Together

A Little Bit Of Luck

Aw, I really like this chapter guys. It's some happiness after the recent sadness in this book, so enjoy! Let me know what you think is going to happen with Katherine in the comments- you'll know what I mean if you read on! love you all!
-ab

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December 28, 2025

Harper

It's much earlier than I would like for it to be when I catch the tube to Katherine's flat. For some reason, she wanted me to come over at 9:00 in the morning, so with sheet music in hand, I catch the tube at 8:30.

Once I find myself back in my old neighborhood of Hampstead, I smile as I walk down the familiar street. I spent some of the best years of my life, living in this neighborhood and sharing a flat with Nessa and Katherine. We would walk down this very street, talking about our dreams and fantasizing about the future. I've been lucky enough for all of my dreams that I would fantasize about to come true.

Knocking on the door of the flat, I only wait a moment before Katherine lets me inside. "Hey! Thank you so much for helping me with this! Come on in," she says, quickly rambling. I can tell that she's anxious about singing, which doesn't surprise me. She's always told me that she is tone deaf, but I refuse to believe that.

"Kath, deep breath," I laugh. "Seriously, I've got you covered."

"What song do you think I should sing for the audition?"

"I brought three options, and I want you to pick." I find the sheet music in my bag and lay it out for her.

"Okay..." Kath says, flipping through 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina.' I can tell that she isn't thrilled with it, but the Mary Poppins piece seems to excite her slightly more.

When she picks up 'NYC' from Annie, though, I know that we need to do that one. She smiles right away.

"I think that the 'Star-To-Be' section in that piece could be a really nice audition cut." I point out what part I'm thinking of in the music.

Shoving the other two pieces of sheet music back into my bag, now that we have reached a decision, I turn to the piano app on my phone and begin to run Katherine through a warm-up.

"This is important, so that you don't hurt the cords," I explain.

After she is warmed up, I play an instrumental track of the song and cue for her to come in when necessary. The first time goes well, considering, but I immediately pick up on a few places that I could help her to fix some things.

"You're far from tone deaf, Kath," I laugh, wanting to compliment her before I give any constructive criticism.

After an hour, and giving a lecture on breath support from my side of things, we really have the section that she's going to audition with down to a science.

"That sounds awesome," I smile. "Just remember to project and use breath support. Honestly, it sounds to me like you've got a little bit of a belt voice hidden inside of you, too, so you don't need to be afraid to use that, if you want to play around with it. If not, then that's fine too. This selection is open for a lot of different sorts of interpretation."

"Okay," Kath tells me. "Thank you so much, Harper."

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what is the story with this audition?"

"Well, basically, this casting director saw me in Nutcracker and needs a strong dancer for an important role in his show, so he was all, 'Do you sing?'"

I laugh.

"So, of course, I said no, but he was like, 'Do you want to learn? I have a job that I want to give you, if you can come in and sing for me decently in... say, two weeks?' Of course, I couldn't pass that up. I love the Royal Ballet, but it's nice to switch things up every now and then, you know?"

"Totally," I smile. "That's going to be so cool for you."

"I really hope that I'm able to book it. I really wish that I could tell you what it was for, but I'm not allowed to, yet."

"That's how it goes sometimes. I understand. It's all in the business."

Then, I change the subject. "So, how's everything with James?"

"It's fine. We haven't been able to hang out much recently, with Nutcracker and all. Both of us were too tired in all of our free time. But that's closed now, so we might have more time."

"That's good," I smile for her.

"How about Patrick? What's it like, being a married girl?"

"It's amazing," I gush. "He's literally the best. Like, seriously. Just, the way that he holds me in his arms when I'm sad, or celebrates with me when I'm happy... I could never have even dreamed of a guy as truly perfect as he is."

"I'm so happy for you."

"I never thought that I would be the first out of the three of us to get married," I laugh. "Speaking of, where's Nessa?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Katherine laughs. "She might have mentioned something about going to track down a scone, but I just told her that she wasn't allowed to be in the flat when you were here, because I didn't want her to listen to me singing. Same with Emmie."

"Ouch," I laugh. "I'm honoured that you trusted me with it."

"Well, I had to. I knew that you were willing to give me a singing lesson for free." Katherine flashes me a cheeky smile, and I burst into laughter.

"God, you know how to manipulate me. I should charge you."

"Too bad I'm broke."

"Well, then it's good that I wasn't going to charge you in the first place," I giggle, playfully slapping Katherine.

We spend a few more minutes chatting, and then, Nessa walks in the door.

"Are you guys done singing?"

"Hey Ness!" I exclaim, running to give her a hug. "Yeah, we are done. This girl is going to kill her audition."

I spend a few more minutes catching up with Nessa, before I announce that I've got to be on my way.

"Patrick wanted to take me out for a lunch date," I explain. "It's our cheat day on our diet, since it's the one day of the week that I don't have a show."

Katherine laughs, knowing all too well what I mean. While ballerinas and singers have different sorts of strict diets to follow, it's the same idea.

"Bye," my friends say to me.

"Bye guys! Can we hang out again soon?"

"Totally," Nessa replies.

"Great. I'll text you two."

"Cool," Kath says. "Thanks again. Bye Harper."

"Bye."

I walk out of the flat and catch the tube back to my flat, where Patrick is waiting for me, looking really quite excited about taking me out for lunch.