Ghost Bird

25: Fanfic Adventures

He slides a piece of notebook paper toward me. It's creased in exact thirds. At Gabriel's nod, I read the neat, even handwriting.

"Dear Ghost Bird Academy members," I say out loud. "My name is Matthew and I'm a sixth grader in San Diego, California. My friends and I have watched every episode of Ghost Bird. It's our favorite show. We have fun pretending to be you guys and going on fake missions. It's our dream to go to Academy-Con and we spent all summer doing chores to get enough money to buy tickets. Unfortunately, the tickets were sold out by the time we could buy them. Is there any way you could help us get tickets? We can pay you back for them. Thank you for you time."

At the bottom of the letter, there are nine signatures and a random squiggle. Someone drew an arrow to the squiggle and wrote, "My four year old sister wanted to write on the paper too."

I look up from the letter. "Please tell me we're sending them tickets," I say. Could they be any cuter? I wish I had a friend group as close as these kids seem to be when I was their age. Spending most of my free time on a set was not a good way to keep friends.

In place of answering, Gabriel hefts a box full of stuff onto the table. I peer inside, gasping when I see the sheer amount of Ghost Bird merchandise it contains. There are pencils and notepads, mugs and water bottles, stickers and so much more. "We're going to send them some stuff in addition to tickets and meet and greet passes," he says.

"How much are the tickets, anyway?"

"It's a three day event, and a day pass is $50. You can get a three day pass for $120. Meet and greet tickets are an additional $40."

I frown at the insane prices. People are actually willing to pay that? It doesn't even include anything they may buy in the convention itself.  It must really be something special. A shiver of excitement runs through me.

Gabriel and I sign some of the merchandise, and others are pre-signed by the other guys. I chuckle when I see Luke's horrible signature. Once that's done, Gabriel writes a letter thanking the boys for their enthusiasm and telling them to save their money. I wrap the box in packaging tape, and then it's done.

"Does stuff like this happen often?" I ask.

Gabriel shakes his head. "Normally it's scalpers trying to get more tickets to resell. This boy seemed genuinely interested in the show, though. Even if there's the chance he'll resell the stuff, it's a risk I'm willing to take from time to time."

"I'm excited to meet them."

We drift into a comfortable silence. It's interrupted by Gabriel's phone dinging. He checks it and groans. "I forgot we have a meeting with Rebecca from GBFCI tomorrow," he says. "Talking to her gives me a headache. Nobody should be that energetic all the time!"

"You guys actually know her?" My mind goes to the overly-friendly cashier who practically threw pancakes at me the last time I saw her.

"The LA chapter of GBFCI is the head chapter, so we meet with them to discuss fan events. Rebecca has a lot of ideas, but she's just so... annoying." Gabriel smirks. "Did you know that the GBFCI analysts—"

"They have analysts?" I interrupt.

"I know, fans are weird. Anyway, the analysts did a search on my dialogue in fanfiction, and it turns out some of the stories have my cursing rate as high as fifty percent."

He pulls up a photo on his phone. "Luke sent me this screenshot the other day. It's from Painting Hearts, the most popular Gabriel-centric fanfic. 'Gabriel looked up from the ungodly mess that was North's bedhead. "Fucking really, North? Could that shit hairstyle be any fucking uglier? For fuck's sake! Shit!" Gabriel unleashed a shitstorm of cursing so loud it made Kota squirm in his sleep.'"

He rolls his eyes. "I don't even curse that much in the show. It's TV-14! But excessive cursing isn't the worst trait the fans have clinged on to."

I'm almost afraid to ask for clarification. Gabriel sees the question in my eyes and explains. "Poor Luke is apparently a sugar-crazed fiend who jumps on anything sweet. If he so much as looks at a vegetable in a restaurant, fangirls squeal and exclaim that North will be so proud of him. It's obnoxious."

I giggle at the thought. "Do you think the fanfic authors know you guys read their stories?" I ask. Apparently since the guys don't actually write the script it's fine, but it still strikes me as odd.

"It's not like we read them all the time," Gabriel says. "It's fun looking at the stuff they come up with, though. I bet they'd be horrified if they found out we actually read some of their stories. Especially since some of them get kind of crazy."

"Like the Sowen fanfics."

"Especially the Sowen fanfics. There was a story where Sean was kind of like Rapunzel and grew out his curly locks so Owen could save him from an evil Dr. Roberts. How people think of some of these stories is beyond me."

"Have any of you guys ever written a fanfic?"

Gabriel chuckles. "No one will admit to it, but I think Owen has. He's taken some creative writing classes, and there's a fanfic profile called GrayEyesMaroonTies that I think could be him based on the writing style. I want Victor to hack his computer and find out, but Victor insists he doesn't know how."

I try to comprehend what he's saying. Suit-wearing, super stern Owen might actually be a closet fanfic writer? The fans would lose it if they found out. I pull up the profile on my phone and smile when I see some of the titles. The most popular story is Lost in Space, an AU fanfic where each guy is the ruler of a planet in a solar system and must band together to stop an alien invasion. It has over 20,000 votes.

Gabriel and I spend the rest of the afternoon curled up on his couch reading about how Owen leads the charge against the invaders.