Chapter Text
Julie Andrews. It all started because of Julie Andrews.
Jeremy and Christine were doing their physics worksheet in class while making idle chat, only half-paying attention to their actual work when the topic of Disney came up.
"The best live action Disney movie is Holes. Sorry, I don't take constructive criticism," said Jeremy.
"That's valid, but!" Christine raised an eyebrow. "What about Princess Diaries?"
"First one or the sequel?"
"Both."
Jeremy pondered for a moment, scrunching up his eyebrows thoughtfully. "They're good, but it doesn't raise as many important issues as Holes. Case closed."
"Uh, case super unclosed," Christine interjected, "How can you put Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews anywhere but at number one?"
Jeremy shrugged playfully, trying and failing to contain his smile. "Sorry, Christine. Being Queen of Genovia doesn't automatically make you queen of all Disney live-action franchises."
"But Julie Andrews! The only film I dare say she's better in is The Sound of Music which is fair because, duh, one of the best musicals ever, but come on!"
"No constructive criticism," Jeremy declared, smirking at her.
Christine humphed, crossing her arms. "How do you solve a problem like Jeremiah?" she sang.
"Your lovely serenades aren't enough to sway my position," he noted, his face slightly red.
She continued to sing, "But Jeremy, the hiiills are aliiive with the sound of muuusiiic~"
His eyes widened slightly in realization. "Oooh, that's where that's from? Makes sense, the title is in the song, but I hadn't... connected the... dots?" Jeremy trailed off as he saw her shell-shocked expression.
"Jer."
"Yeah?"
"Jeremy."
"Um- uh huh?"
"Jeremiah Heere."
"Chris, you're scaring me."
"You've never watched The Sound of Music starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer?"
He gulped. "Please don't kill me, but um, no?"
"We must remedy this!" She jumped up from her chair, barely garnering any attention from her classmates — they were used to Christine's antics by now. "You, me, and Julie Andrews, at my place! As soon as possible!"
He stared at Christine dumbfounded for a few seconds before his face slowly flushed red. "Y- your place? As in your house? Your house place where you live — you- your house, that house? At your place?"
"Yeah!"
His face got redder. "Oh- uh- yes- yeah! Okay cool, yeah. Just the two of us at your house. Okay."
She smiled teasingly. "And Julie Andrews."
He chuckled nervously as he scratched the back of his neck, and Christine felt her smile widen.
thespian_gal: i got the snacks readyyy :D
jheere_p2: swag! i'll be there soon
jheere_p2: *sweet
jheere_p2: if i ever use the word swag unironically please kill me
thespian_gal: I WON'T HESITATE BITCH
jheere_p2: fhdsjfhdgd
jheere_p2: omw, ill text you when im outside
thespian_gal: yup!
Christine read the conversation over a couple of times, puffing out her cheeks. Was Jeremy taking too long? She thought about texting him again but didn't wanna annoy him. Then again, Jeremy always told her not to worry about that kind of stuff with him... Just a quick text wouldn't hurt.
thespian_gal: remember to knock after u send the text just in case
thespian_gal: say hi to ur dad for me btw!!
She decided to put her phone down as she organized the living room again, checking that everything was in place. After some minutes, she heard a car outside and flapped with excitement. Her phone dinged and she picked it up.
jheere_p2: just gimme a sec to park, it's complicated
She raised her eyebrows in surprise. Jeremy was driving? That explained why he took a while to arrive. She waited for a few minutes, sitting on the couch with her phone in hand.
She waited a few more minutes.
... This was taking a while.
Christine went outside and saw a dingy blue car jerkily moving in reverse as it tried to parallel park without success. She strolled up to the driver's window and knocked. There was a pause before the window rolled down slowly, revealing an embarrassed Jeremy. "Yo," he said.
"Yo."
"So, uh. Parking is hard."
She couldn't help the smile that grew on her face. "I can see that."
Jeremy let his head fall against the steering wheel in despair. "I'm sorry."
Christine punched his shoulder lightly. "Don't be! I remember when I was learning to drive, it's really stressful."
"You can drive?" he asked, one eye peeking up at her.
"I don't love driving, but yeah. Here, lemme park the car for you and we can go inside, deal?"
His eyes widened and he immediately began to protest, "Oh, you-you really don't have to do that, I don't- I don't want to be a-a bother. R- really- it's fine- I can- just-" he started hyperventilating and Christine reached out a hand to touch his shoulder.
"Hey, Jeremy, breathe. It's okay." They took a couple of moments for Jeremy to calm down. Once his breathing evened out, Christine opened the car door. "C' mon, scoot! I got this."
"... Okay."
After that whole ordeal, they both flopped down on the couch of Christine's living room. She noticed Jeremy was still tense when he spoke up. "Sorry about that whole thing. It's embarassing—"
"It's no problem—"
"No, I know, I know, it's just- learning to drive is annoying enough without shitty Keanu Reeves piping in every two seconds."
She frowned. "Your Squip is acting up?"
Jeremy shrugged, stimming with the edge of his jacket. "A little. It happens sometimes, goes away after a few hours. But it just popped up while I was on my way here, trying to give me directions." He paused for a moment, looking at a corner of the room.
"Is it standing there?" she asked quietly. He nodded. Without hesitation, Christine flipped her finger at that corner of the room, her face defiant.
Jeremy smiled at her and without looking away from her flipped off the Squip too. She smiled back.
"Now! Japanese supercomputers have no place in Salzburg, Austria! The time is right before the second world war," she spoke in a movie announcer voice as she stood up to get the TV remote. "Let's get this musical party started!"
"Can't wait!" said Jeremy, beaming at her.
As the movie began, Christine settled back on the couch next to Jeremy.
The hills are aliiive...
By the time intermission came around, they had already shifted positions with Jeremy sitting on the floor and Christine up on the couch with her legs crossed. She pressed the pause button and asked Jeremy what he thought so far.
Well, she was gonna ask him that, before the back of his neck caught her eye.
"What's that?" she asked instead. She squinted, making out an oddly lightning shaped... scar? Like a tree whose branches went down his spine. How long has that been there? He was taller than her, so that could explain why she'd never noticed it before.
"Hm? What's what?" Jeremy asked.
She pointed. "On the back of your-"
Before she could finish her sentence Jeremy pulled up his hood to cover his neck, eyes wide. Christine slowly brought down her pointing finger. "... neck?" she finished awkwardly, mentally punching herself. What kind of question is that? That was so rude. These were the times she wished she had more of a filter.
Jeremy swallowed. "It's uh, it's not a big, um... it's nothing." Before she could say anything else, he picked up the TV remote and pressed play, continuing the movie. He moved from the floor up to the couch again, fidgeting with the edge of his jacket as he looked straight at the TV. "Now I- I gotta know what happens with the Von Trapps and Maria. Sh- she can't be a nun forever."
Unsure of what to do, Christine decided not to push it and sat silently, watching the movie with him.
Eventually, they both relaxed as the plot picked up, and Christine continued to sing along to every song. As the final reprise of "Climb Every Mountain" came to an end and the credits played, Christine turned to look at Jeremy, buzzing with excitement. "Sooo, what did you think? Be honest. Favorite part? Oooh, no wait, favorite song! Or favorite character. Least favorite character, too — no, wait, that's probably gonna be Rolf anyway. Fuck Nazis."
He chuckled at her excitement fondly. "No, yeah, I actually liked it! The music isn't what I usually listen to but I'm gonna have Do Re Mi stuck in my head for a while." He paused. "And yeah, fuck Nazis."
She punched a fist into the air victoriously. "Hell yeah!"
Jeremy smiled at her and they both broke into a fit of giggles. Christine got up from the couch as she stretched and shook out her arms and legs wildly. "I'm gonna pee real quick and then we can... hm, I dunno, just chill? OOOH! We could watch Holes and both Princess Diaries too! Make this a movie marathon thing!"
He opened his mouth as if to say something but simply closed it and nodded. Christine grinned, giving him two finger guns and making "pew-pew" noises as she backed out into the hallway towards the bathroom. When she got back, she headed straight for her laptop which was connected to the TV, ready to look up where to stream the movies (she didn't own them in DVD) before realizing it was a bit too quiet. She turned around to talk to Jeremy while the website loaded and noticed he was staring at nowhere as he tapped his foot against the floor anxiously.
"Are... are you okay, Jeremy?"
He didn't move or give any indication that he heard her, so she slowly sat down next to him on the couch. She bit her lip nervously, unsure of what to do. "Do you need some Red?"
Jeremy shook his head but still didn't look at her. A few moments passed before he suddenly sat up straight and sighed, glancing at her bookshelf. He took a big inhale and started talking. "It's, um, spinal stimulation."
She wasn't sure where his train of thought was heading. "Okay?"
"The, uh, on my..." he gestured to the back of his neck and Christine widened her eyes a bit. Oh, he was talking about that. He cleared his throat awkwardly, "Yeah, I'm uh, I'm talking about it cause, it um, it didn't- it didn't seem f- fair that- that you don't know. So."
She cringed slightly. "Sorry, didn't mean to say that out loud."
He gave her a quick smile, reassuring her, before taking another deep breath. After a few seconds, Christine realized he wasn't gonna elaborate. "Sooo, um, this might be a stupid question but," she cleared her throat before continuing, "what is spinal stimulation? I don't think I've heard of it before. You don't have to answer if you don't want to! I'm just... confused."
Jeremy tugged at the edge of his jacket, still avoiding looking her in the eye. "It's not a big deal," he mumbled, "Just uh, something it would do sometimes. A- a lot of times, I guess."
"The Squip?"
He nodded. "It'd just shock me if- if I did anything wrong. Nothing- nothing too painful or- or anything, just a little shock. L- like those prank bubble gum things, but instead it was m- my whole- uh, my whole spine."
Christine felt her stomach fill up with dread. "Jeremy, that's horrible."
"It's- it's fine, it can't do it anymore! I mean, y- yeah, sometimes I'll still flinch like, as- as a reflex, y' know? If I catch myself slouching, or stuttering, or thinking about—" He froze. "UM! Uh, just- it was- mainly it was, uh, just those two. B- but really it's- I swear it's chill. It just- just left behind some, uh, evidence, I guess. Haha." He subconsciously reached up to touch the back of his neck. "I didn't even realize until a few weeks ago. Michael, uh, Michael noticed it, one time that he came over. It's- well you can't see it that much anyway so, uh... guess that's a perk of being a tall-ass." He tried to give her a smile that came out more like a grimace.
For the first time in a while, Christine felt at a loss for words. She felt her eyes begin to water, and Jeremy's eyes widened in turn.
"I- wait- no, don't- don't cry! It's okay I swear, I- oh man, I shouldn't have said anythi — OOF." Christine cut off his sentence by wrapping her arms around him, squeezing tightly, before jumping back suddenly, her eyes wide.
"I'm sorry! I didn't even ask if you were okay with—" She was interrupted by him hugging her back, burying his face in her shoulder. They stayed like that for a few minutes before Jeremy pulled back slowly, his face beet red.
"S- sorry, uh, I'm- I'm sorry about... all of that," he trailed off.
She felt her own face was warm and hoped it wasn't too noticeable. "Hey, it's no problem. You can always talk to me about this kinda stuff."
He frowned. "But I don't really deserve it. I mean, I- I almost made everyone- I almost made you have to go through that. I'm- I'm just so sorry."
Christine put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry you had to go through that at all."
"It's not your fault."
"Yeah, I know, the blame is on the knock-off matrix pill."
Jeremy smiled shyly. "It got offended at that."
"Where is it?" He pointed at the top of the bookshelf where he was staring earlier, and Christine raised an eyebrow. "Why up there?"
"It likes to feel tall, I guess."
She snorted at that, breaking into a fit of laughter that Jeremy joined after a few seconds. Suddenly, he turned to look at her. "Wait. We hugged, right? I didn't hallucinate that or anything?"
Christine giggled and felt herself blush again. "No hallucinations, I promise."
They looked at each other, not saying anything, and the silence was broken by Jeremy standing up and grinning at her. "So, ready for movie marathon time?"
She smiled teasingly. "Swag."
"Oh my god, please don't make that a thing."
As Jeremy set up the website, Christine let her mind wander. Even though she was excited about watching movies with Jeremy, she couldn't help but feel like something had been... interrupted, during that moment. She wasn't sure what, exactly, and she didn't want to think too deeply about that right now.
When the movie began, he sat back down next to her and, without giving it a second thought, Christine reached out to hold his hand. He stiffened for a second before relaxing, and Christine smiled. As the movie went on, she found herself thinking, thank you, Julie Andrews.