he plays the drums ✗ rodrick heffley

✗1

"Katrina, get your ass down here now!" Her mother yelled up to the rebellious daughter, who was pretty occupied trying to smear more black makeup over her eyelids.

"Give me a sec!" She yelled back throwing her compact onto her desk and grabbing her leather bag. She fixed her whimsical hair in the mirror before trotting down the steps to meet the wrath of her mother once again. It was a Monday morning and Kat disliked the busy atmosphere around her. School did start in 15 minutes.

"Remember you have to take the neighbor boy to school, his brother won't take him anywhere." Her mom reminded Kat while tossing her an apple.

"Greg? Right?" She asked for confirmation and grabbing her leather jacket.

"Yes. Now go have fun at your new school!" She said as Kat's feet carried her out the garage door to her shitty one doored car.

She kicked the tires before practically throwing herself into the car. Rock music immediately blasted the speakers when the key turned and her tires skidded as she pulled out. But her car went straight back into Greg's driveway where the scared boy walked slowly up to the car.

"Kat?" He asked with a small smile.

"Hey kid, climb on in." She said back unlocking the doors manually.

"Thanks for taking me," he pushed his bag back down to his feet, "my brother Rodrick refuses to let me even touch his van."

"Sounds like a real douche bag." Kat said accelerating to get out of the neighborhood.

"Yeah he can be like that sometimes." Greg responded back with a small laugh. The kid was only a freshman and his brother was a senior, same grade as Kat.

"Well I'm really good at pranking, hit me up if you feel like karma would be well deserved." Kat said with a laugh as they finally reached the school. The ride was only 4 minutes and it wasn't as terrible as Kat thought it would be.

She pulled her piece of scrap metal on wheels into an open spot and that's when she heard the screeching of the Löded Diper van. Her leather bag got tossed over her shoulder as she quickly turned her head to see where the loud noise was coming from.

"And there he is." Greg said shaking his head before running along to meet up with another kid.

A tall boy with dark raged hair jumped out from the side of the van. Kat was staring until she realized how wrong it was and walked along. But she couldn't help but wonder what his deal was, and what was with the huge van.

First hour: English 12 AC

Kat located Mrs. Knox's class and found the perfect seat in the back corner of the class. Her apple core was placed firmly on the wooden desk and her leather bag draped over the front half.

Rodrick walked in just as the bell started to ring. Kat noticed the glare the teacher gave the boy before he settled in a seat right next to her.

"Heard you're going to be taking the little twerp to school." He whispered to Kat twirling a pencil in his fingers.

"Greg? Yeah, I will be, since you're too incompetent to." She whispered back rolling her eyes.

"Whatever Kitty." He said with a rude scoff.

Kat couldn't wait to get out of that class, she didn't want to see that Rodrick guy again.

She went throughout the day trying to focus but her music was too loud in her one earbud that everything else felt unnecessary. After school she leaned up against her lovely trash waiting for Greg. Greg walked out of the front school doors and ran to her. She looked up from the approaching boy to see Rodrick walking to his van. She rolled her eyes and felt disgusted with the sight of him.

"Hurry up kid I got guitar lessons in 20." She said failing at being approachable before climbing into the car through the opened window.

"You play guitar?" Greg asked buckling his seat belt.

"Yeah, electric, bass, ukulele, if it has a string and a neck I can play it." She answered back applying cherry chapstick and checking in the mirror to see that same van whip past her. This was going to be a distraction everyday, wasn't it?

✗

"Glad to see you're home from guitar." Kat's mother said cleaning the dining room.

"Okay what's going on?" Kat started, "this room is usually a don't touch space, why are you touching it?"

"We are having the Heffley's over tonight for dinner." Her father said.

"The who?"

"Greg? Rodrick? Across the street?" Her mother answered back wiping down the last inch of the table.

'What the hell.' Kat thought to herself before cursing under her breath and bringing her guitar back up to her room. She had just learned a few new chords of her favorite rock song Seven Nation Army. So what else would a teenager do on a boring night?

Kat plugged in the electric guitar to her amp and let the notes fly through the speakers. She played her music loud, leaving no sound waves available in her space. She strummed the same seven notes over and over until it was to her standard. She then stood up and started head banging to her own music and adding extra chords for an echo effect. She had no idea how long her jam session might've been before she heard a faint call of her name.

"Katrina, down here now!" Her father yelled so loudly as she quickly unplugged her guitar from the amp and raced to skip steps on the way down.

"So nice of you to join us." Her father said from the kitchen, "you really need to keep that ratchet down."

"Call it ratchet one more time father I swear to go–" she started until her mother cleared her throat and the group of Heffleys all stopped and smiled from the hallway next to her.

"Katrina? Care to introduce yourself to Mr. and Mrs. Heffley?" My mother said giving Kat a glare.

"Hi I'm Kat." She said shaking hands, going through formalities, straight up bullshitting.

"I dig your music, just heard you playing, you know our son Rodrick is in a band." Mr. Heffley said patting the tall boy on the shoulder. He shot his dad a look of complete annoyance before the conversation fell silent. Rodrick kept a dead eye contact lock with Kat which she had no idea how to get out of. Kat finally muttered a thanks but it wasn't heard over her father's loud announcement.

"Food is ready when you guys are!"