When Felix found Jen and Elise amicably curled up together on the practice room floor, poring over Jen's guitar and Elise's notebook, he looked anything but surprised.

"Friends again?" he asked, sitting down in front of them. Before either of them could respond, he bent over their work and added, "Whatcha doing?"

On instinct Elise reached out to yank her notebook out of his sight. To her surprise, Jen did the same, their hands meeting where they covered up the half-done lyrics. "Hands off!" Jen said. "You can't see it till it's finished, you pervert."

"What do you mean, pervert?" Felix replied, looking half puzzled and half amused. "Is the song still half naked or something?"

"It's only in its underwear," Elise retorted, grinning at the absurdity of her own statement. "We're not done dressing it yet."

"Yep," said Jen. "So stop peeping, you creep."

Shrugging, Felix inched backwards until he was at a safe distance from their songwriting. "Any progress yet?"

Elise looked at Jen. Jen looked at Elise. Both searched the other's face for approval for what they were about to say.

"I mean," said Elise, "we sure have been writing a lot of songs, if that's what you're asking."

Jen let out a frustrated huff. "But we still haven't found the one!"

A grin spread over Felix' face, the kind that usually came right before an incredibly lame joke. "So basically, like dating," he answered. "Lots of dates and you still can't find the perfect one."

He cackled at his own joke, even as Jen threatened to throw a pencil at him. Elise, however, groaned and laughed. "Exactly," she said. "But I'm still not lowering my standards!"

"Yeah! Yeah!" Jen burst out, jumping to her feet. "Either it's good enough, or it gets dumped!"

"That's all good, guys, but we still need a twenty-minute set."

"We can find something," Jen said at once. "It just needs to be perfect!"

"As long as we still have time to practice it," came Shine's voice from the door. "Tick, tock, ladies, the deadline's coming up!"

"We know!" Jen shouted at once. Then she spun from side to side. "Where's Zahir? We need to practice Overthinker again!"

Elise looked down; the last time around, she remembered with shame, the others had practiced without her. But now she would join in again; she and Jen had figured out the choreography thing, and they could focus on the more important parts again. Like writing the goddamn hit song they still needed.

"And one more thing," Felix said when Zahir arrived and all of them were setting up their instruments and microphones. "The club guys asked me about the name of our band."

Everyone froze.

Right, the five of them still weren't operating under a name.

"Shit, you're right!" Jen exclaimed, nearly dropping her microphone. "We can't get signed if we don't even have a name!"

"Uh…" Elise looked helplessly into the round. "Anyone got any ideas?"

Awkward silence. Felix shook his head. Shine gave a shrug. What Zahir was thinking, Elise couldn't tell. Jen made a face as if to say, You know words aren't my thing.

"How long do we have to find one?" Elise asked.

Felix pondered the question, then said, "Until the end of the week?"

A collective gulp went through the room. Jen marched up to him and grabbed him by the shirt. "And you didn't think about telling us earlier?"

"I didn't realize," Felix answered, unfazed by the girl glaring up at him like an angry chihuahua, her head barely reaching his collarbones. "We've been playing without a name so far."

"Also, you didn't realize it either," Shine said with a laugh. "Chill out, dude!"

With a huff Jen let go of Felix' shirt and marched back to her spot. "This sucks!" she muttered as she waited for the others to finish adjusting and tuning their instruments. "Now we have two deadlines! And no ideas!"

Elise tried to sound reassuring. "We'll find something," she promised. "It's like searching for Christmas presents, you always get the right idea just when it's almost too late."

Jen snorted and chuckled, trying and miserably failing to keep a straight face. Smiling back, Elise relaxed. Jen didn't seem too stressed by the looming deadline yet, not enough to turn her back into dictator mode. Besides, the look on her face was enough to eliminate any overly anxious thoughts; there was something about the mirthful glitter of her eyes, the dimples showing in her cheeks that soothed Elise's fears on sight, and there was something musical even to her stifled laughs.

She wasn't the unattainable singer anymore, Elise thought. Jen was her friend now, a human being with quirks and oddities and flaws of her own, an equal instead of the cool person Elise could only look up to. But even so, despite all her weaknesses, the radiance and charisma that had first drawn her in were still there, plain for her to notice.

The instrumental of Overthinker began to play, and Elise eliminated all thoughts that had nothing to do with the performance. The dissonance that had been crackling between her and Jen lately was gone. Her parents really hadn't been happy with her coming home late last time—her mom probably would have made good on her threat if not for the fact that Elise had been glowing when she came home. But even so, that extended practice session had done wonders for restoring their harmony.

She didn't have to feebly try to be Jackson Song anymore. She was Miguel Valencia, minus the guitar, and Jen was her Jack; where Jen could go overboard with her full body, Elise's calmer demeanor balanced her out. And suddenly it didn't feel like they were doing two separate things; suddenly they were a team again, each playing a different role in their intricately weaved performance of two.

It still wasn't perfect. Jen forgot the lyrics at one spot, and Elise jumped in for her and promptly found herself with an arm around her shoulder as a silent thanks. And in a way, that was almost more fun than a flawless performance.

"That was fun!" Elise said when the song was finished. "I think I can actually perform like that!"

"Yeah! Yeah!" Jen was beaming from ear to ear too. "But I still keep forgetting lyrics!" She kicked a frustrated foot. "Stupid lyrics!"

Elise laughed. "I mean, I remember them," she said, "so we just have to pretend it's planned. It should be fine as long as we don't both forget them at the same time."

"Should I jump in if you do?" Felix piped in, audibly amused by his own suggestion.

"Absolutely not!" Jen replied. Turning back to Elise, she explained, "He can't sing for shit."

"Zahir's pretty good," Shine remarked. "Right, Zahir?"

All eyes landed on Zahir, who looked anything but comfortable with the suggestion. "Good?" he repeated haltingly. "At singing?"

There was a short pause, and then he spluttered, "How did you know I sing in the first place?"

Shine burst out laughing. "Bro, you sing under your breath all the time!" he said. "Did you think we didn't notice?"

Zahir was very, very red. Elise felt for him. "Hey, don't put him on the spot like that," she chided gently. "If he doesn't want to sing, he doesn't have to sing. We just have to remember the lyrics."

Sighing with relief, Zahir shot her a grateful look. Elise bit back a smile. Even after all this time, the guitarist barely ever interacted with her; but perhaps, with time and patience, she could get along with him too.

"Anyway," she said, turning to Jen, "what do we work on next?"

Apparently the answer turned out to be 'a lot'.

~ ~ ~

By the time practice ended, they had significantly improved their performance for the songs they already had, but new ideas still seemed as far away as ever.

It was obvious that Jen was still ruminating on the question when they were walking back to the station later. She was distracted no matter how often Elise tried to keep a conversation going, often muttering to herself and almost missing turns or walking onto a busy street until Elise pulled her in the right direction. But even so she still didn't seem any closer to the solution.

"Something relatable," she muttered over and over. "But what?"

Elise sighed and shrugged. "This is going nowhere," she said. "All our other ideas came from normal conversations, not us trying to force out a song. Maybe if we talk about different topics enough, we can find some inspiration."

For a moment it didn't seem like her words had reached Jen at all. Then Jen's eyes lit up, and she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. "You're right," she said. "I totally didn't realize that!"

"Okay." Elise cracked a smile; then, to keep the conversation going, she continued, "Somehow that's also like dating. They do say that you find the right person when you're not looking for a partner, or something."

"Ew, the dating analogy," Jen replied, making a face. "You can't make your own partner anyway. But you can make songs, so Felix was actually wrong."

Elise snorted. "Finding a partner is overrated anyway," she remarked. "I used to beat myself up for never having a boyfriend, but now all the girls in my classes keep complaining about their useless boyfriends and I'm like, you know what? Being single is actually pretty dope."

"Yeah! Yeah! I know, right?" Jen said, her eyes wide and sparkling. "You don't have to compromise, you don't have to remember anniversaries, you don't have to change yourself…"

"…you don't have anyone trying to control you or mooching off you," Elise completed the train of thoughts. "But people still act like being single is the saddest thing in the world and single people are so lonely and desperate." She rolled her eyes. "Just 'cause I'm alone doesn't mean I want to mingle!"

Jen stopped walking.

"Say that again," she said.

Elise blinked, but complied. "Just 'cause I'm alone doesn't mean I want to mingle…"

And then, just for fun and because it rhymed, she added another line. "Welcome to my life, twenty-one and single."

She had expected Jen to laugh at her silly joke.

What she did not expect was being grabbed by the shoulders and yelled at about how this was brilliant.

Elise smiled.

Maybe, this time around, they were actually onto something.