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she turns her eyes to me “—even though your set is significantly shorter than the others, your vocal cords aren’t accustomed to singing this much. You’ll have a vocal coach monitoring you to make sure you’re not straining too much.
    “You’ll have to build up to it at first with shorter rehearsal times, but you’re still expected to be here with the rest of the band the whole time. Plus, you’ll also have to practice with Travis and the guys for your duets.
    “Everyone else, you already know the drill. Get set up in your assigned sound rooms and get used to being in close quarters for the next eight weeks.”
    With that, everyone pushes back from the table and we leave the meeting room. Katelyn leads the way down the hall to make sure everyone gets where they’re supposed to be. Travis takes the largest room with Mike, Kale, and Drew, the drummer, bassist, and lead guitarist of Sound Bar. Before they close the door, Travis winks at me and says, “Have fun!”
    The girls in the other band take the second room. In the short time I’ve been here today, Cami, Leslie, Jada, and Crystal have made me feel like one of them. Cami, the lead singer of Fireflies, and I seem to have immediately bonded. As she walks into the room, she also turns to me and says, “Good luck, Andi!”
    I smile and give her a small wave as I continue on to the next room. The outer room is the control room where the audio engineer and vocal coach watch and listen. It’s smaller but my music is prerecorded so I don’t need room for a band and instruments.
    “Hi, I’m Dave,” the engineer extends his hand.
    “I’m Andi. Good to meet you.”
    “I’m your vocal coach, Linda. I’m looking forward to working with you,” she says warmly.
    Once I’m inside the soundproof room, the door is securely closed behind me and I put my headphones on. Dave walks me through the song lineup and says most everyone uses the first set as a warm-up. Linda agrees and advises me to simply pretend I’m in the shower and just sing normally.
    Umm, that’s really not helpful.
    After finishing my first run-through, I understand why Dave said that. My voice totally sucked. I missed cues, I was off-key, and it just overall felt weak. The second set was better, and each consecutive set kept getting better and better. Right up until I’d lost count and my voice started getting scratchy. Linda put a halt to my rehearsal at the first sign of a problem and shoved a cup of hot tea with honey at me.
    “You sound great, Andi,” Dave says as I walk into the engineer’s booth.
    “I agree!” Linda beams. “Now, drink your tea and don’t talk for a while. You still have to rehearse with Travis, but that won’t be for another hour or so. You should notice a difference by then,” she explains and hands me two ibuprofen pills.
    Smiling and nodding, I take the pills and go wait in the engineer’s booth in Travis’s sound room. When I take a seat, Travis is singing a brand-new love song that I haven’t heard before. Watching him rehearse it in this smaller, more intimate setting makes me wonder if he wrote it from a personal experience. His face is contorted in pain, his eyes are closed, and the emotions flowing through his lyrics are palpable.
    He unconsciously acts out each line of the song as he describes a love that was lost before it had a chance to be. The chorus is heartbreaking, and I’m completely enraptured by his performance.
     
    Girl, I feel you when you’re not here
    Can you not tell how much I care?
    But you’re with him, and you can’t see
    The one you love should’ve been me
     
    When he finishes the song and opens his eyes, they immediately land on me. His look of surprise can’t be masked, and he quickly averts his eyes. Suddenly feeling like I’m an uninvited guest, I quickly stand and turn toward the door.
    “Don’t go, Andi,” his voice calls out through the speakers in the sound room.
    As I turn back to look at him, he says it