RIOT: Julie and the Phantoms

Track 10: Finally Free

"That makes sense," Luke says. "I wouldn't have wanted that either."

"Yeah," Reggie says quietly. "Do you think you could take us to see our families? You know where they are, right Flower?"

"We can do that," Daisy agrees. "I need to go see Lara and Rane anyway." With that Daisy poofs them all away and to her old friend's new apartment.

They're sitting on the floor around the coffee table playing a game when the ghosts arrive. Looks like monopoly.

"That's Lara," Daisy says, pointing to the blond. "And that's Rane."

"Wait, how come Rane doesn't look like my family?" Reggies asks. He was right, with Rane's dark skin and curly hair they didn't look anything alike.

"Well, Rane's..." Daisy hesitates. "They're adopted. Your parents weren't able to have kids anymore. The doctors said your mom got lucky with you, but after a few years of them trying again, they decided to adopt instead."

"And things were okay until Rane got older," Daisy chokes out. "Without ever knowing you, I knew what you had gone through. Because Rane had gone through almost the same things."

Daisy turns to look at Reggie, tears in both their eyes. Reggie could see in her eyes that she truly did know, and that scared him more than anything else could.

"Rane lived with me throughout all of high school, so they didn't have to endure it for long. But it was long enough," Daisy says. Tears begin to fall as she remembers what Rane had to go through. "And it didn't help that the kids at school weren't all too nice, either."

"What about Lara?" Alex asks.

"She was our rock," Daisy smiles. "She loved you just as much as I loved Luke, and it was her that convinced me to actually go through with the band." She turns back to the living people in the room as they erupt in laughter.

"She saw one picture of that pink hoodie and decided it was her favorite color. For a while she even dyed her hair pink," Daisy laughs. "But it wasn't all bubble gum and rainbows for her, either. Being one of the only queer girls at our school, kids didn't take too kindly. In fact, when I dated Carly, she made us hide it. Carly didn't want the 'bad rep." Daisy makes quotation marks with her fingers.

"Did you want to go see your parents?" Daisy asks Alex and Reggie. "I know that you didn't know they had moved, Reggie." Both boys give nods, Reggie's slightly more enthusiastic.

The group poofed to the Mercer household first, where they find Mr. and Mrs. Mercer lounging on the couch. They're watching home movies again, most of Alex, but there's a few of Lara sprinkled in too. Lara came and visited her parents often, they had been close her entire life. And it was clear they majorly regretted how they treated their son.

"They do this every week," Daisy says. She places her hand on Alex's shoulder.

"Is that me?" He asks as a young blond boy comes on screen. He moves away from the group to stand closer to the TV. "It is. I didn't even know they had made these."

"Neither did Lara," Daisy says quietly. "They have this photo album overflowing with pictures, too. Your parents would show us anytime we asked. So did mine and Luke's, actually."

They watched the home movies for a while, laughing at Alex's expense when young him did something funny. The movies showed him doing anything from playing with his first drum kit to his parents signing him to sleep.

"Can we go see my parents now?" Reggie asks after thirty minutes.

"Sure," Daisy says. "But I have to warn you, it wasn't pretty the last time I saw them. Are you sure you want to go see them?" Reggie nods after a moment of hesitation, and they all take deep breaths before poofing to the Peters household.

Beer bottles litter the tables, and wine glasses fill the sink. The tv is on, but the only person in the room is Reggie's father, who's passed out on the couch with a half empty bottle of beer in his hand. His mother was most likely upstairs, in the room they put all of Reggie's things in. From what Daisy had seen, that's all they did when they weren't at work. Mr. Peters drank his guilt away and Mrs. Peters hid from her drunk husband by obsessing over their dead son's belongings.

"Where's my mom," Reggie practically whispers. His voice is full of unshed tears as he witnesses the disaster his parents live.

"She's probably upstairs," Daisy says. "They keep all your old things in the spare bedroom." Before anyone can stop him, Reggie poofs away. They hear him appear upstairs, but they don't follow. Not even a full minute later he's standing in front of Daisy. His eyes are red and puffy as his cheeks shine with tears.

"Can we go? Please," Reggie chokes out.

"Of course," Luke says, he reaches to wrap his arms around Reggie but the ghost just shakes his head. The four ghosts poof back to Julie's garage, where they still have another four hours before Julie gets out of school.

"Can uh can I have a hug?" Reggie asks quietly. Daisy is the only one to hear him and she immediately launches herself into his arms. Following close behind, Luke and Alex wrap their arms around the two.

Eventually they all separate and move to sit. Luke and Alex on the couch, while Reggie sits on the bean bag. That seems to be his favorite seat in the room, at least to Daisy. Daisy, without asking, plops herself in Reggie's lap and cuddles into him. He doesn't complain, and while the other two ghosts share a look they don't say anything either. It's become obvious that the way Daisy shows love is through touch, whether that be her hand on their shoulder or cuddling into their sides. The boys have learned not to question it. They sit like that for two hours as everyone calms down from the emotional day they've had.

As it nears closer to when Julie will arrive home, Luke begins to scheme. He plans a way to apologize to Julie and tell her about the gig they booked. And for the next two hours, the boys stand in a pyramid waiting. Daisy watches in amusement as they don't move even once. Not even when Carlos comes in to use the bathroom, which he does a lot. Much to the ghosts displeasure.