Bruises - JATP Fanfic (Luke x OC)

Chapter 2

2020 - Los Angeles, Los Feliz High School

Keeping her head down, a girl with a red baseball cap weaves in and out of the high school crowds, hoping to avoid being noticed by anyone. As soon as she reaches her locker, she puts in the code, unlocking it to put her binder away before her next class.

"Hey underachiever." Another girl walks up to the girl in the baseball cap, leaning against the lockers.

"Hey disappointment." The girl in the baseball cap replies.

"Okay, I know you don't want me to ask, but have you figured out what you're gonna do today?" The other girl looks at the one in the rs cap, hoping for an answer.

"I'll know in the moment." She shrugs, and her friend just looks at her with astonishment.

"Really, Jules?" The friend asks. Jules is short for Julie, the girl who has to perform today. "That's all you're giving me? Mrs. Harrison said this is your last chance."

"I know. I was there." Julie nods at her best friend, Flynn, before overhearing their worst enemy.

"See you at the rally!" Both girls glare at the girl handing out flyers asking people in the school to go to the rally.

"Julie, what are you performing today?" Another one of Julie's friends, Gabriella, walks up to her. Gabriella, better known as Brielle, is also in the music program like Julie and Flynn, but has a lot more shyness and anxiety when it comes to performing, so she rarely performs, although does enough to stay in the program.

"Like I told Flynn, I'll know in the moment." Julie shuts her locker as Carrie, the enemy of all three girls, walks up to the three of them.

"Here you go. My group's performing at the spirit rally tomorrow. I'm sure you guys have nothing better to do." Carrie hands the three of them flyers fills with desperation.

"Oh my gosh, Carrie. Thanks!" Flynn smiles sarcastically. Brielle just rolls her eyes at Flynn's comment, kind of agreeing.

"Oh my gosh, Flynn. Don't bother coming!" Carrie retorts in a similar manner, fiddling with her necklace. The three friends all file to music class before the bell rings, with Carrie popping in a few seconds before it goes off. A few people have to perform in front of the class, like Nick, who is Carrie's boyfriend and one of the sweetest guys alive, Julie, and a couple others in the class. Julie is going last, which is good for her since she hasn't played piano or sang in a really long time.

While Nick is doing his riff on the guitar, which kind of sounds like a classical song with a few modifications, Flynn and Brielle notice Julie drooling at the sight of him, roll their eyes and share a glance. They both know that Nick and Carrie would have a lot of unholy babies because Carrie is the definition of a demon. Julie has yet to say more than two words to Nick, but she still has a huge crush on him. As soon as he's done, Carrie claps, a big fake smile on her face, but probably only half fake since she is dating him.

"Nice job, Nick. Almost as impressive as your game against Glendale." The whole class laughs, sharing the same sentiment as Mrs. Harrison. Nick is on the lacrosse team, but also kills it on the guitar. "Okay, we have one more performance. Julie?"

Julie stands up out of her seat, pulling off her red cap, and walks to the piano, nervous to play again. She hasn't played in almost a year, after her mom passed away. Sitting on the bench, her fingers brush over the keys before she dejectedly pulls them away, and runs out of the room, both Flynn and Brielle following after her. This was her last chance to stay in the music program.

Later that night, after Julie has shed a few tears, Brielle comes over, hoping to get away from her family, which is drama city right now. Her brother has been nearly failing classes for weeks now, doesn't care about anything except gaming on his computer, and if she even so much as stays there, she ends up in a worse state than her brother.

"Hey, Julie. Can I crash in the studio tonight?" Brielle wonders, working on her calculus homework alongside Julie at her dining room table.

"Absolutely. You know you don't need to ask me. And eat dinner with us tonight." Brielle just shakes her head.

"No. That is your family dinner. I have food I can eat." Brielle argues, even though she's going to lose this fight.

"Brielle, I know you and you don't have enough food to pass for a dinner." Julie says, continuing to do the problem in her notebook.

"Fine. You caught me." She succumbs to the generosity of Julie just as Julie's dad walks down.

"Oh good, you're home. Hi, Brielle. Are you staying for dinner tonight?" Julie's dad asks, and I nod, continuing on my homework. "I wanted to talk to Julie about something before I go to Carlos' baseball game. I've had photo shoots all day. Didn't even get a chance to eat. But, I got a phone call today." Julie and Brielle's faces fall at the mention of a phone call, thinking it's about Julie being kicked out of the music program. "It was my realtor friend. She says that if we're serious about selling the house, we need to take some pictures for the website. Which means a lot of cleaning." Brielle's face falls a little when he mentions selling the house, since this is her only refuge away from her family. At least once a week she has to go to Julie's house because of the fights her family gets into. "I was hoping you both actually could tackle mom's studio?" I might as well, since I'm sure to get a call close to midnight from my dad after he gets as drunk as a sailor. And if I don't answer, there are a few more bruises to add to the collage on my body.

"You two are the experts. Carlos and I wouldn't even know where to begin." Brielle can see Julie's hurt face, and just how much she misses her mom. "It's okay, if you're not ready--"

"No. It's all right. Maybe I'll try tonight," Julie says, cutting her father off.

"I will still help too, Mr. Molina. We can take a look at the old instruments, and take care of the loft too." Brielle says, finishing up the last problem of her homework.

"Yeah, they need a new home." Mr. Molina smiles at the two of them.

"Mom would like that." Mr. Molina checks his watch, realizing just how late it is and that he still needs to go to Carlos' game.

"I'm gonna be late." Julie reminds him where his car keys are, since Mr. Molina tends to forget where just about anything is, before finishing up the last two problems.

"Do you want me to wait for you or can I look through the stuff in the studio now and maybe clean up some of the stuff and make my bed for tonight?" Brielle wonders, packing up her stuff.

"Go ahead, I'm gonna do my chemistry homework too, so you can get a head start." Brielle nods, bringing along her backpack. As soon as she's at her second home, she pulls the couch out to make it a bed, sets her backpack down and walks up the ladder to the loft, seeing the old keyboard, drums, and guitars that were left behind. Julie hasn't been in her mother's studio since she passed, but Brielle made sure that it wasn't dusty or dirty before she left every time she stayed there.

"Where are you? The floors need to be cleaned again. If you're not home by morning, there will be serious consequences." Brielle reads from her phone, before ignoring it altogether. It's her father, the more abusive of the two, but she barely realizes it's not normal because it's all she's used to. Her whole life she's witnessed her brother beaten and a million things smashed because of her parents, so even though she is around Julie's family a lot, she just thinks they're like a perfect family, not that hers is broken beyond comparison.

Author's Note - Hi, again. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Definitely excited to see where all of this goes, since Brielle has a lot of secrets still in the closet. I haven't ever published any fanfiction before (although my Google Docs is filled with them) so I hope you enjoy this story. My plan is to pull some heartstrings and maybe get some tears. Also, I do plan on posting every Friday (I get today isn't Friday, but with two final exams, I'm not sure I'll remember tomorrow). Side note: aside from the characters in the show, please feel free to imagine any of my own characters however you like.

Loves,

mistyrider921

~❣~