Hello!
Well, even though I just posted the recap thing on Friday, I have a few chapters stored up so I thought why not start posting them now? So over the next few days I'll be posting the few pre-written chapters that I have. Sorry if they're not terribly well written or focusing on characters that are more requested, I have to go back and tweak them but hopefully they're still alright. Speaking of characters that more requested, I haven't really had much feedback on who you want to read about. I don't want to be writing about characters and working on plot lines for characters that you don't want to read about, no matter how much I might want to, so some kind of direction would be nice. I really want to make these stories good for you.
Anyway, I was looking back at how I used to do the Author's Notes for this story and I realised that I always used to put in a little bit about what's been happening in my life lately. And even though I doubt that anyone actually cared about those little bits of information, I'm going to bring them back anyway. So skip past this paragraph if you don't care. If you're still reading then first of all, thank you, it's nice to know that someone wants to listen to me, and secondly, the little bit of information about me this week is that I'm kind of obsessed with the Heathers The Musical soundtrack. It's not exactly a hugely appropriate musical for younger people but I think that the songs are amazing (listen at your own risk though, some are kind of explicit) and even though I would love to include some of the songs in my stories, I somehow feel like it would be wrong. And I feel like making my stories match the tone of those songs wouldn't be received very well either. Oh well, I guess I'll have to stick to keeping you happy. XD
Ok, finished now! And I've rambled for far too long already, sorry! You probably hate me at this point. I'll just get on with the chapter now.
"So you had a good day then?" Mack asked Lela, looking up from her bowl of popcorn at the girl that she was stood opposite. The five teens from the food stalls had bounded through the doors of Mack's house first and were sat watching TV when Tanner, Struts and Giggles came back from work at the beach shop. After a quick catch up they went back to watching…well, more like trying to figure out how to work the TV, but it seemed like Lugnut and Coral were still cooped up at the primary school.
"Yeah, it was actually pretty fun! Who knew work could be so fun?!" Lela chirped, grinning like always. Sometimes Mack wondered if Lela ever stopped smiling. "I don't think that Tanner had a very good time though, from what he's told me, it doesn't sound very fun," Lela continued, that 'ever-lasting' smile seeming to fade a little bit. But don't worry, as soon as it started to slip it bounced back into the grin that could only come from a person who lived in a perfect world.
"Really, why?" Mack asked, concerned that her plan to keep the movie characters out of trouble was backfiring after the first day.
"He just said that his boss wasn't very nice," Lela explained, brushing off the problem with ease. "I don't think it's that big of a deal though."
"Are you sure?" Mack asked, her eyebrows knitting together as she gnawed on her lips. She hadn't intended to make the 60s teens miserable and never would, so if that's what had happened then maybe she shouldn't have trusted Brady. But then again, she could never say no to her blonde goofball of a boyfriend, it's the very reason why ten movie characters were trashing- I mean staying at her house.
"I'm positive, don't worry, Mack," Lela said, trying to be as reassuring as possible. "When's Brady getting back?" she carried on, switching to a new conversation topic with great ease. It was like as soon as something made the situation a little bit tense or uncomfortable she breezed in to make everything happy and sunny again. Another perk of living in a perfect universe I guess.
"It should be any second now," Mack replied, glancing at the clock on the wall, which kindly told her that it was quarter past three. "He's just gone to pick up Lugnut and Coral."
"Do you think that they've been alright?" Lela asked, still taking on her chirpy tone even though she knew the rather awful answer that would follow her question. Both girls just grimaced at the thought of the two teens spending the day together. No one had much faith in Coral and Lugnut getting along due to their past.
"I don't know what they've been doing, Brady came back this morning and said that Coral wanted some musical instruments," Mack said, her eyebrows once again finding themselves furrowed in thought.
"Musical instruments?" Lela asked, her eyebrows following suit of Mack's. "What on earth for?"
"I don't know, but I can't exactly send Brady all the way back to the school with a piano, so I just sent him with my old violin, I doubt they'll be able to do anything with it though," Mack sighed, dropping the piece of popcorn that she'd been playing with in sudden disinterest.
"Wait, you have a piano?" Lela asked, this new information sparking her intrigue.
"Yeah but it's super old and hasn't been used in years, it's in the back room," Mack explained casually, not noting Lela's glittering eyes. "I doubt that it even works properly."
"Oh, it would have been nice if someone could play it though," Lela smiled, picturing everyone happily singing around the piano, no matter how dusty and rickety it sounded from Mack's description. That's the thing about Lela, she always managed to think the best of people and situations.
"Yeah, I guess so," Mack sighed, glancing back at the clock on the wall again, willing it to move faster. Apparently her prayers were answered though because for the second that she stared at its hands, the front door burst open and Brady, along with two more movie characters, stumbled inside.
"Ok, where's the music player thingy?" Lugnut cried, thundering into the house with Coral hot on his heels and Mack's violin in her hand.
"What?" Mack asked, startled by how lively the pair were.
"Where's the music player thingy?" Lugnut repeated, frantically searching around the kitchen for it. And by it he meant the little Bluetooth speaker that their friends had smuggled into the living room. They didn't know how to use it but they were determined to make it work.
"Guys, stop freaking out, you can use my phone," Brady said, sliding his phone out of his pocket as he walked through the door.
"Great!" Coral exclaimed, gratefully taking (well, it was more like grabbing) the mobile phone from Brady and tossing it in Lugnut's direction.
"What's gotten into you guys?" Lela asked, just as curious as Mack and Brady as to why Coral and Lugnut were practically bouncing off the walls all of a sudden. Judging from the two teens' past opinions of each other, this new cooperation and giddy smiling was very different from their usual glares and snarky comments.
"Yeah, I've never seen you two smile so much when you're together," Mack agreed, not knowing whether to be unsettled or pleased that the two teens weren't bickering away.
"I don't know what's happened since I left them at lunch time but whatever it is, it's good because I didn't think that they were going to be able to stay in the room with each other, let alone get along. And now they're acting like they been making friendship bracelets at summer camp all afternoon," Brady said, watching Coral bounce on the spot and grin over Lugnut's shoulder as he scrolled through the songs on Brady's phone.
"What happened at school that's made you two bond so much?" Lela chuckled, finding the new friendship between Coral and Lugnut quite amusing.
"Oh, Mack, I've gotta tell you something," Brady started, a thought suddenly re-entering his head.
"What?" Mack asked warily, hoping that the news wasn't anything too dramatic considering that she'd only just started to get used to everything that already happened over the past few days.
"Right, here we go," Lugnut said, apparently finding what he had been looking for on Brady's phone before turning to Coral, completely oblivious to Mack and Brady's conversation. "You ready?" he asked the surfer girl.
"Do I have to?" Coral whined, not as excitable as Lugnut now that it had actually come down to the moment.
"Yes, are you kidding me?" Lugnut shot back, rather shocked at the surfer girl's sudden change of heart.
"Fine," Coral sighed, placing the violin under her chin and waiting for Lugnut's signal for her to start.
"Guys, listen to this," he said, aiming his statement at Mack, Brady and Lela, who were all still staring in confusion at the pair. Lugnut pressed something on Brady's phone and then set it down on the counter, gazing up in expectant awe at the ditzy background dancer.
"Is she gonna play it?" Mack asked, whispering to Lela so that she didn't disturb whatever Coral and Lugnut were trying to set up.
"I don't think Coral can play the violin," Lela whispered back. "So I have no idea."
A song started to drift from Brady's phone and Coral positioned the bow above the strings, sent a mischievous smile to the three waiting teens all stood side by side before beginning to play along with it. Despite Coral's unknown skill of playing the violin, she proceeded to let the others know just how talented she was by adding in little tricks to go with the tune and allowing Lugnut to continue to change the song twice more before she finally took the bow away from the strings with a huge grin on her face.
"Woah," was all that Brady could say after the impromptu performance.
"Yeah, woah," Coral chuckled, twirling the bow between her fingers before holding it down at her side.
"Why didn't you tell us that you could play the violin like that?" Lela asked, her mouth slightly agape as she stared at the surfer girl. Like everyone else, Lela had presumed that Coral was just as ditzy as she came across and only really served her purpose as a backup dancer, it was rather startling to find out that the characters with virtually no storyline actually had lives and talents.
"It never came up," Coral replied, as if it was the simplest answer in the world.
"But it should have done, you're incredible!" Lela exclaimed, not understanding how the surfer girl hadn't bragged about it before.
"How long have you been learning?" Mack asked Coral, trying to figure out if it was actually talent or a weird movie universe malfunction that had spat out a useless skill at her.
"Since I was six, so I've had a bit of experience," Coral answered, adding a small, awkward laugh on the end. She wasn't used to getting this much attention and despite loving being in the spotlight for a change, she didn't really know what to do.
"What was that?" Struts asked, referring to the violin music as she appeared out of nowhere.
"Yeah, wheres did that come from?" Butchy asked as the two bikers sauntered into the kitchen area.
"From your girlfriend," Lugnut snickered, glancing across at Coral as he spoke. The surfer girl, turned to face the pair of bikers that had just walked up, grinned at them before quickly playing a scale on the instrument.
"And how long have yous been able to do that and hide it from us?" Butchy asked, raising an eyebrow at the girl with a mass of curly hair.
"What, you're not gonna deny that she's your girlfriend first?" Struts teased, blowing a bubble with her gum as Butchy rolled his eyes and gave her a small shove.
"Oh shut up," he muttered as a very satisfied Struts let out a small giggle. She never let an opportunity to wind up Butchy pass.
"You guys do realise that now you've given Coral that violin she's never going to put it down," Tanner piped up as he walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bag of crisps, causing everyone to turn and stare at him. It was the first thing that he'd said all trip that might have made some sense. "It's like her favourite thing along with surfing."
"Probably not, but they're just going to have to deal with it," Coral chuckled, yet again twirling the bow between her fingers. It was either a nervous habit or a sign that she was trying to show off further, no one was really sure which, including Coral herself.
"Well are there any other instruments that anyone can play, so there are no more surprises?" Brady asked, not wanting to have to go through this whole process again.
"Yeah, can you play the piano?" Lela asked, bringing back the subject of Mack's old piano. Apparently she didn't want to let go of her happy piano singing dream just yet.
"Why? You've got a piano?" Lugnut asked Mack, turning to face the girl with an odd urgency.
"Yeah, it's in the back room but it's pretty old-" Mack started, but was cut off when Lugnut grabbed Coral's arm and started dragging her out of the room.
"This is perfect," Lugnut said, but the rest of the conversation went unheard as Coral and Lugnut got further away from the kitchen and closer to the piano.
"What the heck's gotten into those two?" Struts asked, creasing her eyebrows together and staring after the surfer girl and biker boy, better known as the previous enemies in the group.
"Something happened today and now they're like best friends, but we don't know what," Lela explained with a giggle and a smile, i.e. the two things that she punctuated virtually every sentence with.
"Huh, alright," Struts nodded, taking in everything that Lela had said with surprising ease. The three bikers and Tanner left not long later, leaving Mack and Brady, who still hadn't told Mack his news, alone in the kitchen.
"What was it that you wanted to tell me again?" Mack asked, turning her full attention to Brady now that they didn't have to worry about any more interruptions.
"You know my car?" Brady started, already grimacing at the thought of it.
"Don't tell me it's broken," Mack said, her face falling almost instantly. It seems that they can read each other's minds now too.
"Ok, but how else do you want me to phrase it?" Brady asked, crossing his arms and trying to mask his disappointment with annoyance.
"What happened?" Mack sighed; her expression softening slightly as she could that Brady was obviously upset about it.
"I don't know, I was just driving Coral and Lugnut back and it started stuttering and then as we pulled up I flipped the bonnet and load of smoke came out," Brady replied, his stature deflating with each word that he managed.
"That doesn't sound too good," Mack said as she gnawed on her lip. She knew nothing about cars but smoke was never a good thing.
"What are we going to do? We use that car all the time and we can't get everyone to work without it. We drive to pick up food in it too so if we don't have that car then we don't eat," Brady snapped, starting to get stressed instead of Mack, for a change.
"Brady, relax. We'll just order pizza again tonight and maybe you can send it to be fixed," Mack said, being the reassuring one for once. Oh how their roles have changed.
"Do you have any idea how expensive it is to get a car fixed?" Brady asked, not seeming to have calmed down at all. "It's gonna cost at least fifty dollars and we don't have that kind of money to be losing, we've got ten mouths to feed, twelve including us."
"Maybe you could ask some of the bikers to help, they're always fixing up their bikes, I'm sure that a car engine isn't going to be that different," Mack suggested, seeing Brady's tense demeanour begin to disappear. At least she was trying to help, that's all that Brady could have asked for really. She took a step closer to him and gently kissed him on the cheek, "Someone special once told me something," she said quietly, watching Brady stare off into space.
"What was it?" Brady asked with a bored tone, still grumpy about his dying car.
"Everything's going to be fine," Mack replied, echoing the words that Brady had constantly been saying to her for the past few days. Brady's face broke out into a small, reluctant smile before he wrapped his arm around Mack's waist and kissed the top of her head.
"I guess I'd better go and round up Butchy and Lugnut then," Brady said, breaking away from Mack and walking towards the door.
"Hey, don't come complaining to me if they have no idea what to do," Mack called, beginning to chuckle at the thought of the two biker boys blankly staring at Brady's broken car.
"I won't!" Brady called back with a laugh, even though he was already half down the hallway.
About five minutes later, Mack was going to fetch another book from her room for Struts, who had apparently finished another book already, when she heard music drifting from the back room, the room that Coral and Lugnut were currently occupying. But the music didn't sound like anything familiar to the teens or the movie that they came from, it sounded classical. So if Coral and Lugnut were still in there, then why the heck were they listening to classical music? Curiosity got the better of her and after selecting a new book for Struts to read, Mack pressed her ear to the door. What she heard didn't sound like it was a recording though, it sounded like Coral and Lugnut were actually playing it themselves. But that couldn't be right, could it? They were two background characters with barely two lines between them, why on earth would they know how to play musical instruments like that. To see for herself, Mack eased the door open and to her surprise, her suspicions had been correct. Coral was stood playing Mack's old violin beside Lugnut, who was sat at the piano. Both were playing perfectly together despite the fact that they didn't have any music in front of them and Mack had never heard the pair perform anything close to this before. Mack was listening so intently to the music that the only thing that broke her out her trance was the majority of the remaining 60s teens bounding down the hallway towards her.
"Mack, Seacat can play the piano!" Lela exclaimed, thrusting Seacat's arm, which she was currently holding by his wrist, into the air while the rest of the Wet Side Story gang chattered excitedly.
"Sshhh!" Mack hissed, worried that if Coral and Lugnut heard the others coming then they would stop playing.
"Why?" Lela asked, halting in her tracks and giving Mack a questioning look, her eyes wide and her head slightly tilted to the side. But stopping mid-skip wasn't the best idea considering that Lela was at the front of the group of friends, so a pile-up of giggling movie characters ensued.
"Wait, what's that noise?" Seacat asked as the 60s teens heard the classical music drifted through the small gap between the wall and the door. The surfers and bikers poked their heads into the room, all staring open mouthed at the pair casually playing music, who luckily had their backs to them. No one spoke as the song played out, all completely speechless. Honestly they were kind of shocked that Coral and Lugnut were actually good at something besides surfing or fixing motorbikes. But still, how had they not realised that their friends could play like this before? Especially two that were known for hating each other. The piece ended and the room fell silent.
"Wow," Lela breathed, making Coral and Lugnut whip around to face the doorway, which was crowded with their friends.
"Um…" Coral trailed off, looking rather embarrassed now that she and Lugnut had been caught.
"Way to go at keepin' that from us, guys," Struts drawled, placing her hand on her hip and rolling her eyes, still repeatedly chewing on her gum. "Ya sure aren't tryin' that hard."
"Yeah, ya could'a told us ya could play like that," CheeChee agreed, copying Struts' stance.
"It's not that big of a deal," Lugnut shot back, standing up from the piano and straightening his leather jacket, putting on his tough biker demeanour again like he hadn't just been absolutely nailing an incredibly complicated piece of classical piece music. To him, playing music like that wasn't cool, and being cool was much more important than anything else to him right now. He had a reputation to keep up after all.
"Yeah, right," Seacat said sarcastically.
"You guys were amazing!" Giggles exclaimed, practically radiating sunlight as she beamed at her best friend and her boyfriend.
"Thanks," Coral chuckled, smiling back at her fellow surfer girl whilst still holding onto the violin that she'd become so attached to.
"Well you'd better get your fancy music heads off and put your fixin' heads on 'cause we've gotta help Brady fix his car, Lugnut," Butchy cut it, speaking mostly to his crew member rather than Coral.
"And why do I have to take my 'fancy music' head off?" Coral asked, imitating her boyfriend's accent and raising her eyebrow as she spoke.
"'Cause I'm not kissin you if yous is holdin' that violin," Butchy said, jabbing his finger at the wooden instrument before ducking out of the doorway and taking a step down the corridor. He would have gotten even further if Struts hadn't stopped him.
"Oh, you never kiss her in the first place," Struts snapped, frowning at the Rodent leader.
"Oh, shut up, Struts," Butchy sighed for the second time that day, rolling his eyes at the biker girl before making his way back down the hallway to go and help Brady, expecting Lugnut to follow him but instead getting everyone else.
"So, now do think that we can teach the school kids to play instruments?" Coral asked once she was alone in the room with Lugnut again.
"Yeah, I guess we can work somethin' out. I hope you're good at the tambourine though, 'cause I don't think we'll be gettin' much further than that with 'em," Lugnut said, apparently having warmed up to the idea after their duet. And then they shared a smile. A smile. Coral and Lugnut smiled at each other. It wasn't sarcastic. It wasn't fake. It was a genuine smile.
That afternoon at elementary school had worked some wonders.
I hope that you liked it!
I know that it's focusing on Coral and Lugnut a lot but don't worry, I'm going to be working that out of the story as soon as possible for you. I'm just using up the pre-written chapters, I promise that they'll start getting better soon! I know that they're not widely popular characters (especially Coral, by the way, I'm sorry about how much I wrote about her in these past chapters, I hadn't realised at that point that everyone hated her XD) but I'll try to just put their plot lines in the backgrounds of chapters now. Nonetheless, what do you think of Coral and Lugnut's new 'friendship'? Do you like it or do you prefer it when they're fighting?
Thank you so much for all of the positive feedback that I got from the last chapter, even if it was just an Author's Note. It really does mean the absolute world to me! I love getting your feedback! And since there were a few questions in the reviews that I got, I thought that I'd answer them here.
Lindsey – If you're reading this then I'm sorry that there was such a long gap between updates, I lost the documents for this story a while back and I've been finishing up other stories ever since. Don't worry though, I'm back now!
PawsomePuppy12 – Yes, of course I remember you! Thank you so much for continuing to support my stories, I really appreciate it. But sadly no, I haven't heard of the show.
Owllover34 – Hello! I'm so glad that you're sticking with my stories because I love the ideas that you have for them! Well I'm not promising anything just yet because, as you can see, at the moment Butchy is still with Coral. But things can always change. I've got a lot of things planned out for this story so don't worry. And as for Struts and Lugnut, due to the direction that I'm taking this story in, I don't see me putting them as a couple. However, for your benefit, I will try to include some moments where they're like really close friends (almost like brother and sister) so that they still have some interactions. I hope that's alright. I am kind of starting to ship them, but I think that's because I've had so much practice writing them as a couple. Personally, I ship Struts with Rascal a little bit more but for future stories, I don't mind putting Struts with Lugnut if it's more popular. As for your other idea, I plan on Reality Check spanning out quite a lot longer after this since I've still got a lot of the story left to write, so I don't know if you'd still want me to wait to write that story. I have more ideas of my own for stories I'd like to write after Reality Check too so if you'd rather it be written sooner then maybe you could have a go at it yourself. I'm sure that you'd do a great job at it but if writing's not for you then I'll do it when I get around to it. I'm really sorry, it's a lovely idea, but I've just got so much going on at the moment that I'd just like to focus on this story. If you have any plot ideas for characters that I could work into this story though, I'd be happy to include them as best as I can.
I know that I say this all the time (yes, I'm bringing back this little hidden question thing. I thought that it would be fun, ok? So if you're reading this then let me know if you're looking forward to me starting up this story again. After all, I don't want to keep writing it if no one's interested) but I want to say thank you to everyone who sends me PMs, leaves reviews and is just generally supportive of my stories because you all mean the world to me and I want you to know that I'm always here for you, feel free to send me a PM any time. I'll always reply! But I think that you're all absolutely lovely and I couldn't ask for any better readers!
Thank you so much for reading! Don't forget to let me know what characters you want to read more about!
-cherrygorilla