SUDDENLY, I SAW THREE idiotic ghost boys poof outside of the garage. "Go inside." I pushed my brother to the door, earning a strange glare from him in return.
I walked over to the three stooges before catching what they were talking about. "I think the first thing we should do, once we get the courage to go in there, is ask Julie about playing the piano."
"Yea, y'know, maybe tell her how amazing she is." Alex shrugged, his hands still in his pockets.
"She is pretty amazing, isn't she?" A small smile formed on my face as I approached the boys.
"Ah! Don't do that!" Reggie put his hand over his chest, checking how fast his heart was beating.
"Now you know how it feels." I shrugged. Before I could get an answer, we were distracted by the sound of footsteps.
A crying Flynn now stood in front of me. "What are you doing out here? You know what, I don't care, you need to be apart of this conversation too." She took my arm, pulling me into the garage. Before we got far, I turned to look at the boys and mouthed 'help me', only to receive thumbs up and reassurance that it'll be great.
"Carlos told me you'd be out here." Julie glanced up from her sheet music to me and Flynn. "We need to talk. All of us."
"Are you okay? Is she okay?" Julie pointed at Flynn, causing me to shrug and turn my attention back to the emotional teen.
"No, I'm not okay! You just got kicked out of music! I've been up all night thinking about what I was gonna say. I might've drinken seven sodas, but I need to get this out."
Seeing as this conversation didn't really involve me, I stood there, glancing around the room. That was until I caught sight of three heads peering through the garage windows, causing my eyes to grow wide. "And you." I slowly turned to Flynn, her finger pointed right at me. "Why didn't you tell us you had a brother?"
"Wait, you have a brother? Why didn't you tell me? I'm your sister." Julie looked at me with hurt.
"I just wanted to make sure it was true before I said anything, but it seems legit." I shrugged my shoulders. "I have a brother. Same dad, different mom, but he's still my brother." That felt weird to say. Mom. That woman isn't my mom, she didn't raise me. My mother is Rose Molina.
"This is big news! I'm so happy for you, Bee!" Julie jumped up, hugging me.
I pulled away after a second, turning to Flynn. "Wait, how'd you know?"
"Well, I was in your room looking at-" She held out a piece of paper.
"You went through my memory box?" I shouted, quickly realizing that the paper in her hand was my brothers file I had printed out.
"It's nothing personal, Bee."
"It is something personal, Flynn. You went through my memory box. I keep everything that gives me a reason to live in there, and you just went through it like it was nothing?" I snatched the paper from her hand before speeding into the house, not even stopping to take a peek at the three ghosts trying to talk to me.
I didn't do my normal routine when I got to school. Instead of going over to Julie and Flynn, I went to my locker and sat next to it.
I put my headphones in before pulling my hood up, wrapping my arms around my legs, which were tucked into my chest, before closing my eyes. It was almost as if I had no worries in the world, until I felt something nudge my shoe. I looked up to see the one and only, Nick. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." I replied, sticking my earbud back into my ear. When he didn't walk away, I pulled it back out. "Problem?"
"Clearly somethings wrong, you never act like this." I sighed, pulling the other earbud from my ear.
"I'm fine, Nicholas."
"No you're not, Isabelle." I slightly smiled at that. Before I could think, he was sitting next to me on the ground. "We don't have to talk about it, but I'm here if you need to."
"Thanks, Nick. It means a lot." Don't get me wrong, I hate Carrie, but Nick and I are... acquaintances. I help him practice for lacrosse before big games. Actually, he's been there ever since I can remember, meaning he knows about mom.
"So, what you up to this weekend?"
"Not much, I'll probably just chill with some guys." Nick looked at his shoes.
"Oh."
"Not like, boyfriend. Like some guys that are friends. All we're gonna do is sing, I bet." I shrugged.
"Oh yea, about that-"
"Nick, get over here!" Carrie took Nick by the arm, pulling him away from me. He turned and gave me an apologetic look while mouthing, 'I'm sorry'.
I went through the rest of my day just like that, tired and sad. I finally got home and went straight to my room. I was relaxing on my bed, reading Boy In A Band which, coincidentally, I had started reading before I even met the guys. Anyway, that's when I heard what sounded like a frustrated groan come from Julies room.
I walked to Julies room, knocking. "Julie?" When I walked in, there was no Julie, but there were three boys. "What are you guys doing in here?" I walked in, closing the door behind me. "If Julie finds you in here, she's gonna be furious."
"Relax. She won't be mad." Luke said, confidentially.
I sighed, walking over to her bed and plopping onto it, face down. Reggie, who was already laying on the bed, turned to me. "You okay, Bee?"
I looked at him, turning onto my back. "Yea, just annoyed." I stared at the ceiling while Reggie imitated the motion of making a snow angel, instead of his hand bumping my side, it would glide right through me.
"What are you guys doing in my room?"
"Nothing!" I retaliated, forgetting that I'm actually alive and not a ghost.
"Uh we, we were looking for the kitchen?" Luke gestured to the three of them.
"Wow, way to throw me under the bus." I rolled my eyes at him.
"Oh, this, this can't happen." She looked at me after looking to the guys. "It's creepy. Get off my bed, please." Reggie jumped off of her bed, making me frown a little.
"Hey, Julie?" When I looked to Luke, he was raising his hand. "What's in the box?" He pointed to Julies dream box.
"That's off limits."
"Oh." Luke chuckled. "Girl stuff." He said to Alex, making me give him a glare.
"Oh, like butterflies and glitter?" I scoffed at what Reggie said. "What? There's butterflies and glitter in your box thing."
"What? You went through my stuff?" I was getting mad all over again. "You know what, Belle, remain calm. They're ghosts." I breathed, calming myself.
"I'm sorry about them." Alex gave both Julie and I a look of guilt.
"It's none of your business what's in there. And yes, there might be some glitter." Reggie wore a proud smirk.
"Hey! I actually picked something up!" Alex walked over to the bed with the picture frame he managed to pick up before dropping it on my hand, causing me to pull it back in pain. "I- I dropped it."
"Ya think?" I shook my hand, in hopes the pain would go away.
"Wait, is that your mom?" Luke asked, looking at the picture.
"Yes, and it's my favorite picture of us. So if you break it, I'll break you." She took the picture from the spot on the bed and moved it to her side table.
"Well, sorry, but we're kind of unbreakable at this point." Alex pointed out.
"This makes no sense, you guys can go through our stuff, pick up your instruments-" I got cut off.
"Mess up my bed." Julie pointed out.
"Mess up Julies bed, but you can't pick up anything else?"
"I know right, it's hard. But for some reason, our instruments- easy."
"Yea." Reggie tagged in. "Like super easy. Oh, check out what I learned today." He looked down at me, smirking. Faster than I can blink, a guitar appeared in his hands, knocking him back onto Julies beanbag.
"Yea, that looked super easy." Julie said, sarcastically.
"Yea, but it's like I always thought. Our instruments are connected to our souls." Luke gave us a smile.
"Hey." Our dad walked into the room, causing me to jump. Reggie did some sort of backflip off of the beanbag, and Alex grabbed onto Luke's hand.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yea. What? Yea, we're fine. Right, Jules?" I gave him a convincing smile.
"Yea." Except her response didn't seem as convincing.
"Thought I heard you girls talking to somebody." He shrugged.
"Oh, you know what it was? We were watching a scary movie on Julies laptop and we were telling the people to look behind them." I shrugged, thinking up the best excuse I could.
"Oh, okay." He laughed. "If you two need anything." He pointed downstairs before gesturing to the door, in a way of asking if she wanted it closed or not.
"Yea."
"Your dad seems like the kind of guy who likes to barbecue." I turned sideways on the bed to look at Reggie. "I bet he has a great ribs recipe." His eyes went wide, thinking about food.
"Reg, you can't eat." I told him, confused. A disappointed look flashed across his face.
"Reg?" Luke questioned.
"Look, if you guys wanna talk, we have to do it in the studio. Dads worried about us enough as it is, Belle."
"He seems chill. You guys should just tell him about us." Luke wore a clueless smile on his face. I laughed out loud, causing him to look at me, confused.
"You're kidding, right?" Julie brought his attention back to her. "This last year, everyone's been watching over me, being super nice as if they're waiting for me to snap." I feel like I've been finding myself in this position a lot lately, listening to Julie vent about our mom as if I weren't going through it too. "If we tell our dad we met a ghost band, we'll be back to talking to Dr. Turner three days a week."
"You probably shouldn't tell him." Luke walked back over to Julies dream box. "Julie..."
"Oh my gosh, I thought I told you to leave that alone!"
"I know, you just should've said nothing, 'cause now I can't stop thinking about it, so... what's in the box, Julie?" He let out a breath, pointing to the box.
"It's just my dream box, okay? Whenever I get a thought, I write it down and get it out of my mind."
"Oh, like what's in Bee's box?" Reggie pointed to me, causing me to snap my head at him.
"So, they're like lyrics?" Luke questioned, Alex staying silent.
"They would be if I still wrote music like I used to with my mom. Now it's just full of stuff that doesn't make me sad."
"Okay, Belle, what about you?" Luke asked me.
"What about me?"
"Do you play?"
"I mean, yea." I shrugged, earning a smile from Luke.
"But, I mean, Julie you do play. We heard you this morning." Alex finally spoke up.
"In the garage?"
Luke smacked Alex on the arm. "Dude, the one time you decide to speak, really?" He turned to me with a shrug.
"So you were there too?"
"Uh, I mean..." Alex and Reggie started making up lies.
Luke laid down on the bed, falling through me and causing me to jump up. "Ahh, don't do that!" I walked over to the other two boys while Luke talked to Julie.
"So, where is your kitchen, by the way?"
"Okay, we need to set some boundaries. For starters, stay out of my room!" She pointed to the door, causing all of us to walk to it.
First Luke and Alex walked through, and then I walked forward, banging my head on the door. "Right, I'm still human." I laughed, opening the door as Reggie strummed his guitar behind me.
The rest of the night I just hung out in my room, the guys randomly popping in and out.
When I walked downstairs the next morning, Julie was telling me about how we're going to get her back into the music program. She wants me to play guitar for her and sing backup.
As soon as the bell rang, we made our way to the music room only to find it mostly empty, with the exception of Flynn, who was playing the trumpet badly.
"What are you doing? And where is everyone?"
Flynn sighed, looking between the two of us. "Spirit assembly. I was kind of blowing it off 'cause I wasn't feeling very spirity."
Julie sighed, causing Flynn to look to me with a questionable look. "We were gonna play for Mrs. Harrison in hopes that she'd let Julie back in, but we're too late." I looked to Julie, sighing.
"No, you're not." Flynn smiled, standing and taking Julie and me by the arms. I slid my arm out of her grip and back to my side.
We got to the gym and Carrie was performing with her backup dancers. Halfway through the song, the boys popped up next to us, making me jump. "What are you doing here?"
"We wanna see you stick it to the man." Luke gave Julie an encouraging smile.
"Actually, Mrs. Harrison is a woman, but..." Julie let out a chuckle.
"Don't think that's what he meant, Bee."
"Oh, and we wanna hear Belle sing." Alex added. "Right, guys?"
"Man, I miss high school." Reggie was staring right at the dancing girls, making the smile on my face disappear.
Carries song ended and the principle was doing announcements. "What are you guys waiting for? This is your time." Reggie pointed to the stage.
"Yea. Julie, you look really nervous. Like, yack in a bowl nervous." Alex pointed out.
"I just don't think I had enough time to work on the song." I took Julies hand and gave it a squeeze.
"I wouldn't have given you the song if I didn't think you were gonna rock it. Now, there's a piano and a guitar on that stage with your names on them." Julie looked to me once again before squeezing my hand, pulling me to the stage.
We got to the stage just as everyone was getting up to leave. Julie started playing the piano and then stopped because of nerves. "You got this!" Luke reassured her.
She started playing again, the spotlight going on her. I strummed my guitar lightly.
"Sometimes I think
I'm falling down
I wanna cry
I'm callin' 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 the spark
life is a risk, but I will take it
close my eyes and jump
together I think that we can make it
Come on, let's run."
Right as I went to go hard on my guitar, the boys poofed on stage and started playing with us. I smiled, singing into the mic and harmonizing with Julie.
"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."
The more we played, the more obvious it became that the crowd could see the boys. As Luke started singing, I walked over to Reggie, still playing my guitar. He smiled at me, turning sideways, making way for me so we could play together. Luke started in on his solo.
"In times that I
doubted myself
I 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."
Reggie left me to his mic, walking over to harmonize with Luke.
"Life is a risk, but we will take it
close my eyes and jump."
Watching Reggie from the corner of my eye, I couldn't help but smile at how cute he is.
"Together I think that we can make it
come on, let's run."
Reggie came back to where I was, at his microphone. Now Luke was harmonizing with Julie.
"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."
Luke's time to shine, again.
"In times that I
doubted myself
I felt like I
needed some help."
Reggie got my attention, motioning to Luke and Julie who were clearly flirting. I smiled back at Reggie, shaking my head at the two.
"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."
I saw Reggie wink at someone in the crowd, making my voice weak as I joined in.
"And rise
through the night
you and I
we will fight to shine together
bright forever."
Reggie gestured for me to come closer and sing with him into the mic, confused when I walked over to Luke's mic to sing with him.
"and rise
through the night
you and I
we will fight to shine together
bright forever."
The song was finally over, I forced myself to smile, soaking in the applause even though I was feeling down. I can't have a crush on a ghost, I have to do everything in my power to get rid of this crush.
I swung my guitar behind my back, stepping forward and grabbing Julies hand. I lifted our hands up in the air before bowing. The crowd suddenly stopped clapping, going silent. Confused, I turned around, surprised when I noticed that the boys were gone.
"How are we gonna explain this one?"