Chapter Text
Poets
Geniuses
Revolutionaries
Sunset Curve has been called all of these things.
But the real story of how our band came to be is a mystery to them all. I wonder if they’d believe it?
If I told them that it all started in detention. My name is Luke Patterson, and
I am the leader of Sunset Curve
. Fine, I am a member of Sunset Curve - But I started it.
Luke would be lying if he said he didn’t mean to get detention. He just didn’t mean to drag Reggie into it. The two best friends sat next to each other on the bleachers, watching ‘Dirty Candy’ perform some song Luke was barely listening to and praying it would end. A majority of the students felt the same. It was cool to just sit and watch something, and some students were really into it. Not Luke or Reggie. To distract himself from the mind-numbing music, Luke resolved to tapping his head into Reggie’s shoulder.
Luke wasn’t popular in school, he never wanted to be. And he was shit at sports. Instead, he was the class clown who played ‘Wonderwall’ at the few parties he was invited to. His best friend, Reggie, was his partner in crime. It had gotten to the point where when one of them got detention, the teacher would just give the other one too. It was safer for everyone. The last time Reggie got detention and Luke didn’t, people got hurt. Not severely, but there was a fire extinguisher involved. It had been referred to as ‘The Incident’ ever since.
“I’ll tell them what they want, just make it stop!” Luke whispered to Reggie overdramatically, making him laugh quietly.
“She’s good, you can’t deny,” Reggie told him as he kept lightly headbutting Reggie’s shoulder. “Just that the lyrics are awful.” Luke rested his chin on Reggie’s shoulder, so he spoke directly into Reggie’s ear.
“ Exactly , it’s the lyrics that are torture, Reg.” Reggie forced back the shudder from Luke’s hot breath, keeping his attention on ‘Dirty Candy’ as their performance came to a close. Luke turned to see them bowing and smirked, grabbing his phone and speakers from his bag.
“Luke?” Reggie asked warily, but Luke was already up and rushing down as the principal began the announcements. Reggie followed Luke, because of course he would. Reggie would follow Luke into an active volcano, not that he’d ever say such a thing.
“Hey! Ready for some real music?” Luke called out, before hitting play on his phone and ‘Can’t Hold Us’ by Macklemore began blasting through the gym. Reggie grinned to himself, beginning to clap in time to the beat with Luke, before rapping along to the karaoke track. The students began to stir, Reggie and Luke’s infectious energy seeping through the crowd.
It reached Julie and Flynn pretty quickly. The two girls sat next to each other, making fun of Carrie’s performance. Neither really knew Luke or Reggie as anything other than the class clowns from Flynn’s English class. But seeing them singing the chorus to ‘Can't Hold Us’ almost got Julie singing along.
Almost.
Even after a year, she couldn’t bring herself to sing, or play. She could barely listen to music. And a year without music was easily the worst year of her life, only made worse by the fact she lost her mom. Luke and Reggie’s performance was a small bit of joy within the dark. Their joy and pure excitement easily rushed through Julie, getting her to clap and stomp to the beat with Flynn.
“Those two are so gonna get detention,” Flynn told her. Julie nodded with a grin as she watched Reggie holding onto the railings at the front of the bleachers, then jumping off. It was then that the principal walked back in with a megaphone.
“This disturbance is over! Mr. Hollow and Mr. Patterson. My office. Now .” The crowd began muttering as Reggie and Luke headed after the principal, Luke rushing to grab his phone and speaker. “Everyone else, go to class. This assembly is over.”
“Told you,” Flynn said as everyone got up and began heading to class. “But it was awesome.”
“I know, you who knew those two could sing?” Julie said, heading off the bleachers and into the halls. “Or rap, for that matter. Like, I knew Reggie could talk fast, but not that fast.”
“Bet he could rap ‘Guns and Ships’,” Flynn said as they stopped at her locker. Across the hall, they saw the new kid with blonde hair get pushed to the ground by Carrie, the lead singer of ‘Dirty Candy’.
“I am amazing,” Carrie told him, crouching down to where he was lying on the floor and covering his head. “So, next time you move out my way. Got it?” The kid nodded limply before Carrie walked off with her group. Flynn and Julie shared a look before helping the kid up.
“I’m sorry about her ,” Julie told him, sitting him up by the wall. “The school’s a lot nicer than she is.”
“Thanks,” He replied. “I’m Alex, by the way.”
“Julie, and this is Flynn,” Julie said as Flynn waved at Alex. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, uh.” Alex scratched the back of his head as him and Julie stood up. “Do you know where room 308 is?”
“Oh sure,” Flynn replied. “I have Mr. Fletchley last period. Turn left at the end of that hallway and keep going until you reach the cafeteria, then turn right and it’ll be down there.”
“Thanks,” Alex smiled at them, and they smiled back as he walked off. Flynn opened her locker again and got her Chemistry book out as the bell rang.
Alex glanced down at his timetable. He didn’t have Mr. Fletchley on his timetable, but maybe it was the same class but different teachers? That happened sometimes at his old school. But his old school was a lot smaller. So far, the biggest change to living in LA was just how much bigger everything was.
He turned to the hall that the girl with cornrows told him. What was her name? It began with F, he knew that. Anyway, he looked down at the numbers on the doors, looking for 308, but all the numbers began with 2. He walked down the hall again, his footsteps quickening with his breath.
Clam down! Just ask someone, it’s your first day you’re bound to get lost. Alex stopped and leant against a row of lockers and took a deep breath, closing his eyes and picturing something peaceful. That was the advice he had gotten from Youtube, at least. His parents had refused to get him a therapist, like he asked, saying that it was all inside his head. Yeah, that’s why it’s called ‘mental’ illness. Shaking his head again, he took another deep breath. The idea was to calm himself down, not get angry over conversations that had already happened
“Excuse me.” Alex opened his eyes to see a teacher walking towards him. Alex tried to calm his breath again as he opened his mouth to speak, but the teacher simply held their hand up, shutting Alex up. “Thought you could skip, huh?”
“N-no! I’m new. Alex -Alex Williams. I’m kinda lost-”
“That’s what they all say,” The teacher said, clearly not listening to Alex. His face paled when the teacher handed him a yellow detention slip before escorting him back to class.
Detention? This was now how Alex wanted the day to go. First, he almost had an anxiety attack before he even left the house. Then he got pushed to the floor by some prissy rich girl. Then he got lost and now he had detention! It couldn’t have gone worse if he tried.
Julie saw the new kid, Alex, get escorted down the hall and shifted in her seat. She got her phone out from under her thigh and opened up her texts, seeing that Flynn had already messaged her about Alex.
Flynn😘
Have U seen Alex?
I think I sent im 2 the wrong room
him*
Jules💎
Yeeeaaahhh
I just saw him and Mr. Wells walk down the hall
U told him turn left, right?
Flynn
…
I said right….
Crap!
Before Julie could reassure Flynn that it was okay, someone cleared their throat above her. Gingerly, she looked up to see Ms. Rodriguez looking at her with a stern expression and one hand out for Julie’s phone. She gave the phone up and got a yellow ‘detention’ slip in return before Ms. Rodriguez walked away. Julie sunk into her seat with a melancholy expression.
Alex headed to the basement, like his slip said, and found the hallway to be full of students. Was he in the right place? There couldn’t be this many people in detention, could there?
“Fellow rebel?” Alex turned to see two guys, the same ones who pulled the stunt during assembly, both grinning at him. The dark haired one had his hands shoved into his leather jacket pockets with a flannel shirt wrapped around his waist. The other boy had a white sleeveless vest on with some band logo and a hoodie.
“I-I guess,” Alex replied. He’d never consider himself a ‘rebel’, sure some kids from his old town had called him a ‘heathen’ but he didn’t exactly fit that description either. “Alex.”
“I’m Luke, this is Reggie.” Luke patted Reggie’s shoulder before pulling Alex down the hall with his spare arm wrapped around his shoulders. Alex looked around at all the different classrooms and what the students were doing. “Welcome to the Underground,” Luke told him with a reluctant grin. “Anything that isn’t to do with Trevor Wilson comes down here.”
“Basically anything that isn’t sports or ‘Dirty Candy’,” Reggie added.
“Can one guy really do that?” Alex asked, glancing from the sorely lacking AV club to the two guys leading him through the maze of forgotten clubs. Luke and Reggie nodded.
“When you’re as rich as Trevor Wilson, you can.”
The trio stopped by a door that said ‘Music’ on it, but the letter had faded so it said ‘u ic’. Just outside of it was a vending machine for a brand of lemonade called ‘Sunset Lemonade’. Luke shrugged and grabbed one, the other two boys following suit and all taking a sip at the same time. Their faces scrunched up before Reggie let out a laugh.
“Your face!” He pointed to Luke. “You should see your face!”
“Not like you’re any better,” Luke teased before they headed inside.
Alex took a seat at the back in the corner, whilst Reggie and Luke took seats closer to the front, looking rather at home. Luke even kicked his feet up! There was another kid there too, a girl with dark skin and frizzy hair that sort of helped Alex earlier. The teacher explained the rules, basically they could only sit there, until she threw rags at them and told them to clean up whilst she went to Principal Lessa.
“She can’t make us clean,” Luke said, his head leaning back as he inspected a damp spot on the ceiling. Julie, not wanting to get in anymore trouble, began cleaning almost immediately. “It’s cruel and unusual punishment.”
“Welcome to High School,” Reggie joked, leaning his head back to look at Luke upside down.
“This school is kinda messed up,” Alex said, standing up to help Julie clean.
“Can you guys please be quiet and just do what Mrs. Harrison asked?” She said, trying not to snap at them. “I don’t want another detention because of you two.” She gave a pointed look at Luke and Reggie, who feigned innocence.
“Why us? What have we ever done?” Luke asked.
“Weren’t you the guys who interrupted the assembly to cover some song?” Alex asked, moving a box to uncover a drum kit.
“We were simply detoxing the student body’s ears from the broken chords of ‘Dirty Candy’,” Luke replied as Alex inspected the drum kit.
“Hey, some of this stuff is still good.” Reggie and Luke shared a look before going over to Alex. Julie sighed to herself before moving away from the boys and cleaning the teacher’s desk. Luke picked up a bass and called for Reggie, throwing the instrument at his friend. Luckily, Reggie caught it.
“Dude, you know I have bad hand-eye coordination!”
“You caught it just fine,” Luke replied, picking up a guitar and beginning to strum. “Hey, Alex, right? Know any good drum beats?”
Alex grinned like a kid on Christmas and rushed to sit at the skins, picking up two drumsticks.
The three kept messing about with the instruments as Julie cleaned the desk not far from them. She had her back to them and was fighting off a smile as the beat began to seep into her veins. It had been so long since she last felt so alive just from a beat and melody.
Alex managed to calm Reggie and Luke down enough to do a drum fill to start a song, that’s when Julie lost it. And, with a smile, sang for the first time in a year.
She wasn’t entirely sure what she was singing about, just music in general. She found herself dancing around the room as the boys played. There was no past, or future to worry about. It was just them, and that was enough. It was more than enough.
“I got the music back inside of me! Every melody and chord.” Julie somehow found herself standing on a desk, facing the trio as she sang, doing small shimmies as dancing and grinning like a madwoman. To be fair, they were just as excited to be playing. Luke and Reggie were singing with her, providing a nice harmony to her melody. “Can’t stop the music back inside my soul. And it’s stronger than before!”
She hopped down and grabbed a bright pink boa and wrapped it around Alex’s shoulders as they laughed and sang. “Don’t care if everybody’s watching, silence ain’t an option. It’s out of my hands.” Next was Reggie. She had found a red fedora with a fake tiger pattern around it and stuck it on his head as he played. “I feel the beat takin’ me higher! Baby, this is fire. This is my jam.” She turned on her heel to Luke, holding a cowboy hat behind her back. “And something’s feeling different in the hallways. Something’ looking, looking like it’s changed.” Like a sneak attack, she put the hat on Luke’s head and moved to his other side from behind. “I’ve been moving to the rhythm for the whole day. A million lyrics running through my brain.”
Reggie kicked an old mic stand towards Julie as they sang the bridge. She took it and grinned, singing into the mic that wasn’t there. Julie picked up the stand and began walking to Reggie like she was a predator about to do a sneak attack. But instead of attacking him, she put the stand in front of his face, silently asking him to rap. Which he did gladly.
“ Yeah we got the music. Back inside let’s do this. Back like it's exclusive. Wavy like a cruise ship. Look at Julie go. She all in the zone. Headlining this show. Mic drop and we go- ahhh. Boom cat, boom boom cat. That’s the sound that you get with a marching band like- Eeeeehhh.” He turned to Alex. “Let me hear the drumline like eeeeehhhh-” Before sending a smirk to Luke. “That baseline cray.” Luke chuckled to himself as Reggie carried on, Julie dancing the whole time. “This one is ridiculous, woah no sir, they can’t handle this, no. We on top of the world, never look down, We got the melody back can’t stop now!”
As the song came to an end, the boys were riding out their euphoria and didn’t see Julie sulk into her seat. “We are incredible!” Luke exclaimed. He turned quickly to Alex. “You’re awesome! How long have you been playing?”
“Since I was ten,” Alex replied with a shrug, before adding. “I heard it helped get rid of anxiety.”
“You have got skills ,” Luke told him before turning to Reggie. “Okay, I knew you could rap, and play bass. But I didn’t know you could sound so good! Reg, bro, we could actually do this.”
“Do what?” Alex asked, glancing between Reggie and Luke’s faces, both were grinning wildly, a crazy idea in their eyes.
“Start our own band,” Reggie replied, facing him. “You want in?”
“Hell yeah!”
“Julie-” Reggie cut himself when he noticed the girl wasn’t there anymore. He turned to Luke. “Her voice was incredible-”
“I have a great voice too,” Luke replied. “And I can write songs. And there have been plenty of three person bands.”
“Name one,” Alex replied. Luke thought for a moment before shaking his head.
“Just because I can’t think of any doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And anyway, people need to hear us!” Luke jumped onto one of the desks, scaring Alex and Reggie slightly. “Rising Star. We will have gained a following by Rising Star -and we will win it! That’ll show Lessa, and my folks. And how can your folks get mad when you’ve won Rising fucking Star!” Reggie shifted slightly, hope rising in his chest. If there was one thing Luke was gifted at -besides Music- it would be inspirational speeches. He could get anyone to do anything if he just put enough heart behind it. But then again Reggie was really biased.
“What’s Rising Star?” Alex asked with his hand raised.
“Only the best talent competition in LA,” Luke replied, jumping off the desk, scaring Alex and Reggie once again.
“Dude, you’re gonna give me a heart attack,” Reggie told him. “Please stop.”
Luke sent him a cheeky grin before turning back to Alex. “The winner gets a record deal .”
“But Trevor Wilson is a judge,” Reggie said. “Dirty Candy practically has it in the bag.”
“But we could show everyone around here that money isn’t what gets you places, alright? It’s-it’s hard work. And talent-”
“And connections,” Reggie said. “Which we don’t have.”
“When did you become a pessimist?”
“I’m a realist,” Reggie replied. “Because, really we don’t stand a chance.”
“You were all for it just a few minutes ago,” Alex said, moving from the drum kit reluctantly. “But I kinda agree. It's a cool idea, don't get me wrong. But I just got here, I need to settle in before I join any band.”
“Guys, just-just rehearse, then. I'll write some songs, grab a few I've already got and we go from there. Please?”
Reggie was convinced by that point, and after Alex glanced at the drum kit he turned to Reggie and Luke with a smile. “I’m in.”