Interview Location: Bedroom -- Jason Pritchett
He's standing in front of his mirror, not looking at the camera yet. Then he turns.
"Six AM. First day. Let's go."
The alarm went off at six and he was already half awake. He'd been doing that thing where you keep waking up before it goes off because your brain won't relax.
He got up, went to the bathroom, washed his face. Looked at himself in the mirror for a second. Not in a weird way. Just checking.
He threw on a white tee, jeans, and sneakers. Silver chain. He kept the outfit simple on purpose. He didn't want to look like he was trying too hard on the first day. He wanted to look like this was just how he always looked, which it was now, so it wasn't even lying.
He could hear Manny getting ready in the room down the hall. Manny was already talking, to himself probably, or maybe practicing something. Jason couldn't tell.
He grabbed his backpack and his notebook off the desk. Always the notebook.
"Jason!"
Jay's voice this time, from downstairs.
"Coming!"
He did one last check in the mirror and headed down.
Interview Location: Front Door -- Jason Pritchett
He's got his backpack on. One hand on the door frame.
"I would've walked but it's like forty minutes. Tommy didn't have that problem. Tommy has a motorcycle. A Ninja. Which is insane for a sixteen-year-old but also I understand it completely. I've been taking classes actually. It's cheaper than a car and it looks cool. Don't tell Jay that's my reasoning."
* * *
Jay had the car running already. He handed Jason a granola bar without saying anything, which was Jay's way of saying eat something, which was Jay's way of saying I'm paying attention even when it doesn't look like it.
"Five minutes early," Jay said as they pulled up to the school. "You want me to walk you in?"
"I'm good."
"I'm joking."
"I know."
Jay looked at him for a second. "You're good, kid."
"Yeah." Jason grabbed his bag and got out. "Thanks for the ride."
He stood on the sidewalk and watched the car pull away. Then he turned around and looked at the school.
It was big. Bigger than his last school. There were already people everywhere, clusters of them on the steps and the lawn, everyone doing that thing where you're pretending to be comfortable.
Tommy was waiting at the front. He had his helmet tucked under his arm and was already grinning.
"Bro."
"Bro."
They did their handshake, the one they'd been doing since seventh grade that they definitely should've updated by now but neither of them had said that out loud.
"How was the ride?" Jason asked.
"Cold. Perfect. You need to get one."
"Working on it."
They walked in together. The hallways were loud and crowded and smelled like a hundred different body sprays fighting each other. Jason's eyes were moving the whole time. He was clocking everything. New school. New people. New situation.
Interview Location: School Hallway -- Jason Pritchett
He leans against the lockers. Keeps his voice low.
"There were a lot of girls. Like a lot. And I want to be clear that I was paying attention for legitimate reasons. I'm sixteen, I just lost a hundred and five pounds, I'm in a new school where nobody knows me. I was gathering information. That's all that was."
* * *
They got their schedules from the front office while they were still walking and talking. Jason looked at his while Tommy looked at his.
"What do you have first?" Tommy asked.
"English. You?"
"AP History. Different building."
Jason looked at him. "AP History on the first day?"
"I signed up for it over the summer. It seemed like a good idea at the time."
"And now?"
Tommy made a face. "We'll see." He pointed down the hall. "I go that way. You good?"
"I'm good."
"Studio after school. Don't forget."
"I know."
"Bring the notebook."
"I know, Tommy."
Tommy pointed at him once and headed off. Jason watched him go, then turned and found his classroom.
* * *
He got there early. That was the plan, get there before most people so he could pick his seat. He went to the back row, second seat from the wall. Good view of the whole room, not the last seat which always looked like you were hiding, but close enough.
He sat down and took out his notebook. He was working on the second verse in his head. He had the idea down, something about not wanting to fall for someone based on nothing real, wanting it to be personal, actual. He wrote: I don't wanna fall in love off of away messages.
He liked that. Felt true.
People started coming in. He watched them without being obvious about it. New school rule number one: observe before you talk.
After a couple minutes there were maybe three other students in the room. Then more. Then someone sat down next to him.
He didn't look right away. He gave it a second. Then he looked.
She was really cute. Like actually. Dark hair, nice smile even though she wasn't smiling yet, just settling into her seat.
"Latina, calm down," he said in his head.
He turned anyway.
"Hey, I'm Jason."
She looked over. "Hey Jason, I'm Gabriella."
He thought about it for half a second. What would they do in a movie. Then he decided forget it, just be honest.
"Hey Gabriella, you're cute," he said, and smiled.
She looked at him. Not offended, actually kind of amused. "Thank you, but I have a boyfriend."
"I can wait," he said. He hadn't even processed it before it came out.
She laughed. Like an actual laugh. "You're funny."
"I try."
The teacher came in and started talking and that was that. Jason faced forward. He was smiling a little bit. Not because he thought something was going to happen, just because that had gone pretty well all things considered.
Interview Location: School Hallway -- Jason Pritchett
After class. He looks pretty good about himself.
"She has a boyfriend. That's fine. That's completely fine. I said what I said and she laughed, which means she didn't think I was weird, which is the main thing. We're in the same English class all year." He pauses. "I can be patient."
* * *
The rest of the day was fine. His classes were okay. He got lost once trying to find the science wing and had to ask a senior who pointed without looking up from his phone. He ate lunch with Tommy, who had already decided AP History was going to be fine but the teacher talked too much. They talked about the song most of lunch.
When the last bell went off Jason was already heading for the exit.
Tommy was outside by his bike with his helmet on. "Get on."
"Absolutely not."
"It's like a ten minute ride, bro."
"I will get dropped off. I will call Jay. I will walk the forty minutes. I will not get on that bike."
Tommy stared at him. "You're taking classes to get your license."
"To drive one myself. Not to be a passenger. That's completely different."
"How is that different?"
"Because when I'm driving I'm in control of whether I die."
Tommy thought about this. "Fair." He pulled out his phone. "I'll text my mom to come get you."
An hour later Jason was at Tommy's house.
* * *
Tommy's house was comfortable in that way where you could tell people actually lived in it. Shoes by the door, a dog that came to check Jason out and then lost interest, a kitchen that smelled like something had been cooked in it recently.
Tommy's room was upstairs. The closet door was open when they walked in and Jason looked at it. Tommy had done something to it over the summer, put some foam on the walls, ran a mic cable through a hole he'd drilled, put a stool inside. It looked cheap and it looked exactly right.
"That the studio?" Jason asked.
"That's the studio."
"You drilled a hole in your closet."
"My mom was not happy. Sit down."
Jason sat on the edge of the bed. Tommy pulled up his laptop and started messing with his beat software. He'd been building something for a few days and it showed, the way he moved through it without thinking.
"Okay, so I want to try something," Tommy said. "I want to run the beat first with no lyrics, just so you can feel where it moves. Then you write into it. Like don't think, just write."
"And if nothing comes?"
"Then write anyway."
He hit play.
The beat came out of the laptop speakers and even on those small speakers it was something. Slow and low, exactly like Tommy described on the phone. It had this forward pull to it, like it was going somewhere calm but certain. Jason sat there and listened to it loop once, twice.
He opened the notebook.
He thought about some of the stuff he'd written before, older attempts, things he'd pulled from and half-finished over the past year. He borrowed a line here, wrote something new there. The verse that had been stuck in his head for two weeks was already mostly there. He put it together fast, the way things come together when you've been thinking about them long enough without knowing it.
He looked at what he had. The whole thing. Verse, chorus, second verse, bridge, outro.
"Okay," he said. "I'm going in."
Tommy nodded at the closet.
Jason took the acoustic guitar off Tommy's wall first. The song needed guitar, a rhythm underneath everything. He went into the closet, sat on the stool, and the door clicked behind him. It was small and warm and quiet in there in a way that felt focused.
He played the opening chord and let it sit for a second.
Then he just sang.
He started soft, feeling it out: send me your location, let's focus on communicating. The melody landed right where he'd heard it in his head for weeks. He moved into the verse, let it breathe, at times I wonder why I fool with you, but this is new to me, this is new to you. He hit the chorus again and this time let himself open up a little, let the volume go, I don't need nothing else but you.
The second verse came out easy. The away messages line sat right in the pocket of the beat. I got a lot of cool spots that we can go. I'm only acting like this cause I like you. He grinned at that one while he was singing it because it was so straightforward and that was kind of the point.
He ran through the ride, ride, ride section at the end and let his voice go somewhere softer, just feeling the outro out. The do-do-do's, the oh's, the mmm's. He let it trail off natural.
Then he stopped.
Quiet in the closet for a second.
He opened the door.
Tommy was leaning forward on his chair with both elbows on his knees. He had the look he got when something was actually working.
"Well?" Jason said.
Tommy pointed at him. "Give me two days."
"Two days."
"Two days and that song is going to sound incredible. I need to layer the production, bring the bass up, add something on top. But what you just did in there—" He shook his head. "That was real. That was a real song, Jason."
Jason set the guitar against the wall and sat back down on the bed. He didn't say anything for a second. He just kind of let it land.
"Okay," he said finally.
"Okay?"
"Okay, two days. Let's do it."
Interview Location: Tommy's Front Porch -- Jason Pritchett
Waiting for his ride home. It's getting dark. He looks relaxed.
"First day of school, met a cute girl who has a boyfriend, survived every class, and recorded a song." He thinks about it. "I mean. That's a pretty good day." He looks out at the street. "Tommy's gonna make it sound like something real. I can hear it already." He pauses. "This is gonna be a good year."