Chapter Text
Part 1
A jump and a slide.
'Just a jump and a slide', Maddox thinks. That’s all it takes. And you get the crowd.
There's a conversation between the singer and the audience. No one seems to know this. Or they just forget.
Maddox never forgets. He couldn't. His life, his name, depended on it on that sweet, sweet dialogue-
He sings to the crowd. The real music is hearing them sing back.
"'You can kill me,'" he belted, "'Good luck tryin' to bury me!'"
Slinging the mic around, he stomps until he couldn't hold back anymore.
And he leaps. His feet glide along the floorboards and soon he's one with the people. The mic leaves his grip- his voice now lost in the symphony.
Arms grab at him and he links with them, howling and they sing it together and he thinks 'yes'. Nothing could beat this feeling, this connection, the kind that only music can bring. How it could pack an arena full of strangers and leave having *shared* something.
The stage calls him back and it pulls.
Back under the blazing stare of the lights, he hears it.
His name.
They're singing his name.
He grins, delirious and relieved.
Maddox could never forget.
And he sure as hell was gonna make sure he won't be forgotten either.
But then-
“Mr. Patterson!”
Ugh.
-reality hits...
Luke jerked up from his journal, pencil slipping from his sweaty, hardened grip, leaving the sentence unfinished. And he was ousted from the world of Maddox Green and back into his.
Which happened to be 4th period. History with Mr. Koepenn.
Quickly snapping the cover closed, he propped his chin up, feigning attentiveness.
Which fooled no one.
“Yes?” he plastered on a polite smile, though it always came off as a shit-eating grin when his teachers were concerned.
Mr. Koepenn’s eyes narrowed, “Mr. Patterson, please pay attention.”
“Totally. Will do, Frank,” he clicked his tongue and shot finger guns, eliciting laughs from his classmates (and a groan from Alex in the seat next to him).
The bell rang not too long after and Luke zoomed out the door, Alex not too far on his heels.
“Might wanna save writing for English,” the blonde poked him, whispering, “Easier to hide?”
Okay, now Luke liked to think of himself as a pretty open book. Nothing about him screamed subdued. With the way he dressed- baggy jeans, chain swinging from the loops, always in some cutoff band tee- there was nothing to hide (especially his arms and a greater part of his torso).
But if there was a secret he would take to the freakin’ grave it’d be what was tucked between the pages of his journal.
Because in the absence of songs, thanks to his creative rut, he was writing stories. Stories based off the very popular TV musical show ‘Madd World’...
If writing about the characters in different scenarios in excruciating detail was what passed as ‘based’ nowadays.
Yep. Luke Patterson wrote fanfiction.
And he would die if anyone other than his friends knew about it…
Luke shrugged as they moved through the halls to get to lunch, stuffing his journal into his bag for safekeeping, “Can’t help it, man. The words were just flowin’.”
Alex nodded. He understood. He, Reggie, and Bobby had been there for the entirety of his writer’s block. Well, his songwriter’s block.
It was a year ago when Luke, maybe a part of some cosmic punishment, woke up one day and found out he could no longer come up with a new song.
Everything that had left his pen was utter garbage. He had no problem riffing away on his guitar, locking down on some killer melodies. But it all meant shit if there were no words to sing along.
He and the boys had been getting some steady gigs playing the local New York circuit. Like real local.
As in they never left the safety of Queens…
Their set was good. But it wasn’t gonna get them to Manhattan. Playing the gigs they really wanted to play. And that meant new songs but-
His mind had been blank. And for a while, it had wrecked him. Running into one creative wall after another, trying to force the magic when it had come so easily before.
But then Madd World happened.
Luke couldn’t really pinpoint the exact moment he had become totally obsessed with Madd World . It just sorta… snuck up on him when he least expected it.
He barely watched any TV anymore, so it really came out of left field, but one night at home, bored out of his mind because his parents took away his guitar yet again, he flipped the set on and there it was.
At first glance, it didn’t seem like his vibe. Pretty people living polished high school lives, singing and dancing when it wasn’t thematically necessary. He had heard people go nuts for it when it came out the month before and it just seemed like a CW show with cheesy songs.
But he had been proven wrong.
The main character, Maddox Green, was just like him. A dude with big music dreams, doing whatever it takes to get his name out there. Armed with a big imagination, he was always scheming, always imagining scenarios with big elaborate music numbers.
And the songs slapped .
That had been what drew him in. It wasn’t some hastily written, half-hearted, industry manufactured filler. They were strong songs that were on Luke’s Spotify loop for weeks.
Luke was hooked. He came for the music, but then stayed when he ended up getting invested in not only Maddox but all of the characters- the writing in general, which had been nothing like he had ever experienced in other TV shows before.
Found family? Representation? Dealing with world issues but in not a depressing way?
The characters were, like, real people and their storylines had Luke on the edge of his seat every week, ready to laugh, to sing (and even cry).
He had roped the boys into it. While Bobby wasn’t much of a fan, even after Luke bullied him into watching a couple episodes with him (“I mean…it’s good. Just, not for me”), Alex and Reggie absolutely loved it.
Besides the band, Madd World took over their lives. Some days it was all they ever talked about, other days they were playing covers of the songs when they weren’t practicing their own. And they never, ever, play a gig on Wednesday nights. It was law that they must watch the episode right when it comes out.
After last season’s finale, Luke had been suffering show withdrawals, not sure where to put all his energy and focus in between seasons and completely obsessing over what could happen next season.
He had already talked Alex’s and Reggie’s ears off about his feelings on the show, and he would totally geek out over the show with more people if he knew how to approach it. Like, he couldn’t just talk to someone who watched it casually. (He made that mistake once and he was pretty sure he scared them off).
Luke had an old Tumblr he made back in middle school for reasons he still didn’t remember. He had barely used it, only reblogged some memes and followed blogs dedicated to bands he liked but that was it.
(He was so confused when he kept seeing his old posts about the ‘skeleton war’. Whatever that was…)
Finding the Madd World fandom had been a godsend.
Like, there were people on there who were down to talk about anything and everything show-related all the time!
God, he must sound corny, but he had found a community there. And it was fun. He was just blown away by the amount of content on there in the absence of the show’s. It had been insane seeing all the art, gifs, and writing all inspired by the show. And by each other.
It was too easy to get caught up in that creative energy.
He hadn’t posted much in the beginning. Just reblogged other people’s content. But then he really got into his feelings about Season 2 after chatting with others about it.
It had started off as predictions for the next season. What he had hoped to see more of in terms of character arcs and songs…
Then maybe he had started coming up with headcanons for Maddox, Rachel, Khalil, and other characters. Which led to him somewhat describing all these scenarios that could have happened within the events of the show.
Then he had ended up with something of a drabble. With dialogue and everything.
It had been the first thing he wrote in months that he liked.
And other people seemed to like it too. A lot, actually.
The response had been unexpected.
People reblogging his writing, tagging it as #fic or #fic rec when Luke had no experience writing fanfiction before (only having just started reading them a couple months before) and wasn’t sure a lil’ post about what probably happened between Maddox and Rachel before the school dance counted.
He had really felt out of his depth here, but he had been totally floored by how much people resonated with what he wrote, something he only thought happened when he was making and singing songs, and even then, it was for the book clubs and the local coffee shop crowd.
But Luke was getting love from people all the way in Belgium. He could only dream about his work having that far wide of a reach.
So… he kept writing them, the writings growing longer and more detailed where it was no mistake that he was, in fact, creating fanfiction.
It had been like the dam finally breaking, all that pent up frustration over not being able to write anything worthwhile being set free.
And it just… got away from him ever since.
Luke was currently working on a fic, an AU, about what would happen if Maddox had already been famous, and just now meeting his best friends Rachel and Khalil in this life. Which was going along great until life got in the way.
Ugh. Fuck school.
“Luke, as much as I’m dying to read another one of your… works,” Alex had them hang back at his locker while he grabbed his lunch, “You’re totally gonna fail the class. Because ‘F’ means your mom’s gonna freak, which means-”
“No guitar. No band. I know,” he finished off for him.
Yeah, his fandom activities hadn’t really aided in his academic performance. But honestly, he wasn’t worried about it. School really wasn’t his main priority right now.
“Besides, I’m itchin’ to put something out soon,” he continued.
“Oh, a song?” Reggie sidled up to them, slamming Alex’s locker door in the process and effectively scaring their drummer.
Luke bristled somewhat at that, “No. Not a song.”
While he had been killing it in fic writing lately, he hadn’t been penning as many songs. A fact that really only frustrated him and Bobby.
Bobby, who had no idea that Luke wrote fanfiction. Luke just knew that he would get ragged on for it by him. Because, like him before Madd World , fanfiction had kinda been this cringey thing that people made jokes about. Especially Bobby.
And Luke was… protective about Madd World . And the stuff he had written for it. He didn’t want Bobby killing his vibe.
But the rhythm guitarist had been right when he had said Luke needed to get his shit together and write new songs.
He was just a little… busy at the moment.
“Alright,” Reggie rubbed his hands together in glee, “Tonight’s the night !”
“I thought I could go through the whole day without thinking about it and getting all excited but-” a smile broke out on Alex’s face, “But like aren’t you excited?” then his voice dropped to a tentative whisper, “Or scared?”
“Man, season finale already?” Luke whistled, practically vibrating in his steps heading towards the cafeteria with his boys, “It seemed like just yesterday we picked up where they had left off at the homecoming dance.”
“Do you think we’re gonna find out what Rachel put in that letter?”
Alex and Luke turned to look at Reggie like he grew three heads.
“Dude, you serious?”
Reggie pouted, “What?”
Luke slapped the bassist on the shoulder, “Bro, you know it’s totally her confessing her feelings for Maddox.”
“I’ll riot if it’s not,” Alex muttered.
“They’ve been building it since episode 1-”
“But no way they’re putting them together now. It’s only season 2,” Reggie interrupted, “These things get drawn out for years .”
“What if they don’t have years?”
“Wait what?” Alex and Reggie chorus.
“There’s, like, no news for a renewal right now, boys,”
They couldn’t seem to process that.
“But they have to though… right? The ratings are good. Right?” Alex asked.
“I know. We should be in a good place. But who knows? We were literally going through the Triad’s socials for anything last night. Came up empty,”
“Oh,” Reggie cocked his head, smirking, “‘We’?”
Luke rolled his eyes, turning his phone back on after being in class, “Yeah. Me and Dee…”
Now Luke had made some good friends online via Madd World, a few of his mutuals that were cool to talk to.
But thatdahliagirl though…
It was kind of a huge deal- no, an honor , to have someone make fanart of your work. And that was how he met Dahlia, when she had made this incredible colored pencil drawing of Rachel and Maddox from a one-shot he did.
He had seen some of her stuff floating around the tag and was a fan, and seeing her make art for him was a pleasant surprise.
So, he had sung praises to her art in the chat, after reblogging it and showing it off to anyone lucky enough to be online at the time. A mutual gushing over each other’s work happened and they just clicked.
Then it became an ongoing thing.
He would post drabble or a sneak peek of a fic. The next day, thatdahliagirl would make art for it. Almost as if they were partners. A package deal. Seeing one and expecting the other to follow close behind.
Sometimes he would write things with Dahlia in mind, curious to see how she could pull off illustrating certain parts.
And she would knock it out of the park every time.
Luke loved talking to Dahlia. They just… vibed really well together. Not just as creatives but as people.
He found out that she was in high school- an arts school. Living somewhere on the West Coast and that she had a soft spot for ‘90s music too.
It didn’t take long for them to take it beyond Tumblr and into Discord where they just kept talking everyday and every night it seemed.
She was his go-to person to talk to, besides Alex and Reggie, for Madd World related stuff, since she was the only other person willing to stalk the showrunners’ Twitters for any hints of a Season 3. But their repertoire was so natural that it blended into talking about anything really, not just the show.
Would it be crazy to call her a friend? Like a close friend?
It was weird, considering he had yet to hear her or see her face, and there was a part of him that wondered if she was even who she said she was (it was the internet after all. Catfishing is a growing epidemic in this country…). But he didn’t care. She was cool and he felt like he did know her.
“You and Dahlia, huh?” Reggie pressed on while Alex gave Luke a knowing look from across the table, “When are you not talking to Dahlia?”
“When she has to sleep,” was his immediate response and he cringed. It made him sound so pathetic and defensive, “Oh, and for other stuff too.”
His friends stared at him.
“I don’t talk to her all the time,”
Just then, his phone buzzed, his messages finally coming through. He pulled it out:
-bestie just said vampire fangs are human can openers
-it’s too early for this
His lips quirked into a grin and he quickly replied:
-dunno. Vamp!Maddox could be fun…
The response came shortly after:
-unless you wanna revert back to 2012...
Oh, the snark is hot on this chat today, he mused to himself.
‘it's NOT gonna be TWILIGHT’ he typed, punctuating with a tongue out emoji.
-all roads lead back to Forks
-everyone knows that
A laugh tumbling out of him, Luke was primed to fire off another message when he felt the weight of Alex and Reggie’s stare.
“Hm… I wonder who he could be texting right now, Reg,”
“Mystery to me…”
Luke groaned, pocketing his phone. Conversation to be resumed later… when his friends weren’t there to give him shit for it, “Shut up.”
“Well, I just hope she’s ready for tonight,” Alex took a swig of his water, “I know I won’t be…”
By now, Bobby had emerged from the lunch line and joined them, effectively squashing all talks of Madd World .
Though while Luke was munching on his food and listening to Bobby and Reggie getting into another argument about whether a crust-less pizza existed, his thoughts strayed 3,000 miles away, to California.
He wondered what Dahlia was up to right now…
Julie Molina tripped on her shoelaces rushing to her locker. She nearly faceplanted on the floor if it weren’t for Flynn steadying her and continued to provide support until they made it to their destination.
“Last time I’m sleeping over at your house,” Julie semi-scowled at her best friend, fumbling through her combination and swinging her locker open just as the warning bell rang.
“Shit,” she cursed, grabbing what she needed and hightailing it down the hall with Flynn, “Would it kill you to have an alarm set? You told me you got it covered!”
“You told me you’d rather not go to school today!” Flynn flipped her hair as they rounded the corner, “And I’m a very literal person!”
“You think my dad’s gonna let us have a sleepover tonight if he finds out I was late again ?”
“Then you won’t tell him. Tonight’s way too important,”
“I know,”
The two ran into their homeroom, causing a scene and the two hurried to their respective seats before the teacher could further reprimand them. After taking attendance, Julie couldn’t suppress a yawn, the lack of coffee in her system making her brain shut down before she could even process anything.
She could blame Flynn for their tardiness, but it really was her own fault for being too tired to wake up with no fuss.
Julie had been up late last night at Flynn’s. Just been too riddled in excitement and anticipation of what was gonna go down tonight.
It was ‘Mad World Wednesday’. The absolute highlight of her week.
And like all Wendesdays in the past, Julie’s mind was half in/half out during class, calculating the hours until she could leave school and run home. But she had to hold on. At least until she could make it to next period, when she could let go of some of this nervous energy.
Chemistry went by in a blink of an eye and Julie was forced to part from Flynn for the remainder of the day, which had only gotten easier over the months but she would much prefer to see more of her best friend.
“Stay strong! For me!” Flynn encouraged, hands dramatically slipping away from hers as she retreated further into the hallway.
Julie’s face contorted into fake despair, “But when will you return from the war?”
“I’ll write you every day-”
“You promise?”
“Promise!”
“Will you two quit it?” came a new, annoyed voice, belonging to none other than their former friend and current enemy Carrie.
She was cruised passed with her Dirty Candi posse, heading in the same direction as Flynn. The taller girl eyed Julie up and down, “A little too much this morning, girls?”
“Could say the same thing to you, Carrie,” Flynn retorted, “Who brings backup dancers for a class assignment?”
“Those who know how to put on a good show,” Carrie’s heels clacked down the hall, as she threw one last pitiful glance in Julie’s direction, “Not like either of you would know that…”
Julie had no response, only emoting a ‘good luck’ to Flynn who had the misfortune of being in the same class as the resident demon.
At least Julie didn’t have to deal with that anymore.
Instead, she scaled the stairs and made a beeline for the art room. Slipping inside and taking her seat by the window, she smiled warmly at Miss Shannon.
She promptly pulled out her sketchbook, using this time before class to put the finishing touches on this preliminary sketch.
“Watcha workin’ on there, Julie?” her teacher approached her table as more students were beginning to file in, “I’m loving the composition.”
It was Rachel, from Madd World, or at least a version of her. The one speck of red in a sea of blue-toned gray crowd, looking up at the stage, marveling at the performer- Maddox, although unseen, the rough outline of his silhouette anchoring and dominating the middle of the page.
Julie blushed at the praise, “Thanks. It’s, uh, a personal project.”
“All art is a personal project,” Miss Shannon reminded, “At least, the ones you put your heart and soul into,” Then the woman scoffed at herself, “Not me sounding like a fortune cookie.”
Laughing she replied, “Nah. You’re good.”
“Keep it up. But don’t forget to work on your next portfolio piece at some point today, okay?”
“Sure thing, Miss Shannon,”
Julie resumed her drawing, thinking more about what her teacher had said. About her art being personal.
Well, her connection to the show was personal, and it made sense to explore that through her art. And even in the journey that led her to making art had been a long, winding, intimate road which ultimately brought her to a sense of peace…
Julie’s mom had died a couple years ago, and that had sent her to a real...dark place.
Everything had just sounded so sour, offkey, that she couldn’t even bear to touch the piano anymore, let alone even listen to music. What was the point when her mom wasn’t there to sing along?
Overall it just hurt- doing music, not doing music- it was… hard to explain.
With no music, there had been a void. Because Julie was meant to produce, meant to create something, that she knew deep down in her bones. That she was never meant to keep quiet for long, but she was still so lost.
But while sitting in the back of Mrs. Harrison’s class, watching the rest of her classmates go up and perform, she was doodling absentmindedly in the margins of her sheet music.
Nothing serious. Just some flowers, silly faces Flynn would be making in an attempt to make her smile, and, if she would ever admit this outloud, Nick’s name written in swirly and funky script that she could easily add to and make something else entirely. Just in case anyone else saw…
The months following her mom’s death had been spent in a fog, and so she was out of it in all of her classes. Nothing was holding her attention for very long and she would just keep drawing.
The doodles became more detailed and intricate. Sun’s were winking and eating ice cream, pirates with whisks instead of hooks for hands, a chicken would be crossing the stratosphere instead of the street, in a rocket ship constructed out of corn.
It had been silly and weird and thoughtless but... happy.
She had been happy. The first break in the monotony of her grief. Something to look forward to doing and pushing even further. Her creations could not be contained to binder paper, traveling to desk surfaces, inner covers of books before jumping to her arms, up her sleeves, on her jeans- a canvas that she could wear!
Much complaining from her teachers forced Ray to buy her a good and proper sketchbook. From there, her art became a focus. She had signed up for art class after getting kicked out of the music program and it was there she found her voice again, although it hadn’t been in a way any of her friends or family were expecting though they supported her nonetheless.
There went that pressure. To be this musically gifted person that she was before. She was making her own way in art and she was starting to get used to the idea of not having music in her life anymore.
But then Madd World happened.
Flynn had been on another ‘seven-soda-bender’ and had binge-watched the episodes before getting caught up and forcing Julie to do the same.
The first thing Julie had noticed was, well, Maddox Green himself. She had recognized the actor- James Vargas. He was Puerto Rican. Just like her. And it never ceased to amaze Julie watching someone who looked like her, whose family dynamics were similar to hers, be front and center.
And hearing his character, talking passionately about following his dreams, the way he described how he felt when he played music, it had made her heart stop.
He had sounded just like mom.
Normally that revelation would have had her running for the hills, having no desire to dredge up anything having to do with her mom.
But in this case, it had been comforting. It didn’t… bother her what he was saying. It didn’t even bother her that he was singing and that most of this show was people singing. Because it felt like she was reconnecting with an old friend…
‘One Day, Someday’ had been the first song she listened to on repeat. The first song she had sung to after almost a year of silence.
Magic, she had said once.
“It’s a sign,” Flynn had told her too.
Whatever it was, it had compelled her to keep watching it.
Every Wednesday night, it was her and Flynn, huddled in front of the TV, enraptured by the storyline, committing the new songs to memory and completely fawning over Maddox and Rachel (who were definitely endgame, she didn’t care what anybody else said).
For a time, her muse had been Maddox and Rachel only. Her sketchbooks and in-class doodles were of them in different iterations. It had been all about perfecting the texture of Maddox’s hair, trying to nail Rachel’s dazzling smile, embodying their tender glances at one another when the thought the other one wasn’t looking…
She had been on full fangirl mode, which hadn’t happened since freshman year when she had fallen down the Once Upon A Time rabbit hole. She had been scrolling through Tumblr and AO3, consuming any fan content that she came across.
And that was how she stumbled upon mad-ducks’ fics.
First, the username obviously had to be a terrible pun off of ‘Maddox’ and it had amused her greatly (especially when his picture was a hot dog with sunglasses).
Their writing was just incredible. She had never latched onto any fic writer that quickly before.
He just knew how to write Maddox. Every inner dialogue and mannerisms were exactly how he would be on the show, the language was so thoroughly him too that Julie couldn’t help but think that the writer vibed on that same passionate frequency as Maddox.
And mad-ducks would really go for it. Not stopping within canon but branching out to AU’s that she couldn’t even think to ever match with the characters of Madd World, but they worked.
And she kept coming back for more. Their fics would leave her thinking about them for days .
One day, just randomly, she drew a moment from ‘In Your Starlight’ (because the #Raddox be popping in that one), where Maddox and Rachel were lying down on the floor of the planetarium, hands reaching out to try and touch the stars…
She didn’t think she could do the visual justice. They had written it so lovely and she had been so scared to tag them in it when she posted her drawing.
But with a pep talk from Flynn, she went and did it. A day hadn’t even passed when she got the notification that not only mad-ducks had reblogged it but that he was in her chat, flipping out over her work. Her work!
They got to talking more, and Julie had been so sure she had found her Madd World soulmate (sorry Flynn!).
He had been the one to encourage her to draw more for the fandom. She had been self conscious at first, since she never really posted before, and she was more of a traditional artist while a lot of the art she had seen populating the tag were digital.
But she couldn’t stop. Not when mad-ducks would keep putting out fic after fic, inspiring her and she had to draw them, to draw his Maddox, to draw his Rachel.
Pretty soon her tumblr became a Madd World fanart account somewhere along the way, where she did her best to post a drawing every other day or at least a couple times a week.
They may or may not be art based on mad-ducks fics…
But he would be the first to reblog every time (which she seriously questioned him about seeing as though he lived on the east coast and she would sometimes be posting these at semi-late hours).
And speak of the devil-
Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She checked it freely, knowing that Miss Shannon was cool with phones in class as long as it wasn’t a complete distraction.
It looked like he was just getting back to her about her vampire comment from earlier. She rapidly rattled off a couple responses because she definitely had feelings about Twilight that must be shared.
‘if you write it then i won't draw it’ she had written to combat his earlier suggestion for a Vampire AU.
She didn’t have to wait long for new messages though, so he must be at lunch already.
Mad-Ducks1026:
-fine.
-bet you can't capture his vampiric awesomeness anyway
DahliaGirl0910:
-you mean his sparkle?
Mad-Ducks1026:
-you're harshing my vibe tonight Dee
DahliaGirl0910:
-oh Mads
-am I 'sucking' the fun out of it?
Mad-Ducks1026:
-and you say i'm bad with puns???
Julie huffed out a laugh which quickly turned heads. Miss Shannon gave her best attempt at a ‘strict teacher’ face and she knew her time with Mads is up.
For now.
If Flynn were here, she would be on her case about talking to Mads at all. But she got it. She would be concerned too if her best friend would constantly message someone without knowing their face, the way they sound, or even their real name. The internet could be a shady place, the people who use it even shadier.
She was pretty sure that Mads was a boy on the other side of the country and not a 40 year-old man. (Although the unironic use of ‘rad’ and other outdated ‘90s slang did give her pause a few times…).
Though she could confidently say that a 40 year-old man would never describe, in excruciating detail, how to assemble the most disgusting Eggo waffle sandwich Julie has ever heard.
('don’t knock it til you try it Dee. Oh, is it the pringles and blueberry combo? come on. It’s not as bad as it sounds…')
And if that wasn’t the most teenage boy diet…
Sadly, she had to put her phone away so she could draw again. Though her mind was still on Mads, wondering how he was coping with pre-show excitement.
But hey, at least they could help each other get through it today.
The end of the school day couldn’t come any faster for Luke, him being one of the first one’s out the doors and on the bus to take him home.
He wasted no time running into his apartment, briskly maneuvering around his parents to make it to his room. It took him about 2 minutes tops to gather his laptop, some snacks, and, most importantly, his guitar.
And it took about 10 minutes to get into another argument with his mom…
“Now where do you think you are going?”
“To Reggie’s,”
“Uh-huh. Without doing your homework first?”
“I’ll do it over there! Geez!”
“Well why don’t I believe you’re actually going to do any homework while you’re there Luke-”
“When have you ever believed anything I said?"
His dad hadn’t been home, so it had been too messy of an argument this time. Luke promptly stormed out before she could stop him and he decided that after tonight’s episode he was going to be staying over at Reggie’s. Nothing was going to stop his good mood, not even his mom.
Reggie’s wasn’t far, but the bassist had to go tutor some kids after school so he let himself in via the fire escape and crashed in his room for the time being.
Perfect opportunity to write out the next chapter.
Making himself at home on Reggie’s bed, he fired up his laptop so he could transfer what he was working on earlier today to a Google Doc. He put on his headphones, played some music, and just went for it.
Some days it would be like riding a wave, being guided by some unfathomable force that just lands the words on the page without him thinking too long and hard about it.
Other days, it would operate slowly. When the inspiration well was just… running dry. For reasons unbeknownst to him or any other creator because it just… happens.
Luke was lucky to be running on a pre-finale high that knocking out the newest chapter to ‘Now or Never’ was just as easy as writing the song this fic was based on.
Was it egotistical to use his band’s original songs as a springboard for his fics? Maybe. But as long as no one was able to make a parallel to the two, then he was golden.
It was more of a hyper-specific personal faux-paus of his anyway. Recycling his stuff in a way that seemed sacrilegious. But then again, he was dealing with fanfiction where it's just iterations upon iterations of the source material anyway, so he really should just get over it.
A couple hours in, he paused to take a break when Reggie came home and they both jammed a bit until Alex was able to make it. Bobby was off doing other things, usually leaving them alone on this sacred day.
Luke was back on his laptop afterwards and he noticed that Dahlia was on Discord and he couldn’t resist sending her a message:
'but hey i was so right'
‘???’ she typed later.
Luke paused his writing to respond:
‘you do have writing chops’
It had been a point of ‘contention’ between them. His claiming she had some words in her while she said the opposite. But he and Dahlia had been riffing on the chat occasionally, and Luke was sure that he was in the presence of a multi-talented wrecking ball. She didn’t seem to call herself a writer though.
( ‘I don’t really write that much these days…’ )
He was still hung up on the ‘these days’ part. There must be a story there, but he didn’t want to be creepy and pry. He understood.
So he settled for constant praising much to her annoyance. But he had to gas her up. He had appointed himself as Dahlia’s Personal Hypeman after all. And he took his job super seriously.
He could imagine her rolling her eyes at him right now.
“He’s doing it again,” Julie uttered to Flynn as they skipped through her front door after walking home from school. She had been messaging Mads throughout, much to Flynn’s worry as she helped navigate her friend while her head was down and looking at her phone.
Flynn ‘ooh’-ed and danced around her kitchen, pilfering through her cabinets for snacks.
“And by it, you mean ‘complimenting you’? Then he’s always doing that. Buttering you up, just so you could put your guard down,” The other girl took out the orange juice from the fridge, “Wait, he hasn’t been sending you weird stuff has he?”
“Just a cursed fic about Maddox and Thomas getting together,”
Flynn cringed, “Ew. They’re brothers.”
“Yeah,” Julie giggled at the memory of reading it and immediately threatening Mads for ever sending her something so terrible, “But I did get him back though. Sent him one shipping Khalil and a dishwasher.”
Flynn tilted her head.
“Don’t ask,”
“Wasn’t going to,”
Her dad and Carlos made their grand entrance not too long after, which was a nice change of subject. She and Flynn were invited to go watch Carlos’ baseball game later, to which they had to decline.
“Sorry Mr. Molina. But it’s ‘M-Dubs’ today,”
Julie’s dad was confused, “‘M-Dubs’?” he repeated.
“‘Madd World Wednesday’, dad,” Carlos clarified, rolling his eyes, “Y’all are obsessed.”
“C’mon now, mijo. Let the girls have their fun,” Then her dad’s head snapped up, “Oh. What was that one song from the show? The one that goes like ba-da ba-da da- ”
Then he proceeded to bob his head and do a silly dance, entertaining the girls but embarrassing Carlos.
“Dad, stop! You better not do that when you take me to the field,” the younger Molina grumbled, lugging his bag and bat out the door.
“But it’s catchy!” Her dad exclaimed after him whilst waving a goodbye to Julie and Flynn.
He was still humming and dancing all the way to the car…
Julie shook her head at her dad's silliness, only to be reminded of a her most recent conversation.
‘cuz i made a lame joke?’ she messaged en route to her room, 'that it makes me a writer?'
Mad-Ducks1026:
-comedians make the best writers
-Peele, Fey, Burnham…
She settled onto her bed next to Flynn, ‘well...what does that make you ?’
Julie just loved teasing Mads. (‘Cause it’d be too easy sometimes).
She didn’t get an immediate response this time around, and Julie used it as a reprieve to at least force herself to do some studying with Flynn.
Cracking her textbook open, and stomping down the urge to take her highlighter and doodle something cool over the diagrams, she did make some progress.
About 30 minutes in though, she received a notification and she opened the app to relieve herself from balancing equations when she saw this:
-cmon
-ya know i make ya laugh dahlia girl
She smiled despite herself.
And a new message pinged a second later:
-youre doin it now. Aren’t you?’
“Shut up,” she mumbled, minimizing her grin as if he was close by to see it. (She failed).
That was just so Mads . Saying stuff like this, knowing her so well.
DahliaGirl0910:
-youre distracting me
-from hw
-that’s what you’re doing
Mad-Ducks1026:
-ew
-hw
-who has time for hw today?!
-big day today!
DahliaGirl0910:
-oh really? haven’t noticed
Mad-Ducks1026:
-Deeeeeeeee
-someone’s upset-y spaghetti they run on PST
Ignoring the use of ‘upset-y spaghetti’ in this instance, Julie’s lips puckered into a frown. It was so unfair that Mads got to see the new episode hours before her. New Yorkers got to have all the fun, don't they?
DahliaGirl0910:
-dad won’t let me get a VPN :(
-not like itd be any use if its LIVE TV
-no spoilers pls!
Mad-Ducks1026:
-okay that was ONE time
DahliaGirl0910:
-And it had to be the one where Khalil nearly got expelled
-way to ruin the twist Mads
-besides. It was not just ONE time
“She’s saying I spoil it,” Luke paraphrased the message to the room, “I so don’t.”
Silence.
“Right?”
Reggie opened his mouth, “Weeeell-”
“You’re a blabbermouth,” Alex put it frankly, “You spoil everything."
“Not true!”
“You told me Han Solo died!” Reggie added.
“You even let Bobby’s surprise party slip”
“I cried for days-”
“You’re a menace to society,”
Luke slumped into the pillows, glaring at his friends: Et tu, boys?
Okay, okay. But he knew for a fact that he wasn’t solely to blame. His notifications for Tumblr were on and he had receipts…
Mad-Ducks1026:
-you don’t want it ruined huh?
- stay off the tag then!
-i know you doin it rn
-saw you repost raddox-sneakers gifset just now
He even linked her blog in the chat for good measure.
DahliaGirl0910:
-...
Mad-Ducks1026:
-busted
DahliaGirl0910:
-fine!
-i know!
-i like to torture myself
Mad-Ducks1026:
-yeah
-you’re doing...
-yuck
- hw
DahliaGirl0910:
-maybe YOU should do hw
-aren’t you like failing? History?
Luke rolled his eyes. ‘Your fault’ he had almost typed, but then again he didn’t want to make her guilty for being the cause of his many late nights. Damn being three hours ahead of her.
“‘not like im missing anything…” he wrote, “‘all that stuff already happened anyway :P’”
DahliaGirl0910:
-dude
“Yo man,” Reggie was hauling him off the bed. Alex tapped his watch, “It’s go time! Let’s motor!”
It's 7:55! Already?
“One second!” Luke ran back to his laptop, typing out a farewell to his friend on the golden coast: ‘kk. gtg. It’s almost on”
Julie felt her heart beating fast when she read that, excited for him but also dreading the next few hours of anticipation until she could see the finale herself.
‘ugh. lucky…’” she mused in the chat, ‘ ...chem calls my name’
Mad-Ducks1026:
-see ya on the other side Dee
DahliaGirl0910:
-byeee Mads!
-enjoy the ep!
Flynn flip flopped on the bed, taking Julie’s phone.
“What are you doing?”
Her bestie played with the settings before giving it back to her, “Turning off your notifications so you’re not tempted to look at people liveblogging it.”
“I’m being attacked,” Julie glowered, though there was no heat behind her eyes, “from both sides of the country.”
“Honey, you know it’s true. Now…”
Flynn handed Julie her phone.
“... do the same for me.”
Julie blinked at her.
“I don’t trust myself either,”
“Right,” And Julie turned off Flynn’s Tumblr notifications.
“Okay,” Flynn clapped her hands together, “Now, can we get on with reactants and products and stuff?”
In a moment of solidarity, Julie put their phones on the floor while they were on her bed so they wouldn’t get distracted while they reviewed for their Chem test.
Julie promised herself she would not cave. She was too strong to be tempted to even look at her phone right now.
She was going to make it through this study session, uninterrupted, with a new sense of confidence for the test.
Right?
“Assume the positions!” Reggie commanded everyone to the living room and the boys scattered- Luke swiping his backpack and spilling out all the junk food he could steal from his house, Alex preparing boxes of tissues on the coffee table.
“Oh God, oh God! Where’s the freakin’ remote?” Alex panicked, sticking his hands between the couch cushions, “Reggie! It starts in, like, a minute!”
“I got it!” Luke waved the device around, swatting Alex with it.
“Ow, Luke!”
“Wait,” Reggie raised his hand, “I have to pee!”
The other two stared at him incredulously, “Really? Now?”
The bassist laughed, “Nope. Just kidding,” Then he stopped. He felt around his abdomen, “Or…am I?”
Luke shoved Reggie onto the couch, “You’re holding it!”
“That’s not good for the bladder, Luke!” Alex chastised.
“We can pause it I guess!”
“Nope. I don’t have to go anymore. False alarm!”
“Oh my god,”
“Can we turn the TV on?” Luke begged, “Please?”
“Fine!”
Finally, they switched the TV on just in time. The opening credits rolled and the boys settled in their seats, ready to see where their favorite characters would end up.
Luke recalled Alex’s comment about being ‘scared’ for the finale earlier and he found it hilarious. What he appreciated about the show was that the writing was solid. Characterization had been consistent, there hadn’t been one dull or terrible moment in the entire show so far, and the songs were absolute bangers.
He trusted the three showrunners, affectionately nicknamed the Triad by the fandom, that everything was going to turn out the way it was supposed to. They would never let them down.
So he had nothing to worry about (apart from waiting for confirmation of a season 3).
Right?
An hour later…
Mad-Ducks1026:
-WHAT THE FUCK?!
DahliaGirl0910:
-Mads???
-What?!
-WHAT HAPPENED???
Mad-Ducks1026:
-LIKE
-WHAT
-THE
-ACTUAL
-FUCK WAS THAT??
-I
-A;OIWEFJI
-no non no no on nonoono
DahliaGirl0910:
-MADS YOU’RE SCARING ME
-WHAT HAPPENED?!!
-👀
Mad-Ducks1026:
-i cant- i fuckingcant jesus
-oh my god oh my god OHMYGDO
DahliaGirl0910:
-WAS IT BAD? IS EVERYONE OKAY?
-MADS?
-MADS YOU BETTER GET YOUR DUCK ASS BACK HERE
-YOU CAN’T JUST SAY ‘WTF’ AND DIP?!!!
-UGH
-YOU BETTER BE OVERDRAMATIC I STG
3 hours later….
DahliaGirl0910:
-…
-…
-…
-Mads?
Mad-Ducks1026:
-Dee
DahliaGirl0910:
-pls
-pls
-psl
-pls
-pl
Mad-Ducks1026:
-yup
-i know
-uh huh
DahliaGirl0910:
-pls
-PLS!!!
-TELL ME
-THAT DIDNT JUST
-HAPPEN
Mad-Ducks1026:
-…
-…
DahliaGirl0910:
-Well
-FUCK
Mad-Ducks1026:
-YEAH
-FUCK
DahliaGirl0910:
Mad-Ducks1026:
-goodbye
-cruel world...