WHEN WE ARRIVE at the park, Alex and Reggie are waiting at a bench, serenading a random couple. Leave it to them to do that. Honestly speaking, that's pretty sweet.
"Hey! What took you so long?" Reggie asks, hopping down from a table.
"Not everyone can zap across space," I remind.
"Right, we're sorry for leaving you behind," Alex says. "Now that we're all here, let's go meet Willie."
I see a teenage boy with long, dark hair skateboarding near some cops. "Hey, good day officers!"
He spots Alex and skates over. "Hey! What's up man? You brought friends."
"Yeah. These are my bandmates, uh Luke and Reggie," Alex introduces them.
"Hey. Cool, I'm Willie." He offers a hand and Luke shakes it. I lean out from behind Luke so Willie can see me. He freezes and his brown eyes widen. "Oh my God I thought you were...what are you doing here?"
The next thing I know I'm being hugged by a strange ghost.
And the hug is pretty tight.
I freeze up, flapping my hands around as a signal for release.
"Whoa! Hey, hands off," Luke says after the hug becomes a little prolonged. "You only just met her."
"Who, Adelaide? No, we go waaaay back," Willie says. He claps me on the shoulder, then pulls me aside. "How did you escape? I don't understand, I really thought you were..."
"My name's Lila Mae," I cut in, "not Adelaide. I think you have me mistaken for someone else."
His face falls for a second, then an understanding passes over him. "Oh, yeah, no I get it. There are a lot of people in this world. They say you have seven doppëlgangers."
The boy fidgets with his choker.
"Sure," I back away and notice that Luke and Reggie have moved closer to me.
Alex looks confused, like Willie doesn't normally behave this way.
"Lila's a lifer," Alex explains, "she's like Julie except she can touch ghosts too."
"Sick." The nonchalant skater attitude slips back as quickly as it left. "So...you guys here to learn some tricks?"
He swings his fingers in the direction of the police and their sirens begin blaring, lights flashing. They rush over to figure out what went wrong.
Willie grins mischievously.
"Do it again! Do it again!" Reggie cheers once they stop.
I shake my head. He's like a child.
"Actually, we were thinking of doing something a little bigger," Luke says. "An old bandmate stole from us. We wanna confront him face-to-face."
"All right. Is this, uh, old friend of yours a lifer?" Willie asks.
"Oh, he's a lifer," Reggie says with contempt, crossing his arms. "Too much of a fancy-pants for street dogs."
"Yeah, I'm sorry," Willie says, "speaking to lifers is even out of my league."
"We can speak to Lila Mae," Luke points out.
"That's probably because I died and came back to life," I explain to Willie. "It's a long story."
He raises his eyebrows. "There is one ghost who might be able to help you guys. He's kind of a big deal."
"Literally anything would help," Luke says in a pleading tone.
"Oh, all right. Um, well I gotta go take care of some things, but I'll meet you at the place Alex and I met, 8 o'clock."
"Okay," Luke agrees.
"See ya!" Willie dashes away.
"Guys, the dance is at 9:00. Do you think you can make it?" I ask. "Julie will be really hurt if you don't show."
"Yeah, we'll be fine," Alex assures me. "I trust Willie."
I wince. "No offense, but he doesn't pass the vibe check with me."
"Vibe check?" Luke asks.
"Yeah," I say. "Something feels off. And it's familiar...I don't know. I just have a really bad feeling."
"I know Willie better than you do, Lila," Alex says, getting hurt, "he would never hurt me. He would never hurt us."
"I don't think I want to do this," I say. "If you decide to go, you're on your own. I will tell Julie what happened if you are late."
"Lila Mae!" Luke groans.
"It's only fair," I protest. "Thanks to you, I have to lie to everyone about this."
"You volunteered to come, okay?" Alex says, upset. "No one forced you into this."
He's clearly hurt that I think Willie can't be trusted. Poor Alex is already emotionally connected.
"I came to keep you from doing stupid stuff," I spit, "obviously that didn't work out."
They watch me stalk away, but then I have to turn back. I forgot I have no money. No transportation.
"Luke, I need more money to get home," I admit, face pink.
"Here." He shoves some bills into my hand. "You're not willing to help us so you can go alone. Goodbye, Lila."
I take the money tearfully and stomp to the nearest bus stop. I'm wiping my eyes tearfully as my bodies seizes up for another flashback.
"Will you please just listen to me!" a girl who looks similar to me tries to reason. "We can't just sneak out of the house."
Annoyance radiates from my body as I snatch up a leather jacket, roughly tossing it around my shoulders.
"Mom and Dad don't understand, okay?" I sputter, shoving stuff into my bag. "They don't get our love for music. So what they grounded us? This could be our big chance. We're going tonight."
"I don't want to," she says. "There will be other chances."
"But what if they're aren't?" I practically yell. "What if this is it and we spend the rest of our lives regretting it? What then?"
"We'll be safe! Our parents won't hate us!" she shouts back.
"Oh, they'll never hate you!" I snap. "You're the good kid, the favorite."
She's silent. She stares at me and guilt creeps up on me then bites, gnawing away at my insides. Finally, she speaks.
"It doesn't feel right."
I gasp, eyes rolling in my head as my body snaps back to life. A woman sitting near me at the bus stop gives me a strange look, probably assuming that I'm on drugs.
The bus I need is already there, so I stumble on.
"Can you please pay?" someone says in an annoyed tone. "You can't ride the bus unless you pay."
"Sorry, sir," I murmur to the bus driver, dropping the appropriate amount of cash into the jar.
I'm trembling as I sit down. This bus is exactly like the other one, but there's something missing.
Or someone.
I pull my legs up to my chest and rest my chin on my knees.
"Are you alright, dear?" a sweet elderly lady asks me.
"I'm having a bit of a bad day," I tell her. "I had a fight with my friends and I can feel a migraine coming...I'll be fine though."
"Would you like some medicine?" she gets out a bottle of something.
"No, thank you," I reply.
I know better than to take pills from strangers, no matter how innocent and kind they seem.
When the bus is a few blocks away from home, I hop off. I don't want my foster parents to know I rode the bus instead of walking over with Julie. Hanging out with her is my cover in case they ask any questions.
"Hello, Lila Mae. How was your day?" Taylor asks me when I unlock the door. "It's nice that you've made friends and you're performing at the dance."
"Yeah. I'm really looking forward to it," I say, sarcasm seeping through the cracks.
She frowns. "Please change your tone."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out like that," I apologize. "I'm having a headache so it's making it hard for me to be cheerful."
"Oh, maybe you shouldn't be going to a dance then," Taylor says. "They'll have loud music. It would irritate you."
"No, no," I reply with a wave of my hand. I'm digging through the medicine cabinet for an Advil. "The feeling will fade. I just need to take a pill or two."
She frowns again, but doesn't argue. "Know that you can always call me if you need me."
"I know, thank you. Can you wake me up when it's time to go?"
"Sure."
When I'm in my room I can hear Mr. Williams pull into the driveway. Sunset Curve's "Now or Never" is playing loud enough for me to hear and Daniel is totally rocking it out with Blake and Mia.
To my horror I find that I can't hold the emotions in anymore. I grip my pillow and I shake, trying to still my body. My mascara is staining the pillowcase, but right now it's all I can do not to scream. I wish I could tell Daniel and Taylor about everything. My memories, the band, Luke.
I can't.
They'll send me to a therapist who will decide I'm relapsing into my insanity. I'll never get to play with Julie, Alex, Reggie, or Luke. My life will go back to that of a robot.
I can't live like this.
There's only one thing I can do.
I walk over to the keyboard by my wall. I'm limited to this instrument since I left my guitar at Julie's house. I'm sure she'll bring it to the dance.
I begin to write a song. It's not an upbeat one that would fit at the dance, but it's what I'm feeling.
I'm still crying as I sing and play. At least it's more controlled.
Eventually I've finished the new song and it's already 8 p.m. I should be heading over to the dance soon to set up the stage. I practice a couple of upbeat songs to get myself in the mood.
My makeup is utterly disgusting so I wipe away the runny mascara, tears, and snot. I apply a hefty amount of concealer under my eyes to hide how puffy and pink it is. There. That'll do.
"Lila Mae? Can I come in?" Teresa asks as she taps on the door.
"Sure," I say.
The ten-year-old walks in with a beautiful white dress. "Mom said to bring this to you. You can wear it if you like."
Teresa looks so happy so I don't have the heart to tell her the dance is supposed to be more casual. I take the dress from her and thank her. She leaves the room for me to try it on and I find that Taylor knows my exact size.
"You're pretty!" Teresa compliments me when she sees me wearing the dress.
"Thank you," I say to her. We walk downstairs after I send a text to Julie reminding her to bring my guitar.
"Oh, how beautiful!" Mrs. Williams exclaims. "I knew it would fit! Are you ready to go?"
"Yes," I tell her.
She drops me off at the school and Teresa and Mia wave goodbye. They wanted to come along to send me off.
"Hey, Julie! Hey, Flynn!" I call to them once I reach the Gym. "I like what you've done to the place."
"Thanks! I shouldn't take all the credit though, it wasn't just me," Flynn says.
People begin to pour in closer to the time of the dance, and Flynn starts her DJ thing.
"Do we have any Bobcats in the house?" Flynn calls into the microphone. "Everybody make some noise!"
Everyone cheers.
I chuckle. Obviously there are Bobcats in the house, we're at the school dance.
"Okay, okay, okay. Maybe not too much noise," Flynn says, calming the crowd. "There's an anger management meeting down the hall."
The crowd laughs and Flynn leaves the DJ booth to talk to us.
"How you feeling?" she asks.
"I'm a little nervous," Julie confesses.
"Me too," I say, feeling butterflies in my stomach. It isn't about performing though, it's about whether or not the boys will make it back in time.
"You'll be fine," Flynn assures us. "All your gear's backstage. C'mon!"
I follow Julie around the side and climb the steps to the stage.
"Oh my gosh, you both look amazing!" Flynn compliments. "Are those new outfits?"
"Thanks, it's my mom's," Julie tells her. "I finally went through her old stuff."
"Taylor bought this for me," I say.
"Well you both look cute! Julie, your mom would've loved that you wore that," Flynn says kindly. She straightens up and brushes her hair back, looking around. "Are the guys here?"
"No, but they will be," Julie promises. "They know how important this is to me."
"Yeah," I say, scared. "They better be here."
When 9 p.m. rolls around, the boys are still nowhere to be seen. I knew they shouldn't have gone with Willie to meet that ghost. It gave me bad vibes and I'm getting bad vibes now.
"Is everybody fired up for Julie, Lila, and the Phantoms?" Flynn asks into the microphone. Everyone claps and shouts in excitement. "Great! Keep that fire, 'cause that's later. We're a little behind on schedule. But don't worry, just listen to this awesome tunes!"
It will be a huge let-down if we can't give them the phantoms.
Julie and I exchange a frightful look.
"Where are they?" she asks rhetorically.
"They bailed on us to get revenge on Bobby," I blurt, wincing at the impact of the words.
"What?" She is shocked. "How could they do that? They know how important this is...and you-you knew?"
"I met Alex's new ghost friend at the park, it was weird. Something is going on." I divulge this information with a frown. "I don't trust Willie. He took them to some club at 8 for them to meet the all-powerful ghost."
"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Julie asks, angry. "Maybe we could have stopped them!"
"I don't think there is anything that you could have done," I say. "I tried to stop them, but they had their mind set."
"Great, just great," Julie grumbles.
Nick appears and I leave to let them have some alone time.
I get the bad feeling that we're going to fly solo tonight.
Don't worry, I have a plan and all will be revealed soon! Who do you think Adelaide is? Please recommend this to others if you like it.
xoxo,
Lynn