The Passion girls had collapsed on the floor of the rehearsal room in a panting heap. Cora stood over them with her hands on her hips, frowning. “Seriously guys? You’re so out of shape.”

“We are not out of shape!” Mikki shouted, sitting on her elbows. “Your routine is ridiculous!”

Cora frowned and turned to MinHee, who was walking to the mini fridge to retrieve a water bottle, and sighed. “You know what, I think you guys aren’t trying hard enough.” The group groaned again. “Whatever, it’s not even that bad. But you guys do you, okay? Take a break until Maria comes and we can go over the parts.”

“I need Reina to sing her solo for the recording, so a break would be perfect.” MinHee signed, coming to a stop beside Cora. Neither were out of breath, as they’d been practicing the routine since the idea of using their own song came up. “And Ji-su, your voice wasn’t present in the bridge, so I need to re record your part.”

Each of the girls moved to their feet and started out of the room. “I don’t understand why we have to record our voices. I thought we were doing it live.”

Cora rolled her eyes as Yuna spoke and crossed her arms over her chest. “Yuna, I do how many back flips?” Yuna held up three fingers. “And how many times do we cartwheel?” She held up another few fingers. “I want to see you keep singing in perfect tone and pitch.” Yuna rolled her eyes and the girls continued out into the living room.

Reina and MinHee retreated towards MinHee’s room, with Reina warming up her voice. Cora had always made fun of her vocal exercises, but it turns out she’d been right, she sounded better when she used them.

Cora, Mikki, Ji-su and Yuna sat on the sectional in silence. Ji-su was listening to her iPod and Mikki was on her phone. Yuna was glaring silently at the floor when Mikki perked up. “Hey, guys, Daniel from the youth center just text me. He asked if we want to help out with their car wash this weekend. We don’t have any practices.”

“Besides our own.” Cora groaned.

Ji-su frowned. “Don’t you think you’re overworking us a little? I mean, I’m not even in the routine and I’m exhausted.”

Cora made a face. “Tell him to count us in. I’ll talk to MinHee about it, but it’s most definitely a yes. Maybe Maria will tag along.” She said as the doorbell rang. She stood and walked towards the screen on the wall. She pressed the camera button, and the screen filled with an image of Maria. She was wearing shorts, a crop top and a pair of Nikes, what she’d often worn to classes for practice. Cora pressed the buzzer, and Maria walked towards the door.

“I do not want to go to a car wash.” Yuna hissed, crossing her arms over her chest.

Cora rolled her eyes and pulled her phone from her pocket. “We’ll see about that.” She said, finding Mark’s number in her call log. She winked at Yuna, who pouted as Cora held the phone to her ear. Mark picked up immediately. “Hey, where are you?”

“Overly attached girlfriend!” Jackson shouted.

Cora rolled her eyes. “I was wondering where you were because I’d like to know if you’re with the guys.”

Mark laughed. “No, Jackson and I are on our way back to the studio. Why, what’s up?”

“There’s this fundraiser car wash this weekend. We’re all going, and I wanted to know if you guys wanted to tag along, since we haven’t really hung out since before we started final performance practices, and since you guys have started your serious practice for the showcase.” She had turned her back to the girls and kept her voice low in hopes of them not hearing her sound pathetic. “Please?”

There was a shifting on the other line, and Mark sighed. “You’re not on speaker anymore.”

“Babe, come on! I really want to see you, and I’ve been so busy, and you’ve been nonexistent this week. And I know it’s only been a week and I shouldn’t be this needy about seeing you but I am, and I want to see you, and I-”

“Chill out Cora. Breathe.”

She sighed. “Do you think you guys can come?”

Please log in to read the full chapter