𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝟕𝐓𝐇

・❥・
❛𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲'𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐛𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐢 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐭, 𝐦𝐞𝐠.❜

"IT'S NOT THAT FUCKING HARD TO DO, RYDER." the shouting coming from inside of the living room was...extremely loud. The girl huffed a breath, slapping her acoustic guitar before she laid it on the couch as gently as she could. Even though she was angry, she didn't feel like buying another guitar.

"All you have to do, is write an entire song in 12 hours. How hard can it be?" She mutters to herself, besides knowing exactly how hard it would be to write a good song without spending a decent amount of time on it. She's what people like to call a "lyrical genius", it doesn't take her as long as others to write songs. 1-2 weeks tops, but, she's never written anything good in less than a day.

Humming a melody to herself, she sits back on the couch, kicking her feet up on the table as she scribbled profusely into her notebook. The writing isn't eligible , but that didn't matter for right now. She'd fix it later.

"Don't say it isn't fair, you clearly weren't aware that you made me miserable." Ryder rhymes, smiling to herself as she sketches the words down before they leave her memory, switching chords on the guitar as her front door opened.

It was her younger sister, Austin, who walked through the door, out of breath and keys in hand.

"Oh, Aus, it's you. Sick, what do you think about this, made all my moments your own, just fucking leave me alone?" Ryder turns to face her sister, choosing to ignore the fact that Austin looked completely exhausted and disheveled, compared to how she was when she left.

"Sounds good, Ry."

"Does it actually or are you just saying that so I don't scrap it?"

"You have less than 12 hours to put together a song worth 50% of your grade, yes I'm telling you it's good so you don't scrap it." Ryder laughs, but Austin just throws her stuff on the floor, joining her sister on the couch.

"It's good, Ryder. You have a gift, I mean that from the bottom of my heart." Austin takes Ryder's hand in hers, Ryder scoffing as she quickly figured out what this is about.

"I'm not doing it." Ryder places her guitar on the table, heading into the kitchen for a water bottle. She notices the time on the microwave, 10:30. It was almost time.

"Ryder, come on, it's the perfect opportunity!" Austin exclaims, also taking note of the time on the clock. Their father was going to be home any minute, they needed to do this carefully.

"GhostRyder isn't about the people, it's about the music. If we reveal our identities, we're taking away from that." Ryder tries to reason with her baby sister, Austin rolling her eyes as she continued following the eldest girl around.

"I get it, I do, but imagine the clubs reaction if after a solid year of living in the unknown, they finally got to know the masterminds behind one of the most popular bands in our grade." Austin swiftly grabbed Ryder's guitar off the table, Ryder turning off the lamp in the living room as they quickly walked upstairs, just as their front door opened again. It was their father, who was finally coming home from work.

Ryder carefully opened her bedroom door, closing it shut behind Austin as she swiftly ushered the girl inside the room, trying not to panic. The girls both slipped on their shoes as Ryder's pager buzzed, an incoming message from "D.A.B".

"Who's that?" Austin whispers, throwing on her orange sweater, Ryder searching around her room for her mask. It was of a black bunny, a red X drawn across the left eye with blood splatter for extra dramatics. One of her ears had chipped off over time, and instead of replacing it, she made it apart of her brand.

"Just your girlfriend on my ass again for being late." Ryder lied, not having to worry about Austin second guessing her as there was a knock on the bedroom door. It was faint, light, and this is how the girls knew their plan was ready for phase 2.

"Ryder, is Austin in there with you? She's not in her room." Victor Mason whispered, Ryder tossing the mask to her sister as she gestured towards the girls window, Austin then climbing out of it with a salute.

Ryder took a few seconds to compose herself, making sure to let out a fake yawn as she pretends she was momentarily asleep.

"Hey, dad. Yeah, uh, she crashed in here earlier when we were watching Heathers, I didn't have the heart to wake her." Ryder carefully cracks her door open a bit more, exposing the pile of blankets and pillows on the floor that were formed into the shape of a person.

"Oh, I'm sorry I'll let you get back to sleep now, it's a big day tomorrow."

"The biggest." Ryder sighed, wishing this part of the plan would hurry up. Even though it was not Austin's girlfriend who paged her, she was in fact still paged because she was late. Again.

Victor offered her one last smile, whispering an "I love you" to Austin as he shut the door back, causing Ryder to let out a little victory chuckle. She waited until she heard the sound of another door closing (her parents bedroom), before she grabbed her keys off her nightstand and hopped out the window.

"COME ON ALEX, ITS ONE NIGHT OUT." Luke Patterson scoffed, Reginald Peters and Alex Mercer sitting on the floor of Bobby Shaw's garage.

"Absolutely not, it's not happening. I'm not doing it." Alex throws his hands up in protest, Bobby getting up off the floor to go wash his hands.

"Just think about it, Ghost is Sunset Curve's biggest competition yet, they've been doing this for a while now. If we talk to just one member maybe they can get us in to play opening for one of their gigs." Luke reasons, tapping rhythmically on the couch as Reggie stares off into space.

"It's not that bad of an idea, Alex." Bobby reasons, grabbing his jacket off the couch as Luke reached out his hand, dapping Bobby up.

"My man."

"You know it." Luke smirks, Reggie getting up off the floor as well, dusting off his pants.

"If you're in, so am I." Alex is the last one left on the floor, and he still seems unconvinced. Luke kneels down above him, gesturing for Bobby to hand him something from the corner. It's a polaroid camera.

"Even if Operation Ghost doesn't turn out how we want it to, we can have one hell of a night before our lives change forever. What do you say, Alex?" He sits there for another moment, before rolling his eyes and reaching for the Polaroid camera.

"Fine, and for the record, it's GhostRyder."

"That's what I said-"

CLUB TEMPERANCE HAD NEVER SEEN A CROWD LIKE THIS BEFORE. It was packed, people grinding and dancing all over each other, drink after drink being served at the bar, the VIP lounge full of well-dressed individuals that were clearly waiting for their source of entertainment.

Getting into the club was no problem for Ryder. She was older than most kids in her grade, already 18 before the school year even started. With her legally being an adult, and her knowing one of the bouncers personally, it was easy to get her sister and her other friends into the joint.

Walking over to a certain table in the VIP section, she noticed a tray of shots being delivered to the table as the young couple linked arms, taking shot after shot.

"Damn Kinzington, why don't you save some shots for the rest of us, or Echo is really going to start to Echo." Ryder laughs, Echo getting up out of the love seat to greet the girl.

"You're late." Kyler retorts, Megan kicking him from under the table, to which he just shrugs. Ryder continues embracing Echo for as long as she can before she moves down the line, hugging Kyler, Megan, and Kenya.

This right here, was GhostRyder. They were a band that mostly performed alternative music, and they have been playing together since freshman year in high school. The idea of being an anonymous band came from Ryder, hence why their name changed from Ghost to GhostRyder, with the y. She felt that if people in school knew who was making the music, they wouldn't appreciate it as much as they do now.

Kyler was the drummer, Echo was their keyboardist, Megan was the base guitarist, and Ryder was their writer and electric guitarist.

Kenya and Austin may not have played any musical instruments, but they were still apart of GhostRyder. Kenya handled the managing front, helping them get gigs and publicity (thought not much, seeing as though she's only 16), while Austin was in charge of choreographing routines for their music videos and making sure their identities remained hidden.

Having drinks and laughing in the lounge is exactly what the group had needed, especially with such big decisions coming up in their lives. Tomorrow, they were going to be seniors. They were going to be spending senior year trying to pass and make it towards graduation, who knows how many nights they'd have in the future like this.

Echo let's out a sigh, placing yet another shot glass down as she reaches in her purse. She pulls out her mask, hers being almost identical to Ryder's, only difference is that hers is of a sheep, not a bunny.

"If we do this now, everything changes." She grips onto the mask tightly, the music in the club drowning out their conversation to others, Kyler grabbing his mask from Kenya. He had a bear.

"You're right, if we do this, everything we've ever stood for changes." Kyler adds, staring at his mask also, reflecting on how different they once were just 3 years ago.

"I think we should, think of it as the mascot finally being revealed before high school ends." Megan joins in, rolling her thumb over her mask.

"Are we ready?" Ryder takes her mask from Austin as the girl questions the band, a final round of shots being delivered to the table as she sighed.

"Let's fucking kill it." Ryder smirks, raising her shot glass in the air. After a short beat of silence, Echo, Kyler, and Megan raise up their glasses, clinking and cheering, before leaving the VIP section for one last dance before their show.

LUKE PATTERSON COULDN'T BELIEVE HE WAS STANDING IN CLUB TEMPERANCE. The humidity took over the place, he could physically feel the body heat radiating off of everyone with each step he took. Walking deeper and deeper into the mosh-pit, he saw couples making out, couples dancing, people getting high.

Club Temperance was the spot, and if you weren't here right now, you'd be out of the loop for the rest of your high school career.

"This is it, Alex. This is when we find Ghost and learn the key to rockstar success." Luke has to outright shout in order to be heard over the music, Alex clutching onto his red cup.

"It's GhostRyder." He exasperates, noticing the confusion on Luke's face.

"What?"

"You forget the second half of their name. Everytime. Its GhostRYDER." He shouts over the music as well, tapping on Alex's shoulder as he scans around the crowd.

"Yeah, I know, that's what I said. Ghost." Luke retorts, Alex just taking one long sigh before he runs at his eyebrow.

"I don't even know why I take the time to do this with you, I'm gonna go find Reggie." Alex turns from Luke, scoffing as he locates Reggie by the bar.

Luke scans around once more, noticing Bobby has met up with his new girlfriend, what was her name? Hannah? Hartley?

Yeah, Hannah it is, Luke decides.

He doesn't really care enough to ask Bobby about the new girl, not really, as he feels his eyes wander towards the curly haired girl who's making her way down the VIP stairs. He's seen her around school before, that whole group. He didn't know her personally, or her name. She kept to herself, Luke knew that much. They didn't hang in the same crowd, but he's always found her pretty.

He guessed that's the reasoning he zones out, and when he's finally zoned back in, he's standing right in front of her at the edge of the VIP stairs.

"Can I help you?" Ryder looks him up and down, and if looks could kill, Luke would be a dead, dead man.

"You looked lonely so I figured I'd come say hi." Luke stupidly responds, not even listening to the words coming out of his mouth. He goes to correct himself, but Ryder already bites.

"I looked lonely coming down the stairs with my best friend?" Megan sucks her teeth and turns to face Austin, grabbing her girlfriend by the hand.

"Yeah, we're gonna go...anywhere else. Good luck with this, Ry. You know the drill." Megan gives her a look and Ryder waves her off, now leaning against the railing as Luke stood across from her.

"Yeah I honestly have no idea why I just said that to you. I'm-"

"Do you wanna dance?" Ryder rudely cuts him off, finishing the last sip of her drink. Luke is taken aback, but he must have approached her for a reason. Instead of waiting for a response, Ryder grabs him by the hand and leads him to the middle of the mosh-pit, ruthlessly shoving and pushing couples out of her way to make room for them.

Closer by Nine Inch Nails begins playing in the club, and Ryder's eyes light up.

"I love this song." She whispers in his ear, taking his cup and throwing it across the dance floor (don't worry, it was empty). He stands there awkwardly, not really knowing what to do with his hands as Ryder rolls her eyes.

"When I asked you to dance, that sort of implied you'd have to touch me, ya know?" She snickers, grabbing his hands and dragging them alongside her body. It takes them a while, but after feeling each other out they get into a groove, everyone inside of the mosh-pit turning their attention towards the pair and cheering them on.

"You're...not as bad at this as I thought you'd be, pretty Ricky." She smiles, rapping up the dance as she feels her pager buzzing rapidly. It's like she can feel all eyes on her, internally cursing herself.

"Thank you, for this dance, but I'm actually gonna head home now. It's a big day tomorrow, senior year and all." Ryder explains, grabbing his hands and moving them away from her hips. She quickly turns to get lost in the crowd as he calls out.

"Can I at least get your name?" He cups his hands, treating this interaction as a cheesy romcom moment. Ryder smiles, before saluting him, and making sure she remained entirely invisible and unnoticeable as she went behind the stage to change into her costume.

It was time for one of GhostRyder's biggest gigs yet....

a/n !
and that's the first chapter of "tddup" complete! technically, this is being split into 2 parts, so the second chapter will pick up exactly where this one left off.

Live, Laugh, Love Luke Patterson and Sunset Curve, they're all so babygirl it physically hurts me (even Bobby, at least, for now.)

this chapter has been sitting in my drafts for quite some time now, and i finally felt like now was the perfect time to publish it, so yeah

i hope this makes you guys excited for what's yet to come, and i can't wait to continue embarking on ryder's journey alongside the people she cares about most!

till next time,
-ke <33