#and we had just been messaging about d/s h/c stuff so I thought it wasn't too crazy

[hockeynoses]

oh nooooo I told a tumblr friend about my fetish and it's crickets 😶

[reena-jenkins]

Okay, but also I have a Question: WHEN in 1995 did the boys die? March, or October? Because if they're 17, they're either at the end of junior year (if they died in March 1995) or at the start of senior year (if they died in October 1995), and this is crucial information for my thoughts about whether or not Alex can help Julie study for her SATs.

If the band are seniors and the boys have already taken their SATs - ha! Alex is a nerd! He learned stuff 25 years ago and he still remembers it! (Also, SAT scores were "re-centered" in 1995, so if the boys had actually taken their tests in 1994/as juniors, their scores would have been boosted by ~100 points. I can just see Alex being peeved that he didn't live long enough to crack 1400.)

But if the boys were juniors and died in the leadup to taking their SATs - ha! Alex is a nerd! He's been dead for 25 years and he still wants to take his nerd college placement tests!

Like, Luke and Reggie and Bobby probably were gently bullied into studying by Alex when they were alive - maybe during band practice? Alex was like, "30 minutes of practice, followed by 10 minutes of flash cards. You promised me." and then he whipped out the puppy eyes so Luke caved and they did Learning. And maybe it wasn't as much fun as Being A Band Together, and Luke's not expecting that he'll go to college anyway (his future is with music, and his 'lack of direction' came up every time his mom....nevermind), but if you dig deep enough into Alex's nagging it's actually all how he shows he cares. It's not that Alex thinks Sunset Curve won't make it, it's that his love language is planning for a future in which (obviously) they'll spend together, in college or not.

But then the band wakes up dead, and in all the emotional whiplash of being HERE and then being CURSED and then being ALIVE(ISH) AGAIN, it takes Reggie a hot minute to realize that all the studying Alex made him do was totally pointless! He's never gonna have to take that test! Alex, think of all the other things we could have done with our time instead of *shudders* F L A S H C A R D S.

And that's when Julie pops in, and points out that SHE still needs to study and she doesn't have the handy excuse of being dead to avoid standardized testing.

And that's where it comes up that the SATs actually mean a lot to Alex, as something that's not quite on the level of Unfinished Buisiness but still personally very important to him, and then Julie gets an Idea.

If she has to learn this stuff anyway......why not study together? Her dad's always saying that "it was harder in the old days", and like - what if he's right? Then studying with someone who's used to the harder SAT test standards will boost Julie's own scores, AND she'll get to do something nice for Alex. Her dad did mention the test prep class that's being offered at the library..... Maybe Alex would want to come with her.

So then they go to test prep class together, Alex standing behind her chair during the lesson and passing notes for Julie to ask the tutor questions by typing messages to each other on her TI-89 (yeah, it's old, but it has GAMES on it. Also one time Flynn dropped an entire Nalgene on it and the screen didn't even crack. That shit's a brick). Julie lets Alex use her review book while she's at school, and he complains that they removed analogies from the test because actually he was actually really good at them. No, really - Luke's not the only one in the band with a strong command of Language, Julie.

Neither Luke nor Reggie are particularly interested in the SATs, but they are super supportive of how much this means to Alex (and what it really does mean for Julie's own future). So there's a bunch of moments where they try to fit SAT prep into band practice all over again: updated flashcards! Reggie makes a list of vocab and jumps out at Julie at surprise moments to make her define things! Timed math problems - who can finish first, Alex solving for x or Luke tuning his guitar?

Finally, Julie manages to get a copy of the old SAT test given in 1995 as part of one of her practice test study packets - and then there's a heartwarming montage of Julie and Alex both taking the test, flashing back and forth from her desk in the gym to Alex sitting on the couch in the studio, from the school's proctor walking through aisles of desks back to Reggie starting the timer, from rows upon rows of students with that particular hush of a large room full to the brim with pencil scratching and then a close-up of Alex erasing hard at his scantron (because what's a test without a scantron? Seriously, Alex - if you're gonna do this, let's do it all the way..... Luke may or may not have snagged a couple blank forms off a teacher's desk and slipped them into Julie's bag without notice) and then Julie comes home and she and Alex hug because they're both exhausted and mentally drained.

Of course, Alex has the option to find out his score immediately - the grading rubric is available in the practice packet for his test - but then he sees Julie's face, and realizes that she won't know her scores for another two weeks. Cue Alex being an absolute chocolate chip muffin of a good friend, and telling Reggie to hide his test papers til Julie's come in the mail, too.

Flash forward 13 days, to Julie hesitantly logging in to her College Board account ("Nah, everything's online nowadays. If I had to wait for my scores in the mail, I think I'd die." "Too soon, Julie," chorus all three of her boys, with shit-eating grins) and a heartstopping moment where Reggie can't find where he hid Alex's test papers ("I know we don't have hearts anymore, Reggie, yes, I'm aware. I'm an anxious person and I hate you right now.") and then Luke counting down from three until both Julie and Alex look at their scores at the same time.

There's a quiet held-breath moment as it all becomes real, that this actually happened, the reverence of a goal achieved.... And then Julie and Alex start hugging each other in giddy relief that turns into a group hug and jumping in place from sheer glee.

And as they jump, the camera pulls out to see Alex's marked-up scantron graded by Reggie and Luke slipping facedown to floor, a non-subtle metaphor of how things might have been.

Julie and the Phantoms, prompt 30

Julie & Alex, gen

Alex is secretly a N E R D, which leads to studying for the SATs together and heartfelt moments over a stack of flashcards