"This is one heck of a setup!" Anita gasped coming into Luke's basement for the first time the next weekend.

"It's really nothing fancy," Luke replied. "Just some slight sound-proofing here and there and my laptop to record with."

"She's just excited to be here. Let her be," Blaine chimed in. He then whispered, "She's the fan."

"Still," he whispered back, but he smiled at Anita. She grinned back, and almost blushed with nervousness.

"Sorry for just bringing the acoustic drum, by the way," said Trinity. "Still working on getting a proper one."

"No worries," Noah replied. "It should work for now. Just find a seat." And she did just that, plopping herself in one of the two bean bag chairs.

Luke sat in the other, pulling Audacity up on his laptop. "Once this gets going, Noah should start with his bass, allowing Blaine and me enough time to vocally warm up. Anita, Rose, Trinity, we can wait until next week or so to record your parts if you'd prefer. Or you can record your parts at home and send them over to me. I'm flexible!"

"No problem at all. I'm just really excited to get started!" Rose replied with a smile. "I actually had an idea that could be a fun way of kicking off our band journey, if you know what I mean."

"What's up?" Noah asked.

"You know I don't know what you mean," Trinity chimed in.

"I thought maybe we could make an introductory vlog!" Rose announced with a wide smile.

"What do you mean?" Luke wondered, confused.

"I think it may be fun to record our experiences for our listeners to check out! Like, little video diaries so they can get to know us better, and maybe even catch teases of new music on occasion," Rose explained. "And maybe we can start by introducing ourselves!"

"I'm down!" Anita agreed.

"Same, sounds like fun!" said Noah.

Blaine, Luke, and Trinity then subsequently agreed, so Rose booted up the camera on her phone and counted down.

"Hello, and welcome to the first official Codebreaker Club vlog! We're here in our frontman's basement, rehearsing as a six-piece for the very first time!" She announced with a smile. "So, lots of history being made tonight!"

"You sound like you're talking to our future Grammy voters," Anita teased. "I thought you said you wanted to do introductions?"

"Right! Well, since you're so eager, you can go first!"

Anita nodded. "Alright, hi! I'm Anita Cortales, I use she/her pronouns, and I play the guitar! In addition, I play small forward on the basketball team at our school. I used to listen to Luke and Noah's old band as a child, but I've since gotten more into rock music!" She then started to think. "Hmm, what else...?"

"Why don't you share your current top 5 bands?" Rose suggested.

"Oh, that's easy! Halestorm, Halocene, Meet Me @ The Altar, Glimmers, Set it Off!" Anita replied with a smile. "Oh, and..." She then turned to the side to show off the lesbian flag pin on her jacket. "Enough said! And the last thing you need to know about me for right now is that I am the 'Mama Bear friend' of the group. Basically, what that means is if you see any of our band accounts blasting a troll in the comments, that's probably me!"

"And if you see those replies get deleted and the person get blocked, that's probably me," Luke admitted. "Hi, I'm Luke Lessello! He/him. Frontman. Lead singer. Co-founder."

After a brief pause, Anita asked, "That's it?"

"What do you mean?" Luke replied.

"That's your introduction? You don't have anything else to say?"

"What else can I say?"

"Anything!" Rose encouraged. "The music you listen to, what else you like to do, how you formed the band, anything you want!"

"Okay, hi, I'm Luke Lessello, the pop music-loving bisexual poetry enthusiast who's been singing since he was two or three, and is now fronting a band," he replied with a shrug. "How's that?"

"Forgive him, he's not quite comfortable with the six-piece yet," Noah explained. "He's gonna be a bit rough around the edges for a while, but he'll come around."

He then turned to the camera. "Hi! I'm Noah. I'm the other co-founder, and I use he/him pronouns. Luke and I were in a band together back in the day..."

"A long time ago!" Luke emphasized.

"Right," Noah agreed. "But then I moved to Cardiff for a bit when my dad got relocated and separated from my mom as a result. Now, Cardiff is a great city! Plus, that's where I learned to play the bass, and where got on puberty blockers for the first time - I'm transgender. Still, I was super excited when Dad got the chance to come back to his old job, because I knew we could come back to Philly, move back in with Mom and my sister, Melinda, and I could rejoin the band. And, well, as you can see, that happened, just in a different way!"

"I can't wait for you all to hear this man rap for the first time," Luke said to the camera. "You're gonna be amazed at his skill!"

Noah smiled. "Yeah, I'm just as excited to get started! I already wrote a majorily-rap song that we haven't even recorded yet! You're gonna love it!"

Rose smiled back. "Alright, who's next...? Blaine, you wanna go next?"

"Sure!" Blaine replied. "My name's Blaine Richards, and I am the backup singer for the group! I'm a theater kid, and I will be dance captain for the first time this fall. I can't wait for that! I'm also pansexual, use he/him pronouns, and my other interests include rhythm games, RPGs, comedy skits, and sci-fi - especially I Am Frankie! Oh, and I definitely know the difference between The Lion King and Cats songs!"

"Huh?" Luke seemed confused.

"Inside joke," Trinity responded, not knowing if Blaine wanted to go into that story.

Blaine nodded. "Anyway,  you wanna go next, Trin?"

"Sure!" She smiles. "I'm the drummer of the band. My name's Trinity Zhen Lei! I got this acoustic drum as a gift, but I'm saving for a proper one, and then I'll probably save this one for rehearsing at home, if we ever do acoustic versions of anything, and my game's score. Oh, I'm also an indie game developer for Steam! My project is called The First of Five Stars, and it's about twin girls on an intergalactic adventure! It's not out yet, but I'm aiming for maybe another year and a half, though I don't really know."

"You think you can code a whole game in a year and a half?!" Anita asked with shock.

"Hey, I've made solid ground on it!"

"You just lost your entire score!"

"And replaced it!"

Anita sighed, as if to say, "Fine. Good luck!"

"Anyway," Trinity continued, "I'm also autistic and use she/her pronouns. And I'm a huge gamer outside of just my own work! My favorite games include Minecraft, Pokémon, Fire Emblem, and The Legend of Zelda! Hmm...what else...I'm also a bit more reserved than the others in the band, so you might not see me on our group socials as much...And that's it, I guess! I can't really think of anything else!"

"In that case, I'll go ahead and close this thing off." Rose them pointed the camera towards herself. "My name is Rosalina Thomas, but I prefer to be called Rose. I also play guitar, same as Anita. I use she/her pronouns and I'm bisexual. I'll likely be the camerawoman for a lot of these vlogs moving forward. I'll also likely be among the most active on the band socials. I know how to talk to people! I've known Trinity, Blaine, and Anita for basically my whole life, and Luke and Noah are mutual friends of Blaine. Oh, and I'm also joining the swim team for the first time this year!"

"Alright! Anything else? Because we should really get started recording our first single as a six-piece," Luke noted, holding up his laptop to show that Audacity had loaded.

"Plus, we need to actually make those band socials you all keep talking about," Noah added.

"Okay, okay!" Rose laughed. "That's it for Codebreaker Club today! Thanks for joining us on our journey, and we'll see you next time! Bye!" Then, Rose clicked her phone off and added, "Alright! I'll get us set up on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Fanbase while you guys get your parts recorded."

"What about Tumblr? I got lots of traction for First of Five on there," Trinity suggested.

While the girls headed up into Luke's bedroom to discuss and set up all of their accounts, the boys stayed in the basement to record their parts for "Static." By the time everyone went home that day, serious progress had been made. Codebreaker Club had officially been born.