Rodrick Heffley - A 101 Guide on Summer
Chapter 2 ppl 😝😝 kindaaa rushed this one a teeny bit but I hope you lot love it just the same!
Ch.2 - No room(s) for disappointment
Back in her room, y/n is carefully plopped on her bed with full attentiveness to the theatrical scene standing before her. Rodrick is walking circles around her room as he fills the silence with his blabbering - he has so many ideas, you’d think he’s a director for an upcoming blockbuster-level movie. Maybe it’s to ignore the very real truth that she now has Rodrick in her bedroom - for reasons she only has herself to blame - she holds herself extremely focused, having a notebook in one hand and a half-sharpened pencil in another. She flicks and closes pages - focusing on filling them with elaborate notes in mere seconds. For the past 30 minutes, y/n had it set to help Rodrick in any way he seems fit, but she’s starting to realise that he may fail in comprehending what’s ‘fit’ for this situation.
“...Oh, oh! And I want a sorta cgi explosion in the background? But maybe we should make it real!” Eyerolling the nonsensical suggestions imposed before her, she lays her pencil slowly on her bed - let’s wrap this up. “Do we go with fireworks… or cgi…”
Interrupting him, y/n chimes in with ideas of her own, ideas that are less…nonsensical and outlandish.
“How about a Molotov Cocktail…with fireworks…”
“How about a Classic Rock sound, instead? Or Midwest Emo? I have a few references in my playlist. Oh, I can try backing vocals, too!” Rodrick, plastering on another one of his usual smuggish, brazen expressions, attempts to rebuttal her point. “y/n, we can’t do something boring like that, not now! We really need that $75, you know.”
“Is that all you want from this competition?”
“No! Of course no, my band really needs this exposure. And the $75..”
Eyerolling harder than the last, y/n flings her notebook over her shoulder, stands up, dusts herself off, and struts to her laptop which is neatly placed on her front desk. Now sitting on her deskchair, with one leg folded for comfortability, she looks back at Rodrick to signal him closer in joining her on the laptop. He swiftly stands right before her, having the spacious inches snipped off between them. He inches his chin closer to her left shoulder in genuine curiosity on what she wants to show him. y/n now being hyperaware of the lack of space between them, diverts her full attention to the laptop in an attempt to distract herself.
y/n shuts her laptop swiftly after showing him some of her own homemade music videos online.
“I thought you’d know by now! And I asked if I could try backing vocals.” When she showed him her youtube video, he had instantly noticed the 100k views and 9k likes - the type of exposure he could only dream of. And that voice. Her voice had made a clear inscription on his mind. Feeling the freshly lit rivalry brewing between them (mostly being one-sided) he attempts his breakaway. Glancing at his phone, he notices the time, “it’s…four? Yeah I um, need to go..babysit…manny…” He grabs his bag roughly and heads for the door. “Oh, don’t forget!” Rodrick, looking back, gets hit in the forehead with an indistinguishable block, sorta shaped like a cassette. It is a cassette. It’s simply labelled as ‘Playlist’, with the label clearly aged. Looking up in confusion, y/n clarifies “The playlist, remember? For reference.”
“Oh. Right!…bye!” He leaves immediately, almost dropping the cassette during the skate ride home.
Back home, he rushes past his family members, claiming he has summer homework. A few seconds later he rushes back downstairs, kicks Greg in the shins, and rushes upstairs again.
“Someone’s gotta do something about that boy.” Frank suggests.
“Yeah, somebody.” Susan chimes.
Greg looks at both of them with bewilderment.
Now seated on his bed, having his laptop on his lap, he ventures to y/n’s youtube channel, investigating just how much exposure her videos have. 45 minutes later, he’s still investigating, but not for this initial reason. Her voice had interlinked with his inner monologue. He’s seen 4 of her videos on repeat, but the first video he saw back at her house draws him in again, each time. He hits the download button.
“Her pitch is perfect…” Rodrick doesn’t know if it’s enmity or admiration, but the sudden urge to jump right into his summer project had boiled into manifestation.
He suddenly felt compelled to ask her for more help, but didn’t want to submit to their mini-rivalry. Deciding he won’t need her help after all, he looks to his side, eyeing the cassette tape. Grabbing it, he tosses it in his backpack, and zips it quickly - leading to getting the zipper stuck, and a piece of the cassette still poking out. He’ll do this the Lødeddipper way, and Lødeddipper way only.
Flash-forward the next day: Ward, Drew, and Rodrick are in his garage, having various equipment and ‘decorations’ dispersed around. One flimsy ringlight stands alone in the corner of the room, with various string lights scattered. A piñata dangles from the ceiling. A disposable camera is placed right behind the garage door. Both Ward and Drew are slightly confused with the immediate setup, but don't question it. It’s Rodrick. He insists that this elaborate song he made overnight is their ‘free ticket to Hollywood’. Both shrugging in confusion, they get their instruments ready. Rodrick hops on his drumkit, placed in the middle of the garage, he looks at the camera with dollar signs in his eyes.
For the next three weeks, they spent making numerous retakes on their music video, having never surpassed the introduction. Every shot taken, something would go wrong. One attempt had one of the stringlights burst in flames. Rodrick debated keeping that one in. In another attempt, Drew accidently stepped on the garage remote, almost crushing the Camera. At one point, Rodrick raised his drumsticks too high and burst the piñata. They ended with lunch break that day.
“At this point, we might wanna upload these clips as our talent instead, bro.” Drew says as he packs up.
“Yeah, I don’t think anyone can beat a record as bad as this.” Ward comments.
“What? No, we still have…” with swiftness, Rodrick checks his phone for the date.
“One week…” They’d spent so much time on the introduction alone, they hadn’t even realised they spent most of their submission time on sweeping candy wrappers from the ground. In defeat, Rodrick quickly concludes practice for the day - with no progress made. Stomping to his bedroom, he leans against the wall, having one hand dragging on his neck, with the other loosely clinging onto his cellphone.
Scrolling mindlessly on his phone for minutes, he comes closer to the realisation he might have to sit this competition out, and that he just cost his band the exposure that they needed. And $75.
At 11pm, he’s still scrolling through his phone, until he finds himself craving snacks. Getting up, he grudgingly attempts to leave his room - until he trips over an object. Annoyed, he uses his phone flashlight to investigate what he tripped over. His bag, with y/n’s cassette tape still poking out, was laid in the middle of his room floor. So much for cleaning up after himself. Staring at the cassette, he looks back at his phone screen, more specifically the messenger app. Contemplating for a few seconds, he finally gives in with a heavy sigh, texting y/n about those backing vocals.
The smell of freshly made pancakes linger around, with a mopey Rodrick sitting on a kitchen counter - y/n invited him over the next day to talk about his progress with the submission. His damp hair covers his groggy eyes and overly tired expression, he’s not a morning person. Y/n hands him a glass of orange juice, which he chugs down in an instant.
“So I’m hearing that not only did you not listen to the cassette for references, but you spent the last three weeks with no progress? None at all?”
“I did try… I dunno, I guess I had all these ideas and they just didn’t translate well with my budget. Hence why we need that $75”
“Will you shut up about that $75??”
With a momentary silence in the air, the both eventually burst into laughter - this project had been taken so seriously by Rodrick, even though his motives were just as unserious. Y/n picks up Rodrick’s glass of orange juice, takes a sip, and sits on the counter right beside him.
“How about we use these next five days doing this thing the normal way?”
It’s September, the new school year of Crossland High begins and the first area Rodrick is spotted in, for the first time in history, is the library with Drew. Rodrick’s got both palms covering his eyes in fear, as Drew checks the school website using the library computers.
“If we didn’t place, just say that and quit scaring me!”
“Why don’t you look for yourself”
As Rodrick forces his hands away from his eyes, he’s met with a pleasant surprise of being joint first, along with a dance group in 8th grade.
“We…we won? We won!” Both Drew and Rodrick burst into cheer, with their celebration being cut short by the library teacher. Drew and Rodrick resolve to a quieter, but equally joyful, celebration. As they’re celebrating, he receives a notification - checking it cheerfully, it reads…
[ Make sure I get that 30% cut (￣▽￣) ] - y/n
Rodrick grins ear to ear, which are now blushing slightly red.
Now heading to class, Rodrick puts his headphones on, and plays some of the music he downloaded on his phone. This playlist specifically includes a bunch of songs curated from y/n’s cassette tape blasted to full volume, the first track being from a certain youtube video…
[ “So I was thinking about a 40% cut?” ]
[ “Bro answer my text.” ]
discoholicmusic
dededos
blakekathryn
origamiaround
dailybridgerton
annaxmalina
tangentwithtanner