We poofed into the hallway, right outside the sports hall. I ran into the hall, not turning back to check if the guys were following. "Julie!" I yelled.
"Julie! We are ready to rock this dance... which is clearly over." Reggie ran in after me.
I saw Julie sitting on the floor, pin in hand, popping a balloon arch from the dance. I ran to her side and wrapped my arms around her shoulders as she hugged me back. "I am so sorry. I lost track of time and I came as soon as I realized. I'm the worst sister ever."
"No, don't say that y/n. It's not you I'm mad at. It's your ride." She looked up as I let go of her, coming to our feet. The boys looked down at us, you could see the guilt in their eyes.
"Look," Luke started, walking closer as the others trailed behind, "we are... so, so sorry that we bailed on you."
"Yeah, the night really got away from us" Alex stated, looking at the boys for reassurance.
"And other things..." Reggie hinted as Luke hit his chest, trying to stifle his laugh as he did. I shot his a look, telling him to shut it down and he bowed his head.
Julie wouldn't even look straight at the boys, she was hurt. She took my hand and held it to her chest. "Just, please, tell me it had nothing to do with you getting back at Trevor." She was hoping. I wish I could have given her the answer that she needed, but I couldn't, it wasn't true. I didn't have the heart to say anything so I just held her hand tighter and bowed my head. But the boys had another idea.
"Pfft!"
"No! We wouldn't do that!"
"Oh, of course not."
I heard them chime in and just ignored their voices. "Seriously?" She let go of my hand and faced the boys wonce again, stepping closer. "You're lying to me?"
"Ok, look. It was something we needed to do." Alex was defending them.
"B-but we'll do whatever it takes. We'll play the next school-" Luke was cut of by Julie's breaking voice. "What? Another dance where you can bail on me and make me look like a fool?"
"Julie.." I whispered.
"Save it," Julie turned to look at me, and then faced the boys once again, "You know what really sucks? I know that y/n and I were passionate about our songs, and all three of you know the pain we've been through and how tough it's been for us to let music back in, and then you do this? And take y/n with you?"
The boys knew how much she was hurting in that moment. I could see how awful they felt. The guilt painted their faces.
"Bands don't do that to each other. Friends don't do that to each other. This was a mistake."
"You mean the school dance... right?" Luke looked at Julie.
"No. I mean joining a band with you guys." She shook her head and started to run. I gave the boys yet another disapproving look and ran out after her. "Julie! Wait!!"
"Y/n!" Reggie called after us, "Guys!!" Luke added on. I kept running after Julie, "Jules! Wait!". I finally got her to stop running. She didn't turn round to meet my eyes. "Jules... I am so sorry. Its just- That place, those people, it's a place where the boys can feel like themselves and be seen. I know we let you down-" I was suddenly cut of by a jolting pain to my stomach.
"Ahhh!" I cried out, falling to my knees in pain. "y/n!" Julie screamed, running to my side, "What just happened?! Are you okay?!"
"I don't- I don't know. It felt like- like I was dying..." I was gripping my stomach to control the pain as I finally met her eyes. "Come on, let's go home and get you to bed, we'll figure this out together." She smiled at me and pulled my arm around her shoulder, lifting me up and helping me out.
________________THE NEXT DAY_________________
I woke up to Julie screaming about an alarm. "Y/N! WAKE UP NOW! WE SLEPT IN AND FLYNN DIDN'T WAKE US UP!"
Damn it! I could tell this was not the right way to start the day. I sprung out of bed and stole some clothes from Flynn's drawers. As we ran to the kitchen, I went to grab a drink but my wrist was yanked away from the fridge and out the door. "Okay! Okay!". We ran to school and burst into the dance studio.
"Oh, girls, how nice of you to join us."
"I'm so sorry, we overslept" Julie fumbled her words through gasping breaths.
"Take your spot."
Julie and I looked at each other and walked to our spots. They were conveniently, at either side of Flynn. As we stood with her, she smiled at us.
"So... why didn't you wake us up? We missed our first three classes" Julie gave her a condescending look.
"You said, you would never show your face at school again, and I know you and y/n are a package deal."
"It's okay," I told her.
"It's the guys I'm really upset at." Julie added. "I'd kill them if they weren't already dead. And dragging y/n into that... I just.. can't believe them."
"You know, having a band is supposed to help you social life not ruin it."
"Ex-band." I corrected her.
"Right, sorry. Ex-band."
"I thought they were in this with us, but I guess we were wrong."
"Hey, don't blame yourself, you can only be so strong when three cute ghosts ask you to join a band. Especially when you fall in love with one." She turned and smiled at me, "And speaking of cute... have you talked to Nick today?"
"No... and I'm kind of dreading it.. At least I know I won't see him in this class."
"Erm.. I would think again." I pointed to the doorway, seeing the lacrosse team standing, watching us.
"You've got to be kidding me. What are they doing here!?"
"So, students, Coach Barron and I have decided that his lacrosse team will be part of our class for a few weeks." We adjusted our stance to hide the panic in our faces, "Many pro athletes have used dance to help them with coordination and mobility."
"This isn't about flirting with girls" Coach Barron added on and we all laughed, "It's about making us better so we can actually win a game. We lost against Burbank. Burbank!"
"Okay, everybody pair up!" The boys started to disperse among the crowd and someone whisked Flynn away, Nick then came over and paired up with Julie, just leaving me. Before I knew it, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see one of Nick's friends, Cameron. (Yes, Cameron is made up haha, it's the first name that came to mind) "Partners?" He held out his hand for me to take. I smiled and took his hand as we made our way to a spot in the hall. "Sure".
"So, ladies, let's rehearse what we learned last week and we will perform this with the boys this Friday. Coach Barron and I will demonstrate."
Coach started to stutter and make excuses but he was pulled into the demonstration anyway.
"So... That performance that happened at the rally was impressive."
"Oh.. thanks" I smiled.
"Yeah, I was going to ask you something then but I saw that you were... leaving, I guess?" Cameron continued.
"What were you going to ask me?"
"Well.. I was going to ask you if you wanted to maybe hangout sometime?"
I didn't expect that. I used to like Cameron, you know, before he came along. He was a little late, but because of the complications with Reggie, I thought why not at least give it a try.
"Yeah.. erm.. I'll give you my number." I smiled as the lesson continued and the conversation calmed.
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Hi! Firstly, I want to thank you for 1.2k reads! That's crazy! Another sort of short chapter as, for some reason, I always get my inspiration late on a school night. Sorry for not posting many updates, I've been crazed with a lot, school and my friends birthday is coming up and I'm making sure it's perfect. I'm also working hard on my etsy shop, I haven't had any orders yet, but I'm so happy I can have that place to display my work. (Again if you want to check out my work I'm Craftofthemind on Etsy). Well I hope you liked this chapter and it was enough to keep you going till the next. :)
-Zoe