A/N: This was supposed to be a comment fic. Y'know, short. And then I couldn't stop typing. So have a super long comment fic? Also, we're going to ignore everything I got wrong about high school newspapers and yearbooks (specifically when yearbook stuff needs to be done). Also, the timeline might be a bit confusing. Normally there's an issue of the paper distributed around 2/1 and and the staff is working on the next issue, which is distributed around 2/14 (the annual Valentine's issue). Cash's story was published in the 2/1 paper and caused a stir and Ryan (and everyone else) decided to put out another issue for 2/7.
"Spencer," Ryan said.
"Dude, I'm not going to proofread that article."
"Spencer, please proofread the article so I can work my editorial piece and then get started on the rest of the submissions."
Spencer pushed his swivel chair away from the desktop to better look at Ryan. Ryan was perched on the edge of the long table, feet on a chair and slightly hunched over the laptop he borrowed so frequently from the school library that the assistant went out of his way to try and keep it out of regular circulation among classes doing research. He looked slightly stressed out, more than he usually did when the school paper deadline came around. Spencer supposed that made sense, since the Wikofff Scholarship deadline was so soon.
"Ryan, I'm in the middle of laying out the front page. Cassadee's article on the graphic novel unit in Mr. Way's art class is a stupid length and making it harder than it should be. It needs to be like, five lines shorter or three paragraphs longer. Maybe if Jon or Tom can get a photo?" Spencer trailed off, thinking. A big enough photo with like, a long quote from Mr. Way might make the difference. Fucking freshmen who had no idea how to write articles. Well, Singer could write. Sometimes. And Cassadee was pretty awesome, actually and she got her friends to write for the paper (though, Jersey's treatises on Blink-182 reuniting, Twin Peaks, Apple products, and MAC eyeliner leave a lot to desire. Ryan's lj has better written Blink fangirling and comparisons of eyeliner) but even after a couple of months she couldn't write articles that worked with the layout. Whatever. Spencer would figure it out like he did every issue. He rolled back to the desktop, putting in a placeholder image.
Spencer had never intended to join the school paper. He hadn't, as a matter of fact. Ryan had joined his freshman year, inherited the editor's job from Patrick Stump, and proceeded to spend the majority of his weekday afternoons working on stuff for the paper. Spencer started hanging out after school in the classroom the school paper shared with the yearbook kids because it was more interesting than catching the bus home alone and waiting for Ryan to get back and hang out. Freshman year Spencer's homework hadn't been enough to keep him busy until Ryan decided to go home so he'd started helping Ryan out. Somehow this developed into Spencer spending a disturbing amount of his free time at school, working on the stupid paper with Ryan. He'd also gotten to know a lot of the yearbook staff pretty well. They all spent a lot of time in the room and tended to borrow each other's resources pretty freely. Hence the yearbook staff stealing Tom Conrad from the paper pretty regularly and Spencer constantly stealing the good rolly chair from them and now using one of their computers.
"InDesign being a bitch again?" Jon Walker asked, leaning over Spencer.
"Our computer hates it," Spencer said flatly. "We need to get a new one if there's ever money in the budget for it." He craned his neck up to look at Jon. "Maybe if the yearbook complains about us stealing their computers all the time Schechter'll give Wentz enough money for a new one?"
"Yeah, no," Jon said. "We're working with crappy digital cameras that've needed replacing for at least the last three years and that hasn't happened yet. So I don't think you'll be getting a new computer anytime soon."
"Fucking InDesign," Spencer said.
"Fucking InDesign," Jon agreed. "Want to use it for an entirely different project?"
"What've you got in mind?" Spencer asked, saving the file. Last thing he needed was to lose an hour and half worth of work. He glanced over at Ryan, who was still hunched over a laptop, typing furiously. Spencer wasn't entirely certain what Ryan was working on. He'd been pretty quiet all afternoon, just typing and occasionally demanding that Spencer switch between Something Corporate albums in iTunes. It was possible he'd started editing submissions, but unlikely. Ryan always took his editorial pieces very seriously, but this one was a huge deal.
Their high school was part of the National Scholastic Press Association which was apparently some kind of big deal. The only interesting thing they did was give out awards and scholarships. Spencer was for anything that gave out free money, especially if they might give it to Ryan for writing some awesome editorials. Ryan rambled on about the Wikoff Scholarship a lot and he had the grades and he'd had everything ready to mail in two weeks before the due date when Singer inadvertently brought hell down on the school. Singer had encouraged Cash Colligan to submit something to the paper (Spencer was pretty sure this was an attempt to compete with Cassadee for the editor's job next year-Singer was willing to do just about anything to beat Cassadee for the job, though Spencer didn't understand why either of them wanted it. Whatever, he tried not to judge). Cash, being Cash, had submitted what could kindly and generously be called a story with erotic themes to the fiction section. No one was amused by this.
Principal Schechter wasn't happy that Ryan had run it. Ryan and Mr. Wentz both stood by the decision because the freedom of speech was the freedom of speech. Cash's story lacked taste (this is what offended Ryan) but that was no reason not to publish something. Cash's story did increase circulation for the paper, which was awesome from Spencer's perspective—he put hours of work into the damn paper every week and he wasn't even part of the staff (never mind that Ryan listed him as the layout editor and unapologetically published album and concert reviews Spencer wrote on his myspace), but backfired when Ashlee Simpson's crazy conservative dad got a hold of it and brought it to the attention of the school board—the chairman of which was Kevin Jonas, Sr. who was possibly even more conservative than Ashlee's dad. Cash had been suspended for almost a week and several people were demanding that Ryan be suspended.
Spencer thought the whole thing was stupid, but he did have to agree with Ryan that it was kind of cool that the whole school was talking about censorship and stuff like that. Ryan thought that all of this needed a proper response from the paper and that it'd make a excellent third editorial for the Wikoff Scholarship. Like so many things in Ryan's life, it was an great idea that Ryan maybe couldn't pull off. His editorial had to be published before February 15 for it to count, which meant they'd had to move the newspaper deadline up a week (meaning they'd miss the the Valentine's content they usually got to bulk the paper up) which was making everyone's life more stressful. Ryan was kind of an idiot.
"You should help me figure out how to lay out the basketball team page. And I just swung by the auditorium to get some candids for the drama club page. You should help me pick photos."
"You just want an excuse to look at photos of Brendon," Spencer said. "But sure, I'll help you. I need a break."
The Only Difference Between Advocacy and Rabble-Rousing Is Press Coverage (and newsboy caps) 1/3
"Spencer," Ryan said.
"Dude, I'm not going to proofread that article."
"Spencer, please proofread the article so I can work my editorial piece and then get started on the rest of the submissions."
Spencer pushed his swivel chair away from the desktop to better look at Ryan. Ryan was perched on the edge of the long table, feet on a chair and slightly hunched over the laptop he borrowed so frequently from the school library that the assistant went out of his way to try and keep it out of regular circulation among classes doing research. He looked slightly stressed out, more than he usually did when the school paper deadline came around. Spencer supposed that made sense, since the Wikofff Scholarship deadline was so soon.
"Ryan, I'm in the middle of laying out the front page. Cassadee's article on the graphic novel unit in Mr. Way's art class is a stupid length and making it harder than it should be. It needs to be like, five lines shorter or three paragraphs longer. Maybe if Jon or Tom can get a photo?" Spencer trailed off, thinking. A big enough photo with like, a long quote from Mr. Way might make the difference. Fucking freshmen who had no idea how to write articles. Well, Singer could write. Sometimes. And Cassadee was pretty awesome, actually and she got her friends to write for the paper (though, Jersey's treatises on Blink-182 reuniting, Twin Peaks, Apple products, and MAC eyeliner leave a lot to desire. Ryan's lj has better written Blink fangirling and comparisons of eyeliner) but even after a couple of months she couldn't write articles that worked with the layout. Whatever. Spencer would figure it out like he did every issue. He rolled back to the desktop, putting in a placeholder image.
Spencer had never intended to join the school paper. He hadn't, as a matter of fact. Ryan had joined his freshman year, inherited the editor's job from Patrick Stump, and proceeded to spend the majority of his weekday afternoons working on stuff for the paper. Spencer started hanging out after school in the classroom the school paper shared with the yearbook kids because it was more interesting than catching the bus home alone and waiting for Ryan to get back and hang out. Freshman year Spencer's homework hadn't been enough to keep him busy until Ryan decided to go home so he'd started helping Ryan out. Somehow this developed into Spencer spending a disturbing amount of his free time at school, working on the stupid paper with Ryan. He'd also gotten to know a lot of the yearbook staff pretty well. They all spent a lot of time in the room and tended to borrow each other's resources pretty freely. Hence the yearbook staff stealing Tom Conrad from the paper pretty regularly and Spencer constantly stealing the good rolly chair from them and now using one of their computers.
"InDesign being a bitch again?" Jon Walker asked, leaning over Spencer.
"Our computer hates it," Spencer said flatly. "We need to get a new one if there's ever money in the budget for it." He craned his neck up to look at Jon. "Maybe if the yearbook complains about us stealing their computers all the time Schechter'll give Wentz enough money for a new one?"
"Yeah, no," Jon said. "We're working with crappy digital cameras that've needed replacing for at least the last three years and that hasn't happened yet. So I don't think you'll be getting a new computer anytime soon."
"Fucking InDesign," Spencer said.
"Fucking InDesign," Jon agreed. "Want to use it for an entirely different project?"
"What've you got in mind?" Spencer asked, saving the file. Last thing he needed was to lose an hour and half worth of work. He glanced over at Ryan, who was still hunched over a laptop, typing furiously. Spencer wasn't entirely certain what Ryan was working on. He'd been pretty quiet all afternoon, just typing and occasionally demanding that Spencer switch between Something Corporate albums in iTunes. It was possible he'd started editing submissions, but unlikely. Ryan always took his editorial pieces very seriously, but this one was a huge deal.
Their high school was part of the National Scholastic Press Association which was apparently some kind of big deal. The only interesting thing they did was give out awards and scholarships. Spencer was for anything that gave out free money, especially if they might give it to Ryan for writing some awesome editorials. Ryan rambled on about the Wikoff Scholarship a lot and he had the grades and he'd had everything ready to mail in two weeks before the due date when Singer inadvertently brought hell down on the school. Singer had encouraged Cash Colligan to submit something to the paper (Spencer was pretty sure this was an attempt to compete with Cassadee for the editor's job next year-Singer was willing to do just about anything to beat Cassadee for the job, though Spencer didn't understand why either of them wanted it. Whatever, he tried not to judge). Cash, being Cash, had submitted what could kindly and generously be called a story with erotic themes to the fiction section. No one was amused by this.
Principal Schechter wasn't happy that Ryan had run it. Ryan and Mr. Wentz both stood by the decision because the freedom of speech was the freedom of speech. Cash's story lacked taste (this is what offended Ryan) but that was no reason not to publish something. Cash's story did increase circulation for the paper, which was awesome from Spencer's perspective—he put hours of work into the damn paper every week and he wasn't even part of the staff (never mind that Ryan listed him as the layout editor and unapologetically published album and concert reviews Spencer wrote on his myspace), but backfired when Ashlee Simpson's crazy conservative dad got a hold of it and brought it to the attention of the school board—the chairman of which was Kevin Jonas, Sr. who was possibly even more conservative than Ashlee's dad. Cash had been suspended for almost a week and several people were demanding that Ryan be suspended.
Spencer thought the whole thing was stupid, but he did have to agree with Ryan that it was kind of cool that the whole school was talking about censorship and stuff like that. Ryan thought that all of this needed a proper response from the paper and that it'd make a excellent third editorial for the Wikoff Scholarship. Like so many things in Ryan's life, it was an great idea that Ryan maybe couldn't pull off. His editorial had to be published before February 15 for it to count, which meant they'd had to move the newspaper deadline up a week (meaning they'd miss the the Valentine's content they usually got to bulk the paper up) which was making everyone's life more stressful. Ryan was kind of an idiot.
"You should help me figure out how to lay out the basketball team page. And I just swung by the auditorium to get some candids for the drama club page. You should help me pick photos."
"You just want an excuse to look at photos of Brendon," Spencer said. "But sure, I'll help you. I need a break."