"I made it!" Kai slammed open the door, scarring Gray and me in the process. Kai looked at the two of us and furrowed his eyebrows. "You guys started practice without me. Isn't the drummer important?"

Gray then nodded his head. "You are, but Maple already came, so I thought it would be okay if we practiced tuning our instruments."

"Oh, that's true." Kai returned to his normal idiotic expression.

"The amazing singer, Jax, is here!" Jax walked in, showing off his presence to us three. He then rose his eyebrows, noticing we started practice without him. "Screw this. Why did you start practice without me?"

"They were just tuning their instruments," Kai vouched for Gray and me. He patted Jax's shoulder in the process and then smiled. Kai has the warmest smile on earth. Even I couldn't stay angry with him for more than a day with that smile.

I saw Jax nod his head and continued. "I understand. Let's start practice now, then."

We all started moving towards the small stage in the shed that was possibly made by Mr. Lemon and begun our practice. I grabbed the neck of the guitar and hovered my hand over the body where the strings were placed. Jax grabbed the microphone that was sitting on its stand. He cleared his throat a bit and then hummed a scale of notes. Gray finishes plugging in his bass and stood quietly. Kai sat down and picked up his sticks. He looked over at Jax, who was still closing his eyes.

"Ready?" Kai asked.

Jax then opened up his eyes slowly and nodded. Kai then smiled and raises his hands containing the sticks in the air. "And a 1...2...1,2,3,4!"

At the fourth count, I started strumming the melody, followed by Gray's harmony. This song was a bit different than the one from yesterday. The one from yesterday started off with Jax and me. But this one, it was Gray and me. I was a bit nervous, but I tried my best to control my shaking. It was the worst to shake while playing. Everything would sound off.

Suddenly, after a few seconds, Jax joined in. His voice sounded different than it did yesterday. When he was singing, it was soft and smooth. However, today, it was more rough and powerful. The thought of what Gray said earlier popped into my head. He was right about Jax having a powerful voice.

After we finished the song, we all took a deep breath. It felt as if all the life force was taken out of me.

"Wow." I exhaled, trying to take a deep breath in between each.

"It still needs a bit more..." I heard Jax mumble. He then suddenly turned toward Gray, who was shocked. "You made a few mistakes at this part. Could you please work on that?"

"Of course!" Gray nodded his head and begun practicing to himself.

Jax then walked over to Kai. "You were a few seconds late. Although it doesn't seem like much, it still makes a difference. Please work on the timing."

"Yes," Kai nodded his head and started counting to himself.

Lastly, Jax came up to me. "I don't know why, but your playing seems a bit off, Maple. I'll practice with you, okay?"

"Oh...yeah." I agreed but, truthfully, I was still wary about Jax. He did pull up my skirt after all.

We both moved to a different side of the room so that we wouldn't disturb the other two. Jax then grabbed one of Mr. Lemon's cardboard boxes that were used as a stool when he needed to get something from the top shelf of the bookcase. Surprisingly, that cardboard box was sturdy.

"Alright, can you play for me again?" Jax asked, resting his mouth on his hands, looking like an evil mastermind.

"Sure." I nodded and grabbed the sheet of notes. I started to strum the song that we had just played, except it was more nerve-racking now since I had someone watching me.

Jax just stared as I played the whole song. It was weird, but I tried not to focus on him and just played whatever was on the page.

After I finished, Jax nodded his head. "I see what the problem is."

"Huh?"

"You are just playing off the page."

"What do you mean?" I was confused of what he was talking about. I thought it was normal to play the notes that were set out on the page.

"Well, you see," He walked over to my sheet music and then crumpled it up. He threw it into the trash like he was playing basketball. "I want to hear your own version rather than just perfection. Even though I, myself, am a perfectionist, I feel that playing the song your own way rather than what the music tells you is better. I want you to play what you memorized but not perfectly. I'll sing with you if that helps."

Play it my way? It was true that I never did that before since I was still in the process of learning, but I knew that Jax had a point. It would sound more original if I put my own twist on it. But that was going to be hard since I had to keep everyone else's playing, especially Jax's singing, in mind.

I looked up at Jax and agreed. "Yeah, your singing would help."

A smile formed on his face, almost as warm as Kai's but not quite. But it did make me feel happy. "Alright. Let's do this."

I started playing the guitar again, except this time, I tried to keep Jax's voice in mind. Since it wasn't as soft as last time, I had to decide on how to play it. His voice was powerful, and I wanted to play just as powerfully. However, I had to remember that I didn't want to overpower his voice either. I decided to go with a semi-powerful way of playing the instrument.

After we finished, Jax had an even bigger smile on his face. "That was awesome, Maple!"

"Maple did it? Yay!" I heard Gray say from the other side of the room. He also formed a smile that led my heart to skip a beat. I couldn't put my finger on it, but, for an odd reason, I felt happier with Gray's praise than Jax's. Iris was possibly right. I might have been in love with Gray.

***

"So, just remember to practice, okay? Don't forget to keep those points in mind." Jax told the three of us before we had to go home.

We all smiled and nodded our heads.

"Alright, then. Since our show is next week, we are going to go on a trip with Mr. Lemon to the shopping center." Jax looked at his phone, which I assumed he was looking at his calendar.

However, I was shocked. "What? Next week?"

Kai, Gray, and Jax looked at each other before looking back at me. "We didn't tell you?" They said in unison.

"No!" I exclaimed and then grabbed my face out of worry. "Oh no! What if I'm not ready by then? I'll only bring you guys down."

I suddenly felt two hands land on my shoulders. I moved my hands away from my face and noticed Gray. "Don't worry! You won't bring us down." He smiled.

I looked over at Jax and Kai who both agreed. I then nodded my head and felt a sense of relief fill me. "Alright. Thank you. Even though I'm still wary about how I'll do, I'll still try my best."

"That's the spirit!" Kai swooped me into a hug.

"Alright! Let's all have a good night's rest, and see you this weekend!" Jax waved bye.

We all then waved bye and headed home.

A lot of things happened today, but I felt happy despite it. I wonder what this weekend would bring.