as julie hugged the page to her chest, alex took a step forward, about to place a hand on each of their shoulders until luke stopped him and the three boys poofed out of the studio.
flynn walked into the studio a few minutes later, making julie and jade look up at her.
"carlos told me you'd be out here." flynn slowly walks across the room towards them. "we need to talk."
"are you okay?" julie asks, both girls noticing the sad look on flynn's face.
"no! i'm not okay!" she exclaims. "you two just got kicked out of music! i've been up all night thinking about what i was going to say to you." she explains quickly. "i might have drank seven sodas, but i need to get this out." she states.
jade and julie chuckled slightly, glancing to each other briefly.
"wait, we have something to tell-" julie starts.
"no, it's my turn to talk." flynn interrupts her quickly. "you can't give up music! your guys music is like a gift so that would be a tragedy!" she tells them. "so you're basically like canceling christmas! and i love christmas."
"flynn-" julie starts, though flynn keeps talking over her.
"uh-uh!" she stops her quickly. "when we were six we all promised to be in a band together. triple trouble!" she reminds them.
"we never agreed to that name." jade tells her with a small laugh.
"that's not the point, guys, if you leave the music program, we'll be apart forever! that's just what happens!" she says dramatic, stepping closer to them. "sure we'll see each other in the hall sometimes but, we'll have different lives, make new friends."
"that's not true." julie shakes her head at the girl, who let out a sigh.
"you're right, i won't be making any new friends. and i won't even get to see jade! you're moving to a new school!" she states, looking at the girl sadly who let out a small sigh.
it was true, jade would have to transfer schools now. her official address at the school is still her parents, as she can change any of her information without their permission, and they're technically out of Los Feliz's district.
"and the only time we'll contact each other is when when we'll be liking each other's posts on instagram." she takes a breath. "and every time i'll be hitting that little heart, my heart will be breaking because my best friends left me and, ugh do you have any soda? my head hurts." she speaks quickly, holding her hand to her head.
"can we talk now?" jade asks slowly, and flynn looks at them for a moment.
"fine." she states in slight annoyance.
"we just played the piano and sang again." julie says, both girls grinning slightly. flynn's face lit up and she let out a gasp of excitement.
"what!" she screams. "why didn't you just say so?" she asks quickly.
"we were trying, and then your seven sodas kicked in." jade chuckles softly, shaking her head slightly.
"i'm so happy for you guys!" she smiled widely at the girls. "and me!" she adds with a laugh. she paused for a moment and her face softened. "look at you two, looking all, i don't know, alive again!"
"right?" jade nods. "it's like we drank seven sodas." she jokes and the other two grin.
"what made you play again?" flynn asks after a moment, looking at them curiously.
"we found this song mom wrote for us." julie explains, sliding the papers toward flynn on the piano. the girl picked them up and read over the first page for a moment.
"woah." she says quietly, jade and julie nodding.
"i know." julie says softly. "we were so afraid to play it." she looks to jade beside her and grabs her hand. "anything involving music reminds us of her."
"and then we woke up this morning, realizing that why we should play it." jade slid her fingers across the keys softly. "to keep her memory alive."
"aw, come here." she smiled at the girls, holding her arms open. julie and jade stood up and the three huddled in a group hug for a moment, before flynn gasped and pulled away quickly. "we need to tell ms harrison that you guys can play again so you can stay in school and my life won't be that sad picture i just painted for you." she exclaims. "my girls are back!" she grins happily, grabbing each of their hands to pull them out of the studio. "triple trouble lives again!"
"not our band name." julie and jade say in unison.
"i gave you both t-shirts in the seventh grade that say otherwise." flynn states as julie and jade grab their backpacks, tossing them over their shoulders.
the girls pushed open the doors, to see the the boys right next to the door. jade rolled her eyes slightly, pretty sure that they had been listening to the conversation. she wasn't sure how long they'd been there though.
"oh, hey." julie greets them, making jade slap her on the arm lightly. they turned back to flynn to see her staring at them in confusion. "uh, let's hustle!" julie adds awkwardly, pushing flynn and jade across the pavement. julie and jade waved goodbye to the boys, pretending to swat flies when flynn noticed them.
"don't worry! we weren't listening!" reggie assures them, earring a kick from luke.
luke didn't miss the way jade grinned slightly upon meeting eyes with him. his smile grew too, continuing to watch her until she disappeared through the gate.
~*~
as soon as they got to school, the three girls went straight to the music room to talk to ms harrison. they informed her that the girls were playing again but unfortunately, it didn't matter anymore.
"believe me girls, i think it's wonderful that you sang again." she says with a small sigh. "i've prayed for this moment for almost a year. but it's too late." she shrugged slightly.
"what if you just hear them play?" flynn begs. "you know they're amazing."
"it wouldn't matter." ms harrison shakes her head. "the new students start tomorrow." she tell them sadly. "there's only-"
"so many spot." julie and jade speak together. they'd heard the statement more times than they could count over the last year.
"and if we don't participate, we're out." julie says with a sigh. "we know."
"i did everything i could to keep you girls here this year." the teacher takes a few steps closer to them, the sound of her clicking heels ringing through jade's foggy head. "but principal lessa was very clear, yesterday was your last chance." she frowns slightly. "you'll have to reapply next semester." she tells them as the sound of the bell filled the air. "i'm truly sorry." she finishes with a small nod and the three girls let out long sighs.
flynn wrapped an arm around each girl and lead them into the hall way. none of them spoke, and for the rest of the day jade felt like she was numb.
she was just going through the motions. now that she actually wanted to play again and found out she couldn't, she was heartbroken.
she didn't even want to think about the fact that she'll have to transfer school. it's either that, or talking to her parents to try and convince them to let her use julie's address on her record since that's where she lives now.
but she knew as soon as she tried to talk to them, it would turn into an argument. she refused to do that.
~*~
when the girls arrived home from school that day, they slowly made their way up stairs to their bedroom.
to their surprise, it wasn't empty like they had expected. it was filled with three ghosts. reggie was lying on julies bed and alex was attempting to pick a picture frame up from the dresser across from julies bed.
luke was standing on a stool in front of the shelves across from jade's bed, trying to open a small box.
"what are you guys doing in our room?" julie demands, making all the boys heads snap in their direction. they each look to each other, squeaking out attempted excuses.
"we were looking for the kitchen." luke says quickly and jade rolls her eyes at the boy.
"this.. this can't happen." julie tells them sternly.
"it's creepy." jade adds with a nod. even though it didn't seem like they could actually touch or move anything, it was still weird.
"get off my bed please." julie turns to reggie, who quickly jumps up to move to sit on the plush chair at the end of her bed.
"hey guys?" luke looks to the two girls, raising his hand slightly. "what's in the box?"
"that's off limits." jade says quickly, glaring at the boy slightly.
"oh, okay." he laughs slightly. "girl stuff." he says, making jade stare at him in annoyance. even though she was frustrated, she slowly felt her anger begin to slip away when he smiled at her.
"oh, like butterflies and glitter?" reggie asks, making alex let out a sigh of annoyance.
"oh, come on." he shakes his head at the other boys. "i'm sorry, about them."
"it's none of your business." julie tells them in frustration. "and yes, there might be some glitter." she adds quietly, making reggie grin proudly.
"hey!" alex's excited voice filled the room as he spun to the others, holding on to the picture frame. "i actually picked something up!" he walked it across the room until it slipped through his hands and on to julie's bed. "i dropped it."
"is that your mom?" luke asks, hopping off the stool to get a closer look at the picture.
"yes," julie says sharply. "and it's my favourite picture of us so if you break it, i'll break you." she rips the picture away from them to set it on the nightstand next to her bed.
"well, sorry because we're kind of unbreakable at this point." alex reminds her.
"i don't get it." jade starts. "you guys can mess up our beds, pick up your instruments, but you can't pick up other stuff?" she looks around to each of boys, her eyes finally landing on luke as he nodded.
"i know, right? it's hard." he agrees. "but for some reason our instruments; easy!" a small grin grows on his face.
"yeah, like super easy." reggie agrees happily, jumping up from his seat. "oh! and check out what i learned today." he held his arms out and jade's eyes widened slightly when his bass appeared out of no where, knocking him back on to the pillow.
"yeah, that looked super easy." julie spoke sarcastically.
"but it's like i always thought." luke bounces slightly with excitement. "our instruments are attached to our souls."
jade tried to ignore the way the giddy grin on his face made her heart skip a beat, but it was hard when his eyes kept drifting towards her as he spoke.
a knock came at the door, making both girls spin quickly to face ray.
"hey." he smiled at the girls. "everything okay?" he asks, looking around the room curiously.
"yeah! we're fine." julie assures him quickly.
"okay, just thought it sounded like you girls were talking to someone." he explains and both girls shook their head quickly.
"nope, must've been my laptop." julie points to the device.
"that i just closed." jade adds when the girls see that the computer was shut. ray nodded slightly.
"okay." he looks at each girl for a moment. "if you need anything." he tells them and both nod quickly. he motions to the door, silently asking if they'd like it shut, to which they respond with another nod.
as soon as he was gone, jade and julie each let out a sigh of relief, slowly turning back to the boys.
"your dad seems like the kind of guys who likes to barbecue." reggie grins happily. "i bet he has a great rips recipe." he adds quickly.
"i don't know, but if you guys want to talk to us, we have to do it in the studio." jade shakes her head at the boys.
"he's worried about us enough as it is!" julie says in agreement.
"he seems chill, you should just tell him about us." luke shrugs, making jade scoff quietly at him.
"you're kidding, right?" she stares at him in annoyance. "we would sound insane."
"this past year, everyone's been watching over us, being super nice as if they're waiting for us to snap!" julie explains, pacing slightly.
"if we tell him we met a ghost band, we'll be back to talking to doctor turner three days a week." jade informs him and lukes face falls slightly.
"yeah, you probably shouldn't tell him." luke says quietly. after a moment he stepped back up on the stool in front of the ever so intriguing box. "jade, julie..." he starts slowly and both girls eyes widen at him in frustration.
"oh my gosh! i though i told you to leave that alone!" jade reminds him and luke turns back to her quickly.
"i know but you should've just said nothing because now i can't stop thinking about it," he explains quickly and jade rolled her eyes slightly. "so, what's in the box?"
"it's just our dream box, okay!" jade finally admits in frustration. julies eyes widened slightly at her in anger and she shrugged slightly. it's not like the guys were ever going to stop asking about it. "when ever julie or I gets a thought or something we write it down to get it out of our minds." she explains quietly.
"like lyrics?" luke clarifies and jade looks down slightly.
"they would be if we still wrote music." julie sighs. "like we used to with mom, now it's just full of stuff that doesn't make us sad." she continues and jade subconsciously took a step closer to julie for comfort.
"but i mean, you do play." alex stands up and takes a step closer to the girls. "we heard you guys this morning." he explains with a smile, and both girls glare at him.
"in the garage?" julie demands as luke hopped off the stool to slap the blond on the arm.
"so you were there too?" jade questions and once again the boys squeak out bleak response.
"so where is your kitchen, by the way?" luke lays down along julies bed, resting his head in his hands and looking up at jade with wide eyes. she scoffed and bent down to his level.
"okay, we need to set some boundaries." she tells him.
"for starters, stay out of our room!" julie instructs, pointing the doors.
the boys quickly nodded and left the room, walking through the door as reggie strummed a few notes on his bass. the girls let out a small sigh as julie grabbed the picture frame to move it back to we're it's supposed to be.
alex stuck his head back through the door, surprising the two girls.
"hey, um sorry." he speaks quickly. "i didn't mean to bother you but did you guys get back in to your music program?" he asks and the two girls look down sadly.
"no, we didn't." julie informs him and the blond sighs.
"i'm sorry." he says softly. "that really sucks."
"thanks." jade nods slightly as the room fell silent. when alex made no move to leave, the girls glanced at each other for a moment. "is that it?" she asks and alex looks back up at them quickly.
"yeah!" he nods. "yeah, this is getting weird." he states and both girls wave at him slightly. "okay." he speaks quietly before ducking back in to the hall.
jade and julie looked at each both briefly, both shaking their heads in disbelief.
~*~