Page 32 of Forbidden Heart

With a snort, I get to my feet. This song is clearly not going anywhere, and if I’m going to write it, I need to take this seriously.

I relocate to the home library and set my laptop down on the boardroom table. I grab a stack of paper and pens from one of the shelves, too, just in case, and detour by the kitchen for snacks.

Once I’m all set, I vow not to leave the room until I have a song. A good song. The best song ever.

The guys are counting on me. If I can’t come up with a beautiful song about fairy tales that they can use in the competition, I’ll be letting all of them down.

My stomach tenses with nerves. They’re already letting me stay in their dorm, and if Marcus the RA found out I was here, they could get in serious trouble. The least I can do is write them the perfect song to make it up to them. To help them make their a cappella dreams come true.

Biting the back of my pen in determination, I promise myself that I will do this, and do it well. I’ll write them a brand new song, one that melds all the guys’ beautiful singing voices. The panel of judges said their audition song didn’t showcase their voices well, but this song will be different. I’m going to take their unique voices and personalities and bring them together in perfect harmony. Starting now.

I divide the page into four boxes and jot down notes about each of the guys. I can picture their singing voices in my head, but they’re each doing their own thing, and I have no clue where to start.

Maybe I need a different approach. Writing everything down on a piece of paper is too much like school... and writing songs is anything but. Usually, they just come to me, sucking me into their fairy tale dream.

I imagine myself as a fair maiden locked away in the tower of an enchanted castle. I look out the window and see Tate in a full suit of armor, all shining silver with a blue plume at the top of his helmet. He’s riding toward me on a large, white stallion. Then he leaps off his horse, draws his shining sword, and slashes at ghostly enemies to get to me. His princess.

I smile and think of Charles next. My cultured Beast. He greets me in perfect French—not that I speak perfect French, or any French, but it sounds French in my head. He pulls me into his arms and we twirl around the ballroom, me in a gorgeous gown made of blue silk and him in a perfectly tailored suit.

JJ arrives next, my Knight in Shining Armor. Except I already had Tate wearing shining armor, so that won’t do. My mental image transforms so JJ’s wearing a plaid shirt, but that’s not very fairy tale, is it?

The shirt disappears, and his gleaming muscles are on full display. I picture him chopping wood. His broad shoulders and muscular arms push and pull and sweat as he raises the axe and brings it down on a stump, splitting the wood in half. His hard abs all move together and interlock like a living machine. He is fit, lean, muscular, and toned. I drool a little as I watch him gather up the wood and head to a meadow, where he happens across a sleeping princess. Me.

Then he’s replaced by Silas. Mean, yelling, filled with anger and hate Silas. A truly evil Dark Prince. He captures the princess in my mind’s eye, then doubles over as she kicks him in the balls. Could I get someone to do that on stage? Or would that be against the competition rules?

I snort and picture him mounted on a large black stallion instead. He’s the evil prince, out to kidnap the innocent princess. All wicked people in fairy tales are ugly, so he’d need a few fake warts, plus some dirt and twigs to make this work. Not that Silas would ever go for it.

Maybe I could make him a handsome prince who fell under a curse instead. The curse makes him cruel so he can never find true love and break the spell with true love’s kiss. All the other fair maidens ran away from his cruelty—but not the princess. I am the only one who is pure enough to break the spell and win his heart.

I sigh dreamily. It’s an amazing story... no, scratch that. I’ve got four amazing stories. Four princes. But how do I bring them all together in just one song?

They’re all glorious stories in their own ways, but I can’t combine them. That wouldn’t be right. A fairy tale princess always picks one prince, one story. Maybe in the song, they vie for her attention, and in the end she has to choose.

Finally, a concept! Except I still don’t have a song. What good is an idea when I have no music? No lyrics? All I have are four princes and four stories competing for attention but never once coming together and making the song whole.

I bang my head on the desk. The guys are counting on me, but I have absolutely nothing. And unless I can figure it out, and soon, I’m doomed... and so are their chances at winning the a cappella competition.

Chapter 14

I spend Saturday night in Tate’s room, since he’s still away visiting his sister. I can’t help but think how lucky she is to have such an amazing guy in her life, and how lucky I am to have met Tate, Charles, and JJ.

“How’s the song coming along?” JJ asks as we’re finishing up breakfast.

I’m about to complain that it’s not, but the hopeful look on his face stops me. I glance at Charles, and he pauses with a forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth and raises an inquisitive brow.

It’s pretty obvious that they’re both waiting for good news. They don’t want to hear about how I spent the entire day locked up in their home library only to come out with absolutely nothing. That I didn’t write a single verse. Scratch that. That I don’t even have one line.

All I have is a concept. An idea.

“An outline!” I blurt. “I wrote an outline.”

Isn’t that what professionals do? Outline things? I’ve always let songs come to me, but that’s because I’m not a real song writer. If I was, I would have gotten into LUV Academy. And I wouldn’t have spent all day failing to write one measly song.

“An outline? That’s great news!” Charles says, and some of the tension seeps out of his shoulders.

My own posture mirrors his as I sag in relief. At least I managed to make it sound like I know what I’m doing. And the guys think I made some progress, even if it wasn’t much.

“We told Silas you could do it.” JJ grins.