✮ Rockstar ✮ || A Lightbrush Fanfiction

Chapter 10 - Breaking and Entering

    Lightbulb rushed out of the lunchroom, being as sneaky as possible. By sneaky she meant asking a teacher to use the restroom and walking out. Yep, very secretive. She wandered throughout the school with a yellow sticky note in her hand, folded neatly to look like a nurse's pass. She lowered her eyelids and slowed her pace, selling the idea that she was sick even more just in case if a teacher wandered by and asked what she was doing.

    She eventually reached her destination, the special needs hall. It was the least monitored hall with an exit, and the front office attendant barely flipped to its camera. She slowly walked towards the door, glanced behind her one final time, and booked it. She ran out the door and straight to the sidewalk, acting like she was just going on a run and totally didn't just run off campus.

    The walk back was uneventful. No one ran after her, so she guessed that she got off scot-free. Cars raced past her as she skipped her way home, her crocs skidding against the concrete. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked her notifications. Nothing new, like usual.

    Lightbulb started to think of a plan on how to get to Paintbrush's house. The first step was to figure out where they lived. No biggie, I can do that! Lightbulb thought confidently as she entered her own neighborhood.

    The birds chirped above her as she entered her house, her parents turning their attention from their TV to her, "What are you doing here this early, Hot Rod?" Her father asked, pausing the show they were watching.

    "Hot Rod" was a nickname her dad called her since she was little. She had always been a fast runner, and she loved to do it. She'd run around the house giggling like a madwoman, so when given the chance her parents signed her up for the track team. She thought about those days as she sprinted up her stairway. These were a lot bigger when I was little...

    "No reason!" Lightbulb chirped merrily, holding onto the handrail and hopping her way up. She B-lined for her room and then to her desk. She opened her laptop and sloppily entered her password, failing a few times in the process.

    Once she finally was able to sign in to her laptop, she opened an incognito tab and disconnected from the internet. One step led to another, and now she was entering Paintbrush's phone number into an unsecure website. That surely wouldn't have any repercussions in the future. After blowing 5 bucks, there was all their information. Their full name, address, zip code, mother's maiden name, and then some.

    Hm, that doesn't seem safe at all! Lightbulb thought as she entered the address into her phone's GPS. After a second of debating (it wasn't actually a second, Lightbulb doesn't think about these things) she spent another 5 bucks and removed their information from the website. Sure it was only one website, but she was doing her part.

    Lightbulb grabbed her phone and rushed out the door, waving bye to her parents. She followed the instructions that led to Paintbrush's house, silently hoping their parents weren't home, because if they were she'd have a lot of explaining to do.

    After a while of running, she finally made it to what seemed like their neighborhood. It looked fancy, but the issue was that there was a gate. Thankfully, the guard didn't seem to notice her walk past, or he just didn't care. Either one, she was in.

    She strolled on the sidewalk, glancing at her phone occasionally to make sure she was going the right way. Her legs were getting tired from all this walking, usually she had some music going to distract herself, but she left her AirPods at her house. Lightbulb loved music, she had ever since she was a kid. She recalled her mom always having her radio on when she was in the car. She'd sing along to whatever song was playing, even if she didn't know the lyrics. Her dad was a violinist in high school and played for the orchestra. Sometimes she can hear him practicing at night if the house is quiet enough.

    Lightbulb's GPS beeped one last time, indicating that she had arrived. House 3049, Paintbrush's residence. Finally! About time! Lightbulb giggled and started running towards their house. She stopped at their driveway, put her hands on her hips, and thought of possible ways she could do this. She knew at her house she had a tree that grew towards a window that she always used to sneak out with. She used that knowledge and went into the backyard. Lo and behold, a tree with a sturdy-looking branch growing towards a second-story window. Bingo.

    She hopped up to each branch nimbly, focusing on her foot placement and whether a branch was safe or not. A few times a branch would crack under her weight, but she'd always catch herself. Finally, she reached the branch that stretched towards the window.

    Lightbulb slowly crawled across it, making sure not to take any step too fast. Her hair was filled with leaves and her knees beat up, but she declared it worth the hassle as she finally reached the window. She situated herself on the branch and had a firm grip on the window, then pulled up. To her luck, the window popped open without struggle.

    She stepped in and looked around, observing the furniture around the upstairs hall. Then, she spotted Paintbrush's room. It was a door painted with images of guitars, records, music notes, you name it. The biggest indicator was their name written in big, cursive lettering. Lightbulb slowly trekked downstairs, hearing someone pull into their driveway. She tiptoed into their living room and hid on the couch facing opposite of the door. She wanted to surprise them, but not scare them. That last part wouldn't go as planned, though.

A/N// i just barely passed the 1000 word limit on this one 😭 i tried to write as much as I could think of, but im a little low on ideas for these story set-up chapters. Oh, and if you haven't noticed already, many aspects of this story are based off of my actual real life experiences. I thought using my (very little, mind you) knowledge about the world would make this story more concise and genuine. That's also why I include stuttering or words like "uhm" and "uh" a lot in dialogue. Imo, it makes the characters feel like real people with their own flaws.

A small tip if you want to write dialogue the way I do, say what you want to say first in the same tone. Don't care about saying the same word/sentence twice, because a real person would make that same mistake just as you did :)