Splinters In Time

The Band Reunites

"We have a problem." Lydia loudly dropped her books down on the table, making both Nikki and Dan jump.

"Your hair's green?" Nikki snarked, spearing a fry on her fork.

It was not long before the Christmas holidays and the cafeteria was certainly feeling the cheer, decorated with brightly coloured tinsel and one too many ugly Christmas sweaters, a hubbub of voices drowning out their conversation from prying ears.

"No, not that!" Lydia scowled. "This!" She slammed the Battle of the Bands poster down on top of her books.

Dan was the first to brave words. "...Do we still even have a band?"

"Yes! Or... We'll make a new one. Something a bit more... punk, a bit more us. Come on, please?"

"And what about... Jess?"

Lydia followed Dan's gaze across the hall to where Jess was sitting with her new friends. They were actually on speaking terms now, the tension slowly healing, but in truth, Jess was not coming back. "... What about her? She doesn't want to do it, so we'll carry on without her."

"But Lydia," Nikki said. "She's our singer."

"So? We don't need a singer." Lydia saw her friends sceptical faces and changed tack. "She's not the only person in the world who can sing. We'll find someone else." She gestured with her hands. "Nikki can sing."

"Uh, no, I can't."

"Yes you can! I've heard you, you're really good! And you basically write all our songs anyway, so you know how they're meant to be sung. You don't even have to do it by yourself– I'll sing with you! Heck, we can all sing and no one will care about the words because the music will just sound that great. Come on, guys— if we start practicing now, we could probably get a last minute slot at the Christmas concert, pick up a couple of gigs in the New Year and then we're back on track." She looked at them, green eyes pleading. "We can't just bow out and let Hawkins High win."

Nikki sighed. "Well... If Dan perfects his heavy metal growl, no one will care about our singing."

Dan laughed. "Heck, if I don't and still go for it, they definitely won't care about your singing."

Lydia grinned seeing her friends happy. "So, you're in? Ooh, yay!" She clapped her hands. "In that case, all we need now is a new name. Because I don't know about you, but the old one just isn't working for me anymore."

Dan chuckled. "Ironically, The Old Ones would be an epic name for a band."

"Needs to be something the school will sign off on."

"I guess The Wyrd Sisters is off the table then." Nikki sighed.

"Too witchy. Also, can we really call ourselves sisters when one of us is Dan?"

"Dan doesn't mind!"

"I don't." Dan shrugged. "What about... Swords of Flame? Misty Step? Chaotic Neutral?"

Nikki snorted. "You need to play less Dungeons and Dragons."

"It's not like the school's gonna know what it's a reference to."

"...We'll workshop it." Lydia decided. "Meet after school for practice?"

A/N: ...Did I publish a full version of this chapter, decide I hated it, take it down and write the whole thing again from scratch in 45 minutes? Yes, I did. The previous version only took me two days to write before that. XD

Anyway, I just wanted to say, if you're finding Lydia to be a bit of an annoying character... that's okay, she's meant to be like that. I'm almost intentionally writing her cliché. XD There is a plan here— character development will be happening.

Anyway, hope the chapters alright— not the most exciting, but it works as a transition between plot beats. Please leave a like and a comment! Thanks for reading.