What's happened to us... | A The Music Freaks Backstory AU

The final part... (SO... WHAT ABOUT THE ACTUAL PLOT??)

SO, 

In the terms of the plot of the fic, we left off where Nicholas (A bully, who's repeating 6th grade and deems himself to be the king of the school) has JUST found out that Zander and Hailey are Music  Freaks.  (Read the chapter "Trouble...")

This happened on a Friday Btw.

After a long torturous weekend, Zander has decided to enjoy his last moments of peace before Nick tells everyone about his passion for playing piano and starts openly bullying him for it 

I think that I had written something along the lines of (In Zander's POV):

" In one way or another, Nick was going to make me, playing piano, into the most humilliating thing that the sixth-graders in out school could think of "

But well, the point is that he was really going to try and stay calm. He didnt want to be afraid of Nick. But eventually, the paranoia got too ahead of him.

So, lets see.

Zander arrives at school on monday trying to be as chill as he can about the fact that hes going to get outed as the "Music Freak" any moment now.

Nick, Nate, and Neil arrive and start talking around, I dont remember about what. But eventually Nick goes up to talk to Zander, with the sole purpose of intimidating him.

"Hey, Stalker"

Zander doesnt answer.

"How are you holding up after detention last week?"

Zander doesnt answer.

Suddenly, Nathan spits out something about how Zander sneaked out of detention and dissobeyed the teacher, which causes everyone to go absolutley bonkers.

The point is that everyone in the class surrounds Zander's desk, and after talking to Nick and the boys for a while, they start directly asking Zander questions, calling him a wierdo and a crazy rule breaker. This is what really scares him. I swear in the originally written chapter, Zander had a whole freaking anxiety attack as everyone went crazy around him.

Either way, Nick ends up telling the rest of the class to stop to think of him so largely, since he ended up coming back after running away.

He never says anything about Zander playing piano, though.

He just stays quiet, letting both the audience and Zander wonder when the big revelation would happen.

Zander is left there, alone, feeling like he wants to cry. It is around that time that Luke arrives at school, and noticing that he's upset, he tries talking to him, but Zander insists he's okay. With the anxiety and paranoia finally sinking in, Zander decides to run to his classes and to lunch, in order to avoid Nicholas at all costs. 

He is so afraid of running into him he even starts leaving Luke behind at certain moments. This marks a point in the story where Luke and Zander starts drifting apart from each other, since Zander is having a really hard time with having to get harrased all over again.

I want to make a quick intermission to talk about a very relevant plot point:

We get to see Lukes POV after "Trouble...". He returns home and is very confused about what he can do to help Zander, now that Nick is totally going to use the fact that he plays piano against him.

The situation with Hailey desperately wanting to be friends with Zander, but Zander completly wanting to distance himself and hating her so much is mentaly torturing him.

He just wants people to get along.

Luke is in the living room of his house (the same one Zander describes arriving at during the flashback chapter), and he begins to think, talking to himself, about how he can talk to Zander and convince him to be more open.  All he really achieves is frustrating himself even more, as once he finishes a very long, messy monologue about how Zander needs to let himself trust others, and how Hailey is not trying to hurt him on purpose, he forgets most of it.

This is where we get to know Luke's father, Carl, a lot more closely. We learn that he is extremely passionate about gardening. He has a small agenda where he keeps track of all the plants in the house's garden and, in this case, he also helps Luke by writing down his ideas when he hears him yelling at himself in the living room. 

Carl is a super sweet father, and he approaches Luke, asking him if he's okay. Luke talks to his dad about how he doesnt like that Zander distances himself from Hailey, since none of this is really her fault, and how he just wants to help both of them, without making Zander mad or uncomfortable. His dad listens, and after asking a few questions, he suggets that he writes an email if he finds it too hard to talk to him in person. Seeing that his dad has helped him remember the ideas he thoguht he forgot, he gets exited and accepts his help.

Carl fixes some snacks, and together in his father's laptop, they write an email directed to Zander with the same ideas I already repeated like three times. 

Once they finish, Luke is nervous about sending it. 

To this, his father asks him:

"How are things right now?"

"Terrible."

"How will things be once we send the email?"

"I... I dont know..."

"Then why dont we find out, shall we?"

This encourages him enough, and just as he is getting ready to save and send it-

Luke realizes that ZANDER.

WAS GROUNDED.

He got his phone taken away after what happened during dinner with Micheal (the one in "Painful truths..."), so even if Luke sends the email, he wont be able to see it until, like, a month later.

So, he saves the email as a draft and decides to only send it if he gets the motivation to (BIG FAIL).

(This is just a random stupid headcannon, but I like to think that even during the time of the series, Carl would still do gardening, and Luke would always give Zander like the prettiest bouquets of flowers you have ever seen).