.

The first person to wake up the next morning was Penny. She squinted to see the time on the clock: 5:34. Penny groaned, rolling over onto her side and pulling the covers over her head. After a moment, she came to teh conclusion she wasn't going to fall asleep and stretched before hoisting herself out of her bed and slipping on her black and white dotty slippers, grabbing her dressing gown as she tiptoed out the bedroom and downstairs. When she reached downstairs she saw a shadow of someone lying on the couch. She smiled fondly, approaching the person.

"Max? You okay?" Max shot up, rubbing his eyes, dazed.

"Yeah, fine. I just couldn't sleep so I got up, so I guess that helped." He shrugged, pulling himself to his feet. Penny laughs, draping her arm around his shoulder.

"Look, I know you feel like you don't fit in. But I'm here for you until you win, okay?" Max turns away, looking at the floor. Penny puts her hands on his face, tilting it towards her. "Okay?" Max nods, and Penny drops her hands to her sides. They perch on the sofa and chat until Max checks his watch.

"Wow, it's seven thirty!" He exclaims, chuckling. Penny smiles as Cindy and Emily come downstairs, engrossed in their conversation about Coldplay.

"Hey guys!" Emily waves perkily, skipping down the stairs and throwing her arms around the other pair, kissing Max on the cheek. Eventually, it's nine thirty, and everyone leaves the house to go record the song for the music video, excited. When they arrive, they take their seats on the large sofas that are stationed in a corner of the booth. A door to their left opens and Nikki approaches them, beaming widly.

"Hey guys? How ya feeling?" She asks, and everyone mumbles their replies with different levels of enthusiasm. "Great, well how about our homework winner Jack records first." She suggests, and Jack stands and follows her. Jaia gives him the thumbs up as he closes the door behind him.

"So, how'd ya feel? First homework winner of the season, in the same league as Matheus, Shanna and Liam." Jack smiles modestly, shaking his head with shock; he'd never thought of it like that.

"It's surreal"

"I can only imagine. What did Nami say?"

Flashback

I stand by the door and take a breath before pushing it open. Nami sits there, looking hot, smiling seductively. When she sees me, she gets to her feet and gives me a peck on the cheek before we both take a seat and I try not to piss myself with excitement.

"So, how about you sing me your solos?" She suggests, and I nod automatically, to engrossed in her damn good looks to really listen. Like I'm sleepwalking, I rise to my feet and fumble through my pockets to get my lyrics. When I find the screwed up piece of stained paper, colour comes to my face. I try to push through and straighten it out, then I open my mouth and begin to sing.

"Another year you made a promi-i-se

Another chance to turn it aall arouound

And I, will give the world to youuuuuu!" Nami claps and I grin like a little kid. After a moment of awkwardness, I force myself back on my chair, crossing my legs and trying not to look completely stupid.

"Great job, just remember to push on the high notes. You changed it up and it sounded AWE-SOME!" I shrug, smiling to myself. "Ooh, one more thing. As my homework winner, I think you deserve a good old bit of tough Brit love, mmkay? Good." Jack's eyes widened, nodding. "you really needs to exaggerate and elaborate everything in your personality to really stand out. Don't change who you are just to fit in. Remain true to yourself, and you'll overpower the other contestants for sure till they won't know what hit 'em. Go get it tiger!" Nami bends over the starstruck boy, kissing him on the lips swiftly before swinging her bag over her shoulder and heading for the door. "You got this!" She calls as the door closes, and Jack sits in pure shock for a moment.

"Oh... my god" he breathes before jumping up and punching the air. Wow.

"Wow Jack, that was great! You had real fire and that high note? Wow. Just... wow!" Nicki encouraged. "Great, can you send in Max next?" Jack nodded and left the studio buzzing. As he approached the group, he smiled and nodded, and they congratualted him accordingly. He sat down next to Max, patting him on the back.

"You're next buddy, good luck!" He revealed, and Max took up, his hands shaking.

"Don't worry, you're going to be fantastic. I believe in you," Penny encouraged, steadying his shoulder. He smiled weakley and plodded towards the booth, trying to put on a brave face even though he was dying inside.

"I pass it back- Damn!" Max cursed, stepping away from the mic and running a hand through his hair, frustrated. Nicki looked on worried, unsure on what to say.

"Come on honey, let's go again. You have a lovely tone," she emphasised 'Lovely' to try and convince him, "You're just nervous. You can do this, I believe in you" She continued, making Max's even more frustrated.

Why is everyone lying to me? Trying to decieve me? They're putting so much pressure on me, I'm not sure how much more I can take. He thinks to himself as he waits for his cue again.

"And pass it back to you

And I will wait for you "

"Woop!" Nicki yelled, making Max smile. "Greaaat job man, you've done yourself proud. Can you go and get Penny." Max nodded and left the room, a bittersweet after-taste left in his mouth.

After Penny recorded perfectly on her first try, Emily stepped into the booth. Nicki smiled at her as she placed the headphones over her hat, before giving up and throwing the beenie on the floor.

"Right, let's do this!" Nicki beamed, and Emily jumped slightly before focussing on her lyric sheet momentarily before looking back up. "This girl's got the drive, I think she'll go far," Nicki comments to the studio engineer sitting next to her, who nods in response.

"And do not save this for tomorrow

Embrace the past and you can live for now-ow-ow yeah" Emily belts, pleasing Nicki. After Emily leaves the studio to go fetch Pierce, Nikki turns back to Bryan.

"She was great," Bryan comments just as Pierce enters.

"Hey Nicki, Bryan, how are you today?" Pierce asks politely, and they small talk for a few minutes before Pierce starts to sing his lines.

"Let's tear the walls down that divide us

And build a statue strong enough for two" There's a pause while he waits for his next line in which Nikki smiles at Bryan, nodding her head enthusiastically.

"This years gonna be tough to call" Bryan states once Nikki comes back from saying goodbye to the competitors. She slouches down in her chair, running her fingers through her hair.

"Tell me about it"