Spring Break

"Spring Break?" Ryan was taken aback.

The West observes a holiday around Easter called Spring Break, typically at the end of March—roughly equivalent to Qingming Festival, but lasting about a week.

"That's right. As our last Spring Break of high school, the twelfth graders are planning a group trip to Panama City Beach. You should come too." Abigail extended the invitation.

"I see..." Ryan fell into thought. Joel had mentioned before that Florida, as a popular tourist destination, was packed with nightclubs and had a thriving DJ scene, not to mention the Ultra Music Festival happening in Miami during Spring Break. He'd said they had to check it out. With a group trip, the cost per person wouldn't be too high either. It looked like a rare opportunity no matter how you sliced it.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ryan noticed Abigail also trying to persuade Taylor to join.

"I might not have time then." Taylor shook her head.

Ryan chimed in with his own decision: "Joel might schedule some other club gigs for me. If nothing else comes up, I'll go."

It wasn't exactly a lie. With college and high school students across the country on break, it'd be peak season for nightclubs.

At Ryan's refusal, Abigail's disappointment was plain to see, while Taylor's expression remained unreadable.

When the meal ended, Taylor waved over the server to pay the bill, tossing in a generous tip that made the server's face light up, grin stretching ear to ear.

Taylor's mother had left early that afternoon. Originally, Abigail was going to drive Taylor home in her own car, but Taylor volunteered that Ryan was heading the same way and asked him to take her instead—clearly she had something to say.

Before long, a two-door Dodge Challenger pulled up in front of Taylor.

"Pretty flashy ride." Taylor remarked casually as she opened the door and got in.

"Almost all the money I made modeling last year went into this car." Ryan started the engine. He'd spent every cent he earned, leaving himself with no safety net—so when the work dried up, the original owner had no choice but to leave New York, never to return. Around that time, Trey had come to visit the original owner's mother, and on her suggestion, he'd headed to Nashville to try out for Nashville Star, hoping to use Taylor as a connection. And that's how things ended up here.

Ryan pressed down on the accelerator, and the car sped through the night.

On the road, Taylor brought up Abigail unprompted. As Ryan had guessed, she said her best friend had taken a liking to him.

"She wanted me to set up some alone time for you two." Taylor revealed the truth without hesitation.

"Sounds pretty good." Ryan pretended to think it over.

"You're not allowed to hook up with her, not allowed to be alone with her, and definitely not allowed to sleep with her. That goes for Spring Break too." Taylor said flatly.

"Jealous?" Ryan grinned.

Taylor spoke slowly: "I just don't want her to get hurt."

·

When Ryan got back to Trey's house, he didn't head to his room. Instead, he went to the study and turned on the computer. Unlike before, he wasn't focused on quickly and efficiently replicating the songs in his head. Instead, he seemed to aimlessly explore the various functions of the DAW software, testing each plugin one by one. Of course, this involved using Trey's bank card to pay a few bills along the way.

With his headphones on and completely absorbed, Ryan didn't notice a figure quietly push open the study door and come up behind him.

When she saw Ryan expertly using her bank card to pay, then logging into her email to delete the payment confirmation, Trey's face twisted in anger at first, then shifted to a mix of exasperation and amusement. In the end, she silently turned and left, not disturbing the focused Ryan.

At three in the morning, Ryan finished a new remix version of "Tremor" and uploaded it to social media.

The next morning at school, Ryan opened his laptop in the library and saw that Taylor had already posted a new social media update as promised. She used a set of photos to recap her day—returning to school, a close-up of her diploma, watching the Football Team practice, and dinner with her closest friends. Ryan appeared in three of the photos.

In the caption, Taylor described her itinerary, then casually mentioned a new EP mid-year and a new album in the second half. She also previewed that next week she'd be the opening act for a country band's concert at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. Finally, she introduced and @'d Ryan, saying his "party music" was fantastic, and ended with a short preview link.

Though it was just two throwaway lines in a long post, the benefit to Ryan was obvious. Within the dozen or so hours since Taylor had shared his music last night, his Myspace follower count had jumped to four digits, and he expected it to hit five figures in the coming days.

Beyond the boost from a minor celebrity, the quality of the song itself was a key reason Ryan was gaining traction so fast. He saw many comments asking when "Tremor" would be available for purchase. Ryan decided to upload it to major paid download platforms tonight. Those platforms never complained about having too many songs; their upload requirements were lenient, and he could complete the whole process as an independent artist.

Just then, Abigail, who had come to the library with a few other girls, spotted Ryan at his computer. She said a few words to her friends, who snickered as they parted ways, and then walked over to him.

"Morning, what a coincidence. Here early to look up materials?" She patted him on the back as she approached.

Abigail chatted with Ryan while setting her backpack on the table. She pulled out books one by one and placed them on the shelf, finally producing a few notebooks, which she handed directly to Ryan.

"I was just looking for you. These are my class notes from the past few years. I don't need them anymore, so they're yours." Abigail smiled.

Ryan was a grade below Abigail, who was about to graduate, so these notes were incredibly valuable to him. He didn't stand on ceremony and accepted them, flipping through a few pages in front of her. He noticed that many of the notes were scribbled messily—not easy to decipher.

"Do you have time this afternoon?" Ryan suddenly asked.

"What?" Abigail didn't catch it at first.

Ryan held up the notebook. As a transfer student, catching up on coursework would take extra time, but Ryan didn't have that much time at night. He needed a shortcut.

·

Over the next two weeks, Ryan lived an extremely regimented life. Mornings were for class. Two afternoons a week he trained with the Football Team, two afternoons he received tutoring from Abigail, and two afternoons he worked on remixes—including "Tremor" and remixes of current popular songs. These versions might not have been as catchy as the originals, but they rapidly improved his proficiency with the software.

At night, Ryan and Joel showed up at the nightclub on time. They took turns during the four-hour set. Riding on "Tremor," Ryan quickly drove the club's popularity through the roof—it got to the point where you had to call ahead to reserve a table. The club manager's smile hadn't faded in days, and Ryan's extra pay kept climbing, from an initial 100 to 300 per night.

On the other side, Ryan's Myspace follower count officially broke ten thousand. "Tremor" was uploaded to several paid channels as an independent release. Thanks to Taylor's promotion, the highest single-day paid downloads hit nearly a thousand—even though it was still just a rough draft.

As Ryan took his first steps into his DJ career, Spring Break drew closer and closer...