“Do you even want to perform with us, or do you think you are too good for practice?”

As predicted, Elsa was furious and she had every right to be. I was the weakest link in our performance tomorrow and Anna was supposed to be the manager, and we both missed yet another morning of practice.

Well, not only Elsa was furious. They all seemed pretty angry.

“Well, all of our time until the performance has been kept free for Yuri Blooms and Yuri Blooms alone.” Anna lied. We still had to help out with the play too, of course, then we had to follow up on our Y-file between Valerie and Mia, and if aunt Bernie asked for anything, we would have to oblige.

“Hmph! Let's just get started. We wasted enough time already.”

Our afternoon practice was hard. I had real trouble remembering where to stand when. You spot from a mile off that the other girls had practiced hard, and that I was just an addition. However slowly but surely that gap was closing.

When it started to seem that we would be able to make it in time for the performance, the atmosphere in the group started to improve really fast, and I had to admit, even I was having fun with this.

Anna had left to pick up some accessories, and when she returned, my jaw dropped.

Those “accessories” was a professional lights and effects crew from the Lyst's talent agency. They were going to modify the stage for our performance. I was pretty sure that Anna did not tell aunt Bernie or Narcy anything about this. When I asked her about that she said “Narcy will be okay with it since I arranged that they would also enhance the play.”

“And Aunt Bernie?” Anna looked at me and said “I might have accidentally forgotten to ask. I will send her an e-mail later.”

Notifying her when she can no longer object. That's an Anna move alright. I shook my head. She was still as outrageous as when we met.

Anna addressed the entire group and said “We will continue our practice on the stage until the theater group starts their rehearsal. Unfortunately, we will have to practice without the fireworks, because they are too expensive. They will only be there for the real thing.

"F-Fireworks?!" She was going to bring actual fireworks to the stage of a school festival?

"Perfect!, our show will be just like a professional idol show!" Elsa said enthusiastically.

"Well, of course, you are professional idols after all..." Anna answered in her cool professional way. I wondered which idol yuri story she was bringing to life...

When we got to the stage, I noticed a few areas on the floor had been marked in different colors. We soon got the explanation from the effects crew. The red floor meant it was a caution for fireworks place. The blue floor meant that there was a lift underneath, and green meant there was a trap hole that could be activated from a distance.

Elsa took her schematics of our coordination and started to make little changes for our safety. Making a wrong step was no longer a chance of bumping into one another after all. One misstep, and we could get burned alive. So I paid attention. It's not because everyone was calling me the yuri Jeanne D'Arc, that I wanted to end up like the real one...

So we started practicing with only light effects, to be certain we got everything down right. Once that was the case, we started practicing with the elevator platform and the trap holes.

We were still in full swing when Narcy entered and shouted “What the hell happened to the stage!”

If Narcy was here, that meant our practice time with the stage was over. It was now time for the theater group's final rehearsal, which meant Elsa was needed on the stage a lot.

I thought of taking a break, but Eve said “We will continue our practice. You need all the practice you can get.” My muscles were already aching. I hoped I would not be as stiff as a board tomorrow.

We continued our practice in a different room so we wouldn't bother the theater group, by the time it was time to go home, I started to think I was getting actually quite good at this.

“What will we practice tonight?” I asked. “I doubt I will be able to move tomorrow if I do any more dancing.”

“What do you mean?” Elsa asked. “We have only practiced the dancing part. Tonight we do the singing.”

“S-Singing? We are going to sing live?” I thought we were just going to do choreography and play the music on the sound system.

“Yes, I still need to attune your voice to the voice correcting program, so I think it is going to be quite a long night,” Anna said.

We all left for Elsa's place together. I noticed on the way that the mood was a bit down. When Therese asked, “Is your mom really okay with us coming this time?”

“She'll be fine with it this time.” She threw me a reproaching glare. It had been a while since she looked at me like that, so I was a bit taken by it. Then she added, “Claire is there, so everything will be just fine.” I could not help but catch a hint of sarcasm in her tone.

What the hell did that mean or have to do with anything. I decided to handle it like I used to handle Elsa, and just ignore it.

 When we arrived, Elsa's mother welcomed us all with open arms. Therese and Eve looked really surprised. “Claire! I am so glad you got these four to make up. It's such a dreadful thing when people hold on to grudges.” She gave me a hug and a kiss in a way too familiar way for me to be comfortable with. After all, it was the first time we met.

“I was always telling Elsa she should make friends with a fine lady like you. You could be such a good role model for her.” I felt really embarrassed at those words. I had no idea how to react to that.

I could see that Elsa was of course about to explode.

“Honey, come see who Elsa brought over.”

A man, I suppose Elsa's dad walked over to greet me. “You must be Claire, my wife and daughter always talk so much about you. It's pleasure to meet you.”

I looked at Elsa, but she just hmphed and looked away. Tina was doing her best to calm her. I noticed how her parents ignored all the other guests and were only talking to me. This was just weird, and I didn't really feel comfortable with it. So I said

“I was happy that Elsa allowed me to perform with them tomorrow.”

“Oh, I am sure it will be better with you in it, Claire. I just hope our Elsa won't look too plain next to you.”

“Mom!” Elsa shouted angrily. She looked really hurt. I think I would be hurt too if mom said something like that about me.

“Let's go and practice shall we,” Tina said to try and avert a confrontation. But I could not let this be. So I said “Elsa has been my rival ever since we were very small kids. If she is not worth standing next to me I wouldn't know who is. Hmph!” I said, doing my best to talk in Elsa's style.

Elsa looked surprised at the sudden acknowledgment of our rivalry and I noticed a spark of competition in her eyes. I hope I didn't make her revert to the way we used to be.

Elsa's mom seemed a bit shaken by that statement. I noticed she wanted to say something, but I interrupted her before she could poison the well again.

“Sorry, but we are running out of time. We have a lot of work to do, and I'll never catch up to Elsa if we lose any more time.”

“You need to catch up to Elsa? Are you sure it's not the other way around?” Elsa's mom asked surprised. Really. I was starting to get why Elsa hated me so much and wanted to compete with me all the time.

“When it comes to music, Elsa is way more talented than I will ever be,” I said, trying to affirm Elsa.

Anna clapped her hands and said “Let's get this show on the roll. No more time to waste. We will have plenty of time to talk later.

When we were in Elsa's room, Elsa immediately said “I'm sorry for my mom. That was so embarrassing.”

“Mothers can be like that. I know all about it.” Anna said. “If you want we can exchange stories sometimes.”

Elsa gulped, and then said. “Sure, I'd love to, Anna.” What was this? I felt this surge of jealousy coming up and could not help but say

“Seems like you got yourself a date with another girl! Hmph!”

I could see Tina was having the exact same struggles with Anna's proposal when she said  with a clear undertone of sarcasm:

“Yes, maybe the two of us should just go on a date elsewhere at the same time. Hmph!”

“Come on, you know I did not mean it like that. You should just come too. I never intended it any other way. It will be fun to share some old stories.” Anna said.

“Yes, Tina, you should come too,” Elsa said in a hurry. I could see Tina's reaction had left Elsa a bit uncertain.

The feelings of jealousy the ball had left with me were still fresh in my mind, and I realized after opening my mouth that that had made me overreact. I knew Anna would not cheat on me like that, and I knew Elsa was way too head over heels for Tina to even think about trying anything with Anna, but I had to save face. So I said

“Fine. Hmph.” I was surprised to hear the exact same words come from Tina's mouth at the exact same time. Oh no. Was I becoming a tsundere? Or worse, had I been one all along? I decided to use the power of repression on that string of thoughts and hugged Anna, claiming her for myself. I wanted to show that Anna was mine, just as much as I was hers.  

After that little episode, we started practicing the song. The second I was singing through a micro, I could hear how bad my voice sounded, but then Anna started working her magic and we all sounded like we could perfectly reach any high notes. It was a bit getting used to only listening to the speakers and not to our actual voices, but I was surprised with how much difference this technology could make.

Since we were so busy, we ordered pizza for dinner and ate in Elsa's room. I think she used that excuse because she wanted to avoid another confrontation with her parents. We worked until about 10 pm when Therese suddenly said “That's it for me. Let's call it a night. I want to do the fun part of a sleepover. Since we are all couples we can compare stories. I've been waiting all day to be able to do that.”

Everyone seemed to be happy at the prospect and agreed with Therese. Even Anna had that sparkly look in her eyes. I sighed. I would have practiced all night if it had gotten me out of that embarrassing conversation.

While we took turns taking a shower, we prepared the room for the sleepover. We laid out our inflatable mattresses and sleeping bags.

When Anna returned from the bathroom, she was wearing her pink cat pajamas. All the girls squealed at the sight. Really Anna? You brought those pajamas to the sleepover. When she noticed my disapproving gaze she said “I thought you loved these. You slept the whole night on my bosom last time I wore it.”

That made me blush. “Well, they are incredibly soft, and the sound of your heartbeat calms me.”

Another squeal concert passed the room. I guess Anna and I were the ones to start, and the trend was set. We spent hours sharing stories. Well, when it was about us, Anna did most of the sharing while I hid my face under my covers. This was all just so embarrassing, but I did pick up a thing or two from the other girls' stories that I wanted to try out with Anna someday.