Song of the chapter - 'Shape of You' by Ed Sheeran

'I'm in love with the shape of you,
We push and pull like a magnet do'

I hastily wipe the tears away from my face and the upsetting thoughts from the front of my mind and get the girls cleaned up too. We get to practice a couple times before we're informed we're up next.

I ensure that the girls are all cleaned up nicely and ready to go. Then when we're called, I pick up my violin and follow the person with the three in tow.

We're told to wait until the light over the door turns green and then go in. I hustle Tracie and Violet to the front, and place Van behind them.

The light turns green and I let out a breath before opening the door and gesturing them to enter, following them once they're in.

"Hello, girls! Tell us your names and ages please," a highly energetic woman tells us from behind the table she sits at with two other men.

Tracie begins and Violet follows, Van following. The judge begins to ask something else when Violet yells that they didn't ask her older sister.

The judges apologetically turn to me and I smile in response and introduce myself.

After some more warming up, the judges ask us to go for it whenever we're ready.

"Alright girls, all ready? Okay, 1, 2, 3, 1234," I count down and Tracie starts off, followed by Violet and Van as we attempt to perform 'Price Tag' by Jessie J.

I play the starting tunes on my violin and begin humming as the starting point for the girls.
Violet starts off,

'Seems like everybody's got a price
I wonder how they sleep at night
When the sale comes first and the truth comes second
Just stop for a second and smile'

Tracie takes over,

'Why is everybody so serious?
Acting so very mysterious
You got your shades on your eyes and your heels so high
That you can't even have a good time'

Van chimes in,

'Everybody look to the left
Everybody look to the right
Can you feel that?
We're paying with love tonight'

I take over for the chorus,

'It's not about the money, money, money,
We don't want-'

Tracie yells when she misses her cue and Vi asks me loudly if we can sing 'that other song' instead, cutting me off when I shake my head at the girls.

"That's alright, you can sing your other song," one of the judges prods us on.

We now start singing 'Firework' by Katy Perry after I hum out their cues and, somehow, we make it through the entire song without the girls messing up or getting distracted.

I finish up the outro with a sweet couple of chords and a dramatic ending note. Setting my violin by my feet, I notice Van motioning to me to hold her outstretched hand and I do so, Violet and Tracie now clinging to my sides.

I look up at the judges and see them smiling and one even goes, "Aww!"

I smile just a bit, even the judge's expression reminding me of mom's expression the first day that Violet started school and she ran to me when we went to pick her up. Seems like she's everywhere today...

I tune in to the conversation to hear the judges praising the girls for their cuteness and well-rehearsed performances. They continue on to say that the harmonies are just perfect and that my violin playing skills are 'on fleek'. They would love to have us, but they can tell us the results only after everyone has auditioned.

"What is 'on freak', Vallie?" Vi asks me once we're out of the audition room.

"It's 'on fleek', honey," I correct her, not knowing the meaning of it either.

Van chuckles, "You don't know what that is, do you?"

"Well, since you can read minds, as you just demonstrated, why don't you tell me what she meant when she said that?" I retort.

"Hmm," Van puts on a 'thinking' expression, "Well, you see, she doesn't know what it means either."

We burst into laughter and return to the couch we were earlier located near to take our bags and move to the place we're supposed to stay in to wait for the results. I'm still wiping my eyes from the laughter when Tracie lets go of my hand.

I blink to clear the tears and look up to see that she's running towards her mother.

"Shtashyyyyyyyy!" Violet yells and runs to hug her too.

I look at Van to see her lips widening ever so slightly as she shakes her head at the two. Why does everything Van does remind me of her? Oh right, she's her daughter.

I'm pulled out of my thoughts when Stacie pulls me into a hug.

"I saw you guys perform, you were great!" she informs us, excitement radiating from her voice.

"I told you we would be great," Van tells her calmly, her eyes shining with the mischief she's up to.

"Oh, and when was that, eh?" Stacie counters as they launch off into a long war of words.

I chuckle and sit the two youngest down on a nearby couch, handing them a box each when they claim they're hungry again. I open up another box seeing as I myself am quite hungry when someone calls my name.

I look at the four people in the room whom I know but it's none of them. I turn around when my name is called again and find out it's one of the judges, who's beckoning me.

"Yes?" I ask him when I near him.

"Look, Valerie, we only have one spot left, and, to be frank, your group wasn't all that good. But we see immense potential in you. So we'll stage it like you guys came to audition and then you girls had a fight and you decided to audition solo. You'll get that much-deserved spot," he says in a low monotone voice as Vi shuffles around my feet. Oh no, she wasn't supposed to hear that!

"Well you should go for it!" Violet squeals and runs to a bewildered-looking Stacie and Van stares at me like she knows exactly what's happening and she hates me for it. Just like mom did when the earlier dad went missing.

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Well, don't hate me for dropping so many bombshells, I'm just trying to piece together her past before moving on to her career!

Also the song of the chapter because I'm obsessed! Love y'all and hope I can get the next chapter out #SOON (Don't hate me for it, I just had to)!

Also, I changed the song from Roar to Firework because, at this point in this timeline, Roar hasn't even been released yet so yup.

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