𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐄 𝐆𝐎, 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍!
the good die young.

☍

CAMERON LOCKHART LOVED BEING SIXTEEN.

If she could, she'd be sixteen forever. With herself on the cusp of turning seventeen and her band turning three, she grew more and more anxious for adventure —— looking forward to the day she'd be able to move out of Los Angeles and travel the world. It wasn't that she hated it, but she was so tired of seeing the same thing every day. There's something about the itching for the unknown, and reaching for your dreams —— even if everyone else says you won't make it.

Cameron Lockhart didn't mean to roll her eyes so hard or scoff every time her parents started dogging her, she truly didn't! But when you're told every day after school that you're wasting your time away by hanging out with your friends (which is something every sixteen-year-old girl definitely does not want to hear) and your "music phase" isn't worth it, you start to get tired of it. That being said, her attitude got her kicked out of her home right after her fifteenth birthday, leaving her no choice but to couch surf in her friends' homes.

Her permanent stay ended up being the Delgado residence where she ended up sharing a room with Luciana, her best friend since second grade. Luciana's parents welcomed her with warm and open arms. Compared to the outgoing and flirty Luciana, Cameron was more reserved, yet Luciana's parents accepted Cameron completely. They encouraged her to make contact with her parents, but Cameron always shrugged it off.

"Do you think Bobby will show up?" Luciana asked from the foot of her bed. She was tying the pink ribbons on the sides of her jeans and fashioning them into cute bows while she spoke to Cameron, who had her back turned to her as she looked through her closet on her side of their room. She pursed her lips as she focused on the ribbon.

"God, I hope not," Cameron answered truthfully, and she didn't have to turn around for Luciana to know she was already making a face of disgust. She grabbed onto a jean jacket and ignored how her black nail polish was beginning to chip as she pulled the jacket towards her and walked towards her bed, standing above where she had today's outfit laid out. "He needs to leave Jolene alone already."

Luciana nodded, even if Cameron couldn't see her. "Agreed. She dumped him like, months ago. Maybe she needs a new man to get under, to move on."

"Maybe what she needs is a restraining order," Cameron countered, sliding the shirt she was wearing over her head as Luciana got up and sat at her old makeshift vanity. Luciana let out a giggle at the comment.

Cameron didn't wear as much makeup as Luciana did, but Lucy knew when Cameron did choose to do her face up that she opted for thick and often black eye makeup.  This created a new tradition between the two roommates, and adding another stool beside hers was Luciana's own love language. 

 Cameron didn't like how her cleavage looked peeking out of her halter bra, but she tried not to think about it as she slipped on another shirt, this time a neon green one.

"Do you——" Luciana trailed, almost scared to ask the question. "Uh, do you think anyone else we know will come?"

"Like my folks? I already sent them an invite, I don't think they are," Cameron shrugged, not wanting to think too much about it. She assumed she'd spend the rest of her life trying to apologize to her parents for the words spoken that got her in trouble with them. Though she tried not to show it, deep down all she wanted was for them to tell her to come home.

Luciana brushed her eyebrows with a stiff and short eyebrow comb, feeling guilty for not thinking of Cameron's parents first. Trying to play it off cool, she cleared her throat. "Hmm, you never know. Or if you want a real heart attack, maybe one of the other Sunset Curve boys will come," Luciana's heart skipped a beat as she said the name of the band.

Cameron rolled her eyes. She knew she was trying to make it seem like she was mentioning Luke in a teasing way, but Cam knew better. "First Jolene, now this?"

"I didn't mean anything by it," Luciana smiled to herself as she played with her makeup brushes, running her index finger through the soft fluffy brush before dipping it into a dark pink coloured blush.

"Yeah, I'm sure you don't mean anything when you flirt with Reggie, either."

"That was like... the one time."

"Last week you flirted with him after we saw him at the store. And then the day after in science. And then yesterday by the bleachers."

Luciana bit her lip as she remembered twirling her hair around her finger the day before by the bleachers. "Yeah, but he's so funny. You could say "potatoes" and he'd drool."

"That's because you're hot," Cameron said, walking over to the vanity and staring at herself in the mirror, having already done her makeup that morning. "Okay, ready?" she asked.

Luciana nodded, setting her stuff down and standing up. She was wearing a pair of wedges that made her a couple of inches taller than Cameron and compared to the raven-haired girl, she looked like a Barbie. Cameron liked that about their band, though — they all rocked a different aesthetic.

After looking Luciana up and down, she asked, "don't your ankles hurt?"

"Beauty is pain," Luciana answered calmly.

Cameron shook her head, but her lips turned upright, unable to hold back her genuine feelings of joy and comfort at that moment — that moment where they were nothing but two kids venturing out into the world to play a show. Not only were they going to promote their band, but playing music was so important to each of the girls. After that night, under mysterious circumstances, the girls wouldn't make it past their seventeenth birthdays nor would they be able to play music ever again.

Until twenty-five years later when Jazz & Lizzie would go through the mixtape meant for Jolene James and accidentally resurrect all the girls in Shake It Up —— who don't remember how or when they died.

☍

𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐄 𝐆𝐎, 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍!
the good die young.