#giving me the same vibes as my imaginary friends penpal juke idea

[bluefirewrites]

i gotta Juke AU story

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this is inspired by this one filipino movie i watched “para sa hopeless romantic” but julie and luke go to the same uni and julie writes a random line of lyrics on a schools desk and luke writes the next lines when he’s in his class. the next day julie sees someone finished her lyrics and they end up having a finished song throughout the week. they obviously end up falling in love with each other’s words but one day the desks in that classroom were thrown out so julie and luke try and find the desk and run into each other only for Luke to find out it’s Julie, his crush since the beginning of school, and Julie finds out it’s Luke, they boy who she’s been eyeing ever since she’s first seen him. honestly this is all over the place. this is just another random college au. tehe

I DID NOT KNOW THIS WAS FROM A FILIPINO MOVIE!

I have much more pride in my culture now you have no idea haha! But no really,  Filipino movies can be the cheesiest, silliest, most cliche things I’ve ever seen. And I mean that endearingly. 

So it makes total sense that this super cute trope that I see popping up in different fandoms came from a Filipino movie. 

I think I’ve seen an iteration of this on AO3 and it was super cute! (But I think it was more like leaving a piece of paper on a desk). 

But yes, yes , YES. 

Juke is the perfect ship for this. 

Hmm... I think it would be an interesting take, because my mind went to Luke first, if it was Julie who would start it- yes I agree with you. 

It is canon that Luke helped Julie finish the song that she had been working on with her mom (’Stand Tall’), so might as well run with it. 

Maybe during her quiet year, where she didn’t sing or play piano, she often found herself doodling a lot. She kinda threw herself into drawing. It was her creative outlet that brought her comfort during these rough times. 

She’d have trouble paying attention in class sometimes, and so she would end up doodling. 

Now, I used to have a history class that frowned upon doodling in notebooks. The notebooks would be graded, and if there is a non-history, non-relevant doodle in the margins or anything- you get points docked off. 

So Julie, like me, tried remedying this by doodling on post it notes to avoid getting in trouble. 

But one day, Julie forgets or runs out of post it notes, and she’s only got her history notebook and textbook with her. And since she has no qualms marking up her jeans and shoes, she thought she’d be discrete and doodle on the desks.

Not like anyone would have a problem with that anyway. These desks are old af and scratched up and had doodles on them already. 

She would start drawing her usual stuff- funky creatures, bubble letter-ed profanities, etc. 

But then she starts thinking about her mom, she starts doodling dahlias and even a rose in one corner. Memories start flooding back and she starts absentmindedly writing down a lyric of a song they never finished, just bits of pieces figured out: 

‘Don’t blink...no, I don’t want to miss it’ 

She didn’t think to erase it. Just grabbed her stuff and went to her next class. 

The following day however, she pulls out her post-notes (after getting more) and is about to doodle when she sees a new scribble on the corner of the desk where she wrote her lyrics. 

Squinting, she realizes those are words (geez, the penmanship sucks). But she was able to make it out: 

‘One thing, and it's back to the beginning’

It’s written right under her line. And she reads them together- 

Wow. This sounds... pretty good. 

She quickly jots this mysterious new addition to the song in her post-notes, but not before giving writing another shot and provide another line. Curious, if she would get another response. 

She does. 

And it’s perfect. 

It’s been a year, a year since she felt the urge to write, to think about music- but, when all the lyrics fall into place, Julie is suddenly inspired to continue. 

She spends the entire class thinking about how to reply, how to keep the momentum of this song going. 

When she gets it, she writes it down underneath the new line. And waits. 

And like clockwork, next day she sits down and there’s a new addition. 

First verse done- Julie couldn’t believe it. 

Smiling, she records it all and had to erase everything from before to make more room. 

‘Thanks’ she writes ‘Keep going?’ 

The reply the next day has her grinning from ear to ear: 

‘I’m game :)’

And that’s how it goes: Another day, Another killer line. 

Julie would rush from her next class, confusing Flynn who did not think she would be so excited going to history, smile on her face, anticipating another message from this mystery writing partner. 

Sometimes, she gets too caught up in her head, eagerly thinking up new lines that she often doesn’t watch where she’s going. One time, she pretty much embarrassed herself while bumping into the cute Luke Patterson in her rush to History. 

(She practically fell on him and he tried to talk to her after, but she jumped out of his arms before whatever awkward conversation that was bound to happen if she stayed). 

Julie and her pen pal would keep working on the song, even came up with a system to let each other know if they’ve finished a verse. 

And sometimes it’s not just lyrics. Julie draws her normal doodles next to her lines, and she’s delighted to find even more ridiculous ones waiting for her when she gets back. 

There was one time when she’s had to stifle a laugh because a crude caricature of their History teacher in their corner, yelling out the next lyric: 

‘I'm goin’ out of my mind!’

(Glad to know someone else shares the same sentiments about their strict history teacher.)

They finish her mom’s song and Julie’s glad... grateful even. But she couldn’t help but feel disappointed... assuming it’s over. 

But come Monday the following weekend, her pen pal decided to leave another line- 

‘Running from the past... Tripping on the now’ 

and a new comment: 

‘My turn now?’

A new song, and Julie grins, already coming up with ideas... 

She loves writing again, especially music. Sparked by this exchange, she eases herself back into listening to music again, looking for inspiration to use for the song she and her mysterious partner are working on. 

And writing with this person... is really something else. 

But Julie’s favorite part of the whole experience really is the comments written on the upper corner. Stuff like: 

‘This part is killer!’

‘Mindreader, much? :P’

‘Wrecking ball at it again. So talented :)’

and her favorite:

‘You make me a better writer...’

She ducks down so no one can see her blush as she writes back: 

‘I think we make each other better...’ 

Flynn one day tells her straight up she’s got a crush on her pen pal, to which Julie denies because how could she have a crush on someone she doesn’t even know. 

But as she thinks about it.. she feels like she does. Or at least know enough to establish this sort of connection that feels like they’re in each other’s heads, know how the other person thinks, inspiring the other. 

It was... special. 

Flynn suggests that she needs to figure out who is leaving these notes. But it’s hard seeing as though Julie has the class in an earlier period, a bunch of other classes are held in the same room after she leaves. 

(Flynn tries a sting operation, but ends up getting caught ditching class before she could solve the mystery). 

Julie’s worried though. As much as she wants to figure out who this great pen pal is, she wonders if they would be disappointed to find out they’ve been writing her. And not someone as cool and as pretty as Carrie Wilson or her friend Kayla. It’s hard to live up to those expectations. 

In the end, she wants to know. At least so she could maybe thank them in person, for helping bring music back into her life and for making history class the highlight of her day. 

She decides this right before they break for Thanksgiving. She writes down: 

‘I wanna meet you. Can we talk?’ 

And she’s on pins and needles the entire break, just wondering what her pen pal would say back. ‘Yes’, ‘no?’. 

But what she finds when she comes back from break is so much worse than the fear of rejection. 

They got new desks. 

Their school finally got their shit together and replaced their old, worn down desks. 

‘No, no, no, no, no’. 

That means she’ll never know what her penpal end up replying... 

She runs out of class and finds Flynn, panicked, she tells her what happened. And Flynn does some digging, and she’s able to find out where the janitors dumped the old desks. 

Julie totally underestimates just how desperate she is in finding out the identity of her pen pal because she finds herself sneaking back to school at night with Flynn, seeking out the lot behind school where the dumpsters were piled high with the old desks. 

Flynn, the ride or die she is, armed with a flashlight, starts taking out the desks along with Julie, and there are... a lot of desks. 

They go at it for an hour, and the situation starts to look hopeless, especially when Flynn discovers a whole new set of dumpsters with desks that they haven’t even checked yet. 

They’re about to throw in the towel- 

But then they hear voices. 

Quickly, they hide behind a dumpster right when three guys, with flashlights, come onto the scene. 

“Dude, I can’t believe we’re here at this hour-” 

“Oh my god. There’s like a boatload of stuff here-” 

“Guys. Can you not? And please help me? It’s gotta be here somewhere”. 

They sound... familiar. They were definitely not the custodians. 

Risking it, Julie leaves her hiding spot- 

“Luke?” 

Luke Patterson jumps and whips around to face her, “Julie?” 

Behind him are his bandmates, Alex and Reggie. Everyone looks at each other confused. 

“What are you doing here?” he asks. 

“I...uh, I’m-” Julie stammers, “Well-” 

Flynn cuts in, “She’s looking for something,” 

Luke nods, “Really? So are we.” 

Alex scoffs, “Nope. Just you, dude. But we’re helping.” 

“Maybe we can help you too?” Reggie offers, “What are you looking for?” 

Julie sighs, “... a desk?” 

“Well... you came to the right place...” Luke laughs, shining his flashlight on the dumpsters, “Funny enough that’s what we’re looking for too.” 

“One in particular?” 

Then the guy gets all clammed up, “Uh... yeah. I think... I might have... left something... in it. Something important.” 

“How about we all look together?” suggests Flynn, “Help each other out?” 

And so they exchange the descriptions on the desk, with Julie leaving out the glaring obvious detail of the note. 

They’re surprised to find out that they’re looking for the same kind of desk. The ones they used in a particular building at school, the same one her history class is in. 

So they break off and search. And she ends up in the same dumpster as Luke. 

“So what’s in your desk?” he ends up asking. 

“Huh?” 

“You know... that’s so important that you’re here on a Friday night, digging through a dumpster,” 

“Right... uh,” Julie scrambles for an answer, “There’s something on- I mean, in the desk... that really helped me. I was going through a hard time. Lost my mom last year-” 

Luke stops his search, “Oh, I’m so sorry-” 

“It’s okay. I just...” she sighs, finding another desk that looks like hers but not quite, “I just want to find it...” 

“I get it. Hopefully we can find your desk.” 

“Hopefully we’ll find yours too,” 

After another 20 minutes searching, Julie finds it. At the very bottom of the dumpster. Luke’s face lights up once she brings it out. 

“Oh my god, you found it!” He exclaims, hands gripping the edge to take it off her hands. 

She tugs it back, “Yeah... I found it... my desk,” 

“Your desk? But this is my-” he breaks off, eyes widening, “Wait. Are you...?” 

“Am I what?” 

Luke drops the desk, clears his throat, and starts reciting: 

‘I believe... I believe that we're just one dream...’

Julie gasps, then continues: 

“Away from who we're meant to be...”

Then together: “That we're standing on the edge of...”

“...great.” Luke finishes, in awe, “You! You’re ‘Lyric Girl’!”

“You’re my pen pal?” Julie says in disbelief. 

Luke Patterson has been her pen pal this entire time? The cutie with the cutoffs? It makes total sense. He’s in a rock band and the songs she’s heard from them have amazing lyrics. 

Wait... she has been lowkey crushing on Luke Patterson through his words... 

“Wow, it’s you! Luke... wow...” she honestly has no words. They used to come easy to her when she talks to him via the desk, but now, after finding out that the local heartthrob is her writing partner, she’s super nervous. 

“Look... if you’re disappointed that it’s me... I get it. I’ll give you an out, and you won’t ever have to talk to me again-” 

“Julie-” 

“-like this is weird- this is weird right? But I mean what we had was nice and all-” 

“Julie, can you-?” 

“-we don’t ever have to talk about this if you don’t-” 

“Julie!” He reaches for her hands and intertwines their fingers, shutting her up. 

“Yeah...?” 

He takes a deep breath before saying: “Why would I ever be disappointed that it’s you? I’ve... got like a mad crush on you since freshman year...” 

Julie choked, “Wait, what?” 

“Voice of an angel and wicked beauty to boot? How could I not?” he smiles, “And... finding out that you’re my mystery muse is just... you don’t know how happy that makes me.” 

His smile drops and he’s all the sudden bashful, “Wait... are you disappointed that it’s me?” 

She shakes her head, “No, no! That’s not why! It’s just... you’re this rockstar in the making! I didn’t think- I didn’t think you’d ever pay attention to me.” 

“I do... I do pay attention,” he looks down at their desk, “Well... maybe not enough attention, otherwise we would have met sooner.” 

She laughs, “Totally,” 

They stand there for a while, grinning at each other like idiots. 

“So...” Julie decides to jump the gun, “Do you... maybe wanna grab something to eat?” 

Luke raises an eyebrow, “Are you asking me out, Julie?” 

She blushes, “Maybe,” 

“Interesting,” 

“So what’s your answer?” 

He leans in, “Might wanna look down,” he whispers. 

She does, right on their desk and finally reads the reply she’s spent weeks thinking about. 

‘Tell me where and when...

I’ll be there...’

Needless to say, but that from that day on- they don’t need to use their desk to talk anymore... 

#this... has been sitting in my inbox #and finally I have answered! #I LOVE THIS CONCEPT #giving me the same vibes as my imaginary friends penpal juke idea #i guess this means i just... love Dash & Lily #julie and the phantoms #jatp #julie and the himbos #juke #palina #juke-box #julie x luke #luke x julie #julie molina #luke patterson #how many times am i gonna sneak in 'wicked beauty' in whatever I write?