&quot;You going to &lsquo;practice&quot; with Timothy again?&quot; I&quot;m walking past Andi'e&quot;s open dorm door with my bag and jacket when her voice has me pulling up. I step into her doorway, taking in the sight of my friend reclined on her bed, notebook in her lap. &quot;What&quot;s with the finger quotes?&quot; I ask. &quot;You&quot;ve been spending every second together all week. If your strategy is to get close enough to back stab the competition, you&quot;re running out of time.&quot; &quot;We&quot;re competing, but our biggest competition is the dozens of other people auditioning.&quot; She cocks her head. &quot;You realize there&quot;s only one closing spot.&quot; Which is why even though we&quot;ve practiced together a few times, those long l

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 <div id="quillEditor" class="episode-content ql-editor">The rest of the weekend, I&quot;m a bundle of nervous energy&mdash;practicing with Timothy and alone. Because of the tight timeline, we&quot;re all business. Every minute, from dawn until midnight, we write and rewrite, play and sing, go over every section of my vocals and his guitar until the result is real and powerful and moves me from the first chord. Monday morning, I can barely listen during Entertainment Management, my stomach flipping over as I stare off into space and go over the arrangement in my head. On my way out of class, I notice a missed call from Haley, plus a voicemail. Emily, we sent you flowers for midterms, but the florist couldn&quot;t deliver them because there was no one with your name at the dorm address you gave us. I told them to try again, but here&quot

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 <div id="quillEditor" class="episode-content ql-editor">&quot;Where you going this early? Breakfast at Vanier?&quot; Jacob&quot;s voice comes from the kitchen Thursday morning. &quot;Nah, I can make use of the now-functioning fridge,&quot; I reply. &quot;There&quot;s some non-moldy cream cheese in there.&quot; I pack my guitar in its case and give myself a quick once-over in the bedroom mirror on the badly painted dresser that came with the apartment. My shirt is not only clean but ironed, and my hair&quot;s doing more or less what I want. I&quot;ll take it as a win. &quot;Yeah, but there&quot;s nothing to put it on. Except an overripe banana.&quot; Jacob peers inside as I pass him, guitar in tow. &quot;Figured you&quot;d be into that

&quot;You going to &lsquo;practice&quot; with Timothy again?&quot; I&quot;m walking past Andi'e&quot;s open dorm door with my bag and jacket when her voice has me pulling up. I step into her doorway, taking in the sight of my friend reclined on her bed, notebook in her lap. &quot;What&quot;s with the finger quotes?&quot; I ask. &quot;You&quot;ve been spending every second together all week. If your strategy is to get close enough to back stab the competition, you&quot;re running out of time.&quot; &quot;We&quot;re competing, but our biggest competition is the dozens of other people auditioning.&quot; She cocks her head. &quot;You realize there&quot;s only one closing spot.&quot; Which is why even though we&quot;ve practiced together a few times, those long looks and teasing touches have been as far as it&quot;s gone. &quot;I wanted to give you that night

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