JATP One-Shots

28- The Alexa

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Summary: Julie has a bad day at school and the boys cheer her up

Setting: Los Feliz 2020 (After the Orpheum)

Warnings: Swearing (Julie calls Carrie the b-word but thats it)

Words: 1,254

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Julie wasn't one to let things go to her head, but this week had been rough. She failed yet another Calculus test, tripped in the hallway on the way to English one day spilling her books everywhere, was almost late to a gig, and most recently dropped her water bottle causing it to crack and pour water all over the floor in front of her locker. This coupled with the daily insults and bullying from one Carrie Wilson pushed Julie towards her breaking point.

When the final bell rang dismissing students for the weekend, Julie couldn't be happier. She couldn't wait to just go home and relax after band practice. That was until Carrie decided to stop her right before she left the building.

"Oh hey Julie," she greeted with a clearly fake enthusiasm.

"Not now Carrie, I just want to go home," Julie responded, starting to walk towards the doors.

"Don't worry this will only take a second," Carie held her hand out to stop Julie in her place. She silently wished that Flynn was there with her , but seeing as she was home sick she wasn't going to be much help.

"What do you want Carrie?"

"Well I noticed you were having a bad week," Carrie explained with mock sympathy.

"You got that right," Julie scoffed, crossing her arms.

"So I just wanted to ask," Carrie leaned closer to Julie and dropped her voice to a whisper, "Is it close to the anniversary, you know of your mom's death?" Carried pulled back away from Julie with a smirk on her face.

Julie's arms fell to her side as she started at Carrie, her mouth agape. Carrie laughed and turned on her heels strutting over to where the rest of Dirty Candy was waiting for her, before they left the building. Tears stinging her eyes and threatening to fall, Julie stormed out of the building and climbed into the passenger seat of her father's car.

"Are you okay Mija?" Ray asked, concern prevalent in his voice and facial expression.

"Just a bad day, I don't really want to talk about it," Julie turned her head and rested it on the window.

"Okay," Ray knew better than to press her. He trusted that if Julie wanted to talk about it later she would approach him.

When they arrived at the house, Julie told her father that she was going to head to the studio for band practice. She pushed open the door and was greeted by Luke, Alex, and Reggie who were all scattered around the garage. Luke was sitting on a stool by the piano, Alex was up in the loft with his legs dangling over the edge, and Reggie was sitting on the couch, his feet perched on the coffee table in front of it. Julie responded with a tight smile and brief wave before dumping her backpack on the ground and collapsing onto the couch, resting her head in Reggie's lap. Ever since the night they played the Orpheum, cuddles and resting against each other was not uncommon amongst the band. Reggie immediately started to play with Julie's hair as Luke spoke up.

"Are you okay Jules?" he asked.

Julie sighed and squeezed her eyes shut tight, willing herself not to break down in front of her bandmates. "I just," she paused, "I've just had a really, really bad week and then Carrie decided to be a bitch as I was leaving today," the boys were all taken aback by Julie's language and deduced she must really be upset seeing as she never swore, "and I just don't know how much longer I can do this..." she trailed off at the end as a few tears fell down her cheek.

Luke quickly poofed to the couch next to Reggie, careful not to mand on Julie's legs which were now pulled up close to her chest, and picked her up off Reggie's lap holding her close to him. "Aww, Jules it's going to be okay," he whispered, before placing a kiss on her head. At this Julie completely broke, sobs racking her body. Alex had made his way down the stairs of the loft and took a seat on the couch as well on the other side of Luke. They all sat like that for a while, Julie curled up into Luke's chest, his arms wrapped tightly around her, Alex drawing little designs on her legs that were stretched across his and Luke's laps, and Reggie rubbing her back comfortingly.

Once Julie's breathing started to slow and her shoulders stopped shaking, Luke pulled back a little so he could see her face. "Feel better?" he asked.

Julie nodded her head, "A little, thanks guys. I'm sorry about that it's just everything went wrong this week and it all built up and..." she was going to continue her apology but she was cut off by Luke.

"Hey you don't have to apologize. We've all been there before. I can't even tell you how many times Alex came to the studio while we were alive and just cried and cried and cried..." he stopped when Alex smacked him in the back of the head. "But we were always there for him and we'll always be here for you too. Is there anything else we can do to help you feel better?"

"Could you guys play for me?"

They all agreed and made their way to their instruments. Julie grabbed one of the pillows that sat on the couch and tucked it under her head before laying back down. The boys had gotten pretty good at playing modern songs upon request. Luke would look up the main guitar part of the song online, and Reggie and Alex would join in with whatever they thought sounded best, often creating some very interesting remixes. Julie shouted out a new song after each one finished. Julie started to cheer up more and more with each song and eventually started cracking jokes. She started each song request with "Alexa play..." The boys were confused at first but once she explained what an Alexa is they happily went along with it.

About half an hour later Julie was jumping around and dancing to the music the boys played. There was a knock at the door to the garage and Julie froze quickly signaling for the boys to stop playing. Once they did, she walked over and pushed open one of the doors to reveal her Dad standing there.

"Hey Mija, I heard the music and just wanted to come check on you," he said smiling warmly.

"Thanks Papi, I'm better now. I just had a rough day at school and needed to take some time to listen to some music," she turned to smile at the boys.

"Ok," he pulled Julie into a tight hug and planted a kiss on her head before turning and walking back up towards the house.

Julie smiled after him and turned back into the garage and addressed the boys. "You know you guys are so much better than an Alexa," she said.

Everyone laughed and through his small fit of giggles Reggie managed to get out, "Why would you want an Alexa when you have an Alex!" which just made him laugh even harder.

Julie gathered them all into a large group hug and thanked them one more time before picking up her backpack and heading out of the garage and back towards the house for the rest of the night.

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Life's been so hectic lately and I forgot just how much I actually enjoyed writing and how stress reliving it is! I really hope you enjoyed this one-shot based off a joke my friend made about Alex/Alexa!

I have another request in the works along with a lot of other ideas so keep your eyes peeled for more updates in the future.

Requests are still open and welcomed. Leave a comment or private message me!

I cannot thank you all enough for all your love on this book! I love reading all your comments so remember to vote, comment, kudos, bookmark etc.!

Until Next Time Fantoms!