0.5 𝙄𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙍𝙖𝙮?
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𝙎𝙪𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙩 𝘾𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙛𝙖, 𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙧𝙖𝙥 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧 25 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨.
Luke suggested they bother Julie some more, seeing as she could use her "phone" to help find more answers for them.
The band exited the garage, walking through the back garden. Seeing as this was Bobby's house the bad knew their way around quite well, although it's been 25 years the structure hasn't changed. They clumsily stumbled through the door, each member clinging into another to support themselves. Eventually, they stood upright, stalking towards Julie.
The teenage girl saw brightly coloured teenagers in her peripheral swiftly turning towards them and shouting as a warning. The group halted in their steps, freezing like they were playing musical statues.
"That was me, ripping the band-aid off," she awkwardly chuckled before fake screaming again.
"That's my brave girl," the older woman sweetly smiled before grabbing Julie's chin.
Luke approached their dinner table leaning in close to Julie "Hey, Julie, I really like what you guys did with the place." Nella sighed knowing that he was already on the verge of upsetting Julie. One thing about Luke is he will not respect a boundary.
"You shouldn't be here," she tried telling him. Her father and brother gasped, assuming that she was talking to her aunt.
"Oh, I'm just here to help Mija," The older woman replied, pouting slightly.
"I think that's our cue to leave," Alex said, grabbing Nella's hand as the band backed away.
"We should have called first."
"Sorry bout that,"
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"I wish we had our instruments with us," Nella stated, preparing to sit down on the couch. The boys hummed in agreement from their various places around the room.
Before AJ could sit down she heard a small poofing noise followed by the appearance of Reggie's bass, Alex's drums, Luke's guitar and Nella's guitar.
"Hey, Nella are you sure you aren't a genie?" Nella dismissed Reggie immediately running towards the green guitar that was neatly placed on a stand between Luke and Reggie's instruments.
"Emerald!" She squealed picking the guitar up and hugging it tightly, "I missed you so much." Reggie and Alex began to complain about her being over dramatic but were quickly shushed by Luke.
"A musician being reunited with their favourite instrument is nothing to joke about." He stated, pointing the neck of his guitar out in their direction.
Alex counted the group in, everyone picking up their respective instruments. He started with a drum beat that was accompanied by Reggie's bass, Luke and Nella joining in after with a familiar riff featured in the song "Crooked Teeth."
Reggie turned around taking his hands off the bass strings and cutting himself off. Nella looked over at him wondering what made him stop, there she found Julie glaring at them.
The teen girl stood in front of the band, her arms crossed over her chest. Nella giggle at the sight, it reminded her of when Rose used to get angry. She was brought back to reality upon hearing Luke say that people could hear them.
"Wait so only you can see us, but everyone can hear us?" Alex clarified.
"What kinda ghosts are we?" Nella wondered out loud.
"Who cares princess? People can hear us play!" Luke said.
"We might be dead but our music isn't!" Reggie then proceeded to pull Nella into him after fist-bumping Alex.
Nella looked up in shock as she saw the older man enter. This was the first time she had gotten a clear look at the habitants of the house. AJ looked from the guitar on the wall, to Julie to Ray, her eyes widening. "No way!"
Julie turned around in confusion.
Nella remembered having a conversation with Rose regarding her dream life. By age 30 Nella wanted to be touring the world with her band whereas Rose wanted to settle down with her boyfriend at the time Ray Molina, hoping to have two kids. In her perfect world, she would be a music teacher, helping children to fulfil their dreams.
"Hey!" Ray greeted his daughter.
"Dad!" Julie exclaimed awkwardly.
"How's it going Ray?" Nella asked in excitement, groaning at the realisation that he couldn't hear her.
"Just making sure that you're okay," Ray's concern warmed Nella's heart. She could always tell that he would be a great dad.
"Yeah I'm fine, just had to turn off the CD player." Julie convinced Ray, who kept looking around more specifically at the band's instruments.
"Wait! Is this the junk that was in the loft?"
"Junk!?" Luke shouted at Ray in disbelief.
The now older Ray Molina turned around and inspected Alex's drum kit banging on a few of the drums, "Some of this stuff is in good shape. Hey! Maybe we can make a couple of bucks," he smiled towards Julie.
Alex wasn't pleased with having a stranger touch his drums and decided to ask Julie to stop allowing her father to touch his drums but she didn't listen to his request "What! Yo, stop touching my drums. Tell him to stop touching my drums!"
Nella then have Julie a sweet smile, hoping to appear to her sweet nature, assuming she had one. "Make him stop Alex's is getting emotional."
Ray moved from the drums now approaching Julie "I liked that song you had on,"
"Sweeeet, we're Sunset Curve," Luke told the older man in front of us.
"Tell your friends," Reggie chimed in as usual.
"It's just an old CD I found" Julie informed him causing me to scoff "We're not old!" Nella called out.
"Well, still... it's nice that you're listening to music again, out here you can play whatever you want whenever you want." Ray sincerely said specifically to Julie but Reginald thought Ray was talking to him.
"Oh, that's nice."
"Stay out of this!" Julie snapped at Reggie who immediately grabbed Nella's hand. She rubbed her thumb over his knuckles making him calm down.
"I'm sorry honey, I didn't-" Julie's eyes widened in realisation as she tried to explain herself. "Oh no, no, no, no. Not you. I mean uh... er, you know give me a minute," she grabbed Ray's hand dragging him out of the studio before directing her attention back to the band.
"He likes our song," Luke chuckled.
"Oh yeah he doesn't count," Alex said looking at us "He's a dad" he clarified making the rest of Sunset Curve "Oh."
"Why can't you guys just be normal ghosts? Hang out at an old mansion. I hear Pasadena's nice." Julie growled swiftly exiting the studio.
"I think she's warming up to us," Alex smiled.
"I don't know what her problem is?"
"Yeah, I've always wanted to go to Pasadena," Reggie admitted. Nella rolled her eyes once again.
"You know what, I'm gonna go talk to her."
"Lucas, don't!" AJ called out but it was too late he was already with Julie.
"Do you think we should follow him or?" Reggie asked them preparing to walk out of the garage but he was stopped by Alex, "Let's just give him a little more time with Julie," he replied smirking.
They waited for a couple of minutes eventually deciding that it was safe to go out. Nella grabbed Reggie's hand and Alex's arm leading them towards Julie and Luke only to overhear a bit of their conversation.
"Clearly your mom was into music,"
"Was. She passed away,"
"I am so sorry."
"Yeah, we-we didn't know," Alex added.
Nella looked down at her boots, discretely wiping her eyes. It may have been 25 years to Rose but it was only 25 hours to Nella. She had lost her life and her best friend.
"It's alright. You guys haven't seen her anywhere have you?" Julie questioned with a sad smile on her face.
"I wish," Nella muttered which only caused Julie's attention to divert from Alex to her.
Nella smiled softly at her feeling the hot tears cascading down her face, "Your Mom, Rose Martinez- Molina," She started correcting herself when she messed up the last name. Julie nodded only becoming more intrigued, "She was my best friend when we were alive," Julie stepped closer to Nella staring at her in awe, "Antonella Russo," she whispered smiling at the ghost.
"Rose was the only one that ever called me Antonella, she even gave me the nickname AJ." Nella looked Julie in her glossy eyes, drying hers. The ghost cleared her throat excusing herself from the group.
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Nella poofed onto the Orpheum overlooking all of the happy families and friends that walked by.
Her tears fell faster when she looked down. She was thinking about how she never got to say goodbye, not to Rose, Bobby or Andy, the people that duly cared for her.
She hoped that Andy and Bobby moved on, having families of their own and living out their dreams.
Maybe Rose was a ghost? Maybe they would bump into her in some music club or something, and maybe Nella would be able to reconnect with her in some way. She could only hope.
The faint woosh sound was heard and Nella looked behind her to see the 3 stooges had now joined her pity party.
"See I told you princess would be up here!" Luke exclaimed immediately taking AJ into his arms and giving her a big hug.
One of the only things that could cheer Nella up was Luke's hugs, he was like a human radiator. Funnily enough, even when they were dead he was still warm. Luke pulled away from the hug and kept Nella at arm's length giving her a beaming smile, "Julie said we could stay in the studio," which caused Nella to snap out of her post-sad state, she returned Luke's smile sitting down on the ledge of the Orpheum next to Reggie who placed his arm around her waist.
Her face heated up at the sight of a shirtless Reggie and she couldn't help but stare.
"I know being dead isn't our first choice but I mean it sure is easy getting around," Luke joked, his laughing subsiding when he noticed the harsh glare Alex was giving him.
"Easy for you to say! I lost my shirt on that one." Reggie complained before it poofed back onto his body.
"I was going to ask why you had no shirt."
"Don't lie you enjoyed it," Alex whispered to Nella who in return, smacked his arm.
"Okay. So why did you bring us here? Just another painful reminder of what we never got to play. Thanks, Luke."
"Pretty dick move Lucas,"
Luke rolled his eyes and scoffed at his bandmates and decided to enlighten them of his thoughts. "Well first of all I was looking for you," He directed at Nella.
"And the game isn't over yet," He motioned for them to poof down and so they did following him along the pathway. "I'm telling you we have been given a second chance! Let's find some music and see how many clubs we can hit before sunrise," He suggested which earnt noises of approval.
Luke, Reggie and Nella rushed ahead lingering when they noticed Alex still further behind them.
"Hey, Alex! You comin'?"
"Let's go!"
"C'mon Lex!"
And when Alex caught up with his friends, Sunset Curve proceeded to "hit the clubs."
They could all agree that apart from one or two bands/singers they heard, none of them even compared to Sunset Curve. Call it egotistical but they had a bond like no other, a bond that made their music stronger.
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Julie called out multiple times for her new ghost acquaintances waiting for at least of them to respond: when she realised she was alone she did the one thing she thought she would never have the guts to do again, she started to play the piano.
Here's one thing I want you to know
You got someplace to go
Life's a test, yes, but you go toe-to-toe
You don't give up, no, you grow
And you use your pain
'Cause it makes you "you"
Though I wish I could hold you through it
I know it's not the same
You got living to do
And I just want you to do it
So get up, get out, relight that spark
You know the rest by heart
Wake up, wake up if it's all you do
Look out, look inside of you
It's not what you lost
It's what you'll gain raising your voice in the rain
Wake up your dream and make it true
Look out, look inside of you
It's not what you lost
Relight that spark, time to come out of the dark
Wake up, wake up
Better wake those demons
Just look them in the eye
No reason not to try
Life can be a mess
I won't let it cloud my mind
I'll let my fingers fly
And I use the pain 'cause it's part of me
And I'm ready to power through it
Gonna find the strength, find the melody
'Cause you showed me how to do it
Get up, get out, relight that spark
You know the rest by heart
Wake up, wake up if it's all you do
Look out, look inside of you
It's not what you lost
It's what you'll gain raising your voice in the rain
Wake up your dream and make it true
Look out, look inside of you
It's not what you lost
Relight that spark, time to come out of the dark
Wake up, wake up
So wake that spirit, spirit
I wanna hear it, hear it
No need to fear it, you're not alone
You're gonna find your way, oh
Wake up, wake up if it's all you do
Look out, look inside of you
It's not what you lost
It's what you'll gain raising your voice in the rain
The 4 ghosts awoke from their peaceful slumber and hopped off the chairs and couches in the bar they crashed in last night poofing back to their studio only to hear Julie playing the piano.
Unknown to them, Julie was playing the last song her Mom wrote before she passed and she was loving every minute of it.
The spirits had helped encourage Julie to welcome music back into her life and she would be forever thankful.
Wake up your dream and make it true
Look out, look inside of you
When you feel lost
Relight that spark, time to come out of the dark
Wake up
Mm-mm, wake up
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