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Sugar Springs was a lot of things, while also not being a lot of things.
It was simple, safe, and kind of pretty if you stopped to take a look around. The mass of trees made gorgeous silhouettes over hills, the sky was the perfect shade of blue on sunny days, and the town had room to breathe. The lack of industrialized buildings made nature prominent in this small town. Trees around every corner, flowers growing on windowsills and cracks in the sidewalks, and plenty of wildlife roaming throughout the wooded areas.
The downside: Ninety percent of the time, Sugar Springs was BORING. Sure, there were some interesting community events throughout the year, which some people took very seriously, but there was only so much excitement an eighteen-year-old boy could derive from helping his grandfather secure total domination of the local baking scene.
And with his friends now busy with their summer jobs, Chase Hollow (Like and Follow), was left to spend most of his free time in the attic above his room.
And amid the whole “discovering magical artifacts, hiding from a secret organization, gathering wish juice, and reuniting a family” business, Chase found himself a hyper fixation.
And her name was Chappell Roan.
“FIVE. SIX.”
“FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT!”
The song’s intro beat thumped through the speakers of Chase’s old stereo, filling the room with the musical stylings of the iconic Midwest Princess.
A groan emanated from the chicken mitt lying on a nearby windowsill. Bronze half-heartedly crawled out of his humble abode and grimaced at the scene in front of him.
“This song again?” he sighed. “They’ve played it ten times today already.”
Silver twirled on the wooden floor of the tower. She held her hands high above her head, and her grin was one of absolute bliss. “I hope they play it ten more times!” The heroine key giggled as she started to pump her fists to the beat of the music.
Chase, much like the rest of the world, was a fan of the rising star. As such, radio stations had her songs in near-constant rotation. This song in particular played everywhere.When Chase wasn’t playing it on his phone, it was on at the grocery store, at the Sugar Shack, in the car, and it had even snuck its way into Grandpa Ralph’s Bingo Night playlist.
“Bronze!” Goldie called from the dancefloor, looking absolutely scandalized. “Do you have qualms with Lady Roan: the greatest songstress of this generation?!”
Bronze rested his hand underneath his chin. “No, it’s not that. It’s a good song, but do they have to play it all the time?” He glared at the stereo as if the machine had done him a disservice. “It gets stuck in my head a lot. Keeps me from going to sleep.”
Considering that Bronze slept at least twelve hours a day whenever he could, the helper key was definitely not lacking any beauty rest. Still, his key siblings offered him small looks of sympathy.
Sitting cross-legged beside the two dancing keys was Chase, who was absent-mindedly singing along to the pop singer. He set down the art project he was working on and glanced over at the lone key at the window.
“Y’know, Bronze,” Chase said, “there’s a trick to getting a song out of your head. Wanna know what it is?”
Bronze groaned again, but he gave Chase a curious look. “Fine. What is it?”
With a devious grin, Chase got up from the ground and walked up to the stereo. Silver squealed with delight as Chase cranked the volume knob to the right, and the music was suddenly booming throughout the farmhouse. Goldie started stomping his feet to match the thunderous beats as Silver snapped and clapped and touched her toes.
Chase looked back at Bronze, who looked physically pained.
“YOU GOTTA DANCE IT OUT!”
Bronze did not look happy with Chase’s advice, but that was too bad since Chase was already picking him up and dragging him away from Terrence. Chase plopped Bronze onto the dance floor before returning to his spot on the floor to fiddle with his glue gun.
“H-O-T-T-O-G-O!” Silver sang, “C’mon Bronze! You can take me hot to go!”
Goldie repeated the chorus and hip-checked Bronze to get his little brother to dance, which made their sister giggle into her palm.
Bronze couldn’t help but let a small grin slip onto his metallic face. He didn’t have the vigor to dance at the same level of Silver (who was going to be disastrously dizzy once the song ended), but since he was already here, he could at least tap his foot…
As the song continued, everyone started to sing along. Silver and Goldie belted out the bridge with reckless abandon, while Bronze only sang the chorus (since those were the only lyrics he actually knew), leaving Chase to perform the backing vocals and high notes. Occasionally, Chase would quiet down so that he could concentrate on placing careful dots of hot glue onto the backs of turquoise rhinestones.
The music was blaring, and the party was getting vivacious. By the power of Chappell Roan, Chase and his key friends were having the time of their lives in simple Sugar Springs. The town wasn’t exactly a party destination, but Chase wouldn’t want to be singing his heart out anywhere else than here.
“WHAT’S IT TAKE TO GET YOUR NUMBER?”
“WHAT’S IT TAKE TO BRING YOU HOME?”
“Chase?!”
“HURRY UP, IT’S TIME FOR SUPPER!”
“ORDER UP, I’M HOT TO—!”
“CHASE!”
The door to the tower swung open with a heavy thunk. The sudden movement made Chase jump, and he cringed as the tip of the glue gun briefly touched his finger. Chase narrowed his eyes at the dorky intruder, cradling his barely-burnt finger.
“What, Dorkin?” Chase snapped. “I’m in the middle of something!”
Deacon’s head poked into the tower, and he could barely hear Chase over the sound of the music. But from the way his cousin was looking at him, he understood Chase perfectly well anyway.
Deacon faltered, looking at the abomination in Chase’s lap. It didn’t look terrible. It was just so undeniably Chase. Deacon sighed as he suddenly realized why Chase had been so adamant about visiting the craft store yesterday, even though entering Lou’s Craft Store was a trigger for Chase’s trauma from the Craft Fair of ‘23 (don’t ask).
Deacon pinched the bridge of his nose, which made Chase immediately defensive.
“Shut up, Dorkin!”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to! I can see it in your freckles!” Freckles was said with such venom that Deacon was absolutely convinced Chase was spending way too much time with Buddy. “This is my summer project, so just back off!”
“God, why can’t I have a normal cousin?” Deacon sighed, mostly to himself.
Chase’s eye twitched. “I ask myself the same thing every time I catch you writing horsey fan fiction!”
Deacon looked like he had been slapped across the face, and he had the red blush to match it. The pop song, which was winding to the end, filled Deacon’s embarrassing silence.
“Wh-whatever!” Deacon said, his eyes avoiding Chase’s. “Grandpa told me to come up here to tell you to turn the music down.”
“WHAT?!” Chase screamed, suddenly unable to hear Deacon.
Deacon scowled. “GRANDPA SAID TO TURN THE MUSIC—”
“HOT TOOO GOOOOOO!”
“H-O-T-T-O-G-O,” Bronze shimmied his shoulders as he sang beside Goldie, who was spelling out the letters with his arms. “YOU CAN TAKE ME HOT TO GO!”
Deacon grimaced as the song reached its climax, and the keys used the last of their energy to sing and dance in the final moments of the wicked bop.
“Whew!”
Chappell Roan gasped for air, signaling the outro to the song of the summer, and it seemed like the keys were equally wiped out. Silver and Goldie grinned like maniacs, while Bronze wore a self-satisfied smirk.
The voices of radio announcers began to blast through the stereo, and Chase ran up to turn the volume down.
“There,” he turned to Deacon, who still looked properly ashamed. “The song’s over anyways.”
Deacon rolled his eyes, and they fell on the project once more. He grimaced but couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away.
Chase returned to the project, grabbing the glue gun and adding the last dot of glue to the final stone. His tongue slightly poked out from between his teeth as he pressed the rhinestone in the remaining gap in the ring of turquoise gems.
“And done!”
Chase bounced with excitement as he lifted the finished product for all to see: a neon-pink cowboy hat with a ring of turquoise rhinestones bedazzled above the brim, complete with a bright, yellow star on the front of the hat. Chase placed it on his head like a crown, then firmly snagged the hat to his head with its light pink cords.
“Cute, right?” Chase placed his hands on his hips and pretended to model for the group, sprinkling in some winks and kissy faces.
“Oh, adorable!”
“What fine craftsmanship!”
“Looks pretty nice…”
“You’re so weird.”
Chase, ignoring that last comment, reached over to grab his phone and then proceeded to take a million selfies to send to his main group chat.
Chase began to type on his phone. “Gotta show Danielle. She’s the one who gave me the idea…” A moment later, Chase’s phone pinged, and Chase started to laugh. “Ha! She wants me to make her one too! I gotta get more rhinestones…”
“Well, good luck with that,” Deacon began to retreat down the ladder. “Just keep the radio down, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Chase waved his cousin away.
Deacon closed the attic door behind him, leaving Chase and the keys as they were. Chase hummed thoughtfully before walking up to the stereo and turning it off.
Silver gave a startled exclamation. “Wait! I wanted to keep listening!”
“Don’t worry, Sil,” Chase grinned as he tapped away on his phone. “We gotta keep the radio down. Dorkin didn’t say anything about my phone.”
“Oh, great!” Silver clapped.
Goldie pumped his fist in celebration. “The festivities can continue!”
“That’s kinda dumb, but whatever,” Bronze shrugged. “I’m in the dancing mood now.”
Chase placed his phone on the ground and in the next moment…
“FIVE. SIX.”
“FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT!”
The keys and Chase sang along with Chappell Roan, bobbing their heads, swinging their hips, but most importantly, raising their hands and body rolling.
Chase’s hat glittered in the Sugar Springs summer sun, shining like a disco ball for the party of the century. This town, as boring as it could often be, was much more fun when Chase was with his greatest friends.
“H-o-t-t-o-g-o! Snap and clap and touch your toes…”
Violet rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time. “Ugh, that infernal song again! I can hear it all the way down here! Aren’t libraries supposed to be quiet?!”
But the villainess key was alone in her frustrations, for her only companion was resting on top of a shelf that sat close to an air vent. Through the metal gaps of the vent grate, the upbeat song traveled from upstairs, arriving loud and clear to the storage closet.
The dark-haired villain key bobbed his head to the music, his knee also bouncing in time with the drum beats. While Violet rubbed her metallic temples, he softly murmured the lyrics to himself.
“You can take me hot to go…”