AFTER PERFECTING THE most recent addition to my song repertoire, I dig out an old pop song that I wrote. It doesn't look like it has been finished, but I can tell that it is meant for a duo.
"This is supposed to be a song for two girls to sing, so I was thinking Julie and I could do this," I say. "I can use the mix board to make it sound even better. We can harmonize on the chorus."
I sing the melody and Julie nods.
"Yeah, we can sing a low harmony when it's not our turn to have the attention," she says.
Ironically, the song is called 'Wow' like Dirty Candy's band. I picked it to prove that you don't have to be egotistical about every song that you write.
That's clearly a lesson that Carrie hasn't learned.
After rehearsing that song for about thirty minutes our drummer finally chooses to show up.
"Oh. Hey, Alex," Reggie greets him.
Luke cuts to the chase. "Where have you been, man? We need to start practicing."
"Yeah? For what?" Alex asks as Flynn makes her grand entrance.
"Dance news!" she declares, grinning. "I don't have a date. Buuuut, I don't care because I'm so psyched to see you guys perform."
"Oh, man. We're playing a dance?" Alex questions in a tone that makes me feel insulted.
Luke says something before I can step in. "Of course, dude. That's how we get a following nowadays."
"Yeah, get with the program, Alex," Julie teases.
"Maybe you would have known if you were here earlier," I add, shrugging my shoulders, "just saying."
"What? The guys are here?" Flynn asks excitedly. She turns in the opposite direction to greet them. "Hey, guys!"
I grab her shoulders and turn her as Julie says, "The other way, sweetie."
"Oh." Flynn turns and waves. Alex and Reggie wave back in a friendly way.
"OK, well now that Alex has graced us with his presence, can we start working?" Luke asks.
Since he was the lead singer for Sunset Curve, Luke is used to being the boss. That may have worked in '95, but we are going to have problems if Luke treats me like that. I don't like being told what to do. That's why I almost missed my opportunity to get into the music program.
"Yes! We're gonna rehearse," Julie replies.
I feel bad for Flynn because she can't hear the other end of the conversation. The poor girl must be so confused, but she isn't handling it badly.
"Do you wanna stick around?" I ask her, aware that she might not want to waste her time.
"I'm supposed to blow up 500 balloons for the school dance, but this sounds way better," Flynn tells us.
"Hey, Julie!" Carlos interrupts, "Remember those orbs in Dad's pictures? I...I think they're ghosts."
Oh, no. This could be a problem.
He shows his older sister the pictures. "But don't worry, this room is...this room is clean. I'm not getting the ghost tinglies."
"Wrong again, little dude." Reggie grins.
I cover a snort of laughter. Luke grins as well and looks between them.
"Have no fear! If they come back, I will protect you, because I am the man of the house," her brother says.
"Isn't Dad supposed to be the man of the house?" Julie asks to humor him, crossing her arms.
"There can be two!" Carlos protests before leaving. We chuckle to ourselves. "And Dad needs all the help he can get, right? According to the internet, salt burns their souls out."
Carlos reveals a salt shaker with a flourish of his hand and the boys' faces fall, shifting to ones of fear.
"A little sprinkle will keep them from ever coming in here," he promises.
"Are you sure you want to waste the salt?" I jump in. "You can't believe everything you read on the internet."
"The internet says ghosts exist and no one believed that," Carlos shoots back. "They clearly do and I'm not taking any chances."
Before we can stop him, he shakes the salt around, spraying Alex who screams in terror.
"No!!" Alex pulls his arms to his chest as protection. "Oh, God I'm..."
We all stare in horror, waiting for him to vaporize or something.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," he announces, "I'm totally fine."
Julie looks to Flynn for her to distract Carlos. She catches on.
"Oh! Carlos, you know who's hungry? Me," Flynn says, "Um, salt me a path to the kitchen."
The two leave the studio, and we exhale.
"Phew," Alex murmurs.
"Shall we try this again?" I ask.
"Yes, please," Luke says, "but remind us later, there are some Sunset Curve songs I wanna show you."
"Not 'Now or Never,'" I say with a horrified shake of my head.
"No, not 'Now or Never,'" he chuckles.
"Why not just show us now?" Julie suggests.
"Okay," Luke replies, rushing to get everything ready. "'Home is where my horse is?' Reggie, stop putting your country songs in my journal."
"That was a gift," Reggie says. I grin. Gotta love Reg.
"Thanks, buddy." Luke claps him on the back with his journal.
"You've got one too?" I ask. "Why didn't you mention that before when I showed you mine?"
"It just didn't feel like the right time," Luke replies. "I dog-eared the ones that I think you would slay."
"I think maybe we should circle back..." Reggie continues.
I shake my head, laughing as I open Luke's journal. One page catches my eye. "Who's Emily?"
I hold it out for Julie to skim the page too.
"That one's not dog-eared." Luke lurches forward for his notebook and I get the impression that he's scared.
"Well now I have to know," I reply, then read out a line. "'If you could only know that I never let you go.' Awww, that's so sweet Lukey. This girl must have been pretty special."
I try to lose this feeling of jealousy, but it seems to creep back without permission.
"Wow, Luke, I didn't know you were such a romantic," Julie teases as we hover over his journal like gossip girls.
"He's not. That ones actually about---" Alex starts.
"---No one." Luke cuts in with panic. He pauses and composes himself, hiding his feelings. "Uh, that's just something that I tried, and..."
He leans forward as if to grab it and I jerk away, spinning so only I have a view of the pages.
"But if you go to the next dog-eared page, I got a tune that's just...it's got a killer beat," Luke continues.
"But I wanna read this one," I pout.
He steps closer to me, closer than I'm used to when we aren't on stage. "Please."
I can't resist his brown eyes so I sigh. "Fine. You can show me that song. I won't pry."
He mouths the words, "Thank you."
Luke begins demonstrating a piece of the next song.
"So you wanna sample," Julie concludes after he plays a riff.
"What do you mean 'sample?'" Luke scoffs.
Alex, Reggie, and I look at her in confusion. We aren't completely used to all of the lingo.
"Me and my mom used to sing that song at the top of our lungs in the car all the time," Julie says. "It's a classic Trevor Wilson song."
"Who's that?" I ask at the same time Luke says, "Nope. It's a classic our song."
"Pure Sunset Curve. Never even heard of Trevor Wilson," Reggie adds.
"Yeah, maybe you're mixing it up, you know, with another song," Alex suggests.
"I don't mix up songs. Trust me," Julie says with a laugh. "Me and his daughter used to be best friends. I used to hang out at their place all the time. I know that song."
"OK?" Alex replies.
"Here, I'll prove it." Julie turns and grabs her laptop to pull up the songs. "His first album had a bunch of hits, but none of his latest stuff is that good."
The boys lean over it in shock.
"That's Bobby," Luke says.
"Seriously, I just told you his name is Trevor Wilson," Julie says, getting a little annoyed.
"OK, great. Then...he changed it, all right?" Alex tells us. "That's definitely Bobby! He was our rhythm guitarist."
Julie scoffs in disbelief. "Trevor Wilson was in your band?"
"I would believe it," I say.
"I just can't get over how old he looks," Alex says, squinting at the screen, still trying to process this news.
"It's how old you guys are," I point out.
"Hey! We're hotter than that!" Luke is offended.
"Oh...he looks like a substitute teacher," Alex says with disgust.
"Julie..." Luke begins, "what were his other hits?"
I have a feeling Luke already knows.
"'Get Lost'," Julie tells him.
"Yeah. I wrote that," Luke says, his eyebrows forming a pronounced frown. The corners of his mouth dip down and I see he's lost the happy spark from a few minutes ago when he said he wanted to show me his songs.
"Well, we know they're your songs," I try to comfort him, "and I've never heard them, so you'll get to see my real reaction."
"It's not the same." Luke ducks out of his guitar, swinging the strap over his head as he walks away.
"'Long Weekend'?" Julie asks.
"Yeah, Luke wrote that one too," Reggie confirms.
Julie widens her eyes. "'Crooked Teeth'?"
"And that," Alex replies. "It was about Reggie."
"What?" Reggie asks, "I thought it was about you!"
Luke is pacing in the corner of the room. "I don't like that song anymore."
I know why. All of his hard work has been stolen and not just that, but it's his heart and soul! You pour yourself out into your music. Having that taken away from him and someone else taking the credit must feel awful. I already feel sick thinking about it.
"Wait," Julie says, "this is...freaking me out. Trevor's songs are kinda big to me. He's the one who introduced me to rock."
"Yeah. Luke introduced you to rock." Alex gestures at his friend.
From the expression on Luke's face it takes every fiber of my being not to run over and hug him. I don't know why. I've never really wanted to be all compassionate and lovey-dovey. It's not my thing. This feels strange.
"So this whole time, I thought you were connected to my mom," Julie says as Luke pitches something against the wall. It makes a sharp thunk. "But instead you're connected to Carrie's dad?"
"Oh my God, Carrie?" I ask in disbelief. "That brat?"
Julie nods. "Out of all people it had to be the one girl who has it out for me."
I turn to the boys. "She's such an entitled rich kid! Carrie thinks she owns the school so she owns us and can boss us around. I saw her making fun of Julie on the first day when she was nervous to sing. No wonder they're related."
I shut up as I realize I'm not helping things.
"All right, well, add it to our list of questions," Alex says with exasperation.
"Back when Carrie and I were friends, the three of us used to talk about music all the time," Julie tells us. Luke throws something against the wall again. "He never mentioned you guys."
Ouch, that has got to hurt.
"And that's unbelievable!" Luke exclaims, swinging his arm harder before turning. "Okay, he can take all the credit and he doesn't even mention us?"
"And he's rich." Julie reminds. "He has his own helicopter."
"What?" I gasp.
Luke groans and screams. I want to say something that could help, but I don't know what. People aren't really my department. A song might work better. Hmmmm...
"He has...he has...a helicopter?" Alex clarifies.
"With his face on it," Julie confirms.
"How traumatizing," I mutter.
"And he parks it in front of that hotel?" Alex asks.
"No. He gets to park it in front of his mansion," Julie says.
I laugh and they look at me. "Wait, you're not being sarcastic?"
Julie shakes her head. My jaw drops.
"Mansion?" Reggie squeaks.
"Dude, we live in a garage," Alex says, angry at this injustice.
"It's not about the money, it's about the music!" Luke declares. I knew that's how he feels. While Luke may go on and on about fame and act all cocky, he's really connected to his music. It's a part of him.
"It's a little bit about the money though!" Reggie argues.
"A little bit about the money," Alex mimics in a higher voice.
"He could have shared it with our families. Maybe then my parents wouldn't have had their house turned into a bike shack," Reggie tells us.
I grimace. This Trevor Wilson guy is bad.
"What he did is steal our legacy," Luke replies, fired up. His eyes grow dark and his voice lowers dangerously. "Where does he live?"
Julie looks up innocently, uncomfortable with where this is going.
"Whoever this guy is, he deserves what's coming to him," I say with a nod at Luke.
"Above the beach in Malibu," Julie replies.
Luke bumps shoulders with Alex. "Let's go teach him a lesson."
"Wait, what?" Julie yells. "Guys!"
I grab her arm. "Let them. They need this."
"But we have to rehearse for the dance, this is our first gig!" Julie reminds me.
"Oh, yeah!" I remember. "You can get your revenge later."
They teleport away and we sigh in exasperation.
"I guess we have to go ghost hunting like Carlos," I say.
Julie smiles grimly.
Hello again! Thanks for sticking with me until chapter ten! If anyone is interested, I have been writing the songs mentioned in JATP that weren't sung. "Crooked Teeth" is out now in my story labeled "Songs I Wrote for Julie and the Phantoms" if you wanna check that out. There is also another song that I wrote for the sequel to Blank Slate.
xoxo,
Lynn