queen bee,, jesse st. james

0.8

gwen snorted from the front seat of the car, "you said that last time too, t." her best friend teased and lia scowled.

"try a vocal adrenaline party next time, there's a karaoke stage and everything." jesse hummed from beside her and lia raised an eyebrow. her reply was delayed seeing as landon immediately coughed from the driver's seat.

"nope, no way." his brotherly tone was apparent which had gwen grinning in the passenger seat.

"there's gonna be a good one after we win today." gwen glanced back to where lia sat, "open invitation." landon's mouth went agape at his girlfriend before she softly hit his shoulder.

lia smiled at her friend but shook her head, "thanks gwen, but no way can i go through that again so soon."

jesse turned his head as he leaned against the door of the car, "a shame." he tutted, shaking his head, his curls shifting with the movement.

"you're going to mess up your hair if you keep doing that." talia scolded, and jesse scowled.

"i'll have you know i spent an hour perfecting the hair for sectionals today, nothing's going to ruin them." jesse crossed his arms and talia shrugged.

"not anymore now that she told you to stop shaking your hair so much." gwen piped up, aimlessly scrolling through her phone and jesse sent her a betrayed look.

"if you three excuse me, i'm going to finish my nap until we get there." talia mumbled, adjusting the sunglasses and she did exactly that.

cheers erupted as vocal adrenaline finished their final song of the night, parents and others alike standing in the crowd as the school of performers bowed. they knew they had blown the other two schools out of the water, and talia was in awe of the talent. she had seen vocal adrenaline perform countless times, both in practice and in performance, and she was blown away every time.

jesse was their new lead singer, he had been the front man since lia first started coming to these for her brother, but now she knew a name to the face and actually knew him. he was an arrogant person, but he had a good reason for his confidence.

gwen stood next to landon as they took their final bows, both of them having grins on their faces and lia's clapping quickened when she made eye contact with the latter. she had ditched the sunglasses before getting out of the car, and her headache medicine was in effect now so she had no problem listening to the loudness of the room before the caramel high students left the stage.

the audience sat down, and from beside her, shelby corcoran had a content smile on her face. "i knew they would be brilliant."  the vocal adrenaline coach hummed, before looking over to talia and narrowing her eyes, "you can't tell that to them though, i have a reputation to uphold." her eyes glistened in amusement and talia smiled. shelby had taken the free seat next to talia after she gave a pep-talk to the students before their performance.

"yes ma'am." the ravenette nodded and shelby raised an amused eyebrow before standing up again.

"i'll see you soon, talia." shelby smiled in an almost mother-like fashion before leaving her seat to go and find her show choir students to speak to them.

by the time the performers were out, talia ran up to gwen and hugged her, before hugging her brother and congratulating the two with a wide smile.

"glad to see you more alive now, tal." landon teased as he rumpled his sisters hair and she simply smiled sheepishly in response.

a presence walked up to landon as he released his sister from their hug, "what, no hug for me? and here i thought we were friends now, tal." jesse sighed, a teasing glint in his expression and talia rolled her eyes before taking a step towards him and hugging him too. he had spoken to his parents before walking over.