Chapter Text
The Los Feliz summer creative program was one of the most competitive in the entire country.
And Luke knew it well.
He, Reggie, Alex and Bobby had been trying to get into the program for the last two years, ever since they qualified for it as freshmen, but they had been turned down both years. The quality for entrance to the program was meant to be the highest standard, helped by the fact that they had so many creative avenues represented, and Luke was determined that this year they were going to do it. They were going to get in.
Which was why he could not for the life of him understand why Bobby was backing out five minutes before their audition.
“What do you mean, summer internship?!” he hissed at the rhythm guitarist through the phone.
“Exactly that,” Bobby replied, sounding way too casual for someone who had just committed creative treason. “My dad hooked me up with an internship for the summer with the sound engineers, so I’m going on tour with him while Carrie is with our mom in DC.”
Luke ran his hand through his hair, fisting his fingers around the strands at the nape of his neck. “Dude, you couldn’t have told me before we got to the final round of auditions?!”
“I didn’t think we would get this far.”
Luke took a deep breath, visions of strangling Bobby with his guitar strings dancing through his mind. “I am going to put the phone down now.”
“You do that.”
Luke ended the call, set the phone to the side, and then violently kicked the wall. Alex raised an eyebrow.
“I take it the call didn’t go well, then?”
Luke shot him a poisonous look, which he dropped after a moment with a sigh. Reggie, who had been digging through his jacket pockets for something, gave Luke a curious look.
“Did he say why he isn’t here?”
“Trevor got him an internship,” Luke said bitterly, dropping into the seat next to Alex. “Apparently he’s going to learn about being a sound engineer, because loyalty and brotherhood mean nothing to him and he’s a stupid little weasel.”
“Good to know you don’t feel too strongly about it,” Alex said mildly.
“Why are you being so calm about this?” Luke demanded, turning on their drummer. “You have chronic anxiety. Shouldn’t you be hyperventilating at this point?”
“Probably,” Alex replied blissfully, “but you forget that my anxiety is also my superpower. We have a plan.”
“We do?”
Reggie spoke up, pointing between himself and Alex. “‘We’, as in me and Alex. Not ‘we’ as in all of us.”
And so it was, with a great deal of grumbling, that Luke agreed to sing not Now or Never, but rather This Band is Back, which could be played without Bobby. Luke was worried that the catchiness and silliness wouldn’t showcase their abilities effectively enough.
He was wrong.
They got in.