Sorry it's been so long, I know I kinda suck. I know this chapter's not brilliant, I wrote a better one but it all got deleted. I hope it's still okay, please don't lose faith in me!
"Morning! Emily!" Cindy says, shaking her friend awake. Emily groans, rolling onto her left side until she rolls off the sofa, falling straight on her bum. She curses and leans back onto the soft carpet, staring at Cindy who looks down at her, biting her lip to stop her laughter.
"You fell asleep on the couch" She points out matter of factly, shrugging her shoulders and re-organising the pillows.
"Yeah... kinda gathered that." Emily replies wittily, exhaling a long breath and clambering up from the floor. Cindy chuckles quietly, perching on the couch and examining her nails. The brunette slouches down beside her, resting her head in her hands.
"Hey, What's up?" Cindy asks, resting her arm on Emily's shoulder. She sighs, shrugging it off defensively.
"It's... it's nothing." She responds in a small voice, not looking Cindy in the eye.
"Okay, fine, but know that I'm always here to talk to" Cindy finishes, standing up with a manish grunt. "Come on, let's get ready to record." She outreaches a hand to her friend and pulls her off the sofa before leading her into the kitchen and closing the door behind them.
"Adaptability week... let's do this," Nikki announced breathily, sitting down in her large leather chair and resting her elbows on the arm rests to either side of her. Slowly, the door to her left eases open to reveal Ollie standing awkwardly in the corridor, two sheets of paper clapsed between his fingertips. Nikki gets to her feet and ushers him in. Cheeks slightly red, Ollie steps inside the studio and hands her the decided lyric sheet.
"I've got two copies, one for here and one for the booth." Nikki nods, scanning the solos carefully before passing the sheet to Bryan, who glances at it, nodding rhythmically.
"Great job Ollie, you're really good at this job!" Ollie's cheeks blush even more violently, and pulls his hands out of his pockets.
"Thanks Nikki, but I couldn't have done it without everyone else, especially Chesney and Jack, they were really great." The boy reasons modestly, making hand gestures as he talks.
"That's really sweet Ollie," Nikki admits before continuing, "How about you record first as you're here, huh?" The blonde suggests, and Ollie responds with a nod, he grabs the remaining sheet of lyrics and heads into the booth, places the headphones on his head, and waits patiently for his cue.
"Hello Chesney!" Nikki calls to her as she enters the booth, beaming broadly. Something was different about Chesney this week, like all she needed was that kick up the ass from Ryan to completely up her confidence. Nikki smiled, relaxing back in her chair. After a few minutes of polite small talk, Chesney slipped the headphones over her bleached blonde hair and took a deep breath, tapping her foot through the intro. When she finished her solo, Nikki stood up, clapping her hands widly, impressed.
"Wow Chesney, that was phenomonal! You performed the song, had a great comedy element and really opened the song to a high standard." Chesney thanked Nikki gracefully and went to fetch Jack, while Nikki turned to Bryan, who mirrored her stunned impression. Nikki sighed, tapping the sheets of paper down on the surface in front of her, making a neat pile.
"Well, let's see who can beat that."
Emily stepped into the booth, a sad smile on her face. She prepared to record without much communication, her eyes avoiding Nikki's gaze. Nikki shrugged it off, thinking that she might just be in a bad mood or something. But after Emily mucked up the first take, and the second, and the third and left the room after her fourth take without a word, Nikki was certain that something was going on, something Mrs Anders couldn't quite put her finger on. She glanced out the window at the group, saw Emily and Jenna's body language, expressions, and her mouth formed a perfect 'O' shape.
"Oh"
"What should we do?" Ace asked, settling down on the couch, his feet propped up on the table in front of him. Almost as soon as he was settled, Jaia scolded him, batting his feet off their stool.
"OI!" Jason asked, eyes narrowed. Jaia simply showed him the finger and continued cleaning the living room. Jaia just playfully stuck her tongue out in his direction, making Pierce scoff.
"Anyway," Penny drawls, trying to distract from the sexual tension in the room. Pierce's gaze falls to the floor and Jaia smiles. "I think we should,"
"GO SKINNY DIPPING!"
"SEE HOW MANY ORANGES JACK CAN FIT IN HIS MOUTH!"
"Okay!"
"NO!" Penny shouts, both hands held out to the side. "I think we should probably clean up in the kitchen" One by one, the group turned their heads and their eyes fell on the overflowing sink, the dirty pans stacked upon dirty pans, the plates piled high, the cutlery strewn across the surfaces.
"Yeah, Bye Penny!" West said before all the boys, Jenna and Jaia sped outside, stripping off their clothes and jumping into the pool before she can say otherwise.
"Thanks guys, thanks..."