Silence of Music

07

Julie yelled at Luke, who'd returned to the box, "Oh, my gosh! I thought I told you to leave that alone!"

Bianca chuckled softly. "Well, when you tell someone not to do something, they're gonna want to do it more."

Julie shot her a look. "Not helping."

"Sorry."

"I know," Luke replied. "You just should've said nothing, 'cause now I can't stop thinking about it, so... What's in the box, Julie?"

"It's just my dream box, okay?" Julie said. "Whenever I get a thought, I write it down and get it out of my mind."

"Like lyrics?"

"They would be if I still wrote music like I used to with my mom. Now it's just full of stuff that doesn't make me sad."

Alex stood and said, "But I mean, you do play. We heard you this morning." Luke and Reggie glared at him and Luke swatted Alex's chest.

"In the garage? So you were there too?"

"Uh... I don't..." Alex began.

Reggie turned to Alex. "Uh... he was, like..."

"We were..."

"Somewhere."

Luke, who'd moved to lay on Julie's bed, held his head up with his hand and asked, "So where is your kitchen, by the way?"

"Okay, we need to set some boundaries," Julie told them. "For starters, stay out of my room! The only ones allowed in are Bianca and Ricardo!" She pointed to the door.

The boys shot up. "Mm-hmm. Crystal clear. Let's go."

"We're leaving," Reggie said. "Yes, ma'am! We are out of here."

"Okay."

The three ran towards the door.

Alex popped his head back in and said, "Hey. Um, sorry. I didn't mean to bother you. Did you two get back into your music program?"

"No. No, I didn't," Julie and Bianca replied as they looked down.

"I'm sorry. That really sucks."

"Thanks."

Alex glanced up and Julie asked, "Is that it?"

"Yeah. Yeah. This is getting weird."

Julie and Bianca waved at him.

"Okay," Alex stated as he disappeared.

---

Julie made her way downstairs while Bianca left to go to her house. Carlos was laying on the couch playing a video game and Julie's father was sitting on his laptop as he looked at pictures.

"Hey, Dad," Julie greeted as she entered the living room. "What'cha working on?" She pocketed her hands.

"Well, now that the house is on the market, we need to add some photos to the website," Ray replied, ushering Julie over. "Help me pick some good ones."

Julie walked over to help him. As she passed her brother, she moved his foot and he shot her an annoyed look.

She stood to one side of Ray as he showed her the photos and said, "Got this batch right here."

"These are really nice," Julie told her father.

"Yeah?"

Julie chuckled. "Yeah."

"Thanks." He switched to another batch of photos. "These didn't turn out, though." He switched to another picture and there were three glowing orbs near the piano. "The ones from Mom's studio. It's like... little lights and dots all over the place. Kinda look like orbs, right?"