Chapter Text
The second Principle Lessa announced that the theme for this year’s annual senior music showcase was Battle of the Bands, Julie knew she had multiple problems.
First and foremost, the biggest issue was that she didn’t have a band, and therefore currently couldn’t even sign up, which led her onto problem number two: while she had a place at NYU, Juilliard was holding out on her at least participating in the showcase, because as a hopeful performance major with no filmed performances, they had said they couldn’t just hand out scholarships without any insurance.
Luckily, her best friends were kind of terrifying, so she figured they’d at least have some kind of plan, which, of course, they did.
“Oh, Alex Mercer, Luke Patterson, Reggie Peters and Bobby Wilson,” Willie rattled off as soon as she’d mentioned her need for a band, without even blinking.
Flynn nodded her agreement. “You can catch Mercer near the bleachers after school before cheer practice, Patterson at literally any time in the music room, Peters probably in the parking lot during lunch, and Wilson either near him, in the gym, or in the chem lab.”
Julie looked between the two of them frantically. “Woah, woah, woah! Why is this so well thought out? How do you know where they are? Isn’t Alex Mercer supposedly a bit of a bitch? Does Reggie Peters even know he’s supposed to come to school everyday? Won’t Bobby Wilson just cave my cheekbone in? How do you even know they play instruments asides him? And Luke Patterson? That bastard? I’d rather run an in depth scientific experiment on how many knitting needles I can jam into my eyeballs - with repeats.”
“Oh, honey,” Flynn said, taking her hand. “The theme for the Senior Music Competition is on a five year rotational system. We’ve known you’d have to do battle of the bands for three years, and have been planning as such ever since. And honestly, Jules, it’s high time you got over your rivalry with Luke, do you even know what you were fighting about to begin with?”
“...No, but that’s not the important part,” Julie huffed. “Last Thursday, he forgot to let the boiling tube warm up before he dropped it in our beaker of boiling water, which meant it obviously shattered, and everyone knows Reggie has a thing about broken glass, and i swear, Flynn, i thought Bobby was going to kill us.”
Willie squinted. “I somehow doubt Luke broke glass so he could murder you by way of Bobby. Regarding Alex Mercer, he isn’t as much of a bitch as everyone says he is. It’s only really a rumour because everyone knows he won’t date any of the popular girls who think he’s the best thing since the football player they last got with, and because he’s not really friends with anyone outside of the cheer team, but if we stopped holding cheerleaders and football players on pedestals like they’re some kinds of deity, no one would actually care who he spoke to and slept with.”
Flynn shot them a look. “How the fuck do you know how much of a bitch Alex Mercer is?”
Willlie shrugged, a sheepish smile gracing their features. “We’ve been talking for a while…”
Julie felt her jaw drop, and a quick glance at Flynn proved she was in the same situation. “Since when?”
“Well, um, I ran him over whilst I was out skating, right? And so I bought him a coffee to make up for it, and I just kept impulse-sending him memes and now we’re friends,” Willie explained, looking about as confused as Julie felt about the whole situation. “Anyways, i know he plays the drums because he told me. I can ask if you really want, but he’ll appreciate it more coming from you.”
Julie nodded slowly. “I have to scope him out anyways, make sure he’s good enough for you.”
“Oh my god, it’s not like that,” Willie protested, cheeks going red. “I’m pretty sure everyone would know if Alex Mercer was into guys.”
“That’s true,” Flynn acknowledged. “Which sucks, but we’ll be too busy stopping Luke and Julie trying to kill each other anyways.”
“You dont think Bobby Wilson will try - and succeed - at killing me first?” Julie asked. “I’ve heard he’s a pretty violent guy. And i don’t wanna hang around Reggie if he’s gonna be a bad influence - I’m pretty sure he has more piercings than i have t-shirts, and dad won’t want me spending time with a guy who ditches class.”
Flynn furrowed their eyebrows. “Bobby Wilson isn't violent, he's just on the wrestling team, and, y’know, stereotypes. He’s also a chemistry nerd, and from what i heard when he had to do his solo piece in my music period instead of his usual class, he’s a killer guitarist.”
“And Reggie Peters?” Julie pressed, figuring she wouldn’t be able to push either of her friends on the Alex or Bobby front.
Willie stole her pudding cup and leaned back into his chair. “Someone told me that Bobby said he leaves to do college level maths classes, not anything else. Half his piercings are acupuncture points for his chronic pain, too - or at least that’s what that kid that always hangs out in the nurse’s office said. Just face it, Julie-bean. We’ve never let you down, and you know we’re right, even about Luke.”
Flynn nodded eagerly, braids flying. “So; you’ve got the voice of an angel, Luke Patterson writes awesome songs and is an epic guitarist, as is Bobby Wilson, Reggie Peters is an incredible bassist, and Alex Mercer plays hella drums.”
“Boom. Band,” The pair of them said at the same time, high-fiving without looking.
----
No matter what Willie had insisted about there being nothing substantial to the rumours about Alex Mercer; he was still a pretty imposing guy, especially for a cheerleader.
In a way, Julie kind of got what other people said about him; he was attractive in a kind of untouchable way, and he wasn’t talking to the rest of the cheer team as they warmed up, just stretching by himself, using the bleachers as support so he could pull his leg up into what she was pretty sure was called a scorpion.
“Hi!” She said, scolding herself for the odd, preppy way it came out. “You’re Alex Mercer, right?”
Alex gave her a weird look, but obligingly released his foot. “Yeah? We’ve been in the same physics class since fifth grade, Julie. What do you want?”
Julie felt her cheeks burn - she’d known, obviously, but she’d kind of wanted to give him an out just in case he didn’t know who she was. “Right, yeah. Uhm. I need a band, for the Senior Music thing, and my friends say you play the drums?”
Alex snorted and folded forward until his palms rested comfortably on the ground. “You want me. To play the drums for your band. Why do you think i’d do it?”
“Uh…” she thought back to what Flynn had coached her through that morning. “It would look great on your college application? Los Feliz is known for its Senior Music Show. You can’t put playing the drums on your application and not have participated.”
“Julie, not to rain on your parade, or whatever, but my application doesn’t exactly need filling out,” Alex informed her, standing up straight. “Besides, I did early applicatio n. I’ve already got a place at Yale.”
Fuck, of course he did. The Mercer family ran a fucking volunteering programme out of the local church for Yale hopefuls with the promise of legacy endorsement for those who did a certain number of hours. Alex Mercer getting into Yale had never exactly been in question. “I don’t know, then! What do you want?”
Alex shrugged. “Nothing. I don’t have time for a band, and no offence, Julie, but it’s not really like we’re friends? I don’t really know why you asked me. If i remember rightly from the Junior showcase, there are, like, seven people who play the drums in our year, all of whom would probably be stoked to help you out.”
Julie clenched her fists, hoping she’d interpreted the shy smiles Willie lit up with whenever she’d brought up Alex correctly. “Willie told me he thought you’d help me?”
Even though she’d been expecting it, distantly, she was still kind of surprised when Alex blushed ever so slightly. She guessed she’d kind of bought into Willie’s line of thinking - for some reason she’d expected to know if one of the most popular guys in their year liked guys, even though she barely knew him.
Alex managed to keep his tone mostly level, but he leaned forward a little, coming across a lot more interested. “Uh, Willie is gonna be involved, then?”
Oh, yeah,” Julie said, nodding. “Absolutely. They’re one of my two best friends, obviously they’ll be helping out. Plus, he’s a killer photographer, so i’d be losing out if i didn't ask him.”
“That’s true,” Alex agreed, scuffing his shoe against the floor. “Um… I have to go, practice and all, but tell Willie to text me the time and place? If you’ve got a decent enough set of musicians… well, i’ll think about it, okay? He shrugged his hoodie off to reveal way more muscle than Julie had been expecting and jogged backwards towards the growing group of cheerleaders. “And remind him i owe him a coffee, okay?”
-----
As Flynn had predicted, she found Reggie and Bobby in the parking lot together at lunch, both sat cross legged on the bonnet of Bobby’s car, Bobby fiddling with the back of Reggie’s ear.
“Uh…hi?” Julie said when she got close enough, realising that Bobby was helping Reggie put an earring in. “Reggie and Bobby, right?”
They both looked up at the same time. “Yup. And you’re Julie?”
Julie ignored how viscerally that reminded her of Willie and Flynn, and soldiered on. “Yeah, right. So… um, i need a band for the Battle of the Band thing… and my friends said you’re my best bet?”
Reggie cocked his head as soon as Bobby let go of his ear. “Us? In a band?”
She nodded slowly. “You guys play, right? Bass and rhythm guitar? I’m genuinely gonna scream if you don’t and i’ve just made a complete fool of myself…”
“Oh, no, we do.” Bobby shook his head. “Just usually people don’t ask us for stuff like that. Been asked for meth a coupl’a times, though.”
“Uh… do you provide meth?” Julie asked tentatively. “Because Willie and Flynn told me you were decent guys but my dad would kill me if I started a band with a meth dealer.”
Reggie snorted. “We don’t deal drugs. Except that one time i shared my prochlorperazine when everyone got sick because we drove past that slaughterhouse, but that’s just anti-nausea medication, it’s not meth.”
“I’m pretty sure I could make meth,” Bobby speculated, pulling Reggie closer into his side. “But if I made it I'd probably inhale some and then it would show up on doping tests at States, and then I'd lose my scholarship to MIT, and I'd have to be Reg’s trophy husband.”
Reggie hummed. “You’d look cute in a cocktail dress. Although, I don't think maths professors have trophy husbands, bro.”
“What?” Bobby dug through his bag with his free hand until he found a soda. “You wanted to be an engineer at NASA, like, two days ago, I swear.”
Reggie shrugged, teasing smile lighting up his features. Honestly the both of them were way cuter like this - teasing each other like an old married couple, half curled into one another - than they’d even come across to her in the halls, where Reggie was a picture in leather jackets and piercings and Bobby was a force of wrestling singlets and chemistry textbooks so thick she’d always assumed he was just carrying them around to have something to fight people with, despite how conversations she’d overhead about how “mysterious” and “hot” they both were.
“Yeah, but I was thinking we could be that sexy professor married couple where everyone thinks we’re students because we’re so young and beautiful and funny, until they find out we’re professors and then they find out we’re married and go crazy, like on the Reddit post you showed me,” Reggie explained.
Julie cleared her throat, snorting when Bobby jumped, spilling his soda everywhere.
“Jesus fuck, Molina, are you trying to give me a heart attack?” He panted, clutching his chest.
She laughed, but shook her head. “No, you just never answered my question?”
Reggie blinked. “What question? Oh, wait, nevermind, I remember. Sure, why not? Acadec is cancelled for…like… ever, since Mrs Lions is on maternity, we’ve got free time.”
“What he says,” Bobby agreed. “Wait, what’s the gay equivalent of better listen to the missus?”
“Babe, that’s not a phrase.” Reggie scrunched his nose up. “But, I will find out.”
Julie took that as her signal to leave, deciding that she needed at least a coke from the vending machine to get her through talking to Luke Patterson.
——
“Julie, Julie, Julie, Julie,” Luke Patterson drawled, grinning at her, once she’d finished explaining why she needed his help. It was honestly infuriating how beautiful his stupid face was, because it meant Julie had to keep her guard up at all times, lest she join the swathes of girls - and guys - in their year who would probably donate at least one kidney to get Luke to give them a second glance. “Look at you, asking me for help. How does it feel?”
Julie scowled at him. “Like I could pay you to let me saw my own hands off and still have a better time.”
Luke visibly had to hold back a smile. “Y’know, if either of us remembered the beginning of this rivalry well enough to appropriately apologise, we’d probably be great friends?”
“Yeah,” she agreed, nodding solemnly. “But you ruined my seventh birthday party because you conspired with Carlos to let you cut your hair - which, kudos - but now I can’t look at sheet cake without throwing up in my mouth a little, so…”
“Yeah… that’s fair.” Luke nodded his acknowledgement. “That’s fair. You did cry through my entire Christmas party in fifth grade, though, so i honestly think we’re balanced at this point.”
“Balanced enough to have a band-truce?” She asked hopefully. “I mean, uh..” she coughed and leaned back into her chair. “Not that we’ll be friends, because I hate you. But… I need a band… Alex, Bobby and Reggie are already down…”
Luke’s jaw dropped a little. “Wait, you asked Alex, Bobby and Reggie if they’d be in a band with you? God, you’d have just as luck much asking Carrie Wilson if she wanted to join a line dancing troupe with you. You got balls, Molina, gotta admit that.”
“Uh… thanks?” Julie said, grabbing her back. “My place, Monday after school. Considering you uprooted my mom’s entire flower bed three years in a row, I’m assuming you still remember where the garage is?”
“Yeah, yeah. In my defence, the hopscotch grid I made out of the soil was awesome.”
“Three years! In a row!”
——
Julie was pretty sure she’d never had so many people in her garage before. Flynn and Willie had taken their usual spots on the sofa, and Julie was sprawled half across Willie’s side, as normal, but Luke and Alex were, for unknown reasons, sat cross legged on her dad’s coffee table, playing with one of those stupid ring toss water games that she’d thought had ceased to exist in, like, 2010- she hadn’t even known they knew each other - while Reggie and Bobby had crammed themselves into the old armchair, which almost certainly wasn’t supposed to fit two, and Alex had brought Carrie, Bobby’s sister, who had brought Nick, a guy from Willie’s lacrosse team that Julie had crushed on from sixth to eighth grade.
“Okay, Care, why are you even here?” Bobby finally asked, cutting through the quiet, awkward chatter that had been persisting since everyone arrived. “And why did you bring Nick? Not that we don’t love you, bro, but i’m so confused, i thought this was a band meeting.”
Carrie shrugged. “Lexi doesn’t like new places, so Nick and i are just hanging here until he’s cool, then we’re gonna go get fro-yo and watch Birds of Prey again.”
Alex flashed her a thumbs up. “You’re good, guys. Luke and I go way back, I'll be fine.”
“You sure?” Nick asked. Julie tried to remind herself that since she was no longer crushing on him, she had no reason for her stomach to do flip-flops when he sounded that caring. “We’re just watching it at my place, there’s no rush if you’re not ready.”
“Seriously, man, i’m fine,” Alex insisted. “Go before Care dies of Huntress-shortage.”
“I hate this fucking family,” Carrie muttered, but obliginly ruffled Alex’s hair and bumped her knuckles against Bobby’s before leading Nick out.
Flynn coughed. “Anyone wanna explain what that was about?”
Julie hadn’t noticed that Alex had been any more relaxed when talking to Carrie, but she could see now how much he tensed back up. “I have anxiety,” he admitted quietly, shoulders hunched in on himself. “I don’t like new places.”
“Oh, would this have been easier for you to do somewhere more familiar?” Julie asked, rubbing her arm. “That would’ve been fine.”
No, no, it’s okay.” Alex shook his head. “Anyway… band meeting?”
“How about we start with an ice breaker,” Willie suggested, rolling their eyes at the round of groans that resulted in. “Oh, just go with it. How about… uh, pronouns, any health or mental thing we need to be aware of before me and Flynn start thinking about organising a debut gig, and your favourite fact?”
Julie shrugged, “sounds good to me. She/her, none, my favourite fact is that there’s no such thing as a wild alpaca, because they’re the domesticated version of the vincuña.”
“That’s so cool!” Reggie breathed, waving when all eyes turned to him. “Uh, he/him, i have fibromyalgia, which mainly means touching me is probably a bad idea without asking, and my favourite fact is that according to bone markings, humans have likely been doing maths since about 30,000BC. Although my other favourite fact is probably that despite their name, acoustic bass guitars can also be amped up, it;s called the acoustic because the main amplification method is the body of the guitar itself.”
“Huh... i didn’t know that, that’s pretty cool,” Luke said, finally putting the game down. “I use he/him, please, i think i have ADHD but i’m still in the process of, like, getting assessed and stuff, so really who knows, and my favourite fact is that Jimi Hendrix couldn’t read music. I just think it’s neat.”
Flynn nodded. “I feel like i read that somewhere, but i’m not sure where. I use she/they, i have no health stuff, and… um. Megan Thee Stallion has the same birthday as me?”
“Dope.” Willie offered his hand for a high-five, grinning when Flynn slapped it. “He/they, please, no health stuff, my favourite fact is that Tony Hawk was the first person to do a 900, and he could still do ‘em when he was forty eight.”
“I have no idea what that means, but it sounds awesome,” Alex admitted.
Willie laughed. “Don’t worry about it, man, i’ll send you a video later.”
Alex nodded, cheeks going very faintly pink. “Um. so my pronouns are he/him, i have anxiety, and my favourite fact is that more than eighty percent of the world’s surface is volcanic in origin.”
Bobby made an impressed face. “That’s cool. He/him, none, and my favourite fact is that despite the fact that it takes botulism thirty six hours to kill you, you only have four hours to administer the antidote before it won’t work.”
“What the fuck ?” Julie and Flynn asked at the same time.
He shrugged. “In my defence, I learned that on criminal minds, but I googled it afterwards, and it’s accurate.”
“Baby, if you murder someone, do you promise to leave me massive amounts of money in an offshore account so i can go get us a cool house in Tasmania and establish a truffle farm while i wait for you to break out of prison?” Reggie asked, turning sideways so his legs were thrown over Bobby’s lap.
“Anyone else feeling super single right now?” Flynn asked, resting her head on Willie’s shoulder.
Alex nodded and sighed. “Where do I get a boyfriend who promises to leave me huge offshore accounts so I can start a truffle farm in Tasmania?”
Julie paused, glancing at Willie. As expected, they were staring at Alex with eyes the size of saucers, cheeks flushed.
Reggie spoke first after a moment of awkward silence. “Hey, man, no pressure or anything, but how come you’re not out? Like… i know it would mean a lot to a load of the younger kids if one of the most popular kids in our school was out.”
Alex furrowed his eyebrows together. “Firstly, i’m not one of the most popular kids in our year, i have, like, five friends. Secondly, i’ve been out since eighth grade.”
“No, you haven’t,” Luke, Willie and Reggie somehow managed to say at the same time.
Alex frowned, glancing at Julie as if she would back him up. “I have, because i told Maisy Snowdown that i was gay in eighth grade when she asked me about, and i’ve never heard of a secret Maisy Snowdown didn’t immediately tell everyone.”
Flynn shrugged. “Maybe she’s just a decent person, and knows outing people is wrong?”
“I guess… huh.” Alex looked around the room. “Wait, did you think i was straight ?”
There was a general noise of affirmation as they all admitted that they had, except Reggie.
“I had my suspicions,” he admitted. “But i didn’t know for certain.”
“Wait.” Alex turned to look at Willie, face shuttering. “ You thought…? Wow. Um. Okay. Moving on… when do you want to start practicing actual music?” he asked Julie, tone flat.
Julie waved a hand back and forth. “Depends on whether you guys are even all in or not?”
Once they’d all nodded their assent, she continued. “I was thinking, if you could get your instruments here? Alex, you can leave your drums here if moving them is too much hassle. How about we try this again, for.. Thursday night?”
——
For some reason, Julie hadn’t really expected to gain actual friends out of this, mainly just people to make music with for a while, but Carrie Wilson felt decidedly comfortable yanking her into the girls bathroom the next morning at school, so Julie figured either Alex or Bobby must vaguely approve of her.
“We have a problem,” Carrie informed her curtly. “And you’re the only person who can help me fix it?”
“Oh-Kay, Double-Oh-Seven,” Julie said slowly, glancing at the door. “What’s the problem?”
Carrie rolled her eyes. “Alex is being stupid. Yesterday he told me that Willie thought he was straight so obviously he’s losing his mind and has convinced himself Willie is completely uninterested and that the whole time when he thought they were like.. talking talking, and planning dates, they were actually just talking and planning Bro-hangouts, and now Alex’s soul is crushed.”
“Oh.” Julie perked up. “Willie has a massive crush on Alex, so they’d be thrilled to have been talking talking and planning dates when he thought they were just talking and planning Bro-hangouts.”
“Woah,” Carrie said, holding a hand up. “Willie wasn’t intending to flirt with Alex?”
Julie shook her head slowly. “I mean, he’s always thought Alex was cute, but flirting with people you’re sure are straight is kinda a no-go.”
“True,” she agreed. “Well, Alex has been madly in love with them since seventh grade, so I suggest we do something before the idiot explodes.”
“Oh, yeah. Willie will lose his mind being around Alex all the time, if we don’t do something soon…”
“Good.” Carrie nodded soberly. “I’m going to get Alex to pick up fro-yo before we watch Thor: Ragnarok for the millionth time, so I’ll text you the time, and you send Willie to do the same, okay? Also, good luck with the dumbass-wrangling.”
Julie blinked. “With the what?”
Carrie raised an eyebrow. “Surely you understand that you got the four dumbest boys in our year to join a band with you, right?”
“Uh, Carrie, I’m pretty sure your brother and his boyfriend are actual geniuses, Luke writes killer songs, and I’ve seen Alex succeed at just about anything he’s ever tried, including redox titration calculations, which I still don’t understand.”
She laughed. “Oh, sweet, naive Julie… Bobby would kill for Reggie in a heartbeat, Reggie just wants a puppy, Luke thinks he can make his way through life by giving important people puppy dog eyes, and Alex once almost had a panic attack because he thought he was being stalked by his own shadow.”
“Oh, shit.”