FAR FROM NORMAL ── REGGIE PETERS

02. LOS ANGELES, 2020

A big brother she would never get the chance to know. And even worse, a big brother who was in a band. Ashley had always been into music right from when she was small, but neither of her parents had ever been that big of a fan of it, so her mother used to tell her that she got her love for music from her brother.

When she found out her brother was in a band, Ashley's world had been turned upside down. Her parents may never have told her what the band was called or who the members were, but everything Ashley did revolving around music, from that point forwards, was for them, was for her brother. Wherever he was, whether he was in heaven or floating around in the real world as a ghost or sprint, she wanted to make him proud. She wanted to make them all proud.

It had been that motivation that had gotten her into the music program in the first place, the music program where she had met Julie and Flynn for the first time. They had come into her life at a really dark period and pulled her out into a reality where no matter what, she had them and she was stuck with them.

Every single piece of Ashley's heart missed her brother with everything she had. It sometimes felt like useless grieving - because why should she grieve for a boy she never even knew, and would never know, even if he was her big brother? - but it still hurt her heart in so many ways. The only things she had left of him were photographs. Ashley was always surprised at how alike they looked.

"Hey, Ash Attack." Julie stuck her head around the side of Ashley's locker, making her presence known to her friend. Ashley almost had a heart attack, but it pulled her out of the in-deep thought she was having. "Whatcha looking at?"

Ashley grabbed her next-class folders from her locker and shoved them into her bag, quickly closing the door so she could lock it back up again. It wasn't that she didn't want Julie seeing the pictures of Alex - she had spent the past three years seeing the same one which was stuck to her locker door - it was just that talking about, or sometimes just thinking about Alex made Ashley want to cry.

"Oh, you know," Ashley puffed out a breath, "the usual. Alex."

Julie rubbed her friend's shoulder, giving her a smile, but said nothing more on it. Julie Molina was very much aware of how even the mere mention of Ashley's big brother could trigger her emotions, so she would never push. Ashley was always astounded by Julie's kind, gentle nature. Even while going through her own grief for her mother, Julie always let Ashley grieve alongside her.

Julie started rummaging through her locker for something when someone else sidled in alongside Ashley, nudging her with her elbow as she did.

"Hey, under-achievers!" It was Flynn, free from whatever class she had had before the bell went. Julie looked around the side of her locker door at the sound of Flynn's excited tone and chuckled, smiling at her friend.

"Hey, disappointment!" Ashley and Julie said it almost in-sync and Flynn had to take a moment to breathe for a second, frazzled with how in-sync they both could be sometimes before she brushed it off and returned to her excitement.

"Okay, I know you don't want me to ask, but have you figured out what you're gonna do today?" Flynn was looking at Julie, an expectant look in her eyes, and it took Ashley a moment before she remembered what Flynn was talking about.

"Oh yeah, its performance day." Every once in a while, the students that we're apart of Los Felix's music program would perform whatever they had been working on in front of the other students. Since her mom passed, Julie hadn't played a single note of anything in any of the classes, but Ashley couldn't blame her for it. When you had the magic sucked out of something you loved so much, it was hard to bring it back. "Do you know what you're gonna do?"