#studio nights

A/N: So this is actually just a crazy idea that has been floating in my pool of thoughts so why not let it out right? Hope you enjoy xoxo

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3am (March 2017)

“Goodnight Dinah” Ally says from her mattress.

“Night, Ally” Dinah returns and turns to her side as she closes her eyes to sleep.

The girls are currently in the studio. They managed to fall asleep in there for the night due to their hectic schedule and their loads of work. They have to finish recording the next day for their backtrack songs for the upcoming Asian tour. Dinah and Ally borrowed two separate mattresses and lied down side by side, Lauren on the cold ground with her backpack, and Normani on the couch.

The room was dim and quiet, only occupied by the four girls. Ally sighed in content because she waited the whole day for what she craved since yesterday, a good night sleep.

Ally pulled up Dinah’s jacket, which she borrowed from her since they didn’t have blankets, to her body and closed her eyes.

Seconds later and she was off to dreamland, until she heard a sound that bothered her sensitive ears.

Beside her, Dinah was snoring like a grizzling bear. Ally barely relaxed at the sound. She turned her back to Dinah as she covered her ears using the small travel pillow.

 The snoring didn’t die down, not one bit, so Ally stared at her for a while as if it would stop at any moment, but to the small woman’s misfortune, it didn’t.

Damn, She’s hardcore knocked out, Ally thought. Since she didn’t want to wake the snoring monster up, she just decided on adjusting instead. She got up, and pulled her mattress far from Dinah, right beside Normani’s couch in the corner of the room.

She placed the mattress beside the couch where Normani is sleeping in a comfortable lying position. Ally lied down in her small territory again and pulled her so-called blanket up to her body. Few minutes later, she was almost on a deep slumber.

Until she felt something drop on her nose.

She slightly opened her eyes to look up at Normani, who is still sleeping soundly. But alongside, she noticed an opened bag of peanuts the sleeping girl was holding. Some of the peanuts must’ve rolled over the couch and fell on Ally’s face.

Ally thought of removing the bag of peanuts but decided against it, as she might wake up the soundly sleeping Normani.

Ally, once again, decided to move her mattress to another spot in the room. She then spotted a place beside Lauren.

Her face lit up. To her, Lauren is not a noisy sleeper or anything. Lauren is just still, her back facing the rest of the room as her body was lying on the cold floor.

The small woman dragged her mattress to Lauren’s side. She lied down and relaxed as nothing can disturb her right now.

A few moments later, Ally drifted off to sleep, her mind and body finally relaxing. Nothing can ruin her good night sleep now. Nothing.

“Oh really?” Another sound tugged Ally’s ears. “Yeah, everyone’s pretty much exhausted…… Yeah…….I know, I know”

What? Ally’s eyes slightly opened at the sound of Lauren’s voice. She turned to her direction to find out that the Cuban girl still has her back to the room, but was talking on the phone. Ally’s eyes squeezed shut and stayed lying down, slowly waiting for Lauren to finish the conversation with whoever that was.

“Nah, we have like 3 more hours before we get back to work, so hit me up, K.” Lauren said to the receiver at the end of the line.

Ally thought that the phone conversation won’t be stopping anytime soon. She palmed her forehead in exasperation and got up from her mattress, unnoticed by Lauren. She carried only Dinah’s jacket and her small travel pillow and walked to her last choice for sleeping – the bathroom.

Ally opened the door to the bathroom. She used her phone’s flashlight and shone it on the bathtub.

She mentally thanks God for her small figure as she successfully fitted herself in the squeaky clean bathtub.

She positioned herself in a comfortable position and turned off her phone flashlight for a good night sleep. Her eyes were finally giving in as she fell in to a peaceful slumber, with no one bothering her.

A few moments later,Ally was already in dreamland.  She was already smiling to herself when she was in a Waffle Universe where there were floating waffles everywhere. She felt hunger once she saw them.

She was strolling around the Waffle City when car made out of waffles parked beside her. Ally grinned and was about to devour it until she heard clicking of a doorknob. She didn’t care to acknowledge it. She was in dreamland and just wanted that waffle car.

Her little world just came to an end when the bathroom light suddenly turned on and a voice said, “Ally? Why the hell are you in here? Get out of here, smallz. This is the bathroom.”

Ally didn’t want to move one bit. She knew it was Dinah’s voice. But thinking about what she said, she had a point. After all, it was a bathroom and people will be using it from time to time.

Ally groaned and opened her eyes. She lazily got up from the bathtub and collected her belongings. On her way back, she slightly shoved Dinah out of the doorway for her to pass. It was rude but she couldn’t care less.

Ally decided on looking around the building for other available rooms to sleep in. She quietly made her way out of the studio room in search for other places to peacefully rest on.

She was silently walking through the quiet hallways of the building, until her eyes landed on a cozy-looking green couch inside a room that was located at the end of the hallway. The door was open and the sign on it said ‘Storage Room’.

Perfect, Ally thought to herself. She walked a little bit faster because of her need to lie down. She was already just ten steps away from the door until suddenly, she tripped over her own shoelace.

“Ow..” She silently groaned and rubber her knee.

“Woah, wait I gotcha” Ally heard a familiar voice and felt hands on both her arms as someone lifted her up to her feet. She didn’t even know someone was there too.

Ally looked up to face the person but was shocked to see who it was. “C-Camila?” she stuttered. “What in the world are you doing here?”

Ally’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She didn’t expect to see her ex-bandmate in the same place tonight. How could she just appear in the same studio building as theirs? Ally didn’t remember anyone telling them Camila was in there, probably just rooms away from them.

Camila gave her a warm smile like it wasn’t a big deal to bump in to her after the large chaos that happened weeks ago. “Right now? I’m finding a place to sleep on.”

If Ally didn’t have the desire to fall asleep, she would’ve questioned the girl’s sudden existence in front of her, but instead, she decided on letting it go.

She excused herself to the room where she planned resting on. Camila just bid her a suspicious ‘see you later’ then went on with her business and parted ways.

Ally suddenly found the door of the room closed. Weird. She thought as she saw it just open a while ago.

She disregarded the thought for now and opened the door to the room. She saw the same green couch but what caught her attention is that the room became too cold and foggy.

Ally was wondering where the fog came from because it’s an enclosed room. There were a pile of boxes obstructing the other side of the room. Ally guessed it must be where the origin of the fog was.

She carefully lifted two boxes out of the way and walked in to the other side of the room, in curiosity. As Ally walks further, the walls around her start to brighten up as the fog starts to thicken.

What is this? Ally said to herself, she never expected for the room to be that long as she hasn’t reached another wall yet.

A few steps later, she heard a voice calling on her. “Ally..” Ally momentarily stopped on her tracks. She could’ve sworn it was a voice of a man. She turned left and right to see where it came from.

“Ally.” There it was again. She squinted her eyes and tried to find the owner of the voice in the thick white mist.

“Hello? Is someone there?” Ally called out as she took a few steps forward.

“Ally?” The voice becomes clearer, confirming Ally that she was going the right direction. Ally went further until she finally spotted a silhouette of someone.

She saw the silhouette move towards her and finally revealed a beautiful face of a man. The man had long hair and a soothing smile. Ally was stuck in her place and her eyes widened in realization.

“J-Jesus?” She muttered. She was dumbfounded. She wanted to know if this was some kind of joke but didn’t want to question it. It was like her whole body was frozen and at the same time she was so confused.

Her curiosity died down when Jesus spoke.

“It is I, Ally. We all know you’ve been a great person and actually, you are here for a reason.” Ally scanned her surroundings and she couldn’t believe where she was.

“Am I…” She paused, taking in the new environment. “.. in heaven?”

Jesus reached for one of the sleeves of her sweater and slid out a piece of paper. “Ally, I believe you didn’t notice and see what Camila slid under your sleeve.”

He showed the small piece of paper to Ally.

Ally didn’t know there was a paper in her sleeve. She was too dazed and sleepy to even notice it. As soon as she held the paper in her hands, she read the text written on it. It said:

‘Congrats!1!! The official meet n greet with Jesus’

“Wow… I didn’t know I had tickets” Ally said under her breath. “You said there was a reason I was here right?”

Jesus nodded. “There is. I have a special gift for you. A person like you deserves this and I will give it to you now.” He said in his deep relaxing voice. Jesus then reached for something behind him. “Close your eyes, Ally.”

Ally then closed her eyes and held out her hands. A few heartbeats later, she felt the gift in her palms already.

“Okay, open your eyes” Ally then saw the gift and never did she feel so ecstatic in her entire life.

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6am

“Okay guys, rise and shine! Breakfast in 10 minutes then we’ll continue recording!” Their producer announces to the sleeping girls but immediately left the room when he heard someone call him.

Lauren rubbed her eyes as she woke up. She stretched her limbs and back as the cold hard ground wasn’t much of a good choice for sleeping.

She turned to the side and noticed the mattress Ally borrowed, but Ally herself wasn’t in there. She roamed her eyes around the room to see Normani had woken Dinah up, but no sign of Ally.

“Hey guys, have you seen Ally?” Lauren asked. Normani and Dinah looked around the room noticing the small woman’s presence was missing.

Dinah shrugged. “I don’t know, I was asleep the entire night.”

 “She must’ve had an early start.” Normani said. Lauren pondered for a bit but thought that maybe the Texan was an early bird today.

She got up and made her way to enter the bathroom but was stopped on her tracks as she hears murmurs on the other side of the door.

Lauren slightly knocked but no one answered. She fiddled with the doorknob only to see that it was unlocked. The lights were off but as soon as she switched it on, her heart almost escaped from her system. Lauren held her chest and almost tripped over when she saw Ally sleeping on the bathtub.

“The heck?” She expressed in an exaggerated whisper.  She eyed the woman’s small figure in confusion on why and how she got here.

Lauren was about to wake Ally up until the older girl spoke.

“Thank you, Jesus… I love you so much. It was so great meeting you.” Ally murmured while hugging Dinah’s jacket in her arms while the green-eyed girl was just standing there in amusement.

Ally continues. “I don’t know how to thank Camila, she’s such a blessing for giving me this opportunity.”

Lauren raised her eyebrows at the mention of Camila’s name.

“Lauren, what’s taking so long? I gotta use the bathroom too!” Dinah shouted from the mattress. Lauren snapped out of it and turned to Dinah. Ally was sleep-talking and the green-eyed girl beckoned the both of them to come over.

The two peaked through the doorway to watch a sleeping Ally. Lauren whispered something to them and they agreed on it.

Dinah raised each finger as she started counting. “One…. Two… three”

“CONGRATULATIONS ON MEETING JESUS, ALLYYYY!” the three of them shouted in harmony.

Ally’s eyes shot open at the sudden noise.

She took in her surroundings and was shocked to see herself in the bathroom with her bandmates.

“I-what?” Ally managed to say, obviously still in a daze and trying to calm her heartbeat. She rubbed her eyes and realized she was brought to life.

Dang! I almost had it! Ally said to herself referring to the dream she just had.

“Guyssss” Ally whined. “Why am I here all of a sudden?” She was not in the mood for anything. All she wanted was to open the gift from Jesus, and of course, rest.

Dinah scoffed. “Dunno. Cause you’re weird?”

“And how was it meeting Jesus?” Lauren smirked. They were enjoying the annoyed look on Ally’s face.

“Oh my God..” Ally ran a hand on her face. “He gave me a gift! He handed me a second bible guys! A second bible! And, dang it, I was about to open the first page until you guys blew it up.” Ally finished with a disappointed expression and sighed exasperatedly.

“It’s okay, Ally. We’re sorry for ruining it.” Normani chuckled and patted her head.

Ally then got off the bathtub and all of them started freshening up. They proceeded to eat breakfast at the small cafeteria in the building.

They were all sat on one table, eating, as Ally told them about her experience finding a place to sleep on last night, when Lauren asked why she ended up at the bathtub.

“I actually don’t know how I ended up there but I remember Dinah telling me to get out of the bathroom when she saw me lying down in there.” Ally said casually. Dinah gave her a questioning look as she doesn’t remember herself talking to the small girl in the bathroom last night.

Dinah said. “I don’t remember going to the bathroom and seeing you there last night, Ally. I was asleep the entire night”

“I think you did. So that was the reason why I ended up looking for rooms outside and..” Ally said, vaguely distinguishing the events of the dream from the reality. “ Oh, and I saw Camila in the hallway”

Dinah almost choked on her pasta. “You what?”

“When I tripped over last night while finding a place to sleep, she helped me up, I was about to interrogate her why she was here but then I was too sleepy to care.” Ally explained. The three girls were quiet, processing the things Ally’s trying to say.

The thing was, Ally was too dazed that night to distinguish real life happenings from dreams. She ought to believe that everything actually happened in real life from the time Dinah talked to her in the bathroom. Heck, she almost started believing that after Jesus gave her the bible, she was just snapped back to Earth by him after a trip to heaven and that the experience was real.

“Why on Earth would Camila be here?” Lauren wondered, barely believing Ally’s explanation. “Wait a second, maybe that was just part of the dream too?”

Ally just stared at her blankly. It just felt so real to be a dream. She still memorizes pretty much every detail of what happened. Lauren continued “If it wasn’t a dream then why would you end up in the bathroom anyway? And Dinah said she never talked to you in the bathroom right?”

Ally thought about it for a while. She wanted to believe that she really met Jesus and that there was a second bible. If only they were in her perspective last night, they would have also thought the same, that it just felt so real. But then Ally needed to be rational. Well maybe Lauren was right. How would she end up in the bathroom after a trip to heaven and how on earth was she able to meet Jesus and Camila.

It was probably just a crazy dream.

Ally just nodded in agreement and breathed a sigh of defeat. They continued to eat their meals until one of their producers, Bill, approached their table. “Ally, can I excuse you for a second? Sir Simon will be handling something to you in his office that you’ll be needing later while recording. Is it okay?”

Ally nodded and said. “It’s okay. Tell him I’ll be there in a minute.” She stood up and made her way out to find Simon’s office.

After a minute of walking through the hallways, she spotted a door that had Simon’s name in it, meaning that was his office.

As she walked towards the door, someone running to her direction, bumped in to her and Ally met the ground. The stranger fell down as well.

“Oh my, I’m sorry.” The stranger said, but for a second there, Ally didn’t think she was a stranger. She froze in her spot knowing, it was a voice of the girl she once knew as her bandmate. Ally’s eyes met hers and it widened like never before. No. She was not dreaming again. This is real life. This is THE life.

Camila, on the other hand was shocked too but not as shocked as Ally. She soon shrugged it off as she noticed they were still on the floor. She stood up and reached for Ally’s hand to help her up.

Ally was about to speak up until Camila suddenly dashed beyond Ally and disappeared in the maze-like hallways.

The smaller girl planned on following her but her feet seemed to be stuck to the ground. She was about to move on from the encounter and make her way to Simon’s office and ask him why her ex-bandmate was there too, until she saw something white in the corner of her eye.

It was a small piece of paper Camila might have dropped during their collision.

Ally picked up the paper. Her heart was beating fast as she both knew and didn’t know what to expect. She flipped the paper to see the text written:

‘Congrats!1!! The official meet n greet with Jesus’

Ally gasped.