I've Had The Time Of My Life

Chapter 1

"He's gone. I'm sorry Julie. He's gone. He went to join Caleb."

The phrase had been swirling around Julie's mind for six days now. She couldn't sleep. How had they gotten in this position? Julie wished there was someone she could blame, someone who she could pin her anger and frustration to, but she couldn't. She tried, but she just couldn't. She had tried to get mad at the guys – they were, after all, the ones who initially brought Caleb into their lives. And then that led her to Willie, and then to Bobby, and then she thought about how Carlos didn't have to go, and in a moment of weakness, she blamed her mom's death. And even though she had all these people to take her frustration out on, she knew it wasn't going to change the situation.

-- Six Days Ago –

"He's gone. I'm sorry Julie. He's gone. He went to join Caleb." Reggie said, looking down.

"No. No Reg, you must be wrong. There's no way he could be gone." Julie said while brushing past the boys into Carlos' room. Julie continued to search around the room, while Luke, Alex, and Reggie stood silently by the door. Julie eventually sat down on Carlos' bed in shock. She had no tears left to cry.

Luke went to her, gently trying to comfort her. "We'll get him back Jules." He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. "I promise."

Julie snapped her eyes up at him. "Don't promise that!" She yelled. Julie knew she shouldn't be mad at Luke, but he had just been so nonchalant about the whole thing.

Luke held up his hands in surrender. He looked over to Reggie and Alex for assistance. "Julie, Luke is right though. We are going to get him back. He's become our little brother too. You know we were going to try to find a way back to you after we went to join Caleb... now we'll focus on this instead." Alex said calmly, trying to diffuse the situation. Yes, it was horrible and intense, but freaking out wasn't going to change the issue. Alex, better than anyone, knew how anxiety could often make the problem worse. God. If Alex could go back and stop his anxiety attack after first playing with Julie, then he would have never met Willie and they would have never been in this problem.

"Well what am I going to do till then? How am I supposed to act in this situation? What am I going to say to my dad? Oh god, what am I going to say to him?" Julie started pulling her hair out in frustration. Once again, Luke looked helpless beside her. Reggie crouched in front of her, holding her hands, and Alex was on Julie's other side rubbing her back.

"It's okay Julie." Reggie really liked having a nickname for Julie, but now didn't feel like the right time. "We will think of something."

"Really? Like what? 'Oh hey Papi, yeah sorry I lied earlier, Carlos wasn't at a friend's house. He was actually with an evil ghost. The same evil ghost that tried to force Luke, Alex, and Reggie to join his house band at his ghost club. I know, it sounds like a stupid idea to me too. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the boys are also ghosts and they died in the 90's. And they used to only be visible to me except when we would perform together, but somehow now they're visible to everyone. Oh right, Carlos! Anyway then we got Carlos back, but Caleb, the evil ghost guy, said someone had to join him otherwise there would be consequences, so I was going to sneak away this morning and not even say bye to you, but then *surprise*, Carlos somehow snuck away and went back to Caleb.'" Julie's voice was laced with sarcasm. "Yeah, somehow I don't think that would work."

"You were going to go in the morning?" Reggie asked.

"You weren't going to say bye?" Luke said while looking hurt.

"That's why you were saying goodbye to us." Alex said with sad understanding.

All three boys said at once. But it was another voice that stood out to Julie. One that she hadn't expected to hear.

"Julie – what did you just say?"

Everyone turned to see Ray standing in the doorway.

***

Ray had hoped that Victoria would check up on Julie and her friends while he was at work, but he couldn't get a hold of her. Being true to his word, he wanted to give Julie and the girls their space, so he figured he could finish up work, grab a bite at a drive thru, and then sneak back into the house. So that is what he had down. He crept into the house, figuring the girls might have crashed in the living room, but the lights were off so he couldn't see. He had climbed quietly up the stairs, when he saw the light on in the room that Carlos and Reggie shared. He was about to give a stern talking to Carlos about being up so late, especially after Carlos had not texted him about going to a friend's house. Yet as he approached the room, he heard Julie's very strange confession.

Needless to say, the conversations that followed were... awkward. Extremely awkward. There was yelling, and disbelief, and crying, though that one mostly came from Alex. Ray still wasn't sure that the kids weren't trying to prank him or something, but they had all turned so serious at the mention of this Caleb guy, that Ray had put his skepticism aside.

In the days that followed, Ray slowly began to believe what he had heard. Mostly because the boys could show their ghostly poofing power, their ability to repeat conversations Ray had with Julie and Carlos before the boys 'arrived', and their insane knowledge of the 90's and similar lack of knowledge about current times. However, even with this understanding, it didn't change the fact that Carlos was with some psychotic ghost.

***

Luke knocked lightly on Julie's door.

"Come in Luke. I know it's you."

He cautiously opened the door. Their relationship had become... strained since Carlos left. Julie blamed herself for not noticing Carlos leaving. If she hadn't been getting all mushy with Luke, maybe she could have prevented it.

"Hey Jules. Um just wanted to give you the update that we searched the club again, but it's still empty..." His voice trailed off. The guys had been searching all over LA, with no luck. They had eventually decided to check Caleb's club, even though it could have been fatal for them. Unfortunately though, they still hadn't found Carlos, and Caleb's club remained vacant. Caleb had mentioned when they first met that he often played in different cities, so they assumed he was somewhere else. They continued to check the club in case he had finally returned to Hollywood.

Every day, Luke would come to Julie and give her the update, or rather lack of update. And today was no different... or so she thought.