[Maia Morales]

- RISE -

"Together, we’re gonna rise with the morning light."

While Maia was certain that it likely didn't make much sense to others, she'd always been rather fascinated with the occupations of her peers' parents. Perhaps, it was because unlike her mother the occupations of her friends' parents were entirely separate from their child. She and her mother had always been close so selecting her mother to be her manager had made practical sense at the time. Prior to her career taking off, the brunette's mother had been the very definition of a helicopter parent. However, nowadays Maia's mother was far more laissez faire as long as her actions didn't endanger her career in anyway. 


"Well, that sounds pretty cool. My mom was a beautician for years up until I got signed. Now her sole purpose in life seems to be managing my career."

Much to Maia's dismay, the starlet had yet to make any friends at her new school. Truthfully, she hadn't even had time to carry on an extended conversation with any of her peers. Any information that she'd come by regarding her classmates had come from overhearing idle gossip in the hallways. Which was the only reason that she had any inkling of the ability that her tutee possessed. Still, she wasn't quite sure how it worked and to what extent. If the conversation at hand was to be taken at face value, it would appear that Melody was also unaware of the answers to these questions.

Things had seemed to be going well enough and then the younger's girl's facial expression shifted. Had she said something to offend or upset the dark haired girl, Maia wondered. However, it would appear that her tutee wasn't shy about expressing herself as her thoughts were soon enough translated into words. It was an inquiry that surely the teen should have been expecting and yet somehow it still caught her offguard. Offering her tutee a sheepish grin, the brunette replied "Well, uh... yeah. For the most part. I can read most surface level emotions. Like annoyance, frustration, anxiety and that kind of thing. The sort of thing that most observant people might pick up through facial expressions or body language and then I can do a deeper dive which I call an emotional scan. Which allows me to go deeper into more complex emotions. Like a person could be feeling scared but also excited or exhilarated at the same time. Or a person can be happy and sad at the same time. Emotions are really tricky to navigate."

JUNIER of GS + Adox

[Melody Newton]

[attr="class","nikki98"]

[attr="class","nikki99"]

I NEED TO COME DOWN

[attr="class","nikki100"]

[attr="class","nikki101"]SEEMS LIKE THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD WENT AND LOST ITS MIND

[attr="class","nikki102"]AND ALL MY CHILDHOOD HEROES HAVE FALLEN OFF OR DIED

[attr="class","nikki109"]Surface level emotions? Like excitement, admiration, and now she had to admit, as blood rushed to her face, embarrassment. Clearly her efforts to hide her feelings when she saw Maia had been completely pointless. She may as well have actually squealed with excitement if the popstar could simply tell how she felt by being in the same room as her. It would have amounted to the same thing anyway.

She tried to hide her embarrassment, realising at the same time that it was utterly pointless. She continued nonetheless, looking down to hide the flush in her cheeks as she searched for something to say in response. Unfortunately, her normally quick wit did not provide her with anything of use. "Yeah, emotions are hard."

Pure genius Melody…

She was normally much more confident about things like this, and finding herself at a loss for words was a situation that was uncomfortably unfamiliar to her. She usually always had an answer, even if it was just a snarky comeback. She'd have been better off not saying anything at all instead of making herself look like an idiot with a response like 'emotions are hard.' Every teen girl fantasised about meeting their idol at some point or another, but she doubted any of them fantasised about being this lost for words when the actually did.

She struggled to reclaim some face, and decided that going on the offensive was probably the best way to do so. She looked up, quirking her eyebrows in curiosity. "That must be kinda hard sometimes, at least I can turn mine off really easily, or not use it, I guess. Can you do that?"

She shrugged, "Is it hard being in like a crowded space when everyone is feeling intense emotions? Is that why you're here? I mean, people must get really worked up at your concerts right?"

[attr="class","nikki103"]310

[attr="class","nikki103"]Maia Morales

[attr="class","nikki103"]Eau de Resistance

NOTES

Totally not feeling insecure...

PHARAOH LEAP.

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[Maia Morales]

- RISE -

"Together, we’re gonna rise with the morning light."

While most emotions were but a mere whisper to Maia, there were others that practically screamed at the brunette. Embarrassment, being one of them. The emotions that the other girl was feeling were as clear as the rosiness that had begun to creep into Melody's cheeks. Almost as if the girl had simply spoken her feelings aloud. It was fairly obvious to Maia that her tutee had very much been trying to conceal her emotions only to find that it had all been for naught. How mortifying that must be for her.  If she had for any reason doubted the fact that Melody was horrified, the fact that the younger girl couldn't seem to bring herself to meet her gaze confirmed it.

The fact that Melody could still form coherent sentences was a promising sign, even if there wasn't much substance to them. Nodding the nineteen year old replied "Yeah, they are hard, but it gets easier with practice and it helps a lot when it comes to trying to understand someone and their motives. Especially when you suspect that someone isn't being completely honest with you." 

Truthfully, her ability wasn't all sunshine and rainbows but Maia hadn't wanted to shed a negative light on her power. Still, she couldn't deny that when someone found out what she could do that they treated her differently. This seemed to be the case even among members of her own kind which was as perplexing as it was disheartening. Most attempted to shield their emotions from her even though it was an exercise in futility. Much as she imagined that Melody was attempting to do so now. Not that she could blame them of course as it was a natural response to such an invasion of privacy.

Finally, Melody lifted her gaze back to Maia's face, her brows quirking as curiosity washed over her youthful visage. The younger girl's inquiry prompted a soft sigh to escape the pop singer's throat as she shook her head sadly "It's challenging that's for sure. I often know more about people on an emotional level than I care to know. Even strangers and unfortunately, I have yet to find a way to turn it off." Surprisingly, no one had ever really had inquired as to why she'd come here or what she'd hoped to gain by being here before. Not even the professors whom had been trying to gain more intel on the inner workings of her ability.


The starlet grew silent for a moment before finally replying "It was really overwhelming at first and I used to get so distracted when on stage because it was just this huge rush of emotions, but I have learned for the most part how to stay grounded during concerts. I have found that I can affect the emotional undertones of an area even though I can't affect a group of people of people on an individual basis. I did it once at a concert on accident when all of intense excitement was starting to give me a headache. I managed to reduce the excitement level. Only slightly, but enough to give me a bit of a break. I guess I am here because I want to learn how to manage the intensity of the emotions that I create within people. Right now it's kind of a like a speaker that is stuck on the highest volume setting and I want to be able to scale it back a bit. If that makes sense."

JUNIER of GS + Adox

[Melody Newton]

[attr="class","nikki98"]

[attr="class","nikki99"]

I NEED TO COME DOWN

[attr="class","nikki100"]

[attr="class","nikki101"]SEEMS LIKE THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD WENT AND LOST ITS MIND

[attr="class","nikki102"]AND ALL MY CHILDHOOD HEROES HAVE FALLEN OFF OR DIED

[attr="class","nikki109"]"That sucks."

Melody meant it as well, her ability may have a dead give away in her eyes, but at least she had control over whether she used the other aspects of her power or not. When she'd first got them accidental fires and holes in the carpet had been commonplace, but she'd learned how to control them, just like one extra muscle, or three in her case.

She was a little jealous, even so. Maia could have told Melody virtually anything and she'd have had little choice but to believe her. There was no external giveaway as to the young star's abilities, it was all based in her mind. That and life would be much easier if you could always tell how the people around you were feeling. Still, as Maia went on, Melody couldn't help but feel her jealousy fade.

"It must be hard in that kind of setting, especially if you have to change how everyone else is feeling just to get a break."

Melody knew better than most people how difficult it could be to live with abilities. Hers might not be such an issue, but occasionally she would hear her father discussing a particularly difficult case with a colleague. Many the metahumans he worked with had even less control than Maia. She shrugged in sympathy, "It could be worse though, some of the metas my Dad works with have even less control than that."

"And, at least there's less people here than in, like, the city or something."

Still, if there was anyone who could help Maia, it would probably be someone here. The MNRU seemed to focus on people with really problematic powers, rather than those with less serious inconveniences. That and it would probably be all over Twitter if Maia was seen going into one of the Metahuman centres around the country.

"I wish we could like… leave though…"

[attr="class","nikki103"]316

[attr="class","nikki103"]Maia Morales

[attr="class","nikki103"]Eau de Resistance

NOTES

Still feel like this place is a prison

PHARAOH LEAP.

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[Maia Morales]

- RISE -

"Together, we’re gonna rise with the morning light."

In response to Melody's assertion that the involuntary nature of her ability 'sucked', Maia could only offer the younger girl a shrug. When her power first manifested and was completely out of control she quite likely would have agreed wholeheartedly with her tutee. However, since then the brunette had learned that her ability while a bit of a pain at times could also be quite useful. Not only to drown out the roar of an over enthusiastic crowd, but to help a close friend through a trying time. Or to give someone a much needed boost of confidence at a time when it would matter the most. 

"The power itself isn't so bad. I mean I do wish that I could turn it on and off like some other metas can. It would certainly make things easier, but I don't regret having it. I have been able to use it to help friends through grieving periods and I once was able to help one of my backup singers with her stage fright, so it definitely has its moments. I've even found that sometimes I understand a person's emotions even better then they themselves do. The hardest part really has been learning self control and resisting the urge to just simply alter every negative emotion that I encounter."

While Maia knew that she would never admit it aloud performing live had really become quite draining for the pop star as it seemed nowadays she had to split her energy between singing, dancing, and keeping the crowd's energy levels balanced. It was far more work than it used to be and was becoming a lot less fun. Despite realizing that she was long overdue for a break, the teen simply couldn't bring herself to disappoint her fans like that. Under the worse of conditions, the teenager had never even cancelled a concert so the idea of not putting out music for a undetermined amount of time seemed unfathomable.

"Well, yeah. To be honest, at first it actually felt kind of impossible. For a little while, I was seriously considering walking away from music altogether. Honestly, I think that's why my manager agreed to me coming here. She was afraid that I'd give up on music if I didn't get better control."

Still, the singer had to admit that Melody did make a good point regarding metas whom had even less control than herself. Try as she might, Maia couldn't imagine what it would be like to have even less control than she did now.  If she hadn't managed to gain even some degree of control over her power, the brunette would have likely locked herself in her room and never left her house. 

"Well, that's fair enough. Can you imagine what it would be like to have never gained any control over your powers? What a nightmare that would be. This is a welcome change though. As you've said there are far less people here so it's not nearly as taxing on me and most of the emotions I've encountered haven't been overly intense. Even still the standalone intense emotional encounter is still better than a whole room of people with strong emotions."

At the mention of not being able to leave, the teen idol quirked a brow at the younger girl. A look of utter perplexity crossed the teenager's face as she inquired "Can't leave? What do you mean? Can't leave here?" Were they not allowed to leave, the pop star mused. No one had ever mentioned to her that once enrolled she wouldn't be able to leave. If this was true, then she'd definitely need to have a chat with the administration.

JUNIER of GS + Adox

[Melody Newton]

[attr="class","nikki98"]

[attr="class","nikki99"]

I NEED TO COME DOWN

[attr="class","nikki100"]

[attr="class","nikki101"]SEEMS LIKE THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD WENT AND LOST ITS MIND

[attr="class","nikki102"]AND ALL MY CHILDHOOD HEROES HAVE FALLEN OFF OR DIED

[attr="class","nikki109"]Melody didn't like the thought of Maia goddamn Morales giving up on music. She loved her music, and had even been in the crowd for one of her California concerts. It was before the Event, so at least she knew that she hadn't contributed to the stars discomfort, although she wondered if she was now. Or had during any of the other times she had encountered the singer during her time at EMBA. She knew that her reaction had probably been desperately obvious to the singer despite her attempts to keep it a secret. Maybe the attempting to keep it a secret had made it more obvious to the empath. Regardless, she was going to pretend like it wasn't an issue.

The conversation had moved on however, and Melody responded with a nod. "Yeah pretty much, it's like twenty miles to the nearest town. There aren't exactly any armed guards but I doubt anyone is going to drive us out there."

She realised what the pop star might be thinking, and hurriedly tried to correct things, "I don't think it's like that for you. You can probably leave whenever you want. Even if you were here for the same reason as people like me you're like a pop start and everything. If someone famous said they were being imprisoned by their school they'd probably be let out, like, right away."

After all, Maia hadn't been sent here by their father, and a court order. She'd come here of her own free will. If the judge hadn't offered this then she might well have been looking at spending some time in a Juvenile hall, not that this was that much different. She couldn't leave here when she wanted to anyway, so she didn't really see the difference.

She tried to change the topic, not wanting to talk about the reasons why she couldn't leave. Unfortunately the only avenue she saw wasn't exactly appealing either. "Anyway, shouldn't we be carrying on with the lesson?"

She couldn't believe she'd actually said that.

[attr="class","nikki103"]339

[attr="class","nikki103"]Maia Morales

[attr="class","nikki103"]Eau de Resistance

NOTES

Please don't ask...

PHARAOH LEAP.

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[Maia Morales]

- RISE -

"Together, we’re gonna rise with the morning light."

As many times as the thought had crossed her mind interestingly enough, Maia had never actually voiced her concerns aloud. Now that she had, the brunette felt pained by the words. For as long as she could remember, all she ever wanted to do was to be a singer and to be perfectly honest from the teenager's perspective singing was all that she really knew how to do. The teen was of average intelligence with no other real talents to speak of. As such it was really difficult if not completely impossible for the nineteen year old to even imagine what else she could possibly do if she no longer had a music career. She was a decent enough dancer, she supposed so perhaps she could be a backup dancer for some other artist. Maia had tried her hand at acting before and her performance was mediocre at best. 

As Melody explained the distance from the school to the nearest town. the pop star's eyes widened substantially. Up until this point, Maia's only previous experience had been public school which as she recalled had always been an relatively open campus for the most part. Anyone could walk onto it or off of it as they pleased with special permissions being granted to older students to leave during their lunch hours without repercussion. Were all boarding schools this strict, Maia mused. "Twenty miles? Where the heck in Washington are we anyway? I don't think that I've ever traveled more than like 10 or 15 miles between cities. I suppose that it could have been further and I just drive fast, but still it never seems that far."

Maia had never really sought out or expected special treatment when she went places despite her celebrity status. As much as she even hated to play the 'celebrity' card, the singer realized that such a thing might be unavoidable during her time here. While she wouldn't be performing or recording any music during her time here at EMBA, she was still expected to attend promotional events for her upcoming album. It was the teen idol's desire to be viewed as a peer and not a superstar, but that would be very difficult to manage if it was clear that the administration was treating her differently. It was quite the conundrum.

"Well, I really do hate to ask for special treatment because I'm a pop star, but I do have some obligations that I have to meet that may take me away on occasion so allowances will have to be made somehow. I would like to believe though that it really isn't their intention to keep kids locked up in this building for their whole time here. I'm sure that at the very least they do the occasional field trip or whatnot."

Suddenly, there was a shift in the emotional atmosphere that Maia couldn't help but to find curious. However, the brunette opted not to say anything. Just because she could sense such disturbances didn't necessarily mean that she had to comment on them. Although the young woman had to quirk a brow when Melody inquired as to whether or not they should be getting on with the lesson. Nodding in response, Maia leaned over and unzipped her bag. Digging out her cellphone and a  pair of Bluetooth headphones, the starlet handed the headphones to Melody.

"Not sure about you, but listening to the melody helps me to write better so this is the instrumental of the song that you just read. Listen to it for a bit and see if you can get some inspiration from it."

JUNIER of GS + Adox

[Melody Newton]

[attr="class","nikki98"]

[attr="class","nikki99"]

I NEED TO COME DOWN

[attr="class","nikki100"]

[attr="class","nikki101"]SEEMS LIKE THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD WENT AND LOST ITS MIND

[attr="class","nikki102"]AND ALL MY CHILDHOOD HEROES HAVE FALLEN OFF OR DIED

[attr="class","nikki109"]It seemed the suggestion that she would be unable to leave perturbed Maia a little, though fortunately not enough that she didn't eventually leave the subject alone once Melody changed the topic of their conversation. It wasn't entirely in character for her, usually Melody was more than happy to continue derailing lessons, and she certainly would have loved to keep talking to Maia about anything. However, she really didn't want to explain to the teen idol about her criminal record and the fact that this school had quite literally been the alternative to juvie for her.

Melody accepted the headphones gratefully though. Maybe Maia couldn't sense the deception, or maybe she was diplomatically avoiding it, realising it was something Melody didn't want to talk about. Not that her doing that really felt any better. Melody realised a little what it must be like to have Maia's ability, to have no one feel like their thoughts were safe when they were around you.

Slipping the headphones over her ears, Melody glanced up at Maia once she had them secured, waiting for the other girl to press play on the connected phone. She lowered her gaze back to the lyrics written before her. It was clear where the words were supposed to begin in the song, and she mouthed them as the music playing, stumbling and adjusting a few times as she worked out how the melody was going.

She smiled encouragingly, then hesitantly began to write out a couple of sentences in Spanish. The grammar wasn't quite there, but the words were largely accurate and well-spelled. There was maybe even a bit of the tune in there, once it had been edited a little. Melody had enough of a grounding in music to at least follow a tune. She crossed out several words, went back and changed things a couple of times. It took her nearly fifteen minutes, but eventually she'd produced something she was happy with. Not that she wanted to show it to Maia Morales of all people. Still, with little choice in the matter she slid the notebook back over.

"How's that?"

[attr="class","nikki103"]354

[attr="class","nikki103"]Maia Morales

[attr="class","nikki103"]Eau de Resistance

NOTES

It's awful isn't it...

PHARAOH LEAP.

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[Maia Morales]

- RISE -

"Together, we’re gonna rise with the morning light."

While Maia most often complained about how the intensity of other peoples' emotions caused her physical discomfort another pain point of her ability that was equally frustrating for the teen was having to disregard what she sensed. This was particularly difficult when the emotion was negative in nature and the person emitting it was perturbed. Blessed with a tender heart, it was in the brunette's nature to help whomever she could, whenever she could. Being forced to feign ignorance when she knew something to be very wrong was borderline torturous for the teenager. Nothing that she had picked up from Melody since sitting down at the table would suggest that the younger girl harbored a secret dedication to her studies. Which could only mean that her tutee was avoiding something. It was a conclusion that the singer had managed to draw even without the confirmation that her power provided her.

It was more than a little maddening to know what someone was feeling but to be completely lost as to the origin. Sort of like a book where all the pages leading up to the final chapter had been ripped out leaving you with only the ending, but no beginning or middle. As a general rule of thumb, Maia typically didn't disclose her ability to others. However, when you attended a school in which everyone was a meta with special abilities it would stand to reason that others would curious as to what you could do. Especially when you were in the public eye and there were no external cues as to your power. Not that she was ashamed of her ability or even that she regretted telling Melody what it was, but rather she knew that their interaction would inevitably change now. 

Sighing inwardly, the singer pressed the play button on her phone and set the device down on the table, allowing Melody to get to her 'assignment.' Uncertain how long it would take the younger girl to complete the task that she'd been given, Maia sifted through her bag until she located her tablet. Digging it out, the nineteen year old powered the device on and opened her browser. Navigating to twitter,  the teen idol busied herself with scrolling through her newsfeed. While Maia wasn't particularly vain, the starlet was quite fascinated with fanpages dedicated to herself. The artwork was always impressive. Maia couldn't help but to be astounded by the talent of her fans and humbled by the fact that they took the time to create such beautiful images of her. More often than not, the brunette ended up selecting a few that truly spoke to her and tweeted about them.

As she was scrolling through her tagged photos thoroughly perplexed at where some of these pictures had come from as she couldn't recall where the picture was taken or even when it was taken, Melody's voice piped up from beside her forcing her to tear her gaze away from the screen. Smiling softly at her pupil, Maia remarked "Wow, that was fast. It usually takes me hours to write my lyrics."  The singer's fair orbs danced across the page as she read Melody's lyrics. Nodding approvingly she responded "Not bad. Not bad at all. It fits in well with the overall theme of the song." Pointing to the first line of the first lyric she continued "A few grammatical errors here, but nothing major. I can still see where you were going with it and that's the most important part. You used the masculine pronoun a couple of times here when you should have used the feminine one but that's a relatively common mistake. "

Grabbing the pen, Maia crossed through a few words replacing them with the correct pronoun and reworked the sentence structure before turning the page back to where Melody could see it. "It's the same thing that you wrote, just rewritten in the proper context. You really have something here. Keep going."

JUNIER of GS + Adox

[Melody Newton]

[attr="class","nikki98"]

[attr="class","nikki99"]

I NEED TO COME DOWN

[attr="class","nikki100"]

[attr="class","nikki101"]SEEMS LIKE THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD WENT AND LOST ITS MIND

[attr="class","nikki102"]AND ALL MY CHILDHOOD HEROES HAVE FALLEN OFF OR DIED

[attr="class","nikki109"]At least the other girl hadn't called Melody on her sudden change of tune and allowed her to get on with the work. She smiled at the singer's positive response, but was unsurprised that there were several errors in her Spanish lyrics. She was bright, but she was prepared to do the extra work that would enable her to be truly comfortable with the language in the way that someone like Maia obviously was.

She pulled the returned pad to her, reading through the corrected version to see where she had made mistakes. She wasn't sure just how good her lyrics actually were, she might have a musical background, but she hadn't properly played the piano in years, that was even rustier than her Spanish. She took the pen back up when Melody told her to keep going, pointing at one of the errors the singer had highlighted.

"So when I write it this way it should be the feminine one?"

Once Maia had explained a little more about her grammatical and gender errors, Melody started trying to write a few more lines. That is where she ran into the wall. They'd been here for about twenty-five minutes already, factoring in how late Melody had been meant there was very little time left in the lesson. She'd only managed about half a line by the end.

Part of it was struggling with another language that she didn't speak very well. The other part was attempting to write lyrics that seemed to naturally follow on from the song, and weren't dreadful. She'd never forgive herself if she ruined Maia's next album with a set of poor lyrics. Grimacing at her lack of progress, she passed the pad back when the bell went to mark the end of the period.

"Sorry, I got kinda stuck with that bit."

The few people in the library started filtering out, and with a glance at her phone Melody realised that it was lunchtime. Swinging her bag onto her shoulder she hesitated, then pushed forward anyway.

"Hey… you… y'wanna get lunch?"

[attr="class","nikki103"]345

[attr="class","nikki103"]Maia Morales

[attr="class","nikki103"]Eau de Resistance

NOTES

Lunch?

PHARAOH LEAP.

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[Maia Morales]

- RISE -

"Together, we’re gonna rise with the morning light."

While Maia fairly certain that Melody's enthusiasm in returning to her lesson spoke far more to her dedication to avoiding a topic that she didn't wish to discuss than Maia's ability to motivate her pupil, nevertheless the singer preferred to believe that it was because she was a competent tutor. Being a native Spanish speaker gave the singer an edge over Melody's current professor in that her pronunciation was superior and her vocabulary was far more extensive. Sure, the cantankerous older woman could teach Melody proper conversational dialogue, but she could teach her tutee slang as well to fit in a little better. Having spoken the language her entire life, the brunette could definitely tell the difference between someone who was a native and a fluent speaker whom had learned Spanish as a second language. 

Although, the pair had gotten off to a rough start with Melody arriving late and soaking up a lot of their time in the process, Maia could still honestly say that she was pleased to have been paired with Melody. Not only because the girl was a fan but because she was more advanced than some of the other students that she'd worked with. The teenager hadn't had to do nearly as much hand holding with the younger girl. For the most part, she'd been able to leave Melody alone with the task that she'd given her. There was no way that she'd have been able to give another of her tutees the assignment that she'd given Melody as surely 25 minutes later they'd likely be still staring at a blank sheet of paper unsure of where to start. 

Even with the complexity of the task, Melody hadn't even made that many mistakes proving that she'd been correct in her initial assessment of the girl's skill with the subject. Melody held great promise and could easily become fluent if she applied herself. There in and of itself was likely where the true challenge lie. Melody's voice piping up beside her pulled the teen from her reverie as the younger girl pointed towards an error that she'd highlighted in her review. Nodding, she replied "Yes, the whole 'a' versus 'o' thing throws a lot of people off. Most people don't realize that a is feminine and o is masculine. They just use them interchangeably. So like if you are female from Cuba you would refer to yourself as Cubana as opposed to Cubano."

As Melody took up the pen once more, Maia returned her gaze to her tablet. One of her favorite things to do was not only reading what her fans tweeted and posted about her but replying to their posts and interacting with them. As she was tapping out a gracious thank you to a podcast that had referred to her as an up and coming artist to keep their eye on, the teen idol sensed her tutee's frustration. Without looking up from the tablet, the pop star said "Don't overthink it. It's just the first draft. We can tweak it as much as necessary before I take it into the studio. Just relax and have fun with it."

As the bell rang, Maia slipped her tablet back inside its protective cover as Melody passed the pad back to her apologizing for getting stuck in mid lyric. Shrugging casually, Maia answered "No biggie. I can take me anywhere from several hours to weeks and sometimes even months to get my lyrics right and that's even when I'm inspired. The downside of being a perfectionist, I guess." Slipping both the pad and tablet into her tote, the nineteen  year old rose slowly from her seat. Zipping the bag, she had just slid the strap over her should as an uncharacteristically bashful Melody stammered her inquiry. Beaming at the young girl she replied "Absolutely! I missed breakfast this morning. I guess my body is still trying to get used to this new schedule. I never wake up this early usually. "

JUNIER of GS + Adox