In a flash of white light, the four of us appear in the gym of Los Feliz High School, more than thrilled to watch Julie absolutely kill it and get back into the music program.
Darkness shrouds the entire gym, a single giant spotlight centered on a group of dancing Skittles flopping on the basketball court. Pop music fills the entire room, a catchy beat, I'll admit.
"What are you doing here?" Julie panics as her eyes land on us.
"We wanna see you stick it to the man!" Luke says excitedly, turning to us. "Isn't that right, guys?"
The giant smiles on all of our faces are enough of an answer, but Reggie's mind is clearly elsewhere. "Man, I miss high school."
We all follow his line of sight to the girls prancing around, and I roll my eyes. Crossing my arms, I scoff, "Really? Everyone knows the best part of school is learning, but if you wanna date a living Skittle, go ahead." All four stare at me almost in disgust. "What?"
Luke laughs, "Yeah, but not all of us are geniuses like you. You're a year younger than us and was gonna graduate with us. That's insane."
I brush my shoulder with a smirk, "OK, I am a genius. Your words, not mine." Reggie drapes an arm around my shoulder, and we watch the girls' performance until the end, cringing at their name and the principal's terrible pun. "Who names their band Dirty Candy? That's just gross."
"What are you waiting for?" Reggie asks, pointing to the stage as we all redirect our attention to Julie, her face showing nothing but worry. I can practically feel her nervousness, and I shiver with jitters. "This is your time!"
"Yeah. I mean, you look really nervous," Alex points out, soaking up her nerves. "Like yack in a bowl nervous."
"OK, yeah," I rush in front of the boys and push them back, figuring that them being here is only going to make her freak out more. "Enough of that."
"I just don't think I had enough time to work on the song," Julie admits, mostly to Luke.
Luke smiles knowingly, pride dripping from his tone. "I wouldn't have given you the song if I didn't think you were gonna rock it."
"Yeah," I agree with a beaming smile, pointing to the keyboard sitting all alone behind us. "Now, there's a piano on that stage with your name on it. You can do this! If not for you, do it for everyone who can't. Do it for us. Do it for your mom."
Julie takes a deep breath, and before we know it, she's sliding into the bench under the keyboard, letting her fingers slowly grace the keys as the butterflies in her stomach begin to calm down. She gives us one last glance, and I meet it with a kind smile, watching in anticipation as she plays the first notes and begins to sing.
"Sometimes I think I'm falling down
I wanna cry, I'm calling out
For one more try to feel alive.
And when I feel lost and alone
I know that I can make it home.
Fight through the dark and find spark."
"Life is a risk, but I will take it.
Close my eyes and jump.
Together, I think that we can make it.
C'mon let's run!"
Suddenly, the boys are no longer beside me but with Julie on stage, instruments in hand and already jamming out with her. The entire crowd gasps, and my mouth hangs open wide. Can everyone see them?
"And rise through the night, you and I
We will fight to shine together, bright forever!
And rise through the night, you and I
We will fight to shine together, bright forever!"
Next thing I know, Reggie poofs back to me and grabs my shoulders, and I'm suddenly standing in front of the crowd beside them, hovering over the keyboard. Reggie grins at me almost wickedly, and I know it's payback from last night.
Julie looks over to me and smiles brightly, and having memorized all of Luke's songs before we died, I play along, my fingers finding their second home with the keys. Realizing that everyone really can see us, Luke whispers something to Julie and sings into the mic.
"In times that I doubted myself
It felt like I needed some help.
Stuck in my head with nothing left!
I feel something around me now
So unclear, lifting me out.
I found the ground I'm marching on!"
We all join in, singing and swaying with the music, our music, and the crowd cheers, their phones filming everything and going wild when Julie walks right through Luke, his form looking like a glitched hologram.
"Life is a risk, but I will take it.
Close my eyes and jump.
Together, I think that we can make it
C'mon let's run!"
"And rise through the night, you and I
We will fight to shine together, bright forever!
And rise through the night, you and I
We will fight to shine together, bright forever!"
"In times that I doubted myself
It felt like I needed some help.
Stuck in my head with nothing left!"
"And when I feel lost and alone
I know that I can make it home.
Fight through the dark and find the spark!"
"And rise through the night, you and I
We will fight to shine together, bright forever!
And rise through the night, you and I
We will fight to shine together, bright forever!"
Adrenaline rushes through our veins and the crowd claps and cheers, but as soon as we bow, they gasp, asking where we went. They boys and I stand offstage, aside from the crowd, wondering what the heck just happened.
I shake my head and blink multiple times, even more convinced now that this whole charade has been a dream. "They could see us when we were playing, but not when the music ended? What?"
An idea pops into Reggie's head, "We should double check!" He races up the couple steps to the stage and shakes his butt in front of the crowd, unbeknownst to them, and I don't know whether to be completely disappointed in him or drop dead laughing. "Yeah, I don't think they can see us."
Alex does the former and mutters, "I wish I couldn't see you."
I pat Reggie's shoulder and we exit the gym, waiting down the hall for Julie as a girl with beautiful dark, long braids approaches her, seeming rather upset. Luke jumps between Alex and Reggie like a pyramid, and I bend over in front of them.
"Julie!" we all yell, and she screams and stumbles back.
"You! Stop doing that! I'm serious."
"Woah! This one's all on you," Reggie defends. "We were already here. Well, actually, we were over there, and then we came over here."
"Are we not gonna talk about what just happened?" Luke gushes.
"Yeah, the whole school saw you. It's kinda freaking me out."
"OK, good," Alex instantly buds in, stuttering a little, "'cause it's kinda freaking me out, too. You know, you could see us, and people could see us whenever we play music, and my clothes are made of air, but for some reason, I'm still getting a wedgie." Luke scrunches his face and pats Alex's back. "So many questions."
"The important thing is that we rocked that place. They were loving you!"
"Are you kidding?" Julie laughs, and I go to stand beside her, smiling with the rest of them. "They loved us. That was a great song, Luke. Thanks."
"Thank Izzy, too. It was all her idea." Reggie nudges me, but Alex remains trapped in his existential crisis.
"I'm so confused, you know? The afterlife should come with instructions or a quick start guide or something."
"Well, the good thing is that everyone thought you guys were holograms, and I got back into the program." I expect her to be brimming with excitement, but she looks the exact opposite.
"That's amazing! Why do you look so bummed?"
"Yeah, dude, you're making this face," says Luke as he pulls Alex and Reggie in, all of them putting on their ugliest frowns.
"That... is not my face," Julie declares with a hint of sass and the boys heavily disagree. "And things just got weird between me and Flynn. She asked about you guys, and I couldn't say."
Flynn! That's her name. Best friend is Flynn, got it.
"Sweet," Reggie whispers not-so slyly to Luke and he high-fives him down low. "Girls are already talking about us."
I roll my eyes and glare at him. "You're forgetting they're actually alive, Reg."
"Guys, I'm serious. I can't tell her about you guys for the same reason I can't tell my dad. She'll think I've gone off the deep end."
A school custodian drives his cart of brooms, mops, and sponges between the boys, and Reggie points at him, brows raised. "This dude definitely thinks you've gone off the deep end."
I laugh slightly, trying not to seem like I'm on the boys' side, and Julie returns to class.
Hours later, the four of us poof back into the studio, and Alex immediately begins pacing back and forth. I sit smooshed between Reggie and Luke on the couch, feet propped up on the table.
Reggie leans over to whisper, "I think he's practicing his model strut," and I bite back a laugh, Alex clearly upset over something.
Luke whispers back, "He's so nervous he's almost making me nervous."
"OK, look," Alex pauses, his face contorted and worried. "You guys know I don't handle change well. Alright? Death? That was a change. OK? Then we became ghosts. Alright? Another change. And now we can be seen whenever we play with Julie? Big freaking change!"
"Yeah, but it's a good change," I assure him. "You guys can play again. That's amazing!"
Reggie clears his throat and corrects, "Excuse me, but we can play again. That includes you, Izzy. Let's not pretend you didn't shred on that piano."
I look away, hiding the blush that's crawling up my cheeks, and stand up, announcing that I'm going to check up on Julie before walking out of the garage. I'm not the biggest fan of the whole teleportation thing right now. I'm trying to be as normal as possible, so I'd rather walk shorter distances.
When I reach Julie's bedroom, I knock quietly, but no one answers. I stick my head through the door and peek around, finding the room being completely empty. I drift through, my feet wandering until I stop right in front of the box Luke was checking out yesterday. Curiosity must be contagious.
I glance around as if waiting for Julie to walk in and catch me, but after a couple seconds of silence, I stare at the box and bring my hands up, but they go straight through. I try again, concentrating as hard as I can and imagining myself pulling the cover open, and to my amazement, it busts right open, tiny shreds of paper bursting out.
I bend down and collect them all, my eyes catching an interesting lyric, and I smile, another idea popping into my head. Quickly, I close the box, shoving all the pieces of paper back in, pretending I was never here, and race down to rejoin the boys. Not bothering to try to open the wide doors and nearly drained from simply opening a small wooden box, I run through the wall.
To my surprise, Luke and Reggie have their instruments out, strumming random chords and riffing off each other.
"And Sunset Curve is reborn! Oh, hey, Izzy," Reggie smiles, his bass hanging from his neck.
"I have another brilliant idea," I beam, twirling and taking a seat on the couch beside them. "Remember that box from yesterday, Luke? It's got a bunch of random lyrics and poems in it, and I found this awesome one that we could make into a song. People can see us when we play. We play the song with Julie for Flynn. Bam! Problem solved, and everyone's besties again!"
"Sounds rad."
The boys look at each other and nod, surprised and impressed. "That's actually a really great idea," Luke muses and I hand him the slip of paper.
Reggie and Luke return to their instruments, and I join them on the grand piano, the three sounds coming together in perfect harmony.
Suddenly, Julie slips through the doors, closing them gently behind her. "Guys, you aren't supposed to be out here playing alone."
"But we're not alone, 'cause we always have each other," Reggie grins boyishly, tossing his arm around my shoulders as Luke hugs us from behind.
Still, Julie walks through the studio, unplugging everything that amplified our awesomeness.
"We've actually been waiting for you to get home. OK, so we have some pretty major news to tell you. We had a band meeting earlier, and...," Luke confesses, his smile growing by the second as Reggie does a drumroll on his legs. "We wanna invite you to join Sunset Curve. And no, you're not dreaming."
"Oh..." Julie doesn't seem too excited, and I pull her aside, urging the boys to turn around so I can talk to her.
Unraveling the small sheet of paper, I show her my idea. "Before you get mad, yes, I was in your room, 'cause I wanted to make sure you were OK, but I kinda sorta stumbled into your dream box and found these great lyrics and I know how to help you makeup with Flynn."
The thoughts spill out of my mouth like an endless word, and she's fuming. She takes a deep breath, "First, I'm mad at you. You guys know I need boundaries! And second, I wrote that about Flynn when she was helping me with mom stuff. It's not a whole song."
"Yes," I hint, "but it could be... Luke's an awesome songwriter, and the boys and I were already working on something... Pretty please, let us do this for you."
She nods slowly and glances over at the boys peeking over their shoulders. "OK, I trust you. I just gotta get her over here, which is gonna be really hard since she won't even text me back."
We rejoin Reggie and Luke, and Luke re-asks his question, making Julie storm out in frustration. The boys and I drift back toward the piano, Luke grabbing his songbook. I take a seat on the bench, resting my elbows on the cover, and Reggie hovers beside me.
Luke chews on his pen and sings, "Guess that means I'm buying lunch that day. I know all your secrets. You know all my deep dish. Guess that means that some things..."
"Wait, so..." Reggie stops, putting on his best thinking face. "When she says, 'deep dish,' is she talking about, like, pizza, or..."
I shake my head, not even bothering to respond. Boys...
Suddenly, Alex poofs in, his legs dangling over the edge of the piano and butt planted firmly on Luke's songbook.
"Oh! Oh, hey man. Where you been?" Reggie beams, his previous question having completely left his mind.
"Um, kind of everywhere," Alex smiles. "Yeah. No, I met a new ghost friend. Yeah, he answered a ton of questions."
"Like whether Julie was gonna join the band or not?" Luke asks sarcastically as he yanks his book away, and I elbow him, giving him a 'not now' glare.
Wary, Alex responds, "Um... Well, we didn't really get to that, but I think I know why we're here. OK? All ghosts have, like, unfinished business. So, we need to do our unfinished business so that we can cross over."
Luke and I share a look, slightly worried. I just got another potential chance at life. Why would I want to cross over? Luke said my thoughts aloud, and we show Alex what we've been working on, though he's slightly hurt that he wasn't present as our drummer.
"You know what else is 'so 90's?' Being rude. Alright? Get woke. These are sensitive times," Alex fires, his demeanor flipping when he leans and whispers to Reggie and me, "Learned that from my ghost friend."
"Woke. That's a cool word," Reggie and I repeat, excited. "What does it mean?"
"No clue."
The four of us go back to perfecting our new song, and I immediately know Julie will love it. Hopefully, it'll help get Flynn on board, too, but I can't even think otherwise. I'm so excited to finally be completely included in the boys' music and even play with them.
Luke was right. This is a second chance. We'll finally be the band the boys never got to be.
---
New update! It's a little longer than I thought it would be, but that's okay. Not many Reggie moments in this, but the band played, Izzy's getting involved, and things are starting to work out and get rolling. Reggie is definitely not giving on up helping Izzy embrace her awesomeness, that's for sure!
Thanks for reading! Tell me what you think, and vote and comment!
-Kait 🧡