Two days later, on the weekend at ten in the morning, Eric was sitting in the fifth row from the top of the theater seats inside the music conservatory’s concert auditorium. He was flanked by Chloe, Monica, Priya, Heidi, and Laura, all of them holding brochures for today’s competition program and event schedule. Eric looked down at his brochure.

"Hey... Emma isn’t performing until later, right after the first intermission. Why did we get here so early?" Eric asked, pointing at the schedule.

"We wanted to grab good seats, just in case it gets packed," Priya explained.

"Besides... haven’t you noticed the front rows? Literally all the freshman girls from our school are here watching," Heidi added, gesturing toward the lower right section in front of them.

"Hmm... there are a ton of people from other schools here too," Monica noted, scanning the room.

"That makes sense. This is an all-girls high school competition... it starts at the city level, moves to regional, and then finally nationals. Of course a lot of schools are participating," Chloe chimed in.

"Okay... but does anyone else feel like everyone is staring right at us?" Laura asked, leaning in closer to Heidi and looking over at the rest of the group.

Hearing Laura’s question, Eric, Chloe, Monica, Priya, and Heidi immediately checked their surroundings. Sure enough, almost every single female student in the auditorium—both below them in the front rows and up in the balcony above—was looking their way and whispering. Then they overheard a conversation between two girls sitting right behind them, who were clearly from a different school.

"Hey... right in front of us... isn’t that The Empress and Eric Reed?" the first girl whispered to the second, though Eric and the girls could hear her perfectly clear.

"Yeah... that’s them. If we go say hi... would that be rude?" the second girl whispered back.

"You do it... go talk to them," the first girl whispered.

"No way... you do it, I’ll back you up," the second girl retorted.

As the two girls kept arguing back and forth over who should be the one to go up and break the ice, Eric, Chloe, Monica, Priya, Heidi, and Laura naturally started feeling a bit uncomfortable. Finally, Priya stood up and turned around.

"Hey there," she greeted the two girls behind them, making them instantly jump in surprise.

"It’s actually a lot more impolite to whisper right behind us when we can hear every word, don’t you think?" Heidi asked, also standing up and turning around.

"What school are you guys from?" Monica asked, joining them.

"W-we’re from St. Bernadette’s All-Girls High... um... is it okay if we get a picture with you guys?" the second girl asked with a hopeful smile.

"Of course you can, let’s just do it right here," Priya said.

Monica immediately pulled Chloe up to her feet while Heidi tapped Laura on the head to get her moving. The two visiting students stood up and turned around, but they were struggling to snap a decent selfie because of the cramped space between the rows. Monica glanced over at Eric.

"Eric, could you take the picture for us?" Monica asked.

"Sure... give me a second," Eric replied.

Eric stood up, stepped out of his row, and walked up the steps to the seventh tier. One of the girls handed him her smartphone.

"Alright... ready... one... two... three,"

Eric pressed the button. "Let’s do one more," he counted down again and snapped another shot.

"Now do a silly face,"

The girls immediately struck a pose, some stuck their tongues out, others tried looking sexy, and everything in between. Eric clicked the shutter, checked the results, and handed the phone back to the second girl, who looked thrilled.

But suddenly, Eric felt a warmth pressing against his back, and a wave of whispering broke out right behind him. He spun around and nearly jumped out of his skin. A massive crowd of girls from other schools had swarmed the steps right behind him, and some were already snapping photos of him.

"Um... hi there?" Eric said, instantly plotting his escape.

"Take a picture with us too, Eric Reed!" one of the girls shouted from the crowd, though it was impossible to tell who said it since everyone was talking over each other.

Just as Eric was trapped and backed into a corner with nowhere to run, he was suddenly yanked to the side. Instantly, Monica, Heidi, and Chloe formed a human shield right in front of him, while Priya and Laura stood on either side of him. Monica then took a step forward up the stairs. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Ahem... sorry girls, but he’s off-limits. If you want photos, we’re more than happy to take them with you instead," Monica said with a firm smile.

The crowd of visiting girls, already massive and tightly packed, immediately began pushing and shoving as they scrambled to get a picture with The Empress first. Meanwhile, Priya told Eric to sit back down in his seat for his own safety and to hold down their spot.

The moment he sat down, the two girls from the all-girls school behind him leaned their heads forward.

"Hi Eric Reed, I’m Hana and this is Jessica. It’s so great to meet you," Hana, the first girl, said.

"Great to meet you, Eric," Jessica added.

Eric turned around and smiled, extending his hand, and the two girls eagerly shook it.

"Hey there... great to meet you guys too," Eric said with a smile.

"Hana and I just started high school, and we came here to support our seniors who are competing," Jessica said.

"Yeah! Are you here supporting your school too, Eric?" Hana asked.

"Yep... my friend is competing, but I actually don’t go to school anymore," Eric replied with a smile.

"Oh... you already graduated?" Hana asked.

"Yeah, I’m working now," Eric answered.

"Wow... that’s so cool. Can I get your number?" Jessica asked, holding out her smartphone.

"Oh... sure," Eric said, pulling his phone out of his pocket, completely oblivious.

But before they could swap numbers, two security guards stepped in to break up the crowd, forcing the massive group of girls to head back to their respective seats. As Monica, Chloe, Heidi, Priya, and Laura walked back down the steps to their row, they caught Jessica holding out her phone and Eric pulling his out of his pants pocket.

"Um... what’s going on here?" Chloe asked, confused.

"Oh, I was just asking for Eric’s number," Jessica answered.

"Ah... I see. How about you take mine instead?" Monica said smoothly, instantly tapping her phone against Jessica’s to swap QR codes.

Then Priya, Chloe, Heidi, and Laura followed suit. Looking down at her smartphone and seeing the contact info for all five members of The Empress, Jessica’s face completely lit up. Her eyes sparkled and she grinned from ear to ear, completely forgetting all about Eric’s number.

"Thank you so much, seniors!" she said, beaming with pride.

"You’re welcome," the five girls replied in unison.

The girls sat back down in their seats, flanking Eric, and then all five of them glared at him intensely. Eric looked at them one by one, totally bewildered.

"What?" Eric asked.

"Grrr... nothing," Monica, Priya, Heidi, and Laura growled, even though they claimed it was nothing.

"Can I borrow your smartphone?" Chloe asked, holding her hand out.

"Oh... sure, here," Eric replied, handing his phone over to Chloe.

But then Eric was left completely bewildered because Chloe just slid his phone right into her purse and sat back down quietly, acting like nothing had happened. On top of that, Monica, Priya, Heidi, and Laura also looked perfectly relaxed watching Chloe do it, as if it were the most normal, natural thing in the world.

"Hey... why did you put my smartphone in your bag? What if someone tries to call me?" Eric asked.

"As long as we’re here, it’s safer if I hold onto your phone for a while," Chloe replied.

"Exactly," Monica, Priya, Heidi, and Laura chimed in together, completely backing Chloe up.

"Hmm... I see... do you want my car keys too?" Eric asked, reaching toward the pocket of his jeans.

"No need, the smartphone is plenty," Chloe replied, raising her hand without even turning to look at him.

"Exactly," Monica, Priya, Heidi, and Laura added in unison, nodding in full agreement with Chloe.

"Oh... okay then," Eric replied, totally clueless about what Chloe was actually up to.

Eric turned his attention back to the front since the event was about to start. Five judges filed in from the side and took their seats at the judges’ table in the very front row. Still, he couldn’t shake that uneasy feeling, his mind keeping him distracted as he wondered why Chloe had put his smartphone in her bag. But in the end, he decided to just look on the bright side.

"Maybe she’s just worried I’ll drop my phone, lose it, or get it stolen... whatever, I’ll just let it go... honestly, I should probably be grateful, right?" Eric thought to himself, completely missing the fact that their actual intentions were worlds apart from what he was imagining.