It was a few days later when Cat's acceptance letter followed- and she spent the rest of the day on cloud 9. She told everyone who would listen- and even those who wouldn't. After a particularly happy squeal to her design teacher she realised something- it hadn't hurt. Like taking the deep breath to let out the noise hadn't felt like her ribs were being mushed up by her lung. It ached a little, but didn't hurt.

"Andre Andre Andre guess what!" Cat called out, skipping into their music room.

"You already told me about FIT Lil' Red." He smiled at her, already sat in his usual seat, guitar on his lap.

"No no- I think I can sing our ballad!" She told him, practically bouncing with excitement, her eyes brighter than he'd seen in weeks.

Andre watched Cat carefully, his fingers instinctively flexing over the strings "Are you sure about this, Cat?" Andre asked, his voice soft but filled with an edge of caution. He hated to sound like a worrywart but he couldn't help it. "Maybe we should, I don't know, take it slow? Just start with, like, a verse or two?"

Cat rolled her eyes, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "Andre, you've been more worried than Jade. I told you—I'll be fine!"

He'd tried to act cool, tried not to show just how badly he wanted to get back into it, to hear his words come alive through her. Still, he had to play it safe. "I just don't want you to push yourself too hard."

Cat sighed. "Okay. Just the first verse. I promise. Nothing fancy."

"Alright…" he relented, "You got the lyrics?" He asked.

"Yep!" She pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her bag. They'd chosen to go with the song Andre wrote rather than one of her's. Everything she'd written recently was too personal, she couldn't bring herself to have her emotional lyrics dissected for a grade. It was a duet too, so Andre could finally feature on their 'album', it also meant they got a chunk of the vocals done already. All that was left was Cat's singing, the final touches and then to go back and finish Tattooed Heart too- then they'd be over with this whole project.

Andre pulled up the microphone, placed the pop filter in front and pulled the track up on his laptop. "You sure?"

"Stop worrying!" Cat dismissed, stepping up to the mic and pulling the headphones over her ears. "As soon as it hurts I'll stop." She promised .

Cat closed her eyes as the opening piano arpeggio played outloud, and then the second, and third, and fourth followed by the blocked chords. When she opened her mouth, her voice was quiet but steady, like she was testing the waters.

"I'd like to say we gave it a try

I'd like to blame it all on life

Maybe we just weren't right

But that's a lie

That's a lie"

The opening verse of the song was basically spoken anyway, with light melisma at certain points.

"And we can deny it as much as we want

But in time, our feelings will show

'Cause sooner or later, we'll wonder why we gave up

The truth is, everyone knows"

She pushed a little here and it felt fine, but they'd likely rerecord most of this anyway. They never used the first take for either of the previous two songs, at least without comping around it.

"Almost

Almost is never enough

So close to being in love

If I would have known that you wanted me

The way I wanted you

Then maybe we wouldn't be two worlds apart-"

"Ah-" She stopped, her face tensing. There was the pain again; the breath felt a little too sharp.

"Aaaand we stop." Andre told her, instantly cutting off the song.

"No no I'm okay I'm okay!" She forced a smile, brushing off his concern. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just a little rusty, that's all." She shifted in place, rolling her shoulders like she was just able to shake it off. "Come on, let's go from the top."

"Cat…" His voice was cautious, hesitant. He could see the stiffness in her movements, the way she was trying to mask the pain. "If it's too much, we can stop for now."

She let out a small huff, determination hardening her gaze. "I'm fine, Andre. I'm not letting a broken rib keep me down forever." She tried to laugh, but as she inhaled to start again, her breath caught in her chest, biting back a wince as she exhaled.

"Cat!" Andre was by her side in an instant, his hand on her shoulder, steadying her. "Hey, hey—it's alright. You don't have to push yourself." His eyes were filled with worry, but his touch was gentle. "We've waited this long. We can take it slow."

She gritted her teeth, frustration etched in her face. "I thought I was ready," she whispered, her voice shaking. "I want to be over it now."

He wrapped his arm around her, easing her into a careful hug. "Your body can't just get over a break." He reminded her.

"But I want to finish them. We've only got, what- 3 weeks till the deadline." Cat pouted into his shoulder, "The longer it takes the later you can send them off- I don't want to keep holding back your career."

"Don't put the weight of my career on your shoulders Cat." Andre told her, "This could be my big break, but it very likely won't be." He said honestly. "I've sent loads of songs off to labels and I don't think they've ever even been listened too- I'm sorry if I made you feel pressure like that."

"You didn't, really." Cat reassured giving Andre a final squeeze before letting go. "I just wanted to make it work." She turned back to the mic. "Theres a few more parts of the songs that don't involve a lot of control. Can I try again? Please? Or just the ad-libs?"

"You've really missed singing huh."

"So so much."

Cat had felt pretty glum the rest of the day- especially so at the end when Jade had agreed to help her with a bit more maths revision. She had one final test for the year that she had to get at least a C in to get the credit.

Cat was sat cross-legged on the floor of the Hollywood Arts library, surrounded by math books, her calculator, and a growing pile of crumpled-up papers. Her notebook was covered in doodles of smiling suns, stars, and some very questionable math equations. Jade leaned against the table, arms crossed, watching Cat try to solve an algebra problem.

"Cat," Jade said, almost wincing at the mess, "are you even trying to solve these?"

Cat blinked up at her, wide-eyed and genuinely puzzled. "I am! But, like, I'm sick of finding 'X' I didn't lose it. Not my problem."

Jade sighed, rolling her eyes. "Look, just follow the steps and get to an answer. It's not that deep."

Cat scrunched her nose, tilting her head as if trying to force the numbers to make sense. "But math is deep, Jade! I mean, why else would they put so many numbers in one question?"

Ignoring the urge to retort, Jade slid down beside Cat and picked up her notebook. She squinted at Cat's handwriting. The letters were loopy, the numbers were dotted with hearts and flowers.

"Okay, let's do this one-" she pointed at question 3 and wrote it out for Cat on the top of the next page. '3X 6 = 15'. "You remember how to do this?"

Cat's face went blank again. "Well, I think you divide by… the 3?"

"Not quite," Jade replied. She glanced at Cat and softened her tone. "Here. First, we move the 6 to the other side." She used a blue pen to add circles and arrows "So what's 15 minus 6?"

Cat hesitated, fingers wiggling as she counted under her breath. "Nine?"

"Yes! See, you've got this," Jade said, nodding. "Now, we divide by 3. What's nine divided by 3?"

"Three!" Cat squealed, her face lighting up. "So X is three?"

"Exactly," Jade said, grinning. "That wasn't so bad, right?"

Cat shook her head, smiling brightly. "Thanks, Jade! You're, like, really good at this."

Jade shrugged, brushing off the compliment. But her eyes softened for a moment as she looked at her girlfriend. "No problem. But seriously, Cat, if you ever want to pass math, maybe lay off the doodling and try actually solving these problems."

"But that makes it fun." She sighed.

Jade gave her a mock glare. "At least stop the hearts on your numbers. They're already confusing you enough."

"Fineee." She muttered back, moving on to question 3, referring back to the arrows Jade had drawn on the question above. After a few moments. "x is 5." She decided. "Check please!" She handed the book up to Jade.

"X is-" She paused, working it out for herself. "Yep, 5."

"Yipee!"