Adlewood Academy

With her old, faithful guitar in hand, Mia entered the sound studio, immediately sitting on the nearest chair. She thought that Zayn would have arrived before her, and was shocked to find that the room was empty. She took it as a sign of good faith though, because she wanted a chance to tune up before he got there.

Mia still couldn’t decide how she felt about Zayn and her making an attempt to work together. Deep down, she was still angry at him for using her music, but she couldn’t help but be excited by the prospect of the music they’d be making together. If they could get the sound just right, it could be their chance at winning the Finals Showcase, and that was everything Mia dreamed of.

“Ah, you’re here,” Zayn said, as he entered the room with a laptop tucked under his arm.

Mia simply nodded from her spot on her chair, meeting his eyes as she gave a quick strum of her guitar. She didn’t get as much practice as she had wanted, but it sounded good enough.

“You want to get right to it, then?” Zayn asked when she said nothing to him. She nodded her head and he set his laptop on top of the sound board and opened it up.

Trying to get a peek at his laptop, Mia nibbled at her lip before speaking. “What did you have in mind?”

“You’ll see.” He smiled over at her, giving her a soft nod of his head. “You just play your music same as you always do and I’ll do the rest.”

Mia tried to hide the nervousness on her face by nodding her head, and gave another quick pass of her fingers over the string. After clearing her throat, she began playing freely, trying not to let her nerves get the best of her. She simply sang and played her guitar, all while wondering what he was thinking of her. She forced her eyes closed, because she couldn’t bring herself to look at him.

Before Mia knew what was happening, she heard the unfamiliar sound of technical music filling her ears. She had no clue what kind of beat it was or how he had come up with it, but she knew that it sounded perfect.

The feeling that washed over Mia when she heard the combined sound of their music was something unexplainable. She always knew that she had something missing, but she never in a million years would have guessed that it would have been Zayn – a rugged, badass, no rules beat student. There was just something so right about their music being mixed together, and when the song was over, she couldn’t stop smiling.

“Did you like it?” Zayn said, his bright grin matching hers. He had to know that she did, because she just couldn’t stop smiling.

She gave a soft nod of her, meeting his eyes before looking at the ground. “It was perfect.”

Zayn chuckled. “It was, wasn’t it?”

Mia pursed her lips, shaking her head at him. “Now, don’t get too cocky. You’ve still got a lot of making up to do.”

Honestly, what Zayn had done more than made up for playing her song over the school stereo, but she couldn’t have him knowing that. The more favors that he thought he owed her, the further ahead she was, and she needed to be two steps ahead of Zayn if she was ever going to make it out on top.

“Me, cocky? He said, pointing to himself and laughing. “Never.”

Mia rolled her eyes, pulling her guitar back onto her lap. “Whatever you say.”