The River Styx - jatp/reggie

1.06

after school that friday, styx headed back home and went straight to her room. she grabbed her guitar and began playing now or never again. she had the tune stuck in her head all day and she was dying to play it again. she felt so connected to the band's music in a way she had never been before.

a knock came at her door a while later before it swung open to reveal her pops standing there.

"hey, we're ordering pizza for dinner, pepperoni sound good?" he asks and styx raises an eyebrow.

"dad had to work late?" she asks with a laugh. he rolls his eyes but nods slightly.

"do you want pizza or not?" he shakes his head, laughing slightly.

"pepperoni sounds great." she nods and he grins, leaving to order the pizza.

as the two were eating dinner, styx decided this might be a good time to bring up the band. she wasn't sure how they would react, but her pops usually stayed more calm than her dad about things, especially things she can't really explain.

"so, i wanted to tell you," she starts, swallowing the food in her mouth. "me and julie are kind of in a band now." she says, staring at her plate and holding her breath for the response.

"you mean the band you've been in since you were kids with flynn?" he asks with a smile, not really taking the statement seriously.

"no, like a real band." she says quickly. "we met these guys and we've been working together a lot the last week or so." she glances up at him and he's looking back at her with a small smile.

"that's amazing!" he says excitedly, grabbing her hand and squeezing it slightly. "who are these guys?" he asks before taking another bite of pizza.

"oh, they, um," she stutters out. "they're actually holograms." she explains quickly. "they don't even live here. they're from, um, sweden." styx says before she can stop herself, making her internally roll her eyes at herself. it truly was a horrible cover.

"oh? that's cool." he raises his eyebrows.

"yeah, we met them online, and they taught us how to do the hologram stuff." she nods, coming up with the explanation as she goes.

"so you and julie play and stream them in?" he clarifies and she laughs awkwardly.

"actually, julie plays, and i'm a hologram too." she says, hoping there aren't too many follow up questions. "they explained how to do it." she adds quickly when she noticed a confused look cross his face. he nods slightly at her.

"very impressive. when can we see you play?" he asks and she shakes her head quickly.

"oh no, we're not performing anything yet. we're just working on creating our sound and getting used to playing with each other." she tells him and he nods understandingly.

"okay, well when you do start playing, make sure to let us know." he says with a smile and she grins.

"of course." she assures him, taking the last bite of her pizza.

after dinner, styx went back up stairs to resume playing. it was her favourite pass-time. she would much rather sit and play music for hours than watch any shows or movies.

as she was playing, reggie poofed into her room, making her stop abruptly.

"hey!" he says happily, sitting down on her bed. she let out a small laugh at how comfortable he was, even though he'd only come over a few nights so far.

since she was grounded, styx had only been able to go to julies for an hour each day after school. her dads at least let her do that so she could spend some time with julie. they were usually fairly lenient about their rules when it came to styx wanting to see julie, though she wasn't sure why.