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[bassfaced]

❛ ( DEWEY ? ―  ♪

             ❛     mister SCHNEEBLY?!     ❜

     it comes out harsher than he intends.   it’s more shock  +  disbelief than it is scolding or complaint.   did katie just ZONE OUT through that entire MELTDOWN?     ‘this LOSER is dewey finn!’  & HE confessed it.  every single child, every parent, heard him admit the lie.    

     as if he couldn’t be made to feel any DIZZIER,  less than a minute ago, he’d just pulled down the poster - he & ned’s poster -  & he’d just faced the fact that there was NO ONE in his corner.  there goes the single remaining friendship he had.   ( dewey finn is not one to cry, & is not one to let sadness or panic get the better of him. )   but when you’ve single-handedly destroyed your life, ruined your best friend’s life,  ruined thirteen children’s lives,  ruined your - ruined rosalie’s life -  it’s hard to bounce back from that.  all the resilience in the world isn’t going to help you here.    & jokes about TEN YEAR OLDS being damn near the only friends dewey has aside,  it’s shattering to realize just how bad he’d fucked up.   SUE HIM,  at least he’s doing good at holding the sting in his eyes back.

                  ❛     i told you,  i’m NOT  —     ❜

     a deep breath.   he didn’t pick favorites,  who could?   but he’d certainly gotten closer to katie ( & freddie, lawrence, summer, zack )  a bit more than some of the others.   & for someone who’d never intended to find himself so attached.  he’s angry.   furious, even, that he’d let it come to this. dewey shakes his head,  and he can’t place the tone in his own voice.  firm?  dejected?  defeated?  stern?

                 ❛     — just.  go home, katie.  all of you.                                                          ‘fore you guys get in more trouble.     ❜

             ❝   - do you want me to call you dewey ?  ❞

           in that moment,  her voice is almost calm.   childish naiveté that was present only a minute ago is now gone;  the words of a shrill blonde finally beginning to sink in.   she stands in a particular way,  her posture contradicting the weight of the situation.   she doesn’t want to   BELIEVE   everything that has happened on what was supposed to be the best night of her life.   if all their work,  if all his lessons were supposed to go on in vain,  she’d at least put up a bit of a fight before the downfall.   she fights back.

          katie shuffles her feet,  staying in the same place instead of heading towards the door.   the rest of her bandmates were   who knows where,  but she wouldn’t be going anywhere without the rest of them.   band leader included.   ❝   how are we going to win the battle without you  ?   don’t you want your dream to come true  ?  ❞   summer had said it first,  and he’d confirmed it.  winning the battle of the bands  HAD  become a dream of theirs.  were they supposed to  GIVE UP  on that  ?

          there is  MORE  she wants to say,   (  DON’T GO.  DON’T LEAVE.  DON’T.  )  but as always,  the words get stuck in the back of her throat.  they fester,  welling up in her eyes,  but katie is   DETERMINED   not to cry.   they’d made it this far,  a bunch of  little kids,  and they could indeed go on,  but not without his help.   she wishes she could be as articulate as some of her classmates,  as persuasive as summer or as lyrically talented as zack,  but nothing necessarily moving comes up.  all she can muster is one word,  hands clapsing over her collar as if she’s trying to keep the lump in her throat down.

               ❝   please  -  ?   ❞     

[bassfaced]

[bassfaced]

IT’S THAT YOU GET OVER IT + YOU FIGHT BACK.      AND YOU   -   YOU FIGHT BACK.

character aesthetics :     DEWEY FINN + KATIE DOLAN.   /   @totheband  &  @bassfaced     001. ⤷     do not reblog.

[bassfaced]

[bassfaced]

[bassfaced]

❛ ( DEWEY ! ―  ♪

     dewey gets that.  he’s always been the little guy, the outsider.     (  too short.  too big.   too loud.  )    but where he’d responded with anger, she’d taken it to HEART.    he’d let himself get ANGRY, because it meant that he wouldn’t get hurt in the end.   did that make him a little more coarse + harsh  than he should be?  probably.  does he regret it?  absolutely not. 

     ( and granted, while he’s not much taller than the kids he’s with, there’s still a sizeable  distance  between him and katie. )   dewey bends,  almost crouches,  in an effort to be level with her. 

               ❛     hey.   hey.  look at me.     ❜

     there’s a significant deal of effort made here, as a hand reaches out to her shoulder, to tap her, get her attention.  there’s a genuine smile on his face, soft, gentle. 

               ❛     you’re already a better rockstar than i am, kait -                                             are you tryin’ to tell me you’re NOT tough!?    ❜

     he can’t help but scoff.   KATIE?    not TOUGH?    

               ❛     correct me if i’m wrong -  and i KNOW i’m not wrong.    but are you really gonna tell me you DIDN’T stand up to your parents, and played at the battle of the bands?    did you NOT pick up the bass, the HARDEST instrument to play, an’ learn it all on your own - the ONE instrument that’s ONLY for the most hardcore players?   are you NOT in what’s - y’know, what’s probably the single most friggin’ impossible school i’ve ever been to, and still KILLIN’ schoolwork and band?  n’  SO WHAT if things get to you now an’ then?    what makes you tough isn’t NOT RESPONDING.  it isn’t bein’ EMOTIONLESS.                                         it’s that you PICK YOURSELF UP.  and you get over it, and you fight back.  and YOU -   ❜

     again, here’s a little tap, more of a poke at her shoulder.

              ❛     - you  fight back.     ❜

           while people themselves are made up of many contradictions,  katie finds herself faced with two glaringly different feelings.  if she wasn’t facing a crowd poker - faced,  she might as well be crying her eyes out in the corner of her room.  in  THOSE  moments,  she certainly didn’t feel like a rockstar.   even when she does sense the rhythm in her fingertips,  and, if she was  SO GOOD,  why didn’t her parents ever venture to see her ?  

          she bounces on her tiptoes,  finally glancing up when he taps her shoulder.  (  even though he’s bending down,  katie still tries to appear at her tallest.  )  each word of his is met with intensity,  as her stare doesn’t falter,  not even once.   her voice is still small,  though,  and she can’t quite respond to every last word. 

                                (  but she takes each comment to  HEART,  as usual  )

          ❝   - is it really the hardest instrument to learn ?  ❞

           you fight back.  for someone so soft,  the image of a doll,  with pigtails to boot,  katie had never considered what she had done as fighting.  coping,  maybe.  going on,  yes.  but fighting  ?  her equivalent of fighting is yelling,  harsh words flying back and forth,  and finally sticking.  from crybaby,  to brat,  it all stays with her.  still,  she had not yet equated  FIGHTING  with sticking it to the man,  and sticking it to the man ihas helped her find her voice.  even if many still didn’t listen.

          a small giggle when he pokes her shoulder,  a fleeting smile that rests in a flat - line.   ❝   i don’t think i’m better than you,  dewey.  you’re the one who taught me to be a rockstar in the first place.  you taught  ALL  of us how to be rockstars.   ❞  

         it’s now when she stands a bit prouder.  not exactly  CHIN - IN - THE - AIR  confidence,  but close enough for someone of her stature.  (  for good measure,  she pokes his shoulder  )  still,  there are questions that linger in her mind,  resting behind her youthful glow.  hands begin to wring yet again,  but katie tries her best to keep eye contact and a strong voice.

                ❝   so...  rockstars can  CRY  ?  ❞     

[bassfaced]

me: a ball of love and stress and despair (but mostly love)

[bassfaced]

❛ ( MISS. DI MARCO.  ―  ♪  

          ❝ Right. I’m NOT saying what you know isn’t valuable. But you would have learned other things in any case. ❞

          ❝   uh, yeah, but things like math.  if dewey never came to my school,  i would’ve been... really stuck.  really stuck for a really long time.   ❞     

[bassfaced]

[bassfaced]

❛ ( MR. SCHNEEBLY ?  ―  ♪  

     regret.     never once in the past three weeks had he felt even the slightest twinge of genuine regret.  of course, there were the hollow complaints - really just whining on dewey’s part - about taking the job at horace green.  about being a TEACHER, working with kids, working at a school,  hell, just working was enough for him to complain.  but after that first week, after he’d heard these kids playing, after he’d gotten to know every one of these kids, his kids, he’d never felt regret for any action he’d made.

     he’d only ever felt pride.    pride in these kids, in their abilities, in the way that they stood up to the man, to their parents, to their prinicpal, and other teachers than him, they way they stood up for THEMSELVES.    the doubt in most of their faces when they’d seen the ROCK instruments the first time, the uncertainty most had probably felt when dewey’d declared they weren’t just a CLASS anymore, they were a BAND.   ( and unspoken, and unrealized to him, they were a family.  and that’s something that he‘d found hard to GRASP. )

     not ONCE did he find a real issue with posing as ned.  of course, he always knew that he shouldn’t be doing this, that it’s wrong to fake being someone else.  but he’d always figured, no harm, no foul, right?  no one was getting hurt, and everyone was going to get a WIN-WIN out of it.   dewey gets his band ( + battle of the bands win. ),  ned and patty get their rent,    and the kids   -   fuck, the kids get the PRIDE that comes with wiping the competition.   and he can’t believe he’s thinking it, but patty was RIGHT.    and holy shit,  for someone who hated to be wrong anyways,  now to put his kids at the center of it.  ( come to think of it, when did he start thinking of them as his kids? they probably HATE him by now.  he would.  )    he lied to them.  he took advantage of these kids, and —

              ❛     — KATIE?  what’s going on?   what are you DOING here?     ❜ 

              his arrival had shocked her,  to say the least.  mrs. dunham’s sudden disappearence from school had left katie a bit off - kilter,  but raised against walls of camouflage,  she learned to adapt.  of course,  that probably wouldn’t have been as easy without her new teacher.  trading her cello,  which was practically  HER SIZE,  for a bass  (  still just as large,  but that isn���t the point  )  had been more therapeutic than any therapy session.  (  how often do you see your parents,  katie  ?   almost never,  miss.  )  learning to raise her voice beyond a whisper could have  ONLY  come from the kinship of her band,  something she was a part of.

           but his  CONFESSION  had shocked her even more.  nearly everything in her life had been a terribly drab constant up until the point where she  rejected  a fist bump.  the rug hadn’t just been pulled out from under her,  it had wrapped her up and left her stuck,  only to spit her back out on the concrete of the school parking lot.  the next thing katie knew,  the entirety of the band was running out into the night air,  the end of her bass trailing zack’s feet. admist all the screaming,  she has no  REAL  time to feel,  therefor the faucet in her eyes decides not to run.  poker faced,  flat - lined, is how she remains until the school of rock  (  minus  ONE  )  meets their destination.  at summer’s request,  a small amount of them flood out,  the rest  (  james  )  engaging in an argument with a very  ANGRY  blonde woman.

          drummer,  guitarist,  keyboardist,  singer,  manager,  and finally,  bassist,  all scatter around the apartment.  katie isn’t exactly sure when she lets go of zack’s arm,  or when summer orders them to scatter,  but she finds herself wandering,  looking frantically for mr. schneebly.  (  or was it  DEWEY  ?  )  she pays no mind to the photos on the wall,  only the light peeking out of a nearly  -  closed door a few steps away.  at first,  she is hesitant to enter.  barging in like that wouldn’t be polite,  would it,  katie  ?  yet,  thought of the battle of the bands beginning in a short time propels her,  and she dashes inside.  eyes widen when she catches sight of her fellow band member,  and katie romps over to his side,  jumping happily.

                 ❝   - come on,  mr. schneebly  !  everyone is waiting outside,  we have to get to the battle of the bands quick,  or we’ll be late !  ❞     

[bassfaced]

❛ ( AN ADULT. ―  ♪

    ‘ uh , only one thing ? that’s really restraining me . BEING AN ADULT , i guess . so , just .. don’t grow up , k-    kiddo . ’

           ❝   i don’t  WANT  to grow up.  but...  i don’t know how to not grow up.  i keep waking up and i just get bigger and bigger and it doesn’t stop.  ❞

[bassfaced]

❛ ( DEWEY ! ―  ♪     

     normally he’d brush off such a comment, with a shrug, a laugh, and a little bit of a POSITIVE response, in reassurance.   normally.    but it’s also not entirely unlike dewey to get honest + serious about a comment.   ‘cause even the notion of katie not being good enough for the world outside is enough to tick him off.

              ❛     you’re soft.  you care ‘bout people,  y’ HOLD BACK from the fighting.                      not like me.  i’m not soft.  i’ve never BEEN soft.  i’m too MEAN for that.                                           but y’know what, katie?                                                           i think you’re even STRONGER for bein’ soft.     ❜

          she’s always been known for being petite.  not just in size,  but in personality,  in  (  LACK OF ) emotion,  as katie was raised to believe that her actions had  LITTLE  impact.  sensitivity is a bandage that cannot be bitterly ripped from her arm,  or else she’ll only end up crying again,  and taping another in its place.  the poker-faced bassist shuffles her feet,  looking at dewey’s shoes instead of his more serious gaze. ( her toes are pointed inward,  but her socks remain uneven,  an ode to what she’d learned in practice. )  

                  ❝   - but,  how am i ever gonna be a great rockstar like you if i’m  SOFT  ?   ❞  ( rock was about sticking it to the man,  katie,  not being nice to him ! )     ❝  strong people are... tough.  i’m a crybaby.  i try not to show it,  but i am.   ❞     

[bassfaced]

That night in the school, I felt utterly weak. Like– like I needed somebody to come in and rescue me. I hate that feeling!

[bassfaced]

[bassfaced]

TWITTER CALL.  /   @homesicken  /  A SOFT PLACE TO LAND -  WAITRESS

       ❝   when your  BREAKING POINT  is all that you have,  i guess a dream is a soft place to land.  ❞

[bassfaced]

The cast of School of Rock performs at the 2016 Tony Awards

[bassfaced]

TWITTER CALL.  /   @diiagnose.  /  STICK IT TO THE MAN - SCHOOL OF ROCK

      ❝   what is  ONE THING  that makes you angrier more than  anything else  in the world ?   ❞