Chapter Text
Learning online was definitely a… new experience.
There were benefits, of course. Julie and Flynn could dm more easily than they could pass notes, and not having to ask to go to the bathroom was a big plus. As was getting a snack whenever she felt like it. There was the added bonus that if her teachers didn’t require her to have her camera on, Julie could theoretically do her entire class in bed, or in her unicorn onesie.
There was one class she wished she could attend in person though. Music wasn’t the same from her bedroom. Her room was where she wrote music, where she bared her soul and polished it up until she was ready to present it to the world. Trying to perform from her room, or even the studio, was going to be… interesting, to say the least.
“Almost ready?” her dad asked from the doorway. Julie looked up and smiled, laying her finger over her mouth until she’d muted her mic.
“Just finishing up calculus. Did you need something?”
He shook his head and revealed the plate hiding behind his back. “Thought you could use a snack before music. Your mom always gets hungry before performances.”
Julie took the plate and thanked her dad, setting it to the side. “How goes the science experiment?”
A distant popping noise emerged from the kitchen, closely followed by a yelled, “We’re okay!”
Ray grimaced. “I’m going to go help them clean that up. Enjoy music, mija.”
The calculus class ended uneventfully, and Julie had just enough time to eat half her sandwich before she had to log in for music. While the others entered the class, Julie set up her keyboard and angled her camera so that she would be visible.
“Good morning class,” Mrs. Harrison greeted. “Today we have some new students joining us. Usually, I’d have you boys introduce yourselves but since we’re on a time limit, we’ll save that for another day. Now, your topic today…”
Julie carefully wrote out the assignment and wrote her free association down before Mrs. Harrison began her lecture. Julie was taking notes when a notification popped up and Mrs. Harrison broke off.
“Did someone have a question? Let me just navigate to the messages and… Reginald we do not use that kind of language in class!”
A meek, “Sorry,” emerged. Julie muted her mic before checking the chat box and snorting.
ReggieP to everyone: my love for you burns like a dying phoenix
ReggieP to everyone: FUCK
Julie broke into laughter, as did the few people who hadn’t muted their mics. Mrs. Harrison looked stern, but Julie could see a smile threatening at the corner of her mouth.
“Very well, if I may continue.”
It was only five minutes later that Julie got another notification, again from Reggie.
ReggieP to JulieM: What’s that behind you?
Julie’s head whipped around. Spider? Moth? Ghost?!
… nothing.
“Reginald Peters so help me I will come over to your house and strangle you with your bass strings, pandemic be damned!”
“Alexander Mercer!”
“SHIT MY MIC IS STILL ON.”
Julie didn’t even bother to mute her microphone at that one. She swung abruptly from terrified to amused, snorting in her laughter.
Mrs. Harrison pinched her nose as the new boy stammered out an apology. “Okay, clearly I am not holding your attention with the lecture. I’m going to send you into breakout rooms now. In your group I want you to come up with an idea for an unusual take on a song. It can be anything, as long as the genre you’re working within doesn’t usually have that element. All clear?”
A chorus of yeses emerged. Julie sat up and grinned – this was the kind of thing she enjoyed, putting a new spin on an old classic.
Her group had one of the new boys, the one who was pranking people, as well as Flynn and Nick. Julie ignored Flynn’s pointed looks when she and Nick interacted – that boat may have lingered in the harbor for longer than it should have, but it had finally set sail.
The group eventually decided that a country cover of a classical Disney song would classify. Julie provided a fun piano theme to Let It Go, while Flynn provided a backbeat on her keypad. Nick did the guitar and Reggie did a bassline, looking extremely pleased with their decision.
Once they had it established, Flynn turned her gaze to the new boy. “What was up with that dying phoenix thing?”
Reggie blushed, an interesting contrast on someone so pale. “Um, so Luke and I both have a hard time focusing on class sometimes, especially now that we’re all learning from home. I started sending him Harry Potter pickup lines to keep our brains engaged and now it’s a competition to see who can make the other one laugh.”
Nick laughed. “I think you win by default, dude. You had us all laughing, after all.”
Reggie’s face brightened. “Hey, yeah! I’m going to use that argument. Thanks dude.”
“No problem. Hey, we’re being called back to class, you guys ready to perform?”
“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Flynn said with a grin. “See you guys in there.”
Julie clicked the button to go back to class.
Was that… entrance music?
“Who hasn’t muted their mic?” a saccharine voice said. Julie winced as Carrie used her customer service voice. “It’s class policy to mute your mic. It’s a sign of respect to the other performers.”
“Funny how your mic isn’t muted,” Flynn muttered, loudly enough for the whole class to hear.
The guitar music paused momentarily as the person turned on their camera. Julie was struck first by the vibrant green of the person’s eyes before seeing… was that a beanie? In LA? Who was this guy?
“Sorry,” the guy – Luke, according to the name in the corner of the screen – said sheepishly. “Give me two minutes to finish writing out this riff and I’m all in.”
“Mute your mic, dude,” Reggie said, grinning in his window.
A blonde boy sighed heavily. “Reginald, you are the last person in a position to tell people to do anything. Or need I remind you that you told us all something about a phoenix?”
Reggie’s eyes went wide, though the grin lingered around his mouth. “Don’t you love me, Alex?”
“That is enough,” Mrs. Harrison said, though she also sounded amused. “Luke, hurry up and keep your microphone off while you write. Carrie, since you have such a high esteem for the performances, you can go first.”
Julie had to admit that she paid almost no attention to the performance, her attention caught on Luke. He made faces as he wrote, and his entire body radiated emotion. He was the most expressive person Julie had ever seen, and she lived with an eleven-year-old self-proclaimed ghost hunter who had a decent YouTube following.
When it came time for their group performance, Julie dragged her eyes away from his screen and began her intro. They’d agreed to take turns singing the chorus, so when her turn came Julie gave it her all.
“Let the storm range ooooooooon!” she belted, holding her last note so long that she was distantly impressed with herself. “The cold never bothered me anyway.”
The applause was thunderous. The group all thanked their classmates before the next group started, someone covering a song from a pop group with brass instruments only. Julie was paying a decent amount of attention (and definitely not contemplatively looking at the other half of her sandwich) when a new notification popped up. She frowned and clicked over to the chat box.
LukeP to JulieM: you are a vocal WRECKING BALL
LukeP to JulieM: speechless rn. Voice like an angel
JulieM to LukeP: thanks! I liked your riff earlier
That was safe, right? Julie bit her lip and looked over at the screen – Luke was looking intently at his keyboard, fingers flying.
A new message, one that made a smile bloom across her face without conscious permission.
LukeP to JulieM: hey do you want to jam together sometime?