Dusk had felt a little out of body the past week since they'd gotten back to Oakhaven. Their trip to Crystal Cove had been incredible, but now that they'd finished filming their music video and doing the interview, Dusk almost felt like she didn't know what to do with herself. She felt a lack of direction and purpose in her life. Yes, she still had the job working at Jack's, but after being famous and having so much of her daily focus be on music, it felt weird to just wait around for something to happen.
She'd focused a bit on reading, taken some walks with Thorn and Luna, watched some TV, and written down a few lines that she'd thought up that could potentially be good for new music. Still, it felt like there was a sense of emptiness in her life where it felt like something should be, but wasn't. She quickly realized that emptiness represented the space where all the energy she invested in music should have been. It was just a waiting game at this point, and Dusk admittedly knew that she wasn't the most patient person in the world.
It had now been a week and one day since their trip last Wednesday, which meant it was time for their typical Thursday afternoon meeting with Gus at 2. The girls and Gus had decided not to meet last Thursday, given it hadn't even been 24 hours since their trip and thus there was nothing they needed to meet about again in such a quick period of time. Dusk was hopeful their meeting would provide the goals and sense of purpose that she had been so desperately craving after returning from their trip. She, Thorn and Luna were just getting settled down in their usual leather chairs in Gus's office.
"Alright girls, I've got some news to share. I guess it's not a lot of news, but it's something." Gus informed. "As you know, "Earth, Wind, Fire and Air" was sent for adds this week, and your song was added by two radio stations."
Dusk's heart sank when she heard how low the number was. "Two? Wow! We've got our next #1 hit incoming for sure."
"Well, it's not terrible." Gus assured. "It could have been no stations. Some songs are just added to the playlist of a few stations at first, and then other stations hop on board later."
"If two radio stations are playing it, has the song charted yet?" Thorn inquired.
"Not that the general public can see, no. The general public can only see the published top 50, but given the label has a premium subscription to the chart company's data, I'm able to see below the top 50." Gus explained. "It looks like your song has been played a total of eight times on the radio. That would place your song at #161, right above Lil Horn E's "Turnin' Me On at the Jimmy John's." It's a song that's gaining traction for being a bit of a gag about a young man who was aroused at his local fast food establishment."
"Wow, what an achievement!" Dusk exclaimed, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "We're one spot above a song that's only famous for being a complete joke!"
"You can't have expected us to make the top 50 only a week after we released the song as a single." Luna rebuked.
"She's right, you know." Gus chimed in. "Dusk, I know you want to be famous again, but it's just not realistic to expect your song to go top 50 a week after you announce it. In my ten years as a record executive, I've never seen a song chart in the top 50 that quickly unless the artist is extremely famous."
"I'm just bummed we didn't get more adds." Dusk sighed. ""Hex Girl" got 15 on its first week."
"Yes, and that was an anomaly." Gus's tone got a bit more stern, but gradually became more kind and understanding. "Give it time, Dusk. It's only been a week. You can't expect every song to perform amazingly on the charts, or you'll drive yourself crazy."
"Worst case scenario, this song fails as a single and we'll release another one." Thorn added.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Dusk admitted defeat. She saw the logic in what they were saying, but she just wanted so badly to have another successful single. She wasn't willing to let go of her frustration that "Hex Girl" was robbed by those timeline-bending witches.
"Anyway, I also wanted you to review the music video footage before I send it off to TV stations to air." Gus said. Dusk, Thorn and Luna all gathered around Gus's computer as he turned the monitor towards them and cued up the footage on his computer.
Dusk watched the video of Gus saying his environmentally slanderous sentiments, followed by Thorn getting up in his face, whilst they all sang and moved around the fountain.
"Ugh, this is so cringey." Dusk put her face in her hands to show how embarrassed she was to be watching this footage back. "We look like idiots dancing around like that!"
"I think it works well." Thorn shrugged. "Our moves actually look pretty good. It looks like what any stage performer would do, at least to me. It just looks like we're moving around because we're invigorated and passionate about the song. It's not like we're breakdancing or partaking in some teenybopper dance craze or something."
"I think the video looks great too." Luna commented. "It's got a strong message about what we believe in, and is also a little tongue-in-cheek too, which I think would appeal to people."
"I don't know what you guys are seeing, because I think it looks hokey and dumb." Dusk disparaged. "People are gonna think we're goofy wannabes if we release this. What do you think, Gus?"
"Sorry Dusk, but I have to agree with Thorn and Luna on this one. To me, the video shows that you're passionate about a cause, but you also know how to have fun, which is a good look." Gus gave his two cents.
Dusk felt overwhelmed. Maybe she was just being too harsh on the video because she was in a bad mood. There was a part of her that saw what the others were saying, but at the same time, she felt a bit perfectionistic about this video. If they released some goofy video that made everybody laugh at them, they could ruin their chance at success forever. Given they'd just come off of a moderately successful single, this was their chance to show the world who The Hex Girls were, and Dusk wasn't sure she liked this image.
"I totally get it if we can't, but can we have some more time to process this as a group?" Dusk inquired.
"Of course." Gus smiled. "I would never want you girls to do anything you're not 100% on board with, so we can end the meeting early if you'd like, and discuss it again next week."
"Yeah, I think I'd like that." Dusk stated, suddenly feeling a bit embarrassed for being so overwhelmed that she held up the band making a decision on this.
"Sounds good." Gus responded. "It's been great seeing you again, girls, and I hope to have a better update for you next week."
"Thanks for everything, Gus!" Luna appreciated.
"Thanks, Gus!" Thorn echoed.
Dusk muttered the same, but she was too caught up in her head at the moment to focus on her surroundings. She'd never felt this sort of pressure before with "Hex Girl," even when she was performing sold-out shows with thousands of people. Why in the hell was she suddenly paralyzed with fear about releasing a stupid music video?
Dusk was still calming down a bit as the girls got out to the car. Thorn drove this time, while Luna took the front seat and Dusk took the back seat. She'd never experienced this before when the band was first rising to fame, so she still didn't understand what caused her to feel so overwhelmed. She hadn't told the other girls how she was feeling. One usually felt overwhelmed when they were in a large crowd or were buried in work, so Dusk felt like a wimp being overwhelmed with such a meager decision about whether a music video was good enough.
"I'm surprised you hate the video so much, Dusk." Luna remarked. "I thought it was really good."
"It's so hokey and corny." Dusk sneered. "We're gonna be a laughing stock if we put that out. It'll ruin our chances of being famous forever."
"Is that what you're worried about?" Thorn inquired.
"Being a laughing stock? Well, yeah, who wouldn't be?" Dusk rebuked.
"No, ruining our chances at fame." Thorn clarified.
"Yeah, I mean, if we don't put out something super memorable and badass, we could make people lose interest in us permanently. We're just coming off a pretty successful first single, so if our fans lose interest now, they might never return. This needs to be perfect." Dusk stressed emphasis on the last word.
"Oh, Dusk." Luna sighed. "It feels like fame's all you think about these days."
"We know how you think fans will perceive the video, but what do you think of the video?" Thorn inquired.
"I mean, I like it. It was fun just goofing around as friends, but that's how other people are gonna see it too. They aren't gonna take us seriously as a professional band after watching that. What we think of the video doesn't matter, because what the public thinks of us always comes first." Dusk responded.
"Ugh, I'm sorry, but I hate that mentality." Luna rebutted. "Yes, we should try to appeal to the general public, but we can't base our entire image off of what we think people want to see. There needs to be some intentionality behind how we construct our image, beyond just following whatever the latest craze is."
"I agree." Thorn nodded. "There needs to be a balance. We can't just do everything for the public's approval, otherwise we're going to lose ourselves in the process."
"Well, we're going to lose ourselves the fame we deserve if we don't show the public something they can relate to." Dusk growled. As much as she loved her friends, she felt they were misguided on how to cultivate the band's fame.
"You're not hearing us, Dusk. Yes, being relatable to the public is important, but it's equally important to be true to ourselves. You can't have one without the other." Luna argued.
"So many artists lose themselves in the idea that they need to be something they're not in order to seem relatable to the public." Dusk could tell that Thorn's voice was growing frustrated now, as her tone became snippy and exaggeratory. "Do you want to sexualize the band's image? Maybe we could scrap this single and release a song about getting drinks at the club and shaking our ass all night. Club music is pretty popular right now, so why not?"
This gave Dusk a bit of pause, because Thorn's extreme metaphor did kind of have a point. That sort of song probably would sell, but Dusk didn't want to sing about that shallow, generic crap. It would take all the fun out of music to sing about something she could care less about.
"I don't want to do that." Dusk admitted, her voice becoming more subdued. "I just want to be a band that people think is wicked cool and badass, like all the goth and rock bands we look up to. Releasing that video just makes us seem like we're a bunch of goofball friends that decided to screw around one day in the park."
"Sorry to interrupt, but do you guys want to stop at Haylee's for a cup of coffee?" Thorn asked. "I'm kind of in the mood for one, and maybe we could sit down and talk this through in more depth."
"Sure." Luna agreed.
"Yeah, that's fine." Dusk nodded.
"Sounds good." Thorn said, as she promptly turned left into the parking lot for Haylee's. The lot was relatively packed today, and every spot was full other than two.
"Maybe it would help to brainstorm about what we each think core elements of the band are." Luna replied, as she unbuckled her seatbelt following Thorn parking the vehicle.
"We're passionate about the environment." Thorn said as she unbuckled her seatbelt as well, and got out of the Soccer Mom Van.
"We're badass and don't care what anybody thinks of us." Dusk listed, before realizing what she'd just said. "Wait…"
Thorn and Luna both laughed.
"So part of our band's identity is that we don't care what others think…yet you're paralyzed with fear about what others are going to think of our video?" Thorn asked playfully.
"I mean…" Dusk paused, now unsure of how to describe her feelings. She liked that part of the band's identity was not caring what others thought of them, yet she still wanted to seem cool to people. She didn't want to release a video that made people think they were a bunch of goofy wannabes.
Thankfully for Dusk, they had just gotten up to the counter and needed to order their drinks, which provided a moment for Dusk to process things a bit more.
"Hey, girls! How's life?" Haylee, the coffee shop owner, inquired.
"Decent." Dusk nodded. "We just released our second single."
"That's cool. What song did you end up going with?" Haylee inquired. Dusk's heart sank just a little bit, as Haylee's lack of knowledge must mean the news of them releasing another single had not spread very far yet.
"We chose "Earth, Wind, Fire and Air" as the single." Luna informed.
"Oh, that's a good choice. It's always one of my favorite songs to see you girls perform." Haylee informed. "Speaking of which, did you want to perform here again? It's been a little while since you have, and it always brings in the customers when you do."
Post-tour, Dusk admittedly hadn't really been thinking about performing again at all. After they were doing shows in some of the most famous venues in the country, doing live performances around coffee shops in town felt like such a step down.
"Yeah, I'd be open to it." Thorn shrugged. "What about you guys?"
"Absolutely! It's always fun performing here." Luna added.
Dusk didn't even really want to entertain the idea because it felt like they should be past that by now. Since her friends seemed to want to, she felt obligated to say yes, so she did. She tried not to sound too apathetic in agreeing, even though she admittedly did. "Yeah, let's do it. When do you want us to perform?"
"Next Wednesday afternoon?" Haylee suggested.
"Works for us!" Thorn confirmed.
"Sounds great. I'm guessing you girls want the usual to drink?" Haylee inquired. "Blended mocha with soy milk, skim vanilla latte with a cherry shot, and a plain coffee?"
"Yep." Thorn said, whilst Luna and Dusk nodded to confirm.
"Awesome, I'll get started on those." Haylee responded.
Dusk admittedly hadn't really taken any of that time to think about whether or not she wanted to release the music video, so she was still feeling a bit under pressure. It was clear Thorn and Luna were proud of that video and wanted to release it, but Dusk didn't want to make the wrong decision that would harm the band's success. In processing it through with her friends, she realized that perhaps she was a bit overly harsh on it. Challenging an environmentally-bigoted old geezer did align with the badass, "don't give a crap what you think" image she knew they all wanted for the band. Perhaps it could even be inspiring to young people who cared about the environment to stand up for what they believe in. Still though, Dusk was reluctant to release the music video. It just felt too similar to their first video.
"Have you had some more time to think, Dusk?" Luna inquired.
"Actually, kind of." Dusk admitted. "I see what you guys are saying about staying true to ourselves, and I think you're right; it does fit our image. But now I'm wondering if it's too similar to the first video. We were challenging an old guy in that one, and now we're challenging another old guy in this one."
"Hmm…Dusk actually does kind of have a point." Thorn realized. "We don't want to be too repetitious or make people think we're one-trick ponies."
"I guess I don't think they're that similar." Luna pointed out. "Yeah, the challenging an elderly person thing is the same, but they're completely different premises. One is about us trying to break into the music industry, and this one's showing our passion for the environment. It gives us kind of a rebellious Riot Grrrl type feel, and I like that."
Dusk spun around when she heard a young girl about their age with brown hair exclaim something loudly in excitement. "Oh my gosh, hey!"
Dusk didn't recognize who it was, so she figured it must be somebody who remembered "Hex Girl" on the radio, or maybe a case of mistaken identity.
"It's so good to see you girls!" the girl smiled. "How have you been?"
"Good?" Luna said, her tone very uncertain and cautious. Clearly she didn't know who this person was either.
"I'm sorry, but are you a fan?" Thorn inquired. "I don't really recognize you, admittedly."
"Oh! Yeah, I guess it has been a little while." the girl said with a friendly chuckle. "I'm Julia. I've been to a few of your concerts here at Haylee's, and I was the one who invited you girls to protest the oil pipeline."
Dusk's memory had been jogged now. She was the Harvard girl who had invited them to that protest in the park. So much had happened in between then and now that she'd totally forgotten about meeting this girl. The invitation happened right around the time they met Gus, which was months ago at this point, so the protest would have already occurred by now.
"Oh yeah! It's good to see you again! Sorry we missed the protest." Thorn apologized.
"Actually, you didn't miss it! The city's plans for zoning the place changed, so it was postponed a while. It's actually happening tomorrow, if you still want to join." Julia offered.
"Yeah, absolutely!" Thorn agreed. "Do you guys want to come?"
"Sure." Dusk shrugged. It seemed like a neat idea, and she'd been craving some sort of other focus beyond just music, given their music career wasn't moving nearly fast enough for Dusk's impatient brain.
"I'm not sure…" Luna cautiously replied. "Is it safe?"
"Of course!" Julia assured. "It's just a nice, peaceful protest, not a riot. We're just standing up for the environment and the hundreds of animals that this pipeline would destroy."
"Umm…" Luna still seemed uncertain. "I guess…as long as it's safe, I'm in."
"Great! So glad we have your support! Anyway, I just came in for a little pick-me-up, so I'm gonna head out. So good seeing you girls again!" Julia said, as she grabbed her cup of iced coffee from the counter and headed out the door.
"Thorn, Dusk, Luna! Your coffee's ready!" Haylee called.
"Honestly, maybe Dusk is right." Thorn stated. "Maybe we should wait to put out that music video until we have a little more time to talk this out."
"That's a good idea. I've never been a part of an environmental cause before, so maybe this will give us some inspiration about if we need to change the video." Luna suggested.
"Yeah, waiting to release the video isn't going to hurt anything. We may as well wait and see if letting it sit inspires us." Dusk agreed.
Given their invitation to the protest, Dusk was actually quite glad that she had advocated for not releasing the video so hastily in the meeting with Gus. Maybe being front and center in an actual environmental conflict would give them the inspiration they needed to come up with something even more amazing!
Dusk squinted her eyes to see if the parking spot between the gray SUV and the tan truck was wide enough for her to squeeze in the space. Upon further inspection, she realized it was, which she was extremely thankful for. It was the only parking space open that wouldn't require them to walk a mile to the park, which Dusk didn't want to do as they were already relatively late to the protest. She admittedly had no idea what to expect with this protest, but she was excited to get involved with something she was passionate about. As far as she was concerned, it was bullshit that these greedy developers thought they could plop a pipeline in the middle of the park. They'd be killing hundreds of defenseless animals.
Thorn pulled a few homemade signs the girls had made out of the trunk, one warning "Drilling means killing!" and another commanding "Stop the pipeline." The third sign that the girls made protested "No pipelines in our park." Dusk took the "Drilling means killing" sign, whilst Luna took the "Stop the pipeline" sign and Thorn grabbed the "No pipelines in our park" sign.
"So what exactly is it we're supposed to be doing?" Luna asked anxiously.
Dusk knew Luna's nerves were quite wracked by the idea of attending a protest. The blonde understood the redhead's reticence, even if she didn't share in it. "Protest" did have a bit of an intense feel to it, if Dusk thought about it. However, thankfully, it seemed like this one was relatively laid back, both from what Julia said and from glancing at the protesters from afar, who appeared to be gathering around the outer edge of the park.
"We can ask Julia, but I assume it's just standing there, with maybe some light chanting." Thorn said, as she headed towards the group of protesters that were already standing there.
It was a beautiful day to be outside, and was in fact quite reminiscent of the day they'd just had in Crystal Cove. The vibrant autumn leaves adorned all of the trees, and the branches were blowing ever so slightly in the light, gentle breeze.
"Hey!" Julia shuffled over to the girls when she saw them arrive. "Thanks so much for coming!"
"Of course!" Thorn warmly replied. "Admittedly, this is our first protest. What exactly is it that we're supposed to do?"
"We mainly just hold up signs and chant or shout things in a unified manner for the cause." Julia explained, spinning around when she heard construction equipment. "Oh! I think this is one of the construction workers now."
"Fuck you!" Dusk shouted in the man's direction.
"No, Dusk…you're supposed to shout constructive things." Julia said, followed by an amused chuckle, as she headed over towards the protesters. The group was smaller than she would have imagined. She was expecting dozens of people, but there only appeared to be a group of about 10 or so. All of them appeared to be close to their age, some a little younger and some a little older.
Dusk was admittedly a little embarrassed about shouting the wrong thing, but she justified it in her mind by reassuring herself that a guy who thought it was a good idea to run a pipeline through a picturesque park most likely deserved it.
Luna looked a tad nervous about mingling with the other protesters, but Thorn looked eager, and Dusk would attest to being downright excited. She was happy to fight the power and make her voice be heard in a way that made a difference.
She could see that the protesters were all gathering around a large bulldozer that was slowly coming their way. Perhaps this would be frightening to some folks (she imagined Luna was one of those people), but to Dusk, it felt exhilarating to stop a bigot trying to harm the environment right in his tracks, literally.
"Hey, just what do you dames think you're doing?" the brown-haired construction worker shouted from his vehicle.
"We're protesting this pipeline!" shouted a girl with long brunette hair. She had part of her long hair tied up in a large braid.
"You'll be killing hundreds of animals if you put this pipeline in!" a man with blond hair chimed in.
"So I guess you guys don't want any gas for your cars?" the construction worker rebuked. "We're putting this pipeline in so gas can be transported here quicker and easier."
"Well, you'll have to find somewhere else to put it." Julia argued. "You're not destroying this park."
"I'm just following orders, and they happen to be orders I agree with. Now move out of the way!" the construction worker demanded.
Taking cues from the three people who had shouted something, Dusk thought she was finally getting the hang of this. "No! We're not moving, so you'll just have to go back to whoever sent you and tell them that the pipeline's going somewhere else."
"Nah." the construction worker said. "You know what, I can wait for you to move out of the way. I still haven't taken my lunch yet, so I'll just do that now."
The construction worker crossed his arms and pulled out a sandwich which he had in a brown paper sack. He took a few bites, but suddenly, he got a sour look on his face.
"Ah dammit, I got oil residue from my filthy hands on this sandwich! Guess I'll have to get rid of it." the construction worker said, as he put the sandwich back in the sack and whipped it out of the window.
The protesters all looked at him in shock, perturbed that he could be so wasteful.
"Also, this lemonade sucks. I'm sunpissed at this Sunkist!" the man snarled, as he made a basketball-like shot into a trash can from out his vehicle window.
"Did you seriously just throw trash on the ground?" a brown-haired teenage man wearing a light green shirt asked in disgust. "And that bottle should have gone in a recycling bin, not the trash."
"I think you guys misunderstand. By throwing that bottle in the trash, I wasn't being lazy and not recycling. I was making a statement about the shoddy quality of their product by throwing it in the trash." the construction worker's eyes narrowed as his tone became intense. "Because that's the only place where it belongs."
"Even then, you still threw that sandwich and paper bag on the ground." a male black-haired protester rebuked.
"Ah, you see, that was job creation. The prisoners of Elwood Penitentiary come by here the last Saturday of the month to pick up the trash. If there's no trash here, then they're out of a job! See, so technically, I was contributing to the economy!" the construction worker argued.
"Your logic is so backwards." Julia argued. "You're destroying the environment and you know it!"
The construction worker sighed. "I don't need this! I'm gonna go back to the mayor and tell him that I tried to lay the groundwork for this pipeline, but you kids stopped me! Maybe he'll put a stop to your reign of terror if you try to disrupt construction again."
The man shifted the bulldozer into gear and began turning the vehicle around. Once he fully had, a gigantic cloud of smoke sprayed out of the exhaust, causing all of the protesters to cough profusely.
"What a Grade-A a-hole." the brown-haired teenage male protester insulted.
Thorn and Luna suddenly turned completely pale, and looked almost sick to their stomachs. At first, Dusk thought maybe it was the shock of breathing in the man's gas fumes, but she quickly realized that this was something else.
"What happened?" Dusk asked. "You two look like you've a ghost!"
"Did you hear what he said?" Thorn panicked. "He's going to try to get us in trouble with Mayor Corey!"
"Yeah?" Dusk scoffed, not seeing the problem. "He doesn't know any of our names, so what the hell can he do?"
"He thankfully doesn't know right now, but if he figures out who we are, he could tell our parents we were causing trouble for the city." Luna responded.
"I guess we weren't really thinking through who made the decision to put the pipeline in before we did this protest." Thorn lamented.
"I guess I'm with Dusk, but I'm not seeing the problem here." Julia admitted, overhearing the conversation.
"Our dads are friends with the mayor." Thorn explained. "If the mayor hates us for derailing his plans, he could make things really awkward for us if he complains to our parents that we're disrupting city business. I don't know how they'd react to it."
Dusk would admit that she had the privilege of not giving a shit what her parents thought. They already thought she was a burnout loser, and besides, they weren't particularly close friends with the mayor, so she could really care less what her parents thought about her partaking in this protest. It's not like they were doing anything actually wrong; in fact, they were preventing something very wrong from happening.
"I mean, I get that it's awkward for your dads to know you disrupted the mayor's plans. I don't mean any offense by this, but…who cares?" Dusk said. "As far as I'm concerned, Mayor Corey and that polluting scumbag of a construction worker are the ones doing wrong here, not us. They want to destroy a park and hundreds of animals just so they can put in an oil pipeline that they could probably have put somewhere else. This park is one of the most popular places in town, and I think if people thought about it, they'd be pretty pissed too that Mayor Corey wants to destroy the park just so people can get gas a little faster."
"Woah." the girl with the long braid in her hair said. "I love this girl's vibe. She doesn't give a fuck about what anyone says except what's right."
"Of course I don't!" Dusk asserted. "I mean, I liked Mayor Corey before, but this is a really shitty decision on his part, and somebody's gotta say it."
"Where did you girls come from, anyway? I've never seen you around here before." the girl replied.
"I invited them here." Julia shared. "They're the Hex Girls, and they played a couple times at Haylee's."
"Wait, you're the Hex Girls?" the girl gasped. "The ones that had that "Hex Girl" song on the radio for a while?"
"The very same." Dusk proudly nodded.
"Woah! I had no idea you girls were into this stuff. That's so neat!" the girl said in awe.
"Yeah, we love the environment!" Thorn exclaimed. "What's your name, by the way?"
"I'm Dawn." the girl said. "It's so cool to see the band here! I'm actually a songwriter myself."
"Oh wow, really?" Luna asked. "What type of music do you write?"
"I've always gravitated towards rock music. I know a few other songwriters that do pop, folk and hip hop, but I could never get into any of those." Dawn admitted. "Actually, that just gave me an idea! I'm a part of a songwriters group that meets every week. We'd love to have you come to one of the meetings and talk to us about your writing!"
"Umm…maybe." Thorn seemed cautious. Dusk felt her cautiousness was very logical, given three witches had recently befriended them just to manipulate them. "This is at your home?"
"Oh, no." Dawn clarified. "We always just meet here in the park every week. That's why I'm here at this protest. I love hanging out here at this park, so it'd be awful to see it torn down for that pipeline."
"Actually, that might be kind of nice." Thorn admitted. "I've been thinking lately about getting another hobby. We're kind of in a holding pattern with our music right now, so I thought it might be nice to have something else to fill my free time."
"Oh…I'm sorry to hear about your music. Why can't you write any more songs?" Dawn inquired.
"We've got our first album out, but we're kinda just waiting on how to promote the second single." Dusk responded.
"That's a bummer! Cool you've got an album, though. I've only heard "Hex Girl" on the radio, but maybe I'll have to check out the album if I ever get time." Dawn said. "Anyway, glad you're interested, Luna."
"No, I'm Luna." Luna corrected with a laugh. "I am interested, though."
"Honestly, I'd be interested in doing it." Dusk jumped in. "I think it'd be good for me to have another pastime too. We were pretty busy for a while, but now that we've finished with the whole album, it's felt a little boring lately."
"Yeah, that makes sense. And sure! Feel free to join us. Like I said, there's no pressure, so even if you want to come one week just to speak and check it out, go right ahead. We don't expect you to prepare anything formal. It'd just be cool to hang out and chat." Dawn informed. "We meet Fridays at 8:00pm in the center of the park."
"Thanks so much to everybody for coming!" Julia announced, making her voice quite loud so that all of the protesters could hear her over the conversations they'd started. "I have no doubt that the construction delay because of what we've done today will be on the news, so be vigilant for the new date. We'll plan to reconvene here on that day."
"I've gotta get going." Dawn told the others. "It was good meeting you!"
"Nice meeting you too!" Dusk said, as the other two girls also said slight variations on that.
Dusk was actually quite happy they'd crossed paths with Dawn at this protest. For the first time in the past two weeks, Dusk didn't feel strange about all the weird shit that had happened with the witches or worried about their fame. As ashamed as she was about it, this was the first time since high school that Dusk had hung out with any friends other than Thorn and Luna socially (and no, she wasn't counting the witches). She'd lost touch with many of her friends from high school, which to be honest, she didn't particularly care about as many of them were relatively shallow friendships anyway. Another thing that Dusk loved about Dawn was how she took a genuine interest in their band. She wasn't creepily invested in the band or getting overly excited about their every word like the witches were (in hindsight, Dusk wondered how the hell she ever believed the witches were real fans of the band in the first place, because their behavior was pretty weird and over-the-top if she actually thought about it). Dawn actually seemed interested in a chill kind of way, which Dusk respected. Besides a few folks around town, nobody except their now non-existent fans on tour really ever took any kind of interest in the band, so it was refreshing to have somebody actually talk about her music in a way that seemed like it was genuinely growing on them. Maybe having a support network of other writers would finally break Dusk of this self-critical perfectionist fatigue she'd felt like she had been in ever since they'd left Nashville.
Thorn neatly parked the Soccer Mom Van in between a red convertible and a black SUV. It was a bit of a tight fit, but it seemed like Thorn had still left enough room for them to open their doors.
"Where did they say to meet again?" Dusk asked, feeling dumb for not remembering.
"The center of the park, I think." Luna commented.
Dusk looked ahead and quickly confirmed that Luna was correct, as there was a group of folks already gathered towards the center of the park near the small little fountain. It wasn't nearly as beautiful-looking as the one they saw in Crystal Cove. There weren't any chairs there, and it appeared everybody was sitting on the grassy area. There was a group of seven people gathered there chatting amongst one another. Some of them appeared to be sitting on blankets, making Dusk wish they'd had the foresight to bring one themselves.
"Hey, guys!" Dawn greeted. "Come and have a seat."
"Hi! Thanks for having us." Thorn appreciated.
"Of course!" Dawn said. "I guess I should introduce everyone to you. My name's Dawn."
"I'm Brett." a slender brown-haired guy who appeared to be about their age introduced himself.
"My name's Deyton." a darker brown-haired girl waved.
"The name's Jonathan." a blond guy said. He seemed the least friendly of the bunch, if you asked Dusk.
"Hey, I'm Ava." a girl with brunette hair stated.
"My name's Kelsey." a girl with red hair informed.
"Hey, nice to meet you all." Thorn said. "My name's Thorn."
"I'm Dusk." Dusk introduced.
"You girls seem kind of familiar." Kelsey pointed out. "Have we met before?"
"I don't think so." Dusk responded.
"Hey, aren't you girls a part of that band that performed at the Autumn Fest a couple months back?" Ava asked.
"Yeah, actually we are." Thorn smiled.
"That's really cool!" Kelsey complimented.
"You guys killed it!" Deyton exclaimed.
"Yeah, I asked them to come after I met them at the protest this afternoon." Dawn explained.
"Oh, that's right, that was this afternoon. How'd the protest go?" Deyton asked.
"It was a huge success!" Dawn shared. "We refused to move, and the construction worker had to go back to the mayor!"
"Woah! Great job!" Brett exclaimed. "That old codger of a mayor is probably shaking in his boots that his plan didn't work."
"Yeah, what a bozo." Jonathan snarled.
"I've got half a mind to sneak into his bedroom tonight and dump a bottle of oil on his environment-hating head." Deyton joked. "Then we'd see how he likes it when his habitat is ruined by oil."
Wow! These people were passionate about their cause, and they didn't give a crap about what other people thought. Dusk felt like she fit right in with these folks. She'd long held the philosophy that people would be much happier if they didn't worry so much about what others said, and just unapologetically expressed themselves. It was important to stand up for what you believed was right, as far as Dusk was concerned.
"It'd serve him right for trying to ruin our park like that." Dusk sneered. "Let's hope he chokes on the lobster his rich ass is probably eating tonight."
Deyton was the first to start laughing, and the rest of the group quickly followed in letting out hearty laughs at what Dusk had said. Dusk had rarely felt like she fit in, either with her parents or back when she was in school. It was a completely new feeling to feel like she belonged with a large group of people whom she hadn't yet developed a friendship with. Dusk happened to look over and saw that Thorn was also laughing, but knowing Thorn as well as she did, it didn't seem like a genuine laugh. It appeared to be a light chuckle that one might do for out of social nicety. Luna didn't even pretend to feign a laugh; she just looked a bit mortified, but no one else seemed to take notice.
After the laughter had died down a bit, one of the girls, Ava, spoke up again and shifted the topic a bit. "So, what's it like having your song play on the radio?"
"It felt amazing…but also really surprising. When you first get signed, you don't think you're good enough for anybody to notice you. At least, for me, it came as a shock for our music to get that kind of attention." Thorn responded.
"Over time though, the shock died down and we felt more of a sense of accomplishment." Dusk added.
"Honestly…I'm a little embarrassed, but I don't feel like we have all that much wisdom on how to write a popular song. I feel like we just kinda got lucky." Luna admitted. "If we knew how to make a song famous and play on the radio, our second single would already be popular."
"That's alright." Kelsey assured. "We're all still learning here. Once I get signed, I'm sure I'll have my songs becoming popular all the time."
"We're really laid back here, so we don't care how much you know." Brett assured. "We usually just chat about what we've written for the week, and then just hang out for the rest of the time."
"Maybe we could all go around and talk about that now?" Dawn suggested.
A chorus of "sure"s and "why not"s broke out among the group.
"I can start." Ava volunteered. "I tend to write a mix of folk and pop songs. I wrote a song this week called 'Fever.' It's about getting so invested in something that the idea consumes most of your thoughts. I'll read a brief excerpt of the chorus: 'No, I didn't expect it either, but I think I've got the fever. Tangled up in your web, hanging on every word you've said.'"
Ava looked over to the girl with long brown hair, whom Dusk believed was named Deyton.
"Before I go, why don't we have our newcomers show us what they know?" Deyton pitched. "Thorn, Luna and Dusk, what did you write this week?"
Dusk admittedly liked Deyton's forwardness, although Luna looked quite nervous, and Thorn wore a look on her face that appeared to be perhaps a bit peeved.
"We didn't really write anything this week, to be honest." Thorn admitted.
"Well, that's too bad. I guess we all have writer's block every once in a while, so I'm sure you'll make up for lost time next week." Dawn replied.
"I mean, we are all working jobs every day, on top of trying to come up with strategies to promote our album and single. It's not like we're not just sitting around." Thorn assured, her tone a bit defensive.
"That makes sense." Dawn dismissively answered. "Personally, I wrote a rock song about one of my exes. The lyric I'm most proud of is 'I wasted my time with all your lies, so leaving your sorry ass shouldn't come as a surprise!'"
Dusk was quite impressed by Dawn's punchy lyrics; this was clearly a girl who wasn't afraid to speak her mind, and Dusk admired that. Even though it wasn't to that extreme, she saw a bit of that quality in herself admittedly.
"Wait, you skipped me!" Deyton protested semi-playfully. "I also wrote a pop song about the worst breakup I ever had in high school. I'm still fine-tuning all the details, but I think it's gonna be amazing when I'm done."
"I write hip hop songs, and I wrote a pretty boss-ass tune this week! It starts like this." Brett informed. "There once was a man from Nantucket, he threw up his hands and said fuck it!"
"I'm a bit different from the rest of this group in the sense that I mainly write poetry." Jonathan said. "I can read you the poem I wrote this week. 'Farmers' crops blowing in the wind; a cursed man who believed he had sinned. Walking along amongst the atmosphere, the man lets go of his problems and relinquishes his fear.'"
"Nice." Kelsey said, although her tone was quite dismissive. "I write pop songs, and this week, I wrote a self-empowerment track. The chorus goes like 'adore me, adore me; don't you want to explore me? You like it when I give you that hot love; you know you can never get enough.'"
For whatever reason, Luna looked a little like she was going to be sick, and Thorn looked a bit annoyed. That generic, oversexualized crap admittedly wasn't the slightest bit creative to Dusk either, given there were a million songs just like it, but she wasn't going to get all huffy about how unoriginal it was. Personally, Dusk still thought it was miles better than that Nantucket rap Brett had come up with.
Quite frankly, Dusk was just grateful that Dawn and the others had taken the time to share a little about their work. It was cool being connected to other songwriters, and she found it fascinating to hear about somebody else's work for a change.
The rest of the meeting had been very casual. Everybody had chatted some more about songwriting, but after about an hour, everybody began saying their goodbyes.
"Thanks for coming and talking to us, girls!" Dawn appreciated. "You're welcome to come back to a meeting anytime. Honestly, you girls seem really chill, and I'd love to talk with you guys more about songwriting sometime."
"Yeah, I'd love to as well!" Dusk replied. "It'd be great to come back for another meeting."
"Actually, do you have plans tomorrow?" Dawn inquired. "Julia mentioned she met you girls at Haylee's. I always go every morning to get a cup, so would you want to meet there tomorrow at, say, 10?"
"I've got plans tomorrow, so I won't be able to make it. Sorry about that." Thorn apologized.
"I'd love to…but yeah, I'm also busy tomorrow. I'm really sorry!" Luna added.
Dusk found Thorn and Luna's remarks very strange, as they pretty much did everything together, and she knew nothing about both of them being busy tomorrow at 10. Regardless, Dusk's heart jumped at the opportunity to hang out with a potential new friend, given she hadn't done it in years, and needed a distraction from music anyway.
"Yeah, 10 definitely works for me!" Dusk eagerly replied.
Thorn and Dusk had stayed about an hour, and left a little after 9 once the talking had died down and people began saying they needed to head home. Dusk drove the Soccer Mom Van this time, whilst Thorn sat in the passenger's seat.
"So, what'd you think of the meeting?" Dusk inquired. "I thought it was incredible. I wasn't sure about showing up to a gathering of amateur songwriters, but it was actually pretty cool.
"It was alright." Thorn admitted.
"Yeah, I agree with Thorn." Luna said cautiously. "I didn't love it."
Now Dusk was convinced that she wasn't imagining things. Thorn and Luna being really weird for some reason.
"Just alright?" Dusk's tone was quite surprised. "You've been acting weird all night! You two never do anything on Saturday mornings except sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast, so I don't know why you told her you had plans."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be weird." Thorn apologized. "It's just…I don't know how to say this, since you don't seem to share my opinion here, but didn't those people seem a little…?"
"A little cool?" Dusk filled in the blank for her. "Yeah."
"I was have said mean." Thorn's tone was more firm now, as if Dusk complimenting them gave Thorn the confidence to admit her real opinion.
"Yeah…sorry Dusk, but I also didn't like all the stuff they were saying about Mayor Corey." Luna added.
Dusk was admittedly quite shocked. Dusk's opinion of Mayor Corey had drastically decreased in the past day, so she had no idea how Thorn and Luna could still like the environment-hating guy. "You mean you're okay with him destroying the park?"
"Of course we're not!" Thorn argued, her tone getting feisty now.
Thorn quickly jumped into the conversation to add her input as well, seemingly equally as feisty as Luna. "We've all known Mayor Corey since we were kids, and he's a nice guy. I don't know what the deal is with the oil pipeline, and I don't agree with it either, but we don't even know his motivation behind doing it. Maybe it's not even his decision, and the townspeople voted for it, or some company paid the city to do it, I don't know. If Mayor Corey was the one directly responsible for suggesting and implementing the pipeline, then I'm with you in being upset with him. But we don't even know that yet, we're just going off of a vague remark from that construction worker about telling the mayor."
"How does that make him killing all those animals right?" Dusk's tone became increasingly agitated as well.
"It doesn't!" Thorn snapped. "What I'm trying to say is that there's a difference between supporting a cause, and taking out your aggression on a specific person. That's why that shit Deyton was saying about dumping a bottle of oil on Mayor Corey's head doesn't sit right with me. It's not constructive to anything; it's just taking out anger and vitriol about a situation and redirecting that aggression onto a person."
"Same with calling him an 'old codger.'" Luna chimed in. "They don't even know him. They're just making assumptions about him for no reason!"
"Well, I don't agree." Dusk said. "Mayor Corey's involved somehow, and I think less of him for it."
"Fine. We all support the same cause, I just don't agree that going on a power trip without knowing the full story is right." Thorn disagreed.
"Even besides the comments about Mayor Corey, I didn't like how Dawn was acting superior to us just because we didn't write anything this week." Luna mentioned.
"Exactly! Thorn agreed. "It's not like we have to be writing constantly. It's okay to write more some weeks and less others. There's no requirement that we have to write a song every week like that group does."
"Well, that's just you two being sensitive. They were just being honest with you." Dusk shrugged.
She did admittedly find Dawn's remarks to be a little bit blunt, but at this point, she was in argumentative mode after Thorn and Luna were railing on them for their Mayor Corey remarks. If the mayor was somehow responsible for the oil pipeline, even if he didn't have full responsibility, you couldn't exclude someone from critique just because you liked them. Standing up against the power meant exuding all your collective anger and fighting back against anyone in your way.
"I don't know, I like the idea of being a part of a songwriting group, but that group just gives off major exclusionary vibes to me." Thorn admitted. "They're overly blunt and seem to like going on a power trip by putting others down."
"Deyton and Kelsey especially." Luna called out. "Kelsey seems vain and super full of herself, and Deyton 'inviting' us to share seemed more like a challenge than trying to include us. I don't think I'll be going back."
"Nor will I." Thorn defiantly said. "I like the idea of being connected to other songwriters, but I don't feel like we belong there."
"Well, I will be returning." Dusk crossed her arms. "They seem like a great group to me, and I fit in there, so I'll be meeting Dawn for coffee tomorrow and going to next week's meeting."
Dusk was bummed that Thorn and Luna were being such wet blankets, but as far as she was concerned, this seemed like an awesome community of people. This was just the kind of thing she was looking to get involved in so she had another focus besides just worrying about music all the time. She couldn't wait to hopefully get to know them even better, regardless of what Thorn or Luna thought.
Author's note:
Just wanted to jump in with a little bit of a note here. I hadn't noticed this in the original fanfic as it's only mentioned once, but I realized that I accidentally gave Julia and Dusk almost identical last names (Bellaveau and Bellaveaux) in the original fanfic. That was a mistake; I think I'd forgotten I'd given that name out already and then accidentally used it again haha. My bad on that.